Work Text:
Antebellum— 'before the war'
Phoenix Fire began to rouse when he heard soft footsteps approach.
He coughed a burst of static, forcing his optics to power on blearily. They turned on a little slower than he preferred. The dark ceiling of Crest's villa greeted him.
The footsteps paused.
"Mega Ambler?" Phoenix Fire called out, his vocalizer still scratchy with sleep. He sent a command to reboot his vision.
Mega Ambler always walked so carefully when approaching recharging patients. He would deliberately soften his steps, making as little noise as he could manage, moving between the medberths and his patients.
It wasn't always obvious, when Mega Ambler talked so flatly and tonelessly to his patients, whether he was delivering congratulations or condolences. But he knew Mega Ambler cared, greatly— and Phoenix always felt at ease, even with the gravest of injuries, knowing that he was in good hands.
Phoenix Fire shifted, the berth creaking slightly as he moved. "I'm not asleep."
Mega Ambler didn't answer.
Phoenix Fire turned his helm towards where he thought Mega Ambler was, and squinted through the dark.
The curtains had been pulled shut, but his chronometer told him it was night time. Slivers of moonlight leaked onto the floor tiles from the cracked blinds, the curtain fabric over them billowing gently at the bottom like a flowing dress.
A window must've been opened somewhere, as his sensors noted a draft of cold air blowing in.
"Ambler? Are you here?"
The room was so quiet. The moving curtains and waving shadows were beginning to remind him of those scary films. All that was left was an eerie soundtrack.
Unlike Dexter, Phoenix Fire held no enthusiasm for horror movies, but the excuse to stick close with Ambler overweighed any disadvantages of watching them.
He suspected Mega Ambler held a similar reasoning, but neither confirmed or denied anything to each other. Phoenix happily (and fearfully) continued with their little horror arrangement every fortnight, agreeing to whatever horror film Mega Ambler found and permanently borrowed.
As his optics adjusted, two pink optics stared back at him.
A jolt of fear licked at his core, an unfortunate scene from that horror movie he watched resurfacing.
He blinked, and those optics were gone.
But he knew he didn't hallucinate what he saw.
And he knew, despite still slightly hazy with sleep, that Blue Cop had blue optics, and a pink visor.
“Who's there?" Phoenix struggled, pushing an arm up the berth. Narrowing his optics again, he was beginning to make out a contour.
The two pink optics blinked open again in the darkness, and a stranger stepped into view, draped in the dim moonlight leaking through the glass windows as a strong gust of wind blew apart the curtains.
"A friend.” The black Cardbot replied in a low voice.
Phoenix Fire's fuel pump began hammering in his chest. Attacking the intruder felt like the right course of action, when the mech trespassed with unknown intentions.
He stared, hesitating. But then his optics landed on a familiar shape at the stranger’s pedes. Behind the figure laid Sebastian, toppled over and completely motionless. His heat sensors hadn't registered him earlier, for the butler was out cold, long cooled to the ambient temperature of the room.
Phoenix's threat systems came immediately online. He splayed open his palm, about to summon his weapon card when a blur of movement landed a scythe grazing against his neck.
Phoenix froze.
“I said I was a friend.” The stranger murmured. Now that he was closer, Phoenix saw a yellow glow outlining the stranger’s optics.
Phoenix swallowed, flexing his digits. “You’re holding a weapon to my neck.”
“True,” The Wild Cardbot replied, still not moving the scythe away. “But only to prevent you from further injuring yourself. You're in no condition to fight me.”
“...Who are you?” Phoenix asked steadily, looking right into those pink optics tinted in gold. He noted more gold detailing across the mech’s frame. A green cross glinted at his chest, decorated by a black bow that mimicked fabric rather realistically, and Phoenix wondered if this was another unlicensed medic entering his life, albeit in a more bizarre and dangerous manner.
“Bloodwing.” Bloodwing answered. He nodded towards him in what Phoenix could only decipher as pity. “What have they done to your wings?”
“My what?” Phoenix started to entertain the notion that he was dreaming. Or hallucinating.
Just what soup of sedatives did Mega Ambler give him?
“Your Wild scent…it’s very faint.” Bloodwing said, tilting Phoenix’s head up with a blade as he studied him. Unwilling for the sharp blade to cut into his major fuel lines, Phoenix let him, glare hardening as he gripped his hand into a fist.
“I’ve only heard of our kind being subdued to obedience by the cursed treasure of Deus Machina.” Bloodwing continued, sounding melancholic. "But I had never imagined it would be to this extent…”
“What are you talking about?” Phoenix Fire asked cautiously. He risked a quick glance to Sebastian, who was still on the ground.
