"So just how're we gonna get out of here with the midget in charge?" Wheeljack hissed."Er, no offense, Fixit." Having First Aid leading them was still a bit of a surreal experience for the other two mechs, if only because of how they towered over him. Even so, First Aid made sure they didn't trample him by keeping up a steady pace through Delphi's hollow halls that also thankfully kept him out of range of whispered insults.

So it was up to Strongarm to shoot Wheeljack a glare on behalf of both Fixit and First Aid. "Simple. We get to the entrance, we get out the grenade, and we blast it open."

"Ah, blowing slag up. My specialty. Especially if it's slag that not supposed to be gettin' blown up."

Unlike Wheeljack, Thunderhoof wasn't so enthused by the prospect. "Just give me ten klicks and I could knock it down. No blowin' up necessary."

"We don't have ten klicks, Thunderhoof," Strongarm said. "Pit, I don't even know if we have five." And that was even assuming he could have knocked the entrance's security barrier down within one lifetime. It wasn't just meant to keep dangerous bots inside. It was meant to quarantine, possibly permanently. If the Rust Plague got out in the facility the only solution would have been to lock it down and abandon it, and anyone left inside there had been a quarantine, long ago, and Pharma was the only survivor of it, driven insane by the isolation and death. Maybe he and First Aid were somehow immune to the Plague.

Strongarm shook herself. If First Aid kept his end of the deal, she'd know for sure once they got him back onto the Riotjack. If he didn't really turn out to be the one who baited them here in the first place... but he knew where he was going, and Strongarm trusted him enough for that. She even thought she recognized some of the wall panels they went past, a subtle yet certain assurance that really were heading for an exit-

And then First Aid stopped. He teetered just outside where the corridor curved into a corner, shielded by the wall and shaking from whatever it was he sensed beyond. Seeing how he quaked was likely the only thing that stopped either of the three of them from nudging him onwards, before they too were shaking.

In the confused silence, Fixit heard it first. Then they all heard it. Around the corner, surely right down the hall ahead of them, was the rusty purr of a chainsaw and the uttered curses of a mech trying to unlock its vicious teeth.

He was right in front of them, standing between them and escape. If there was a way to get around him, Strongarm had no idea what it was and First Aid couldn't say so, not without revealing their position. Even if they could get around him, what if he managed to catch up with them? Ambush them? What if he ended up waiting for them just outside the sector door? Even worse, what if they ran into the DJD instead? No, this was the only chance they'd have at knowing exactly where Pharma was.

Strongarm knew that, probably only because Fixit did. She was sure that First Aid, Wheeljack and even Thunderhoof knew it too. Unlike them, she also knew a way to solve it. First, she held the grenade out to Wheeljack, gesturing him to take it back. He smirked as he did, likely thinking she wanted him to lob it around the corner right between Pharma's just as he was preparing to throw it, she took a cue from him and did something very, very stupid.

She stepped forwards. Shoving her way between Wheeljack and Thunderhoof, practically stepping over First Aid, ignoring how they tried to grab her back to safety and how Fixit tried to freeze her limbs, she let the harsh lights overhead cast a sterile spotlight over her as she stood at the end of the corridor,having walked right into the psychopath's violently humming hands.

"Having performance issues, Pharma?" she called out, letting the volume mask just how much strain her vocaliser was under. "Happens to a lot of mechs. Nothing to be ashamed of."

Pharma blinked, still with his digits stuck in his servo's engine mechanism. His wings were aloft, held there by his obvious surprise. They fluttered once when he figured she was easy prey, and he wiped engine grease over his grin as he pulled his hand free. The effect did nothing to his usual expression. "Funny," he growled."Is that why you dress like that? To help fix them?"

Strongarm made a gesture like a shrug, really directing it to the mechs still lingering in the corridor, wondering if she'd caught whatever it was that made Pharma such a lunatic. It was a simple enough order, leave me, but she knew it would take a while to kick in. Hopefully Thunderhoof would drag the other two away with him while she kept up the distraction. And hopefully it would actually work as a distraction, at least long enough for them to find another path.

"It's a confidence booster," she said, letting Fixit freeze her in place this time to resist the temptation to charge him."Kinda like hiding behind five other, better mechs, I imagine."

Pharma grinned, his denta bright with drool that reflect the near-blinding lights above them. "Why don't I give them a call and see what they think about that?"

