Broken Pieces
Sorry for the long wait! I got lazy…
ANYWHO! BEFORE YOU READ (or after) I suggest going back to chapter 4 and reading a scene I forgot to add. It's about Sides talking to Bee and Sadie, set as Orion and bots are heading back, before Orion sees the cracks in the ground.
Kay enjoy :3
Dirt and dust filled the entire tunnel. The tunnel shook violently as a large mass of silver tore through the rock and metal that had cracked the night before. Orion had jumped out of the way with Bumblebee and Sadie still in his arms. They clung tightly to him as their screams of terror along with the audio shattering roars caused Orion to freeze.
Images of Tagon Heights flashed in his processor as chaos unfolded around him. The sounds of weapons being fired and terror filled screams echoed in Orion's audios as time appeared to slow around him.
He shut his optics, why was he remembering now? Of all times he chose to freeze up now? He opened his optics again as images began to flash through his optics.
He could see someone yelling at him, Ironhide, but he couldn't hear what he was saying. Several feet away he could see Override, along with several of the civilians, struggling to stay upright as the tunnel continued to shake violently. Several of them had been thrown by the explosion and were struggling to get back on their pedes.
Suddenly what appeared to be metal tentacles began shooting out of the ground as well as from the metal creature that was currently tearing up the entire tunnel.
"GET OUT OF THE WAY!" Orion finally heard Ironhide screamed before the weapon specialist was thrown against a wall by a metal tentacle.
Orion's optics widened as he snapped back into reality. He quickly jumped out of the way as a tentacle slammed into the ground where he had stood moments before.
He jumped through the door of a train cart and slammed the door shut with his pede as metal thorns shot out of the tentacle and buried themselves into the metal.
"What the spark was that?" demanded Sunstreaker as he and Barricade starred at Orion, who was still on the ground with the two younglings clinging to him.
Orion looked outside, ignoring Sunstreaker's question as he placed Bumblebee and Sadie down.
"Stay here," he told them.
"Don't leave!" Bumblebee yelled.
"I'll be right back," Orion said before turning to Sunstreaker and Barricade. "Keep an optic on them." Orion said before disappearing through the escape hatch on the ceiling of the train cart.
"I am NOT a fraggin' sparkling sitter!" Sunstreaker yelled after him.
In a few moments, Orion was on the roof of the train cart. Whatever it was that was attacking them was causing utter chaos throughout the entire tunnel.
Orion jumped down from where he was a sliced what appeared to be a metallic tentacle that suddenly appeared from the hole, in half.
"You alright?" Orion asked as he appeared beside Arcee, who was trying not to get hit by metallic tentacles.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Where's Ironhide?" Arcee yelled over the noise.
And as if on que, an explosion rocked both of them off their feet as another metallic limb clattered to the ground beside them.
"Found him," Arcee said as Orion jumped to his feet. He caught sight of Ironhide through the smoke and ran to him.
"Help me get the civilians to safety while Arcee and I hold it off." Orion said as he handed Arcee one of his cannons.
"No way, this thing's mine." Ironhide said, sliding his black mask over his face before disappearing into smoke.
"Typical Ironhide…" Arcee muttered as she charged her weapon. "He hasn't changed a bit." She said before running off to help the others.
"You have no idea." Orion said before following her.
As the room shook violently, Override struggled to stay on her feet. With all the noise and shaking it was nearly impossible for her to figure out where she was.
C'mon, get it together, Ride… she thought. The situation vaguely reminded her of the time she and Hotshot had been in Trypticon station when Trypticon had been transforming.
"C'mon Trypticon was way worse than this!" she thought, knowing that was probably what Hotshot would be telling her now.
"Oh yeah, this is wwwaaayy better." Override muttered to herself, remembering they had been attacked by underworlders that had materialized out of Trypticon's walls.
"Hey, at least there aren't any underworlders."
"Hey, at least in Trypticon I could actually see." Override said moments before her audio receptor twitched. She ducked moments before a tentacle flew over her, slamming into the wall beside her.
"This is impossible." Override muttered as she stayed on the ground for a few moments before getting back up.
"What kind of talk is that? Nothing's impossible!" a part of Override thought.
"Easy for you to say, you're dead." Override said to herself.
