Being grounded in the middle of nowhere was… inconvienient.

During the last battle, one of the Autobot snipers got a lucky hit directly on Megatron’s Anti-Grav unit which caused him to fall out of the sky into a large forest. He flattened several trees, causing whatever wildlife was nearby to scuttle away.

By the time he came to, his forces were gone and he was covered in a layer of snow. His comm units were out of range, so he had to make the journey back to base on foot. He growled to himself, frustrated. He could feel Starscream trying to wrestle leadership away from him, even though he’s barely been gone a day.

At least this time Soundwave was named successor and not Megatron, it would take Starscream at least over a week before he could assassinate him effectively.

However, Megatron was not unused to inconveniences. He was in the Cybertronian military for centuries, living in barracks and doing drills every day, and during his time as a Gladiator he barely had any more luxuries.

Even during this war specifically, they lived in a humid underwater base which was constantly either moldy or infested with rats.

So he trudged on through the woods, eventually switching to tank mode to use the dirt roads.

Megatron came to an abrupt halt when a squishy popped out of nowhere, dressed in thick clothing which was meant to keep it warm. It looked up at him with inquisitive brown eyes, over his extremely out of place alt mode.

“Are you one of those robots?” The man asked eventually, and Megatron sighed as he prepared for their screams.

“Oh that’s so cool! I thought they only turned into cars and whatnot!” It exclaimed suddenly, running up and giving his alt mode a closer inspection. Megatron was shocked, and decided to transform. The man backed away as he did so, making awed sounds at him even as his Decepticon brand was revealed.

Did this squishy seriously not realize who he was?

“I’ve never seen one of you up close!” He said, before shaking his head. “Nevermind… hey can you help me?” He asked, and Megatron realized that yes, this man was clueless to who he was and even what his brand meant.

Megatron had assumed every human on this planet must know about the Decepticon brand, as they were a direct threat to the inhabitants of this world by taking their energy sources from them. It was something Megatron did not revel in, but it was necessary to allow Cybertron to continue living.

But it seemed… maybe not everyone was aware of what his brand meant.

Megatron wasn’t sure if it was the weather freezing his logic circuits or if he just wanted a break, but he said “Alright.”

The human beamed at him, pointing back from where he came. “Cool! It’s just this way, the back road should allow you to get here without too much issue.”

Megatron looked to see that there was, in fact, a beaten in road which the human had come down and not from just out of the woods like he thought. He really needed to replace his sensors in alt mode, they were getting worse.

The warlord followed the human, who chatted along the way about why he came out, to get fire wood when he heard Megatron’s tank treads, and the local holiday known as ‘Chrismas’ coming up. “I guess you wouldn’t know about it, huh? Being an alien and all.” He laughed.

“We celebrate the winter solstice, we would usually have a large feast.” Megatron answered.

“Huh, not that far off from our Christmas dinner then! We also exchange presents and spend time with family during this holiday here!” He said. “Though many people celebrate differently, and some not at all. My friend in town is going to be having a movie marathon with his son during the day off instead of anything too special.”

The man kept babbling and Megatron followed along, trying to tell himself that he wasn’t intrugied by this man’s seemingly average life. They came upon a town soon enough, with a large tree out to the side of a house covered in lights. The tree itself was only lit up at the bottom, as it’s large size was obviously a challenge.

“Daddy!” A small femme, or a girl as Megatron’s human database supplied, ran up to the man. “There’s my little angel!” He proclaimed, spinning her around in the spot as she laughed heartily.

Megatron’s fuel tank sunk as he realized that this girl was the man’s creation, his sparkling, and felt a warm joy in his chest that he didn’t just squish the poor man. No creation deserved to loose their creators, especially earth ones as they take the role of both progenitors and their mentors.

He… was always weak when it came to sparklings it seems, even alien ones.

“Hey there!” The man called up again, jostling Megatron out of his thoughts. He pointed towards the tree, “Could you give us a hand please?” He asked politely, and Megatron shyly pointed towards himself, before agreeing with a nod.

It was a bit of a hassle, he had to wrestle with the finnicky and delicate chords of lights as they tended to tangle and wanted to fall off. But he eventually managed to wrap the lights around all the way to the top, and took the large star decoration from the other creator, a femme, and placed it on top.

The family beamed at him from below, and that warm feeling grew.

He smiled, a small thing that made his facial plates creak from misuse, and bent down slowly. He offered his hand to them, “Climb on.” He rumbled, and the family hesitantly climbed on.

He lifted them upwards slowly, and deposited them on his chest plate next to his head before backing up. They gave awed noises at the view, and he looked over their town.

It was lit up, in green and red and white, with decorations around their homes and people buzzing around in the darkness of the winter evening. They seemingly did not mind him, and Megatron wondered if most humans even knew the difference between a Decepticon and an Autobot – barring those who had to go through Decepticon raids.

Megatron allowed himself to forget his duties though, just for an evening. The happy squishy family talked to him from their spot, admiring the view of their small town idyllic enough for a holo vid.

Megatron allowed this one moment to feel happy, before he continued his journey back to his home.

He’s sure Soundwave can keep things together for one more day.