#found out sg megs had a conjunx endura named titania

[radioactivepeasant]

Fic Prompts: Transformers Tuesday

(Based on something I recently learned was planned for Shattered Glass Megatron's backstory. This goes with my other two Shattered Glass Prime prompts)

The base had been much too quiet since the return from the earth's core. Optimus was gone. Gone. Megatron had somehow convinced him that he was still Orion Pax and disappeared with him. Primus only knew what was happening to their leader now.

The other Megatron had avoided the Autobots for a few days. They would not have said so, but it was appreciated. The only one who seemed to have no misgivings about the "good guy Megatron" was Miko.

Arcee found them on the top of the mesa one night, watching the skies. Megatron was telling some kind of story while Miko clambered around his shoulders as though the giant Decepticon was her personal playground. The only time he moved was to shift his limbs and armor in order to provide better handholds for the girl. It was this, rather than anything he'd said, that made Arcee believe he was telling the truth. Megatron was clearly well-accustomed to interacting with young humans.

"Titania managed to drive away the Driller with some mining grenades we were supposed to be loading, but without the presence of a predator, the spider-bot population around the docks increased exponentially," the mech was saying as Arcee approached. He chuckled. "But I'll tell you what, Damos never left his energon rations outside again!"

Miko laughed. "Poor guy! Tell me another one, Tronus!"

Arcee frowned. "Tronus?"

Megatron's plating hitched slightly. "That was my name before the War," he explained. "I just...thought it might be easier for everyone if you didn't have to call me the same name as, you know, the other one."

Arcee shrugged. "Makes as much sense as anything else around here, I guess," she sighed.

Unexpectedly, she took a seat next to Megatron -- Tronus -- and glanced up at him. "So whose Titania?"

The electromagnetic field projecting from Tronus's spark was tinged with a bittersweet nostalgia. It was familiar enough that Arcee regretted asking.

"She..." Tronus faltered. "She was -- perhaps still is -- my conjunx endura."

Unaware of the emotions being subtly broadcast, Miko slid down Tronus's pauldron to lean against his head. "What's a con-junk endura?"

"Miko!" Arcee hissed, chagrined.

Tronus waved her off. "It's alright, it doesn't translate perfectly into most human languages. And she's translating it into two languages at once!"

He smiled down at Miko. "Latin-based languages can be a little convoluted to my mind. But that was the closest thing to the actual Cyberytonian word I could find. See if you can't work out the meaning by taking it apart. Con-junx en-dur-a."

Miko flopped dramatically down. "Homework? At this hour?" she joked, then she closed her eyes to think. "It...kinda sounds like "conjoined"...and some weird version of "endurance"?"

"Very good!" Tronus nodded, careful not to dislodge the girl. "It's essentially the concept of two who are forever joined together."

Miko ticked out a few fingers, clearly in the middle of some kind of thought process. Then she squinted. "So...you're either married, or you're a Combiner?"

Tronus laughed. "Well that's...yes, more or less, that's the simplified version."

"Megatron is married. Who'd have thought?" Miko laughed. "So where is she? Back with your team?"

Tronus sobered abruptly. "I...the last time I saw her, she and Damos and I were being shot down by an Autobot who wanted to test a new gun."

He closed his optics, and his servos scratched deep furrows into the rock. "I woke deep underground, in the midst of being reformatted to save my life. I never saw Titania again."

Miko stopped laughing. She pulled her knees to her chest and tentatively reached out to place a hand against Tronus's face. "Dude. That's horrible," she murmured. "Do you think maybe she got re-whatchamacallit too?"

"I don't know. It is unlikely," Tronus sighed, "But...I hope."

Before anything else could be said, the big mech pasted on a smile and carefully plucked Miko from his shoulder.

"Alright now, little one," he said teasingly, "Time you went to recharge."

"Nooo! I don't wanna!" Miko groaned, "C'mon, one more story? Pleeeease?"

Tronus almost stuck to his guns. Almost. Arcee could see the exact moment he crumbled.

"Ohhhh alright, one more story," he huffed.

Great. Now Miko had another pushover to ask when Ratchet told her no. Arcee hoped that wouldn't end badly.