Rian: WARNING! Read this before scrolling down! There's a small amount of non-con later in this chapter, so I'm placing a warning here now to let you know now!
Also, time flows differently on Cybertron- one of their days, and orn, is thirteen days I think? And one of their years, a vorn, is eighty-three earth years. So time flows very slowly for Jack.
"Ugh!" Jack groaned as he was struck across the face, a coalition of guards surrounding him. He felt his denta crack, energon pouring into his mouth, where it then dribbled over onto his chin. His body slid across the floor with an awful screeching noise, creating sparks as he slowed to a stop.
He had known something was wrong when instead of being taken to the mining tunnels, he got carted to a secluded room. His spark dropped when he saw the guards and the door lock behind them. It had been a fleeting thought, when the first punch came. Jack groaned even if it hurt, and he gagged on the energon in his mouth, spitting it onto the floor.
He gritted his denta, but the pain shooting through his cheeks told him it was a mistake. "What is this?" It hurt to speak, even as he could feel the minute healing inside his mouth. He even knew what the answer would be, but he just wanted to stall the pain.
"A lesson," a guard stated just before kicking him in the stomach. "To teach you some manners."
Jack grunted as he his stomach plating ached, denting from the force of impact. "Manners?" he spat, both figuratively and literally.
Another guard came up and slammed his pede down on Jack's chest, pinning him there. "To show you what happens when you try and escape."
"I did." Jack managed to smirk, but screeched as another leg smashed down on his own. He felt something crack, either bone or metal. It hurt all the same. The choked sob that left him when the pede twisted on his knee had the guards smirking.
"You're not as unbreakable as you think you are. I'm going to enjoy beating the living spark out of you!"
Jack gasped, squeezing his optics shut before glaring up at them. "You…can't."
There was a pause, before Jack cringed as a pede kicked him in the head. "Then we're going to beat you until it sticks for you to know your place!"
"Nng!" Jack grunted as he was lifted up and slammed into a wall. His head spun sickening when a blow struck him, metal cracking from the force. Jack winced when his optic cracked, and he struggled to get away, painful and weak as his attempt was. "Let…go."
One of the guards laughed harshly at him. "What? You think just because you're owned now it makes you better than anyone else in here?"
"Better than you!" Jack snarled. He regretted it instantly as his midsection was ruthlessly struck.
"You're not, you worthless piece of scrap!"
Jack screeched as another fist slammed across his jaw. The injuries being dealt to him were coming in faster than his body could heal it. In the back of his mind, something chilled him. They were starting to go into a frenzy, and didn't seem ready to stop.
"Stop...s-stop...!" Jack pleaded, but it went unheard by his attackers. Energon was leaking from various splits in his dented armor, the damage making him almost unrecognizable.
Jack's chest tightened, the crushing sensation making it hard to think of anything. His spark was painfully hot, pulsing so hard he swore he could see it through the cracks in his chest, but something unnerved him about more than he could give thought too. And when a strike knocked into him one final time, the familiar coldness swallowed him up.
Jack was only aware of how chilly everything was, of the pain in his body restoring itself piece by piece. His optic repaired itself, letting him see the void around him clearly, before he was shoved back to reality.
"We just killed him!"
"Shut up, that scrapmetal brought it on himself!"
"What are we gonna do? What's Shockwave going to when we can't send him his pet now?!"
The mention of Shockwave was enough to make Jack growl, catching the attention of the guards.
"He's...he's alive?" A stunned guard stammered out.
"That's impossible!"
Jack groaned as he was roughly grabbed by his cuffs, chaffing his wrists as he was dragged up. "Wha-" he stopped, wincing as the healing settled everything again. He saw the guards that hadn't taken off were staring at him.
"He really is alive." One muttered.
"How though?"
"Think Shockwave did something?"
"The one optic freak made another freak of nature." A guard said lowly. "Take him back to the mines. I don't want to see this glitch doing anything but drilling for the next six orns!"
