"He already knows."

Optimus turned around to face the voice and came face-to-face with his counterpart. He had been fully repaired, and his optics still glowed a bright and menacing orange. The others stepped back in surprise, save for Megatron.

"I cannot allow you to destroy my world," Optimus declared firmly. "And I cannot allow you to destroy yours, either."

"Your courage is admirable, but I am afraid the outcome has been determined since Megatron's defeat."

"Optimus, we cannot do this right now," Megatron whispered to the Prime, who was half glaring at his evil counterpart. "He is only distracting you. You must leave. You're our only chance. My team will stay and fight."

Optimus Prime's optics narrowed further as he watched his counterpart, who was still a few feet away, though obviously knowing they were planning something.

"Very well," Optimus replied quietly, and Megatron took that opportunity to run towards Optimus' counterpart and tackle him to the floor, distracting him. Optimus turned and took the kids from Breakdown before running, gesturing for his team to follow. Bulkhead handed Ratchet the kids and picked up Bee before running out, Arcee and Ratchet behind them.

A groundbridge opened, and the other world's autobots and that world's Decepticons ran through to assist their new leader.

"They'll be overrun!" Arcee exclaimed, stopping as she turned to face the scene, which had quickly escalated to two-to-one instead of one-on-six. Optimus stopped to look, before he and Arcee exchanged a knowing glance. He nodded once, and she ran back toward the fray, armblades unsheathed. The rest continued forward, as they had humans and an injured teammate to protect, and they couldn't do that and fight at the same time, unless it came down to it.

With Optimus holding the humans gently in his servos, he continued running down the halls. The Matrix of Leadership seemed to guide him in its own twisted way, but as he approached, everything seemed to be off. It started to hurt. He couldn't see very clearly. His senses were weakened. It hurt to move. But he kept doing so. After all, Earth's survival depended on the outcome of this battle.

*

All he could hear were the familiar sounds of blaster fire and fighting.

All he knew was fighting.

The mech knew he was being carried. He kept bouncing up and down lightly. He willed his optical sensors to come back online, and to his delight, they did. He almost smiled. Bulkhead was holding him, and Ratchet was beside him. He was with his team.

Looking closer, the mech was relieved to see the three humans he had attempted to protect alive, and seeming to fair well, all things considered. He was content, until a question came to his processor.

Why were they running?

The scout looked around weakly, spotting Optimus, carefully holding three more humans. He looked behind Bulkhead. The sound of blaster fire was faint, but he could recognize it anywhere.

Where were they?

"Optimus!" Ratchet called urgently as the said mech stumbled slightly, though quickly regained his footing.

What was wrong with him?

Optimus handed the additional humans to the medic, who didn't complain. While they had briefly stopped, he glanced over at the scout, and a relieved smile came to his faceplate.

"Bumblebee, thank the AllSpark!"

The small human in his left servo, his charge, his friend, looked up and beamed.

"Bee!"

Bee managed a weak warble in greeting. Even Optimus smiled, before continuing. So far, his team didn't seem to be meeting any trouble, which was concerning, and he had a bad feeling about it. However, he just woke up, and figured that, wherever they were, they knew much more about what his team was doing than he did.

"We should have faced something else by now," Bulkhead muttered, voicing his thoughts. Optimus transformed his servo into a blaster, and Bee realized the Prime was the only one on his team that would be readily armed should something happen, and brought out his own blasters, though he wouldn't know exactly how long he could use them. They walked another few minutes in tense silence. Even the humans were being quiet, until they reached a wall.

"A dead end?" Jackson whispered, adjusting his glasses.

"No," Optimus replied, placing his free servo on it. "We have arrived."

Bumblebee watched as the Prime moved closer towards the wall. His frame slightly glowed blue, before blue wisps of energy travelled from his chest chassis down to his arm, servo, and then, door. It started to open a few seconds later, and Bumblebee stared at the large spark in the room that filled it with a bright orange hue.

"Optimus, swiftly!" Ratchet urged, holding three humans in each of his servos close to his chest chassis, as if protecting them from Primus himself. Optimus stepped forward, ready to end it all forever, when Bee heard a few blasts and a cry from Bulkhead. Suddenly he fell to the floor and beeped in alarm, rolling over a bit. He looked over at Bulkhead to see him on his servos and knee-plates, grunting in pain. His back struts were steaming, and behind him was the other Optimus, blaster still aimed and orange optics glowing bright. Bumblebee moved to push himself off the ground and get up, but found he couldn't. He watched as Ratchet ran off to a corner to set the humans down, before turning around and unsheathing his blades, watching the Prime intently. Optimus ran forward, and his counterpart shot again, which Optimus dodged, just in time. Ratchet ran forward to tend to Bulkhead. Bumblebee wanted to help somehow, and tried to gain as much strength as he could.

He watched as Ratchet tended to Bulkhead and Optimus continued to fight, though his counterpart obviously had the upper hand. With Primus seeming to aid him and also seeming to disorient Optimus, the Prime had forced his counterpart back until they were fighting in front of the spark. Bee watched as their blades were drawn and started colliding with each other often, though sometimes striking their target, with a pained grunt quickly following, more often coming from his leader than his leader's counterpart. The spark next to them pulsed, sending out a wave of energy wisps that collided directly with the Primes. Both stumbled, but one quickly recovered, as the other took a knee. He seemed disoriented, and although the two were a bit farther away, Bee could tell Optimus was in pain.

