Royals and Renegades (tfp Wheeljack X Mech!reader) [On Hold]

1: The Stranger

A/n rewriting cause I didn't really like how the story was going, so similarly, concept just tweaked
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"Hey, kid." I heard a voice pierce through the darkness of my mind. "Cmon, you aren't gonna die out here. I just need you to wake up." I slowly opened my optics and strained to look up from where I had been bound, an unknown grounder hurriedly working on freeing me. "There you are. I was worried that no one survived."

"Wh...what's going on?" I rasped weakly.

"Don't try to talk too much. You're in rough shape. I'm gonna get you outta here." The grounder then managed to pry my bindings off, and he had me lean against him for support. "Easy there, can you walk?"

"I... think so." I said as I shakily stood only to stumble. Thankfully, the grounder caught me and helped me back up onto my pedes. My optics then drifted to his insignia, and they lit up when they saw the bright red mark on his chassis. The grounder then carefully guided me through the wreckage of the prison freighter I was held in and towards what looked to be an autobot starship. He carefully led me inside it and had me sit on one of the recharge slabs that adorned a wall, a sigh of relief leaving me as a result. "Who are you?"

"Name's Wheeljack. You?" The grounder, Wheeljack, said as he grabbed a repair kit for my more serious wounds.

"Y/D sir." I said sheepishly.

"Hah, I'm not a sir." Wheeljack chuckled.

"My apologies, I um... it's a force of habit. But... how did you find me?"

"Picked up a pretty nasty distress signal and traced it to a wrecked Vosian transport." Wheeljack said as he patched up my wounds. "Place was completely abandoned, but I managed to bring the ship's logs somewhat online and found that it was a prison freighter that attacked it. Tracked that and found you."

"No one else survived?" I asked with a grief stricken expression.

"Potentially, since several of the escape pods were missing. I searched for any survivors and only found dead Decepticons. That is until I heard something and found you." Wheeljack then paused a moment and glanced at the golden insignias on my wings, anxiety coursing in my spark as a result. "I don't recognize that insignia."

"Not many do, it's something only the citizens of Vos would really understand." I said with a nervous laugh. "But... I'm no Decepticon. That's for certain. The Vosian transport you discovered was mine."

"You were the captain?" Wheeljack asked curiously as he finished patching me up.

"You could say that." I said with a small smile.

"What happened?"

"We were on a mission to meet up with a battle fleet when we were attacked. They took all of us prisoners, and I was locked away where... where I was tortured...." I took in a shaky vent as I tried to remain calm, the horrors of what was done to me echoing in my mind.

"Why were you tortured?" Wheeljack asked gently.

"Probably because they knew I couldn't fight back." I said while gently hugging myself.

"You're unarmed?"  Wheeljack asked curiously, to which I nodded.

"My role never required me to be armed." I said, choosing my words carefully.

"Civilian life?"

"Sort of. My studies were mostly academic, scientific, historical, and pretty much anything to do with knowledge. However, it was considered improper of me to learn combat. But... what about you?"

"Me?" Wheeljack asked with a bit of surprise. "I'm a Wrecker, and before the war, I worked in construction."

"A Wrecker? Really?" I asked excitedly. "I've studied almost all of their fights, battle tactics, and missions! The Wreckers are an incredible fighting force!"

"Hah, didn't realize we had a fan." Wheeljack chuckled.

"Are you kidding? Ever since I was a sparkling, I became obsessed with the Wreckers! I um, tried joining up when the war began, but they didn't want me."

"Why?"

"They said I was too soft, too... inexperienced." I admitted sheepishly. "They thought that I couldn't learn to fight or survive the war because of my background."

"Background?"

"I was classified as a high caste member in Vosian society. Wealthy, high influence, so on and so forth."

"Rich kid huh? Must have been nice."

"I hated it." I said with a sad expression. "It was... lonely. My creators never had time for me and I wasn't allowed to really leave the estate without guards present or some sort of escort. I never wanted to live life like that. It uh, kinda why I tried to join the Wreckers. And I think they would have let me if my guard didn't find me and cause them to realize who I was."

"Why did you want to fight?" 

"Because despite only being a youngling, I saw what was happening outside Vosian  walls. I tried to warn everyone, but no one would listen. Not the council, not the guards, not even my own creators. When... when Vos fell at the hands of Megatron... that's when I tried to join. Since then, I've been on the move, never staying in one place for long, constantly surrounded by guard. A prisoner without chains."

"This could be your chance, kid." Wheeljack said to which I perked up. "I could teach you a thing or two about being a Wrecker, and who knows, maybe we will run into some of the old crew."

"Really? You... you'd do that? But why?"

"You've got a fighting spark, I can tell. Besides, i... could use the company."  Suddenly, an alert came through on the starship's proximity sensor, and both of us went to check it out only to see that we were no longer alone.

"Decepticons." I said nervously.

"Yeah, and a lot of them. Buckle up, kid! We are going in!" Wheeljack quickly took his seat in the pilot's chair, and I took mine in the other, both of us strapping in as the starship launched off of the freighter and towards space. "Ever fired an ion cannon?"

"I've only read about it." I said sheepishly, Wheeljack selecting an option and pulling up a weapons array for me to control.

"Then consider this Lesson 1." As he said this, several Decepticon scout ships zipped on past, and I instinctively grabbed the controls for the weapons system and opened fire, missing at first but then managing to land a hit. "Nice! Keep it up!"

"Vere left!" I called, Wheeljack jerking the ship left just in time for us to avoid counter fire. I returned the shots and landed hits almost every time while Wheeljack steered,  the pair of us barreling on through with twists and turns until there were no ships left.

"WOOHOO!" Wheeljack excitedly. "Nice work!"

"That... was exhilarating!" I laughed with the biggest smile on my face. "I didn't know I had decent aim!"

"More than decent! That sort of accuracy was almost perfect! Are you sure you've never fired one of these before?"

"I haven't. I've only read about them." I admitted while rubbing the back of my neck. "But we should escape before more show up."

"Agreed." Wheeljack activated the thrusters and launched us into deep space.