Wolf By the Ears Chapter 12 – Chains of Command
Squee! People are still reading! I had a lot of reviews from ff net that referred to the end of last chapter as a cliffhanger, which I honestly wasn't intending, but can totally see now that its been commented on.
What. The. Frag?
Optimus gaped at the two leaders. He had to admit, he really hadn't seen that coming. Fine. That was just fine then. He had spend enough of this meeting being a good little wall decoration and fading into the background, but if his…Megatron was going to drop bombshells like that, he needed more information. That wasn't just a dig, or dirt on Ultra Magnus, it was a huge potential security risk.
Learning the details was his duty as an Autobot, and like frag was he going to shirk it just because he was being massively embarrassed in front of his commander and his arch nemesis. He needed to know if the supreme leader of the Autobots was being controlled by someone else, or was likely to become so.
"Ultra Magnus Sir." He said in a smooth, quiet version of his command voice "Is your coding active? "There are some truly gifted medics within easy reach who could assist in burying or nullifying it."
He could get Ratchet and Red Alert in here to scrub the Magnus's code so clean it sparkled, if necessary. Ratchet had done so much research on that fragging code that he was probably one of the few subject matter experts currently on the planet. Other than the med techs who had activated it in Megatron.
Two sets of optics turned to regard him with surprise, like they had forgotten he was present. Optic ridges went up.
"No." Said the Magnus. There was a closed, wary look on his faceplates.
"He could have been ordered to not tell anyone about the programming." Said Megatron, crossing his arms over his chest. Almost as one, Optimus and Megatron looked inquiringly at the Magnus.
"My coding is completely dormant." Ultra Magnus said stiffly. "I have been under the care of a large cadre of the best medics on Cybertron, and they would notice if one of them had hacked me to the extent it would take to reactivate it. It is an…invasive process, and quite obvious if you are looking at a bot's operating software. I am hardly the only active Autobot to have inactive coding, and I assure you that there are failsafe measures in place to prevent us becoming compromised in that manner."
"Sir, given that Shockwave, who is known as an expert hacker, was the one responsible for the attack on you, I respectfully request that you let Ratchet take a look. He is a very experienced, very loyal medic, and he has a…femme with a special relationship with the Allspark to assist." Optimus said.
The large blue mech's expression was odd. He looked almost…touched. "Thank you for your concern, Optimus Prime, but I am still a free mech."
"He was never enslaved." Megatron interjected, his voice cool. "He stayed in the military, rising though the ranks instead of trying to make a life in the civilian world. They never used it on active officers. That privilege was reserved for grunts who looked like trouble." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Or made trouble."
"Which you did, in fact." Said the Magnus.
"I was not making trouble, you interfering bag of bolts. I was fighting for equal rights for all of our kind." Megatron growled.
"Funny, it looked like rebellion from where I was standing."
"That part was later. When I realized that war builds would never have a place in the civilian population, our leaders were corrupt, and the only logical thing to do was to scrap the entire system and start over."
"And the loss of innocent life, massive destruction and overthrow of a system that has worked since we won free from the Quintessons was supposed to be a good - thing?" The Magnus countered.
"If you recall, the destruction part did not occur until much later, when my previous master had his unfortunate accident." Megatron growled. "And I would rather see your precious system and all its adherents burn than allow the slave coding to gain prominence again. We'll kill every adult mech on wheels if that's what it takes to root out that corruption."
"Don't you think you're being just a little over-dramatic, Megatron?" The Magnus asked. "This was a one-time thing, a solution to the problem that your represent. You aren't being mistreated. You aren't even being imprisoned for your crimes. You are bound to one of my best mechs, and he won't mistreat you. He would answer to me if he did."
They were ignoring him again. Optimus seriously considered leaving the room to let them hash it out between themselves, but that would be foolish and irresponsible. Besides, he needed to know if there were any more bombshells with the possibility of being a planet-wide security crisis waiting to be dropped. He needed to get Ratchet in here to take a look at Ultra Magnus, or better yet, get the blue mech out to Omega Supreme. They couldn't take the risk that Shockwave, (or the Magnus's political opponents for that matter) could have reactivated that code.
Now that he was getting a little more information, it sounded like enslaving the other Decepticons was an even worse idea than he had thought before, which was impressive, since at the time, he had thought it was just about the worst idea since "let's pelt the monster with hummus."
It was nice to hear Ultra Magnus refer to him as one of his "best mechs," but it would be nicer if it came from something other than scoring a rhetorical point with his rival.
Right then. Get Ratchet and possibly Sari, to take a look at the Magnus. Find a way to keep the other Decepticons from ending up enslaved. Somehow convince the rest of the Decepticons that going scorched planet as a strategy to prevent the codes use was not a good idea. Oh, and somehow make peace with having his greatest enemy slave bound to him. No pressure.
