Chapter Text
Pain is only temporary. A twist of nerve impulses that will eventually numb and then cease to exist entirely. This cruel reminder thrummed over and over repeatedly through Moria’s mind as the hot sizzle of electricity pulsed through her. It was a strange, itchy sensation that made her limbs fall limp onto the worktable. The metal restraints on her wrists sagged with each futile movement, rings of metal that could’ve been easily broken if it weren’t for the electrical current flowing through her body.
The dry rag in her mouth muffled her panicked, shallow breaths. A cold line of drool dripped down her chin. She clenched her teeth around the makeshift gag; the soreness of a strain settled into her jaw. “Humans can only endure 150 Milliamperes of electricity before they enter a state of respiratory arrest. You, however, break this trend.” A figure, blurred by the lab's bright lights, spoke from beside the worktable, their hands fidgeting with an unknown device. “Contradicting my hypothesis.”
The device emitted a bright yellow spark, fizzling at the ends of its metal prongs. “Currently, we’re over the limit by five, ten by the next shock.” They mindlessly tapped the small machine against the table. “Now, are you gonna tell me why you were late coming back from patrol, or will I be forced to see how much more you can take?” Moria bit down on the cloth in her mouth, a crude snarl plastering itself on her face. “I see.” The figure pulled back, disappointment flowing off them in waves.
The short metal prods poked into Moria’s side, sending painful Jolts through her. She harshly bit down on the rag. Tears dripped down from her eyes, as all she knew became that festering electrical pain.
Moria’s eyes ripped open as she shot up in her bed, the blanket fell from her body, pooling around her waist like a rough polyester puddle. She panted, her chest rising and falling quickly with every panicked breath. Each movement stretched her sore, bruised ribs. Moria’s eyes darted around the room, her anxiety slowly fading as she digested the environment. She was in her room. Moria’s hand moved from gripping the sheets below her to her hair. Her hands ran through her sweat-laced hair, cringing as a thin layer of moisture coated her fingers. Ew. She wiped her hands on her blanket.
The nightmares were getting worse. The corners of her room were vast and very dusty. Recognizable. Blanched colors of grey covered the walls, lacking anysort of photos or personal decor. Just a bed, with blankets that were uncomfortable to the touch. A few storage compartments, filled with uninteresting clothes. All the necessities Moria needed, without the warm comfort.
Before her brother went missing, Moria didn’t get nightmares. She didn’t dream at all, really. But now she couldn’t even close her eyes without the lingering fear of being dropped into that dark realm of nothingness. Moria huffed into her hands, her prosthetic cold against her aflame skin.
She groaned as her arm was already miserably protesting. The old burns flared up as the prosthetic moved across it, begging for the painkillers that sat on her side table. God, she needs a coffee…
The empty walls of GHOST headquarters’ halls surrounded Moria. Living on-site at your job ensured you were never late to work. A huge perk for someone like Moria, who really hated waking up early in the mornings
Now with an overcaffeinated brew in hand and a bottle of painkillers in her pocket, Moria could finally kick off her day of mindless tasks. First off was the mountain of folders on her desk. It was pointless data entry. The topics they surrounded themselves with probably weren't meant for interns' eyes.
But when did GHOST ever care about confidentiality? It was pretty easy to access their restricted files and areas using a lockpick and some basic coding.
Though who was Moria to complain? This little fragment of vulnerability granted her delicious blackmail and juicy gossip. Exploiting such information had become a daily activity, the only joy she had found within this metal cage.
“Agent Khan.” A deep, authoritative voice spoke. It pulled Moria from her thoughts, making a feeling of dread swirl in her stomach. Even with her back turned, it wasn’t hard to figure out which bot had interrupted her peace. Optimus Prime. Moria’s grip tightened around her coffee, the cardboard dry against her palm.
What did he want?
She glanced behind. It wasn’t that she hated him; she didn’t hate people. Moria equitably disliked him. She had her reasons for avoiding him, and she was sure he had his own reservations about her. Equitably at its finest. Moria raised her eyebrow,
“Good morning,” He smiled, showing off his metallic teeth. Optimus carried an air of awkwardness; he never quite connected with humans, not to the extent he did with his robotic companions. From Moria’s perspective, anyway. “How are you doing?” he asked. It was strange to be greeted in such a way. Optimus acted like he actually cared for her response.
