Tales From Iacon - Part 5: The End of the World
A/N:
-Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
-HOLY CRACKERS ITS BEEN OVER A YEAR IM SO SORRY LMFAOO
-help what--no actually why is the plot of this chapter sdjdsjsdj yes its silly please dont laugh at meeee o////o
-yes by the way. despite the very long gaps between chapters, this series is definitely ongoing, I do have plans for future chapters I just....have to write them........... :'D
-BRUH this one is so long, I'm sorry, I'm bad at making things like. Not Drawn Out lmao--
-If you haven't read the other parts, and just as a reminder, this and all future chapters are set in the aligned continuity (tfp) oh and also! this is the first time ratchet meets megatronus; a bit anticlimactic maybe, but I thought it would be better to just have them meet sorta by coincidence. I do like the idea the three of them are friends, perhaps another reason why Ratchet is so resentful and bitter of Megatron later...anyways.
-at the end of the day, this and all the things I write are just for fun. If you think it's garbage or you just don't like it, that's valid...just scroll on by please ;w;
-ummmmmmm I really don't have anything else to add other than to have mercy on me with typos and the like, I'll edit them as I reread at later dates. and I hope you enjoy! :D
///
One fine evening—early morning, really—Megatronus received the worst news anyone could receive at such an ungodly hour.
Megatronus had passed out on his berth, having a much-needed rest for his sore, battered body after a particularly trying match against twin, rogue Insecticon prisoners.
About maybe an hour earlier, the huge mech had stumbled exhaustedly into his room and flopped down on the bed, huffing a relieved sigh as he felt the throbbing in all his limbs begin to dissipate.
Within moments, he’d fallen asleep.
His arm hung off the berthside, fingertips gently grazing the edge of his immobile, silent holopad. Everything was, for this one time, so still and peaceful.
So, when the device went off with a sudden and violent buzzing, Megatronus was instantly jerked awake—ripped from a calm rest in the realm of absolute nothingness, not even a dream.
His arm shot away from the floor, coming to rest uneasily on the bed with the rest of him.
Since the room had no light source, if the lights were off, it was pitch black inside. This little holopad had by itself, lit up the entire room, painting it with a decidedly eerie, turquoise light.
For a few moments, his optics blearily fixated on the object—glowing electric blue, emitting a frustratingly repetitive buzzing noise, and vibrating.
Vaguely, he recalled sending Orion a message about this to ask if he could turn that feature off.
And after Orion had in fact, explained this process...Megatronus had forgotten entirely, and decided it wasn’t worth the effort.
Of course, now he was being reminded of what had annoyed him enough to even ask about it in the first place.
Tomorrow. I’ll fix that infernal beeping tomorrow.
Still only half-awake, the large mech remained still, simply continuing to stare at the holopad. He felt a twinge of annoyance as exhaustion quickly crept back into him, as his whole body was taking a moment to remind him how tired and sore he was.
Frag it—who the scrap is calling me at…
He squinted at the screen to see the time, printed in a neat, short, white font.
“—3 in the morning?!”
He groaned, rubbing his face and hefting himself off the bed.
It would keep ringing if he didn’t do something about it. Like take the call.
“Primus give me patience,” he muttered as he picked it up…a little too late.
Or, I could have waited for the damned thing to quiet itself. He’d forgotten that was a thing, too.
He watched as the screen went dark again for a couple moments, then lit up to read “missed call.”
Megatronus registered the profile picture and the name written beside it.
Orion?
Okay, so it was either important and life-changing, or something very strange.
Megatronus thought for a moment, feeling a bit more awake as he considered the possibility of something terrible soon to take place—or perhaps something unexpected in general.
That piqued his interest some.
Now I must know what he’d wanted at an hour like this.
The device started to buzz again.
Megatronus glared at it.
I’d like a round in the pits with the guy who designed this sound.
It had a particular way it bothered his audio receptors.
He sighed and tapped the ‘pick up’ button. Then, dropping it beside himself and lying back in his bed, the gladiator chuckled a little as he started speaking. The device darkened its screen again, leaving Megatronus to eye the darkness of his room once again.