Convincing said enemy that he wasn't just optic candy would also be nice, if only for his sanity.
"You think my treatment at his servos is what I am most worried about?" Megatron growled. "That is the least of my concern regarding this situation. Several of my mechs are in Autobot custody right now, and there is a movement to do this to them, too. And after that? Who next? Your own flying troops, like those two little Autobots jets you had built? The next model of army mecha? The entire next generation of Cybertronians?"
"Really, Megatron. We are far past that. I hardly think that the code is going to come back into general use because a few Decepticon war criminals are controlled using it. The whole thing was settled long ago." Said the Magnus.
Megatron wanted to smash that look of superiority off of Ultra Magnus's face. He was a traitor to all their kind, all the war builds who had defended Cybertron and been betrayed by the ones who had made them. Their leaders at the time had discarded them and then done worse, and now Ultra had become one of them. A best he was a naive fool, at worst complete scum.
In either case, he was clearly not strong enough to take charge of the current situation. If Megatron had been in his place, he would have had the mechs who gave the orders to use the code extinguished before their poison could spread further. He might have had to bide his time until he was repaired, but once he rose from the med-bay berth, none would have been safe from his wrath.
How dare the pathetic blue Autobot belittle the seriousness of this. If they had just killed him, that would have been one thing. It would have been expected, reasonable. Perhaps his Decepticons would have been able to rescue him and perhaps not, but he wouldn't be a slave again, wouldn't be ushering in a new age of subjugation and darkness…It never stopped, once begun. Make a few prisoners of war into useful servants, pliant automatons, convenient frag toys and it became easier and easier to rationalize doing it again.
A few short steps down that path, and new protoforms would be brought online with that cursed coding a part of them.
Megatron stared at the Magnus for a moment. "You blind, blind fool of an Autobot." He snarled, then spun on a thruster and slammed out of the room.
"Pardon me, Sir." Optimus said. "I shouldn't let him go unsupervised here."
"Of course, Optimus Prime." Replied the Magnus. "Your loyalty and dedication to duty have always been exemplary. Thank you for coming. It was important that Megatron and I speak, even if it did not go as well as might be hoped."
It wasn't hard to catch up with Megatron. For one thing, the Decepticon couldn't transform, and even if he could, there wasn't enough room for him to fly. Optimus, on the other servo, could simply fold into his alt mode and burn rubber. It occurred to him that he had better put a limit on how far away from him Megatron was allowed to go when they were out in public.
There were alarmed calls going out over the guards' comms as the big grey mech stormed past them. No one seemed to know if they should stop him, or how much force they were legitimately allowed to use.
Optimus was very relived when he sighted Megatron before anybots decided that "deadly" was the appropriate level of said force.
"Megatron, stop." He said.
The Decepticon came to a screeching halt in the middle of the corridor, then spun to face him. "Frag you." - He snarled. "Master."
The next thing he knew, Optimus was pinned against the wall by the hot, hard frame of his very own Decepticon warlord. Alarmed, he tried to wriggle free, but Megatron had his wrists in his clawed servos, the talons just barely indenting the vulnerable conduits and cabling there. He was pressing Optimus's body against the unforgiving surface with his own considerably greater mass. While the position might have been fascinating under other circumstances, now it was...disturbing.
He could feel the rage, the frustration pouring off the gray mech like near-damaging levels of radiation. That would have been distracting enough, if it wasn't accompanied by the warm breeze of his venting ghosting across his plating, which suddenly seemed far too sensitive. Just once, it would be nice to be this close to Megatron when he wasn't in a towering rage or filled with terror, or a spicy combination of the two.
He seriously hoped that the fragging slave programming was really going to prevent Megatron from slagging him right here in the hallway, because he was not in a good position to defend himself at the moment. Served him right for getting complacent about the evil giant war machine in his life.
"Let go of me." He said, struggling to keep his voice even and calm. To his relief, the great clawed servos released him. The mech didn't step away, but at least he was still obeying direct orders. It was unnerving on several levels to have him so close, but it didn't look like he was about to be deactivated at the hands of his nemesis. Optimus sent a 'stand down, situation under control' order to the security guards who had been closing in on their location.
Optimus took a deep invent. "Look, I understand your concerns, and to a large extent, I share them." He said. "I don't want to see you, your generals or any other mech under the influence of that code, and I hate to think of the potential for abuse that exists in anyone who ends up a master. On Earth, they have a saying 'power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." I don't want to become corrupt, and I don't want Cybertronian society to join me. Use of that code could poison our entire culture, and that's something we have to avoid."
