Wild Ride (Cyberverse Mech!reader X Hot Rod)

10: Sentenced

"So, the traitorous son still lives? I'm not surprised." Megatron growled as I was tossed to my hands and knee plates before him. "You surprise me, Y/D, time and time again, you defy all odds." I said nothing and only focused my attention on the floor. "Look at me when I'm speaking to you!" Megatron yanked the back of my helm and forced me to look at him, his expression angry while mine was expressionless.

"Lord Megatron, sir, what do you intend on doing with him?" Lockdown asked.

"The same thing I am about to do to you if you both don't get out of my sight!" Megatron snapped. Clobber and Lockdown quickly ran off, leaving myself and my sire alone on the control bridge of the Nemesis.  "Why would you betray me Y/D?"

"You murdered carrier." I said darkly.

"Because I had to. You don't know the full story." His words were oddly soft, and I became suspicious but didn't show it. "When she said she was going to take you away from me, I feared the worst. She had been saying she was going to hand you over to the Elite Guard for some program. I couldn't allow that. I... I didn't mean to fire on her." For the first time ever, I saw genuine guilt in Megatron's optics. "It was an accident Y/D."

"But... the video feed the Autobots had..."

"Was purposefully cut short in order for the Elite Guard to justify taking you from me." It was odd hearing him tell the truth, and I could sense that there was no falsehood behind it.

"Lies! I don't believe you!" I snapped angrily. Megatron then played the video I had seen from the Autobots on the viewfinder. This time was different.

"No! No!" Megatron exclaimed in the video as he ran to my offline carrier and gently lifted her corpse. "No... I didn't.... I didn't mean to... Primus, what have I done." He then quietly wept as he held her close to him. "Please... come back... I'm so sorry..."

"Murderer! Arrest him!" The Elite Guard member that I shot all those years ago yelled as he and the others came on screen.

"No, you don't understand! It was an accident!"

The video then cut to static, and I stared in disbelief and pain. I felt the familiar agony run through me, and I stood from the floor with an expressionless face. He had been telling the truth, yet he lied to me about it for so long.

"Uncuff me, sire." I said flatly. Megatron complied, and I rubbed my wrists. I then detached my blades and held them out to Megatron. "There is no need for me to carry these anymore, as my mission is now forfeit."

"No, Y/D, there is a new mission for you. As heir to the Decepticon cause."

"I'm done fighting your war. I told you long ago that I would fight only to kill her killer. Now? With this new evidence? No... I'm not going to follow you."

"You could become great, Y/D! Stay with the Decepticons, rule by my side as prince! Your gifts are god-like, and you could -"

"I don't want to rule." I said sternly. "I am going to leave this ship, and I will never return. Do you understand?"

"I do." Megatron said. As I turned around to leave, Megatron slapped the cuffs back on my wrists, and he grabbed the back of my neck. "But you are not going anywhere." He growled lowly before calling a handful of Decepticons to escort me to the brig. I reluctantly complied, not having the will to fight anymore.

"I'm sorry, Y/D." Clobber said as she shoved me into one of the many brig cells.

"It's fine, Clobber. It's not the first time I've been locked up." I said with a downtrodden look. The Decepticons then left me alone to my thoughts. I took on a familiar position with my legs to my chassis and the side of my head leaning against the cold metal wall.

My mind began to wander to before I fell down the path of the Decepticons, wondering how much would have been different if I had known the truth. Would I still have killed all that I did? Would I have become an Autobot? Or would I simply fade away? Unremembered? Lost? Maybe I would have become a simple miner like Megatron, or perhapse I'd become a medic. It was difficult to say.

I don't know how long I sat there pouring over the endless possibilities of who I could have become or what I could have done. It could have been hours or only a few minutes. One tends to lose track of time in a prison cell. My mind then wandered to Hot Rod and the Autobots I had begun to call friends. A small smile crept on my face as I remembered how happy they seemed to be with each other and how they worked together like a family rather than an army. My smile faded when I thought of my own family, of my sire who committed accidental bot-slaughter and my carrier who was his victim. I was alone. I'm alone in a dusty dark cell with only my thoughts. I deserved it.

"HEY! WATCH THE PAINT!" I heard a familiar voice yell from somewhere down the hall, followed by blaster fire and the roar of an engine.

'Hot Rod?' I thought as I stood from the floor and spotted the young bot zipping along before skidding to a halt and transforming in front of my cell.

"Y/D! What are you doing in there?" He asked worriedly.

"Doesn't matter. Hit that green button so we can get out of here!" Hot Rod slapped the button I mentioned, and the bars of my cell came down. Alarms blared all around, and I grabbed the smaller mech under my arm and ran towards a side corridor that led directly outside. I tossed Hot Rod out of the hatch and chased after him as we both shifted forms and took off.

"You didn't have to throw me, you know!" He called up to me after we got a safe distance from the Nemesis.

"Hey, sometimes I forget you're a grounder." I joked. "Let's go home."