continued from here because I can’t resist a DRAMATIC CLIFFHANGER aparently
So, quick recap: I’ve only mentioned a gazillion times in the story that one does not simply walk into Mordor grab a Great Sword that hasn’t chosen you. It’s about as safe as walking into Mordor, to be honest. In my headcanon Great Swords are semi-sentient and very picky about who messes with them. From my Great Sword headcanon post (give it a look!):
If the Great Sword doesn’t like you? Well… that depends on how nice it is, and how “close” you are to what it likes. At best, you get a zap. I mean like a physical shock when you pick it up, a not-so-gentle way of saying “put me down right this instant.” At worst… at worst, the Sword will try to change you. It will look inside your Spark and try to forcibly rewrite you into someone it will accept. As you might imagine, this can have catastrophic results. Someone with a Knight’s training and a very strong sense of identity will be trapped, paralyzed, fighting the Sword’s influence. Someone without that training, or with a weaker sense of self? Madness or death. This is why a Knight will never, never, never attempt to use someone else’s Sword. Unless… hypothetically… he’s emotionally distraught and blind with grief and fury. Hypothetically. *cough*
And Wing, emotionally distraught and blind with grief and fury and with Star Saber mocking him from over Dai Atlas’ cooling corpse, his Great Sword about a million light-years away on Drift’s back, does the thing.
He grabs the Great Sword out of Dai Atlas’s hand.
Dai Atlas’s Great Sword is, as you might imagine... pretty much like Dai Atlas. Cranky and demanding and very, very picky. And much like how Dai Atlas doesn’t always approve of how Wing interprets the Circle’s code, his Great Sword definitely does not think Wing is the type of study, unbending, constricting sense of justice and morals and discipline, and it goes with option 2 and tries to forcibly rewrite Wing into something it does want.
From the inside, this means Wing is locked into a struggle to keep his Spark the way he likes it thank-you-very-much against a force much older and stronger than he is, using every ounce of his training to stand his ground and remember who he is... if he even knows who he is, right now, without the Circle, without his Sword, without Drift.
From the outside, this means Wing frozen in place, paralyzed and screaming, with his hand literally starting to melt onto the Sword’s hilt, unable to drop it. (Fortunately Cyclonus jumps in to handle Star Saber at this point.)
The moment Star Saber teleports away, and this is fortunately about the same time that Tyrest calls all the Legislators back to assist him, Axe goes charging up to Wing, sees that he is quite physically unable to let go of the thing that’s doing much worse than killing him, and does what anyone sensible would do, which is cut off Wing’s hand.
Wing is comatose for the aftermath of the battle, right up until the Lost Light is just gearing up to leave. When he finally wakes up he’s very quiet. He barely speaks to Ratchet, Redline, or Axe. He does ask what happened to Star Saber. Then he goes out to stand on a nice convenient cliff somewhere for a good long sulk think.
Axe goes out to talk to him. He mentions that some of the Circle is staying here, on Luna-1, to build a new city. Some are going back to Cybertron, some are setting out after Thunderclash. And Wing is more than welcome to join any of them.
And Wing tells him he can’t do any of that, because what he’s about to do is take Wayward Light and track down Star Saber and tear his Spark out of his chest.
And even though Axe has always been the Cool Dad, he’s got to hesitate at that, because this doesn’t sound like the Wing he remembers.
“I know you’re upset, Wing. Primus, I know.” Oh and did I mention he and Dai Atlas were conjunx. “But killing Star Saber won’t bring anyone back. It won’t fix any of this. Revenge is a virus, Wing. It tears you apart from the inside. A knight never acts in revenge.”
“Then I’m not a knight anymore,” Wing says.
The Circle is diminished, his training failed him, he doesn’t even have a Great Sword, and even though he wants to feel free, with no code holding him back, he really just feels like he’s being shredded, and killing Star Saber might not be enough to put him back together again but it’ll sure help something.
And Rodimus will be fine, no matter what Drift says. What could possibly happen that’s worse than this? So Wing says goodbye to Axe, can’t face Ratchet so he leaves him a note, tools up, and takes Wayward Light and heads off into the galaxy.
