Chapter Text
Clank, clank, clank. Velocity's feet pattered lightly across the Lost Light's floor. There was a slight nervousness about the steps, as she had just discovered a faint Autobot life signal, about sixty-two clicks away from the ship's current trajectory. It was an accident, honestly. The resident genius inventor, Brainstorm, had been working on an upgrade for the standard vital monitors in the Medbay, hoping to improve their detection capabilities. He had succeeded in doing so, in fact, his efforts were rewarded with a variable that hadn't occurred to him- the monitor's range had increased exponentially.
To both Autobots' surprise, the detector picked up an ever-so-slight life force, just drifting in the cold vacuum of space. Velocity had no idea who it was, but she did know that no one deserved to die completely cut off from any sense of familiarity. So, she searched, rather hurriedly for either of the vessel's captains: The stern, but warm Megatron and fiery hotshot Rodimus. Still caught up in attempting to fathom what might be going through that poor person's mind, the teal-colored medic wasn't paying attention to where she was going.
She walked smack into Grimlock, perhaps the ship's most imposing crewmember. He was a recent addition, and Velocity hadn't actually spoken to him yet. Grimlock was unfazed by the mishap, and steadied her with one of his massive arms. She smiled sheepishly at him.
"Oh, sorry about that Grimlock. I didn't see you there."
Grimlock raised an eyebrow. He wasn't exactly hard to spot.
"No worries, er, what's your name again? I don't think we've met yet," the former Dynobot said with maybe a hint of embarrassment. He hadn't had a chance to meet everyone on board, with keeping track of the Scavengers and whatnot.
"Velocity," she answered, suddenly remembering the task at hand, "Sorry, but I gotta find Megs. You wouldn't happen to know where he is, would you?"
Grimlock stiffened. He was still very suspicious of Megatron, after eons of fighting against him. Getting used to him being around was... challenging, to say the least. Nevertheless, he knew where the retired despot was and gestured in the general direction of the waroom. She thanked him and fast-walked to the normally empty room. The war was over, so there was little need for a waroom.
Megatron stood in a brooding manner, hunched over the center most table, studying star charts. His closest associate, Ravage, slept peacefully on a crate in the far corner of the chamber. Megatron was so focused on the constellations, he hadn't taken note of her arrival. At the clearing of her throat, Megatron whirled around in a defensive stance. Ravage, who usually would've retaliated at any "sneak-attacks" for him remained asleep. Megatron softened his position when he saw who had came in after him.
"Forgive me, Velocity. I wasn't expecting anyone to follow me in here," he stated warmly. Noticing the look of distress plaguing her features, he asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Well, hopefully not too wrong. But we noticed an Autobot life force not too far from where we're headed."
"You mean, in space?"
Velocity nodded. Megatron shuddered at the thought. He had flown in the atmosphereless region of deep-space before, and although all Cybertronians were naturally resistant to extreme temperatures, there was something about the emptiness that resonated with him. Perhaps it was loneliness, perhaps it was the vastness. Perhaps it was just the great unknown that unnerved him. Whatever the case, the mighty once-warriorwas not easilyunsettled.
"Well, let's get to the hangar then. We can take the Rodpod to investigate further," he offered.
The Rodpod was larger than it seemed at first glance. There was more than enough room in it for Megatron, Velocity, and whoever they were out to retrieve. Neither spoke while the floating Cybertronian drew nearer. As it became discernable to the naked eye, Megatron's optics widened in shock. Velocity, however, didn't recognize the being at first glance.
"What's wrong?" she prodded, continuing with more force behind the words when he didn't respond, "Megatron, what is it?"
"It... it can't be. My optics must be deceiving me."
Velocity squinted in annoyance at the non-answer before Megatron finished his thought process.
"It's Optimus Prime," he whispered.
Oh. OH. That explained his unique reaction. She looked back out of the viewport, now clearly seeing the legendary Autobot leader's distinct form. Megatron's mind racked all the possibilities his former archenemy could've ended up here. He came back with zero. It made no sense. Prime should've been on earth or Cybertron, not in the middle of nowhere.
"Keep the Rodpod in place, I'll bring him in," he commanded. Velocity could only nod and steady the controls, still surprised over the Prime's mysterious appearance. Megatron free-floated over to his once-thought eternal rival. For millenia, the two warriors squared off in opposite colors, the purple of deceit, and the red of courage. Now the very same badge that Optimus had worn on his left shoulder for four million years was plastered on Megatron's chest. It should've been a sight never seen. One of those things that "just couldn't happen". They were destined to be opposites forever, like Unicron and Primus. Prima and Megatronus. Galvatron and Arcee. Optimus and Megatron. Their story would be told forever.
When the silver-plated Autobot captain reached for the Prime, he was met with a sock to the jaw. Megatron recoiled, expecting another blow, only to realize it had been unconcious feedback. He gathered the blue and red robot in his arms and hovered back to the Rodpod. It had been quite a while since Megatron last carried anything of noteworthy mass, and the pistons in his elbows gave way slightly at the new load upon re-entry to an artificial gravity zone. He grit his teeth and hefted Prime up to chest level before shutting the maintenance door and carrying the unconcious bot to the back right corner of the shuttle.
He gently propped Optimus up against the flame-red wall and walked back over to Velocity, who was gaping in awe at the sleeping bot. On Caminus, Primes were hailed as gods. Seeing one in person was not something she had ever expected to experience. Megatron, on the other hand, had seen, fought, talked to, even worked with Optimus so many times that his presence invoked no response at all, which led to his confusion at her's.
"What? He's just another bot, like you or me," Megatron remarked. Optimus Prime was actually a considerable cut above the average Autobot. But it was an important distinction to Megatron, now anyway, that no one bot was held in a higher standard than others. Thus, his downplay of Prime's stature. Something Optimus would say himself, no doubt.
"Oh, uh, it's just-" she started.
"Never mind right now, I need you to make sure he's intact," Megatron said, cutting her off. He normally would've waited for her to finish, but they had more pressing concerns. He wasn't particularly worried about Optimus- the courageous Autobot had looked significantly worse and pulled through fine. Hell, he'd often been the reason for Optimus' worst bouts of life. Nonetheless, he preferred to know if Optimus had any serious injuries.
"R-right," she managed. So here she was, Velocity of Caminus, a no-name, just promoted medic, tasked with assuring the survival of the Matrix-Bearer. Okay, maybe not that dramatic, but still. She nervously crouched next to the discarded hero and ran basic vital scans over him. Everything came back on the screen as functioning properly, aside from slight energy deficiency. He'd be fine after a simple transfusion.
"Everything looks okay, save for a bit of Energon dehydration."
Megatron mumbled a thank you and activated the Rodpod's comm system. He grinned at the cognizance that he'd get to see Rodimus' reaction firsthand, but frowned again when he realized that it'd more than likely be a flaming temper tantrum. Still, he'd get to see his co-captain's face, so his voice had a gleeful undertone to it when he requested the presence of the blaze-red Autobot in the Medbay. After the brief command was given, he clicked off the communicator and resumed piloting the cumbersome aircraft to the hangar.