Characters: Optimus Prime, Megatron, Starscream, Ratchet, Stormrunner, Brushblaze
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One moment they had been locked in the eternal duel, exchanging blows with swords or cannons, and the next... Everything went silent. Optimus had slid wetly off his sword, crumpling to the energon stained earth. His optics caught in an expression of shock, regret, and relief. Energon bubbling in a messy froth at his mouth. He watched the light of the Prime's dying spark flicker twice then go dark through the hole in his chassis. Just like that - Optimus was dead. The once upon a time Orion Pax. Once student. Once friend. Once lover. They'd been on this path ever since the Matrix of Leadership had been bestowed upon Orion Pax, transforming him into the last Prime.
He could see the hated object now. Its glint dull in the darkened chest as it rested just above the destroyed spark chamber. Megatron staggered back a step, warring within himself. Optimus hadn't been buried under stone this time to rise again, as even he himself had once been trapped beneath the earth. The kill had been messy. Electricity still sparked from the gaping wound in Optimus's chassis. It was truly over. He had seen the spark die himself, and light years away from Cybertron, not even their dead god could bring the last Prime back to life. The war was over. He had won.
Someone screamed, and the noise of the ongoing battle abruptly consumed his audio sensors again. Megatron glanced to the side right as Ratchet collided with his massive, silver frame. The medic was shrieking obscenities as he pounded into the warlord's heavy chest plating with everything he had to give, and shockingly, Ratchet actually managed to dent the thick armor with his fists alone. Megatron sneered but didn't laugh. He lashed out, knocking the enraged Autobot back to tumble over himself in a heap of white and red plating.
"What have you done?!" Ratchet growled. His optics - though blue - seemed to hold that venomous green glint of synthetic energon. The medic was rising, arms transforming into his own pair of blades that were laughably small when compared with the warlord's single one.
"I have won the war," Megatron replied, something welling within him that tasted like the stinging power of dark energon. His very spark swirled with it, and the purple gleam tinted his optics and bio-lighting. "I have won the war!" he repeated triumphantly.
Ratchet lunged, swinging with both blades at once. This time, the warlord did release a cruel chuckle as he parried the blows. Victory was sweet through his veins as shock - and yes, perhaps a little regret - crumbled away. He knocked the medic aside again and stomped on his chest, pinning Ratchet in place beneath his foot.
"Decepticons!" Megatron roared, sweeping his arms out and up as if to the applause of the crowd in the Kaon gladiatorial arena. "Optimus Prime is dead! Finish the Autobots! We take no prisoners!"
Energon slicked his flanks, and his chest heaved with the effort of drawing in air to cool his overclocked engine. His soldiers hollered and shouted back to him, renewing their efforts to subdue the remaining Autobots. Bright purple optics dropped down to the medic scrambling at his foot, attempting to push him off. He smirked, and Ratchet hissed like a wild thing, baring his dentae.
Starscream suddenly shrieked nearby, and Megatron looked over to find the seeker knocked aside as a massive griffin tore across the ground straight for him. Kicking Ratchet away, the warlord swung his cannon arm around and fired off three shots. The beast - an Autobot commander by the name of Stormrunner - leapt into the air with a powerful stroke of his wings. Almost lazily, Megatron tracked the movement and shot off another round from his plasma cannon. The energy struck the rising Autobot square in the chest and sent him tumbling through the air to crash into the ground.
The seeker, emboldened perhaps by Megatron's direct hit, lunged forward and swiped at the fallen Stormrunner with his armor piercing claws. He cackled wildly, and Megatron knew the aftermath of the battle would be intoxicating when he had Starscream pinned beneath his larger bulk. For now, however, he strode forward to Ratchet who was regaining his feet with shaky determination. Energon spilled from between his lips and dripped along his side to stain the ground beneath him.
Ratchet said nothing, and he didn't need to. His optics were lethal - or they would have been to anyone not the warlord himself. Megatron laughed at the display from the much smaller mech.
"What did he mean to you, Autobot?" he crooned coldly, baring his own sharpened dentae. "Tell me."
"Optimus meant everything to me," Ratchet panted, bringing his still bladed arms up. "He was a better mech than you could ever hope to be."
"And yet, he still lays there. Dead by my hand. The Autobots are finished."
"We'll never be as long as you exist!" the medic rushed Megatron, but it was a pointless endeavor. He was just a medic, meant to stay at home while the real mechs did the work. Megatron had spent nearly his entire function slaying others.
The warlord's blow bluntly tore the Autobot's right arm from his chassis, yet Ratchet was so enraged - as if he again were on the synthetic energon - that he hardly seemed to notice. "I'll destroy you!" he screamed, swinging with his remaining left arm.
"I very much doubt that."
Before he could kill the medic, Stormrunner was suddenly there. His talons grasped Ratchet and yanked him away so that Megatron's sword slid through empty air.
"Then maybe you'll believe me when I say it."
The warlord's blade shot back into his arm, and he grappled with the beast. Talons skittered across his pitted armor, screeching fine lines into the silver. A beak snapped at his face, but Megatron gripped the griffin's throat and pushed it away before contact could be made. The beak snapped again. Stormrunner's wings fanned out and beat the air around them, sending sand flying in miniature tornadoes. His tail was a writhing snake.
With a growl and grunt, Megatron lifted Stormrunner off his hind paws and threw the creature away from him. His cannon hummed threateningly as he activated it. He took aim. The battle around him slowed again, narrowing into focus on the griffin. The shot tore off the beast's left wing, and he howled in rage and pain. The next shot took the right wing. He centered over Stormrunner's spark.
A femme knocked his arm to the side, and the plasma blast veered off too far to the side to make a hit.
"Run!" she screamed to both Stormrunner and Ratchet. "You fools! Run!"
She was taking her own advice, fleeing from the warlord as Megatron spun to face the pathetic wrench who had ruined his kill shot. Surprisingly, the griffin obeyed, even dragging Ratchet along with him. The medic was kicking and screaming, demanding to be let go.
A ground bridge opened nearby - who was left at their base? - and the trio, along with a handful of remaining Autobots, tumbled into it.
"Cowards!" Starscream screeched, a hand over his flank where energon was pouring from a deep series of cuts from Stormrunner's talons.
The Decepticons around them were cheering, kicking the bodies of fallen Autobots as they rushed to see the great Optimus Prime dead and bleeding out. Megatron roughly hauled Starscream in against his side as the seeker snarled an ignored "Careful, you brute!"
He laughed.
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