Death, then. Or something similar - it's not a comfort to think of it ending that way, or any way. There was so much he wanted to do, things he wanted to see happen before he met his end however it was going to come. Dai Atlas and Orion - surely they would take up his causes in his absence, and he knows he told Zeta to find Orion if anything had happened to him.

But making sure things carried out in his absence wasn't the same as being there.

"I'm sorry." And he means it, from the deepest parts of his spark - sadness reflected in both his tone and his expression. "Sentinel - I never thought he would stoop so low to come after you to get to me." They couldn't just be satisfied with Shadowplay, no, they had to go after his legacy. Anger stirs in him again but there's more important things to be dealt with than the desire to rip Proteus and Sentinel to shreds with his bare hands.

Not that he'd have the opportunity to.