Nine: Megatron
Optimus Prime and Bulkhead raced toward Sumdac's laboratory in vehicle mode, rage filling their sparks. All this had been happening under their noses (not that they had any) and only now they had learned that not only was Bumblebee having the slag kicked out of him, but their medical officer was missing. Prime felt like the universe's largest failure, having failed his youngest soldier and having been too stupid to notice any of the awful things that had happened to him. He felt oblivious and idiotic for never realizing that the medic had not had a bio-signature for the past several days.
His self-hatred only fueled his anger, and he sped on in the hope of redeeming himself if he could by finding the culprit, bringing him to justice and protecting his little soldier. Mere meters away from the entrance Prime transformed and raced into the lab, past the small bewildered crowd of humans who had not expected to see him thus far. No alarms were going off, nothing had exploded—what could possibly be wrong? Their confusion grew as Bulkhead crashed in and lumbered by without any explanation and followed Prime's lead.
The two started to scan for any sign of the real Ratchet's bio signature, and were both surprised to find it was nearby. They followed their scanners until they came to the locked door of Sumdac's private lab. They didn't think to knock-they simply kicked the door in and stomped in.
"Ratchet! Are you in here?"
"Yes, he is. And so am I, pathetic Autobot." Prime gasped as he recognized that cold, harsh voice.
"No..."
"Oh, yes, my dear boy," sneered Megatron, watching them closely in his corner, "I'm afraid your fears are confirmed. Prepare to be destroyed!" Several of Megatron's wires sprang forth from the floor and wrapped themselves around Prime and Bulkhead.
"GAH! SLAG!" Bulkhead yelled angrily. His own anger at Megatron for the harm he'd inflicted on Bumblebee was rising faster and becoming stronger than the wires, and stretching his arms out, the giant Autobot broke free and sent a wrecking ball to Megatron's unprotected face.
"AUGH!" shrieked the Decepticon as he felt his face being smashed flat by the heavy wrecking ball. His attention was diverted for a moment, giving Ratchet a chance to attempt to break free. Prime saw him struggling in his prison and ran forward to help him.
"Never thought I'd see you again, kid," he mumbled as Prime grabbed his hands and tugged him out of the bio scanner. Once out of it, Ratchet turned his attention tot he injured Megatron.
"THIS is the moment I've waited for, you slag bag." He transformed his hand into a surgical laser and walked angrily to the Decepticon, who had to squint to see what was going to happen.
"No..." he shrieked when he saw the laser, "NOOOOOO!"
Ratchet at slashed Megatron's face with the laser, over and over again until the evil head was unrecognizable. Energon and oil spurted from the wounds like blood, spattering the medic and oozing all over the floor. Prime and Bulkhead watched on, disgusted by the sight. Energon slowly began to pool around their own feet.
Megatron moaned in pain; it was clear his suffering was unbearable. Ratchet kicked the tyrant's head and screamed,
"This is what you get for beating innocent children! You sick thing, I don't even consider you Cybertronian. You disgust me, you worthless piece of slag! Even your own soldiers hate you! If you were respected, don't you think they'd have come to find you by now?! You are NOTHING to them and to me! And now, you must die for your past actions. Good bye and good riddance, Megatron."
"N—no…no…I c-can't diiiiee…I am M-M-Mega…tronnnnbzzzt…."
Megatron went offline permanently. Optimus Prime and Bulkhead took deep intakes of air into their systems and watched Ratchet. The medic didn't bother to transform his hand back. He just stood there, trembling,, almost in disbelief that he had rid the universe of Megatron all on his own. It was almost too much for him, and he suddenly fell to his rear end and sat in the energon, just staring at the dead Decepticon before him.
Prime and Bulkhead knew better than to go near him just yet. Instead, Prime walked back to the entrance and called to a scientist walking by.
"Excuse me? Could you go get Professor Sumdac for us?"
"I'm sorry," she said, "what?"
"Just get Sumdac, please. It's important." The scientist nodded and ran off to find Sumdac. Prime watched her go and waited. He had to know why Megatron had been here all this time, why nothing had ever been said, why all this had ever happened.
