Several years later...

The war slowed to a halt. Both sides were weak and tired, and communities were slowly rebuilding in the wary tension. There were Decepticon cities and Autobot cities, pooling their supplies and struggling to survive. Megatron visited both, as did Optimus. The two leaders were trying to work to an agreement, but none could be reached, and that frustration built in both frames. Any more and one would often think Megatron would explode.

But he had an outlet, little youngling Felix who was experiencing what all younglings his age face: boundless energy. Ultra Magnus was feeling it too, but when the two mechlings met in person, they acted like their adopted sires, short words, very little physical contact except for a servo shake and dead-on optic-contact. The four mechs never blinked when around each other, and when they continued on, all of them breathed sighs of relief.

"Why can't I be friends with Maggy?" Felix asked once. And the question didn't suggest that Megatron prevented him from making friends with the Autobot. Megatron had often scolded himself for still believing he had a thread of a friendship with the younger Autobot, though the thread was frayed and tired. When the Decepticons gathered themselves and the fighting resumed, he had no doubt the thread would break.

"It's mental things I don't understand."

"Oh..." Felix went back to coloring, laying on his gut that was rapidly disappearing, despite Megatron giving half his ration to the little mechling along with Felix's own ration. Sometimes, if Megatron watched, a drone would dig into his subspace and draw out a small bag of goodies they sometimes made in private, and they would feed it to Felix, who unlike them, needed the Energon for growing. No longer was there a chubby little sparkling that loved to cuddle. Now there was a thin reed of a sparkling, still eager for cuddling, but was frightfully skinny for a sparkling his age. Megatron kept pillows between them to prevent him from hurting little Felix. "Would Knock Out know?"

"That's not in his line of work." Megatron rubbed his face, sighing. He too was frightfully skinny. Everyone was, even on the Autobot side. The only one that didn't look frightening was Starscream, who was skinny to begin with. "Now if you had a question about paint, well...he'd be all over you in five kliks."

Felix giggled, then sat up, grunting at the effort. "Can I play outside?"

"On the landing pad."

The little sparkling looked at him, opened his mouth to object, and then nodded. "Okay."

"Take someone with you."

"Okay." And he got up and walked out.

ooo

Megatron took a stroll outside to collect his thoughts and to just get out of the warship. Felix was wrestling with a few drones, the very drones that swayed Megatron's decision to keep the little sparkling around. The warlord relaxed about that. Those drones, D4V3 and ST3V3 respectively, were highly loyal and trustworthy.

He chose a route through Kaon he took often, hoping for a lucky find like Energon or discarded tech that could be coaxed to life. However, what he found was even luckier.

A bin fell over in front of him, scattering garbage and rotting materials across the walkway in front of Megatron. Inside it struggled a ratty form, belly rounded with parasites. His armor was cracked and ruined, in worse shape than any of Megatron's soldiers, but his determination was that of a healthy mech...or a mech that didn't want to die. It was a sparkling barely older than Felix.

Megatron knelt. He couldn't help himself, and this time needed no swaying of acid rain or drones begging. He scooped the sparkling up and carried him back to the warship. He named him Dagger.

ooo

"You mean I can play with him?"

Felix was tall enough that he didn't need to climb into his sire's lap to see the newcomer, the sparkling's growth stunted for some reason or another Knock Out had tried to explain to him while he pumped the little one full of parasite-killer and fluids. Right now, the sparkling sucked the Energon out of a cube greedily, growling and nipping at Megatron when the cube was pulled away to allow him time to breathe. The sparkling was most offended about that, it seemed.

"Yes, but only when he's better."

"Okay!" Felix smiled and moved closer, touching the paler sparkling. Dagger was blue-grey and needed a bath and a polish, but neither Felix nor Megatron nor even the drones seemed to mind. Dagger didn't acknowledge Felix's presence and instead burped when Megatron pulled the cube away to allow him a moment to breathe. The sparkling was quickly slowing down in his Energon-intake. "He's cute!"

"Mm." Megatron set the empty cube aside and held Dagger against his chest, moving Felix into his lap. Starscream was walking in, dragging behind him a sled of Energon.

"Look what I found outside the warship."

The warlord shot to his peds, nearly dropping Felix in the process. His holding tank gurgled greedily and Felix stared at the high pile of Energon, his optics wide. "You just found it?"

The Seeker nodded and picked up a cube, showing him a strange insignia. It was a crest, a very familiar crest.

It belonged to a Prime, passed down from Matrix-bearer to Matrix-bearer.

Optimus had left them gifts.

