Hello dear readers!

Welcome to the chapter we've all been waiting for; The Act 1 finally! Now we get to jump into the real plot stuff, which should be pretty fun.

This chapter took some work, and while it's not as good as I wish it could be, I still found myself happy with it, and I do have to pat myself on the back for getting it done on time. This particular chapter will be somewhat heavy on the gore, but it's not the first chapter that was this way. Besides, despite being a supposed Kid's series, Transformers often forgets how to kids series.

On another note, my family has been in a bit of a need for money, so I've created a account in order to doc in some extra cash. The account is called Mother of the Universe, and it's primarily for art, writing, and animation, the final category being something I plan to do later this year. Link is here, just ignore the indentations

.com

/MotherOfThe

Universe

Finally, in response to some guest, yes, the bird is going to be Lazerbeak. I wan't exactly planning to introduce Lazerbeak to the story when I did, but then I got the idea to make the symbiot an acid-spitting Chimera bird-lizard, and there was no going back. And to the other guest question, Bumblebee will pop up, however, he is part of the younger generation of this story. I divided the majority of the character into three generations; those born during or before the Slave uprising, those born between said uprising and the big Civil war, and those born during the civil war. Bumblebee is part of the third Generation, and though he won't show up for a while, he will play an important role when he does come in. Most of the members of team prime, besides the few we've seen already, are part of the third and second generations.

And that's all I've got I think. I don't own the transformers franchise, that's Hasbro's job, though I wish I did because that would be cool.

And without further ado, on with the show!


Chapter 11


When they woke up, the Pit was done with the preliminary rounds. While some members of the company stayed to watch the other teams battle their own variant of Chimera's, most went back into the lounge where they would rest up until the real fights started. Megatronus led his crew of to-be-runaways towards the corner where they had sketched out their plan.

"I found some rope we can separate into string," Megatronus began. "If we douse the string with run, it'll make pretty good ignition,"

"We brought enough supplies in order for me to make twelve bombs in total," Jackie told them. "The main entrance has two giant doors, and three wallways at the end of the back wall,"

Stain nodded. "One on the right, the other on the left, which leads to the stadium audience seats. And the center one takes us to the waiting area where us gladiators stay while waiting for our turn,"

"And finally, there's a small cage door which we enter to get into the arena," Megatronus concluded. "We can set fires at both the right and left stairs, which'll keep the audience from leaving the stadium. That only leaves us with two issues; the main tower where the guest sleep also serves as an exit from the stadium. Not to mention if the guards wanted to, they could easily jump from the stadium to the arena, which is why we have to set the entire perimeter of the arena on fire,"

"Should be easy enough," Flametrekker said with a laugh. "We just spill the rum all around during our fight,"

"But the cleanup crew might cause a problem with that," Jackie pipped in. "They could possibly destroy the rum circle,"

"Which is why we have to time the bombs to set off while one of us are fighting," Megatronus concluded. "When that team is done with the rum circle, we'll set everything else ablaze,"

"And how would the team get out?" Dreadwing mentioned.

Megatronus hesitated. Of course there would be one precaution they didn't plan for.

"We'll just light everything up the moment they exit," Wolverine claimed proudly. Everyone else just shrugged. It was as good an idea as any.

"Since Jackie isn't fighting in this tournament, he can easily set up the bombs without anyone realizing he's gone,"

"So it's up to me to blow the doors up," Jackie concluded, nodding, though sounding nervous. "I'll do my best," He promised.

"That's great and all," Skyquake spoke up, "But how do we get into the streets once we escape the arena?"

"Everything will be on fire," Wolverine said. "I doubt that people will be worrying about a few escaped prisoners,"

"But still—" Skyquake tried to continue, but Megatronus cut him off.

