Prism 9
A Transformers Prime Fanfiction
Conviction
"Optimus asked you to attack the Senate?" Jack demanded in shock.
"No, that is what I thought at first as well," Megatron replied. "What he had asked me to do was help him storm the Council Chambers. I sent him to my chief scientist and medic Shockwave to be fitted with armor and weapons while I made my plans. When I rejoined him I was annoyed to see that he had not yet been reformatted."
O
O
"Megatronus I am truly grateful for your offer of assistance, but this armor is too much," Orion said with a small smile. "It would only slow me down in combat. Likewise the weapons, while powerful are beyond my skill. I will use only those I am familiar with."
The gladiator shot a look at his second and Shockwave rolled his shoulders back and shuttered his one optic in disgust. That he had little respect for this soft fool of a mech was clear. But Megatronus peered searchingly into the cerulean optics and only nodded.
"You will fight well I am certain," the larger mech said quietly, "but if you will not at least accept my armor than you must accept that I must protect you in its stead."
He could see the reluctance in Orion's faceplates. The archivist wanted to prove himself no doubt, but Pax was nothing if not reasonable.
"Then together brother," he stated.
"Together," Megatronus replied gripping Orion's forearm.
O
O
"We followed the underground tunnels as far as we could but when the time came we had to assault the council chamber proper. The defenses were surprisingly weak. At the time I assumed it was a trap but the enemy was simply over confidant. Many of my assumptions were proven wrong that day."
"Your assumptions about Orion?" Jack guessed.
"Indeed. I had seen only a soft archivist; keen of processor perhaps, but no warrior, how very wrong I was. Soundwave hacked and opened the main doors for us and we saw what lay within."
O
O
The gladiator's ruby red optics flickered over the scene before him analyzing the defenses for weaknesses. The high guard was scattered around the chambers in a predictable pattern but the chambers themselves had been completely rearranged from what the public records indicated. Now the entire Hall was open. The floor swept down to a cluster of central tables. It appeared that something was reformatting several mechs, something surrounded by strange technoorganic warriors. Megatronus paused in confusion not able to make sense of the scene in front of him.
"Sentential Prime!" Orion shouted.
There was fear in his voice and outrage such as the larger mech had never heard. Without warning the red and blue Cybertronian attacked. Megatronus surged after him with a curse.
"Stay behind me brother," he snarled as he deflected the blow of one of the Hall Guards, but the archivist did not appear to hear him as the pressing attack of the Elite Guard threatened to separate them.
With a roar of rage the gladiator lunged forward and spun around, effortlessly throwing off the mech who had been attempting to assault Pax's back. It crossed his processor that it had been too easy, that the mech was far too unskilled for an Elite, but then there was no time for thought as his backstrut brushed against Orion's.
They were fighting together now. While Megatronus's servos we occupied with crushing the life out of one of the strange technoorganic soldiers Pax's blade spun around to deflect the blow of one of the Cybertronian guards. The smaller mech ducked and almost without thought the gladiator whipped his plasma rifle over and fired at the target that had caused the maneuver. Their frames moved in perfect synchronization. Orion led them down the Hall's slope towards Megatronus knew not what. The larger mech was simply living for the moment, glorying in every shared movement. For once he had a clear goal, something other than himself to fight for, and it filled him with a sense of power he had never felt in the gladiator ring.
A shout from his partner drew his attention from the glory of the moment and red optics focused on an oddly glowing device. Understanding dawned and the warrior raised his weapon and fired. The device shattered in an explosion of sparks and suddenly the room fell oddly silent as the Elite Guard mechs staggered and collapsed to the floor. Megatronus spun as a sudden movement caught his attention and an odd egg shaped technoorganic with five sets of faceplates fled out of the chamber, he considered perusing but Orion was intently leaning over the largest prone form on the tables.
"Sentinel Prime," the red and blue mech was saying with reverence, "save your strength I will summon a medic."
"No, there is much I must tell you young one," the prone form murmured weakly.
