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A Small Problem
To be honest, if you’d asked Ultra Magnus, he’d unequivocally tell you that I’m crazy. That I’m young and inexperienced, sure, I’ll give him that one! But, honestly, I don’t think I’m crazy. A little reckless sometimes, maybe…….sure, yeah. But crazy? No, I’m not that. Since the Matrix of Leadership chose me, I’ve had this strange clarity about my life. It’s like I see things the way they need to be, so in my youthful excitement, I charge directly towards that result.
Magnus doesn’t like that. Not at all. It’s one of many reasons he calls me crazy.
The other reason? Well………yeah, it’s because of this guy.
Yeah, this one right here—the one right in front of me, yelling his aft off.
“Prrrrrrrrrrrriiiiiiiiiiiimmmmmmmmmmmmmeeeeeeeeee!!!!” Galvatron roared, his deep voice filled with his usual loud and obnoxious tones of rage, fury and all that stuff.
Why would Ultra Magnus consider me crazy because of Galvatron? Well, for one thing, Galvatron actually IS certifiably crazy. I’m not lying about that—he was buried in some plasma pools for a few months and suffered some kind of processor damage. Cyclonus told me that, once, when he was feeling slightly favorable towards me. Not that Cyclonus was very favorable towards me most of the time, but every once in a long while he asked me my options—for Galvatron’s benefit, everything was always for Galvatron’s benefit in Cyclonus’ mind.
I mean, there’s the whole Autobot-Decepticon War thing……….Galvatron and I are leaders of each of our factions. We fight ALL THE TIME.
But, well………..he’s actually kinda hot.
I mean! Well, he kinda is. He’s stupidly strong, but when it comes to interfacing—he knows exactly what to do. Hard, soft, teasing and satisfaction—yeah, he’s actually an expert in all of that. I should know, we’ve fragged just as often as we’ve fought in the past year.
And THAT’S why Ultra Magnus calls me crazy, as far as relating me to Galvatron.
I don’t know. I feel like all of this is going to come crashing to an end sometime soon. The Matrix sometimes acts weird inside my chest and I can’t help but get a strong sense of depression and lack of confidence again, even after being in this position for about a year now. It’ll probably be the end of this weird, bizarre relationship that Galvatron and I have, as well. So, I may as well savor it as long as it lasts. For Magnus, who argues about me “sleeping with the enemy” (and trust me, there’s really no SLEEPING involved with what we’re doing!), I just throw it back in his faceplate that Optimus Prime and Megatron did it ALL THE TIME.
Maybe it was part of being Autobot Leader—to be drawn inexorably to your opposite, your rival? The Matrix never condemned me for flirting with Galvatron, so I’m pretty sure it’s not really wrong. And if I’m being honest here—though I know Galvatron is the remodeled version of Megatron, there’s seriously nothing left of Megatron in the guy.
Yeah, sure, they’re both destructive and violent mechs……….but Galvatron is on an incredibly different level than Megatron ever was. Plus, if you ask Galvatron about Megatron he just kind of tilts his head and goes “Who?”—so, Galvatron really doesn’t know or care about his past of actually having been Megatron. And……..I think the war is only still going because Galvatron doesn’t quite understand the concept of “peace” (which he equates with “quiet” and “boring”). If he doesn’t have things to fight and the goal of conquering Cybertron to be met, he feels like he may as well end his own program at that point, because peace (to him!) would be the equivalent of death.
So, this war is life to him. It’s his job—his career—HIS DUTY. I guess I understand that. The Matrix gave me the duty I have now—being the Leader of the Autobots. I guess that’s why it’s okay that we frag and there’s still the war going on. Well, Magnus doesn’t call it “okay”, but he has come to accept it. Galvatron never takes advantage of me when we frag—I mean, in trying to convince me to surrender in any other way but overloading for him. It’s like……….when we do it, we’re both in a completely separate world. There’s no “Autobot”, no “Decepticon” and no “war” when we’re together. I totally get it. I think after this past year, I may be the one who understands Galvatron the best.
Yeah, and that’s the one thing that Cyclonus doesn’t particularly like—since he’s the one who considers himself the closest to Galvatron. I, technically, shouldn’t know more than Cyclonus about the “high and mighty Emperor Galvatron”, but I do. I think it’s because I’m good at knowing people—no matter the species. I’m likable throughout many of the species in the universe and I’m the honorary “big brother” to a little human boy from Earth.
Galvatron is strong—immensely powerful. He’s also very proud. He sees himself as perfect and has the confidence to hold himself to such an incredibly high ideal. I really admire that. I wish I could be like that, myself. And if………..when………..my time comes to an end here, as Leader of the Autobots—I hope I can be strong enough to bear the loneliness once again. I’m gonna miss this big lug, but I know he won’t be interested in little old Hot Rod.
For now, I have Galvatron’s attention—and he, most definitely, has mine.
