Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

Rung asked another set of questions after asking several series of questions that made your head spin. The questionnaire felt more like an interrogation but you make no mention of it, eventually coming to an understanding that the uncomfortability was necessary to the counseling.

The previous week's topic was communication. The topic this week was change. 

“Change, how do each of you define it?” 

“An opportunity to better oneself, to reflect on weaknesses and grow from them to become the version of you you'd hoped you'd attain.”

“Change huh? I know that good things can come out of change. Megatron is a living and breathing example. However, I'm not sure I like the process of change.” 

There are approximately four more months until Tarn arrives. You curse under your breath, standing back to look at the half-functionable ship in front of you. 

This…

This was not going to work. 

It turns out, you can’t glue parts together and wedge metal wherever you think looks right. 

The materials you have taken… were from an abandoned landfill that GHOST had been using to discard disposable junk. You had picked up some very usable parts and brought them over to your now rusting ship, the same one you'd originally came with.

Without you noticing, the leg of the spacecraft buckles under the unstable weight and collapses in front of you. Pieces fell off and you swear the ship looked worse than it had before. Oh dear. This wasn’t going to work. 

“I’m not going to get off this planet am I,” You mumbled to yourself. 

“You’ll need a blueprint,” Ravage encourages from behind. “Don’t give up now, the last thing you want to do right now is to give up.”

Ravage was right as always. How grateful you were to have Ravage. 

“You’re right Ravage, but where do I even get blueprints from?”

Ravage gives you a shrug.  

“Maybe we can ask someone on the Nemesis.”

When you arrive on the Nemesis, your optics bug out at the arrival of a fellow new Decepticon.

“You-”

“YOU-”

“Okay, enough guys,” Starscream mediates, standing in front of you and Shockwave. Shockwave. Shockwave who was now staying on the Nemesis! 

Shockwave glares daggers at you. You glare back. 

You turn to Starscream and Soundwave. “Since when was Shockwave with us?!”

“And since when were you Decepticons teaming with Y/N!”

Shockwave is going to throw hands and you might too if not for Starscream. 

“Y/N has been with us since the beginning,” Starscream explains calmly. “They were the one who helped get us out of that GHOST facility.”

“They are one of us,” Soundwave agrees. “You will treat them as such.”

Shockwave doesn’t seem too happy to comply. 

“I apologize if this is a little hard for me to comprehend, Y/N just tried to kill me in the last confrontation.”

He storms past Starscream and makes himself known in front of you. His optic shutters as he focuses on you. Shockwave displays the memories of you and Megatron, little bits of the recent past on Earth. You see times of holding hands, kissing, hugging, and laughing. Then you see the bits where Megatron is rawdogging you to the ground. 

This fucking guy. This fucking glitch. 

“And what’s this,” he huffs, trying to embarrass you. “Are you aware that Y/N has been hooking up with Megatron again?”

You can explain this. Surely. 

“I’m spying for us,” you say quickly to your defense. “I’m getting you valuable information on GHOST and I’m throwing Megatron off your tails you ungrateful cow.”

Ravage nods along.  “They’re right, you know.”

Shockwave wants to rebuttal but it seems to him that the decision is already made by Starscream and Soundwave. Y/N was a keeper. 

“Then explain this-” he says. “Explain the thing about Tarn.”

Your lips freeze and you don’t have a quick snappy response to come up with. Everytime his name is mentioned you swear you experience a system wide breakdown in just a nanokilk. 

Sensing your discomfort, Soundwave fills Shockwave with the details. “Y/N was sent to Earth by Tarn to track his whereabouts, plans have changed now according to Tarn. They will be-”

“-killing Megatron,” you finish. “They’re coming for him in four months.”

Shockwave’s finials shift up and down. He contemplates on the news before speaking again. 

“That fool had it out for himself, serves him right for leaving us.”

Suddenly, you weren’t too sure whose sides you were on again.

Ravage’s head nudges you on the calves. 

Right. 

“We'll need to gather supplies then,” you say. “Blueprints for a ship, specifically.” 

Shockwave narrows his optic in suspicion.  

“And why would we need work plans?” 

Uhhh…

“Tarn has some pretty high standards and we wouldn't want him seeing the Nemesis all torn up,” Ravage lied. “Isn’t that right, Y/N.”

“Right,” you say, slowly nodding along. “You wouldn’t want Tarn to show up to all of this, don’t you?.”

“I suppose not,” Starscream agrees. “We would have to go to Swindle then.”

You have never met this Swindle bot before in your whole life as a Decepticon. From what Soundwave had said, Swindle was a cowardly loser who would sooner sell children to make a profit than to follow through with his allegiance to the cause. From what Starscream had said, Swindle was a notable arms dealer who held no alliance for either Autobots or Decepticons, truly a middleman. From what Shockwave had said, Swindle was a weirdo who had a tendency to hoard oddities of any sorts, then sell them for triple the price on space ebay. 

From what Ravage had told you, Swindle was a reliable source for obtaining difficult resources. 

You survey the abandoned garbage dump. “Do you see anyone that looks like Swindle?”

“Not that I know, he might’ve changed his altmode from the time we escaped GHOST. 

You really hope Starscream wasn’t lying about the meet up because you would really not want to be caught by GHOST this late into the night. 

“Hello? Swindle?”

“Use your flashlight, apparently he didn’t get the memo you weren't a vehicle.”

“Right, right.” You pull out your flashlight, flashing two times in a quick session then three times slowly. 

There is no response from the void. 

You tried to scan for a Decepticon signature. 

There is not a single presence of life. 

You glance hesitantly to Ravage. “Do you think we may have been duped?”

“No, we just have to stay around for a while longer, here, you survey that way and I’ll survey this way.”

Off and alone in the cold, you wonder how Ravage does it without so much as a complaint. You continue to blink your flashlight to no avail, the shadows forming vague shapes of what you thought were Decepticons, only to turn up as some obvious trash heap. 

You were unaware of the optics focused on you. 

“I knew something was going to go wrong,” you mumble to yourself. 

You were about to head back to Ravage when all of a sudden, you hear this agitating grating honk of a military grade truck come bursting out of a landfill mound, tumbling its way towards you. 

The vehicle honks at you, expecting you to move out of the way! 

You scream as the blinker lights blind you, the truck barely missing its hit. 

Wouldn't you know- the truck suddenly warps and transforms into- a cybertronian! 

“Hey there-” 

Out of nowhere, Ravage appears from the dark and lunges at Swindle’s face. Swindle yelps as Ravage obscures his vision, hind legs kicking and front legs pawing.  

“Ah-ha!,” Ravage cries out.  “I knew there was someone here!” 

She jumps off of Swindle.

Swindle has these awfully big optics that made him resemble somewhat bug-eyed. He carried the right colors, the green and purple as did many Decepticons and had the shit eating grin of one too. Swindle was 

…also kinda short for a Decepticon. 

“Watch the head next time!” 

Ah and there it was, that obnoxiously scrawny voice that Starscream was talking about. 

As Swindle gets up to look at you, he is momentarily silent. He thinks he's seen you somewhere… your form looks awfully familiar. 

“Holy smokes! You're- you're Megatron’s babe!” 

You roll your optics. Of course you were. 

“You could've came to us when we were flashing our lights instead of nearly causing a collision!” 

Swindle gives you a cheeky grin. 

“Oh about that, sowwy. I was using a signal dampener and I wasn't sure if you were… some truck sent my GHOST.” 

Now that Swindle had confirmed that you really were who you said you were, he was ready to begin bartering. 

“Now, you need blueprints for your 15-UT ship?” 

“Yes, I need that one specifically- or something really close to it.” 

“Oh I have it all right.” 

That was great news then! 

“Buttttttt…,” Swindle draws out. “You should know, nothing is for free.” 

Now that he mentions it, you don't exactly have anything to offer in return. 

