Shadow and Soul
Megatron walked the halls of the Nemesis, his servos behind his back. Inside his helm were the arguements nobody could imagine.
Kill. Rip. Enslave. Destroy. Maul. War...
He rubbed his chest a little, making a soft noise of pain as his face scrunched up. His spark throbbed coldly around the shard of Dark Energon he had shoved there. It wasn't one of his favored memories.
Burn. Kill. Die.
He tried to shut out the voice that was the Dark Energon addiction. He didn't like this new entity that had come with the purple shard. At first it had been a sweet nymph's embrace, but now it was the savage song of a siren: still sweet, but deadly cold and unforgiving. He hated that he had been deceived...and he hated that it acted up when he was around his SIC. He wanted the Seeker to like him.
But the things the Seeker did irritated him, and that irritation gave enough room for the Dark Energon to react and he lost all control once the purple took him over.
Starscream was waiting for him, a datapad in his claws. Nightshade stood off to the side, leaning against the viewport glass as she watched the stars go by. They snapped to attention when they heard Megatron's pedesteps and they bowed. Megatron swelled with pride.
Break. Ruin. Agony.
He rubbed his chest again, sighing. "Starscream, report."
The Seeker's wing fidgetted and flicked, making Nightshade scoff. Her own wings lowered an inch and went rigid. Megatron knew that to be a disgusted gesture, and it was confirmed by the scoff. "My lord, if I may, the warriors are succeeding with all expectations. We have cut Energon rations to reserve our meager stocks, and the troops don't even notice!"
The word meager set Megatron's denta grinding in irritation. His optics flickered purple. "What has happened to our stocks, Starscream?" He barely restrained himself from roaring at the mech.
Starscream flinched and he looked down at the datapad. "S-sir, we expected this drop...with war. We use it for everything, my lord...for fuel, ammunition..."
"Don't talk to me like I am a sparkling! Do I look like I was born yesterday?" He stepped closer. Inside, his sense of right and wrong was recoiling in shock. The Dark Energon was howling in delight.
"N-no, sir!" He backed himself into a corner. Nightshade watched, her optics slowly widening. But when she took a step to save her SIC, Megatron growled threats to her he would never breathe to anyone if he had been in his right frame of mind.
She jerked and stepped back, her optics dimming and her wings lowered in defeat.
Megatron's servo lashed out and wrapped itself around Starscream's neck, hoisting him up into the air and squeezing. Starscream "erk"ed and struggled, his optics wide and he kicked his pedes.
"M-master, please...whatever I have don-...erk!"
Squeeze. Snap. Death. Kill. Murder. Slaughter. Weak die. Strong live!
But Megatron's servo did the opposite. It released his neck. The Seeker dropped like a sack of framework. The smaller mech curled into a ball, venting heavily through scared sobs. Nightshade kept away from the mechs until Megatron turned his back.
"You're a monster," she croaked.
That made the Dark Energon roar in his audios but he only turned his helm to study her. "I do what needs doing. Surely that must not make me a monster."
He walked out of the room and he slammed the door behind him, and the images of Starscream staring down at him with fear made tears prick at his audios. He only wanted to be feared by the Autobots so that they would stop with this petty war! He didn't need the only mech that had caught his fancy since this war's beginning to hate him...but the Dark Energon was gleeful, making him feel contented and strong, when his spark ached and whimpered at what had been lost.