*3rd Pov*
It's been a couple more days.
Optimus said nothing more, his fingers moving slowly over the keys as faint digital readouts flickered across the screen. The base was quiet. Even Ratchet had left them alone for once, giving space in the way only someone who understood could. Because what sat in that glass wasn't just a being made of energon.
It was someone unraveling.
Someone rebuilding.
Y/n's eye remained on him. No longer the playful, feral gleam of mischief, nor the cold flicker of hunger unchecked. Just a quiet, watchful glow. Exhausted. But still alive.
The ache inside them hadn't vanished. The hunger still pulsed with every flicker of movement. But now… there was a weight pressing against it. A hand, unseen, holding the gnawing tide back just enough to think.
Not peace. Not forgiveness.
But pause.
Their fingertips scraped gently against the glass, tracing nothing in particular. Not to flirt. Not to manipulate.
Just to feel something.
Optimus glanced toward the container now and then, but didn't speak. He didn't ask them to perform. Didn't demand confessions. Didn't pretend he could fix them.
He just stayed.
The monitor cast a soft blue glow across the room, painting his armor in gentle hues. And Y/n, for the first time in a long, long while, allowed themselves to watch him without hiding behind teeth or charm.
He wasn't afraid.
Not of them.
And that… that confused them more than anything.
Because if he wasn't afraid, if he wasn't trying to control them or cage them like a holy artifact or monster....
Then maybe… maybe they didn't have to be those things anymore.
Maybe they could become something else.
However, then something happened, something that made Y/n twitch a bit.
Rachet: I need to do a couple tests Optimus.
Optimus: That is not necessary Rachet.
Rachet: Optimus, we have to figure what they are.
Y/n flinched, their body tensing in the glass as Ratchet's voice cut through the quiet. Not loud, but sharp. Clinical. Cold.
The moment the medic took a step closer, something shifted in Optimus.
The low hum of the base's lights seemed to flicker as the Prime turned, slow and deliberate. He stepped between Ratchet and the containment unit, not aggressive, but final. A wall of blue and steel.
Optimus: They are recovering. That is all you need to know for now.
Ratchet blinked, pausing in the doorway with his scanner still in hand. His optics narrowed just slightly.
Ratchet: You're letting sentiment cloud your judgment. We need more data what they're made of, how their physiology reacts under stress, how,
Optimus: They are not a specimen, Ratchet.
His voice was low, but heavy. Final. The kind of tone that carried centuries of command behind it.
Y/n blinked, curling slightly where they floated. They weren't sure what they were hearing, but it echoed differently than before. Deeper. More… possessive.
Ratchet, ever stubborn, crossed his arms with a soft click.
Ratchet: And what if this 'pause' ends, Optimus? What if that hunger returns? If you're wrong?
Optimus didn't answer right away. He only turned his helm slightly, his gaze flicking to the container where Y/n now watched him and Ratchet in full.
Optimus: Then it will be my mistake. Not yours. I'll take responsibility.
The words settled like stone in the room. No bluster. No defense.
Just a quiet, possessive truth.
Y/n's eye widened slightly. Something pulsed in their core, not hunger. Not confusion.
Something familiar.
Warm.
Ratchet, to his credit, didn't push it further. He frowned, optics flicking between them, but finally turned with a grunt and stalked off, muttering something about stubborn Primes and irrational attachments.
When the doors closed, silence fell again. Only now, it was heavier. Charged.
Optimus didn't turn back to the monitors right away.
Instead, he stepped close to the glass. Slow. Intentional.
His voice, when it came, was low. Measured.
Optimus: You are not a project to be studied. Not a tool to be used.
He paused, optics softening as he looked at them, not at their energy, not their strangeness. Them.
Optimus: You are…...
He stopped, turning away... but he grabbed Y/n's container, like you would a can. Y/n's glow stuttered in their chest. Their hand slowly lifted, pressing to the glass.
They didn't know what was going on.
Optimus: We are going out, Stay silent and still until we're out of the base... Please behave aswell.
Y/n didn't move. Not at first. Just stared at him, stunned.
He hadn't finished the sentence. You are… what?
