High above, in the Ark’s main bridge, Optimus Prime watched the scene below with bemused interest. There was little point in trying to terrify the Scrounges, especially since they had all been installed with slave drives to keep them obedient and quite literally under Blaster’s complete control should he choose to turn it on. But it gave his coordinator someone to yell at without having it interfere with the preparations for liftoff.

“Everything is proceeding according to schedule?”

Jazz grinned behind his commander. “Everythin’s goin’ accordin’ to plan. We’ll be ready to launch right before we hit the expanse.”

[...]

The force of Prime’s outburst forced Jazz back a step, and sent a few lower-level Autobots desperately looking for an exit. Prime leveled a finger at Jazz, eyeing his top bodyguard with unconcealed fury.

“Nobody, and I mean nobody kills Megatron but me! No one else can destroy him but me!”

Jazz recognized the tic in Prime’s optic and backpedaled quickly. “But Rico ain’t gonna kill him, bossmech! He knows better! He jus’ hold him ‘til after-”

Optimus closed the gap within a second, hand clutched around Jazz’s neck. He lifted the shocked Autobot off his feet, glaring into his visor.

“Hold him? Hold him?! Are you both as deficient as your speech routines make you out to be?! Megatron will escape his bondage, there is no question!”

Jazz clawed desperately at his leader’s hand, static filling his voice. “But… Earth’ll… be ours! No-one’ll… stop… us… there!”

“And no-one will be able to stop Megatron here!!”

Prime hurled Jazz across the room, the Autobot landing in a heap against Rodimus’ seat, vacated just seconds before.

“I will not leave Cybertron to him! Continue the preparations… I am going to end this now! By my hand and my hand alone, Megatron will die!”

“My liege,” Blurr pleaded, pointing at his datapad, running to catch up with Prime as his leader stalked to the exit. “The launch window! We only have megacycles left before Cybertron will begin feeling the effects of the Plait Nebula!”

“I will be back in time. The launch will not be delayed.”

“Smooth move,” Rodimus rumbled to Jazz as the doors hissed shut behind Prime. “If you two retreads hadn’t said a smeltin’ word, Prime would’ve been so fixated on Earth he’d have forgotten all about Megatron.” He gave the groaning Autobot a small kick, but couldn’t hide the smile playing across his face.

“And it’d really suck if this caused Prime to be late.”



- Do Over