Chapter Text
The medical bay is large. The single berth fits both himself and Orion Pax comfortably. D-16 sits on the edge, his plating scraped and sore, Orion sits beside him just as beat up. He’s not talking to him. Won’t. Not after that.
He can’t believe this. He actually let Orion drag him into the race, he even believed they could win. Who thinks miners can compete against transforming bots! It was a stupid idea, all of Orion’s are, they failed and even worse, ended up falling on their afts for all of Iacon.
The silence stretches, D-16 just stares at the wall, his arms crossed. Orion is sitting next to him; he doesn’t even seem bothered. No wonder they keep getting in slag pits of trouble.
“So… how long do you think we'll be here?” Orion says casually. D still refuses to look at him.
“I’m not talking to you.” He glares at the wall.
Orion shifts beside him, he’s getting comfortable. It just irritates D more. Primus, he’s just so mad. He is not going to forgive Orion easily. He keeps thinking about what Orion had done, Ds had enough with silence.
“You know what?!” he snaps, “I can’t believe you made me do that!” D-16s optics burn into Orion’s. There's a lot more anger there than he’d like to admit. Orion startles a bit of guard. “We are so screwed.” D recrosses his arms looking away.
Orion looks away. “Thought you weren’t talking to me.” D’s breath comes out in a huff, vents cycling. He knows he’s being unfair. It’s not like Orion made him do it really. He followed; he always follows.
“Hey, look, I know it’s all a big joke to you, but not me!” D rests his arms on his legs looking at the ground. “I was paying my dues. I was going places and now they’re going to bust me down, I… I don’t even know how many tiers.” He drags a servo across his face.
“I’m sorry D.” Orion looks up, placing a servo on his shoulder. “But come on, didn’t you feel it? Even for just a second, didn’t you feel liberated, didn’t you feel like you were something else?” D looks at Orion, he’s smiling expecting an answer D supposes. He smiles. “Yeah, I felt it, I did…” He realizes what Orion’s doing, his smile fades. “But it doesn’t matter.” He pushes Orion off, “We're going to get punished… and demoted.”
How could Orion do this to them? D’s thoughts circle back to what had happened. Him following, trusting Orion.
And that? That’s what bothers D the most, why does he trust him? When has he shown that he deserves his trust?
His thoughts are interrupted by the spidery legs of Arachnid entering the room. She stops, her eyes lingering on them both. Well, she’s not creepy at all. D backs up, gripping the edge of the med berth. “All clear.” Her voice is even more disturbing than her appearance. D is about to plead with his innocence, he opens his mouth only to be left in awe.
Sentinel Prime ducks into the room, the Sentinel Prime. If D had thought the room was large before, Sentinel makes it seem small. He had never seen the Prime up close before, he’s just as impressive as D imagined.
Sentinel stands, more of a crouch actually, and watches the two for a moment. “Orion pax. D-16. What you two did today was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen.” Orion hopes down to his feet. “Sir, this is all my idea and we’re so sorry we…” The Prime cuts him off. “I loved it!”
What?!. Did he just say what he thought he said? D is left just staring, he really should get his face under control, this is embarrassing. Orion moves, sounding confused he says, “You did?”
“How could anyone not love it? You gave my best racers a real run for their money!” D is still skeptical. Theres no way they’re getting out of this without some kind of punishment. “So, we’re not getting demoted?”
Sentinel looks at him funny, “Demoted??”
Now D has seen some crazy things, on account he’s friends with Orion, but never in all his functioning did he think the Prime would start laughing. Is this a test? Some kind of game? No bot in their right mind would find this funny.
D looks at Orion who’s looking at him, then he starts laughing. Its nervous, D feels like he should join, he doesn’t want the Prime to think he doesn’t agree after all? “…what is happening…?”
Dear Primus, what is happening?
Sentinel takes a step forward, his laughter stops. “Fact of the matter is, we’re halfway into the first shift since the race ended, and the mining crews have already reached 150% quota,” his Optics lock on D, “You inspired them to work harder!”
