Chapter Text
Epilogue – Stranger
“Sire!”
Terminus laughed as a streak of black and silver rushed towards him before latching on to his leg tightly like a little cyberlimpet.
”You’re here! I missed you!”
Terminus beamed as his servo gently rubbed the little sparkling’s black helm affectionately. The sparkling chirped in irritation and attempted to push his servo off to no avail. One day, when he was an adult his helmet would turn silver and he would be a pillar of strength and power. Hopefully also a pillar of hope and kindness, unlike the clan that he had come from.
”I missed you too, spark of my spark,” Terminus fondly murmured as he reached down to pick the mechling up. Said mechling began to beep excitedly in response. “Have you been well, D16?”
D16 nodded, his tiny servos tracing the bolts on his armour as the mechling pressed himself against him to feel the warmth of his engine. D16 grumbled and whined before beginning to harmlessly slap his thick armour, his little servos sounding like the pitter patter of raindrops on a roof. D16 wanted to magnetise to him as he had as a bitlet but he had unfortunately aged to the point where his magnets had been converted into raw materials for him to grow.
”You’re too old to magnetise, little one,” Terminus chuckled as he fondly looked down at his sparkling. “All your magnets have been converted into essential metals for a growing young mech!”
”But I want to be sticky!” D16 shouted, making little grabbing gestures in Terminus’s face as he pouted at his sire. “Sticky! Sticky! Sticky!”
“You have to use your cables, little mechling,” Terminus laughed.
“No! I want my magnets back!” D16 folded his arms across his chest and pouted at him. “I want to be sticky! I want them back! Make them come back! Sire please?!”
Terminus held back his laughter as D16 squirmed in his arms, protesting and whining loudly, his beeping and chirping becoming piercing.
”If you insist on being sticky then I’ll just keep all the art supplies I got you,” Terminus wagged a digit in his face. “Bitlets are sticky but they aren’t old enough for engraving tools and decorative welders crafted for a sparkling.”
At this the little mechling dropped his pouty face, stopped wriggling and straightened his back in an attempt to look bigger. Older.
”Ah, I see that you appear to be a mechling now,” Terminus smiled, deciding to humour his son.
”Old enough for art things?” D16 asked, his optics pleading.
“We shall see,” Terminus smiled down at him before walking through the apartment towards the little mechlings room.
It had been a long while since he had visited and Termagax appeared to be filling her apartment full of junk and other useless items. A hoarder, he might think but would never say to her face. Where there should have been clear pathways to the other rooms in the apartment there were only stacks of spare parts, tools and other things that Terminus knew his conjunx would never use despite her protests.
“Your carrier certainly has a lot of things,” he commented as he shuffled his way through the apartment carefully. “Surprised you can call this a house.”
“I’m used to it,” D16 sighed as his bright blue optics stared down at the clutter around them. “Sometimes I try to tidy, but carrier doesn’t like it when I touch her things.”
Terminus frowned, his expression disapproving as he gave the apartment a once over. It wasn’t large by any means but it was spacious enough for himself, his conjunx and D16 were to be clean and livable.
“You shouldn’t be used to it, spark of my spark,” he explained with a heavy spark but D16 shrugged.
“I keep my room clean,” D16 announced, puffing his chassis out proudly. “I’m a good mechling!”
Terminus laughed heartily, affectionately rubbing the top of his helm to which D16 squeaked in disapproval and tried to batter his large servo away in embarrassment.
“You are a great mechling, Little Dee,” Terminus teased as he reached for the door sensor to D16’s room. There was a loud hiss as his room opened showing a vastly different space to the cluttered mess of the rest of the apartment.
Terminus was impressed. His son’s room was spotless. A berth was pressed up against the far wall and there was a small work desk set up in the corner of the room. The covers were neatly folded over the berth and little trinkets sat neatly, dust free on the floating shelves that D16 could reach. Light from Iacon shone through the large window, its blinds up and casting a golden glow about the room.
“This is impressive Dee!” Terminus praised and D16 grinned up at him, proud of himself. “Good job!”
D16 grinned widely, looking pleased with himself. Terminus laughed and set his mechling down on his recharge berth as the sparkling looked up at him seeking validation. Terminus looked around, his initial joy at seeing such a spotless room slowly dissipating into concern. D16’s habsuite was clean, yes. But far too clean for a sparkling whose room should be full of comforting things, trinkets and toys.
The only thing he saw that gave any indication that a young bot lived here was the little figurines of Megatronus Prime all neatly arranged on a shelf, dust free and immaculately kept. Like a collector would rather than a child’s collection of toys.
”D16 where are all the toys I got you? Where’s the drawing panels and datapads full of stories?” Terminus asked and D16’s face immediately dropped its joyous expression and he cast his optics away from Terminus, looking ashamed. ”D16? Did you not like them? Would you rather I got you different things? I’m happy to get you things you want, you only have to ask.”
”I- I wanted to keep them, really I did!” D16 looked up at his sire pleadingly. “I didn’t throw them away! I would never throw away your gifts sire! Even if I didn’t like them I would still keep them!”
Terminus placed a comforting hand on D16’s helm sensing the child getting more upset with each word, his thumb gently rubbing circles into his helmet to comfort him. D16 leaned into the touch, as if it were the first time that he had felt comfort.
“I never thought that you did, little one,” Terminus reassured him. “Your carrier threw them out?”
D16’s face fell and he nodded sadly, his head bowed as his tiny servos clenched the blankets underneath him.
“She says they’re distractions,” D16 mumbled, anger flaring from his EM field. “They distract me from my study.”
What?
“Study?” Terminus was aghast. “D16 you are too young to be enrolled in school.”
“Carrier doesn’t want to enroll me in a school, she wants to home-school me,” D16 explained, drawing the blankets around him, his servos shaking. “I- I was looking forward to going to school. I want to make friends. I don’t have any of those. I don’t know anyone except you and carrier.”
