PRIVATE TO MEGATRON VIA ROBOT BULLSHIT EXPRESS

[thanksoptimus]

[Orion has pointedly gone somewhere isolated for this - he doesn't want to feel confined to his alt mode while having this conversation, in the inevitable event that it gets heated. It's been a long while in coming, and he earnestly has no idea what he'll do in the aftermath.

All the same, his tone starts surprisingly assertive.]


Megatron. I must speak with you.

Comments

[thanksoptimus]

[There is no concrete evidence he can bring against this idea, but there are a million niggling details that make him wonder. For example, the fact that Arcee told him that Megatron had supposedly poisoned the planet's core with dark energon - a bi product of the very entity Optimus Prime supposedly was trying to control.

Even if that accusation was a lie, why would the Autobots employ that manner of propaganda when their own leader was courting the same power? More than anything, one thing sticks out with particular importance.

He's been told so many times that he's not as different from Optimus Prime as one might think, and no matter his goals, and idea like that just seems unintuitive and reckless. Would even a more ruthless version of himself, one corrupted into being a tyrant to hold an established order, ever want the allegiance of the chaos bringer?]

It...It does not make any sense to me. How could a movement grown out of order and tyranny try to use a force such as Unicron himself?

[bigfuckinggun]

[OK WELL UH]

[HE MAY NOT HAVE THOUGHT THIS THROUGH QUITE AS THOROUGHLY AS WOULD BE IDEAL]

[ok no look]

I cannot claim to understand the inner workings of Optimus Prime's mind, twisted as it was by the Matrix. Perhaps he merely hoped to enforce order upon the ultimate chaos.

[thanksoptimus]

[????]

I...I suppose...

[He doesn't sound very convinced. Which, in turn, makes him sound distressed. GDI Megatron he wants to believe you but you are a sinister motherfucker.]

[bigfuckinggun]

[he cant help it thats just how his voice sounds]

Orion. What have the Autobots told you about Optimus Prime?

[thanksoptimus]

...

They said that he was much like I am now, in his way.

[bigfuckinggun]

[uuuGHhh. god damn autobots ruining everything]

... I see. And so you hope that his motivations will seem familiar to you; that you might find familiarity in his choices.

[thanksoptimus]

I am searching for understanding - to see myself in a different life. We are never completely removed from the possibility of going astray. The idea that one is above all else is what leads to the decisions that brought Cybertron to its ruin.

[bigfuckinggun]

[hhhhhhhh]

[he's reminded of talking to Orion back before everything went to shit – and, equally, of Optimus Prime. They were never very different; Megatron has never entertained any delusions borne out of the fact that Orion was his friend and Optimus his enemy. He knows Optimus Prime's decision to oppose him was the result of unshakeable ideological differences, and that his lies will therefore only hold up for so long.]

[honestly at this point he feels he has a better chance of trying to lock onto Orion's location, hunt him down, and drag him back to the ship to be kept in stasis – much though he hates to admit Starscream was right – but all the same... the thought of his old friend's inevitable disappointment and anger, ignited anew instead of Optimus Prime's millennia-old resignation, does not sit well in his spark.]

[gross.]

You never went astray, Orion. You were forced down a path that anyone who truly knew you knows you would have never have taken, were the choice truly yours.

[thanksoptimus]

[He vents, trying to keep himself level. He knows this isn't right. He knows that Megatron isn't telling him the truth, even if he has too much hope to assume it's the worst.]

But what of your path, Megatron?

[His voice is soft - somehow lacking accusation even as it implores him for answers.]

After all these years, would you still consider it blameless?

[bigfuckinggun]

[his immediate reaction is fury – how dare you question me, he wants to snarl, but he holds it in. He can't totally suppress the anger in his voice, though, when he replies:] No one is blameless in war, Orion Pax.

[thanksoptimus]

[Orion flinches at that anger - he never wanted to be the one to cause Megatron anger, to draw out that part of him. But his trust in him has been broken, and the risks are just too high. Emotion rises in his voice, more resounding and clear than Optimus Prime ever would have allowed.]

