Sorry for the unforgivable long wait. Stuff happened and I wasn't in the mood to update my stories and had no inspiration whatsoever.
I'll try to keep the updates coming within reasonable delays.
Have fun reading this second chapter. It is mostly a filler and might not be as interesting as the first one, but I hope you'll like it anyway
About him.
Chapter 2
" Welcome home, noble voyager!"
A whine of despair escaped the wounded seeker's throat as Megatron spoke. His falsely amused voice, so close and dangerous, promised unspeakable things, all far worse than mere agony.
With difficulty, Starscream rolled onto his back and propped himself up in a half-sitting position. "M-Megatron!" He gasped, his voice trembling at least as much as his frame did, because of the pain but also out of fear. "I thought you were...We all believed that..."
"That what?" Megatron spat, "That I was deactivated when my starship exploded? Well, as you can see, I am very much alive, and it is too bad for you!" The warlord's face bore a dangerous, cruel smile and, although his attitude was calm, the seeker knew how deceptive his leader's appearance could be at time.
He had attempted to usurp Megatron's leadership many times in the past, in many ways, and had received just as many kind of beatings for his efforts. He was very familiar with Megatron's falsely tranquil ire. That sort of anger was the worst kind, and more so since his situation was already dire.
He had failed, Megatron lived.
And, if Megatron lived, then it meant Starscream was doomed.
His whole universe shrank to this. Megatron and himself, alone, and the desolation of the rocky desert around them. It was a perfect set for what would most probably be his last showdown.
"It didn't happen how you think it happened!" He tried, like always, to find a good excuse for his actions.
Still smiling his malevolent smile, Megatron grabbed him by an arm and wing and hauled him up, the harsh pull eliciting a new wave of agony through the downed seeker's frame. He cried out as Megatron enjoyed his pain and pulled back, resisting his leader's might.
"Let go of me!" he demanded, "It was that flesh creature and his hypno-chips! He implanted one into my circuitry and..."
His actions earned him more suffering but he didn't care. He needed to escape the fate that awaited him...And his little one.
"And he commanded you to destroy the humanity he so very intently wanted to enslave and put under his control?" Megatron bellowed, sarcastic. His hold on the struggling seeker was crushingly firm. "You should find another story to tell me, Starscream, this one is not very convincing. I was used to much better lies coming from you!" He gave him a hard tug, annoyed by his ridicule resistance.
"No!" The air commander screamed, putting all his weight in his attempt to free himself of the stronger mech's hold. "No! Don't bring me back!"
Because that was what Megatron was going to do, bring him back to the base for a public punishment, he had no doubt about that.
This time, it wasn't only Megatron he had betrayed. He had tried to destroy them all. Surely, he had ruined all his chances at leadership. If Megatron brought Starscream back to base, and even if he allowed him to live beyond this day, the other decepticons would gang up on him and tear him apart.
But ultimate leadership wasn't what he had wanted to achieve this time. And, to Megatron, the seeker's radical actions made no sense.
"You disappoint me beyond all expectations!" Megatron declared, disgust dripping through his voice. He abruptly pushed Starscream down as the seeker pulled, which made him stumble back and fall on his aft, hard.
"I thought you were smart, but what you did today proved me wrong to an extend I've never thought could be reached!" he said, watching as Starscream squirmed about, rolling from side to side, his face contorted in a grimace of agony.
"Did you even stop a nano-second to think of how stupid you were, Starscream? Do you realize what you tried to do? You've almost destroyed half of the Decepticon army! Is that how you want to prove that you are their rightful leader? This was not a clever thing to do" His rage overwhelming, Megatron delivered an harsh kick to Starscream's sides.
"You must be more insane than I thought!" another kick, this one stronger. "I have no use for insane mechanisms in my army!" At the third kick, something broke inside of Starscream's lower abdomen.
And effectively, Starscream was struggling with his own sanity. His thrusters and abdomen felt like ice spears or burning rods had been stabbed into them. His sensors, set ablaze, covered his HUD with warning messages, which made him perceive the world around him as a red blur. To make things even worse, the sparklet's full-out terror added to his own and amplified his pain, he felt sick to the core.
Don't worry, little one, we'll make it. He thought, hoping the message would, somehow, be conveyed to the sparklet, even if it held no conviction.
"This was your army!" He croaked out an unhelpful retort, "Your mindless followers."
