Parting Ways

++ Lobby <BOT HQ> ++

A massive entrance plaza with steps leading upwards to the main floor opens
into the lobby of Autobot Headquarters. Silvers, reds and blues provide the
major color scheme, with bright but comfortable lighting; video screens
against the walls near the ceiling are lit up with displays of current news
and information for those that live, work and visit here. To the east are
the meeting facilities, where press conferences and internal assembles are
held, while the dispatch room to the west keeps up with security and and
handles incoming and outgoing emergencies calls. Comfortable seating in the
lobby is arranged neatly behind the desk, where the facilities divide into
stairways leading up and down, and directly behind, into the primary
hallway of the ground floor.

Contents:
Megatron

Exits:
N [Main Hallway]                       W [Dispatch Center]
E [Meeting Facilities]                 U [Ready Room]
D [Brig]                               O [Autobot Headquarters]

Not everyone gets a private audience with the new ruler of Cybertron. Fewer still get a summons for that to be had.

Megatron will be found in the Autobot base, having moved himself into those headquarters to make them his own. Restless, perhaps, he has taken to pacing the hallways. There is much that troubles Megatron these days and one of those things he wishes to address with his summons of the brawler medic he once knew in the pits so many years ago.

Torque only lingered in the former Autobot headquarters in order to clear out her stuff, having no interest in hanging around now that Megatron was looming over everything. But it would come as a surprise when she recieved a summons from him. In fact, it made her awfully suspicious, but.. she may as well see what he wants before she leaves for good.

Arriving where she was directed, Torque spies the Decepticon leader pacing the hall in thought, a sight that brings a curious, if slightly worried look to her face. "..You wanted to speak to me, Megatron?" She speaks up, remaining a ways away from him for now.

Megatron looks up as he comes to a halt in his step. He nods to see her. Not a smile, nor a frown. His fusion cannon is on his arm, though they are behind him, his hands clasped together. The last time he saw her, directly, they were in the pit and now... how much has changed? He stalks towards her, coming to stand before the much smaller bot. Looming.

"I fear I made a mistake," he begins. "Long ago I fought without need for a reason. It was survival. It was pride. Before the Decepticons, I didn't stop to learn why others fought. I should have done so. You had no need to step into a pit other than for your own needs. I had not considered that before."

Things really have changed.. He looks so much different now, no longer the dented miner she onces knew. But honestly, Torque has changed as well, having grown more sure of herself. Even now she doesn't move an inch at his approach, standing firm beneath his shadow and staring up.

"Why.. are you telling me this now?" She questions, amber optics narrowing slightly. "It's a little late to admit mistakes, Megatron. Especially now that you've dragged so many into this war."

"It is not war. Yet." at least not openly, not that he can or would admit to. "If need be, everyone one of us shall be dragged into it. You might fault only me, but so be it. Mark me a target if you must, But I assure you I am not the only one that shall demand the sacrifice of others for the sake of our future. But that.. that is not why I wanted to see you." Megatron shakes his head. She should understand him. She should of joined him, yet she never will.

"What you are willing to die for now, is it different than when you stepping into the pits? What you fought for then, have you not already proven that point? Have those goals not already been achieved? Have \*I\* not achieved them? You are a medic yet choose to be a soldier. There is no need to fight yet you.... would fight me right now if I provoked you."

Torque can't help but avert her gaze a moment, looking pensive and unsure. "Fighting in the pits.. I didn't know what I wanted then. I don't think I even had a goal to reach for. I.. I was just trying to feel something, I guess, as I lived day to day."

Looking back, her optics meet his and she squares her shoulders. "And medic or not, now I have the opportunity to actively make a difference. But you're damn right I'd fight you. I just.." Her jaw clenches and fists ball, visibly shaking a little. "I've just wanted to /punch you/ ever since the incident with Clench. You spun my words around and.. and you killed so many people! We could've stopped it another way!"

"Mine was not a search for understanding but rather ... expression. I had a lot I needed others to be aware of, I suppose." He says that easily enough.

When Torque asserts herself, Megatron stands... still. He's quiet for a moment but then says, quietly, "Try as we might, some things cannot be denied. Delayed perhaps, but denied? Clench was vile to his spark, in every way. If it had not been me then it would have been another. Perhaps even you," he suggests. "You could have punched me, and I could have ended you where you stood." Just as he could now. "Some things come to us day by day, others when the moment is right. What matters, I suppose, is what we do next."

Torque knows she wouldn't have lasted in the ring with Clench. She would have died a martyr then and there. And yes, Clench was evil through and through and it's good that he's dead, but.. Megatron chose to herald her words as the voice of his movement, a justification of his actions. She didn't want that, to be connected to him like that, and still doesn't.

"Well I know what I'm doing next. I'm leaving." The medic says firmly, not swayed by his mention of easily ending her should she act against him. "I only helped the Decepticons because we had a common enemy. But now that he's dead.. I have no more reason to stay if you're going to continue on this path." Hesitating, she frowns. "I believed in you once, you know. Believed in your ideas of a better world that you spoke of whenever I repaired you. But.. the way you're trying to get it is a way I can never be a part of."

"I once believed in you as well, Torque. That you had the strength to know that things had to change, that they need to change still. That nothing can come from compromise. I once knew you as a not that didn't back down, from anybot." Megatron stands still before her... before he no longer does. He steps aside for her to pass, if she really is leaving. She may claim his way has changed but he doesn't stand in the way of her making her own. Way that is.

"I look forward to you not backing down again when next we meet, whatever battlefield that shall be. I look forward to the challenge."

In a way it hurts to be against Megatron. Torque truly wanted him to succeed back in the day, before all this happened. His ideals were sound and he was one to be respected. He still is, but.. those ideals are being strived for in a way she never imagined. "..I never would have imagined I'd ever fight you. Be it in the arena or even now. But you're right.. I'm not the type to back down."

He then steps aside for her and she glances sidelong up at him, that frown still lingering, though she tries to stay strong. "So if I have to be against you, then so be it. I'll meet you head on in the field. I won't hold back, that much I promise. But until then.. Goodbye, Megatron." Looking back ahead, Torque moves off down the hall, back to her quarters to get the rest of her things. Honestly, she's surprised Megatron didn't decide to toss her in the brig then and there. For that she can at least by thankful, but she obviously won't linger and take the pardon for granted.

Megatron watches Torque go. Why lock her a way when he can grant her the honor of death beneath his boot. She may not be the one to stop him, yet maybe... he thinks not, but he is anxious to find out. The time of telling shall come soon enough.