Photodraft stopped to watch as two of the guards grabbed Megatronus by either arm and turned him around so his back was exposed to Spiral and his whip. He glanced at Rivet, who hadn't noticed yet.

There was a swish, followed by a sharp grating sound and a crackle of plasmatic energon. The whips were barbed as well as energized, so that they tore through the plating.

Rivet looked over and gasped. Photodraft stepped in between him and the scene. "Go back to working."

The younger mech stared at him with wide, pleading optics.

"What?" The whip fell again and Photodraft winced.

"Do something."

"We can't," Photodraft said.

Frag it, he had known it wasn't a good idea to make friends down here. Rivet was the only mech he could care about. If Rivet died, Photodraft would give up and let the mines kill him too. But other mecha…

"Just keep working," Photodraft said.

Megatronus cried out the third time the whip struck. Photodraft clenched his fists, and then bent down to pick up a piece of rubble.

"Just keep working."

"But…"

"Just keep working."

Megatronus screamed. Rivet let out an almost inaudible keen.

"It's ok," Photodraft lied. "It's ok, Rivet, just keep going before one of them notices."

Spiral whipped Megatronus until Megatronus stopped screaming, and then Photodraft still heard the steady sound of the whip for several breems.

It was nearly the end of the shift. They'd almost made it. Megatronus had almost made it one more shift. Unicron claim Spiral and his cruelty and his injustice. Rivet was still crying quietly as they picked up to leave.

Photodraft had a feeling he'd regret it, but he veered slightly as they started down the tunnel so he could walk past Megatronus's frame. The mech lay face up and his flickering optics stared vacantly at the ceiling.

Photodraft stopped.

He was still alive. Primus, how was that possible?

Rivet leaned against him, trembling.

Photodraft put an arm around his little brother and led him after the others, but then pushed him gently away after they'd gone around a corner. Rivet looked up at him, feelings obviously hurt.

"You go with the others," Photodraft said. "I'm going back for Megatronus."

"But…"

"I'll bring him back if I can find a way to stop him from leaking to death. But you need to go with the others, because I could get in trouble for sneaking off."

"Wait," Rivet looked panicked. "What if you don't come back?"

"I'll come back, I promise. I'd never leave you alone down here, Rivet."

Rivet nodded. "Ok."

Photodraft let himself drift to the back of the group, and then he turned around and sprinted the way he'd come, hoping to Primus the corpse crews hadn't come by yet.

Megatronus still lay there, with energon spreading beneath him. Photodraft knelt by him and turned him over, studying the damage.

He wasn't going to make it, not with how much energon he'd lost and how little he'd had to begin with.

But he was still alive.

"Megatronus?" he asked.

Megatronus twitched, then made an obvious effort to get to his hands and knees.

"No, don't." Photodraft pushed him down again and he whimpered. "It's ok… I… I can help. Just hold still…"

Some of the barbs had torn deep. But the gashes were thin enough that Photodraft couldn't get at the energon lines without better tools. So they'd have to seal up and heal on their own. But even if they stopped leaking now, Megatronus couldn't possibly have enough energon left in him to last him until the beginning of the next shift. If Photodraft had better tools and a better understanding of them…

The wounds weren't really that bad in and of themselves. Excruciatingly painful, but not life-threatening.

Photodraft looked around, not really sure what he was looking for. There was one thing he could do.

"Don't worry," he said to Megatronus. "You're going to be ok, I promise. You just need some energon." He pulled a smallish piece of metal from subspace. It had been carved and shaped like a knife, and Photodraft almost never used it, in part because they weren't really allowed to have weapons. He did keep it sharp, though—as sharp as he could keep it under the circumstances.

Megatronus came fully online to the sensation of someone welding pieces of hot metal to his back. He moaned and tried to get up, but an insistent, familiar voice told him to lie still. Lie still…

"Lie still. I know it hurts. Good to see you online though. You had me worried for a while."

"Photo… what's going on?"

"You talked back to Spiral is what's going on, and he flogged you and left you for dead."