Terminus gazed down at his sparkling for a long moment, his sparkling drawing the blankets around him almost like he was trying to mimic someone hugging him. It was then that he realised that there was a barely noticeable ache that permeated his mechlings EM field.
Loneliness.
His little one was lonely in a way that a child of his age should never be. It bordered on desperation, the way D16’s EM field reached out to him, clung to his presence desperately.
“Sire…?” D16 asked, looking up at him, his wide blue and yellow optics staring with a pleading— wait. Yellow optics?
Terminus frowned as he knelt beside his mechlings' recharge berth, offering a large servo out to him. D16 stared at it confused before grasping it with his own tiny ones and trying to pull his sire towards him.
D16’s optics should not be changing colour at such a young age. The colour of a bots optic often informed how they saw themselves, how they had been treated. Most bots had blue optics when they emerged, though there were exceptions that Terminus had seen through his years. His own optics had managed to remain blue, despite everything his own brother had put him through, everything his so called clan had done. Perhaps it was due to his Destron ability but he was never sure.
But D16’s optics… they should not be changing colour this early in his life.
”Have I— have I done something wrong?” D16 asked, his voice a small whine as he shrunk away from Terminus noticing his sire’s pause. “I’m sorry, I didn’t—“
”No Dee, you haven’t done anything wrong,” Terminus quickly reassured his sparkling as he took the blanket his mechling was holding on to and wrapped it around him before gently pulling D16 into his arms and holding him tight.
“I don’t understand why my carrier hates me,” D16 whimpered sadly as his tiny servos clung desperately to his sire’s arm.
”She doesn’t hate you, Dee,” Terminus murmured softly to him but D16 just shook his helm.
”I disappoint her,” His sparkling lamented. “She doesn’t let anyone see me. She hides me away like I’m a monster. Am I a monster? Is there something wrong with me?”
”You are not a monster, D16,” Terminus clutched his sparkling tightly.
”Then why does carrier treat me like one?” D16 sniffed, as tears began to slip from his optics. ”It’s my fault, it must be my fault.”
”No, D16 it is not your fault,” Terminus sternly reassured him. “What your carrier is doing, how she is making you feel is very wrong. D16, what she is doing is very bad.”
D16 said nothing, only clinging on to Terminus’s arm desperately, burying his faceplates into the miners chest.
”Dee, it’s not your fault,” Terminus whispered, as he gently rubbed his mechlings back to comfort him.
“Pl- please don’t go back to the mines,” D16 pleaded desperately. “I don’t want you to go. Stay… stay with us, don’t leave me alone with her.”
Terminus felt conflicted. He desperately wanted to stay, to be with his sparkling, to comfort him and maybe see if there was a sliver of the Termagax he once knew. The Termagax he had courted and fell in love with before she was consumed with paranoia upon learning the Megatronus Prime’s new champion, Kilotronyx, was actually a reformatted Lord Requiem.
Yet despite this, she insisted on still working with the femme. In hushed tones, away from the High guard and the Lord Protector's many optics, Termagax cursed her, said unflattering things and kept her close as a ‘security measure’. One would think that his conjunx was talking about Galvatron himself the way she spoke of the femme.
Terminus himself wasn’t particularly fond of Kilotronyx, having caught the wrong end of one of her spies every now and again as she searched the globe for remaining members of Galvatron’s clan or other Destrons. He did not know Kilotronyx personally and from what he knew, she seemed perfectly amicable. At very least he could respect Kilotronyx’s want to find more of her own people. He knew the loneliness that came with being the last of something, even if the something he was a part of was best made extinct.
But Termagax still held on to such resentment while paying nice with the subject of her ire. It was absurd. He doubted that Kilotronyx would care much for Termagax’s opinion of her and even if she did she was bound by oath to the Primes. She could do no harm against an innocent life on pain of death.
Regardless, even Terminus could see that Kilotronyx was slowly moving away from being an engineer and Lord Protector, her focus on her clan, her sparklings especially, like Termagax should have been doing for D16. Especially since the incident with Scion and his carrier, Dr Eclipse Fornax, protege of CMO Ratchet.
The murder of her conjunx in broad daylight while her infant sparkling was in the room. It was horrendous. Abhorrent. He had never expected the Functionists to stoop so low as to attack a carrier in front of her own child. Yet Termagax acted indifferent to her loss. Kilotronyx had exploded in anger, quitting the engineer’s guild and returning to the High Guard in fury at Termagax’s lack of concern for her welfare or mental state.
Granted the two had spoken and resolved the dispute, yet Terminus was of the opinion that it should have never happened in the first place. Termagax had no reason to be so cold and unfeeling towards someone during their darkest hour even if she did not like them. There was just no reason at all.
… He didn’t understand Termagax, he thought he had once, that once clever and intelligent pragmatism catching his optic. Her desire for reform and workers rights was infectious, inspiring. He did always prefer strong and domineering transformers. But now… with D16’s words and thoughts troubling him. Was Termagax really fit to raise their sparkling while he took megacycle long trips to the mines to work and provide for his clan?
Terminus considered as he looked down at D16, the mechling was openly weeping now, crying into his chassis as Terminus held him close.
”I’ll stay,” he promised D16, giving his sparkling a gentle squeeze of reassurance. “I’ll speak to my boss to delay returning to work as long as I can. I’ll stay for you, spark of my spark.”
D16’s EM field lit up brightly but he remained still clinging to his sire’s arm, almost afraid to let go of him.
”Thank you! Thank you!” D16 exclaimed, clinging to him tightly. “Thank you!”
Terminus clutched his sparkling tightly, the troubling thoughts racing through his processors.
”Everything will be alright,” he murmured into D16’s audial. “I would never allow anything to hurt you, you know that right Dee?”
He felt D16 nod as his large servo caressed his sparkling’s small black helm.
