[exventing heavily, megatron stops what he's doing, making a show of interrupting his work.]
It's a Matrix, Starscream. I'm quite confident he won't be able to access the knowledge of the 13 inside, but-- even when you have one it doesn't exactly come with a manual.
[he pinches his nose for a moment, expression crimping.]
You know him better than I. What do you think he will try to do with it?
[ Primus spare him from Megatrons intentionally being stubborn afts. ]
Think, you diminutive doorstop! As if that Megatron is after the Thirteen's enlightenment?! Dark energon makes him a conduit of Unicron, he doesn't need written instructions for figuring it out, all he needs is the power it provides to amplify what he already has.
And if he receives it, the space bridge will be the least of our concerns. Or he might decide to attempt controlling it, either succeeding and turning it into his personal revenge role call, or destroying it completely leaving us all stranded here.
It's what's most easily accessible... [he trails off, trying to work this out.] I don't even know if it would respond to him at all. In his hands it could equally just be a fancy paperweight as it could be a power booster!
[shuttering his optics, he frowns.]
What can he do with the powers of Unicron? Such things were non-existent in my own reality, and thus far all I've seen him do is be an aggressive waste of life.
While I'm sure it must be nice to live under the delusion of the paperweight theory, as you said: I know him better.
Unicron's power allowed him to reanimate the dead of our planet, to control them. To forge a weapon capable of destroying the Star Saber. To bring his own frame back from death itself.
Yes, of course, because everything is terrible and nothing even slightly goes well, ever. [he is... shock, agreeing with starscream there.] That is unspeakably miserable. How on Cybertron did you survive being anywhere near that maniac while he was doing all this?
It does, eventually, get better. The time I'm from, Cybertron is finally rebuilding. But it why I am not about to be put off finding the information I need by your little snit of burying your head in the substrate.
[ Starscream's optics narrow at the question, expecting mockery, expecting a ploy, expecting all the things he's come to anticipate from... well, a Megatron. It is why he and Ravage do not casually discuss Megatrons, because she likes some of then but Starscream does not see them as redeemable people. There will never not be suspicion there, and that perhaps is the answer Runt is looking for. ]
Why, so you can have it undone? I didn't go mad and murder all my Seekers, if that's what you're asking.
No. [he says simply, not about to mention his regrets with his own starscream, even if he hates the mech almost more than he has ever hated anyone. dropping the subject is the best way forward for them both, though megatron isn't doing it out of a sense of duty or kindness.] That Matrix is--
[megatron falls silent for a moment.]
There may be some hope. It was damaged on the inside and heavily drained of power. I still have the power I got from it, and I don't think he'll be able to duplicate that without multiverse engines.
[he rubs a hand over his face.]
Is Dark Energon finite? He will likely be able to create more with it and spread the effects far quicker.
[ Starscream can only hope that Megatron's assessment of the stolen Matrix is correct. While he doubted that his Megatron wouldn't be easily put off by failure — after all, his answer to not having the Primal power to wield the Forge of Solus Prime was to weld on a dead Prime's limb — Starscream also didn't have a lot of insight on the capabilities of a Matrix. ]
In my universe it was incredibly rare. After three years, Megatron returned with a single large chunk of it, and much of that was used to launch through the space bridge at Cybertron. But once refined, it is capable of contaminating regular energon. Knock Out may be able to better explain that process, but his "loyalty" is questionable at best, so I would not trust him to keep things secretive. I know Megatron has at least one sizeable shard of it, or he did. But also in refined form, it's what he used to kill that human, and to poison the meek Prime. I don't think we have any way of knowing how much, if any, exists in this universe.
[ Starscream doesn't feel like he's going to get anything else about the Matrix, so he sees little reason to continue here. His tone is flat, no real gratitude, but at least not so antagonistic. ]
I don't see why he couldn't use the Matrix to create more of it. For better or worse, that damn thing is almost as fond of creation as the AllSpark.
[he turns back to what he was working on, expression grim.]
Too many of these variables depend on what exists in this universe. Perhaps there's a Matrix from the fallen Prime somewhere? An AllSpark and Vector Sigma laying around in Cybertron's core? If he follows the same pattern, he'll probably want to use it to find Unicron. Yet, for all we know, we're in a universe where Unicron and Primus' roles were reversed! Whatever he does with it is my...
[megatron shakes his head, cutting off that line of thought.]
I still have the connection to the Matrix with this power. If I sense anything then... we can talk further.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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It's a Matrix, Starscream. I'm quite confident he won't be able to access the knowledge of the 13 inside, but-- even when you have one it doesn't exactly come with a manual.
[he pinches his nose for a moment, expression crimping.]
You know him better than I. What do you think he will try to do with it?
no subject
Think, you diminutive doorstop! As if that Megatron is after the Thirteen's enlightenment?! Dark energon makes him a conduit of Unicron, he doesn't need written instructions for figuring it out, all he needs is the power it provides to amplify what he already has.
And if he receives it, the space bridge will be the least of our concerns. Or he might decide to attempt controlling it, either succeeding and turning it into his personal revenge role call, or destroying it completely leaving us all stranded here.
no subject
[shuttering his optics, he frowns.]
What can he do with the powers of Unicron? Such things were non-existent in my own reality, and thus far all I've seen him do is be an aggressive waste of life.
no subject
Unicron's power allowed him to reanimate the dead of our planet, to control them. To forge a weapon capable of destroying the Star Saber. To bring his own frame back from death itself.
no subject
no subject
[ Starscream's optics narrow at the question, expecting mockery, expecting a ploy, expecting all the things he's come to anticipate from... well, a Megatron. It is why he and Ravage do not casually discuss Megatrons, because she likes some of then but Starscream does not see them as redeemable people. There will never not be suspicion there, and that perhaps is the answer Runt is looking for. ]
Why, so you can have it undone? I didn't go mad and murder all my Seekers, if that's what you're asking.
no subject
[megatron falls silent for a moment.]
There may be some hope. It was damaged on the inside and heavily drained of power. I still have the power I got from it, and I don't think he'll be able to duplicate that without multiverse engines.
[he rubs a hand over his face.]
Is Dark Energon finite? He will likely be able to create more with it and spread the effects far quicker.
no subject
In my universe it was incredibly rare. After three years, Megatron returned with a single large chunk of it, and much of that was used to launch through the space bridge at Cybertron. But once refined, it is capable of contaminating regular energon. Knock Out may be able to better explain that process, but his "loyalty" is questionable at best, so I would not trust him to keep things secretive. I know Megatron has at least one sizeable shard of it, or he did. But also in refined form, it's what he used to kill that human, and to poison the meek Prime. I don't think we have any way of knowing how much, if any, exists in this universe.
[ Starscream doesn't feel like he's going to get anything else about the Matrix, so he sees little reason to continue here. His tone is flat, no real gratitude, but at least not so antagonistic. ]
Thank you for the information about the Matrix.
no subject
[he turns back to what he was working on, expression grim.]
Too many of these variables depend on what exists in this universe. Perhaps there's a Matrix from the fallen Prime somewhere? An AllSpark and Vector Sigma laying around in Cybertron's core? If he follows the same pattern, he'll probably want to use it to find Unicron. Yet, for all we know, we're in a universe where Unicron and Primus' roles were reversed! Whatever he does with it is my...
[megatron shakes his head, cutting off that line of thought.]
I still have the connection to the Matrix with this power. If I sense anything then... we can talk further.
no subject
Very well.