A Crude Awakening
WHO: IDW!Megatron and Animated!Dirge
WHAT: Bringing the Malgian jet back to life.
WHERE: The Hollow Tunnels, Zone 6.
WHEN: Backdated to before Starscream's return
WARNINGS/NOTES:
Warnings for Dirge, as always.
( It was hard to tell them apart, in death... )
WHAT: Bringing the Malgian jet back to life.
WHERE: The Hollow Tunnels, Zone 6.
WHEN: Backdated to before Starscream's return
WARNINGS/NOTES:
Warnings for Dirge, as always.
( It was hard to tell them apart, in death... )
Then Dirge's engine kick started, loud and grinding, revving a few times before settling back into a regular rhythm. His claws twitched, his vents cycled air, and finally his head was lifting, a red glow blooming behind the glass of the dark optics.
For a moment the clone thought he'd gone back in time. He was just being created again- feeling the energy of the all-spark animating his limbs, all the hunger and the yearning booting up in his processor, driving him to want things he had never even seen yet.
But it was not Starscream standing over him, mirroring his image. It was Magnum. And Dirge remembered exactly what he wanted.
"I'll kill you," he said.
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Briefly, he wondered what he did in every other universe...what act drove him to initially use the mechs who served him as mere pawns, and it grated on him that even he hadn't been above it.
Of course he hadn't been.
Decepticons signed on to the cause to fight for the cause, and he was the remote through which their force was directed, controlled. If he so desired one's death for his purposes...then so be it.
His cannon flared to life, pointing at Dirge.
"I know. But not tonight. You're alive, once more."
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Still, the desire for revenge burned hot in him- a concept very familiar to a piece of Starscream. His creator had been in a constant state of wanting revenge, especially on his Megatron. So here he was, with his own revenge to have from his own Megatron. It was funny how fate shoved him down the same path.
"You took my life," he hissed, pushing himself into a sitting position. This wasn't about being killed. Dirge had been killed before. Magnum had reached inside him and taken the thing that gave him life. All that he was- torn from his body and given back to his creator. Death the same as birth ( ... )
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Megatron did not lower the cannon...not yet. Dirge was giving him that look, and he knew that look too well to trust the jet just yet.
"But yes. You are Air Commander, now, unchallenged."
He'd been unchallenged before Starscream's death, technically...but even if he'd had Starscream as a 'partner,' Starscream had still been lord of the skies. That...was the point of a Starscream. One did not come to be Megatron's second without considerable skill, and his jets outflew all others.
Theoretically.
But now, Dirge had the opportunity to take that title.
"If you desire it."
He stood, keeping the cannon pointed at the jet, knowing that death was not so easily forgotten as that.
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He really didn't blame Dirge for the anger. He couldn't. This was a lesson to learn, on his end and on Dirge's: That he couldn't treat his mechs so flippantly without repercussions, that Dirge should expect the worst, at any given time.
They would have to adjust.
Both of them.
"If you can take it, jet, then I implore you to try." He lowered the canon, inviting an attack. "But I will kill you, again, if you lose."
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Looking back, he wished he'd actually bothered to understand more about what being a Decepticon meant before joining. Not that he regretted any evil thing he'd done- it would have just been smarter to read the fine print before signing the contract. Perhaps he should spend some more time with the Swindles.
Dirge considered the open invitation to attack, weighing the possibility of actually getting his revenge or just ending up dead again. Since death was actually a threat now...
"I'm leaving," he said. He'd seen enough footage of his creator attacking Megatron head on and dieing over and over. He would do this a different way. His way.
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It was strange, in a way. He didn't want Dirge to go. Dirge was one of the few ties still remaining to his time before his death, and losing him would be loosing something comfortable, and familiar.
Perhaps...that was why it needed to go. Perhaps he'd grown complacent, himself.
"You are aware what you will be leaving behind. What you will be...giving up." The words were pointed, but were true. "You will have to find a new way to sustain yourself, if you go. But it is still your choice."
He could have stopped it, but....there was no outcome in denying this except for Dirge's death, and he owed the jet just enough for his services to make that an unwanted outcome.
"Will you return?"
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...They were not enough. There was more. He would find all of it and bring it back. But first, Magnum would have to pay.
"I will. I want to see your face when I get my revenge," he said. In that instant, he felt more Starscream than he'd ever before. He tossed Megatron a smirk, mimicking the one his Creator often wore.
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But he would.
Dirge would return to life, always. Even this time he'd dodged the bullets, scraping out of a situation that his creator had not survived...and from the firey glint in his optics Megatron could tell he'd learned something from it.
Maybe this worked out. Maybe this was a lesson that Dirge needed to learn, that nothing but death could have taught him.
But even with that in mind, Megatron still did not enjoy betraying one of his. He didn't need this complication.
"I have a parting gift, then, Dirge. Something I can give you, that I have given to no one, before."
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No cowardice to stay his hand, or ego to blind, no lies to get tangled in, or sweet words help him backpedal.
Just greed. Pure and simple.
A gift? After all that had transpired? Dirge knew he should be suspicious and yet he wasn't changed enough to protest the promise of something so unique.
"What is it?"
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Dirge had always tested that line.
Dirge had broken it, more than once.
But Dirge had always come back. Now, that option was not the same as it had been, and for that...
"You have my regret. Now go, with it, before I feel compelled to take it back."
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