”I know sire,” D16 sleepily replied as he sniffed and started to snuggle deeper into Terminus’s chassis, quickly falling into recharge. “I know.”
”Megatron surrendered to Optimus Prime and swore an oath to him,” Impactor growled out as Terminus sat down in the booth opposite him. Hal’s Bar was decidedly loud and raucous this cycle as word had spread from Earth that the War was slowly winding down, most of the Decepticons broken and lost without a leader as their command on Earth fractured and factions had begun to form within their people. The older mining mech’s optics widened in shock as he stared at his old friend.
”If this is another one of your jokes, ‘Pactor,” Terminus growled and the Wrecker Leader laughed.
”You think I’d think up something so absurd, Minus?” The autobot waved his servo dismissively. “He was in Autobot prison for many cycles. Maybe we finally got to him, yeah? Or maybe this is one of his schemes?”
Terminus said nothing in reply, his mind clicking and turning over the scenarios.
It was true, Megatron had been captured by Autobots after a supposed infighting among Decepticons. He had lost a Challenge and been defeated, as per the old traditions of the High Guard. Though others spoke he had given up willingly. That he had allowed himself to fall. Since then, Megatron had spent a lot of time in Autobot prison on Earth. Not even attempting to break out as he had done when captured in the past. The rumours and whispers that occasionally came from the Autobots suggested that Megatron had been broken down, that his will had slowly been snuffed out while the Decepticons claimed they were brainwashing him.
Terminus doubted either. He had no investment in either faction, no matter how much Impactor attempted to get him to join the Autobots and his crazy band of Wreckers, Terminus remained steadfast as a neutral civilian. He agreed with the Decepticon movement, seeing elements of his ex-conjunx’s rhetoric in D16– No, Megatron’s crusade but he disapproved of his methods. His sparkling had grown violent and his means to an end did not justify the result. But he knew that unless Megatron came to the conclusion that he was wrong himself, he would not be stopped. He was like Galvatron in that respect and it terrified him.
D16 even as a young sparkling held tightly to his beliefs, sense of right and wrong, even when his carrier tried to crush it and turn him into a vessel for her legacy. The same with Sentienel. No one chained Megatron’s will.
D16 would never be tamed. He knew that. He had always seen it in those once bright blue optics of the spark of his spark.
”I think you’re all fools,” Terminus rumbled as he gave the waitress a small smile as she brought him a pint of Engex. “Megatron is bound by no one. Megatron does not do things according to others and when he does, expect a fight or his opinion to be heard.”
Impactor scoffed and shook his helm.
”Still Megatron’s biggest fan?” He sneered. “He hasn’t written anything in ages. I imagine that being locked in a cell doesn’t help when publishing dainty little poems about the freedom he takes from others!”
”On the contrary, Megatron’s still writing and publishing,” Terminus countered with a smile. “Took me a while to find his new stuff but he’s adopted a new pseudonym and somehow was able to get his work out of prison.”
”Oh, more poetic waxing about freedom and liberty I assume?” Impactor jested and Terminus chuckled. “Shame that he can’t see the forest for the trees, the insane madman.”
”Yeah, as always,” he lied to his old friend.
Megatron’s new writing was distinctly different. More sombre, darker. Anguished.
Something had happened to his sparkling. Something traumatic, life changing, so much so that the new words, this new perspective on the world was dark and full of self loathing.
While it was true that Megatron never shied away from dark, gruesome or oppressive topics they were always rarely so emotional or personal. Most of his previous writing was political, raging against the caste system he was born into. Distribs against the Primacy and calls for equality. He spoke of personal torments, of injustices done against himself and his fellow transformers. But never anything personal. Not truly.
...I have always felt an ache within my spark. A loss of something that was never given rather than taken. I do not understand these feelings, only that I have always felt them, somehow even before my processors had the ability to remember. I don’t understand where this ache came from but it exists. It has always existed within me. The fear of what never was terrifies me, but perhaps it is best to remain ignorant to what caused this for I fear it will only bring dread and anguish to myself and those around me. I have spent my entire life trying to fill this ache, this void within me. Only still it remains, the one constant in my putrid existence.
Terminus felt Megatron’s words burn into his mind, their flame sharp and piercing to his spark. It confirmed what he always dreaded. That Termagax’s neglect and abuse of him still clung and shaped D16’s existence. Even now when the past was nothing more than a far distant memory, a dream.
He should have tried a little harder, always wracked with the guilt that he should have taken D16 with him, away from that wretched woman, maybe then this entire conflict, the destruction of their planet could have been avoided.
”You’re gonna crack the glass if you grip it like that mate,” Impactor’s voice suddenly cut through his thoughts. Terminus blinked his shutters before glancing down at his engex cube, his grip painfully tight around it, the fragile container straining under his grasp. He quickly let it go and his friend laughed. “Thinking about that old crone huh?”
Terminus rolled his optics.
”Am I really that obvious?” The old Destron muttered and Impactor gave a sigh.
“She was never good for you, anyone could see that,” Impactor shrugged as he looked down into his own cube. “Termagax was a stubborn old femme. The best at her job but let’s be real here, she was a right piece of slag.”
”She wasn’t always like that,” Terminus muttered bitterly, finishing his engex with a mighty swig before slamming the empty cube down on the table. “But it eats at me when I consider if it was genuine or she just wanted a sparkling to impress her will upon.”
Impactor looked at his old friend, deep sympathy in his gaze.
“I can’t believe she threatened to sell you out to the Elite Guard after you tried to take your kid to a safer place,” Impactor shook his helm in shame. “Granted the mines weren’t safe—“
”But they would have been safer than Termagax,” Terminus muttered. “At least he would have been loved and cherished instead of treated like a thing.”
A tense silence followed as Terminus hung his head low, his face in his servos.