"One thing at a time, Skyquake," Megatronus told him. "We need to focus on the escape itself; then we can figure out what to do afterwards," The twenty-year-old boy let out a long sigh, feeling like he aged a decade just by spending time in Iacon. As important as Skyquakes concern was, Megatronus didn't have enough energy to think on it. He'd worry about that later. He couldn't afford a headache right now; not when he needed to be in his top condition for what was to come. "When we escape, — and we will escape, — we'll make a plan based on how everything is going at that moment,"


The team vs team rounds where soon. The small crew had gathered all the things they would need, hiding the rum in their kilts, and they spent whatever leftover time they had assembling the string. Jackie had found someplace to hide, and began to construct the fireworks, assembling them as quick as he could in order for them to be ready in time. The moment the tournament started, Soundwave silently slipped out of the waiting area, and spilled rum on either stair that led up to the audience stadium, then led a tail of string from the spill into the waiting area if the other gladiators. Megatronus waited patiently, a match in hand, for the time when they would strike.

Jackie, meanwhile, finished assembling the firework bombs, and went to set them up. There were guards at the set of doors. This meant he would have to set up his bombs on the other side of the door.

Peaking out a small hole in one of the walls made for ventilation, Jackie was able to see that at the other side of the door there were no guards. The same could be said for the second set of doors a few yards away from it. The guards where likely stationed on the other side, but since there wasn't really a way to get to the space between, unless one was small enough to fit through the vent holes, it seemed nobody deemed it necessary for guards to be stationed there.

Jackie let out a deep sigh, his brain working overtime as he wondered how in the hell he was going to get inside. Quickly running up to the next level, Jackie looked all around for the place where the mechanics would control the opening and closing of the doors. He finally found a locked door which he assumed was the room.

He always found it a good thing to keep the right tools in hand. He was Wheeljack; renamed after a mechanics tool. What it did, the young boy had no clue, but that was besides the point.

The young boy took a dagger that Soundwave had procured for him, and jammed it into the door lock. A simple twist, and it was open. Two men greeted him at the other side of the door.

"What the slag are you doing here!?" One of them snapped, approaching the younger boy. Jackie felt his heart leap into his throat. What was he going to do now? If those men alerted one of the guards, there'd be no escape. His friends where counting on him. He had to do something, he—

Suddenly, he found his hands coated with fresh red blood. It didn't take him long to figure out why.

The man who had approached him had Jackie's dagger stabbed into his temple. He just killed a man.

He just killed someone.

Oh my God, I just killed someone!

"You little piece of slag!" The other man shouted angrily. He held a baton in his hands, and with a harsh CRACK, he slammed it against the little boys head.

He felt himself getting hit, over and over again. Jackie started to panic. He couldn't die. He had to blow the doors up so everyone could escape.

Acting on nothing but instinct, Jackie grabbed the dagger, which was still lodged in the other man's head, pulled it out, and thrust it through his attackers foot, before quickly pulling it out. Before he could register the man's shouts of pain, he plunged the dagger into his forehead.

It was as if Jackie had forgotten how to breath. He just stood still, in silence, unsure of what to do. The men were dead, the floor was read, his hands where red, his clothes where red, and he was pretty sure that the club had given him head trauma. Attempting to process everything in his mind at once was difficult, and for a moment his entire brain went blank, simply focusing on attempting to register what was right in front of him.

Two dead men.

And a whole lot of blood.

As his brain began to clear, his body somewhat getting over the shock once it realized it wasn't getting oxygen, forcing the young boy to take a breath, Jackie tried to remember why he wanted to go into that room in the first place. Something about the door.

Quickly, his eyes flickered to his right hand, where, covered in blood but still visible, laid the brand mark. The mark of a slave.

That's what he was supposed to do in this room.

He was going to blow up the door with his fireworks so he and his friends could escape.

Jackie grabbed the fireworks, doing his best not to look at the dead men, and trying to shake the feeling of nausea and hasiness from his head. The room was beginning to look like a giant blob, but when everything faded back in, he was able to make out a trap door.

Entering the place where it lead, Jackie started climbing down a ladder that scaled the doorway. He let himself feel satisfied that he managed to get into the space between the two gates, but he was disappointed that he could still smell blood, despite a stream of fresh air leading through the area. He finally reached the ground.

"Uh oh," He whispered to himself, eyeing the bloody handprints on the ladder. "I'll have to clean that up, I guess," He murmured, setting up six of the fireworks by the door, and placing the other six at the door across. He laid a long piece of rum-dosed string, connecting both ends of the fireworks together, and, for extra measure, he dumped a small puddle of rum around both sets of fireworks, as well as a trail from one door to another.

