Chapter 2

He watched both Megatron and Optimus Prime fall, had seen his blasts burning through Megatron´s weakened body.

There was no way that even the now former leader of the Decepticons could survive this.

He felt a triumph like never before. All that he ever did, his entire existence, it came down to this single point in time. Victory, he would be the beginning of his absolute victory.

Starscream was now laughing loudly as he flew over the devastated area.

Besides him, only a single being had seen what had happened, the young Autobot who was now running to Optimus' side.

Hotrod was now turning to him. It seemed as if the Autobot was angry about his actions.

"Damn you!" the Autobot yelled as he began shooting at him.

Starscream only smiled. Strange, all he did was kill their worst enemy. So why was this guy so livid? he thought mockingly.

After dodging a few blasts, he fell back from Hotrod´s assault. No need to get into a fight now and he didn´t want to risk any damage to his "new" body.

It didn´t matter. He had what he wanted, both leaders were dying

That meant it was all his now.

As he got out of Hotrod´s reach, the ghost was slowly drawing back from the present Starscream´s mind.

He had killed Megatron, the Air Commander realized.

Ironically, the situation wasn´t so different from Starscream´s failed attempts in the past.

xxxxxxx

Beast-wars era, 1 day "before" (flashback)

The Predacons and Maximals were locked into one of their many stand-offs.

What they didn´t knew was that a well known spectator was watching their fight from a safe distance. Starscream´s spark was hiding between a rift in a nearby mountain, out of sight.

Despite being bodiless and having no optics or sensors, he was able to perceive things around him quite well. Why that was the case despite him lacking any physical means, he had to admit he himself didn´t know.

And while the robots of both sides were targeting each other, he himself was looking for a valuable target.

Some of them were looking quite different, he realized. Apparently, the fighters of the Beast Wars had done some upgrades, with Optimus Primal and "Megatron" first in line.

Their new forms looked more metallic and stronger than their original bodies, but they were still puny in his eyes, nothing in comparison to the original Transformers.

Ultimately it didn´t matter to him. All he was looking for was his new host body.

The two groups consisted of Optimus Primal, Dinobot, Cheetor, Rattrap, Tigertron and Airrazor at the one and Megatron, Inferno, Tarantulas, Blackarachnia, Rampage and Quick-Strike on the other side.

A few of them were fighting each other in close combat while others were exchanging fire from their positions of cover.

Their two leaders were under the ones who were fighting one on one.

"Well Optimus, I guess we can´t just call it a peace for now and you will just let us get what we want?" the Predacon leader asked him, seemingly relaxed, but with obvious sarcasm.

"In one word Megatron, no," Primal answered, going into a fighting stance.

He knew of his enemy´s habit for theatrics and was more than used to the fact that the Predacon often seemed to be talking to hear his own voice.

"I thought so," Megatron said with a smile. He was already aiming his blaster again.

The reason for the fight was over one of the many stasis pods that had been scattered over this planet as the ships of the Maximals and Predacons had first landed. Since then, a race had broken out between the two factions for the remaining stasis pods in order to recruit new forces.

Starscream already knew that the pod in question was defective and the Maximal-protoform inside had long ago perished.

So this entire battle was actually completely pointless. But it provided a good opportunity for him.

Primal and Megatron were occupied with each other. With some luck maybe they would weaken each other enough so that he could take out both of them.

If he could take command of the band of Predacons, maybe he wouldn´t even need the alien installation to destroy the Arc. And it would be a bonus to be in charge of a fighting group again, even if it was only a small band of rogues.

The only question was whose body he should take.

Cheetor and Rattrap were in a shooting match with Inferno and Blackarachnia.

Dinobot was clashing with Quick-Strike, and the two Maximals Tigertron and Airrazor were battling Tarantulas and the new Predacon called Rampage.

He was only able to take over those of Decepticon heritage, so all Maximals or reprogrammed protoforms fell out.

That left either Megatron himself, not a good idea since he had already targeted him for assassination, Dinobot or Tarantulas.

And he knew which of the two was stronger.

He saw that the duo of Airrazor and Tigertron was slowly getting the upper hand against their two opponents. Their advantage was that they, in contrast to the two Predacons, were actually cooperating and working together.

