A/N : So, here's a Transformers fic. The idea actually came rather randomly to me. But I've read a lot of fiction about Starscream having an "immortal spark", and the idea just came to me. I don't think the "immortal spark" was in any of the actual fandoms, but we'll pretend for the sake of this fic, that its a fact.
This is set many centuries after the first movie (in my mind, the second movie never happened, cause though I loved it, it didn't answer any of my questions and just seemed off), so please excuse the slight ooc of Screamer. He's kinda been through a lot.
This is set in the (1st) movie verse, but has elements from all the other Transformers fandoms in here as well. Or at least, most of them. I don't own Transformers, nor the idea of the immortal spark. Just the idea for this story.
Real quick. The aircraft listed below, to my knowledge, do not exist. I made them up on the spot. Please remember, this is set REALLY far in the future, and we obviously don't know what kind of names new aircraft will have.
The war between our kind had ended long ago. It took a while to get the remaining Decepticons to see that the war had been completely pointless to begin with, and now was even more so. But they'd finally caved after the Autobots had taken Shockwave down. My own persuasions actually helped them to make the final decision to form peace among the last of our kind. I'm fairly proud of it.
I had no reason to suspect I was different from any other mech out there at that point. Sure, I'd survived impossible odds and lived to tell about them, most of them being with Megatron, but that was no real cause for alert. But after thousands of years since the fall of Megatron, I soon began to realize I was different. I was not a normal mech by any means. Never had been. I had driven Megatron mad more than what was truly healthy, and always went back for more, regardless of the beating I'd taken.
As I sat by my old friend, his spark pulsing much weaker than I'd like, I smiled grimly at what was to come. I knew he was dieing. He had been for around fifty years. We were truly the last of our kind, and here he was, on his last legs. I felt rather bitter about that for a moment, but I couldn't blame him for my oddity. I hadn't even known about it until age had claimed the others.
Ironhide had been the first of them. He was the oldest mech in the Autobot ranks, and there was certainly no surviving former Decepticon that was anywhere close to his age. Megatron was the only old bot in the ranks, and he'd died centuries before from the cube's exposure at Mission City.
The next to go had been Ratchet, the medical officer. That had been a hard blow as Optimus, the last of the Primes, was not doing well, and Ratchet was rather fun to get along with. We weren't really sure why exactly he passed, as he'd been functioning at optimal levels and had seemed just as youthful as he always had. As a result of his absence, the greatest of the Primes faded to the Well of Sparks. We never got over that blow completely.
I'd watched a few of my former Decepticon breathren fall through the centuries. It hurt the most when my trine-mates had fallen. That was when I realized I was different, though at the time, I hadn't paid much mind to it. My trine-mates were both my own age, and both had died. But there were still a few others my age that were around. It wasn't like we had been ancient at that point... we were actually still in our primes, which was probably why it'd hit me harder than I imagined it would. Barricade and Bumblebee had become like my trine-mates after that. I had begun, through their influence, to hang around the humans more often as well.
We'd followed the Witwicky line down through the ages, being close family friends to them. Bumblebee had been adamant that his friendship with the Witwicky boy had been one to span lifetimes, and therefore had felt it necessary to stay with his descendants. It wasn't so much of a problem really. The humans weren't really as bad as the Decepticons had first thought.
We even had started to help out in our various fields. Barricade worked at the police station, partnered, ironically, with the descendant of Captain Lennox, who had been very surprised when her cop car had told her to take it easy on the brakes. She and him were never separated after that for as long as she lived. I'd taken up flying at the local airbase, though at first everyone had been curious at the out dated F-22 raptor design that was suddenly on their turmac. I'd been offered to change my style, but I never did. Call it nostalgia or whatever. I couldn't bare to part with the design, even if the new models were sleeker and more powerful.
The twins had taken Prowl's death extremely hard. When the old mech had finally passed, we all were quiet for a long while. And it hit me a bit hard when more of my Decepticon brothers died as well. Hook, who'd been a pain in the aft the entire time I'd known him, left a bigger mark on me than I'd ever thought possible.