It then occurred to him that he had no clue how he was going to set the fireworks off when he was supposed to. There was a small window in the gate-operations room, allowing the workers to see into the arena, but he wasn't sure how to blow up his creations from up there. He settled for grabbing one of the fireworks, and taking it up with him, planning to light it up and drop it down, thinking that the explosion would possibly set fire to the rum or something, getting the rest of the fireworks to go off.

The smell of the dead bodies washed over his nose as soon as he climbed back into the room, and Jackie was shocked to see the corpses of two men on the floor. There was a knife in one of the men's heads, and Jackie could've sworn that knife was the one Soundwave gave him, but he couldn't remember using it for anything. It occurred to him that he didn't remember how he got into the room at all. Something strange must've happened if he ended up in said room and two men were dead.

Jackie shut the door, blocking the bodies from his sight. He would have to think about how they died later.

The twelve–year–old boy found a place to sit inside the room, watching the tournament, and waiting for the arena to light up in flames.


Megatronus was shaking. It wasn't pre-fight anxiety; he had gotten over that long ago. But he was nervous. Jackie was twelve. Yes, the boy somehow knew how to make fireworks, but that didn't change the fact that the little boy was young, inexperienced, and frankly shouldn't have been left to complete the task on his own. But they would just have to have faith that the boy got said task done, because if those fireworks did not go off when the arena fires were started, then the entire plan would fail.

He felt a bit sick to his stomach, but he figured that was normal, considering the task he was about to put himself through. Even still, he attempted to ignore the feeling, not wanting it to interfere with the task at hand.

The Pit was matched up against another company from Tigar Pax, known as the Half-Beast. Megatronus suddenly found himself wishing he studied more about his enemies.

Megatronus, Soundwave, Skyquake, and Dreadwing marched into the arena, weapons of choice in hand, and as many containers of rum that they could fit stuffed under their kilt.

Please Jackie, the once-unnamed man silently begged; Please pull through. You have to.

Their opponents where the standard gladiator size. None as tall as Megatronus, but they were all well-built. One in particular was, despite being muscular, somewhat thin, with strong-looking legs. He was going to be a fast one.

Each team member eyed a side of the arena to work with, and as soon as the bell struck, they all ran their opposite directions.

Megatronus ducked past a confused opponents attack, running straight for the far right corner of the arena. He pulled the first can of rum out from under his kilt, and began pouring along the wall perimeter, leaving a trail of wet dirt along the walls. Soundwave and the Twins where both performing the same action, while their four opponents just stood in the center of the arena, watching with confused expressions. The crowd seemed equally confused, as much of the shouting was questions of action, while others simply demanded more action.

The first cantine ran out of rum, so Megatronus simply threw it to the side, pulling out another cantine, and continued spilling from where he left off. The entire space had to be covered; they couldn't afford to mess up.

The four competitors from Tigar Pax seemed to understand that their opponents had no intentions of fighting them. They considered this an advantage, hoping that maybe it could allow them to destroy their opponents.

The fast one went for Megatronus, using his speed and agility as a trump card against the large man. Twin swords clashed against the silver claymore, and the rum bottle dropped to the ground, spilling in a large puddle. Megatronus had to be careful if he didn't want to lose more of the precious fire-starter, and made sure to keep his lower half as far from his opponent as possible.

The fast man circled around his opponent, meticulously trying to stay in Megatronus' blind spot. This caused him to have to keep turning around in order to keep up with him, making him dizzy. If his opponent kept using the same strategy, he'd be done for.

Lucky for him, the man seemed to be unable to change his pattern, meaning that all it took was a meticulous and sudden change in the opposite direction he'd been spinning into surprise his opponent, and slice his claymore right through the fast man's abdomen. His opponents dead body fell into the spilled puddle of rum.

Megatronus continued with his task, unbottling another jar and running with it, leaving a swirling path of wet dirt.

He turned his head to check on the other's progress. Dreadwing had finished his side of the arena and was rushing towards his brother in order to help him battle one of the foes. A second cadaver said that Dreadwing had finished off an opponent of his own.

