Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers, Hasbro-Takara does. Just playing with them for a little while.

The Plan

Megatron reclined in his office chair, fingers idly drumming on one of the armrests as he considered a monitor display before him. The form of his overly-ambitious second-in-command was shown on the screen, sprawled offline on the floor of one of the brig cells. The Seeker's injuries sparked every now and then, but the Constructicons had assured him that Starscream was in no life-threatening danger. He would just simply be in a lot of pain once he came out of stasis - which was what Megatron intended.

The Decepticon leader's faceplates deepened into a frown. The traitorous glitch had shot him during the battle with the Autobots earlier today, just when he'd been about to get an advantage over Prime. It had knocked him over in his surprise, and Prime had used the opening to place his ion blaster against Megatron's chassis and pull the trigger, blasting the silver mech a good distance away. He'd nearly gone offline from it, too - that slagging gun packed a punch.

Of course, with such an injury to their leader, the Decepticons been forced to retreat, and the Constructicons had quickly repaired him back to full health.

He'd then taken the opportunity to beat the red and white Seeker into the condition he was in now, and had thrown him in the brig. He'd wanted to offline the mech permanently, but he was too useful to do so.

He leaned back in the chair, forcing himself to remember why Starscream was useful to calm the anger. The screechy mech made a surprisingly good Air Commander, and was unmatched in flying skill by any mech dead or alive. When Starscream wasn't fooling around with the odd ideas in his processors, he was also one of Megatron's deadliest warriors, with enough firepower to level small cities. It was just getting him to fight at that level that often took some...coercion.

Even the little backstabbing schemes to take over the Decepticons had their use - Megatron now had two scenarios he ran all his plans through before implementing them, the first being a "What Can The Autobots Do To Slag This Up", and then a secondary "What Can Starscream Do To Slag This Up". It had made his plans surprisingly more efficient, and had taught him a great deal of things about commanding an army. He even had a little list of things Starscream had taught him personally, which went something like this:

Do not stand near energon, nor store it near the latest doomsday device they had built (Starscream could and would blow it up, just to get in a cheap shot).

Never build something with more firepower than oneself could handle. Starscream was a very skilled hacker.

Even if it's boring, learn something about the basics of science and engineering, and what combined with what makes things explode. When anything potentially deadly or explosive disappeared into the Seeker's personal lab, a takeover scheme was on its way.

If one does not hear screeching, look up. It was always up.

These facts had let him actually keep his position intact, and had even been a inspiration for several battle plans towards the Autobots.

Even if they got tiring at times, the multiple mutiny attempts kept him on his toes, which was why he tolerated them. He beat the Seeker to keep face in front of his superiors - and to make sure the jet didn't get too cocky - but otherwise never punished Starscream too badly. He needed him in working order.

But during battles...that was a different story. There was just no way to turn the cheap potshots to his advantage, not with the Autobots in the mix. Those weak little fools had become surprisingly fierce about battle over the many vorns this war had dragged on, and they gave no quarter and took every advantage, which was what Starscream was relying on. He wanted Megatron to fall, and he wasn't too proud to let the Autobots do it for him.

If only there was some way...some way to just...turn off Starscream's little ideas to usurp the position of leader during battles only, it would make all the difference. Slag, if he could just do it to all the Seekers! Most of them were excellent warriors, but their processors got in the way half the time - if he had an energon cube for every time Skywarp had fragged up a battle plan with his immaturity, or every time Thundercracker had over-thought himself into inaction during battle, there would be no energy crisis and they'd rule the universe. Something that left them normal during non-combat situations - because if he started brainwashing his troops, the morale tended to go to the Pits fairly fast and then there'd be all the doubt and fear - but turned them into efficient warriors during the times that it mattered.

He paused in his thoughts. An idea flickered through his processors, a memory slowly arising. Something in human culture had already done that, hadn't they? He'd read their history literature - the more he knew about the humans, the better he could turn them into piles of organic ash - and there was a situation very similar to what he was envisioning. Berserker warriors, humans who were normal in most circumstances, but through mental or artificial means became temporarily insane on the battlefield, unstoppable until the effects wore off or they were dead.

It was what he needed. Megatron allowed himself to smile, slowly, as he reached to activate the comm system.

"Constructicons, report to my office, immediately."

-TBC-