A/N: Warnings ahead for torture, enjoyment in said torture and bloody fighting.
Everything sounded wrong. The heatbeat sound skipped. Gears churned and roared, everything clanged and banged.
And here I was, all at the heart of it (pardon the pun). Something was wrong. I just needed to figure out what and why. Finding out the truth I couldn't do in here. I ran my hands all over the smooth walls around me, all to no avail. The only way I was getting out was if Slag decided to let me out.
I will never forgive myself if my plan ends up with all of the Dinobots dead, the only thought in my head repeated over and over.
Metal screeched, tearing. Roaring and screaming so loud I nearly went deaf. I blinked in the sudden light. Oh crap. I am so screwed. And so is Slag.
It wasn't every day Megatron shot a Dinobot into almost stasis. He had almost thought they were tougher than that. Almost being the key word.
The three-horned one...Slug, was it? Maybe Snarl? Who cared? They were only primitives, after all. The Autobots were fools, building drones so idiotically stupid. Strong was one thing...completely uncontrollable was another. Only a fool like Prime would let something like that live.
Dinobots losing in the end was no surprise. The only thing remaining a mystery was the location of the organic. Soundwave had reported no signs of the human with any other of the Dinobots. There was no sign of it here either, but Megatron had forged and broken armies on his hunches. The human was here.
When he drew closer to the felled Dinobot, it grunted and curled up, protecting his spark. Or if Megatron was right...protecting the human as well. He waved forward two soldiers. "Tear him open." The two Coneheads, Thrust and Ramjet, took a perverted pleasure in ripping the mech apart, partly in revenge for their trinemate Dirge, partly in enjoyment.
The Dinobot bellowed, attempting to squirm away from the probing servos, but failed escaping the Coneheads' attack. Metal screeched, making mechs wince in sympathy (prudently out of Megatron's sight). The Dinobot only grew louder with each sheared-off piece of armor. Megatron's red optics gleamed, taking his own pleasure at seeing the punishment.
Until, at last, Ramjet gave a shout of triumph. Pink-dyed servo diving into the Dinobot's innards, he pulled out a human. The human they had been looking for.
The fleshling right away looked at the prone Dinobot. Thanks to Cybertronian hearing, all of them heard the faint gasp of horror. What happened next was a bit of a surprise. The human turned towards Megatron, still on Ramjet's servo and screamed at him. "YOU MONSTERS! HOW DARE YOU HURT SLAG!"
"Shut it up." Megatron ordered Ramjet. The Conehead complied, gripping the human harder and harder until the screams turned into gasps for breath.
"Now, human. No one beats my might. Not even a Dinobot." Megatron placed his pede on top of the Dinobot's head, enjoying how the human's optics grew wider at the sight. "You'll die, of course. But first...I think I'll kill this Dinobot in front of you, you seem to care so much about it." Megatron smiled, cold and hard. "You will die knowing you could nothing for your Dinobots."
"Get away from Slag." A new voice growled. Grimlock.
Everything changed within a matter of moments. Grimlock stood in front of the door, the other three Dinobots behind him.
He marched to the center of the room, pushing Decepticons out of his way. If any Con thought to challenge it, they were swiftly cowed by Snarl growling at them. The mech paused, right next to Megatron. "I said," He repeated, "Get away from Slag."
Megatron laughed. That stopped rather quickly, after Grimlock punched him in the faceplates. "Fight. Me." Blue optics again met red. "Fine. We'll fight, then."
"Swoop, take care Slag." The Dinobot flier knelt next to the smashed up Dinobot, taking out tools to repair him as his leader turned to face the Decepticon leader. Sludge and Snarl watched alongside the Decepticons as the fight began. A small human struggled for breath in Ramjet's servo, until he loosened it, distracted in turn by the events before him.
Megatron made the first move. His fusion cannon charged up, purple energy gleaming around the barrel. It meant nothing in the end. Grimlock's sword sliced the cannon in half, leaving one half in Megatron's servo and the other sparking on the floor.
"A real fight." Grimlock watched Megatron closely. A purple blade shot towards his face. His own sword stopped it, an inch before it hit its target. Everything went silent, except for the buzz of the swords meeting. Two strong wills clashing.
Grimlock aimed a blow at Megatron's side, where it was quickly side-stepped. The fight isn't a dance, quite far from it, actually. Not at all like the carefully choreographed movements of Prime and Megatron on the daily battlefield.
No, this was more like the common brawls Megatron himself had fought in as a gladiator. Neither side holding back, neither hesitating to pull a dirty trick on the other. Megatron helm-butted Grimlock, only for Grimlock to do it back. Both swords scrap off each others' armor, til energon is dripping on the floor of the Nemesis.
At last, Grimlock shook his helm, and giving a loud roar, threw aside his sword to leap onto Megatron.
The move was unexpected. Unexpected enough that Megatron himself lost his sword and fell underneath Grimlock's pummeling. For a short while, until which he gave as good as he got back to the Dinobot leader. The Decepticons watched in shock as their all mighty leader wrestled with a common Autobot drone. You could sure if Starscream wasn't so shocked himself, he would have commented on it.
The Dinobots, on the other hand, had no reservations. "Grimlock! Beat slag outta Megatron!" Sludge bellowed, both him and Snarl cheering uproariously. Swoop said nothing, but had a small smile on his face all while he repaired his fallen brother. Kendra watched, eyes widened at her first glimpse of mechs fighting.
"Holy..." Whatever else she was going to say quickly was choked off by Ramjet reasserting his grip. "Shut up, human." He snarled.
No Decepticons thought anything could be any worse than what was happening in front of them. They were wrong. Grimlock snapped. Really, truly snapped. As in pulling off the arm of a certain Decepticon warlord and beating him into stasis with it. Energon poured as Megatron at last fell.
That, along the damage he already head, put Megatron out of commission. As his sight blurred, he faintly heard a familiar sounding squawk...
"Hah! I, Starscream, am now the rightful ruler of the Decepticons!" The Seeker finally decided to speak up. A bad idea, as every single Dinobot helm swung to look at him with a deadly look in their optics.
Grimlock growled. "Shut it up." Sludge happily obliged his leader's command, taking out Starscream with a well aimed piece of scrap. That piece of scrap being Megatron's arm, funnily enough.
The Dinobot leader jerked his helm at Swoop. "Get Slag. Me get Kendra." And he did exactly that, easily swiping the girl from a shocked Ramjet's servo. He paused for a moment, looking at the Conehead. "You familiar." Ramjet chuckled nervously. "Ah, you don't know me."
"Maybe not." The Conehead relaxed. And was knocked to the floor with a fist. "Me no care." Snarl walked over to Swoop to help haul their brother's broken body. And with that, the Dinobots left the command room, leaving behind a dazed Starscream, stasis-locked Megatron, and an army of shocked Decepticons.
Life was good.