The movie was fascinating even if it looked strange. Though Elisabeth prior explained the cartoon style to him and everything he needed to know, like why the people look so different, he still felt a little bit confused.
Like he just realised how important it was to humans to mate. There was this scene where the main character, a female human named Belle, is approached by a male named Gaston. And what is the first thing the male says? He wants to marry and woo her. Is that all there's being a human? But rather than asking Elisabeth even more questions he decided to just watch the movie.
"And for once it might be grand. To have someone understand. I want so much more than they've got planned" he then snapped his head towards the source of the voice just to realise Beth started singing along to the song. Her voice was… nice and warm. Sweet.
Back to the movie, later a lot of things happened. Like Belle's inventor father got locked up and the woman came and replaced her father just to save him. Family bonds showed him again how deeper and much more intimate can be than theirs. It was something they never did.
But again, the story. The other title character appeared and he was unpleasant. Also thinking he saw that the beast was just like him. A bad tempered, ugly monster. Though this was what he thought himself to be. This is what he heard from everyone else.
"He is like the beast," wondered Elisabeth silently. "A cursed prince who made the wrong decisions. However, he can reverse the curse, but if only he realises, he can and needs to change."
So here they were sitting next to each other, eating popcorn and having vastly different views about the same character.
"That's what women need, libraries" Elisabeth whispered as she watched the scene where the Beast gives Belle a whole library. The scene where it is shown that he is a gentler guy. Just like…
There she looked up to Megatron who seemed to be lost deep in his thoughts. But he looked cute like this and while he was distracted, she went closer and cuddled into his side and continued the movie.
But he was mean
And he was coarse and unrefined
But now he's dear and so unsure
"I feel you Belle, very much." This moment also made her excited for winter. There's so much they could do once the snow has fallen! Also, she can still give him a Christmas present! They could party throughout the whole New Year's Eve, then paint eggs on Easter, also they could… They will run out of time long before that. Because if everything goes well, he will live his old life a few days after 25. And she… "Megatron… can we like, meet after you… you know… get back your old life?" she asked unsure as she felt so sad that she might never see him again. Because she really did grow attached to him. It was fun to live together, it gave her security to have him there.
"I promised you that I will keep you safe. This means it would be better if after that we never meet again" he answered while only staring at the screen where the Beast let Belle go. He can't let her become part of this war. A war she has nothing to do with, a war she could die in. There she shuddered next to him giving him the obvious sign it wasn't the answer she was seeking. But it was the truth. "We may never meet again, but I will not forget you. I will keep your present close" there he lifted the necklace she gave him yesterday. "And think of you until my spark fades away" he whispered, holding the insignia tighter in his hand and upon looking down at her, just to see her with water in her eyes.
It wasn't even minutes when she suddenly threw herself into him, hugging him while crying, making him feel really bad about telling her that. Because obviously he shouldn't have. But he couldn't do anything to reverse it, so he hugged her back and listening to his instinct he started to draw circles on her back.
"Don't go…" she begged. "Please, don't leave me."
"I will try. I will do anything to just see you" he said trying to calm her down with the sentences of a promising future. Even if he tries "If I get my body back, I will scan an Earth based form, so we could fly together."
"Fly?" she looked up at him while wiping away her tears. "You can fly?"
"I'm a spacecraft after all" he answered with a small smile appearing on his face.
"Oh shit! I should have looked back when Mel was showing the picture!" she cursed feeling sorry for not looking when she had the chance.
"Better that way. That was not my best picture" he shook his head.
"But now I'm interested! What do you look like? Tell me!" She said excitedly as if all of her sadness had disappeared.
"Well, I…" Did he really want to share this with her? "I do not know where to even start."
"Maybe from the beginning?"
