Fic - Spark Deep (suite)
Jun. 8th, 2012 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
yami_samuraifloPart 2!
Title: Spark Deep
Rating: M
Warnings: Hinted and mentionned noncon, torture (mentionned) mpreg, slavery, mentions of suicide, death, infanticide and rather creepy Autobots...
Verse: G1 AU
Characters: Megatron, Optimus, Soundwave, Cassettes, Mirage, Swindle, Starscream, Perceptor, Ratchet, OCs.
Summary: The Decepticons won the war, the Autobots are slaves, and Cybertron is being rebuilt. What nobody seems to realize, however, is that something really wrong is brewing right under the Decepticons' optics. Aside from the whole slavery thing, of course...
Words: 7394
The worst comes when Nemesis is five vorns hold and trust into the care of a few servants and tutors, along with some of Megatron’s most trusted advisors’ sparklings. Megatron is very proud of his son and heir, he enjoys showing him off at celebration, making him walk next to him, while Optimus walk two steps behind or flank the sparkling’s other side. Megatron is arrogant and boastful. Optimus is quiet and reserved. Neither of them let the child out of their optics, though Optimus’ optics are duller than Megatron. He isn’t more demonstrative in public than the day of Nemesis’ birth. However, it might be because he’s not allowed much time with his son, especially not alone, for them to bond.
Megatron might lord over Optimus, but he’s wary of the influence he could have on their young son.
Like all high standing sparklings, Nemesis and his friend get the best available. Most of the time, they’re guarded by an old femme, one who overseen the raising of many generations of great mechs. She’s an Autobot, but she’s the best at her job. She loves sparklings and younglings, and she absolutely adores Nemesis.
It’s normal. Autobots just love kids.
So when tragedy eventually strikes, it doesn’t make any sense.
But in fact, it does, Soundwave muses later on.
Nobody is quite sure what Beta did, or how she managed to. But all at once, parents can sense their creation bonds with their offspring break and die. Megatron is in the middle of a meeting with his elite when it happens. One moment he’s speaking, the next he’s screaming bloody murder and rushing toward the doors, followed suit by Starscream and many others, including Soundwave.
It’s already too late.
When they enter the room the sparklings use as a classroom, they’re all dead. Beta sits calmly in the middle of the seven little grey corpses, a sad smile on her lips. In her arms, she’s rocking Nemesis. He could be sleeping, but his optics are dark and dead, and there are no longer touches of red and black on him.
Just the dull grey of death.
“WHAT DID YOU DO?! WHAT DID YOU DO YOU WITCH?!”
Megatron is thundering as he grabs his son’s body from the arms of his murderess, and the only reason Beta isn’t dead already is because he wasn’t armed. Nobody is during a meeting, in case tempers rise.
Next to him, Starscream is on his knees, endlessly moaning ‘nonononono’ as he cradled the broken body of the little femme he created with Perceptor.
Everybody is in shock. It’s even worse when Beta finally speaks.“I set them free.” She’s smiling, and she has no right to, not after killing eight sparklings in cold-blood, as humans used to say. “Poor treasures. They couldn’t be allowed to grow up and pollute themselves further. It wasn’t really their fault, so I made sure they wouldn’t suffer.”
She’s smiling, and it can’t get worse.
Then the Autobots arrive. Optimus, Perceptor, Ratchet and First Aid and Fireflight and a couple others that just stand outside.
They came. Of course they came. If the Sires took the death of their children badly, it must be so much harder for the Carriers, who are reputed to be more closely bonded to their offspring.
Everybody is expecting them to fall to pieces.
But they don’t look any different than before. Perceptor and First Aid seem a little unsteady, but honestly, they don’t seem to be in pain. Not serious pain, anyway. Nothing worse than they look after a rough night with their Masters, if Soundwave is honest with himself.
Beta stops smiling when she notices Optimus. She bows deeply in front of him.
“Why, Beta?” he asks softly.
“I’m sorry, my Prime. There was no other way. Can you forgive me? I’m sorry, I really am. But each passing orn, I saw them becoming more and more like them, and I couldn’t allow that. I couldn’t allow more monsters to be unleashed on our poor people. I’m sorry I failed at keeping them pure. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep them more like you.”