“By the Primes, Orion—it’s 3 in the—”
“Megatronus.”
Instantly, he stopped, unnerved by the solemnity of his friend’s whispery tone.
His eyes searched the dark nothingness of his room as he waited in silence for whatever his friend was about to say.
“What I am about to say, you may not believe….but it is something that could affect all of Cybertron…something of great magnitude—something…very dire…”
“Is…is that so?”
He felt uneasiness begin to well up from the pits of his stomach. The thought of this being a joke flashed through his processor before he reminded himself this was Orion making this call.
He happens to be a terrible liar. I would know if he was messing with me.
Orion exhaled shakily over the call, filling the silence.
Megatronus tensed and slowly sat up, hearing the crackly sound of paper being unfurled from his device.
His confusion deepened, but interest locked his jaw shut as he waited.
Then at last, Orion told him.
“Megatronus, I—I found….a prophecy—a scroll. In it, the writing states…” A sharp rustling noise sounded from the holopad, “…it—it said our world will crumble away to…to nothing on the next full moon—the smaller one.”
Megatronus had…no idea when the full moons were to happen.
He did know, however, what “crumble away to nothing,” meant, and felt an apprehensive worry start to stiffen his body, turning over the revelation in his mind as Orion spoke more about the scroll.
“And…the time in simpler terms would be?”
A long pause, as if the archivist did not want to reply.
“…I-In…two days.”
Megatronus was suddenly not as tired and sore as before.
///
The sun was shining very brightly in the sky, causing all the shinier structures and objects in sight—built from their reflective metals—to glint and shimmer. On a day as bright as this, it was like the streets of Iacon city, and all its things, became as jewels.
Yet such beautiful sights were not so eye-catching to Orion Pax today.
Instead, he had his optics trained on the ground below his feet. His figure was slumped over and seated on a lone park bench, head leaning on his palm. He tapped his foot to no particular rhythm, but more as an anxious motion to keep his mind at bay.
The buildings and the nature around him were only more distressing, actually, for Orion could only think about the immenant end of it all….set to happen a mere two days from the present, and counting.
He checked his holopad again, seeing the time and sharply sighing.
He’s late again…ohhh, we must do this today or never!! Come on, Megatronus, come on…
Footfalls directly behind Orion caused him to shoot upright and turn with a hopeful gaze—
“There you are!” He exclaimed.
Megatronus came around and took his seat, apologizing for the wait.
“Kaon is a long way, and bypassing the security is no easy feat…” he paused, “Though doable all the same.” He flashed his friend a confident smile, but it faltered when he realized Orion had gone back to staring at the ground in thought.
Now is not the time for jokes, He reminded himself, trying to sober up. End of the world. Destruction. Right.
Megatronus found his optics wandering from one bot to the next as they bustled by. He was used to this kind of silence, as the two often met in this park to talk, or to simply share each other’s company to contemplate things.
After a few moments of silence amidst the noise, Orion at last spoke up. His words were brisk.
“I’ll take you to the Hall of Records and show you the scroll. While there, we must gather resources, find a means of escape, and craft a message to send to all the cities of Cybertron—”
Megatronus turned sharply at the last part.
“All of Cybertron?!”
“Yes, Megatronus!” Orion sounded as if it had been obvious. “We can’t just—”
“But—all its citizens, in all its cities?” He interjected. “Orion, it’s not possible!”
“Says who?”
“Logic!!”
“Logic is not the answer all the time, Megatronus!” Now, he was getting annoyed.
“No, Orion—” Megatronus found himself getting frustrated as well. “Be realistic!”
“I’m being realistic, and fair,” Orion fired back, leaning a little closer.
Now he really was upset. Megatronus grimaced.
“What other heartless arguments have you, Megatronus? You want to leave this planet alone and let everyone else just…die?!”
Megatronus felt his blood start to simmer.
Heartless? He was anything but heartless. The gladiator took a deep offense to that.