Megatronus remembered that. But it hadn't quite answered his question. "But what are you doing here?"

"Saving your hopeless aft," Photodraft said. "Because I couldn't live with myself if I didn't at least try."

Megatronus tried to hold still, but when the next near-molten piece of metal was pressed against his back, he couldn't stifle a wail.

"If I had some real temp plating, I wouldn't need to heat it up so hot," Photodraft said. "But this is all I have so we have to make do. I'm only about halfway finished with this. Tell me if it gets to be too much and I can take a break."

Megatronus nodded slightly

"Your self-repair systems are going to have to fix the damage, but I don't want to risk these getting infected. Last time, you had a real medic to look at them. This time you've just got me."

"I don't… it's hard for you to make those," Megatronus whispered. "Don't use them all on me…" he felt so weak… he wasn't sure if he'd have the strength to stand, much less the strength to walk back to the cavern. Yet he didn't feel as far gone as he was certain he ought to. He shouldn't be alive, and he most certainly shouldn't be awake and aware, should he?

Photodraft set another hot, flat piece of metal on his back and Megatronus dug his fingers into the dusty ground, shaking with the effort of holding still and staying silent.

He felt like he needed something else to focus on, besides the pain, but he couldn't think of anything. There was nothing peaceful down here he could think about. The drills were loud and noisy, the tunnels were filled with motion and at the end of the shift…

Another wave of pain rolled over him, and Megatronus sobbed quietly. Photodraft was silent. There was nothing he could do, was there?

Eventually Photodraft finished and came around in front of Megatronus. His optics were duller than usual, though that might have just been a trick of the lighting.

"Ok," Photodraft said. "Now you have to try to stand up. I'll help you, but there's no way I can carry you."

Megatronus got painfully to his hands and knees, and then let Photodraft lift him up. Photodraft nearly collapsed under his weight at one point, but they both ended up on their pedes, leaning against each other.

"Ok," Photodraft said. "Now we have to get back home… Have to get back to Rivet. Come on, you can lean on me."

They started forward. Megatronus tried to walk on his own for a while, but found he was literally incapable of doing so. He leaned on Photodraft who seemed nearly as exhausted has he felt, but kept going anyway. They stopped just around the corner from the place they recharged. Photodraft helped Megatronus lean against the wall, and then left him there. Megatronus was only waiting there for a moment, though, before he came back.

"We're in luck," he said. "It's only Tatters at the door." He ducked under Megatronus's arm and Megatronus pushed away from the wall.

Tatters looked up as they approached, and raised an optic ridge.

"Sorry," Photodraft said. "We got left behind on the way back. Can you let us in?"

Tatters seemed to consider it for a while, then shrugged and unlocked the door for them. "You know, Spiral's only going to kill him at the beginning of next shift anyway."

Photodraft glared at the ground and dragged Megatronus with him through the door. Rivet rushed up and threw his arms around Photodraft.

"Riv, get off, we need to… ugh, Rivet, you're blocking the way. Help me get him over to the wall."

Megatronus's determination to keep going failed him now that they had arrived in a safe place, and he couldn't make it even to the corner. He collapsed, slipping into stasis.

"Get up!" Spiral's shout brought Megatronus out of the blackness. Some instinct had been beaten into him that above all else, when Spiral said get up, you got up. He onlined his optics and fought his way to his knees, then his pedes.

"What…"

Megatronus focused and saw Spiral staring at him. He looked down.

"How?" he said. "This is the second fragging time I've killed you to find you right back here the next on-cycle. What is fragging wrong with you?"

Megatronus didn't move.

Spiral came over, and shoved him to the ground. "Looks like someone's been playing nurse," he said, and planted one of his pedes on the makeshift plating that covered Megatronus's wounds. Megatronus screamed, despite trying to choke the sound back.

"Well," Spiral said. "I guess it's my own fault. I'll have to watch your spark go out if I want to be certain of anything." He leaned forward and Megatronus barely held back a whimper as the other mech's weight pinned him against the ground.