“Beta… They hadn’t done anything yet. There was a chance, even a small one, that they would be fine. You shouldn’t have done that,” answered the Prime with deep sadness. “You didn’t have the right to.”
“I’m sorry I displeased you my Prime. But I couldn’t just let it happen again. And again. And again… I’m sorry, and I hope you can forgive my humble self.”
Optimus doesn’t answer, but his shoulders fall as if he was carrying a heavy burden.
She looks directly at Optimus just before Megatron blows her head off with a gun a guard handed him, still holding Nemesis’ little corpse close to him. He looks ready to shoot the Prime too, but seems to realize Optimus wasn’t involved in whatever plot Beta’d concocted and is rational enough not to kill him too.
Rational enough to ask the good questions.
“Did you know she was so unhinged?”
“I suspected she wasn’t fine.”
“And you let her near the sparklings?”
“You never find in yourself to listen to me when I point out a fault in your reasoning. I tried to tell you. You didn’t listen. And it isn’t my place to challenge my Master’s decisions.”
“Did she ever talk to you about her plans?”
“She never stated anything, but she kept repeating to me that Nemesis ‘would grow into a fine mech if he could be more like me’. She kept saying that of all the sparklings under her care; that she would see them grow more like their Carriers. She never once said she didn’t think it was possible. Nor did she say any of the sparklings was beyond her hopes. Nor did we. Not always.”
It’s horrible, the implications. Wary glances are exchanged. Proud Decepticons’ Sires watch their Autobot slaves with incredulity, the Autobots staying immobile and silent. Starscream forces Perceptor to look at him a moment, but the blue optics of his slave keep evading him, looking through him, and not even at the body of their daughter. And he had been so persuaded Perceptor actually cared for her…
Megatron subspaces the gun and looks at his child’s body before gently putting it into the arm of a nearby guard with a care nobody could usually associate with him. Then the storm hits. He howls in pain and rage and fury and starts to destroy everything he can.
Optimus is calm and quiet, watching impassively as his Master and Lord rages and rants, overturning the chairs and the table, screaming bloody murder. Everyone else just watches. The parents have collected their children’s bodies – or rather, the Sires have. The Autobots haven’t moved.
It’s the Prime who breaks Megatron’s display of rage and grief.
“I suppose you’ll want another one?” asks Optimus dispassionately.
Suddenly, it becomes cold all over again. They all stare at him, except, once again, the Autobots.
Megatron shakes his head in disbelief. “What in the Pit is wrong with you?!” Optimus cocks his head on the side, as if he was puzzled by the mere question.
“Nemesis is dead! My son is dead! OUR SON IS DEAD!!!!!” The walls are almost shaking. “AND HERE YOU ARE, CASUALLY THINKING ABOUT MAKING ANOTHER ONE TO REPLACE HIM!!!!”
Optimus nods calmly. “He is. It’s sad. But at least it was quick. And I thought it was what you would want.”
Megatron is furious, but also horrified. “Just what kind of creator are you, to speak of our son with so little pain? Don’t you love him? Don’t you feel ANYTHING?” he asks with disbelief. “You’ve changed since Nemesis’ birth, I saw it, but never in my worst nightmares did I think you were so cold. You cry each time you see one of your precious AUTOBOTS take a hit or in the arms of my mechs, but you can’t find in yourself to even shed a tear for YOUR CREATION?”
Optimus sighs deeply, and he isn’t the only one. Almost all the Autobots present do. “Megatron… you never understood, did you?”
He walks to the guard holding Nemesis’ body and gently takes it in his own arms. He smiles bitterly as he checks over the dead sparkling. “So little,” he murmurs before turning toward his Master.
“Megatron… where did you ever see a parent who loved its children? Especially if those same children are born out of rape and torture? How can we love them, when they represent all the pain and misery we endure each passing cycle?”
The Decepticon auditory is stunned. The Autobots gently retreat before they can make a move, and nobody tries to arrest them. They won’t flee. They can’t. First Aid leads the way toward a couple of stairs leading to a small private chapel. Megatron isn’t very religious, but some of his Decepticons are, and would be upset if there wasn’t at least one holy place in his palace.
The Autobots go down there sometimes. It looked like they were going to pray for the deceased once more.
