Author's Note: Prompt suggested by CJ and with a dash of inspiration from ObsidianJade's work.


R is for Rust


From rust they came and to rust they would return…it was a common tenant of faith that many vehicles held. What laid beyond that, well, the opinions about that varied greatly. Even among the various members of the Piston Peak Air Attack Team, there wasn't a whole lot of common ground. Which made the fact that no one on base actively chose to talk about death often a very good thing. Unfortunately, the one exception to the no death talk was Maru, and he was a vehicle that had to keep his mouth shut when his coworkers waxed poetic at funerals because unlike his coworkers he didn't believe in a great beyond.

To the mechanic, death was death…and beyond that was darkness, oblivion. It was a concept that brought the little tug comfort. As much as he mourned those that were gone, the finality of the end of a life brought a close. When someone was gone, any ghosts that haunted you were simply a figment of your imagination…a flicker of memory that your mind wasn't ready to let go of. As long as Maru remembered that, he could ignore the flash of blue and white he occasionally saw at the corner of his eye during long nights when he stood vigil over a wounded teammate.

From rust they came and to rust they would return, but while other vehicles prayed Maru would do his best to beat death so that when it came he could live without regret.