"What?!" Jack screeched, but he grunted as he was roughly dragged from the room. Jack was pulled down to another tunnel. His wrists were uncuffed, and Jack was shoved into the area, falling with a loud clang that briefly drew the attention of the other miners.
"Back to work!" The guard barked, and kicked Jack to one of the empty spaces with a drill. "That means you too! Hope you enjoyed your time out," he sneered, "because you're not leaving this spot."
"What about my breaks?" Jack asked, rubbing his wrists.
"Didn't you hear? Six orns is six orns; nothing but drilling."
Jack's optics widened. "What? But I'll drop by then!"
The guard just shoved him harshly again, and Jack collided with the wall. He groaned, rubbing his face as the guard left. Jack growled to himself, and wondered why he wanted to come back here.
And then he did. 'Megatron's still here.' Jack sighed deeply, and picked up the drill before reluctantly turning it on.
Gritting his denta, he started to work on drilling the wall, ignoring how familiarly grating the sound was to his ears. He almost didn't know which place was worst- Shockwave's lab or the fragging mines, if it weren't for the horribly painful vivisection he'd undergone he would almost say the former, but as it were this place was only slightly more manageable, if only by a sliver of microscopic dust.
And what a bunch of hypocrites; teaching him 'manners' like they couldn't use a lesson. Jack could still feel the phantom aches, but it was becoming a fading sensation. It disturbed him how used to dying he was getting.
Small scars were starting to litter his otherwise sleek body, which was already becoming filthy from the metal dust as the wall was pierced. Looking down he could see the faint, slightly raised scars on his newly repaired chest. Part of him wondered if there was a limit to how many times he could die- thus far he had proven to Primus that he wasn't very good at this.
What if Primus decided to cut his losses and the next time he died-he didn't come back? Would he be cast out in the cold so suddenly? With no warning or thought? What if Primus could find someone better, just because Jack was doing a poor job of it? 'I thought staying alive would be easy, just avoid any dangerous situations- turns out those find me anyway.' he thought bitterly.
Time passed him by, and the only way he knew was when bots would be allowed to leave, and Jack wasn't. It hadn't kept him from glaring at the guard who smirked at him either, as if mocking him. And it made Jack dig just a bit harder, wishing he could punch him.
Jack absently pulled a small energon shard out and dropped it into his crate. There wasn't much anyway, which might have actually been a good thing since the guard didn't check his progress either. Dust caught in his vents, and he coughed instinctively, but grimaced when he saw the energon still coating the various spots on his body where the guards beat him. He wouldn't call himself vain, but it was inherently creepy to him to be doing this while still covered in his own energon.
The only light in this, ironically enough, would be if he could find Megatron in here again. Fulfilling his purpose and simultaneously having someone to lean on in this place...Jack couldn't hope for more. He must have been in a different tunnel though, as Jack hadn't seen any hint of the other mech's silvery hide so far. Maybe after the break he'd be lucky enough to find Megatron.
Or if Megatron found him, as the case might have been. This mine had to be a big place, with a lot of tunnels Jack likely hadn't even been too. It would be a miracle in of itself for he and Megatron to come across each other again. 'Terrible things keeping happening to me, when I can finally catch a break?' he thought. 'Probably never.' he added grimly. The path he chose certainly wasn't the easiest one. Not for the first time, he had second thoughts about ever agreeing to do this. So far, he had been useless...
Homesickness had plagued him since the beginning but it was worse than it ever was before. Jack was completely alone; he'd been beaten, killed, revived- rinse and repeat. He wanted to be back in his bed at home, the smell of his mother's tofu dinner wafting down the hall to his room. He wanted to hear Miko's shriek metal and Bumblebee's beeping as he and Raf chatted.
More and more, everything about his human life felt like a dream, and it terrified him that one day he would stop seeing that as his 'old life' and just his past life as though it didn't matter anymore. It did matter, it still had to matter, because Jack was doing this for all of them; to make it so no one he cared about had to go get plagued by the war on the horizon. 'If it still is, maybe? Even I'm not sure what to call it. And, maybe I've already changed enough to stop the war.' He thought hopefully, but shook his head. No, no, he couldn't allow thoughts such as that to plague him. His work wouldn't be over until he saw it done by his own hands.
