Disclaimer: Not mine, nor am I making any money off of it. The only thing I own are the twisted ideas floating around in my head.

A/N: Thanks to WyntirRose for beta'ing this!

Warnings: Spoilers for the end of TF:Ani Season Two!

"Ratchet?" Omega Supreme's voice rumbled through the night. It was a rare, quiet moment where it felt like they were the only two 'bots in the universe. Mere clicks away, fighting was going on, but here, it was peaceful and silent.

"Hn?" came Ratchet's distracted grunt as he continued to work on repairing the giant mechanism's knee-joint.

"When the war is over….." Sometimes it took the big mech a moment or two to put his thoughts together. Ratchet was used to his slowness and just shot him a curious look before turning his attention back to his repairs.

Omega didn't speak.

After a moment's pause, the field medic tore his attention away from the weld he'd been working on and directed it at the larger mech. "Yeah? 'When the war is over'? What about it?" he groused; tone gruff as usual.

"When the war is over, will you take me offline?"

His arc welder clattered across Omega Supreme's leg and to the ground. "Will I what!?" Ratchet demanded sharply. "What kind of stupid idea have you got in that two-byte processor now?! Of course I won't slagging take you offline!"

The large mech seemed to consider that for a moment. "You cannot," he uttered slowly. "Because it goes against your primary function, correct?"

"W-Well, yes but it's not that. You're my friend" Placing his hands on his hips in his best attempt to look authoritarian, Ratchet glowered up at Omega Supreme. "By the Allspark, why would I do something like that?"

"Because my primary function is destruction, just like a Decepticon."

"It most certainly is not!"

That earned him a quizzical look.

"You are not just a weapon, Omega."

"I don't understand,"

"You're an Autobot, Omega Supreme. Not a Decepticon and you have a deeper primary function than that of some kind of….of supped up weapon's system! But more than that, you have the ability to save a lot of Autobots. You are more than a weapon, Omega, so much more." It was one of the longest speeches Ratchet had made in a long time and it felt like his vocal processors were rusty with disuse.

"I'll show ya a world without war, kid. Stick with me and I'll show ya a much deeper primary function than that of a weapon. I promise you." He awkwardly patted the giant mech's leg in a stunted sort of sign of affection.

"You will? Really? A world without…war?" Omega Supreme seemed to have trouble grasping that concept. "I don't know what I would do."

"That's the beauty of it, kid, ya don't have to know. You just gotta live and you'll figure it out as ya go along."

Omega Supreme was quiet for a long moment. "I would like to see this world."

"That's the spirit, kid. That's the spirit." With one last awkward pat to his leg, Ratchet retrieved his tools and re-welded the panel back onto the large bot's leg.

"That should do it. Just think, Omega, once we get done with this final battle, we'll have kicked those Decepticons skid-plates across the galaxy and this slagging war will be over."

"Do you think so, Ratchet?"

"I know so, kid. You just wait, in a few steller cycles, we'll be done with this war and I'll show ya all about living." His primary function wasn't that of a teacher. That had been the pretty little femme's job but since Ratchet had been saddled with this responsibility, he only felt it appropriate that he teach the other mech that there was more to life than fighting and destruction.

"I….look forward to it." Omega Supreme gently lifted Ratchet off his leg and climbed to his feet. That stoic display rarely betrayed more than a grim sort of determination but for a moment, Ratchet could have almost sworn he'd seen a small, gentle smile cross Omega's display. But then it was gone and the warrior's typical grim visage was back in place.

"You should stay here, I will go ahead and clear out the Decepticon infestations," the large mech informed his friend as he set him down on the ground.

"Alright, Omega, you just take care of yourself, okay?"

"I will….and….thank you, Ratchet."

"Don't mention it, kid." A sharp glower. "I mean it, don't mention it. I gotta reputation to defend."

Another ghost of a smile before Omega Supreme moved into action and marched right into battle. It was what his primary programming dictated and he was nothing if not loyal to his orders.

Ratchet watched him from afar, not realizing that the coming battle would be the definitive one, the last true battle for Cybertron that would exile the Decepticons and end the war.