"As I told you. This day already had an outcome, and it is not in your favor," his counterpart declared, his sword-which glowed orange-rested at his side. Bumblebee knew what was going to happen.

"Optimus, no!" Ratchet cried, moving to get up. Optimus' evil counterpart aimed a blaster at him with his other servo, before moving it back toward Bulkhead again and firing, causing the wrecker to release another pained cry. Bumblebee watched in horror. With the blaster still aimed, Optimus looked back at his counterpart and raised his blade for the final blow.

And Bumblebee suddenly found the strength to move.

*

Optimus wanted to move, he had to move. If he fell like this, Earth would too. Both of them. He had to avoid the pulses in the future.

His vision blurred as he tried to stand to his full height, stumbling in the process and falling back down, using his servo as support. He looked up, seeing the blurred outline of his counterpart and the blade he wielded being raised. Optimus' optics widened as it came down, and he tried to move, but his reaction time was slow. Something ran over and launched itself on Optimus just as the blade made impact.

It was Bumblebee.

All Optimus could see in that moment was orange, yellow, and blue, desperately trying to focus his vision until he could see again. Orange turned into the blade, which was lodged in yellow, Bumblebee's spark chamber, and coated with blue. Energon. Optimus' optics widened in horror and he forced himself to move, catching the scout as he fell back. The metal scraped across the blade before the 'bot wielding said blade pulled it out sharply, causing the scout to beep weakly in pain.

Darkness...

"Bumblebee?" Optimus whispered, staring at the scout in his servos. The scout looked up at him with flickering optics and warbled quietly, giving him a weak smile. He gripped his arm weakly, staining it a little with energon. Optimus looked from the scout to his wound, gently setting his servo over it to try and stop the energon from leaking.

And the weak will perish in the shadow of a rising darkness.

"By the AllSpark," he heard Ratchet whisper, just before he heard Rafael cry out for his friend. Optimus' spark broke. Bumblebee didn't deserve any of this. He looked up, knowing he was still kneeling on the floor and expecting his counterpart to be trying again to finish him. Oddly enough, he wasn't. He was just blankly watching. And that would cost him.

Bulkhead mustered up his own strength, running past Ratchet who reached out for him. He wasn't ready to go back into the field, but Bulkhead didn't care. He tackled the Prime and brought him down, giving his leader enough of a distraction. Optimus grunted as he forced himself to stand. The "effects" of the pulse started to wear off. He picked up the scout and glanced back over at Bulkhead before walking over to Ratchet, who met him halfway and hurriedly gestured for Optimus to set him down before he started to work again. Optimus set his non-stained servo on Ratchet's shoulder plate before he ran back over to assist Bulkhead, who had been thrown off his counterpart.

I know you are not weak, Megatron, despite what the ancients may think.

Optimus was met with another attempt of a stab, though he grabbed the sword, and, of all things, snapped it off. His counterpart hissed in pain but was quick to retaliate, using what remained of his sword to uppercut at his wrist, making him drop the blade in surprise before his servo transformed again and he blasted him, sending him stumbling back.

Our world has been corrupted. You were never the rising darkness, but Unicron was meant to be.

Optimus' optics narrowed as he regained his footing, his servos transforming into a blade and a blaster, running at him again. The spark pulsed, and Optimus stopped momentarily as he looked to see where they were going and maneuvering to avoid them. He shot at his counterpart, who blocked some of them, and ran toward him.

I suppose the prophecy would refer to Primus now.

The two became locked in a firefight, one blocking the other with their blaster before trying to shoot and meeting the same retaliation.

"You have already lost your scout. Do you really need to watch more of your team die to realize you are not going to win?"

Optimus' optics narrowed, and he shoved his counterpart back before firing at his chassis. His counterpart stepped out of the way and fired in return.

I refuse to allow that to happen. This is our world, Megatron, and I will take it back. They do not belong here.

Optimus blocked with his blade, but he soon realized his counterpart seemed to know his every move. They were, almost, the same being. Or was it the fact his counterpart seemed to fight as the Megatron he knew, which would lead his counterpart to think Optimus was fighting like the Megatron he knew? He blocked another shot before going in for a punch. Now was not the time to dwell on those matters.

I will avenge you.

As the two continued, with Bulkhead trying to stay out of the way at this point, nobody noticed a GroundBridge open in the room. Nobody noticed who entered, or what that person was holding.

Nobody noticed, until Optimus was about to block another punch from his counterpart and instead watched as a blade penetrated through his counterpart's chassis. Megatron's blade, to be in fact.

Soundwave, Superior. Other world, inferior.

~~~

This is our second-to-last chapter, everybody! I'm super excited

I dunno I might add an epilogue but I'm not sure yet.

Hopefully this chapter made sense. I tried writing it and I had to redo some parts. I'm not fully happy with it but it's passable. *shrug*

Also, I usually write in third person omniscient so when I tried keeping it to Bee's point of view for a bit I was having a really rough time xD I don't even know what point of view I wrote in anymore, it's like a mix of the third persons'.

Speaking of Bee, fate really did have other plans.

Buh-bye now. See you in the next chapter!

-BP