That night, Starscream dreamed. He dreamed of warmth and of comfort. He dreamed he had a femme resting beside him, her servo rubbing his in a fond way. He dreamed she purred his name as she sat up and kissed his mouth, promising a quick return. In the dream, he had just closed his optics when the femme returned, two little sparklings in her arms.

One was mech, black and silver with bright red optics and a grin like his sire's. The other, a femme, was purple and black. Her optics were closed, but Starscream knew they would be red in the dream.

"This is Nightscream..." She lifted the mech, smiling when the mechling gave a shriek.

"Clever name," Starscream rasped as he sat up. "What's her name?"

"She's..."

The name was spoken as if under water. Starscream's smile faltered. "What?" The name was spoken again, but it was gargled, and then he was awake.

Tarn stood over him, smirking. "Good dream? Welcome to your nightmare." The mech stood straight and Starscream swallowed thickly. He was shackled to a cold metal slab, his helm secured so he faced Tarn. He couldn't move it, couldn't nod or shake his helm.

"If you could turn your helm, you would see my tools."

Torture devices. Starscream made a soft sound of fear. Tarn chuckled. "Oh, don't be afraid. If you tell me what I want to hear, I won't hurt you..."

Starscream opened his mouth to speak. He forced words to come to his glossa. "Decepticon...codes. I know...codes..."

"I don't want codes, cannon fodder!" Tarn slammed his fists down on the slab, rocking it. Starscream made a weak noise. Tarn disappeared from his sight and all Starscream could feel after that was agony as his wings were nearly ripped from his body.

"GIVE ME WHAT I WANT!"
"I don't know what you want," Starscream sobbed, and then there was a burst of warm Energon as his wings were gone.

ooo

"You took a lot of damage," the medic purred gently. She rubbed his helm, wiped his face clean. He closed his optics, scared to look at the ceiling. There, above him, were his precious wings. He heard the jangle of keys and the clink of chains, and he could move his peds. He curled into a ball as his helm was released and he wiped at his face with his long claws.

"Breathe a little, okay?" She took his face in her servos, kneeling. Red optics looked into his own and she smiled a little shaky grin he found he remembered...vaguely. He reached over with his servo and rested it on her cheek. "Hey..."

"Dreamed..." He focused on her, smiled at her surprise. "Dreamed."

"You dreamed?" She covered her mouth with her claws and smiled, her wings fluttering. She laughed a little and put her servos on her knees as she got up. "Good news! Oh, they'll be so happy...look, Starscream, I talked to a few buddies of mine, you know? And, uh, we're going to get you the sky."

Starscream stared at her in confusion. She was glancing at the door, her optics wide and wild. She was speaking code, and he couldn't understand. He whimpered a question, but she spoke over him.

"You like the sky. Remember how you, um, you, uh.." She bit her lip. He had that same bad habit of chewing his lip. He touched his mouth, feeling the scarred metal there. He bit his lip a lot. "We're gonna get you the sky...you're going to get your wings back. My carrier, she's really good with wings. Remember?"

He shook his helm wildly. He didn't follow what she was saying, and then the guards, feeling too much chatter had passed between them, came in to drag her out. Starscream didn't see her again for months.

Tarn abused him more and more, taking off claws and peeling paint with thin pieces of razor-sharp metal, but still Starscream didn't cough up what he wanted. He tried everything, codes, Decepticon secrets, but it seemed Tarn would only be satisfied by Starscream's secrets, and he couldn't remember if he had any...

He came to him again, tapping a thin rod against his pede to wake him up. Starscream tucked his mauled servos against his chest and whined weakly.

"Got anything you want to get off your chest?"

Starscream studied the thin rod. It was used on gladiators, he remembered. Memories of watching the gladiators when he was younger washed over him and he gasped as he remembered what happened to gladiators who didn't obey. Sure enough, Tarn waved an Insecticon prod threateningly. That could pump enough electricity into his system to shock his spark into inactivity. "I have a secret..."

"Go on..." Tarn knelt by his helm, running the thin rod almost fondly over his thigh. Starscream squirmed.

"I had two brothers," he rasped. He selected a memory he could actually recall. "Both younger...one of them pranked a lot. That's all he would do, was prank and tease..so one day, I got tired..." Starscream told this story once, to two Seekerlings he couldn't remember. They had laughed, but also learned a lesson. "I got tired of being pranked, so I pranked him. I was going to be in so much trouble if I confessed I was the one that hurt my brother, so I blamed it on our Keeper." He altered the memory slightly. He remembered blaming it on Thundercracker and the little Seekerling sobbing through his five-minute timeout. Starscream had felt terrible and he had let the Seekerling do whatever he wanted to him for months... "She was executed on the spot. My sire had no tolerance." His sire had been full of patience. "And he looked at me and said Good job, Starscream. I'm proud of you for telling the truth." Starscream lifted his helm. "I killed someone with a lie...imagine what the truth could do to someone..."

Tarn sat back on his heels, thinking. "You want me to tell you what I want out of you."

Starscream gazed into his optics, his own red ones hard and cold. Tarn smirked and Starscream internally jerked.

"I want your spark."

Starscream watched him leave and watched the door do it's usual struggle to close before he allowed himself to weep. He was in the middle of a game he was going to lose. Tarn had no use for him, no desire to shake anything out of him. He was bored, and he had a toy to play with...and when he was done, he would kill him. He would kill Starscream, and the Seeker could do nothing to stop him.

ooo

Starscream woke up with a jerk and a cry. Servos were touching his back. A voice, harder than the medic's, scolded him. "Stop squirming around. I'm assessing the damage. Primus, Starscream. What did you do to deserve this?"

The metal slab shifted as weight as added and there were grunts. Cold Energon splatted on his back and he shivered. Cool metal was laid down on his back and he turned his helm to see his mangled wings being matched up to his wounds.

A formerly pretty femme stood over him, her claws curled around his wings almost expertly. He watched her face, finding a resemblance. She looked like the pretty medic, the gentle one with the soft servos and kind words. He felt the want to like her, and he stayed as still as possible.

"Okay. I got good news and bad news. Good news is I can repair the damage. Bad news is, Tarn doesn't want me to. But if we're going to give you the sky, well..you're going to need your wings. So here's what I'm going to do..." She lowered her voice, coming around to his face. "I'm going to come back for you, and I'll bring some friends of mine, and when they come, we'll have a party. A celebration of sorts. You like parties, don't you? And when it's all over, I'll give you the sky and your wings. Deal?"

Starscream struggled to keep up. He wanted desperately to understand, but the words' meanings eluded him. He nodded, whimpering softly.

"It's okay to not understand yet...soon, you will, and you will be happy and pretty again." She rubbed his shoulder. "But it will take me a while...it will take me a very long while...don't lose hope."

Hope? He had lost that years ago. She was asking him to find it again? Yes, he told himself. He will find his hope and tough it out just a little bit longer. Just a little bit longer, he promised himself.

Just a little bit longer...