"And to say I made you my second-in-command, the rightful heir to my throne!" Megatron roared, kicking him hard in the side, "You, such a useless piece of scrap!"
My heir, the seeker repeated in his mind, my heir.
I must protect my heir.
Starscream moaned in a pathetic way and, in an effort to protect his spark and the one he carried, rolled around once more so his cockpit was against the earth. The new position exposed his sensitive wings, he was aware of the temptation they offered and knew with no doubt that Megatron would let himself be tempted by them.
Tempted to rip them clear off his back.
"I have forgiven you on countless occasions before! I really wonder why I bothered. You are such a waste of my time!" Megatron shouted, his anger brought out and high by Starscream's lack of dignity. The seeker looked downright pathetic and didn't even try to bring his legendary defiance about, he didn't even try to defend himself.
This unsettled Megatron and, for a moment, he wondered if this disgusting thing that was wordlessly squirming around in the dirt, was really the Starscream he knew. He should either be begging or fighting back by now, in an attempt to conserve his dignity or, by default, his life. Nonetheless, the Decepticon leader's anger increased to a maddening level.
His hands lashed out, grabbing viciously onto Starscream's wing tips, he pulled hard. The joints winced dishearteningly, a few wires snapped and the seeker's scream echoed loudly in the rocky valley.
Megatron had never targeted his wings that way before. He had bruised them on occasions, but had never dealt visible damage to them. They were one his best assets and the foremost reason why The ex-gladiator had hired the seeker back before the war started. Megatron's anger had sometimes been very destructive to his person, but the damage dealt to the seeker frame was mostly easy to repair.
Megatron was an old fool and a lunatic, but was level-headed enough to know that one better not break their best weapon.
If he does it now, Starscream realized, then it means he's through with me...I am going to die.
He moaned out in despair, for the dreadful and final prospect terrified him. His molested processor froze as cold fear spread through his mind and his new programs took over almost immediately. he needed to protect the sparkling, escape, protect himself, find a safe place and a way to repair himself, those were his only priorities now.
"Accepting your unavoidable fate so easily, Starscream?" Megatron taunted, wishing for a reaction, anything that would prove that this seeker was the proud, fierce creature he had made his second and not a broken puppet.
He could derive no satisfaction from killing the seeker if he kept acting like that. "This is unlike you. What are you waiting for? This really is a good time to start begging for you life, you know?!."
Starscream said nothing, he couldn't find his words. With great efforts, he pushed himself up on his hands and willed his arms to stop trembling. He needed to relieve the pressure against his cockpit, he also needed to go away.
Still keeping silent except for the barely audible groans of pain that escaped his vocalizer, the seeker planted his claws in the soil and tried to crawl away, the attempt proving useless as Megatron still firmly held onto his wings.
His wings or his- and his sparklet's- life, the choice was easily made, he tried harder.
"Starscream!" Megatron held onto the seeker's dented wing, growling low and dangerous, "You are pathetic, stop that pitiful display this instant!" Letting go of the wings, he grabbed the seeker's neck and hauled him up.
"Must escape, protect..." Starscream whispered between ragged intakes.
"What is this nonsense?!" Megatron growled, leaning up as he pulled Starscream closer. He saw desperation in his second's dimmed optics, and nothing of the usual emotions that should have been there. "What are you so desperate to protect, tell me? Your life? Your spark?"
He balled his free hand into a tight fist and readied it for a powerful punch. But as he targeted the seeker's chest, Starscream reflexively brought his left arm in front of him to protect his spark. The impact broke the limb, but the cockpit was safe, and Starscream only let out a broken chirp of distress.
Megatron frowned and jerked the seeker's broken arm away. "This is your last chance Starscream, so tell me, why should I spare you this time? That is, if you wish to be spared at all."
Apparently unaffected by the words, Starscream brought his other arm in front of him, shielding his chest again. Oh, he did have a good argument, but he wasn't willing to give it away...
On the other hand, if he didn't speak up, he would probably die.
Must protect, but can't escape...He debated with the sane and calculating part of his self. Although he wasn't entirely certain that his leader really intended to kill him this time, he soon realized that revealing the sparklet's existence was probably his last chance to insure its survival.
After all, even if he managed to escape the warlord, he was heavily damaged, he could very well not make it into the next day. Also, if he went rogue, he would have no mean to create a protoform or fulfill the little one's needs.
If only I had known how thoroughly you would affect my existence, little one, he thought, with dread his sole emotion at mind, I would...
