Transformers IDW1 Fanfiction The Death of Megatron Chapter 1
Chapter word count: 6k Chapters: 1/12
Summary: Megatron is set to be executed by the Galactic Council, but Rodimus won’t stand for this. Luckily Optimus Prime is just enough of a bastard to secretly intervene and save Megatron, giving them a new identity and body for a life on Cybertron as a medic. They now have to exist within the context of the new Cybertronian society that is being created in the aftermath of the war. They can no longer avoid the constant reminder of their sins and be on the other side of the galaxy from those for whom what they have done is far more personal- like Starscream. They also cannot avoid answering the open question of the nature and future of their relationship with Minimus Ambus. (Basically having Megatron interact with characters and concepts from the RID etc side of IDW phase 2/3, as well as more of a bottom-up view of new Cybertron than we really see in canon. Plus more follow-up with the Starscream dysphoria plot point than we really got in canon.)
Relationships: Megatron/Minimus Ambus (Transformers), past Megatron/functionist universe!Orion Pax
Characters: Megatron (Transformers), Nautica (Transformers), Clicker (Transformers), Optimus Prime, Rodimus | Rodimus Prime, Other Character Tags to Be Added, As those chapters are written obviously Minimus and Starscream are going to be major characters
Additional tags: Angst, no unicron au (see notes), Post-Canon, Worldbuilding focus, non-binary!Megatron, Transgender themes, both literal and allegorical, passive suicidal ideation of pov character throughout, transformers doesn’t have consistent terminology the way star wars does and that almost killed me, Rung is haunting the narrative, extremely nuanced exploration of abuse, to the point its kind of a content warning, this will be attempting to reconcile on a thematic level how megatron is depicted in mtmte/ll with how he's used in taao
What is justice?, Why are you allowed to punish?, What if the worst person in the world really did change?
“...unsealing the stasis pod now.”
Megatron’s optics came online, but struggled to focus. Where...where was he? Last he remembered, he was in his cell, contemplating his execution, when it would finally all end...
He managed to make out the face of Orion Pax, looming over him. Was this the Afterspark? Even after all he had seen, his atheism remained unchanged. If anything, learning that the Guiding Hand were in the end just bots had solidified it for him. But now, had the Galactic Council denied him the chance of last words- knocked him unconscious before executing him? And he’d found himself in the Afterspark, and not just any Afterspark, but one that existed between universes.
“Or- Orion Pax...” he managed to force out. Why did his vocal synthesizer feel so strange?
“Could he have lost his memories?” Orion turned to speak to someone just out of his sight. Megatron forced himself to turn his head. As it thudded to the side, he saw the teal form of Velocity paging through a datapad. He also realized he was laying on a medical-grade circuit slab. Familiar enough medical equipment surrounded him, but this seemed more like some kind of research laboratory rather than a med-bay.
“I don’t think so,” Velocity replied, “but it isn’t an impossibility.”
Megatron looked back at Orion, although he found he could only move his eyes, and not his head after it had fallen to the side. That wasn’t Orion. That wasn’t his Orion. As his neural functions came back online he could notice the differences. That wasn’t the face of his conjunx, which he had last seen as he cradled Orion in his arms over a century ago. After Megatron had failed to save him.
No, this was someone completely different.
“Prime,” he growled, “what have you done?”
“I saved your life,” Optimus replied.
“Oh, like how you saved Earth?” Megatron shot back. A quiet background process immediately flagged how he was falling back into old thought patterns after mere moments around Optimus, indulging in anger and conflict- a behavior he had learned to keep a constant optic on. “Here’s Prime, always has to save the day, no matter the consequences or what anyone actually wants.”
“I thought you’d be grateful.”
“Oh? And that’s why you did it? So Megatron would be in debt to the great Optimus Prime for saving his life? Or maybe it's because if I don’t deserve execution, then you don’t have to feel guilty about anything you sanctioned during the war.”
“Don’t be too hard on him, Megs,” a familiar voice interjected. Velocity was leading into the room Rodimus; followed by Nautica, Anode, Roller, and Clicker. “I was the one who asked him,” Rodimus continued.
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