Chapter Text
Megatron’s servos curled into fists as he scrutinized the security console’s display. Never before had Soundwave allowed so many files to be corrupted. Never before had he disabled the medbay’s cameras, no matter the gruesomeness of the patients within. Never before had he been so negligent in his duties.
No. Megatron knew this was not simple negligence.
Megatron had not survived the Pits of Kaon due to blissful ignorance; no, his processor was sharp as a knife. He had not survived the Pits of Kaon due to mercy, either. Who did his Decepticons think he was? Were there scraplets in their processors? He wasn’t soft like Optimus Prime.
Starscream. Megatron was already certain of it. Somehow, he’d managed to sway Megatron’s Decepticons into following him. As if he was their leader! Megatron scowled at that thought. A slagging coup, that was what was evidently going on. One that was dangerously close to success, if even his loyal Soundwave had been compromised.
This was entirely unacceptable, a betrayal from within that was greater than any that had come before. Megatron was neither an ignorant mech or a merciful mech, so he knew what he had to do to put this uprising to rest: he had to remind the entire Nemesis just who Megatronus of Kaon was.
—
Danny looked up from petting Laserbeak to see Starscream and Knockout stiffen in unison. The day so far had been normal. Peaceful, even. The two Decepticons’ sudden change in attitude was like a bucket of cold water on what had just been a warm, lazy morning in the medbay.
Danny frowned, his eyebrows furrowing with worry. “What’s wrong?” he asked tensely.
Starscream turned to look directly at Danny with a stern expression on his faceplate. “Stay here,” the Seeker told him firmly. “Don’t move.”
“What? Why?” Danny looked to Knockout, expecting an answer.
Knockout avoided Danny’s eyes. “Just listen.” His elegant, smooth voice was choppier than usual with an undeniable anxiety that Danny refused to let him ignore.
“Wait! You can’t just keep me in the dark like this!” Danny protested.
Starscream and Knockout both refused to look at Danny or each other.
Danny’s eyes widened as the pair suddenly began to swiftly walk out of the medbay. “Hold on! Don’t just-”
The medbay’s door closed and locked with a loud clunk.
Oh, there was no way he was letting them go out there alone when they were both so clearly worried about whatever was going on out there. His protective core fired up and pulsed in his chest like a spark. Before he even really thought about it, he was dissipating into invisibility like morning mist in midday sun and jogging along through the door to catch up.
Obviously, neither Knockout or Starscream looked back at Danny as he walked straight through the door. He slowed down to a quick walk and followed them as they walked in silence. He stayed about five feet behind them at all times, watching as Knockout picked endlessly at his grille and Starscream’s wings hiked higher by the minute. The atmosphere worsened as they continued to refuse to look at each other. It felt wrong, every bit of it. What kind of situation could make the two feel like they couldn’t even look in the other’s direction? Danny started to feel sick at the thought of what kind of danger could drive the two of them to this.
Eventually, the tense trio neared the main clearing of the Nemesis. It was where Megatron, when he was around, would passionately profess his hatred of Optimus Prime and lecture the crew on the importance of the Decepticon cause. The ‘Cons were really only ever summoned here for some kind of event. It made sense that Danny had been forbidden from attending, but why couldn’t he have stayed with Soundwave or any of the Vehicons?
That became apparent when they entered the room, and Danny spotted Soundwave and what had to be every Vehicon aboard waiting before them. This was something big, something important enough that every spark on the Nemesis had been summoned.
Danny swallowed hard.
He weaved between the legs of dozens of Decepticons. He paused in confusion when Knockout and Starscream split paths. Knockout made a beeline for Breakdown, who was standing on the edge of… a circle in the middle of the crowd.
Danny’d seen enough schoolyard fights when he was younger to know exactly where this was going. His jaw tightened as his core burned a little fiercer than before. Starscream slowly stepped into the circle in the middle of the crowd, his posture more hunched than usual and his wings arched high and fearful.
Megatron emerged from the crowd and into the opposite end of the circle. “Starscream,” he hissed. “Come forward.”
