Title: Emergency Measures (2/?)
Warning: Warnings: anything and everything, because it is the Decepticon Justice Division. They specialize in torture, which I doubt was ever consensual. None of the humor in the last part, here. This was written for a specific kink.
Rating: R
Continuity: More Than Meets the Eye
Characters: Decepticon Justice Division, Ambulon, Pharma
Disclaimer: The theatre doesn't own the script or actors, nor does it make a profit from the play.
Motivation (Prompt): Shibara and I enabled each other in a horrible feedback loop that resulted in this.
Original Prompt:
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"I'd like to see a mech, facing torture and death, bargain his way out through faking enthusiastic sex -pretending to want it, doing anything to not die. Actually, what I'd like to see is the aftermath, where somebody reassures the mech that it was okay to do whatever they had to for survival."
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Part 2
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A look of great self-satisfaction curled thin lips into a smile. Cruelty radiated from the growing curve. He'd found that teaching suited him: the exacting standards, the repeated tests on comprehension and ability to apply new knowledge, and the grading of every detail. He rather enjoyed the benefits of a passing grade, but the rules he taught had a ruthless precision to them. A failing grade allowed him the ultimate pleasure of standing judgment.
And what subject did Kaon teach today? Was he letting Ambulon lick his fingertips in a desperate attempt at repentance?
He just might be.
Picture: Kaon & Ambulon by Shibara
Available on Ao3
"Is that the best you can do, traitor? Pharma should've taught you better, by now. Remind me to have a word with him when I'm done with you." He leaned close and listened to the exhausted, sad moan that was Ambulon acknowledging his casual instruction. He intended to boost off-duty training for the prisoner. The ex-Decepticon would indeed remind him later, if the mech knew what was good for him. The Peaceful Tyranny's medibay held the closest thing to an ally Ambulon had on board this ship, but Pharma was a pitifully frail safe haven. If the surgeon failed to fill his charge's few hours of rest with suitable humiliations, then the D.J.D. would gladly rescind the break periods they'd graciously permitted the poor mech.
He was, after all, on the List. Any reprieve they granted him from the suffering was more than he deserved, and he knew it. They'd made certain he knew it. Kaon in particular had trained Ambulon in expressing his appreciation for his continued life. The blind communication mech practiced a brutal teaching method that had proven very effective in breaking any hope that might have lingered.
Kneeling down, he braced his knee on Ambulon's back right above where his student and prisoner had obediently clasped his hands. Those hands shook against his lower leg but stayed where they'd been ordered. Good. That lesson had been tedious to teach over and over again before Ambulon finally overcame gut-level instinct with factual knowledge: defending himself only made things worse. The pain of learning could always turn into outright tortured agony.
Helm tilted, Kaon listened closely to the sound of ventilation fans rattling from too much use without enough maintenance. His energy field met and consumed the Autobot's own, pulling on the faint flickers of a mech severely under-fueled and pushed far past the point of surrender. Not that Ambulon had even attempted to resist, but sometimes intelligent mechs like him simply had to have the stubborn remnants of independent thought beaten out of them. That split-second pause wherein pride and common sense warred over crawling on command was long gone, now. Pride at a job well done filled Kaon every time Ambulon followed his orders as unhesitantly as the Pet did.
"Don't close your lips until you've properly worshiped each finger with your tongue," he instructed. The traitor's feeble energy field fought, trying to conserve even this tiny sip of energy, but Kaon's stronger current stole it away. Ambulon bowed his head and shuddered as Kaon stripped his circuitry down to the metal. "Did I say you could move? Ah-ah-ah, no. Take it. Open your mouth wider. Open your intake. Take it in."
Kaon wasn't just talking about the way Ambulon's lips stretched around his knuckles. As fast as Kaon consumed his electromagnetic charge, a revolting discharge flooded over him, returning the charge plus a large dose of greasy smugness. It sank into his circuitry and stained him down to the spark.
The Decepticon chuckled against the back of his helm as shame simmered under his armor. "Good...good. That was nice. Swallow again. A little deeper, I think." He pushed his fingers further, and Ambulon gagged as his fuel intake seized. "Now - again."
Disapproval and a disturbing glee rippled over his back when Ambulon jerked his head back a couple inches, panting as he squirmed without really moving. Kaon promptly jammed his fingers back into the intake, which clenched around his fingertip. "Don't flinch away from me, traitor. Be glad you have this opportunity to prove your, hmm, better traits."
The kneeling mech went still and concentrated on breathing. Kaon liked the sound of him breathing. When fans and secondary vents weren't enough to cool stress-heated systems, the traitor panted. It flexed his throat tubing in tiny creaks, and Kaon liked to listen to the heaving air sawing past his fingers, whistling occasionally as Ambulon's lips moved.
