Return of the Heir Chapter 10
WARNING: This chapter does contain mature content. Read at your own risk.
"That is all I need to hear my son, Novaton you are here by charged with assault upon the royal family and the charge of assaulting my son the Prince of Iacon. The sentence for such crimes is, DEATH."
The atmosphere became still, the wind that was once there diminished and Optimus felt like his spark stopped beating. "NO" shouted Optimus who couldn't believe that this was happening.
"I'm sorry my dear, but your sire is right; death is the only way for this criminal."
The guards tied chains around Novaton's wrists and neck; waiting for their king. "Guards take him away, execution will be held at sunrise." Novaton looked back at Optimus with tears beginning to form in the corners of his optics as he fought the guards to get back to him. A kick to his abdomen knocked him back to his knees; hauled back to his peds, the white mech was led out of sight while Optimus looked on with sad optics.
The red and blue prince ran to his father and looked up to him, "Sire, I beg of you as your son please reconsider; he did nothing wrong."
"I don't want to hear of it Optimus Prime; you broke your betrothal to Sentinel by kissing your slave." Ultra Magnus didn't like to raise his voice to his sons, but his heir needed to hear this, "Plus, let this be a reminder of how you need to handle situations with criminals."
Optimus couldn't believe that his own sire would use this as lesson, Novaton was his friend, not just a slave. "How could you" was all Optimus had to say before he ran off, leaving Sentinel and his sire alone in the garden.
"So, when can we finish this bonding ceremony?"
Ultra's optics flashed bright blue, "Heed this warning Sentinel, you will get to bond with my son in one deca-cycle and not before. That slave meant something to my son, and if I find out you made me send an innocent mech to his death; there will be a grave price to pay."
With that the king of Iacon turned to leave the garden, dark blue cape flowing in the wind behind him, the legendary hammer of Iacon, Stormbringer, in his hand. The prince of Rodion watched at the king rounded the corner and out of his sight, "I will have your son, one way or another."
Optimus reached his room and slammed the door shut behind him. Falling face first onto the berth sheets, he cried, cried for the first time since his carrier died; Novaton, loved him and now he was going to die because of it. Nothing he did at this point would change his sire's mind about it now. He thought back to when his slave was first brought back to the castle, the look of admiration and wonder of the blue faceplate made that day much more wonderful. Then when he taught him how to read and write Iaconinan, plus some other old language made him wonder what else he could have taught him. The interfacing and the final kiss made fresh tears leak from his optics.
A sound at his door brought him out of his musings and quickly wiped the tears away; looking up his saw his sire with a tray of fresh warmed energon. Walking over to his son's berth, the old Iaconinan king sat down handing him one of the cubes. "Son, I know you are upset and if there was any way for this I could change this I would do it in a sparkbeat, but the law stands where it does."
"Sire, you are the king, the law can change."
"It is not that simple Optimus and you know it. The whole court would have to here and the repercussions could bring disaster for us all."
Optimus knew his sire was right; it just wasn't right. If he could persuade Vector Prime himself to rewind time and prevent this, the young knew he would. "Just promise me one thing sire?"
"What is it my son?"
"Promise that he won't suffer?"
Ultra Magnus smiled at his son, drawing him into his arms while stroking his back like he was still a sparkling "That I can do my son."
Down in the dungeons, Novaton sat on the floor of the cold, damp cell. Glitchmice scurried around his peds looking for any leftover pieces of fuel. The white and blue mech drew his knees closer to his chest; he too cried as he thought of all the memories he had of Timegazer and his family, to his time under Optimus and up until that fateful kiss. He turned and punched the stone wall with every ounce of strength he could muster; his precious Optimus, bonded to that glitch Sentinel. The sound of the cell door opening gave his gaze away to the foresaid mech and a couple of his personal guards.
"I told you there would be severe consequences for touching what is mine Novaton." The white mech froze at the smirk that was forming on the blue and orange mech's face. "Guards, seize him."
