Series: The Ghost Unit
Title: Wildside - Forbearance (8)
Setting: IDW Transformers, inspired by the "What's Wrong with a Little Destruction" 'verse by ajremix
Note: Many thanks to rexlapinii and ajremix for beta-ing!

Building the Team: Wildside - Forbearance
"All that I have accomplished, or expect or hope to accomplish, has been and will be by that plodding, patient persevering process of accretion which builds the ant-heap, particle by particle, thought by thought, fact by fact."
~ Elihu Burritt

Several mechs had been over to see him lately, always when no one else was around or during the dead of night when there were not possible witnesses to see them. To each he'd said the same thing, calmly and patiently.

"I don't fight anymore."

None of them really knew. None of them understood what drove him, simply because none of them were him. Oh, they might have lived through similar experiences - in fact, they likely had, at one time or another. But ultimately, they weren't him. They hadn't lived through what he had, nor experienced it the way he had. Through each step taken which had forged him into the mech he was today. Through each moment and second which had served to solidify his decision to set his weapons aside, to strip himself of any offensive weaponry at all, the only thing left to him his considerable bulk and innate strength. It had served him well these past centuries. The simple manual work of a low-tier construction bot, mindless for the better part - it had been the perfect refuge, one which allowed him to simply be. And each of these mechs visiting him didn't seem to understand that it wasn't that he was broken or afraid that kept him there. It wasn't that he'd been crushed by the trauma of a conflict so vicious in its toll that others still spoke of it in hushed tones, if at all.

It just wasn't the right time to go back yet.

And so he kept working after they left, and worked the next time they visited and worked still once they departed, falling into the steady rhythm of no-thought, processing only what was needed to carry on. Losing himself to time while building something, even the simple things he worked on now - it was a good way to wait. So when yet another mech arrived in the dead of night, he spared him a small smile and kept working, just as he'd had every other time.

"Never another Haven."

The words hung in the space between them, the soldier-turned-builder's expression shifting from pole-axed to calmly determined. He didn't recognize the mech standing in front him, with all the deadly weaponry concealed behind gleaming armor. He didn't know who had just turned his world upside down, yet set it back to rights all with three words. And the truth was... it didn't matter. The survivors of Haven had long ago been scattered to the winds, but each that still endured lived with the same mantra etched deeply in their sparks. He bent down to set the girders he had been carrying on the ground and steadied himself, activating processors he'd not even thought of since that day.

"Never another Haven," he agreed softly, rising to stand tall.

After waiting for so long, it was time to step into battle once more.

---

7 cycles ago.

"We have... a potential, for the new breaker Deadline is devising. We've spoken to him, but he's just turned us away so far. He is by far the best one suited for it though and not just because of his psychological profile..."

The file was opened and Flagship looked at the datapad for a long time, not really seeing it anymore beyond the picture of the mech glowing on the screen. Finally, with a smile tinged with regret, Flagship nodded.

"He'll join. You just didn't know the right thing to say."

Current Mood: content