Hello! Sorry Don't worry! I am publishing today! Thank you to everyone who's read, reviewed, and supported this story. This is the biggest project I've ever taken on, and I'm happy to say that I've so far met with success. It isn't often that I make a fic that ends up being this long before I give up, so I'm really proud of myself.
This chapter is just a little bit of fluff. Not exactly anything terrible going on, but still a necessary chapter. The first act is mostly dedicated to character shaping and creating relationships, and I can proudly say that thus far, I've done a pretty good job at it :)
Anywho, I don't own the transformers franchise, yada yada, whatever. Also, please leave a review. I really love reviews.
And without further ado, on with the show!
Chapter 9
Orion Pax had never really deal with girls before. His house didn't really ever have girls his age, besides this one brat girl he grew up with who took joy in making him miserable. Of course, now that she was dead, he missed her never-ending pranks, but at the time he couldn't have hated them more.
Elita was something else. She was kind to the people around her, but would fight anyone who pissed her off. She had good poster, and pride in her steps, and, despite being a slave, or maybe even because of it, she seemed determined to let people know that she was a person. She loved attention, but was still humble and down-to-earth. In other words, Elita was one of a kind, and Orion soon found himself falling head-over-heels for her.
He told Ironhide about this crush, to which the boy laughed, and spent the rest of the day mocking him for his "schoolgirl crush,". Orion had made a mental note to tease Ironhide just as hard when he started crushing on a girl himself.
Having a crush was weird. And it was his first. He didn't know how to deal with it. His body was doing very weird things he didn't think his body was supposed to be doing, and he couldn't get the girl out of his head. He ended up becoming so distracted from his work that Alpha Trion thought he was ill, and dragged the boy off to Ratchet's.
Ratchet was somewhat annoyed that Alpha Trion hadn't seen the obvious, but humored the scientist by checking the boy over anyways. However, as soon Trion left the room, Ratchet decided to get behind the real issue.
"Alright, who is she?" He asked, somewhat exasperated.
"What?" Orion peeped out, confused.
"Or he I guess, though I usually figure it out long before they can," Ratchet tacked on. "The girl your in love with, anyways,"
Orion turned as red as his hair, which caused Ratchet to laugh, though he did so quietly as possible, les the boy hear him and become more uncomfortable.
"Well, uh. Her name's Elita, but Beta renamed her Arial. She's Beta's slave," Orion explained, scratching the back of his head in slight embarrassment.
"Oh, I know Arial, but I didn't know that wasn't her actual name," Ratchet informed the young boy, sounding slightly bitter. He didn't really like the idea of giving a slave who already had a name a new one. "Arial - I mean, Elita, has been working under Beta as long as I've known her. She's a good cook, but she's a bit of a hassle for Beta. But if Ari–ah, Elita's got anything, it's spirit,"
"Ironhide says she's out of my league," Orion mentioned, mostly just to keep the conversation going. It had been awhile since he and Ratchet had gotten the chance to just… talk.
"Well, Ironhide's a lugnut," Ratchet replied.
"So you think she's not out of my league?" Orion chirped.
"I didn't say that," Ratchet hummed in amusement. "I just said that Ironhide's a lugnut,"
Orion stuck his tongue out at Ratchet and blew a raspberry. The old doctor choked down some laughter over the ridiculousness of the sixteen-year-old doing something so immature.
"Man, crushes are weird," Orion mused. "Do immortal's get crushes?"
Ratchet laughed, more out of tired misery than mirth. "When your an immortal it's worse. It's an alchemical belief that a perfect being has neither gender, and are able to reproduce with both men and woman. Makes things more convenient for humanity. Anyways, one of the weird side effects of immortality is that you become pansexual. So immortals get stuck going crazy for people of both genders. Long story short, it's hilariously miserable,"
Orion had a laugh about this. Immortality was weird. "So, what about you, then?" The boy said once he stopped laughing. "You got a wife? Husband? Family?"
With that, Ratchet's smile faded.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Orion muttered. "If you don't want to talk about it…"
Ratchet simply sighed, and sat onto the medics table. "It's alright. I wanted to talk to somebody about this, and you might be the only person who would listen and understand,
"I had a wife. And a son. He was an energetic young kid, and she was the greatest thing that ever happened to me,"
"What happened to them?" Orion asked quietly.