The two mechs with Sentinel grabbed Novaton's arms and forced him onto his chest and one of them tied a flexible metal band around his intake, while keeping his servos pinned to the ground. Novaton tried to get the attention of the king's guards, but no help came. He felt Sentinel grab his aft and gently squeeze.
Novaton squirmed at the contact and it only made Sentinel chuckle, "Don't tell me you never thought about doing this with someone in the future?" Hearing the white mech moan at the continued groping made Sentinel rub harder until the dark blue panel retracted revealing the hidden valve.
The Rodion prince smirked at the sight of the grey valve lips, but a little thought of curiosity crossed his mind why it didn't match the rest of him; oh well, it would still be fun to take the one responsible for Optimus breaking their betrothal. Sentinel's panel retracted to release his hardened spike and shoved in without warning.
Novaton gave a muffled scream as his body was taken against his will. The white-hot pain continued until the pace and depth finally declined. Sentinel's voice became muffled as energon throbbed in his audiles, only a few words filtered through; "not worth the finish" … "carrying… child."
Novaton faked recharge as the gag was removed and the cell door closed; with Sentinel gone the white mech curled up, brining his knees to his chest once more, tears running down his face, finally, real recharge following shortly after.
The moons rose high in the night sky, shining through the prince's balcony. Optimus, finding it difficult to enter recharge, walked out to his ledge folding his servos and prayed. "I pray to you Primus and all the Primes, I need strength, and multiple other things. I don't want to see Novaton executed, he has done nothing wrong and I beg of you to please help him." The cold wind brought no answer and the young prince bid once again to try and recharge.
He never did see the ghostly figure that appeared in his chambers, "None of us can help you directly Optimus Prime, but we can help guide you in the right direction" the femme spoke with such kindness. Where she was, turning to face her brother, "Now it is your turn."
Novaton awoke to the cold wind blowing into his cell from the barred window at the top of his cell. He saw the moons shine through and upon him, he knew that once the sun rose he would be gone. Standing up, he folded his servos and prayed himself "Primus, please take me away from here. I don't want to die and…" Novaton's blue optics leaked coolant as his spark broke "…I just want to go home, home to where I belong."
Novaton opened his optics to see the moon disappearing behind the gathering clouds; cold winds blowing into the cell, surrounding him whispering a single word over and over again, 'Return'. The white mech looked up and out of the window to where the moon once was, "Return."
Lightning flash in rapid succession and thunder roared across the vast expansion of the Iacon territory reaching the old mountain city of the legendary warframes, Kaon. Within the abandoned fortress that once housed the royal family a lone red and black mech holding a staff looked out from the balcony for which he stood. Soon another mech joined him, this mech was blue and silver, with hints of orange, "It is time; go and bring him home Solarflare." The aforementioned mech bowed before turning to leave on his task, while the mage looked back up into the storm clouds.
The storm also woke Optimus and when he went to close the balcony doors, a presence made him grab his ax; when he turned to lung at the intruder, he was shocked that it was his mentor Alpha Trion. His ax stopped just before the old archivist's face, "I must say young Optimus, your sire and Kup have taught you well, but I'm not here to talk. There are forces at play here and we have very little time; come with me."
Optimus followed the red and purple mech from his room through out the castle, "Alpha Trion, where are we going?"
"Like I said we don't have much time, at dawn your friend faces the executioner's ax and we can not allow that to happen."
The young prince was baffled and frightened for his old mentor; was the old bot trying to commit treason, "We can't break him free, my sire will execute you as well."
"That may be young mech, but there is something out there beyond our control that is calling for a change. A change that must happen before the Lunar Alignment in three deca-cycles."
The Lunar Alignment was a rare sight; it was said to only happen once every hundred-thousand stellar cycles, and seeing it was something beyond comprehension. Plus, rumor has said that all the wisest rulers were born or came into power under one. The two finally reached the dungeons where Novaton was being held; Optimus watched as Alpha Trion approached the guards "The prince wishes to look in the optics of the mech who assaulted him."