“Well, what do you want?” 

“Oh, only the engines to the Nemesis or maybe one of Shockwave’s little experimental guns….”

The engines to the Nemesis? The experimental guns? 

“Oh hell no,” you say. “Do you have any idea how much trouble I'd get into with Starscream and Soundwave- especially with Shockwave involved in this fiasco? First I blew up his lab and now you want me to steal his belongings??” 

“Well hey now, I didn't say you had to steal them, I'm just saying, it's a deal or no deal.” 

Swindle turns to leave but like before, Ravage growls and pounces onto Swindle, knocking him on the ground. 

“You will give us what we came here for whether you like it or not!”

Desperately terrified, Swindle panick glances to you for help. 

You give him a poker face. 

“Please-please don't let Ravage do this! I- I'll do anything you want! I'll compromise, h-how about that! No engines and no secret weapons!” 

A compromise is something you can work with.

“Deal.” 

Ravage leaps off of Swindle, tail held high in case Swindle decided to make a run for it. 

Though greedy and self absorbed, Swindle was not so much a lost cause than you’ve thought. 

“My not so bright brother Hardtop has been missing for a few months now and I… I need someone to grab him back from GHOST!”

You have not returned to GHOST’s headquarters since your breakout and you  have no idea how you'd be able to relocate their base of operations. 

Unless… 

“Yeah sure, we know where to find GHOST!”

With the help of Twitch and, well, the rest of the Terran crew, you were able to locate the secret entrance to GHOST’s operations. One of the better well known entrances was from a concealed cave not too far from the waterfall you’d once visited. 

It was pretty irresponsible of you to put the kids in harm's way but you needed those blueprints real badly. This was the best option you’ve got! Without involving any other Autobots or Decepticons. You’ll keep them safe and so will Ravage who was also, following behind from the shadows. 

Mo motions to Hashtag. “Okay Hashtag, now would be a good idea to use your hacking skills.”

Hashtag grins as she does her magic. “Going dark.”

The lights flicker and the power in the facility turns off. She flicks it on and off a few times to scare the GHOST agents. 

You take the lead and move forward. The others follow behind. You watched the corner as you turned into the route that Ravage wanted you to follow. 

Thrash talks to you. “So remind me why we’re here in the first place?”

You pause. 

You haven't thought it through this far. 

“GHOST took something from me… and it was important.”

“Whats so important that has you coming back?”

“It's an object…” you improvise. “Something Megatron gave me.”

“Ohh what is it? A ring? A confession?”

“Relax, Thrash, can’t you see it's personal?”

You are glad that Twitch stepped in for you. 

Ravage comms you a message. 

::This is the point where we split up from the Maltos so our cover won’t be blown::

You exhale. 

Right. 

You turn to the Maltos. 

“Guys, how well do you know the inside of GHOST?”

“Pretty well,” Robby says surprisingly enough. “It wouldn’t be the first time we managed to sneak our way in.”

Okay, that was good. 

It was time to do some Decepticon-deception- deceiving. 

“We will need to split up,” You say slowly and hesitantly. 

You really don’t want to leave them alone. 

“Um, are you sure that would be a good idea,” Nightshade asks, nervous themself at the prospects of being alone. “Some of us, Jawbreaker and I have never really set foot around here at GHOST.”

“Yes but our chances of being caught are greatly increased if we stick together, there are one, two- eight of us.”

“Hold on, nine?”

You facepalm.

“I’m sorry, I can’t count, there are eight of us, this is a very big group.”

Jawbreaker panics. “But what if we get caught- what if GHOST finds-”

“They won’t.” Twitch cuts him off. “We’ve been training under Y/N and Bee for a while now and we’ve done much worse than this! Remember? Phillllly.”

That was indeed true. 

There was your opening. 

“Twitch and Trash,” you call by name. “How would you like to be the leader this time?”

Twitch immediately takes the opportunity. Smart girl. You could already see how independent she was when you first met her. 

Thrash on the other hand was less confident. “I don’t know Y/N, I’m not exactly leader material.”

“Oh come on, Thrash.” Mo encouraged him to go for it. “You’re not gonna do this alone, you have me!”

The encouragement makes Trash a little more confident. “Alright, now that you put it that way… I guess it could be fun.”

“Here,” you said. “I will give you my comm, do not hesitate to contact me if anything happens.”

You do not like how risky this operation is but Primus do you need your ship fixed as fast as possible. 

So here was the gameplan. Twitch would lead Robby and Nightshade while Thrash would lead Mo, Hashtag, and Jawbreaker.

“There are five corridors in GHOST,” you review to your teams. “We’ll go our separate ways and meet up at a central location.”

“How about here?”

“Perfect, Jawbreaker.”

You are about to part ways to be on your own when Mo pulls you by the hand. “What about you? Aren’t you going to come with us?”

You bit your lip and played it dumb. “This is something I want to do alone, if that is understandable.”

You hear a group of “totallys” and “completelys”

From your peripheral vision, you could spot a pair of flashlights.

“Not again!”

“The hacker must be back!”

It was time to scatter. 

You took the corridor on your far right. 

Ravage follows you. 

“Nice work, I knew you still had a bit of Decepticon in you.”

The cassette boy takes the lead from here and brings you to the holding cells. The holding cells themselves bring back so many ugly memories of just rotting away behind bars. You would free the others if you could but for now, Hardtop remains the top priority. 

“Who are you,” Hardtop hisses from his cell. “And what do you want?”

“Swindle sent us, me and Ravage are here to help.”

“Finally! That bastard always leaves me hanging.”

Now that you've found Hardtop, the only other problem now is, how are you supposed to get him out? 

Hardtop points to a console table. “There's a switch over there I see them using from time to time, see if you can work things out.” 

You don't exactly know what you're doing but you press a button. 

The lights blare above, active alerts are now in place at your location. You curse under stress. You click the damn thing again. The alerts do not turn off. 

You press another button and the water sprinklers activate. 

Even Ravage was getting stressed. “Hurry up, Y/N. Break everyone out if you have to.” 

It'll have to come to that then. 

You slam your foot into the terminal. The command panel short circuits and flickers rapidly. It's clearly a success because the power goes off and the holding cells open. 

Hardtop strides up to you.

“Well now, lookey here! You actually did it.” 

You did it alright. You set them all free, forgetting the fact that you weren't actually buddy buddies with every single Decepticon.

Skullcruncher was not happy to see you and he made it clear by lunging at you with all of his mass. 

You are squished underneath him and he so angrily tries to pound you with his fists. 

“Traitor! To the cause!” 

“You don't understand-” 

You weren't going to be heard. 

Not wanting to be caught between the crossfire, Hardtop chuckles nervously before taking a step backwards. He fully books it out of the holding cells. 

"Good luck to you! I uh- I got a get going!”

“Wait,” you call miserably from under the body. “Swindle-” 

You might have had your head bitten off by Skull Cruncher 's beastmode if not for Ravage. 

Ravage leaps onto Skullcruncher's face, her claws sinking into his face. With desperate times, it calls for desperate measures. Ravage begins to pick up Skullcunchers optics.

Skullcruncher roars in pain before grabbing Ravage and throwing her off of him.

You quickly pick Ravage up and you run for your life. 

Where the hell did Hardtop go?!

You turn the corner and nearly run into a patrol of GHOST agents. They don't seem to have seen you. Quickly, you hide behind a custodial closet. 

Skullcruncher’s screams draw closer and closer. He seems to smell where you were. 

You stay as still as you could get and that's when you notice, your comm has gone off for the sixth time. You were such a bolthead- you had completely forgotten about the Maltos!

Quickly, you picked up their next spam call. 

:I'm so sorry, I got caught up in the Decepticon breakout! Are you guys alright?!::

::Alright would be an understatement. Mandroid is here!::

Your spark dropped. Mandroid? At GHOST?!

