Chapter Text
Once upon a time, there was a once glorious kingdom, in the midst of various disputes and disarray. Upon the throne of this kingdom a wise and just bot was crowned. The new king had ascended the throne after his sire had succumbed to old age. The late king had ruled for vorns and vorns. Many thought that this new young king wasn’t fit to rule in his place.
It was dark. The ground felt cold and wet and he felt small.
There were times when the king thought that he should give up. He did not have many allies in court and he knew those that claimed to be on his side only wanted to use his position for their own gain. Still the king persevered and was loved by the common bots. He was kind and caring towards all of his subjects.
Flashes of red, red like a roaring blaze, but warm like a humble hearth.
Eventually the tumultuous kingdom once again began to prosper. The new king worked for the common bots, refusing to bend to the whims of those around him. This king was for the citizens and he made sure that everyone knew.
Streaks of light, was- was that laser fire? Everything was hazy.
Although the kingdom once again began to flourish and bots sang in the streets praises for their king, not all were happy in the kingdom. There were those who believed that the king was too soft sparked. Sure enough two distinct factions began to form and at the head of each were two noble families.
When did the world get so heavy, so foggy?
One family took their crest from the sun and like their symbol they burned brightly. They were proud warriors with great might and military influence. Always ones to put on a show and paint themselves in a gilded light. They were proud, but their pride led to arrogance.
“Hey yo-?” static. Every sound, every voice, it all merged into static in his mind.
The other family took their crest from the moon and likewise they were cunning and resourceful. Masters of trade and commerce they were the wealthiest in the kingdom second only to the royal treasury. Their weapons of choice were charm and charisma, shields that covered up their underhanded and deceitful tactics.
He tried to get up, to stand, to crawl, however his body felt like it was full of lead.
The families had been feuding for so long that they no longer knew why they were mad at each other. The king however kept both families in control refusing to bend to either of their whims, until one day-
Maybe just lying there would be easier, maybe he should just stop trying.
One day the king suddenly collapsed and fell gravely ill and it was feared that he would soon die. The king had yet to bond and so there was no heir to inherit the throne. A concern came about as to who would be the next king were this one to die. This was the unfortunate catalyst that caused the feud between the two families to become even more vicious. Soon both factions were vying for the crown.
He started to drift off into unconsciousness once again. Maybe it would be better if he just gave up.
“No!”
“But sweetspark, don't you want to hear the rest of the story?”
“No, I don’t.” The tiny bitlet turned his helm up and pouted.
She looked at him, a soft glimmer in her optics, “Are you sure, it’s a very important story.”
“I don’t want it.” he looked away “why does the king have to die anyway?”
She looked at him, but it was a sad faraway look and she didn’t answer for a klik. “Sometimes great bots aren’t around for very long.”
“But why?”
“Because sometimes,” she paused, “this world is a cruel and unfair place, sweetspark.” she gathered him in a gentle embrace, “Oh little one, if I could take you away from all of this, I would.”
The young bot paused and cuddled closer. “Carrier?”
“Yes?”
“Did the king really die?”
She sighed, “Yes, he really did”
“Is- is that why I’m here?”
The femme looked down at her creation, “In a way, yes.” holding his servos in hers she continued, “I want you to understand sweetspark, there will be a lot of mean bots that do not like you for who you are but I want you to know that it is not your fault.”
“But why are bots so mean?”
“Some bots… some bots are too blind to see what’s right in front of them. And it’s true I want you to be careful of bots around you. But do you know why I told you this story.”
“Because it’s berth time?”
A warm and bright smile lit up her faceplate, “Well yes, but I told you it because other bots will tell you that the king should have chosen a side. But the king was smart and noble and did what he thought was right in the end. No matter what he never gave up. I want you to always do the same no matter who tries to persuade you, alright little one?”
Again the little bot cuddled closer to his carrier, “ok carrier…” he hesitated before finally looking back up, “but- did the king… was he ever scared? Of being king?”
“Yes, sometimes he was very scared.”
“I’m scared too.”
“I know little one,” she squeezed his servos a little tighter, “I know you are.”
“Can you tell me another story now?”
Her smile became even brighter, “Of course little one, I didn’t mean to frighten you. What kind of story would you like me to tell?”
The little bot pretended to think for a minute, but he already knew that he wanted his favorite bedtime story. “I want the one about the red knight, the one who comes and saves the prince from the evil dragon.”
“You really like that story don’t you.”
“One day,” hope filled the little bots eyes, “one day the red knight is going to come to the castle and then we can leave and we never have to deal with mean bots or scary dragons again.”
The femme’s smile became soft and sad again, “I bet you’re right sweetspark. Now would you let me tuck you in before I tell you that story, after all you have to wake up extra early tomorrow.”
“Oh yeah-,” The little bot would have rather stayed here and listened to his carrier’s stories than go meet a bunch of foreign dignitaries. That was scary, new bots were scary. His whole world had been scary from the moment he was created and he would just rather stay here and cuddle with his carrier. Was that so wrong of him to want?
Maybe everything they said about him was right. The little bot tried to snuggle impossibly closer as his carrier looked down at him.
“Aww now what’s with the sad look?”
“Carrier, I don’t want to wake up…”
“I know little one but you have to, you have to wake up Red, Red Alert you have to- you have to-”
“WAKE UP!”
What was that? Whose voice was that? Wasn’t he talking to…?
“Your highness please, please wake up!”
Oh yeah, that couldn’t have been carrier, could it. Carrier hadn’t been able to tell him a story like that for a while. But if it wasn’t carrier then who exactly was it?
