Chapter Text
Ever since Sentinel prime was proven to be the fraud he was to everyone, the primes deemed a specific mech a prime. Megatronus. And since that day, everyone who was cogless were granted their own cogs. A trend of showing the new hot thing arose. Miners abandoning old lives, reinventing their lifestyles and streets to accommodate the increasing demand of bigger frames in result of these cogs. Simple. Everyone has their new cogs, end of story.
But for Orion, it wasn't so simple.
He never got a cog. A problem that he always runs into. He would find shortcuts, slipping through cracks that are deemed too small for the average cogged mech. Orion zoned out, staring at his inline skates as he memorized the pathways, never needing to watch out. There was never anyone he needed to watch out anyways.
The areas he would use to get by were abandoned, old areas that were once populated by cogless miners. Train rails once deemed dangerous for mechs to stand on, in fear of the busy train coming. Miners needed their train to get by. Now that there were no miner bots needing the train, he was able to use the train rails as a shortcut as much as he pleased. With rare occasions of some rebel bots hanging out in the train station.
The said train now hanging off a cliff edge, he needed not to worry about bumping into it anymore.
"Oh scrap!"
A hushed voice cut through orion's thoughts, something came falling which caught the corner of Orion's optic. An energon cube slipped from a jet's grip and headed straight down. Orion used his brakes to watch the cube fall hundreds of feet to its demise, splattering on the low ground.
After staring too long, Orion slowly turned his attention back to his destination.
A knock on the door as a familiar voice had come through. "It's Orion."
After it was confirmed that it was indeed not a threat but his friend, a buzz alerted Orion that the door has unlocked. Orion entered the room, going at the end of the room to take off his skates.
"Orion," Megatronus who sat at his desk spoke out, watching Orion get down to pry the skates right off. "There's a bot who wants to talk to me, but they speak another language."
"I'll handle it." Orion got up and grabbed the comm link on Megatronus' desk.
"Thank you." Megatronus could only say before Orion already walked out, leaving his foot at the door to take the call. As he waited for him to come back inside, Megatronus looked at his desk, filled to the brim of work scattered everywhere. An invitation peering amongst the work, staring back at him, something that has been long awaiting yet he dreaded. He couldn't and didn't want to confront it.
To get his mind off it, he turned his head to the nearest wall, taking an accidental glimpse at the calendar. It was blank for the next cycle. Megatronus pretended not to notice.
"Another minor inconvenience." Orion re-enters the room.
Megatronus leans back on his seat, venting out, more so a deep breath to soothe himself. "They think I'm some sort of magician, that I can fix every. single. problem." He said, exasperated by the audacity of some mechs. He hesitated to open his intake "is this what he had to deal with?" To that question, he only earned a shrug from Orion. Megatronus looks back at his messy desk.
"Hey Orion? Will you help me with the rest of the work?"
Later at the two moons rising, Orion and Megatronus had concluded with the work and decided it was time to head home. As Orion retrieved his skates, he noticed from the corner of his optics, Megatronus was in the process of leaving the office. Hurriedly this time.
"Don't forget about the meeting tomorrow."
Megatronus froze.
"I don't want to go."
"Dee." Orion scolded, keeping his optics on his pedes to make sure the skates fit correctly.
"I know it's my responsibility as a prime to go but-" Megatronus turned his body towards Orion, gesturing to himself. "I only knew how to mine not too long ago!"
"I'll be there with you." Orion ressaured.
"Promise?"
"...Yeah."
His posture relaxed slightly "Thank you. I'll be going now. I need a nice recharge." and so he leaves.
With that, Orion had remained in that dark room alone, alongside a lamp that was still illuminating light on Megatronus' desk. He approached the lamp to dim its light. Before he is able to turn it off completely, the calendar on the wall caught his attention. Blank. Just as he expected. Orion grabbed the nearest pen in the messy workspace (which he will be cleaning up afterwards) and marked it. As a last-minute-decision, he takes it down to be set neatly on Megatronus' desk. Knowing Megatronus since the early days of Sentinels place in power, he would forget or pretend to.
Leaving the building with a blank sheet, he returned to the abandoned train station where he sat on the bench in silence, listening to the city below. The bench still had markings of the young miners' doodles and talon-prints of soot. Ghosts of the past.
Only one cogless bot remained on this very bench.
Maybe he should work on the sheet now. Before he goes to bed.