Niave

Chapter 9: So Much for the Good Guys

The next few weeks had been exhuasting. Lila didn't know what triggered Megatron's sudden eagerness to teach her, but once he got started, the warlord was difficult to slow down.

The legendary Staff of Primus and her were on better terms. She knew how to do quite a few tricks. Moving objects, moving vehicons, blasting, teleporting objects, and she was still trying to figure out how to teleport vehicons without them disappearing permanently. Megatron had helped her learn how to change colors, although they only really practiced on Starscream. The second in command had no idea they were at fault for his constantly changing color scheme. Megatron seemed particularly delighted in making his second miserable.

In their downtime, Megatron had Soundwave send her texts about the war, post-war, and other historical documents aboard the Nemesis. She'd had to learn modern cybertronian to read them, but it was no big adjustment from ancient cybertronian.

She had never pegged him as the academic type, but Megatron had been more than willing to answer any and all questions she had about their history. He was surprisingly thoughtful in regards to her confusion, but had not been willing to budge when it came to allowing her access to the ships mainframe. Lila noticed relatively quickly they weren't letting her near many texts about the Autobots. The war documents were unbelievably censored and focused on Decepticon conditions.

Still, Lila was grateful for the history lessons. She would have been content with more science as well, but she was told the selections were slim. Previous to Knockout, they hadn't had many soldiers experienced in that field since the exodus.

Soundwave was capable of a lot, but his skills were often more numerous in computer science. He didn't have the time to teach her either. The Nemesis needed his near-constant attention.

But Megatron had been happy to oblige her. Lila had grown comfortable sitting on the warlord's shoulder as they both tended to their own activities. Small, nice conversations had become plentiful as opposed to the incessant rudeness that had took up their time during her first week here.

Training was grueling, but Lila could bear it when the promise of documents and conversations awaited her in the end. While she attacked objects or vehicons, Megatron would toss random objects at her, attempting to simulate a battle.

Lila was surprised she hadn't been squished yet. Megatron wasn't exactly aiming for nonlethal place, no, he was straight up tossing old medical tools at her head. She barely had any time to shoot at the "bad guys" before teleporting the projectiles away.

Megatron's enthusiasm for educating her reached the same level as as his enthusiasm for murdering her.

A traitorous thought lingered over her mind in a thin fog, accusing her of betraying her family and the memory of her mother. She'd grown attached to Megatron during their tenure together and the amount of anger she felt toward him for killing her mom and uprooting her life was shamefully low.

Sometimes, when Lila woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat, she could see her mother's emotionless eyes, staring out of the darkness. Those nights, she would grip the staff tightly and point it at the sleeping form of Megatron, determined to kill the monster that killed her mom. But each time, when the tip was leveled at him, shame and guilt forced it away.

She couldn't kill him. He was the only one who understood her. Maybe, beneath that cold facade of his, he might love her.

By the time Megatron was wake, all the traitorous thoughts disappeared behind morning small talk. The two of them faded into a routine of training, reading, and work, mixed with comfortable conversations that Lila strived for. The darkness didn't return until nightfall, when Megatron let his guard down and went into recharge.