Work Text:
Autobot Department of Inter-Species Communications and Efforts
Product of the Autobot Archives
(Official Witness Subdivision)
Location: Outside of Esseron, Decepticon Territory
Date: 8th Cycle 138
Participatants: For Autobots, Optimus Prime of Iacon. For Decepticons, Megatron of Kaon.
Verbatim Transcription by Nightbeat of Yuss
BEGINNING OF RECORDING
(Battlefield. Megatron and Optimus Prime are engaged in physical combat, both on the floor. They wrestle for 3 breems before coming to a standstill, Optimus Prime atop of Megatron. Both stare at the other. No soldiers remain in the vicinity.)
(Heavy venting.)
Optimus Prime: Mega—
(Megatron shoves at Optimus Prime’s faceplate. They continue wrestling for .37 breems. They come to a stop, in a similar position as before.)
(Hissing. Unintelligible conversation.)
Optimus Prime: Would you just—
Megatron: Yield, Prime!
Optimus Prime: (scoff) Really? You are the one who has to yield! Your troops are on the offensive, your front is collapsing—
Megatron: And yet mechs are still dying by your servo. Yield, and we can put an end to this.
Optimus Prime: An end so they can live under tyranny? So they can serve you until their sparks collapse?
Megatron: So that they may be at peace!
Optimus Prime: Function under your pede is no peace.
(Unintelligble.)
(Megatron knees Optimus Prime. Optimus Prime rolls away. Both kneel on the floor.)
Megatron: This is foolish floundering. This is humiliating.
Optimus Prime: (wavers) A fight for my people is not foolish.
Megatron: This is what you consider a fight for your people? (gestures) Rolling around in the mud like we’re back in the pits? (laughter) I feel sorry for those following you to their deaths. Can you hear their wails in that matrix of yours? Can you feel their final cries?
Optimus Prime: It is you who cries, Megatron. You put yourself here, over and over again because…why? Surely not justice. Surely not retribution. You return yourself to energon soaked halls–you worship this battle as though it is your creator.
Megatron: I came online with a drill in my servo and a gun to my helm. When I questioned; when I asked; when I begged, I was met with a screaming crowd who cried for my death. If you believe that there is any other worthy of my devotion then you never truly knew me to begin with.
(Optimus Prime attempts to stand. He falls.)
Optimus Prime: No, perhaps not. …Orion Pax knew you. Orion Pax is dead.
Megatron: …I know. I killed him.
Optimus Prime: Yet Megatronous remains. His anger remains.
Megatron: I am not angry.
Optimus Prime: Then what are you?
(Megatron looks away. The city of Esseron burns in the distance. The flames reflect off of Optimus Prime and Megatron.)
Megatron: I…I do not know. But what I feel is not just anger.
Optimus Prime: I think you are scared. I am, too.
Megatron: You do not know fear, Prime. You couldn’t. Not even now: defenseless and alone.
Optimus Prime: I fear for everything. Why do you think I stand before you? I fear for our future. We are drowning ourselves in this war. I feel as though we are spreading this—this sickness to our entire planet, and even beyond that! We are festering with hate–we are rotting our planet with these arguments—
Megatron: Arguments? (Optimus Prime attempts to speak) We are no longer arguing over ideologies in the library. This is not a war of philosophy, we are fighting for our lives! For the future! And you still do not seem to understand even that! You and your Autobots are so determined on restoring order that you refuse to consider the possible ramifications of such an order!
Optimus Prime: (standing) It provides guidance to a broken civilization! Answers to those who are lost!
Megatron: No one is lost. We were abandoned. The only lost one is you.
(Pause in conversation. Optimus Prime holds his severed arm.)
Optimus Prime: …I am not lost. I know my duty.
Megatron: It is all the same with you. You would roll over and sit if the Matrix wills it.
Optimus Prime: I serve the will of Cybertron and all of the Prime’s who came before me. I serve Primus and all of the love He holds for us. The love I now hold.
Megatron: He never loved me. And I never expected Him to. Is that what marks me as lesser to you? That I do not have this blind faith? How could He expect anything of me when He gave me the right to disobey? This is what I will be until I burn.
Optimus Prime: That is what He made you. This is what He has chosen for us. And yet still I ache. Even now, I wish He had chosen another—
(Optimus Prime looks away. He looks pained. Megatron watches him. The fire gives Optimus Prime a shadowed halo. Megatron is bathed in its light.)
Megatron: Hah! You do not get to feel remorse for the role you now play. You chose this. You wanted this.
Optimus Prime: Do not give me the sole blame for actions we shared! We both carry the burden of our god!
Megatron: Our god!? Our god who is my creator who has put me here with the poison of being who I am in such a place?! Who has taken you from me—all that I had—who had taken you when you knelt before him and offered yourself like a lamb! You who have taken his blessings with no regard for those who choke on them! Who can not stand them—I can not stand this!
Optimus Prime: (overlapping) You pray in a violent word (unintelligible)—your temple is built upon the bodies of our fellow Cybertronions!
Megatorn: (overlapping) My prayer falls on deaf audials! I have done what I have to to build a better future for our race! I have cleansed us of our oppressors!
Optimus Prime: You can not claim to have cleansed when you have only spilled more energon. You can not claim to have saved when you yourself are doomed.
Megatron: We share this burden. We will be killed with it. You and I, Prime, until our sparks spin no longer.
(A boom sounds from Esserson. Both Optimus Prime and Megatron turn to it. There is a pause.)
Megatron: (quietly) Doomed, hm? We usher in a new age, Optimus. If we are doomed, then we have dragged everything down with us. There is no need to be lonely anymore.
END OF RECORDING
Further
This recording from the Autobot archives was specially selected for translation due to the belief that this brief conversation between figureheads is able to fully encapsulate the very core of the Autobot-Decepticon War and therefore is crucial in attempts to explain our war. Not only is the recording of the deeply personal conversation rare, but it also gives insight to a critical time in the War on Cybertron. At the time of the recording, both Optimus Prime and Megatron are still young and still settling into their new roles, as well as grappling with their personal beliefs on the morality and religion of Cybertron. This is further solidified by the mention of their past designations; Megatronous, crowned gladiator of Kaon, and Orion Pax, an archivist in Iacon.