He hesitated, because this wasn't the most private of places to have this conversation. That, and he wasn't really comfortable being nasal components-to-chest armor with Megatron. Even if it was a rather attractive chest.
"I also don't want to see any new protoform onlined with slave coding. Ever." Optimus said quietly. "Ratchet was worried about Jetfire and Jetstorm's code. I remember him fussing at them until they let him check them over back on Earth. He never said why, but I think he was looking to make sure they didn't have it."
Megatron sighed, and stepped away. His hydraulics hissing softly as his shoulder components slumped. Disturbingly, Optimus wasn't sure whether he felt relived or disappointed by getting his personal space back.
He was opening his mouth to say something, to reassure the mech that Ultra Magnus would never allow the other captive Decepticons to be enslaved, that he himself would never abuse his power over Megatron, when they were interrupted by an exasperatingly familiar voice.
"Well if it isn't my old buddy, Optimus Prime, the repair bot ." Boomed an obnoxious voice, full of officious arrogance.
Well, that was just the perfect way to make his cycle complete. Optimus sighed softly and resisted the urge to make a comment about how Sentinel obviously needed a repair bot to get his head screwed on straight. He didn't, mostly because it would be childish to make "loosing his head" comments.
Tempting though it was. His memory of carrying his old academy-mate's severed head around while hunting the human who had hijacked his body was a warm and fuzzy one. Despite Sentinel's constant (and obnoxious) complaining at the time, it had been enjoyable to see him taken down a few pegs. And his head had made an excellent projectile weapon. The chin probably helped by adding extra ballast.
"If you and your slave are going to be carrying on in public hallways, could you at least do it somewhere other than the Citadel, Optimus?"
Oh, Primus. Sentinel and his lack of either tact or any semblance of an indoor voice. Optimus braced himself for a little more public mocking. At least this batch would be from a source he was used to. And there wasn't an audience (other than Megatron, of course). That was always a plus. Well, except for whoever was monitoring the security cams. Sentinel swaggered forward, foolishly placing himself within the Decepticon's reach in order to taunt his old academy-mate.
Optimus couldn't believe he once had a crush on this mech.
Granted, he had been a lot less obnoxious back when Elita was around. She had been marvelously adept at manipulating him into acting like a mech who didn't have his processor cores muffled by his aft plating. The three of them had been a good match, once. At least, he had thought so at the time. It was possible that he had been deluding himself. He had been young, and he had always had a thing for big mechs with somewhat dominant personalities. And pretty, sneaky femmes, though that was another issue entirely.
Either the blue mech had lost all of his youthful charm, or Optimus just had better taste now. Without Elita and Optimus to provide a balancing influence, Sentinel's ego and xenophobia had only gotten worse over time, and he had become, well, a jerk.
"I suppose you had to come here and flaunt your shiny new responsibility in everybot's faceplates, huh, old buddy?"
Huh. Was Sentinel actually jealous that Optimus was saddled with the Decepticon Warlord as a permanent part of his existence? Optimus knew that tone of voice, and Sentinel was spoiling for a fight.
"I came at Ultra Magnus's command." He said blandly. "He wanted to talk to Megatron and me." He supposed that it might conceivably be considered a status symbol, to have a living (if scary) legend answering to him, but seriously, they were spark bonded. It wasn't like Megatron was a fancy experimental mod that he had been entrusted with.
"Riiiight. And you making him follow your orders in the middle of the hallway is totally the Magnus's orders too. You got chosen to take him because you got to use the Magnus Hammer in that battle, and it let you beat him. I would have been able to do the same if I had had it like I should have."
Ah. That was still burning Sentinel's aft, wasn't it? He had always been a braggart and a glory hound. Any way you looked at it, being the mech to defeat and capture Megatron was a major coup. Of course, all that time spent fighting the Cons on Earth leading up to that part had been a lot less glorious than everybot made it out to be.
Uh, oh. Megatron had that look in his optics. The one from Earth, where he was about to try to offline the lot of them, because they were in his way. Well, actually, he looked more pissed off than he had back then. Optimus hoped his Decepticon wasn't about to take Sentinel's attitude personally.
What was it with the Autobots and blue mechs being exhaust sucking aft heads? Megatron wondered as he listened incredulously to the Idiot with the Chin expound on how he could have done better in the little Prime's place.
As if.
This overstuffed twit would have been a smear on the Detroit road surfaces so fast the native fauna would have missed filming it for their insipid news broadcasts.
The fool was actually...trying to intimidate his Prime? Someone who had gone stabilizer to stabilizer with the Decepticon Elite? This swollen chinned moron?
He actually went up to the smaller Prime and poked him in the chest plates. No one got to aggressively intrude on the personal space of his ma- his Prime but him! Oooh, his programming was going to register that as an attack on his master. Megatron grinned with malicious glee.