I tossed the massive warmech over my shoulder and down onto the ground, aiming my right arm’s piping down at him. Then he grinned and grabbed my servo (not unexpectedly! Hence why I made the gesture with my arm and not my actual rifle………), yanking me down on top of him. His EM field never advertised how he really felt, but I knew Galvatron’s cues—he was done fighting and wanted to play.
Unfortunately, it meant we really…………..REALLY……….needed to get away from the prying eyes of the organics around us—as well as the optics of our own soldiers.
“Later, okay? Let’s meet somewhere—there’s no really good time for this right now,” I said, softly, bonking my forehead against his. “Ruins of Crystal City on Cybertron—late recharge cycle—got it?” I added, staring into his glowing red optic glass firmly.
“Pfft. If you insist, Prime—you will make sure that no one will try to blast me out of the atmosphere?” Galvatron chortled, his servo most definitely somewhere it shouldn’t be on my frame, while we were out in public like this.
“Yeah, I’ll make sure—now lemme go, you big lug!” I laughed, slapping my servo into his faceplate playfully.
We managed to pull away from each other—Galvatron yelled some colorful epithets before he called for the Decepticons to retreat. They got a few resources, so they’d be able to make a little bit of Energon for the troops to squabble over…….enough to keep them alive until the next time. I went around the Autobots, checking that all who were fighting were okay—then I checked on the local organics to see if they were okay. Then I ordered the Autobots to prepare to return to Cybertron.
* * * * *
“I really, really wish that you would stop doing this,” Ultra Magnus chided as we debriefed from the mission.
“Yeah, I know, Magnus. But I keep hoping, maybe I can one day get Galvatron to a peace conference if he gets really attached to me—it’s worth it just for that,” I sighed, kicking back from the chair and rising to my pedes. I wasn’t going to mention how much fun Galvatron was—sexually speaking. Ultra Magnus seriously did not need to hear me gush about anything I did with Galvatron, since he was rather unhappy I was even doing it in the first place.
“I really think that you’re giving too much of yourself to him,” the red-white-blue mech muttered, aiming his optics to the central area of the conference table between us.
Yeah, I probably was. But I wasn’t going to affirm Magnus’ feelings about the situation. It was nice to be wanted, like how Galvatron wanted me—I’d never had an experience like him before and I wanted to enjoy it as much as I could before………….whatever the future had left in store for me, that was to come.
“Don’t worry, I’d never do anything to betray the Autobots—or compromise our fight against the Decepticons,” I chuckled, grinning at my friend and teacher and Second-in-Command. “Galvatron’s gentlemech enough to leave his brand at home when we frag. That’s all it is, fragging and some talking about random things—one day I’ll steer him towards a treaty this way.”
“I know you think so………” Ultra Magnus trailed off.
“It is what it is, Magnus—the Matrix knows the deal,” I said, softly. So long as the Matrix still chose me, this path was okay…….and that was the important thing to note, here. If the Matrix thought I was failing to do the right thing for Cybertron and the Autobots—and even, maybe, the Decepticons—it would make sure I’d be repudiated and a new Autobot Leader would be chosen. So, maybe the Matrix also believed I could do something with Galvatron for the future……..? “I’ll see you in the morning, just—don’t open fire on Galvatron, all right? That’s why I want you on overnight watch tonight.”
“Yes, I understand,” my stern Second-in-Command responded with a very deep sigh. I patted his shoulder lightly, as I walked past him, and he sighed again as I left the room.
Once outside the home-base building in Iacon, I transformed into my alt mode and drove out to the expansive, glittering, ruins of Crystal City. Even in death and destruction, it was one of Cybertron’s most recognizable landmark locations, hence why I often chose it for our meeting place on Cybertron—Galvatron could never say he didn’t know where Crystal City was. Just look for the “sparkling trash heap” I’d said as I described it to him the first time. After that, he knew exactly where to look for the place where we often chose to meet.
And that’s where I was waiting for him now.
And that’s where we had a few hours of fun.
Awhile back I brought some old berth padding out to the ruined city (hey, it’s great having an alt mode with a trailer that could store things!) and made a shabby little berth on top of some flattened crystal. Dragged a curved slab of crystal around to make some backing for it—where we could rest after fragging.
“You seem melancholy, my Prime—I dislike it when your fire dims,” Galvatron grunted, pulling me closer against his side as I buried my faceplate against his shoulder-pillar.
“Yeah. I know. I just have a lot to worry about, that’s all. Nothing you can fix for me, trust me,” I sighed, feeling the warmth of his frame and the light vibrations of his engines, echoing through his derma. No, everything I was worried about was just the entire future—and Galvatron couldn’t do anything to affect that whatsoever. Not unless he really would submit to forging peace between our factions…………and if he’d accept Hot Rod when all the changes probably happened.
No, I already knew he wouldn’t relent to any of that at all. It was pointless to even bring it up to him. I wasn’t going to, no matter how much he actually asked me about any of it. And he wouldn’t. Galvatron might nag at me a few times to tell him what was wrong, but he would drop it after a while if I kept refusing to say anything. It’s just the way he was. I liked that, it was refreshing……his very blatant honesty.