"The beginning alright" he murmured as he took out his book and started to draw. "When I was born, I wasn't that bulky or scary or strong, but because of my alternative form I was assigned to become a miner in the depths of the mines in Kaon. It was terrible. Seeing death all around me." There he stopped as he finished sketching his old self. Or at least how he remembered. He wasn't that bulky, looked quite young and less pointy. No shoulder pads, but the mining helmet was already there. Elisabeth could only awe at the sight of it. "But I got accustomed to it so much that I decided, I would rather fight and die than be there, unable to do anything. That's when I became gladiator. I was torn apart multiple times, but as long as I made it out alive it was fine."
"No, it's not fine!" Beth suddenly said quite angry. "You can't just… accept your suffering!"
"I did not just accept my suffering. If I did, I would not be by your side right now. I used anything in my disposal to make my… our problem known to others. As a result, I got entangled in a lot of things. And also met Orion."
"I can imagine how well those things went knowing you" she rolled her eyes thinking.
"They went very well, mind you!" he scoffed, crossing his arms and furrowing his eyebrows. "Until Orion came and turned it all upside down."
"This is something I would say when Daniel appears," she giggled. "But tell me… what happened after?"
"We shared the same ideals though we both had different ideas about how to… approach the matter. About our methods. This is what killed him in the end."
"I see… It must have been very painful."
"It was. I still miss him these days and think about how I failed him. I should have warned him instead of arguing and ignoring his feelings." Because that's what he really felt. Failure followed him like a shadow; always there to remind him what they said to them in the mines.
"You will never be bigger than the shadow you cast." And since in the dark they didn't have shadows, it only fitted them. They will never be bigger than nobody's. But he wished to be, fought to be bigger.
"I know what you feel as I failed Merlin. I should have never left him" she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But you cannot change some things. You can only accept the consequences."
"After he died, no one asked me how I felt. How much it pained me to lose him" he said looking away, into the distance, while a knot formed in his throat. "You are the first one to be ever interested in me, not the ideals I hold."
"I think it's because you let me see more than your ideals. You let me see the person behind the façade" but looking at him she decided to cheer him up a little. "But sorry for that, my first thought was not about: 'Hey, I have an alien in my best friend's body, let's talk about politics with him!'."
"I suppose you are right," he smiled.
"I know," she smiled back. "Also… You're not a bad person."
"You have not heard half of what I have done. The crimes I committed."
"You fought for freedom. That's an honourable thing to do, Megatron."
"Is there honour in killing? I used to be fond of thinking back on it. The arena, the war, all those who I sent into battle, into their death. Now all I see is misery and pain, all caused by me."
"What you feel is guilt, but I guess that's natural after such a long war" there she hugged his side. "Don't be so harsh with yourself."
"I will try."
"Anyway, you must miss your home too. So, tell me, what does Cybertron look like?"
"Beautiful, I think. It was long since I saw my planet, even longer in its former glory. All I remember now is the barren wastelands of the cities that once stood tall and its lights shone like crystals in the night sky. One of the cities was called like that; Crystal city. And like its name suggests, it was made of crystals. That's where the scientific elite lived."
"The whole city was made of crystals?! That's so cool!"
"There was also Iacon, our capital city, where Orion lived. I remember taking him to the gladiatorial arena while he spoke about things getting out of hand. In his view. In mine things went the smoothest!" he exclaimed, getting quite angry as he remembered Orion's words.
"Things are getting out of control."
"And you shared your point of view with him, didn't you?" Elisabeth chuckled.
"I did and what did he do? Snapped back like the naïve sparkling he was. I defended you! – he said. Like I needed to be defended!" he told her while being outraged, which only made her burst out laughing.
"Sorry! You two are just…" she couldn't stop laughing "really act like brothers. Like Merlin and Ambrose did."
"I am happy that you find this funny" he furrowed his eyebrows. Also, this was the moment he realised something. "But it is your turn now. Tell me something about yourself, because you never do."
"Are you interested? In me?" she asked as she would hear it wrong.
