Chapter Text
Elita One was in a mood this morning. Well, more of a mood than usual.
It didn’t take long to suss out why, as they appeared to be short a body for the first shift. Orion Pax half listened to Elita’s rundown of the morning’s tasks, mouth turned down as he did a head count to see who was missing.
When he was jostled by an elbow to the shoulder, he glanced over at D-16. Their optics met, then D jerked his thumb toward Elita with a rather pointed look. ‘Pay attention,’ he mouthed.
“I can’t,” Orion hissed in a low voice, “this is the third time this quarter.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” D-16 whispered in response.
“Hey! We’re already short staffed, don’t make me make it worse by caving in your useless helms for ignoring me!” Elita One called out.
“Later,” Orion Pax said to D-16, then work consumed any time they might have had to talk.
After first shift ended, while they refueled, Pax saw he wasn’t the only one who had put together the reason behind their missing comrade. A group of miners in the corner were huddled up, heads and voices down, but their expressions spoke volumes.
“Look, was it a tunnel collapse? Or what?” D-16 asked as he shoved something into his locker and shut the door. He turned and leaned against it with a frown, arms folded across his chest. “Those happen all the time and are an unfortunate side effect of our job, Pax.”
“It wasn’t a tunnel collapse, D. It was Darkwing,” Orion said in a low voice.
Face softening a touch, D-16 straightened. He held Orion’s gaze for a few seconds, then shook his helm and raised his hands and shoulders in an exaggerated shrug. “So, what can we do about it? It’s not like we can complain to someone higher up the chain,” he said.
“It isn’t right. It shouldn’t matter what we are, it shouldn’t give him the right to kill us just because he feels like he can. And he keeps getting away with it,” Orion said heatedly.
“So speaking out against him isn’t going to end well for you,” D-16 pointed out.
“I can’t just do nothing, D. How many more have to die before one of us stands up?”
“Orion, I am saying this as your friend, and because I love you,” D-16 said as he reached out and put his hands on Orion’s shoulders, squeezing just hard enough to avoid leaving marks, “don’t. Just don’t. Please don’t get yourself killed doing something stupid and reckless.”
“I do stupid, reckless things all the time for less noble reasons than this,” Orion said, brow raised.
“And I try to stop you from doing those things too. Not that you ever listen to me then, either.”
“D, please.” Orion put his hands on D-16’s shoulders in return, his eyes taking on a desperate light.
D-16 stared at him for a long moment in silence, his mouth twisting a bit. Then he sighed and leaned his helm against Orion’s, then groaned in defeat when his friend gave him one of those smiles that spelled nothing but trouble.
“I’m gonna get punched in the face again, aren’t I?” D asked.
“Don’t worry, buddy. I’ll be right there with you,” Orion said with a soft laugh, “besides, we’re only going to talk to him. Maybe we can work something out.”
While it hadn’t been a great idea to begin with, Orion wasn’t the only one who had come up with it. After lights out, when most of the other miners were already in recharge, when he and D-16 had agreed to meet up and reach out to Darkwing, Orion heard raised voices coming from near the lift.
One belonged to Moonracer, equal parts furious and panicked. The other belonged to Darkwing.
There was no time to wait for D. Pax hurried up the walkway, his fuel pump working overtime as he made the no doubt ill-advised decision to insert himself into a situation without backup.
“Hey guys! What’s uh, what’s going on over here?” Orion asked as he slid around the corner, his optics widening as he took in the sight before him.
Darkwing towered over Moonracer as he pinned her face first to the wall, one arm twisted behind her back. Sparks flew from one cracked optic, the other pale with fear as it fixed on Pax.
“This doesn’t concern you!” Darkwing snarled.
“I can see that. But it doesn’t look like Moonracer there is enjoying herself very much,” Orion said, both hands raised.
“This scum thought it was wise to threaten me over some miner trash that got scrapped for being too cogless and weak to exist!” Darkwing punctuated his point by putting his free hand over Moonracer’s helm and pressing it harder against the wall.
Her agonized cry made fury lance through Orion’s spark. He took a step forward, but did his best to keep his expression neutral.
“You… know what you did!” Moonracer gasped out.
“If you keep mouthing off, you will too, insect,” Darkwing growled.
“There’s really no need for that,” Orion said quickly.
“Stay out of this! Unless you want to suffer the same fate!”
“How about we make an exchange? You let her go and take me instead?” Orion said.
Darkwing turned his attention fully to Orion, his grip on Moonracer relenting enough that she was no longer in danger of being crushed. It was hard to make out the Transformer’s expression behind his visor and mask, but as his default emotions were generally seething rage and disgust, they were likely in there somewhere.
