From the Ashes
A Transformers Prime Fanfcition
Chapter 1
"Expending energy to maintain political power directly is illogical when one's needs can be met by other, less resource intensive pursuits." The deep emotionless voice seemed to both fill the small laboratory and split Starscream's damaged helm apart at the same time.
Failure.
Slag it all to the Pit and back he should know better. Correction, he knew better. Even if Shockwave himself hadn't pointed it out in his infuriatingly condescending manner Starscream had enough medical experience to know that he should be resting his processor as well as his frame after the beating the Predacons had so gleefully given him. When it came to repairing damage Shockwave was a miracle worker, and after everything Strascream would still be functional, but the blunt force trauma to his processors alone would take months to heal.
Incompetence!
Starscream groaned and slumped into the sling that suspended his battered frame above the vat below him. The healing energon bath swirled in blue-green patterns under the protective force field. Conversing with Shockwave might be causing him pain both physically and mentally but it was far, far better than the alternative. Silence was dangerous, for it hosted the enemy, the voice.
You are your own enemy.
For what had seemed like eons after the Predacons' vengeance Starscream had floated in a limbo of blackness, self pity, fury, and regret. Every single failure he had experienced sifted through his processor. The long torturous path that had led him from being the fiercely independent Winglord of the Seekers to being Megatron's cast off tool; broken and useless. The entire universe had conspired against him it had seemed. But he too had been a fool several times over. By the time Shockwave had summoned his fractured processor back to awareness of his frame Starscream had come to several crushing revelations. Many of these revelations were guided by the same sneering voice that had belonged to the mech he had called master.
And you only ever accomplished anything when you accepted your place as my slave!
"But then your fate, the resources you are given are in the servos of whomever holds that political power," Starscream protested, dragging himself back to reality with great effort. He could not go back to the silence. To the humiliations his imagination now subjected him to: half memory, half invention.
"True," Shockwave conceded even as he manipulated the chemical flow to whatever his latest experiment was. "However if the ally is chosen with calculated precision, and you consistently supply what they require, then it becomes possible to manipulate their needs to compliment your own."
"You certainly should know," Starscream bit out in anger. "But where has that gotten you now? You barely have the resources to repair yourself and me. What ally will you turn to now that Megatron is," for a moment Starscream's vocalizer choked off as he remembered the last time he had seen the once proud leader of the Decepticons, "indisposed?"
Shockwave turned long enough to fix him with a mildly perplexed stare. "You."
The mocking voice burst out in Megatron's harsh laughter in the stunned silence that followed and for once Starscream found himself cackling along.
"I fail to see what is amusing about that statement," Shockwave stated. "Therefore I can only assume that you do not believe yourself capable."
"Capable of what?" Starscream demanded harshly, to cover up the sudden surge of fear he felt. Surely it was only his cursed imagination that Shockwave's servos drifted minutely towards the array that would cut off the medical support he still required. Just as you did to me, hissed the voice, how poetic. Still he could not stop himself from continuing. "I am utterly restrained and dependant on your machines for what pitiful life I still possess. Why do you even bother?" He utterly despised how his voice rose to a desperate screech that sent waves of pain through him.
"The repairs will complete in due time." The red optic turned back to the task at hand. "When they do your Seeker coding will demand that you seek out others of your kind. Your pride will demand that you dominate those others. While I will be able to aid you in achieving and maintaining such dominance I would never be able to achieved it one my own. That is why I 'bother'." He paused and carefully considered the Seeker. "It is the same reason I bothered with Megatron."
Starscream fell silent with a hiss and glared down into the swirling patterns of the vat below him. Megatron's voice continued to taunt him but the movement and speaking had wracked his frame with pain and filled his processor with a dull buzz. Added to that there was something tugging at the edge of his awareness, but he was so tired. Starscream allowed his processor to wander, passively absorbing his environment. Blue and green swirled in the vat below him, showing where the natural and synthetic energon refused to mix. Shockwave's servos tinking softly against the glass of his test tubes. You were only successful when following my orders. Megatron, who had still ruled the Decepticons when he was obviously mad. A flicker of fury leapt up from the Seeker's spark.
How? How had a mad mech inspired the loyalty of so many? Some are sparked to lead. You are not. Something cold and pitiful curled up in his spark at that. Perhaps it was acceptance. After all, he had wielded great power once. As Megatron's second he could occasionally manipulate events to his liking. But there was always the bitter pill that Shockwave had been there first. Shockwave had known Megatron longer, as had Soundwave. They had poisoned the leader of the Decepticons against Starscream when he was but a Gladiator with a dream. Really the Seeker had never had a chance. And yet Shockwave was here now. Seemingly depending on Starscream to achieve that power he had failed to before.
Please, the voice sneered. He knows you will fail to rally the Decepticons just as you did before.
It was true. Starscream's spark sank in despair and he stared listlessly at the junk pile that lay against the wall. There was a soft poof from the workbench and without hesitation Shockwave tossed whatever had failed onto a pile of scrap before turning to begin again. Something in the gesture stirred a question in the Seeker. If that junk pile was his fate why was Shockwave expending the resources to repair him in the first place? Starscream was not Megatron and Shockwave knew that. Shockwave wanted something from him but what?
"…manipulate their needs…"
A sudden thrill ran down Starscream's back strut. There was one thing and one thing alone that Starscream was better at than Shockwave: manipulation. Shockwave had only gotten so close to Megatron from knowing him when he was a gladiator, had only maintained that closeness through being able to provide what the machine of war needed. But he had depended on Megatron far more than Megatron had depended on him. There was no one else who would put up with the emotionless scientist. Starscream however, could worm his way into nearly anyone's good graces. Is this what Shockwave wanted? For the Seeker to find them a Lord to replace Megatron? Someone who Starscream could mould into the charismatic leader he could not be himself. Someone who he could then throw to Megatron if and when the Warlord finally came to his senses? For a brief moment hope flared in his spark only to be assaulted by that sneering voice.
And who exactly would you make a king in my place? Every single one of my lieutenants knows exactly what you are!
It was true. Of all the mechs who held the physical and political power to reform the Decepticons none would willingly follow Starscream, not to replace Megatron. There were no up and coming weaklings who might be forged into a substitute either. The long war had solidified the positions of the mechs far more firmly than the caste system they had originally rebelled against. The Seeker's attention drifted once more. Green, blue, tink, tap. Starscream's servos twitched at a memory. That was the same sound his talons had made as he tormented that disgusting little organic Optimus had claimed as his own. If only it were that simple for them.
Starscream groaned and tried to twist his processor away from checking his chronometer for the nine-hundredth fifty-third time. He had just been injured for so very long. The inaction was beginning to prey upon his processor. It was why he baited Shockwave so frequently. It was far better to contemplate the annoyance of the scientist than to contemplate what would happen if Predaking discovered their lair and decided to finish what he had started; or worse, to dwell on what would happen when Megatron inevitably came to extract his revenge. A dark chuckle met that thought.
I will find you traitor. Find you and end you once and for all.