#exarchon

He's startled, but controllingly drops any grip he had on the real Provoke's body. He whips around irritably.

"Who was that?"

He shoots looks across the gathering in indignant, outraged confusion.

Paragon is glaring silently.

"Who are you supposed to be?"

Provoke: Don't remember me? You were me up til now.

Gridlock: We're Cyclonus' friends. We are not your friends.

Exarchon: [reaching out] What is this...?

Highfire: Don't the fatal wounds make it obvious? We're hallucinations.

Exarchon: ... I see, he was mad the entire time. That explains it. But... why are you still here? I've done away with Cyclonus.

Highfire: We were actually wondering the same thing.

Grudge: I was just saying if he goes, we go with him. If it all went south. But then it went sideways.

Gridlock: Losing us broke his spark. And the war broke his brain. You may have usurped his spark, but you still got his brain. Least I think that's how we're still here.

Exarchon is uncomfortable but beginning to familiarize himself with the situation.

Exarchon grimly laughs. He's pissed but trying not to let it show.

Grudge: We're specters of Cyc's guilt. Maybe we're specters of your guilt now. Are you still Cybertronian enough to feel guilt?

Exarchon: Feh. I am beyond such pedestrian experience.

Highfire: You are the reason we all died. Forget guilt, do you even feel responsible?

Gridlock: What if we're Cyc's punishment? A nice lil' housewarming present for the new tenant.

He glowers.

Provoke: Oh, jokes? You got jokes? You think we're joking? You think we're doing a tight five right now, bluescreen?

Exarchon: Nobody speaks to me like that.

Provoke: I AM nobody, deadbolt, and I'll say what I like. How dare you. How DARE you. How dare a sentient oil stain like yourself put on such a proud face? You take that off RIGHT NOW!

Provoke: Why don't you take your slimy, overclocked junker caboose AND-

He impulsively swipes at her. His arm just phases through like smoke.

He turns his back to them, realizing they're just distractions. Huffs an angry laugh.

Provoke: Did you see that?! You guys saw that! He just tried to backhand me!

Gridlock: That's real low. Thought you were above all that.

Exarchon glares and doesn't dignify that with a response out of spite. He returns to picking up Provoke's body, hoisting it over his shoulder. He walks back to the med center.

Exarchon: Punishment, is that right? I can't do anything to you, but you cannot do anything to me.

Provoke: Keep telling yourself that. You'll find it's easy to forget.

Exarchon: You are all nothing. Less than nothing.

Grudge: Still talking to us, though, aintcha?

They follow and continue to chatter and jeer at him.

Exarchon has no reaction.

Grudge: Never been too big a fan of hand-me-downs, either. Don't feel to great to BE one, neither.

Gridlock: If you hate Cybertron enough to destroy it, why don't you just leave?

Grudge: Cybertron is doing a good job of hating AND destroying itself without you, you know.

Gridlock: Leave and go back to your new buddies. We won't miss you!

Highfire: I promise we won't.

Provoke: We never missed you. You should have stayed out there.

Paragon: You don't belong here.

Highfire: You can't ignore us forever.

Exarchon thinks "watch me" and tries to enter the center. He hesitates because she gets between him and the door.

He glares at her before he just walks through her.

The jeering continues as he walks down the hall to Provoke's room and dumps her body down by the wall.

Paragon: What did you do to Cyclonus? Where do usurped sparks go? What have you done with his spark? Look at me when I'm speaking to you.

Exarchon goes over to Ruckus' bed and lays out Cyclonus' belongings to see what to keep. The extendable sword, jointed but doesn't compromise the integrity of the blade? Interesting, they didn't have those in his day.

He scowls and returns to the desk.

Paragon: Look at me with his eyes and you answer me.

Exarchon: I am NOT others. Others become ME.

Grudge: Aha. Gotcha. Thought you were ignoring us.

The jeering increases over the hours as Exarchon resumes his research. it's harder and harder to put them out.

Provoke wraps her hands around his eyes. Exarchon can't see through them so he launches out of his chair, grabs a nearby canister and chucks it.

Exarchon screams, launches a black lightning strike of his spark at him, which goes through him and blows a small hole in the wall.

Grudge: Uh-oh, you made him mad.

Highfire: You're handling this worse than Cyc.

Gridlock: Yeah, it took cycles for him to start throwing things. He just tried to hide at first.

Exarchon: [huffing angrily against wall] This shell… is flawed.

Provoke: Oh, poor thing.

Highfire: Gotta make a change? So soon?

Gridlock: You came back from the dead, so I never had you pegged as a quitter. Comeback not happening?

Grudge: Fragging, squealing axle. It hasn't been ONE cycle. Need a body so bad? [slaps chest] Right here!

Grudge: Usurp me! Go on, do it! I dare you! Usurp me, you defragged, decaying, WORM-RIDDEN SHOVELWARE-

Exarchon growls at her, almost lunges but doesn't.