And Ratchet stumps back into his quarters, exhausted after a long day of lifesaving, as the Lost Light lifts off from Luna-1. He picks up the datapad lying on the berth, gives it a quick read-through. And sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Well, great. Now I have to track down two of them.”
aka OHHHHH BOY I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS FOREVER OOHHHHH MAN
continued from here and here
To recap/set the scene: So after Drift was exiled, suffice to say Wing is a little on edge. He’s dealing with some stuff. a) Everyone on this ship is now looking at him like he was In On It with Drift, b) he wasn’t, so he’s still processing the fact that Drift was LYING to him for months, c) he was ready to throw away everything to leave with Drift but Drift wouldn’t let him–”you have to stay and look out for Rodimus” and d) he knows about Rodimus being In On It because Drift told him the whole truth (the night before he got kicked out) so he’s kind of resentful that he has to stay here without Drift and protect Rodimus-who-is-the-reason-Drift’s-not-here, e) he’s STILL in shock after finding Crystal City in ruins and all his friends and family kidnapped-maybe-dead, OH AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST f) he doesn’t have the Sword, which he gave to Drift as his ironclad condition on staying behind. “If you won’t let me come, at least take a part of me with you.” so he’s having separation pains. He’s leaning heavily on Ratchet for support at this time, as one of the few people who isn’t looking at him like a traitor.
So they go through the magic space wormhole, find Luna-1, and Rodimus asks Wing to accompany them in case there’s something down there about the Knights, and okay, Rodimus, to be fair, is getting eaten up by guilt and right now Wing is his substitute Drift, and they know it.
They go down to the surface and you know how things go down: field of sparks, attacked by Lockdown and his mercenaries, Ratchet gets shot down and Rodimus orders Wing to keep flying and leave his one support behind, which brings Wing just about to breaking point as they are all separated.
Wing, as the other flyer, ends up with Whirl and Cyclonus when the group is scattered, and is part of that plot thread for the rest of Remain in Light... which means he’s there when they find the armory full of Great Swords, and he knows instantly who they belong to, and he is finally reunited with the Circle of Light...
...Or at least, what’s left of them.
Imagine if you will learning that 9/10 of your entire city–so, in Wing’s case, either people he was sworn to as a brother-in-arms or the people, the CIVILIANS, he was sworn to protect–were either a) killed when the City was attacked, b) used as guinea pigs in Tyrest’s insane killswitch plan, or c) used as raw materials to build the Legislator army. All because one of his number, one of the knights, betrayed them.
And yes, sure, they act happy to see Wing. But imagine how guilty Wing will feel. He left the city to be with Drift, to explore the universe, to find his own path, to help those in need… and when his home was attacked, he wasn’t there to fight with them. He can’t help but feel that he should have been there, that if he’d never have left maybe this wouldn’t have happened, maybe he could have helped turn the tide and stop this from happening, as ridiculous as it is.
And Wing’s beginning to see, in the few minutes that he’s allowed to interact with them, just how much they’ve changed. No, not them… he’s changed. He barely feels like a knight anymore. He’s been away so long, running around the galaxy with Drift, and even though he’s been holding to their code as he sees it, he still has doubts. And, of course, no Great Sword, as Dai Atlas is quick to point out:
“Lost?”
“Given.”
But he doesn’t really have much time to talk to Dai Atlas about everything he’s seen and learned since he left, or confess his doubts about his worthiness, because then of course they’re attacked by Legislators, and his old swordfighting nemesis, Star Saber.
Imagine what it will be like, when he sees the Legislators for the first time, and can’t shake the feeling, like droplets of condensation running down his spinal plating, that they’re somehow familiar. And when he gets a closer look and begins to recognize shapes beneath the golden coating…
And then he does get to be there, fight alongside them… and he sees how little a difference, in the end, he makes.
He’s right there when Dai Atlas gets his Spark crushed by Star Saber, the traitor.
So…. remember all that “revenge is a virus,” and “a knight never attacks in anger, because anger makes you sloppy” stuff he’s always harping on about at Drift (see the Turmoil arc for good ones)? Remember? Well… Wing doesn’t. He’s lost Drift, he’s lost Ratchet, and he’s lost Dai Atlas and he’s TIRED of the training telling him to do as he’s told and stay behind and meditate and be a good knight. So he attacks Star Saber.
