The Diego Diaries: Petition (dd6 54) So many mistakes. I fixed them :D

-0-At the moment of despair

Ratchet felt his tanks churn as he watched Sherrod, a mech who was a good sort with a decent and respectable reputation go through the humiliation of asking the congregation, especially the two elders who had brought about the shunning to have mercy. Ironhide had told him it would be awful. It was supposed to be that way. It was supposed to be designed to make the hardest headed loon toe the line. This was the last step their caste had before the authorities would step in and toss the offender into real prison with all the affronted lower castes who would tear them from limb-to-limb. Oddly enough, there were no separate prisons for high castes on Cybertron. It was supposed to grind a few gears.

Sherrod continued. "Amma Allie and Appa Revue, I come to you in humble supplication for the family already named in the petition. They come to you with regret, genuine and deep, with the intention of making it clear to you and the congregation their most sincere intentions of living the right way. They acknowledge their offense both to you and the congregation. They acknowledge that their actions haven't been right and true. They acknowledge that they have a debt to pay for their behaviors and wish for you to accept that in payment of the harm caused by their thoughtless and inharmonious actions. What say you?" he asked with his gaze averted in abject apology.

The room felt thick, buried deep with the heavy energy of emotion and embarrassment they all felt. Having dived deep into bodies of water where the pressure rose with each fathom down one went, this felt like he was standing on the bottom of an emotional Marianas Trench. Ratchet half expected weird fish to swim past his face as he sat tensely beside Prowl watching the strangeness.

In Ratchet's own caste, a punk was slapped around until they got it, changed or moved. They were even burned out if they didn't shape up. It was easier to live if you weren't the one caught up in it. it was simple and learned from the first time as a youngling someone slagged you. You could fight back and win or lose. If you lost it was usually settled. Finito. It was done. After that, you lived your life within the limitations or joined a gang. This, however, felt spark shaking. They may have had everything, the high castes, but if there were things like this sprinkled into their high stepping life, he almost … ALMOST was glad he was low caste.

The two elders sat in the front row together speaking off line. It was literally up to the two of them to make or break the moment. Stephonia of the family who owned the Avatar Foundation, the only group on Cybertron in the high caste population that helped everyone, everywhere was also involved in the conversation, she and her bond, Spuri. It seemed to take forever, then Allie and Revue stood. Turning to Prime, they bowed from the waist. They did so also to the priests and Alpha. Then they turned toward the court and the defendents.

"Please rise, Sherrod. This is not your affliction to bear," Revue said as Sherrod gratefully rose to his feet. "Please sit. We will have our say."

Sherrod sat, then the room was silent as a graveyard.

"Lord judges," Revue said as both of them bowed to the court, "We're here to wage the peace. Everyone in this room has benefited from being first. Some of us, especially Stephonia and her family have paid a price for their understanding and implementation into their life the commandments of Primus and The One, that all were one and if not everyone was free, none of us were. It's fitting that the Festival is only 14 orns away that we settle this here and now. It's fitting that this should come to a head when we will bury our honored dead in two orns who were murdered because a few thought that the many didn't matter."

Revue looked at Lucien, Laslo, a very chagrinned and humbled Inweld and Morius, and a completely inscrutable Partition. "You're not special. You're not elevated. You have no special knowledge or abilities beyond anyone else. You're not intrinsically better than anyone else anywhere. You're part of a great lie, one we all benefitted from and which destroyed all that we claimed to hold dear. Over a billion, perhaps as many as a billion and a half died because of our caste holding sway at the expense of the many.

"Too many of us didn't see the spark in others, nor did we see them as a real part of us and thus, we let them starve, die, despair, and in the end, rise up in wrath against a system that made them equipment and little else. We left them permanently without the possibility of more, though they deserved it, all of it. We here all benefitted, all of us, to our everlasting shame. Now the time has come to be what we should've been all along and you can't do that. You can't understand somehow that The One created us all and we are equal. You haven't done your job, Lucien and Laslo, of teaching your children to adapt. That's on you. You haven't demonstrated to us that anything is different."

Allie nodded. "You haven't. You've let down your children the same as the genitors of all of us did in their turn. But we've changed with most of us learning in the fires of The Fall what it means to be one. Some of us have the honor of changing with our genitors here. All of us get it now. Some still don't like it and that's on them, but they get it and have adapted. When will we be clear that you have? You ask for us to drop our true bill but you haven't demonstrated that this will be a good and honest thing for either of us to do."

Sherrod glanced at Lucien and Laslo who both looked to be having an out-of-body experience. "My clients wish to speak, Abbas. Do you agree?"

Revue nodded. "We require it." Both sat. The room was thick with an agonized energy that could be felt on their neuronets.

Lucien stood, then turned to the congregation and the two elders. He held a moment wavering, then with almost an agony of painful embarrassment, he knelt down and lowered his helm. A murmur swept through the room, involuntary and shocked that such an arrogant and important mech would humble himself before everyone. "Appa and Amma, I am Lucien of Iacon and I come to you in humble supplication." He put his hands down on the floor and touched his forehead to it. "I ask for your forgiveness and that of the congregation. I accept my responsibilites to the new paradigm and have endeavored to instruct my children on the changes and responsibilities they have to live in accordance to the Will of Primus and The One.

"I am truly sorry for any discomfort or discord that has been caused by my House and have taken steps to ensure that this will not repeat. For all the inconvenience and discord we have caused among the congregation, we seek forgiveness. We accept the changes to the world and the discontinuation of the System of Exception. We ask for your forgiveness with humility and great personal sorrow." He stayed down waiting for a response.

Revue and Allie along with Stephonia were in consultation, then Revue spoke. "Lady Stephonia speaks for me," he said as Allie nodded.