Megatronus was torn between the desire to listen in and the tactical need to secure the area. His combat protocols won out and the larger mech began to circle the chamber warily, keeping his optics peeled for any sign of the technoorganic invaders. He noted when the head of the Great Hall's Guard staggered up and went to stand over Orion and felt a fierce stab of protective jealousy but the gilded mech seemed only concerned with the Prime who lay on the table. The invaders appeared to have fled and the confused and disorientated Guard's mechs seemed perfectly willing to follow Megatronus's orders, a somewhat disturbing but helpful circumstance. He had reestablished a perimeter when Orion approached him with the Head of the Guard following.
"I must thank you for your assistance Gladiator," the massive mech rumbled with a bow. "I am Ultra Magnus. Were it not for your timely intervention the Quintessions would no doubt have succeeded in their attempt to reprogram the senators and even Sentinel Prime."
"Quintessions?" Megatronus demanded in shock. "They are a myth!"
"Then that myth still stains your blades with its fluids," the massive Guardian replied drolly. "But we have little time. The two of you must begin immediately if Cybertron is to be saved."
"Begin what?" the Gladiator demanded suspiciously.
"Megatronus," Orion interjected suddenly laying a hand on the curving shoulder guard. "You have already gone far beyond what I could have ever expected you to my brother. I have received a task from the Prime and must complete it but it would be most likely best if you were to stay here and assist with guarding the."
"No," Ultra Magnus interjected as firmly as he could while he staggered against the wall. "The Prime tasked you both with this duty, and while we are more than fit to protect the Senate I highly doubt you would survive the trial on your own Archivist."
A derisive exvent drew the two mechs' attention to where the gladiator stood easily.
"I have witnessed how well you protect your Prime," the silver mech sneered, to his surprise there was not a flicker of indignation on the Elite Guardsmech's faceplates, "they would be far better off to hole up in the lower pits of Kaon," at this point Megatronus was rather disconcerted to note a thoughtful look enter the blue optics at the insult. This Ultra Magnus was not an easy mech to rile. Dismissing the Elite for the moment the gladiator turned his attention to the only mech in the cavernous hall that truly mattered and gripped the servos that still rested on his shoulder.
"Orion; I know not what you have planned but I can tell from the look in your optics that you will not be dissuaded. Know this, where you go so go I. You are far too foolish to be left to your own devices, and far too stubborn to be stopped."
Cerulean blue optics shuttered rapidly and a smile of joy broke through the cloud of uncertainty that had seemed to hover over Pax. Something inside Megatronus surged at the expression and he felt a fierce grin form on his own faceplates in response. The cunning mech did not need Shockwave's stiff voice ringing through his comm. link to tell him this was madness; that he might be throwing away all the careful time and planning they had put into building his movement.
He sent harsh commands back to his waiting allies as he and Orion slipped from the Council Chamber. As a gladiator in the dark pits of Kaon he had rose to his current position by seizing the rare moments of potential. Opportunity was presenting itself here and he needed to act; he was trusting the same instinctive programming that had carried him this far, the silver mech assured his seconds. But he was not entirely certain who he was trying to convince.
Ruby red optics lingered on Orion's shoulder guards as he followed the red and blue mech down the concealed corridor Magnus had shown them and he felt a stab of concern. The archivist's frame was sturdy but the armor was thin by any standard applied to combat. The plates that protected the sensitive joining of arm and frame were merely enough to ensure protection form grime. Never one to over analyze his own motivations the gladiator simply allowed his processor to shift the priority level of his objectives in accordance with what his spark desired. The trail ahead was dark and unsure, but the warrior gripped his weapon firmly and whispered a vow to the creator he had long ignored.
"What was that Megatronus?" Orion Pax asked turning to look at him.
"Continue without fear my brother," the larger mech rumbled. "Whatever may come I will protect you."
O
O
"What had Sentinel assigned you?" Jack asked when Megatron fell silent again.
"I did not know at the time. It was only when we reached the very core of the planet that I fully understood. The Quintessions had compromised not just the senate but all of Cybertron when they attempted to reprogram Sentinel Prime. He recognized this, and he somehow recognized the latent potential in Orion. He knew that only a direct blessing from Primus would satisfy a frightened and besieged populous. So he sent us down into the very depths of Cybertron. To relate the journey we took would require far longer than we have my son. Suffice it to say we faced many challenges together. My respect for my brother only grew, but I did learn that his greatest enemy was often himself. He actually attempted to reason with a driller at one point," the fighter jet gave an amused vent at that, "but eventually we arrived."