"LOOK OUT!" a voice behind Override screamed before she felt herself being tackled and thrown to the ground. A dull pain shot through her legs as they slammed into one of the train carts, leaving a reasonably large dent before bouncing back and sliding a few feet away.
"Ow…you okay?" Sideswipe asked.
"Yeah," Override said as she sat up. "What about you?"
"Yeah." said Sideswipe.
Meanwhile, as Orion helped Arcee lead everyone else to safety, a metallic tentacle suddenly wrapped around him and lifted him into the air.
"Orion!"
He heard someone call his name over the noise. He gasped as the tentacle began to crush him, causing pain to shoot through the dent. Orion brought out his axe, cutting himself free before crashing to the ground.
"Ironhide, get rid of it!" Arcee yelled over her comm link as she ran to Orion's side.
"My pleasure." Ironhide said before letting out a series of shots into the dust filled hole. A loud screech filled the entire tunnel before dying down, along with the rumbling until everything was completely still.
Orion panted as he slowly got up. After a few moments he ran to the hole in the ground as the smoke began to clear, keeping his weapons drawn.
"Is…everyone alright?" he asked as the pain slowly began to subside.
"Everyone appears to be accounted for." Ironhide said as Bumblebee and Sadie ran out of the train cart.
"What was it?" Bumblebee asked as he ran up to Orion.
"I'm not sure," answered Orion, "But I have a pretty good idea what it was…"
"Was it…a driller?" Sideswipe asked as he sat up.
"Felt like a cyberquake and sounded like it crawled out of pit, so yeah it's probably a driller." said Override, getting odd looks from several of the bots.
"Okay then…how'd it get in here?" Ironhide asked his slid his mask back into subspace.
"Uh, drilling?" suggested Sunstreaker, who was sitting near one of the windows of the train cart, still in hearing range.
"I know it drilled in here!" Ironhide yelled. "I'm wondering how it got stuck with us!"
"Maybe it's one of Shockwave's?" Arcee suggested.
"No, they appeared to be built differently." Orion stated, his arms crossed over his chest plates. "Anyways, it doesn't matter what it is. All that matters is that it poses a danger to us."
"How'd it even get in here in the first place? I thought the tunnel was sealed off." said Arcee.
"Most likely it entered during the fighting. It must have entered the tunnel before the gates were sealed." said Ratchet.
"Scrap." Override muttered.
"Are you two alright?" Orion asked, noticing Override and Sideswipe were still on the ground.
"Yeah, we're fine." answered Override.
"Uh…I think something's wrong with my arms." said Sideswipe as he struggled to lift them. Arcee came over to the silver mech and examined his arms.
"Looks like multiple barbs somehow got embedded into your outer alloy." stated Arcee as she carefully pulled one out. Sideswipe didn't even flinch as she pulled out the energon stained barb.
"You didn't feel that?" Orion asked as she came to weld the wounds shut.
"Feel what?" Sideswipe asked before noticing the energon dripping down his arm. "Oh…" he said before noticing Override had similar barbs embedded in her legs.
As Arcee and Orion began to remove the barbs and weld their wounds shut, Ratchet began to examine the metal barbs. He extracted some of the poison from one of the barbs that had fallen on the floor and found that his entire servo became numb when he placed it on a digit.
"Interesting…it appears that the barbs are filled with a poison that temporally paralyzes whatever comes in contact with it." Ratchet said as he slowly began to regain movement in his servo. "The driller must use it as a way to kill its victims." said Ratchet.
"Drillers can do that?" asked Tailgate.
"It probably isn't even a driller, more likely a species of Underworlder that resembles one." explained Ratchet.
"Wait, wait, wait…WE'RE GONNA DIE?" exclaimed Sideswipe.
"Not likely. It appears the poison only paralyzes. The affects should wear off eventually." explained Ratchet.
Sideswipe was about to say more when a thought occurred to him. They had been hit by the bards after he had pushed Override.
"Hey…why didn't you jump outta the way?" asked Sideswipe the red femme. "You could have been killed!"
"Hey, it's not like I could see where I was going!" Override snapped.
"Huh?" Sideswipe said, cocking his helm slightly. "What are you talking about? It's not that dark in here." Sideswipe said, confused.
"That's not what I meant." Override said, sounding slightly annoyed.
Sideswipe cocked his helm in confusion. Override's blank gaze remained neutral.