Dread attached itself to Danny like a ball and chain. He saw Knockout and Breakdown begin to hold one another’s hands tightly and Soundwave holding Ravage in his arms with Laserbeak perched on his shoulder. Danny wasn’t suicidal enough to get too close to Megatron, but he refused to join the other Decepticons in the crowd and therefore followed Starscream faithfully into the lion’s cave.
Starscream was twitchy, and Danny heard the grinding and clanking that he’d come to associate with the beginning of Starscream’s transformation sequence. His servos clamped hard on his thighs, clawed fingertips scraping the gray metal. He was trying not to transform, Danny realized. He was desperately fighting the urge to run away. Danny’s breath hitched in his throat.
Danny finally caught sight of Megatron. The way he was glaring at Starscream with his rabid red optics spelled trouble for the smaller Seeker. “Starscream, what is the meaning of your recent actions?” Megatron’s optics were like twin suns in some hellish world. His tone was nearing feral.
“Lord Megatron,” Starscream began, already falling to his knees before the warlord. Shit had to be serious if he was already groveling and pleading, Danny knew. Starscream would do near anything to get out a bad situation, but he typically had a little more pride that would keep him from immediately acting this pathetically.
“Be silent. I care not for your flimsy excuses,” Megatron said with a sneer. He stepped closer to Starscream, all slow and menacing. He was sure to draw himself up to his full height, looming over Starscream. He looked down at him, and with an air of disgust, said, “I am not fooled by your poor attempt at charades, Starscream. Did you think you could deceive me forever?”
Starscream cowered, his frame quivering. “Lord Megatron, I swear upon my spark, whatever you heard is not true! My liege, I-”
“Silence!” Megatron hissed impatiently. “Decepticons,” he called, looking around the large chamber at the assembled crowd. “This traitor has been able to infest our ranks for far too long! Do you take me for a fool? He has not deceived me, and neither have any of you!” He whirled to glare daggers at Knockout first. “Doctor, do not think I have not noticed the missing footage from the medbay!” Knockout’s ear fins poked up in alarm. Megatron turned to Soundwave next. “Soundwave, my most faithful, you are weaker than I thought for having bent to this glitchrat’s will!” Megatron grabbed Starscream by one sensitive wing, and Danny winced in sympathy. Anger began to blossom in his chest as Megatron continued, “I am willing to forgive this one slight, my loyal Decepticons. However, Starscream…” He looked down at the terrified SIC with an expression twisted with pure hatred. “He shall now face the consequences of his treasonous actions, and may he serve as a reminder to all of you why I am your leader, and he is not.”
Metal screeched like a dying animal as Megatron tugged at Starscream’s wing forcefully. Danny cringed at the horrible sound, and an emotion made his throat feel tight. Starscream’s optics went wide and bright with pain. “My liege!” he howled desperately. “Please, Lord Megatron-”
“Did you not hear me the first two times? Silence!” Megatron shouted, sharp, shark-like teeth bared. “You are a useless waste of slagged circuitry that should’ve been decommissioned orn ago! I will not tolerate your defiance any longer!”
Danny’s initial shock and horror had been replaced by a burning, fiercely protective anger by then. His EMF grew and flared with an angry, defensive love. Danny dropped his invisibility in an instant and stood bravely before the entire Decepticon army. Dozens of sets of optics widened in horror at Danny’s presence, optics that belonged to mecha that Danny had to come to care for in these months and months aboard the Nemesis.
Starscream’s body locked up and his vents blasted a puff of hot air when he recognized the EMF field enveloping him from out of his view, a field as familiar to him by then as home. “No!” his harsh voice scraped out, for once truly pleading because he was not begging for himself any longer. Now, he was begging for Danny too. His world had grown when Danny had entered it, and now it was back to bite him in the aft.
“What made you think you can fuck with Starscream, huh?” Danny snarled straight to Megatron’s face.
Megatron’s servos tightened around Starscream’s neck, and the Seeker choked. He kicked and struggled with a newfound intensity, and his voice was staticky and garbled as he screamed for Danny to run. Danny’s hands curled into fists, tears welled in his eyes, and he gritted his teeth. His partly dead heart was pounding harder than ever before.
