Universe: G1
Rating: R/Mature
Characters: Megatron, Starscream, Skywarp, Thundercracker
Warnings: Graphic violence, Major character death
Notes: Currently Gen fic, no pairings highlighted, will note if changes. The collaborative efforts of Feather_Storm (Feather_Storm (dot) livejournal (dot) com) and WriterAnon95.
Megatron was fuming. He was always fuming after Prime and his lackeys sent the Decepticons packing, but the army was strangely quiet, simply because the EM field snapping around their leader was... off. Not the same kind of anger that they were used to. Something a little darker, and the way he kept sending speculative sidelong looks at a screeching Starscream didn't help anyone's nerves. There was a heavy weight, like something was going to crackle in the air and start going for their sparks. It wasn't normal. Even the most hardened of cons was trying to act inconspicuous, smaller than they really were, to avoid the optics of their leader looking anywhere near their frame. Why Starscream had either refused to pick up on it, or stand down was any mechs guess.
It was clear to everyone, except Starscream, apparently, that Megatron was different. And not a good different. He was wound up tight, ready to blow- But they figured that better him than them, and why in the world should they even help the one bot who took enough of Megatron's energy to keep them relatively safe after a battle gone badly.
It had been a subdued trek back, none of the usual spiteful hate about the enemy, none of the usual 'I'll shoot such and such in the aft next time'. No one wanted to distract their leader from his thoughts, and see it turned on them. When they finally reached the bottom of the ocean, moving off the lift and into the dark and dank halls of the sunken transport, it was anyone's guess as to how things were going to go. The silence almost a terrifying monster that crept behind Megatron, drinking in his Second's words of spite and disloyalty and growing bigger and more massive with each proclamation. Crowding out the rest of them until even the hardest of the 'cons were unnerved. Their plating clamped tight to their protoforms to keep it from rattling and garnering Megatron's unwanted attentions.
They watched that monster grow until it was a hulking mass, all teeth and claws and even though they all expected something to happen, when Megatron roared and grabbed Starscream they all flinched, some plastering themselves against the condensation covered wall.
"You claim that you can do better, yet every battle you fight in, every time you fly above, out of the range of the PRIME," Megatron spat, claws gripping painfully in his Second's shoulder, "All I hear is Decepticons! Megatron isn't fit to lead you - and then five kliks, five kliks with a grounder on your back, and I hear RETREAT."
Starscream had his seemingly innocent gaze turned on Megatron, ignoring the way the clawtips dug into his armor. Cocking his helm just so to present his neck, a subtle, barely there offering that was as much of a slight as the words that came from his mouth.
"I would never suggest that I could stand against Prime like you, Lord Megatron. No one else could battle the Autobot symbol and take his spark-"
Another roar and Megatron threw the flyer against the wall with a crash, not giving him time to get back on his thrusters before he wrapped a hand around Starscream's neck and lifted him up. Holding him against the wall and off the floor, claws squeezing. Pricking the energon lines that ran from body to processor and watching as thin lines of purple began to run along his claws and drip down to Starscream's cockpit.
"Of course not. However, I do believe that I see what you are doing, and this will be the last time I have to watch my army fall in battle because of a traitor like you."
Starscream clutched the gray wrist that held him aloft, struggling against the bulkhead for purchase. "Please Mighty Megatron! I am no traitor! I am loyal to you and the Decepticon cause!"
A growl and the claw clamped down harder. "Do not lie to me you spineless wretch! The only way that this army, MY ARMY, can be overwhelmed battle after battle is if someone has been eating at the foundation of MY army like a scraplet from the beginning. Who could that be Starscream?"
Starscream was reduced to gurgling protests as the claws tightened around his vocalizer, squeezing any words that might allay Megatron's growing anger and ire with each passing second. Optics fritzing as the energon lines to his processor were crimped until only a trickle passed through them.
"I have watched you, Starscream. Watched you when you knew I was there, and when you were sure I wasn't. I have had optics and audials on you every klick of every cycle that we have been on this planet, and I have noticed something."
Megatron moved close enough to put his helm right in front of Starscream's, his words whispering across the Seeker's face with each exvent. "I have noticed that you will often hide things. Sequestered in that lab of yours, sure you were alone, safe from any prying optics. From me, of course, but also from even your trinemates. I know little of Vos' culture, I have no use for the nonsense you flyers prattle on about, but I do know that Trine does not keep secrets."
He pulled them nasal sensor to nasal sensor, optics narrowed and mouth twisted into a terrifying snarl.
"How long have you been the mole that the Autobots claim not to have? How long have you fed them information from my hands, or snuck those pit spawned Ops mechs in- damning us from the very start to a battle that we can't win! HOW MANY TIMES HAVE YOU SENT US OUT TO BE BUTCHERED!"