O
O
Megatronus had held onto the thought that it was some ancient super computer they were coming to access; held onto it right up until the point that Orion Pax stepped into the glow of Primus. Then the mech knew. He felt his spark shudder as his pride tried to hang onto the last vestiges of the worldview he had built to justify his many plans and machinations but he realized that to follow Orion he must shed those. Feeling fear such as he had never known he stepped into the light.
O
O
The deep silence of space filled the fighter jet's cockpit for a long stretch before Megatron continued. Jack desperately wanted to ask what the mech had seen and experienced but some innate sense held him back from prying.
"You know the consequences for my brother. I did not lose him to that great Light, but when he emerged he was so much more than before."
"You were changed as well," the human youth stated softly finally allowing his extra sense to focus on the gleaming spark behind him; how he had ever mistaken that bright light for the twisted spark of his 'verse's Megatron he did not know.
"Yes," the Warlord stated softly. "Neither of us left that chamber the same. When we arrived in due time back on the surface we were met by Magnus and the rest of the Elite Guard. The took us to the remains of the Council and Sentinel. With the last of their authority they named my brother Optimus Prime and myself the Lord Protector of Cybertron. Before they had even completed the ceremony the first wave began to bomb the location. Ultra Magnus ordered me to take the new Prime to safety. Optimus of course refused to leave the senators to their fate; I was forced to persuade him of the wisdom of the Guardsmech."
Jack gave a short chuckle at that and Megatron responded in kind but his tone immediately grew somber.
"That was the true beginning of the Great War. The Quintessions were cunning and rarely attacked us directly. The sent mercenaries after us, poisoned our energon supplies, and rained destruction down on us from afar. Their worst attacks were on our minds though. Their propaganda could twist the truth and any mech who fell into their clutches was turned into a weapon against his fellow Cybertronians. I fought when the enemy was clear and Optimus guided us with his wisdom when they were not so obvious, but so long as we stood together Cybertron did not fail."
"But it did," Jack stated softly.
The human felt the wave of pain and shame flow through the great mech and nearly retched from the sensation. He blocked off his mind and prayed that Megatron had not noticed.
"Pride," the Cybertronian snarled. "It was my own pride and foolish jealously that slew my brother. The populous of our world loved their Archivist turned Prime. They honored me as well but it seemed that they never quite forgot that I was merely a miner and a gladiator out of Kaon," Megatron paused and laughed bitterly. "Perhaps I was correct about them, but I have come to realize that it was myself who could not forget my origins and constantly held them up to that of my higher framed brother. Then came one of the cunning attacks the enemy was so fond of. Optimus stayed to defend Kaon and I led what was left of the Seekers against a feint over Polyhelix," another shudder ran through Megatron's frame as he summoned the memory files to the surface, still raw and painful after so many eons. "We easily fought off the feint. I knew then that the main attack would be on the capital at Kaon, but I lingered over the mop up operation, telling the Seekers we needed to be certain of the enemy's defeat. I suspected it only to be one of the usual mercenary attacks on the Capital, I expected Optimus to be pressed. My plan was to wait until his defeat seemed possible and then sweep in to the rescue, earning the renewed worship of the crowd, the one thing I missed form the time before I was the Lord Protector. My first clue that something was wrong was when I felt unbelievable pain sear through my spark. I flew with all speed back to Kaon, but it was too late. Optimus, my brother, my Prime lay graying on the ground while the accursed Quintessions swarmed gleefully over him. Ah, raise your shields my son," the mech's tone suddenly changed as his awareness turned inward and he noted that Jack was curled up and shivering. "This is one of the reasons I have never told you, or rather your alternate, this tale."
"I'm fine," Jack gasped out resting a hand on the smoother mesh of the cockpit interior. "You can go on if you want to."
"Perhaps there will be time for more history later my son, but for now we have arrived."
"Arrived?" the raven haired youth asked glancing out at a suddenly starless darkness.
"The Arc," Megatron explained. "The last ship to evacuate Cybertron after the Fall."