“I failed him,” Terminus whispered, his voice a harsh croak. “I should have tried harder, I should have—“
Terminus threw his arms up in frustration and stared back up at Impactor who was watching him, silent and concerned.
”It’s too late now anyway,” Terminus gave a bitter laugh. “Termagax is probably long dead and my sparkling…”
My sparkling became an insane, diabolical warlord just like his insane uncle.
Though, to Megatron’s credit, he had his reasons. Flawed and warped certainly but they were at least better than Galvatron’s entitlement to power and delusions of placing himself above the Primes. Galvatron destroyed and conquered because he was a selfish piece of slag. Megatron destroyed and conquered because his desire for equality had gotten out of control. He wasn’t doing it for the right reason despite telling himself that he was. He had started his crusade with murder and had never stopped.
Until now, Terminus hoped as he thought of Megatron's oath to the Prime. Could it be possible? Was he trying to atone? Had D16 realised what he had done?
”Hey, your sparkling could still be out there, you never know!” Impactor tried to reassure Terminus and the old miner almost laughed in his face at the notion. Oh, he certainly was, that was for sure. “Maybe you’ll meet him again one day?”
Megatron would probably kill him without realising who he even was to him if he ever encountered the Decepticon Leader. Though, there could be a chance that he still recognised his old sire, however slim.
”Rusty chance of that,” Terminus sarcastically intoned as he attempted to wave a waiter down for another pint on engex. “But I appreciate the sentiment, ‘Pactor.”
”Hey no worries mate,” Impactor gave him a friendly chuckle. “You still looking for a job since the mines’ run dry?”
Terminus shrugged, as he ordered another drink with a kind smile to the exhausted looking waiter.
”I mean, unless the Allspark returns to Cybertron, the mines are gonna be dead forever,” The old Destron laughed as the waiter departed. “So yeah, still lookin’.”
”Well, CMO Ratchet’s looking for transformers for a security detail,” Impactor suggested and Terminus growled.
”I’m not an Autobot or a Decepticon—“
”Ratchet’s open to hiring neutrals,” Impactor quickly cut him off. “He needs extra cable power to guard the hospital’s stores of energon on both Earth and Cybertron. With Energon becoming scarce people have started stealing from medics. Ratchet said enough was enough when one of his nurses and a few innocent civilians got caught in a failed heist. He needs the mechpower Minus. You’d be given resources and accommodation. It’s a lot better than being cast out into the Rust Sea.”
Terminus shook his helm before glancing out of the window down at the darkened streets of Kaon below. Though Kaon had never been the most hospitable of places, it had once been full of light, life and working bots going about their business. Even when his tyrannical clan ruled over the underworld and called Kaon the jewel in their corrupted and tarnished crown, there had been life. Now it was dark and the high rise apartments full of lights sat dead and empty with a few lights here and there.
Cybertron was dying. Iacon had been laid waste by the war and Kaon, its largest city, could barely be called a city. Without the Allspark, all hope was lost as Cybertron’s lights slowly flickered and failed one by one. Soon even Kaon would be dead and their species scattered across the stars. Everyone was desperate to leave the dying world but Starships were rarely leaving and other colonies certainly were not returning to the homeworld anytime soon.
”Earth does sound like a nice back up plan,” Terminus muttered begrudgingly. “Even if it is organic and the frontlines of the War.”
Impactor joined him, staring out at the once lively city they once called home.
”See, there you are, some positives!” Impactor exclaimed. “And you never know, they could have energon mines there too! Think of being Ratchet’s bodyguard as a stepping stone to another job!”
Terminus laughed despite himself. He could always count on Impactor to lift his spirits.
”I’m pretty sure this is just an excuse to try and get me to work with your Wreckers. I know that you lot work pretty close with the old doc,” Terminus teased and Impactor pointed a digit at him.
”Come on! You’d be a great Wrecker! Join us! It’ll be a laugh!” He laughed heartily and Terminus shook his helm as he looked out at the city again.
”The fact that you’re even here drinking with me just goes to show how dead our world is,” Terminus sighed. “A cycle ago an Autobot would have been killed on sight in Kaon. Now, no one gives a single frag. People come and go as they please. I saw a damn Autobot Convoy Class near the CBD the other day and not a single Decepticon jumped him. Wild.”
Impactor gave a dismissive shrug.
”Everyone’s sick of war,” the Autobot reasoned. “It’s about survival now, everyone’s doing what they can just to live. It’s pathetic and sad.”
Terminus gave a sad shake of his helm.
”Maybe that’s why Megatron swore an oath to Optimus Prime,” Terminus considered. “Even he must see how this war has brought us to devastation.”
Impactor scoffed.
“Vorns too late if you ask me,” the Wrecker’s faceplate wrinkled in disgust. “Idiot mechling was too consumed by hatred to realise what he was doing to our species. Like, I did agree with the kid at first, loved his energy and passion but then he took things way too far."
”Better late than never,” Terminus murmured but Impactor didn’t look convinced.
“Sure, I guess,” the Wrecker hesitantly agreed. “So… you want to help out the good doctor and bust some helms in the process?”
Terminus stared down at the table as the waiter placed a new drink of engex before him. He should really lay off the stuff. It was becoming increasingly expensive due to the scarcity of energon and he was struggling as it was.
To the pits with it.
”Sure, count me in,” he finally relented and Impactor gave a cheer.
“Good to hear I don’t have to worry about one of my oldest friends going homeless and living in a rust bucket!” He laughed and Terminus couldn’t help but chuckle.
”Thanks Pactor, I owe you one.”
“Gotta watch out for my old mining partner now don’t I?”
”Sure,” Terminus smiled and raised his cube to Impactor’s.
“To the future!” Impactor cheered loudly.
“To the future.”
Ratchet was a tough boss, that was for sure. The old doctor reminded him of the strict supervisors in the mines only instead of physical punishments, Ratchet could break a bot down with his words alone. He didn’t even utilise his EM Field, he could just hurt you with mere words. It was impressive. Ratchet also made sure that those under his care did not overwork themselves and were able to receive the bare essentials that they needed.
