TFP - Every Bit Of Misery

9. Forgotten

"You need to stop coming here," Megatronus told her begrudgingly. Though he appreciated the newfound company, the gladiator had heard the tales of what had happened to those close to his opponents.

Some were killed. Some were tortured. Just to get them to put on a better show.

Megatronus was lucky enough that he hadn't been particularly close enough to anyone. His carrier and sire had perished some time ago due to sickness that had deteriorated their systems.

And the mech hadn't exactly been agreeable enough to find anyone to get close to. He was abrasive and he got angered easily. No one wanted to be around him much.

So much the better. Knowing someone he found special would be tortured for him to fight harder . . .

And here she was. Flare. A white femme that was lighting up the darkness of these cells.

If they put together the pieces, she would be in danger. In his spark, Megatronus could not condone that risk. He would fight for his freedom by himself, earn it alone. No one else would be put in danger for him to return to the world he knew outside these Pits.

"Why?" She asked, helm tilting slightly. "I've only been here once before. I want to know more about you."

"They won't care," Megatronus answered, refusing to look at her. "They'll hurt you for show. I told you everything already as it is. Leave, and do not return."

"I'm not afraid," she answered gently. "I heard you shout for equality again today. You truly believe in it, don't you?"

"You don't understand!" He shouted under his breath to keep it quiet. "They will torture you. Spill your energon slowly, break your servos. If they believe you to have any sort of connection to me, they will use you however they can. These Pits aren't to cleanse, they're to create a show to keep the masses from realizing what a corrupt system we have running our planet."

She paused a few moments, venting. Finally, Megatronus was relieved, thinking he'd gotten through to her. Maybe she would leave, and the danger she faced would fade away. If a near stranger were to die because she wanted to know the truth of the Pits . . . Primus, Megatronus could never live with himself. Shouting it to the masses was one thing, attracting someone to get too close that they would misinterpret their interactions . . .

"If I would live only to create a change in the world, then that would be okay. I would be all right being the catalyst that causes the new age for our race."

That . . . That was not the response Megatron had expected. But as he looked to the white femme sitting just beyond the bars of his cell, he did not see fear in her expression or her body. Just quiet resolve.

A willingness to be a martyr so that others would not suffer like he had, having their freedom taken away under the guise of justice.

"How could you be willing to throw away your life?" Megatronus scolded. "You are not trapped in these cells with us. You are free. You are able to live as you please."

She vented softly. "Because if so many exist just to die in fights, then what kind of life is that? It's certainly not one I would want to bring a sparkling into. I would rather create a change so that sparklings do not face a world where justice is a show to keep the rest of us content."

A few moments of silence passed in the darkness, soft lights of red and blue glowing in the dim cell corridor.

"You are a very brave femme," he murmured. "But I cannot condone you being in danger when I have told you everything I know. So I must ask you to leave."

"I do not wish to leave," she answered, standing slowly. "But I suppose we have talked about most everything we can. So for now, I will go. But I will be at every match to listen to you shout, to cheer for your safety and the words you speak. No one should live like this."

She vanished before he could respond, and Megatronus couldn't help but notice that she had the speed and silence of an assassin.

~~~

"I struck a vein of the dark stuff," Ebony stated, tossing the dark energon at Megatron as she returned from her scouting. "It wasn't much, but I had the underlings load it up in a safe compartment. Crossing her arms, she stood against the wall, waiting to see if he had anything else for her to do.

Memories of Cybertron had been haunting Megatron since her return, and he wondered if there was any way to return her experiences to her. Ebony was a fierce femme, yes, but Flare . . .

Megatron vented softly. Flare had been a gentle, determined femme who believed in true equality without fear.

They had taken her away.

"What the frag are you looking at?" Ebony asked, raising an optic ridge. "Primus, Megs. You act like you've never seen me before."

Holding the shard of dark energon just a bit tighter, Megatron refocused and averted his gaze from Ebony. Her curiosity grew when he didn't have some cruel or witty retort to shoot back.

"Megatron? What the frag is wrong with you? Did you not get a nap yet?"

Part of him broke at those words. The words were playful, but he could hear the animosity there. Hatred. Hatred because he had left her on Cybertron to die.

And she'd returned to him, to the Decepticon cause.

"What the frag are you doing here?" He shouted. "Shouldn't you be dead? How the slag did you survive? And why the frag did you return to the Decepticons? You should've just gone to the Autobots! You're a traitor anyway, and I'm sure Optimus would be just delighted to see you again, wouldn't he?"

Ebony flinched, but she didn't back down, her own anger rising to meet his. "You're an awfully big talker, now aren't you, my 'lord'? Primus, I come to help you with your cause, after you left me for dead, and this is the thanks I get? Isolation, lockdown, and now this? Like you could do without me? Who the frag else would have your back when Starscream tries to shove a dagger in your back? Soundwave isn't as omnipresent as you seem to think, Megatron! Plus, the spy hasn't really got a taste for punishment, does he? He'd probably be better off as an Autobot, anyway. But me? Let's face it, Megatron, I belong here just as much as you. At least I'm loyal, not like you deserve it."

Megatron growled, shoving Ebony against the wall behind her. "How dare you claim to be loyal to me after what you did on Cybertron! You betrayed me for my enemy! And you claimed you wanted to be my sparkmate! You traitorous femme! Once you are no longer useful, I promise I will send you to the Well!"

Ebony grimaced, spark aching at the mention. Trying her best to ignore how close he was, to ignore how it had been so long since he dared to touch her, fluid threatened to fill her optics, but she forced it away.

Her resolve shattered.

"I staged it," she muttered.

"Excuse me?" Megatron demanded, slamming her back against the wall, pinning her firmly.

"I staged it," she ground out, looking at the floor. Primus, for so long she'd carried this lie. All to let it fall apart. What was the point anymore?

"Staged. What?" Megatron asked, his voice dropping further into a growl.

"I set it up!" Ebony shouted, blue optics blazing as she looked up into that familiar face. "You were starting a revolution! How the Pit could I live with it if I distracted you and it failed?! I had to do something so that you wouldn't care about me anymore and you could continue your fight! I refused to be the reason you couldn't focus on your mission! Your vision was what you were fighting for!" Mustering her strength, Ebony shoved Megatron away and stalked away, helm down. "If that's not a form of loyalty, then you can rot in the Pits."

The doors closed behind her, and Megatron stared at where she'd been for quite some time, letting the weight of her words sink in.

It wasn't real. She had sacrificed her chance at freedom, at happiness, even her chance at life, to ensure that he would remain focused.

Maybe Ebony didn't realize it, but it seemed Flare lived on.