Arisen

3

The atmosphere inside the mess hall is deceptively cheerful.

No. It is cheerful.

All bots in the Circle of Light are talking and smiling and genuinely enjoying themselves and each other's company.

The only deceptive thing about it is Pax, who's following D as they pick up their energon.

"D, this whole, 'conflict avoidance' thing is gonna drive me insane." He complains.

"Hey, we're in the Circle of Light now." D scolds. "At least pretend to look like you're trying."

"I can't." Pax says dully. "My processor just doesn't want to."

"Hey, make way!" they hear Wheeljack announce and skip ahead of the line to join them, snarking sarcastically, "Who would've thought pacifism was the answer all this time?"

He knocks into Pax to snatch up his own energon. "Oh hey, Pax, didn't see you there. Guess I didn't recognize you without your t-cog. " He spits at him. "What in the pits possessed you to do something like that?"

"Go away, Wheeljack." D snaps. "Grab your energon and shut up."

"And if I don't?" Wheeljack snaps back, getting in his face. "Last I checked, we're all on the same side. Especially now that we're on the run."

"We're what? " Bee exclaims behind them.

"Oh that's rich." Wheeljack laughs. "You didn't tell him?", then turns to say, "Sentinel Prime is saying rogue Ascendants were behind the attack on the archives and Technobots."

"They're saying it's our fault?" Bee demands.

"Sentinel needed an excuse to declare Iacon a military state." D explains. "So he created one."

They walk right past Dai Atlas, who's laughing with his colleagues when he catches Pax's optic.

Pax doesn't let it stay too long, just walks past and goes to an empty table.

"Until further notice, the Circle of Light is our only chance of staying under the radar." D reminds them as they all sit down. "Keep our optics and audials wide open, see if we can't track down the other Wreckers. Then we'll leave."

"Sentinel must die." Pax says flatly, making D look at him sharply.

"You think I don't know that?" D demands. "We'd be one with the AllSpark before we knew what hit us if we tried now."

Then D walks away instead of joining them, prompting Bee to ask,

"Pax, you don't mean that."

"I do." Pax says, looking at the younger yellow mech. "Iacon's only hope is for Sentinel to die."

"You're not Primus." Bee begs.

"Actually, you should take a lesson from him, Bee." Wheeljack agrees. "Pax, go up to the Constructicon building and rip Sentinel right in half. I'll watch out for your little pet here so he doesn't die in the crossfire."

Pax's optics narrow. " Excuse me?"

"Don't you dare play dumb with me." Wheeljack seethes as he sips his energon. "Alpha Trion is dead because of you. So is Dion."

Pax doesn't think, just swings a fist in Wheeljack's faceplate, and it's a back and forth of shoving and hitting, since they're seated across from each other.

It's not much of a fight, since Wheeljack still has his cog and could easily end it if he wanted to.

But apparently he doesn't, as he lets Pax get a few punches in, before Pax finally just stands up and shoves the table onto him, knocking him down, and kneels on his chassis, grabbing Wheeljack's arm with his knife still out, holding it against his intake.

"Pax, stop!"

Pax doesn't fight it as he feels D's servos grab him and pull him away, despite his efforts to keep struggling.

"What is the meaning of this?"

Said struggling ceases when they see Dai Atlas approach, announce, "All of you, in my office. Now. "

"Pax, you need to calm the frag down. " D seethes angrily, prompting Pax to shove him and walk away.