When Thundercracker had left the Bridge sat in silence, until Vortex broke it.
"It's true." He said, "God-dammit it's true! Megatron screwed us. We were so close, and he decided to take a detour. We coulda won! We'd be rubbing it in the Autobot's faces and embracing the new Energon boon! We could be home now, not floating off in space hoping to find something to steal!
Onslaught turned to his first mate, Vortex's fists were clenched and he was angry.
One of the gunners, a large truck Vehicon named Killshot, spoke up.
"I worked my servos to the endoskeleton for ol' Bucket head. I saw my mates die for him. I worked for his dream. I can't believe this. We're supposed to buy this? We lost our planet for him to get a new base?"
Another Vehicon spoke up, "Drag Thundercracker off for treason, he was so far out of line! I wanna see what the Decepticon Crown Justices do to him, I wanna-"
"Man shut up!" Another Decepticon spoke up, "We lost! That's it, Megatron screwed us!"
The next to speak was Ferak, "I hate to paraphrase our friend Dead End, but we are doomed without Vector Sigma, our birth rates are gone, no more Hot Spots, no more nothing. We'll just keep going until we break down and die. Our species isn't going to make it without a replenishing population."
"Optimus gave up the Omega Keys and smashed the lock because he couldn't win," another bot, Wildrider, said, "The Autobots got in the way of Cybertron again!"
"Enough!" Onslaught bellowed, "Despite what Thundercracker said, the fact remains that we are close to rebuilding the Quantum engines. We will repair our drives and get to wherever we need to go. Disperse back to your stations people; we still have a ship to run. We will be receiving a status update from Megatron eventually."
With that, the Decepticons left the bridge. A Blastcharge drone arrived to collect the body, with two Diagnostic drones cleaning up the mess. The body was taken down to Thundercracker, who dissected and removed any and all parts that could be reused. After that they placed the corpse in a coffin and ejected it out of the ship, one or two of the deceased friends showed up to say some words.
Life aboard the ship went back to its rhythm. Two more Decepticons committed suicide from the revelation of their loss. The process was repeated for them.
After three days of no repercussions from Thundercracker's speech, Onslaught made his way to the med bay.
The door slid open as Thundercracker was checking the life signs of the Vehicon with the shrinking spark.
Onslaught stood there, as Thundercracker finished his readings and turned to him.
"I still wish we had a death clock." He said.
"Haven't you heard? They're against God." Onslaught replied.
"Never took you for the religious type."
"And I'm not, the problem is that those clocks have been out of production for quite some time."
Thundercracker sighed, a habit he was not going to break and looked Onslaught in the visor.
"Is this where you kill me?"
"Don't kid yourself, I'm not killing my medical officer for having an opinion. Questionable to the cause as it may be." Onslaught said putting a bottle on Thundercracker's desk.
Thundercracker looked at him with a cocked eyebrow.
"It's a vintage. Starscream and I worked under Deathsaurus when he was still in power. When ol' Deathy caved, we took his stuff. Split the weapons locker and the energon cellar down the middle, whether he liked it or not." Onslaught said, taking a pair of glasses from his side.
"Huh, in all my years with Starscream I don't think this ever came up." Thundercracker said.
"Yeah, I don't even think he was interested in the stuff, he just wanted to take it because he could." Onslaught opened the bottle and poured into the two glasses.
"I had a feeling Swindle and Vortex probably stole it out from under him, no sense letting fine engex go to waste." Onslaught offered Thundercracker a glass.
The Seeker took it and swirled the liquid. Onslaught raised his glass and said.
"To Blind ambition, and the little people that it steps on."
He retracted his mouth plate and took a sip, Thundercracker doing the same. It was excellent, truly something a warlord like Deathsaurus would have horded at the conflicts outset.
Onslaught sighed and slumped down into the nearest chair.
"What's the status on those six?" He asked, gesturing his head at the comatose patients.
"Brawl and Skwarp have no change. I'm still considering rebuilding Shadow Striker's cranium, but I don't feel I have the expertise. The Vehicons are the same, except the one with the Shrinking spark. It's gotten so weak, I think he's going to pass any day now."
"Shame, anyone come to visit him?" Onslaught asked.
"No, I think he had a friend who was shipped to Strika's unit, but other than that I doubt his passing will affect anyone." Thundercracker said.
Onslaught sighed, and Thundercracker said.
"Well, what now?"