Starscream dug furrows into Megatron's arm, trying to wrench out of the hold the Warlord had on his neck, to eek out something in his defense. Thrusters scorching the wall as he scrabbled against it, trying for purchase against the slimy surface. Pulling the arm away the barest microinch, just enough to force crushed vocal cords to push sound out.
"Ma...t...r. P...se..." Too little, too late he had finally realized something was wrong, incredibly so. Megatrons field crashed against his, overpowering and promising... he didn't know if he wanted to try and classify it, dark and violent, like a beast about to start shredding his armor to eat his spark. His own field weak and pleading, the only mode of communication left to him against the creature that held him captive.
Megatron chuckled. A dark sound that grew from something low and dark into full blown laughter, echoing through the room and sending the other cons deeper into their huddles. Coolant tears running down Starscream's face as he felt his processor begin to shut down, the lack of energon hazing his vision and clouding his thoughts.
A clank, and suddenly he was gasping, vents heaving in air and energon lines desperately sending much needed energon back into his processor. The circuits and connections lighting back up in a painful burst of light and sensation that had him clutching his head and curling into a ball. Trying to protect himself from the same happening again.
"Never again, Starscream. You have failed me for the last time. This time I will make sure that there is nothing left of you to betray!"
A roar and Starscream raised his head in time to see Megatron's claws grabbing him, forcing him out of his protective curl and pushing him onto his back, hissing as his wings scraped the ground and howling when strong, cruel pricks of pain dug into his Ailerons, then further in, along the panels and sensors he used for flight and curled until energon flowed. He barely felt the ped on his cockpit until the glass cracked, his still muddled processor shooting warnings at him for just about everything, before it blanked out entirely.
He heard the sound of metal ripping from its foundation, and wires snapping. The sounds of screaming in the background, a wordless mangled mess of too many words at once in voices that he thought he recognized. Some emergency protocol was counting down from 3... 2... 1...
And it caught up, and those howls were his, his and someone else that was too far and too close, but too quiet to make a difference to him.
The ceiling spinning in front of his blurred optics, Megatron's figure becoming clearer and clearer as he focused on the two white objects the Warlord was holding.
Oh Primus. Something clicked, and he knew.
Starscream purged, half processed energon spraying from his mouth and covering him in a sticky, putrid mess. Megatron laughing and waving his wings at him, like they were his own, and he could still see the wires that connected them sparking and the whole torn edge dripping energon and the tips already going gray and-
"A pretty souvenir, don't you think Starscream? I'm going to mount them on my throne, as a lesson to those who think that they can betray-"
A red bolt hit Megatron dead in the chest, the blast making him stumble back a few steps, wings dropping to the ground with a sickening crack. No one else in the room wanted to move, make a sound, but they couldn't help the craning of their necks to stare at the mech that had dared shoot at Lord Megatron-
"I'll kill you!"
Thundercracker was shaking, his plating rattling against his protoform as he kept his null ray trained on Megatron. Mouth twisted into a snarl of uninhibited hatred at what had just been done to his trine mate.
He shot again, bolts flying en masse as he moved toward Starscream. Driving the Warlord back, trying to get some distance between him and his injured trinemate, shots occasionally going wide to push, push- he didn't even really have a plan, the thought to just keep him away from Starscream was too much of a driving force.
Megatron's cannon came online, horribly loud and ominous in the quiet of the nemesis, the fight down to just the two of them, and turned it on Thundercracker. The barrel... almost shook with the energy the warlord was trying to force through, as if he could will it to melt the traitor on the spot. It hit Thundercracker's legs, plating warping and the flyer dropped to the floor as neural relays and hydraulics were burnt and ruined. Char flaking from what had been the tubing that kept his legs supplied with energon, coolant and hydraulic fluid, the ends close to his pelvic plating cauterized from the searing heat. Metal already graying by the time he hit the floor. He barely made out the heavy footfalls of their lord advancing at a deliberately slow pace over his own processor screeching warnings at him, savoring what he must have thought was his ultimate victory over not just one, but two traitors, before it stopped.
A scream and then there was a loud crack. Megatron's chestplating exploding outward. All helms whipping around to see Skywarp behind the Decepticon leader, null ray shaking as he shot and shot and shot into Megatron's spark through his back. Screaming "WHY!" with each discharge, not stopping as the body jerked with each shot, not stopping when the sparklight faded and whisped out. Not stopping even when the body was limp on the floor, his optics blurry with coolant as he continued to pull the trigger, moving his aim to the still smirking face until his weapon ran out of energy, a hollow clicking the only indication he was still trying to fire.
Stumbling over to his injured trinemates. Wrapping an arm around each one protectively, baring his denta at the rousing army; wary and angry at some of those stares, before warping the three of them out of the Nemesis.