Airachnophobia (Airachnid X Male Reader)

11. A Stone Unturned

     Every inch of Airachnid's body was in absolute pain. The only thing keeping her from consciousness was an unknown chemical agent that she noticed was injected into her Energon stream every 15 hours or so. She couldn't open her eyes. She couldn't speak. She only had her memories to keep her mind alive.

     The femme had assumed the Decepticons would just kill her once they got what they needed, which they did rather quickly through a cortical psychic patch. Airachnid didn't care. She had no allies, and the location of the relic didn't even matter to her. She had just wanted to live. Every second of pain she experienced while unconscious, however, was slowly changing her mind about that.

     The last thing she remembered was being drugged at Knockout's dissection table. Somehow it hadn't ended there. While they were painful, her wounds were healing. And she could tell it had been a while. Whatever her captors were doing to her was helping. Though unsure why the Decepticons wanted her to be healed, assuming it was the Decepticons, Airachnid decided she would just let it happen since she had no other choice. Then, when she woke up, she could make a move. Maybe.

~~~~~

     "Y/N, do you have a moment?" The man had been sitting at a park in the town near his parents' house, looking through more possible job applications, when he heard his name called. Looking up, he saw a blue motorcycle cross his path, with a helmet covered rider on top in all black.

     "I'm a bit busy, who are you?" It was impossible to tell with the helmet on, so he figured it couldn't hurt to ask. The voice was familiar though. Instead of the mysterious rider removing his or her helmet, it disappeared into thin air, and the voice (who he realized was the bike) spoke again.

     "Just get on." The feminine voice and the color scheme made it click in Y/N's head.

     "Arcee" he said quietly, almost to himself. The last thing Y/N wanted to do right then was get on the sentient motorcycle in front of him. "Like I said, I'm a bit busy at the moment-" He tried to come up with something, but the bot cut him off.

     "Don't make me transform and grab you in the middle of town, now get on." She was not giving him a choice.

     "Only if you give me your word that you don't intend to harm me." Y/N proposed warily. Airachnid's warnings about Arcee, however unreliable a source the spider bot was, were stuck in his head.

     She's a psycho. She has attachment issues. She lets her emotions cloud her judgement. She'll kill anything that moves the wrong way. She's blunt. Unintelligent. Bothersome.

     Y/N's thoughts were broken by the sound of Arcee venting in frustration.

     "I have no reason to harm you, but if it makes you feel better," if she wasn't in bike form he was certain she would have rolled her optics, "I do not intend to cause you harm. Now get on." With no other choice, he carefully mounted the motorcycle, which sped off the moment he touched the seat.

     "Holy-" Y/N barely had a chance to get a grip on the handlebars. He was holding as tight as possible, knuckles white. After a while, he was more comfortable, and decided to start asking questions. "What's with the sudden joyride invitation?" He asked Arcee, though it was less of an invitation and more of an order.

     "Trust me, I don't want to be doing this either. Prime's orders. And to answer your question, there are two reasons." Y/N rolled his eyes at her response. Of course Optimus had to butt into his free time. "The first reason is that Ratchet says Airachnid will likely be able to wake up today, so the big guy told me to bring you in." Y/N's eyes widened, he hadn't been expecting this. It has been almost two months since they put Airachnid into forced stasis to let her wounds heal.

     "I'm surprised. I figured you were just going to offline her." He spat at the blue two-wheeler. Instead of getting angry like he expected, she just vented as if he were a child making a simple error.

     "The second reason I came to get you," she continued as if he hadn't even said anything, "is because I want to tell you everything I know about Airachnid. This isn't Prime's orders, if you were wondering, just something I want to do." Now Y/N was listening intently.

     Arcee went on to tell him about all of the crimes Airachnid committed on Cybertron with Shockwave using genetic modification and illegal experiments on a type of Cybertronian she called Insecticons. Then, she also described the torture and killing of her partner Tailgate. As much as he hated to admit it, Y/N felt some sort of understanding after she was done. He understood now why Arcee hated the eight-legger so much. He also felt something he shouldn't have. He felt betrayed by Airachnid. It's not like he didn't understand that she was a psychopath. He had experienced it firsthand. For some reason, though, Y/N had chosen to believe that she was simply misunderstood by others.

     "I didn't realize she was that big of a problem for everyone. Even your crazy alien government." Y/N admitted. Arcee just hummed in agreement.

     "I wanted to tell you all that so when I take you back to base, and Airachnid wakes up, you don't make some foolish mistake that costs you your life. I don't care too much about whether you live or sign your death warrant, but Optimus likely will. And the kids would be traumatized. And Ratchet wouldn't want to clean up your entrails." She finished. Y/N could practically hear the smirk in her voice as they drove.

     Arcee called for a Ground Bridge, seemingly done with her spiel, and Ratchet obliged, sending a swirling green portal their way. The medic was the first one to speak when they arrived.

     "She's not awake yet, but she will be in a few hours." He didn't even looked up from his datapad as he spoke, noting Y/N's presence only through his announcement. 

     "What am I supposed to do until then, twiddle my thumbs?" The man asked in annoyance to no one in particular. He groaned as he realized someone had heard him, someone with too much energy and an annoying voice.

     "I've got you covered!" Miko yelled, just out of Y/N's peripheral vision. He groaned as he prepared himself for a grueling couple of hours.