"I'll give you one chance, though," Spiral said, stepping back and kneeling by Megatronus. "Beg. Beg for your miserable life, and I might just spare it."

There was nothing Megatronus would have hated to do more. He could not beg for his life. Nothing was worth the failure of giving in, or the smug look he knew he'd see on Spiral's faceplate.

"Please," Rivet's voice was barely more than a whisper. Megatronus looked up, past Spiral to see him staring, with his wide, innocent optics.

He was going to have to watch Megatronus die. All of Photodraft's hard work and risks would go to waste. The others would go back to stealing Rivet's energon.

He could not beg for himself. But he could beg for Rivet.

"Please," he said.

Spiral smirked. "Go on."

"Please spare me."

"I'm not convinced."

Megatronus sobbed. "Oh, Primus, please, please let me live."

Spiral got up. "You aren't very good at that," he said lazily. "You might want to practice a little. Everyone up and get in line!"

Photodraft came over and helped Megatronus up. "Thank you," he said solemnly.

Megatronus stared at him. "Thank you?"

Photodraft looked down at Rivet. Oh. He must have seen, or somehow known that there was no way Megatronus would have begged if it was only his life on the line. Not if Primus himself had asked it of him.

They were close to the door, so they got in toward the front of the line. Spiral let him get energon this time, thankfully, and as he felt the life-saving fluid reach his tanks he started to think he might actually recover.

He caught one of the larger mechs—one of the ones who'd attacked him the other off-shift staring at him, and he realized that if he was too weak to protect them, mechs would have their energon taken from them again. So he walked back to stand by the cart, tall and straight and with a schooled, calm look on his faceplate.

No one tried anything, which was a relief. If they had, Megatronus wouldn't have been able to do much besides fall on them.

He needed Photodraft and Rivet to support him as they walked back at the end of the shift. When they got to the cavern, they went over to Megatronus's place near the wall. Photodraft and Rivet originally had recharged on the other side of the room, but they'd come over to join Megatronus after a while.

"Photodraft?"

"Let me make sure everything's still sealed right," Photodraft said, kneeling behind him. Megatronus hissed as the other mech prodded some of the plating on his back.

"Sorry."

"It's fine," Megatronus said, smiling when he noticed Rivet watching with a concerned expression.

"Everything looks good," Photodraft said, then came around in front of him again. "How do you feel?"

Megatronus let out a huff of laughter. "Half-dead, but… I'll be all right."

"Yeah," Photodraft looked down. "Let me know if it doesn't start feeling better in a couple of orns, and I'll check for rust."

"Photodraft?"

"Yes, what is it?"

"When did you get hurt?" Megatronus said.

"Huh?" Photodraft sounded confused for a moment, then followed Megatronus's gaze down to his arm, where a small piece of plating was welded. "Oh, that."

Megatronus had noticed it while they were working, but hadn't been close enough to Photodraft to ask.

"What happened?" Megatronus asked, wondering why Photodraft seemed uncomfortable about it.

"Well…" he said. "Last off-shift, you weren't going to make it. I… had to give you some of my energon. Drinking pre-procesed energon isn't really good for you, and I know that's kind of disgusting, but I had to, you were dying…"

Megatronus stared at him.

"What?"

"Wasn't that dangerous for you? I… must have needed a lot." He remembered how dull Photodraft's optics had been on the way back the off-shift before.

"I was careful."

"Still, you put yourself in harms way to save me… I owe you my life now, not just because you helped me…"

Photodraft shook his helm. "Friends don't owe each other. I couldn't have lived with myself if I let you die. Now let's all get some recharge. You especially need rest."

Megatronus nodded, and they joined the other mecha lying on the floor of the cave. Megatronus watched as the other two powered down, but as hard as he tried, the pain wouldn't let him recharge. For one thing, there was no way to lie comfortably, and even if he could, the shift full of bending and lifting hadn't been easy on his injuries. So he sat up, because it was slightly less agonizing than lying on the ground, and waited in an exhausted daze.

