Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Orion didn't know whether the operation was successful or not. Although Ratchet assured him that despite the different pipeline arrangements between cold-constructed miners and the forged, with his experience of traveling around to practice medicine, it was impossible for him not to cure such a simple exposed wound.

Anyway, Megatron's chestplate had been welded back on. The silver-gray armored miner still lay in a peaceful coma under the effect of the circuit stabilizer. Soundwave left the compartment to stay out of the way and waited quietly in the neighboring room.

Hook seemed to relax a bit. He looked at Orion curiously and finally asked, "Is the one communicated with you a medic from Iacon?"

"Ah, yes, Orion." Ratchet heard Hook's question, and there was a bit of delight in his tone. "Introduce this young fellow to me, please. I can tell that he has a special passion for medicine."

Orion shrugged. He raised his hand and used the built-in holographic projector on his arm to project a small image of Ratchet. The holographic image of Ratchet reached out its hand and said in a friendly way, "Hello. You're right. I'm a medic from Iacon. But you probably won't find me in Iacon. In a way, I'm a traveling medic. My name is Ratchet."

"Hello," Hook tensed up again. He reached out his hand, but didn't know how to shake hands with the small holographic projection. So he awkwardly withdrew his hand and rubbed a new scalpel in his hand. "I'm Hook, a miner from Messatine."

"New talents emerge from the Stars generation after generation," Ratchet said excitedly. "Are you interested in learning from me, Hook? You have great talent, and I'm thinking of taking on an apprentice right now."

"I—" Hook widened his optics.

Just as Hook was hesitating about Ratchet's invitation, a deep and calm voice came from beside the two of them.

"Hook has always been the most rigorous and eager-to-learn one among us."

Orion turned his head to look at Megatron, who had just woken up on the operating table. The latter slightly tilted his head. His originally bright red optics were rather dim at this time, but the expression on his faceplate didn't give him a feeling of weakness. Instead, he seemed to be relaxed. His pale red optics scanned back and forth between Orion and Ratchet's holographic. Finally, his gaze settled on Ratchet.

"I seem to have heard your name just now. Is it Ratchet, right? And Orion and Hook. Please allow me to express my gratitude to you." Megatron nodded slightly as a gesture, "You saved my life."

Ratchet nodded, and Orion took a small step back awkwardly. Strictly speaking, he was the one who had caused the trouble. Just now, he had learned from Hook that Megatron had been injured because he didn't want Overlord to know Orion's whereabouts. His gratitude towards this silver-grey bot in front of him was enough for him to temporarily put aside his slight prejudice against the miner's crew.

"Actually," Orion cleared his vocalizer, "I'm the one who should express my gratitude and apologies to you. I'm very sorry for causing you such a big trouble."

"I do believe that everything has its reason, be it a meeting or a conflict," Megatron said. At this moment, he looked completely different from the cold-faced one when Orion was giving a lecture. He looked into Orion's optics. "I guess it has something to do with Swindle, right? I sent him to the black market to gather information before the conflict occurred."

In the holographic image, Ratchet slightly frowned upon hearing the name Swindle. "Orion," he interrupted, "then I won't disturb you two. Let's talk when you're free."

Hook opened his mouth to try to persuade Ratchet to stay, but Megatron noticed Ratchet's expression. He tilted his head and glanced at Hook, then gently shook his head. Hook fell silent. "We'll send your surgical fee to you through Orion, Ratchet," Megatron said. "Thank you again."

Ratchet waved his hand. "No need for payment. I'm helping Orion. There's no need to be so polite." He greeted Orion and then logged off.

Megatron propped himself up with his elbows. Orion and Hook quickly stepped forward to help him sit up on the operating table. Megatron stretched out his hands and examined the marks left by violence on the back of his hands and arm guards. For a moment, he was lost in thought.

Seeing his optics flickering slightly, Orion nearly believe there was a problem with his recovery from the operation. Worryingly, he asked, "Megatron? Are you okay?"

Megatron snapped out of his trance and cast his gaze on Orion again. With a bitter smile, he said, "Nothing. I just recalled some past events. I just ran a self - check, and there's nothing serious." He tilted his headpiece and asked curiously, "You're from Iacon, right? Did you know my name before?"

