Chapter Text
Colony, sweet Colony of mine.
Absolutely certain he never wanted to come online again, this time Megatron removed the helmet very slowly, optics off, at the shrill ping in his comm.
"Megatron speaking."
"Bzzzzz?"
Megatron groaned, passing his left hand from forehead through optics. This had to be a nightmare.
"Wazzpinator iz sorry to interrupt?"
Hearing the voice echo both in his comm and on his right side, though, Megatron immediately onlined his optics at the bug, grimacing.
"Didn't I make it clear that I would not be disturbed?" he then blinked twice, instantly recalling he was behind his vaulted doors "HOW THE SLAG YOU..!"
"Ant-bot give Wazpinator door code. Ant-bot trusts Waspinator enough to help the q.. royalty. During illnessz."
Megatron sighed, deflating as his energy pinged low and he now slowly removed his connections from the machinery.
"Why would Inferno think I am ill?"
Waspinator shifted on his pedes looking at the ground.
"Ant-bot told Waspinator the queen was not smelling healthy. Ant-bot thinks Megatron got ill and not telling, having sent Ant-bot away to defend the Colony while you make sure none of the drones know."
Megatron facepalmed. Cursed ant and his infallible sense of smell.
"Does anyone else think I may have a disease?"
Waspinator fidgeted with both hands, shaking his head.
"Ant-bot only tell Waspinator. Says he must defend the Princess against the spiders." he then counted on his fingers "That scorp-bot muzt have plausible deniability in case maximals capture him, so he no tell any mech but Waspinator."
Megatron sighed loudly.
"Let's pretend I might be ill, yess." he squinted his currently weakly glowing, dark-pink optics at the other predacon "Are you aware that in case I am ill, whatever I have might be contagious?"
"Waspinator aware." he then looked down, slumping his shoulderplates "Tired of being exploded, beaten up, dizmantled... getting Mega-bot's viruz still soundz better than being outside getting botnapped by spider-bot to serve as tezt-subject."
Megatron pinched his nosebridge for three full seconds, then finally rose out of the machine and minutely wobbled, holding his left hand against his Conscious Stasis Machine, as Waspinator almost on autopilot stepped closer getting his leader's right forearm in hand, trying to help.
"I am not in need of your help, insect." he yanked his right arm / Dino-head out of his subordinate's hands, finally standing up on his full height, feeling each and every strut aching, both the beast-head’s jaundiced eyes and the predacon’s currently weakly glowing pink optics glaring down at him "You are dismissed, stupid bug."
Watching Megatron visibly strain as he stood up, then start coughing right after he told him away, Waspinator shook his head, folding arms.
"Wazpinator not sztupid. Wazpinator has two degrees in astro-mechanics!"
"Oh, yess, I had forgotten about your degrees." the tyrant grimaced and mock-slapped his own forehead, opening both arms wide, the dino head rolling her optics as he walked away from Waspinator "Now I can rest safely, knowing your brilliance always solves all my problems!"
Observing him from a never-safe small distance as Megatron stomped to his CR-jacuzzi and got inside, Waspinator squinted, compound optics zooming into the visibly organic streak of fluids slowly dribbling down Megatron's inner seams.
"Waspinator was ordered to help Mega-bot."
Turning on his personal bath-tube's energon bubbling system, Megatron finally seated, as energon bubbles popped on the surface, in an attempt of hiding the fact he had opened all his exhaust doors and the contaminated fluids were actually neutralized by the CR liquid, as he finally made sure to rotate around the CR-bath until he placed himself facing Waspinator.
"Scorponok and Inferno can be overbearing, specially now that I sent them away to plot on my masterplan and forbade them of coming here. As you can see, everything is doing perfectly fine."
Squinting, Megatron captured his floating ducky with his left hand, keeping his staring match with the imbecile currently scrutinising him with both arms folded.
"If Mega-bot fine, then why Mega-bot not shoot Waspinator out yet?"
Wincing as he immediately realised he had committed the mistake of having defied no one less than Megatron into shooting him, Waspinator futilely tried hiding his optics behind both hands, waiting for the blast...
...that never came.
Slowly lowering his hands from his optics, he buzzed questioningly at what he could only classify as a falsely lounging Megatron, holding a visibly tired glower at him.
"I refuse to waste energon shooting you." a lie: Weren't Megatron undercharged, he would have already blasted the moron. "Very well then. If you insist. Fetch me the cube of low-grade energon over my desk, and bring it here, without taking it away from my sight."
Blinking at the apparent change of spark, Waspinator actually pinched himself, immediately searching first behind himself then finally at the ceiling, looking for any kind of booby traps, before cautiously moving towards the half-consumed cube; he had been ordered to help, but it didn't mean he would be that careless to trigger the saurian's age-old paranoia.
"Mega-bot unable to have regular energon?"
He casually asked, then once more regretted, for he could feel the sliver of anger fill for a nanoclick Megatron's EM-field as he approached the tyrant with the half-consumed cube in full view, only for it to be slowly taken from his hands.
Briefly inspecting the rightfully worried insect as he rotated the cube on is left hand until he located where the seal had been broken previously, Megatron took a very cautious sip from the low-grade, pondering silently on the situation.
Waspinator was harmless enough and never really tried anything to endanger his leadership on purpose since they met back on Cybertron. He was sent by Inferno, who had been explicitly ordered to aid and protect Scorponok while the leadership was officially with his second in command, and couldn't be here to help.
Inferno could be another moron, but he was a trustful, devoted moron, that knew exactly who could approach Megatron and who could not.
"If you wish to remain unscathed and unharmed, be sure to not try to offline me. Inferno would go absolutely berserk if I sent him or Scorponok any kind of distress signal."
Waspinator nodded, considering the answer to his question as a yes, given the fact Megatron evaded the question with a threat.
"Waspinator not here to offline Mega-bot. Has made promise."
Megatron absently nodded, hiding a smirk behind his left hand and the cube, as he took on another sip.
"Indeed. What a good carrier's little spawn you must have been." he gritted on his pearly white dental plates, recalling how he had to leave his own and change ID's not to let harm come to him before joining Cryotek.
Visibly pleased, Waspinator nodded in agreement, also happy for remaining whole so far, remembering his previous life back on Cybertron and the way he had hastily left everything behind for survival.
Each predacon had they own reason to join: some wanted the cash, others the glory, and others were just trying to survive.
"Now you came in, you aren't allowed to come out, noo." Megatron stated, matter-of-factly "Might as well gather a regular cube from the dispenser by the wall and refuel."
Waspinator managed to blink his compound optics, buzzing and once more pinching himself, hurrying to the dispenser and greedily chugging a full cube, as Megatron shook his head, leisurely watching the bug's antics, like one would to to a cherished pet, marvelling at how easily the insect responded to positive stimuli, not bothering to hide a full smirk at the scene.
He truly didn't really care why any of his predacons joined, as long as he could control them by making sure each of them could at least hope.