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Who: Bumblebee and old man Megatron
Where: Wherever the old man hides
When: Some time after talking with Optimus
What: Bee's heard some things and he needs some confirmation
Warnings: Feels and snark?

Optimus mentioned that Bumblebee had some sort of impact on the leader of the Decepticons. Suffice to say that Bee didn't quite believe that. Former leader. Apparently the big guy took up the Autobadge for some reason. While the yellow Autobot was sure that he got through to the former warlord on some level, he had a hard time accepting that the infamous Megatron was no longer a Decepticon - that he would just up and change sides. It was one of those things that Bee needed to see to believe. That was his mission, his task, that he set out to do today. He knew that Megatron was here and saw fit to hunt the other down.

His yellow plating had been repaired, but Bumblebee was still quite badgeless. That was another issue he intended to address to Optimus before too long. Bee felt a little odd. He wore that badge with pride and honor for years. To not have it now felt like there was something of himself missing. Perhaps Megatron would know what became of it, considering that Autobots tended to recycle badges rather than forge them from their spark casings. Small blessings, right?

That would have to wait, though. Bee spotted a familiar form up ahead. Finally, he would be able to see things with his own optics.

"You'd think I wouldn't have to spend a few hours tracking a big guy like you down. Thanks for proving me wrong," he snickered.

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His hand starts to go to his badge, but he drops it before it gets there, venting a quiet sigh. "No, I think you probably did."

At first, Bumblebee doesn't say much. There's a thoughtful hum. It's not that he doesn't approve. In fact, he thinks it could help drastically... However, there is something that's bothering him about this change of spark.

"Is it really what you want, Megatron?"

Bee hopes that it is genuine and not coerced. Yet he remembers Megatron's passing comment to Soundwave about changing the Decepticons. Bumblebee has to wonder what Megatron really wants.

There's a little pause, and then a faint smile crosses his face, and he lets out a quiet, rough laugh and shakes his head.

"I think that given the circumstances it's the best that I can do."

"Circumstances I haven't been told about, I guess," the mini replies, taking a seat on some rumble.

Yeah, he's not going anywhere just yet.

"Can I hear your side of it?"

He nods, slowly, and after a moment lowers himself to sit, too, a little way off. Perhaps he would have stayed standing, in the past, but with this weakness in his fuel lines he sees no reason not to.

"What do you want to know?"

He doesn't much like answering questions about this, honestly, but with Bumblebee... there's not the kind of suspicion he's used to, or the hostility, or the desperate disappointment. It's almost refreshing.

"Is it too much to just say everything?"

Bee throws Megatron a small, lopsided grin. A bit of a joke, but with everything that he's missed? He doesn't really know where to start asking questions. Before, when he and the former Decepticon spoke, it had been met with some resentment and dubiousness. Now? It's a much different atmosphere.

"I have a more personal question, but I'll get to that later," he says instead, rubbing at the side of his helm. "First it'd be nice to know what happened after I... Yeah."

"After Shockwave killed you," says Megatron soberly. "Yes. Optimus and I defeated him. Stopped his plans of universal destruction. And the Autobots put me on trial for my war crimes..."

"Trial? You let them take you to court?" Bee says, kind of floored. "I bet Prowl was pleased."

Megatron snorts. "Not when they didn't execute me, he wasn't."

No, no that wouldn't be good. For Prowl.

"So why didn't they? ...Not that I'd be okay with it if they did."

He looks down at Bumblebee, considering.

"I... exploited a loophole," he admits. "Not that I imagine it would have worked if Optimus hadn't wanted to give me a chance, of course, but..." He shakes his head, the hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth. "Technically my trial is on hold until we've located the Knights of Cybertron... but in practice the quest is the trial. Whether I can make it to the Lost Light's triumphant return without showing my true colours, if you will."

Edited 2015-01-22 02:04 (UTC)

Should he be angry? Surprised? A loophole isn't going to help with the whole 'trustworthy' issue, now is it? Bumblebee isn't really surprised, not with the flat look he gives Megatron upon hearing that. It's to be expected and, in the end, can he really blame him?

"I bet Optimus was actually relieved that you did. Though I guess being on the Lost Light is punishment enough."

"It was that or let Starscream spend the next few millennia telling his brave new Cybertron what a blameless imbecile I was," Megatron adds, perhaps just slightly... defensively? Like he doesn't want Bumblebee to disapprove too hard? We will never speak of this

That second remark gets a quiet scoff, though: "I won't pretend the thought hasn't crossed my mind that Optimus might have intended this as my punishment all along," he says. "It has been... quite the experience."

Thankfully, for Megatron, Bee doesn't disapprove. Too much. Haven't they really all been through too much? Don't people deserve another chance? In the end, it's not for him to judge. He's learned that lesson.

"Let's face it... Starscream might do that anyway. I just hope the people come to their senses soon enough on that front."

Because that is something Bee is pretty bitter about: Starscream being elected. Metalhawk had deserved it, not that self serving jet.

"Anyway. You're with a bunch of characters. Of course it is going to be an experience."

"I have to admit I'm surprised Cybertron's still functioning at all with him at its head," says Megatron with faint disgust. "Then again, perhaps he simply makes a better politician than a warlord."

He sighs.

"It's not so much the individuals that are making the entire thing so absurd as the time travel and space time anomalies."

"By the time that you get back, it might not be," Bee replies rather casually. It kind of goes without saying that Starscream is a much better politician than actual leader. There's a little nagging thought in the back of his head that tells him that is partially his own fault. If he had really been there for the people, would they have turned to Starscream?