Wheeljack had been the one to notice the oddity I had. He made a random comment one day about how I hadn't seemed to age at all. All eyes trained on me at that point, and it was true. Even Bumblebee, who was the youngest of us all, was looking older. I was rather stunned and kept to myself for a while after that. Watching our kind slowly die off on a world not our own.
Bumblebee, Barricade and I were the last of us. We were closer than ever before, and they soon truly did feel like my trine. It was sentimental, and I'd never admit it too them. But it wasn't long before I'd considered them as such. They even acted the part, which was strange to me, as I knew Barricade hated to be ordered around, but they looked to me for direction.
Barricade's passing was difficult to wrap our minds around. He'd not shown much signs of age, and he seemed to be performing at optimal level. But everything had happened in a split second, and we didn't even have the chance to say goodbye.
He'd been on patrol with his new partner, a Dave Barret. They'd gone after a break in somewhere, and it'd ended up being a high speed chase. Being that Barricade was no typical police cruiser, he was able to catch up fairly quickly. He'd gotten the other car to halt in his usual brusque way (which meant he rammed the opposing car from the side and made it stop). None of us were aware the offenders in the car weren't working solo and had back up on the way.
A semi-truck barreled down towards them, going the opposite way in traffic. Barricade, who'd been paying attention to his partner, hadn't expected anyone to get past the police borders on the on and off ramps, and had been turning to leave with his partner and those in his back seat. The truck smashed into Barricade's left side, and the momentum kept them going until an SUV (who apparently hadn't been able to swerve in time) rammed his right side.
Barricade had died once we had gotten him home. He'd gone into immediate stasis-lock as his spark chamber was damaged, and had never come back out of it.
It'd taken a long time to get over the shock of losing him for both Bumblebee and myself. Even the shock of losing his partner was fairly crippling to us. Hell, even Bee's current human had been devastated by the news. I believe the two had wanted to get romantic, but had never had the guts to tell each other. Good thing for her sake, as this would have hurt her even more had they been together.
And now, here I am watching my friend struggle to stay in this world. I'd be lying if I said it wasn't affecting me. It was taking all my will power to stay calm. I'd known it was coming. His spark had been fading for half a century. He'd known it was coming too. It wasn't making this any easier for me though. Decepticon pride be damned, this was a blow I honestly didn't think I could ever recover from.
"You know it's gonna be ok Star. Just chill, alright? I'm not gone yet."
"Yet is the key word," I responded quietly, trying to sound emotionless. I would be last of the Cybertronians. We both knew it. Bumblebee was the last of the younglings, meaning any remainders of our race still traveling the stars were lost to the Well of Sparks by now. Worst yet, while I'd watched Bumblebee and Barricade grow older, I never aged. I was still just as youthful as I'd been while serving under Megatron.
"I'll still be here for a while yet. My energon readings haven't hit critical. Why don't you go take a fly with Nick?" he suggested. I admit, flying sounded superb to me right now. I wasn't good under this kind of stress. This kind of stress broke down the walls I'd built eons ago. Flying was one way to relieve it.
"Nick is currently in a meeting, you know that, or he'd be here as well," I answered, again, trying to sound emotionless. It worked, mostly. Bee could tell I was still upset though, as my voice held no power and sounded like a whisper.
"Well, when he gets here, go for a fly. You haven't flown with him in a while, and I'm sure he wants his jet back," he laughed. I couldn't help the small grin that popped up. Nick was an interesting human. Following the Witwicky line had lead us down to him. While Bee had been his "guardian" while he was growing up, the boy had taken a liking to the military and had gone into the Air Force. He'd gained his pilots licence in record time at age 19, and had asked me to be his partner in the skies.
That had thrown everyone for a loop. The military had fallen out of knowledge of us a few centuries before, out of no fault of there own. I flew over oceans to get my fix during those times. No sense in cluing them in we were still here. They'd thought the last of us were the twins, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, who'd passed around 350 years ago.
Imagine everyone's surprise when an extremely outdated F-22 randomly appeared on the tarmac and Nick had told his superior it was going to be his jet of preference. I'd nearly been carted off the tarmac before Nick had hinted at my origin and his superior had left it at that. I was officially back in the skies. Legally this time, too.
"If he wishes to fly, that is fine," I sighed, gazing toward the door. This warehouse was cramped and small for what we had been used too when Barricade had been with us, but it worked for now.