Optimus is the last to go, still holding Nemesis.
“It’s your mistake, Megatron. To think you could order us how and what to feel. You can always possess our bodies, but our sparks and feelings are ours. And none of us have felt something like love for a long, long time. Not even for the children. You never gave us any reason to think you would care either way. I know a lot of your Decepticons won’t; we’re slaves, we’re possessions, the lowest caste. So why should they care what we think? I’m sorry Nemesis’ death causes you so much pain. Perhaps you’ll get a better chance with the next one.”
He bows in front of Megatron, good slave saluting his Master, before leaving.
Two orns before Beta’s crime, Soundwave had a long conversation with his team.
“Spark deep rejection,” simply explains Soundwave to his Cassettes at some point.
He had put together the pieces now.
Buzzsaw and Laserbeak look somber, and Ravage growls. Rumble and Frenzy don’t understand.
“I don’t understand,” whines Frenzy. “What does it have to do with anything?”
“Sparkling: result from the coupling of nanites inside Carrier body. Spark energy: essential to its development. Carrier’s spark: sends energy through special coding. Autobots: don’t send enough to their developing sparklings.”
“So that’s why so many of them miscarry?” asks Frenzy, frowning. “Well, there must be a way to force them to…”
Soundwave shakes his head.
“Negative. Spark energy transfer: tricky at best, and almost always done unconsciously.”
“So… Autobots might not be aware they’re killing their sparklings by not letting them get enough energy?” Soundwave nods. “Well, maybe we should tell them and they’ll correct that. I mean, they’re suckers about things like sparklings.”
“Don’t think it will change much if we do, bro,” mutters Rumble, as if he had realized something. “Because, well… energy transfer works by waves, often influenced by emotions, right?” Soundwave nods again. “And no matter how well you reprogram a ‘bot, you can’t change the way his spark feels, because it keeps a trace of everything that happened to him, even when memory banks are inaccessible.” He paused, thinking hard, before opening his mouth widely. “Well, frag it to the Pit… And it doesn’t stop here, does it? It also affects the creation bonds with the parents?”
Soundwave is almost proud of Rumble. If the subject wasn’t so dire, he would congratulate him.
“Rumble: right. Sparkling development: influenced by both parents love for them. Autobot slaves: don’t feel love for their sparklings. Sparkling’s growth, both physical and emotional: stunted as an effect. Conclusion: sparklings systems keep stalling in some cases. Consequences: higher chance of premature death before reaching the age of two vorns.”
“How can they not love them? They’re their sparklings!” Frenzy exclaims aloud, puzzled.
His siblings/partners in crime exchange looks.
“Yeah, but there’s also ours, and that’s the entire problem,” Ravage grouses.
Frenzy pouts. “Why so?”
He gets a data burst from everyone. About all the horrors that happened during the war, and after, when the Decepticons were high on revenge and victory, and did terrible, terrible things. Gang-rapes, tortures unspoken of, executions of loved ones before helpless witnesses, mutilations, beatings, to a scale so large Frenzy winces.
Most of it stopped in time. Once the Autobots were truly down, there was no point continuing. Now, many Autobots keep quiet because they’re afraid it will happen again. Not that Megatron plans to, unless someone is stupid enough to revolt. But there are always very sick mechs and femmes who still do those things, and Autobots have long memories.
“Ah… yeah, I see your point…”
“We all thought that, because they’re Autobots, they would simply not let anything happen to a newspark they happened to give birth to. But nobody said parents had to love their children, after all,” points out Laserbeak. “Most Autobots have become rather… numb to everything, so they can’t be hurt again. They don’t care, not always, and they don’t really love sparklings, because of, well, being forced into having them. And the kids feel it, even though they don’t know how to interpret it. Because, as most of the new generation was born to Decepticons and slaves couplings, the younglings think it’s the way it’s supposed to be. But it’s not, and once they find out…” He trailed off.
“I heard Scalper gave Swindle a hard time lately,” puts in Buzzsaw. “And it’s making Swindle frustrated, because he happens to like his kid. And right now, the kid isn’t ready to pardon him. And he might never truly do.”
“So… what does that mean?” asks Rumble, subdued.
