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The corridors were slightly more narrow than what he was used to. Shockwave found himself occasionally clipping his gun on the walls when he turned a corner.
'This is the Nemesis' was his first thought. But as he journeyed further towards the bridge, he spotted many small but noticeable differences to the layouts of the ship. His antenna flickered slightly as he peered into rooms and hallways. It felt strange, like a slightly subdued pressure nudging behind his spark chamber. As far as he knew, the Nemesis had no sister ships.
Unless this was the Nemesis? Shockwave filed that thought away. It was illogical.
When he reached the bridge, all he could see from his handheld light was chaos. Panels were overturned, wires hanged form the ceiling, computers sputtered sparks, and multiple bodies littered the floor. All of which had Autobot insignias.
After giving the bridge a sweep, he was prepared to leave. But then he heard a soft scraping sound. Shockwave immediately pointed his light in that direction and saw a severely injured mech scrunched up in the corner behind a fallen console.
The stranger had his face shielded from the light. Most of his internal skeletons were exposed and a strange pink liquid pooled around his body like the rest of dead mechs.
Blunt trauma, gunshot wound on multiple places and... Chemical poisoning? He needed to take a sample of the liquid when he eventually managed to return to his lab.
However, the worst thing he noticed about the stranger was a crack on his chest plate that exposed his spark casing. Behind the translucent metal, Shockwave saw the weak blue glow of a dying spark.
"State your designation and alliance." he asked.
The stranger laughed. It was a glitching noise from a damaged voice box of a half conscious, delirious mech.
"I'm not that damaged am I?" said the stranger.
"There's nothing in my database that matches your spark signature."
The stranger dropped his hands and shut off his optics. Shockwave's torch still beamed directly at him and he made no move to help.
"You wear a Decepticon badge." the mech paused, "and yet you claim to not know me?"
"I dislike arrogance."
The mech laughed again, his spark flickering. "I assure you I am being quite humble. What is your designation soldier?"
"Shockwave."
"Shockwave? How curious." the mech mused, "That is the name of the Decepticon's senior officer. I guess all good names are taken."
"I am him."
"Oh," said the mech. His entire demeanour seemed to change, and he looked a bit embarrassed. He tried to shift his position on the floor but winced in pain. Everything below his waist was quite unidentifiable.
"Forgive me for not recognising you my friend." he said, "Your sigma ability is strange and unfamiliar to me. You may drop your facade now. Report."
"I report only to Megatron."
The mech game him an unimpressed look, "Did your processor get hit too hard in battle? Who do you think I am?"
"Negative," Shockwave narrowed his singular optic, "You mock me. State your designation and alliance."
"Megatron. Leader of the Decepticons."
"That's illogical."
"How so?"
"You do not match his spark signature. In fact, I have not seen anything similar to your spark energy before."
"I do not wish to prove my own identity to a mech to claims himself to be Shockwave while I am dying."
"But I am Shockwave, it is your identity that is unknown."
"And I am bleeding to death." the mech sighed. "leave me be."
Shockwave looked to the puddle of pink fluid at the edge of his pede.
"Have you been poisoned?"
"What?"
"Have you been poisoned?" Shockwave asked again, "your energon is pink."
The mech scoffed, "Unbelievable. You must be a product of my delirium. I am truly dying."
"Negative. I am real and tangible." Shockwave muttered. Then he kneeled to dip his hand into the pink energon. His antenna tilted backwards.
"I will tend to your injuries." Shockwave said, "you must answer my questions in return."
"You are a very bad imposter... You do and act very unlike who you claim to be."
"I could say the same to you." Shockwave unsubspaced a medical pack and started clipping up the energon lines to prevent further bleeding. "What is your real designation."
"Megatron."
"And before that?"
"There is no before. I am Megatron."
Shockwave thought he could not feel frustration anymore, and yet there was a subdued pressure of annoyance that pushed at his processor. When he gets back he needed to defrag and analyse this entire encounter.
"What is the date?"
Megatron gave him a number, it was today. So not much time had passed since the lab accident then. Shockwave started cleaning the wounds.
"What is your designation then?" Megatron cut in.
"I am not an imposter."
"But you are not my Shockwave. Perhaps you are of another world..."
"That is illogical." Shockwave said then changed the topic, "why is your energon pink?"
"You seemed very fixated on such a simple fact. It just proves my point."
"Energon should not normally be pink unless you are exposed to certain chemicals."
"What is the colour of your energon then?"
"Blue."
"Blue?" Megatron pondered, "blue like the spark or blue like Autobot optics."