Being complacent would lead to arrogance, which would lead to him overlooking things. Jack drilled, the sounds ringing in his audios as he thought over what he knew so far. 'Megatron's pretty different from what I remember, and so is Arcee,' Knowing the latter was apart of the corrupt system was a bitter pill to swallow, even more so when thinking of how she shot his face off.
Jack shook his head, carrying on. 'Bulkhead seemed the same, but it was still weird seeing him working together with Breakdown,' he thought, and then a flush of anger overcame him as he next thought, 'and Shockwave's always been a mad scientist, why is that not surprising?' He sighed, bringing his drill out of the wall. 'Nothing is anymore...' He sighed again, tossing a piece of Cybernite into his crate. The next thing he knew Optimus would be the seed of evil and Megatron would be sunshine and daisies. Jack snorted at the thought.
'I at least I still have my winning sense of humor,' he thought sardonically. 'Too bad everyone's a little more bloodthirsty than I expected for my words to do anything except aggravate them.' He shook his head, sighing as once the pain of his injuries faded, a new one began to form. Whatever his stomach was called, it started to ache, a strange feeling he knew from being an organic to remind him it was hunger and not some wound which hadn't healed completely.
'Just work past it,' he told himself, 'because that's all you can do right now. Just three more orns until you can have a break.'
It persisted, growing worse over time. He distracted himself with non-stop working, his crate becoming fuller with each passing hour.
It was near the of the second to last orn that a guard showed up. There was no sense of relief upon his arrival, as Jack found it doubtful the mech would give him his break early.
The guard walked up to his crate, giving it a cursory look before gazing at Jack. "You must be hungry, practically starving, right?" he leaned in a bit closer, and Jack leaned back just as much. Something seemed...off about this. "I could sneak you some, no one would even have to know."
Jack narrowed his optics, his grip tightening on the drill. "And what would you want? I know this wouldn't be out of the goodness of your spark."
"Not much." Jack's spark thrummed hot when his wrist was grabbed. "Just a bit of your time...that's not asking a lot, is it?" The mech grinned, getting far too close for Jack's liking.
Jack tried to back away again, but a chill went through him when all he felt was the wall. The hand holding the drill was currently restrained, and he glared at the guard while balling his other hand into a fist. "Let me go; I don't want what you're offering." Jack gasped as he was pushed, hard, further against the wall, the mech ignoring his protests. "No!" He shouted, struggling against the mech pinning him.
Jack desperately tried to strike out, aiming for the mech's optics. His wrist was caught, and slammed into the wall and Jack gritted his denta to keep from screaming as both of his wrists were tugged above his head. "Stop, let me go!" he could only struggle, the other body too close and pressing for him to do any damage. Jack squeezed his optics shut tightly when he felt the guard's now free hand begin wandering down his body.
"Should have accepted." The mech chided, mouth teasing along his neck. Jack trembled as he felt the lips ghosting on his plates.
Jack's stomach churned as he shook his head, trying to lean away, but he cringed as denta clamped down on his neck, biting. "Please, don't do this!"
The lips moved along to his shoulder, fingers teasing wires as the hand got steadily lower. "Begging's not going to help you."
Jack froze when he felt the hand cup him between his legs, disgust coiling tight in his stomach as the fingers probed the area. "Then-then Shockwave won't be happy!" It was a last-ditch effort, just to make this stop.
The hand hesitated, the mech pulling back slightly. "What about Shockwave?" He demanded, gripping Jack's shoulder tightly.
"He...sent me back while he waited for his experiment to settle in." Jack grasped at straws, making things up with hopefully enough force in his voice. "Regenerative implants; he told me that nothing could contaminate the experiment. Do you think he's going to be happy or merciful if you ruin his research?"
The guard scowled, tightening his hold on Jack. The human turned mech prepared for the worst, ready to fight this guy to the death- "Tch," he growled, backing off while letting Jack slide to the floor. "You're not worth having Shockwave on my head, no matter how good you look."