He could even think that thought.
But you are mine, you are a part of me. I could never have gotten rid of you, even if I had known...
Also, and although he wasn't ready to admit it to himself yet, he had grown unexpectedly fond of the little thing.
With that decision made, his mind cleared up a little and Megatron was somewhat content to see the light of sanity come back in his second's optics. "Well?" He prompted.
"You can't kill me, Megatron," Starscream said, firmly, and now the display was more familiar to the warlord. "I am too valuable to you, and so is what I hold within my chest."
"What is it, then?" Megatron asked impatiently, he wouldn't be satisfied with such an enigmatic answer. "Speak up before my patience wears out!"
"Your heir, Megatron, I am carrying your heir." Starscream said calmly.
The dices were cast, and this was his last attempt at saving his..their life. He didn't know why he suddenly felt so...relaxed and, dare he say, almost relieved. The sparklet wasn't afraid anymore and, instead, radiated content. The seeker didn't understand, and was now too tired to even try to.
A gust of wind passed them by as they stood immobile and silent, with Starscream still dangling from his leader's hand coiled around his neck. It was okay, the grip wasn't too tight, he could take it.
"A blatant lie." Megatron eventually said, "But I am used to less original ones, coming from you." He twisted Starscream's arm away rudely and reached for the latches to his cockpit. "If I find nothing in there but your worthless spark, I'll extinguish it right away. You don't deserve that I further waste my time with you."
He threw the cockpit open harshly and forced the seams apart with only one hand. Starscream gasped, his fright returning ten folds at the rough and uncaring touches to the most delicate part of his being. And as Megatron finally had his spark in display, distressed, the seeker audibly whimpered.
But the Decepticon leader paid him no heed.
With no little amount of amazement, he watched the small spark that rested next to the seeker's bigger one. "As it appears, you were telling the truth," he said after a relatively long moment of shocked silence, "You are effectively with spark. And, given the size of it, you have been for some times already"
"Three Earth months!" Starscream precised carefully. And if his own anger had all the rights to return at the memory of what exactly happened three months prior, he couldn't let it out now, not without ruining his chances of survival. But, still, and calmly, he reminded Megatron, "I found out I was with spark shortly after the last party you pulled..."
Megatron only growled soundlessly at that remark. In a most uncharacteristic way, he slowly moved one of his finger toward the little ball of light, which made its carrier tense like a wire that is ready to snap. Carefully, he touched the sparklet with the tip of his finger.
He had expected the thing to flinch away from him or even hide behind his carrier's spark, he was quite taken aback when the sparklet did none of that. Instead, it sent a small, pleasant pulse of energy through the Decepticon leader's finger and started to pulsate a little, which felt a lot like it was purring, content to feel him near.
Surprised at the cute gesture, Megatron had to fight a smile. He removed his finger, not willing to let that little thing affect him further.
Megatron took his optics away from the sparklet. That short instant, during which Megatron's optics shifted back up toward Starscream's face, felt like an eternity to the seeker. His intakes stalled, just like an human would retain his breath, and everything seemed to freeze inside and around him.
The warlord looked into the seeker's wide optics and delighted himself with the naked worry he saw there – he felt deliciously almighty on moments like these, when all that was at stake depended of a single order from him.
This situation pleased him greatly and so, he decided to let dread eat at Starscream's spark for a while longer. Megatron was not a fool or an ignorant, he was aware of many things and, thus, he knew how rare naturally-created sparks were.
Rare and very precious.
Ever since the beginning of the war, all new units had had to be sparked through Vector Sigma, there had been absolutely no exception to that. Not that soldiers were forbidden to procreate, but creation programs had seemed to go dormant- or even extinct- for most of them. At some point, it had been feared that their breed had become infertile.
But the proof that the creation program had not been completely destroyed by the war was there, withing the seeker's chest.
And even though Megatron was famous for his ruthless, merciless nature and was believed to be a sparkless killer by most, he couldn't bring himself to kill a mech who was carrying such a little miracle.
Even if said-mech deserved at least ten agonizing deaths for his unforgivable crimes and repeated acts of treachery (in most of which he had been caught red-handed.)
Megatron couldn't destroy a newspark.
And certainly not if there was a chance for this newspark to be partly his.
Deciding he had kept the seeker waiting long enough, he lowered him back down. Immediately as his pedes touched the ground, Starscream activated the commands for his shields and cockpit to close, and then he promptly fell on one knee because his left thruster couldn't support his weight anymore.