"Good. I'm gonna get some recharge. Wake me up when you get back." I nodded to him as he offline his optics. I wasn't really going to wake him. He needed every bit of energy he could get.
Nick showed up not too long afterward. "Hey Screamer, how's yellow bot doin?"
"He's doing alright for the time being. He's in recharge. How was your meeting?" I asked, ignoring his use of my dreaded nickname. I'd never been able to get that nickname to leave me alone...
"Eh, boring, as usual. They want me to fly a recon mission in Canada. Not that I know why. Canadians are our one major source we can trust right now. I don't know what they expect me to be able to find out there..." he said, giving me a quizzical look. I knew that look. He was asking me without actually asking me if I'd come with him.
Well, of course I wouldn't let him fly in a meager Z-13 with flimsy armor. Especially not with the war going on. "When do they want us ready?"
He grinned largely at me and I felt my own grin come back. I bit back a flinch as I thought about how I would have killed this human the moment he walked in the room back in the day. I couldn't even think of doing such a crime now. "They want us to take off at 0800 tomorrow. Expected run time should be about three hours. Unless we find trouble, I doubt it'll be that long. They always forget how fast you are."
"Yes, that is something they seem to be forgetting about constantly. What's the trajectory pattern?"
"Same as normal I guess. Only instead of a simple fly by, we're looking for activity. They wouldn't tell me why the sudden hush hush or why we're suddenly suspecting Canada as an enemy when they've been our solid supporters during the entire war."
"Paranoia is a bit of a problem during war time. Even in times of peace it's always been an issue, for all sentient races."
Nick gave me a sidelong look and I wondered what it was for as he started laughing. He merely shook his head at me in response to my inquisitive glance. Well, that's not the first time he's done that, so I assume it truly is nothing.
"Can we fly today?" he asked suddenly, and I turned to him again. He looked hopeful. I realized then that we hadn't flown together in over a month. Strange, as we normally flew every day. Perhaps that's why Bumblebee's position is rattling my nerves. I nodded with a smile and he "whooped" before taking off toward where he kept his flight gear.
"I think you just made his week," Bee's voice said from behind me. I turned to him, glaring. "What? It's hard to stay in recharge when I'm hearing things like flight patterns."
"I assume so," I said quietly and Bee made a sighing noise. "The boy does seem to be very into these recon missions. He really should be more careful. In the middle of a war, a simple recon can turn into a deadly dog fight."
"He's only 21, you think he's gonna care? Besides, he's the safest kid in the universe in the air. He's got a Cybertronian jet fighter for a plane, so I don't think he has much to worry about."
I sighed as well, knowing he was right. I would take a lot of fire power and a stroke of good aim to the wings and thrusters to get me down, and I'd be damned if I'd allow that to happen.
"Ready?" Nick asked, coming from the changing area. I nodded, saying a quick good bye to Bumblebee as I moved toward the entrance and shifted to my alt mode. The canopy hatch stayed up as I waited for Nick to get settled. He pulled it down when he was ready, telling me to fire up my engines and taxi out to the tarmac.
We stayed on the base, more out of the reason we had no desire to go to the old base and face memories, and we had nowhere else to really go. I was Nick's air partner anyway and he was assigned to this base in Washington state, so we just ended up being his tag-alongs.
"Goin for a quick stretch, eh Nicky?" I inwardly flinched at the voice coming through the speakers. I hated this control tower worker. His voice was higher pitched and more scratchy than my own, and he didn't speak to either of us very respectfully. In fact, I think he blatantly didn't believe I could in fact think for myself as he'd more often then not, claimed "what a piece of junk" I am.
"Yes sir, we're just going to check our routine. Make sure we're still up to par." Ah, at least Nick wasn't the only one who hated the man. I rarely hear the sarcastic bite in Nick's voice to the intensity of what it just showed. It actually reminded me of Sam Witwicky's own sarcasm.
"Make sure those systems don't crash. I still don't like the idea such an outdated piece is flying active duty."
I bit back the growl threatening to be aired over the comms. "I could always change my alt mode if that would really make him feel better. But I'd rather show him what this piece of junk can do."