"I am. So, tell me" Megatron said while tucking a strand of hair behind Elisabeth's ear, like he saw Ambrose do it. "What is your story?"
"Nothing interesting. Really" she said, looking away red from embarrassment. "Nothing that my mother hasn't already told you."
"What would make her tell me?" Then he remembered Daniel's words about the thing called tickling. Maybe that would work. So in hopes of gaining information out of Elisabeth he did what Daniel showed him. It worked, unfortunately for Elisabeth.
"Please! Stop… haha! it!" she laughed uncontrollably. "I'll… haha… tell you… haha… everything!"
"So, now you want to talk?"
"Yes! Just don't tickle me!"
"Then talk!"
"Okay! Okay! I talk…" Elisabeth took a moment to think. "When I was younger, I used to run away from home, when mom made me really angry. I always spent the whole day in town with Merlin. And the highlight of those days was when we decided to go skating. When it was December the city had an ice-rink in the main square and you could skate free. So, when we had the chance we went there, if we hadn't, we went to the normal rink. When we were there, we borrowed some skates and skated until our legs hurt."
"You really love this"
"I think that was kinda obvious" shs snorted. "Though it was always better when I skated not because I needed to, but because I wanted to."
"You have a chance to do what you enjoy. Be proud of it."
"I guess you're right, but I suppose I will go to sleep, I feel tired" she yawned as she got up and went upstairs. "Tomorrow you have to finish this tale!"
"I will."
Hours later, he was lying in bed, still thinking. This made nothing better, in fact this, mixed with the silence of the night, made it ten times worse. Homesick, that was right now. Missing his home, Orion more than ever. Missing Starscream's annoying bragging, Knockout's bad jokes, Shockwave's crazy ideas and Soundwave's constant help in everything he's pleased with. He missed his old life. Now that he told Elisabeth, even more so.
But now he was stuck in a human's body far away from everything he knew. He is now Merlin Fistburn, a 25-year-old guy, living in a calm coastal town called Blackwell. For short, he is a nobody, living between the race he once despised.
"Scrap it" he growled angrily as he got out of bed, because he couldn't take this tight feeling in his chest anymore. "Fuck everything!" he cursed in human while barging into his bathroom. Stepping in, the first thing he saw was himself in the mirror. His dirty blonde hair was a mess, while his reddish eyes, the only thing left from his old self, were basically screaming in anger. And all he wanted was to scream, to make this all go away. "Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" he said again and again as he gripped the edge of the tap with his trembling hands as hot tears ran down his face. "How much more I have to suffer in this body?!"
"Look at you, you poor thing" a voice taunted him inside his head, the same voice which made him start an endless war. "Stuck in a weak body, lost in a word you don't know… And when you get home, you will only be greeted with death."
"Shut up!" he shouted, hitting the mirror as more tears came.
"Why should I? This is only the truth" whispered the voice so calm, so smug. "The truth you have been denying for far too long, fool. We both know that you are a ruthless killer…"
"Stop!" he yelled desperately as his legs gave in and he fell down to the white tiles of the bathroom.
"You destroy everything you touch! I wonder how long it will take you to ruin her too… That poor Elisabeth…"
"Please stop it…" he whispered while burying his face in his hands. "I'm begging you!"
"Hey, what's happening?" stepped in Elisabeth who was woken up by the shouting. Soon she was shocked by the crying Megatron on the floor. She rarely saw men falling apart like this, let alone seeing him in this state. Her heart tightened in her chest even more when he looked at her like a young boy after a terrifying nightmare. Then she noticed that the mirror had been broken and there's blood on the floor. "For Pete's sake, you're bleeding!" came Beth to realisation fast as she kneeled in front of him, while trying not to hurt herself with the glass.
"Please, fix it" he begged quietly to her as she took his bruised knuckles. He knew she could do it. She can fix everything.
"Yes, I will stop your bleeding, just give me a second" she answered nervously, reaching for a towel.