Soundwave was doing an excellent job multitasking; Fighting off his opponent at the same time as continuing to spill his rum circle. Megatronus smiled in pride. Only an immortal and a long time veteran could pull off such a demanding feat.

The third opponent fell, and Skyquake ran off to finish his line of rum, while Dreadwing headed over to assist Soundwave. Megatronus finally finished his rum line, and went over to do the same.

Dreadwing had been able to keep the man distracted, allowing Soundwave to finish his work, while he went toe to toe with a larger opponent. Dreadwing swung his mace, clashing against his opponents shield, while said opponent threw out his sword, grazing the younger opponent, and the boy's hip started to spill blood. Dreadwing feel to his knees as pain surged throughout his body, desperately covering his wound with his hands.

"Dreadwing!" Skyquake cried, abandoning his task immediately, and racing towards his twin, desperate to protect his brother. "Dreadwing no! Leave him alone!"

Skyquake was not close enough to reach his brother in time. However, their teammate was. As the large man was about to drive a dagger through Dreadwings head, shouting out, "This is for my teammates!" He suddenly was pierced through the heart with the tip of a silver claymore.

Megatronus pulled the sword out, ignoring the blood that fell onto him. Skyquake finally got over to his twin, wrapping the boy into a large hug, as tears spilled from his face. "Brother, please tell me your ok!" He begged.

Dreadwing rolled his eyes, though his smile was enduring. "I've suffered worse," He laughed weakly.

The sound of metal gritting against metal allerted them to the gate that had been drawn up. Their exit. A pit of dread fell down into Megatronus' stomach when he realized that they hadn't covered the entire parameter yet.

Scrap.

Uncapping one of his remaining bottles of rum, Megatronus spilled it out in a line behind him as he exited the arena into the safety zone. Soundwave followed suit, apparently having the same idea as he left a trail of rum behind him. Skyquake, supporting a hobbling Dreadwing, came out last, as Flametrekker quickly supported his injured friends other side. Stain had kept ahold of the rope, and the matches.

"It's now or never," The older boy whispered.

Megatronus simply nodded, while Stain lit two matches, one he used to light the string up, and the other he used to light the rum near the entrance. The orange flames quickly spread, dancing across the path of rum left for them as it circled much of the arena, catching onto anything else it could inside it; the corpses of the gladiators from Tiger Pax, unplugged weeds, whatever scrap of dirt, concrete, or surface it could grab onto. The black smoke and the orange fire mixed beautifully as the entire arena lit up in flames.

The audience panicked, trying to run out, only to see that their primary exit was blocked by a wall of the fire, set up by Soundwave. They screamed in a panic, unsure of what to do or where to go, while the guards posted to watch the slaves got lost in the chaos, unable to do a thing, and unsure what to do even if they could.

"It's all on you know, Jackie," Megatronus whispered to himself, praying that the twelve year old boy had managed to set up the fireworks.


Jackie watched the flames, understanding that this was his cue to blow the gates. He took his spare firework, lighting it up, and letting it drop, waiting for everything to explode.

It occurred to him that the room he was in probably wasn't the safest place to be in during an explosion.

Opening the door to the room, he paused when he saw two men laying outside of it, dead. He briefly wondered how they ended up that way, and why they looked familiar. Maybe he passed them already.

The explosion went off, as the gates blasted apart in a colorful array of chaos, and the doors keeping the slaves from their freedom came crumbling down.


Immediately, the seven gladiators who planned the escape up and left, running towards the exit as fast as they could. Taking advantage of their new escape rout, many of the other gladiators followed suit, some thanking the heavens for their chance to claim freedom, others simply no wanting to die in the fire. Everyone began to make a desperate climb over the rubble, while the audience, trapped by the fire, made their own attempts at a desperate escape. The ones who managed to leave didn't even try to stop the slaves from running away; they just wanted to live.

Megatronus stood atop the rubble, scanning the area for Jackie.

"Megatronus!" he heard Skyquake call to him. "We gotta leave!"

"Go without me!" He demanded. "I'll catch up! I need to find Jackie!"

The mobile twin nodded, as he and Flamtrekker continued to guid his brother out of the arena.

