Chapter Text
Megatron made the mistake of passing by the decoding room. Orion looked up from his work. “Meg- Forgive me- Lord Megatron,” he corrected, “If you have a moment, is Elita One aboard this ship? I am eager to tell her I’ve come out of stasis.”
Orion’s optics dimmed in worry when Megatron hesitated.
“...Has she been conjoined in my absence?”
Megatron fastened on a kind smile. “Not in the least, old friend. She is on an interstellar mission. With the state of our spacebridge, it will be a time before she returns. But I will have Soundwave send a message.”
Optics lighting up, Orion bowed his head gratefully. He returned to his decoding.
He worked for several hours. Soundwave did not pass by to deliver word from Elita, nor did Orion want to upset Lord Megatron by stepping away from his post. But by a streak of Primus’ grace, one data point of the massive encryption was dated to a period he recalled- where he and Elita both interned in the Iacon library. Orion laughed at himself, but he jumped at the excuse to see her file. Despite being in stasis, he could acutely feel the length of their separation.
The screen lit up with her record and history. Elita-One, tactical officer…
Orion smiled proudly. Elita had the gentlest spark he’d ever known, as well as the bravest. The file listed out her battles- They were extensive, Orion realised with a pulse of guilt for not being there. He scrolled for her time in the library- and halted.
The Battle of Andromeda was in her record.
Orion doubled-checked the files, but he wasn’t mistaken. That battle was between Autobots and a neutral party, with Decepticons on the opposite side of the galaxy. Why would Elita have been there?
He looked over her record more intently. The majority of encounters were Decepticons against Autobots, but not all. Autobots skirmish against the Insecticons. Autobots spotted four klicks from Sirius-B.
Autobots Elita-One and Optimus Prime separated at the battle of Firestorm.
Orion’s mouth went dry. His Elita? An Autobot? He rose to go to Megatron with this data, but stopped himself. Could he be wrong? He dug for a more recent file- one thousands of years old- and after furious scrubbing, found the same insignia as Ratchet's emblazoned over her spark. The same as the Autobots from which Megatron had narrowly rescued him.
Orion sank over his hands, fighting the urge to be sick. Megatron must have been trying to spare him pain.
Unless…
It seemed wrong to think, but there could only be two possibilities. Either Elita had pandered to the corrupt senate for her own gain… Or there was more to the Autobot cause than Megatron thought to tell him.
Orion stared in silence at her pixelated image. Her bold, kind optics. He was just beginning to make up his mind, when the door behind him cracked open. Orion turned to an alarmed shriek, and found himself staring down-
Commander Starscream.