Orion became alert, but there was not the slightest hint of hostility in Megatron's tone. At least, he couldn't sense any. "I've never heard your name, but I've indeed heard of the Miner's Crew."

Both Megatron and Hook tensed up visibly. "About... our recent situation?" Megatron asked.

"No, no," Orion quickly clarified. "It's about something in the past. The records in Iacon show that there was once a—"

"A rebellion?" Megatron laughed self-deprecatingly. "Iacon's records are quite detailed then. I thought our deaths were so-called 'insignificant'." He said this in a contemptuous tone, as if there was a defeated imaginary enemy standing in front of him.

Orion averted his gaze. There was a kind of intensity in Megatron's optics that he didn't want to face directly. "I do understand," he replied randomly.

Megatron narrowed his optics, and thoughtfully he said, "No, you don't. You don't have a good impression of us, do you?" He waved his hand gently, signaling Hook to leave first.

"Forgive me for being blunt, but yes," Orion said softly as he watched Hook leave. "I believe it has to do with my lack of experience. I simply can't understand the necessity of the existence of the Miner's Crew."

"Haha! A sharp observation," Megatron was amused. "Necessity! Yet, despite that, you still saved me. Was it out of guilt for causing trouble?"

"I'm impressed by your perceptiveness," Orion admitted. "Please allow me to apologize again."

"There's no need. As I said just now, everything has its reasons and destinations," Megatron said. "But I assume you didn't travel all the way to Messatine just to teach, did you?"

"I'm quite ashamed," Orion finally sensed a hint of uneasiness hidden beneath the feigned calmness of the silver-gray bot in front of him from Megatron's repeated confirmations. But he did think that the sense this emotion somehow reflected Megatron's trust in him. "I was paroled. Apart from teaching here, I really have nothing else to do."

Megatron tilted his head slightly and looked at him curiously. "A teacher can beat up Overlord?"

"Ah," Orion knew Megatron would definitely ask about this. After all, even when he looked at himself in the mirror sometimes, he didn't think he looked like someone who could fight. "It's related to my previous job."

"I remember you were an archivist?" Megatron asked in confusion.

"In a way, yes. But my duties aren't just about managing archives. I'm also responsible for some other things, like... uh, guarding." For safety reasons, Orion decided not to tell Megatron everything for the time being.

Actually, the Archives is a force under Alpha Trion that spreads across the whole Cybertron. It's more like an intelligence agency than an archive. Naturally, there are real archivists in the Archives as disguise, but Orion is only a part-time archivist. He is more like a spy specially trained by Alpha Trion to collect intelligence... A high-level one at that. Spy, yes, that's the closest word Orion can think of, which is also why he was directly thrown into prison by the Senate after his exposure. With this kind of identity, basic self-protection ability is of course very important.

While Elita's job was even more dangerous. She was placed by Alpha Trion into the Guard of Iacon as one of the attempts for the Archives to get involved in military and political affairs. After more than hundreds vorns of effort, she almost became the supreme commander of the High Guard. However, this attempt ultimately failed, and Elita lost her life as a result.

Megatron seemed to notice that Orion didn't want to reveal much information, and the parole number on Orion's shoulder armor was genuine. He nodded, "Then let's not talk about this. You just said that you don't understand the necessity of the Miner's Crew?"

Orion touched his head, "That statement sounds really terrible now. Please allow me to rephrase it: I don't quite know what the Miner's Crew does."

"There's no need to be so cautious. I guess your habit of choosing your words carefully comes from Iacon." Megatron waved his hand. "You don't have to be so uptight here. We're all workers. If you talk in a roundabout way, we won't understand. How about this? When I'm feeling better, I'll take you around. Or—" He got up with Orion's support. "—better now than later. Let's go right away."

*****

Megatron admitted that his motive for inviting Orion wasn't pure.

He could foresee that in the eyes of an intellectual like Orion from Iacon, the existence of the Miner's Crew was nothing more than an unstable factor in Cybertron's governance. Even when he extended the invitation, a dark corner deep in his processor was whispering protests: perhaps the seemingly gentle bot in front of him was thinking about how to wipe them out at this very moment. He shouldn't have let the turbo-wolf into the house. He should have killed Orion in some unknown corner to eliminate future troubles. Killing was easy, wasn't it? Especially for Megatron.