“You know………if you’re ever in trouble, Galvatron—you can ask for my help,” I said, climbing over on top of him and bringing my faceplate close to his—just to feel his warmth and his light incycle and exvents of breath.
We never really needed to “breathe” so much as to circulate air to our internal systems. And, after energetic interfacing—to cool down systems faster we had to incycle and exvent more to help the internal systems cool down safely. Galvatron had a larger system than mine, my system was an efficiency—so he’d be “breathing harder” for a little bit longer than I would be.
“Why in the pit would I ever need your help, silly Prime?” The powerful Decepticon Leader chortled softly, reaching up to rub my spoiler fondly and teasingly.
“Still. The offer is there. My goal is to eventually get peace spread throughout the universe—if courting your favor could lead to peace in the future, I’d like to pursue that,” I responded, grinning and gazing into his dimly-glowing optics.
“Pfft. Think as you’d like, Prime,” he laughed back. “I am afraid that we must bring to an end our day of frivolity, Prime. I must return to Chaar,” Galvatron said, rolling our frames over so that I was pinned beneath him. “Until next time,” he purred, giving me quite the kiss before he pulled away.
The purple-and-grey mech stood over me for a few more minutes, grinned, then stepped back so he could propel himself up and fly away. I laid in the shabby, makeshift berth for a little longer—cherishing the remainders of Galvatron’s presence for a bit—then got up and transformed to drive back to Iacon.
* * * * *
My next few weeks were filled with plenty of other things—keeping me away from any active combat for a while. I was pretty sure that Ultra Magnus was doing it on purpose, trying to keep me and Galvatron away from each other—just because he was unhappy about the not-quite-so-secret-kind-of-relationship we had. It wasn’t that I disliked any of the things that Magnus had me doing. I may not be the most educated diplomat that the Autobots had, but my friendliness towards all species made up for that. Most members of the Galactic Alliance wanted me to interact with them, because they thought I was a “nice guy”—I also listened to them, which amongst all the politics, listening had become something of an issue between diplomats.
So, that day about three weeks after the last time I’d seen Galvatron—I was on the planet Luger mediating a roundtable discussion of several of the planet’s various country leaders. Can you imagine being all even-handed and keeping some anger issues in line, when suddenly alarms go off all around you? I might’ve been the only calm one in the room when everyone else began to panic, probably because I was used to warning alarms all the time.
I made sure they were all in a saferoom, with plenty of security, before I went and looked for the head of security for the convention center.
“It seems it may have been a small meteor hitting our shields,” the furry, Earth dog-like male said. These Lugians were like Earth dogs, except with a bi-pedal body and very human-like hands. I was used to weird and crazy-looking species in the universe. This Lugian head of security was named Corr. “The only thing I’m concerned with is that the meteor seemed like it was pummeling us with blasts right before it hit.”
“General Corr, can you get me some readouts on the type of bursts and the meteor’s makeup?” I asked, a little bit worried about it being some sort of Quintesson plot. They’d tried it before and utilizing a meteor was not beyond them. They also seemed to like sowing chaos wherever I was trying to mediate peace. Just to mess with me, personally, I think.
“Plasma bolts of some sort. The meteor make up seems to be some sort of metallic. The remains are located here—right outside the shield dome,” Corr said, bringing a bunch of information up on the screen, plus a map.
“I’m going to go investigate and if there’s a problem, I want you down on absolute lockdown until I give the all-clear,” I said, sprinting down the hallway and heading outside, after calling to Outback to come with me. I used the exit code to get past the shield frequencies, for us, and began to explore the area where the meteor supposedly “landed”. Outback went in the opposite direction of me, just to make sure there wasn’t something else to be concerned about—if the meteor wasn’t really a meteor.
I had a hunch that it wasn’t, but I didn’t want to speculate on what it could be until I saw what the “thing” was that crashed at the base of the dome. To be honest, anything I could’ve thought of………was certainly not what it turned out to be. In fact, as I stared down at the object that was just a little bit larger than a standard Earthling human, I began to doubt what my optical data was telling me.
“Galvatron……..?” I murmured, brushing a couple digits over the familiar broad chestplating—that was suddenly not at a typical size that it should be.
Galvatron, the size of a large human?
This seriously could not be right!
As my digits brushed his chestplate, I faintly felt the slight vibration of his engines. He was definitely out cold, which I thought was something nobody in this universe could ever do to Galvatron, the Emperor of the Decepticons.
“Ya find somethin’, guv?” Outback asked, coming up behind me and I quickly moved to shield Galvatron’s tinier frame from my fellow Autobot’s optics. Then I decided I couldn’t hide something like this and stood up, picking up the limp frame. “Ya gotta be kiddin’? This ain’t Galvatron, is it?” The smaller tan-and-brown Autobot said incredulously, looking up at the human-sized Galvatron in my palms.
“It feels like his engine hum and Spark-spin, but this is way too weird,” I muttered, looking down at the tiny version of my rival and lover in my servos. Surely Galvatron wasn’t happy about this……..!