Smoke was everywhere, some of it dust from the explosion, some of it from the fire. Anything that could light ablaze had done so, as the orange dancers continued to eat away at whatever they could. Megatronus continued to look around for the little boy. Without Jackie they never would've been able to pull such a feat off. The little boy had gone through hell; sold to a gladiator, raised to kill, forced to watch friends of his die at the age of ten, and violated and abused by the Trainer he was forced to work for. Jackie needed freedom just as much as the rest of them did; he was not leaving this areana without the boy.

Against his better judgment, Megatronus ran into the interior of the building, trying to think of where Jackie could possibly be. He raced up to the third floor, attempting to find the room that worked the gates. It would be logical that Jackie would be there. Luckily, he found the boy, but Jackie was not ok.

He laid at the edge of the floor, which seemed ever so close to crumbling. The only thing that kept him from falling to his death was a large piece of concrete that laid on top of his legs, blood seeping out from the bottom of it. There was another dead body crushed under the rock, but Megatronus paid no mind to him. He was already dead. Jackie may have been alive.

Carefully stepping onto the unstable ground, testing his footing before every step in case the floor was to break under his feat. He wandered over to the unconscious boy, panic raising in his chest as he realized that the boy was loosing blood rather fast. He crept over carefully, before wrapping his arms underneath Jackie's shoulder, holding him tight.

Taking his claymore - which he realized he was still carrying, - Megatronus dug the sword into some stable-looking parts of the concrete. Gripping the sword hard as possible, he stomped his heal into the unstable ground, over and over and over, until it finally gave away. The ground fell out from under him, and he held Jackie close as the piece of rubble fell off his legs and fell to the ground.

There was little left of Jackie's legs - just some mangled flesh and bones handing off a knee-cap limply. Blood continued to drain from his legs in disturbingly large amounts, as the boys already pale skin quickly began to look more pale.

Using the sword as a boost, Megatronus lifted himself up to the stable ground, shifting his hold on Jackie into a position that had his legs leak as little blood as possible. Holding the young boy close, Megatronus ran off, leaving his claymore to get consumed by the fires, much like everything else.

When Megatronus met up with the rest of the boys he had planned escape with, they had claimed to have found bandages in one of the carts, and had already dressed the deep cut in Dreadwings hip, though it looked like it would need a change of bandaged soon.

The moment they laid eyes on Jackie's legs, many of them physically panicked, though Soundwave simply took the young boy from Megatronus, and carried him into the cart where they had found the medical supplies. The boys followed him.

Laying Jackie down onto a thin blanket laid on the ground, Soundwave got to work, starting off by pouring some of the leftover rum the crew had over the young boys legs. His face seemed to scrunch up in discomfort, though he remained unconscious. Soundwave ignored this, rushing onto the next step. He took a dagger he must've picked up from the arena, and began sawing at the leftover flesh keeping his crushed legs attached to him.

"What the frag are you doing?!" Megatronus snapped as Soundwave ignored him, continuing to saw the rest of the boy's legs off. Megatronus reached for the knife to stop him, only to be held back by Stain, who told him; "Those legs won't work anymore,"

Megatronus let Soundwave continue his work, his eyes burning with anger, as the first leg finally came off. Soundwave simply tossed the useless limb aside, before quickly sawing off the next leg, working as fast as he could to keep the boy from dying. He then grabbed the box of matches, and began to light the stumped legs on fire.

"The hell!?" Megatronus snapped, standing up, and quickly scanning the cart for water. He found a bucket of it, and doused it over the flames on his legs.

His stumps where burnt shut, so at least he wasn't bleeding anymore.

"How did you even?" Megatronus asked, before remembering that no matter what questions he had, Soundwave wouldn't be answering. He decided to leave it be.

The silent man covered up the boy's stumps in bandages, and then crawled to the front of the cart, where the horses were still attached to it. Grabbing the reins, Soundwave drove the cart away from the arena, as it continued to burn down around itself.

It had been three months since the Gladiator Stadium in Iacon had burned down. Orion Pax, much like everyone else in the city, had heard the news, and as he also heard, many slaves had managed to escape. He noticed that there were quite a few people in the street with gloves on, though that didn't necessarily mean anything, since gloves were worn by free people just as well as slaves as a sanitary precaution.


