▸ Column · The Decepticon dominion at the height of Megatron's power — a subject's petition answered by the tyrant who was once a gladiator-philosopher.
MEGATRON replies.
Replied to by Megatron, with a rebuttal from Optimus Prime.
The letter
A subject of the Decepticon dominion petitions Lord Megatron: "My quarters have long been ruled by a beast — a turbofox I call Brigadier Fluffsworth — and for three cycles I yielded the throne to him without complaint. Then I took a mate, Marcus, and the Brigadier declared war. He has fouled Marcus's grooming-tools, pinned him to the berth at recharge until he wakes gasping, and last decacycle shredded an entire sleeve of his finest garment while holding my gaze the whole time, unblinking. Marcus endures it nobly, but I caught him in the small hours searching the archives for whether a beast can hold a grudge forever, and the answer comforted neither of us. I love them both. I no longer know whether I am a companion or a hostage negotiator. Is there any ceasefire that does not end with one of them gone?"
Megatron replies
You write to me of a ceasefire. There will be none — and your confusion over whether you are a companion or a hostage negotiator is the only honest line in your letter. Keep it. Now let us strip this to its bones. You did not respect the Brigadier's rule for three cycles. You submitted to it, and called the submission respect because the word let you feel gracious instead of conquered. The beast knows the difference. Beasts always do.
Understand what he actually is. Not a jealous creature nursing a grudge — grudges are sentiment, and sentiment is for the weak. This is statecraft. He has correctly identified Marcus as a rival claimant to a throne he holds, and he wages a flawless campaign of attrition while watching your face to learn whose side you will take. Your divided loyalty is the open flank, and he is reading it perfectly.
I respect him more than I respect your Marcus, who answers conquest with "patience" and searches the archives at night. Patience is what the losing party calls waiting. Power does not split itself to be kind. Decide who rules your quarters, declare it, and stop offering yourself as neutral ground. You are not neutral. You are the prize. I will not tell you to harm the creature — only to stop pretending you are not already at war.
— Megatron
Optimus Prime weighs in
Megatron sees a throne in a frightened animal because a throne is all he has left to see with. Hear another reading. Your Brigadier is not waging a campaign — he is afraid. For three cycles that small space was the one place a creature powerless everywhere else felt safe, and now he senses he is being replaced, and he fights the only way he knows. The answer is not to crown a victor. It is to show him, slowly, that Marcus costs him nothing — his own perch kept, time enough to learn he is not abandoned. No one in that home is expendable. Not even the cat. Make room. It is slower than a verdict. It is also the only road where you lose no one.
— Optimus Prime
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