robothell | [ INTRO LOG ]

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[ INTRO LOG ]

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...

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Oh, now, this pain dampener chip was definitely, horrifically miscalibrated because there's no way he's seriously seeing this. Teaches Aftermath to spend money on unreliable, unlicensed medics.

That was Megatron. Megatron. But looking like he'd come fresh off the cover of the first news article Aftermath had seen him in.

"... Lord Megatron?" he ventures at last, staring at the apparition on the opposite side of the pond. The mangled knee and glitching pain dampener were temporarily forgotten.

Megatron looks up from the water, a little puzzled at the sudden title being attached to his name. It wasn't the strangest thing about the situation, but it was an uncomfortable little detail.

The other Cybertronian is unrecognizable to him, but he did notice the labored walk. He rises to his feet to meet them.

"Do you need help?"

"This is the strangest dream I've had in a while." Megatron was asking him if he needed help. Megatron? Was this some kind of strange reconsolation thing his brain module was cooking up? Making him talk with with a young Megatron when their ideals had still aligned? Could've at least saved it for when he was properly dying instead of just hopped up on a bad pain dampener.

Realizing his lack of answer was somewhat rude after a moment, Aftermath hastily replies, "Ah, no, no I'm fine."

Just, you know, a hole blown through the knee and enough damaged and missing armor to make transformation impossible.

"... Maybe a little help."

Megatron offers a shoulder for him to use as support.

The miner may have started to accept that hurting the enemy may be the only way to make progress, but that sentiment didn't extend to all Cybertronians. He was doing this for them.

"I'll be relieved if all this can be explained as a simple dream."

"Thank you," Aftermath murmurs, taking the proffered shoulder with a sigh of relief. He looks up at Megatron then, somehow managing a smile despite the lack of facial features. "My, but aren't you a sight for these old optics. Just marvelous." And he really was. For a brief moment, the truck-former is struck with an overwhelming sense of hope- the very same feeling that'd overcome him the moment he'd finished his first reading of Megatron's first peaceful treatise.

The sadness that swamps Aftermath afterwards leaves his body feeling more numb than the pain dampener had.

"Last I heard of you, you'd donned a red badge and run off with the Autobots," the old mech huffs, moving right onto lecturing this dream!Megatron before the sudden sink into depression would really get to him. Somewhat sternly, he taps the young revolutionary's chest. "That's a terrible way to end a war. Honestly, of all the ways you could've ended it, that was the absolute worst."

"I'm afraid there's a lot of things I've been told that haven't been making much sense since I arrived here. I would certainly never join the Autobots as I knew them - I doubt Sentinel would want me in his forces to begin with."

The brief hope in this Cybertronian's voice gave him an small sense of fulfillment. Whatever had happened to get him torn up like that could at least be somewhat alleviated this way.

Not that the trip up the crater's side elevation was going to be any more enjoyable, but at least he could attempt to make it more manageable.

"Primus, no, nothing of the sort. You squashed that miserable excuse of a mech, Apex Armor and all, and let me tell you, it was was VERY deserved." Aftermath reaches out with his free arm as they start climbing the crater's side, trying to steady himself without burdening Megatron too much.

"That battle marked the end of any peaceful resolution to the conflict, however. We murdered nearly the entire Senate. You and Orion Pax- chosen as Prime by the Matrix and renamed Optimus Prime- you two filled the power vacuum they left behind. Things took a turn for the worse after that."

His words trail off into a quiet grunt of pain as the change in elevation forces his hurt leg to drag along at a new angle.

Everything Aftermath described is exactly what he wanted to happen, violent as it was, yet hearing the ominous aftermath only left him with a heavy sense of dread.

But he doesn't bring that up just yet, slowing to help this Decepticon adjust to the new incline.

"What could be worse than what was in place to begin with?"

"More of the same but with a different twist," Aftermath chuckles mirthlessly. "Out of Functionist rule and into a new era of a grand, imperialist, fascist military regime. We created a society that valued power, physical might and unquestioning loyalty to Lord Megatron over everything else."

"It... wasn't a particularly healthy society." The pain straining the old mech's voice takes on a different quality, something deeper than the burn of a warped knee joint. "I lost many years and many friends fighting for it. I've stopped wearing your badge, but I still keep it and I don't really know why."

Once Aftermath finds out this Megatron wasn't a figment of his delirious imagination, he's going to regret those confessions.

He's quiet as Aftermath describes the turn for the worse. A narcissistic and aggressive mutation into what he'd tried to combat in the first place.

Hearing the pain in this soldier's voice, he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt for being the cause of it to begin with. Even if the Senate needed to be destroyed and replaced, it was for the betterment of the Cybertronian people. Not for their oppression under a different name.

"That's.. not what I wanted to happen. I'm sorry."

"It's four million years too late, unfortunately."

They hit the steepest edge of the crater and Aftermath falls silent, concentrating on dragging himself upwards. Even with Megatron's help, it's a slow and tedious ordeal and Aftermath almost blacks out by the time they finally reach level ground.

"Thank you," the old truck manages once he recovers slightly. He pauses and then reaches out to place his free hand on Megatron's shoulder, a gesture he hopes is comforting, although why he felt compelled to comfort a hallucination he's not entirely sure.

"You were a good person, once."

The miner is patient as he works his way up the grinding edge of the crater. Strength and endurance were things he had plenty of, and in that he had little issue lending as much as this soldier needed.

He looks oddly deflated as they reach the top, completely wordless throughout the rest of the climb. He just stares back as a hand rests on his own shoulder, not particularly comforted by Aftermath's words. It would do little to fix the damage this Cybertronian had suffered. His thoughts wandered to Terminus.

"Are you certain you'll be good on your own?"

"I'll wake up soon enough," Aftermath answers with a shrug and a tired laugh. "And then I'll go find that two bit hack of a medic and strangle him."

Honestly, he was a bit borderline delirious and probably in need of supervision, but the truck-former still gestures at the nearest structure and says, "Just leave me against that wall. Things'll sort themselves out eventually."

He's surprisingly attentive as he helps Aftermath find a comfortable spot by the wall, waiting for the old bot to find good support before letting him go.

"You need to stay here. I'm going to look around in the city and see if there's anyone who can help you."

There's a firm squeeze of Aftermath's shoulder,"You're already awake. Just keep your optics online."

Finally getting to sit down leaves Aftermath limp with relief, a low sigh escaping his vents. He was a bit overheated from compensating for his knee and the wall felt amazingly cool against his back.

"It's not a mortal wound you know, I can get some shut eye if I wanted," he grumbles. It speaks volumes about his current mental state that is doesn't occur to him to even start thinking that this might not actually be a dream despite Megatron's words.

Realizing somewhat vaguely after moment that a grumpy remark wasn't the last thing he wanted to say to this apparition, Aftermath reaches out, placing a hand on Megatron's wrist.

"... Take care of yourself."

Megatron rests a hand on Aftermath's. He isn't sure if that's going to make him appear any more real than he did before, but hopefully the physical contact would make a better impression than his voice has.

He looks the old bot in the visor, "I'm going to look for help. Take a moment to rest here until I get back."

The touch and the optic contact does spark something off in the back of Aftermath's mind, subconsciousness quietly reevaluating the situation.

Exhaustion was already beginning to take its toll however, and Afternath was beginning to drowse off. It was getting hard to think and that particular train of thought sinks down back into the darkness before it could fully formulate.

"Alright," he sighs softly, letting his systems power down. His self repair had been hammering him about getting some rest anyways.

Megatron's strangely concerned expression is the last thing he sees.

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