Rivet came back online about halfway through the off-shift. He noticed Megatronus watching him and carefully moved away from Photodraft.

"Why aren't you recharging?" he asked as he sat down by Megatronus.

"Why aren't you?"

"I was," Rivet said with a shrug. "I guess… I was having a bad dream."

"I'm sorry."

"But why aren't you recharging?"

Megatronus shook his helm. "I can't I'm… not tired."

Rivet met his optics, staring as if he were searching for something. "Does it hurt too much?"

Megatronus shook his helm slightly. "Don't worry about it. I'll be fine."

Rivet looked down again. "I thought you were going to die."

"It's all right," Megatronus leaned forward and reached out to put a hand on Rivet's shoulder. "Really."

"I had a friend here once," Rivet said. "Before you came. He was just a fledgling like me. His name was Bronzebit."

Megatronus looked down.

"He died, though. Everyone dies down here." Rivet shuttered his optics. Megatronus hadn't seen him look this helpless and miserable before. "There was nothing we could do. Photodraft tried, but… but he didn't make it. We… we haven't had a friend here since. Until you."

"Are you angry that I've forced you into another friendship? If I hadn't…"

"No," Rivet said. "I'm grateful. I missed it. I love my brother, but it's nice to have other friends too. And I think it's good for him. He's not so miserable all the time when he has more mecha to take care of. He likes that. And it'll hurt more if you died, but I think it's worth it. Don't you?"

Megatronus nodded. "I hope so, but I don't know. I've never lost anyone."

"What about… oh, right. You can't remember your friends from before the mines, can you?"

"I don't even know if I had any," Megatronus said.

"I miss my creators," Rivet said. "They were really nice. They took care of us. You don't usually have two brothers who are so close in age. You aren't supposed to raise more than one sparkling at once. But I'm glad I had Photodraft to look after me, or I would be all alone down here."

Megatronus nodded. He remembered what it was like to be alone.

"Megatronus?"

"Yes."

"If Photodraft dies… will you be my brother?"

"Of course," Megatronus said.

"And if I die, will you be his?"

"I don't think he'll want to replace you," Megatronus said. "But I'll do what I can."

"Thank you." Rivet yawned and came closer to embrace Megatronus. "I know you mean that."

Megatronus put his arms around the smaller mech. After a few moments, Rivet went limp, and Megatronus looked down to see he was recharging again.

Careful not to wake him, Megatronus moved him so he was in a less awkward position, and then shuttered his optics.

Photodraft woke with the vague feeling that something wasn't right. He sat up and realized Rivet wasn't there. Panicked for a moment, he got to his knees and stared around the quiet room. Where was…

There. Photodraft's fear dissipated. Rivet was recharging, curled up in Megatronus's lap. Megatronus was still sitting, also powered down, with his optics shuttered and his helm hanging. Photodraft carefully stepped over the few mechs in between them and lay down next to them. Rivet was safe, and Megatronus was resting—everything was all right.

Photodraft slipped back into recharge.

The next several shifts were hard for Megatronus, but his wounds did heal, and he did regain his strength. Spiral stopped bothering him so much, Megatronus kept his helm down well enough that he didn't get into any more trouble, and everyone got their energon ration.

For a while, at least, things stayed that way.

One orn, there was a cave-in. Megatronus had never seen one before, but he'd heard of them. They, along with energon explosions were the two most feared events in the mines.

The tunnel they were working in shook first, before it collapsed. One end of the tunnel, the very far end, buckled and fell.

It wasn't a very large collapse, and everyone got out of the way except for one mech. He was the largest mech in the group, the one who had challenged Megatronus about stealing energon. A large chunk of metal hit him and knocked him down, pinning him to the ground. He cried out, but no one went to help him as he struggled free.

And then they went back to work, though Megatronus noticed that everyone was jumpy for the rest of the shift, even Spiral. They all kept glancing up at the ceiling.

