Pedestal

[heliopauseentertainments]

Prompt: Day 7 - Idol/Future

Continuity: TFP

Rating: General

Relationships: Megatron/Optimus Prime

Characters: Optimus Prime & Megatron

Warnings: Triple Drabble, Character Study, Ambiguous Relationships, Not Beta Read

Summary: In which Optimus grapples with a side effect of the Matrix.

Crossposting: AO3 | Tumblr

Fic under cut. See AO3 for complete notes.

Optimus watched Megatron from across the shattered street in Iacon. Arms dramatically waving through the air, Megatron gave what should have been a stirring speech to encourage Optimus and his Autobots to back down from the impending skirmish.

Yet Optimus’s spark did not move in response to his former friend’s words. Perhaps, except in envy.

He remembered having fiery passion. He remembered deep sorrows. He remembered consuming anger. A rich tapestry of experience.

These things, he had once had as Orion. Optimus no longer did.

He dared not tell Ratchet or any of the others that, while the Matrix had elevated much of who he had been into someone else, someone more laudable, someone better … it had come at a terrible price.

The Matrix forced his spark to keep an even keel, blocking emotional extremes. A steady spark was necessary to maintain consistent leadership, to see the big picture and carry them all through to the end. Even when there seemed like there was nothing left to save.

His change in behavior had been no secret, but his comrades treated it as ideal, that he he ought to be above banal emotion.

His former friend continued, unabated, stomping emphatically. Raw whims of the spark coursed through his circuits freely, unhindered by being forced onto an artificial idolatrous pedestal.

Megatron felt everything that Optimus could not.

Mild envy, a wistful moment of longing before the Matrix pulled Optimus back away.

Perhaps it was for the best that Megatron had been denied the Matrix. Far better for Orion’s spirit to have died than for Megatron’s.

Warning not heeded, Megatron and minions charged.

Only one thing remained that could make Orion live again, even if just briefly. The Matrix saw no need to throttle what it could use.

Optimus surged to meet them.