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

[megaton]

[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.

~~~~~

Comments

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

[He muses a moment, then lets go a small chuff of laughter.] That's not dissimilar from how I felt about joining the Circle. Though I was more than half-willing.

In many ways Megatron was not wrong. The Senate failed us first. We needed radical change...but his was too radical. [He frowns, as if recalling bitter things.]

I know. But it's bothering that I can't sort it out. What's his motive? Why me? Has he found out who's on the Law Committee?

I have to find out.

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

But your choice was to help others. Ours was to help ourselves.

[It was what you learned in the gutters: take care of yourself, forget everyone else. Or try to. ]

That's the problem. Someone had to do something, but would anything less radical been listened to at all? [He's wondered that for a long time.]

I don't think we've talked much about the Law Committee on open channels since the unmarked started showing up.

...Wing....

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

Yes, true. But you still thought you could make a difference, help address the problem at its source alongside Megatron. It wasn't entirely selfish. Just misguided.

[It's exemplary though, realizing how many mechs wanted change and for so many different reasons.]

[He sighs.] I don't know. Perhaps just as radical but more controlled? [He shakes his head.] The corruption ran so deep...

I'm being careful...I am. I just don't like being at a disadvantage. Forewarned is forearmed right?

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

It doesn't change that we took hold of any scrap of self-righteousness and turned it into a weapon.

[Drift shakes his head.] As it was, three Primes did their best to shut Megatron down. Anyone smaller would have been taken care of, even earlier. It makes you wonder how many others had tried and been...quietly done away with.

[He sighs. Megatron's already taunted him with trying to hamper Wing's movements. He has no right to put any demands on Wing. ] _{...I hope}

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

No, but that's often what happens with self-righteousness. Weapons are never really the problem, it's how we wield them.

In a way he was a necessary thing that needed to happen in our society. If not him then someone else would have. It just escalated too far. The ideas were good, but the execution...

[He sighs, because by this time Wing also knows.]

Drift... He knew me. Another version of me, in another place far from home. They had an arrangement apparently...

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

I wish I could see the line as clearly as you do. [He doesn't--he was too entangled with the war, his allegiances almost too personal.]

[A disquieted tone.] ...an 'arrangement.' [He does not like the sound of that. At all. ]

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

I didn't, then. It was all beyond me, too frightening to take seriously. Denial, avoidance...it's easy until it affects you directly. But that was before the Circle took me in. [His level of naivety then, in hindsight, was boggling.]

Megatron's words. [Wing does not like it much either.] He has plans for a portal, one he says can take him, us, anyone home. Apparently my counterpart agreed to go with him, back to the beginning, to keep him in check.

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

I think we all held power for the first time and none of us knew what to do.

[He'd been naive too in his own way. The kind that said he never knew anything else.]

Megatron doesn't make arrangements that simple.

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

There are few who really do, I think.

[He'd been lucky, to be found by the Circle and, in a way, enlightened.]

No, I imagine he doesn't. [His mouth presses into a flat line, pensive.] I see Megatron's need and I trust his motives for it...but I do not trust them to stay that way.

People don't just change their ways when they change their minds Drift, there's almost always a catalyst. You know it yourself. You changed your mind outside the slaver base when you told me your name and it wasn't the one Megatron gave you. But your ways didn't change until after your later visit with the slavers and Lockdown.

I doubt anyone's words alone would keep Megatron from the path we know he takes. He's banking on me wanting to try, regardless, though.

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

They don't stay that way. Power corrupts. It was too much temptation for the Primes, it's too much temptation for anyone.

[He gives a sort of bitter laugh. ] I told you my old name because I didn't want to be tracked. It was a deceit, nothing more. [He's embarrassed by that now, but it's the truth.]

How do you think you could stop him, Wing?

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

There must be a way. How does beneficial leadership happen that doesn't become corrupted? [He doesn't expect an answer, but he knows there must be one.]

[Aww, Wing likes his description better, but okay.] When would you say you first changed your mind then? When you wanted something different?

[Wing sighs and rubs the crest of his helm.] Words work until they're tested by difficult decisions. It's easy for Megatron to be convinced and decide against the course that destroyed our planet, but it wasn't one decision but many that wrought that destruction. Each calculated loss, each necessary evil... those can be all too 'acceptable' individually. I might prevent some things, like the swarm, but when push-comes-to-shove... [He shakes his head. He wants to believe it's possible, to hope that it is, but it's difficult to imagine.]

War is a two-fold enterprise, action and reaction. I think change has to happen on both sides in order to have a truly different outcome. Or, somehow, it has to be prevented at the start...

...but is that even possible?

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

Maybe it doesn't. Maybe it's impossible. As soon as the Knights of Cybertron left our planet, look what happened.

[The red spaulders shift, uncomfortable.] When I realized that I was about to lose it all.