But there was no time to press, no time to tease it apart. The way his hand cradled the containment unit, it wasn't rough, wasn't careless. He held it like something fragile. Like someone.
The air in the base felt colder the moment they passed the threshold of the medbay, the quiet hiss of the door sliding open breaking the still tension behind them.
Y/n obeyed.
Still.
Silent.
It was a strange feeling, to not be in a threatened manner. Not prodded or analyzed or reduced to a list of anomalies and unknowns. Just carried. Carried by him.
The hallway lights gleamed against Optimus' plating as he moved with careful but swift steps. Not hiding, but clearly not wanting to be stopped. His other hand remained close to his side, as if ready to shield the container if anyone so much as looked at it wrong.
They passed by Bumblebee, who gave a questioning chirp.
Optimus didn't break stride.
Optimus: I will explain later.
The scout blinked, watching them disappear down the corridor, then shrugged and went back to whatever it was he'd been doing.
The farther from the core of the base they got, the more Y/n felt their hunger stir. The ambient energon in the air was stronger here, bleeding in faint traces from wiring and walls, tickling at their senses. Their fingers twitched once, instinct tugging at the frayed edge of restraint.
And then his voice came again, quieter this time, but firm.
Optimus: I don't need you, I don't expect anything of you.
Y/n stilled instantly.
Those words.
It was like a lightning bolt, striking them through the body.
Finally, they reached the outer hangar, vast, quiet, the sky overhead burning orange and purple with the last light of sunset. The doors hissed open, and for the first time since they'd been sealed in that container, Y/n saw the world.
Open.
Vast.
Real.
And then they understood.
Optimus wasn't just taking them for air.
He was giving them something.
Freedom.
Y/n's glow pulsed weakly, overwhelmed. Not feral. Not unhinged. Just… raw. Like a newborn star flickering behind glass.
Optimus stepped out into the open, away from the noise and judgment and questions.
He lowered the container just slightly, setting it down on a flat stretch of ground. He crouched beside it, one knee pressed to the dirt, optics soft.
Optimus: You've been watched, caged, judged since the moment you arrived. I will not allow it anymore.
He hesitated… and for a moment, it looked like he might open the glass.
Y/n tensed.
Optimus: But this is your choice now. If you leave… I will not stop you.
His voice dipped even lower.
Optimus: But if you stay… I will protect you. From them. From what you were. Even from yourself.
Y/n's hand pressed slowly against the interior of the glass. The world outside was calling. The sky. The wind. The energy that pulsed through everything.
Y/n: Optimus.... I'm, I..... I don't...
Another pang, another ravenous thought.
Hunger
Gluttony
Starving
It panged into Y/n's core. So much so, they couldn't answer back.
Y/n's body convulsed, their form lashing once, twice against the inside of the glass. Not out of rage.
Out of need.
The container shook in Optimus' hands, faint cracks spiderwebbing near the edges from the sheer force of pressure rippling off their energized form. Not an attack.
An overflow.
Their glow burned hot, flickering wildly as the hunger surged again. Raw. Primal. Insatiable. They couldn't stop it. Couldn't speak. Their hand curled against the glass like a claw, twitching violently.
The desert wind cut through the silence, but Optimus didn't flinch.
Instead, he stood again.
Lifted the container into his arms.
And walked.
One step. Then another. Deeper into the stretch of barren Jasper terrain. The sky darkened above them, stars peeking through the scattered clouds as twilight descended.
Optimus didn't speak at first. His expression was unreadable. But his grip on the container remained steady, firm, unshaken.
Then, quietly...
Optimus: I know.
His voice, low as the desert wind.
Optimus: You don't have to explain. The pain. The need. The instinct. I can feel it in the way the light bends around you.
The glow inside the container flared again, like a sun trapped in a jar.
Y/n couldn't reply. Could barely think. The energy leaking from the earth, the wires beneath their path, even him, all of it fed the monster inside.
But he kept walking.
Optimus: Even now, I do not fear you.
He glanced down at the pulsing glass.
Optimus: Not because I believe you are harmless. But because I believe… that you are still trying.
Y/n's body trembled. The heat spiked again, and this time, an arc of light snapped from their chest and struck the inside of the glass with a sharp CRACK.
