NOTE: I have added a little more onto the end of the previous chapter, just to clear up some confusion about where it fits in to chapter 7 of Promise. They don't take place on the same day, rather it just shows how Elita came to be a star at the Circle.

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In the end, it wasn't her rusty reluctant dancing that kept her tanks full for the next few vorns. It was her vocaliser. Mirage had watched with only minimal interest as she twirled along a tune with only half her spark in her movements, the other half forever lost now.

Or so she thought... until she saw Orion in the crowd one hazy night while she was lilting away. Unassuming, unaware Orion sitting right there at the bar, right beside Ironhide as if they were old friends, listening to her sing with an adoration she hadn't known she'd been missing until now. It was only then, the lyrics clogging her throat, that she realised why Mirage liked her voice so much, enough to parade her at the front of the stage beside Chromia; if it was enough to entrance her Orion so completely, it must have been something special.

Meeting him again; remembering the pure glow of his spark and optics, his clumsy way with words, the quirks and habits he tried and failed to hide, made her forget about Ratbat, almost made her forget about Soundwave. Almost... but it was as if Orion sensed something had changed, knew there was something she was hiding from him. Why else would he ask her to go to the gladiator arenas with him, if only to make her face her guilt?

...Or maybe Ratbat had just destroyed her trust in bots. She wasn't sure which one she'd have rather had be true.

"Can you see the arenas anywhere?" Orion stood doing what Elita was desperately trying to avoid, peering all around as he scoured the crowds for any hint of a door to go through.
"The entrances are along the walls," she said, a little too quickly. "Or... so I've heard."

Whether her mumble aroused any suspicion, neither Orion or his friends noted it. They were just grateful to pinpoint somewhere the crowd was trickling into, the arena where Megatronus, still alive despite the predictions, would be battling. Elita struggled against the tide of bots, trying to stay on the edge where she could still escape and hope to... to catch a glimpse of Soundwave? Even a bill with his gladionym on it? She didn't even know what she wanted... that realisation made her stop dead like a rock jutting out of the sea of bots swelling past her. Orion had almost drowned with them before he noticed she wasn't by his side, glancing back to see her cradling her servos at the edge of the swarm.

"Is everything alright?" He appeared at her side, speaking low despite the loud buzz of conversation around them. She knew she wouldn't be able to look at his optics for all the concern brimming there, so she kept her helm low as she made an excuse.

"I just... want to find an oil room first, before we go in."

"Of course. I'll wait for you." She didn't need to look up to know he was smiling. Dammit, why did he have to still be so kind after all these cycles? It didn't feel right, to have such courtesy given freely to her when she hadn't earned it. With Soundwave even a smirk was an achievement, every insult veiling a praise that brought her one step closer to his spark. Could she even compare the two mechs, both of them as different as Primus and Unicron?

Away from Orion and the noxious crowd she told herself to stop asking questions for once, and graciously they temporarily disappeared as she looked up over the colossal Driller sculpture dominating the intersection of the main hub. She'd never noticed the structure towering over the center of the arenas, almost hovering above her with translucent supports at four corners. The perfect vantage point for all pits, however many there were... and surely where Ratbat had watched his vile work unfold when he was still practicing it on gladiators. Elita continued on where she remembered the Senator heading when they departed for the second time, and eventually found the stairs not quite hidden by the shadows of the mosaic ceiling. Whatever she expected to find up there, it couldn't be worse than Ratbat himself. She climbed without heed to her numb peds or tightly coiled spark, far into the dancing shadows until they spat her out onto a barren threshold. And it truly was like she was hovering in the heavens, the floor beneath her like a mirror that reflected the leagues between her peds and the ground. She was more scared of that than the dark behind her, almost too much to even step forward... but if this was what Ratbat was able to endure, then she was better than them. She ignored her trembling frame as she crossed to the other side, a seamless window with the horizon of cold death and energon spilled below it. An office, a VIP suite, or just a place to watch how cruel Cybertron really was? All Elita cared about was whether she could see Soundwave somewhere below, a glint of that rust-spattered blue armour or the blinding flash of his visor, anything to show that he was still alive and fighting. She pressed her digits to the window, only then noting that it was actually open air she was leaning out on, so numb that she couldn't even feel the wind on her frame, couldn't feel anything except her spark hammering and, far too soon, the crackle of her audios as Orion brought her back to reality.

"Elita? Where are you? The fight's about to start."

"...I'm on my way, Orion." She clicked off her comm before he could notice the weight of her voice, allowed her optics one last desperate sweep over the miles of energon-soaked pits, before finally admitting that Soundwave wasn't in any of them. But even knowing that, tearing herself away from the hope that he was waiting for her somewhere was another sparkbreak all over again.

Maybe that was what she deserved... she hadn't waited for him, after all. Like Ratbat said, he wouldn't want her to find him again anyway. Maybe that was what made her so angry with him, knowing he was right. She never got answers to those questions, to any that she asked herself as she descended the stairs, retreating to the only truth she knew now as he stood smiling exactly where he'd said he'd be, like he'd been waiting his whole life for her.

Fittingly, that was the exact feeling Kasimus had as he sat alone in his room, listening to the distant fading music but otherwise silent and unmoving. It was a ritual he'd taken up some three stellar cycles ago.

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And over a year later, I finally have the prequel finished! Whether some have read this because of Promise or just out of curiosity, I hope it's been enjoyable for all to read, though I understand some parts wouldn't be liked by everyone. But also if there's anything you thought could have been handled differently or parts that could have been written better please let me know, so I can improve for any future stories :)

I know some details of this story might not match up with things said by Elita in the Promise flashbacks (such as Elita knowing about techno-organics by working in TO-frequented bars), but Optimus didn't know just how much of what Elita told him was the truth...