The day the eagle mourned his fledgling
Man, I haven't written this much since... yea... I haven't written stories for a long time. Kinda missed it.
Either way, I'm sorry if some were waiting for a third part, but I hope you will like this filler exploring Phoenix's last crew and how his relationship to them was, before he was picked up/force-adopted by the sentient SG/Lost Light from @cuppajj
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Old Man was a mech of few words, or at least that’s what others would tell you. Truth is, Old Man doesn’t deem mechs like his captain and fellow crewmates worthy of any of his words. There was only one he liked, and that mech was the youngest of them all. Young Phoenix, one of the brightest kids he has ever seen. Kind, curious and compassionate about those he cares for, but also easily fooled by kindness and scared by darkness.
Young Phoenix who was the only one who didn’t make it back from the exploration group. Something Old Man couldn’t understand. Their captain said it was a simple mission. There should be no casualties. No-one should go MIA, and yet, they have to live with the loss of a young life. And no-one on this ship seemed to miss the young spark or think about his poor mother, who would need consoling.
With Phoenix, Old Man could see why everyone tried to forget about him ever being on the ship. For where he saw just a young kid with his future ahead of him, others saw a bad omen. A ‘Curse of the Primes’ a ‘tasteless copy’ of someone who came before. A notion Old Man couldn’t and wouldn’t, by Primus, ever try to understand. Phoenix was a mech, a Cybertronian like everyone else. So what, he had an uncanny resemblance to a lost Prime, who cares about that! The kid still had his own personality and preferences. Where Rodimus Prime was, well, Rodimus Prime, Phoenix was Phoenix. Nothing could ever change that in the old veteran’s eyes.
So, imagen his shock, horror and utter rage as he overheard his captain discussing the exploration on the Lost Light and what happened to Phoenix. How could his captain, someone Old Man has served with in the war, do something like this? How could he? HOW COULD HE HAVE ABANDONED HIS YOUNGEST SUBORDINATE AND SAY IT WAS FOR THE GREATER GOOD OF THE CREW!?
After the captain's discussion ended, Old Man trailed behind the coward like a shadow. Following the mech, until both of them were alone in his berthroom. “You left him behind.” Said Old Man, as he slowly walked out of the shadows to confront his captain head on.
“Old friend? What are you doin-”
“You abandoned him on the ship to save your own sorry aft.” Said the veteran again, staying as calm as possible, because he knew that if he tried to attack the captain now, he would send for help and then lock him up in his room.
The captain knew he couldn’t lie to Old Man, so he let out a long sigh and sat down on his berth. This situation might end in two ways. His old friend will understand and leave the room as if nothing happened, or he will act irrational and attack him. And knowing how much he loved that cursed mech, he was bracing himself for the second option.
“Old Man… You weren’t there. As we split up and searched the ship for anyone in need… we discovered dead mechs. Many of them. The whole crew, in fact, was dead. It looked like… The ship… it…” The captain couldn’t continue. How could he? Seeing the corpses of mechs long gone was one thing. He has seen enough death and destruction during his times of war, but the horrors of the ship they boarded was nothing in comparison. Half scavenged bodies, dried energon… The captain didn’t want to be reminded of the sight.
“And yet, you left him there.” Said Old Man. “You left him behind to be, what, slaughtered by an unknown force? Tortured until his body can’t take it anymore? Has his mind bent by loneliness, until he goes completely nuts? Fools Shot, Phoenix is a youngling! By the Pits, he could still be considered a sparkling with how inexperienced he is! Have you ever considered that?!” Now, he was raising his voice. How couldn’t he? His captain, his friend, knew about the risks of boarding a strange looking ship, and yet, he still chose to take their youngest crew member with him. “... You planned this, didn’t you? You planned this all along, because you couldn’t risk the crew taking matters in their own servos…”
“No… at least not when we went on board.” Sighed the captain, as he felt his door wings slumb. During the war, he has done many unforgivable things. But that was war, and now? Now he had to deal with something he was never good with. Leading a group and making sure there would never be a mutiny. “But when we got on board and split up… everything turned to slag.” He said defeated. “The ship was alive. By Primus, the ship was alive and was trying to dismember us. Trying to take us apart for parts. And it somewhat succeeded. They got some of Runningways’ organs. The unimportant ones…”
“Why would a ship try to do that?” Asked Old Man.
“Because their captain always needs spare parts….” The captain could feel how the shame of what he had done started to claw its way out of his spark. “I think we met the ship on a good day, because I was able to make a deal. One spark, for the rest of ours. And before you ask, I wasn’t planning on your kid to be that spark, but the ship had already set their optics on him and… and how could I have said no?”
“How… Are you listening to yourself Fools Shot?! You’re the captain! Your responsibility is to make sure everyone comes home safely or die trying! Now we are one mech short and… and… Pits… the kid won’t even be able to take his exams… Do you know how much he studied for them? How excited he was?” Old Man tried to be furious at his friend, he really did, but all he could feel was a numbing sadness consuming his spark. He lost another youngling under his wing. He was supposed to make sure the kid was safe. He promised Phoenix he would keep him safe. “I promised him… I promised him nothing would go wrong when he’s with you. I promised him… to be there when he takes his entrance exams, when he finishes medical school. I said I would be his first patient…”
“I know, I know and I am sorry, but there was nothing I could do. At least… Phoenix’s… predicament…” The captain knew if he uttered the word ‘curse’ in front of the only mech who cared for the young spark on this ship, he would unleash something dangerous. Something deadly. “... safed a group of our best mechs.”
“A group of mechs who are surely thanking him for unknowingly sacrificing his own damn freedom, just so that they could live their lives happily, while he either dies a painful death or becomes the plaything of an unhinged maniac!” Seethed the old mech as he stood up and walked up to his friend. “I hope you know what you have done, Fools Shot, for I will not be the one to console his weeping mother. I won’t be the one to write the report and I surely will not stand by as the story of my kid gets forgotten. Filed as another casualty underneath your command.” He said, before turning around and marching his way out of the room. But before he left, Old Man turned around to fix his old friend with a glare that could kill even the mightiest of Cybertronians. “I should warn you though, as the humans tend to say, Karma always knows where you are. And when she gets you, there’s no place you can run to, that could hide you from the judgment she will bestow onto you.”
Phoenix didn’t know why he had, all of a sudden, sneezed up a storm, but it caused the young mech to llaugh. “You know, captain,” started the youngling, while turning to face the barely alive remains of the once proud Rodimus Prime. “I think someone is talking about me, because Old Man once told me that, when humans sneeze, someone else is talking about them. Although… I don’t know who would be talking about me, because Old Man never really talks and everyone else on my ship didn’t really like me that much.”
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