:Mandroid is here?!::

::YES! He’s got Twitch’s team stuck in GHOST’s training ground of the Autobot Recrute and they can’t get out of there!::

You’re about to run out from the custodial closet when you just remembered- you don’t even know where the hell this Autobot Recrute could be!

::Wait, Thrash- so where are you and your group?!::

::We’re uhh… still spying on Mandroid…::

Growling could be heard through the background of the comm. 

::Thrash, who’s that in your background?::

You don’t get to figure it out because Thrash shrieks into the comm before abruptly disconnecting. 

Ravage paws on your calves, optics already marking a path in the hallway.  

“That was Scorponok!”

Now Scorponok was involved?

As if your day couldn’t get any worse. 

You did not want to see Scorponok again for very reasonable reasons. 

Ravage was already on her way. “Come on! I can sniff him out but we have to hurry!”

You follow Ravage, running past a barrage of explosions and a whole other array of gunshots whizzing past your audials. Skullcruncher had fragged off to harass a few unlucky GHOST agents, leaving you to deal with the mess that was the other Decepticons. 

Shrapnel and Bombshell stand in your path, hissing and barring their mandibles. Not a step closer. Although you don't have the means to deal with them, Ravage urges you to transform into your rifle mode. She grabs you by her jaw and leapt high into the air, landing behind them  while they gave chase. 

Your vision shakes as Ravage continues to run and pounce. A few GHOST agents stop short in their tracks, having recognized your rifle mode. Their eyes widen at the sight of Ravage. 

“Hey isn’t that-”

It's not like they have a chance to take a closer look because both Shrapnel and Bombshell’s attention are redirected to their captors. 

You revert to root mode as soon as Ravage has dropped you to the floor. Hollering sounded from the control room of the Research and Development wing. You glance back at Ravage to see if she would follow but she remains hidden in the darkness. Remain hidden until necessary. 

With nothing to your name, no way of defending yourself, you dive headfirst to save the Terrans.

Maybe it was a bad idea afterall… 

A part of the wall and ceiling came down on top of Trash, made by Scorponok no doubt. Mo pulls on his arm but try as she might, he did not budge an inch. Mandroid was nowhere in sight. Where were the other Terrans? The only real person who could wrestle Scorponok to the ground was Jawbreaker but even he had much difficulty against a bot double his size. 

What about Hashtag then? Hashtag- Hashtag was frozen in fear because fighting had never been her strong suit. 

The bruising on her torso didn't look too good. 

You call for Hashtag and she flinches.

“Oh thank God you're here!” 

Just as you were about to go check on her, Scorponok blocks Hashtag out of your periphery with his cumbersome form. 

You remembered Scorponok from a very very long time ago. Of all the days to run into someone you recognize from your past days of employment.

Scorponok gave an amused snort, having heard the stories of your arrival to Earth. “Megatron’s ex conjunx, as if today couldn't get much more interesting.” 

You ignore his little comment and try to worm your way around to Hashtag. Scorponok obviously sees through your little scheme and blocks your path by getting uncomfortably close to you. Pushed back, you try to make some distance between you and him. You did not want him to touch you. 

Disappointed by your aversion, he eyes you and your curves before making a distasteful comment about the Terrans. “So you decided to team yourself with these brats?” 

“What does it matter to you what I do?”

Behind him, you could hear Hashtag’s heavy breathing. There are splotches of fresh energon from the ground. You were deeply worried for her. 

Your eyes dart to find a quick solution to a difficult problem. Jawbreaker. He had forgotten about the Stygimoloch while talking to you. 

You keep Scorponk distracted while Jawbreaker powers for a charge attack. 

“Took you long enough to lose him.” Scorponok sneers, some level of jealousy still evident from the day he found out you were no longer selling your body out at a whore house, or what you would call, that very bad time of your life. 

Don’t you miss the days when you and I had our merry way together?.”

You did not, he was a gross kisser and a violator of personal boundaries.

You give him a random bullshit answer. “I suppose I do.”

Again, he tries to worm his way into touching you but you avoided him like a plague. He thinks you are playing hard to get. 

“Wouldn’t you want to find a more attractive mech,” he says to you. “Someone like me?”

As if he even had a shot but you nod along, eyeing Jawbreaker from your periphery and giving him a thumbs up from the back to stampede now. 

You nod along. 

“Yeah…yeah that would be nice.”

It completely catches Scorponok off guard. “Wait- really?”

“No.”

On cue, Jawbreaker slams into Scorponk from behind. 

The top hard part of Jawbreaker ‘s head slams into Scorponok’s jaw. It looked like it hurt and you hoped it did! 

Hastily on the tips of your pedes, you run to Hashtag and drag her towards Thrash. 

Scorponok rips Jawbreaker off of him and chugs him out of the way. 

“You!” He screams, pointing an angry finger at you. “Are going to get what’s coming for you!”

Grabbing a hold of Thrash’s discarded sidecar kibble, you fling it like a frisbee onto Scoponok’s pedes, tripping him over to the ground. With one push, you shoved a sizable chunk of wall off of Thrash. The sidecar eventually flings back to your location. Thrash grabs it and transforms into his motorcycle mode, allowing Mo to climb on the additional seat. 

It was incredibly painful for Hashtag to transform so you ushered her to ride on top of Jawbreaker in his Stygi-form while you transformed back into your alt mode. Hashtag held you with shaky hands. 

“Shoot,” you urge her. “Shoot Scorponk between the head!”

To your frustrations, Hashtag was in fact, not the greatest sniper. 

You took it upon yourself to position the field of view over Scorponok’s head. The hit box was much too small for your liking and his chassis was greatly protected in the underbelly of his scorpion mode. You took to targeting his legs. If you were able to bust a few knee caps then he wouldn’t be able to catch up with you. 

After shooting four times, Hashtag was able to reach into GHOST security and jam the door shut behind you. It would only hold Scorponok back for the short time that you were afforded. 

Ravage pings you, not with a direct comm but a map of where she was. Close to the Autobot training grounds. 

“Where were you,” Thrash said, understandably upset. “We were trying to reach you for so long- I could even count the calls-”

You dismissed him. “You don’t need to do that.”

You couldn’t afford any distractions if you needed to make things right. 

The greater Decepticon part of you came into light and you had a weird deja vu feeling of employing trickery and lies to get what you want. 

Who were you kidding? You’ve been lying to everyone since coming to Earth. 

Scopornok continues to bang on the wall, leaving a dangerously vulnerable dent. Another swing of his fists would reveal a crack in the metal from where his violent optics met yours. 

You fear to be caught in whatever scheme he had in mind. 

The location Ravage pinged was on the complete opposite side of where you were standing. Between the GHOST agents and other roaming Decepticons, you really doubt you’d make it in time to stop whatever Mandroid had planned. You called for Twitch and her team. Nothing. Eerily silent on the other end. You resist the urge to panic from within. Dorothy would never forgive you. You would never forgive yourself. Your processor scrambled to think of a logical answer- a solution to an already impossible solution. 

You forget you aren’t alone. It doesn’t take having a cyber sleeve to know you were panicking, Mo reassured you that much. You forget they knew their way around GHOST headquarters better than you. 

Hashtag jacks into GHOST security. Turrets activate to clear a path to the Autobot Recrute, shooting at any and all GHOST agents and Decepticons. She locks the hallway down from any and all exits. 

Scorponk finally bursts through the barricade. You flinch when he hollers for gore and bloodshed. 

Hashtag takes aim and fires not at his head but at the ceiling above him. A blast from your barrel is enough to rip a hole through the infrastructure. Metal crashes down onto Scorponok. 

Thrash taunts him. “How does it feel now Scorponok?”

You don’t stick around to know how he feels. Jawbreaker is already running off with you and Hashtag, following Mo and Thrash’s lead. More barriers drop in place, forming a line of solid walls from behind. 