“Heh. I say we get rid of the slagging bastard right now,” Outback chuckled, pulling his photon blaster from subspace and nodding at me to drop Galvatron’s suddenly-tiny frame.
“Hey! Look…….he’s helpless! That’s not what we Autobots do!” I snapped back, turning halfway, to shield the smaller purple-and-grey mech with my frame.
Unfortunately it really was. It was what Autobots and Decepticons did for millions of years—they took advantage of stupid situations to try and wipe each other out.
“Outback, let’s chill. I’m going to go back to our shuttle—you go and tell the General that I think we’re okay and not in any immediate danger,” I said, putting as much authority as I could into my voice.
“Yer callin’ Ultra Magnus, ain’t’cha?” Outback said, a bit suspiciously, as he put his photon blaster back into its subspace pocket. “C’mon, guv—this is important and ya need to fill ‘im in.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, Magnus would probably get out here as fast as he could with Sky Lynx and either finish what Outback wanted to do or put Galvatron in a very tiny cell with many guards. He’d also accuse me of getting too soft on situations that involved the Decepticon Leader—but it wasn’t like that! Galvatron was clearly in trouble. And I think that maybe he came to Luger because he knew that was where I was. After all, I did tell him he could come to me if he needed help—I think that’s exactly what he did.
I’m sure he’d probably never outright admit it, either.
But to be honest, I wasn’t quite sure what I could do about the situation. Until I had Galvatron explain to me how he got into this particular state, I was pretty much at a loss for immediate solutions. If it were scientifical, then I’d call in Perceptor…………but if it were something hoodoo-voodoo-mystical, I wasn’t sure where I’d turn to for answers on that.
I’d better call Ultra Magnus anyways and be the very harshest version of “Prime” that I could possibly be to insist that he not show up and make things worse right now.
[Is there something wrong at the conference, Rodimus?] Ultra Magnus said immediately as soon as connections were made on the communications’ screen.
“No, not really………….Galvatron showed up out of nowhere and he’s alone—and I’m pretty sure he’s somehow hurt. But he’s unconscious right now and I can’t ask what’s wrong,” I said, with as much firmness in my voice as I possibly could.
[Put him in your shuttle’s holding cells—have Outback keep and eye on him while you…….] my Second-in-Command began, when I suddenly cut him off sharply with a gesture and a huff of annoyance.
“Magnus—I know you have trust issues with me and all, but trust me, I really don’t think Galvatron’s going to be a problem right now. The Matrix……” I began, when he suddenly cut ME off.
[The Matrix is an object, Rodimus—it houses wisdom, it doesn’t have individual intelligence,] Magnus snapped back, a bit harshly I thought. [I believe that you are becoming too sympathetic towards…….]
“No, Magnus. You listen to me for a change,” I said, loudly enough to get his attention. “The Matrix chose me—not you. It has a sensitivity to what’s necessary and what it didn’t want was another military leader, it wanted a leader who would take a look at things and the future and try to find a new way. Military leadership has failed for the past four million years, I can find a better path, but you’ve gotta stop nagging me to be like you or like Optimus, okay?” I added, trying to calm down. “I’m not you. And I’m not Optimus Prime. I’m me—Hot Rod……….Rodimus Prime. I can find the right path, you just have to let me do it, instead of standing in my way all the time and trying to force me down your path—Optimus’ path.”
Ultra Magnus at least looked chided by my words. He didn’t cut in and he didn’t debate me once I got my words out. And, to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I could’ve said all those words and snapped back to my Second without having the presence of Galvatron in the area. Strangely he made me stronger—better.
“Now, look. I’m going to talk to Galvatron once he’s awake and find out who could’ve possibly done this to him—it might be something we all need to be aware of,” I continued, once it was clear I had his undivided attention as his commanding officer. “After that, we’ll figure out what to do next and if we need to throw Galvatron into a cell, all right? For now, he’s not a danger here on Luger and I’m going to try and finish with the roundtable of Lugians.”
[Very well. I understand, but please—Rodimus Prime—you must take care with your situation. I implore you to do this with evaluating all the circumstances and not just give in to your emotions,] the red-white-blue mech said, with something akin to pleading in the tone of his voice. [Please get back to me when you’ve evaluated the entire situation and before you return to Cybertron.]
“I will, Magnus. I promise—please, just trust me,” I added, grinning at him, before ending the communique with Cybertron.
“So, you do have fire enough to speak back to Ultra Magnus?” A familiar voice chortled, at a volume dozens of decibels lower than I was used to hearing.
“Probably only because you’re here. But now I think you’re gonna have to explain what happened to you, because this is seriously a thousand times bizarre!” I laughed, walking over to the pilot’s seat, where I’d placed Galvatron’s tiny frame.
The Decepticon Leader folded his arms over his chest as he stood in the center of the seat. I gazed down at him, really still weirded out by his slightly larger than a normal human-sized form. Even though he was smaller and his EM field was weaker—I could still feel it and he was incredibly annoyed.