"I also found this note."

Megatron snatched the note from the Seeker and opened it, reading while tucking Dagger closer to his chest. He kept Felix out of the Energon with a pede, his optics widening at the words and the signature on the bottom:

I found this and lots more while digging an underground base only I and my men know where. We just had it processed. Never thought I would use that machine again. Enjoy, and don't drink too fast.

-OP

"You've really outdone yourself this time, mech." Megatron looked at the pile of Energon. "And thanks for the tip."

ooo

The mining for Energon started immediately. The processors were dusted off and booted up. Quickly, cons returned to their normal weight from the rich fuel. Felix even developed a gut once again, and when the warlord and the Prime passed each other on the streets, there was less tension. Felix, Dagger, and Ultra Magnus even engaged a little more playfully.

And then the war resumed, regretfully. The forming cities pulled back and were eventually destroyed. The thread of friendship Megatron felt for Optimus snapped when the Prime started taking control of Energon mines, only for Megatron to rip them back into his command, leaving the Prime only a fraction of what he and his Autobots originally possessed. Felix and Dagger didn't whine to see Ultra Magnus. Instead, they played together, wrestling and biting and snapping at each other like brothers might.

The whole thing reminded Megatron of the days when he was a gladiator and Optimus just a clerk, both of them spending as much of their time together and play-fighting, only for such teasing to become something much more real and hurtful, deadly even like a poison.

The peace between the storms of war are just as they are: Peaceful. But when they come to an end and the storm brews with even more force, one finds out just how much he has lost...and what he misses most of all.

And for Megatron, that was Orion Pax, the simple days, and the routine of fighting and then meeting up with a meek mech with big ideas for such an insignificant frame.

ooo

When Optimus showed up on the battle field with Elites Mace, Falcon, Onixblade, and mechs Drift and Cometshred, Megatron countered their attacks with Lockdown, twins Fang and Bone, Darkveil, and Soundwave. He had recently rescued Shockwave from the High Council's lab, the purple mech doomed to trudge around the small room with guns for hands. The cost of Shockwave's undying loyalty was but a servo, gladly given. The mech was restricted to inside work, but Megatron was more than willing to let the purple doombringer out to play.

Felix was a teen at this time, as was Dagger. The mechs were inseparable, and relentless in their askings to be trained to fight. How was Megatron to resist? So he let them train with the drones and the few Seekers left, but he was always there, watching and observing from a distance.

Dagger's choice weapons were swords. He was up-close and personal, always in his opponents face. He wanted to see the fear in their optics, wanted them to know exactly who killed them and why. But he never harmed a single chip of paint on the drones with his blades. Before harm could be done, he redirected and instead threw a hug around them, tackling them to the ground.

Felix however could work with anything and seemed to have no preference whatsoever. Megatron was highly impressed with his first son and would tell him so often. But the young mech wasn't interested in praise as Dagger was. He wanted results. Any improvement that could be made was made, and he worked ceaselessly till the point Megatron would have to beg for him to come back to the berth to rest. There, he would praise his sons with words and Energon he finally had a vast supply of and baths. Dagger still loved being rubbed down like he had when he was younger, but Felix was growing apart. He was growing colder, but when they were alone, the mech was a step closer to the sparkling the warlord saved from acid rain.

"Sire?"

The grey warlord would always quickly answer his son, eager to take any communication with the orange mech. "Yes, Felix."

"Why did you save me?"

"I couldn't leave you out there, could I?" At the time, the warlord was waxing Dagger's back, the mech shuddering each time Megatron rubbed over a particularily itchy spot.

"But why though?"

"Because I saw myself in you."

The mech fell silent for a moment, then nodded.

"I saw a lot of myself in you," Megatron confessed.

The next day, Felix changed his color. No more was he rust-orange. He was orange still, but hidden in the hue were grey flecks scattered all over his frame.

"Now you will see more of you in me," Felix said when prompted. A cold glint lit in his optics, like starfire.

Megatron no longer saw a little sparklings needing his protection. No more would he cuddle and coddle. Now he would send his soldiers to war with nothing more than what the drones received: I'll see when you return.

And he always did.

"Looks like I raised you right."

Felix and Dagger would both grin, dented and scuffed, but alive and sharing an impressive amount of kills between them. The Autobots had started calling the two Double Trouble, not fearing them as much as Fang and Bone who each had double the amount of kills as Dagger and Felix, but they kept an optic out for them, especially when rounding a corner or climbing or descending stairs. And the two brothers took full pride in that.

Megatron definitely raised them right.