At the end of the shift, they started walking back. Megatronus noticed that the mech who'd been injured was lagging at the back of the group, limping. One of his legs didn't seem to want to hold his weight. He noticed Megatronus watching him and glared.

So Megatronus fell back to walk next to him.

"Frag off," the other mech said.

Megatronus ducked under his arm. "Lean on me."

"No. Frag off."

"Yes," Megatronus said. Spiral was looking in his direction. He needed this mech to cooperate right now. "Come on, you don't want to get left behind."

"I don't want your help."

"That's too bad."

"You can't just show up and take over."

"I'm not."

He did lean on Megatronus, though, for the rest of the way, and Megatronus could hear how much pain he was in from how he flinched every time he came down on his bad leg. Photodraft and Rivet were watching him—Photodraft didn't seem too happy, but Rivet looked curious.

When they got back to the cave, the other mech shoved away from Megatronus and limped over to his usual spot.

"What was that for?" Photodraft asked when Megatronus came over and sat by them. "And before you ask, no I will not fix his knee."

"He was hurt," Megatronus said. "I've been hurt before. It's a lot nicer when there's someone you can lean on."

"You can't do that here," Photodraft said.

"You did."

"Yes, but… but I owed you something."

Megatronus shook his helm. "I don't think so."

"We were already friends."

"We started being friends when I saved Rivet's energon," Megatronus said. "I don't see why I can't make more friends."

"That's because you haven't lost anyone yet," Photodraft said. "Trust me. Don't make friends. I promise you you'll be a lot less miserable if you just keep to yourself."

"I think Megatronus is right," Rivet said.

Photodraft frowned at him.

"No, really," Rivet said. "I was miserable and sad… but I'm less sad now Megatronus is our friend. And so are you."

"Please, Photodraft," Megatronus said. "Would you help him with his leg?"

"No," Photodraft said again. "I can't. If I start fixing some of them, the others will want it too, and I don't have the resources."

Megatronus could understand that. "Ok."

"No," Rivet protested. "Photodraft, please. I can help you get more resources… I'm not sure how, but I'm sure we can figure something out."

"That mech stole your energon shift after shift." Photodraft gestured to where the injured mech was. He was watching, probably listening too. "You and I could have died because of him."

"So?" Rivet asked. "It's not like I haven't done bad things before. Or you. Everyone does. I still think Megatronus is right, and we should try to make more friends."

"Photodraft is the one with his helm on straight," the injured mech called from across the room. It was the first indication Megatronus had that the other mech knew their designations.

Everyone probably knew their designations, because they actually talked to each other.

"Please, Photodraft," Rivet said. "I think deep down you really do want to help."

Photodraft put a hand to his faceplate. "I can't."

"Please."

"You know what…" Photodraft said. "Fine. Fine, whatever." He crossed the room, with everyone watching, and Rivet and Megatronus followed him.

The injured mech glared at Megatronus. "I hope you know this doesn't make us friends. And I refuse to owe you anything. I didn't want your help."

"Fair enough. You don't owe me anything," Megatronus said.

Photodraft stretched out the broken limb to see it better, and the injured mech's engine growled.

"What's your designation?" Megatronus asked.

"Frag off."

Megatronus hadn't expected anything else. Exchanging designations wasn't something you usually did. It meant you would notice when the other mech died.

"Well, you'll already notice when I get offlined," Megatronus said.

"What?" the other mech looked at him like he was crazy.

"So why not tell me your designation?"

"Just frag off."

Why else wouldn't he want to say it? Maybe he just liked being difficult.

"You know ours already," Rivet chimed in. "It's only fair."

"No…Ah!"

"Sorry," Photodraft said. "Hold still, I've got to get this joint back into the right place, and it's going to hurt."

The large mech looked down and shuttered his optics. Photodraft reached into his knee and shoved something. There was a nasty click as the joint shifted, but the injured mech didn't cry out, and afterward, he relaxed.

