[dreams virus - video]
Tieria's working, as he always seems to be, even in dreams. Minding his own business, carefully calculating his way through piles of problems. It is hard work, but it is peaceful.
At least, the dream is peaceful until the ceiling disappears, the roof ripped off by some immense force, plaster dust and rafter fragments raining down onto Tieria's upturned face. Somebody is thrown from above, landing on him, and it's only when he pulls himself from underneath the person and rolls them over that Tieria can see it's Motoko, his beloved sister and twin. She is entirely unconscious, and for some reason, Tieria's overcome by the urge to check her head for bullet wounds. He looks up to see what threw her, and--
--and--
--it doesn't make sense. He's used to seeing enormous robots, be they mobile suits or Cybertronians, but he's never seen this one before. Not in the flesh, to pardon a clumsy and inaccurate phrase. He has seen it in files and pictures before, however, both in the work he quietly assists with at the Autobot base, and throughout his father's databanks. Yes, this is a face his father knows well, a face and form that saturates those databanks.
"Megatron," he breathes, but even saying the name doesn't seem to help the situation make sense. Why would he be here, and why does he have Motoko? He can't be here for Blackout, because Blackout is at home with Eros. This isn't somewhere he should be.
"THAT'S LORD MEGATRON TO YOU, INSECT," the face above him says, a face that has no right to label somebody else an insect.
And suddenly, Tieria thinks he might know why that monster's here, and it's a thought that fills him full of sick dread.
He'd had a conversation with his father, once, when he'd mentioned helping the Autobots. Of course, it would have been madness to mention such a thing to the Blackout of old, but that had been long before Tieria and Motoko had even been created. He would have snapped Tieria's neck like a twig for even mentioning the enemies of the great Lord Megatron in a less than negative light. But Blackout had looked sad all the same, as if the last little piece of Decepticon loyalty in his spark had made him feel betrayed by his own creation.
"You'll always be a Decepticon, because I made you," he'd said, a little doubtfully. "Some say it is a matter of choice, but..." And the words trailed off. Less a conversation, and more of a warning, perhaps. And this is what he was warning of.
Megatron is here to take them both back.
"You're not my lord," he screams, "because I'm not a Decepticon! I'm not! I'm not an Autobot either, we're not even Cybertronians!" And he's clinging to his broken sister, both to protect her and to try and wake her up, because she's always been the stronger one, and she might be able to protect him...
And then the world explodes in pain and light, and Tieria's knocked flying, but all he can think is
oh no, I think my glasses are broken
before realizing that he's half-upside-down against a wall and his chin is digging into his chest and he can barely breathe and his vision is full of red and it hurts
"YOU'RE WRONG," says the voice that speaks with all the softness of a car crash, "LOOK AT YOURSELF."
A piece of mirrored glass is dropped where he can see it, and even though it smashes into several little pieces, Tieria can see where the flesh of his face has been torn away, showing lines of bright silver underneath the mess of crimson.
All that escapes his throat in reply is a hoarse scream.
[OOC: Remember the family virus, and bizarre AU circumstances around this particular little family? This is what Tieria's dreaming about.]