Megatron. Megatronus. Please. Please tell me what has been missing - whatever has been done...we can find a solution. We can still make amends.

[bigfuckinggun]

[gOD DAMNIT ORION PAX. He exhales heavily, reminding himself to stick with the lie:] You have nothing to make amends for.

[thanksoptimus]

You said it yourself. No one is blameless in war.

Not you. And not I.

[bigfuckinggun]

And I have nothing to apologise to you for, Orion. [he is clearly PRETTY LIVID that this is even being discussed, but JUST FOR YOU, ORION PAX, he is keeping a lid on his urge to just fucking yell at you]

[thanksoptimus]

[He hasn't thought through any particular strategy here. Thinking of a plan against Megatron would feel too much like a manipulation, which is not something he wants to do. But he has found himself pushing, hoping that is he presses hard enough, that he'll be given something, anything, to work with.

But what if he's wrong?

What if everyone is wrong, what if Megatron is as much the victim as it first appeared? The thought that he could be betraying him again, this time in his right mind, is almost more than Orion can bear.]

Well, I am sorry. I am sorry that I don't know. I am sorry that I don't...that I don't feel that I can trust you like I wish that I could. I am sorry if I am wrong about my fears.

More than anything, I am sorry if I am right.

[bigfuckinggun]

[there is a long pause.]

... So it has come to this, then. You would side with the Autobots, even without the Matrix.

Perhaps its influence does indeed still cling to your spark, after all.

[thanksoptimus]

I am siding with no one!

[His words are desperate now, his spark heavy with pain and an immediate flash of regret. Primus, he doesn't want to do this. He had been so ready before this conversation actually started, but he isn't ready now.

He's pleading.]

I am siding with myself. With Cybertron. With what is left of our home and our people. It cannot be too late to change. It...it cannot.

[bigfuckinggun]

If it were so simple, Orion, do you truly believe we would still be at war? You know nothing of this conflict!

[thanksoptimus]

I will not deny you. I do know nothing of it - only what I have been told by two opposing sides. Two sides that both want to my favor. I only speak out of hope...as misplaced as it may be. Hope that only lingers because time has not had the chance to wash it away.

But I want to believe, Megatron. I want to believe the best of you and everything you have done. I want to believe in a world where...

[Where their people can be together again. Where they can be together again.]

Where the past is not only the past.

the cave in this icon represents Gay Emotions

[bigfuckinggun]

[god damnit orion no you wont get him with your FEELINGS]

[part of him wants that too, of course; wants Orion at his side, wants everything between them to be the way it was. But he knows, and the more he speaks with his old friend the more it's impossible to deny, that it is impossible. Orion Pax will not stand for Megatron's goals or philosophies any more than Optimus Prime did – and Megatron is not so easily swayed as to reconsider for his sake.]

[the idea that he should – that he could – has him narrowing his optics, his voice harsh.]

Then go back to the Autobots and convince them to surrender.

[thanksoptimus]

[He shudders. He has to reset his vocalizer to keep the transmission from wavering.]

I will not.

[bigfuckinggun]

A shame. But not a surprise. I will not compromise, Orion – surely you know me better than to assume I will abandon everything I have worked for, all these millennia, simply for the sake of an old friend's naive ideas of peace!

[thanksoptimus]

[Something about those words crosses a line for Orion - it causes his own words to become forceful.]

The Megatron I knew fought for the rights of others. The Megatron I knew worked for a better Cybertron, not its destruction! He was a warrior, but his battle was one for change - not for this stagnation and entropy!

[bigfuckinggun]

[he can't help but growl a little. sorry m8]

You understand nothing, Orion Pax. A better Cybertron will rise – when the Autobots are defeated once and for all.

[thanksoptimus]

[The growl just finishes it for him, his own frustration and anger rising inside of him.]

Yes. And then you will have your empire of dust - and nothing more!


[HANGS UP!]