"I'd warn you not to put weight on it," Photodraft said dully, "But I don't think that's going to be possible. Let me know if it dislocates itself like that again. Your self-repair systems will have to take care of the rest of the damage because I don't know how." He got up and walked away, and Rivet and Megatronus followed him again.

Far from looking as if the good deed had cheered him up, Photodraft looked tired and sad. Rivet leaned against him, hugging his arm.

"I'm sorry," Megatronus said.

Photodraft shook his helm. "We're so hopeless. You don't even know how hopeless we are, because you've been here as long as you can remember. But there's a world out there—up on the surface—where things are better most of the time."

Another mech got injured a few shifts later, and though Megatronus didn't try to talk him into it, Photodraft offered to help. Megatronus realized why he had looked so sad. When he'd decided to help that one mech, he'd decided to help all of them. He'd claimed the others would demand his help, but in reality, he would demand it of himself.

Megatronus wasn't sure if he liked that, but he didn't say anything until Photodraft had done repairs on a third mech.

"Photodraft…"

"Yes?"

"You know you don't have to…"

"You're right," Photodraft said. "I don't have to. But I hate this place."

Megatronus wasn't sure what that had to do with repairing anyone.

"I hate this place because it drains the spark out of you until you're just a drone, going about your work, not caring when the mech working next to you falls down and doesn't get up. I hate that."

"But you don't seem to want to repair anyone."

"I don't," Photodraft said. "And that bothers me. Because I shouldn't feel like that."

"You shouldn't?" Megatronus wondered. "But that's how everyone feels. What does that even mean, you shouldn't feel that like that? You can't choose how you feel about something."

"Well… maybe not." Photodraft said. "But what you do affects how you feel." He sighed. "I don't even know what I'm doing, or why I've decided to try to fix everyone. I'm not a medic. There's no way in the universe that I'd ever have become a medic, even if I hadn't been sent here. They don't let you go to good enough schools unless you have enough credit."

"School?"

"Yeah. You know that word, right?"

"Yes. I didn't think… you've been to school?"

"Yes—but only the first two vorns, and they really didn't teach us much. I bet you went to a better one."

There was a strange thought.

"In any case," Photodraft said. "If I run out of materials, then I just… then it means I won't be able to heal myself or Rivet if it comes down to it. So that's going to be a problem."

"What materials do you need?" Megatronus asked.

"Well… I mostly need fuel for my little wending torch, and temp plating, because that's all I can get anyway. But I haven't had time to make much more since you were hurt. Speaking of which, I should take that mess off of your back soon. Do you think the wounds have closed themselves?"

Megatronus nodded. "So you need pieces of metal pounded into thin sheets."

"It has to be the right kind of metal."

"What kind of metal?"

"Why?"

"Because I can help you find more, if you show me what it looks like. And if you took the plating off my back, could you re-use—"

"No," Photodraft said. "It's not real temp plating, so it gets corrupted by your self-repair systems as they work around it."

"Ok," Megatronus said. "But I will help you find more."

"Thank you," Photodraft said.

A mech came over—the one Photodraft had just helped.

He sat down by them. "I want to help too, to repay you. I owe you a debt."

Photodraft hesitated.

"What's your designation?" Megatronus asked.

"Treadline," the mech said. "And I already know yours, all three of you."

During the next shift, Photodraft showed them the qualities of the pieces of metal he was looking for—they had to be the right size as well as the right flexibility and chemical composition. Between the four of them, they managed to gather enough that by the end of the shift, Photodraft could make a few more pieces of plating. But instead of doing that, he took off the metal he'd welded to Megatronus's back. He used the little torch and a blade, and it hurt, but not nearly as much as it had hurt when he put it on, and once it was gone, Megatronus felt much closer to normal.

Treadline was the first, but not the last. After that, it became typical for those mechs who Photodraft helped to come up and offer their designation and promise to help Photodraft in return. Megatronus was actually a little surprised that it kept happening. Photodraft seemed surprised too.

And they stopped dying so much. In the next fifty or sixty shifts, they only lost two mechs.

But that didn't last forever.