6 Months Later...

It was a common sight to see: Megatron walking proudly down the halls, his arms crossed behind his back, his helm thrown back...and behind him? A little sparkling immitating his posture. It made the drones snicker, but only slightly, because if Megatron heard, he would growl, and that could lead to further punishment.

Megatron thought during his walks, as he often did. Starscream wasn't the ideal heir, but Felix was small and like clay. He could sculpt the mech he desired. Starscream was too old for sculpting, too set on one shape, the opposite of what Megatron desired in an heir.

And what better place to train a warlord than the Hall. It was a "common-ground", an area that belonged to no side. There, Decepticons and Autobots poured over shelves and books and data pads and computers side-by-side, the truce unbroken for fear of starting a war where it could explode: all that data, most stored in material fire ate up...if a single shot was fired at a shelf of those ancient books, it would be mere moments before the entire place went up in fire.

Megatron led the sparkling to the Hall, stepping over fallen Autobots and Decepticons alike. Some he knew, others he didn't. Some were drones, some were not. He stepped over the bodies easily, but Felix had a harder time. He climbed over them, struggling and digging his claws into limp husks and then sliding down to the ground to run to the next body. Eventually, Megatron finally knelt and picked him up to carry him the rest of the way into Iacon.

"I forgot about your little legs."

The sparkling giggled up at him.

ooo

The Hall was wide and open, empty for the time being. However, in one corner sat Optimus, reading to a small blue and red youngling that chewed on his digits whenever he thought Optimus wasn't looking.

"Law 50-" Optimus looked at the sparkling to make sure that he was paying attention and drew the digits out of his sparkling's mouth. "Future commanders don't chew their digits. Are you paying attention?"

"Yeth!"

"Yes," Optimus corrected, chuckling.

"Yeth!"

A squealing giggle from Felix drew Optimus' attention to the two of them. "Megatron?"

"I see you are also training a successor."

"A commander."

"Teaching him the rules?"

"Dah!"

Optimus hushed him. "Yes. He must learn them in order to follow them. What are you teaching yours?"

"Might as well join you."

ooo

Hours later, they had accomplished next to nothing. The little commander-to-be still chewed his digits (but he was more skilled at doing it so Optimus didn't reprimand him), and Felix was drawing in the dust, nearly imitating the future commander by sticking his dusty digit in his mouth except Megatron saved him, wiping his digits clean.

Optimus finally gave up. "I think we're going about this the wrong way."

"You think?"

"How do sparklings learn?" The Prime stopped his charge from chewing his digits, putting a servo on the sparkling's servo before he could stuff them into his mouth.

"Well, I dunno, Prime. Perhaps we could find a book about it somehwere." He rolled his optics and he got up, picking up Felix. The sparkling squealed and climbed onto his shoulder to sit while the warlord walked around, pulling off books and datapads from shelves to flip through them. From his selection, he chose two and put the rest back.

Optimus, meanwhile, was setting up a datapad and a projector, the sparkling in his lap wriggling around and grunting as he tried to get onto the floor, but the Prime held him fast. "Ultra Magnus, do cease your wriggling about."

"Starscream was the same way," Megatron remembered. The Prince's creators had to strap him down to any flat surface just to keep him in one place, or they had a length of rope around him. He had often seen the femme Elite in charge of taking care of them walking around, the two Seekers connected through the rope. The other two crowded around her, but the silver Seekerling was always getting drug along behind, his claws sinking into anything in reach for either moments or miles before the femme found out.

Optimus frowned at Megatron, then down at the sparkling. He set him down on the floor and he watched the sparkling sit at the mech's pedes. But not for long. After finding out how lonely and cold the floor was compared to the company and warmth of the Prime, the sparkling started to fuss and beg to be picked up again.

"Ultra Magnus, please make up your mind."

"Ultra Magnus?"

The Prime said nothing as he lifted the sparkling, then he looked at Megatron. "Yes. What have you called your commander?"

"Felix."

The Prime raised an optic ridge, but held his glossa and nodded before coming up with a comment. "Suits him."

"Mhm." Megatron checked the datapads out. Since the librarians had all been killed, the visitors had to do it themselves, and not one datapad turned up stolen. Everything was well maintained, as the Prime had requested. "I leave you now, Prime."

"Very well."

When the warlord was out of hearing range, he growled. "Curse that Prime. I could have snuffed his spark at any moment, but no. He has to show logic and reasoning, doesn't he?"

Felix growled in agreement, learning to hate the Prime to please the warlord. He kicked his pedes and groaned, trying to wriggle out onto the ground. Megatron set him down and continued walking, but at a slower pace and this time cleared the way for his future commander.

"You are to replace Starscream, Felix, when you are older. Do not disappoint me."

The sparkling squealed up at him and ran after his heels.

ooo

Starscream had gone for a flight after the warlord left and was prowling the alleys when he saw Megatron with Felix. He was about to surprise the warlord with his findings of technology and Energon when he heard he was to be replaced by the sparkling.

That thing? It could have been of Autobot origin, and though Starscream was a Vosian Prince, heir to the Vosian throne, he was to be replaced by a sparkling of all things.

He bared his denta and walked quietly back to the ship through the alleys, plotting the death of Felix or at the very least, the removal of a limb. Felix had the spirit of a Seeker. Starscream didn't want to waste such potential. The sparkling even sported partially-formed winglets, suggesting a Seeker in his bloodline. With Seekers and half-bred Seekers such in short supply (and the youngest in the Decepticon's possession so undesired), it was a welcome sight.

Starscream walked to his quarters and sat on his berth, still puzzling and thinking before finally laying down.

ooo

Megatron sat in his throne, reading. Felix was sleeping across his lap, seemingly exhausted from the walk, but every once in a while, the sparkling would open an optic and go back to feigning sleep.

"You truly are a Decepticon."

The sparkling smiled.