A Mere Morsel
Read it on AO3 here!
Lila had driven for half an hour to get here, but looking out at the cliffs, even with the dark skies above leaving only what dim light could peek through to illuminate the scene before her, she knew it had been worth it. The view was beautiful, layers of rock built up in varying shades of pale yellow and rich brown, and she took out her drawing tablet to try and capture the sight before her.
As her stylus began to glide across the tablet, though, a strange sound caught her attention, a roaring engine drawing closer and closer. As she looked up from the screen, something whizzed past her, heading towards the edge of the cliff.
She hardly had time to process the sight of the strangest aircraft she’d ever seen, an elegant, silver thing with curved, pointed edges, before it began to shift, to change, pulling apart and reassembling and reshaping.
This was a dream, it had to be, but it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen, and she stared, transfixed, at the towering form that emerged from the whirl of parts. It was a humanoid robot, with a sharp grin and bright, menacing red eyes that stared down at something below. She wanted to remember this when she woke up. It would make such a beautiful artwork, the bright metal against the dark clouds, the straight-backed, confident pose, the glowing, purple crystal in one hand, she wanted to immortalize it all on a canvas.
She stepped closer, entranced, and locked eyes with them, a wide, shark-toothed grin spreading across their face as they saw her.
They launched themself towards her, clearing the distance in an instant, and grabbed her in one clawed hand, bringing her up to their eyes before she even had the chance to flinch.
“You weren’t meant to see this, human,” they growled. “But what should I do with you?”
“What- what are you?!” she yelped, leaning away from them. She tried to remind herself that this was just a dream, her breathing shaky as they peered down at her.
Their eyes narrowed. “You, little organic, can call me Lord Megatron.”
From below, in the space between the cliffs, a voice called up to them. “Let the human go, Megatron! You have nothing to gain from harming them.”
Turning her head, Lila saw two more robots- a somewhat lanky, red-and-blue one that seemed roughly the height of the one that held her, and a boxy, shorter white-and-orange one whose scowl seemed permanently affixed to his face.
Megatron only chuckled, a smirk on his lips as he clutched her in one hand, gazing down at them with cruel amusement in his eyes.
A strange sound cut through the air– a long, loud rumble– and with a dawning horror, Lila realized it was coming from his stomach.
Slowly and deliberately, he licked his lips, his eyes fixing on her.
Lila clung tight to the idea that this was a dream, desperate to escape this horrible reality, but she could feel her body bruising in his tight grip, the warm metal of his hand on her skin, and she knew, with a sudden, nauseating clarity, that this was real.
“Please,” she whimpered, trembling in his grasp, “please don’t hurt me.”
He turned his attention back to the other two robots, a glint of malice in his eyes. “I wonder,” he purred, raising his other arm with the strange, glowing crystal in hand, “if you can defeat my army in time to rescue this little morsel.”
Hurling the crystal down with enough force to crack the earth, a manic look came across his face as the ground split, jagged edges beginning to glow the same violet color. Mangled forms began to claw their way up through the rock, shambling forward with sparking wires and mechanical viscera exposed.
The two robots below stood their ground, bracing themselves to fight against the horde, but Lila had little time to watch the battle that commenced, as the one holding her faced her once more, drooling with anticipation.
His mouth was hot and slick with saliva, pulsing with a faint, purple glow, and her feeble, meaningless struggles against the hand that pressed her into it only cut her arm on the edge of one of his dagger-like teeth.
“Do try not to squirm too much in there.” His voice shook through her from somewhere in the yawning chasm of his throat. “I’d hate to have you bleed out before I could feel your wriggling in my tank.”
She froze for a moment, heart pounding against her ribs as she realized just how easily he could kill her. It would only take one bite from those powerful jaws to slice her clean in two.
That moment was all he needed to use his tongue to pin her to the roof of his mouth, grinding her against the rubbery surface as he licked at her. He hummed with delight, swallowing the drool that had pooled in his mouth, and she wondered with a rising hysteria whether the copper of her blood made her taste better to this metal giant.
“Please have mercy,” she begged again, voice high and breathless, “please, I’ll do anything, anything you want!”
“All I want,” Megatron responded, “is to devour you.”
And then he swallowed.
The ripple of his tongue pushed her into his gullet, tugging her down, down, and she screeched incoherently, words failing her as she clawed at the slippery, rolling mesh, scrabbling like an animal for something to latch onto, a foothold, something to pull herself up, anything at all that might save her.
But there was nothing to grab, the slick, slimy coating of his spit greasing every surface and making her fingers slide along anything she reached for.