If there was anything he knew, it was what it felt like to be brushed off—as the “others” to be trampled on, overlooked, forgotten…left for scrap.
But he also remembered that it would be impractical to fight with Orion at this moment—more specifically, it would be a waste of time in the face of this great danger.
Orion….for all your book-smarts, you can be a fool all the same. You must be aware you can’t save everyone…or do ideals build for you kingdoms in the sky that you trust as reality?
“Perhaps…I am not seeing things from your perspective,” he yielded, in a quieter voice.
“That’s what I thought,” Orion snapped, then drew back and stood up. “Let’s go, Megatronus. There’s no time.”
Calmly, the burgundy-silver mech stood up and eyed his friend with an odd kind of gaze.
“I thought I’d have to tell you that,” he said.
Instantly Orion opened his mouth to respond, then realized his own mistake. Instead of owning up to anything, however, he huffed and turned on his heel, starting down the smooth sidewalk.
Megatronus watched him for a moment, feeling a little triumphant.
The world as we know it ends in two days…there really is no time.
He strode after Orion.
///
“The fools are the ones with knowledge, and the fools are the ones without it….in essence, my friends…”
Ratchet turned the page.
“…we are all fools. Fools convinced of knowledge and science, but fools all the same in the greater scheme of things. We will never know it all…so let us resign ourselves to that fate, and strive to learn all we can.”
Ratchet stared at the last few words and let them sink in, trying to understand on an abstract level what it all meant. They were the final words for a novel he’d elected to read and write a report on for one of his university classes.
Yes, he was studying medicine and science and all that, but philosophy and studies on the mind and life couldn’t possibly hurt. In fact, Ratchet was convinced that he could only add more to the things he knew—the more to think on, the merrier.
His gaze lingered for a moment more on the final page, then he shut the book gently. Folding his servos, he let them rest lightly upon the sturdy, leather cover.
Wind swayed the leaves above him, so he let his head tilt back to stare at them, as if it was also moved by the breeze.
Fools in this universe, huh?
Ratchet let his eyes close.
Perhaps now he would be able to finally catch up on the hours of sleep he’d missed with his late-night cramming nearly every night of this week….
“All of Cybertron?!”
Ratchet snapped forward at the loud voice, instantly annoyed.
Who the scrap is yelling and disturbing the peace of this park—
“Orion, it’s not possible!”
“Says who?!”
“Logic!!”
Ratchet made a face, realizing he knew those voices.
“Logic is not the answer all the time, Megatronus!”
Turning slowly, Ratchet found he was indeed correct. He watched as Orion and Megatronus heatedly conversed for a few more minutes, then stood up to leave. Orion stiffly marched out, Megatronus had remained standing for a moment before following at a quicker pace.
The two of them had been visibly annoyed with one another, he noted, only Megatronus seemed to be doing a better job of hiding it.
And that was as expected—Orion was known to wear his spark on the outside, so to speak. His emotions were upfront and clear most of the time.
Or at least, that’s how almost anyone who knew the mech would describe him.
“Orion,” Ratchet muttered, watching them finally fade into the crowds outside the park grounds. “What on Cybertron are you up to with that gladiator friend of yours?”
He sighed, rising from the bench and gathering his things.
Yes, he more wanted to sit in the park and continue enjoying his free afternoon.
No, Ratchet had no worries about anyone’s safety.
But something in his spark tugged on him, urging him to follow them. Plus, Ratchet was a curious bot. He had to know what was up.
He made his way out of the park on the same path Orion and his friend had left.
It couldn’t possibly be something minor if it involved ‘all of Cybertron,’ after all.
///
“It’s back here,” Orion said, taking a left and heading into a side room.
Megatronus squinted with some effort and followed Orion into it, as the blue luminescence of huge computer screens and shelves upon shelves of active tablets was left behind them.
The room ahead was almost pitch black, for nothing in that room was alive but himself and his friend. After a few moments, his optics adjusted to the room, and he began to see the shapes of the room’s contents.
Megatronus found it interesting that there were so many physical documents left after all this time and modernization.