She rose. "Stand, Lucien." He did with a dull yellow aura of abject humiliation surrounding him like a cloud. "You've asked us to believe you but your family is silent. Your petition appears to be spark-felt but we don't know that it's enough."

Ratchet glanced at Prowl who was watching with a slight expression of BOO-YAH! Apparently, the gothic youth who hated The System was running Prowl's CPU at the moment and having a thrill at the humiliation of someone who had given him fits as S.I.C of the Armed Forces for more eons than Ratchet could know. Glancing around the room, Ratchet saw a lot of others with the same expression. Lucien had few friends, if any, in this room it would appear.

Laslo stood up, then turned stiffly toward Stephonia. It was then that he knelt to follow the same procedure. "I am Laslo of Iacon and I add my voice to the petition put forward by my bond. I am abjectly sorry for anything that has happened to the greater community because of me or my family. We have not embraced the new order and we are prepared to do so now and into perpetuity. We ask mercy of the congregation and of you, Amma and Appa. We take full responsibility for the actions of our children and our failings as genitors to teach them greater respect for all. We ask for mercy … I ask for it for my family."

"Please stand, Morius," Stephonia said as the other two nodded.

Morius glanced at his brother, then stood. He knelt and said his piece. "I am Morius of Iacon and I humbly ask for forgiveness. I am sorry for my actions in this new world and seek another chance to demonstrate that I have much to offer for the good of all. I hope that my family can enter into the world again as an equal and seek another chance from you, Abba and Ammas, as well as the congregration."

"Stand, Inweld," Allie said.

Inweld who looked faint stood, then knelt. "I seek the same thing, Abbas. I work and enjoy it. I live in a good place and wish to be part of the greater community again. I am very sorry for my thoughtless sparkless behavior and understand at last what I must do to be included. I ask for mercy for my family."

"Please stand and answer the questions of the congregation," Revue said.

Inweld did, standing next to his brother and genitors. Partition as the one who brought this down upon them would have to convince them separately. The four were guilty too, but considered more as collateral damage at the moment. Partition was the one with the problem here. They just had to pass inspection by the congregation.

A mech stood. "Lucien, I worked in the department you headed back on Cybertron. You were arrogant, entitled and cruel to your subordinates. I learned to fear and hate you for your manner and lack of kindness. How am I supposed to trust you? You're a schemer and back stabber with no respect for our current Prime for his caste from my recollection." The big mech sat with a rage filled expression. Eons had passed but not the emotions he still felt apparently.

Lucien stared at him struggling to remember who he was and failing. "I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry for my lack of kindness and dignity. I can't change the past but I can make up for things now. I apologize to you and mean it." He looked at Revue, Allie and Stephonia. "These orns of separation have been profound for us. We've learned a lot and are prepared to learn more. This is a good place. I have skills to offer and so does my family. We're asking for a second chance."

Another mech stood, one who looked uneasy. "I would like to speak for Morius and Inweld." Everyone turned to him, a high caste mech who was well-liked, played football and worked as a social worker for elderly shut-ins through Home Healthcare, something he learned since moving here. Before, he was the son of a functionary in the Justice Department of the Primes. His genitors including said functionary were sitting with him, all of them there to give him support. "I find since the shunning that they've taken seriously what's happened and have changed a great deal. They were happy here before this happened. They liked things and I never saw them act badly or say anything mean to anyone who was a low or mid caste from the old orns. We'd have dinner and go to the movies. We talked a lot about home and who we knew. I know that they've made effort even before this. I think they'll go the whole way. I'm willing to stake my reputation on that being true. Right?" he asked the pair.

They looked at him, then nodded. "Yes," Morius said with emotion. "I like it here." He looked at his genitors. "Inweld and I do."

The young mech nodded. "I think, Appa and Amma, Lady Stephonia, that they won't let me down or the colony. They get it. The System is over. I can't speak for their genitors or Partition but being around them both on and off the job, before and now during this action … I think they really mean what they say." The young mech's family sitting around him nodded their support.

Morius looked at the three, then bowed his helm. "We wish mercy for ourselves and our family. Let us have a chance to be what we need to be. We like it here, Abbas."

It was silent a moment, then another mech stood. "Let's say we believe you, Morius and Inweld. If Thayne says he trusted you, then I believe him. I wouldn't want to think what it would mean to him if you betrayed him, right?"

Morius and Inweld nodded. "We won't."

"I would hope not. You know what it means to speak up for you like he did or to vouch for you. It'd be a very big and unforgivable betrayal if you prove him wrong," the mech said. "Thayne deserves that you keep your word and be what he says you are. However, I don't hear it from either you or Laslo, Lucien. You have a lot more to overcome than they do. What makes you think we can trust you?" He sat.

"You have only my word. I have nothing more to give," Lucien said. "My bond and I take full responsibility for the behavior and values of our children. We believe them to be wonderful because they're ours but we also understand that we have a duty to instruct them to live properly anywhere we are. We didn't. We shall undertake to rectify that and we ask for mercy. If you wish us to live in the new 'now', then the old 'then' cannot be a burning tire we drag behind us. Let us show you that we've changed and understand the new paradigm."

Laslo nodded with an averted gaze.

"We shall consider your petition," Stephonia said. "Now we must hear from Partition."

The four sat as all optics turned to Partitian. He stood slowly.

-0-TBC 7-3-17

HAPPY DAY BEFORE THE FOURTH OF JULY! :D:D:D EDITED THE HELL AND GONE! SO MANY MISTAKES, SO MANY ERASURES! BWAHAHAHA! 7-4-17

More to come today, hopefully. :D:D:D