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Elita didn’t know what to make of him.
He was sitting down on the bench near his recharge pod. He was staring at the one across from him, decorated with purple decals and stickers of Megatronus Prime’s head. He had been sitting, and staring, for hours now.
He had been doing this for a couple of rotations. While the ‘bots above were adjusting to their new lives with cogs and the transitional government, Elita always found him down in the old miners’ huts; in front of that ‘bot’s old station.
Elita knocked on the doorway she was leaning on. He looked up.
“Elita ,” he acknowledged, slightly surprised. “How long have you been standing there?”
“ Long enough,” Elita replied. She strode over to the bench and sat facing him. “What are you doing here, Ori– Optimus Prime?” She stifled a small laugh as she exaggerated the name. Elita watched the Prime’s smile grow as well.
“It’s that bad, huh?” Orion smirked, the familiar glint in his optics momentarily easing the heaviness around him.
“ No,” Elita replied, her voice gentle. “Just different. ”
Elita studied the “new” ‘bot in front of her. His voice was lower and more regal. Though, Elita could still find the mischievous tone that Orion Pax always held in it. Even if his frame became larger and his processor became maturer and that he held that legendary matrix; deep down to her core, the ‘bot in front of her was still Orion.
“Elita?” Optimus snapped her back to the present. He was giving her a quizzical look. “Are you alright?”
“ Yes, ” Elita shook her helm. “I still haven’t gotten used to the new you, Orion. Sorry– Optimus.”
Optimus grinned. “Neither have I. And please, Orion is fine. I don’t know if the new name fits me or not.”
“Okay, Orion, ” Elita corrected. “What are you doing here?”
“Am I not allowed to hang around in my old room?” Orion half-joked.
“We both know that’s not what you’re doing,” Elita replied while giving him a stern look and crossing her arms. “What is it, really? ”
Orion let out a deep sigh and looked towards the wall. Elita traced his optics to the multiple Megatronus Prime stickers and posters. Her expression softened while looking back to Orion. He looked as if he was carrying the weight of an entire train. His optics were tired and extremely dim. Dirt, dust, and grime covered Orion’s body. He hadn’t cleaned his frame since Sentinel’s death and his betrayal.
“ Orion, ” Elita whispered. “I know he was your friend but—”
“Best friend,” Orion corrected. “He was my best friend.” His voice broke. The hurt that Orion tried to hold back flooded into his face. He closed his optics, and tightened his fist.
Elita clearly didn’t understand the relationship between D-16 and Orion Pax. Not to its full extent, at least. She’d assumed they were partners assigned together to her harvesting team. The two of them drove Elita nuts, disobeying rules and breaking protocol (although that was mainly Orion). On the surface, Elita had gotten a better view into their relationship. They were like brothers. They were arguing, or they were laughing. Elita thought they would’ve been the same, like in the mines. But the two of them clearly cared about each other, saving each other’s metal and having each other’s backs on countless occasions. Until it proved too much for D-16 or Megatron as he called himself now.
Elita had planned to come in here and tell Orion to quit moping and run his government. She wished that it would be that easy. But Elita was never good with emotions and they never proved to be that simple. But, at least she was going to try to be comforting.
“I’ve never had any friends.”
Great going, screwball. She screamed at herself in her processor, but her words had already sputtered out. It had broken Orion’s concentration as well, who was now looking at her strangely. Elita nervously cleared her vocalizer.
“But that changed when I met you.”
Orion sat up, smirking at the ‘bot beside him.
“ Really?” he asked. “And here I was, thinking you hated me.”
“I did,” Elita countered. “But I also admired you.”
“ Why?” Orion pressed. “I was always breaking protocol, just like you said. And, to be honest, I never took the job quite seriously.”
“That’s all true,” Elita agreed. “But you also never hesitated to help anyone, no matter the cost. It was annoying . But, everyone else admired you for it too. I, on the other, never was quite that popular.”
“Well I wouldn’t say that, ” Orion scraped for a comforting phrase. “Sure, some ‘bots would take about you behind your back, and sure , the things they said wouldn’t always be nice, per say, but nobody hated you and—”
While the red ‘bot rambled, a small smile grew on Elita’s face. Primus, he was bad at pep talks, but boy, did he look cute trying to defend Elita’s honor. She put a hand up to cease the ‘bot from talking.
“ Stop,” she said. “It wouldn’t be a good look if the ‘bot I was trying to help started to help me better than I was.”
“I think that’s the second compliment you’ve ever given me,” Orion chuckled. Elita couldn’t help but be affected by his infectious energy.
