Arisen

14

Pax's permitted to wash himself, but the entire time he's under the spray, he has to stop himself from dissociating.

When he's back in his cell, laying on the berth, he hears the door open, barely sparing a glance at Dion when he walks in and sits in a chair in front of him.

"You were working for them the whole time, weren't you?" Pax asks, already knowing the answer.

"No." Dion says. "But after you left me for dead, they found me and made me see sense."

"You're a disgrace to Cybertron." There's no malice or anger in Pax's voice, just extremely drained resignation.

"I don't think so." Dion replies. "I'm willing to surrender the only relic I have left from our shared past, the one I called brother, to save Cybertron from itself. That's as far from disgraceful as it gets."

Pax turns to lie on his back, covering his optics as he sighs loudly.

"What am I doing here, Dion?" Pax asks tiredly. "What is so important about that cube Sentinel's sacrificing innocent bots to get me to do it for him?"

"The Matrix of Leadership." Dion replies. "Protected by simulations based off the Prime each faction represents. It will only present itself when that cube is activated. That's why we need an Ascendant."

Now Pax looks at Dion, optics widening slowly.

"It has never been clearer to me than now that the Ascendant epidemic has spiraled out of control." Dion states bluntly.

"Dion, are you hearing the words coming out of your mouth?" Pax demands.

"No one blames you for being born defective." Dion says instead.

Orio sits up now, looking him dead on as he reminds him, "Dion, the Technobots are dead because of Sentinel."

"Technobots no longer had Cybertron's best interests at heart." Dion says dismissively.

"Alpha Trion was murdered." Pax tries.

"He was asking for it." Dion says darkly.

"Excuse me?" Pax demands.

"That cube you're activating?" Dion says. "Alpha Trion hid it in the archives. The Technobots are dead because of him."

Seeing Pax's face fall, Dion says, "Guess Alpha Trion's finally been knocked off that pedestal, huh?"

The door opens again, ending their conversation, as Wheeljack orders, "Enough sap and scrap. Back in you go."

Dion nods and leaves, while the guards grab Pax and drag him out of the cell.

"Cooked up a little treat for you, Pax." Wheeljack sneers, and Pax sees it the moment he's out of the cell.

"Bee?"

The yellow bot in the cell next to him rushes to the window, banging on it. "Pax! PAX!"

"Bee!" Pax shouts, struggling to no avail. "Let me go! Bee!"

In fact, Pax's struggling becomes so agitated, he doesn't even register Wheeljack injecting something into his mesh as he's dragged back to the glass chamber.

"Is it safe to assume you know everything now?" Sentinel asks as he stands in front of the glass chamber. "About the importance of securing Cybertron's future?"

"Don't hurt Bee. Please." Pax begs. "Let him go. He's done nothing to you."

"If you're so worried about him, then this last simulation shouldn't be a problem." Sentinel replies coolly.