“You said I would be able to ask you for help. I have come to cash in on your promise, as much as it galls me to request your aid—my Decepticons must not see me in such a state,” Galvatron snapped. “I have only sent a glyph to Cyclonus to tell him I must be absent for a short while. He will likely assume I am with you, playing around.”
That much was probably true. If Galvatron told Cyclonus he was with me, the Decepticons’ Second-in-Command would assume Galvatron’s spending some frag-time with me. So, somehow Galvatron got into trouble somewhere and other Decepticons must not have been around—so, he remembered I said I’d give him help if he needed it and came directly for me. I wonder how he found me, though?
“Yeah, I’ll help, but you gotta tell me what happened—the whole thing,” I said, plopping down in the other piloting seat and turned our chairs to face each other.
Galvatron gave an annoyed snort and sat down crosslegged in the seat.
“The whole thing, Galvatron—or I won’t be able to help at all,” I urged, leaning forwards and placing my elbow-joints on my knee-joints.
“Very well, yes. I went on a little bit of………recreational exercise………to this planet. A dingy little mudball that was hardly any kind of importance. I just wanted to play with the natives a little bit and they aimed some ridiculous little cannon at me,” Galvatron snapped. It clearly irritated him even more to explain it all. “It bathed me in some sort of strange light ray or something. The very next thing I knew, once my optics recovered, I was in this reduced state.”
“What planet?” I asked. It had to be a world with some kind of scientifically advanced level, to be able to create a shrink ray of some sort. That narrowed it down to “science” and not “magic”.
“I do not know! Some stupid little mudball!” Galvatron snarled back, leaping back to his pedes in the center of the chair.
“Galvatron, I need to find out their level of technology so I can get Perceptor to evaluate a solution if they don’t have one,” I said with a sigh, shaking my head at him.
“It is a dingy little mudball of a planet! I do not care what it is or where it is! I demand that you fix me, Prime!!!” The little purple-and-grey mech roared with fury.
This was definitely Galvatron—he had no real concept of patience or actually asking for help like a normal mech. Unless it suited him and catered to him, he hated it and would fight with everything against it.
“Okay, yes…….I get it, but I’m gonna need more than that. How about some GPS coordinates?” I said, trying to keep my voice as soothing as possible.
Galvatron raised his nova cannon at me and I couldn’t help but laugh, because he was so tiny and it was almost comical. I could tell by his EM field that he was growing even angrier—and that anger was just a few moments away from being directed specifically at me.
“Look, maybe you could let me—um, maybe a data-interface will help? I’d know what I was looking for if you’d just direct me to the memories of the event,” I began, leaning back in to the chair and motioning with a shrug to say “I don’t know either”.
“How in the Pit will we data-interface? Do you think our equipment is even compatible when I am like this!?” The irate Decepticon Leader snarled, keeping his nova cannon aimed at me.
All right. He had a point, but……..
“It’s okay, I have adaptive cabling—I believe I have some microplugs that might fit,” I began, hoping that my frame’s adaptive technology would actually do what I was proposing. “Um. You’ll have to guide me though and drop a couple firewalls so I can view the data.”
Oh, that expression was not good. He was angrier than before. Well, I did basically just ask him to “surrender” to me—and that was probably an attack on his ego like nothing’s ever hit him before. Galvatron, the supreme Emperor of the Decepticons, surrendering to anyone whatsoever was a blow harder than death itself. And surrendering to me, yeah—that was an immediate negative response in his brain and all his systems.
“Unless you can give me GPS coordinates for that world, I’m gonna have to do this, Galvatron,” I said, firmly.
He began to growl and mutter with his frustration. I know that he understood the situation and no matter how much he hated the entire concept of allowing me into his systems, he knew he’d have to relent so that I could get the answers to help him.
“I’m not going to try and conquer your program—I really don’t want to, you know. I like you the way you are, Galvatron,” I chuckled, grinning down at him.
“Like this???” The purple-and-grey mech snarled.
I laughed and that made the small Decepticon Leader fume angrily.
“You are adorable like this, but………nah, I like you in your normal state my dear Decepticon Leader,” I chuckled softly and reached down to rub the tip of my pointer-digit against the side of Galvatron’s helm. “Let’s see if we can get some answers.”
* * * * *
Luckily enough, Galvatron had the GPS coordinates in his stored memory. But trying to find it was like wading through slag—there was nothing organized inside Galvatron’s systems. Or, rather, everything he did not consider important at all were just piled up in the recycle bin and NOTHING was ever recycled. The memories he considered that he needed and were important, he had those stored very preciously at the forefront of his CPU—everything else was slag.
So were the memories of this planet where he got blasted like a shrink ray—even though that wasn’t very long ago.
“I hope you don’t mind that I sorted your recycle bin, Galvatron—and I trashed what you didn’t need,” I said, as soon as I jacked out of his systems and leaned back into the piloting chair, rubbing my head. “Trash is trash, Galvatron, and you need to delete it if you don’t want to save it. I swear, you’re like a human with e-mails.”