“What do you want?” Her response came out more coarse than she intended to, her confusion and unease that bubbled in her stomach churning into a cold, closed-off defence. Moria watched as he reacted: the subtle shift of his eye bridge, the twitch of his optics. He wasn’t used to being dismissed.
“There's a new recruit being assigned today, I was hoping you’d help me get them acclimated to the.. Environment,” the similarities between Moria and Megatron were endless. Perhaps this was the reason why Optimus sought her out in the first place. She isolated herself, pushing away anyone who breathed too close. It reminded Optimus of Megatron when he first entered the Autobot ranks. Always on the defensive. Hiding away until problems festered into resentment.
“I’m busy. My mother–”
“I could speak to her.” Dr. Schwerz was a… unique character. She was much more outgoing than her daughter. Demanding, in other words.
“I suppose she couldn’t say no to you.” Moria was starting to wish she had never woken up that morning. The painkillers shifted reassuringly in her pocket. “... Who is this new recruit?” She took a sip of her coffee, trying not to spit it out as cold, bitter water touched her tongue.
“Dot Malto, she worked with Megatron in the... Army, as you humans call it? GHOST thought her experience could be useful for future operations.” Optimus waved for Moria to follow him. “She’ll be here within the hour.” He watched as Moria kept pace with his much larger steps.
“Anything else I should know about her?” Her gaze tilted upwards towards Optimus. The terrans flashed into his mind. He had caught them in one of the pit-falls that surrounded headquarters. Their appearance, he proposed internally, was tied to the uptake in decipticon reports that had been whispering around GHOST. Currently, they were sitting safely in Optimus’s trailer in the lobby away from any personnel that would expose their secret.
“No–” Moria’s radio cracked to life, cutting off the prime.
“Get me Agent Schloder and Khan! We have eyes on two trespassers!” A panicked voice sounded through the radio. Moria pulled the radio from her hip, her finger hovering over the red rubber button to reply. It felt rude to cut their conversation so short. But duty was more important than someone's feelings. Even if that someone was Optimus Prime.
“Request received, send me your current location.” She husked with a barely hidden annoyance into the slotted speaker. Moria clipped it back onto her hip, looking back up to Optimus to mumble out a quick apology. “I have to go. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” wasn’t much of an apology, as much as it was an excuse.
Optimus watched as Moria ran off to wherever she had been called to, a slight disappointment settling in. He really wanted to give the young girl a break from the piles of work GHOST dumped onto her.
“Optimus, Dot Malto is waiting for you at the entrance for orientation.” A voice too bland to be distant called out from his radio, pulling his attention from Moria’s fleeting form. Dot had been Early, as she always was. As he began his way, he started to wonder who’d trespass on government property. It wasn’t until after the presentation did optimus rember the Terrans. The young, rebellious Terrans he had left in the trailer. Right in the middle of GHOST.
Moria hated how maze-like GHOST was. Each hall looked the same, copies of copies. Glancing down at her watch, she examined the holographic map displayed. A dot blinked, slowly moving towards the Bot-focused sector. The trespassers. Probably a lowly decipticon who snuck in during lunch. Guards were being transitioned into the afternoon crowd, allowing for the perfect opening to sneak in and out.
Moria turned a corner, her gaze still narrowed down at her watch. According to the map, the intruders should be right–
“Thrash, watch out!” A hard force came into direct contact with Moria’s more movable one. She tumbled backwards, her spine hitting right into the cold tiled floor. Her mind was in a daze, everything around her blurring for a moment. How hard did she hit her head?
“Close the door, close the door, close the door!!” another voice yelled in desperation. The noise of large metal doors shifting closed finally dragged Moria from her stupefied state. She was in the Bot’s training room. With the… intruders? They didn’t look dangerous, well, if you ignored the blaster being pointed in her face. The cybertroian pair were cassette-sized, their optics wide, with naive fear. Hiding behind them were two humans, siblings by the looks of it.
“⚡︎ Welcome back, Megatron. Training level set to Unicron 14. ⚡︎” A robotic voice bellowed. Great, the training room was malfunctioning. Again. The room changes faster then moria could comprehend. Hexagonal pillars rose from the ground, forming platforms and structures that Bots could easily maneuver. Guns shifted out of hiding, their charges already reloading. Moria glanced back at the small group. Something deep inside her gut told her they weren’t ready for a megatron-level training.