"No, fix me." In that moment Elisabeth suddenly stopped what she was doing, while Megatron, tired from this whole outburst, let his head fall into the woman's shoulder.
"Why? What's wrong?" she asked finally as she put the towel in his hand to stop the bleeding for the time being.
Seeing him so fragile, so broken… There was something sorrowful and in the meanwhile something… lovely about it. She didn't know why.
"I… I do not know where to even start…" he whispered weakly as even more tears ran down his face. The next few minutes were spent in silence as he tried to think. "As I told you, I killed, betrayed and hurt many. Too many. Never felt guilty about it, because I always thought it was a price that had to be paid. But now it is all coming down, hitting me with the realisation and I cannot take it! Please Elisabeth… You are the only thing I have left."
"You obviously lost too much blood. I'm calling the ambulance" she stated, shocked by his words. But when she tried to stand up to get her phone, he pulled her down.
"Don't leave me! Don't leave me here alone!" he screamed while trying to grip into the last of his sanity. The voice, the guilt… he felt himself drowning in an ocean like when he died. But this time oxygen was important and he ran out of it. So, for short, he was dying fast.
Elisabeth became alarmed the second she saw him breathing like he had run down a marathon and was about to cry again. She knew this all too well, because she experienced this too many times throughout her life.
"I won't leave you, but you have to listen to me for this once! Take deep breaths!" she instructed while gripping his arms. Surprisingly Megatron did as he was told and started to take big, deep breaths and calm down. "Now think of something absurd. Or the little things that happen around us."
In that moment he just stared into Elisabeth's calming hazel eyes. He never noticed how soft and clean her skin is, how long is her wavy fiery red hair and how… tempting are her lips.
"You look beautiful," he whispered in awe.
"Yeah, you definitely lost too much blood" she shook her head amused. "Do you feel better? Is the panic attack gone?"
"Is this what it's called?" he asked, and she nodded. "I knew the stressful cycles of my younger years are going to bite me in the aft one day" he groaned tired as he understood what this whole ordeal meant.
"Don't worry about it. It just happens sometimes" she shrugged and while getting up she started to look for a medical kit.
"It should have happened a lot sooner."
"If you think about it, it will get worse, so don't" she said as she once again took his hand and started to bandage it up.
"What do you know about it?"
"Much more than you do, apparently."
"Tell me…" he whispered, pulling himself closer as he intertwined his slender fingers on his bandaged hand with her soft and smooth. Her hand fit his so perfectly, like they have always belonged together. "I know so little about you."
"It's just…" she started, while her face got redder like earlier. She wasn't used to people interested in her. Or holding her hand like this. Or showing her this much appreciation, intimacy. She was used to men being rough on her. "When I started skating I did it only for sheer fun. But as I accomplished more, the more people started watching. And by the time I won the world championship when I was 13 the pressure was just so much. I often broke down, but with time I learned how to handle it."
"You are a strong human Elisabeth. I am glad I have met you. Even though I do not know how this happened."
"Well… Mel would definitely say the following: God works in mysterious ways."
"Let's just leave the gods out of this one" he said, sighing.
"Whatever you say. But after all I think I deserve an explanation for why the bathroom is trashed. Mainly because I will be the one to clean your mess up."
"Yeah, you are right," he said, surprising Elisabeth. "I could not sleep after we talked. I felt desperate and… powerless against whatever the world threw at me. And you know I have anger issues. That is pretty much it."
"You aliens have too many issues," she giggled.
"And you humans are weird," he whispered. "Elisabeth, I…" There she just suddenly hugged him the tightest she could.
"Thank you for being my… friend" she interrupted him mid-sentence.
"Friend?" he asked back, surprised. He knew what friendship was and this definitely isn't one. Between him and her was something much-much deeper. It was something foreign, but also something familiar. "This is what we are?"
