Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Optimus finally gave up struggling, no matter how much he tried the chains still held. As he exhausted all his energy his head slumped forward, the chains creaking along with him, staying in place as they pulled his arms above him.

Around him there was only darkness. The only light came from the Matrix, glowing through the glass in his chest, and even then there was nothing worth illuminating. Even if the chains hadn't been keeping him in place there was no real space to move around or walk in. Being able to move would have only revealed how small this cramped room actually was, at least like this he could keep the illusion of space.

There was a creak as a lock disengaged, and Optimus only had a few seconds before the door to his cell was flung wide open, and he was blinded by the barrage of light. He never had enough time to close his optics and adjust gradually.

"Ah, there you are, Orion," Sentinel's voice sang. Optimus didn't bother to lift his head as he heard Sentinel step closer.

"My name… is Optimus Pri-"

Sentinel's sword was at his throat cables.

"Don't say that word," Sentinel hissed. His optics now a searing white. "There's only one Prime and it's not you. I'm in charge of Cybertron. Me and no one else. Got it?"

Optimus and Sentinel stared each other down for a moment, before Sentinel finally removed his sword.

"Besides, I just came to check on how you have been doing? Feeling comfortable?"

Optimus didn't respond. He told himself that this time he would not rise to any of Sentinel's bait.

"Awh, well, don't look so glum. After all, you did what you wanted to achieve. You solved the energon crisis-"

It pained Optimus that he had been instrumental in that. Now that he had the Matrix, energon flowed back on Cybertron's surface, but it had come with a cost.

"-and of course, no one needs to mine anymore. I thought that was what you wanted."

"You're still enslaving them," Optimus growled. He looked up and glared at Sentinel. "Instead of mining energon you're forcing them to harvest it directly for the Quintessons."

Sentinel just rolled his optics. "It doesn't matter what I do. You're never happy, and here I thought that would give you some comfort."

"You still haven't given them back their transformation cogs."

"They don't need them for this task," Sentinel smirked. "They can work perfectly fine without them."

Optimus tried to lurch forward, his hands reaching out for Sentinel's neck, but as always the chains held. He was left hovering just out of reach of Sentinel's smug face.

"Well, if you wanted to stop me then you should have done better with your little rebellion."

Sentinel was unfortunately right. They had been so close; to rescuing D-16 and B, to revealing the truth, but then all too quickly it had gone wrong. Airachnid had escaped and brought reinforcements, D and Orion had gotten into their argument and Orion… Orion had lost his life.

The exact 'how's were still hazy in Optimus's mind, but he had been revived, given the Matrix and when he had come back… D-16 was gone. So were Elita and B, and half the High Guard. Sentinel had gotten control of the situation again, and Optimus had been overwhelmed and captured. Since then he had been stuck here, restrained while the Matrix thought it was safe to continue providing energon back to the planet.

"But still, I didn't come all this way just to tell you things you already know," Sentinel said. "I actually have something new for you."

Optimus watched him with suspicion. 

"Your lovely little D-16 has been quite the thorn in my side for a while. He's still tried to keep this rebellion going, but finally-" Sentinel dropped a piece of metal to the floor. "-it's all over with."

Optimus looked at the piece of metal, not getting it. Optimus could barely see it in the light. What was so special about a torn scrap of grey metal.

But then he looked closer and saw there was something engraved on the metal. For a minute Optimus thought it was the sticker he had given to D-16, but then he realised the metal was just simply fashioned after the face of Megatronus. Such a symbol could only come from one particular individual.

"D-16…" Optimus whispered.

"Yes, I ran into him earlier. Finally his little rebellion has been put to an end."

"No… it can't be possible."

"It is. I'm sorry to say he's dead."

Optimus lurched again, this time he was determined that nothing would stop him getting to Sentinel. And even though the chains creaked and strained, they still stopped him. Sentinel continued standing inches from his face. "You're lying!"

"I feel pretty certain this evidence tells otherwise."

"It's fake. It has to be."

"Keep telling yourself that. Though, if you're going to be that stubborn about it, I suppose it's best that I leave you with this evidence to contemplate," Sentinel said as he headed back to the door. "See you later, Orion."

Sentinel left and Optimus was plunged into darkness again. Now the light from his chest could barely even illuminate the outline of the symbol. The more he looked at it, the more he kept thinking-- That just possibly Sentinel was telling the truth, and if that was the case, then D-16 was truly gone.

As Optimus was left on his own he started to weep.

Chapter Text

Megatron grimaced as he woke up. A dreadful pain overtook him. As he tried to move he could feel the way the air brushed over the exposed metal around his chest.