Where were the others?
Then with a wave of growing unease, he remembered. Buster Gallon, Crest and Wild Guardy had left for Mowtown to deliver the rest of the shots, leaving Sebastian to care for him in the meantime.
If he recalled correctly, they wouldn’t be back until tomorrow. Mega Ambler also mentioned something about taking the vaccines to Porcaca, and staying to administer the series of injections over several days.
So he was alone.
Phoenix Fire checked his energy levels— and despaired, realizing it's too low to actually summon a weapon card, let alone summon it long enough to fight a winning battle.
“The servants of Deus Machina. They’re here, on this planet.” Bloodwing said quietly. He lowered the blade, and Phoenix fell back onto the berth, taking the chance to regulate his heavy vents. His body was still weakened, and forcing himself still in such a position left his frame aching. Phoenix massaged his neck, venting deeply, trying to steady the frenzied core spinning out of its casing.
“I will explain the rest later. We need to move.”
"Move? Move where?” Phoenix asked with wide eyes. "And why? I don't even know you?”
“I'm bringing you home," Bloodwing said, offering a clawed hand. "Your condition. I can heal you. But I need to bring you back to the Clan.”
Phoenix stared at the hand, and gazed back at Bloodwing. “Machina is gone. Mowtown is my home."
"...It was as I feared. The cursed treasure…” Bloodwing lowered his hand, and cradled his face with the other, looking at him in pity once more. "You think you're one of them.”
Before Phoenix could respond, a series of motions too quick for him to register blurred past him, and a serum of liquid was plunged sharply into his right shoulder. Phoenix cried out in shock.
Bloodwing sidestepped out of the way elegantly, when Phoenix swiped at him seconds too late.
A sudden numbness overtook him, a buzz spreading from the punctured region and down his entire arm.
Sedatives, Phoenix Fire realized with growing panic. He grabbed at his shoulder blindly with his free hand.
But his fingers were already weak and shaking, as they grasped around the tube clumsily. When finally he got ahold of it and yanked it out, he couldn't even launch it across the room. His poor grip loosened, and he dropped the serum with a shatter of glass, sending a thousand jagged shards flying across the floor.
But the ground was only stained with tiny pink droplets. The entirety of its contents had been emptied into his systems.
Phoenix Fire began to slump sideways, before he collapsed onto the berth awkwardly with a painful jolt to his frame, one arm flung across the berth and hanging over the ledge. “What did you… why…?”
“For the survival of our Clan." Bloodwing replied, which answered nothing.
"The fight between Metal Cardbots and Wild Cardbots… is now… meaningless…” Phoenix said with difficulty, his limbs growing heavier with each passing second. He couldn't even lift his head.
“A war is coming," Bloodwing said coldly, staring down at him as he stepped closer to the berth. The glass crunched sharply beneath his pedes. "And this time, the Wild Cardbots will rise, and seize the freedom that was rightfully ours."
Mega Ambler… Phoenix thought despairingly into the berth, even though he knew the medic was an ocean away. But it was the only two words his blank mind could offer, and his core ached, desperately, for that familiar voice and comfort the medic brought with his warm presence.
Phoenix scowled tiredly at Bloodwing, wanting to say something, anything, but his words came out slurred. His vision flickered, colors draining away. His HUD informed him of an error with his chroma receptors.
"I apologize for the sedation, but I knew you wouldn’t have come willingly." Bloodwing murmured lowly.
The curtains flew open again with a gust of strong wind and the room suddenly felt so cold.
“And do not worry, I will return to retrieve your friend." Bloodwing told him, sending ice running painfully through his lines. "There is a second, persistent scent on you. Either that is from the captor who imprisoned our kind, or the friend you've been calling for in your sleep."
Phoenix glowered at him weakly, unable to respond. His vocalizer had gone completely offline.
“And by the faint smell of antiseptics, I assume he's a medic as well?" Bloodwing stared at him, before nodding as if his face held any confirmation. "That would make my search far less complicated. I could tell he's not a Wild Cardbot, but I'll take him with us, if it means so much to you. A medic would come in handy for our cause, regardless.”
It was the last thing Phoenix could process, and his audials went offline too.
His HUD overloaded him with another wave of error pings, warning messages piling upon each other incoherently, something about detecting a foreign substance entering his fuel lines for the hundredth time. His vision blurred even further, static and pixelating blocks enveloping him in a cold void of darkness.