Timing was everything in war. Even the smallest players could turn the tide of a battle, though usually, their sacrifices only paved the way for someone bigger.
Scorponok's sudden ambush had left Jetfire grievously wounded, and while the infuriated old Seeker had crushed the mechanical scorpion to pieces, Skygnaw ended up as the true beneficiary, walking away with exactly what he wanted.
With Skygnaw on the field, the surviving Decepticons rallied around him, finding their footing again.
This sudden convergence gave the soldiers in the village a clear, single target. Knowing that taking down the commander was the fastest way to break an army, they unleashed every weapon they had directly at him.
"Annoying," Skygnaw muttered.
He raised his energy shield, glancing toward Jetfire who was hiding in the ruins, then looked up at Megatron, who was still busy tearing through human jets in the clouds.
The Fallen's apprentice seemed to have completely forgotten his master's orders, too lost in the thrill of the slaughter to even care about Sam Witwicky.
Deploying his heavy cannon, Skygnaw fired a clean shot that blew apart a human tank targeting him.
Seeing that their weapons couldn't breach his shield, most of the infantry squads shifted focus, but that single tank hadn't stopped firing for a single second. The bravery was admirable, but overplaying your hand was a quick way to get scrapped.
"Skygnaw, who was that?" Blackarachnia asked as she entered the fray. Having just arrived, she had only seen him heavily wound a massive robot from a distance.
"Jetfire. An old fossil," Skygnaw replied casually, keeping the details to himself.
Sam and the others already knew Jetfire's real identity, so if anyone asked later, he could just claim he heard it from the boy without raising any eyebrows.
"Jetfire?" Blackarachnia looked puzzled. "He bears the Decepticon insignia. Why is he helping the Autobots?"
"Who knows," Skygnaw shook his head, completely unwilling to waste time explaining.
He had recognized the old Seeker the moment he saw him and originally intended to execute the traitor himself to clean up the ranks. As for Scorponok, that hadn't been his doing at all; he had simply noticed Blackout's old pet burrowing through the sand when he arrived.
"Skygnaw, Megatron is coming."
Skygnaw looked up sharply. A Cybertronian jet was roaring right toward his position.
"Mega..."
Before he could finish, a blinding pillar of blue light shot up from the center of the village, piercing the sky for two long seconds before vanishing into the wind.
Skygnaw's face turned dead serious. He felt a massive, unmistakable wave of ancient power rippling through the air.
---
Rewinding the clock by three minutes.
Dodging the artillery shells blasting the perimeter, Colonel Lennox led Sam to where Optimus Prime's body lay hidden.
"Come on, kid," Lennox said, tearing the heavy tarp off the massive leader.
"Right," Sam nodded, limping heavily as he scrambled onto the massive chest plates.
Shrapnel had torn through his right leg during the sprint, but he ignored the throbbing pain, standing upright. Driven by pure instinct, he raised the Matrix of Leadership high with both hands.
"Ah!"
With a desperate yell, Sam drove the sharp point of the Matrix straight into the shattered center of Optimus Prime's chest armor.
Instantly, a brilliant beam of light erupted from the artifact, and the massive frame beneath him gave a violent shudder.
"Cough..."
A bright blue glow ignited in his eyes. Optimus drew a heavy breath and slowly sat up. "Sam... thank you. You brought me back."
"A Prime resurrected by a single key! Incredible!" Jetfire gasped, his voice full of awe as he dragged his broken body across the stone floor toward them.
有关 The old Seeker was already at the very end of his lifespan, and Skygnaw's brutal strike had started a final countdown for his failing systems. Blue fluid leaked steadily from his severed shoulder and fractured waist, but he ignored it completely, staring at the leader.
"You do not know me, Optimus, but I know you. You are the leader of the Autobots."
"I saw you once, long ago, when I briefly journeyed back to Cybertron."
Long before his body decayed to this state, a deep homesickness had driven Jetfire to secretly return to their home world right when the civil war broke out.
Bound by his mission to guard against the return of The Fallen, he hadn't taken sides, choosing to complete a single orbital loop before leaving the system behind forever.
"Decepticon, who are you?" Optimus asked, his tone guarded as he looked down at the massive stranger. He held no record of this giant in his memory files.
Sam quickly spoke up, explaining Jetfire's lineage to the leader. "Jetfire switched sides. We wouldn't have even found the Matrix without his help."
Hearing this, Optimus felt a deep wave of respect override his caution. Many Autobots had originally broken away from Megatron's regime because they couldn't stand their methods, so he accepted Sam's words without hesitation.
"Jetfire, on behalf of the Autobots, you have my gratitude."