Jack kept his head low as the guard stormed out of the tunnel. A choked sob escaped then, shoulders shaking as the adrenaline overcame him and he gasped as he hugged himself. 'That-he almost-he-it worked though. It got him to leave.' he thought, his mind a jumbled mess as was his emotional state.
Jack shakily got back to his feet, almost stumbling as he leaned against the wall for support. He felt sick to his stomach, his plating crawling as he desperately wanted to wash everything away even more. How much more of this could he take? He...He had almost been...
Jack turned his head as he dry heaved, too low on energon to actually purge himself of the substance.
It took him a moment to regain his bearings, after which he picked his driller back up. Just...just a little longer, he told himself. Then he could rest and have energon. Just a little longer to try and forget what happened.
Bringing himself to get back to work was an arduous process, almost nicking himself once before he turned the driller on. The tool powered up, and his stomach rolled despite how impossible it was. He felt nausea, rolling his optics back briefly as the urge to heave again passed. Time slowly passed as well, the memory of what almost...happened slowly becoming a horrible blur against every other thing here.
Jack focused on nothing but the metal in front of him, picking out more energon shards and Cybernite. The crate was almost full, but the thought gave him little comfort. The final break came and went, and he flinched when a new guard led the next set of miners in. He turned back to the wall, trying to ignore them.
"W-Wayward?"
Jack's form stilled, his optics widening. He knew that voice. He dropped the driller as he whirled around, meeting Megatron's optics. 'I never thought I'd actually be so happy to see you!' he thought, struggling to keep the words back as he felt a sharp sense of relief.
"H...hey Me- D-16." Jack greeted breathlessly, hardly daring to believe it. How did he know this wasn't some energon deprived illusion? Jack scratched his plating and sure enough he felt pain. Megatron was still there. Jack's face slowly broke out into a grin.
"Wayward?" Megatron repeated, and reached out to poke the smaller mech on the forehead.
Jack twitched, but the grin didn't fade. "You're really here." he whispered. "I didn't think I'd see you again."
"I should be telling you that." Megatron retorted, though he looked somewhat uncomfortable to have such breathless joy directed at him. His optics though narrowed when he looked Jack over, seeing underneath the grime all the energon that stuck to his plating. "What happened to you?"
Jack winced at the reminder. "...a lot things." He admitted softly, wishing more than anything that he could forget. "I don't think you want to know."
Megatron looked at him for a long moment, but nodded. "Very well." he conceded. Jack walked in step with him as they went back to his station, with the taller mech taking the spot beside him. He paused when he saw the almost full crate. "How long have you been working for?"
Jack looked down for a moment. "Can we leave that for another time too? It's just...a lot happened." he said quietly. Jack coughed. "How-how have you been since I've been gone?" he asked, awkwardly changing the subject. It wasn't a smooth transition, but he wanted to get away from this topic.
Megatron got the gist of the situation, moving past his own curiosity to relieve the tension. "I've been battling in the pits shortly after you left." He said as he moved to his section. "I am going to carve my freedom out of this place."
Jack remembered how Megatron mentioned one could win their freedom, and couldn't help looking him over for any injuries. "You look...well."
Megatron raised a brow, but smirked as he turned on his own drill. "Yes, they could not touch me."
Jack nodded absently, but the thought of getting out of this place... "Do you think...I'd be ready to go there soon? If we trained enough during our breaks, could I go for a match?"
Megatron narrowed his optics. "Why the sudden eagerness? Or is it part these...personal matters?"
"I..." Jack stalled, his throat feeling thick all of a sudden. "Y-yeah. I have an," his face scrunched up in distaste and anger, "I have an owner now."
Megatron's expression turned stormy, fury in his optics. Jack felt the acute sense of momentary fear, but slowly realized the disconnect that the taller mech was angry for him rather than at him. "Such a disgusting practice. I assume it's some high caste scum?"