It was nice to be treated as an equal, as a transformer that mattered instead of just another cog in a grand machine. He’d never received that in his life except for the brief moments he had spent with Termagax. but that time had been tainted as she drew a wall between herself and their sparkling with her paranoia and insanity before finally using her Destron ability to warp him out of their life.
Oh how he despised that old femme now. How he hated her for taking his precious sparkling away and turning him into Megatron. He knew that it probably wasn’t the only reason for D16’s rapid change, but it could not have helped.
Earth was… different to say the least. He’d been pulled from Cybertron at Ratchet’s request as the Decepticons on the organic world became even more desperate for energon, attacking any stores they could get for fuel. The Autobots often looked at him funny, possibly because he looked like Megatron, but they were otherwise nice and amicable which he appreciated. He wasn’t a Decepticon, that was all they seemed to care about.
”Ah slag they invited him,” a disgruntled voice suddenly spoke behind him. He turned from his place, guarding the front of the medical bay to look where his companion guard was looking and immediately froze as his optics caught sight of a pair of bots stalking down the hallway towards them.
Optimus Prime himself and… Megatron.
His sparkling. The one he had only seen in holovids since having to leave his precious spark of his spark behind.
Megatron looked different to the holos he had seen of the Warlord. Where once his build had been blocky and square like his own, now his pauldrons were flared out making him even larger, his helmet appeared to be shaped like wings, the glass of a cockpit sat below his chassis and he had the heels of a flight frame. His alt mode had changed from a tank to some kind of flight frame he didn’t recognise. Possibly an earth one which surprised him. Megatron seemed too proud for such a thing yet… here he was, with a strange non-cybertronian alt mode.
His companion sneered and glared at the former Decepticon Warlord, still with the Decepticon Insignia blazon across his chassis. As the two of them came closer, his companion suddenly spat oil at Megatron’s feet, the Prime giving a sigh but Megatron himself only paused in his tracks, looking down at the oil before glancing back up at his companion, more amused than offended.
“A bold one,” Megatron rumbled, his gravelled voice low and still bristling with authority before continuing forward, straightening his back and pulling himself to his full height as the Prime and Warlord advanced towards the medbay they guarded.
It was then that his companion’s confident demeanour suddenly faltered when he realised just how small he was compared to Megatron, barely reaching the Decepticon’s waist. Megatron looked deeply amused by this as he leered over the smaller bot.
”Perhaps not as bold as Ratchet wishes,” Megatron taunted and Optimus rolled his optics before grabbing onto the silver bots arm and pulling him back from the now quivering smaller bot.
”Leave them alone Megatron,” Optimus chided his companion and Megatron scoffed at the Prime.
”I am simply judging Ratchet’s choice of guards,” Megatron argued, before pointing at Terminus’s companion who flinched at the digit. “This one looks like he couldn’t defend a cybercat from a cyberflea.”
Megatron’s red optics flickered to Terminus, his gaze critical and full of judgement. He stared briefly at Terminus looking him up and down, Terminus meeting his gaze hoping, nay praying, that there was even the smallest amount of recognition in his sparkling. He kept his EM field tight, refusing to allow Megatron any hint of who he truly was out of fear of retribution. Perhaps Megatron felt slighted at being abandoned, at his promise being broken. Terminus wasn’t sure, he felt so confused, but all he knew was that Megatron’s EM field was flooding him with terror, trying to intimidate him. Trying to break him and get him to crack under pressure. Almost taunting him to do so.
He refused. He knew this trick. The mining supervisors used it all the time and though Megatron’s field was akin to being suffocated and crushed under the weight of a collapsed mine, he would not break. He refused.
Megatron stared for a moment, allowing his field to press on him even further before a smirk appeared across his face, approving of Terminus and his strength.
“I like this one though, he has true strength to him. Not many can resist my oppression field so easily. Very impressive, Ratchet chose very wisely with this one,” Megatron praised and all Terminus could feel to do was give him a slight nod in acknowledgement before the Prime pulled him away with another roll of his optics.
”Stop antagonising people, Megatron,” Optimus argued and Megatron turned back to him a sneer on his face.
”Ah yes, wouldn’t want your pet Decepticon biting strangers now, would you, Prime?” Megatron snapped back and Optimus groaned, annoyed.
”Megatron!”
Megatron raised his servos defensively as the Prime motioned for the door to open and for his companion to step through. Megatron paused, glancing at them before flinching towards the smaller one, who squeaked in terror and cowered away from the warlord as he entered the medical bay.
”Pathetic little thing,” Megatron groused in the distance as Optimus gave the smaller guard an apologetic look and a reassuring pat on the shoulder.
”He’s just toying with you, next time don’t spit at him, yes?” Prime asked and the guard looked up at him before nodding desperately.
“Yes— yes sir, sorry sir!” He squeaked and Prime nodded towards the both of them before following Megatron into the medbay.
His companion whimpered slightly for a while before straightening himself up and resuming his post, though his nervous glances towards the door suggested that Megatron had truly rattled him.
Well, he had spat oil at him, a deep insult that often ended in a physical fight in most instances. Megatron had taken it surprisingly well but then again, he was probably used to it by now considering how the Autobots sneered and looked with disgust upon his visage even now.
Terminus looked away from his companion feeling a sinking in his spark as he recalled those burning red optics that had pierced through his armour and into his spark.
There had been no recognition. Megatron had looked at him as if he were a stranger. His sparkling had no idea who he was. The memories of Terminus teaching him how to write and draw were completely gone, forgotten, just as he was.
Maybe that was for the best. It meant that he would not incite Megatron’s wrath upon himself.
Maybe.
It did nothing to alleviate the crushing feeling in his spark.