Strongarm scoffed, daring to rolling her optics to catch a glance on her left. The mechs were gone. No-one else around to stop her, or save her. Well, except Fixit. She felt him squeeze around her hand as she formed a fist.

"Really?" she taunted."You need to call in backup just to deal with one bot? And I thought you were supposed to be scary."

His grin slipped, only to come back tenfold a nanoklick later as his wings bristled. "Cocky little glitch, aren't you? Alright, then. If you wanted me to kill you so badly, you just had to say so!"

He charged, letting his aft boosters propel him forwards. The sudden speed caught Strongarm off-guard, and she only barely managed to activate Fixit before Pharma slammed into them both. She felt herself skid backwards, her heels digging deep into the floor as she tried to push back against the mech's weight. She didn't remember pulling her pole out, but it was in her hands and keeping Pharma's servos pinned down against his as she pressed it across his forearms. As long as he couldn't pull the saw down into the pole she'd be safe… but her arms were starting to buckle. She could feel the heat of the chainsaw's engine, the wind from it ripping at the air just in front of her, and knew she'd feel it across her face if she didn't find another strategy soon. She jumped back just as her servos finally failed, banking on being able to clear the space between her and the saw just before it came swinging down. Her back slammed into the wall, but Fixit pushed her off of it with a snap of the winglets on her shoulders. She sidestepped, pressing herself flat against the side of the corridor while Pharma's body was still lunging forward into empty air with nothing to fight against. With a frantic kick she knocked the underside casing of the chainsaw with her ped, sending Pharma onto his back as the momentum sent him flying- not literally, despite how his wings flapped.

But even though he was down, he wasn't dazed enough to stay lashed out with the saw, almost cutting at Strongarm's legs as she rolled over him, now standing on the other side of him. She hadn't really been trying to get past him, but at least it kept him busy. All she knew was that she couldn't allow him to leave this corridor. She tightened her grip on the pole.

"You're fast, Autobot…" Pharma panted as he pushed himself upright with his wings, the same way she had pushed herself off the wall."But I've killed faster than you."

He jabbed out with the saw, again and again as she tried to dodge each swipe, driving her down the length of the hall. "You talk too much!" she cried, keeping the pole held aloft over a shoulder so it didn't get sliced in half.

"Talking to prey makes them think you can be reasoned with," Pharma told her, practically giggling as he took his time tormenting her."They usually start begging by now. It's my favourite part."

He pulled back his servo for an undercut, and out of reflex Strongarm stabbed forwards with the pole. It hit the saw just as it came around, changing its trajectory sharply upwards and right into one of the lights above. The explosion of sparks must have blinded both of them (or maybe that was just the other lights cutting out), leaving their servos tingling as they fought to free them from each other's pressure. Pharma seemed to be frozen and frizzling with his chainsaw plunged into the electricity, his denta chattering loudly as his optics flashed. The load wouldn't have been enough to kill him, but it seemed to at least momentarily stun him even as the saw's jaws kept mindlessly ripping into the glass and wires. Even so, Strongarm kept pushing against him. She didn't know how long he'd be stunned for, or what to even do while she had this chance-

"Strongarm, I've got an idea!" Fixit yelled over the zap of stray electrical currents arcing between her and Pharma."Stab the pole into the saw!"

"What?!" Strongarm thought she'd misheard him at first. Wasn't that exactly what she'd been trying not to do this whole time?!
"Just trust me!" Fixit insisted."I can win this for us!"

Strongarm didn't know if she could even trust herself in a fight like this, but she couldn't think of anything else. The worst that would happen is that she'd lose her only weapon… at least, she hoped that was the worst. Iacon's PD training course had only told her of everything that could go wrong against a sonic emitter, or an energon prod. Chainsaws were not on the curriculum (but, if she made it back to Cybertron, she'd make damn sure that it was in the future).

Strongarm allowed herself a sigh before pulling her shoulders back, giving up the struggle against Pharma's frame for just a nanoklick as she flipped the pole around end-first and plunged it right into the chainsaw's teeth. In the spark-showered dark she only knew it had made its mark when she saw the glint of metal against metal, and she was prepared for the whole pole to split in half and send her hands falling right into the path of the teeth.

But something else happened. In the dark, she saw a familiar red glow, like molten iron cracking open. It bloomed, spread, entangled itself around the end of the pole, strings of red climbing up its length to swarm around the other end too. It was coming from her digits, as if she was bleeding a supernova of light all the way down it. The strands squeezed the pole, actually squeezed it as if the metal was melting around them, and with the lights above still flickering she saw what they had done to it.

