Chapter Text
If you told me that I would've been kidnapped by the Decepticons under the noses of the Autobots... Honestly, I could believe that.
Megatron had muttered something about "insurance" while they held a temporary truce with the Autobots to stop Unicron. Apparently they wanted to keep me top secret. So lucky for me.
But nothing could've prepared me for who I saw enter the lab/med bay alongside the tyrannical Decepticon leader.
My eyes locked onto him first, then as his optics scanned the area, they suddenly landed on me, and slightly widened with wonder.
Both Megatron and Knockout immediately noticed, Knockout subtly panicking while Megatron shot him a death glare. He left the red and blue bot with Knockout, taking me with my cage out of the room and elsewhere.
I wanted to speak, but was scared to do so. Fortunately I didn't have to, as Megatron made an ultimatum. "If you try to convince him he is now Optimus Prime, I won't hesitate to crush you under my foot human."
"Wh-what?"
He glared at me. "You dare not discuss your allegiance to the Autobots. Optimus Prime is gone."
I shuttered with fear, knowing I had no other choice but to keep quiet if I was going to live through this.
Later, as Megatron walked the amnesic Prime to his work station, the innocent bot asked a question.
"Megatron, why did you have a native creature from this planet in a cage at med bay? Where did you take them?"
Megatron thought up a lie rather quickly, hands behind his back. "She was being held captive by the Autobots, and when we found her she was in major distress. She's ill as well, which is why we've kept her in med bay. Unfortunately we don't know enough about the human species to treat her properly."
The data clerk outtaked the word. "A human..."
Megatron stopped outside a data room, the doors opening. He gestured inside.
"Here's your living and working quarters. The sooner you get to work on those encryptions the better."
He nodded, walking into the room without a word. Then, as Megatron turned away, the younger bot turned back around to speak to the Decepticon leader. "Of course. Lord Megatron?"
Megatron paused, glancing behind him to his past friend. The archivist spoke a tad anxiously, but still highly curious. "Would it be too much trouble to ask for the company of the human? I'd like to learn more about the species we're protecting from one themselves."
Megatron thought about it. Hard. He grumbled, turning away once more and walking off. "...I can have that arranged. If you're willing to run a few tests related to her condition..."
That quirked the bot's curiosity, but said nothing more, getting to work on the Iacon data.
And now, I found myself here. In his quarters. Watching him work.
Orion Pax.
That was his name before the war.
I learned of this from Megatron first, then when the bot had introduced himself to me.
Megatron begrudgingly let Orion have me as a "lab partner" (Translation: lab rat) while trying to crack the scripts. Luckily I had my music with me, so it wasn't all too bad. And Orion was actually very sweet and kind. He wanted to know more about the humans living on this planet, asking me many questions. I was happy to answer them. There were never any experiments run on me, even when Pax was indirectly told to.
I never did say to him I was being held against my will, as a prisoner. I had my reasons.
Though, something surprised me. Even though he had lost his memory for the most part, he could still sing word for word along with me on most of my very long tracklist. I never knew he listened that intently to my music back at the Autobot base when he was Optimus. I never knew that OP had a matching singing voice to mine ether. Well, for a unique voice like his.
We quickly formed a very close bond.
During one moment, after the first commotion with what I later learned to be Arcee, he was humming softly along to the song I had playing while I was leaning back against the bars of the cage, eyes closed just listening to him. The inputs on his data center beeped along steadily, slowly decoding ancient Cybertronian writings line by line.
I opened my eyes, humming a little and deciding to speak up. "What makes you so curious about the human race?"
Orion's humming fell quiet, and he responded politely. "Well, in between archiving Cybertronian history and translating scriptures, let's say I... dabbled in researching extraterrestrial life forms."
I chuckled at that. "You, a conspiracy theorist? Ha, wouldn't clock you as one of those."
He raised an optic ridge, briefly glancing to me. "Your race doesn't know about others? It's common knowledge that there's many recorded out there in the galaxies."
I shrugged, glancing to the side, then upwards. "We're not as technologically advanced as you Transformers are. ...We don't know what's truly out there really."
He didn't respond to that, and continued on with translating. I watched him briefly, him stealing a glance at me. His typing slowed, looking back to the text. "So, atop your helm, is that fur?"
I looked up to my hair, then gave a chuckle, shaking my head. "No, humans don't have fur, we have hair instead. Females usually have more hair on their head than men. Males often have more body hair."
"Hair grows in other places?" Orion asked quizzically, turning his head to me.
I let out a brighter laugh, grinning at his innocent curiosity with a fondness. "It's not something for you to worry your processor about."
He tilted his head slightly, humming a tad. "I see." He took an extra long moment to stare at me, before turning his head back to the screen. "I.. like your hair."
I blinked. Glancing over to him, he eyed me again, almost too quickly, digits lightly tapping the console. "It's pretty. Suits you well."
A bashful grin started creeping up on me. "Oh? Thank you." Never knew Optimus thought my hair looked nice.
He was awfully quiet for a long moment, his tapping had ceased, and his straight stance had been restrained.
He spoke his thoughts out loud, straightening up again. "For an organic creature, you're quite ethereal actually.."
That was unexpected. A breeze of bashfulness hit me, straightening my legs down. "O-oh?"
He turned his helm towards me, with a warm honest smile deciding to rest on his faceplate. "In both physicality, and personality-wise."
Briefly, I grinned back, before it shrank and an uncertain frown subconsciously took its place. I grasped at my arm, looking down to the cage floor. "Nice to know you think that way."
He caught on to my dejected tone, turning his whole frame toward me. "Hasn't anyone else of your species ever called you pretty?"
I hesitated looking to him, eyeing his frame barely. "My parents do. But they don't count. Some of my friends. And...well, the two Exes I had did... But they never meant it. Not really."