"Save your thanks. We share a single purpose: The Fallen must not use the Matrix to activate the machine that will destroy your sun."
"The Matrix," Optimus muttered, his expression turning grave as he looked down at his chest armor. The artifact's inner glow had dimmed after discharging the energy needed to revive him, but it still held a stable charge.
"Jetfire, what must be done?"
Just as Optimus reached down to extract the key from his chest plates, a series of deafening thunderclaps split the sky.
"Boom!"
Jetfire's face fell. "The Fallen is here!"
In a flash of dark crimson lightning, the ancient tyrant bypassed the distance entirely, materializing in the center of the village plaza in a fraction of a second.
"Open fire!" Lennox barked, raising his rifle.
The human teams unleashed a barrage of lead, but with a single sweep of his staff, The Fallen unleashed a shockwave that sent the soldiers flying through the air with agonized cries.
"Autobot, my Matrix!"
Shifting directly in front of Optimus, The Fallen struck him down with a heavy blow, then extended his left claw toward the exposed key.
"Clack."
As if pulled by an invisible magnetic field, the Matrix slowly floated out of Optimus Prime's chest casing, settling firmly into the tyrant's grip.
"Prepare for your extinction, humans!"
Casting a final, cold glance at the remaining rifle teams, The Fallen vanished in another burst of lightning. Driven by his obsession with the Star Harvester, he departed the moment the key was secured.
"Oh, no..." Jetfire groaned, struggling to force his heavy frame upward. His voice cracked with urgency. "He has the key. He is going to destroy the sun."
"What? The sun?" Lennox turned pale.
"Optimus, get up! Please, get up!" Sam sprinted to the side of the fallen leader.
Having just returned to the living world, Optimus's thoughts were still cloudy, causing his reactions to lag against the ancient tyrant. Spurred by Sam's voice, his focus returned, and he forced his towering frame back up.
"Optimus, you have to stop that monster! You have to stop The Fallen!" Lennox pleaded, ignoring his own injuries as he looked up at the giant.
"No, he cannot handle him alone," Jetfire said, dumping a cold bucket of reality over Lennox's expectations. "The power of The Fallen is beyond your comprehension. Even Megatron answers to his command."
"Then we just stand here and watch him turn our world into ice?"
"Absolutely not," Jetfire said, his eyes locking onto Optimus. "You are not a match for him alone. But with my remaining parts, the odds change."
"What do you mean?" Optimus asked.
"Watch closely," Jetfire said, tossing his mechanical cane aside. A powerful, surging aura erupted from his frame, though it carried the clear finality of a fading flame.
"I have carried the Decepticon insignia for far too long. I believe today, before my fire fades, I shall finally perform a righteous act."
"Optimus Prime, accept my final offering."
His voice carried the weight of eons. He cast a final look toward the sky, and with a brutal thrust of his remaining hand, he tore open his own chest armor, extracting his glowing spark core.
"Optimus, the energy bound within this frame is beyond your imagination."
"It will reinforce your armor, granting you a temporary strength that matches the original Primes. It will be more than enough to tear down The Fallen."
"Go. Your resurrection was either engineered by the hands of destiny, or foreseen by the wisdom of the ancient kings. Complete your mission..."
With that final word fading from his lips, Jetfire's massive forty-foot frame crashed heavily to the stone floor, completely still.
Optimus stared at the glowing spark core in the giant's hand, temporarily speechless.
"Jolt, activate systems!"
Ratchet and Jolt hurried forward. As the primary medical units of the resistance, they understood exactly what Jetfire's sacrifice demanded.
"Establish power links! Initiate afterburner integration!"
Jolt deployed his electric whips, securing one end to Jetfire's cooling body and lashing the secondary lines straight onto Optimus Prime's shoulder mounts.
Optimus gripped the energy cables, stepping into the center of the transformation grid.
Outside the hangar, Bumblebee, Ironhide, and the remaining Autobots kept up a fierce defensive line against the Decepticons alongside the human soldiers, but their eyes remained locked on the center of the floor.
"Bzzzt!"
Under the precise guidance of Ratchet and Jolt, Jetfire's armor plates began to systematically disassemble, his core energy channeling into Optimus's body while the massive structural components rearranged themselves over the Prime's frame. It looked as though he had been outfitted in a massive, heavy-duty flight armor suit.
The old Seeker's ultimate sacrifice had completed the Prime.
Feeling the monumental surge of power flooding through his frame, even the historically stoic Optimus Prime felt a wave of profound excitement and awe. He finally understood why Jetfire had claimed their combined power could break The Fallen.
"Now, let me bring an end to this conflict."
"Autobots, Rollout!"
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