re_alignment | [Broadcasting from the tallest peak he can find in the junk pile.]

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!event: glyphless

[Broadcasting from the tallest peak he can find in the junk pile.]

[Someone has been through this before. Someone knows this drill. Someone has worked very, very hard to finally make it back to his Cybertron, only to find it all wrong. Again.

Someone probably has destroyed a few piles of junk in their anger.

However, someone also has paid attention to the communications on the network, and has ventured to the 'temples' that were mentioned, and has found them locked against him.

This someone is not surprised.]

Listen closely, and listen well.

[It is time to act. The feed opens with a closeup on Megatron's faceplates, optics blazing red, the scant remnants of gladiator paint still burned onto the metal.]

This is not where we belong, and I am done with this.

I am done with waking up to see an unfamiliar sun obscuring all-too-familiar stars. I am done with strangers being cast from world to world. I am done with mechs-who-would-be-gods so graciously patronizing us by allowing us to remain while simultaneously enforcing unethical segregation and I am done, finally, with the thwarting of destinies that I and my allies have slaved, toiled, and died to create.

You can listen to those who make the rules here if you desire to. I have heard a song like theirs, before.

Or.

[He flashes, briefly, a datapad that seems to have some sort of schematic on it--a schematic that looks (to those who are familiar with them) like a complicated space bridge.]

If you are 'done' as I am, you can help me.

I am Megatron, and I will deliver anyone that joins me to their rightful homes.

[A single, pointed tooth is visible in the smirk that finally dawns on his face. His interdimensional portal had only worked, once, but with the right mechs he would see it to completion again. Immediately.]