The one named Rampage, on the other hand, looked like a berserker who could barely hold himself back from attacking his own team-mates. His fighting style was brutal and barely in control.

Beside that there was something off about this one, something strange and irregular. Even as only a floating spark, he could feel it. Even if Rampage had not been a reprogrammed Maximal, he would have thought twice about trying to take him over.

Dinobot had won his fight, Starscream good.

The Predacon turned Maximal was standing above his defeated foe and in this moment, as nobody was paying attention, the spark drifted into the body of the unsuspecting robot.

Starscream was now looking through Dinobot's eyes. Quick-Strike was unconscious, he confirmed and it seemed nobody else had witnessed what just happened.

He smiled. The Maximals were winning this little battle, not that he cared, but Optimus by himself was now on the defensive. Maybe it was time for him to help "his" leader.

He aimed at the two robots.

But before he had the chance to shoot, he himself was attacked. A couple of missiles hit the ground close to him, causing him to lose his aim and forcing him to fight back. Tarantulas, he recognized the Predacon who was shooting at him in anger.

"You!" he shouted.

In the next moment the spider-con was hit by a plasma explosion and slammed against the next wall of rock.

The Maximal Cheetor was standing a few meters from him, holding a smoking gun in his hands. "You better look out," he told him.

Megatron, at this point, realized the state that his troops were in.

"Well, it seems luck is not with us today," he said. "In that case, goodbye Optimus Primal. Predacons retreat," he ordered.

The Predacon leader lifted off the ground, closely followed by his underlings, a few of them dragging along their deactivated comrades.

No, Starscream thought as he saw after the withdrawing Predacon group. He had been so close. If it had not been for the interference of that fool... But he still had his plan with the alien-device in the back-hand, so this didn´t matter in the end.

"Hey Dinobot," he heard Cheetor ask, "everything okay?"

"Yes Cheetor, everything is alright," Starscream answered.

xxxxxxx

Autobot City in the year 2005 (end-flashback)

The Decepticons were retreating. Behind them, Autobot City lay in ruins, the mangled bodies of dead or damaged Transformers all over the place, two of them belonging to the leaders of both factions.

Hotrod was kneeling next to Optimus.

"I shouldn´t have tried to interfere," he said to Kup who was standing close to him. "You were right, it was Optimus' fight. I was not able to even make a difference."

"You did what you thought was right kid," the older Autobot told him reassuringly. "We need to bring him to the med bay, now. Maybe Optimus can still be saved."

All over the city, Decepticon warriors were fleeing, a few carrying injured comrades, with the Autobots in some cases still shooting at them.

One of them was Astrotrain. The triple changer transformed into his train-mode at it´s largest size, pulling its full mass from sub-space, becoming the escape vehicle for the others.

Out of everyone present, there was only one real winner.

Air Commander Starscream was thinking about what had happened while he and the others boarded Astrotrain..

He had finally killed Megatron, after all these years. But it hadn´t been as he had imagined, not in the slightest.

He had speculated on Megatron´s demise and had also hoped for Prime´s, that was true, but he had not planned to act on it until later.

Secretly, he had to admit to himself he didn´t know why he acted in that way. It hadn´t been a conscious decision.

What happened was nearly as if something in him had taken over and acted on it´s own.

xxx

What he didn´t know was that he was more right than he could ever imagined.

Somewhere in the back of his consciousness the other Starscream, the bodiless spark, was watching the situation and his counterpart.

He scanned his other self´s mind, watching his memories. As far as he could tell the lives they had lived were for a great part identical up to this point, but not completely.

He could for example not find anything about his old plan to blow up the planet Earth to harvest the unleashed energy and to destroy Autobot and Decepticon alike, all those years ago. There were also other events that happened differently from what he remembered.

All in all, by his impression, he found his counterpart to be quite weak, at least by his standards. This other Starscream had never gone to the limits, never did the most extreme to reach his goals.

He was, by all rights, a pale shadow of his true self. But that was okay by him. His double would only serve as a host for his true mind anyway.

He knew from the mind of his counterpart that their two worlds were also identical in another point: the Decepticons ruled Cybertron.

And with Megatron and Optimus Prime out of the way it was now all his. If what the Vok had told him was true, Unicron would also not be here to derail everything like in the other world.