It was assumed most everything was coded and left on holopads these days; transcribed, moved to a digital form, archived on a device of some kind, and yet…what seemed to be hundreds of scrolls—and even stone artifacts, he noticed—lay before Megatronus.
He looked from left to right with every step forward, silently and in awe.
Orion previously explained that there had always been means for these things to be written in digital form, yet there was no real reason why these documents were not.
It was thus theorized by elder scholars that the authors of the stories and accounts had simply not had said tools at their disposal in those moments, and decided to note their experiences and observations with whatever they could. Either that, or for unexplained reasons, had chosen physical documentation over digital.
Up ahead, Megatronus could make out a small desk and chair, and heard Orion’s footsteps speed up as he made his way to it.
Well, as an aspiring archivist, he must know his way around without the lights. No wonder he walks ahead with such ease…
A sharp click sounded.
Very suddenly, everything was visible. Megatronus uttered a small noise and squinted again, this time slightly in pain. He had just gotten used to the darker lighting but…oh well.
“Now, we’ve got to put together our transmission message,” Orion started almost immediately.
Megatronus watched him begin the speedy ‘cleanup’ of his messy desk—shoving things in drawers, moving the stray papers into piles and crushing them into an open science textbook. A few things clattered accidentally off the reddish wood, while others plummeted off the surface quite intentionally.
It is somehow…cute to watch him scurry about like this.
Orion eyed some papers tacked to his wall, then removed and relegated them to the floor as well.
“I see you keep a tidy workspace,” Megatronus observed with an innocent tone.
Orion threw him a look, but the larger mech could see the suppressed edges of a smile before Orion turned back to his desk and began opening files on his computer.
After a couple moments of quiet except for the typing, Orion motioned for Megatronus to come closer so he could help out. It was then that he noticed one paper had been left on the archivists’ desk, rolled shut.
Staring at it, he asked, “Does this paper tell us of our doom?”
Orion nodded, beginning to type out what was probably his evacuation plea—or a draft of it, at least. So Megatronus carefully picked it up and turned it over in his servos, handling it with as much care as he could.
Then, he opened it.
What he found, however, was not a terrifying prophecy. What he found was—
“Orion, what the scrap is this?” He muttered, holding it closer and squinting at it. He let it roll shut again and placed it on the desk. “It’s all meaningless scribbles! And you mean to tell me you got ‘the world ends soon’ from it?”
“It does say that,” Orion muttered back, continuing to type. “That’s old Cybertronian.”
Megatronus blinked. He didn’t even know there was an ‘old Cybertronian.’
“Which I can read…” Orion finally stopped typing, seeming to realize something. “Or, well, that’s to say…”
The gladiator raised an eyebrow. He didn’t like the sound of that unease in his friend’s voice. He was about to ask another question when the two of them heard someone was coming down the hall.
And sure enough, someone Megatronus had never seen before poked his head through the doorway.
“Ratchet!” Orion exclaimed, perking up and waving. For a moment, Megatronus observed, all the apprehension had seemed to disappear.
Megatronus frowned in thought, watching the mech pick his way through the piles of scrolls until he was next to Orion’s desk. Finally, it hit him, where he’d heard that name before.
“And you are…the medical student?”
Ratchet broke off what he’d started saying to Orion and looked him up and down. He then nodded.
“And you must be Megatronus, the…warrior from Kaon,” he returned looking very serious.
“Gladiator. Though I enjoy the title of ‘warrior.’”
“Right.”
There was a short pause.
“Though I am by law not allowed in these streets, I’ve found the law to be quite shabby at their job of keeping those like myself…out.”
“Seems these days we’re all figuring something out about our…illustrious leaders, and their idea of a functional society,” Ratchet said sarcastically.
Orion leaned back in his chair to look at them both, worrying they might be sizing each other up or something.
Then, Ratchet grinned.
“Well, Megatronus, I don’t have my degree yet, but if you’ve anything you’d like me to take a look at…” He offered, extending his servo.
Megatronus chuckled, and shook it firmly.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said. “And it’s a pleasure to meet you in person. I’ve only heard your name from Orion, after all.”
