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“Oh wow! I've never seen anything like this before!” Scavenger's tail lifted higher with excitement as he leaned forward to look more closely at the black mechanimal crouched against the wall.

The animal's optics went wide as he moved closer and it backed up quickly on its four legs, obviously trying to get away.

Scavenger's tail dropped back to the floor and his spark sank. “Please don't be scared! I just want to look at you! I won't hurt you.”

He stopped moving and stared at the mechanimal. The mechanimal continued backing away, but moved more slowly now that Scavenger was still.

The miner used the opportunity to study the animal as much as he could, because he knew he probably wouldn't see it again after this.

It was really black, just like he had thought when he first saw it, with bright red optics and two little sensors standing up from the top of its head. It moved on four legs and its feet had claws at the the tips of little digits that reminded him of fingers, but weren't really. On its sides, the miner could see some kind of connectors for a data cable or something similar, but he wasn't sure what kind.

“What are you?” Scavenger asked softly.

The mechanimal stopped moving entirely and stared at him for a moment. Then its optics narrowed like it was thinking about something serious or was mad at him.

Scavenger reached for his tail and dragged it around so that he could hold onto it as the mechanimal did whatever it was going to do.

They stared at each other for several long kliks. Then the mechanimal blinked and turned away from him. Scavenger squeezed his tail and squeaked sadly at the action.

The mechanimal paused at the sound and looked back at him for a moment. “I am Ravage,” it said to him. Then the mechanimal turned and darted off into the shadows and disappeared.

The miner squeezed his tail more tightly for a few kliks, excitement thrumming through his spark. He had seen enough of the mechanimal's side as it left to be able to tell that it had data ports that were just like Glit's.

Ravage hadn't been an animal at all, he was a recordicon recordicon who had been in the wrong mine shaft at the right time. Scavenger was glad to have seen the beautiful mech before he left.

Chapter Text

Ravage hissed as he stepped down onto his front foot, pain shooting up from the paw all the way into the knee joint. Only long years of training kept him from falling over as the leg buckled, though he did lean heavily against the mine wall as he waited for the pain to subside.

He tried to turn his foot so that he could look at the damage, but the joint wouldn't rotate at the right angle. Whatever had happened would have to wait until he was back with Soundwave, so that his deployer could look at it.

"Hello?"

The voice was unexpected and Ravage tried to duck back into the shadows reflexively. He came down onto his injured foot too quickly, though, and the renewed pain sent him tumbling to the ground instead.

"Oh no! Are you okay?" The voice was vaguely familiar, and a moment later the construction mech he had met down in the newest energon shaft stepped into view. "Did you get hurt when you fell?"

He sighed, knowing his cover was blown and that he needed at least a little help from the mech approaching him. "Not when I fell, no."

"Did you get hurt before?" The construction mech was looking him over carefully, obviously worried. "Knockout and Glit made me learn a little bit of first aid so I might be able to help. A little."

"My foot." Ravage struggled into a sitting position and held up his damaged paw. "I can't turn it to look at it, so I'm not certain what happened."

"Here, let me turn on a light and I can take a look."

The construction mech reached up and turned on the portable lamp sitting on his shoulder, rather than his built in lights. Ravage was grateful; being blinded by another mech's headlights while he was injured was not an experience he enjoyed.

"I'm Scavenger, by the way. We didn't have time for introductions, before." Scavenger reached out and gently grasped Ravage's foot. "I hope you weren't mad that day, I didn't mean to make it sound like you were just an animal."

"I wasn't mad, especially since that was what I wanted anyone who saw me to think." He hissed as the construction mech's fingers prodded an exceptionally tender section of plating. "But what were you doing in that section of the mine? None of the equipment had even been brought in yet."

"I was checking for gems. There are some little ones that I cant remember the name of that grow next to the energon sometimes. We get extra rations and things, if we find some."

