The nameless mech did not know what death was. He had never heard of the Allspark, or the Matrix, or Primus. He did not fear the end of his existence.

But he did fear darkness.

He clung to the light, digging his bruised fingers into the dust on the ground because it was his world, and he was afraid he would lose it if he let go.

Eventually, his screaming stopped, but his pain remained, and if he let himself slip away from the pain, he also let himself slip away from the light. So instead he embraced the agony, fighting the darkness, wondering how long this would go on, if it would ever end.

Then he heard voices. Someone had come.

"Here's another one."

"Pretty big mech, this one… look, he's still got a paint job. Probably rebelled or something. They must have wanted to make an example."

"Whose team is he on? They aren't supposed to scrap the new ones even if they talk back. New ones still have some wear in them. It's bad economics."

"Well, load him onto the carrier, and we'll dump him in with…"

He felt something shift him and the pain doubled. He cried out and struggled weakly. There was a gasp and he was dropped again.

"Primus, this one's still online."

"Well, he won't be for long. Put him on the carrier with the others."

He was lifted. This time, he was lifted and carried, and tossed onto something lumpy, half-propped up. He managed to online his optics, but it took a few moments for them to focus. He was looking into a face… or was he? There was something missing from this. The optics weren't online, but he wasn't sure if that was it. This… this was not another mech, this was lifeless, like the wall or the drilling machines.

He was looking at death.

They had tossed him onto a pile of the dead. Why? He tried to push away, slowly and painfully lifting himself up.

Then there was a jolt as the carrier went around a corner, and he fell off and landed on his shredded back.

The blackness closed in, and this time, he couldn't fight it.

He onlined again to a sound he had never heard before. The pain was still there, and now he felt a terrifying sort of exhaustion. The darkness had not retreated all the way—he could still feel the fog at the edge of his processor, and the imminent shut-down. He didn't have enough… power. His power was gone. He was weak. He was too weak.

A scarred and rust-spotted faceplate appeared above his. It had bright optics and a grin.

The other mech wheezed with laughter. "'Tis one's still alive," he said. "Hee hee hee. I can't scrap's one an' sellem for parts, he's still online."

The nameless mech tried to get up, but he must have been too weak, because his joints wouldn't lift him.

He felt a little comforted though—this mech seemed a lot more pleasant than anything the nameless mech had encountered so far, and his optics were so bright.

He laughed again. "heeheheheeeee, he's online!"

The nameless mech opened his lip plates, but didn't know what to say. He recalled what some of the others in line had said when they'd been given cubes of blue liquid. If he got some of that, he might be able to get up. He wasn't sure what brought him to that conclusion, but he wasn't thinking straight anyway.

The words were clumsy, and came out sounding all wrong until he'd tried four or five times.

"Than… Thank you."

The other mech wheezed some more. "You're welcome!" he said. "Lost, are you? Let's get you up!"

The mech grabbed his arm and pulled. The nameless mech let out a hoarse, grinding scream as he was yanked into a sitting position. The other mech didn't seem to mind the noise.

"Ooohhh," he said. "Look at t'is here. You should be with t'a Allspark now, shouldn't you? Guess I better send you there. Hee hee, no. I'm feeling all primelike, I won't. heeee hee hee heheeeheehe."

The nameless mech managed to stay in a swaying sitting position. "Thank you."

"You're WELCOME," the other mech shouted, and the nameless mech flinched. "What… hee hee heh… can I do.. hee hee for you?"

The nameless mech stared, unsure if he was being asked a question or given an order.

"Ya hear me in there?"

"Thank you," the nameless mech said, because it was the only thing he knew and so far nothing bad had come from saying it.

"Is t'at the only t'ing you can say?"

Definitely a question. The nameless mech could see it in the other's optics. "Thank you," he said again.

The other mech burst into a fit of uproarious laughter. The nameless mech presumed this was a good thing. He still wasn't sure what the words meant. "Thank you."

"No, no… hee hee hee heeheheeheeeehee, that wo—heheheeeee—won't do."

"Thank you."

"Gotta learn you some real heeeheeheheeheh words hee hee."

Something strange happened then, in the nameless mech's processor. Something that hadn't been there before suddenly was, or… sort of was. It had come from somewhere else… somewhere else… When he examined it, it fed him words. Beautiful, blessed sounds attached to meanings.