"What did you lose your sight in the crash?" asked Sideswipe.
"I didn't lose it in the crash! I've just always been like this..." explained Override.
"So you can't see? Ever?" asked Bumblebee.
Override sighed.
"I used to be able to see. Not anymore, not since..."
"Since you were diagnosed with stasis depression." Orion said, causing everyone to look at him, Orion ignored them and continued. "You should have told me no one else knew."
"No one ever asked, except for you that is." Override said, shrugging as if it were no big deal. Suddenly her expression became serious. "None of you even think about treating me like a crippled." Override hissed.
"What if we d-" Sunstreaker said before being cut off mid-sentence as a sharp piece of metal flew past his helm and impaled itself into the window frame beside his him, scratches his paint in the process. "MY PAINT!"
"That's what." Override chuckled as Sunstreaker began to freak out about his paint.
Meanwhile everybot's mouths were gapped in shock as they starred at her with wide optics.
"Impressive." Orion said, who was the only one whose expression remained neutral.
A few hours later the effects of the poison had worn off. Orion and Ironhide had formed a plan to keep watch on the civilians during the day. Drillers were subterranean therefore mostly stayed underground during the day and occasionally went to the surface at night. Ironhide had told Orion he would take the first watch, Orion refused.
"No, you were damaged during the fight, you need to rest. I can take first watch on my own." Orion had told Ironhide. After Tailgate had offered to keep watch with Orion, Ironhide reluctantly agreed to allow them to take the first watch.
"Fine, but I take the next shift." Ironhide said before making his way to the group.
As everyone settled in for the night, or at least attempted to, they all laid huddled in one large group, expecting the driller to appear while they recharged.
Instead of his usual spot against the train cart, Orion sat in the middle of the group as he took first watch with Tailgate. Orion sat back to back with the grey and crimson mech as they watched over the civilians.
The tunnel was dead silent as they all waited for the driller to return. After a few hours it appeared as if the driller had left them alone, some of the civilians had relaxed enough to fall into recharge. But Orion was still alert, despite the heaviness in his optics. Several feet away he could see Bumblebee recharging beside Sadie, both recharging peacefully in Arcee's arms.
Images of the two younglings falling to their death flashes in Orion's processor. Had he not been fast enough to catch them... Orion quickly shook the thought out of his processor. He already had enough to deal with at the moment, it would do no good to think negatively.
We won't make it out alive... Orion thought, images of Tagon Heights flashed through his processor. Orion clenched his helm as screams began to echo in his audios.
"Hey." the sudden voice in the seemingly endless silence brought Orion out of his thoughts.
"You okay?" Tailgate asked. Orion nodded. "Have you..." Tailgate began, his voice sounding loud in the silence of tunnel despite his attempts to keep his voice low. "Have you been able to remember anything?"
"No." Orion answered plainly, "Not recently..." he added as he began to think of his recent nightmares.
"Have you been able to remember anything since..." the crimson mech trailed off. For a while neither said anything, finally Orion answered.
"Only bits and pieces, mostly random memories. But I can never remember..."
"Her?"
Orion said nothing as his spark suddenly felt constricted in his chest.
"Sorry..." said Tailgate
Orion still said nothing. Tailgate began to feel as if he should have just stayed quiet when he heard Orion mutter,
"It wasn't your fault..." he had the distinct feeling that he wasn't talking to him. Unable to take the awkward silence, Tailgate tried to make a conversation.
"I...heard Dion joined the Autobots." Tailgate said in an attempt to change the subject.
Orion nodded.
"Yes. He had already begun his training before I joined. So he had been in Iacon when the attack occurred."
"He told me you two didn't speak much until you began training." said Tailgate. "Were you mad at him?"
"Why would I be?" Orion asked, keeping his gaze on the ground.
"Well...if he had been there, maybe he could have helped you..."
"No, had Dion been in Tagon Heights then I would have lost two bots I care about." for a moment Orion said nothing. For the millionth time in his processor he was reliving the night Tagon Heights fell. He closed his optics in an attempt to block it out but he could still see her broken form in his arms.
"I hold no grudge against Dion... there was nothing he could have done to help...he would have been killed as well."
"You must have lost a lot to care about that day..." Tailgate said calmly, knowing Orion didn't want his sympathy.