“Grrrrr. I dislike such a reference, Prime,” the small grey-and-purple mech snapped. “But my head feels clearer, so I appreciate your thorough effort.”
I smiled down at him. I imagine with a little bit more headspace there, he might be thinking a little more clearly—which might be why he was a little bit calmer right now. He was still loonier than a madmech, but he wasn’t slowed down anymore. And I thought my internal files were a bit haphazard! I did see his processor damage, though. It wasn’t pretty, I could see where he’d lost a lot of memories—I wasn’t sure he could ever get those back, but if the memories were of Megatron, I didn’t think that Galvatron necessarily needed those.
“So, the planet you were at was called Regil—I’m a little bit familiar with them. They’re high on education and science. You seriously picked a bad planet to harass,” I said to him, folding my arms across my chest.
He grunted and sat back down, crosslegged, in the center of the other piloting chair. “They are weaklings! I need no permission to bother the weak if I wish to!” He grumbled, his smaller-pitched voice sounding very low and frustrated.
Seriously, this guy. I sighed softly.
“I need to get back to the roundtable and do what I came here to do. Then I’m on my way back to Cybertron from here. We’ll talk with Perceptor and I’ll call Regil to see if they have like an anti-shrink ray,” I said, rising to my pedes.
“You will not go back on your word, Prime?” Galvatron asked, looking up at me and staring into my optics.
“Of course not,” I retorted, almost saying “not like you”—but then, Galvatron had never deceived or lied to me specifically. So, I couldn’t make a legitimate complaint about that.
“Then I will wait. However, if you try to imprison me when we are back on Cybertron, I will give a piercer shot directly to your Spark and damn the Matrix in my way,” the tiny frame of the shrunken Decepticon Leader said as he laid down in the chair and immediately placed himself into recharge.
I’m sure he’d do exactly that. I locked down my shuttle as soon as I exited and went back to the conference room. After a few calming words with Outback—who was still rather annoyed we didn’t get rid of Galvatron immediately—I went back to mediating the roundtable of Lugians. We were at it for about three hours more before certain things were agreed on, other things were thrown out and they all decided the big meeting was concluded. I received thanks and said it was what the Autobots and I were here for. Then Outback and I went back to Cybertron with our tiny guest.
“Fascinating!” Perceptor said, excitedly. “I do recall Wheeljack attempting such a device once, a while back. As per usual, he had a few bugs within the system,” the red-and-silver scientist chuckled, rubbing his chin and smiling.
“I demand that you fix me now!!!” Galvatron said, losing all of his very small bit of patience.
Small. Heh. I can’t believe I even thought that statement.
“At ease, Galvatron—we are trying to help. I promised you that we would, but you gotta be patient,” I said, stifling my laughter and using my pointer digit to rub his helm fondly.
He swatted my digit away with a very annoyed huff. “Every moment longer that I am stuck in this reduced state, the more likely it will be that my Decepticons will find this out! You are not taking this seriously, Prime!” Galvatron snapped, turning to look at me and pointing up at me with a servo—the arm with the nova cannon on it. “I do not think you understand how difficult it is to keep the Decepticons in line—if they find me weak or unable to assert my authority very forcibly, someone will try to take my place! You have no idea what I go through, daily, to keep my command!!!” The grey-and-purple mech snarled, the red glass of his optics glowing brightly.
Given all the stories I’d heard of Starscream’s antics trying to take command from Megatron, I wasn’t surprised. Plus, there was that time, when the Quintessons had kidnapped some of my friends—while we hadn’t known of the Quintessons’ issues with us at the time, we had originally suspected the Decepticons. Grimlock and I went to Chaar to scope out the Decepticon situation and we saw the starvation and in-fighting, with Cyclonus barely holding things together. No, I was perfectly aware of Galvatron’s situation, but that didn’t mean I could snap my digits and make Galvatron back to normal in an instant.
“I do not mean to be an irritation, but I do have to agree that we should incarcerate Galvatron,” Perceptor said, his tone shifting to something very serious. “I am not saying that we cannot help him, but he is the enemy and we should ensure that he is properly incarcerated.”
I figured it would come to this. No one would even try to move past the war. As long as they were all focused on being “enemies”, we could never take a step towards ending the conflict. Galvatron looked up at me, his field swirling with anger and annoyance. Perceptor’s words he definitely understood—and if this situation were reversed, I’m sure he knew he and the Decepticons would take advantage of my being in a weakened state. I’m sure that even if I made the statement that we’d have to lock him up, even if we helped him—he’d understand that, too. He’d be incredibly pissed off, but he’d understand.
“I’m not going to do that, Perceptor. I gave Galvatron my word that I’d help him and in no way did I say anything about locking him up,” I said, very firmly. “As long as Galvatron gives me his word that we are at a ceasefire to solve this small problem of his—I’m going to let him go back to the Decepticons once we’ve found the solution.” Then I looked down at Galvatron. “Will you give me your absolute word and promise that you will not break it?” I asked of him, hoping that he understood my grasp of the situation.