"I see." He really did, and Ravage didn't like the picture the brief statement showed him. Mechs who would venture alone into a brand new mine shaft, were either desperate or stupid. And Scavenger was too trusting, but not stupid. "Are you ever forced to collect them without being compensated?"

"I… I don't know what that word means." Scavenger's hand tightened on his paw for a moment. "Oh! I see it! Hold really still!"

Ravage locked his joints so the other mech could work as Scavenger pulled a pair of tweezers from a tool kit attached to his leg. "Compensation is payment for the work you do, whether with money or other things like rations or additional rest days."

"Oh. Yeah, they do that sometimes. We can't really complain if they don't, though, not when the mine owns us." Scavenger grabbed something with the tweezers and pulled. Ravage hissed as pain shot through his foot again. He held up a slender piece of wire a moment later, coated with energon and bent at an odd angle. "No wonder that hurt. It was stuck in there twice. Oh, you're bleeding, I better put a bandage on it."

"Thank you." The recordicon kept his joints locked while Scavenger traded the tweezers and wire for an absorbent pad and mesh wrap. The construction mech wrapped the injury as quickly and efficiently as any field medic who had ever treated him. "You're very good at that. You said Knockout taught you?"

"Yeah. He was the mine supervisor when we were at one of the other mines. He left before it collapsed and I haven't seen him for a long time."

Ravage unlocked his joints and carefully lowered his injured foot to the ground. It twinged, but it wasn't the shooting pain that the wire had caused. "Its poor repayment for this, but I can take him a message if you like. He's the doctor at colony thirteen, where I'm employed."

"Is he okay?"

Ravage paced carefully, testing how well his injured foot would support his weight. "He is doing very well. He has a bondmate, and I believe that he is as happy as anyone on Luna 1 could be."

"I'm glad he's okay. Will you tell him I said hi, and that Scrapper and Bonecrusher and I miss him?" Scavenger sounded sparkbroken, and Ravage decided to look into the circumstances that had led to him being separated from Knockout.

"I will, yes. Is there anything else?"

Scavenger shook his head.

"All right. Thank you for your help." The recordicon turned toward the ventilation shaft that had let him into the mine. "I should go now, though. Before you get into trouble."

"Will you come back again?"

"Almost certainly. My supervisor always needs more information than the other mines give him."

"Okay. I guess I'll see you around then." Scavenger curled in on himself sadly and Ravage felt a small pang at leaving the mech alone. "Be careful, okay?"

"I will be. You take care of yourself. I want to be able to bring a message back to you."

Scavenger perked up slightly at his words, and Ravage wished that he could do more just to make the construction mech feel better. Then a shrill whistle grabbed the mech's attention.

"Oh, no! I gottagobye!" Scavenger jumped to his feet and sprinted out of the mine shaft before Ravage could step into the ventilation system. The recordicon watched the empty corridor for a moment longer, then made his escape.

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Ravage was dirty and tired when he came back from the Colony Ten. He usually was, if he had been in the mine, but today he was more bothered by the dirt than usual. And the tiredness dragged at his processor in a way he couldn’t remember since he had been on active duty, long before he had met Soundwave. He didn’t think it was because he had been down among the slaves, with the overseers who didn’t care about them or even treat them like people, but the differences between mines ten and thirteen were like black and white.

Now that he was thinking about it, he probably was so tired because he had been sitting in the dark and depression for several days.

“Everything all right?” Laserbeak asked softly as he stepped back into their quarters.

Ravage shook his head. “Megatron needs to hurry up with whatever he’s planning.”

“Is it really that bad over there?”

“It really is. Worse than Vega.” It was one of the two campaigns they had both been involved in, though they hadn’t met. The slavers of Vega had been legendary, until the Cybertronian army wiped them out for attempting to capture younglings directly from a hot spot.

“Oh, Ravage.” Laserbeak glided down from her perch and landed next to him. He allowed her to rest her head on his back, comforting with touch as much as she could. “We’ll free them, somehow.”

Ravage thought of Scavenger, alone in the dark searching for scraps to feed his family with. “But will it be too late for them?”