Ratchet sighed. "You've probably gotten this impression of me already, but I abhor the system of slavery. I can't stand how other humans are treated like dirt, and nobody sees anything wrong with that. But, I didn't always see it as wrong. After all, my parents owned slaves, and so did my grandparents, and other generations before. To me, it was normal,"
Orion hummed in compilation. "I guess it's the same for Alpha Trion, or Beta. For them, it's just how things are,"
"And when you've thought all your life that something is ok, and then somebody suddenly tells them what they're doing is wrong," Ratchet let out a hollow laugh. "You're going to think they're insane,"
"What changed for you?" Orion asked the doctor. Ratched nervously bit his lip, before continuing.
"My son was twelve. We just lost a few house slaves to a virus, so we bought new one's. One of them was a boy my son's age. The two soon became attached to the hip. And my son couldn't stand the way his friend was treated. The two eventually decided to run away together. When I reported the situation to the town police, they said that the slave had kidnapped my son, and was dangerous. I guess the slaver's think that 'dangerous' means 'shoot on sight', because that's what they did. They were armed with crossbows, and tried to shoot the slave, and my son was shot along with him. Both were dead. Then, only a few months later, my wife hanged herself from devastation. He was her only son, and she couldn't live without him. And the worst part was, the government wanted to cover this incident up, in order to keep the town from turning against the slavers; after all, they had just killed an innocent boy. So the story was, the slave ran away, kidnapped my son, killed him when he thought he would get caught, and the slavers killed the runaway in return,"
"The government. You mean the council of immortals? Didn't you join them?" Orion asked curiously.
"I was already a very well-respected doctor; it didn't take much effort to convince the council to make me immortal, and therefore set up a medical welfare department in the council," Ratchet explained. "I'm going to change the way things work on this island. It was the complete disregard of life given towards a slave that got my son killed. And I will not stand by while this island pretends to be perfect, yet disregard others humanity. Especially when so many people think of this as normal,"
Orion nodded, and leaned against the doctor's shoulder. Ratchet looked surprised at this action, but accepted it anyways, smiling slightly at this boy taking comfort in him. "My son might've had a grandchild by now," He said sadly.
"I can easily picture you being a grandfather," Orion laughed. "Most of my grandparents died before I was born, but I knew my mom's father; my grandpa. He was an odd guy, talked about fish allot. He was obsessed with fish. Apparently, he had studied fish before he retired. He said I was his Koi Fish. He hadn't even seen a Koi Fish anywhere but in books, yet somehow I reminded him of one. He was weird,"
"Well, everybody's weird," Ratchet commented.
"I miss my family," Orion said sadly.
"I miss mine too," Ratchet replied to him, placing a comforting hand on the young boy's shoulder. "But, the odd thing about loss is that sometimes, because of those losses, you end up meeting someone you never knew you needed in your life,"
The day was July 21st, and Orion woke up feeling sick. There was a twisting in his stomach, and his skin felt like acid. One look at the date on the calendar and Orion knew exactly why.
It had been one year since his family was slaughtered.
His mother, father, brothers, even Tea Bag. The entire house staff. The gardener's wife was pregnant. He was excited to see her child. And the head baker was had promised him back when he was six years old that he would bake him the largest cake in the world for his sixteenth birthday. That very birthday had passed without Orion noticing. And his eldest brother was planning to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Orion had been ecstatic at the thought of possibly having a nephew or niece. And that girl was perfect for his brother; at least she was. So much was supposed to happen. So much didn't happen. So much happened that Orion would never even fantasise in his most horrendous of nightmares.
Orion had to work as usual that day, but he was barely in the lab for ten minutes before Alpha Trion noticed something was wrong with the boy, and immediately sent him off to Ratchets. Orion was grateful for this, since he didn't think he could even stand on his feet for much longer.
The moment Orion explained to Ratchet what was going on, the doctor set him up in one of the more comfortable hospital beds, with a pile of heavy and comforting blankets. Orion just laid there, not falling asleep, but not totally awake either.
The room was a colorful blur, and he felt the arms of ghost tugging on his heart, threatening to drag it away from him. He was tempted to let them. Just drag him away. Away from the horrendous life he lived. However, the pull was disrupted, and the colors began to fade back in, as a face he recognised hung above him.
"Ironhide?" Orion whispered quietly.
"Hey, man," Ironhide hummed back, sitting down at the edge of the hospital bed. "I thought you could use a friend,"
Orion said nothing, simply sitting up in his spot, while his friend claimed an actual spot on the hospital bed, sitting criss-cross, and pulling out a pack of playing cards. "Game?" He asked.