Terminus stood tall, proud and continued his duty as one of Ratchet’s best guards. He was given a nod of acknowledgement by Megatron as the warlord eventually left the medbay with Prime but nothing more was said or done. Megatron did not call for him, nor did he ask about the silver bot that Ratchet had hired. He was just another bot that had a random, frightening encounter with Megatron.
His colleagues praised him, enraptured by how he had stood up and not faltered to the evil Decepticon Warlord but he paid them no mind. He found that their praise hurt, more than anything.
The next cycles after recharge, Terminus awoke to find his faceplate wet from tears and his dreams filled with the cries of a small D16 screaming desperately for his sire.
He never saw Megatron again after that incident as the war finally ended and Terminus found himself once again on Cybertron protecting Ratchet as the Spacebridge was destroyed and the Allspark was lost, seemingly permanently.
Terminus gave up hope of ever seeing his sparkling again.
Not that his precious D16 would ever remember him anyway.
He had half a mind to go and find Termagax or at the very least House and confront her. He knew that she had survived somehow. Of course she had. She was unkillable as a cyberoach.
All he knew was that any attempt to reconnect with his lost sparkling was futile.
He knew that.
He wished that he didn’t.
Terminus awoke to the sound of knocking on his habsuite door. He bit back a growl as he glanced at the clock hung on his wall. The clock meant nothing in the vastness of space that their ship hung in but on Cybertron it would have been past sunset. Night. The old miner hated space travel, it was disorientating and being stuck in the vessel was driving him mad. He was aware of the irony, of himself being a miner who was so used to oppressive and tight spaces being so closed in.
But the mine shafts and the rock of Cybertron did not creak and wail against the unforgiving dangers of space. The rock he mined was solid and reassuring, this ship, made from desperate dreams and hopes was quickly put together for limited resources in the hopes that it would reach Earth.
Terminus was almost certain that it would fail before it even reached the Earth. He was no engineer, unlike Termagax, he had no clue on whether the ship would last the journey but the noises were not comforting.
The old miner looked at the door before giving a deep sigh and pulling himself up to sit on his berth.
“Come in,” he roughly called, fully expecting Impacter to enter with a glass of engex or something equally as strong to take the edge off of this entire lost cause of a trip. To his surprise it wasn’t the former Wrecker leader and his best friend, Impactor, instead it was the elder, Autobot Chief Medical Officer Ratchet. The very mech who paid his bills and was notorious through Cybertron for his lack of bedside manner. “Dr Ratchet, sir. How may I assist you?”
The Doctor was his boss and he was a very demanding one yet he was still the best he had had compared to the mining supervisors of Uraya and their cruel ways, their tendency to bully and abuse those under their control. Terminus was lucky that he was so strong and formidable that only the stupid ones tried to start with him. Others were not so fortunate.
“We’ll be arriving at the edge of the Earth system soon,” Ratchet informed him curtly. “I know how you despise space faring, Terminus.”
”It’s utterly miserable,” Terminus ground out, his voice gravelled as he stretched his cables. “I’ll be pleased to be on solid ground once more.”
“I think we all shall be,” Ratchet acknowledged before approaching him and settling in one of the chairs that sat at the small rickety table in his room. It wasn’t fancy and his room was unfurnished for the most part, Terminus never one to have many possessions being always on the move.
A few datapads and a small doll of Megatronus Prime was all that sat on the otherwise empty bookshelf that took up one wall of his tiny quarters. Termagax had long since barred him from his own sparkling by the time he had been able to buy it
”I’m curious as to why you decided to come along on this trip despite being so space sick,” The doctor asked and Terminus gave a shrug as he rose from his berth to join Ratchet at the table.
“You needed the mechpower,” Terminus shrugged, sitting heavily on the chair. “It’s not like staying on Cybertron was any better of an option. What’s better? Waiting to die or actually trying to find the Matrix of Leadership and giving our planet a second chance? I’m not waiting around to die, sir.”
“And here I was thinking you came because Impactor wanted a drinking buddy,” Ratchet bluntly stated and Terminus chuckled, despite himself.
“Yeah, well, that too,” Terminus gave a sad smile.
The true reason was he wanted to see if his sparkling was alright. He didn’t care if he didn’t remember him and that there was no chance for him to reconnect with him. Just being able to watch him and know how he was, make sure that he was safe would be enough.
Ratchet stared at him for a moment, his gaze as it always was piercing and stared right through him. Even with his Destron ability activated, he was certain that the old Doctor could see right through his ability.
Ratchet finally gave a gruff, ‘humph’ and looked at the doll on the shelf. Terminus followed Ratchet’s gaze to the little doll. Terminus felt his spark fall still for a moment before reaching over and grasping the little doll in his servos. It was old and worn, having been taken into the mines and not properly cared for over the years. But it was the only thing he had left of his Little Dee.
“You had a sparkling once,” Ratchet stated and Terminus nodded, still staring down at the doll. He clutched it tightly, the memory of his Little Dee clinging desperately to his arm as he begged for the doll replaying in his mind.
”This was supposed to be his,” Terminus murmured quietly. “For reasons out of my control I was thrown out of his life. I still bought this for him. He wanted it but I did not have the shanix at the time, when I did it was too late but I still hoped to give it to him one day.”
Even if that was nothing more than a dream, he still clung to it as the war raged on and his hope slowly dwindled into nothing. Little Dee was long gone, replaced by a dangerous and powerful warlord that had destroyed more than his despicable elder brother had hoped to achieve.
”Maybe you can still have that chance,” Ratchet offered and Terminus gave a sad, broken laugh.
”No, I’ve given up any chance of that,” the old Destron growled out. “I might be a hopeless dreamer but I know the reality of the situation. I’m not a fool blinded by the fantasies of my spark.”
”You never struck me as a mech like that,” Ratchet agreed. “You’re one of the most grounded and hardworking mechs that I know.”