It can't be prevented. Too many minds too bent on force and will. It's like these rushes of water they have on Earth. Tsunamis. All that water, all at once.

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

It seems like it's something that has to be maintained. If we're part of the development of this world Drift ...maybe we should be sure to stay? [And not repeat the Knight's mistake. He doesn't want to think of it as such...but what else is there?]

[He nods but doesn't press the subject further. Making Drift uncomfortable wasn't part of the point.]

So all we can do then is channel it? In a direction that it does the least amount of damage?

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

That's a big if, Wing. [One he wants to believe, but he won't blind himself to the fact it might just be his desire to see things a certain way. He'd blinded himself before. He won't again.]

How can we tell what direction that is, though. I mean, maybe what happens is supposed to happen.

Like, uh, me meeting you.

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

It is...but Vector's all but said there's an opportunity for us to do that. [It's an immense concept though.] I can barely grasp the true nature of such a task...

I don't know, I'd say 'to do the least damage' but...you're right, some things are inevitable, some are meant to happen.

[He grins a little at that. It's flattery, but of a special kind.] I like to think so.

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

He's said. [Drift is beginning to question how much he believes the First Forged.]

I don't know. Sometimes I think if I'd not killed those security mechs, I'd have died in the gutters, burned out, just..gone. I don't know if we know what damage matters.

Wing. Are you thinking of staying here? Or going back to our world?

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

I trust him Drift. [It goes beyond just faith.]

You might be right. [He sighs.] I don't think there's anyway to know though. How could we? So does that mean we change nothing? [He wonders now...if seeking Vector's counsel on this would be wise.]

...

Back with him? [He doesn't have to say who.] I'm...thinking about it. If it's possible, to make a difference, to save our world? I feel like I should try. But... [So many 'buts'.]

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

I don't know. I wish I did, about any of this. [Is there anything worse than having all this faith and not knowing where to put it?]

He seems to believe it. There or here, do we make a difference and which one's more important?

....but?

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

I wish I did too. [It's hard to adjust your faith and moral compass when there's two "Norths" to point to. He wishes Axe or Dai Atlas were here; Wing wonders what they would think about all this.]

That's troubling me too. I want to be where I'm needed most, where I can do the most good...but I don't know which that is.

But... [His face softens, the uncertainty leaving it, because in this there is no question.] I sacrificed once already and gave up a life with you. I...don't want to do that again.

Re: [video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

The thing is. I don't know about the science but it seems to me, if he did change things in our world, that would either create a splinter world where we still suffer the consequences of all our actions....and he doesn't. Or everything changes in our world and then...maybe...I'd never meet you.

[His voice tries to stay neutral, but it's clear which option seems worse to him.]

How do you help when you're not even sure what you're helping, a monster or a savior?

Wing.[This is probably weak, but so be it.] I wouldn't let that happen.

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

So even if he changes things, It doesn't affect us, unless...unless we're with him in that splinter world?

[His face twitches, a nervous frown flitting over it.] Or everything changes.

[He sighs, because it's not an easy call for him either.] We just have to trust ourselves. I'm sure Megatron has been both, and even all at once.

[He can't really hid the smile that brings, and really, despite it feeling a tad selfish, he doesn't even try.] Would you...would you go with him? With me?

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

What happens to us doesn't matter. But our world, our history, us? If he changes anything, it either changes nothing or it changes everything. [He nods. ]

[Drift sighs. It's not even a question for him.] I would go with you. _Always

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

Or, potentially, it does both. If the timelines splinter. Which means we can't really save our world, we can only save the new one Megatron's return creates.

If that is true, then we have to decide where we need to be. [Much harder than it sounds.]

[But if they are together, maybe there's less change of being torn apart.]

[His optics flicker with emotion, speechless. It's impossible to express what this level of devotion means.]

But...what if you could go back? To the Lost Light and continue your quest? [Likely just as worthy as guiding Megatron or helping the formation of society on this new world.]

[video] Jacked & Locked

[sword_redemption]

[He laughs.] Listen to us. We're talking as if we really believe Megatron's plan's going to work. We've been here how long? But he shows up and instantly has a way to get back home.

[It sounds crazy, doesn't it?]

...I don't know. Our quest would put things right, repair some of the wrongs I did to our world.

But staying here...repairs the wrong I did to you. [A flash of a smile, almost a grimace.] _{I hope}

[video] Jacked & Locked

[winged_knight]

[He has to chuckle a bit to himself.] Well, okay. You have a point. Even if it works we have more than enough time to make a decision. He's given me the plans, I fully intend to get as many consultations as I can on how feasible this is.

[Only half crazy.]

Drift... [It comes out hushed but full of emotion. By the way he leans into the camera he just wants to hug you now. He gestures...] All of this. Being here, with you, together. Loving you...it's enough.

Do I have to come over there and prove it to you?! [A slightly wiley grin.]

...but...I'm still only one person. The Lost Light...