He cast these absurd thoughts aside and focused on another less-pure purpose.

Perhaps Orion would think that he hadn't listened very attentively in the first class, but that wasn't the case. During the half class when Orion kept talking to himself, Megatron realized two things.

First, Orion meant no harm; second, Orion could provide resources that he could never obtain on Messatine.

The first point was the basis for cooperation, and the second was the significance of cooperation. So after waking up from the operation, Megatron used these two things to convince himself in his processor that it made sense to save Orion at the risk of his life. Moreover, Orion had brought him unexpected gains. He was satisfied with his own meticulous and emotionless analysis. Although when Orion's optics widened in surprise at the achievements of the Miner's Crew, a sense of pride welled up in his spark, along with a secret hope of finding like-minded individuals.

Orion stared at the miners in the distance as they emerged from the mine shaft in the cage after a day's work. Their armor, made of a special material, wasn't overly soiled with dust. Fatigue was hard to hide, but when they saw their comrades and Megatron, who had brought Orion there, expressions of joy appeared on their faceplates.

The two of them had just come from a mine where the Miner's Crew hadn't been properly organized yet. The situation of the miners there was quite different from here. The mining equipment was old, and the miners' exhaustion came from deep within. Miners there would also gather in twos and threes for a little get-together. However, what they took out from the subspace were small bottles of circuit booster. In a sense, it also meant that there would be some unexpected incidents in the tavern later.

"How did you stop the miners from using circuit boosters?" Finally, Orion Pax abandoned the caution and false, flowery praise he had shown since learning Megatron's identity and posed a truly worthy question for discussion.

Good question, Megatron thought to himself.

"What do you know about circuit boosters?" Megatron countered.

"Um," Orion hesitated. "In Iacon, circuit boosters are used for emergency treatment. They have high medical value, but generally, they are strictly controlled. I noticed that the control of them by Messatine doesn't seem to be very strict."

"Originally, it should have been strict. But since some people realized that they could earn energon and shanix from the workers by reselling this stuff, things have changed. You should know that the cost of making circuit boosters isn't very high, right? By making some minor chemical modifications to a part of the energon that was originally supposed to be made into energon cubes, boosters can be produced. But those people have taken control of the manufacturing process and monopolized the production of boosters. Although the price of boosters isn't high, they are the sole sellers."

"Do you mean the black market when you talk about the dealers?" Orion couldn't help asking. "Is this one of the reasons for the conflict between the Miners and the black market?"

Megatron stared into Orion's bright blue optics. "Don't you know who I'm talking about?"

Orion was stunned, as if there was no other word in his processor except "black market". Megatron vented slightly and patiently said, "The black market may also be involved in the sale of circuit boosters, but they don't have the power to make the entire Messatine addicted to boosters. The dealers I'm talking about are the Council of Iacon." He watched the expression on the faceplate of the bot in front of him gradually freeze, and softly asked, "You've never considered this possibility, have you?"

"I..." Orion opened his mouth. "I do know how despicable the political means of the Council of Iacon can be, but I always thought that, on the whole, they were still considering Cybertron. This kind of means..."

"How can not this kind of means be considered as for the sake of Cybertron?" Megatron laughed. "The miners take the boosters, spend extra Energon cubes and Shanixs, which increases the income of Iacon. In miners' leisure time, they lose the ability to act and think. After getting addicted, they will even defend the boosters. Naturally, it corresponds to the further policies the Council of Iacon wants to promulgate, and it also reduces the governance pressure. Isn't it killing multiple turbo-foxes with one stone? You... have you never worked for the Council?"

"No, no." Orion shook his head. "Basically, our stance is on the opposite side of the Council. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here."

"You've piqued my curiosity even more," Megatron said. "Who on earth do you work for?"

Orion took a deep breath. "I really can't tell you. Sorry."

"All right," Megatron changed the subject. "You just asked how we've curbed the use of circuit boosters. I assume you've already figured out where it comes from. Well, it's simple. Just cut off the source."

"If that could really be done, it would basically be..."

"Establishing another regime? Yes," Megatron said. "That's what we're doing."