For the second time he is left speechless by Sentinel's reaction. That… wasn’t the goal, there wasn’t even a goal as far as D knew, just another one of Orion’s crazy ideas. He had been dragged into the chaos, Orion’s stupid grin making him forget how to say no.
Orion straightens, his voice getting serious for the first time since the race, “Sentinel Prime, sir. We joined the race to show everyone our potential. That we bots can do more than just mine Ener-“
“Outstanding," Sentinels cuts in, “I love a bot that can think for himself.” Orion sure does a lot of that. It’s really not like they did anything worth praising. He wants to believe they did. That maybe they are more than just cogless miners. But that’s a ridiculous thing to think about.
Still, a little piece of his spark believes that what Orion says is worth it. He would never admit it, D still thought most of his ideas were slag.
Sentinel continues, “Perhaps you two could tour the mines, speak to your brethren and help them see their potential.” Something warms in D’s chest at the word, brethren. He thinks it must be pride. He’s been mining with those bots for several centuries, practically since he onlined. Sure, it’s a tough job, but it’s necessary. Without them how could sentinel go to the surface to search for the Matrix of Leadership? Without them everything would fall apart.
He knows that he lives it. Every cycle he gets up and repeats the same routine, all for the glory of the Primes. D would have it no other way, but that’s rather difficult when he’s friends with Orion.
“Wow! Great! That…that sounds incredible, we’d… we would love to be…” He’s stuttering again, how embarrassing. What should I say?? I’ve got to thank him somehow. He fumbles a bit more, looking for the right words. He must look like an idiot.
“Sir, it’s time.” Arachnid steps forward, she really makes D uncomfortable. “Ah, yes, I’m sorry friends. We are preparing our next trip to the surface.” Sentinel moves to step out of the medbay. D didn’t expect anything less, the Prime was busy, he totally understood that he had places to be. D shifts giving him room to maneuver out of the small room. Sentinel pauses, “But in the meantime, ive got a treat for you.” He turns to Arachnid gesturing to Orion and himself.
“Arachnid. Have someone escort these heroes to my personal service facilities,” Sentinel grins, “Until next time legends!” He shoots them with some finger guns and disappears around the corner. Arachnid stares at them then follows, not turning her back. D wonders what other creepy bots are going to come and escort them.
Once they are gone, D turns to Orion grinning. When did he start smiling? “Sentinel Prime! The Sentinel Prime!” he places a servo on his head. He couldn’t believe it. Did that really happen?
Orion crosses his arms, a familiar shine in his optics, “You still mad at me?” D laughs and takes back control over his face, feigning indifference. “I am less mad at you.”
It’s true, he is less mad. Sure, it was a crazy thing to pull in front of the entirety of Iacon, but who cares he got to meet Sentinel. He can forgive Orion a little bit. Maybe this’ll work out after all and not be the burning scrap heap it was about 2 clicks ago. Orion claps a servo onto his back, “I'm telling you D, I got a feeling that everything’s gonna change, and we’re…” A shadow falls over his face, optics going wide, “…we’re…” D slowly turns, he thinks his spark skips a beat when he sees Darkwing standing over them. They are in deep slag now. They really should not have pissed him off. Of all the bots they messed with during the race, of course Darkwing would come after them.
He's seething, you could practically hear his vents whirling. His servos turn into fists, “miners…”
“Ahh…Darkwing”
…
D’s face hits the floor, the grating sound of metal on metal assaulting his adiuals. Another thud, and what is most definitely Orion, lands beside him. Pushing himself off the ground, D looks behind him to find Darkwing once again looming over them. “You two dolts aren’t going to see anyone ever again. I’ll make sure of that.” Darkwing turns to leave. He can’t leave them here! D jumps up after him.
“Wait! You can’t do this! We have to meet Sentinel Prime!” He’s cut off by the slamming of the cell door. Not stopping he grabs the bars and tries to get Darkwings attention. He starts shaking them, maybe if he tries hard enough he will be able to break out of here. “Ahhhhhh!” he slams his servo again, and again. The bars don’t budge.