"Holy slag… Fixit, are those-?!"

"My own drills," the Kamuicon answered proudly. They capped each end of the pole, the heavy spiral throbbing red like the cords that covered the length, yet to Strongarm she felt hardly any difference in the weight."And unlike Pharma's chainsaw… I can make them go either way!"

Speaking of Pharma… he was no longer stunned. He seemed just as surprised as Strongarm at how the pole had changed, but he recovered much faster than her. He revved up the chainsaw, preparing to slice into the weapon and then her hand where they were still glowing, but she caught the saw again. The drill lodged into the saw then started to spin, a warm draught coming down from it right into Strongarm's face as the weapon's resisted. The direction of the drill directly fought against the saw's teeth, chipping and stalling them while Pharma careened to try and free himself from the onslaught. Strongarm had never used a weapon even remotely similar to what she now had, but Fixit must have been well-versed enough in drilling offence. He guided her servos, rooting and squaring her shoulders so her hands didn't slip and let the drill skid off its target. The Fibers too kept her hands steady, solidifying around her arms and keeping them caged so she couldn't tear away even if she tried.

So when she started digging into his elbow, it wasn't an accident. Fixit, or the Fibers, or maybe both of them, were trying to separate Pharma's servo from his body. It was cutting through the metal, down to the protoform, energon welling up around the gouge to dye the red a sickly blue, casting another source of light in the black so she could see-

The panic on his face. The pain, the way he yelped as he tried to pull away only to find that he was just as trapped in the moment as she was. She tried to stop it. She tried to make the drills cease, but her limbs weren't listening to her anymore. She didn't think Fixit was, either.

She was a passenger in her own body, having to watch her hands drive the drill in deeper, deeper, as Pharma jerked and flinched as if trying to tear the limb off himself if only it would make the pain stop-

"Strongarm, we've got the entrance! Get the frag down here!"

Wheeljack sounded so far away, but she could see him just over Pharma's shoulder, past the frantic flap of his wings. Seeing him was enough to make her falter, and Pharma noticed it. He tried to grab for her with his normal servo, but the Fibers finally released her so she could duck underneath his lunge and skid her knees across the floor towards Wheeljack. She was aware of the drill pulling free of the hole they'd burrowed in Pharma's joint, and tried not to think of the squelch that came from them leaving his protoform. She only ran, barrelling around the corners after Wheeljack and trying to ignore the energon dripping in her wake. But she couldn't. She couldn't ignore what she'd almost done… what Fixit and his Primus-damned Fibers almost made her do.

"Fixit, what the frag was that back there?!" she hissed, only holding onto her sullied weapon because her digits were locked so tightly around it.

"I… I don't know what you mean-"

"We almost cut his arm off!"

"Wha-? He would have cut your spark out!" He sounded as appalled at her as she was at him.

"And that's supposed to make me feel better about it?!" Fixit didn't answer, and Strongarm didn't want him to try. She didn't really want to hear him at all. She just wanted to get out of there with her spark intact.

She saw the sector wall ahead, with First Aid holding the door open. Wheeljack shot through it, pulling her in after him, and with one last burst of energy they practically spilled into the reception. Thunderhoof was there, and thankfully no one else. But it wasn't the smouldering wreck she'd been hoping to see. They were still trapped, just in a different place to get slaughtered. She forced Fixit to power down as she doubled over, grateful that she couldn't hear him over the rush of energon in her helm.

"Why… is the barrier still up?" she panted.
"We're still getting the boom ready," Wheeljack answered. Strongarm wanted to ask what was so damn difficult about just throwing a grenade at something, especially when it was practically a hobby for him, but something cut through the rapid ebb of energon in her audios, just as the wall to their left was being cut through. Split in half, by the all-too familiar grind of metal teeth tearing through it. It took a little longer than it would have if the saw was intact, but Pharma made a ragged line deep enough for him to force open wide. He'd just covered all the space they'd ran through in mere nanoklicks, all because he could literally cut corners. Even though they outnumbered him four to one, no-one dared to tackle him when he could bring the DJD down on them in a klick. And even with his weaponised servo hanging limp and bleeding and his saw reduced to a few spurs jutting out of the belt, he was a fearsome sight. His optics were wild, his wings nothing more than twitching juts of metal on his hunched shoulders, and when he saw them…

When he saw them, he only really saw one of them. Not Strongarm, still holding the weapon that almost de-servoed him. His optics narrowed, the need to kill ever so briefly vanishing from them.