Orion couldn't help but smile when he got the word. He had been in Beta's cafe at the time, enjoying a glass of milk, while Alpha Trion was chatting to Beta herself. It was Elita who had shared the news, and it took all the self-control he had not to let out a cheer.

Orion was eighteen now. He had finally gotten pass his supposed growth stunt, much to Ratchet's satisfaction, and had even managed to grow taller than Ironhide, which he considered a feat of it's own. His hair was long, and he wore it up in a pony tail, and he was beginning to grow something that could actually be considered facial hair around his chin and jaw.

He had been a slave for three years, and in that time, he became a legion for his ability to read, met some of the greatest friends he ever had, and learned more alchemy then he even thought possible. Alpha Trion still hadn't managed to create anything that resembled a homunculus, and was beginning to get frustratingly obsessive over his work. He was giving Orion less and less breaks, and Orion usually found himself working during periods he was supposed to be eating. Hunger and fatigue were slowly eating at him, but he guessed it could've been worse. And whenever things started to get too out-of-hand, he had Ratchet to back him up, and the medic was more than willing to beat his "doctor's orders" into anyone who refused to listen.

The three years had been a mix of hope and misery. Orion had found himself on the whipping post again, as one of the in-city slavers had accused him of running away when he was caught out by himself once. Orion couldn't call his life a happy one, but his friendships with Ratchet, Ironhide, Elita, and even the nameless slave he hadn't seen since the day he was sold were all dear to him. If all his pain was his price for meeting those wonderful people, he would be content paying for it.

It was the third day of the month of December, meaning he was allowed to go out of the house and meet up with Ironhide. While it didn't snow in Primas, like it did in Orion's old home, the weather still got reasonably cold during the winter, so Orion had switched out his thin cotton toga for a warm set of robes, along with a winter cloak. Orion had come to like the winter, because in the winter, it was rare to see a citizen without a pair of gloves, making Orion feel more at home. A brand mark may separate a slave from the rest of the free people, but if everyone were hiding their hands, there'd be no way to tell who was free and who was not. He had talked to Elita about this thought of his, to which she replied;

"Why does that matter? Brandmark or not, everyone's hands look the same,"

Orion had mulled over her words in his head, understanding her words in a way. Ironhide and Orion both had palms, thumbs, and fingers. As did everyone.

So what made a slave any different?

Nothing. There was nothing that made a slave any different from a free man, nothing that made them less human. Orion understood. Slavery itself was wrong, but the culture was built on it, so there was nothing he could do, without turning the principles of a countries entire foundation on its head.

That left one thing to wonder — what could he do?

Ironhide was at the park as usual, but he was the only one there, which didn't surprise Orion in the slightest. It was cold and miserable outside, and likely the only reason Ironhide even came here was because he knew Orion would be there as well.

"The strangest thing happened today," Ironhide told his friend as the two boys walked the streets together, hoping to find some place indoors where they could hang out without being asked to leave due to not buying anything. "I came across some guy; he looked pretty old, had a lot of facial scars, greying hair, unshaved. He was the biggest slagging man I've ever seen too!"

"What about him?" Orion questioned. He was sure Ironhide was exaggerating; he had often talked about large men approaching him, and tended to embellish his stories to seem as if he had escaped certain death or something.

"Apparently he was looking for you, knew your name and everything. Said he was an old friend of yours,"

Orion stopped walking, his brain clicking the information together. It couldn't be…

"Did he have a name?" Orion asked.

"He said his name was Megatronus. He's named after one of the thirteen original primes, so he couldn't have come from your homeland. Could he?"

"Megatronus, huh?" Orion laughed. "So he finally got a name," Ironhide stared at the read-head in confusion.

"Though, Megatronus feels a little too long for him,"


Through the few contacts he had, Orion spread the word about how he was looking for an old friend, who might have arrived in Iacon. Ironhide alerted Chromia, and Orion told Elita and Ratchet. Suspecting that it was possible that Megatronus escaped from the Iacon gladiator arena that had burned down recently, Ratchet was careful who he talked to, though vague rumors of the arrival of an old friend of the slave who could read drifted around the city,

Elita had gone to Chromia's shop to pick up goods, where she saw Chromia talking to a little boy without legs.