Only a few, though. And none of them seemed to mean very pleasant things.

He stared at the laughing mech. "Glitch?" he said.

That sent the mech into another furious gale of wheezing. The nameless mech started to worry about whether he was all right.

Then he frowned. Surely there was more to language than this. He needed to figure out what "thank you" meant, still, and he'd heard them say so many other things. Though he did recognize most of the words he knew now from what he'd overheard so far. These must be the most common ones.

Maybe if he kept trying to talk…

"Thank you."

The mech shook his helm. "Now see… heheheee hehe here, haha, you… have some more! Have more of em we've got heee heeeeeee to build your heheheeha vocabulary."

Then there were more. Some of this second batch of words had come with no definitions, but a few of them weren't useless. He started using what words he had to piece together what some others meant.

He owed this cheerful, laughing mech a lot. Owed him everything. He understood now, at least some of what had been said before, though for the most part he was still unable to decipher what had been happening.

"Heehee…" the mech suddenly trailed off, looking away from him in the darkness. "Did you hear that?"

The nameless mech didn't know what he was talking about.

"There's scraplets in these tunnels," the mech said, then chuckled nervously. "Scraplets and pit spawn and vermin."

The nameless mech followed his gaze but couldn't see anything down the long tunnel.

"Heeheeheehee I seen 'em all right. I seen him too. Megatronus, the thrall of the Chaos-bringer himself, heehee. Tall as a transport, wit' glowing purple optics."

His tone had changed, but the nameless mech still wasn't sure what was wrong.

Then, suddenly, the mech's attention snapped back to him. "What's your heehee designation?"

That had been a question, hadn't it. "Yes?" the nameless mech said, which was one of the few useful words he knew now.

"Heeeheeehehee, you're designation is yes?" The mech said. "Heeheeheehee! You glitched thank-you-er! Heeheeeeheheheheeeeheeehee…"

The nameless mech felt dizzy for some reason. Something was wrong. He heard something in the distance.

He tried to remember what the mech had said before. All of those words. "M-Megatronus," he said.

"heehEEHEEEEEEEheeeeeheee! You! You think your designation is hee hee heeehehehe Mega hehehee Megatronus. Your creators must have been GLITCHED heehee HEHEEEHEE they heheheheeeheheeheHEHEHEE designated you… heee hee heeeeeeehe heheheheheee…"

The nameless mech moaned and slipped forward a little, feeling foggy and ill. There was something wrong with him. Something wrong with him.

"Megatronus!" the laughing mech shouted. "Have a good time in the Allspark, Megatronus! Hee he heeeeehehe. You know who Megatronus is?"

"Hey! You! Identify yourself."

The laughing stopped, and the mech turned and tried to run. The nameless mech watched as a guard ran after him, pulling out a gun. Then he watched as the guard fired, and the mech fell to the ground with a scream, and then lay still.

Then someone was beside him.

"Are you all right? Hey, come look at this one. Is he a guard? He's got a paint job."

"What's going on?"

"I think that mech was offlining a guard."

"Is he offline?"

"No."

"Well the fragger who ran is. Crazy, over-energized looter. Who is this?"

"I don't know. Hey, can you hear me? You?"

"That looks like an energon whip did that to his back. He's probably just a new worker who got lost or something."

"They aren't supposed to do this to the workers while they're still strong. What if it is a guard? And one of the others decided he had to go or something."

"Well, is he even in there. Hello? What's your designation? I think he's about to go into stasis."

"What do we do?"

"I don't know. Drag him to the medbay and see if he survives long enough someone can look at him. That is if he's a guard. If he's a worker, we should just leave him here. The scrap crews will come and pick him up eventually."

"Well, we could just leave him here, and claim we never saw anything at all."

"That sounds like a good plan. He looks like he won't last another joor anyway."

"But if we drag him to the medbay and he turns out to be another guard after all, then we'll have saved his life. We could get something for that."

"Like what?"

"Like he'd owe us for one, and I don't know about you, but I wouldn't mind this getting up to one of the captains. You can get promoted for stuff like bravery and rescuing people, even in this pit of a place. I wouldn't mind getting promoted."

The nameless mech slipped into the darkness again.