"That's it. Say 'ah'. Yes...just like that. Louder."
The faintest whimper, muffled further by the three fingers stuffed into Ambulon's mouth, but it came out clear enough. "Ahhh."
"Louder, traitor, or I'll make you scream instead."
A hard swallow around fingertips, and yellow optics shut off. He knew how real that threat was. "Ahhhh!"
"Very good, traitor. Amazing what a touch of motivation can do for those of weak will. Need I motivate you more - ah-ah, no, don't shake your head when my fingers are in your mouth." Kaon tsked and slid his hand out, wet from Ambulon's fervent attention. "Now we're going to have to start over."
His other hand came up to grasp the back of the ex-Decepticon's helm, some sort of vile spider whose legs were fingers digging in to dent the metal. The socket in his palm hummed with electricity, and Ambulon's shoulders drew up in futile defense against the headache-inducing cycle that immediately began as charge swapped back and forth from palm to cerebral circuitry. The fast exchange flickered afterimages of random files behind Ambulon's optics. His databanks blared error messages, and he reset his optics repeatedly trying to close everything that popped open.
Kaon's frown of disapproval for his student's failure looked exactly like a sadistic smirk. "Are you afraid, traitor?" His hand slid down while the mech was distracted, and Ambulon stiffened in renewed fear under it. It settled where his prisoner's chipped helm covered the main jaw mechanisms. One finger tapped idly against the corner of one wide yellow optic. "A hand on your helm is more of a threat than half my other hand in your mouth? I suppose you're right. A decent jolt straight into your processor would melt your jaw." His palm socket heated noticeably, and the battered mech shook, not daring to move away but cringing nonetheless.
The D.J.D. specialized in torture, but toying with someone this way was exciting and new, in a strange way. Kaon was having a perverse sort of fun. He placed his lips beside his victim's audio as if sharing an intimate secret. "You'd be useless to me, then. And you don't want to be useless, Ambulon." Using the hand on the traitor's head, he nodded Ambulon's head for him. "No, you don't. Good. I'm glad we agree," whispered close and terribly amused. A strangled, pleading sound answered him, and Kaon stroked the side of Ambulon's helm in a parody of comfort. "Shh, shh. I know you'd nod even if I didn't make you, because, well, the alternative...you don't want that. Do you?"
Instant, quiet agreement from behind closed lips. The master of electricity waited, but Ambulon stayed perfectly still but for the quivering he couldn't control. That insolent, lying mouth remained shut against any traitorous - or annoying, because the Decepticons on board had heard it all before and their latest victim wasn't getting any more original the longer they dragged this out - words that might leak out. His hands tightened around each other but otherwise stayed exactly where ordered: folded together at the small of his back.
"You have learned." Kaon's approval came in a surge of electromagnetic energy that violated his student inside-out.
More muted agreement, although it came out in short, tearing vents that shook the Autobot's upper body in panting bursts.
The gentle stroking stopped in a condescending pat to the top of Ambulon's helm, the same petting Kaon used on the Pet after the spark-eater got a trick right. "Then you know your lessons." His other hand stopped kneading the shaking mech's throat and spread in front of Ambulon's face instead. "What's Lesson One, traitor?"
He couldn't risk turning off his optics, because Vos had threatened them, early on. If he didn't use his optics then he obviously didn't need them. Vision could be recategorized as nonessential if he didn't use it, and Pharma's bargain only saved him inside the strict rules set on his behavior. Ambulon watched, or he lost his ability to see, perhaps via gouging or drips of acid or something more frightening yet.
So he kept his optics online as his lips sought Kaon's hand, and Kaon delighted in that. "That's right. From my hands come your salvation, and you should praise them accordingly. Every finger." Ambulon winced when his teacher, instructor, torturer's voice went sharp. "I said every one. Kiss them, traitor."
Ambulon's spark pulsed revulsion along his wires, generator a twisting churn of self-hate and terror, but he kissed every one of Kaon's fingers. His lips sought the inside of every knuckle, the friction pads on the ends, and cautiously kissed around the base of the open socket in the palm. The hand turned over, presenting the back, and scummy satisfaction seeped into his struts from behind as Kaon whispered into his audio, "Again."
He had to pause a bare second to gather the willpower to continue. He had to do it. Just a second's rest to collect himself, please. His head swam from the stronger electrical current pressing into his wires, cycling his weaker energy out and pressing Kaon's tainted charge in. He couldn't concentrate.