"…First Aid?" For the very first time, he almost sounded sane in his confusion. But then his optics widened again, bright with delight at the massacre to come. "Am I finally seeing ghosts? Or did I just not kill you good enough the first time?"

First Aid didn't answer. He could only shake, finally face to face with the mech he must have spent so long running from. Primus only knew what kind of fear and anguish must have been hidden behind his mask… Primus and perhaps Pharma, from how he chuckled.

"A for effort, to the rest of you Autobots," he drawled, putting himself right in front of the barricaded entrance. "But that's all you were ever good for. Effort that doesn't get you anywhere. So, who wants to lose their legs first? What about you, Aid?" He turned on his former co-worker, letting his saw growl with the promise of agony to come as he slowly advanced. "The way you always complained about having to walk the wards, up and down and up and down, I think it would be a blessing for you-!"

Strongarm should have done something. Should have stepped out in front of First Aid, or demanded a rematch, or… or have just let Fixit cut his arm off. But he was silent now, and the Fibers were dormant. She couldn't make herself move. Even if she could have, she didn't have the drills anymore. The pole had returned to plain steel, a useless weight in her hand. But hitting him was something at least. Better than just standing there, watching First Aid leak coolant.

But before she could try and be a hero, Wheeljack beat her to it.

"Yo, Pharma! Think fast!" He threw something out towards him, and of course Pharma had no idea what it was. All he would have known was that it was coming towards him, and that he should probably catch it. Unfortunately for him, he succeeded. He looked down at the grenade, likely realising what it was just before it detonated.

When her audios stopped ringing, Strongarm could still only see white. She thought she was blind until she realised the white was snow; the snow outside, beyond the hole that had blasted the barricade wide open. The metal around it glowed red-hot, singeing the flakes that were tossed inside by the wind. She'd never been so grateful to be freezing.

"That was… bigger than I was expecting," she coughed, breathing in the smoke from the explosion.

"Yeah, that's what happens when you flood the igniter with Nucleon." Wheeljack smirked as he clapped Thunderhoof's shoulder, and helped to haul First Aid onto his peds. The Minicon was still stiff from terror, but that at least made it easier to carry him. They fled into the snow, tumbling down the thick drift that had gathered outside since they'd entered Delphi. Strongarm was the last through the hole, and she felt something nip at her ankle just before she threw herself clear into the soft powder.

"You… you fragging…!" Pharma wheezed as he pulled himself after her, crawling through the debris. If the fact that he was even still alive wasn't enough to surprise Strongarm, the state of him was enough to paralyse her. His face was charred, his chainsaw sputtering, his other servo gushing energon- no, not his servo. It was just the shoulder. The arm itself had been blown right off. So Strongarm really hadn't spared him from anything he hadn't already been doomed to by his own nature.

"I'll rip your fragging sparks out!" he swore, turning the snow blue as he dragged himself through it, desperately trying to catch his saw on anything that would bleed more than him. "You can't do this to ME!"

"Strongarm, get your aft over here!" Wheeljack bellowed from down below, standing outside the Riotjack's ramp. It seemed both so far yet too close, close enough for Pharma to have easily caught up with them if he was able to run. The psychopath was trying to restart his chainsaw, catching the manual power cord in his denta to yank it back with his neck. Strongarm didn't stick around to see if he was successful. She used the pole to vault off the drift, letting her momentum carry her down the hill to roll to a stop at the foot of the ship's ramp. She pushed herself up, scrambling in the white flurry even with Wheeljack pulling her, and saw Rosanna- Rosie! Still alive!- standing at the top as Thunderhoof hauled First Aid inside.

"Who the Pit is that?" she asked, swinging her helm around to anyone who would answer her but only managing to find an even more frantic question. "Who the Pit is he?!" She pointed out towards Pharma, still trying to chase after them as he crawled through the snow in a trail of blue.

"JUST GET THE FRAGGING THRUSTERS GOING!" Wheeljack yelled, waving her inside as he yanked Strongarm up the ramp. She felt herself sprawl on the ground as she threw herself inside, and the wind at her back thankfully cease as the door clamped shut behind her. Wheeljack must have let her lie there in her own relief for a while, as when she was able to pick herself back up she could tell they were in the air from the soothing hum of the engines. First Aid lay slumped against the wall, while Wheeljack and Thunderhoof leaned hard into it. Rosanna stood out among them all, practically glowing compared to their ragged and scorched frames, though she was also exhausted in her own way.