"No...only one... everything."
After this Orion fell silent. He could feel the Tailgate's frame tense up for a moment but thought nothing of it. Tailgate stared ahead of him, unaware that the mech sitting behind him had fallen silent. For a while neither said anything, both mechs deep in thought.
He still doesn't know...they never told him… Tailgate thought as his gaze shifted to both the medic and weapon specialist. It was better that way, Tailgate thought. They told Tailgate, along with the rest of their friends, the day Orion had finally awakened after the attack.
Tailgate had sworn not to tell but it still didn't make him feel any better about lying to him. Orion deserved to know the truth, even if it was something as tragic as this. Better to have harsh truths than happy lies, not that Orion was even happy to begin with, having stasis depression and all.
But Orion had already lost too much that night, what good would it do to tell him that he had lost so much more?
Orion didn't know, neither of them did. No point in bringing it up now.Tailgate thought, remembering none of them were to breathe a word about. His thoughts drifted back to the night of the attack. The night Sadie had been created.
Arcee hadn't been due to spark for a while when the attack happened. They had been in Arcee's home in Tagon Heights when Arcee had felt Ariel's pain. Tailgate had no idea what to do since they were trapped with all the fighting that was going on outside.
He had done the only thing he could think of and called Cliffjumper. He had arrived and had taken then to Ratchet. On the way to Iacon, Arcee had felt Ariel's spark extinguish. The pain had been too much for her and Sadie's spark had almost extinguished that night. Ratchet had managed to save them both in the end.
But not them...Not Ariel and...
Tailgate opened his optics. He shook the thought out of his processor. He turned his helm and gazed at the blue and crimson youngling who was still recharging in Arcee's arms. Sadie had been created too early but she showed no signs of anything wrong with her systems.
She still functioned as any normal youngling her age would. She was energetic as ever but after the first few days Sadie had been created, she hadn't behaved the way normal sparklings did. She hadn't cried much and would recharge more than a sparkling her age should have.
Most parents would probably be relieved by that, but it was a completely different story with Sadie when she had been a sparkling. At some point her parents often had to wake her up to drink her energon.
Tailgate had gone with them to see Ratchet to see if anything had been wrong with Sadie. He had told them that He could find nothing wrong with her. Tailgate wasn't sure or not, but he had always noticed Sadie held a deep sadness in her optics when she had been a sparkling.
Even now she still seemed to carry that same sadness in her optics. Tailgate often wondered if Sadie had felt Arcee's pain of losing Ariel and continued to feel that sadness for some time after she was gone. He wasn't sure.
Tailgate's thoughts drifted back to the mech sitting behind him. The attack on Tagon Heights had been the worst night of Orion's entire existence, no doubt. Tailgate knew Orion had never spoken of it to anyone, not even Dion or any other of his friends.
Tailgate knew it wasn't good to keep emotions locked up, especially as long as Orion has. He needed to talk about it and it wasn't doing him any good keeping it all bottled up inside.
Tailgate's optics scanned the room. He knew most of the bots were either still awake to pretending to be recharging. Only the younglings had somehow managed to recharge. Hesitantly Tailgate opened a private comm link.
-'Hey Orion...'-
-'Yes?'-
-'About what happened in Tagon Heights...do you...wanna talk about it?'- asked Tailgate.
-'No.'- Orion said, his tone making it clear that the conversation was over before cutting off the link. Tailgate sighed.
At least he tried.
Orion suddenly got up and walked over to Ironhide. He shook him awake even though he knew he wasn't recharging.
"Time for your shift." Orion said. He didn't wait for a reply and made his way over to his usual spot beside the train cart.
Ironhide cursed slightly as he got up, his frame ached slightly from having been thrown into a wall by the driller earlier that day. Instead of sitting back to back with Tailgate as Orion had, the onyx weapon specialist stayed on his feet for a few moments. He scanned the tunnel for a few moments before sitting down. He leaned against a rock that had fallen during the cyberquake the driller had caused. He placed his oversized cannons on his lap, ready to use them if necessary.
"You should probably recharge, kid." Ironhide told Tailgate. Out of habit, Orion lifted his helm in response and stared in their direction before realizing the weapon specialist had not spoken to him. He lowered his helm and laid down on the ground, his back facing towards them.