"With the parts from Primax-V, we're already repairing the ship, we'll be ready to quantum jump with the other two in a week, I've already sent Megatron a message requesting permission to join him." Onslaught said.
"Really, after all he's done, you're still going to go to him?" Thundercracker asked.
"Hey, I let you have you're little speech on the bridge, don't push your insubordinate luck." Onslaught said, bemused.
"But you are going?" he asked.
Onslaught nodded.
"But, why? He's doomed Cybertron, we've lost!" Thundercracker said.
"We haven't lost. Earth is rich with raw Energon deposits, we should be able to subjugate these people and live there for as long as it takes. Word is Shockwave's found a way to create new life." Onslaught said.
"But it's Shockwave, what has he created that's doesn't kill something?" Thundercracker asked.
"Regardless, we swore an oath to Megatron, to follow him in victory and defeat." Onslaught said.
"And after all this? We lost Cybertron twice, we're stranded in space, spread thin, and I think we might be extinct by next millennium and-"
"And what? Thundercracker, what would we do without him? We'd be back in Cybertron slowly dying a pointless death in a decaying society. We have anywhere to go in the Galaxy now." Onslaught said.
"Megatron doomed us." Thundercracker said.
"And, we've been at war for god knows how long, I've spilled energon and countless alien blood for Megatron. Thundercracker I've followed Megatron far past the brink of our world and so has everyone else. We were doomed the moment Prime ejected the Allspark from the planet. Even with it the core is far to corrupt to repopulate and all our colonies have their birth rates at zero. This is our fate, Megatron's just told us, again, that there's no going back. So what am I to do? Desert and let the Justice goons kill me? I haven't heard from them in a while, maybe they expired on some foreign planet fighting the Gogol Empire? Should we defect to the Autobots? A whole ship of vicious Decepticon killers working with the faction who's killed their friends? Should I usurp our leader? Maybe the Faction will implode and we'd die quicker. Thundercracker, there is no other option. The crew, and that includes you and I, will go back to business as usual. We'll be in working order, warp to our fearless leader, serve him, and deactivate when the Necrobot says it's our time."
"You're just going to ignore it? Go back to the things we always did, after we got torqued? Just return to the status quo?"
Onslaught took another deep drink and said, "Do you remember Bruticus? Bad question, everyone remembers the combiners. I remember all the mass displacement stretching me out, and my mind fogging over with the thoughts of the other four Combaticons. I got dumber, and everything was a haze. I wanted to kill things, kill Autobots, and just smash all I could in a blind loyal rage. There was a time where wanted Shockwave to change that, make it so I was in control, to be the head of that massive killing machine. All that power, at my fingertips, I remember just making list upon lists of what I could do. I swear to you, I had a few dozen different plans to kill Defensor, from damaging his limbs to just bombing him. I don't think Shockwave could make it so one mind could dominate. Flatline offered, but I'd probably end up brain-dead. The power was a trade-off for my sense of self, and my intelligence. Shockwave's inability to separate our consciousness was proof of that. Megatron lead us to where we are, every action, every life saved and lost was done in his name. To doubt that now is far far too late."
Thundercracker finished his glass and Onslaught poured him another. That was the conclusion to all this, the selfish action that the entire war, their lives and work led to. The killings, the robbing of planets, the end result to so much death and crime could never have been a good one.
"This is it, isn't it?" he asked.
"Yes," Onslaught said, the word was delivered so casually, as if answering if the ship was still purple or if his chair needed fixing. The harsh pleasant tone of acceptance.
They sat in silence for a few moments, before conversing about what they'd do on planet fall. When they finished the bottle, discussion had turned into a slurred recounting of the "Good-ol-Days" wherein Cybertron was prosperous in its corrupt rancid perfection. Had they been sober it would have been a disillusioned acknowledgment of the flaws in society, and how a dead data-stick went un-removed for days before sanitation swept it up. Instead they talked about some of the best bars in Tarn and Iacon, and how once Onslaught took a bet on how long a senate formed cadet mob could beat a helpless empty until they got tired, or he died (being the smart person he was, Onslaught clearly won that bet and made a good 700 shanix when one drunk cadet crushed the empty's fuel pump with an absent minded kick). Thundercracker, in a sober moment, would later regret how much that had made him laugh.
His captain departed, practice having taught him how to not stagger upon his return to his qua'rters. Thundercracker's depart was easier, just moving next door and slurring a g'night" to the Centurion Drone.
This Fic is named as a reference to At Fight's End the Transformers Collector's Club Story.