Minific: Overseer

[stainless]

Title: Overseer
Characters: Megatron and Shockwave
Verse: G1
Wordcount: 540+
Rating: K
Warnings: Nothing, really.
Summary: Minific for the comment fic party over at crimson_optics (come join us! Yes, you!)

For the prompt "Megatron/Shockwave - patience." The rumor among the Decepticons is that Megatron left Shockwave on Cybertron to get him out of the way. The truth is very different.

The others supposed he had left Shockwave behind because he deemed Shockwave a liability. They hid their rumor-spreading well, but Megatron would never have held on to leadership for thousands of vorns if he didn't have spies that were both loyal and clever.

Some Decepticons subscribed to elaborately detailed conspiracy theories about Shockwave devising a plot to overthrow him. Supposedly, Shockwave's relentlessly logical processor had reasoned that Megatron, driven by passion for conquest, made a poorer leader than Shockwave himself would. Once he had deposed Megatron, Shockwave would rule without petty emotion to distract him.

Most of those who gossiped about why Megatron left Shockwave behind believed more prosaic little stories. The most ridiculous of these was that Shockwave had such poor aim he was more likely to hit a fellow Decepticon than their Autobot enemies.

At bottom, though, all of the rumors were about the same thing: that he had appointed Shockwave guardian of Cybertron not because it was an honor to be left in charge of an entire planet, but because it kept Shockwave away from the rest of the Decepticons.

It was all nonsense, of course. He'd left Shockwave in charge because the conspiracy theorists were right about one thing: Shockwave was logical. Their planet had been ravaged by war for an entire generation; chaos reigned. Shockwave, his reasoning as dispassionate as it was unbending, was the perfect one to slip in and replace that discord with the order that Megatron wanted.

Quietly. Calmly. Efficiently.

There were, of course, Autobot holdouts, rebels who raided the fuel stores that the Decepticons had carefully stockpiled. And a few enemy outposts still dotted the planet, many in or near the remains of the greatest Autobot cities. Cybertron was not yet fully under Decepticon control. It wouldn't be until Megatron and the others returned to scour it clean of all resistance.

But many who had resisted Decepticon control had given in out of exhaustion, starvation, or internal strife within the rebellion's small cells. Without Megatron there to battle or to rage against, it was more difficult to keep the flame of defiance ignited.

Endless war bred a deep need for structured lives, even if that structure came from their most hated enemies. And Shockwave was the perfect administrator to provide it. He was loyal to his cause, but he was not animated by emotions like rage or hatred. The peace they earned through surrender was neither merciful nor pleasant... but it did restore the calm in their lives. Megatron had long ago predicted that some would make that trade, and by now Shockwave's reign was all many could remember.

That was unexpected. The Decepticons who had left were only supposed to have been away on a brief mission to find and harvest energy. But their long absence had only given Shockwave more time to patiently secure ever tighter control.

Megatron smiled. The others could think he'd tossed aside someone who wasn't worthy of him. It hardly mattered. Cybertron had long since learned the truth. As for Shockwave himself...

...only those who could not see beyond the obvious needed obvious rewards.