“My Prime, I will not cause you any frustration so long as we come up with a solution to this. We are at a temporary ceasefire—you and I—so long as we are working on this problem,” Galvatron said, planting his servos on his hips and nodded solemnly. “I will cause no issue until we have fixed this and I have returned to Chaar.”
I wanted to believe him, so I decided to take a chance and believe that Galvatron’s word would be an unbreakable promise.
“Alright, Perceptor!” I began, grinning over at our chief scientist. “I’m going to contact Regil and see if they have anything to offer to help us. Even if they don’t have a reversing device for their shrink ray, they might be able to provide you with a device to analyze.”
“And what am I to do? Just sit here and wait?!” Galvatron snarled, glaring up at me.
“Yep. I’ve also gotta call Cyclonus and come up with a good excuse for you staying with me for a while—he’s not gonna believe a week-long frag-fest,” I chuckled, glancing down at the tiny frame of my rival and lover.
“I am not going to be here a whole slagging week!!!” Galvatron howled.
“You might be. Your situation isn’t easy and if you don’t want the Decepticons to figure out what’s really wrong with you—you’d better let me come up with a cover story,” I retorted, then I reached down and rubbed his crowned helm with a digit. “Be good for Perceptor in the meantime.”
He swatted my digit away and fumed, but it meant nothing really—as long as he was in this situation, he’d let me have the time to figure it all out. Now I just had to play my best diplomatic role when I called Regil and have a winning story for Cyclonus—who’d be very angry that Galvatron was spending more time with me than anything. But as long as I held Galvatron’s interest at my Spark, Cyclonus knew he could trust me with his Emperor. That was likely the only reason why he didn’t outright try to kill me, because he knew it would affect Galvatron.
And after finally getting ahold of Cyclonus—I got the usual grumpiness that Galvatron was with me and not him, plus a threat to take care of Galvatron for as long as he was with me. Like I would abuse Galvatron, whether or not he was in the current state that he was in anyways. I liked Galvatron—I liked his boldness, I liked his sexual prowess……..I certainly wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize what was our “relationship”. If anything, I wanted to bring him around and eventually to some proper peace talks—which I knew wouldn’t be easy, given how boring he felt “peace” was.
“Your room is plain and boring, Prime—it is a travesty,” Galvatron said as he flew over to the simple berth and sat down in the center of it. “It is no wonder you never host me here.”
I didn’t host him in my quarters because it’d piss off every single Autobot here in Iacon, not because my room was plain and boring. But he wouldn’t understand that.
“I’m too busy to really spend much time in it anyways. It’s just a place to lay down and rest when I’m not trying to be everywhere in the universe,” I responded, grabbing the chair from the desk in the corner and pulling it over towards my berth.
Galvatron made a snort of derision.
“Regil doesn’t have a reversal kind of device for what they used and they could care less about putting you back to normal,” I said, leaning back in the chair and crossed one leg over the other, cupping my servos together and resting them atop my knee-joint. “That means Perceptor has to analyze it all on his own and try to come up with a solution. I have him working with Pipes and even First Aid, in case there are medical drawbacks to reversing the situation.”
“What does that even mean?!” Galvatron snarled, flopping back onto his back in the center of my berth.
“It means that it might wreck up your body even if we get something that works—First Aid may have to fix your insides,” I responded, looking down at him fondly.
Again, the Matrix gave me that deep pang of sensation again and I felt a wave of regret and loneliness wash through me. It must’ve leaked out into my field, because Galvatron bolted straight upright and stared at me, his mouth open as if to say something, when I reached over and placed the tip of my fore-digit over his mouth to silence him. This was also something he wouldn’t understand—that I wasn’t to be the Autobot Leader and his rival forever………that it all might come to an end sooner than I wanted it to. I wondered why the Matrix wasn’t pointing me towards a successor, yet…………and why I actually wasn’t really all that afraid to die. Maybe that was my old feelings of self-loathing, maybe I actually was ready to meet my end? Hell and Pit—it might even be at Galvatron’s own servos, too!!! Actually, I wouldn’t mind if he was the instrument of my destruction. That would really make me happier if I knew that he was the one who was gonna kill me.
“Arrgh! I want you to stop that! It makes me angry, the way you feel so dejected like that!” Galvatron snarled. “You are the leader of the Autobots! You have no right to feel this way!” He howled, slapping at my digit and then taking a chomp on the tip of it. His fangs scraped the metallio-derma of my fore-digit.
“Galvatron—there are many things you’ll never understand about me, even if I use plain and simple language,” I chuckled, feeling fondness for Galvatron’s frustration at my dark feelings swirling around inside of me. And the little chomp on my digit—which was far too adorable for words at Galvatron’s tiny height for the moment. You know, I loved fragging with him………..but sharing a strange moment and encounter like this was more precious than the energy we gave to each other interfacing. I don’t think he could appreciate something like this, but I certainly did.
