CHAPTER FIVE
Tigatron groaned as he gradually regained consciousness. His visual sensors were taking their own sweet time in registering colors, but through the red lenses, he could tell that he was in some sort of dungeon. He could feel his arms were reaching over his head, meaning he was likely chained up to the wall.
Once his optics had finally adjusted, he was greeted to the sight of a dark, dreary dungeon. Dried-up energon stained the walls while various parts littered the floor. Moving his gaze upward, he caught sight of a heavily mutilated body hanging across from him from a grate in the ceiling. Startled by the macabre sight, he let out a strangled yell.
"Congratulations. You're one of the lucky ones."
Craning his head, Tigatron saw another figure hanging next to him. Black and gold in coloration, she had a slender, almost voluptuous frame, an appearance Tigatron didn't think robots -- even those that turned into semi-organic beasts -- could achieve. Her pincer-like appendages indicated an alt mode of the arachnid variety.
"Who are you?" he asked.
She glared at him with small black optics. "Wouldn't you like to know, Maximal?"
"Ah." Tigatron grimaced. "I'm cellmates with a Predacon. How fortuitous of me."
"Imagine how I feel," she replied, her voice laced with venom. "At the very least she could have paired me up with an Insecticon. They're usually not one for talk."
"Who's 'she?' And what's an Insecticon?"
She made a derisive hiss. "Why should I waste a single gigabyte on you? We'll both be dead within the hour."
"Maybe if you told me what was going on, I could figure out how to break ourselves out of here."
"If that were the case, I wouldn't be here, would I?"
Tigatron stared at her. "Perhaps. But if you're so hung up on what you believe to be our inevitable fates, why not distract yourself from it by telling me what exactly is going on."
She glowered at him as if she utterly despised him for saying something sensible. Finally, with a role of her eyes, she relented. "My name is Blackarachnia. I'm a Fateweaver."
"A Fateweaver?" Tigatron echoed. "I thought they were extinct."
"Close enough," Blackarachnia said with a wry smirk. "They had already been driven to that point by the time I got here. I was lucky enough to find one to teach me."
"How did you end up here?"
"Airachnid decided she had no use for me."
Tigatron blinked. "Our captor is a Fateweaver as well?"
"Well, not officially. She was exiled years before the Predacons came, and she fell in with the Decepticons for a time before coming back here to continue her experiments. Which is what we're about to become."
"She's going to experiment on us?"
Blackarachnia sneered at him. "No, she's going to coddle us with love and affection. Stupid Maximal...."
Tigatron frowned. "What do her experiments entail?"
"Mortilus knows. Lately she's been interested in fusing two bots into one, replacing their sparks with new ones she had acquired from god-knows-where."
"The Fuzors," Tigatron murmured.
"Is that what they're called?" Blackarachnia asked, her disgust evident. "I just call them abominations."
Dismissing her remark, Tigatron looked up to the grate on the ceiling, unable to see beyond the rusted steel bars. "How long have you been in here? Has anyone else been in here before me?"
"No one alive," the Predacon hissed. "I've lost track of the time. Probably a few days, at least."
Tigatron nodded, closing his optics as he began to sway on his chains. Blackarachnia glared at him as he did this.
"What do you think you're--"
"Shush," Tigatron replied, gradually increasing his momentum.
"If it were that easy, I would've--"
Kicking out his legs, Tigatron swung upward and caught a hold of the grate with his feet. With this footing, he grabbed a hold of the chains and yanked on them, tearing them out of the wall and taking out a large chunk of concrete. Dropping down to the floor, he proceeded to free his hands of his cuffs before moving over to Blackarachnia.
As he tinkered with her chains, the gold Predacon let out a sigh. "I swear to Onyx, if you even think about bragging...."
"I'm just trying to get out of here." Tigatron glanced at her. "If I free you, will you promise to help me get out of here and not stab me in the back?"
"And just what would I gain from helping you?" Blackarachnia snarled.
"You won't gain anything from killing me."
"Oh, I can think of a few things...."
Tigatron sighed as he stepped away from her. "Then I can leave you here and find my own way out."
"Oh, get off it." Blackarachnia rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'll help you. Once we've both escaped though, you will no longer have any use to me."
"Fair enough." With that, Tigatron proceeded to free the spider of her restraints. Once she was down, she turned around to point to a device attached to her back.
"Inhibitor claw."
Tigatron frowned in confusion. "I didn't know those were obtainable on Eukaris."
"They aren't. Now get it off."
The Maximal did so. Once the device had been removed, Blackarachnia shifted to her spider form and shot a web through the grate, sticking onto the ceiling above. Ascending up the war, she latched herself onto the grate and poked a leg through the bars. Tigatron watched her as she eventually found a control panel and pressed it, causing the grate to slide open. Jumping out of the cell, she threw down another strand of web, which Tigatron used to climb up.
"Right then," he said once he had rejoined her. "Now what?"
"Now...." She pointed a pincer over his shoulder. "We deal with them."
Tigatron looked over to see a group of ten or so bots standing before them. All of them had kibble indicating insectoid alt modes, but none of them bore Predacon insignia like most crawlers. One of them, a maroon mech with purple wings, grinned as he unsheathed a blade.
"You asked me earlier what an Insecticon was," Blackarachnia murmured, backing away. "There you go."
"I see," Tigatron muttered. "How do you propose we deal with them?"
"Run away."
* * *
Night had fallen on Eukaris, but Airazor would not be getting any rest tonight.
Leo Prime had promised that they would search for Tigatron as soon as it was light out; now, it was far too dangerous to venture out into the jungle when it was dark, especially when the Predacons still dominated it. Even so, Airazor found it impossible to sleep, not when she didn't know where Tigatron was or what state he was in. It was as if a part of her was missing.
Many of her teammates had always found her relationship with Tigatron... unusual. While it was hardly taboo or anything, it was generally unheard of for a Cybertronian to be sparkmates with someone colony-born, mainly because of cultural divides. Tigatron was a last-gen Eukarian, born before Chela's hot spot went cold. Airazor, meanwhile, had been brought up in Nuon City on Cybertron, serving in her local aerial unit.
Both of them had known nothing beyond their home planets for almost all of their lives. How it was possible for the two of them to grow so close so quickly baffled even her. But she knew their love was real... and that she would do anything for him.
Even if it meant disobeying orders.
"We're all set, Airazor," Cheetor said as she stepped outside to a group of a half-dozen Maximals, all ready to set out into the night. "Just give the word."
Airazor would not be getting any rest tonight.
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