Orion goes quiet, and feels disheartened by my melancholy. Then, for a moment I almost believe his expression was growing bashful. He turns back to the data console and speaks, looking down. "...I know I am just Cybertronian, but, I think you're quite beautiful."
I felt a warmth rush my cheeks at the compliment. My arms fall lax at my sides, and there's a soft surprise to my tone of voice. "O-oh. Th-thank you, Orion."
He says no more, just nods and turns his attention back to Project Iacon.
Well, that was odd.
..
Then after the little run in with Starscream, Megatron permanently confined him to the room, and was ordering my caged self out when...
"Wait, Megatron. Please don't take her."
Orion pleaded to keep me by his side.
"She needs rest away from you." Even with Megatron trying to take the human out of OP's ecosystem.
"No, please, I want her to stay. I.. need her to stay. She's been a big help to me."
That surprised me. He said that about me?
Megatron went quiet for a minute, before he reluctantly let it go. "....Fine." He didn't want to, but anything more and Orion would have left right then and there. He talked to the guards as he left the room. "Make sure she never leaves this room."
Everyone left, and the door closed, leaving Orion and I in solidarity. I was astonished he advocated for my stay. I was sure the Decepticons were about to get a lot scarier. I stood, and gazed over to him.
"Why did you..."
He was modest with his answer. "I-I couldn't let you go. You're too precious to me."
"Really?" I was surprised again.
"Yes.." Orion went suddenly quiet. He was thinking about saying something. He turned away from me.
I took in a breath through my nose. "If I could ask... Why?"
He was being shy. Too shy for Orion Pax at least. Or maybe not? I hadn't seen him quite like this before.
I heard him intake, and he turned back to me. He took a few steps toward my optic-level cage, and looked away from me. Then the secret came out.
I.. love you, that's why."
My eyes widened, and my heart unexpectedly skipped a beat. I never knew he could feel like that for me. That they could feel this for another species.
'Is this just Orion? Could Optimus have ever grown this feeling? Is he being true?
? Could I see him the same way?
Do..'
"Y/n?"
His voice interrupted my thoughts carefully, and I snapped put of it, blinking several times. I reached a hand out of the bars to beckon him over.
He came closer, and gently placed my hand in his servo. His digits carefully closed to hold my hand/wrist.
He was carefully watching the shine on my irises. I started to blush, and stare intently back. I felt like I needed to say something, but I could not. I felt him very, very steadily leaning toward the cage. I didn't know what to think in the moment, but I felt myself leaning towards the bars.
But before anything else happened, a random noise from the hallway made a *CLANG!* sound, and snapped us out of whatever trance that had captured us.
Immediately Pax let go of my hand, and turned away, walking back to the database module.
I was standing like a deer in headlights for a minute, before feeling a twinge of disappointment. It was strange to feel this disappointment, but instead of dwelling on it I walked over to the corner of the cage to sit and think. Although, I didn't think too much as I was watching Orion work.
It was silent for a while. Orion mostly talked to himself. But finally, he realized that Megatron wasn't being so honest to him. They had a verbal confrontation, which led to the guards of his suite aiming their weapons at Orion.
The guards tried to stray him off, but Orion managed to take them down with the weapons he didn't even know he had. As soon as he did, he ran over to my cage and set me free. He held out his servo for me to sit on. "Come on. We need to get out of here."
I climbed onto his servo, and I could hear him grumble to himself. "Primus, they kept you in a cage, a cage, I should have known-"
I interrupted his grumblings. "Hey I would have told you but then I'd be dead by Decepticon metal."
The door to his quarters opened. "We have to help the Autobots."
And so we went. Using the space bridge to get to the mine. I don't know how, but deep down I guess I knew what was about to happen.
"Orion. Don't ever forget me."
"I won't. I promise."
"I can't let that happen Megatron."
Orion Pax was though to the other side, and set me down, brushing his servo away, telling me to get to safety.
I looked around. All the Autobots were damaged badly. Arcee was nowhere to be seen. I feared the worst as I heard the dialogue exchanged between the two big bots.
I ran over to the one Autobot I could reach, which so happened to be Ratchet. He was surprised to see me, although heavily damaged.
"(Y/n)?... How?- The bridge.. Jack, he's.."
Suddenly I heard a motorcycle. Acree shot through the space bridge, hitting Megatron in the back of the head, and keeping him busy.
I rushed to the space bridge, seeing Jack emerge from the portal. Orion saw too. Suddenly Jack heard me running, and glanced at me with confusion. "Y/n?"
I stopped next to him, nodding. I looked up to Orion. "Please, Pax. We know you."
Jack held up the key. I took a step away.
Orion Pax looked to Jack. "Are you... Certain I am worthy?"
"You have no idea."
Jack lifted it up higher, and the key shot a beam of information to Orion's spark chamber, refiling the Matrix slowly. OP took a knee, excepting the Matrix with humility. When it was finished, he stood up, the key floating into his digits.
Megatron was about to strike when Prime turned around to catch the sword.
"Megatron."
He was back. He was back.
We got back to base. Ratchet minimally repaired everyone. It was one of those battles that would take time to heal from.
I was asked how I got there in the first place.. I never did tell them the whole truth. Only that the Decepticons tried to kidnap me, then I found myself there. Fortunately they let it slide. Jack, Miko, and Raph celebrated along with Fowler and June for Optimus' return.
I was pleased that he remembered everyone perfectly. Including me. However...
"Although it seems there's much I do not remember..."
He didn't remember.
He couldn't remember.
What happened with us.
It made me feel hurt- even though the circumstances were as they are.
It's weird. I.. Am I just supposed to go on like nothing ever happened?...