Chapter Text
Megatron wasn't exactly the sanest of all cybertronians but Optimus started noticing he was losing his grip on his morality after he broke out of from jail on Cybertron. He became a more ruthless and careless megalomaniac. Tossing aside his Decepticons lives on a battlefield, using them as a shield. To Optimus, when he first fought Megatron on earth, it was already terrifying facing off the warlord, but he got used to it. Now he was becoming even more of a monstrous Cybertronian then Optimus thought he was which horrified him, the look in Megatron's optics craved more destruction than his goal of taking over Cybertron.
Optimus recalled when Megatron made himself a triple changer, it was not a surprise that his personality would be split like Blitzwing, the surprise is was that he only showed two faces throughout the battles he went against him.
One face looked quite normal to what he was before becoming a triple changer. One of his personality was sly, a liar, and quite a charismatic one at that too. This was face he showed often around his Decepticons.
The other face had those same optics that Optimus saw when the regular Megatron took great joy from destruction. That face was filled with rage and the only way to satisfy was to fight. A sadistic energon-thirsty warrior. This was a face he showed often to Optimus.
One thing Optimus found good out of this mess was Megatron finally called him by his designation, even if it was used in a sentence where he promised himself he'll rip his head clean off and have it as a trophy.
Optimus knew shouldn't care about Megatron's mental state too much, but he started to feel bad, he was concerned. He felt that Megatron was losing himself but Optimus didn't know what. Even Blitzwing had more of a firm grasp on who he was.
Their final battle against each other was in Kaon. Kaon was already much of a wasteland, but the whole city on fire was burning away the rubbles and the buildings left in construction of a former city.
Optimus stood his ground as Megatron charged towards him with his sword, grinning widely through that cage that covered his fanged mouth and with his optics focused completely on seeing Optimus offlined by his own servos.
His sword clashed against Optimus axe multiple times with sparks flying off. Optimus just needed to keep a fair distance away from him, but Megatron was throwing himself recklessly to land a fatal hit, not caring about the other hits that were landed on him by Optimus. He merely used those injuries to fuel his rage to attack Optimus harder.
Megatron sword lands on Optimus and it shatters his faceplates and another hit cracked his frame. Megatron being elated that he finally was able to knock the prime onto the ground gave Optimus the chance to use his jetpack to get the small distance he needed.
Megatron's face shifted.
"Must you always be so easy to get, Optimus?" He smiled as Optimus flew backwards. It was his sly face, the most normal one. But not in this situation, it was irregular to have this face shown. Megatron's personality usually just changes to his sadistic one whenever he spots Optimus.
Megatron walks eerily calm towards the fleeing Optimus.
"I'm happy that I can sense that this is our last battle."
Megatron's face shifts back to a furious one.
"Now if you know what's good for you, I'll let this end quickly." He threatened.
"So you already decided yourself as the winner?" Optimus asked sarcastically he stood up, putting himself in a battle stance.
Megatron let a small huff of laughter, "You have chosen to let it end painfully. Fine by me!" Megatron started aiming his blasters at Optimus, to which he flew and fled somewhere else in the ruins of Kaon.
"Get back here Optimus!" Megatron annoyed, furiously chased after him in his alt-mode. Optimus turned back and started aiming his own blasters at Megatron. Most of his shots landed and he knew they would have slowed down or stopped the aircraft, Megatron still pressed on. Seemingly uninjured but his cracked frame told another story.
Megatron shifted back to his robot mode and tackled him into a building, crushing the jetpack, rendering it useless. Optimus instinctively held on to a piece of the building to prevent himself from falling. Megatron simply laughed and Optimus stared as he was trying to find out why the warlord was just as injured, if not even more then he was and acted like it was nothing.
Optimus grip on the building slipped and he fell. He wasn't worried as the armour which upgraded his frame to be as large as Megatron, increased durability from falls. When he landed, the ground broke and a cloud of dust, either from the rubble or something else blocked his vision around him as he stood up shakily.
Immediately Optimus found himself in a headlock. The pressure around his neck got tighter as he struggled to pull Megatron off of him.
"Yes! Struggle more Optimus!" Megatron's sadistic face watched Optimus expression of him struggling to breathe very closely with a smile that faded. All of a sudden the pressure lightened up as Megatron face switches and another shifting noise caught Optimus attention.
Servos pulled Optimus head closer to Megatron and his lips pressed on the side of Optimus cheek. Megatron let Optimus go as the prime breathed heavily for air. Optimus looked back in confusion as Megatron switched to his sly face. So it wasn't the sly face that kissed him.
"What? Can't a mech show his affections?" Megatron smirked as he flirted. Optimus noticed how Megatron's face cage went back up.
"Megatron, I don't know what's going on but this is unlike you," Optimus said as he felt a strange urge to show concern for him.
Megatron scoffed, "You don't know me. But you were oblivious as always, aren't you? I know you felt the same for me."
Optimus stayed quiet. The injured Megatron stood still and waited for an answer before saying, "I wonder if you remember this place, either from your textbooks or something else."
Optimus looked around to see a broken wall surrounding them in a circle, erosion damage clear from the weather that aged this arena.
"The gladiatorial pits," Optimus replied, his processor quickly connected with the pictures he learned in his history videos. Megatron turned his back towards him and looked around in nostalgia. His face shifted and Optimus heard an unfamiliar tone, calm but unsure.
"Yes...You know Optimus, I never expected you would be such a huge thorn in my side. I thought I got rid of you so quickly, but you had to keep getting back up."
His face shifted his face again to his teasing voice. "I'm glad you got back up this time."
His face shifts back. Optimus realized it's his third face that was talking.
"Do you think what you're fighting for is right? Even with all the corruption and experimentation with the Autobots?"