The only thing left was the price the Vok would demand for their help. With some luck, maybe the two sides would wipe each other out before they came to him, he thought.

And even if not, maybe he could still find a way to turn the situation to his advantage.

xxx

Astrotrain´s voice brought Starscream, both of him, out of their thoughts.

"Our mass is too great. We have to get lighter or we will never make it to Cybertron."

Of course, the plan, it shot through his head, how could he forget about something like this?

Before the battle had started, the Air Commander and the triple changer had made a secret deal.

They knew that the chance that Megatron could be damaged during the fight would be high, even if his destruction was too much to hope for.

So Astrotrain had, on purpose, filled up with too little fuel to make it back to Cybertron. While it was enough to make it through the weightless space alone, it was not enough to withstand the gravitation sources on the way and to land safely.

The idea was simple: should Megatron be wounded during the fight, Starscream would order Astrotrain to carry them back to Cybertron. On their way, when it would be far too late to turn around, it would become clear that they wouldn´t make it.

Knowing his comrades, it would be easy to persuade the others to get rid of the wounded and of their leader. Maybe they would not even have to voice it themselves.

In case Megatron would be still intact at the end of the battle or already dead, they would warn the others about the danger and target a location on Earth to find some energon to refuel.

Maybe this would even have improved their own status under the troops.

The plan was perfect. Until he somehow managed to let it all completely slip his mind. And the idiot Astrotrain had, of course, not the sense to stop the execution by himself.

In the background the other Starscream, the visitor, was silently laughing. It seemed that his partial possession had some effect on the mind of his double.

Megatron was already dead. So the entire plot had become senseless. All they would accomplish was pointlessly throwing good soldiers away.

Starscream remembered that he had seen Skywarp and Thundercracker under the injured, his wing-mates.

But now it was too late to get out.

"Fellow Decepticons," he said, playing his role, "Astrotrain had asked us to lighten our burden." The words tasted like acid in his mouth.

A murmur went through the lines at his words.

"In that case I say survival of the fittest," the Constructicon Bonecrusher burst out.

The five injured robots in question were the two elite seekers and all three Insecticons, five very valuable warriors.

Thundercracker and Skywarp had been his partners for millions of years, since only a few centuries after the date of his creation. It was not exaggerated to say they were his brothers.

Despite that, he would have been willing to sacrifice them to destroy Megatron. But this was completely senseless.

Starscream tried to think of a possible alternative, one that didn´t involve losing his own air-group. Maybe he and the other seekers could fly the rest of the way by themselves. But they were all low on energy too.

Maybe it was not yet too late to turn around to Earth.

In that moment a dark veil fell over his consciousness.

Starscream had followed his counterpart´s thoughts. He didn´t knew if he should be moved or disgusted by this worry about his team-mates.

But he just couldn´t let it happen

Nobody recognized the short glowing in Starscream´s eyes as the ghost took control again.

"Well, I think majority vote shall decide. Everybody who is in favor of Bonecrusher´s suggestion may rise his hand," he said, pointing out where the idea suppostly came from, before he lifted his own arm.

The injured were watching in shock and horror what was playing out before their eyes.

"Aye." The voices halled through the room, all in favor.

None of them truly wanted to do this, but their own lives were threatened and they were Decepticons. They all believed that the risk of death was a constant factor in the lives of warriors and they believed in their own survival before that of others.

"And against?" Starscream asked.

Only the five damaged robots raised their voices.

"The majority is in favor," the Air Commander said smugly.

He watched with a diabolical grin as the wounded were,despite pleas and protests, dragged and thrown out of the air-lock.

In their new forms as Cyclonus and Scourge, he remembered, Skywarp and Thundercracker would have become two of his most dangerous rivals.

It was better to get rid of them now.

The wrecked bodies of the five warriors were drifting through space while the shuttle continued his way to Cybertron.

Author´s note: In the beast wars part of this chapter Starscream notices the new trans-metal forms of some of the characters, but of course does not recognize them as such. He thinks of them as simple upgrades.

He also understandably mistakes Rampage, who was created from a copy of his own spark, for a reprogrammed protoform. But on a subconscious level he realize something is strange about him.