[Bay] War Without End - Ratchet

[dracoqueen22]

a/n: And so it ends where it began with Ratchet.

Title: War Without End Epilogue
Universe: Bayverse, post-DotM, AU to AOE, War Without End
Characters: Ratchet and the Ark Crew plus new additions
Rating: T
Warnings: angst and fluff and humor, implied pairings, referenced character death
Description: In the end, Ratchet's only regret is that he didn't act

Comments

[dracoqueen22]

I swear as I was watching AOE I noticed so many parallels (like Hound and Drift showing up for example.) and it really feels like AOE is what could have happened if Ratchet hadn't left in WWE like he did.

I do have a headcanon actually. Brace yourself for loooooong explanation.

It's no single thing that broke him but rather a culmination of things. It started with Megatron, as most things do, and Megatron's betrayal was the first knife. Couple that with turning a civilian-type leader into a warrior and there was another ding to his core coding.

Fast forward so many million years of fighting and then you end up on Earth. At this point, Cybertron is dead and abandoned. Autobots and Decepticons are scattered all over the universe. Optimus feels guilty for everyone who's ever died since the war began. It sits heavy on his spark, but he's handling it.

Then, his core support group, his cadre, starts to fall apart. Jazz gets killed. Sam kills Megatron. That's okay. That was the end he expected. The war's over. Whatever Decepticons are left won't surrender. He does what he has to do. He grieves.

Then, Megatron comes back. Optimus feels it. Then his brother kills him and Optimus is dead for awhile before coming back to life. And it's not a nice thing to be revived. No wonder Megatron was crazy afterward. Being dead like that, it does things to you. Messes with your coding. Things don't quite set into place. And that peace he thought they had? Turns out it was only a dream.

Movie Three - Megatron's still kicking it, causing trouble. The humans get a bit more demanding. Then Optimus is happy because his mentor is still alive. That's worthy of celebration right?

Except not because Sentinel turns out to be a traitor, too. Megatron and Sentinel, both turn on him. Worse, Sentinel kills Ironhide, further cutting Optimus' support group out from under him. Ironhide was the only one ever brave enough to grab Optimus by the shoulder and calm him down. He's the one that recognized sometimes, Optimus has a little bit too much Megatron in him.

And the humans, oh man, they're constant wishy-washiness was exasperating. Optimus is driven to protect them, the innocents, the way he couldn't protect his own people, and the humans are making that very, very hard. Optimus latched on to his need to protect them and in his damaged cortex, it translated into a coding requirement to do whatever it took to keep the humans safe.

Even after Megatron was dead for the second time, it was too late. The very act of having to be the one to kill both Megatron and his mentor shattered what was left of the Optimus Prime his Autobots knew and loved. All that remained was the warrior he'd been forced to become.

Sooooo TL;DR...

It was a combination of broken bonds, betrayal, a worsening madness, and his resurrection. It all culminated in an Optimus who was no longer capable of functioning outside of war, who couldn't recognize peace, and who had forgotten the mech he used to be.

Re: The Matrix. I sorta headcanon that it's a symbolic artifact, a sort of semi-intelligent repository of information. It doesn't have much bearing on Optimus' state of mind, though I would wager that if it did try to contact him, it wouldn't have much luck.