Chapter 120: Duty and Love

Recent events had opened Axletron's optics very widely. He finally knew the truth about his father, he'd transformed into an alt mode that let him fly and that led to insanity if he didn't, lost and regained his best friend, and he received a systems patch to keep his sane after his mother went on a dangerous solo mission to purchase Decepticon medical data on a black market planet.

It'd been a crazy ano-cycle, but now that everything had more or less settled, it was time for a talk.

That night, as Cliffjumper laid out the silverware and cubes, he turned to see Axletron standing in the middle of the kitchen. "Can we have dinner in your office today?" Axletron asked softly, still holding the plates. "I want to talk about some stuff."

With a wry smile, Cliffjumper nodded and picked up what he'd placed down already, moving to his office desk instead. He knew this conversation as coming, if anything it was long overdue. Without a word, Axletron activated his scrambler while he checked the room. Once they both sat down, Cliffjumper took a bite of their meal, drawing the moment out, before finally swallowing and asking, "Where do you want to start?"

Taking a few bites of his own, Axletron finally murmured, "Could you tell me more about him?"

A bit surprised, Cliffjumper tilted his head, "You want to know more about him?" To be honest, he'd expected Axletron to reject the idea of his father entirely.

"You said you fell in love with him before finding out he was a Deception. What kind of bot was he like, if he wasn't what you'd expect a Decepticon to be?" Axletron hadn't wanted to know more at first. How was there any justification for being the son of the first Decepticon Warlord? The bot that defined what it meant to be a Decepticon? …Throughout his life, he'd been told Decepticons were the enemy by teachers like Alpha Trion and Kup, but he'd also been told they were Cybertronians just like everyone by others like Ultra Magnus and his mom. As Cliff has said, they all wore brands, but that didn't define them as bots in their entirety. They all made their choices, Axle wanted to understand why Galvatron had made his.

"You know all the stories. Galvatron is depicted as this cunning, bloodthirsty warmonger with no regard for life or peace. But bots don't just follow someone like that without reason. There's not this giant chunk of the population that wants to hurt and murder people." Cliffjumper huffed. "He was born and bred in the military, created only to fight and die. Military bots at the time had next to no rights, seen as tools of the Council, which was incredibly corrupt. They used the military to suppress labor rights protests and strikes and to expand the Cybertronian Empire. Galvatron often snuck off base, tried his hand as a gladiator in the pits, and decided he'd had enough. He started talking and people listened." Pausing to take a drink, he thought back to Galvatron when he first met him, bleeding in a building, then saving him as it collapsed. Humming thoughtfully for a moment, Cliffjumper finally said, "When I met him, he was…silly."

"Silly!?"

"Yeah." The mini felt a stupid smile forming on his faceplate. "Silly, sleazy, charming, nice; just a regular bot. I'll admit, it took me a while to warm up to him, especially since he never seemed to take anything seriously and just flirted non-stop. But he was also a good listener, and supportive, he made me feel…like the war wasn't everything. Like there could be something better once it was over."

"What happened when you found out who he was?"

Cliffjumper groaned, letting his helm sink to the table "I confronted him, like an idiot. I had just found out I was carrying, only the nurse knew and as I was going to tell him the good news, Sunny and Sides showed me the first official picture of Galvatron. And who do I see but my neutral! I was ticked and just went to yell at him, like that would have fixed anything."

"Why didn't you go with him?" Axletron asked reluctantly. "Didn't he want you to?"

"He did." Cliffjumper replied. "It was his first suggestion actually. But I was so angry about him lying to me, and scared of what would happen when others found out the truth, that I refused him. Didn't even hear him out…" He had pushed Galvatron into a corner, and while that didn't excuse what the bot had done, Cliffjumper could except his part of the blame as well. "We never really said goodbye properly. I went into stasis right after the attack to make it look like I'd offlined. I didn't think about how that idea would affect him."

Pausing in his own eating, Axletron asked, "What do you mean?"

"The whole reason he 'raped' me" Cliffjumper explained with a liberal use of air quotes, "was because he wanted to save me from persecution. He made sure to do it within the base's camera range so as to leave no doubt, and to make sure I got immediate medical attention. Instead, I vanished, leaving him to think that'd he'd gone too far and killed both me and our unborn sparkling. It seemed that guilt ate at him. From all the historical reports, his mental health deteriorated after that."

