The pair flew through Robotropolis with Megatron firing at Eggman. “Like the new look, Doctor? Wings become me, no?” Eggman still kept trying to get away. Megatron kept up the pace. “Tell me, has flying always been this easy or are you just incompetent at that?” Eggman fired missiles to try and deflect his tormentor. No dice. Megatron simply took the brunt of it and flew undeterred. “As heartening as it is to see the spring in your step once more, Doctor, it is only fitting that I warn you that your attempts to evade me will fare no better than your attempt to lead the Decepticons.” Eggman fired again and ducked into the sewer systems. “Ah, it’s a tour of your domain, is it? A hollow pipe for an empty leader!” Eggman then targeted his missiles at the walls and collapsed the pipe they were flying in. He stopped to see the smoke.
“…Megatron?” he asked. He then heard the shifting of metal and the whirring of a t-cog, serving as a split-second warning of Megatron’s robot mode.
“ROBOTNIK!” He grabbed Eggman and blasted a hole into the ceiling, returning the pair of them topside. “And that, as they say, is that!” He threw Eggman to the ground. Eggman bounced a few times before stopping by a building. Megatron transformed to alt-mode and his holo-form landed before grabbing Eggman and slamming him into the building. “What were you thinking, Doctor?! Walk me through your thought process here; what did you think was going to be the end result of you opening fire on my holo-form?! Look at me! I’m Megatron! Even as I rusted in the sands of Shamar while you galivanted and canoodled with Morgane Le Fay, you could not vanquish me! What hope do you have now?!”
“Hope?” groaned Eggman. “Hope took a walk a long time ago.”
“NO! This is not you, Doctor! I don’t expect a backbone, but I expect some form of self-preservation! You really want to die right now?!”
“…Yes.”
“You want me to end all this?!”
“Yes!”
“…Well, think back on the last thing you really wanted, and remember what an utter failure that was!” Eggman then punched Megatron to try and get away, but Megatron continued his pursuit. “If you truly sought release, you would have stood your ground after emptying your gun into my holo-form! You don’t seek oblivion, you seek punishment! I rarely like to help others; I see it as a character flaw. But, in your case, Dr Eggman, let me be of service!” Megatron then started slamming his fists into Eggman’s body. “You look like him! You move like him! When my blows strike you, your flesh reverberates the way his does! …But you are NOT Dr. Eggman! You can’t be! Eggman could talk himself out of anything! You aren’t even talking yourself out of this beating! As pathetic as he was, you’re a mere shadow of what I expected! Every blow I bring down comes from a place of pity, you wretch!” Eggman then did something that surprised Megatron, he grabbed his tormentor’s fist!
“Talk, you insignificant pile of scrap?!” Eggman then decked Megatron’s holo-form right into his alt-mode and knocked him out of the sky! Megatron transformed to land, only for Eggman to deck his face and suffer no ill effects. “TALK?!” roared Eggman. “Is that really what you want?! Or do you want me to merely beg for forgiveness?!”
“Is it my forgiveness you seek, Doctor? Is it me who you’ve let down?!”
“You clearly don’t understand! I doubt I even WANT you to!” Eggman tore off his glasses and revealed his eyes, blazing with every single emotion that fell under the umbrella of anger. Like the Erazor Djinn, his eyes were red with black sclera, clearly cybernetic enhancements.
“Understand what?!” demanded Megatron.
“The Roulette of Trust, that’s what!” Megatron stopped.
“I’m…sorry?” He was genuinely confused at Eggman’s statement.
“The Roulette of Trust! Come on, Megatron! Your whole faction wears deception as a badge of honor like I do! You backstab me, then I backstab you! One of us will prove the other’s superior somehow! We both know the Decepticons are beneath us! We lie to them to keep them beneath us, otherwise our life’s work would be undone! You never knew what it was like to see everything crumble around you!”
“…You think THAT is why I lie?” Megatron took a purposeful step forward. “You think I don’t know what it’s like to see my work undone?!” He took another step, punctuating each sentence with a step. “You lie to keep everyone a slave, I lie to free them! I lie to implant ideology! I build up the ideology! I liberate cities! I topple corrupt civilizations! It took a millennium for me! Then I slumber for one! Measly! Year! And when I wake up, THIS Is all that is left! So, say it again, Eggman! Say that I don’t know what it’s like to see my life’s work undone and made a mockery of!” Eggman was about to wet himself. “You and I have one thing in common, Doctor; the person responsible for leaving our lives in tatters…is you.”
“So, go on! End the Roulette of Trust if you hate it so much!”
“…No. Here’s why I keep you around, Doctor: your bullying of underlings and identifying with your equals, it makes you a more competent member of my inner circle than Starscream ever was. Your actions keep those below you, and, subsequently, me, in check. Your venomous aspirations make you a model Decepticon, even more so, given the life-span disparity between humans and Cybertronians. You are the type of deviant that will ensure our ultimate victory. But it is the thought of you in charge that keeps me alert. You see, even when I was an Autobot, leadership was never something I feared losing, but the reasons for my staying in charge have changed over the years. When I was an Autobot, it was simply because no one else was available. When I first became a Decepticon, it was because I needed to prove something to the whole faction. Now? Well, now, leadership is something I fear you gaining. Oh yes, that IS a fear of mine. So, in the moments that my all-consuming destiny lie ahead of me, you remind me of the need to watch my back. THAT is your importance to me, Eggman. …But that is in the past!” Megatron charged up a shot from his left fusion cannon. “So, let it be known that if our resources were not critical, our numbers not low, and our troops not outgunned…I would atomize you!” He fired his shot into a pile of scrap.
“Th-Thank…” Eggman’s thanks were interrupted by another bark from Megatron.
“DON’T thank me! It’s your own incompetence and poor judgement that’s saved you today! Instead, Doctor, repay me! The all-consuming self-hatred you’re feeling? Use it against our enemies! Tired of the bone-deep chill of losing, Eggman? Then stand with me, for right now has never been a better time to be a Decepticon!”
“…Yes, Lord Megatron.”
“Oh, and, Doctor, I expect the Roulette of Trust to continue, for you ARE right. We DO stab each other in the back constantly. There will come a time where it ends, but I’d prefer to stave that off until the Autobots and Sonic are defeated. Agreed?” Megatron held out a hand to offer a handshake. Eggman stared at the hand, then grinned before grabbing it. The two then shook hands.
“I say, let the games begin!” declared Eggman.
“I thought so!” Megatron then broke off the handshake and turned to see the crowd of Decepticons coming out from behind the cover they used to keep themselves out of the blast radius of Megatron’s beating. “You hear me, my Decepticons?!” he called. “Vengeance will be ours! We have taken care of an internal threat, but there is still the threat of the Autobots! They sit there, in their cozy base, ready to ghettoize us! How small, how ARROGANT, for them to not recognize what oppression does to warriors like you and me! Have they forgotten that it was from under their boots that the first Decepticons, then called the Ascenticons, rose to confront them in the first place?! The time for recriminations is over! You are needed, all of you, no matter how injured or infirm you are! You have no Energon? Let hate be your fuel! Blinded? Let your anger light your way! Crippled? Your bitterness will carry you to victory! Diseased? Rage will cure you! Scattered no longer, we come together, Decepticons! Banded and bonded with retribution and vengeance for all!”
“ALL HAIL MEGATRON!” cheered Thundercracker.
“ALL HAIL MEGATRON!” Shockwave joined him.
“ALL HAIL MEGATRON!” Frenzy, Rumble, and Ravage followed suit. Soon, all of Robotropolis was echoing with the phrase “All hail Megatron”!