ic contact

[maximalize]

[unless you can speak ancient maximal, this greeting message is incomprehensible.]

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[maximalize]

I understand the feeling.

[when things get as dire as their general situation, nothing feels like enough. the only thing that would be enough is having their planet and dead friends back, and that's not going to happen.]

But we can only do what we can. Even if it doesn't feel like enough. It will be better than nothing. [primal dips his head lightly.] They would understand.

[companionable_jeweled]

[Airazor almost snaps back for reasons she would find difficult to articulate later, except that she doesn't want understanding and sympathy right now. Doesn't feel she deserves it. She'd failed him, failed all of them, and she hadn't even been able to take care of them according to their own rites in the end]

[Instead, she sighs]

They probably would, or most them would, anyway. They always were too quick to sacrifice for our oath. A few years' difference until they could rest easy wouldn't be beyond most of them.

[maximalize]

[he feels the tension rise between them, even if she doesn't speak her mind. primal knows her well enough to know how things ebb and flow, almost like reading her field without being near it. he doesn't respond to anything he senses, nor does he react.]

...When Unicron almost made it through the Transwarp portal to Earth, Optimus Prime decided to stay behind to destroy the key and ensure he'd instead be sealed far away. We had no choice but to honour his sacrifice and retreat. Noah joined him, however, and this helped me realise I, too, was able to assist in keeping him away from the implosion. A minute later, and he would've been pulled into Unicron's maw itself.

[he tilts his head, looking back at her.]

There was another way that didn't end in us losing the Prime, but it was impossible to see until it was almost too late. I do not think they would regret giving their lives in service of the oath, even if the difference was just a few years.

[companionable_jeweled]

They probably would not. You are right.

[Airazor admits this reluctantly, shuffles back and forth where she is perched, and averts her gaze. Her earlier shift in mood is as brief as it was sharp, and she has no idea how to feel now when the final battle against Unicron is described to her, except...]

[She should have been there. That she wasn't, is her largest and more stinging failure, outside of getting her half of the survivors of their planet killed. If she had been there, maybe things could have been different. Better]

...And you? Were you harmed in the battle? Or Cheetor or Rhinox? Were they safe, the last you saw them? [A beat of silence before she lets out a rueful laugh] And the rest of the autobots of course, but...

[maximalize]

[he knows this isn't that simple. hurt like this cannot be solved with something as easy as words.]

No. It was a difficult battle, but we only lost one Autobot. Mirage bravely sacrificed himself to protect Noah from Scourge. [he dips his head as he says it, because mirage deserves to be remembered for his sacrifice just as much as optimus would have been.] They were safe. As were Elena and Noah.

[companionable_jeweled]

[Airazor almost flinches at how her brief moment of selfishness was rewarded, even if there is also a burst of relief that everyone else survived]

Oh, Mirage... [She murmurs it, regretful and already grieving a life that should never have been extinguished] I will sing for him when I next see a nebula on the observation deck, with hope that his spark will know peace.