Moria watched as the small bots froze up in fear. With a frustrated sigh, she pulled the cybertroains with her, lugging their forms behind a line of pillars that formed a sort of shield against the barrage of blaster fire. The kids were much faster to act–thankfully–, already curling up on their own protection. The sharp edges of the hexagonal pillars dug into her back as Moria pressed herself closer to its surface. A hot shot of hair blew past as a shot hit the ground where the group previously stood, singing the ground a coal-ish black.
“⚡︎ Help! Help me! I need help! ⚡︎ “A holographic man sat on a tall platform, yelling for assistance. This unplanned training was getting worse by the second.
“Then can you let us out?” the red cyberotian spoke as if the hologram could understand her. Perhaps she was making a joke. Moria peeked out behind the pillars anaylzing the situation she had been forced into. It didn’t seem like the controls were working–otherwise, her fellow GHOST individuals would’ve broken in ages ago. Maybe she could rewire the door? It would take awhile but it would make it safer for the kids to get out.
“I hate it when they're mad at eachother” the white cybertorian spoke, staring at the two young humans who were biting each other's ears off with childish insults. They were either awfully comfortable with Moria or didn’t understand the danger in being so comfortable with a stranger. The red one gasped, her eyes widening in perseverance.
“We can use this to fight!” What–how did thoses to points even connect to eachother!? Moria pulled back the White one–she really needed to learn their names–a stern look over her face.
“What are you two doing!? Youre going to get yourselves killed!” Moria didn’t know why she cared. If they wanted to stupidly run into battle, she should’ve let them. But she couldn’t. A sense of dread lingered in her throat.
“Get we superpowers when they’re angry, it’s a terran thing,” the red one spoke with pride, crossing her arms over one another.
“A terran what–” As she was distracted, the white one escaped her grasp, running right into the middle of the battle. Moria took in a breath, holding it until– he was fine. Doing wonderful actually
He had pulled out his shield and charged out of cover, deflecting the laser blasts, then jumped into the air and came down hard on the nearest laser cannon, destroying it. She was wrong to doubt him, but hey its the thought that counts, right?
The red one peeks around the corner of her cover. She marks the locations of two more laser cannons on high constructs and watches the white one destroy two others on the ground by shield-bashing them. She grins and pulls out her rotors–the thin yellow wings of her altmode, a drone by the looks of it–, turning them into swords. Creative, Moria noted.
The white one tries to charge in further, but a pillar rises from the ground in front of him, blocking his way. He runs around it before continuing to parkour around several pillars also rising from the ground, eventually letting himself get lifted high up by one. He jumps down and uses his shield to crush another laser cannon beneath him.
“Oh yeah! Feel the steel of my third wheel!” He shouts with a wide smile. Two other laser cannons swipe in front of him, taking aim, and before they can shoot, his duo takes them out with their swords. Their teamwork was impeccable. It sent a nostalgic wave through Moria’s mind, the faint vision of her brother hazing before her eyes. Another pillar shot from the lower side of the room's left wall, heading straight towards the cyberotain pair. Before she could even think, Moria was already pulling them out of the way once more. Their special awareness could use some work.
“Try and make sure you're in the clear before celebrating.” There was no real malice behind her words, just a monotonic warning. The cybteroians sheepishly smile before returning to the fight. Moria could hear the faintest whispers coming from the kids who still hid behind the protective embrace of cover, something about… being mad at each other?
She wasn’t too inclined to eavesdrop on what was summarized as a lesson from a children's show. Moria acted as cover, pulling the blasters back by triggering their motion sensors so the cyberotian pair could return to their... Friends? It was hard to tell exactly what their relationship was based on only on a few interactions. They protected eachother–cared about one another. At least, there was friendship.
“--you’ll love us as a team!” Moria caught the end of what one of the kids said, his smile sickenly heroic. He mumbles a quiet ‘truce?’ to his sister, who accepts it in the form of a small fist bump. A blaster rose from the ground point right at the group, its blue charge shining bright in their wide eyes. Moria jumped over the short barrier that the humans had been hiding behind, her robotic arm reaching out for the blaster's spout. She pulled the neck mechanism of the blaster back, making the shot go right into the ceiling.
“...We should probably move soon, impending doom and such...” She wiped the soot that had gathered on her steel palm onto her pants. Looks like laundry was going to be added to her never-ending list of tasks. The young boy looked a little conflicted with Moria’s sudden appearance, but the cybertorian pair were excited as can be. They were in their element.
“That was so cool! I didn’t know humans were so strong!” The red one jumped into the air, using her alt-mode devices to stay at a short hover.