Optimus hesitated before he responded. "It's better then what the Decepticons are turning to. There's a chance that Cybertron will change for the better than with you."
Megatron still facing away deployed two swords and tossed one back, landing into the ground and right next to the pede of Optimus.
"Let's fight fairly this time. Winner takes all." Megatron spoke truthfully.
Optimus just stares at the handle of the sword blankly. He didn't believe that Megatron would choose to fight fairly.
Megatron spoke again.
"I won't start until you accept my challenge. Either we end this fight fair or I'll grow impatient and destroy whatever is left of Kaon and you."
Optimus pulls the sword out the ground and readies his defensive stance. Megatron's face shifts to the violent one and he immediately turns around to look at Optimus. Megatron pointed his sword at the mech in front of him for a second before he rushed in with a yell to attack.
Optimus suddenly heard chants of voices around him, cheering on a name he didn't know.
The arena was filled to the brim with cybertronians around and his opponent right in front of him.
Optimus snapped back to reality as their swords clashed, Optimus panicked because he has no prior knowledge on how to handle a sword properly. He took whatever he knew about his axe and pushed back Megatron's sword before swinging back in which landed on Megatron side. For some odd reason, Optimus felt that fighting with that sword felt so natural in his servo.
He finished his round without murdering his foe, he couldn't have done it. He didn't feel like it was right. As he walked back inside, away from everyone's sight a familiar embrace of someone who praised him made him feel okay. He looked up to see the red optics and gentle face of someone. A face that they only showed to him.
The anger in Megatron's face grew furious. He growled before swinging back to stab Optimus left shoulder, where his Autobot emblem was and left his other arm useless for fighting. Again their swords clashed but Megatron spoke in a rage.
"You always had to be that thorn in my side, that annoying nuisance that kept on growing that never died!"
"I'm in love with you, can't you tell?" A familiar voice inside Optimus processor played vivid and loud.
Megatron struck at Optimus which Optimus blocked with his sword in his right servo.
"WHY!"
He struck again in the same spot.
"DIDN'T!"
And again.
"YOU!"
Again.
"STAY!"
Again.
"DEAD!"
There was confused desperation in Megatron optics, he looked so lost and sad. Optimus didn't know what to say, it was almost like he wasn't talking to Optimus at all. What was Megatron seeing right now?
Megatron's face changed again. His sly face appeared and looked at Optimus before sighing with a smile.
"You drive me absolutely crazy you...you.." his smile faded.
His personality shifted back to his angry one and then they continued battling once again.
"You ruined all my plans! my army! and me! My frame is not my own anymore! My mind isn't my own anymore!" Megatron's duelling skills were faltering, getting wild. He was either growing tired or his processor was getting fried.
"You did this to yourself! All of it!" Optimus replied back and stabbed back in an area near his sparkchamber.
Megatron stilled, met Optimus optics, and his face finally switched to the third mysterious face in front of him. It was a darker shade of colour then all of the others, he looked younger, and he was slightly unfamiliar to the Megatron he knew.
"I did, didn't I?" He said before stepping back from his own sword piercing him and collapsing on the ground in fatal exhaustion. The gap that he left showed his sparkchamber flickering. Megatron would have not been dying if he hadn't overexerted himself.
Optimus dropped the sword.
"I quite admired you from the start Optimus, you would of made a fine Decepticon, would have led us to victory." Megatron said as stared up into the sky. Optimus would of also kept him sane he also thought.
"I will never be a Decepticon," Optimus said as he walked closer to Megatron.
"Then promise me this, when you become Magnus you must reunite us all together. The Decepticons-no, the innocent civilians, the war frames, seekers, and the ones that are considered useless in Autobots society optics." Optimus was surprised by how noble this side of Megatron was.
"Return all of them back to Cybertron. Don't let that other mech take over and regress us back to the past." Optimus knew he meant Sentinel.
"Why me?" Optimus asked, having no ambition to become Magnus.
"Because your spark is pure, uncorrupted by those around yourself. Somehow outcasted by many with few can see your potential."
There was a silence before Megatron spoke again. His optics were becoming unfocused.
"I know what I've done...If I only just listened to him, if only I haven't offlined him."
"Offlined who?" Optimus asked again. Was that the mech who he hallucinated? Megatron looked over at him in hesitation before murmuring,
"Orion pax...I ended up killing my dearest with my own servos. He would have been the one to stop all of this." Megatron hasn't uttered his name in millions of stellar cycles. He didn't mean to kill him.
"I wonder what he thinks of me now, what I have become?" Megatron never forgave himself for Orion's death.
He was caring for someone's wounds. Someone who resembled Megatron. His servos held in his own as the gladiator rested.
Optimus knelt down near Megatron, his spark for some odd reason guiding him to hold Megatron's servos, bring it up near his face, and kissed Megatron cold servos. A familiar name and sentence flowed through Optimus processor and out his mouth without thinking.
"...Megatronus, the courageous and foolish warrior who I love deeply."
Megatron was taken aback in surprise before he started smiling, "It took us so long to remember..." Optimus couldn't actually remember everything but he was holding on to that one feeling as the faint distant memories were only so slight that only this sentence was the only one he recalled. The weak grip of Megatron held onto Optimus servo.
"My dearest Orion I...I caused you so much grief." The graying and dullness caught up to Megatron as he finally went offline as his optics shut. His last thought was being somewhat grateful that he is going to die with someone he loved holding him. But he had so many regrets, he missed his second chance so many times. He missed Orion.
Optimus spark was aching for some odd reason.
Optimus left the arena holding Megatron's sword. His journey has ended and a new one has begun with a single question.
"Who was he, who is Orion pax?"