"So that's where that reputation of insanity comes in…"Axletron added, deep in thought. "What happened when you woke up?"

"After I woke up, the pain was still fresh, 5 million Steller-cycles had passed but I still wanted to hate him. I tried so hard to forget him." The mini gripped his spoon harder in his fist. "I turned all my energy towards you and my classes at the academy. The council had already decided to throw me to a desk job at that point, and I wasn't really in a position to argue. I felt like such a traitor…I still do."

"You're not a traitor!" Axletron yelled, standing from his chair, startling his mother. "You didn't know who he was. A-and even after you found out it wasn't like you picked up all of the Autobot's secrets and went running to him, right?"

"Of course not!" Cliffjumper retorted, standing upright as well and almost making his chair fall over. He may have fragged up but he certainly didn't try to make the situation worse, until now at least…He couldn't say he was still innocent of complete betrayal now. With the information he'd given to the Cons, they had the power to find Megatron and restart the war, with the All Spark. The only reason peace had existed this long was because the All Spark was missing and the Decepticons out to find it. But Axletron didn't know that.

His sparkling just kept defending him, "Exactly! You're not a traitor, you're one of the most loyal bots ever, loyal to me, to your friends, and even to Galvatron after everything he did to you." Cliffjumper's optics flashed in confusion for a moment before Axletron elaborated. "You said you found him right? But you haven't told anyone. You're protecting him…What made you forgive him?"

Suddenly shy, Cliffjumper cleared his through before answering, "The pregnancy was hard, nothing was certain. It'd been so long since there was a spark-merge sparkling it was like we were learning everything from scratch. That's a terrifying feeling, especially to deal with alone." Cliffjumper admitted with a sad look. "I missed him. I couldn't stop wishing he was there with me. It's why I named you Axletron."

"For him?"

"When we met, when he was pretending to be a neutral, he told me his name was Axle. It may have been an alias, but I don't think he was a fake. Galvatron couldn't show that part of himself under his own name, but he showed it to me, and I fell in love with him."

Axletron took in his mother's expression. It was sort of dreamy, but sad too, bittersweet. It clicked at that moment how lonely his mom must have felt, raising him alone, no one else knowing the real truth about him and Galvatron, no one to offer him comfort when he was sad or a kind word when he missed his lover. His mom really was a strong bot. "…You don't want to go to him?"

Cliffjumper fell silent, staring at the table, "I do. I do want to see him again. Even though so long has passed, and he probably doesn't feel the same anymore…I want to apologize to him. But it's not time yet."

"…Is it because of me?" Axletron asked softly.

"I love Galvatron" Cliffjumper responded, "But I love you too, and you are my first priority. I'm positive that if he were in my position and had to pick between me and Megatron, he'd pick Megatron. It's just what parents do. I'll reunite with him someday. But right now, I need to be here. I'm not going to miss out on your life too." He finished with a smile, making Axletron smile in return.

They cleared most of their plates and Cliffjumper brought out dessert before Axletron spoke again, "Do you remember, a few ano-cycles ago, when Alpha Trion pushed me so hard I broke down and cried?"

"Yeah," Cliffjumper grumbled. He'd been particularly paranoid about Alpha Trion and his scheming ever since.

"I think I finally figured out why he's like that" Axletron replied, scooping another bite of energon pie into his mouth, "I think he's grooming me to try and take over the Decepticons."

Silence dragged between them. "You know what, that doesn't surprise me." Cliffjumper groused. That kind of scheme was right up Alpha Trion's alley, try to gain power with some form of legitimacy so as to better keep a hold on it.

"I wouldn't have thought about it before, but knowing what I know…I guess I can see it. I mean, Megatron took over from his father, that's how fierce Decepticon loyalty is. As his other son, Alpha Trion may think the Decepticons would listen to me…" Axletron trailed off, "Do you think I should do it? Try to take over the Decepticons?"

"Is that what you want to do?" Cliffjumper asked softly. "Would that kind of a like make you happy?"