Optimus stopped.
Lowered the container carefully onto the sand.
And crouched beside it, eyes glowing dim in the growing dark.
Optimus: If I open this now, I may not survive.
A pause. The wind whispered around them.
Optimus: But I would rather face death in your freedom… than live knowing you were in pain under my protection.
Y/n's glow shuddered. Their hand lifted, jerky, unstable, before pressing to the cracked edge of the glass.
They didn't want to hurt him.
But they were starving.
They were afraid.
Optimus: If your hunger takes you… I will not run.
And then, softer-
Optimus: But if you are still in there… even the smallest part… let me see you.
The glass shattered into pieces, slimy tendrils firing into the ground nearby as Y/n rises. The ground around them turned into metal, before being consumed by thr growing bright blue mass. A singular red eye rising onto the top of the mass.
Then like a antlion pit, a cavern was crated as it expanded more and more. Sand, Rock, Dirt, all turning into a metal before being consumed, the blue mass growing more. Optimus stabbed his hand into the ground as he got swept off his feet, dragging himself closer to the mass.
However it didn't stop, he was pulled closer and closer. His feet mere inches away from the blue mass...
Before it stopped
A humanoid form appearing at the top of the mass before falling onto Optimus. A soft sobbing taking over as the slime flinched and twitches.
Y/n: I-Im.... I'm a monster..... I don't... I don't want to be a god... I don't want to be a weapon.... I, I... I just want to be with my friends... *Sob*
For all the destruction, the hunger, the impossible power that had just erupted, this moment, this broken voice trembling against his chassis, was what truly struck him.
He didn't speak. He didn't move.
Not until he was sure the form in his arms was stable. That they weren't burning alive from the inside out.
Then, slowly, carefully, he wrapped his arms around them.
It wasn't a protective cage.
It wasn't restraint.
It was a promise.
Optimus: You are not a monster.
His voice was a whisper now, the kind you'd use to calm something scared, not something dangerous. It rumbled gently in his chest, echoing in the hollow between them.
Optimus: You are not a god. Or a weapon.
Y/n trembled harder, slime-like limbs pulling tight into themselves as if trying to make their body small. Hide. But they couldn't, they absorbed to much mass... the crater they were in could easily swallow around 4 aircraft carriers.
Not when he held them like they were worth saving.
Optimus: You are someone.
He rested his helm lightly against the top of their emerging form, optics dim and steady.
Optimus: And I see you, Y/n.
Their sobs broke again, sharp, ugly, aching. But there was something new in it, something deeper than grief. A kind of fragile relief, so raw it bled through every crack they had tried to cover up.
Y/n: I didn't ask to be this...
Optimus: I know.
Y/n: I didn't want to hurt anyone…
Optimus: And yet… you're still trying not to.
His grip tightened just slightly, grounding them both against the weight of what they were. What they could be.
The metallic pit around them hummed faintly, energon leaking from some cracks in the metal, no longer clawing at the world with hunger.
And Optimus never once let go.
A couple moments later a groundbridge opened up around them. The entirety of team prime emerging.
Rachet: We saw a high energon reading, heck we felt it.
Bulkhead: Optimus, are you alright?
All they saw was Y/n, now fully sized, heck larger then Optimus and the team right now, but the humanoid top hugging onto Optimus sobbing.
Optimus: I am fine. Y/n is not... I'll explain later. For now, we should wait until Y/n calms down.
Wheeljack: How long is that going to take.
Optimus: I don't know.
Arcee: What happened?
Optimus: I don't know.
Bumblebee: Ok.... but we do have to go, no doubt the Decepticons got that signal aswell.
Optimus: Agreed. Y/n, can you move... we need to go back to the base.
Y/n:.....
They didn't respond, instead pushing their face further into Optimus's chest. Their body condensed shakily, sobbing still being heard, even with some whines. However, Optimus was now able to grab Y/n, they were still large, but it was like grabbing a large very soft pillow, just a bit more squishier and more give.
However Optimus managed to get them through the groundbridge. Team prime following aswell as Rachet takes a sample of the metal and energon before leaving. The groundbridge closing behind theme leaving the massive crater in the desert.