Perspectives
Skyfire
I only vaguely recall the crash itself; it was simply a thoughtless event not unlike a step. Albeit this was a devastating, tragic step, but a step nonetheless. Waking up is a memory that holds much more clarity, much more depth.
My initial sight was the familiar face of my colleague, contorted with worry, radiating relief. He explained that I had been out for ages, and I could tell that my plight had deeply concerned him. I felt intensely sorry for causing him so much grief. Then I noticed that he was not alone; behind him was a tall, harsh, imposing mech with plating as gray as a corpse. My partner then informed me that the universe was not the same one that I had known before my fall. Cybertron had been consumed with war. Tools of discovery had been reformatted into tools of destruction and explores were forced to become warriors. He insisted that I must join him in taking back what was rightfully ours, and I wanted to trust him, as I did so long ago. But times change, and so do all those subject to it. Optics, once bright with intense perspective, now appeared to be lit only by hunger.
Right in front of me, he turned into a lie trying to bury itself beneath the crust of this planet. I saw, but I convinced myself not to believe. And in that moment, I became his lie as well.
But I, first and foremost, am a scientist, and am too devoted by my very nature to the discovery of the truth to live in falsehood, no matter how much that falsehood held in my spark. And for that, my friend injured me more than I thought possible. Even though I was lost for what could have been an eternity, he had managed to trap himself much further. He was chained down to the layers of hate, ambition, dreams, and deception that had grown above his being, layers that most of him appeared to believe comprised his real identity, that there could never be an alternative to his loathsome existence. So now I weep because he is so much more than he has come to represent; more than the distorted mockery of the Starscream I once knew. And my greatest hope is that he will be able to shed his exoskeleton of deceit and realize that he has a spark that is capable of tenderness, compassion, and trust. And that he would realize that he is my friend.