“After all, I’m a pretty big thorn in your side, aren’t I? We can come to some sort of arrangement, can’t we, Darkwing? I’m sure of it,” Orion said.
“Pax, what are you doing?” Moonracer asked in disbelief.
“Shut up, you,” Darkwing said, then he dropped her unceremoniously to the floor. Lifting a servo, he pointed at Orion. “You, come here. Now.”
“Okay. I’m coming.” Orion looked at Moonracer and gestured with a hand for her to run, though he wasn’t sure she was able to in her condition.
He heard footsteps running up the walkway behind him and fought the urge to wince.
“No no no, Orion Pax, what are you doing?!” D-16 shouted behind him in a desperate, long suffering tone.
“It’s alright D, I’ve got this. Like I said, Darkwing and I are gonna work something out. Right Darkwing?” Orion said, optics glued to the much larger bot in front of him.
“Pax, no. You don’t understand what you’re getting yourself into!” Moonracer cried.
“I said shut up! Go now before I finish what I started!” Darkwing said, one of his weapons powering up as he pointed it down at her. She let out a squeak of terror and covered her head with her arms, curled into a ball on the floor, but didn’t try to speak again.
“D-16, get her out of here, please,” Orion said, risking a glance over his shoulder.
“I’m not leaving you here with him,” D said.
“D, please.”
“Do as he says, worm. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be,” Darkwing said in a low voice.
D-16 stared at Darkwing for a long time, challenge in his eyes and stance, but in the end was helpless but to comply. As he stepped towards Moonracer to lift her, he met the Transformer’s optics.
“If you kill him, there is nowhere on this planet you can go where I won’t find you and return the favor,” D-16 promised him.
“This one shows more strength than the others. I get the feeling he won’t be used up so easily,” Darkwing said with a touch of sinister glee, then he grabbed Orion’s arm and dragged him into the lift.
The realization of what that could mean hit Orion the same time as D-16, and the horror that was reflected in D’s optics as the lift doors slammed shut was far from the last thing he wanted to see of his best friend.
Orion took in a short breath and held it to try and quell the queasy feeling in his tank as the lift dropped a couple floors. He didn’t dare look up at Darkwing, but he could feel the mech’s gaze burning a hole in his armor.
As soon as the doors opened again, he was thrown mercilessly into an empty room, an act that he didn’t dare fight against. As soon as he finished tumbling across the floor, though, he picked himself up and turned to face Darkwing as he approached.
A massive hand closed over his throat and forced his chin upward. Orion reached up to claw at Darkwing’s wrist with a cough and a snarl, his pedes fighting to find purchase on the floor.
“You have a big, loud mouth, Orion Pax,” Darkwing spat his name like a curse as he leaned down towards him.
One clawed thumb pressed against his lips, shoved its way into his mouth, and Orion choked as he forced himself to admit it.
“Let’s see you make better use of it,” Darkwing said breathlessly.
There was a click, then Darkwing slammed him against the wall. After the static cleared from his vision, Orion found himself staring at the biggest spike he’d ever seen in his life. Darkwing pulled his thumb from his mouth, took hold of his jaw and squeezed hard enough that he had no choice but to keep it open.
“You’re a miner, you’re used to using your hands, yes?” Darkwing asked, his excitement clear in both his tone and the way transfluid already beaded at the tip of his spike as he brought it closer to Orion’s face.
Desperately trying to make a sound of affirmation, Orion couldn’t look away. He understood now what Moonracer had been trying to warn him about. And now he knew exactly what had happened to those other miners.
This was not the way he was going to die.
“Get to work!” Darkwing demanded, hips thrust forward so that his spike smeared fluid on Orion’s cheek.
Hands trembling, Orion reached up and took hold of the base of Darkwing’s spike with one to steady it. The other closed around the shaft and squeezed firmly, worked its way up toward the tip.
“Good,” Darkwing said with a low rumble of his alt mode’s engine.
Orion glanced up at him, but didn’t want to be looking at him while he was doing this of all things, so he just as quickly looked away. Darkwing brought his other hand up and dragged Orion’s helm back, then shoved his spike into his mouth.
It was hard not to clench his hands into fists as he struggled not to gag. Orion released his hold on the base of Darkwing’s spike and pushed against his hip, which prompted the mech to thump his helm backward into the wall in response before forcing his spike down his intake again. Orion felt fluid build up in the corners of his optics, but he didn’t fight the intrusion a second time.
“Go on, Pax… give me good reason not to just kill you here and now,” Darkwing said, voice low and dangerous. He let go of Orion’s jaw and put his hand on the wall next to his helm, close enough to dole out a punishment if he wasn’t pleased.
