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[“Orion. Come to my laboratory alone as soon as possible. I have something I want to show you.”]
Orion Pax stared at the message he had received on his communicator from Shockwave. What could she want with him this late at night? Was she struggling with an experiment? Why didn't she just call her assistant…
“Hey, uh, sorry Elita- just heading out. Don't know when I'll be back.” Orion says to his conjunx sitting beside him.
Elita-1's eyebrow raises. “Oh? Where are you going?”
“Just… Shockwave wants to show me something. I'll message you if anythings up. Love you.”
Orion Pax takes a small peek into Bumblebee's room to make sure he was still recharging, then heads out the door of his and Elita-1's Iacon apartment. He speeds down the stairs as quickly as he can, before reaching the outside and transforming into his bike alternate mode, racing towards the Iacon Medical Facility where Shockwave's lab was.
Shockwave of Crystal City was one of the icons of Cybertron- the advances she had made in both the medical and scientific fields were too many to even list. As such, Sentinel Prime had appointed her Chief Medical Officer of the largest hospital in the planet's capital city. She would even take in homeless bots and give them a place to stay.
He turned a corner, the street opening up wider onto one of the main roads. Orion Pax remembered when he’d first moved to Iacon. The bright lights that lit up every skyscraper were blinding at first, but he had quickly got used to the bustle of the capital city.
Elita had been the one to suggest moving. Unloading cargo, verifying passes, tracking the shipments- being on the docks was simple, but exhausting, work. She had always dreamed of being a member of the Elite Guard- defending Cybertron, protecting Sentinel Prime, being important. Elita and Orion had saved their Shanix for years, and a couple months ago they said goodbye to their family and friends, and took the one way train journey to Iacon.
Elita-1 had applied to the Elite Guard in advance, so she was able to get a job immediately- an extremely well paying one at that. Orion, on the other hand, had an interest in studying Cybertronian history, so took a placement at the Iacon Archive. In fact, Orion Pax had first met Shockwave when she and her protégé, Ratchet, visited the archive. He hit off with the two, and would occasionally help them out at the hospital in his free time.
Orion skidded to a halt outside the Iacon Medical Facility’s door, pressing the buzzer. After a short wait, it opened.
The purple Cybertronian who answered the door towered over the admittedly rather short Orion Pax. Her bright yellow optics glared down at him, standing out against the darkness of the night, before her expression softens once she recognises who he is.
“Orion. You're here.” Shockwave beckons him in, quickly shutting the door behind the archivist after taking a look around to make sure there was no one else.
Orion chuckles. “What did you need me for?”
“You're not here to assist me, Orion. There's something I've been waiting to show you, and… it's finally time.” Shockwave responds, a glimmer in her eyes. “Come.”
The doctor led the archivist through the many twisting hallways to her laboratory on the ground floor. She pushes away a pile of datapads stacked on the cluttered floor with her foot to make some room for Orion to step through. He looks around for anything that stands out that Shockwave could want to show him… but there's nothing.
A smile curls up Shockwave's metallic lips. “You’re the only person I can trust to show this, Orion. I'm glad you came.” She presses a hidden button underneath her desk, a slab of the floor opening with a mechanical hiss, revealing a staircase. Orion unsteadily follows Shockwave into it.
“You've, uh, been working on this a while?” Orion asks.
“A long, long time.” The staircase reaches a vault door. Shockwave flips up a keypad, inputting a code, which then reveals a camera that scans her right optic. It confirms positive, and the door slides open.
Orion Pax steps through into a darkened room. The small area of the room that is lit resembles the clutter of Shockwave's laboratory above. He can faintly make out some quiet noises, the sources hidden by the vast darkness that covered the rest of the room.
Shockwave leans down to reach eye level with Orion, the warm golden glow of her optics now boring into him. “You trust me, don’t you, Orion?”
“Of- of course, Shockwave-” He nervously answers. His eyes dart around again, trying to make out anything hidden in the darkened backdrop behind the doctor.
“Understanding science is understanding the universe.” Shockwave stands up fully, turning away from Orion. She starts slowly stepping into the shadows. “A quote from one of the scientists I admire, Jhiaxus.”
“Jhiaxus- wasn’t he… Star Convoy era? His discoveries were instrumental to combatting the Quintessons during the war-!”
Shockwave turns her head towards him, a small smile on her face. “Very good, Orion!” She faces the darkness once more. “Jhiaxus believed that the pursuit of science is the only way for life to understand its purpose. To understand the past and the future.” She sharply turns back to her single audience member. “Do you understand, Orion?”
“Yes…”
“Good. Then you’ll understand the only way to understand science is to experiment. So these-” Shockwave spreads out her arms majestically as the lights click on, illuminating the chamber. “These are my experiments.”
The rest of the hidden facility is lit up, revealing rows and rows of cages. Mangled corpses littered the floor, uncleaned energon spilling from them that had begun to crystallise from age. A few of the alive prisoners perked up when they saw Orion, but most simply sat, staring blankly.
Orion takes a step back, covering his mouth in horror, his brain module processing overtime.
“Impressive, aren't they? I've been using them to investigate Cybertronian bodies.” She bangs on one of the cages, with six similarly-coloured Cybertronians inside. “I found these in a construction accident. Must have been trapped there for two weeks or so. You see the biggest one?” She points, “He's the only one who remembers his name- Grimlock. No one cares for them. I rescued them from certain death.”