Grudge: [looks back at it] Wow, you're really stupid. What was that supposed to accomplish?

Gridlock: We're not real, remember? Did whoever change you suck your brains out?

Exarchon: I wasn't trying to usurp you, I was trying to SHUT YOU UP.

Gridlock: Ah, well, Cyclonus never figured out how to do that.

Grudge: And he had two megacycles to think about it. You got that sort of time?

Highfire: Got that sort of patience?

Provoke: We wouldn't stop, even for him.

Gridlock: Not even Froid could get it done. He's always talking about his four big failures. Was Cyc one?

Highfire: Maybe if you asked very nicely.

[everyone speaks over one another, some tangents]

He turns away from them, facing the wall Provoke's corpse is slumped by.

Exarchon: THERE WILL BE SILENCE!

Gridlock: What, you can be three people at once and can't handle a group discussion with just one? Not even for one cycle?

Grudge: One man handled it for two megacycles just fine. Sometimes he even liked it. Don't appreciate our company?

Provoke: Is this how you act when you can't kill, usurp, or scare somebody? It's pathetic.

Highfire: I can't believe we were ever scared of you.

Paragon: All you have is your special power, and technology. Without those, you can't scare anyone into doing your thinking for you. You're just a sad, little robot who takes the credit of others.

Grudge: I actually once looked up to you. I used to be embarrassed about it. Now I'm just ashamed.

Provoke: Scraps not worth feeding to rust worms.

Highfire: You left and we cheered. What did you really accomplish?

Provoke: A parasite reliant on those it despises.

Exarchon: Rich! Rich! RICH OF YOU TO SAY!

A Cyclonus hallucination is standing off to the side. Gray, intact. Eyes in shadow, not white and glowing like the others. Looks grim.

Nothing.

Exarchon: Oh, GOOD. ANOTHER one.

Exarchon: What sort of clever, biting commentary do YOU have?

Exarchon: Well, then? SPEAK!

No reaction.

Exarchon: LET'S HAVE IT!

Paragon cranes an arm around Cyclonus from behind, cupping his face.

Paragon: Not that you'd know, Cyc was never the chatty sort. He only spoke when he knew just what to say. I loved that about him. I'd tell him all the time.

Moves behind Cyclonus, cranes arms around him. Lays head against him.

Paragon peels off his mask, ripping like flesh, to show a scarred feminine mouth underneath.

Paragon: Of course, I loved it more when he did speak. I always told him how much I loved his voice.

Paragon: Are you still Cybertronian enough to feel love? [stands up straight, partially behind Cyclonus] Don't you remember what it was like?

Paragon: ... Don't you remember Peratrix?

Exarchon: [taken aback for once] How do you know that name?

Exarchon shouts that they are nothing, remnants of a mind long gone before he got rid of it.

Cyclonus: But you're still just talking to yourself.

Exarchon has had enough. He swats a machine away in a rage before collecting himself. The chorus continues to jeer him.

He approaches Kaskade's bed and his spark leaks out of Cyclonus' frame encroaching on her.

"Only a cycle. Pathetic."

"It's so easy when you can just leave it all behind, isn't it?"

Cyclonus' body slumps onto it and turns gray. A pause. Kaskade rises and yanks out the support cables. Glares over at him.

Grabs Cyclonus and tosses him over to Provoke's body.

"Rust together like you want."

Provoke is sitting up, Cyclonus leaning over onto her lap.

Exarchon collects Cyclonus' belongings and leaves with them.

END

displaced dialogue and story notes:

Exarchon intended to use Provoke/Cyclonus as an information feed to his two other bodies. not meant to be taking any action, up until he's learned all he's needed to know. a third body that sits idle and does not use up any brainpower aside from reading and understanding data. but once Ex is all caught up, their prowess as soldiers would come in handy

(Paragon) "Your pet Turmoil tore us apart."

(Exarchon) "Wasn't that Pyra Magna?"

(Paragon) "It was death that kept us apart. But Turmoil, on your orders, took me from him. We loved each other.

This first draft has it so Exarchon can't make it a day with the chorus, but on revisits, I would extend it to a whole several days of him ignoring them in favor of his news feed as they slowly whittle down his patience

Also thinking of a scene where a real person approaches the clinic and what would ordinarily be a nat20 for Exarchon to get him to turn away, turn into silencing a witness. Ex hasn't gotten used to ignoring the chorus so they deliberately set him off, plus Provoke's body being there is a big red flag so the guy, rightfully skeeved out, tries to book it and Exarchon kills him. He tries to shame the chorus for causing his death but they get on his case for being the one to actually do the deed and being unable to own up to his own actions. He, a thing that started a WAR, is lecturing THEM (who are, again, not real) on unnecessary death?