“He’s still following us,” you said worriedly. “He won’t leave us alone!”

This was getting under your skin so much more than it should have. You couldn’t shake off the weariness that followed you all the way from the Malto’s house. Ravage was still nowhere to be seen and she’d gone completely dark after sending you the coordinates. 

Scorponok continued to force his way past wall block over wall block but by the time you’d reached the Autobot Recrute, it was either now or never and you certainly weren't going to wait out here any longer than you needed to be. 

The entrance to the Autobot Recrute momentarily opens. You step right in, knowing full well it was a trap perpetrated by Mandroid. 

When you enter the training level, it isn't the black and white practice field you thought it will be. Retextured ground and a digitalized background of the Witwickey woods… you were in the middle of a drill. 

“Twitch?”, you call out. “Nightshade? Robby?”

No answer. 

Then an explosion happens somewhere far off and that’s your answer for the day. 

You rush off to the site of the destruction, peering down from above and into a trench where Twitch, Robby, and Nightshade were fending off….

Megatron?

Only, it wasn’t Megatron, you’d be stupid to assume it was but it was so hard to ignore the old Megatron with the old symbol and the old facial expressions he used to give his troops when he grew deeply disappointed in them. 

It’s not real but you can't help but feel frightened at the prospects of facing your past abuser again. 

Jawbreaker pulls at you once then twice. 

“Y/N? Y/N?”

Another explosion snaps you out of your trance. 

You’ll discuss this with Rung some other time. 

The first course of action was to try to manually pull the plug to the training level. Hashtag digs.into GHOST’s logistics, swiping through and bypassing code to access the scripture and puts a halt to the simulation. You could see it in her face. Something goes wrong and her access is revoked by an even stronger force. 

Mandroid’s face digitized from above as a big ugly head. 

He looked far worse than you thought he had back in Philly. 

Mandroid looked ill. 

Why is it that every time you see Mandroid, he looks worse and worse?

Mo points a finger at the head. “You’re… you were working for GHOST!”

Thrash, Mo, Hashtag, and Jawbreaker were stunned but you weren’t at all surprised to find that Mandroid was working in tandem with agent Croft. They were both, afterall, xenophobic and bigoted people. 

Mandroid smirks as though he had won the game already. “It seems as though you’ve figured out our little secret, a shame you won't live long enough to tell your friends about it.”

Now, Mandroid has something particularly special for you. 

“As a parting gift for you, Decepticon, I made this catered to you.”

Something in the level’s programming changes. The pseudo Megatron changes paths and redirects its attention away from the Terrans and onto you. The footsteps grow increasingly real and his voice, the words that come out of his mouth are just as natural as they are bad. 

This Megatron addresses you and only you. 

“How dare you show up to my face after betraying the cause and leaving us in the dirt, do you have any idea how disappointed I am with you.”

It feels like you’d been transported back into the past. 

Again, you are frozen with fear. 

How had Mandroid known what poked and prodded at your spark. 

Mandroid takes great pleasure in seeing you so scared. The big and scary Decepticon taken down by one of its own? Isn’t that funny?

Unamused, Mo stands up for you. “That’s not a funny Mandroid.”

Of course it's not but you don’t expect someone of his class to care. You, on the other hand, are too focused on Megatron’s insults to pay any mind to anyone. 

Your eyes are lock onto his lips. 

“Could you believe it?” He does so with the same hand movements and mannerisms. “Even now you’re still running away from your problems- the same problems you’ve made for yourself because you couldn’t be bothered to fix them.”

This Megatron says something that hits too close to home and you’re not sure how much of it is based on validity or a made up coincidence. 

“You’ll get what’s coming to you, I swear by it, don’t look at me with that face like you’re so gullible. You agreed to the consequences when you disowned our sparkbond and with it all the memories and shared experiences. One day every action you take will come biting back, I promise you, Y/N, I swear by it.”

Megatron brandishes his war mace. You haven’t seen that in a while. 

“Oh it is,” Mandroid says to Mo. “It is when I can take advantage of the information given to me by your fellow bots.”

You feel an awful sort of gutlessness. 

“Now I would love to stick around and witness your demise, but I’m afraid I have much greater plans for what’s to come, in the meantime Scorponok sends his regards.”

The same vitriolic growling as before. 

In the same head turning motion, Thrash, Mo, Hashtag, and Jawbreaker simultaneously spot the scorpion-beastformer had snuck up from behind. 

You were now trapped between Megatron and Scorponok. 

You couldn’t move so much as a finger. 

You couldn't do anything, couldn’t even think to flee. 

You were practically locked in your body.

Before anyone could react, before Nightshade could fly to your rescue, and before Twitch could stop Scorponok with her energy blades, Ravage emerged from thin air, surprising you to find that the mini con did indeed sneak into this Autobot Recrute.  She hurriedly climbed over Scorponok, pouncing off of him in a leap of faith, and landing on Megatron’s face. The landing-on-bot’s-face thing seemed to be a pretty common move of hers and it offered Nightshade the opportunity to swoop in for the save. 

You’re stuck in such a world of dread. You don’t even realize when your pedes are off the ground  or when Nightshade’s talons retract from holding your shoulders. They watch you with a worrisome stare and they mouth the words “are you okay?”. 

You don’t hear it the first time nor the second time. 

Despite Ravage’s light and agile frame, she could not fend for herself against the full force of Megatron’s brutality. With one strong arm, Megatron rips her off his face and launches her a great distance away.      

Nightshade flinches as Ravage lands next to them. 

Twitch flies up over to check on you. 

“She’s not responding,” Nightshade panics. “She’s not talking-”

Twitch tries her turn to speak with you. 

“Y/N! Y/N! What’s wrong? Is this about Megatron? Is Megatron bothering you?!”

“Of course Megatron is bothering her!”

Nightshade and Twitch glance over to Ravage. 

With a shake in her leg and the flick of her ears, Ravage trails over to you. 

“Get away from Y/N!”

Ravage makes a warning hiss and ducks under Twitch with no other intentions of hurting her and Nightshade. She ignores the Terrans, going after you. There’s no time for you to mop around, you need to get yourself together right now. 

She lunges at you, not with the intent to hurt you but to wake you up. 

She paws you in your face. “Get up Y/N!”

It doesn’t wake you up. 

She paws you harder.

“Listen to me! Y/N listen to me RIGHT NOW!”

It was easy for her to figure out what was wrong. Nights and nights talking with you above the Nemesis and days of sneaking up to the Maltos have taught her that trauma was an unavoidable curse that lessens but never leaves. She notices the clear distraction, you had not taken your optics off this fake Megatron. 

He will not stop unless he gets to you, until he deactivates you, which was why Ravage needs to do something about it. 

The solution is actually easier than anyone expects. She blocks your view of Megatron. 

“Y/N, you know that’s not him so why are you so scared,” she reasons firmly. 

She finally gets somewhere with you when you start telling her you know. 

“I know,” you whisper. “It’s just a lot for me to deal with-”

“Of course it's a lot, I can't imagine it being easy on you. Trauma doesn't go away, you’ve told me that more than once.”

She paws your face and sits on your chest. Twitch and Nightshade watch with a keen sureness. 

“Come on,” she says sympathetically to you. “You can’t let what’s not real hurt you.”

You can’t let what’s not real hurt you.

“I am afraid of change,” you told Rung with a shrug. “I think about it every day and just about every second because any good change only lasts so long when the bad can last forever.”

You described the weariness to Rung. For you, it sounds like the somber lull of a piano playing in repeat somewhere off in the distance in a red smog that covers everything, even the sun and the horizon. No matter how far you travelled, you couldn’t seem to know where you were heading and the ups and downs would eventually overwhelm and drown you. 

Rung placed a thumb on his chin. “Is there something you are afraid of losing Y/N?” 

There isn’t enough time for you to sit down and mope. Nightshade’s talons grab hold of you and lift you into the air as Megatron was this close to powerwalking to your location. 