“Hey D? I don’t think he’s going to come back around.”
“You think I don’t know that? We’re gonna be stuck here for Primus knows how long!” turning around, Orion is still sprawled on the ground. Walking over, he puts out a servo to help him up. There’s no point in staying mad, maybe they could find a way out together.
“I’m really sorry. Honest. Who would’ve thought that Darkwing would be sent as our ‘escort’.” Orion made air quotations at the last part. D drags a servo over his face. Why did he have to follow Orion again?
Now that Darkwing was gone and there’s no hope of some other bot showing, he has a chance to finally look at their cell. It was dark, probably at the lower levels, there were rust stains everywhere and some other strange substance leaking from the ceiling. There was what looked suspiciously like dried energon in one corner, but D didn’t want to think about where that had come from.
“What do we do now?” Orion was asking stupid questions again. “Well, I don’t know. You’re the one with all the bright ideas around here.”
“Hey! My ideas are pretty great.” D shoots him a look. “…Most of the time.”
“This last idea was definitely not your best. Why don’t you find a way to get us out of here. That would be helpful.” D was about to move back to the cell bars to try those again when something moved in the corner. “What was that?” They both look at where the movement had come from. Two bright red optics greet them from the shadows.
“Uh…I don’t think we're alone,” D was really going to smack Orion now. Obviously, they were not alone.
Whatever or whoever it was began to move towards them. Orion grabbed his arm, they both backed up to the other side of the cell. What emerged was another bot. A rather dusty flight frame. A Seeker?
“Wha’d they put you two in here for?” His voice was even worse than his appearance. It was staticky and clearly unrepairable from some damage. “We uh… well actually, my friend here made a mistake and got us thrown in here.”
“Hmmm” their cellmate steps further into the light, letting D get a better look at him.
There’s something off about him. His red and blue plating was dulled, wings low, like they hadn’t been used in a long time. Probably because he didn’t have a cog now that D was looking. Strange. There’s dust in the seams of his armor, energon crusted between his knuckle joints. What was this guy in here for exactly?
“Ya well we're here now, I'm Orion Pax by the way, and this is D-16. We were miners but it looks like were your new cell mates.”
“I can see that… I'm Starscream. Nice to finally see some other bots. Been down here by myself too long. Started to think I'd gone crazy.” He laughed a little at that last part. This guy definitely had a screw or two loose.
“Exactly how long have you been down here?” “Um… several stellar cycles, don’t know exactly how long though.”
They're stuck with a crazy guy. Great. Now to just get out of here before they end up like him. “Orion? Could I talk to you for a click? Well just be over here.” He grabs Orion and heads over towards the cell bars. “I don’t think we can trust this guy.”
“Oh come on D, he’s not that bad.”
“He just told us he doesn’t know how long he’s been down here. He has to have a few bolts loose by now.”
“Sure, but maybe he could help us get out of here.” Orion the optimist. Just has to see the best in everyone. D can’t take this, he wants to get out of here, just not with another loony.
“He wouldn’t be here if he found a way-out Orion. And anyways I don’t think he’d be much help, have you seen him. He’s practically falling apart.”
“You do know that I can here you.” Right, small cell. They turn around. Starscream has his arms crossed leaning against the wall. “And anyways, I do have a plan on how to get out of here.”
“You do, huh?” D looks at the dusty bot with suspicion. Maybe he does have a plan, but how could they trust him? “Care to share this plan of yours.”
“Would you take me with you if I help you escape?” Starscream has an optic ridge raised in question, D did not want to agree to this. “D I think we can trust him, don’t you want to get out of here.”
“Fine, we'll take him with us. Don’t know how I’ll explain a new guy to management but whatever.” He doesn’t like this, but they don’t really have any other options. “So, let's hear that plan of yours.” Starscream smirks. “Gladly”
…