"I gave you an order." The reprimand snapped over him for hesitating. The skittering jolt of electricity accompanying it hurt worse than a whiplash would have. "I don't think you quite understand what I'm sparing you from - ah, there we go. Much better." Ambulon vented hard and showered kisses across the back of Kaon's hand. No perfunctory pecks that mashed his lips to plating, of course not, because that wouldn't show sincerity. Every kiss pressed to a separate spot, lips moving down the backs of the fingers to cover them in devoted adulation.
Kaon leisurely turned his hand this way and that, directing Ambulon with slight motions of his thumb, a curl of his forefinger. He reveled in how easily the traitor bent to the task. The training was going well. "Shall we move on to Lesson Two?" he breathed against his student's helm. "Remind me what it is. Show me how well you've learned your lessons."
Ambulon made a conflicted noise of despair and nausea, but his chin dipped a tad as he extended his tongue. It replaced his lips, drawing swathes of hot contact across the back of Kaon's hand. The coating of energy left behind on the surface of the metal tingled. Kaon's circuitry drank in Ambulon's utter loathing.
"Slower. Slower! Just like that," the Decepticon crooned, savoring the feeling. "Display your gratitude for me. I'm sure you're quite a pretty sight, but my viewing pleasure, as it is, comes from touch." He turned his hand upward and opened the fingers expectantly. A violent shudder went up his student's back, but that tongue obediently began pampering the inside of his wrist. "Little cyberkitten licks don't move my sympathies in the least, traitor. Long and slow, long and...slow. Good. Now the fingers. Start in the palm and go the tip. Sincerity is sensation." His voice made it a sickly sweet, trite saying, something out of a self-help manual about the long road to forgiveness.
"Mm. Yes." No reluctance, not even a moment of second thought. Ambulon laved his fingers one right after another, over and over, like the sweetest submissive pleasure drone. The hand on the traitor's helm shifted, thumb stroking the back. The gesture had a kind of absentminded affection to it. Kaon did approve of his toys serving their function well, and this victim's function was 'entertainment.'
"Perhaps you're ready to graduate to Lesson Three. What do you think?"
Ambulon had learned. He made a neutral sound instead of moving his head without permission. The open electrical socket burning into the side of his helm was warning enough not to do that again. He didn't even think about stopping his licking. That would continue until Kaon deigned to tell him to stop.
"Very well." Charge crackled down Kaon's coils as he pulled his hand away at last.
Ambulon's fans rattled loudly when the shock hit his armor and absorbed into his systems. It reeked of the Decepticon's amusement.
Kaon laughed quietly and presented his hand again. "And what is Lesson Three? I have spared you. You are grateful. And..?"
Ambulon failed to swallow, fear-stiffened tubing and rigid cables creaking as paralyzed intakes clenched instead of opening. He coughed when the pressure had to go somewhere, and he licked his teeth. Then trembling lips parted. "Ahhh."
Fingers slid in to lay over his tongue, and it lapped them in. It slicked between and under them as if Ambulon truly welcomed Kaon using him. "That's right. And you adore me. You worship me. I am your salvation and your god, and you will not forget the fact that pleasing me is your new purpose in life," murmured the Decepticon. He crooked his fingers and dragged the tips across Ambulon's tongue. It moved under them, rippling in a clumsy attempt to pull them in further as it'd been taught. "A smaller goal than the Cause, but you've already failed to live up to Lord Megatron's expectations. Well, perhaps aiming a bit lower may give you a second chance. You want that second chance, yes?"
Ambulon gurgled assent and accidentally closed his lips around the invading fingers while trying to maneuver them into a better spot to lick at. "I said not to close your lips." They gaped open, and the kneeling mech made a meek, apologetic noise around them. "That sound...hmm. No, I've changed my mind."
Kaon rotated his wrist and thrust his fingers in to the third knuckle. "You may suck, now."
Tentative, Ambulon sealed his mouth on the fingers and gave them a small suck. They'd just ventured into new territory, continuing the lesson past where he'd failed last time, and he knew to do nothing without explicit instructions. At the same time, he had to have enough initiative to convince the Decepticon that he wanted this. It was an impossible contradiction to resolve.
Fortunately, or perhaps not, Kaon intended to teach him exactly what to do. "Start gentle," he instructed, and the queasy flare of gratitude through the traitor's EM field made his gloating smile widen. Ambulon suckled, cheeks hollowing as he slid his mouth up and down Kaon's fingers in long, slow pulls. "Care for my fingers as you would a sacred object. Too rough, and I may feel that you're not showing me proper respect." The sucking gentled further, now barely a tugging pressure.