“Same here.”
Thank the Allspark, no hostility.
Orion sighed quietly, then got back to work.
He’d let Megatronus get to know Ratchet a little better rather than demand any more of this focus for this. Besides, Orion wanted to write the transmission himself.
He scanned the place he’d left off, his second paragraph, reading it off in his mind to get back into the writing flow.
‘Though it may seem hard to believe,’ he typed, ‘I can assure you that this is a very real threat. One that I believe we must heed. Fellow Cybertronians, we must remember that our race is one of change. Moving homes is a large leap, but it will be necessary—’
“‘—if we are to survive what our elders have warned’…” Ratchet’s voice startled Orion, quickly realizing he and Megatronus had quietly moved to watch over the archivist’s shoulder as he was writing. Finishing that sentence, he stopped again, having lost concentration once more.
He turned to request that Ratchet not read over his shoulder like that, and then to ask what Megatronus thought of the announcement so far, but Ratchet spoke first.
“Orion.”
“Ratchet..?”
Megatronus took a small step back, curious to see what was about to happen.
The university student had an expression on his face that read something of a mix between confusion and amusement. Orion stared back at him with full seriousness.
Ratchet wordlessly leaned closer and scrolled up the screen to read the draft in full, murmuring quietly each word while Orion sat back and began to fiddle with his fingers again.
And then, finally, it seemed Ratchet had read all he needed because when he drew back, he rested his face in his palms for a second, then started laughing.
No, really laughing.
It went on for a little while before the young archivist finally cut in with an inquiry as to what could be so funny. He was starting to look more embarrassed than indignant. Megatronus had no idea what was going on, but was too amused to interrupt.
Funny, if I’d laughed at him again, we might be arguing right now.
“It—it’s—” Ratchet struggled, still laughing. He fell against the wall, trying to compose himself. Orion turned around, rolling his optics and starting to type again before Ratchet finally turned to Megatronus.
“You—you’re aware of this, aren’t you?” He caught sight of the scroll lying on Orion’s desk. It was like he already knew. “And what do you make of it?”
Megatronus shrugged.
“Can’t even read it, ‘old Cybertronian,’ or something. Truth be told, I’m not very adept with reading anyway.”
“Hm. But Orion said he…can?”
Suddenly, the gladiator realized where this was going.
Orion stopped typing again, but didn’t turn around. Meanwhile, Ratchet reached over and picked up the scroll, unraveling it.
“Well, I can,” Ratchet murmured, scanning the text to confirm his suspicions, “and it seems Orion...has misread the entire text completely.”
///
Ratchet finally returned from the shop and handed Megatronus and Orion their respective cups of warmed, sweetened Energon, shaped as crystals for some seasonal event.
Megatronus received his and thanked Ratchet, Orion took his in silence, still not meeting anyone’s gaze. The three of them walked in silence to the edge of the street and stopped.
Then, finally, Megatronus broke the silence, “Oh, Orion, it’s not the end of the world!” He tried a playful jab.
“Indeed. If you’re worried, no one’s upset with you,” Ratchet added, placing a gentle servo on his shoulder. “It’s better that you misread it, actually.”
“Exactly! Our world is safe.”
“No crumbling, no destruction…” Ratchet paused, sighing. Less excitedly, he continued, “And I can finish getting my degree.”
But the archivist merely took a bite out of his treat, optics still trained on the ground, absolutely silent.
As it had turned out, Orion had been reorganizing and archiving the roomful of old physical documents, in place of Alpha Trion (who was attending to an important matter in another city), and he had seen the scrolls in the dark of early morning. Naturally, he’d not slept, and was tired. In addition to that, he didn’t even know old Cybertronian well enough to decipher the entirety of the text, which had stated…this scroll was merely a draft for a story. Orion was self-taught, so he could read some of it, but well...he needed more practice with it.
What he might have done—had he not decided to read its contents and simply file it by the code on the back—would be to place it on the shelf for old texts by famous or unknown authors. Instead, he misinterpreted it to be a real prophecy, spelling out doom, coincidentally falling on their current year.
