Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers or any places, people, or things related. They belong to Hasbro and Takara. Please don't sue me.
Note: I wrote Old Spark, Young Love to heal my heart. Then this to break it again. I apologize for nothing.
"Do it…"
"I… no…"
"Domey, please…"
"No! I'm not going to… I won't forget you!"
Rewind cringed as Vos leaned closer to his Conjux Endura. It took a lot of knowledge of the subject of mnemosurgery, or at least the anatomy of it, to be able to trigger an involuntary release of the finger needles. The masked 'Con, unfortunately and rather disconcertingly, had this knowledge.
"You would rather die?" he hissed in his ancient tongue. No translations were needed. Rewind had a scholar's worth of Primal Vernacular stored in his archives, and Chromedome had injected more than a few speakers. The DJD member yanked on the arm with the needles next to the mnemosurgeon's face. "Just a little prick… A few needles. Wipe away all your knowledge of your poor… dear… Rewind…" He hissed the last three words slowly. Deliberately.
"I…" Chromedome faltered, looking at his trembling lover. Kaon's servos were resting lightly, warningly, on the archivist's shoulders. He looked so pleading, so broken. He didn't blame him. All of the things they did that they made him watch. Not one survivor. None but them. Whatever his choice, he would be leaving Rewind alone again. "No. I'm not doing it. Kill me, do it. But I won't hurt him by forgetting."
Kaon leaned forward, servos digging into the archivist's shoulders. "No fair!" he huffed. "He's not playing right!"
"Ah, don't get viral just because you're about to lose 50 shanix," Tesarus snapped.
Rewind couldn't believe it. These monsters were betting on whether Chromedome would wipe his memories or die. How much sicker did could the DJD get? He knew the answer to that already. He had a documentary's worth of answers, all of it being perpetrated on his own crewmates.
"Come now, little camera," Kaon muttered into his audio receptor. "If you're going to convince your Conjux Endura, the most important mech in your life to live, this is your last chance. See that look Vos has in his optics? That means he's about to do something terrible to him."
"Chromedome, please! Please just… just do it!" Rewind pleaded desperately. "Don't die… I can't…" He choked on the words, optic fluid filling the rims of his visor.
"Last chance, 'Domey'," Vos said mockingly. "Lose the memories or lose your life."
There were a few seconds in which Chromedome watched his lover, that small frame and wide optics that made him look so much younger than he was. Reaching out to him. Pleading silently.
"I would rather die than forget the reason I'm still alive."
It happened so fast. No sooner did the words leave him did Vos wrench his arm around, breaking the needles off his fingers with a cackle. He fanned them between his servos, shoving them into the mnemosurgeon's visor all at once.
It would be later debated in the Peaceful Tyranny over Enjex who screamed louder between the two Autobots. The cry of anguish mixed with howls of pain as energon dripped through the now-present cracks in Chromedome's visor. The needles that hit their mark vibrated as the orange and white mech's optics desperately twitched. He tried to grab for them, but Vos and Helex held his arms firm. Rewind wrenched out of the grip of the electric chair, trying to rush to help his lover, but powerful servos grabbed his arm, jerking him back. He looked up and found the terrifying mask of Tarn watching him.
"Please…" Rewind choked out, pulling uselessly at the huge fingers. "Please, I did what you said… you promised…"
Something flashed through Tarn's optics at the words, though what it was it was hard to say. It almost looked like… pity? No, that couldn't be right. Not from the leader of the DJD.
"I'm playing this one over and over again tonight!"
Rewind's attention was returned to the scene, his Endura's struggles becoming weaker in their grasp. Helex was watching intently, almost as if he was trying to memorize every facet of his victim's pain. Vos looked almost affectionate, running a servo across one of the energon trails leading from the mnemosurgeon's cracked optical visor. Tesarus knelt down to get a better angle, laughing cruelly at every new sound Chromedome made in his agony. Kaon was gripping the huge turbine's arm, chewing on a knuckle of the other hand. He couldn't see what was happening, but he could both hear and feel it. His grip on Tesarus's arm would tighten every once in a while in excitement. The archivist could barely believe such a horrible group of 'bots could exist anywhere, even in the Decepticons. He didn't want to watch them, but he couldn't bear to look at Chromedome. He finally made another sound of remorse and stopped struggling against Tarn's grip, instead burying his faceplate into the huge hand.
As the screams finally subsided, Chromedome finally drifting into the peace of death, the hand holding him suddenly loosened. Rewind looked up in surprise as his arm fell free, staring at the unreadable mask the DJD leader wore. When Tarn made no sign that he noticed he'd let go he glanced one last time at his Conjux Endura. His body had gone mercifully colorless, completely lifeless. The other DJD members were drinking in whatever they had left to get out of their sick pleasure in this.
It took effort not to make another sad sound, now finally the only surviving member of the Lost Light. Instead, Rewind turned and fled out of the room and down the hall. He stumbled and leapt around the bodies littering the ground. Determinedly didn't look at any of them, though he knew well what happened to them. Not at the headless body of Swerve. Not at the shredded remains of Perceptor. Not at Ultra Magnus… no, Minimus Ambus, who had been killed and dragged from his Magnus armor.
"…can't believe he let him get away!"
The sound of heavy clanking pede-steps were joined by Tesarus's vocals. Rewind stumbled back and landed against the empty armor and the huge hole left in it by Tarn's cannon. They were coming his way and there was nowhere to hide. He could feel his systems overheating in fear. If he wasn't careful he'd go into stasis lock.
"Calm down, Tes', his signal is this way."
Kaon was tracking him. It was all over. That mech's strange abilities would sniff him out no matter where he hid in this room of horrors. Nothing that could mask it.
...Except the very thing that masked Minimus from being found out ever since he became Ultra Magnus! The armor had to have a cloaking signal that made it so that whoever was wearing it registered as Magnus, not their true identities. He could only hope it still worked while it was only a broken shell.
Trying not to think about how wrong it was that he was essentially crawling inside of his dead crewmate to keep himself alive, Rewind thanked Primus the hole was big enough for himself and pushed himself as far as he could go before stopping to hold perfectly still. He could hear Tesarus and Kaon enter the room.
"I don't see him, sparky. You sure your fancy powers aren't acting up?"
"They don't 'act up'. He must have moved onto a different part of the ship. I'm sure there's all kinds of secret passages or something all over a tub like this."
"So where's it coming from now? Come on, we don't have all day. The buzz is wearing off and we wanna get back to the ship sometime this century."
"Alright, alright. You need to learn…" Kaon's voice trailed off after a moment. Neither moved. Rewind concentrated on not moving a servo. He'd stop his own hydraulic fluid if he could.
"Ah, Boss, but I wanna take him back with us!" Tesarus's vocals penetrated the silence after a moment. It was apparent they were speaking over their commlink. "Well, I know, but…"
"Forget it, big guy. Tarn's already given the order, it's time to go," the electric chair with him said. "We'll be there in a couple cycles."
"I wanted to keep him as a souvenir…" Tesarus muttered as their pede-steps started retreating back down the hall. "Think of all the fun hunts we'd get to watch over and over. Well, I'd get to watch. You'd get to listen or… whatever it is you do."
"Just get moving before I fry you, you big lug."
As their voices receded, Rewind let out the air he was holding in his vents with a WOOSH. They were leaving. It was finally over, and they were leaving.
Leaving him alone.
He was finally all alone.
…alone on an empty ship of corpses.
…an empty ship of the corpses of his friends…
Darkness overtook him as the realization started to overwhelm him. He couldn't take it anymore. He needed to rest.
Just a little rest.
On this empty ship of corpses…