"Why do you always call him that?" Tailgate asked out of curiosity. "Why not just Orion?"
Ironhide shrugged. "Because he's still young. He may be a fighter but he still has a lot to learn." answers Ironhide. "You've known him for a long time, correct?"
Tailgate nodded, then stopped short, knowing Orion wasn't the same mech he knew before. Ironhide gazed at the blue and red mech, who appeared to have fallen into recharge. "I remember seeing you before, when the kid was brought in after the attack."
Tailgate nodded. He, along with the rest of Orion's friends, had gone to the same med bay in Iacon Orion had been taken to. As Tailgate could remember, Ratchet had almost been unable to repair him.
Ironhide turned his helm in Orion's direction before continuing. "When I found the kid, he wasn't in good shape, his mate was already gone. When Ratchet tried to help him, he attacked. Before Ratchet could even sedate him, he just went into stasis." explained Ironhide.
Tailgate and the rest of Orion's friends had not been able to see him for days after the attack, but even then he was still in stasis and could not remember them.
"He almost didn't make it." Tailgate stated.
"Ratchet says it's a miracle he's even still alive." said Ironhide.
'But Orion doesn't see it that way.' Tailgate thought, remembering after Orion had been told of what had happened to Ariel; he had nearly gone on a rampage.
"Ratchet said something about Orion having old parts..." Ironhide said, almost to himself, but shrugged it off.
Tailgate thought about this for a moment. What did he mean by old parts? Orion wasn't old.
"If that's the case, doesn't make much sense that you call him 'kid' all the time." Tailgate said, almost jokingly. Ironhide chuckled halfheartedly.
"I suppose not."
As Orion listened to the two mechs, his mind was not on their conversation. His mind drifted to the red and grey mech he had once called a friend and wasn't sure if he still could.
He knew when Tailgate was trying to get him to talk about Tagon Heights he meant well, but Orion couldn't continue talking to the mech. It's not like he hated him for trying or the fact that it was something in his life no one needed to know.
Orion just couldn't help but feel when he had been talking to Tailgate; he had felt an overwhelming sense of dread in his spark. It felt almost as if something bad was going to happen and soon.
Orion did not like it. Even now as Tailgate spoke with Ironhide, he could still feel that sense of dread. Suddenly his optics offlined and instead of his usual nightmares, he began to dream of Tailgate's death.
~~~ (hours later)
Screaming.
That is what Orion woke up to the next day.
Orion jolted awake as his world suddenly turned upside down, literally. The driller had returned and was wreaking havoc once again. One of its many tentacles had wrapped around Orion's leg and had lifted him up into the air. Down below he could see Ironhide and Arcee fighting off the driller as the others ran for cover. Orion flipped out his axes and attempted to cut himself free.
"Orion!" he heard a familiar voice cry over the chaos as several tentacles came at him. Orion threw one of his axes at the driller but missed. The tentacle caught the axe, but instead of using it against Orion, threw it its razor sharp maw.
"Scrap!" Orion cursed before evading a tentacle coming down at him.
In a flash, he brought out his cannon and began shooting at the driller, which only seemed to anger it even further. The driller let out a loud screech before throwing Orion into its mouth. For a split second time seemed to stop as he suddenly felt pain on his right side.
Orion suddenly found himself crashing on the ground, several feet away from the driller. He let out a pain filled gasp as pain shot through his left side. He panted painfully as he got up on his hands and knees. Beside him, a rather large rock tumbled past him before smashing into the wall behind him. Before Orion could even comprehend what had just occurred, Ironhide appeared.
"You alright, kid?" he asked as he shot several tentacles that had decided to go after Orion. It took a moment for Orion to realize what had happened.
"Did you...did you just throw a rock at me?" Orion exclaimed, baffled.
"Yup. Be grateful you're not dead, besides I could have shot you instead." Ironhide said.
"I can't say I feel grateful either way." Orion said emotionlessly before jumping to his feet,
keeping a servo over his left side.
"Where are the others?" Orion asked as he took out his cannons, realizing none of the civilians were in sight.
"Tailgate and Arcee got them to safe-" Ironhide said moments before he and Orion were swatted by a tentacle. Orion cried out as he was slammed against the wall. He slid down to the ground and watched, paralyzed with pain, as Ironhide, who wasn't as lucky, was lifted up into the air by several tentacles at once.