"Yeah, a..." Jack trailed off. He had a flash of insight, something to damage the potential threat of the war. 'Shockwave was one of Megatron's top scientists; maybe without him it can keep things from going south.' he thought. "It's a scientist called Shockwave. Being around him was not...pleasant." he said, and purposefully scraped the energon on his leg, to get the point across of who was the cause.
As he expected, Megatron took noticed, mouth curling in a snarl. "He did that?" he demanded more than asked of him, to which Jack only nodded.
"Among other things..." Jack muttered lowly. "He's not the kind of guy you want to spend quality time with, that's for sure."
"I will take that into account." Megatron said darkly.
"So how much would it...cost to get my freedom from him?" Jack asked, twisting the word bitterly.
"Slave value is determined by 'quality'. It varies from mech to mech." The words came out like acid from Megatron's mouth. "In the end, it depends on whatever value this 'Shockwave' deems you to have."
Jack stared blankly at the wall, his gaze going a thousand yards away. 'Well this isn't good.' he thought. Shockwave bought him for long-time use, was there any chance he'd be satisfied with just the samples he had? Jack snorted at the thought. 'Yeah right; I'm in big trouble.' he added darkly. "Then this is a problem. I'm apparently very valuable to him; I doubt my freedom is going to come cheap."
"And would his reasons have anything to do with those crystals you found?" Megatron questioned. Jack hesitated briefly, but reluctantly nodded. The silver mech frowned as he looked away briefly, but his optics were hard when he stared back at him. "Then you will need help in earning the money."
Jack jolted, both at the implication of Megatron wanting to help him, and that Megatron wanted to help him. It was surreal. "Really?" It slipped out before he could stop himself. He ducked his head, looking nervous.
"Yes." Megatron answered simply. "I decided on this before you returned to the mines regardless."
Jack's expression softened, feeling unexpectedly touched by the admission. "Well, thank you." he said, just a bit awkward given he couldn't stopping thinking this was Megatron. 'No, right now he's still D-16.' Jack thought, but knew it would be harder to keep the two apart in his head. It still didn't take away from the gesture. "Then I'll look forward to shoving the money at him and telling him to screw off." he chuckled.
Megatron shook his head, but chuckled a bit more faintly as well. "Though first we'll need to work on your training more."
Jack nodded, but frowned as he reluctantly thought of before when that guard tried... He gritted his denta, glaring at he wall. If there was a way to keep that from happening ever again, he had to ask. "Say I was pinned, but the opponent was too close to kick and my servos were restrained. Would there be a way to esc-er, get out?"
Megatron stared at him curiously before answering. "It depends. If you had enough room, even with your hands bound out you could potentially cut the wires to his wrists."
Jack nodded, staring down at his own wrists. "I see." he said as he absently pulled a piece of energon from the wall, dropping it into his crate. "Anything else?"
"You could headbutt them, damaging their optics; that though comes with the problem of recursive damage, so it's best to leave that as a last resort." Megatron explained. "There is also a way to cause your opponent to bleed out," he pointed to a curve in his neck, a piece uncovered by armor, "bite this hard enough, and it will cause the other bot massive energon loss. That should be the first thing to attempt, should you ever become trapped like that."
Jack clenched his driller, frame tense. "R...right." he said quietly. Megatron paused, looking the mech up and down. "What is it?"
"Nothing." Megatron's reply gave nothing away, and they both went back to work.
The rest of the shift passed by just as slowly as before, but Jack felt a strange sense of security now that he was with Megatron again. It was weird, but Jack was getting used to the oddness of it. Though he still tensed up when a guard came in, checking over their progress.
The guard looked over Megatron's crate, and moved on to Jack's. He paused when he spotted a note on the check board, and huffed. "Looks like your orn's are up, so get out."
Jack nodded, and he hurried out, Megatron following him. He noticed the taller mech's stare, and Jack shrugged uneasily. "I'll tell you, just...let me process it, deal?" A nod, and Jack sighed gratefully. He appreciated how Megatron didn't persist in his personal matters like his mom or Miko did. "So...this is the rest break right?" Jack said hopefully, having lost track of which was which during his long hours in the tunnels.