...and he gets his ass kicked. Badly. Wing. gets his aft kicked.
And Star Saber is standing over him mocking him, too–”you thought you could stand up against me? I am Primus’s chosen and you are nothing but a fallen knight. unworthy even of a Great Sword.”
And, well, Wing is blind with grief and fury and not thinking straight and Dai Atlas’s Great Sword is right there in his mentor’s cooling hand…
Well I might as well just rip my heart out of my chest and throw it on the floor, it'll probably hurt less than what you just posted!!!! :'( (Great fucking plotting though, hot damn!! A++!!)
You ain’t seen NOTHING yet. The worst is very much yet to come!
So it’s pretty well established that Wing uses some variation on the phrase “A knight does x, a knight doesn’t do y, a knight always z.” “A knight tells the truth,” “a knight does monitor duty without complaining,” “a knight isn’t afraid of death,” “a knight always obeys the medic,” etc. All. The. Time. Hold onto that thought.
I know you’re all thinking it, so here’s the elephant in the room: Wing is not in on the Overlord scheme. Drift keeps it a secret from him, so that Wing won’t be implicated when it inevitably goes south.
Inevitably, it goes south.
Drift confesses everything to Wing, just after he arranges his exile with Rodimus but before the public announcement. Wing can’t believe Drift kept something so huge a secret, but he understands why Drift thought it was the right thing. He looks sadly around their hab suite, says something about how it’s a shame, he was beginning to like it here...
and Drift tells him to stay behind.
Wing can’t believe what he’s hearing, of course, and he has all sorts of arguments. They’ve been together so long that losing Drift would be like losing part of himself. They’re still not bonded or conjunx endura, but they might as well be. After everything Drift’s sacrificed to try to be trusted by the Autobots, he’s going to throw it all away for Rodimus’s sake?!
Drift tells him he’s got two reasons: one, the quest can’t go on without Rodimus, and someone needs to look after him, and if it can’t be Drift it’ll have to be Wing. Second, Wing has finally started to belong here, on the Lost Light, and he has friends in Ratchet, in Rung and Tailgate and Cyclonus, and it would be cruel to tear him away from that just after losing Crystal City forever.
And when Wing tries to argue some more, Drift puts his hands on his shoulders and tells him “Wing... Wing... a knight stays where he’s needed.”
Wing finally, reluctantly agrees, on one condition: that Drift takes the Great Sword with him. Drift is resistant, since it’s Wing’s sword, it’s a semi-sentient kind of living thing, and it’s a part of Wing.
“So you’ll always have a part of me with you,” Wing says.
Wing, who is usually all about calm and protecting the innocent and all..... freaks right the fuck out when people are throwing things at Drift on his walk of shame to the shuttle. That is to say, he is about two seconds away from drawing his swords, but Ratchet elbows him out of the way and picks Drift up and dusts him off and sends him on his way.
So I was thinking and... let’s be real, the odds that I am ever going to get this far in Wayward Light are looking pretty slim since I haven’t updated in like a year. And even if I DO get this far it will be far enough in the future that this won’t matter so much. So I’m just going to throw this out there for those of you who are still here and haven’t forgotten this exists and are waiting for this terrible person to return bearing more chapters:
Here it is, the tl;dr version of, well, basically the entire MTMTE part of Wayward Light.
For those of you who don’t know the fic, you can basically read this as “what if Wing were alive for MTMTE??” Literally all you need to know is Wing lived, and he and Drift traveled together and had adventures until Drift joined the Autobots, and they’re still together.
Wing never does join the Autobots. He stays neutral, which gets him in some trouble with the Autobots. The general attitude towards neutrals, even/especially from the Autobots, seems to be that they’re cowards who don’t know What We Went Through, see how they talk about NAILs in “The Death of Optimus Prime.” Also, there’s the fact that Wing is with Drift, an ex-’con. So generally people are either wary or outright negative towards him, except for the ones who actually bother to get to know him, because, uh, he’s Wing, he makes friends easily.
In terms of relationships with characters besides Drift: he gets along well enough with Perceptor from their time hanging out with the Wreckers together. He’s on friendly terms with Rung (and feels awful when he forgets Rung’s name), Tailgate (practically a neutral himself) and, surprisingly, Cyclonus. They have a sort of mutual warrior respect thing going on, and Wing always refers to him by rank--that is, “General Cyclonus.”