The guards nodded and stepped aside after unlocking the door. Once inside, the smell of stale energon and waste fluid hit Optimus as if he had been slapped. The only occupied cell held the chained form of Novaton. Both mechs saw that there was fresh energon on his frame and more on a certain area. Alpha Trion stepped back to let the you Iacon prince get closer to the bars "Novaton, are you alright; who did this to you?"
The white mech turned to see his beloved prince at his cell and slowly crawled to him "Optimus, I thought I wouldn't see you again until sunrise when, you know?"
"I had to see you one last time; now what happened to you?"
"Your supposed future mate, raped me."
Optimus became appalled at the statement; Novaton never lied to him before, why would he start now, "I will tell my sire immediately; Sentinel will be punished."
Novaton reached through the bars and grabbed the red and blue mech's chin telling him that there was nothing that could be done, he would go to his execution tomorrow knowing that at least some cared and loved him. Their little talk was interrupted by the sound of bodies hitting the ground and the rattle of keys, "Let's go we don't have much time."
Both other mechs were shocked that Alpha Trion was breaking a condemned out of prison. Once out of his cell Novaton followed the two out of a hidden back entrance of the citadel. "Why did you do that?"
Alpha Trion could feel the confusion and a little bit of something else in the white mech's voice "Listen to me mechling, there are primal forces at play and this storm is proof of that; none of this is a coincidence, there is a deeper meaning here."
The sound of shouting guards brought them out of their conversation, "Novaton you need to go, and you need to go now."
Said white mech looked at Optimus with regret and in one swift movement, his lips crashed against his lover's. Novaton pulled away from the stunned prince, "Until we meet again my dear Optimus." Novaton turned and ran just as the guards came thundering past where the trio once stood.
The storm opened and rain began to hammer the forest; wind howling as Novaton ran from the guards and turbohounds. The slickening ground made running difficult, but the white mech knew that if he stopped now, he would be caught. A sharp pain exploded in his middle as he saw an energon arrow fly past and hit a titanium tree to his right. Warm energon flowed down his side as he continued to run; his vision began to turn to black on the edges as warnings appeared on his HUD. He saw the tree line thinning but didn't see the drop off; blue peds came to a skidding stop right as the edge dropped off.
The pounding of zaphorse hooves came to a stop behind him, along with the growling of turbohounds. One of the mechs Novaton recognized as Kup, Captain of the Iaconinan Guard, "Novaton stop running, there is no place for you to go."
The hounds drew closer with every step that Kup made, but a familiar voice made his struts shake in fear. "I knew you would try and escape before you offlined. Now you can come with us or you can fall?" Novaton backed away from the approaching prince of Rodion; he felt a few rocks fall behind him and when Sentinel lunged for him, the white mech instinctively stepped back and over the cliff.
The guards watched as the white and blue mech fell below the surface of the raging Radon River and out of sight, energon staining the surface a dull pink. "Come on everyone, let's go home."
Sentinel rode up along Kup and saw the old mech's helm hung low "Don't be so down Kup, we got rid of a dangerous criminal for Ultra Magnus and just think how thankful he'll be."
"First, it's King Ultra Magnus when you are in my presence. Second, I don't want praise from anyone, not after this. Finally, you shouldn't have interfered and now because of your actions, the poor mech had to die painfully and in fear." The old green mech rode ahead of the group thinking on how he would explain this to Ultra and poor Optimus.
About one hic down river, Novaton's form surfaced coughing up the blue energon from the river. Climbing onto the shore a few inches he laid down onto his chest panting; the wound in his side still pulsing with pain. Cold northern air blew upon him making him shiver, making him unable to hear the approaching pedsteps until he saw a pare of orange peds appear before him. Looking up he saw red optics stare back at him with an unreadable expression. Laying his helm back down only one thought crossed his mind, that he was going to die cold and unable defend himself; blue optics offlined nanokilks later.