Disclaimer: Still don't own Transformers
Orion had joined Megatronus, for his evening share of energon in Megatronus' quarters. Or part of it, he should say. Being the commander of the ship, Megatronus owned the largest rooms aboard the ship. His quarters were several rooms, a berthroom, private washracks, and a work room, all branching off of the central room which was used to welcome guests, as few there may be. However, the central room was seeing more uses lately, as Orion often took his energon with Megatronus in this room. It was not that Orion was overly shy, but he had yet to become well accustomed with many of the higher officials. And besides, he would like to become reacquainted with his old friend and perhaps recover his seemingly lost memories.
"Have you remembered anything new?" questioned Megatronus - Megtron as he now liked to be called (Orion could not blame him for shortening his name).
"No, sorry," Orion had no luck recovering any of his memories. He had spent time contemplating and meditating, yet he could not find anything to trigger the reemergence of his memories.
"Hm. Unfortunate," Megatron said, swirling the pink liquid in his cube gently. He was pleased with the news. The less Orion knew about his time as Optimus, the better. "I was hoping you could perhaps remember information that could help us defeat the Autobot forces."
"Even my last memories before Earth are fuzzy," Orion replied, frowning. He could not help feeling that something important were in those memories. Silence lapsed between the two as each continued drinking from his own cube before Megatron spoke again.
"How are you finding the Nemesis, Orion?" He tried steering the conversation away from Orion's past. Again, the less he knew the better.
"It's rather…gloomy," He answered. "Though, I guess you've never been the happy, cheerful sort." He smiled when Megatron snorted. "I do have to say that your officers are rather peculiar."
And peculiar they were. Airachnid was cunning with a curious air of danger and Knockout had already flirted with him on several occasions. He had not spoken with the gruff Breakdown much and he had yet to hear Soundwave speak at all.
"Mm," Megatron agreed, sipping some of his energon. "Quite a few of my best soldiers are off planet. I must make do with what I have." He paused before adding, "If you are bored, perhaps I can find some work for you to do on the Nemesis. The workload has become unbalanced without my second-in-command."
"Your second-in-command?" Orion knew that Soundwave was third in the chain of command, yet he had seen nor heard of the second. "Is he off planet?"
"No," Megatron heaved a sigh. "He tried to usurp my position and he fled when he failed. I do not know where he is currently."
"Usurp?"
"He no longer agreed with my tactics and handling of the army," Megatron recounted bitterly as though the events left a bad taste on his glossa. " He felt as though he could lead better than I and wanted control of the Decepticons for himself."
"He seems an…unlikely choice for a second-in-command," Orion commented.
"He was a brilliant tactician and he was loyal once," Megatron said. "He was a excellent second-in-command, before we began to…disagree."
Again there was silence. Megatron drained the rest of his energon, before standing.
"I apologize, Orion, but I must return to my duties. The ship cannot run itself." Orion rose with him, holding his mostly empty cube, finishing it as the two made their way to the exit. Megatron paused before the open door, turning towards to Orion. "I will see if I can get something to do if you are bored."
He turned towards the direction of the bridge, leaving Orion behind. "Megatronus." the warlord paused when Orion called him by his name, his old name. Again, he turned towards Orion, whose refused to meet his gaze, blue optics cast down to the floor.
"We were...fighting," Orion said "There was a disagreement," he met Megatron's optics, "I don't want anything to come between us."
Megatron froze. Had Orion actually remembered? If he had, Megatron doubted Orion would still be here. And besides, he still acted like Orion and not that accursed Prime.
Instead, Megatron smiled, placing a clawed servo over the purple insignia on Orion's shoulder.
"Of course not, brother."
"How's Bumblebee doing?" Jack asked as he watched the youngest of the three children climb the stairs to the balcony that had been designated as their area. Raph and his guardian had just returned from spending time together outside the base, the scout having duty soon.
"Okay. Better than before, but still not great," Raph replied, squeezing in between Jack and Miko on the sofa.
"He's really taking this hard isn't he?" Miko asked. She had been oddly subdued the past week. She was still her loud, obnoxious self, but she seemed much more conscious of what annoyed others, toning down her antics in order not to set someone off.
"He lost a father-figure, of course he's taking it hard," Raph said glumly. Bumblebee was his best friend. He hated seeing him in such a depressed state, seeing him so un-Bumblebee like.
"Father-figure? I always thought it was more of a hero-worship thing," Jack commented, turning on the TV though he wasn't interested in whatever was playing.
"Really? What makes you say that?"
"I don't think Optimus could be a good father."
A pause, and then;
"That's kind of cold, Jack," Miko said, reaching across Raf to grab the remote from Jack.
"Wait, I don't mean that Optimus would be a bad parent," Jack explained, not caring about the thievery. "I mean that he wouldn't be ableto be a good father. He's commander of an army, right? So he probably wouldn't have time to devote to a relationship. It's also...hard to loose someone close to you. I think as a commander during war, you'd want to eliminate any chance of compromising yourself and your leadership abilities."
