*Some graphic depictions I guess*

***

"No!"

The two stared in fear at the pod. They were at a loss of what to do. Pieces were on fire, debris was everywhere, Optimus was looking for two pieces in particular, and slowly fell into despair when he couldn't.

A piece of debris landed at their pedes. It was charred, and half melted, but it was partly yellow, and Optimus recognized it immediately.

"No..."

He didn't allow himself to mourn in that moment. He couldn't. Someone could have survived. He couldn't miss that. His optics adjusted multiple times as he scoured the wreckage in the air and on the ground. Fortunately, they were in the middle of the desert somewhere with a large dirt clearing, so a forest or a grass fire wasn't a concern.

"There!" he pointed to a falling piece of debris. Megatron transformed and flew over to it immediately, praying to Unicron that he would reach it in time, and they wouldn't be further injured.

With his thrusters at their maximum, he transformed and caught a small pod. The rest of the fall wasn't long, but it did jerk the beings inside. Optimus drove up next to him and transformed, his optics asking him the dreaded question;

Are they dead?

Megatron finally allowed himself to look at the pod. The glass was severely cracked and hard to see through. He removed the lid, and the two peered inside.

"By the AllSpark," Optimus whispered. The three were huddled together, Jack shielding the other two, but shaking. Miko had passed out over Raf in fear, and Raf was shaking as well as whimpering. Jack had blood running down the lower half of his face from his nose. Looking up and seeing Megatron's blue optics and the Optimus he knew, he opened his mouth to say something, but went limp instead and fell onto the floor of the pod. Raf never uncurled from the fetal position.

"Optimus, we saw the explosion. Laserbeak is giving us visual feed. Are the children...?" Arcee trailed off, watching the screen expectantly, where she saw Optimus receive her transmission.

"Alive."

"Thank the AllSpark."

"And...Bumblebee?" Ratchet added.

"I...am not certain."

Just then, Autobots and Decepticons surrounded them, aiming their blasters and priming.

"You have broken the terms we've agreed on," Bumblebee hissed, static thick in his voice. They could still hear the venom dripping off his words, however.

"The pod exploded without us doing anything about it, do you think we would do it with our team members still inside?" Megatron replied, shielding the kids from the blasters. The sound of falling debris and weapons charging was soon replaced with the sound of an opening GroundBridge. It was purple, indicating the other dimension, and a flash of white flew through. Soundwave.

The other Autobots and Decepticons soon arrived in their own GroundBridge, and they surrounded the troopers, who surrounded Optimus, Megatron, and the kids. They were in that standstill for a few seconds, before Optimus caught Ratchet's optic and vaguely gestured with his helm to go find the others. Ratchet nodded to indicate he understood before he transformed and peeled out.

"What-" Bulkhead started.

"Leave him," Arcee replied. "He'll meet his counterpart soon enough. Meanwhile, we'll deal with ours."

Bulkhead nodded, turned around, and punched his counterpart in the face. Everything went to the pits after that. Somehow, each Autobot or Decepticon found their counterpart, save for Optimus and Megatron, who were dealing with drones who wouldn't let them escape, as well as Bee, who had no counterpart present.

"You harmed Miko, and I will make you pay!" Bulkhead declared, wiping some energon from his mouth.

"Oh, she was yours?" his counterpart replied, blocking a punch from his mace, a small smirk on his faceplate.

"Is," Bulkhead growled back, going in for another swing.

*

"There is no way you can possibly be me!" Knockout cried in anger, his energon staff twirling beside him. The other one rolled his blue optics, taking out his own.

"I can't believe I'm so narcissistic," he mumbled in reply. The two started their fight with their prods, one banging against the other, and electricity crackling at the ends. Knockout ended up angering his counterpart when his claws scratched his chassis.

*

"White is a terrible color on myself, I must say," Airachnid smirked, having tangled her opponent up in a web.

"It's better than whatever you are," the other replied, grunting as she tried to wiggle free.

"But I'm you, aren't I?" she replied innocently. The other managed to slice her way out with her extra appendages and block another web shot intended to keep her pinned.

"You're nothing like me."

*

"A hammer against a hammer. Well, at least I don't look like a garbage truck," Breakdown replied, hammer already in a striking position.

"Either way, it's time to take out the trash," his counterpart replied with a grin, before charging at him, hammer at the ready.

*

Starcream dodged a missile his counterpart had launched, his blue optics studying his stance curiously. He was a worthy opponent, he could give him that. But he could also tell he was at least part of the pod bombing. His entire being practically screamed "traitor". How his own counterpart could do such a thing, he wasn't sure, and he didn't care to know. He just cared if he could beat him in this moment as his opponent lunged, claws extended.

*

There wasn't much of a showdown between Soundwave and Soundwave. The Laserbeaks had deployed and seemed to argue back and forth with each other above them somewhere, while the two simply stared. One nodded to the other, and the other nodded back, as if studying each other.

*

Arcee grunted as her helm hit the floor, her counterpart pinning her to the ground. The plating on her counterpart's arms parted to allow the blades through, and Arcee grunted again as she tried to get free. Her counterpart chuckled, raising her arm for the final blow.

"Since I don't see Cliffjumper around in your group, I suppose you could tell him hi for me."