From where he laid, Orion caught sight of the civilians hiding one of the train carts on the other side of the tunnel. Above him, Ironhide struggled to free himself from the driller, which appeared to be attempting to tear the weapon specialist apart. Ironhide cries out and manage to point his cannon up to the ceiling and fired. Several large rocks broke free and began to rain down on them, most of which landed on the driller.
"Orion!" he heard Arcee call out his name. Orion managed to roll away in time before a large boulder crashed down in the spot he had been laying moments before.
"Orion!" a familiar voice cried out. Orion's helm shot towards the train cart. Through one of the many broken windows, his optics locked on a pair of terrified, baby blue optics.
Suddenly, in the driller's panic, it began to thrash around, several of its tentacles slammed into the wall above the cart, causing boulders to crash down on it. Orion's optics widened as he could hear the civilians screams over the driller's shrieking.
"No!" Orion yelled as the driller attempted to strike the train cart. The driller let out a pain filled shriek as one of Ironhide's shots hit its tentacle. The tentacle exploded and crashed to the ground with a loud thud. The driller, clearly angered, threw Ironhide into the flames.
Ironhide crashed into the severed tentacle before crashing through one of the windows of the train cart and into Sunstreaker.
"Ow!Watch it, Autobot!" Sunstreaker growled.
Meanwhile, outside, Orion groaned as he struggled to get up, clutching a servo over the dent as he got to his feet, only to have to drop down again to avoid being hit by the thrashing driller.
Get it together! the sergeant in Orion's head yelled. He wasted no time as he brought out both his axe and his cannon. Several feet away he spotted Arcee, who appeared to holding her own against the driller. She sliced a tentacle with her arm blades before jumping onto another which.
She ran up along whip-like tentacle before jumping onto the back of the driller. She punched in between the driller's strong armor plates and ripped out a fist full of wires. In response, the driller shrieked before one of its tentacles grabbed her and slammed her into the ceiling. Arcee cried out as the driller slammed her into the ground before dragging her into the ground.
Warning signs flashed across Arcee's optics as her frame began to spark from the damage it was taking. A flash of red and blue suddenly appeared in the corner of her optic as the driller suddenly screamed before loosening its grip on her. Arcee slid a few feet away before tumbling to a stop.
She groaned as she sat up. Orion suddenly appeared in front of her, axe in hand as the tentacle that had been dragging Arcee suddenly crashed to the ground behind them. Moments later the driller let out a loud metallic shriek as it began thrash around once again.
Suddenly Ironhide roared as he erupted out of the train cart. He began to bombard the driller with missiles and blasts (having earlier recovered his cannons which the driller had dropped) the driller shrieked as it attempted to drill itself underground.
"Oh no you don't you pit spawned, Unicronian reject!" Ironhide roared as he jumped onto the driller, grabbing several tentacles as he did so before causing the driller to slam itself into the hard metal wall.
"Huh...someone's...in a bad mood..." Arcee panted as her frame slowly began to repair itself.
"Are you alright?" Orion asked in a no nonsense tone as he turned around to face her.
"I'll live." she said as Orion held out a servo to her.
As Arcee took his servo, she noticed a dent below his chest plate, partially hidden by a layer of armor. She was about to ask him where he had gotten it before something behind him caught her attention.
The driller had somehow been able to throw Ironhide off its back. Instead of going after the weapon specialist, it caught sight of them. Arcee's optics widened as a razor, almost dagger like tentacle shot towards them.
"ORION!" Arcee screamed. Orion, having caught sight of the tentacle off the reflection of a piece of metal that had fallen off the driller, knew there was no time for both of them to evade it. Orion spun around as the tentacle neared, prepared to take the blow, but the pain never came.
Fresh energon stained Orion's armor, but it wasn't his own. A golden pained fill optic stared at Orion with shock. Orion was vaguely aware of Arcee screaming behind him.
Tailgate gasped in pain as the driller's yanked it's out of his back. Orion's optics widened in shock as Tailgate suddenly fell forward.
"Tailgate!" Orion heard Arcee cry out as he slowly placed the red and grey mech down. Tailgate stared up at the ceiling with pain filled optics as he clutched a servo over a gaping wound over his chest plate.