Kaon pushed the traitor's head forward, suddenly stern. "Have you forgotten how to use your tongue, Ambulon? You act as though you don't want to - mmm." Shoulders hunching defensively, Ambulon concentrated every speck of attention on the fingers in his mouth. Kaon sighed in satisfaction and let him work uninterrupted. "Like that. I like that."
Now that Ambulon knew what his tormentor wanted, the sucking picked up. His tongue slid up the underside of each finger as he drew back, and then he ducked his head fractionally to take them in again. Kaon drummed his fingers on the side of the traitor's chipped helm. Even without optics, his critical gaze could practically be felt evaluating Ambulon's performance.
"Your tongue is surprisingly talented. It's why I spared you your tongue being torn out, did you know that? Vos had it pulled out of your mouth for the rest of us to discuss, and I thought that something so soft could be put the right use if trained." Ambulon redoubled his efforts. "Heh. You have learned to take your cues. Good. Between the fingers, more. Push against the tips." He fell silent for a moment. "Now - deep. And swallow."
His intake squeezed shut against the fingertips probing it, but Ambulon tried to obey. He managed a weak flutter as the intake gave a spasm.
Kaon frowned. "Again." The traitor attempted to swallow again. It didn't work any better this time. Kaon hissed displeasure and dug his fingers into the back of Ambulon's tongue. "Open your intake, or I'll rip it out."
The intake squeezed tighter despite Ambulon's open-mouthed panting, the ex-Decepticon gulping air in a frantic bid to force the intake open as ordered. Fear overwhelmed his body, however, and it stayed shut.
"...and we were making such progress, too." Shaking his head, Kaon slowly leaned back in preparation to stand. The hands clasped at the mall of Ambulon's back grabbed after him, and an evil smirk grew on his face. The traitor knew what was coming. It was unwise to spurn favor from a member of the Justice Division, especially not when a mech was on the List. The enjoyment Kaon found in teaching him his place spared him far crueler tortures.
A panicked whine came out as Ambulon mouthed after the fingers withdrawing from his mouth, slow and taunting.
"Hush," Kaon said. "A god punishes those who sin against him, and you have already fallen from grace, traitor. Your punishment is long overdue."
Too desperate to think better of it, Ambulon whipped his head around, chasing after his instructor's hand. His teeth closed on the second knuckle of the middle finger. Licking, sucking, trying not to beg out loud - he must not speak! - he whimpered and did his absolute best to demonstrate how much he'd been taught.
Kaon shook off the clamped teeth but did nothing to stop him from nipping at his other fingers. "I suppose..." He turned his hand, hollow optic sockets set in a distant stare over Ambulon's shoulder as kisses rained down the length of his forefinger and a tongue ran back up it. Lips nibbled over the friction pad of his thumb before the Autobot risked lapping at the tips of his first three fingers, coaxing them back into his mouth. "How unexpected. Tarn will be interested in this eagerness," Kaon mused, and the nonstop fear crawling under Ambulon's armor chilled the very air around him. Kaon laughed softly at it.
Involving the leader of the D.J.D. in the training sessions never ended well. Tarn had no patience for anything but furthering the traitor's anguish. He indulged his unit and used Ambulon to control his pet jet, but he remained aloof from the Peaceful Tyranny's temporary slave-prisoner. Ambulon stayed alive and mostly intact by his sufferance alone. Anytime Tarn entered the medibay to speak with Pharma, the former ward manager hid under equipment or hastily left to find a berth to warm, desperate to be seen as useful or at least pleasing. He lived in terror that he'd be noticed by the tank.
Kaon's fingers scissored in Ambulon's mouth, and the ex-Decepticon dared closing his teeth enough to hold them still while he swirled his tongue around the tips. "You tread a dangerous line, using your teeth like that." The warning growled in his audio, underlaid by the dangerous hum of charging electrical coils. Even though his helm didn't move, nervous yellow optics looked to the side, optic frames straining as they widened too far. Just beyond peripheral vision, a nasty smile curved Kaon's lips. He could feel the uptick in an already rapid fuelpump rhythm. "You are very, very lucky I like a little pressure on my knuckles."
Relief stole the strength terror had lent him, and Ambulon slumped slightly as tension transmuted to relief. He straightened up in a hurry when Kaon continued thoughtfully, "But you deserve some form of admonishment for that reluctance."
Dread iced up the bottom of his tanks. His tongue licked and traced along Kaon's fingers, begging without speaking, but the dark, static purr of a massive electrical generator buzzed louder in response. "Don't make me choose for you, traitor. It's Tesarus' turn with you after your lessons today, and if you haven't learned them to my satisfaction, you won't enjoy how he disciplines you."