In a span of five minutes, disaster strikes when Nightshade is swiftly shot down by one blow of Megatron's fusion cannon. They never stood a chance against such an intense hit. Both you and Nightshade fall out of the air. Twitch immediately swings into action to catch you but Nightshade fully plummets to the ground. 

With Jawbreaker, Hashtag, and Thrash still busy dealing with Scorponok, the kids rush to your aid. You don’t need help, Nightshade needs to be checked up on and so does Hashtag. 

None of you are strong enough to go against the leader of the Decepticons. The fear takes hold of you and you don't need to feel it through the sparkbond to know what reprimands you will be getting when you've heard it be drilled on and on by Starscream. With every step of progress you take there seems to be another big step backwards and with it the constant loop of eternal entrapment. That’s what you meant by the red smog, the piano, and the dream that keeps repeating. 

You finally understand why Starscream felt the way he had in many of those late nights when you were forced to report back to the Nemesis. 

You were supposed to give relationship advice to their friends-with-benefits turned newly formed relationship yet somehow the conversation always revolved back to you and Megatron's rocky relationship. Soundwave paid no mind to your venting, he hears it all the same from his cassettes, but Starscream thrived in watching what he called a “real life Vosnian drama”. 

“Is this so slagging funny,” you said to Starscream, quite frankly you were a bit insulted. 

Starscream laughed at you and drinks from his cup of Energon with not a worry in the world. 

“My dear, it is hilarious, if you asked me personally, I don't think Megatron can change however nicely he portrays himself as.”

“You haven't even interacted with him since they put you behind bars in Ghost.”

“I don't need to,” he said snarkily. “Dealing with that bozo for a million years has taught me that bots don't change for the good, they often change for some alternative intention. I was punched, thrown, shot at, and nearly deactivated several million years ago and now I'm still being punched, thrown, shot and hurt. Now its him and those slimy humans doing it”

Very reassuring what Starscream had said. 

“Now what about you,” Starscream asked Soundwave. 

Did you guys even need to ask Soundwave? 

Soundwave’s finials twitched and he glanced at you in a way that made you squirm in your seats. 

“Soundwave,” he said slowly. “Soundwave believes Megatron is a traitor.”

You freaking rolled your eyes. 

Yet what Soundwave had said afterwards would make a good discussion with Rung.

“Soundwave has been thinking lately…”

He must mean talking to Ravage. You hope Ravage didn’t mention your “plan”. 

“Megatron may be a hypocrite in his ideas but he is not cruel in such a way he treated Starscream. Megatron only treated Starscream the way he had because Starscream was a pain in the aft and was also always trying to one up Megatron by literally deactivating him every time he turned his back.”

“Hey,” Starscream shouted. “What gives?!” 

You always believed Soundwave gave more sound advice anyways. 

Ravage digs her paws into you, smacking you twice with more harshness than the niceness she’s displayed so far. 

“How many bots,” Her voice rasped from screaming sense into you. “How many people will it take for you to get your scrap metal ass together Y/N- we’re all gonna die if we don’t get ourselves together!”

It takes a couple of bots and one human child. 

At last Megatron catches up, swinging his pace once more than twice than five times before he thrust it in your face. 

You grab Ravage, trying to shield her from the blow, not expecting Robby to jump in front of you for the sake of your protection. 

What was he doing?!

What was he trying to do?!

You don’t know but you feel terrified for him. 

His act of courage must have triggered something in his cybersleeve because as miracles do happen in the most dire of times, Quintus Prime must have heard his prayers and granted him a cyber-shield. 

The cyber shield blocks the incoming attack from the mace. You stare in awe as Robbie was not only safe but he was pushing back against Megatron. 

Robby’s foot digs into the ground, his little trick was working now but his shield was also starting to crack. 

“Run! I can hold him back but I don’t know how long!”

Finally, as it took too long for you to do, you finally pick yourself off the ground, however slow it took you to do so.

Robby reaches within his cybersleeve and withdraws the hidden potential of his powers that he had yet to discover. If you didn’t believe in the thirteen primes then you sure do now because after asking Quintus to light their darkest hour, Robby’s shield expands tenfold and he himself was surrounded by pulsating electrons. Robby grows larger. He is in a body, the same body but a larger form of himself that he can control to his will. 

You’ve never seen anything like it and you wonder if the sleeve itself was a one true artifact of Quintus Prime. 

You would give anything to see Mandroid’s face right now. With renewed hope, Robby takes it upon himself to land the first punch onto Megatron's chassis, creating an energon blast powerful enough to knock the pseudo- Megatron into a stagger, though,  only for a short period. 

The more punches Robby landed, the more confident he became. The more confident Robby becomes, the more Mandroid tries to break his cyber sleeve.  

You should have seen it coming. The powers granted by Quintus Prime were not limitless and Robby couldn't have known that, not after discovering his powers so soon. 

In a turn of events, Megatron catches Robby’s fist in a mid punch, catching the boy off guard. Robby screams painfully. His wrist twists as Megatron pulls him forward and towards the morning star. 

His energy exosuit begins to crack. Another hit and the smaller crack fractured into even more splits and breaks. Whatever damage sustained on the exosuit must've been happening to Robby’s original physical body because the boy held onto his injured arm, trying to keep calm in the face of knowing how it felt to battle the once Warlord. 

The boy was scared. 

He was as scared as you were. 

Megatron rushes him and Robby actually turned his back to run away. 

It was a horrible idea because it gives Megatron’s fusion cannon the perfect target to hit. 

Robby falls to the ground, the energy from the exosuit dissipating. He was left wounded and the cyber sleeve damaged beyond repair. 

That's three injuries for you. Hashtag, Nightshade, and Robby. Three accidents because you couldn't be bothered to grow a backbone and stand up to your paranoia. Soon, there will be nine deaths if you don't do so much as do something. 

You won't let that happen.

You've made up your mind after seeing Robby, a mere organic, risk his life to defend you. You do not have to deal with this alone. 

“Okay gang,” you turn to the Terrans, still shook but ready to get the hell out of here. “This is all virtual isn’t it? If this Megatron was programmed to be as invisible as he is, all we need to do is to hold him back.”

Ravage is already by your side, ready for  orders. 

You tell them that the Autobot Recrute was a training sim akin to those seen aboard Decepticon vessels for drilling new soldiers. Unless a level has been completed, all sims should have a backup access to end the session in case there is a need to withdraw.

“There is always a backup exit, we just need to look for one.” 

The sim was limited to a certain amount of generated space. Twitch and Nightshade were to search the parameters and locate the emergency interface, hidden usually from plain sight just beyond the level’s border. You allow Ravage to usher the kids into hiding, only you, Jawbreaker, and Thrash would be fighting for today. 

“And what about me?!” Hashtag says with a little fear in her voice on her lack of physical involvement in the plan. “What can I do to help? I still want to help!” 

You pat her on the shoulder pauldron 

“Why do you have the most important job of all? Once Twitch or Nightshade find the interface console, you'll need to plug in and stop the level.” 

“Stopping the level… yeah. Yeah that sounds like something I can do- I know I can do it!”

“Ooh yeah,” Thrash said enthusiastically. “the gang is back together!” 

Ravage nods at the group, still keeping her distance but engaging all the same. 

“Good luck Y/N.” 

You nod to her. 

Taking initiative, you placed yourself first in danger, calling for Megatron's designation directly and demanding his attention. 

You call him out. “Hey hot-shot, still want a piece of this hot-mess? Well you're going to have to come and get me you desperate slagger!” 

Your name calling works like a charm in distracting the pseudo-Megatron. Lifting an arm, he swiftly swings the morning star towards you, following up the assault with a continued blast from the fusion cannon. Jawbreaker emerges from behind, knocking him over by the back of the knees, allowing a perfect point of entry for Thrash to attack. 