"Jack is correct." It was Ratchet who spoke, the bot entering the main room of the silo from one of the attaching hallways. He had left the monitor for a few minutes to check on the stock in one of the storage rooms despite it being his turn for monitor duty. It was strange how he had, without a thought, put faith in the children (or at least two of them) to act accordingly if a situation arose. As much as he hated to admit it, the children had grown on Ratchet.
"Didn't anyone tell you it's rude to listen in on conversations?" Miko chided. As if Ratchetneeded scolding.
"I wouldn't 'eavesdrop' if you didn't talk so loudly," He retorted, resuming his post in front of the monitor. The humans were not actually talking loudly; Cybertronians just had highly sensitive hearing.
"A Prime often has very few relationships," the medic stated, resuming the earlier conversation he 'rudely interrupted'. "Prime's are often times large targets, even more so during war. In order to protect himself, and those he cares about, a Prime needs to limit his relationships. This is they cannot be used against him or make others into potential targets."
"Did Optimus have many friends?" Raf asked, hoping the answer would be positive. He knew far too well what it was like to be alone.
"He does," Ratchet answered, relief immediately filling Raf. "Most Primes, including Optimus, have a small group of highly trusted friends. Most of Optimus' make up the higher ranking officials of the Autobot cause. I am lucky to be considered one of these friends as is Bumblebee."
"Huh," Jack replied. "I wouldn't have guessed the way Optimus and Bumblebee act towards each other. They don't seem that close."
"Despite appearances, Optimus is a very strong father-figure to Bumblebee. They show little affection towards each other to keep the relationship a secret, especially in such a small team where such bonds can be easier to detect. I doubt that even Bulkhead and Arcee know the full extent of their relationship." Ratchet paused, allowing the children to mull over the new information. Raf seemed interested but unsurprised, most likely having been told most of this before by Bumblebee himself, whereas Jack seemed to be trying to understand, most likely looking for events in his memory to support Ratchet's claim. The medic had no idea what Miko was think, nor did he have any want to, but she was the first to speak.
"So, who are Optimus' other friends?" she asked. "He's so serious all the time. I wanna know what his other friends are like. Are they grouchy like you or more like Bumblebee?"
Ratchet raised a brow-plate at the obvious poke at his personality. He turned towards the monitor, deciding he should probably do some actual work while on duty. Besides, he could easily carry on a conversation at the same time.
"There's a rash, trigger-happy mech, a hard-aft who's a stickler for protocol, and at the same time a laid-back one who is prone to bending protocol until it nearly break,." He stated. He was scanning frequencies in hopes of locating the Nemesis for the one hundred and seventy-eighth time that week. And yes, he counted. "There's really no specific type of friend Optimus has, if that's what you're asking. All of us balance each other out."
"Do you think we'll get to meet any more of them?" Jack asked hopefully. Miko bounced in her seat at the opposing end of the sofa in anticipation and agreement. The idea of meeting new Autobots excited them.
"I'd say so," Ratchet stated simply, smiling ever so slightly.
"Are any of them the ones you called to Earth?" Raf asked, catching onto Ratchet's demeanor.
"Perhaps," Was the vague answer, but the medic's expression belied his reply, his smile extending into an almost smug smirk. He had said little about the Cybertronians he had contacted, the only information he had supplied was that there was not one, but three 'bots making their way towards Earth and that they would arrive in about two weeks' time. With half of time gone, there was only several days left before the arrival of the new 'bots and Ratchet still refused to reveal any more information. Yet here he was dangling a tasty bit of information in front of the children and he refused to tell them anything straightforward. He was toying with them and it was hopelessly tantalizing.
"Come on, Doc-bot!" Miko begged, abandoning the couch and TV to take up a position against the railing, thus making her closer to Ratchet. "Who are they?"
"Nuh-uh. I'm not telling you anymore." He answered, voice serious but thoroughly amused.
"Please?"
"No."
At this point Jack and Raf joined their female companion against the railing.
"Tell us, Ratchet!"
"Nope."
"Pleeease?" "Tell us!"
"Never."
"Com'on, Ratchet!"
"Pretty please with a cube of energon on top?"
"Tell us!"
"Over my offline frame."
AN: *headdesk* I wanted to have this done weeks ago. I had some time about a month ago, but my sister lent me her Inheritance book (fourth and last book of the Eragon series) and I had to read it, which I did and it took a week with about 12 hours a day dedicated to school. Then there was the book I had to read for English, that huge Chemistry test to study for, that Art History project to do... You get the drift.
I was also without a computer for two weekends traveling. At one point I had the epiphany to text my email account with the story. And I did. 160 characters at a time. Hopefully the next chapter will be done sooner.
Also! Thank you very much to all who favorited and commented! I was surprised to receive so much!
Reviews are very much loved :)