Only moments later, Sumdac and several other scientists, as well as Joshua the intern, came running to the private lab in a hurry. Sumdac's face gave away that he knew part of what the problem was. Prime dimmed his optics, then brightened them as he led the small group of humans in. Pointing to Megatron's head, he asked,
"Why the frag is Megatron here?"
"I…I found him fifty years ago," answered Sumdac meekly. "He…he didn't speak for fifty years; he only started a few months ago. He…he said you were his friends. He…claimed he was afraid to let you see him in this pitiful form."
"Of course he did. He's our nemesis," cut in Bulkhead, "He's the reason our planet was nearly destroyed, the reason our ship crashed on Earth! He's pure evil! And YOU let him hurt my little buddy!" Sumdac put his hands up and said,
"I never told him to hurt anyone. Who has been hurt?"
"Not now, Bulkhead," interrupted Prime, "we need to dispose of this slagger. Take him apart, melt him down, anything. Just get rid of him once and for all. Ratchet…?"
The medic had not heard him, or any of them. He continued to stare at the death he had caused, hypnotized by the energon and oil leaking from the head of Megatron. It was all so…surreal.
"Doc 'bot?" said Bulkhead gently, "Are you okay?" He placed his large hand on the medic's shoulder softly. Ratchet grabbed his hand in shock before realizing he had nothing to fear here. He turned his head and looked up into Bulkhead's optics.
"Yeah," he said slowly, "Yeah, I'm okay. We need to dispose of this…monstrosity. We'll melt him down in several different locations, keeping his components separated. It will make it impossible for any searching Decepticons to find him."
Sumdac's face was almost unreadable. Prime didn't know if he was upset over the death of Megatron, or if it had to do with learning that he'd been keeping the Autobots' worst enemy in his lab for fifty years.
"Professor," he said as he kneeled down, "you didn't know. It's not your fault."
"But I—I should have told you! What did he do!?"
"He kidnapped our medical officer, Ratchet, and used him to build a robot that resembled himself. Megatron used it like a puppet and…well, let's just say one of our Autobots is going to need mental services for quite some time. He's been badly hurt, physically and mentally. We need to dispose of Megatron's head, now."
"And his 'body'," added Ratchet, "I've been building him a new one for the past few days. It won't do anything, but I think we should play it safe."
"Agreed," said Prime. "Professor Sumdac, do you think you could help us disassemble Megatron and have your team take different parts of it to various factories to melt it all down?"
"I…yes, Optimus Prime."
"What's wrong, Professor?" Sumdac sighed and drooped his shoulders.
"Oh, it is nothing," the scientist replied sadly, "It's just, he was so nice to me. He talked about you Autobots as though he were afraid you would be ashamed to see him without a body. Like he cared what you thought."
"Megatron was always good at manipulating people, Professor," said Ratchet, "Lots of good people became Decepticons because of his ability to sweet talk and manipulate others. It was what he did best. Too bad he didn't become a processor analyst on Cybertron. He would have been capable of wonderful things. But he chose the wrong path: destruction, hate, close-mindedness…it's a terrible way to live, if ya ask me."
"It seems that way, Doctor Ratchet," sighed Sumdac. "I'm so sorry for all the trouble he must have caused you all. Is there anything I can do to help?"
"Melt this slagger down to nothing," said Ratchet, arms crossed in all seriousness. "DO NOT KEEP HIM, PROFESSOR."
"No, of course not, Doctor. You have my word. All right, people," he clapped his hands at his team of scientists, "let's get going. We have much work to do!" He turned back to the Autobots and said one last time,
"I apologize again, my friends. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do for you."
"Thank you," said Optimus Prime, "We appreciate it. We need to go home now. I think Prowl is trying to contact me. Good bye." The three Autobots left the lab and headed home.
Okay, one more chapter to go and then I'm done with this one. I may or may not do an epilogue, we'll see how I feel. I have two other TF stories to stick up here, one is another TF:A, and the other is G1. So sit tight and check back in a few weeks or a month.
-Juana