"I require medical assistance," he said, looking up at Megatron, his expression rendered blank by fatigue and stress. His act cost him much and he burned in shame in the inside, but he knew that his dignity would have to suffer a moment longer; he wasn't exactly safe yet.
The warlord gave him a quick once-over and nodded with a small satisfied smile, appraising – and most certainly enjoying- his pitiful state. For once, Starscream didn't mind the offense. He was somehow reassured, because that look on his leader's face meant that he was going to survive after all.
He shifted into a more comfortable position to relieve his aching frame and watched silently as Megatron lifted an arm to bring his communicator close to his mouth. "Soundwave, I need you to prepare the space bridge. Set the coordinates for Cybertron and inform Shockwave that I will arrive shortly." he ordered. Not waiting for a reply, he switched the comm off and looked back at Starscream.
"I have decided to let you live, for now," he informed him. Starscream couldn't help but wonder how many times he had heard that sentence. "And until the newspark you carry has matured enough to be transferred into a protofrom, you will remain on Cybertron."
"On Cybertron?!" Starscream repeated flatly, curious and wary of what Megatron planned for him. Although the situation and circumstances put him completely at the warlord's mercy- something he hated above all- he, at least, wanted to know what he was up for.
"For the official version, you are to be placed in the high-surveillance storage unit, in disembodied confinement, and for an undefined period of time." Megatron stated coldly.
Starscream gasped, his optics opening wide in terror.
The 'disembodied confinement' was the worst possible punishment one could be convicted to, worse than termination itself. The spark was removed from the convict's body, ( the body itself was, most of the time, destroyed) then placed on life support and stored in a dark drawer-like cell, deprived of all its senses and unable to complain or do anything about its predicament.
"At least, that is what my army will be led to believe." Megatron precised with a cruel, amused smile, and which made Starscream sag in relief. "But you will be put on high-surveillance on Cybertron," he continued, "directly under Shockwave's care. He'll be given the order to make sure that 'the new addition' to my team will mature and be delivered to me in the best of conditions."
At those words, Starscream felt sick again, if only because Megatron didn't seem to plan anything for the seeker himself, beyond his present role as a carrier for the warlord's future 'new recruit'.
Starscream knew that he wasn't off the hook. He would have been a fool to think he could get away so easily with his rebellious actions. But at least this time, he'd have time to plan a better escape from his future, dark predicament.
He remained where he was, seated on the rocky floor- and on his dignity. Bearing with the pain that hadn't lessened one bit, and to distract himself as he fought to remain conscious, he observed Megatron silently.
The slagger was standing there, patient, and wasn't even looking at him. Megatron was waiting for the space bridge to be ready, silent and calm, and everything in his attitude was spelling confidence and superiority as he appeared completely unaffected by the recent revelation that he'd soon be a sire.
Obviously, the warlord only cared for a new soldier, one to tame and train into mindless obedience, nothing less and nothing more.
Although Starscream hadn't expected Megatron to be happy or go sentimental about it ( in all truth, he hadn't expected- or wanted- him to ever find out) he still had hoped for something else than the blatant indifference Megatron displayed.
With disgust, the air commander looked away, knowing he shouldn't have expected otherwise from his sparkless brute of a leader.
Now, more than ever, he was comforted in the idea that he had been right to try getting rid of his leader before he could discover the little one's existence. He had certainly not changed his mind on the matter. If anything, it had reinforced is resolve.
Megatron has to die.
When the little one would be separated from his spark and safely placed in its protoform, Starscream would not let Megatron take it away from him. And, he would certainly not give his leader the occasion to dispose of him either. ( He wasn't a fool not to know what kind of fate awaited him, in the end)
Megatron's hands would go cold and grey before he could even put a claw on him or his little one.
The seeker didn't know what he would do or how he'd manage beyond that point. But for Megatron, so much was certain, he wished, predicted and promised only death.
And if, to make that possible, he'll have to play the obedient card for a while longer, so be it!
It was the lowest price to pay to insure his and his sparklet's safety and, in the meantime, it would give him some time to effectively plan a most painful revenge on a very undeserving sire.
Megatron...
Starscream smiled weakly but wickedly behind his leader's back. Comforted in his decision and at peace with his own mind, he finally allowed stasis lock to take him, his body gently slumping down and backward on the rocky ground.
To be continued.
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