"Yes. I can imagine you haven't had much of it." Megatron said.
Jack grimaced. "None at all." he muttered. They walked into the crowded room, but once his optics adjusted to the dark-he wished he hadn't just a moment longer. Jack could have gone without another reminder of what happened earlier, but to see the guard that assaulted him speaking to another guard in the corner made his energon run cold.
The mech still had the grime staining his chassis, right in the spots where he pressed up against Jack. The small mech wrapped his arms around himself, fingers digging into his plating. The guard noticed him on his way out, cleaning cloth in hand. He gave Jack a once over, the look in his optics making Jack want to take a shower. The feeling didn't leave even when the mech left.
Jack glanced to the side, and cringed when he saw Megatron had seen the whole thing. The taller mech's blue optics shifted from the guard, then to Jack, no doubt noticing the same stains he had.
"What is it?" Jack almost jumped when Megatron placed a hand on his shoulder.
"N...not right now," He muttered, hurrying past the guard and shrugging the hand off. Never had he felt such an even stronger urge to shower before. Not even when Shockwave was cutting and prodding him over, energon flowing everywhere.
Jack's stomach rolled, threatening to heave, but Jack had nothing to give. He all but collapsed on the thing which could barely be called a berth, and tried to stop the shaking that threatened to overwhelm him. He jerked up when Megatron sat across him on another berth, but said nothing. He didn't prod, or even say anything. Jack felt like it was an oxymoron to feel...safe with him, but he couldn't deny that was the feeling which finally settled his spark, calming his nerves.
And when he slept, it was heavy, no dreams pervading his thoughts this time. When he was forcibly woken by Megatron it wasn't nearly enough to catch up on the rest he lost. Jack groaned, rolling over.
"G'way Mom..." He bemoaned, wanting five more minutes.
There was a long silence, Megatron's tone slightly confused and bewildered. "Mom?"
Jack's optics snapped open. This was embarrassing, no, beyond embarrassing. "It's, uh...my...carrier. A nickname I gave them when I was young." Jack just managed to keep it from sounding like a question, mixing in the truth to make it sound credible.
All it got him was an odd stare. "Such a strange thing to call your carrier." Megatron replied, but shook his head. "Then again, my knowledge of high caste customs are often strange to us low castes."
'He thinks I'm from the high caste?' Shockwave had too, but that wasn't for right now. 'He thinks that and doesn't hate me?' Jack thought, but it sounded like Megatron bought the excuse at any rate. "Y-yeah. They can be strange..." He agreed, managing a slight smile in hopes that Megatron wouldn't think anything of his strange wordings. He didn't need the mech asking him questions that he ultimately couldn't answer at the moment.
And there were so many things he didn't know still; things that for some likely couldn't even be passed off just being 'sheltered'.
"They?" Megatron raised a brow.
Jack shrugged, the lie coming a bit more easily. "It's not like I'm a part of it anymore. I got thrown down here, didn't I?"
"I suppose that is true. Why though, were you kicked out from the high caste?"
"I uh...my carrier she...offlined. Not long after my creator had." Jack said hesitatingly, taking from what Shockwave had assumed about him. "Without a way to support myself I was kind of...let go."
"Such a fickle caste; they use us as slave labor, wasting away down here while they live comfortably until you are no longer seen as 'useful'." Megatron said, scowling. It softened as he looked at Jack thoughtfully. "Perhaps your sheltered upbringing did you some good after all."
"Even if I seem like I don't know anything?" Jack asked.
"Especially so. You're nothing like I expected you to be." Megatron stated. Jack felt a surge of heat in his face- embarrassment.
"And just what did you think I was going to be like? Some overcharged snob?"
"Yes."
Well, that was blunt, but Jack hadn't expected anything else from the mech. He made his disdain for the high caste clear enough already. "I feel so honored to be your exception." he drawled, but couldn't stop the beginning of a smile from forming on his lips again.
"As you should be." Megatron played along, a grin growing on him as well.
Jack snickered, but coughed into his fist. "So, why'd you wake me up?"
