Return of the Heir Chapter 4
He was stripped of everything he had in his possession, but the one thing he had hidden was a picture of his old family when the warm season returned and the sparklings were playing with him in the stream. He curled in on himself holding the picture close to his spark and cried himself into recharge.
Morning soon rose upon the city of Iacon and Novatron woke to the sound of shouting guards. "Wake up scum, time to begin your training." The blue and white mech was picked up roughly and dragged from his cell towards the center courtyard. But, before they went outside his master drug him over to a brazen with five branding irons in the fire. He was held down as a servant walked over with a white-hot iron, the searing metal touched his arm where his old mark used to be, and the pain was excruciating, with his screams echoing throughout the complex.
The light from Hadeen blinded him for a moment; he then saw other slaves being forced to do perfect their given tasks. Such as learning to lift heavier than they could handle, moving objects that seemed impossible to move. The femmes, if they did not pour the energon correctly, were whipped within an inch of their lives.
What made Novaton's spark sink was when he saw the sparklings trying their best to complete the given tasks; it was the same punishment as the femme's only it seemed that the slavers did not want them completely useless. They led him to a station where there were some farm tools laid out, "I want these clean by the time I get back or else?"
Time went by faster than Novaton could have thought and his master was back. "You have a good idea of how to clean tools, but you missed a spot" the slaver showed him the hammer, however, when he leaned in closer he saw no spot.
"They are clean just like you asked me and…"
He never got to finish the statement as pain exploded on the side of his helm. The young mech cupped his bleeding lip as he stared at his master. "One: do not question me again; Two: you will respect my authority when I give you orders, and Three: the next time, it will be more than a bleeding lip plate. Now clean these tools again, but now you have only thirty-cycles to do so."
The mech left Novaton to clean the tools that he had knocked into the dusty sand beneath him. The day progressed on and the heat from the sun only intensified; by the time the tools were clean a second time, the blue and white mech was exhausted. His slaver came over and inspected the tools which he promptly told Novaton that they weren't clean enough.
The young-adult mech was fed up with the slaver and lunged for the mech's neck cables. The blue and black slave trader moved out of the way and turned to see four other guards holding his slave down. "Attacking me is a grave offense, but since this is your first time here I'll go easy on you." He punched Novaton in the abdomen and kept going until the young mech couldn't stand on his own. "Tie him up for a sun bath and let's see if that teaches him a lesson."
Novaton couldn't hear through the sound of energon roaring in his audios and his vision was blurry from the pain. When he came to he was standing limply with his servos bound above his head. He looked up into the starry sky and prayed to Primus to take him back to Timegazer, and back to the only family he ever knew.
Optimus and his sire were in the royal transport riding to the slave market. The young prince just stared out the window as they moved past the city center as towards the harbor. "Sire, I don't want to do this. I mean, treat another as if they are nothing; it isn't right."
The king of Iacon knew his son would protest again just like he did last dark-cycle. "Optimus, you are a prince and you have to know how to handle these things if you are to succeed me someday. I don't want to discuss it any more, to make it better I'll let you choose your own slave; whichever one you want."
That was at least something, is father did let him chose most of the things he wanted; if only the same could be said about his future choices of bondmates. "Okay, sire; I will agree to that."
They arrived at the market and were greeted by the head slaver; "Welcome your majesties, I hope you leave here satisfied. Come I will show you want versus what I have."
The short purple mech led them to the open yard and what Optimus saw made him sick to his tanks. The slaves lined before him were malnourished, scarred and frightened. It made him even more sick when he saw the sparklings in the same condition.
"As you can see, all of my merchandise has been properly trained to follow orders and you should have no problem with them; now what kind of slave are you looking for?"
"Well, my son here needs a slave who will do all of his chores; that way he can focus on more important matters."
"My dear King Ultra Magnus have I got the ones for you. Since no doubt an adult mech will be needed the sparklings will be dismissed." The purple mech waved his hand as the sparklings were led away.
As the line thinned, he saw a white and blue mech barely able to stand, tied to a post. He slipped away from his sire and walked over to the poor mech. The young prince could tell he was starving by the way he did not react right away to his presence. There were dents and cuts all over his body, to add on to the obvious misery the lip plates were dried, cracked and bleeding. He called out to the mech, hoping he would answer "What is your name?"
Novaton heard a voice call out to him and when he opened his optics, he saw a handsome young mech with red and blue plating. He was staring for so long he didn't register the sound of running peds.
"What do you think you are doing staring at your betters?"
"I... I…I don't know?"
"You don't know, I'll teach you to know."
The blue and black mech before Optimus raised a whip to the defenseless mech and shouted for the mech to stop. The other mech was incredibly angry and raised the whip to Optimus but was stopped by the now current presence of the King. "What do you think you are doing?"
The head slaver intervened, "You'll have to forgive Cloudstorm, he is our head trainer and he takes his job very seriously."
"Be that if it may, make sure he never approaches my heir like that again; now my son what were you doing over here?"
"I was just looking at him, and wondering why he wasn't in the line up?"
"I am afraid, this one is not ready for purchase just yet. He came from a lenient master and has to be retaught how to obey."
"Well if you say so then I'll go on your word, come son lets pick you out one from the line up." When the king noticed his son wasn't following he turned back to see him still standing by the same slave; "Optimus come on, let's go."
"I want to know his name and you explicitly told me I could have any slave I want; I chose him."
All three mechs stood in shock, "Well I did say that didn't I?"
The purple head slaver protested "But your highness he is not ready, more training is required."
Ultra Magnus raised his servo to quite the protesting mech "While I might agree with you, I told my son he could have any slave he wanted and I will stick to my word. Besides, he has already given him is first order. He asked for his name didn't you Optimus?"
Novaton looked at the mech before him and couldn't believe his audios, the Prince of Iacon. Why would he want a dirty farm slave like him, but he didn't know everything about him; did he? The mech before him did ask for his name and the silent warning from his master made him answer, "My name is Novaton."