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Buried In Rust

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Orion and D-16 wake up in a bleak future. It’s not at all what they expected or what they wanted. Yet, amidst their despair, they realize this could be their one chance to defy their cruel fates. But not everyone wants the future to change…and he’ll stop at nothing to keep D-16 on the path toward him.

Buried In Rust is a crossover between Transformers One and Transformers: Prime. It blends both the Prime and One backstory, focused on D-16 and Orion's point of view as they randomly wake up on Earth and meet Team Prime. It's obvious that Optimus is a future Orion, but that still leaves the question about future D-16. The Cybertronian members of Team Prime aren't too eager to clarify either.

Buried In Rust is on AO3.


Buried In Rust provides examples of:

  • Anger Born of Worry: The more D-16 learns about Megatron, the more concerned he is. He gets angry with Orion for not wanting to kill past Megatron because of this.
  • Consummate Liar: D-16 is noted by Orion to be really good at lying when the occasion calls for it. Fitting, for a future Decepticon.
  • Fantastic Caste System: Cybertron. Miners are the middle of the lowest caste. Data clerks are a whole caste above the miners, but both are still cogless.
  • Former Teen Rebel: Miko is absolutely delighted to learn that that stern and responsible Optimus Prime was once the rebellious Orion Pax. D-16 is happy to give several examples of Orion's rule breaking.
  • Future Badass: Team Prime, from the perspective of Orion and D. Arcee went from a miner to a hardened soldier, all of them have t-cogs, and future Orion is a Prime with the Matrix of Leadership. Emphasized when they see Optimus kill two vehicons.
  • Future Me Scares Me: Even though D-16 doesn't know future him is Megatron, everything he learns about the leader of the Decepticons does not endear him. The visions he has of being Megatron and killing Elita and ripping out Bee's voice box don't help either. Sure enough, when they meet D-16 has a mental breakdown.
  • Internalized Categorism: D justifies why the cogless deserve to work in the mines, as the cogged are just smarter, stronger, and overall better. D is a cogless miner.
  • Locked Out of the Loop: While open about the Cybertronian Civil War, and unable to hide the fact he's a Prime with the Matrix of Leadership, Optimus has ordered the Autobots to not tell Orion or D who Megatron is. When Orion gets a vision of himself banishing the Decepticons and realizes he must have known the person who would be Megatron, Optimus recommends him to not say anything or pursue that line of inquiry any further.
  • Metaphorically True: Megatron engages in this a few times. Notably, he states that 'I took [amnesiac Optimus Prime] in, explained what happened in the war'. Viewers of the Orion Pax arc in Transformers: Prime will remember that the explanation he's referring to was all lies.
  • My Future Self and Me: Orion and Optimus are separated by millenia of experience, but they get along really well.
  • Precrime Arrest: Orion wants to find out who Megatron was in his time so that he can talk down past Megatron and prevent his mental break. D-16 initially suggests a more permanent solution.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: For one, the purpose of the device that brought Orion and D-16 to the future. It exists to erase regrets, and brought them to erase Megatron's. For another, the more that Orion and D learn about the future, the more they want to change things in their era.
  • Stalker Without a Crush: Megatron has chased down Optimus from planet to planet. He also had a collection of files spying on Optimus, with images from Optimus being on dates or hanging out with friends at their home.
  • Tough Leader Façade: Optimus Prime. As he explains, Primes are icons and not people. He feels he can't let his people down when the situation is so dire. The ways Orion jokes, acts casually, and is more expressive highlights this.
  • You Can't Fight Fate: Optimus is worried that purposely changing the past will lead to other bad things to happen to compensate for it. This is why he recommends against it.


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