Ambulon's choked sound of despair could barely be heard. He sucked hard on the fingers in his mouth, teeth scraping the knuckles, before pushing them out with his tongue. The increased power output behind him poured into his own energy field, and Kaon's amusement collided with his fear in a cable-crimping boil over his spark. They both knew what was coming.
When Kaon turned his hand up, the Autobot nuzzled into his palm and sobbed because he already knew this agony.
"A wise choice," Kaon said, venting against the back of his helm and making him cringe lower. "Lesson One. Your punishment is your salvation."
He knew it'd hurt, but Ambulon kissed along the base of the electrical socket in the center of Kaon's hand. Cranking his generator up made the blind mech's coils spit sparks, and even the lightest butterfly kisses stung Ambulon's lips as the thin socket rim heated up and burnt him. The metal of his face numbed oddly, the sensors underneath resetting out of confusion from the repeated jolts of pain.
"Lesson Two. You are grateful to be spared."
Primus save him, he had to do more. The pain intensified, but he forced himself to extend his tongue and lick around the circumference of the socket rim. The built-up charge transmitted in a jolting surge, and his teeth rattled from the shock. He electrocuted again and again, electricity zapping through him from the mouth inward. His air filters crisped. His intakes seized. His throat tubing began to melt where they touched the cables in his neck. His cerebral circuitry screamed overheat warnings on his HUD, circuit breakers threatening to trip and drop him into statis lock. He scrambled to override them, because nothing would guarantee harsher future punishment like falling unconscious to escape the current torture.
"I'm waiting." The hand he'd involuntarily shrank back from pushed into his face.
Panting fast, every circuit screaming that he didn't want to, don't do it, Ambulon whimpered a wordless apology and struggled to open his mouth once more. It hurt, but he quickly licked around the rest of the socket rim. The surface of his tongue blistered, metal melting, and his shoulders contorted as he fought to keep his hands clasped.
The pained noise he couldn't stifle got an approving pat on his helm. "Well done. And Lesson Three." The hand before his face stretched, offering the socket. "Give your savior and personal god what he's due, Ambulon." For a fraction of a second, the polite tone of a tutor vanished to reveal the hungry sadist lurking underneath. Kaon was, and always had been, a devout member of the Justice Division. "Sacrifice. Appeasement."
"Worship me, traitor."
Ambulon's throat worked as he stared at that hand, but he knew his place, now. He'd learned Kaon's lessons by spark. This was his punishment for failing his instructor's expectations, but it also served to test how well he could apply what he'd been taught.
Gagging on terror, already wincing, he fit his mouth to the socket and kissed it: deeply, passionately, tongue plunging in deep to invite the white lightning in. It streamed into his mouth like molten metal pouring from a crucible. Agony ran blazing trails along every wire and cable, crackling bolts of electricity snapping and sparking over his armor, through internal systems, until he shrieked into the socket. His hands knotted together, yanking against each other behind himself because he couldn't relax his fingers. His joints smoked, his vision swam, but Kaon's hand mercifully pulled away at long last.
Ambulon puddled to the floor, strutless and hitching as his ventilation system tried to restart stalled fans. Erratic gasps rasped in huge, coughing breaths that exhaled ash from his filters and seemed to do nothing to cool his overheated body. Forehelm against the floor, he groaned when a reminder pinged him. Orders. He'd been given orders.
Painfully slow, the ex-Decepticon inched back to sit on his heels. He had to brace his hands against the floor in order to push himself upright, and he swayed dizzily for a minute. His systems labored. Low-fuel warnings and, well, low-everything warnings bleated in his CUP. He dismissed them. He couldn't do anything about them.
When he was fairly sure he could sit up on his own, he pulled his hands off the floor. They shook as he put them behind himself and fumbled until he could clasp them together. Then he picked a point on the ground and stared at it, willing himself to endure.
"Much, much better." The mech listening to his efforts passed judgment, and Ambulon couldn't even pretend he didn't lean into the good-pet pat on his helm. Self-hate and relief mixed into a thick slurry of shame under his spark.
Kaon stroked his helm and sighed in a fine mockery of sympathy. "If only you'd taken orders this well when you were still one of the Decepticons. Too bad, eh? You wouldn't be in this position, now would you?" He bent close to taking in the scent of smoldering wire insulation and justice. It was a familiar smell. "Do you regret your betrayal yet, Ambulon?"
A lost, broken little sound that might have been an affirmative.
"Not as much as you will. But that's a lesson you've yet to learn." A look of great self-satisfaction curled thin lips into a smile. He would teach the traitor true repentance.
Eventually. "For now…let's start again."
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