“Come’on Twtich you heard her, we need to shut this down before it gets bad again.” The young boy began to run into the center of the battle towards the end goal. It didn’t take long for the rest of the group to follow him. Moria trailed behind, mostly following as a reinforcement–a safety net. The group traversed over the blockages with ease. Twitch–the red one- was the main help with getting the humans over the tall barriers; her access to the skys allowed her to fly the kids over.
They ducked into a small outcove. Moria looked around the cover, her gaze locking onto the hologram. It sat on a tall pillar centered in the back of the room.
“It won’t stop until we win,” the young girl spoke, a hidden determination sparkled in her eyes. The white cybertroian gave her a confused look.
“Win how?” he was interrupted by the training system's AI sending out another needy call, “ ⚡︎ Help! Help me! I need help ⚡︎ ”
“I think he might know!” Twitch suggested.
“Then let's go say ‘hi’,” the young boy replied, malice hissed into his words. Twitch broke out of hiding to distract the blasters. The White Cybertronian transformed into his bike alt mode, sweeping up the two young humans as he did so. Using the opening Twitch had created He drove towards the black pillar. Moria stayed in the outcove. She had no clue how they were working together without any talk of a plan. It was like they could read eachothers minds. She watched, her eyes wide with panic, as the white cyberotain hurled the young humans towards the platform. What the hell was he thinking!
Moria darted out of the cove, eyes searching for any falling children. But they were fine. They reached the top of the platform safely. The room returned to normal. Platforms slowly moved into their original places in the floor, and blasters lowered back into hiding. How–how.. Just how?
Moria needed a drink, preferably one that would make her forget all about this stressful situation.
“Woo! We did it!” Twitch cheered, a wide smile forming on her face-plate. The two humans and the white cybertorain gathered together, pride gushing off of them. They earned it, Moria thought. They did pretty well (maybe too well) for untrained bots and some random kids. The sound of the large metal doors opening pulled her attention to the front of the room
“Freeze, ‘Cons!” Oh, Moria had forgotten about the whole… trespasser-deception situation. Awkward.
“Nice job, cadets! Stand down. I’ll take it from here.” A familiar heroic voice spoke. OF course, he’d only show up now, right after they needed his help. Moria wanted to kick his shiny metal–
“But Special Agent Schloder’s orders were-” the cadet tried to argue.
“Are to leave ‘Con arrests to ‘Bots. You’ve done well. Head to the mess hall! Tell them lemons are on me!” optimus cutt him off, a gawky smile on his lips. The cadets shrug before walking away leaveing
“He means Lemonade…” A woman with long dark locks pulled back into a ponytail walked towards the group, her park ranger badge shining under the almost scientific lighting of the training room. She opens her arms, and the two young humans run to hug her. “ Right now, I want all the hugs! You can give me the full story at home.”
Moria stood awkwardly beside the short cybertroians. It felt wrong to stay, but she couldn’t leave with Optimus standing in the middle of the doorway.
“Agent Khan, there you are… I was wondering where you had run off to.” Otpmuis had noticed Moria's nervous form. He had assumed she was still out answering the back-up request. He stepped into the training room, further suffocating Moria. “This is the new agent I was hoping to introduce you to, Dot Malto.” He introduced with a kind gesturing hand. His Comm-link buzzing in his helme shifting his attention, “Excuse me for a moment.” As Optimus turned away, Dot took up the chance to formally present herself. Dot broke off the embrace with her children, walking up to the young woman with a smile
“You can just call me Dot, Agent khan i assume?” Moria looked at Dot’s hand, hesitating to take it. She wasn’t used to.. Introducing herself. She usually didn’t have to; rumors were how most people found out anything about her.
“... Yes.” Moria took the option of leaving Dot’s hand alone. “Apologies, but I have a meeting I must attend to. I hope Optimus will satisfy as a company for the rest of your… initiation.” She exited the training room. A sharp embarrassment prickled at the back of her neck, dripping down her back and settling in her stomach into nausea.
“It was nice seeing her again,” Twitch spoke as soon as Moria left earshot. “I was a little worried after the fisco in the forest…” Robbie and Mo gave the red terran a confused look.
“Twitch, what are you talking about? We’ve never met her before?” Robbie questioned Twitch. Mo gave him a suspicious look. Was this another lie to keep his nightly-outings underwraps?
“Well, we never met her, but I ran into her last night. Right after we split up to find the baby foxes… Didn’t I tell you about it?” Robbie sighed at her response.
“No… No, you didn’t.”