Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Groove kicks the warframe in the chest again. Something (maybe hydraulics?) leaks down the uneven street as he, Sideswipe, and Beachcomber beat on the tarnian. He's bigger than them, but the Autobots have the power.

"I... I was just walking home!" the warframe pleads "I'm not.... not a... armed!"

He's lying. He's one of those who's both a warframe and an objectformer, literally a living weapon. No way he isn't loaded! Sunstreaker finally joins in with a rifle to the face, knocking the warframe on his back.

"I was just walking home! I... I'm a nurse!"

Everybody knows that waframes are savages who only know how to destroy, that objectformers are barely sentient. He can't be smart enough to learn medicine. Beachcomber yells something to that effect as he keeps beating, calls him 'it'. Sunstreaker wonders if the warframe is really a resistor, if he really is the guy who defaced one of their posters with the resistors' arrow. But does it matter, he's a danger to the public. Sunstreaker watches energon trickle through the sewer grates.

"I'm sick of this thing" Beachcomber says suddenly "Kill it, 'Sides."

"But Sunny doesn't have any tallies yet" Sideswipe insists, referring to the kill counts the soldiers have been painting on themselves or their weapons "Let him have this one, about time he becomes a real Autobot!"

The warframe manages to turn his head, and propably notices how taken aback this Sunstreaker is.

"W— Me?"

"Still? You've been here three days" Groove questions, red visor turning to Sunstreaker "Are you a warrior or a newlybuilt? Or do you like those things?"

"No! No, i'll do it" Sunstreaker takes his rifle off his back hastily. He's not a traitor, he's a loyal Iaconian, he's not a tool lover, and especially not a warframe lover. He yanks the barrel on the black gunformer's back "Walk!"

The leaking fluid doesn't seem to be hydraulics, because the warframe is able to drag himself to his feet. Sunstreaker shoves him into an alley, gun in the warframe's back. He can propably hear the Autobot's fans growing louder as the young soldier wonders what killing will feel like. When Sunstreaker stops, the warframe also stops there and looks over his shoulder at Sunstreaker, who raises his rifle towards him "Keep walking!"

The warframe doesn't stop looking at Sunstreaker, but takes a few more steps until Sunny tells him to stop. He turns around fully and looks Sunstreaker directly in the eye as the Autobot slowly readies his rifle. He doesn't look that much older than Sunstreaker, doesn't look like he has fought as much as Sunstreaker would have expected, isn't charging at him snarling and barrels firing. He just stands there, staring defiantly at the occupier. His eyes are golden, just like Sunny's.

"Turn around!" Sunny yells because he doesn't want to see them, but the warframe silently refuses "Against the wall, savage!"

"Which of us is the savage?"

Can the warframe see Sunstreaker's fear and uncertainty, is he seizing on his weakness? The warframe doesn't turn, and Sunstreaker's fans are definitely getting louder now. He raises his gun into a firing position. The warframe keeps staring into his eyes, his eyes and face like a normal bot's, and Sunstreaker grows uncomfortable.

Sunny doesn't know if this is mercy or cowardice. He doesn't want to start introspection now. He lowers the gun's muzzle and speaks quietly "Run."

The warframe is surprised. Suspicious.

"Just fucking run. Never let me see you again" Sunstreaker repeats, fearing somebody will hear him. This time the resistant takes the hint and runs deeper into the alley, towards a bend in the path.

The warframe has heard about this thing. They pretend to let you go, only to shoot you in the back when you run. But Sunstreaker was explicitly ordered to kill him, so why would he need an exc—?

A shot rings out and the Ascenticon stumbles, but pushes himself to his feet without slowing down. He glances over his shoulder when he reaches a turn, and sees Sunstreaker standing still with his gun pointed at the sky. He keeps running and disappears.

Sunstreaker turns the safety back on and returns to the street to get his peers' approval with his first kill, resolving to not be weak the next time. Megatron descends into the sewers at the alley's end to rendezvous with Starscream.

Chapter Text

It's been a while since the alley. Weeks, maybe months. Sunstreaker's scored actual kills since then. The first one was a car resistant, in a firefight. He hadn't realized they existed, but he supposed he would resist if Iacon was occupied, even if the occupiers were fellow cars.

He still thinks about the golden-eyed warframe though. He isn't sure why.

Sunny has been put into a different unit, soon to head into Helex to reinforce the occupation there, and they're drinking the night away in a bar somewhere in downtown Tarn. High-grade flows and soon they're all laughing at some thing or another. Sunny is only sort of awake when some guy comes over to show pictures and ask questions, but he isn't paying attention, and instead guzzles more high-grade.

Then he sees it.

He's shocked into sobriety and nearly vomits.

It's him. The gold-eyed warframe.

Sunstreaker coughes, choking, and turns the print on the table. Resistance leaders, it says. The pictures show a jet and three objectformers, the gold-eyed gun labeled as the leader.

He's fucked. If any of the guys find out he didn't kill the warframe, Sunstreaker is dead. No, it's not even an 'if'. It's a 'when'. What the fuck is he going to do now?