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Orion Pax’s arm hurt, it hurt a lot. He guessed he shouldn’t have been surprised by that fact. Especially as he watched D-16 shoot him when he jumped in the way of Sentinel. He saw the devastation in D-16’s eyes as he jumped, it was enough to make any bot’s spark ake.
His body was flung back rapidly and he slid off the platform and just before he fell to his doom into the core of Cybertron, he felt D-16 grasp onto his arm from the edge. Orion let out a yelp of pain as his good arm felt like it was on fire from the force. He looked up at D-16 as he hung there helplessly. D-16’s eyes were no longer the blood thirsty red he had seen earlier, but rather they were back to his iconic bright orange. His eyes were full of… fear? Orion smiled deliriously, he only looked at him like that when he was in deep trouble. Maybe it was because of his mind going a thousand miles per hour or maybe it was because he hadn’t had a moment with D-16 like this in a while. There was a part of Orion Pax that couldn’t care less about his predicament as he swung there for what seemed like an eternity.
That was until D-16 snapped him out of that, “Are you stupid?!” He screamed out of air at Orion. “Why would you do that?! I had him right there!” D-16 looked terrified, he was terrified of what he had just done to his best friend.
Orion laughed weakly, but it was cut off by a loud cough of pain. Orion took a second to recover before answering, “I’m sorry Dee, I- I just couldn’t, couldn’t stand there and let you kill him.” Orion looked at him, full of sorrow. “Please, Dee, there has to be another way. There's still time to go back, we can fix this, fix all of Cybertron! Just… trust me.” He watched D-16 intently as he sat there still holding onto him. His optics facing away from him, in deep contemplation.
They sat like that for a good minute, all of Cybertron’s eyes on them, D-16’s eyes in a downcast. Before finally, he felt the grip on his servo tighten, and start to pull him up. D-16 smiled sadly at him, “Don’t make me regret this Pax.”
“I wouldn't dream of it.” Orion responded weakly but firmly as he finally was on solid ground again. Now that he was back though, suddenly everything hurt way more than it had in the air. His shoulder felt like it was on fire. Orion grunted and hunched over from the pain. D-16 tried to steady him bu- Wait a minute. This isn’t how it happened, Is it?
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Optimus Prime shot up from his recharge, as he clutched at his chest frantically. The room around him was spinning with the only source of light in the room being the matrix of leadership in his chest.
As he sat there on his bed he took a deep breath, of course it had been that dream again. It was always that dream. It always felt so real and just as painful. Optimus’ spark ached as he reflected on the dream. No, not because of the injuries, but rather of the painful awareness that the D-16 he knew would never come back. And primus be damned but that was all he truly wanted.
Optimus checked his chronometer. 3 AM, he sighed as he stood up and started to get ready for the day. Might as well, and anyway there was no way he was going back to sleep like this. He just hoped this wouldn’t affect his performance today.