"Blue like the spark."
He sighed, Shockwave watched the rise and fall of his chassis with every vent. "You should amputate my legs. They're nothing but misshapen metal."
"That would leave you immobile."
"I am already immobile."
"I should stabilise your energon level first." Shockwave fetched half of an energon cube from his subspace and pressed it to Megatron's mouth. It was his emergency reserve, but this counts as an emergency he supposed.
"Drink." he said.
"No. It's blue."
"Would you rather I transfer energon to you from my lines?"
"You could get me energon from the bodies." Megatron stated.
Shockwave's antenna pressed down, "Negative, dead energon is unsanitary. Drink."
Reluctantly Megatron parted his lips, and Shockwave gently tipped the content into his mouth.
He saw the luminous blue liquid flow through Megatron's exposed energon lines and mixed with the pink, creating swirls of purple.
"Tell me about your Shockwave."
"He is loyal." Megatron closed his optics, the rush of energy must be dizzying, "he is sentimental but brilliantly cruel..."
"Continue."
"You look very different to him. At first, I thought it was his sigma ability. He is a shapeshifter. I sent him away on a mission and thought he had come back to find me. You see... For those who say they are loyal, there are two types. There are mechs who are loyal only to the Decepticon cause, and there are others who are loyal to me. I assume you must also be familiar with that notion?"
"Correct."
"And which one are you?"
"I am loyal to my own agendas."
Megatron chuckled, "I bet you have not expressed that to your Megatron. I wonder how similar are our worlds..."
"I can say it is different. You do not act like him at all. He is... Not exactly sane."
"Oh?" Megatron raised an optic ridge, "Now I am interested. Do tell me more."
"He was a gladiator turned tyrant. The founder of the Decepticon movement-"
"The founder?"
"Yes." Shockwave tilted his helm, "Were you not?"
"No, I was not. I wasn't even a gladiator. I was a part of the Cybertronian defence force. Perhaps our world is very different."
"Cybertronian defence force?"
"Yes, until they deemed war frames too dangerous to be integrated into society. Tell me, are the Decepticons in your world still on Cybertron?"
"Cybertron is dead."
"...What?"
"The war destroyed it. Made it uninhabitable."
"And the Decepticons let it happen?! How-"
Megatron's entire body spasmed, his spark contracting violently. Shockwave quickly moved him so he is laying down flat on the floor and cracked open his own spark chamber. He pulled out two cables and connected one end to his spark casing.
Just as he was about to yank open Megatron's chest plates, Megatron gasped and grabbed his hand in panic.
"Wait! What are you fragging doing" he growled.
"Your spark is failing. I need to perform an energy jumpstart to keep you alive."
"I am determined to not die." he choked out.
"Determination will not save you."
"And why do you care if I die or not? It will not affect you."
Shockwave responded by shoving down his cannon and pinning Megatron to the floor. He pulled open his spark chamber and jammed the other end of the cable into Megatron's chest.
The blast of energy illuminated the entire bridge and cast them into a canvas of white. Both of their optics frizzled with excess power and Megatron convulsed on the ground.
Megatron's spark swelled then steadied to a faint rhythmic beat. Shockwave unclipped the cables with a shaky hand and the bright light faded from the room.
He closed his chest plates and reset his optic. Then he realised that he was also lying on the floor. Megatron was venting harshly on the ground next to him with a hand over his exposed spark chamber.
"I am unwilling to let you die."
Megatron laughed weakly. Shockwave slowly sat up. He can see his companion's repair system kicking in. Nanites busy mending the wounds.
Megatron pulled himself up with Shockwave's help and leaned against the wall, he wheezed briefly and spoke, "My soldiers refused to come look for me and I was left for dead. Perhaps you should know why. I led the Decepticons to defeat, twice. I have no loyalty of the second kind."
"It does not change my decisions. I follow the most logical path."
"Why is saving me most logical? Would it not be better for the Decepticons if I died?"
"I am not loyal to Megatron nor to the Decepticons. I am free of the burden of faithfulness and act so that I either benefit myself or the greater good of Cybertron."
"And which category do I fit in?"
"...It is personal."
Megatron was silent, then he spoke up, looking directly into Shockwave's optic, "You can stay in this world." he said, "I would offer you a rank in the Decepticons."
Shockwave's antenna perked up then dropped, "I must return to restore my Cybertron. It is the one thing I cannot leave behind."
Megatron gave a sad smile, "I understand." Then he put his hand on top of Shockwave's and said nothing more.