Delusion's Sealed Past

Augment was one of many scientists in Vos during the Cybertron Golden Age. He was one of many who sought out ways to nullify the Autobot advantage that cost the Decepticons victory in the 2nd great war. To that end, he researched pain, believing that if he could find a way to render soldiers immune to it, that they could then outlast an opponent, fighting even when broken. He researched a number of torture techniques and ‘found’ test subjects among Vos’ population. When none of those had the response he hoped for, he acquired a protoform for his work.

 

The first protoform he worked on died, too damaged. The second also died. But the third survived, and showed promise. Augment dubbed the femme Essay 3 and tested all his torture methods upon her. He was delighted to find out that she never screamed, and spoke only when she wanted to, in spite of the fact that she definitely felt the pain.

 

The young Essay 3 could not only bear the pain, she enjoyed it, but stayed near silent much of the time. Withdrawn by nature, she conducted experiments of her own with the holographic projectors that were native to her form, and that the scientist overlooked. When she discovered that she could fool him into reaching for the wrong object by covering it, she planned her escape.

 

The day came that Augment, careless in his confidence, fastened restraints over holographic limbs, overlooking the real ones nearby. He never realized his danger until his favorite subject cut him open with one of his own scalpels. Essay 3 cut out his laser core as he struggled, then smashed the core itself. She freed all his other, wretched subjects from his earlier experiments, destroyed as much of his research data as she could find, then escaped into the city of Vos.

 

The chaos of the escape was mostly covered by the war between Vos and Tarn at that time. All of Augment’s other subjects were easily hunted down, and were destroyed, too far gone to be of any use to anyone. Most thought that was the end of it, but Essay 3 still hid in the more desolate and damaged parts of the city. As the fighting died down and many joined the fledgling Decepticon army, the solitary femme stalked those who once had worked with Augment. First one named Magnaways disappeared, only for his dead body to be discovered later in the streets, energon still leaking from the artistic patterns carved into his body. Some of the cuts were fresh, while others were obviously from days before.

 

When a second scientist was taken and later discovered in similar condition to Magnaways, the leaders of Vos offered capturing the perpetrator to the Cybertron War Academy as a military exercise. Capture or kill a lone assassin.

 

It took years.

 

Essay 3 foiled several attempts and killed four more scientists before one of the cadets finally managed a strategy that cornered her. It involved using one of Augment’s few remaining associates still alive as bait. Caught at last, the murderous femme was given a choice. Be killed there and then, or cover up her past with a new name and build and serve the Decepticon Empire.

 

She chose to live.

 

Essay 3 took the name of Delusion and was rebuilt as a seeker, common to many who came from Vos. And then she was assigned far away from the city, to a growing outpost on one of Cybertron’s moons. Delusion had the dubious distinction of being the first of the future Dominicons to get assigned to the less than glamorous post in spite of not being the oldest.

Delusion’s past was sealed. The deaths were blamed on an Autobot saboteur. Only a few Cybertronians still alive would even remember the serial killer in Vos after millions of years. Delusion herself kept to the agreement and never spoke of it. She has the satisfaction of knowing that she is the only keeper of Augment’s research and techniques, a few of which she still uses in her work as an interrogator.