“You piss me off, Prime. I want you to stop whatever you are feeling right now, it angers me that you are upset like this,” Galvatron growled, as he planted his servos on his hips and glared at me. “It is frustrating enough that we cannot enjoy ourselves at leisure as we normally do, you must stop feeling like this so that I can at least have some peace while I am stuck in this situation.”
Pfft. Of course, he was mostly worried about himself. Ah well, that was Galvatron—and I wouldn’t want him to act any other way.
“I’m gonna to go report to Ultra Magnus, so I’m gonna lock you in here so you’re safe, okay? Please don’t go wandering around—nobody’s happy with my decision to let you remain on the outside of a cellblock,” I said, smiling down at the tiny version of my powerful rival. Then I reached down to rub his helm with the tip of a digit again—this time Galvatron did not smack it away. That made me happy that he let me use the fond gesture.
* * * * *
It was weird, after about four days, I’d become pretty used to spending most of my days with Galvatron—telling myself I was protecting him from the Autobots, when really I was being selfish just to spend time with him. The tiny Decepticon Leader was grumpy most of the time, especially with other Autobots around (usually there were a couple of security detail mechs around when we’d be in Perceptor’s lab most of the day), but when we were alone in my room, he always settled down and stopped being quite as grumpy.
We did lots of things that Galvatron would probably never do if he were in his normal-sized form. We played some short board games, watched a few movies…..weird and random stuff like that I let him talk and rant and complain until it was out of his system—then we’d curl up in my berth, Galvatron would hide under the blankets up against my chestplate (so, I’d learned to sleep more on my side than on my back).
His excuse was that it was warmer and he quite enjoyed it. Then again…….he always made comments about the heat of my frame, so under the blankets he could keep it all cooped up around him. He cherished it and treasured it more than gold or Energon.
But, yeah……….four days and Perceptor finally had a breakthrough. I’d been busy on some calls with leaders of other planets in the Galactic Alliance when my chief scientist informed me he thought he had a solution, so he asked me to come to his lab as soon as I could. I’m sure Galvatron was annoyed I was making him wait a few more hours on top of his several days.
“You think it’ll work, Perceptor?” I asked as he made Galvatron walk into a sealed and safety-protocol-enhanced room. I was very nervous and it probably showed in my EM field.
“I promise you, I’m not trying to injure Galvatron,” the red-and-grey Autobot scientist chuckled warmly, securely locking the Decepticon Leader in room. “It’s a true scientific opportunity. If I have these calculations correct and my notes about the process the Regillians used in their shrinking ray are indeed correct—this process could be incredibly useful in the future!”
Perceptor went on a long talk about the shrinking ray process and how the Regillians probably developed it, even as his servos moved across keyboards and levers and switches. I couldn’t even follow a single word of it. But the only thing that mattered…………
“It worked!” Perceptor said with delight, clapping his servos together as he strode quickly over to the isolation room and set Galvatron free.
The Decepticon Leader was back to his normal size—he looked fine, his powerful EM field was normal and in its general neutral state. First Aid and Pipes had their evaluations, with Galvatron muttering grumpily to them that he was fine and felt fine. But he didn’t shoo them away, probably because I was there and watching the whole thing.
I was a little saddened, because it meant Galvatron would be leaving and I’d been pleased to have his company—without fragging!!!—for the past few days. But I knew it wasn’t going to last forever. Just like I already knew I wasn’t going to be Autobot Leader forever—or for much longer, probably.
Galvatron strode past me and grabbed the right tip of my spoiler fins, dragging me out of the room. I stumbled behind him as he growled and grunted to make all the Autobots hovering around skitter away. He dragged me all the way back to my room and threw me onto my berth.
I whipped my arms up, covering my faceplate and optics—I was nowhere near ready to go straight to a fragging session right now.
“You need not worry, I know you do not have the energy for pleasure right now. But you are emanating too much sadness in your EM field and I had no desire for your soldiers to see how you were feeling right now,” Galvatron said, leaning down on his palm, which was splayed by my hip. “I still do not know why you have these waves of despair in you—they appear without warning or reason and you refuse to explain it to me. Why can your Second not see your despair as I do?” Galvatron murmured, using his other servo to lightly pat my chest, right over my Autobot brand.
“He’s………Magnus………..he’s not supposed to—nobody is. It’s my burden to bear,” I whispered, softly, offlining my optics and lowering my arms to my sides. “My own burden.”
I heard Galvatron sigh and felt his frame move closer—he probably leaned down.
“You are strong enough to bear any burden. Stop doubting yourself, my Prime. You and I will meet again, soon enough—and I hope you will have the energy for a good, hot frag next time,” the powerful Decepticon Leader murmured, then I felt the warmth of his lips on my forehead. “Until then!” He chortled, pulling away. I heard a clambering, meaning he was probably on the windowsill. Then his entire presence was gone.
I wish I could be all of that. But I would be ready for Galvatron next time.
And I looked forward to that.