TFP - Every Bit Of Misery

8. First Encounter

Megatron was stranded with his memories most days. Even when he was surrounded with his work, attempting to locate energon mines, the Autobots, anything valuable at all . . .

She surrounded him. Their time on Cybertron haunted him through the noise and business of the days. It never ceased.

And it broke his spark to know she didn't remember the way they first met.

~~~

"We deserve to be equal!" He shouted the words into the crowd, even as the guards approached him, to take him from his victory over the poor spark he'd offlined. "We should not be punished for crimes we did not commit, or punished severely for things that merit far less extremes!" They reached him, pulling him back into the hall that led to his cell. "We deserve equality, not to be tools of entertainment!"

But even as he shouted and resisted the guards pulling him away, the crowds had gone quiet, their cheers muted to murmurs.

They weren't listening. They didn't care. It had taken courage for Megatronus to shout to the masses what he truly thought. He would face punishment for what he'd said so early into the matches.

And it didn't matter. None of it mattered. They didn't care if each one of them met their untimely, gruesome demise. So long as they had entertainment, they didn't care about the way the gladiators met their end.

But that first day, sitting in the stands next to a stunned Orion Pax, sat Ebony.

Her bright optics were wide as she glanced at the scholar next to her. "What horrors do you think they face in there?" She asked, watching again at the gated passage where the winner had been hauled off, still shouting of things that she hadn't heard before.

Equality. Justice. What sort of things had she not dared to imagine until now?

"It cannot be anything good," Orion answered, a hand coming to squeeze her own. A friendly gesture, but nothing romantic rested there. Just gentle reassurance for all the places her mind was surely rushing.

"It must be awful if he's risking whatever punishment they have waiting to speak out and try to incite a revolution." Her optics filled with sadness, and a bit of rage. "He must be so desperate for a way out. But . . . I thought the gladiators were volunteers, fighting for glory and riches."

"Perhaps there is more to this than meets the optic," Orion muttered, and one glance at his face made it obvious that his processor was turning this over as well.

~~~

Megatronus was beaten that night, and banned from fights for a week. He counted every solar cycle, itching for the chance to get back out there, to release his frustrations, to try again.

They had to know. This mockery of entertainment had to be brought to an end.

On the fourth cycle, the silence was broken in his isolated cell.

"Megatronus," she whispered.

He jumped. He hadn't even heard her approach and now she stood just outside the bars to his cell.

"Who are you?" He asked, bristling. "What are you doing here? How did you get past the guards?"

"I'm Flare," she answered quietly, a small smile spreading on her face. "I came to talk to you about what you said in the Pits. I want to know how you got here if it's against your will. Why are you trapped here? What have they done to you?"

"How did you get in here?" He asked again, lowering his voice, his suspicion ebbing away.

"I knocked out the guards. They're not hurt, just asleep. Tell me everything. Please."

So he did. Megatronus told her everything about how he and the other competitors had wound up in this place, how poorly they were treated, how he'd gotten sick of it all. Yes, he carrier and sire had been vicious Cybertronians, fighters and killers by nature. Their lineage of carnage had been evident in him from a young age, but he had never harmed another living being.

Unfortunately, the weight of their suspicion, their fear, had taken it's toll on him.

And when he'd been thrown into the Pits against his will, he saw no use in fighting it anymore. He gave in, and just fought. Megatronus fought and killed and destroyed, if only to become the thing they'd pressured him to be.

"That's a nightmare," she murmured. The matches still had a long way to go, so many competitors were still here, but Megatronus was determined to persevere, to earn the freedom dangling so close for the victor. "I'm so sorry."

"The worst part," Megatronus continued, "Is that their energon doesn't feel foreign on my hands anymore. It's just another routine to keep living. I may have been born to become this, but I didn't have to be forced to become it."

"Do you . . . Do you believe you would've become someone different if you hadn't been drafted into the pits?"

A pause, as he mulled the thought over. Someone different. Someone that didn't inherit the personality traits of his carrier and sire, but someone of his own will. Someone free.

"I don't know," he admitted. "I'll never know now."

"I believe you would've been different," she said without hesitation.

"What on Cybertron makes you say that?" He asked.

"Simple," she answered, her gaze unwavering as she met his. "If you were just a killer, you would be relishing the opportunity to slay your opponents without retribution. But you're shouting for equality, to end this mockery of entertainment and give mechs and femmes the freedom to find out for themselves who they are. A killer wouldn't speak out against the thing that he should enjoy."

"Unless he was afraid," Megatronus pointed out slowly.

"Are you afraid?" Ebony asked, her helm tilting slightly. "What would you be afraid of? Death?"

Another pause as he thought about it. He found no fear in his spark. Not for death, not for loss of his family, as they were already gone and resting in the well. "No," he admitted. What else did he have to be afraid of? He knew he could win this tournament. His lineage granted him that victory with ease. "I am not afraid."

"Then your spark wasn't created to be a killer," she told him, that small smile returning. A noise came from down the hall, and she shifted. "I have to go," she whispered. "I'll be back to speak to you again. I promise." And then she vanished on silent peds, slipping back into darkness, away from detection.

~~~

Megatron would never forget that day. It was so long ago, but Ebony's appearance into his life was an event he would never take for granted. Even now, with how much he hated her and what she'd done . . .

She had given him hope. She had broken his spark, yes, but she'd given him that crucial bit of hope that had kept him from the darkness in his most desperate moments.

"Leave him alone!"

He would never forget her voice in that moment. When she had first transformed from innocent civilian to devastating warrior.

It was a damn shame she'd never remember how she used to be.