Terminus chuckled, shaking his helm in disbelief.
“Yeah well, working made it easier to ignore what I’ve lost, what I’ve been through,” he muttered, still avoiding the doctor’s gaze. “Or perhaps I’m just runnin’”
”Running from the truth of what happened to your sparkling?,” Ratchet revealed suddenly and Terminus froze, his optics going wide in horror. “That he turned into something like your brother?”
Terminus said nothing, every single seam and rivet seizing up and going completely rigid as fear flooded his processor.
“At ease,” Ratchet immediately tried to calm him. “I did not come to interrogate or persecute you because of your relations. I happened upon the information by accident.”
“By accident?” Terminus repeated, a low growl to his voice.
“I was cross referencing CNA data sets while trying to single out an anomaly in another crew member's record and yours matched with… well, I’m sure that you're aware considering your reaction,” Ratchet explained.
“Depends on who you’re referring to,” Terminus gruffly commented.
“The one who is still alive,” Ratchet replied. “I have no concern for your relationship with Galvatron. That I had a suspicion about.”
“Good because I have no concern for my brother either," Terminus snarled bitterly, a look of hatred on his face. “I have been running from my slag of a brother for my entire life and I have not stopped. Yet still his shadow follows me.”
”I suppose that it would,” Ratchet conceded. “That is a great shame. Most people have forgotten who Lord Galvatron was. Those that knew are no longer with us.”
Terminus sighed, his immediate thought going to Kilotronyx and her forces hunting down his clan to the very last. Not resting until all of them had their sparks snuffed out. He did not care if she had found him, in fact he was expecting it but his sparkling. Even as Megatron his spark felt heavy at the thought of his sparkling dying. Megatron was still his Little Dee in his spark. He would always be the spark of his spark..
”What are you going to do with the information?” Terminus asked, his voice quiet and expecting the inevitable.
He was honestly surprised that it had taken this long for someone to work it out and he certainly hadn’t expected it to be by complete accident.
“Nothing,” Ratchet said and Terminus stared at him in disbelief.
”Excuse me?” Terminus was confused. Surely he should let his fellow Autobots know. Or at least Impactor as the Co-Captain of this blasted ship. “Surely you have an obligation to warn your faction about a close relation to one of their greatest enemies?”
”I do,” Ratchet nodded but then gave him a knowing smile. “But my obligation to my patients is higher than that. I would only report you if there was an immediate threat to yourself or others and from your history, you have never threatened yourself nor been a threat towards anyone.”
Terminus was taken completely by surprise. He stared at Ratchet, the Megatronus doll uncomfortably present in his servo.
”You… you’ll tell Optimus Prime at least when we find him?” Terminus asked and Ratchet shook his helm. He didn’t know how to feel about Optimus Prime knowing his connection to his greatest enemy.
”When I treated Megatron, Optimus Prime asked for his medical records a few times and I never once gave them to him. I know that Optimus would never do anything malicious with them, knowing him, Prime was only concerned about his friend. But my oath as a doctor still stands. I may only release Megatron’s file with his consent,” Ratchet declared. “I take my integrity as a medical profession seriously and I will not bend them to anyone, not even to a Prime. You have my word, Terminus.”
Terminus was silent for a long moment, considering his words before he slowly nodded.
”It is… good to finally have someone else know,” he admitted quietly. “I’ve wanted to tell Impactor for the longest time but… I do not want to lose my longest and closest friend.”
Ratchet nodded and clapped a hand to his shoulder.
”You’ve no record of being a criminal and you’re a known pacifist who refused to take sides even when both Decepticons and Autobot tried to bully you into their factions, Terminus,” The doctor reassured him. “That and Impactor vouches for you and Impactor is one of the most honest and trustworthy bots that I know.”
”He’s trustworthy to a fault,” Terminus shrugged. “I am surprised he struck with me when I told him that Galvatron was my brother.”
”He might be fine with the fact that you are Megatron’s sire,” Ratchet pointed out. Terminus laughed in response.
”You forget the grief that Megatron has personally caused the Wreckers,” the old miner groused. “He had a personal vendetta towards them after they took Soundwave hostage near the beginning of the word. Pactor doesn’t exactly have the highest opinion of Megatron.”
”Hmm, you may have a point there,” Ratchet nodded to him. “Regardless, I am curious what you intend to do when we reach Earth. Will you attempt to make contact with him?”
Terminus looked down at the doll again. It’s tattered armour barely holding together over the vorns.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing?”
Terminus shook his helm and clenched his fists. “I accepted long ago that I would no longer be a part of his life. Ever since Termagax manipulated me out of his life, after I couldn’t get to Iacon to help him and his friends when they were cogless miners. Even after Cybertron was restored I had, but then—“
Terminus laughed a sad, broken laugh, his servo clutching the doll tightly in his grasp as the pain of his sparkling’s absence creeped into his frame like a cryofreezing agent.
“It doesn't matter, I met him, as your bodyguard,” Terminus said looking back up at Ratchet who stared back at him, impassive and stoic. “I was with Sideswipe, Prime and Megatron approached us and Swipe insulted Megatron who then challenged him but couldn’t back it up. Megatron then challenged me and I resisted but—“
Terminus threw the doll onto the table glumly and looked away from it with a scoff.
”He didn’t even recognise me,” the old miner grieved. “Our sparkbond is non-existent. I tried so desperately to reconnect it but I was completely ignored so why would I try again?”
Ratchet stared at him silently for a moment, his optic brows pinched together in a thoughtful gaze.
”Creator bonds can be reawakened, it’s not entirely a lost cause. A creator and sparkling’s bond is permanent, unlike a conjunx or an amica. If Rung were still with us, we could have made some progress if Megatron was willing,” He finally imparted but Terminus shook his helm.
”Do not give me false hope, doctor,” Terminus growled his voice dangerously low. “I know that you wish to try and give me hope but I accepted long ago that there was none. Termagax took that away a long time ago.”