That doesn't really matter now. Things like time travel and space time anomalies... Man wouldn't Wheeljack like to be here, yeah? Bee would like to think that at least Perceptor is enjoying himself. So he shrugs and grins.

"And dealing with prophecies and listening to plucky little Autobots is any less worthy of a processor ache?"

Megatron raises an eyebrow stand-in, looking amused. "I've endured more than my share of plucky Autobots over the last six months, trust me," he says. "And much though I'd prefer to avoid prophecies altogether... they sound rather less of a pain than..." He waves a hand, grimacing, "time paradoxes."

"Should I use 'sassy' instead?"

Bumblebee shifts just a bit, grinning at Megatron's amusement. This is really a little too surreal, but he's adjusting. Oddly.

All right, now that little fun and games attitude has to go out the window for a moment. It kind of looks like Megatron needs a pick me up and - Primus help him - Bee is going to do his damnedest to.

"You can handle it, Megatron," he says, one hundred percent confident in that. "You can do this. I was in Kaon, you know. I saw first hand what you were capable of then - how much you can influence people. You turned a bunch of people that hand no confidence in themselves - that had no real training - into a force to be reckoned with."

It's not the best example, but it does show that Megatron is, for better or worse, someone not to be taken lightly. He's made a difference, one way or another.

"It's hard, I know, to know that you messed up. It's discouraging and you get tired and want to give up. But you can't. Optimus believes in you and, well... I do too."

Edited 2015-01-27 04:41 (UTC)

He looks a little surprised to hear that. Well, more than just a little. That really isn't the best example – he turned them into much worse than simply a force to be reckoned with and he's all too aware of it – but what he says after that gives him pause, makes an unreadable expression settle on his face. Unreadable mainly because Megatron's face hasn't had cause to look touched for a very long time, and the mechanisms that govern his facial expressions don't really know what to do about it.

That almost means more coming from Bumblebee than from Optimus – this faith seems harder-earned. Optimus has always wanted to believe in his capacity to not be a fucking supervillain, and that has always seemed kind of foolish to Megatron, even now that he is actively trying to make a better go of it. But hearing that Bumblebee believes in him, this Autobot with no reason not to doubt him as much as any of the rest of them... he wants Bumblebee to be right.

"... Thank you," he says, feeling sort of ridiculous.

"You don't need to thank me," Bee replies with a simple shrug. "There's a part of me that's still skeptical, but I'm not going to give you a chance when you've earned it. You gave me reason to and I'd like to think that you wouldn't pick up the Autobot's badge - my badge - and not try."

It's a little bit of trust and another bit of expectation. Megatron is wearing Bumblebee's badge and many people probably know it. If Megatron is going to continue to wear it, then he should try to live up to what it means - if not for himself, then at least for Bee's sake.

Bumblebee isn't above using that barb. He's not a complete soft spark.

Megatron acknowledges that challenge with a faint, wry smile; he nods, one hand coming up to touch the badge, and his optics linger on where Bumblebee's is missing.

"I'm sorry about that, by the way," he says. "When I took it I wasn't anticipating you'd be coming back."

"Don't be," Bumblebee says with a dismissive wave. "I think there was valid reason to believe that."

For all that Megatron had said something about no one really staying dead, it would be Bee's luck. That's just how things had been for him lately. Someone would have gotten his badge anyway. That's how they operated. Bee is kind of unsure about how to feel about Megatron himself picking it up, but there's no reason to be sorry for it.

"Just explain to me why, I guess."

"Mm." There's a pause, as Megatron tries to decide how to frame it. "I wanted to do things differently. It felt like the clearest way to demonstrate that – and to hold myself to it. And, well, it was an Autobot who made me face just how far off-course I'd come..."

"Doing a one-eighty like that? That's a pretty strong way to show people."

One would think that there's still other ways, right? Perhaps it's not so nice to be so skeptical. Especially since Bee has apparently influenced Megatron so. That is still pretty hard to grasp.

"All I did was speak plainly," Bee replies. "Optimus has been telling you the same for ages."

"It's different, coming from him," Megatron says with a wry smile. "He always just made me want to be worse, to spite him..." He sighs, and shakes his head. It sounds so stupid, saying it out loud. "Ridiculous. I don't know. Perhaps you just got to me at the right time. The right circumstances."

"Hasn't that always been a thing between you two?" Bee half jokes and then shudders. "You two and your codependency issues..."

Bumblebee is just calling it as he sees it. He's seen a lot between those two over the ages and some of it? Just downright creepy. Bee won't say that, of course.

"But it might be a bit of that. Might've happened sooner if I had talked to you when you asked for me."

Megatron gives him a Look at that codependency remark; he doesn't honour it with an actual reply, perhaps because it is, like, 100% accurate and true.

"... Perhaps it would have," he says, and he sounds profoundly regretful – because he can believe well enough that it might have done, because he can remember all too well how his next assault on Cybertron had been, to some extent, simply going through the motions, because that was what he did; because he's ashamed that he was so deeply entrenched that he needed someone to tell him what he was doing to be able to actually stop.

Of course Bee just flashes him a GRIN with the look he gets. Megatron better not say anything against it. Everyone knows that it is a fact. An indisputable one at that.

"Ah well. Nothing for that..." Bumblebee finally comments. "The thing is you're realizing it now and trying to do something great. Just wish I could see the end result."

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