Flaring plates to give himself more space to vent, Orion tried to swallow around Darkwing’s spike. It twitched in response, more bitter fluid touching his glossa.
He’d done this before. Never with a spike this big, but it would no doubt work the same way. And he was told he was pretty good at it, so if that kept him alive, it was worth the discomfort.
His jaw was already aching, but Orion tried to relax it a bit more to give himself room. He drew back slowly, with intent, oral lubricant gathering in response to the transfluid that he licked away from the slit at the head of Darkwing’s spike.
He could only fit so much of it down his intake, and Darkwing didn’t help, the larger mech’s hips pressing forward every time Orion leaned back in, but he seemed to be enjoying it at least. If there wasn’t enough suction, or if Orion’s grip was too tight, or if his teeth caught a node or scraped too hard against the sensitive plates on the bottom of his spike, he closed his hand around the loathsome miner’s throat and squeezed until the action was corrected.
Darkwing gave few verbal cues. He barely spoke beyond occasionally calling Orion names under his breath, his vocalizations of pleasure increasing in intensity as his charge climbed.
Relief came when Darkwing pulled back, Orion’s desperate gasps almost lost beneath the drone of his cooling fans.
“Fragging miners… so small and weak… so breakable!” Darkwing groaned, his legs shifting apart ever so slightly as he gripped his spike and began to work it with an almost feverish intensity. “I wish I could frag you… but I would split you in two like all the others that came before you and then I would be left with nothing. Nothing to play with, nothing to lord over, nothing to torment! So expendable!”
Orion stared up at him in abject horror, then made the mistake of opening his mouth to try and speak.
Darkwing pushed his head against the wall so hard he thought he would crush it. He used his thumb to push Orion’s mouth open more fully, then pushed his spike back in just as he overloaded.
“But you nngggh!! You just might be… just might be enough to keep me e-entertained!”
Orion couldn’t help the fight this time. It wasn’t just the spike he had to contend with now, it was the transfluid too. Veritable gallons of the stuff. He tried to swallow as much of it as possible, but it swiftly overwhelmed him and soon leaked from his nasal passages, escaped out of his mouth and washed down his front.
Darkwing held him there long after his spike had stopped twitching, gave a few languid thrusts, then slowly pulled away.
Orion fell onto all fours, coughing hard. He tried to raise a hand to wipe his mouth, but Darkwing grabbed him by the wrist and hauled him off the floor.
“For a first attempt, I’m impressed. And to think, you’re only going to get better at that,” he murmured.
“Aa-aah… I’m glad we could work something out,” Orion managed to say with some difficulty.
“Just make sure the rest of the filth stays in line, or this arrangement will wind up getting very messy,” Darkwing said. He reached down and smeared transfluid across Orion’s bottom lip harshly, then pat his cheek with a bit more force than was needed.
Orion was dumped back on the floor outside the lift where he’d been taken from. He wasn’t surprised to find D-16 there waiting for him, nor did he push him away when his friend rushed to his side.
“Hit the showers. You wouldn’t want anyone seeing you like that, now would you, Pax.” Darkwing said, then he stepped back into the lift and was gone.
Orion looked back long enough to make sure he gone, his breath escaping him in a woosh and his shoulders slumping as he turned his optics back to D-16.
There was no disgust in his friend’s gaze. There was only relief and fury.
“Did he hurt you?” D asked, hands running over his helm and shoulders.
“Only a little. I’m okay, though, it could have been a lot worse,” Orion murmured.
“Why, Pax? Why did you do it?”
“He was going to kill her, D.”
“So you thought it would be better if he killed you instead? I thought I was going to lose you, Orion!” D-16 said in a hushed, desperate tone.
“You didn’t. I’m still here. I’m right here,” Orion said with as much cheer as he could muster, “but I’m also pretty filthy and could use your help getting to the washrack.”
D-16 looked down at his hands, the anger in his amber optics only intensifying. He pulled Orion to his feet, supporting him as they moved away from the lift.
“You’re not going to be able to talk your way out of this one, Pax,” he said softly.
“I know.”
“So what are we going to do?”
“We?” Orion looked at D-16 in surprise.
“Yes, we. Cause if you think I’m gonna stand by and let you sacrifice yourself in what is probably the stupidest stunt you have ever pulled in your life, you’re wrong. Do you know why?” D asked.
He hauled Orion into one of the stalls in the showers and let him lean against the back wall, pinning him in place with a stern glare.
“Why would that be, D-16?” Orion asked him.
“Cause I got your back. No matter what.” D held up a fist, his expression softened but no less stern.
Orion raised his own with a nod and a smile, but he felt less of that conviction than normal as their fists clunked together.