“… that someday, it’s going to come and bit us in the aft,” said Ravage quietly. “Imagine that: a whole generation, resentful of us because they could never taste what a true creation bond felt like, and they can only watch as their Carriers fawn over pure Autobots kids. Watch, and never been part, because most Autobots will not be able to open up to them. It will not end well, mark my words.”
“Boss… is that why you never try to get Jazz or Prowl preggers yourself anymore?” ask Frenzy, hugging his boss’ leg.
Soundwave looks at him and nods. And his thoughts go to his two slaves – one for the office work, the other for entertainment – waiting for him at home, with a small doorwinged newspark in their arms. He let them breed so he could at least see them smile more. Jazz’s frozen face was just… too disturbing; too at odds with what he was, that Soundwave had relented and let him create with his former lover and friend.
It was unfair Soundwave couldn’t get the family unit he wished to, with attentive and lovely mates and musically talented, serious sparklings.
But it would be even more unfair to bring a newspark in and almost loveless life.
Perhaps someday, Jazz or Prowl will find in themselves the force to pardon him, and reciprocate some affection. Perhaps someday…
But so long as spark deep injuries remained, he knew it wouldn’t be the case.
And unlike what some would think and say, some injuries weren’t meant to be healed.
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no subject
Date: 2012-06-08 07:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-09 04:57 pm (UTC)
Date: 2012-06-08 08:04 pm (UTC)Re:
Date: 2012-06-09 04:56 pm (UTC)But one can always hope that they'll find a way to make things better or more tolerable for the Autobots. The ending is rather open about it; Soundwave realized he would never have exactly what he wanted and took steps to ensure just a bit of happiness for Jazz and Prowl, Bluestreak is treated reasonably well,... Perhaps others will follow their lead. Perhaps.
It would not change the past or solve anything, not for the Autobots we know and love, but perhaps the next generation will be happier. Perhaps.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-09 12:14 am (UTC)*goes to her happy corner with the kittens and the cookies and stuff*
no subject
Date: 2012-06-09 04:49 pm (UTC)But I totally understand the need to be cheered up after reading this. I know I did just after finishing the last lines...
Very well done
Date: 2012-06-09 12:52 am (UTC)Re: Very well done
Date: 2012-06-09 04:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-09 10:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-09 05:07 pm (UTC)The old plots of 'rape victim/slave learn to bounce back/is comforted by friend' and 'I got my child through rape but I love him/her all the same'? I usually enjoy them, but I didn't feel like writing one; I wanted something else, a 'verse where 'Cons really miscalculated when they tried to breed the losers of the conflict, and the Autobots didn't end 'falling in love' with their abusers.
Not everybody is cut to be a great parent, especially under stressful circumstances. The Autobots just went numbs so they don't have to get themselves more emotionaly involved than what they must, because they know the 'cute' kids they birthed are going to turn into replicas of their Decepticons' parents. Or at least, they so strongly suspect it that it's easier for them to not attach themselves to the kids at all, least they'll be hurt once again when their kids turn into monsters.
I think the results isn't too bad, though it's nothing to be happy about.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-09 09:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-06-09 06:49 pm (UTC)It was heart breaking but a sensible analysis a teh same time, and it left me wondering just how would something liek this be solved... maybe if things got better, but at the same time, the future looks pretty grim.
Kudos for fighting the Autobots' love for sparklings clichè!
no subject
Date: 2012-06-10 10:08 am (UTC)One can only wonder what's the Decepticons' Elite will do now that they got a very good and disturbing look at the situation...
And yes, as much as I like clichés, it's one I really wanted to explorate. I had already tried to show people are people and Autobots aren't saints, even with kids, once in a fic called 'Baby Starscream', but I went even further here :)
no subject
Date: 2012-06-10 08:24 am (UTC)That said, it took me a while to get through it again, my heart was in knots.
no subject
Date: 2012-06-10 10:13 am (UTC)But yeah, it's not easy to read it.
I mean, I was feeling uneasy myself when I first thought of a similar plot for a Bayverse fic, and I didn't think I'll write it. Then the 'Stockholm Series' struck and the plot morphed into G1, and I really, really needed to get it out of my system by writing it down as soon as possible before it drove me crazy.