"I've made my own identity," Megatron says. "Most of us don't have parents, in the human sense of the word. Our sparks come from the Allspark and up through sacred ground, and are placed into protoforms made of sentio metallico, which are placed in frames. I had an unofficial mentor, Terminus, whom I deeply loved, but no father and certainly no mother. Sometimes you'll meet people who claim to be siblings, but they're either people who were created as a set, like Ravage and Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, or people who were taken into wealthy households and mentored together, like Soundwave and his brother Shockwave, whom you haven't met.

"The point I was trying to make, however badly, is that I don't know any magic, really. When Ravage and I were lovers we once tried a spell from an old book, but nothing happened. All the components of the other things that I can become are contained within me. And yes, we can project holograms. We can project holographic avatars of ourselves as well."

Megatron projects his human avatar briefly into the room.

"I'll share what insights I can with you. But I've never had a mother or a father or a brother or a sister or a child. I've had to make my own identity. And everything that I can do, so far as I know, is purely material. Magic, on Cybertron, has never worked for people like Ravage, or me." He shrugs. "I loathe stupid hierarchies as much as you do."

After a moment's thought, he gives a response to the other question. "I don't know exactly what Ravage and Soundwave are up to here. But as someone who loves them, even if things are difficult between us now, and has been a friend and a lover to both of them, while I obviously can't claim to be impartial...I don't believe they are here to exploit or conquer."