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

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. ]

I may have given them names, Drift, but the ideals of choosing one's life for oneself were not mine alone. Nor were many others.

[He likes that laugh.]

I'll admit it would be easier with allies.

Will you come?

But that's only part of what we believed. 'Peace through tyranny', Megatron, wasn't that your goal? Conquest because we were 'superior'.

[Remember? Drift does. Deadlock does.]

Allies. Is that a new word for you?

[Suspicious, wary? Drift has reason to be.]

We will take what we can. [He acknowledges that.] And thus the strongest will inherit Cybertron. The most deserving. The most capable.

[He smirks.] Which I'm told leaves plenty in the dust of our exhaust. I've had it cautioned to not underestimate my foes, and with as many humans as I've met... [Primus, he was never going to set foot on earth. It was a death trap.]

I've learned a piece of that lesson.

And 'allies,' no. Not a new word. Better than 'friends.' [Friends, who just when you make them, tend to get exploded. Or deported. Or consumed by darkness. It has not been a good few years for friends.]

But there is no double-standard with them, either. No betrayals. You know where you stand with a Decepticon, and you know how to gain respect.

[He bares a tooth.] Don't tell me you don't miss it.

What about those whose skills aren't in butchery? They're not important? They're not capable? What society can you build that's made only out of killers?

I prefer friends. A friend will tell me when I'm wrong. An ally might just part ways. [If Drift knows nothing else, he knows this distinction. Which is why he values Wing so highly.]

What I miss...isn't important.

You can't.

[He's listening to what you have to say. He's heard this before, but that does not make it less correct.]

You can't build a society with only warriors, but you can't win a war with gardeners, Drift. There has to be a war.

There has to be a world after the war, as well.

A world where 'friends' might be a possibility, once more.

[He leans closer to the screen.]

Which is why it is important.

Tell me, Deadlock.

It might make a difference.

Does there? I know they wouldn't have listened to us any other way, but we could have stopped.

We should have stopped before it...changed us.

[He can't figure out when that would have been. But there had to have been a moment they could have turned aside.]

[There's a slight in-vent at the screen at the name. Only Megatron could know how much that name meant to him: it was his first real possession.]

[His mouth twitches.]

I miss the power, of course. The respect of the gun. But it was false, all of it: fear, not respect.

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

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