Orion nodded, and the two boys began to play a silent game of cards, not a word coming out of their mouths. Orion held a royal flush in his hands, watching the faces of the cards stare at him. They seemed to mock him with their eyes, holding some sort of aggression he couldn't quite place. As if they were telling him, with their eyes, that his life would never get better. Even if he somehow managed to be free of slavery.
Orion threw the cards away, across the bed, as if they were on fire.
"Are you alright?" Ironhide asked, confused.
"No!" Orion snapped. "I'll never be alright! My family is dead! How can I be alright!?"
Ironhide hooked an arm around the boys shoulder, while Orion himself simply leaned over, and sobbed into his shoulder.
"Do you have any pictures of them?" Ironhide asked quietly. Upon feeling his friend shake his head, Ironhide told him, "I know someone who can paint like no other. Let's go find her. Maybe Ratchet will let you out,"
Ironhide soon led his smaller friend to a small supply shop, that sold fabrics, trinkets, and foodstuff. He led Orion into the back room, until they came across a girl around their age, with somewhat tanned skin, and dark brown hair, which she had tucked up into a ponytail. She was a free girl, and was tall, and muscular, probably from lifting heavy boxes around the shop.
"This is Chromia," Ironhide explained. "She's an old friend of mine. She's also a really good painter,"
"Jack of all trades, Master of all," Chromia bragged, half-joking, before transferring the heavy box she was holding onto her hip for balance. "So, what do you want, Hide?" She asked, referring to the old friend of hers.
"You have any painting supplies left?' Ironhide questioned. "My friend here would like to make a request,"
"And what request would that be?" Chromia questioned.
"Uh," Orion spoke up. "A portrait of my family. I don't have one, and…" He trailed off.
"Is your family with you?" Chromia asked, innocently enough. However, she felt somewhat guilty for asking when the red-haired boy shook his head. By the look on his face, she could only come towards one conclusion "Oh, alright then. You'd like a memento. Let me see what I can do,"
Chromia had painted the members of Orion's family up to the boys descriptions. She was extremely good at portraits, and he found his parents looking pretty accurate to his memories of them. He eventually stood, staring at the drying canvas, while Chromia and Ironhide chatted in the background. Soon the shop bell rang.
"Hey, Arial!" Chromia made a friendly greeting.
Orion turned around, finally drawing his eyes away from the picture, to see Elita selecting frozen foods from the store shelves.
"I don't need much today," Elita responded, "just some fruits and meats,"
"Well, as long as you pay for it," Chromia hummed pleasantly with a shrug.
Orion slowly walked out of the backroom, his eyes turning to the strawberry-blonde. She was wearing the white gloves, though, Orion noticed, they were made from thin material, and if one could look closely enough, they could see the brand-mark underneath. Only Elita could wear a stigma like a metal. Orion was about to go back into the back room when the girl saw him there.
"Hey Orion," She greeted. The boy himself fought to keep his nerves down, debating in his head whether he wanted to run away screaming or actually have a human conversation with her.
"Hey, Elita," He greeted back, shifting around in his shoes. "How's your day been?"
"Eh, work, as usual," She groaned. "How about you?"
"Well, it hasn't been the greatest day," Orion said honestly, the knot of grief that had settled in his stomach twisting harder and harder. "But I'll live,"
Elita cocked an eyebrow. "Did something happen today?"
Orion decided to be honest. "Today's the anniversary of my family's death. It's been a year,"
Elita frowned. "A year huh? I guess that would be rather unpleasant. I don't even remember my family, and sometimes I wonder what's better,"
Orion sighed. "I don't want to forget them. The memories hurt, I guess, but they're all I've got,"
"There are some things that are worth the pain," Elita said. "Primas know's it isn't easy,"
Orion gave the girl a small smile. "Well, at least I'm not facing it alone," Orion smiled, looking at Ironhide, who was currently making silly faces at Chromia. As soon as Ironhide caught his smaller friends eye, he immediately noticed the boy was talking to Arial, or Elita, according to Orion. He still thought Elita was out of his league, but if he managed to make a score, who was Ironhide to stop him? So, the dark-skinned boy gave his friend a smile and a double thumbs-up. Orion suppressed a laugh at his friends antics.
Yeah, he definitely wasn't alone at all.
Yep, so, another shorter chapter. But mostly because it's a calm before the storm, since next chapter, shit hits the fan. Have fun.
~MotherUniverse, signing out.
