Work Text:
“Any luck?”
Red Alert fiddled with the wiring. “Not yet…”
A patrol had gone horribly wrong for Jetfire and Red Alert. What was supposed to be a double check if a route was safe, turned into a battle with too many Decepticons. The end result was the two of them locked up somewhere in Kaon Arena.
Red Alert was working on trying to bring the barriers down, while Jetfire was sitting on the bench that acted as a bed. The larger mech leaned against the wall, sighing softly.
“You good, Jet?”
“...I'm sick of this.”
Red Alert stopped working on the wiring. “Sick of what?”
“Sick of this war. Sick of death. Sick of everything.”
Red Alert shrugged. “I wouldn't call this a war anymore. Just survival.”
“I wouldn't even call it survival.”
Red Alert shifted to lean against the wall, taking a break from breaking them out.
“It's gotta end at some point.”
Jetfire looked towards Red. “What would you do if it ended?”
“Frag, I don't even know. My hands would be full trying to care for everyone.”
Jetfire chuckled a little bit.
“...I would like to do…normal couple things.”
“Like what?”
“I don't know, moving into our own place, not fearing getting killed, starting a family…”
“Not sure how we would get a family with no Allspark,” Jetfire blushed slightly.
Red Alert waved his hand. “We'd find a way.”
Jetfire chuckled, and the two of them sat in a comfortable silence.
“Well. We aren't going to start a family here, are we?” Red Alert got up and walked towards the panel he was working on before.
Jetfire blushed and chuckled. “Who says we can't start a family here?”
Red Alert glared back at Jetfire before working again.
*
After quite some time, Red Alert had managed to break down the barriers to their cell.
Jetfire had been in Kaon Arena for most of his life, he knew the place like the back of his hand.
Carefully, they walked around the halls, making sure not to encounter any Decepticons. They were silent, not even using comms. Jetfire remembered what happened to Ultra Magnus when he did…
Jetfire looked around one corner, as Red Alert kept watch of another. As the coast was clear on Jetfire's end, he felt a tug on his leg.
He looked over on Red Alert's side, finding a couple of bots. Frag…
Before either of them could do anything, the Decepticons spotted them.
“Hey!” One yelled as they ran towards the pair.
Jetfire unsheathed his sword, and swung it. The Decepticon barely dodged, and grabbed a blunt force object of sorts. They swung at Jetfire as well.
The other Decepticon, a Seeker, ran towards Red Alert and immediately took to their ion cannon. Before Red Alert could react, the ion cannon turned on and blasted towards Red.
It was almost slow motion. Jetfire could only watch as the ion blast reached Red Alert. It blasted through his side, and nearly took off his arm. Red Alert fell to the ground, and time sped up again.
Bright pink energon spilled from his side, as he slumped against the wall. Jetfire yelled as something hit his head. The Decepticon had hit him with the object, and his vision went fuzzy.
He was able to somewhat rebound, stabbing the Decepticon in the chassis. He rushed towards the Seeker, and stabbed them right in the side. Both fell to the ground, and Jetfire hurried to Red Alert.
“Red?” He slurred. “Can you hear me?”
Red Alert looked at him, optics dim. His hand clutched his side in a desperate attempt to prevent more energon loss, though the warnings on his HUD told him it was fruitless. Jetfire carefully picked Red Alert up, his plating stained with his energon.
“Hey, we’re…we’re gonna get out of here, alright? We’re…gonna start that family…find somewhere…somewhere nice…peaceful…okay?”
Red Alert’s hand weakly came up to Jetfire’s chassis as he gave a small smile.
“That…that sounds…nice…” his optics went dark.
*
The head injury must’ve been more severe than Jetfire thought, as now, he could barely remember where he was going. All that was going through his processor was to get Red Alert out. Red must’ve gone into emergency shutdown due to energon loss, and Jetfire couldn’t afford to give his own energon. If he had to guess, removing energon from his systems was likely a bad idea with his injury.
All Jetfire could do was hold Red close, trying to prevent energon loss as he twisted through the halls. Unfortunately, small amounts of energon leaked out, creating a trail that would lead anyone right to them. With an empty cell and two Decepticons dead, no doubt, everyone was on the hunt for Jetfire and Red Alert.
Damn, Jetfire had spent cycles inside of these halls and yet, he was blanking on where to go. Head injury and all. Help should be on the way…probably…maybe…did they send out something for help? Oh, he wished they did, there was no way he was getting Red Alert and himself out of here alive.
Behind him, he noticed a small trail of pink. He looked around for any Decepticons before going behind a wall. “Red…you’re…you’re leaking everywhere…” he muttered before grabbing a first aid kit from his subspace. With fuzzy vision and shaky hands, he somehow managed to get some patches out and somewhat placed on Red Alert’s injury.
“There we go…should be…good until we get…back…”
He heard a buzz on his comm. Who was…
”Jet- you- hear me?”
He could barely focus. “Wha…?”
“—your stat-us?”
“…what is…what is…?”
“Slag, he’s—need to—location? Jetfire, what’s—“
Everything became a blur. The dripping energon from his wound, the pounding headache, the voices on the comm. He thought he said some words, but everything felt wrong.
Next thing he knew, he was on the ground beside Red Alert, breathing heavily. Flashes of pink and blue came into his vision, and he felt his world go dark, the last thing he saw was Red Alert’s dark optics.
*
*
*
*
Turns out, Red Alert had died before rescue came.
The blast pretty much killed him immediately, and Jetfire was just carrying a dead bot.
Jetfire looked down at the grave he dug, not yet filled with dirt. Red Alert looked awful with a hole right through his side, dried energon coating his plating. Jetfire kneeled down and placed his hand over Red Alert’s chassis.
His mouth opened and closed several times, trying to think of something to say. What could he say? There wasn’t a lot he could do to save Red Alert. Take the shot? Well, then he would be in the grave right now. Taken a different way? Perhaps, but would Elita and Chromia still have found them?
He sighed before getting up and started to shovel the pile of dirt back into the hole. Jetfire would’ve liked a proper funeral for Red Alert. Maybe when this war is all over, he can set something up. A memorial. Something that’s better than just Jetfire and his dead partner.