Prisoners of the Mind: What Happens?

Chapter 5: How Orion Pax Was Recruited

Ultra Magnus found himself once again enjoying the pleasure of being the Decepticons' prisoner. While it had been reasonably bearably last time it was now intolerable. Of course this was due to having to share a room with Sentinel Prime who kept pacing and yelling obscenities at their captors. "Sit down, Sentinel," Ultra Magnus said wearily, his cranial unit propped on a servo. Sentinel merely ignored him and continued ranting. "Sit down!" Ultra Magnus suddenly roared, starling both of them.

Sentinel looked at him with wide optics and obediently sat down at the table across from his superior.

"Now," Ultra Magnus began. "The Decepticons captured us for a reason. And something tells me that it has to do with what you were about to tell me when we were kidnapped. So, while we have this free time, you will tell me everything. And I do mean everything. Such as why Orion Pax is still online and why we have two of the Decepticons' top employers in our custody and they are running around free."

"It's a very long story," Sentinel said nervously.

"We have plenty of time," Ultra Magnus said.

"I'm not really sure how to begin," Sentinel admitted.

"Why not at the very beginning?" Ultra Magnus suggested.

"Well I guess it would have to have been two years before Orion Pax killed Elite One."

Five Years Earlier

Sentinel Prime walked through the hallways of the old building that had once been the site of the Cybertron Research Facility, glancing uneasily from side to side. "Is anyone there?" he hated how his voice trembled ever so slightly as he continued walking.

"There you are!" a voice exclaimed, causing him to jump.

"Who are you?" Sentinel demanded as he pulled out his sword and shield.

"Relax," the voice laughed then its owner appeared. He was very…unique looking with his battle mask engaged and fins on either side of his cranial unit that were lit up. "I'm Wheeljack."

"Get to the point," Sentinel ordered. "You better have a good reason for asking me to meet you here or I swear that I'll have you off lined."

"Okay, okay," Wheeljack held up his servos in defense. "As you know the Cybertron Research Facility used to be housed in this building here. But what you don't know is that we were in the middle of conducting research for Overlord Magnus when he was off lined and Ultra Magnus took his place. After Ultra Magnus took over he ordered that our research be halted and the facility be closed down."

"And what does this have to do with me?" Sentinel interrupted. "I'm not that interested in your research."

"Oh but you will be," Wheeljack promised. "You will be."

"And things took off after that," Sentinel shrugged, staring intently at the table.

Ultra Magnus stared at his colleague, dumbfounded. When he could finally speak again he said, "You authorized them to continue their research? What were you thinking? They were experimenting on bots to see if they could completely rewire a bot without him going crazy!"

"And they succeeded," Sentinel said, his blue optics shining as he looked at Ultra Magnus. "We captured a Decepticon spy named Bumblebee and placed him in the simulation chamber. The experiments were working. At least until he woke up," he added.

Four Years Earlier

"Sir!" Sentinel Prime turned around to see a red minibot running towards him, looking extremely panicked.

"What is it?" Sentinel asked with a sigh.

"The Decepticon, he's coming out of it!"

"What!" Sentinel took off running, arriving at the observation room in record time just in the nick of time to see the Decepticon sit up. "How did this happen?" he demanded.

"We don't know," Red Alert told him curtly.

"Well somebody better find out!" he roared. "Or there will be pit to pay for this!"

Suddenly the door flung open and there stood a very annoyed minibot. "You better tell me where I am and what I'm doing here or I swear I will offline each and every one of you!" he growled.

"Any suggestions?" Inferno asked sarcastically.

"Someone fetch Wheeljack now!" Sentinel yelled. "And tell him that he better have a very good explanation for this!"

"After Bumblebee woke up we discovered that he had had safeguards placed in his processor which would prevent his processor from being re-written. So we had to have another test subject," Sentinel sighed.

"And that's about the time that Orion Pax killed Elita One," Ultra Magnus said in realization. "You offered him a deal didn't you?"

Sentinel nodded. "Yes, sir, I did."

Four Years Earlier

Sentinel sat in the Cybertron Prison Facility and looked through the glass at Orion Pax who was staring back. "Why?" Sentinel finally asked. "Why did you kill her?"

Orion Pax shrugged. "You shouldn't have asked her to go on a date with you," he said.

"You killed Elite One because of that?" Sentinel was incredulous. Apparently Orion Pax was more mentally unstable than he had previously thought.

"No," Orion leaned forward. "I killed her because she accepted."

"The two of you were fixing to break up!" Sentinel defended himself. "Elita One was very upset so I asked her out to cheer her up. If I had known that you were going to kill her over that I wouldn't have asked her out."

"Well it's a little late for that now, isn't it?" Orion's optics glowed red for a second then returned to their normal blue.

Sentinel heaved a sigh and leaned forward. "Look, Orion, I wasn't going to tell you this but I might know a way to save your life."

"How?" Orion sounded indifferent but the interest in his blue optics was plain for all to see.

"So I told him that if he was willing to become one of the bots that we were going to experiment on I would help fake his death," Sentinel finished.

"I can't believe that you really did that," Ultra Magnus sounded like he was in shock. "I just can't believe that you really did that."

"I still can't believe it myself," Sentinel grumbled. "And I can't believe that I just told you that!"

"You're also going to tell me the rest of it as well," Ultra Magnus said. "Believe me; you will."

A/N: Sorry that this is so late but I've been preoccupied all weekend and I spent all day today waiting for an interview but I did get the job (Yay me!) so fair warning to all of you readers. I will do my absolute best to post another chapter of 'Animated Masterforce' and 'Subject 93-483-946' tomorrow as well but I make no promises.