Just as quickly as he had fallen, the Megatron rises to his pedes in one unassuming motion. With a single back kick, he rams Jawbreaker onto the ground with desperation to finish him off but not without intervention. You quickly transformed and directed Thrash to aim for Megatron’s fusion cannon. You were not going to allow Mandroid to hurt anymore of the Terrans. You lock on, firing a stream of plasma that blows the fusion cannon off its latch.  

Thrash removes his side-car alt and flings it in Megatron’s direction, striking him by the jaw and throwing his helm backwards. Jawbreaker immediately pushed himself out of Megatron's weakened hold. Not realizing that the fusion cannon had in fact broken into pieces, Mandroid directed Megatron to search for the gun, only to find he was one weapon down. 

Mandroid growls from behind the gaze of Megatron. This wasn't supposed to happen! You weren't supposed to have an upper hand!

He charges at you. He slashes at you once, twice, and five times from all different angles. Compared to Megatron’s wide and cumbersome body, you have the upper advantage because you were small and light on your pedes. You avoid him, swinging left and right. You will not allow the morningstar to make contact with you.

In one last effort, Mandroid tries to fool you through Megatron's voice. “Traitor! You did this to yourself! We could've ruled the world together! We could've taken the universe in a storm as an unstoppable force yet you threw it away because you didn't want the responsibility- you didn't care enough about me to be by my side!” 

“Your take on our relationship is humorous,” you tell Mandroid. “If you think this is all there is to us then this is a horrible rendition of what we actually are.” 

Another brandish of slashes. You drop low, duck, and dive between his legs, crawling safely out from behind. 

“That was a low move, trying to use my past to hurt me but I won't let that happen again.” 

Nothing you can say or do will change the man’s mindset. No amount of ignorance can be informed if Mandroid was not willing to see Cybertronians for what Cybertronians were: another living being.

“I've had enough of this! I will put an end to this right here, right now!” 

Your optics watch as Megatron’s body grows larger and larger. It was now three times the size of an average-Megatron, towering over you with an even larger and pointier morningstar. The morningstar sizzles with extreme unrest, itching to have energon drawn on its spikes. 

“Uhh guys,” Thrash holds his servo to his mouth. “What do we do now?!”

“May you and the rest of your Decepticon friends perish with not an afterthought!” 

Then he swung again. 

Only to not swing at all. 

Fake Megatron was frozen in place, optics neither moving, voice neither talking, and morningstar stuck in a mid-throw. 

Hashtag had done it.

You can hear Mandroid’s cursing boom throughout the digital landscape. 

“No! What is happening! Why is this happening!”

“Hashtag!” Jawbreaker jumps joyfully at seeing Megatron's body shrink to its normal size. “It's Hashtag! I could feel it!” 

Unwilling to give up so easily, Mandroid attempts to override control of Megatron. Control for the terminal is feigned over like two sides pulling at a robe, only one was a giant robot and the other was a barely standing-xenophobic human. If you had a choice in the matter, you'd put your coins on the big robot. 

Hashtag rips the console’s admin out of Mandroid’s hands. As an added surprise, she sets his side of the command deck on fire, lighting it in sparks before it explodes in front of him. 

You breathe a huge sigh of relief. 

Ravage, Mo, and Robby come out of hiding, the kids cheering for a much needed celebration. You lock eyes with Ravage and some nonverbal understanding is exchanged.

“I don't know why I was ever so scared,” you admit to her truthfully. “But thank you, Ravage, you always have my back no matter what.” 

Ravage gives you a tired smile and rubs against your legs. She cares quite a lot for you if that wasn't evident enough.

“Took you a while but I'm glad you came around, however, there is a matter I need to speak to you about-” 

It happened so quickly. To your horror, an altmode lock had been deployed onto the minicon, suddenly trapping her in her cassette mode. 

You're about to punch whoever deployed the altmode-lock but as you turn your face upwards, you caught sight of the audience that had gathered just outside the now exit. 

Megatron. 

What was Megatron doing here?!

It wasn't Megatron who threw the altmode but rather Optimus, who was staring wide eyed at why you would be in contact with one of the bad runaway Decepticons.

“Mo!” Robby! Kids!” 

Dorothy pushes past the giant bots and runs towards her kids. Mo and Robby race to her arms with little resistance.

Still worried, she pulls them aside. “What on Earth happened?” 

 “Well…” Robby guiltily stammers, not wanting to give away the truth. “Well…” 

“Hashtag?” Dorothy cuts him off, noticing the dried energon coating Hashtag and Nightshade’s frame. “Nightshade? Oh my God!” 

This was not a good look.

You wince as you watch her fright over their injuries. In the long run they were fine, none of their sparks were harmed yet that was beyond the point- Hashtag and Nightshade were hurt because of mistakes you've made! 

There was absolutely no excuse for your actions.

“Kids,” Dorothy vocalized sternly with little patience in playing games. “You're going to tell me what exactly happened, we're not leaving until one of you speak up!” 

“It's my fault,” you confess abruptly. 

You won't make the kids take the brute of the blame and you refused to let them cover for your ass. 

“It's really my fault,” you repeat shamefully. “I… I let them into GHOST’s headquarters because there was something I needed help retrieving.” 

“You?” Dorothy gasps at the idea that you of all responsible bots would do such a thing so wreckless. “You led them here?!”

If words can cut then they're sure to have sliced your neck already. You didn't think an Earth woman would ever scare you as much as she did. Dorothy was going to freak out once she discovered the actual perpetrator. You knew better, of course you did, yet you chose to manipulate them into locating Hardtop. 

“But it wasn't their fault,” Thrash refutes, ignorant to the depth of the matter. “We agreed to help her and we agreed to lead them to GHOST headquarters- they didn't know where it was! We did!” 

“Mom,” Mo pleads quietly. “They were just trying to get back something important, something really special that Mr. Megatron gave them.” 

“I've heard it all. All of you are grounded.” 

Then she addresses you directly and you feel your spark drop. 

“Y/N, I'm frankly disappointed in you. I'm going to need a word with the kids. I'm sure whatever this heirloom that you had to get back could wait.” 

With no tolerance for excuses, the kids were hurried out by Dorothy, leaving you to stay behind with Optimus and Megatron. 

Primus, you cannot begin to describe the awkwardness you found yourself in, staring at your pedes and refusing to look either in their optics because of the dumb mistakes you for once can't dig yourself out of. Optimus intentionally coughs to break the silence but you could mentally feel the air tighten when you spot Megatron's frown tense even more. 

“I-” 

“A word with Y/N.” 

Optimus stops in his tracks and watches you. He was concerned. You refused to acknowledge him back. 

“I see, alright Megatron, I'll leave you be with them.” 

Please don't. Please don't leave me in the room with him. 

Ohh you think you know the feeling you were experiencing quite well. Megatron was going to beat you up wasn't he? He was going to toss you around and scream into your face just as he had done with Starscream, just like every other Decepticon grunt that mattered so very insignificantly to him. 

You are in so much trouble. 

As if Megatron can read processors, he rejects your fears. “I'm not going to hurt you.” 

You didn't take it as a sign to relax. 

“But I am incredibly upset at what you've done.” 

The argument proceeds as what you would expect. Total chaos. 

“What were you thinking?! Bringing those kids into GHOST’s headquarters? Into the enemy’s base of operations where you risked exposing our integrity and putting us under scrutiny?! I couldn't begin to describe how much danger you've put everyone in!” 

“You think I dont-” 

No. Megatron wouldn't give you a chance to finish.

“And let's not forget the other issue at hand!” He points a sharp accusing finger to Ravage’s cassette mode. “Why were you with Ravage?!” 

Fuckkkk. You couldn't fool your way out of this one. The likelihood of Ravage appearing by coincidence was low. Knowing how well Megatron understood the cassette, there was absolutely zero possibility he appeared simply for the fun of it

“And what's this about an heirloom, Y/N?”