"Arial, this is Jackie," Chromia introduced the little boy. "He's an old friend of mine. And I think Orion would be interested in meeting some of Jackie's friends,"

It wasn't long before Orion met Jackie himself. The child was energetic and talkative, amazed to finally be meeting a legion amongst the fellow slaves he knew before being sold to the Pit. And Jackie told Orion about Megatronus; a fierce and undefeatable gladiator, who cared for those younger than him, even though they gave him nothing but trouble, and who protected his friends all he could. Orion smiled. This sounded like the slave boy he met on the ship. Who exerted a kindness and feeling of safety to someone he had just met. They kept eachother company on the slave ship; after the hell Orion had gone through, he was thankful to find a friend that allowed him to just… talk.

And his final promise before they were separated still rang in his head, no matter how long it had been.

"You think you could introduce me to him?" Orion politely asked the legless boy, who happily agreed to do so.

The eight run-a-ways who had planned the gladiator escape where hiding out in a small shack on the poorer end of the city, not to far away from where Ironhide lived. Megatronus did his best to help the others find missing friends, while he continued to search for Orion, though, he didn't worry about it to much. Jackie was soon reunited with Chromia, and very happy for it too, and the rest didn't really have family. Wolverine contented himself with exploring as much of Iacon as possibly, but he always came back to the small crew of men responsible for their escape. A few of them were trying to figure out how to read, but it was difficult to do so, so many had given up. They also didn't have a reliable source of money, but at least they had Chromia giving them food and supplies and such.

When Orion approached the area they lived in, it was already night, and he had the feeling that he would be stuck sleeping on the poarch again, though he didn't really care. Megatronus himself was outside, collecting water from an old pump, or at least trying to, since it didn't work that well anymore.

"Megatronus! I brought a friend!" Jackie cheered, wheeling his way towards the house.

"Jackie, I swear, if you brought some sort of rodent home again—" Megatronus stopped in the middle of his sentence when he looked at said 'friend'.

"Hey, it's me, Orion,"

The two men stood still, letting the changes in looks sink in. Megatronus had a face covered in scars, and his hair had grown. His cinnamon-brown eyes held an indescribable weight to them, looking almost like shattered glass. They were broken, but there was one small flicker of light left in them, and it seemed to grow the moment Orion said his name.

Orion was no longer small and skinny. His soldiers had broadened, and he had grown taller. His voice was noticeably deeper, and he finally had some muscle on him, instead of the small, roapy arms he had the last time the two saw each other. He had grown out his hair, and held it back in a ponytail. He looked mature, though, he still was the same red-haired, freckle faced Orion pax. His murky blue eyes, still holding the wisdom, kindness, and hope they always held, was proof of this.

"I heard you have a name now," Orion hummed, stepping closer. "I don't really know if you remember me, but I—"

Before Orion could utter out another word, Megatronus had thrown himself upon him, wrapping his arms tight around the smaller man, being ever so careful, as if afraid Orion would be crushed into clouds and it would be revealed that this was all his imagination, but he refused to let go, afraid that Orion would fade away from him the moment he did so.

Orion hugged his old friend back, quiet tears of joy falling down his cheeks. "I missed you," He cried, while an abundance of emotions ran through his body, so happy that his friend had remembered him, had searched for him, and now held him with a kind of warmth that no one else could hold. Three years, and five months, and the nameless boy on the slave-ship still believe in their promise to each other. A boy who took Orion's pain and healed it the best he could, with nothing but a small laugh and a few words.

He heard Megatronus let out a loud sob, as he began to cry as well. The two men held each other tighter, closer, both falling apart and feeling themselves being fixed and built up at the same time. Their hearts pained with the wounds of longing, the realization of how much they had needed each other feeling like a punch, a crack, but at the same time, something was filling up those cracks, as two men who became something greater than friends, more than brothers, even, embraced each other tightly.

"I missed you too, Orion," Megatronus finally sobbed out, feeling like he needed to say something, but not knowing what to say. So he simply repeated the only words made to express what he felt.

"I missed you! I missed you! I missed you so much!"


And done!

Yeash this chapter was hard to write. But at least it's done now. Read and review! Until next time!

~MotherUniverse signing out!