Red Alert onlined his optics and looked up at an unfamiliar ceiling. Suddenly he realized that the ground wasn’t cold anymore. In fact he wasn’t on the ground at all, he was instead laying on an unfamiliar berth. He could hear his vents start to work overtime as very unwanted thoughts started racing through his processor. Where was he? Why was he here? Who was talking? How did he get here, and again where was here? Now his fuel pump was also going into overdrive.
“Your highness-”
And then he realized that one of those voices was familiar. He offlined his optics again, just to order everything and try to stop the rapid in-vents. He kept telling himself that logically knowing the owner of that voice was here meant that if he was in danger, it probably wasn’t mortal danger at least.
So he onlined his optics and asked, “Prowl?”
Then the very bot appeared in the corner of his vision, “It is good to see that you are awake, your highness. You’re in Lord Track’s manor at the moment.” Awake, yes but thankfully Prowl knew him better than that, “There are royal guards posted outside of your quarters. Lord Track’s personal attending physician looked you over and other than him no one but myself, Lord Tracks and these two attendants have been in here. You are safe.” Safe, safe was good. While he was still shaken by that day's earlier events, Red Alert thought he could trust Prowl. If he said he was safe then he surely had to be. Even if his glitched processor was still trying to convince him otherwise.
He must not have hid it well(although you could hide few things from Prowl) because Prowl then asked the, quite frankly frantic, servants to give the prince some privacy and space to vent.
Once the servants had cleared out, it was much easier to observe everything without a bunch of strangers watching over him. Red Alert was able to sit up and take everything in.
The room he was in was first of all large, and much more ornate than one would expect for a hostage situation, which was good because that meant he could rule it out for now.
Prowl spoke again, “First off let me be the first to apologize for our failure to-”
“Prowl, could you just tell me what happened?” Prowl was about the closest thing Red Alert had to a friend, and probably one of the only mechs that Red Alert really trusted. So Red Alert already knew that whatever happened Prowl had done everything in his power to prevent it. But right now Red Alert needed facts before his processor started spinning again.
“Right then,” he pulled over a chair from a nearby writing desk and sat down near the berth, “how much do you remember?”
Red Alert tried to remember what he had been doing before he ended up on the ground, before that flash of red.
“We were on our way to Lord Track’s manor, and I was in- in a transport correct?”
Prowl nodded yes in confirmation, “We thought that since this trip was rather short notice and unpublished that it would be best to have a smaller transport. However-” no matter how well he hid it from other mechs, Red Alert could hear the frustration in Prowl’s next words, “there was an insistence that royalty should not travel in an unmarked transport, I believe that’s why we were targeted. This combined with the fact that we were not informed that our route was known to be occupied by bandits-” So that was it.
Red Alert had certainly read of stories of transports being attacked and helpless mechs tied up watching their goods being plundered. When he was a youngling he had imagined that one day he’d be the heroic prince, sometimes saving everybot. Unfortunately, none of those scenarios involved him getting knocked out immediately.
Prowl continued to explain how the bandits cut the patrol guards off from the main transport at the mouth of a small valley. “They probably weren’t expecting much of a fight,” Prowl pondered aloud. “They most likely assumed it was a low level transport for goods or taxes. They didn’t have very many weapons and only two of them had working stun guns.”
That made sense considering there usually wasn’t a reason for people from the capital to come out here to the countryside. There was usually even less of a reason for one of the royal family to be out here.
Usually…
Breaking away from that train of thought, Red Alert figured he would ask, “I don’t suppose that’s why I got knocked out with a huge rock rather than stunned?”
“Most likely.”
Ok definitely a far cry from the heroic princes in his carrier’s old stories. Out of all the assassination attempts he had survived thus far however, a rock had never been the chosen weapon.
This, in fact, did nothing to comfort Red Alert. How many assassins was he going to have to outrun before one of them finally succeeded?
Sometimes it sounded easier to just stop running.
“Your highness?” Prowl asked with a hint of concern.
Ah- lost in his own thoughts again. He really should be engaging in this conversation, after all he did ask Prowl for the facts. At the very least Red Alert could trust Prowl not to lie to him.
“So earlier,” he started again, “you said we are in Lord Track’s manor right? Did he send bots to help? If that's the case then was anyone else hurt in the attack?”
The underlying ‘did I end up getting someone hurt?’ remained unspoken between them.
However Prowl shook his helm, “Yes, Lord Track’s did send reinforcements once we got a hold of him. Although that was only after he showed up.”
“He? Who’s he?”
“Almost as soon as the fighting started, a relatively large mech with almost all red plating showed up.”
Wait- red ?
“I don’t know why,” Prowl continued, “but he decided to join the fight. He didn’t seem trained in any official capacity but it was clear that he definitely had a teacher-.” Red Alert knew that tone, it meant that Prowl already had his suspicions and wasn’t going to let this red mech off so easily. Red Alert trusted Prowl not to lie to him, but for now the mech could keep his secrets. He didn’t keep them lightly.
Still-
Was that the flash of red that he had seen in his dream?
“Well where is this mysterious mech now?” said Red Alert.
Prowl sighed “Unfortunately, he fled the scene as soon as the bandits were down and the guards were preoccupied tying them up to worry about him.”
Of course, what did Red Alert expect really? Although…
“It’s strange-”
“What is it, your highness?”
“I just,” Red Alert shuttered his optics, “I swear that I’ve seen someone like that before.”
Or in the end, was that just a dream too?