He didn't know that as he stood there tending the wounded safely behind the frontlines, his friend was fighting the battle of his life and that come the morning, would lay dying and victorious.

Omega Supreme never got to know that hard-fought peace, would never see the world through Ratchet's optics. And as Ratchet hurried to try and save his friend's spark, it felt like his own was threatening to gutter out in despair.

"You taught me to protect like an Autobot, but all I did was destroy like a Decepticon...." Even then Omega Supreme still believed he was no better than a 'con. No matter how many times Ratchet had tried to convince the other mech that he was still an Autobot at spark.

"We do what we must, even if sometimes it doesn't make sense," Ratchet said tiredly.

"I...don't understand."

"I'm not sure I do either. Just rest now, friend. You've earned it."

With that, the huge mech fell into stasis lock and into a rest that was far longer than Ratchet had planned.

"What do you mean you're not repairing him!?" Ratchet's voice rang through the hanger-bay where they had docked Omega.

"There is no place for such a weapon in our world now," Ultra Magnus intoned evenly, watching the medibot with solemn optics.

"He is not just a slagging weapon!" Ratchet roared, tossing one of his wrenches across the room hard enough to dent the wall. "He is a slagging hero who saved all of our skidplates and you're just going to frag him over like this!?"

The various science-bots scurrying about the hanger froze in shocked surprise at the medibot's outburst.

Ratchet scrapped his accusatory glare over Perceptor and Wheeljack. "And you two! You're the ones who build him, how can you have so little loyalty!? You lot make me ashamed to be an Autobot--!"

He was yanked out of the room mid-rant by a rather peeved Ultra Mangus. "You will control yourself; do you hear me, Field Medic?" the Autobot Commander stated coldly. "This sort of behavior will not help him or your."

Ratchet glowered up at his commander with a helpless sort of rage in his optics.

"You're not the only one who doesn't agree with this mandate, Medic. And it's a shame that such a heroic mech should be treated like this, but this peace is far too tenuous to have us flashing such a terrifyingly powerful mech around. Then Autobots would start worrying if we would use such a weapon to control Cybertron. Do you want another war to break out?"

Ultra Magnus then did something he rarely did. His hands landed heavily on Ratchet's shoulders in an implicit gesture of support. "Omega Supreme was truly an honored mech to have such a loyal friend in you, Ratchet. I cannot think of a better mech to have chosen to be his mentor."

That shut Ratchet up to be certain. Surprise skittered around his processor. All this time, he'd simply thought himself to be a substitute, just a mech in the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Now, if you are truly his friend, you will not press this issue right now. Things could be far worse than the high council just deciding to leave him in stasis mode." They could have ordered him dismantled or put permanently offline. It hung unspoken between them.

"I was going to offer you a new posting in recognition of all the hard work you've given to the Autobot cause--"

"I ain't going," Ratchet interrupted him abruptly. "I'm not leaving Omega."

Something akin to an amused ghost of a smile flit across Ultra Magnus's faceplates. "As I was saying, due to your little outburst, I don't think you are ready to be promoted just yet. You are to remain assigned to the decommissioned Omega project until I see fit to promote you."

Again, he was struck speechless. Then a kernel of realization blossomed in his processor and Ratchet could only stare at Ultra Magnus in an awed sort of admiration.

Seeing he was understood, the High Commander merely offered Ratchet another ghost of a smile. "As it stands now, I don't see you being reassigned anytime soon with a temper like that."

"Sir, yes, sir!" Ratchet even managed to snap off a parade-ground worthy salute before a relieved grin tugged up the corners of his lip components. "And thank you, sir," he put in much quieter but more fervently.

"Don't thank me, soldier. No mech wants to be stuck on a dinky little patrol ship out in the middle of nowhere," Ultra Magnus reminded stiffly, playing the displeased commander to a T. "Dismissed."

The medic turned on his heel and hurried back to the docking bay where Omega Supreme's shell sat. Letting himself in, Ratchet sought out his chair on Omega Supreme's bridge and sank down into it.

His hand moved fondly over the controls which were dark and unresponsive beneath his fingers. "One day, kid. One day."