Lila was dragged deeper, further, squeezed on all sides by his throat, until at last she was pressed up against a tight ring. With a final push, she was squeezed through, dropping into a more flexible space, and she heaved for breath, gasping in lungfuls of the humid air and feeling how the malleable walls stretched to accommodate her.
Her mind caught up with her, and she went very, very still as she realized where she was.
The mesh glowed a dim, soft lavender that felt entirely inappropriate for the place that she was going to meet a gory, brutal end, and somewhere below, a gurgle sounded out. As if sensing the weight of her body within, his stomach stirred to life, the walls churning and crushing in around her, pressing tight and then relaxing.
Trying to digest her.
All at once, she began to move, kicking and punching at the plush walls around her, terror chilling the very marrow of her bones. She needed to get out now, before the acid started to work on her.
But the soft mesh that surrounded her would not break, and as she pushed out, it pulled taut, refusing to let her go. She was going to be nothing more than food, a meager helping of fuel for this huge creature, and the helplessness of it all wrapped icy tendrils around her heart.
Her breaths were coming in short pants now, and she felt lightheaded, her vision blurring from the tears in her eyes.
A strange pressure came from one side, the belly walls pushing in firmly, the kneading of peristalsis joined by something outside that moved in steady circles. Megatron was rubbing his stomach.
She really was just a meal to him. The wave of blinding horror that swept through her was almost enough to make her pass out, her vision darkening at the edges. She sucked in another breath of damp air, knowing that if she passed out now, she’d never wake up.
“Please!” she shrieked, her limbs burning with fatigue as she shoved at the wall, slamming herself into the spot where his hand rested in a bid for attention, for salvation, for mercy, for him to see her as a person instead of as food. “Please, I’ll do anything, I’ll be good, I swear, I can be useful, I can, just please let me live, I don’t want to die, please!”
She could no longer find the strength to fight, her aching body laying limp in the warm, suffocating hold of his gut, and her silent tears mixed with the slime that coated her as she cried. “Please…” she whimpered one last time, soft and hopeless.
An amused hum shook the space around her. “You organics are so foolish,” Megatron drawled. “Tell me, little morsel, do you really think that my systems can process you?”
Lila’s breath caught in her throat, and she found herself reaching out with one weak, shaky hand, placing it where his touch pushed the wall in. “I… I’m safe? You aren’t going to kill me?” Her voice was more than a whisper, hope kindling in her chest and thawing the fear that had gripped her heart.
“Why would I bother with that? If I killed you, I wouldn’t get to enjoy that squirming of yours anymore. No, I think I’ll let you live. I’ll even let you go after a while. I can always find you again if I want another taste,” he purred.
She curled in on herself. “Okay,” she murmured. She wasn’t exactly thrilled that this giant, terrifying robot might devour her again, but she knew better than to object. Fighting hadn’t worked, freezing hadn’t gotten her anywhere, and she certainly couldn’t flee. All that was left was to hope that fawning would endear or at least amuse him enough that he would continue to be merciful.
“Good. You might want to get comfortable, snack.” He gave his belly a heavy, satisfied pat. “I’m not letting you out just yet.”
Outside, a heavy thump sounded out, and then another, and another, coming closer and closer to Megatron as Optimus climbed up the cliffside. With his thoughts muddied by the satisfaction of a full gut and the power that rushed through his veins, Megatron didn’t even think to shoot the Prime down until he was already face to face with him.
Still, Megatron felt a cruel glee in the disgust on his enemy’s face, knowing that Optimus wouldn’t dare to risk attacking him when he had a human in his tanks.
“Let them go, Megatron.”
“I don’t think I will,” he taunted, stepping closer to the Prime and watching as he backed up. “You won’t battle me like this, will you, Prime?”
Optimus only narrowed his optics in response.
“Now, I’ll be leaving, and you won’t stop me.” He began to transform once more, his body shifting and contorting.
Inside his stomach, Lila was tossed and shifted about as the world seemed to flip around her, and she clamped a hand over her mouth, trying desperately not to vomit at the dizzying movement all around her. She did not want to know what Megatron would do to her if she puked while inside of him.
Thankfully, it stopped after a moment, and although there was another small, lurching shift as Megatron took off, it wasn’t nearly as bad as before, and she was able to swallow back her nausea and settle into the walls once more.
Absently, she hoped that she’d be able to find her car when all of this was over.
Optimus sighed, watching apprehensively as Megatron sped away, vanishing past the horizon with his captive in tow. He hoped that the human would be alright– Megatron wasn’t exactly known for his mercy, but he had no reason to harm that particular human, either.
There wasn’t much he could do about it now.