Thankfully, before he and Megatronus had made fools of themselves by sending an 'overdramatically poetic evacuation notice'—as Ratchet had worded it—Orion's friend had read over the transmission, the scroll, and clarified what was actually written there.
It was then also that Ratchet had finally seen the value of that required class he’d taken his first year of university, learning old Cybertronian. It was boring, but it had finally come in handy.
As one could guess, however, Orion was incredibly embarrassed. It seemed he had no intention to speak for the rest of the day.
Ratchet and Megatronus exchanged looks, then moved closer to their friend. They really didn’t want him to feel bad.
Perhaps I shouldn’t have lost it like that earlier, Ratchet thought, inwardly cringing at the memory of his laughter in the silence of the room. After all, the two had been fully convinced this was a very real threat.
“Orion, you can’t possibly take a vow of silence for life,” Megatronus tried again, in a joking tone. He bent down to look him in the eyes, and finally Orion met his gaze.
And finally, the archivist spoke.
“I…um…” he shifted to the side, as if debating whether to turn away from his friends or remain facing them. “I…apologize for…the confusion I caused.”
“Oh, Orion, it’s not—”
“And the panic. And…” he reached out and touched Megatronus’ shoulder plate. “For snapping at you in the manner I did. Even in a real situation of danger, I must learn not to lose my composure like that, and I must learn on my own, not through hurting my own friends first.”
He dropped his arm again and took another bite of his treat. Megatronus and Ratchet followed suit, and the three shared another moment of quiet thought.
“Hey,” Ratchet prompted, a little awkwardly. “I owe you an apology too. I should’ve handled it with a little less…” he sighed. “I should have been more charitable towards how you were seeing it.”
“And I shouldn’t have joined in,” Megatronus added. “You were probably embarrassed and…had got the point already. In fact, you haven’t much to apologize for, Orion.”
Orion regarded both Ratchet and then Megatronus before he started down the street again, looking at the sky. His friends followed.
“No, Megatronus, I have things to apologize for. But…” he looked at them again, this time with a smile of his own. “I suppose I see now the humor in it all.”
And the trio shared the rest of the twilight hours together, traipsing the streets of Iacon. At nightfall, they said their goodbyes. Ratchet and Megatronus left together for the city gates, since they were both leaving Iacon. The medical student offered to help get Megatronus past security, and the larger mech accepted with a grin.
Orion watched them go, pleased with how it seemed they had befriended one another. Afterward, he headed back down the path they’d come, deciding along the way that archiving the rest of those scrolls could not be completed unless he was in the right mindset—and that required some much-needed sleep.
As he walked, he continued to look at the sky, at the moon not yet full, chuckling to himself as he remembered just how panicked he’d been only hours ago. But more than embarrassment was relief.
Cybertron will continue to be my home for millennia to come. I will see the faces of my friends and mentors, and have the privilege to gaze upon the wonders of life and the universe for just as long.
He heard shouting from another street and stopped to watch as a group of similarly shaped bots emerged from a restaurant, shouting and whooping, arms together and surrounding the one in the center, who looked bashful, but happy. As he gazed at them, he noticed each had scratches, chips, and one even had a couple wires hanging from their arm.
Laborers. This must be a communal establishment.
Orion also noticed what looked like a bouncer standing behind the window, arms folded and features grim. The large mech was glaring at them, looking ready to shove them off the street and into the road if they lingered any longer.
The giddy group, however, made their way off and down the street, and the bouncer-looking bot nodded, heading back into the mass of Cybertronians in the building.
Orion continued on his way, still thinking.
Life is not so perfect as one might imagine. Ideals must be relegated to thought, they are not reality. But...rather than worry about finding a new home, we may all continue to work towards peace and equality. Towards a Cybertron where no bar must be “communal” or “private” for one to go in and celebrate something with friends.
There was hope yet for their world, in more ways than one.
And for that, I am truly grateful.
///
I actually hate this chapter help it was more interesting in my head--
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