I guarantee it.

~~~~~

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The war destroyed our Cybertron twice over. You're so eager, even after the war's end, to destroy another one?

Don't be too quick to judge what others will do to help. We're refugees, all of us. It's in our interests of survival to cooperate.

I am aware of that.

I am aware, and I have no interest in destroying any Cybertron for the first time.

I desire to build this portal for my own reasons. Once I am gone, it will remain here for any others to make use of. It is a solution.

Have your Firstforged gods offered as much?

Yes. I know. I think in the end maybe even you realized it.

It didn't change that we did. All of us.

And we could do it here, easily.

It's a 'solution' to what problem? [Maybe Drift doesn't want to go back. Maybe he has things here he doesn't want to lose.]

They're not gods. And they're not mine. I gave up on demagogues when I left the Decepticons.

All of us?

No.

You have me confused for someone else. [He taps the remnants of his gladiator paint.] I have not destroyed any worlds yet.

All I intend to do is solve the 'problem' of being stuck on this world. Surely there are those who wish to return? Perhaps not even to their own time, but to a time where they can better make a difference...
[He watches you steadily.] Unless there are no things you regret?

No. I don't have you confused. I know--now--what you will become.

[He frowns.] What you're suggesting is exactly what I'm talking about. Using it as a time machine to tip the balance.

[Drift holds himself a little too still, knowing Megatron's watching.]

I try not to dwell on them.

Do you? Or do you know what I could become? [Mere semantics.]

Of course that is my intention, Drift. I intend to go, and finish what I started as I promised you and many others. It will change everything.

For my universe.

Not for yours.

Just one more of an endless set of alternate realities. One in which you might not make the same...'mistakes,' as you'd call them.

I know what you become in my world.

[He's not a semantics mech, Megatron. He uses swords to cut through that sort of obfuscation, like Gordian knots.]

You've changed everything.

At the end of the war, I thought...I thought maybe you'd finally seen it.

It's the same universe. You can't change one world without it affecting every other world out there. [He's not great on quantum theory, but that seems sound.]

Perhaps I did.

I know it was not particularly difficult for me to grasp onto the concept of our war destroying the planet.

But why would you want to believe in that, Drift? Believing in that means there is no possibility of saving Cybertron and the thousands that died.

Believing in that means that I have to return with no memory of my time here, and continue on exactly as I did before--and that you will have to do the same.

There's no 'perhaps'.

You grasped more than the concept, Megatron.

[He cycles a deep vent of air.] If there's a possibility to save Cybertron, I don't think it would come through you.

[But he hesitates, remembering something....]

Yes. Because that's what happens. Mechs tell me about things I've done in my future. I don't act any different then.

Drift.

Deadlock.

You believed in my promises, once.

Do you doubt that I meant them?

Our goal always was to restore glory and equality to Cybertron.

Yes. I believed. I think back then maybe you believed, too.

But there's a price that shouldn't be paid, no matter what the end result.

I do believe.

I have believed for the past two years. I have believed through being ripped from my timeline, experimented on, tortured, and having those I trusted taken from me.

I believe Cybertron requires change, and I believe that without me, what it will become will invalidate the efforts of Decepticons everywhere.

I want to return.

Why is that so terrible?

[He sighs. He knows he's not equal to this level of conversation. Not with Megatron.]

Megatron. Belief, blind belief, can lead you astray because you believe so strongly in an idea, that you don't see what's happening to actual things around you.

Cybertron was imperfect. But change just for change can be just as bad.

Because you're already there.

I am aware of that.

Aware enough that I even contracted an old friend of yours to return with me and monitor my progress.

...

I don't believe he even remembers me, now.

So I shall have to monitor myself, unless you wish to come and take over for him.

Old friend? [A dubious laugh.] I never had any friends, Megatron. Not in your army.

[He looks puzzled--there's something here he's not getting.]

...you're not making any sense.

Least of all why you'd pick me.

I wouldn't have chosen someone from my army to do the job, Drift. That would have defeated the point.

Neither would I have chosen an Autobot.

[He smirks.] I picked a Knight.

And I Knight I would still have.

[Give him a moment, Megatron. He gets what you're saying, but doesn't want to. His mind is throwing up impossibilities, but, well, meeting here like this was an impossibility, also, wasn't it?]

[When he speaks, his voice is dark, dangerous.]

You will leave Wing alone.

He chose to come willingly, Drift. To ensure the safety of Cybertron.

Would you do no less?

He will not. [Or he and Drift will have words.]

[The blue optics glitter.]

Really.

I expected better from you than such obvious manipulation.

Did you, now?

And I expected better of you than to dictate the actions of another individual.

Neither of you need return with me.

I am capable of policing myself. [Even if he'd...miss...Wing's arguments.]

However, I'd suggest not getting in my way.

[The optics narrow. ] Decepticon chain of command. Telling others what to do is a field commander's job.

[A probably familiar scowl, that he forces from his face with great effort.]

Take me, then. I at least know what I'm getting into.

But Wing is not a Decepticon. [Therefore, he's not within the chain of command.]

And a field commander would also need to be a Decepticon, Deadlock. To have a team. To accomplish goals. To build a new and greater Cybertron.

Nothing says I need separate you from the mech you've worked so hard to live up to.

I could take you both. Keep him from returning to his time and meeting with his fate.

Give you a purpose, again.

I know. I don't want him to become one.

[It's an admission that he knows, all too well, how convincing Megatron can be.]

How do you know that your vision is the 'greater Cybertron' we need?

[Oh. Ouch. ]

He could stay here and live. Which is better than the risk of going anywhere with you.

I have a purpose, Megatron. To make right what I ruined before.

I know you don't.

I know you don't want to see him fall, the same way you see yourself having fallen, prey to twisted ideals... [He knows it from the other end, but that is enough.]

But I have not yet lost those ideals, Knight. I still believe in a changed Cybertron...a whole Cybertron...and I, alone, have seen what ill the future brings.

I can avoid it.

I will avoid it.

I will keep my promise.

And you....

You can keep your purpose.

[He laughs.] But I still doubt Wing will let you go alone.

Your ideals, Megatron. Own them. [Drift struggles to master the distress. This was Megatron, who knew him all too well. ]

[He can't hide the laugh, almost familiar, almost fond. ] You think you can fight the entire weight of history. [Only Megatron would have such arrogance.]

Let that be between Wing and me. [He'll cheat if he has to, to keep Wing safe, and live with the loss. ]

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