You flinch at the tone of his voice. 

“Please enlighten me because I can't seem to remember the heirloom you were talking about.” 

Again, just like before, you remain frozen with servos poking out like branches and legs grounded like the roots of a stubborn tree. Your face didn't move, didn't dare to ask you to keep up your poker face. You maintained your exterior poise all while your interior composure fell apart like it was nothing. 

Megatron walks to stand directly in front of you. Don't look at him. Don't acknowledge him. 

You flinched, pulling away from where Megatron placed his servo over your shoulders. Optics met optics. A sorry expression coats Megatron's face and he couldn’t help but pitifully stare at you for a second longer. 

“I told you,” Megatron says softly. “I won't hurt you.” 

You hung your helm to apologize. “I know, force of habit.” 

“I have reason to believe you've remained in kahoots with Starscream and Soundwave ever since we rescued you, it was never mentioned because I didn't want to push you into running away again but… but now I can't ignore it.” 

Titling your chin, Megatron coaxes you back into making eye contact. 

“Remember what Rung said? About needing to be transparent with each other?” 

You nod as Megatron continued to speak. 

“Communication comes a long way at preventing… miscommunication. What im trying to say is…” 

You can trust him. 

“You can trust me.” 

Trust wasn't the issue. You loved Megatron a whole lot more than you should've and if you didn't you wouldn’t be trying to prevent a universal groundbreaking disaster. You would not be trying to save him if you didn't.  

So in order to do that you needed to NOT get Megatron involved. 

“Y/N,” Megatron confronts, the softness  replaced by an urgentness to get to the bottom of whatever scheme you were holding behind your back like a dagger. “What are you planning with Starscream and Soundwave.” 

You… you won't tell him. You're willing to leave behind the face of Earth and all the family and friends you've made to flee. Running away came easy to you. Running away had never suited Megatron. Even if outnumbered and standing on his last legs, Megatron would rather stand his ground and fight all four members of the DJD if that meant protecting those that he loved.

You're afraid he might just give himself just to save the entire planet- a feat you were deathly afraid of. A life without a sparkmate. A world without Megatron. A reality you couldn't run away from. 

“Are you afraid of losing your bond with Megatron?” 

“Yes.” 

“What makes you think that Y/N?”

You vented, fingers clawing and tensely gripping the edge of your chair as an attempt to seem untroubled.

“Reuniting with Megatron might just be one of the best times I've had in all my life.” 

Then you turned to Megatron and smiled somberly to his beautifully oblivious face. 

“And sometimes it feels like it's too good to be true, like it's never going to work because there are too many obstacles against us.” 

“What obstacles?”

There was only one big obstacle that you held your tongue at mentioning.

“Change,” Rung advised. “You only fear change because you can't control it. Change feels risky until remaining feels worse.” 

 “How do you work for something you are scared of losing- or will inevitably lose?”

“Do you feel like you'll lose him?”

“I…no,” you lied. 

“Then instead of looking out for changes, you'll change yourself for the better. If you both want to keep what you have then you'll have to work for it. Be your own difference to make the difference. Then you can at least control some part of your fate.” 

You won't tell Megatron the truth but you'll spare him and give him some of it. “I…came to free Hardtop with Ravage.” 

Megatron stands astounded. 

“That's it?”

You shrug and give him a tiny nod. 

“And why did you free Hardtop?” 

“Because Swindle wanted his brother back.” 

The mention of Swindle raises even more speculation. 

“Swindle just doesn't ask for anything Y/N, now what did Swindle want in return.” 

You shuffle your pedes. 

If only there were someone to help you right now. 

Your comm starts to buzz. Who could be calling you with the worst timing ever? Slowly as to not make notice, you glance in your periphery at the shaking cassette behind Megatron. 

Ravage. 

::I may be locked but I can still reach you::

::Ravage… Megatron is asking me about my deal with Swindle- what should I say?! What do you think I should do?:: 

Megatron is waiting patiently for an answer. 

::Y/N… to be honest… I think you should tell Megatron the truth.”

::I- what?!::

This cassette cannot be serious.

::I'm serious Y/N, I'll continue to support you but after what I've seen today, I can't deny it. You have friends here, family even. There are a lot of bots and people we'll put in the way of danger. I really think you should tell him about Tarn::

::And how?! How would that change anything?!:: 

::One casualty over ten? Thirty? The whole planet? Think Y/N. Which are you willing to prioritize::

The answer is so obvious, so clear cut if all the drama was removed from within and criticized from an unbiased standpoint. It would've been easy if you weren't so biased and human. 

No more being a coward. Ravage can't change your mind but you’ll firmly ensure you and Megatron's escape, even if you'll die trying. Out of your ambitions, you make up an answer on the spot to the dismay of Ravage. 

“Starscream and Soundwave are looking to rebuild the Nemesis… to leave Earth.” 

Another surprised look from Megatron, you hope your answer was enough to satiate Megatron's suspicions.

Megatron hummed thoughtfully. 

“So I see they've salvaged the Nemesis that would explain all the hits to gather supplies. Leaving the planet huh? Would not have expected Starscream to have wanted to stay.” 

Servo clinging to your other arm, your optics point down in a defeated stance. 

The lie does not come across as an action you are proud of. You are quite frankly the most disappointed in yourself than ever before. 

Megatron picks up his comm. 

::Yes, Optimus? I see. Thank you for letting me know, I will get them out of here right now::

Gently, Megatron nudges your chin in his direction. 

“Y/N, look at me.” 

You do. It is as though Megatron wants to say more—to get to the bottom of the devil that burdens you—but you are short on notice, and he is even shorter on time.

Megatron kisses you and you kiss back shyly, aching that it had to end so soon as he pulls away to stare at Ravage's locked state with fixed optics. 

To your surprise, Megatron does release Ravage from the altmode binders. Immediately popping out of her cassette form, Ravage runs over to your side, hissing at Megatron. The hostility upsets him but he makes no efforts to prolong your stay.

::Agent Croft is on her way to investigate the scene. I will be covering for you. You must leave Y/N. Go and take Ravage with you::

You don't need to be told twice. Transforming, you allow Ravage to grab you by the body of your rifle, that way, you'll both be cloaked for an escape. 

Before you leave, you give Megatron one last message. 

::Mandroid was inside GHOST’s headquarters:: 

When Ravage drops you off in the middle of the forest, you transform so quickly that you may have pulled your T cog. Ignoring the cramping pain, you march onwards because you desperately needed some time alone to think about your actions. 

Ravage trails after you but you can't help but feel betrayed. 

“Y/N…”

"I know…," you say, cutting her off. "I know your feelings are valid. I know this isn't about doing the right thing, but the best you could do, but…”

This is a decision you'll get the last say in. 

 “I love him.” Your voice trembled, it might as well be the first time Ravage has ever heard you confessing so rawly. “And I don't want to live after regaining what I've just lost.” 

Understandingly, Ravage leaves you alone and you wonder if it's the last time you'll ever see her around. As you walk through the dense forest, you begin to follow a signature trail, Hardtop 's signature, back to the meeting spot by the landfill. Somebody's been waiting for you. 

Swindle stands so proudly with servos on both sides of his hips, a grin so wide it might as well jump out of his cheeky face. Hardtop stands there as well, with not exactly the same pride, but with a new right arm made from scraps of junk. It seems to be working quite peachy. 

“Ahh so our hero returns!” Swindle bends down to look at your frame. “Though you seem to be a little roughened up like an old Hardtop over here.” 

You snort. “You can thank that split spark brother of yours that I ran into Scorponok.” 

Tapping your pedes impatiently, you hold out your servo. 

“Blueprint now.” 

“What's the big rush? Don't you want to add a little something - just to spice up our deal? You know, make more for more?” 