"Oh, yeah, you don't have friends," remembered Elisabeth at their first meeting. "Sorry, I just… you just… started to treat me like a friend and I thought…"
"I knew friendship once," he admitted quietly. "And this isn't that" with that he cupped both of Beth's cheeks. "This is something… deeper. I don't know what it is yet, but I will find out. I will find out what you mean to me Beth. Not that I have anything else to do."
Elisabeth blushed so hard that her face must have changed at least 3 tones. She knew what he was talking about, but she wasn't ready. Even though the temptation was too much.
"Yeah, not like you have anything to do. But I am really sorry about this whole thing. It must be terrifying" she looked at him, while he still caressed her face.
"Yes, I'm terrified" he whispered his true feelings as he let go of Beth. "But with you I feel… I feel… Safe…"
"I'm glad that you feel safe, but tomorrow we have to go shopping."
"Yes. This wretched body needs more Oreos and who would I be to deny such pleasure from myself?" he said dramatically, making Elisabeth laugh hard.
"Oh, Megatron, times like this I love you so much!" she said while still laughing, making him very aware of her feelings.
"Love? Is it love I feel for her?" he thought as he watched the most beautiful woman in front of him.
"Hey, what is that?" Elisabeth asked as she saw something on his bare chest.
Upon further inspection she noticed a healed scar on his chest, where his heart is. It looked in a way ugly, but Elisabeth found it sexy. But not the fact how he got this scar.
"Where did you get this? Merlin didn't have a scar like this" she said, making his attention focus on her as she gently touched the scar. Why didn't she notice it earlier? This was huge like if he's been…
"It is how I… died. Stabbed through the spark" he said, making Elisabeth snap towards him for a moment. "Though I do not know why it is here on this body."
"That's awful" she whispered while she slowly ran her finger down on the wound. She stopped at precisely where his heart should be and let her fingers there to feel his heartbeat.
In that moment the world blurred and he suddenly saw his death in front of him, just as if he would be really there again. He felt the numbing pain in his chest as he slipped and fell down. Deep into the darkest pits of the ocean.
He was there again. Though something changed. He was bathing in the light that shone bright above him. He no longer watched it afar in the dark.
"You have such a will to live" a voice rang through the waters. Although he never heard it before, he immediately knew who this voice belonged to. Their god; Primus. "Such a strong spark that pulls through everything. Soon you will rise, warrior. Until then, take my promise. Take her."
Then everything faded away and he opened his eyes. The moonlight shone bright into the hospital room.
"Not again!" he exclaimed, sighing as he pushed himself up in the bed. He didn't even know what happened to him to be there again. Also, where was Elisabeth? And just like that, she appeared in the door with a coffee in her hands.
"You're awake" she whispered, surprised and relieved as she ran to him. Putting down the coffee on the bedside table she sat on the edge of his bed and took his bruised hand with the bandage.
"Yes, I am," he said, rubbing her palm with his thumb. "What happened Elisabeth?" There she started to cry and suddenly hugged him.
"You got a panic attack and… your heart stopped… and I thought I'm going to lose you!" then she slapped him. "Never again do this to me!"
"I will not" he said as not even caring about her slap he cupped her cheeks. In that moment, when the moon shone on her skin he realised. "As I now know what you are to me."
"What am I to you?"
"My home" he whispered, leaning in and placing a kiss on her lips. "I may leave you, but you always will be welcoming me with open arms," he said, touching their foreheads together. "And I will always be thinking about you."
"You're my home too" she whispered crying. "That's why I am so afraid to lose you. I love you."
He pushed her down to the bed, just like when they first met. It felt nostalgic even though it wasn't long ago. She felt heat rising all over her body as he was above her, marking her with his gaze. Then he leaned closer, their noses almost touched and she felt as the tip of his necklace tickled her somewhere around her heart.
"Never let me go" she whispered as she just wanted nothing more than to kiss him again.
"I will not. Beautiful Elisabeth" he whispered back making her wishes come true as he kissed her again.