(no subject)

Title: it's a long way down: file 1: the games we play

Fandom: Transformers Prime

Summary: Mirrorverse AU. Orion Pax falls. Optimus Prime rises. [a collection of stories]

A/N: Also like a Mirrorverse of my fic 'The Orion Pax Files' at

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8104041/1/The-Orion-Pax-Files. Mainly that this Mirror!Orion also started as lower caste dock worker, and schemed and worked hard to covertly join the higher castes.

Disclaimer: I own nothing related to Transformers Prime.

Megatronus' armor was thick in other ways. He now barely noticed slights to his person from other higher castes when visiting Orion in the archives, though deep down he still detested them.

Orion also continued to become incensed on his behalf, and Megatronus remembered how closely he guarded his secret, his origin among the lower caste dock workers. The gladiator had tried to calm his friend with a careless shrug. "It's amusing, on some level, observing all the time and effort they waste over this, isn't it?"

Orion made no comment, but he seemed appeased, and Megatronus thought he was all right.

But on one visit Megatronus noticed that some of those who snubbed him ignored him--not out of misplaced caste prejudice, but in favor of arguing with another who he vaguely remembered had also sneered at him in the past. Megatronus would've put it out of mind if he hadn't seen a veritable chain of arguments burst out, infecting each person and the next.

It was all very strange, thought Megatronus. When he found Orion, he asked him what happened, knowing how Orion liked to keep up to date on everything in the Iacon records.

Orion had lightly chuckled at that, and gently drew Megatronus closer into a particularly secluded sector of the archives, one of their favorite places. "Oh, that--I simply let slip to Dizon where Dicast had been, and he found him with Altrixt." Orion began to count off his digits. "And I might've given Pentecoast and Literadice the idea that each wanted the other's jobs. I probably spoke too loudly when telling another coworker how Hantizer kept abandoning his post to gamble at one of the lower halls, but I truly was at my wit's end, and I really had no idea Hantizer's supervisor was right behind me the whole time."

Megatronus blinked. "Orion, you did this?"

His friend chuckled again. "Surprisingly easy to set them up against each other, isn't it?"

"But why?"

Orion tilted his head. "They've all slighted you. Me as well, even accidentally."

"I remember Dizon and Altrixt had, but all of them--?"

"Yes, I assure you, that was--well, half of them. I haven't gotten to the rest yet, but in due time." Orion misunderstood Megatronus' look. "I see them all the time, much more than you have--it makes sense that you wouldn't remember them all."

When Megatronus wasn't ignoring them, he knew that he disliked the high castes that unthinkingly scorned him. Still.... "It just seems...unnecessary, Orion," Megatronus said, his voice carefully slow, his optics searching his friend's face.

A lazy smirk spread there, making Orion's optics glow. He turned away for a moment, giving a flippant wave.

"At least I'm not cutting off their heads for this."

Megatronus flinched at that, and Orion startled, his lazy amusement dropped.

"I apologize, Megatronus."

The gladiator shook his head. "It is nothing." Megatronus did dislike them, too. He truly did. Hated the entire caste system. And he was not above revenge, particularly a bloodless sort. "And I suppose you are right--a little in-fighting like this isn't going to severely harm anyone."

The next time Megatronus visited, he learned that two had been disgraced and fired. One of those two had terminated himself in despair.

Orion was shaken, and Megatronus did his best to soothe him. It had gotten out of hand, yes. He hadn't meant it, of course he hadn't.

And yet there was something about Orion, Megatronus wondered--but no, he trusted Orion. Believed in him. It just had been a mistake. It wasn't really his fault, other factors had overtaken the situation and threw it off a veritable cliff. Megatronus should've persuaded Orion to stop. But Orion would never do such a thing consciously.

But Megatron, leader of the Decepticons, would look back. And he would regret.

A/N: I apparently having a thing for creepy manipulative Mirrorverse!Orion/Optimus. Though I hoped to get across that Orion at this point isn't too far gone as he is as Optimus--but he's on the way. There's supposed to be a sorta innocence here, actually--but really twisted. Like, only innocent in that Orion isn't really getting what's wrong with this, and he is actually thinking of his friend Megatronus a lot when doing this. And he actually is shaken on some level when things get out of hand--but it also really just sinks in for him how he can manipulate others that way, what power he can wield.... And Mirrorverse!Megatronus--well, younger and really cares for Orion, believes in him. Affection sorta blinds him, or gives him excuses for Orion, or makes him think this can be dealt with in time. And younger--well, Megatronus is in a way more vicious at that point in time. Bitter enough to not really mind some harm against the caste system in any way, 'do evil unto evil'--but comes to regret that when he believes that getting carried away with that helped cause Orion's corruption, and Megatron comes out of that gentler/less vicious in a way. But Megatron(us) gets massively disillusioned and more wary and even somewhat paranoid after Orion/Optimus snaps.