[ INTRO LOG ]

[robotsatan]

You don't know how you got here. One minute you were walking, sleeping, maybe dead -- then you're here, your feet suddenly carrying you down an empty street. Where's here?

Any Cybertronian would recognize this as their home planet, Cybertron, but it's not a Cybertron they've ever known. It has all the familiar hallmarks, but none of the specifics -- the city isn't one anyone here could identify, and even at a glance it's obvious that no one's set foot on the planet's surface in hundreds of years. The city and its surrounding areas all bear the marks of devastating war, of dust and rust collected over centuries. With no one in sight -- right at first, anyway -- there's plenty to explore. In fact, if you start walking, you'll find that your feet may just carry you in one particular direction.

A) The crater.
On one edge of the city is a massive crater left by some wartime weapon that seems to have taken out a large chunk of the surrounding metropolitan area. At the center of the crater it's broken through the surface of the terrain to reveal what looks like it might be a promising energon deposit. There is some strange but native vegetation growing around the edges, too, that no Cybertronian would be able to identify -- small, metallic, brittle-looking sprouts that bear a curiously organic-looking fruit of some kind that doesn't look like it's intended for consumption by any natives of the planet. In one rocky nook of the crater, light catches on the surface of a pool of water, which seems strangely out of place on Cybertron. On closer inspection, it seems that somehow an underground water source has formed a spring in the crater.

B) The center of the city.
If you follow where your feet seem to want to carry you, you'll find yourself in the middle of the ruined city. It seems that the center of the city was once home to a massive forum, and some of the pillars and structures still stand. At the very center of the forum is a massive, elaborately constructed fountain, although it has now long since run dry of whatever used to fill it. One of the low, inner walls of the forum has a terminal embedded in its surface, although it looks curiously ancient, out of place with the rest of the city, and unlike the rest of the technology still left around, there doesn't seem to be any way to power it on or operate it. There are a few scattered pools of water and a few of the strange metallic plants in the city, too, but they're not quite as plentiful as in the crater.

The planet was obviously once home to a massive network of communication relays, but those have all been long since destroyed. However, with the bits and pieces left behind and a few determined minds, it wouldn't be too hard to build a working, if rudimentary, one...

Comments

[rodders]

That's rude, Bee. And Rodimus can see the damage with his own eyes, wincing slightly. Yeah, sure looks like Bumblebee got blasted through the chest and should be dead. The missing badge doesn't escape his notice either - mouth deepening into a frown since he knows where that particular autobrand is. Ugh.

"I'm not really sure blue's your color." Helpful. "But it's nice to see that you're not. Dead, that is. Although--"

Oh boy does he have news for you about Megatron. Not that he knows that Bee already knows about Megatron. He's a bit behind the times, okay.

[taselikeabee]

"Thanks for the fashion advice, Roddy," Bee replies with an optic roll and all.

The yellow and blue kind of do clash, yes. That hadn't been the more pressing issue at the time, however. They still had to deal with what had been threatening Cybertron and the universe's very existence at that juncture. So sue him for being more concerned about actual problems!

"And it's nice to see you have about as much tact as a sledgehammer when it meets a wall..."

[rodders]

"Hey, no problem. Guess you could always hope Atomizer shows up - he won't shut up about color theory if you even mention the word 'paint' in front of him." Believe him, he's experienced this first hand and couldn't escape. "Er, so, have you been filled in what's all gone down since you--" A gesture at his own chest, where the shot would have been if it had hit him.

As for his tact, well: "You know me, Bee." Tact is not his style - he's never really seen the point.

[taselikeabee]

"I'll pass on that, thanks," Bee replies, having no interest whatsoever in keeping appearances anyway. "And knowing you comes with more trouble than problems solved."

It's the truth, anyway. Despite Bumblebee calling nearly everyone on the Lost Light his friend, there are points of contention. Rodimus and his lack of foresight is kind of one of them. That leads to even more problems. Usually. Still, it's good to see him and the others. Bee isn't one to deny that.

"Optimus has told me a little. Not sure I believe him."

[rodders]

"I've solved many problems, Bee. You just don't appreciate how I do them." He grins - they might have left off at a bad point, but Rodimus' grudges are for Cons only, not the majority of Autobots. Usually.

"Which part? The you being dead, the Megatron joining up with the Autobots, Shockwave trying to end the world..."

[taselikeabee]

Bumblebee can still shoot Rodimus a glare at that comment. Of course he doesn't approve of Rodimus' methods. However, no... At the moment he can't really muster up the energy to maintain it. There's too much weighing on his mind and spark for that. As much as he's loathe to admit it, Rodimus does occasionally care about people that aren't himself or his glory.

Occasionally.

"Megatron, mostly. The rest of it I kind of was around for, you know."

[rodders]

"Well that's true. He got a trial and everything. Although it's currently 'in suspension' because he played the system and Magnus was too morally upstanding to not let him get away with it."

He likes Magnus, he really does, but Prowl should have been the defense. He would have sucked at it and this would have been over months ago.

[taselikeabee]

"The fact that he allowed a trial is a little bit worrying," he mutters. Bee has to wonder what kind of mindset Megatron really had to be in to even be all right with going along with it. The rest isn't surprising. Megatron had confessed to that much and if he hadn't? Well then Bee would really think something had been up.

Honestly? Bumblebee wants to think that it's sincere. All of it. He had a glimpse of hope when Megatron had been around him before. The words that he had exchanged on this planet with the former warlord had been genuine, or so he believes at the moment.

