Lethal Death Wish

7

Megatron's POV

This was one of the many gladiatorial arenas that I myself had fought in, and it was one of the only times I've ever been in Iacon. As we made our way up to the balcony, I sat down and patted my thigh, inviting Orion Pax to sit on my lap. He hesitated and looked away embarrassed. I reassure him by gently taking his servo and pulling him onto my lap.

"Did you think that only Kaonians enjoyed these sports? Or only those of the lower castes?" I prodded him. My chin rested on his shoulder looking out into the arena, wondering who was fighting who.

In the pit, two creaking Cybertronians--clearly discards from some industrial enterprise-- faced off against a swarming army of Minicons. More Minicons than anyone could count were already lying crushed and broken on the pit floor, which unlike the Kaonian pits was made of welded steel. One of the larger Cybertronians, the name Hydrau painted across the backs of his shoulders, was torn and leaking from dozens of tiny wounds. The other was in better shape as they fought back to back with vibroweapons, the blades clearly customized from a scrapyard.

I watched Orion Pax look away, not just away from the carnage of the pit, but from me as well. "You don't need to take your caste grievances out on me. The caste system hasn't helped me any more than it has you."
"See that is where you're wrong,"

One of the large gladiators went down as the Minicons severed the connections in his right leg. They swarmed over him as the other, Hydrau, swept them away with great sparking arcs of his vibroblade.

"Your caste is safe. You observe. You move data and put it in places where your betters decide if it has been put in the right place. My caste dies. We die in industrial accidents when molten alloys pour over us, or when energy leaks from a conduit and vaporizes our processors, or when liquid nitrogen shatters our limbs, or when a crane spills a cubic kilounit of raw ore and crushes us to junk. We die, you watch. Do not compare the two."

I cheered Hydrau's name while throwing a fist in the air. The rest of the crowd chanted his name and as I saw who Orion Pax was staring at I asked, "friend of yours?"
"That's Jazz. I'm unsure of the other two of whom he's with."
"You never know who you'll find down in the pits. One of the things about getting free of caste is that you get to see the world as it is. Sometimes that means seeing things you wish weren't there."

Once Hydrau finished of the last of the Minicons, he leaped onto the top of the barrier separating crowd from pit and stood, rocking back and forth. A smirk forms on my face as I say, "Might be some competition there,"

"Competition for a hardened survivor of Kaon? Surely none of us weak, soft Iaconians would have a prayer against the scourge of the subterranean Badlands." Orion Pax replies sarcastically. "Oh ho, his sense of humor returns!" I chuckle as I swing an arm across his shoulders.

3rd Person POV

Suddenly the wall spanning holograms that hung over the pit, displaying Hydrau's images disappeared. It was then replaced with multipled vistas of fire and destruction. The crowd fell silent then a confused murmur spread around them. Orion Pax looked at the holos. A factory exploded. Groups of Cybertronians ran in formation through an intersection, and four of them were cut down by heavy energy-cannon fire from out of the frame. The rest ran on.

"That's Altihex," someone said nearby.
"But what's happening?"

On one of the feed screens, Orion Pax could see the Altihex militias had responded. Pitched battles raged throughout the city. Other Grid feeds spawned on every available bit of wall, and different perspectives on the news and events flooded in. From his perch, Hydrau looked first annoyed and then shocked.

"Looks like civil war, doesn't it?" Megatron said. Orion Pax brushed Megatron's arm off his shoulders and turned to face him, enraged. "You sound happy."
"No, I will mourn the dead just as every other Cybertronian will." Megatron pointed at one of the screens, where civil-defense forces were concentrating their fire on a pair of Cybertronians. They blew apart in a flare of ion discharge, their weapon reservoirs exploding out into the air like the visual ghost of their invisibly escaping Energon. "Those two. I mourn them. You are merely shocked by their deaths. That is the difference between us, Orion Pax."

Orion Pax realized that what he stated was true. He saw the images of destruction but they did not connect with him emotionally. . .because he was still arguing for or against free will like a data clerk. He was analyzing, because he had at last taken his chance to analyze, but he had never yet taken the chance to feel.

"What are we coming to, Megatron?" he asked, as Altihex began to burn.
"The place we were always coming to, Orion. Power is never given up. It must be taken. And we are going to take ours."
Megatron responded as he walked toward the door. Reflexively Orion Pax followed. "Now it is time to join them," said Megatron.
"Join the fighting? Why?" Orion Pax asked.
"No, not join the fighting. Not yet. But we we have to go to Altihex, because Altihex was one of the last known locations of the Matrix of Leadership."