“What did you- do to them? Their- alt mode parts…”
“Oh, just a little test. I was recreating the beast modes of the Predacons of Cybertrons past. These ones are lucky- they survived.”
“Shockwave, this-” Orion shakes. “This isn't right. You- kidnapped these people.”
“I saved them.”
“And mutilated them?” He shouts. A coldness runs down his back. “Does- does Ratchet know?”
Shockwave scoffs. “Of course not. She wouldn't be able to see the bigger picture. I thought you would be more understanding, Orion. You said you understood. But now you know…” Needles extend from her left hand, “I can't let you tell everyone, can I?”
Orion is lifted off the floor and pinned against the wall as Shockwave grabs hold of his neck with her right arm, trying to escape the tight grip.
“It will be less painful if you stop moving, Orion. Calm down.” Shockwave slowly moves her left arm towards him, trying to hold him still to stick the needles into the back of his neck.
He kicks his leg up, his collapsed axe flying out of the compartment. In an instant, Orion catches the axe, it extending once it reaches him. He swings it down, and slices off Shockwave’s left arm. She screams in pain, releasing her grip, Orion falling to the floor and sliding away from her.
Orion shouts into his communicator. “ELITA! I NEED BACKUP! I’M AT SHOCKWAVES LAB-” He ducks as Shockwave’s detached arm is thrown at the wall above him.
“Orion. Pax.” Shockwave marches up towards him, rage in her eyes. “I thought you would understand. Sacrifices must be made for the future. Without me, Cybertron would suffer.”
“Cybertron is suffering with you. Freedom is the right of all sentient-”
Orion is interrupted as Shockwave dives towards him, her remaining fist colliding with his face.
“SHUT. UP.” Shockwave yells in between punches. The bottom half of Orion’s face caves in, his jaw falling into his lap. His eyes widen.
Shockwave stares into him. “Do you know an important part of being a doctor?” She shoves her hand into his chest, piercing his armour, pulling out a metallic, spherical device. “Taking apart the Cybertronian body without killing it.” Shockwave holds the orb to her face, admiring it. “The transformation cog. Some say it was given to us by the great Amalgamous Prime. Also-” She chucks it behind herself, it coming to a stop on one of the cages. “-because of its mechanical links to transformation and locomotion, removing it without proper care causes the rest of a Cybertronian’s joints to lock.”
Orion tries his hardest to lift his arm, but he can’t move it an inch. He glares at Shockwave, trying his best to be defiant.
The doctor laughs. “Perhaps a firsthand experience will mean you will understand, Orion, the beauty in my work.”
He coughs out. “ Beauty-? ”
Shockwave sticks her finger in the gap where his lower face was, shushing him. “No need to talk. Let Shockwave take care of you.” She runs her hand all over his body, stopping once she reaches his left arm's elbow. Shockwave tuts. “Even if you had your t-cog, with all the rust you’ve let build up here, you wouldn’t be able to move it within the next few stellar cycles. You should take better care of your body, Orion.” She grabs ahold of Orion’s arm, sparks flying from it as she starts to tear it off. Orion looks down to see the inner wires beginning to be exposed, closing his optics as he roars in pain.
Orion hears a loud grunt, and Shockwave screaming. He opens his optics to see a pink blur tackling Shockwave to the floor, trying to contain her. Orion’s eyes flicker as he watches the new arrival, the last thing he sees as his head lowers the pool of energon forming below him.
“Hey. Hey. Orion. Wake up.”
Orion Pax awakes to his conjunx crouching over him, patting his shoulder.
“Elita… Shockwave…”
“Shockwave's been got, Orion.” Elita-1 moves to the side, revealing a white Cybertronian arresting Shockwave, her singular arm tied behind her back.
“Aren't you going to bring my arm?” Shockwave questions to the police officer.
“You're a doctor. Deal with it.” Prowl responds, marching Shockwave up the stairs.
Orion breathes a sigh of relief. He looks down at his body, patched with temporary metal sheets to contain his energon.
“I called Prowl and Ratchet after I subdued Shockwave. She put those sheets on you, but… they can't stay forever. Your body is beyond repair to how it was. You're going to have to get a lot of replacements, Orion.” Elita chokes up.
Orion doesn't even process that. “Where's Ratchet? Is Bumblebee okay?”
“Ratchet left after she fixed you. I've got Jazz taking care of Bee.”
He groans in pain. “I shouldn't have gone, I'm sorry.”
“You don't have to apologise for anything, Orion. Plus, if you hadn't gone, we never would have found her ‘experiments’... or seen her true colours.”
“What's- ugh- going to happen to her?”
Prowl comes walking back down the stairs. “We’ll have to put a list together of all her crimes, but… I can safely say this will mean empurata, and prison for life.”
Orion opens his mouth to respond, but chokes on some energon flowing out the hole where his jaw formerly was. Elita grabs ahold of him, and begins to lift him up in bridal carry. “Come on. I’ll get you back to Ratchet.”
As Orion Pax’s body was carried by Elita, his head faces the cages. He sputters out, “We should free them-”
Elita glances behind her. “I'll come back and let them out. Ratchet can take care of them too.”
Orion Pax sat on the medical table as Ratchet convened with some other doctors on the other side of the room. He stared out the window, watching as Shockwave was loaded into a transport cell by Prowl.
Orion met his former friend's eyes. Empurata- removal of the face and hands, replaced with a single optic and claws, as punishment for grievous crimes so others know what they have done. Shockwave smiled at Orion, and the door was shut.