“Don’t expect a third,” Elita warned playfully. She had realized that she had lost the entire point of her conversation, and circled back to it.
“What I am trying to say is that you three were the first ‘bots that I would ever consider friends. I can’t understand what you’re going through with D-16, but I can try. And I know that everything that happened, none of it is on you.”
Orion wouldn’t look Elita in the optics. He was slumped over and looking at the floor. He twiddled his digits, unable to keep himself still. “I could’ve done something ,” Orion finally said. “D-16 was my friend. I know that the old him, the one before the surface, would never have done anything he did. I should’ve talked more sense to him. I should’ve tried harder .”
“ Orion, stop,” Elita placed her hand on top of his. “Don’t go and start blaming yourself. D-16 was gone ever since we went into the cave. He was angry. Angry at Darkwing. Angry at the Quintessons. Angry at Sentinel. He was lied to, for his entire life. It was their fault he turned, not yours.”
Orion let a dry laugh leave his intake. “Did you know what he said to me when I was hanging over the edge?” He asked Elita. She shook her head. “He kept screaming at me, asking me, why? He was scared that he killed me. Why did I jump in front of him? Why did I take that blast? Why was I trying to save Sentinel? My vocalizer was blasted into dust. I couldn’t answer him, I couldn’t say anything. I focused on his optics. I watched the red seep in by the second. And then, he said–he told me: ‘I'm done saving you.’”
Orion had tried to keep his composure and his voice intact, but Elita could tell that behind all of it, he was just broken. His best and, for the longest time, only friend had turned into something horrible. He had tried to kill Orion, someone he would’ve, at one moment in time, considered his brother. After realizing his entire life was a lie and that he was wasting it away down in mines working for someone who didn’t even care about him, the revelation was too much for Orion. Elita, in all honesty, was surprised that he didn’t turn out like D-16.
“That wasn’t D, not anymore,” Elita comforted. “You were trying to prevent him from becoming a monster, but it was too late. We were all too late. Sentinel had seen to that, and paid for it.” Elita paused, closing her optics, and remembered the gruesome way D-16 had dismembered Sentinel Prime after Orion’s fall, with his gray, lifeless body clawing towards the edge.
“D-16 was dead, ever since the cave. It was Megatron who had taken the high guard. Megatron who had killed Sentinel. Megatron who had let you fall.”
Orion refused to look up at Elita.
“D-16 would’ve been proud of what you did. You gave Megatron mercy. You told everyone the truth. You gave everyone back their cogs,” she squeezed Orion’s hand.
“ Please, Orion, don’t blame yourself. You’ve done so many great things, and that was before you even became a Prime! Just imagine what you will do. You could unite the entirety of Cybertron, you could beat the Quintessons, you could explore ,” Elita looked at Orion. “And you could do all of that, with us. But not if you’re waiting for yourself to rust down here.”
Orion was staring at her, his big bright optics tracing her face. Finally, he broke away and looked down to their hands.
“Thank you Elita,” he said. “I needed that.”
“Of course,” Elita replied. “You know that’s the second time I had to give you a pep talk.”
“Well,” Orion said. “You’re very good at it.”
They sat together for a moment, in silence, only looking at each other. Elita hadn’t realized how long they were staring until someone else entered the room.
“Oh, there you two are!” a familiar face peeked out from the couple crates of energon he was holding. “I’ve been looking all over for you. First at MacCadam’s, then at the Prime statues, then at the grand hall, then at the…”
“ B,” Elita said tiredly. “What did we talk about?”
“Oh, right. Sorry,” B-127 apologized. “I’ll get to the point. Dion and Ironhide told me to come get you guys,” he turned around and started to walk out the door. “They weren’t quite nice about it. All, ‘B-127 do this! B-127 do that! B-127, blah blah blah blah blah ” B continued to ramble on as he walked to the elevator. Elita and Orion hung behind.
Orion smiled at B-127’s usual antics. “What will we do with him?” he asked Elita.
“You know ,” Elita brought up. “I met this ‘bot the other rotation. Arcee , I think her name was. She wouldn’t stop chatting my audial receptors off. They’ll be perfect for each other.”
Orion let out a small chuckle. So did Elita. As their laughter filled the room, B-127 had turned around.
“What are you guys laughing at?” he asked.
As Orion and Elita shared a conspiratorial look, Orion quickly replied, “Nothing.”
B stared at them momentarily but then turned back around and started to whistle a light tune. Elita turned to Orion, who had also been looking at her with a grin plastered on his faceplate.
They shared a small, silent laugh. For a little bit, everything seemed okay.