Energon quickly began to leak out of it and through Tailgate's digits. Arcee placed her servos over Tailgate's in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
Anger, pain, and shock filled Orion as life slowly began to slip away for Tailgate. He growled before bringing out his axe. He roared before turning to the driller, who was currently battling Ironhide once again.
Tentacles shot towards him, Orion sliced off every single one. The Driller screamed before shooting the dagger like tentacle at him. Anger filled Orion, in one swift motion; the tentacle that had stabbed Tailgate crashed to the ground and fell into the hole the driller had created.
Moments later the driller followed. Just as it disappeared into, Orion ran up to Ironhide. With no explanation he took a bomb from his subspace and dropped it into the hole. The two mechs ran for cover before the bomb exploded, sending both mechs flying. Orion slide to a stop as Ironhide slammed into the wall.
"A little warning next time?" Ironhide complained before he caught sight of the others. Everyone, minus the younglings, Override, and the Decepticons (who remained in the train cart) had surrounded Tailgate and Arcee.
The fire from before had died down and Ratchet appeared to be attempting to stop the bleeding but could not close the energon lines due to the fact that he still had not regained total function to his arms. His expression was grim as he worked. Orion rushed to them.
Ratchet looked up Orion, his optics solemn. Orion took out the medical kit Ratchet had given him and began closing the energon lines.
"You're...gonna be alright, Tailgate." Arcee said. "Keep you're optics online." Orion said as quickly he continued to work. 'There's too much energon...' he thought.
"This might hurt." he said as he dug the tool deeper into the wound to weld some of the major energon lines shut.
"It's alright...It doesn't hurt...that much..." said Tailgate. Orion nodded, not looking up. He wasn't sure whether it was a good or bad thing.
Everyone stayed silent as Orion began to close the energon lines. Orion suddenly dropped the tool. He reached down to pick it up when he realized his servos were shaking.
Pull it together, Pax... he thought. He looked up at Tailgate, who appeared to be struggling to keep his optics open.
Suddenly Tailgate's wound began to bleed again, even worse than before. Orion placed his servos over the wound in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Tailgate looked up at Orion before opening his comm link. -"I'm sorry...about trying to get you to... talk about...what happened... it...wasn't...any of my...business."-
-"You have nothing to be sorry about..."-
"You're gonna be alright..." Orion said out loud. "Everything's gonna be fine." Orion said as he Tailgate took his servo. "Just...keep telling...yourself that..." Tailgate said as closed his optics. "It's not... your fault, Orion...it's not your...fault..."
"No!" a voice cried out from the train cart.
"Sadie!" Sideswipe cried out as the blue femme broke away from him and began to run toward Tailgate. Override held a servo up to stop Sideswipe.
"No, she needs this." Override said calmly as they watched Sadie run towards the group.
Sadie ran for Tailgate and buried her face into his neck. "You can't go!" she cried. "If you do, we'll be all alone!" she cried as she wrapped her arms around Tailgate. Tailgate smiled sadly as he wrapped an arm around the blue youngling.
"But...you won't be alone...you...you still have...Orion... he'll protect you... won't you?" Tailgate said, looking up at Orion with a flickering golden optic. Orion nodded without hesitation.
"I promise." he said, bowing his helm.
Tailgate nodded before offlining his optics. Orion closed his optics as Tailgate's frame slowly began to fade ash grey. His servo slipped out of his servo. Sadie pulled away from Tailgate as his arm fell limp, her optics filling with tears. Arcee gasped and placed a servo over her mouth in attempt to hold back a sob.
Orion kept his optics locked on the ground as Sadie began to cry in her mother's arms. Arcee held her daughter close as they both mourned for Tailgate.
Orion did his best to block out the sound, but it was permanently locked in processor. He couldn't take this anymore. He slowly got up to his feet and walked several feet away from the others. He could feel everyone's optics on him as he sank to the floor. Orion punched the ground in frustration.
He had failed.
A/N: yeah i killed off Tailgate...i am evil, i know but i had to make someone die cuz in Angel Beats Otonashi tries to save someone but can't. The person dies and Otonashi feels like a failure. I couldn't give Tailgate a pointless death so a gave him a warrior's death.
Anyways! in the next chapter there will be two more characters. Won't say who, only that we all know and love 'em and they both love music
Hope you're enjoying the story so far!