Faintly he heard panicked voices, and felt the constant touches of medics trying desperately to stablise him. All the while he could barely concentrate, the only thing his mind seemed to drift to was the look on Sentinel's face as he had stood over him, gleefully plunging his sword into his chest and doing his best to tear out his very spark. The pain had been so intense Megatron hadn't been able to do anything but scream.

He would have offlined then and there, if it hadn't been for Starscream's shot blasting Sentinel away. Suddenly the weight left his frame and he was no longer in danger of seeing his very spark torn out, but the pain had still been there, and been overwhelming. He vaguely paid attention as Starscream shouted orders to get them out. Then Megatron had shut down, only to eventually awake here.

As his hearing came back online he tuned into the hum of engines around them. Clearly they had made it back to a shuttlecraft and escape. Megatron took the opportunity to switch on his optics and look around the room. The other mechs all seemed to be in the same position as him; many broken and injured, in desperate need of medical attention but currently only receiving what would be enough to keep them alive. The shuttle had been full on the way over to the attack, but now there were many empty spaces.

There was a heavy thunk followed by the engines turning off, swiftly followed by the shuttle doors opening up, and all too quickly the place was a flurry of mechs pouring out. Megatron felt his own stretcher being lifted, and gave a wince as he felt something in his circuits got jostled inside.

All too soon he found himself in the actual medbay, surrounded by all the familiar noises of important equipment, and medics speaking in immediate and frantic tones.

Quickly it seemed the landing bay was turning into a makeshift medbay, with medics coming in and assessing the damage to those being brought in and in what priority they needed attention. Megatron's bed was quickly brought into the proper medbay, and he heard the noises of the medics attending to the more dire and urgent cases.

Quickly he was joined by Ratchet, who grabbed a stall to be able to reach him. Ratchet still didn't have a cog. The few miners that had escaped and joined the Decepticon rebellion still hadn't been able to acquire the ability to transform, but it didn't stop them from putting in all the effort they could.

Ratchet took one look at Megatron's chest and shook his head.

"This is pretty bad."

"Can you fix it?" Megatron grunted.

"Of course I can. I'm just shocked you're even conscious."

"Rage sustains me."

"It can't be all that sustains you. Now lie back and I'll get you patched up."

Megatron shuttered his optics, as he felt the sting of Ratchet's equipment run over him. In the distance he heard the sounds of mechs crying out in pain, and medics talking in voices that never rose to shouts, but held that uncertain tremor of worry.

The raid had been a disaster. They had attacked one of Sentinel's supply bases as the Quintessons were arriving to pick up their tribute. The hope had been to disrupt the production at the heart of it. But instead the extra fire power the Quintessons had brought with them meant the raiding party was quickly overwhelmed.

At some point Starscream had tried to called for a retreat, but Megatron had seen Sentinel and from that point his vision went red. If he could just get to Sentinel and kill him  then all of this would be over. The war would end if Megatron could just kill the person responsible. The one who took away his cog, his freedom and his Ori-- Megatron had ordered them to keep fighting as he charged at the fake Prime.

The two of them had clashed directly, and the result had been for several Death Trackers to hold him down as Sentinel stabbed his sword into Megatron's chest. A huge chunk had been torn off before enough of the High Guard had managed to rally around Starscream and Megatron had been dragged out of there with a huge gaping hole in his chest.

"There, I've got you all fixed up," Ratchet said. There was now no longer a hole in Megatron's chest, instead there was now a big chunk of metal that had been welded over it. "That'll do for now. I have other patients to attend to and get stable. Afterwards, I'll check up on that. But it's not going to be a proper fix-up job until I've sorted out everything else."

"Alright then, you're dismissed."

Ratchet scoffed. "You don't have to dismiss me." He had already stepped down from the ladder, and then left.

Megatron waited, staring up at the ceiling. He wondered how they were going to fix this. The war was not going in their favour, Sentinel still had control of the planet; worse still was that he had changed his plans, fully announcing the alliance with the Quintessons and now simply giving all the energon directly to them. Cogless bots who had previously been forced to mine were now being forced to work in the plants that processed the energon straight from the rivers. Now the population of Cybertron were under no illusion about who they were working for now, but there was nothing they could do about it.

Maybe Orion would have inspired them to--

The curtain was pulled back. Megatron turned, expecting one of the medics but instead it was Starscream who entered.

"That went well," he said.

Megatron groaned. "What do you want?"

"Nothing. I just came to talk really," Starscream said as he idly walked around the room, pretending to examine the dust on the countertop as if that was what was really bothering him.

"You mean you want to berate and mock me."