“No!” You screamed, you were not angry enough. “I came here for the blueprint and you are going to… Give! It! To! Me!”

Primus! How hard could this be?! It's like the universe wants to work against you! Hardtop cowers as the barrel of your rifle begins charging a bright blue shock. After all you've done for Swindle, you refuse to be “swindled” again, wasting more minutes to your day and if it takes a little threat to get your way, you'll happily aim your barrel at them.

Swindle raises his arms to forfeit. “Okay! Okay! You win! I'll send over the blueprint right now! Just don't hurt us! Please!” 

A little bit of hostility does go a long way. 

The blueprint appears on your hud with all the right formulations and measurements. You sigh in relief, the anger draining out of your very system.  A smile appears on your face. That's one step closer… one step closer to saving Megatron. 

“Optimus, what is the meaning of this?! Our prison ward has been opened and nearly half of our Decepticons have escaped and you mean to blame it all on a power outage?!” 

Megatron shoots Optimus a questionable look. Really? Was this the best excuse he could come up with? The Prime responds with a shrug and a small nervous grin.  

Agent Croft’s grating voice was going to drive him insane. “Just thirty minutes ago our systems were infiltrated by foreign spyware. Mind telling me what this virus is?” 

To prevent a cluster fuck of an implausible story from being told, Megatron spoke on the behalf of Optimus. 

“That is not our doing,” Megatron affirms. “We have reason to suspect that Mandroid has been hacking into GHOST's systems, causing the blackout and freeing Decepticons.” 

“We have the country's most top notch technology, what makes you think a simpleton like him could ever get past our network?” 

“I highly doubt it's the best, seeing as you've had many breakouts before the arrival of Mandroid.” 

“Don't get snarky with me when you're obviously lying.”

“Well I am only pointing out the obvious.”

Good ol’ Optimus tries to cool the flames. “Ladies! And bots… this is not the time to argue, if Mandroid has truly infiltrated us then we must act now. We do not know the extent of his meddling.” 

::Mandroid was inside GHOST’s headquarters:: 

Something… something wasn't right. 

Your discovery ran laps around Megatron's processor and he quickly deduced that the appearance of Mandroid could not have been as simple as a coincidence. Mandroid. A terrorist. Inside of GHOST? And none of them ever noticed? For some top notch security, even the worst Decepticon outpost was more secure than whatever human technology this was. 

::Optimus, I have reason to believe that GHOST is in fact working with Mandroid::

::Long ago I would've given our human allies the benefit of the doubt but now I cannot ignore the discrepancies Elita-1 has noted:: 

“Well? Are you two just going to stand there and stare at each other?! This is a bold claim you are making and it better be backed by some evidence?”

“We have the evidence,” Optimus backs  blankly as to not give away their communication. “The source of tampering was tracked from the ward to the trainees’ recruitment room, traces of syntax tells us that he must've been taking advantage of the coding from within the program.” 

“Clever.” Megatron pretends along with him. “But not clever enough.” 

No matter what they said they would be put into suspicion. Megatron and Agent Croft continued to glare at one another in a serpent-like duo, waiting for the first to strike first, hoping that the other would mess up. With years of experience dealing with scheming and espionage, Megatron was light years ahead of Coft in plotting. He could spot a double dealer from miles away. 

Finally, she rolls her eyes, a human sign he'd learned to mean she was done with discussing an issue.  “I will… investigate this further.” 

She turns her back to leave before turning back. “But until then, the both of you will be heavily monitored for the lack of involvement before and after the breakout!” 

They wait calmly until the clanking of heels fades out and stand a while longer to ensure that not a single person lingered

within their vicinity. 

Megatron motions to Optimus with a look that tells Optimus all he had to know from the ex-warlord. 

::The tampering didn't happen externally nor did it originate from the recruitment center, Mandroid was given full permissions to bypass GHOST’s security, the tampering occurred internally::

Meanwhile away from eeeeveryone, far enough from Megatron to avoid being noticed and definitely unbeknownst to you and every other Terran was Mandroid throwing a man fit over how spectacularly his plan had backfired in his face. 

Mandroid hacks a long drawn cough, hunching over the table, hacking blood out of his system. Those pesky brats managed to set his console on fire! He choked out another cough more painful than the last. The physical strain of augmenting his body in actuality deteriorated his body. That was not what his benefactors promised him. 

This new and refined form of “dark energon” flowing through his veins was said to give him the ability to commune with one of Cybertron’s greatest foes: Unicron. 

“Mandroid!” Agent Croft is already on his tail, upset that she didn't get her way again. 

Mandroid ignores her childish anger and continues to focus on overseeing the construction of GHOST’s spacebridge. Almost complete. The level of detail  drafted in the layout is astonishingly complex and Mandroid was already concocting ideas for the human race to benefit from space travel. Who was he to refuse such alien technology when it was so generously handed out? He would be an idiot to outright refuse. Said aliens were also affected by the destruction of their home world due to Cybertronian meddling. 

In exchange for entry, the aliens requested to set foot through the spacebridge, announcing that they wanted nothing more than to “personally eradicate the leader that began the movement.” 

This was a plan Mandroid could get behind. 

“Are you even listening to me?!” 

Mandroid removed the eyewear from his head and faced Croft with an emotionless visage. “No.”

“Then are you going to at least be sorry?!”

“Never. I have no reason to. While I may not have crushed the Maltos, I have done enough damage to destroy their precious cybersleeve.” 

“And how will that benefit us in the long run?”

“Their bond makes them stronger and without it, they'll be just as defenseless as they were before they found the ember stone.” 

Speaking of the ember stone…

“The spacebridge,” Mandroid says. “It will need a power source strong enough to power the whole planet, currently we do not possess such a thing.” 

However… the power of an ancient artifact might…

“Send your bot grunts,” Croft sneers, she did not care what Mandroid needed to do, only that he could get it done. 

“Have them take the stone from those brats so we can get the show on the road.” 

Then Coft steps away and the voice on the monitor comes to life. 

“How very amusing.” 

“You.” Grimace turned scowl, Mandroid  pointed a mechanical finger towards the monitor and demanded explanations, “You have a lot of explaining to do.”

Pulling up his sleeves, Mandroid reveals the horror that resided beyond his arms , snaking throughout his chest. Veins extended beyond belief and skin darkened to a necrotic purple peppered his upper extremities. Not only was he upset, he was livid.

Mandroid confronts the voice that had found him and conversed with him so cooperatively over the course of several months. 

“You said- that this energon you gave me would make me stronger! Well? I don't feel any stronger than I had been without taking this dark energon!” 

Gremlin giggles in the background. What was being said? Was he being insulted? Mocked? Played for a fool?

Then silence. 

“You'll have to forgive me… my friend here only speaks primal vernacular… but he wants to let you know… that dark energon does make you stronger at the expense of your body.” 

“Clarify.”

“You wish to commune with Unicron, correct? Then you must become a vessel to him. Only if you become a vessel may you draw their divine enemy out of hiding.” 

“If he is so divine then why does he hide?”

The voice rumbles. “They say he wanders from planet to planet, seeking to satisfy his consumption.” 

A little odd thing to say but Mandroid doesn't have time to sit around and poke at alien tales and stories of a “planet eating giant”. 

“You wish to crush Megatron and every single Autobot and Decepticon on your planet, correct? Then are you willing to sacrifice your body? Your humanity for the sake of everyone's humanity?!” 

The answer comes so simple, so easy to Mandroid that he simply barked it out with no regrets. 

“YES!” 

“Good. Very good.” 

“The spacebridge will be complete in a month at most. Progress is quickly wrapping up and soon, both of our kind can witness the fall of our oppressors.” 

Mandroid still didn't know what to call this benefactor of theirs. 

“I still didn't get a name for you.”

“My apologies.” 

Something in the voice changed, something sinister and evil that did not talk him to death but sent a shiver down his body.

 “You can call me Tarn.”