Before Megatron could react, Knockout interjected with a desperate plea of, “Please, Master, spare the human, he’s just a harmless pet!”
“You’ve been keeping this puny human?!” Megatron roared. “For shame!” He cast Starscream to the floor of the Nemesis with a loud clang. He left Starscream to groan in pain as he turned to point accusingly at all the Decepticons present. “All of you! How dare you take in such filth!” Steve flinched when Megatron called him filth. Danny was too angry to care about the insults.
“Hey!” Danny shouted fiercely. “Over here, bucket head!”
Megatron snarled as he looked at Danny once more. “Vehicons!” He shouted commandingly. “Dispose of the fleshling immediately so I can deal with the traitors in our midst!”
The Vehicons turned to each other, hesitance written all over their faceplates. C-27 gave Danny a look that pleaded for Danny to run while he still could. Danny met his visor and shook his head somberly.
“Vehicons!” Megatron shouted again. “Why do you falter when your master commands you?”
None of them replied. The warlord’s face twisted into a grimace. “Must I remind you all of my power?” He placed one large pede on Starscream’s chest. His lightweight flyer frame wasn’t built to handle such pressure, and his body began to groan under the weight as his cockpit cracked.
Danny decided right then to make perhaps the most stupid and most right decision of his life.
He gathered his power around himself and went straight for Megatron.
The ex-gladiator sensed the incoming blow and turned to meet Danny with a loud growl. “No!” Starscream shrieked, servos clawing at Megatron’s legs uselessly as Megatron grabbed Danny with one free servo and squeezed hard.
Danny screamed and gasped as his ribs began to protest under the pressure, just as Starscream’s frame had under Megatron’s pede. It was agony, one of the worst pains Danny had felt in years. His body heaved, trying to get in more air. Danny cried out and tears ran down his cheeks. His limbs flailed helplessly. His vision blurred. Finally, Megatron threw him aside, like a dog would after shaking a rat in its jaws.
There were audible cries and gasps as Megatron, for the first time, laid a servo on Danny.
Megatron dropped Starscream too, and then the warlord proceeded to kick him so hard that Decepticons scrambled out of the way as he went flying and hit the opposite wall with a resounding clang. “Make sure he doesn’t perish,” Megatron snapped at Knockout. “I will not simply let him die. I must make him suffer.” Knockout’s scarlet optics went between Starscream’s crumpled frame and Danny’s already-bruising body. He exchanged a look with his conjunx that spoke of a growing panic in his spark.
Meanwhile, Danny looked up groggily as Megatron loomed over him, casting a large, intimidating shadow. “Pathetic fleshling,” he snarled mockingly. “So weak and useless. You do not deserve to die at the servos of the great Megatronus. In a way, I am doing you an honor.” His optics glinted with gleeful animosity.
Megatron slowly raised his pede.
All Danny could do was stare up at his impending death. He was too injured and too terrified to move, much less run or fight. His heart pounded, and his mind raced as he tried to make sense of his final moments. He’d failed. He hadn’t been strong enough to save Starscream or help him at all. Danny’s last act of courage was what would finally put him in the grave and banish him to the afterlife, fully this time. There was nothing to light his darkest hour.
Suddenly, an unfamiliar, monotone voice shattered the shade of death above Danny.
“Megatron: inferior.” Soundwave shoved Megatron hard, making the warlord stumble away from Danny. Laserbeak swooped in, chirping frantically, and scooped up Danny with his tentacle-like appendages. Danny could just barely make out, in his peripheral vision, the Decepticons, led by Soundwave, cornering Megatron while Knockout tended to Starscream.
All of them surrounded him, and Megatron spat words of outrage that Danny didn’t bother to decipher anymore as he began to be dragged into unconsciousness.
But one sentence stuck out to him: “Megatron: Decepticon status revoked. Decepticons,” Soundwave commanded, “extinguish Megatron’s spark.”