Nick laughed, making sure it wouldn't carry over the comms as well. "Yeah, why give him the satisfaction? Come on, we need to go to runway 3." The taxi to runway three was the longest journey every single time. It was on the other side of the compound, and meant we had to deal with Mr. Screechy's voice carrying over the sound waves all through out.
All in all, not pleasing.
"All right Burnout, move your old jet to the runway and take mark." I growled in frustration. Screechy was annoying to begin with, but when he didn't even acknowledge the fact I could understand him was just plain stupid. Reformation or not, I still had my Decepticon ferocity and I wouldn't be able to stand him much longer.
"Easy Starscream. We don't want to actually behead the guy," Nick said with a laugh. He knew me well.
"If he doesn't cut it out, I won't be able to reign my anger in," was all I said. Nick chuckled, though he knew I meant it. Wouldn't be the first time I'd killed a human for annoying the slag outta me.
"Alright Burnout, you're clear to launch."
Finally.
My engines kicked on faster than any of they're "in style" jets could hope fore, and we took to the skies just as fast. I knew that annoying slagger was watching in shock, and it gave me a sense of pride. Nick only laughed.
Primus, I hadn't flown in what felt like eons. It felt good to be tearing through the sky, feeling the wind on my wings. I hadn't realized just how much it affected me this past month staying grounded. I took a few of my own rolls and dives before I handed the control to Nick.
I was still slightly wary, even after all this time, to hand my controls over to a human.
"K Screamer, I think we should just stick easy. There's a D-10 floating around here somewhere, and my buddy Tops is flyin it. I say we go find him and play dog fight." Sounded good to me.
D-10s were the modernized version of my current alt mode. They were slimmer, more powerful, slightly faster and were able to hold more ammo. They were the model I loved to be pit against, only because it was a fair trade off. Or as fair as it could get having a living jet on your tail. Even if said jet is a thousand years and more outdated...
I knew Tops. He was a lot like Epps from the Autobot's band of friends in Mission City. Tops was playful, knew his stuff and was an admirable pilot. He visited with us often enough and was almost a brother figure for Nick.
We found him fairly easily, and began to tail him. He automatically switched into fight mode and was trying to get us in his sights. Not that I'd let him. "Nicky! I didn't know you were flying today," he said conversationally over the radio. Nick laughed and had me turn in a sharp right.
"Yeah, getting back in the air again. Got a recon mission tomorrow morning to Canada. Gonna be grand ole fun."
"Oh yeah, I heard about that. I wonder what's going on over there to make us have to recon. Seems weird to me." I shot down in a nose dive suddenly, taking Nick and Tops by surprise.
"Starscream??" they both asked in unison and I held back the chuckle that formed as I twisted out of the freefall and shot off over the ocean waters. I really had missed flying a bit to much, and I needed to fill my fix of it before I could concentrate completely. I knew Tops was tailing us, and I knew he'd be able to catch up fairly easily considering I wasn't going too fast.
I shot upward to be above the clouds, making sure I kept the cabin pressurized correctly. I didn't want Nick to black out or have a massive headache. Nick laughed at me as I was "playing" in the clouds. I admit, I was "playing", though if anyone said it out loud I'd probably shoot them will my cannons. Tops, I realized, was laughing too as he tried to keep up with us.
"Screamer, a little warning next time would be nice," Nick said, still laughing. I merely barrel rolled for a response.
It ended much too soon in my opinion. We landed on the tarmac not fifteen minutes later, and the cool down process began. I really hate the cool downs. I was perfectly capable of cooling my engines and cleaning myself. I didn't need the humans assistance at all. But it was apparently required, and I had no choice but to let them do so.
Nick "drove" me back to the warehouse when they were done. He had to dodge a few mechanics, who were still pestering him about looking me over, but we got there fairly easily compared to normal. Tops joined us not much longer later.
I shifted to my bipedal form and made my way to Bumblebee, who was still in recharge it seemed. His visor was over his optics and he was laying at an odd angle, and I had to wonder just how he'd fallen asleep like that. I moved him to a more comfortable position before I sat down and watched him.
Tops and Nick came out not long later and joined me after I'd scooped them into my hand, a habit I'd picked up from the Autobots. Both of them were used to it by now. For now, we all just watched him quietly.