"I could bring peace…"

"We can all bring peace." Cliffjumper responded, "Peace isn't something one person makes it's something everyone has to want and strive towards. It isn't as easy as walking up to the Decepticons and telling them to stop fighting. The Decepticons value actions over words, and you can't blame them considering their history. Being Galvatron's son may get your ped in the door but it won't win them over entirely. Proving yourself in their eyes may condemn you in the optics of the Autobots and at the end of the day you'd only lose yourself."

Axletron started sadly at his mostly cleared plate. His mom had a point. Alpha Trion may have drilled leadership techniques and the Autobot code into his processor but Decepticons were a different kind of Cybertronian, they valued strength, directness, confidence, skills Axletron could admit he lacked. Seems he was still the soft-hearted sparkling his mom saw him as.

Grabbing hold of one of his sparkling's servos from across the table, Cliffjumper silently asked Axle to look him in the optic. "I do think you're important Axletron, for more reason than you just being my son. You're a spark merge sparkling, born of an Autobot and a Decepticon. I've always tried to protect you from those that would want to manipulate that fact into some crazy propaganda scheme. I just want you to be happy, to live as an example of peace between the factions and not be pushed into one side or another because of who your parents are. I just want you to have a normal life, where you can be whatever you want. Don't compromise your happiness for someone else's idea of the perfect world."

Axletron bit his derma and nodded. His mom was always on his side, always worried about him and his happiness. He never pushed him to be different or not try something new. He protected him and Echo, supported their friendship, even at the expense of his own happiness. He was really lucky…

Sensing the heaviness filling the room, Cliffjumper patted the sparkling's servo once more before changing the topic, "Why don't we talk about Echo for a bit."

Face suddenly burning, Axletron shot back, breaking optic-contact, "Echo? What about her? She's fine!"

Chuckling, Cliffjumper continued, "I'm sure she is, but I want to know more about you and your best friend. Are you guys getting along ok?"

Axletron couldn't keep the smile off his faceplate. "Yes! We talked a lot about what happened when I transformed. She felt bad, jumping to conclusions like that, but I can see now that I was lucky, being raised as I was, to have more than one perspective on bots. Where she could only link a flying bot to a Decepticon, I know there's more to it than that. She's got her own learning to do, same as me."

"Well, she is technically younger than you." Cliffjumper reminded him, proud of how well Axletron could see the situation from beyond his own part in it. This incident had only brought them closer, and Cliffjumper was glad for it. "I'm glad you have such a good friend. Though Ultra Magnus isn't going to be happy about losing his rank as your favorite bot."

"Mooooommmm" Axletron groaned. "That's so childish."

"So what? It's fun to be childish now and then, right?"

A hundred memories flashed through Axletron's processor, him and Echo eating sweets till their tanks hurt, talking late into the night and being dead tired the next day, playing with Scratch and around the dojo. Echo could be called childish, but he loved that about her…he loved everything about her now that he thought about it. Her smile, her laugh, the way she begged him for his energon sweets and pouted when she lost one of their games, how she apologized and how she wasn't afraid of him when he was halfway gone with Sky Sickness. "I…I think I love her…?" Axletron admitted, hiding his burning faceplate in his servos. "She makes me feel…warm. Like I'm wrapped up in a blanket and everything is perfect. Seeing her makes my day, even if I'm tired or sad, she turns it around without even trying. And when I don't see her I feel like the day isn't finished. Is…is that love? Is that what's it's supposed to feel like?"

Cliffjumper beamed. He knew it! He'd seen how close Echo and Axletron had gotten over the ano-cycles, how much they cared for each other. "It's different for everybot, but I think you're doing great. The best couples are best friends. Just take care of each other and you'll be fine." Cliffjumper responded with a smile. "Go at your own pace, the only ones you have to please are yourselves."

"Oh primus mom, how will I tell her?!" Axle suddenly wailed before gasping, "What if she doesn't like me back!?"

That made Cliffjumper laugh. Echo was as gone for Axle as Axle was for her. "Impossible!" Hugging as much of his sparkling as he could reach, he gleefully declared, "We'll pull out all the stops, romantic dinner for two in the backyard, crystal flowers—oh! How about spark shaped cookies!?"

"Mom, I'm 16 ano-cycles old!"

"I know, my little sparklette is growing up so fast" Cliffjumper complained dramatically before hugging his on one more time, "but no matter how big you get or how much times passes, you will always be my sparklette and I love you, so much!"

"Moooooommmm!"

End Chapter 120