Airachnophobia (Airachnid X Male Reader)

22. Unfortunate Negotiations

     "We are at quite the impass, then." The leader of the Deceptions spoke firmly, without fear of the pair of blasters pointed directly at him. Somehow, Airachnid, Bumblebee, Soundwave and Megatron had found themselves in a standoff in front of one of the doors on the Nemesis. They were surrounded by Vehicons, and it was Bumblebee who had his weapons pointed at the giant gray mech. Airachnid, however, had Soundwave in the clutches of her long spindly spider legs, one of which was pointed at his throat. The threat was clear. Either Megatron would have to let her leave, or he would lose his communications officer. Airachnid knew he couldn't afford that.

     "I think you know how this is going to go, Megs." The femme drawled, a confident smirk on her faceplates. Y/N, who was still in her hand, knew only from experience that she was quite nervous underneath. Nevertheless, it was a strong facade.

     "Quite the contrary, Airachnid. As I'm sure you are aware, I'm under no threat from the Autobot scout who seems to think his weapons are strong enough to harm me. You, on the other hand, do have the capability to offline Soundwave, of that I have no doubt. However, that's a price I'm willing to pay if it means I can offline you, the Autobot, and re-aquire the human in the process."

     "I highly doubt you want to lose your precious Soundwave." She argued. Spitting out his name like a curse. Y/N just stayed as still as possible, muscles tense from his nerves.

     "But of course, which is why I'm willing to make a concession." Y/N and Airachnid both perked up at that. "I will let you go, traitor, if you leave the human and spare my officer. That way, I'll still get to offline the scout, get back my little experiment for Knockout, and you'll get to keep your pathetic life." Megatron looked around slowly as he finished talking. "Why the hesitation?"

     Airachnid was hesitating. From the perspective of Megatron, it would be incredibly strange for her not to take that deal immediately. He knows her as a psychopath killer with no regard for other Cybertronians, let alone other species. Even in her mind there was a large part of her screaming at her to just put the fleshling down and go. What was stopping her, though, was that she knew he wasn't just any fleshling. She knew his name, she knew his personality, his interests, his family. She even knew how it felt when he held her holoform. She didn't want to just leave him to be split open by her second least favorite Decepticon, Knockout.

     "You don't have a better option. It's okay, just go." The man she was holding spoke, breaking her trance. She knew Y/N was right, but it took every bit of her self control not to just fight them all so she could take him back with her. "I know it's kind of an anticlimactic way to end our human culture field trip, but I'm still glad we got to spend the time together that we did. Now put me down and get the hell out of here before he changes his mind."

     Airachnid was still in denial, and Y/N's words only made it worse. Subconsciously she knew she couldn't make it out alive with him in tow, but the more she relived her memories with the human, the more reluctant she was to put him down and run.

     "I'm sorry." She spoke quietly, setting Y/N on the floor gently. As soon as she put him down, she removed her sharp leg from Soundwave's neck, transformed into her helicopter alt mode, and sped down the corridor in the direction of the ship's dock as fast as she could. Once she had turned a corner, Megatron put a servo up to his command link and addressed Starscream.

     "Airachnid is about to leave the Nemesis. Make sure she doesn't make it to the ground." Without waiting for an answer, the mech turned to a Vehicon near him. "Take the human to Knockout. Tell him to use stronger restraints this time." The troop nodded and scooped up Y/N, who didn't bother resisting.

     Finally, Megatron turned to Bumblebee, who was still surrounded by Vehicons. Without a word, he readied his cannon and blew a hole through the scout's spark chamber. His eyes faded and his body fell over with an inelegant thud. The remaining Vehicons knew to pick up the body and take it to disposal without needing any instruction. It wasn't the first time Megatron had executed a prisoner on the ship.

~~~~~

     Apparently, the walk to the medical Bay was quite long, so Y/N tried to break the monotonous silence with small talk. Unfortunately, his captor didn't seem all too keen on participating.

     "What's your name?" He asked the soldier. He or she (they all looked the same, so it was unclear), didn't respond or even react. The rest of his attempts were met with the same response.

     After a long, uncomfortable walk in the grasp of the Vehicon, they arrived at the medical bay. Knockout wasn't there, so the Vehicon placed Y/N down on the operating table and stood nearby to keep watch over him, presumably until the mad doctor returned. Finally alone with his thoughts, the man's expectations tried to pry their way into his consciousness. He had already accepted death as the outcome, and he wanted anything but thoughts of his family and friends to come flooding in beforehand. Figuring he would rather die without such existential dread, Y/N pushed the images of his lack of a future out of his head and focused on the present.

     He didn't even know if Airachnid survived her trip out of the Nemesis. It was both unlikely and yet completely possible. She was capable of outmaneuvering a bunch of slower Deceptions, but since he didn't know anything about Starscream, it was hard to make a guess based on that. Regardless, if she didn't make it out, he would see her soon anyway if they went to the same place after they died.

     Before Y/N could entertain another thought, a familiar apple-red Decepticon walked through the giant door.