"Well, I feel I have every right to when your orders just led to a record number of casualties and failures. Do you understand what you're doing at all? You nearly got all of us, including yourself, killed!"

"I was trying to stop Sentinel."

"Of course, and just charging at a mech in blind rage and forgetting everything else we had planned is such a winning strategy, is it?"

"My judgement was clouded."

"I don't think it's ever been anything else. Since you took over this you've led us on nothing but foolhardy raids chasing some pitiful vendetta and you haven't brought us a single victory. Primus, why did we ever put you in charge?"

"Funny, because I seem to remember I won the right to lead this faction after pummelling you before your own gaudy throne."

Starscream's optics narrowed, and he slowly approached Megatron, leaning over him and looking down with a burning intensity.

"Do you want to know, something? I threw that match against you because when you were dragged into our base I saw a fire that I thought would rejuvenate the High Guard. I wanted to see what would happen if you were to let those simmering embers in your optics come alight. I thought you'd lead us to victory, but now I see that your fire is all bluster, completely uncontrollable and wrecking everything it touches, even your allies. I led the High Guard successfully for fifty whole cycles, and in a only a couple have you brought us to a shell of our former selves." Starscream leaned in closer, practically in Megatron's face as he hissed his next words. "The High Guard respect raw power but mark my words; if you don't shape up with your leadership then they'll start looking to replace you. Shape up or prepare for a knife in the back, that's all I have to say." With that Starscream turned and left, dramatically brushing the cover aside.

Megatron sighed and looked up at the ceiling. He felt exhausted.

He wished Orion was here. Somehow he felt if Orion was here all of this would be going so much better. Orion had been good at rallying people, helping them to believe that they could be better. That they could do more.

Even win a war.

Megatron couldn't be that. No matter how hard he tried. The High Guard responded well to his calls of violence and payback, but the longer it went on and the less progress they made, the more Megatron could feel their optics linger on him. Megatron wished he could think of some Orion Pax-level inspiring words, but nothing came to him at this point.

Once he was dismissed from the medbay he slowly walked back to his chambers, this time watching how everyone's stare lingered on him. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Starscream was right; he needed to do something soon that would actually turn the tide of this war or all was lost.

He made it back to his desk, activating the screen and looking through schematics and battleplans. Ratchet always recommended he not strain himself and focus on rest, but he was determined to get at least something done. Even if he mapped out a few basic plans of a counterattack then at least something had been devised. He needed to give them a win.

There was a knock on the door, and Megatron leaned back against his chair, giving an exhausted groan.

"Enter."

Elita-1 and Soundwave appeared. Megatron mentally steeled himself, if this was from both of them then the news was either very good, or very bad.

"What do you have to report?" Megatron asked.

"Soundwave's scouts managed to find something important during our last mission," Elita said. Soundwave taped a button on his chest and it projected the footage he had captured. It showed a figure being dragged into a cell. One with such familiar colours that Megatron did a double take seeing him.

"Orion Pax: is still alive," he said monotonously.

"What?" Megatron almost shot up in his seat, but the pain from his chest had him wincing and sitting back down. "Where is he?"

"Being kept in Sentinel's tower, it seems," Elita said.

"I thought Sentinel would have killed him by now," Megatron mumbled in disbelief.

"Our theory is that Sentinel has been keeping him alive so he has access to the Matrix. As long as Orion is alive then energon will continue to flow across Cybertron. Then the Quints can have all the resources they want."

"We've… we've got to get him out of there," Megatron said in disbelief.

"It's not gonna be easy. He's deep in the tower, and it seems the area they keep him in is crawling with Death Trackers."

"And they probably forfeited it since our last attempt." Megatron stared at the footage more intensely, struggling to quite believe that Orion was still alive.

"Plans: are being made. Will be sent to Megatron as soon as they are ready."

"Thank you, Soundwave," Megatron said.

"In the meantime, you should probably get some rest. Unless you want to just expire on the table," Elita said.

"Thank you. No, I won't be doing that."

"Suit yourself," she said. She always glared at him nowadays. That look had stayed since that fateful battle in Iacon. But she was still here, because fighting against Sentinel was still better than working under him.

In his spark he knew she was right to look at him like that.

"You're dismissed. I want some battle plans as soon as they are ready."

Soundwave gave a respectful nod, Elita just turned away.

Soon Megatron was left alone again, and he found himself reeling at what had just happened. All this time, Orion was alive. The mech who was his best friend, who he betrayed, who he dropped into a bottomless cavern after blowing a hole straight through him.

At least, if Orion was alive, there was the chance to get him back.

This time, Megatron told himself, he wouldn't let Orion go.