Don't Forget
-:-..-:-
Summary: There are some things that should never be forgotten but are. There are things that should be seen but aren't because of the self-induced blindness.
-:-..-:-
"Is everything going to change or are you going to let it stay the same?"
His words hung in the air around them like invisible weights hanging on their backs as he suddenly found himself the sole focus of those bright blue gazes. Hunching his shoulders and tucking his head in closer to his body in a manner not unlike that of a startled turtle he watched with bated breath while the ground quivered from the movement towards him. "Will what stay the same, Samuel?" Telling himself that his stomach was not allowed to make a revolt against him at the deep, steady tones of the leader he respected washed over him, Sam looked up. Feeling the sweat beading on his forehead while his fingers twitched before he shoved them into his pockets he swallowed hard against the sudden feeling of dryness in his mouth.
"Your government." Why, oh why, had he thought this was a good idea? Who the hell had even given his mouth the okay to open before consulting his brain? "Is it—Are you—I mean—you know?" From the looks on everyone's faces he gets the idea that no, they don't know and for a moment he considers shutting up but then the feeling comes back. The same feeling that pushed him into asking his question in the first place; the question that he'd thought of as he sat there reading the two quotes assigned to him for his Western Civ essay. "I gotta know if you guys ever get back to Cybertron. If you guys ever manage to get the Allspark to wake up enough to the point where going to Cybertron isn't a death sentence what are you guys gonna do? Are you gonna go back to the way that things were before?"
And then…
"Cause if that's what you're gonna do then I gotta tell you now that that is one of the stupidest plans in the whole history of stupid plans and I know stupid plans." He can't stop himself now. He's said so much already that he might as well just finish saying everything that he's been building up in his mind this whole time before he loses his courage. This isn't something that should be kept quiet out of some kind of weird respect because he's seen it. He's felt it. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
"Samuel what are you—?"
"This war started as a rebellion, Optimus." Sam says as the tension flows out of his body as the rays of the setting sun illuminate the red and blue paint of the mech standing before him. His eyes trace the flames that seem to shimmer with the red-orange light of the sunset behind them. "I might not have everything that the Allspark gave me sorted out yet and I probably won't ever have it all sorted out but the point is that this," and he waves his hands in the general direction of the mechs surrounding them, "all of this is pointless if you're gonna go back to something that didn't work in the first place. People aren't born for the simple purpose of rebelling, Optimus. There has to be a reason, a purpose. Something that they believe in so much that they're willing to die fighting for it because the alternative is so much worse than dying and when dying is a better alternative then something's wrong."
"Samuel is this about Megatron's words to you?"
"No!" The denial is out before he can stop it and before he can actually think and piece together the feelings that are swirling around inside of him like a whirlpool that he'll be caught up in. "And yes. Is he right? Are you going to go back to a government that didn't work? Are you seriously going to go back to a system that caused your Lord High Protector to turn traitor and betray you all because he couldn't stand watching what was going on around him?"
"The government was not responsible for Megatron's actions." Optimus replied his optics dimming as he spoke. "Megatron alone is responsible for his actions."
"I didn't say that Megatron wasn't responsible Optimus. What I'm saying is that maybe you've held your government on a pedestal for so long that you've forgotten that they are just like you. That they can and have made mistakes like you have." Sam bit out through the frustration gathering in his chest. "People crushed by law, have no hopes but from power. If laws are their enemies, they will be enemies to laws; and those who have much to hope and nothing to lose, will always be dangerous. You can see what's wrong with human society so easily and yet you can't see what's gone so wrong with yours."
-:--..-:-
The End.
-:-..-:-
- Quote from George Santayana
- Quote from Edmund Burke