Ratchet gave him a look of despair and looked like he wanted to argue with him but thought otherwise. He slowly gave a nod of acceptance and looked down at the doll lying sprawled on the table between them.
”I treated him after Termagax was exposed to have neglected and abused D16,” Ratchet revealed and Terminus stared at him. “He had activated his Destron power after Termagax laid servos on him. His unique power was… anti-matter.”
Terminus’s optics went wide with horror. No, it couldn’t be.
”Anti-matter…” He whispered. “Just like Galvatron.”
Ratchet nodded, observing him carefully. He continued, “There was one major difference between their powers though. Galvatron’s anti-matter abilities were relatively weak and could only cause physical damage when in direct contact with someone or something. Megat— D16’s… his power was more condensed and volatile. It ripped reality apart at its very atoms, time, space and everything in between. He could project it and from the damage I saw on Termagax… he could direct it with his mere emotions alone.”
Terminus stared at Ratchet in complete shock before shaking his helm.
”Makes sense, Termagax is also a Destron,” he confided. “Didn’t tell me until after D16 was sired but I’ve come to expect nothing but treachery from that femme. She, after all, tried to get Kilotronyx to sire or carry a sparkling with her. She wanted a Destron born out of two Destron creators for her to control. I should have known. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was the one who ordered the hit on Lady Eclipse out of spite or jealousy.”
Ratchet nodded a frown on his face.
“Termagax was… something,” the doctor admitted before looking back at Terminus. “But the both of you being Destron’s explains why D16 was so powerful. Vector Prime was shocked at how strong he was as a sparkling. Who knows how powerful he would be as an adult. Thankfully, Alpha Trion locked his power away.”
”I hope the universe never finds out,” Terminus shook his helm and shuddered. “Galvatron was… well, I got the bad side of him often enough to know how vile anti-matter is.”
“Last time I saw Megatron he was healing well and he was considering seeing a psychiatrist,” Terminus mused quietly. “I only hope that he’s still chosen to keep on that path. He’s intelligent and he’s surprisingly very aware of himself, Terminus. I do think, even if you may not want to hear this, if you presented yourself to him and at least explained the situation to him, he might hear you out. He is not the rage filled warlord he once was. At least, when I last saw him.”
Terminus shook his helm, his optics glancing down at the doll on the table. He picked it up again, his digits gently feeling the textures of the soft metal.
”I appreciate that you’re trying, Ratchet, but I’m happy to observe from a distance,” Terminus murmured before looking back up at the good doctor. “Did D16 have a good life after he was liberated from Termagax at least?”
Ratchet gave him a genuine and sparkfelt smile.
”He was taken in by Codexa Pax,” The doctor smiled. It quickly fell when a look of realisation crossed his face. “Which… now that I think of it, Optimus should have remembered him as a sparkling.”
”I don’t understand,” the old miner asked, confused. “What does that have to do with anything?”
”Optimus, Megatron… they had a childhood before becoming cogless miners..” Ratchet spoke, his voice low and slow as he realised something. “Then… how, why don’t they remember that? Optimus said that they had both met in the mines. Megatron might have repressed memories due to Termagax’s abuse but Orion he should have remembered. Something’s not right here—“
A loud knocking suddenly interrupted his train of thought and the both of them turned towards the door, Terminus quickly slipping the Megatronus doll into his subspace to stop whoever had decided to intrude on them at his groon when most of the crew should have been asleep.
”Come in,” Terminus ground out, annoyed at the interruption.
The door slid open with a hiss and a rather panicked looking Longarm stood there looking a little lost and out of air.
”Longarm,” Terminus greeted as Ratchet rose to his pedes, turning to rise to the new company. He said nothing, not greeting the scientist, only frowning at him with narrowed optics. “Can I help you?”
He did not trust Longarm. Something about the Scientist rubbed him the wrong way. Something in his spark told him that Longarm was not who he said he was and that he was nothing more than a deception. He was a fellow neutral, like himself but something deep in Terminus’s spark told him not to trust him.
Thankfully, Longarm had all but avoided him, instead locking himself away in his laboratory and having minimal contact with the rest of the crew. In fact, Longarm appearing at his room was the first time they had really interacted one on one.
”Our ship is being hailed— There’s another ship!” Longarm explained flustered, looking past Terminus and to Ratchet. “I was looking for Ratchet!”
Ratchet quickly moved past Terminus, a stern look upon his face as he confronted Longarm.
”What is it? What’s wrong?”
”It’s a ship, sir!” Longarm explained, glancing between Ratchet and Terminus. “We’ve encountered a ship also heading towards the Earth system.”
”Another ship? Are you sure?” Ratchet asked, immediately on alert. Longarm nodded. “Did Impactor or Blackout confirm this?”
“Impactor told me to summon you as fast as I could,” he explained.
Terminus frowned. “Then why didn’t you just comm—“ He started but the scientist interrupted him before he could continue.
”It’s the Quintessons, sir!” Longarm explained and a shudder of terror filled the air between them. “A Quintesson Battle cruiser was sighted near our coordinates. Looks to be a one with a Judge at the helm.
Quintessons.
Any thoughts about their previous conversation were immediately dismissed. Especially concerning a Judge’s flagship. If it was headed towards Earth then that could only mean trouble, not just for them but for the Cybertronians stranded on the planet.
“Oh frag,” Ratchet cursed as alarms began ringing throughout the ship.
“We need to warn Earth,” Terminus grimly stated. “Everyone is in danger if they land on the planet.”
“We need to get there first,” Longarm warned as the three quickly strode towards the bridge.
“By Primus, we’ll make sure that we will,” Ratchet grumbled, taking the lead as the group moved forward.
Terminus had a bad feeling about this, and it wasn’t just because of the looming Quintesson threat.
He could feel it in his spark.
The nightmare was just beginning.