"I believe him, you know."

[rodders]

"Yeah, blame Starscream for that one. It was his idea." Well his 'people', but Rodimus has pretty much decided to ignore anything and everything that indicates Starscream isn't just stumbling along until he fucks things up and someone who isn't Starscream takes over. Self preservation instincts and all that. "Still can't believe we actually gave him one."

How do you give Megatron a trial and then how do you let him walk after? How?

"You and Prime," he says, shrugging. Unbothered by it because hey, he doesn't believe it. Everyone else will come around eventually.

[taselikeabee]

"Another chance to show off and look good in front of the masses, I bet," Bee groans.

Starscream is just the perfect politician, isn't he? Bumblebee can think of several reasons as to why the jet would go so far as to give Megatron a trial. Of course, one has to wonder if he only had asked for one because he believed the outcome inevitable.

"I don't quite carry Prime's optimism though."

[rodders]

"He wore a crown," Rodimus says - fully confirming all of Bee's worst fears in a single sentence. And really, Rodimus thinks everyone only agreed to a trial in the first place because everyone accepted that Megatron's guilt and subsequent execution would have done them all a world of good. A final note to the war.

Funny that it didn't turn out like that, and instead it's just dragged everyone along again.

About that. "I don't think it's optimism. Try 'desperation', it fits better."

[taselikeabee]

"Ask me if I'm surprised to hear that."

Spoilers: he's not. Starscream is audacious enough to do that. Bumblebee doesn't know about this 'chosen one' stuff spewed out by the titan - if it's true or not, that is. He isn't sure if Starscream actually believes that either or is just using it. Him wearing a crown? Yeah, the jet is tacky like that.

"It's not desperation either though, Rodimus. Just... Give the guy a chance, all right? That's all."

[rodders]

"A chance?" He doesn't sound hysterical so much as he does incredulous. "Bee, you know me. But someone like Megatron? He deserves to die. He deserves to die and you know what? He knows it."

And that's that, as far as he's concerned.

[taselikeabee]

"That's not something you or I get to decide, Rodimus," Bee sighs. "Don't we all have a lot of energon on our hands? Haven't all of us done things that are questionable morally and ethically?"

Bumblebee knows he has. He had also been there when they had first encountered Rodimus. Everyone has dirty hands in this. It doesn't matter who had started it or who had finished it. Everyone else around them has suffered and no one involved is innocent.

"And the fact that he knows it? That there's some degree of guilt and remorse? Isn't that something? It's more than some of us have shown..."

[rodders]

"None of us would have nearly as much if it wasn't for him and you know it, too." Rodimus shakes his head, frown deepening. "Is there? Does he really?"

Rodimus doesn't believe it.

[taselikeabee]

"Maybe," Bumblebee shrugs. He can't exactly deny that either. "Then again, can we honestly say this wouldn't have happened on down the line?"

Things hadn't been the best either before Megatron had done something. Bumblebee knows that just from working with Sentinel. He also knows it from working with Orion Pax.

"Right now you're kind of sounding like me when I took things out on Drift. Don't be that sort of guy, Rodimus. If someone is genuine, then shouldn't we be trying to help them while keeping an eye on hem? I'm not saying trust the guy by any means... Just try to be open to the possibility."

[rodders]

"Hey, I didn't say that. You know how much I hated Zeta." Still does, honestly. "But killing billions? Yeah, don't think a bunch of insurgents from Nyon could have managed that."

No, they just managed to kill off the entire city in order to protect it from Zeta.

"Drift is different," Rodimus says in defense of his friend, arms crossed. Drift doesn't belong in the same category as Megatron, because he became an Autobot of his own violation, not as some last ditch effort in order to save his life as far as Rodimus is concerned. "I'll believe it when I see it."

[taselikeabee]

"Are we going to really slap a number on lives, Rodimus? A few is acceptable but more than that isn't?"

They can't be like that. That's how someone becomes sparkless. There's value in every spark and everyone involved with the war had lost sight of that along the way. Even Bee. That's a fact that he's ashamed of, deep down.

"And while I fully intend to apologize to Drift, it's no different," Bee replies. "Someone gave him the chance to change his life around and he took it. I gave that chance to Megatron and he took it. The hatred that you feel towards Zeta? I felt that towards Megatron. When I saw him I wanted him dead at all costs."

Which is alarming. Bumblebee isn't that type of guy. He's not the sort that wishes death on anyone. Instead he's the type to throw himself in front of other to protect them at the expense of his own life. Bumblebee knows what he's talking about from experience. Rodimus is younger than him, but can't be by much.

"Like I said. Just give it a chance. Or... There's something else."

[rodders]

"That's not what I meant." Rodimus carries every single unnecessary death he's responsible for with him - curled up in guilt next to his spark. He doesn't see it from Megatron, though, the way he knows it eats at him. But somewhere along the line you can't - Rodimus included - continue to look at the scope of what had happened and find the will to keep going. How can you?

"He deserves to die," he repeats, shaking his head as if that's the end of that question. "You haven't spent the past six months on a ship with him, Bee. Just because he took it doesn't mean he is."

Rodimus doesn't want to give Megatron a chance, that's the problem. He doesn't think Megatron deserves it, not after everything. And Rodimus - he's the master of second chances, both for himself and for everyone else. But there is a line and - irrationally - he's drawn it right before Megatron.

"Yeah?"