Rodimus thinks Wing is awesome and useful to have on their quest. Even though Wing doesn’t know much about the Knights of Cybertron, no more than Drift, Roddy still regards them as his experts on the subject. For his part, Wing is amused by Rodimus, appreciates that he is one of the few who trusts Drift (and Wing) without reservations. He understands that Drift has strong feelings about Rodimus, though he’s not convinced by Drift’s near-death vision, and to that end he’d protect Rodimus if he could. It’s still Drift, not Wing, who is teaching Rodimus sword moves. This is because Wing would want to start with the basics, which Rodimus thinks is boring, but Drift is willing to skip to the WHIRLING TORNADO SWORDS OF DEATH!!! with him.
Then of course there’s Ratchet.
Drift and Ratchet get on the same as they do in MTMTE and fanon: bickering, strained affection, broken promises, kept promises. It’s initially Drift who brings Ratchet and Wing together (Drift has already told Wing about his first meeting with Ratchet… shown him, actually), but they also have interactions in their own right. Ratchet’s initially afraid Wing will be all auras and Spectralist and fluffy nonsense, and relieved when he’s not. He appreciates Wing’s calming presence in a madcap environment like the Lost Light.
Wing admires Ratchet for his dedication to his patients. He’s totally in on Drift’s running joke of making ~hippy dippy~ stuff up to piss Ratchet off. For instance, the two of them snickering on private comm:
“‘Buzzing with positive energy,’ how do you think he liked that?”
“You’re awful. ….I wish I could see the look on his face.”
–and aside from that, Ratchet can’t find too much to complain about re: Wing either. As long as the jet stays out of his medbay when he’s not injured. Yes I know Drift is here. Drift was dying from plague recently. Now get out.
On the ship, Wing doesn’t have an actual rank. Rodimus is under the impression that Wing knows a lot more about the Knights of Cybertron than he actually does and treats him like the resident-expert-besides-Drift. Wing’s actually not sold on the Knights (capital K, different from knights lowercase k, ie the Circle), honestly, but he doesn’t want to stay on Cybertron. And anyway, Drift is here.
Wing doesn’t go to Delphi, but he does freak out when they all get back! He swears he’s never going to leave Drift’s side again, but he’s thwarted instantly when Ratchet kicks him out of the medbay:
"wing. are you injured."
"...no ratchet"
"are you sick."
"no, Ratchet."
"then get out of my medbay, I'm trying to work."
“....yes, Ratchet.”
You can imagine how excited Drift and Wing are to get to Crystal City and recruit the knights to their cause... and you can imagine their reaction when they find the place destroyed.
Actually, they have a huge fight. First Drift is getting on Wing’s case about not telling him about the Metrotitan, and Wing's like "not now" all quiet and Drift snaps at him and Wing's like "NOT NOW. please." and his voice breaks.
Then when Ratchet and Drift are arguing Wing tries to step in and cool them off because there are more important things, but Ratchet snarls at him about how he can't even stand up for himself and he's such a hypocrite and Wing takes this step back like he's been shot.
When Rodimus suggests that Chromedome read the titan's memories, Wing's like "wait there has to be another way.”
Drift answers "sometimes there IS no other way." They had this conversation back in the Drift miniseries...
And Wing... who is obviously distraught at this point... snaps at him: “you say that, but of the two of us, whose faction started the war that killed our planet?"
And Drift (after a moment of ... ouch) is like "and which one ABANDONED our planet?!"
Everyone is shocked, because they NEVER fight and Rodimus steps in to get the situation back in control. Then when they're back on the LL, Wing goes to his favorite quiet spot and just stands there and stares at the stars, sobs a little, misses his city and his people.
Eventually Ratchet goes looking for him and apologizes for being harsh, and gives him a little squeeze on the shoulder, and just is there for a while. And after Ratchet has to go, Wing curls up at the base of the observation window and snoozes there.
Finally Drift comes in after a while (probably Ratchet yelled at him ><) and Wing's like "i'm sorry for what i said"
"me too."
and Wing whispers "I just can't believe it's gone."
So later Wing goes to Ratchet and just kind of lingers in his space and Ratchet wants to be grumpy with him but he just can't. And Wing says "that's not how I wanted you to see it. It's not how I wanted to show it to you."