"Was it not obvious? To get in some of your training of course." Megatron replied.
Jack almost jumped up in his hurry. "Really? So soon?" All thoughts of sleep were cast aside, just for the chance to become stronger and get ready to enter the gladiator pits.
"Unless you wish to rest more."
"No, let's go!" Jack almost shouted, and he winced as several of the miners close by hissed and snarled at him. "Uh, sorry about that." he whispered, and both he and Megatron quietly left the room. They got to the tunnel, but hadn't even begun their training session before a guard stepped in. Jack stiffened on instinct, the scene familiar and he couldn't help scooting closer to Megatron. "What's going?" he asked the guard.
"You've been docked your break. Get back to work." The mech replied.
Jack's optics widened. "What? You can't do that!"
"One of our security guards said you were being a nuisance, and that it would teach you a lesson to be denied liberties." The guard said scathingly.
A swell of fury rose in Jack, because he knew exactly why this was happening. "You all likely saw what he tried to do to me!" he snarled. "How can you think what happened was my fault?!"
"Not my problem." The guard callously moved by, uncaring of what could have happened. "Get back to work, or you'll be due for worse."
"But that's not fair! I haven't done anything wrong-"
"Work. Now." The guard enunciated, one word away form simply stunning him into submission.
Jack bit his glossa, silencing himself from another retort despite how much he wanted to argue. He just seethed as the guard left, kicking at the ground as dust picked up. "Rotten bunch of-" he stopped, because only then did he remember Megatron had not only seen it, but knew exactly what had happened before. "A-about what you heard..." he trailed off, because he wasn't sure how to continue.
"It is a common occurrence in the mines." Though the words flowed easily from his mouth, Jack could see the stiffness in Megatron's jaw. "Particularly among the more 'favorable' miners."
The thought made Jack sick. Favorable? "That is disgusting."
"Indeed." Megatron agreed. "And any attempts to resist are dealt with punishment."
Jack hugged himself, because the depth of how awful things were just kept getting bigger. "I want you to tell me everything you can about where to hit a bot where it hurts." his optics hardened. "So when you go to the gladiator pits, I can go with you, and get my freedom too."
"It isn't that easy, Wayward." Megatron scolded him with a hard look in his optics. "If you go in with only that you'll offline-"
"So?!" Jack jerked around with a snarl. He couldn't take this anymore! "I've died before! The only problem is that I keep coming back!"
The silence was deafening, and Jack closed his optics. He'd wanted to say that for so long now, and doing it felt...freeing, but he didn't know if he just made a huge mistake. He risked a glance at Megatron, who was looking at him with wide optics.
"You...died before?" he repeated. "And you came back?" his optics narrowed suddenly as realization hit him. "When the miner had attacked you, and you were turning gray-"
"Yes, you were right." Jack said bleakly. "I did die-for the first time, actually."
As usual, Megatron never missed even the most minute detail. "The first time?"
"I ran away when the guards opened the trailer." Jack admitted reluctantly, hands clenching and unclenching. He reached up to touch a raised line on his cheek. "I resisted a cop. She blew half my face off."
Jack let out a bitter laugh then. "The only time I didn't die was with Shockwave; he was so careful not to anything that would lose his precious research." he snorted, and glared at the wall as he touched the scar on his chest. "And the last time was when I came back here; the guards beat me so much that it killed me-literally."
Megatron processed the information, and narrowed his optics again when he looked at him. "How are you able to do this?"
"It's a long story," Jack looked back with a scowl at the guard that was watching them. A fixated stare from Megatron had him shuddering in his plates uncomfortably as he walked to the farthest side of tunnel, Megatron following.
Jack could just say that this was some freaky ability of his, but would Megatron really buy that? 'No, probably not. It would sound like an excuse.'
And Jack couldn't even tell the whole truth (at least not right now), because even that would be too unbelievable. 'I was brought here by Primus and I can't die unless I make sure you don't go bad.' Not only was it unbelievable, but it was also deeply insulting. 'Though, maybe I can work with the dark energon angle.'
Right now, that was all he had to go on.