"Not sure it would mean much coming from you," Arcee spat in reply, jerking her arm free and blocking her blow with her own arm blade before scratching her against the chassis, drawing a bit of energon. Her grip loosened in surprise, and Arcee jerked her other arm free before grabbing hers and pulling her down as she turned over, causing their positions to be reversed.

*

Ratchet drove frantically through the debris as he followed a fading life signal. Eventually he simply transformed and ran, as it was easier to navigate. The debris, the adrenaline, and the looming stress of knowing someone would die if he didn't reach them in time reminded him too much of his field medic days during the war. The sounds of blaster fire nearby didn't quite help the situation. He looked at the screen on his arm for the location of the signal, and looked up again. He was on top of his signal, but where was he?

"I assume this one is yours."

Ratchet spun around and unsheathed his blades immediately, going into a defensive position. He involuntarily stepped back when he took in the scene. An evil reflection of him was half holding up a severely damaged, charred, unconscious Bumblebee.

"Let him go," Ratchet demanded, going back into his stance.

"Or what, you'll fight me? No thanks," he replied. "I want to ask you a favor. Help me find Optimus Prime, and I'll let you have him."

"What, you can't find him yourself?"

"Don't test me," his counterpart replied, a dangerous glint in his red optics. His free servo transformed into a blade, and he made a slicing motion over Bumblebee's neck cables. "We wouldn't want to add to the energon pool growing under him, would we?"

Ratchet cringed and nodded, getting the point, and moved to look.

"His signal's offline, if that's what you were wondering."

"Wouldn't he be offline, then?" Ratchet replied.

"If I know Optimus...he defies all odds."

"Sounds right," Ratchet mumbled, overturning a piece of debris.

The two listened to the sounds of fighting nearby as they searched. Ratchet's counterpart had left Bumblebee to free himself up more, and significant, precious time passed as they searched. Ratchet looked at the scout on the occasion to see how worse he got over time, and noticed the puddle grew more and more each time he looked, pressuring him to look harder and harder.

He finally overturned a larger piece of debris, and stepped back in surprise. Both Optimus and Megatron were under it, and both were alive. Severely damaged, barely functioning, but alive.

Half of Megatron's helm was bent, melted, or charred, a gash went through his left eye, his left shoulder plate was gone, and his right was completely deformed. The armor on his plating was either gone or melted into a weirder shape, exposing his inner workings and a purple-blue glow. His spark chamber.

Ratchet shook his helm and moved onto his abdomen, where a piece of shrapnel had impaled him. His right leg was somehow still attached to him even though the armor was blown off, and his left was decimated to the point Ratchet wondered if he could walk on it. He looked over at Optimus, and for a moment made saw a red and blue color scheme through the charred armor. His spark stopped in fear, but returned to its normal pulsing when he realized it was purple and black.

Optimus' helm was dented and the antennas attached to his audial receptors were bent. The metal alloy on his faceplate was charred or blown off, and there was shrapnel lodged in his cables. His right arm was completely blown off, and his left had a piece of shrapnel lodged through its shoulder plate. His left windshield was completely shattered and the plating underneath charred, and his right one was cracked. Energon leaked from his side from a large gash, shrapnel was lodged in his lower right leg, his lower left had a missing knee plate and cables, and his right pede was bent at an odd angle, while part of his left had been blown off. Energon was everywhere, and it was getting harder to tell whose was whose when the puddles met each other. It seemed like the one thing that stayed constant in the rest of this mess.

He feared to know what Bumblebee really looked like. He hadn't been able to take that good of a look.

"I've found them," he announced, and he heard his counterpart run over and immediately to Optimus' side, working silently. Ratchet took that as his cue to leave and stood, watching him work for a few seconds as he thought before shaking his helm and running back over to Bumblebee.

The first thing he noticed was shrapnel, and a lot of it.

Bumblebee's right doorwing had shrapnel through it. His left was blown off. Shrapnel was lodged all over his back, but not as much in the front. His shoulder plate was blown off, shrapnel had gone through his legs, what was left of them. What worried Ratchet the most was a piece of shrapnel that had lodged itself in Bumblebee's chest plate, around the area of the spark.

"Stay with me, Bumblebee," Ratchet pleaded, getting to work immediately. He tuned out the blaster fire, the fighting, the fires surrounding him, the debris, the danger, and focused on getting Bumblebee stabilized. He nearly lost him once, he couldn't lose him now.

Unfortunately, fate would have other plans.

~~~

Well then...!

Lol in my timeline I had planned a whole other event for this chapter but two thousand words seems like enough for now, doesn't it? :>

Honestly I didn't think I'd be able to write battle scenes very well, and I was hesitant to start this chapter because this one and a few future others are basically battle chapters. But I found out I enjoy writing them, despite how vague I kind of get with my writing of them.

This chapter made me feel more like I was writing an episode of Transformers Prime. I could see the characters doing these things and this plot sort of happening, and I felt excited to know you might be able to see it that way too.

(If you didn't, of course that's fine, don't worry, I just thought it was cool).

Also, look forward to the next chapter. Since I couldn't give you a break in between certain events because of length, I guess it's all going in one chapter. Again, I'm making this sound more exciting than it is but I hope you'll still enjoy that chapter and its contents, haha

Thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Or, at least, wanting to see more from the suspense I keep giving you xD