"Right then. Describe it to me."
So Wing stays for hours and hours telling him about the city as he knew it, and he probably talks himself into recharge right there and Ratchet just keeps working around him until Drift comes to pick him up. It's a while before Wing is his usual cheerful self again.
IMAGINE STAR SABRE HAVING TO FIGHT A TAG-TEAMING WING AND DRIFT! (I have the headcanon after a few years they more so in-sync that it's like they're drifting.)
YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! Exactly!! Drift and Wing become really attuned to each other’s fighting style after spending so long with each other. They’re a really tough team to beat!
*kicks down the door* I KNEW I FORGOT A QUESTION. You said “ Star Saber is one of those who straddles the line between the Spire and the Citadel, and she’s even a little too assertive for the Sisters.” What does that mean? What’s the difference between the Spire and the Citadel? Are the Sisters the religious order Dai Atlas oversees?
Short answer: the Crystal City houses around 300 refugees, fifty Sisters who form a religious order known at the Circle of Light (situated within the Spire) and roughly 30 knights (situated within the Citadel) who protect the City and its inhabitants. There is some overlap between them: Dai Atlas, for example, is a member of the Circle in addition to being the leader of the knights and the governor of the City as a whole. Star Saber is another example of a knight who is also part of the Circle. Other knights, like Axe and Wing, are just knights.
Long-winded answer because this is the only thing that James Roberts has changed in the worldbuilding that I disagree with!
In the original Drift mini, the Circle of Light (or the knights, as we call them for short), existed to preserve Cybertronian culture. Full stop. In fact, here’s their mission statement:
You can check if you want, but take it from someone who knows the Drift mini up, down, sideways and backwards: there’s not a single mention of Primus or anything the entire time. The whole “~knights of cybertron cult~” thing and religious bent of the Circle was a total retcon by Barber and Roberts. That said, I am prepared to accept that the Circle would adopt the “Knights” as a model of behavior. I’m still not comfortable attaching the negative connotations of “cult.”
Second point, which is a bit of a digression but still important for my worldbuilding! While the Circle of Light is part of Crystal City, not all of Crystal City is the Circle of Light! Thus:
Put this together with how the final battle goes down in #4 (spoilers): a group of the knights decides to stand with Drift and Wing to fight the slavers. Later Dai Atlas arms the rest of the City and comes charging out to the rescue. So there are two distinct groups within the City: the knights, who carry Great Swords and bear a certain aesthetic similarity to each other, and the civilians, who do not have Great Swords and come in all shapes and sizes from all walks of life.
Compared to MTMTE, where it’s implied that everyone in the City is part of the nebulous “circle of light cult” and has a Great Sword:
Personally, I like the civilians version better, because it adds so much more tragedy to the fate of the City when Tyrest comes calling. The majority of mechs there were refugees from the war who thought they’d finally found somewhere they were safe. And most of them were killed either in the assault on the City, as Tyrest’s guinea pigs, or in the fight on Luna-1.
That’s the version I use in Wayward Light, incidentally, because I like hurting Wing. I mean... what?
SO.
Long story short, the Crystal City as it appears in No Man’s Land is my attempt to reconcile the two “versions” of the Circle of Light: Shane McCarthy’s secular Jedi watching over a city full of civilians, and James Roberts’ religious “cult.” So we have the knights (about 30 of them, consistent with what we saw in the Drift mini (no seriously I counted the chairs in the council chamber)) and the Sisters (about 50 of them, about the size of your average monastery). The Crystal City itself was founded as a religious center (like the original Crystal City on cybertron??? I was a little bit hazy on that during the dark cybertron arc), and later additions included the Citadel and a giant underground refugee camp that gradually was built into a miniature city.
mikiri-tohoshima answered your question “Oh, but I’m liking this… (going through my wayward light tag). … can...”
what is the chapter you like the most?
Hm... good question! But probably my favorite so far is 15, aka Spotlight Drift (Just Better). I really liked dissecting Shane McCarthy’s script and making it... well. Not to blow my own horn too much, but. Better. In my opinion.
(You didn’t ask, but my two favorite interfacing scenes are the ones in chapter 2 and 17.)