"What happened?" she asked, though she didn't sound like she really wanted to know. Strongarm sighed. First Aid gasped. Thunderhoof groaned. Only Wheeljack had the strength left to speak for any of them.

"Government healthcare has failed us once again."

xx

They were gone. He saw them flying, their ship passing just beneath his hand as he raised it to the sky and though his wings fluttered, aching to join them, aching to escape just as they had, he did not shift at all in the snow. His neck froze so that his head lolled to one side, his vision locked onto nothing more than empty white. He could feel the rest of him freezing, the cold dragging him down into stasis lock, crystallising the energon that still gushed from the open wound in his arm- no. No, the wound that was his arm. He hadn't felt like this since he'd first had the chainsaw fitted. It had taken centuries to get used to not having digits anymore, centuries that he spent putting the saw to good use. Convincing himself that it was better than what he had before.
Now he didn't have centuries to do it again. He didn't think he even had klicks left. HUD warnings. His shoulder throbbing out the last of his fuel. His glossa lying limp and wet even as it froze to his mouth. His mission a complete and utter failure, just as he'd known it would be from the start.

Because of them. Because of the Autobots, like her. And him. They hadn't smelled any different from the others. Yet they had been the ones to kill him. How? How?!

As if the answer really mattered now.

His only regret was that he hadn't killed First Aid after all. He'd only seen him covered in energon, assumed that it was his own. Or was it him he thought he'd turned into a pile of limbs? Maybe the one he'd found frozen outside after Tarn's first visit? He honestly couldn't remember. Once you'd killed ten Minicons, you'd killed them all. Or maybe that was his processor shutting down. The memories slipping away, like energon through his digits.

He wished the fuel warning would go away. He didn't need the reminder that he was dying. He wished the snow would stop, just for a klick. Just so he'd stop shaking. The ground, too. The ground kept shaking. Quaking. Why was it doing that-?

A ped came into view. It crushed the snow beneath it, like a hand would mindlessly crush a rust mite. Pharma might have flinched from it, if he was able to move.

"Should we follow them?" a muffled voice asked.

There was a pause where Pharma thought he could feel his spark give its last beat. "No," Tarn answered. "We'd be best tracking down this 'Strongarm' that Lord Airachnid wants."

"And why are we taking orders from her?"

"Our deal with her still stands. And, like or not, she is the last surviving link to Lord Megatron. She has proven herself worthy of carrying his mantle."

Pharma could only dimly hear them, from somewhere close to the Allspark. Or maybe it was the Pit. They wanted Strongarm… the bold one. The one who almost made him worried he'd lose. They didn't know she was escaping…? He had to warn them. He had to tell them, and then… maybe they'd release him. Maybe they'd reward him, at last, let him finally leave Delphi.

"What is the status of our Nucleon cache?"

"Five canisters recovered. Should last until we return to base."
"See that they do, Tesarus."

The ped moved out of his vision, and he panicked. But another replaced it; smaller, more like a claw than a foot. Then he felt the claws, under his chin, pulling his neck to the side so that he was forced to stare at the sky, but the sky was even farther away now with Vos' helm blocking it. He appraised Pharma's face. Perhaps wondering if it was worth stealing. He paid no mind to Pharma's attempts at speech, his futile struggle to tear his glossa free from the gummed-up ice in his mouth. If he could just get her name out, let them know what they were missing, if he could just… just tell them what he knew…

"What should we do with the doctor?" Kaon asked. Vos leaned in closer, to see how much light was left in his optics.

Tarn came into view- at least, his legs did. Those were all Pharma could see, now. The limbs of his executioners.

"See that we get at least some last use out of his frame," Tarn decreed. "And take special care with the T Cog. I'll be tending to it myself."

"Will do, boss."

Behind his blank face, Vos' optics lit up at the thought of a new death mask just before he scampered away, making room for Kaon as he knelt down over Pharma's sobbing corpse, the coolant freezing to his face as soon as it spilled over his optics.

"Sorry about this, Pharma." He almost believed that he was sorry. The frozen tears over his optics made everything blurry, anonymous, but even then he could tell that there was something sharp being held over him.

"I'll make it quick, okay?"

The scalpel bit into his chest, and his screams came out in a gurgle of energon. Even then, he couldn't get Strongarm's name out. He couldn't save himself over the sound of his own vivisection.