A Lost Sparkspin

[heliopauseentertainments]

Part of the fandomweekly challenges on DreamWidth.

Continuity: IDW1

Rating: Teen

Relationship: Megatron/Rodimus

Characters: Rodimus

Warnings: Post-LL25

Summary: In which Rodimus breaks into a Galactic Council-operated prison and uses an experimental scanner to find his friend.

Crossposting: AO3 | Tumblr | fandomweekly entry | Pillowfort

Fic under cut

“You need to move on.”

Those words echoed in Rodimus’s processor as he pulled himself through the new hole in the tiled prison floor. It was as though Megatron had known Rodimus would have done something to subvert what the Galactic Council had considered to be “justice.”

And he’d been right to think that.

This mission was insane. The odds of getting caught slinking amongst the shadows of the maximum security prison, especially one operated by the Galactic Council, were high. Organic guards patrolled the hallways frequently, with security cameras recording constantly.

It was a shame Drift wasn’t here with him, instead waiting outside with a cloaked shuttle. He was better at slipping through security undetected, though Rodimus had at least had the sense to alter his paint job to something less… obvious. Matte black and blue was a dull, but effective choice. It suited his purposes.

However, he and Drift remained in contact.

Rodimus had opted to wear a camera and activate an internal audio channel between them, in case Drift saw something on the screen that he hadn’t.

He pressed his back against the wall in the small hallway he’d found himself in after prying up a loose floor tile.

Now the real work would begin.

The scanner in Rodimus’s hand was tuned to seek out a specific spark signature. He had had to test it in an unconventional way. He had someone else, usually Whirl, hide the remains of the spark signature key that had been part of the ad hoc cannon the Necrobot’s teleporter had been turned into for him to find.

It wasn’t the same as sniffing out a real, living spark.

The signature was weaker, just a lingering memory of what the original spark ought to be like. The entire exercise could have been pointless. For all he knew, it was calibrated incorrectly or the key had distortions.

It would have to do.

It wasn’t like Rodimus would get a second shot at this.

Ducking around corners and dodging the gaze of cameras, Rodimus slunk through the prison. He wasn’t sure where to look. The scanner in his hand remained silent and unresponsive, even after twenty minutes of skulking about the facility.

With a defeated sigh, he leaned back against a door. The hallway, for the moment at least, was unwatched. A patrol had passed by a minute ago, heading in the opposite direction. It would be at least several minutes more before they would come back this way.

What if Megatron wasn’t here? What if his spark was somewhere else? What if he was here and Rodimus had simply constructed a faulty tool to find him? Or what if his spark had been destroyed despite the public sentence of living oblivion he’d received?

A voice hissed into his audio sensors.

:: Rodimus. ::

:: What? ::

Rodimus jerked his head to glance up and down the hallway, thinking perhaps a guard had appeared unexpectedly or he’d let time get away from him again and the patrol had returned.

Nothing.

:: Listen, can you hear it? ::

:: Hear what? :: Rodimus took a deep ventilation, trying to ignore his frustration. :: No, I don’t hear anything. Just you chewing on my slagging wires— ::

:: Look at your scanner. ::

Rodimus glanced down, seeing a soft ping on the reader. He hadn’t noticed it while he’d been sulking.

It had been so silent before. Through all of the doors, he’d gotten no signal, but what if…. The signal was weak, like the spark wasn’t actively powering a frame. Maybe the Galactic Council had imprisoned Megatron’s spark specifically and done away with his most recent body.

The signal was barely there.

But it was there.

It was coming from behind this door. Rodimus whipped around, pulling a laser torch out of his subspace.

Megatron was here. He was alive.

Rodimus had found him.

Now to get this door out of the way.