Reuploaded because of some weird issues.
Once she was finally released from Knock Out's domain, Arcee trudged behind Starscream to his next, crossing her arms over her chest as a small cope and lowering her helm when a much larger Con viewed her from his height. Many drones watched the two walk out of each corridor, as though waiting for her to make the wrong move so they could raise their weaponry at her. Starscream acted as though he took no such notice of it all. Once they've reached to what appeared like the very end of the ship, Starscream stopped, "We're here."
Typing in a password, the doors opened and Starscream walked in first before Arcee went in cautiously. The whole room was a lot smaller than she expected for a high commander. There were no windows, a dim purple light was all there was to the wall they faced coming in. The berth was small enough to hold two Cybertronians if they touched either one's shoulders when laid out. A bunch of cabinets clumped into one side and then many shelves attached to most of the other walls. "It was originally the storage for medical usage, such as spare parts and tools. After being bumped down a rank, I also had to give up my living quarters to that wretched spider!" he hissed.
"Speaking of that groundfeeder, where is she?" Arcee asked.
"Heaven knows, or most likely the Pit does. She scurried off after your team beaten her for the right of The Immobilizer, so I'm told," Starscream said. "I hope she takes her time coming back, but then again I won't get to see Lord Megatron beat someone else to death other than myself."
Arcee didn't speak, her spark sinking as she imagined her team's attempts to find her and bring her back home. What would Jack do without her? Who would be there to guard him at night, pick him up at school? Obviously Ratchet, or maybe even Optimus. Then again, what would others think if he was suddenly picked up by a semi truck? Would make perfect sense by Ambulance.
"You must be exhausted," Starscream patted the berth with his claws. "Go ahead, rest those optics of yours."
"Why should I?" she growled in a raspy voice.
"Because I don't want you to randomly collapse out of lack of recharge!"
"I'm more vulnerable in my sleep than awake."
"Says you," Starscream decided to lay on the berth himself just to prove to her it wasn't as dangerous as she thought. He put out his arms. "See?"
Arcee scoffed. She instead began to examine more of the room. Every now and then she'll spot certain items that appeared rather strange like a vehicon's wing or arm shoved in the corner, and a beat up miniature computer-must have been centuries old since she'd never seen one unless it was in a historical file. Like around the Age of the Primes or however old Ratchet must've been.
"Why can't I just sleep in the medbay? Even where ever you keep your prisoners is better than this."
"Is it really hard to show how nice I can be...sometimes?" Starscream sighed. "Look, I understand where I'm at in your view right now, but if you are to survive the Nemesis and walk out alive, I sincerely believe you should place all your trust with me. I can help you get out of tight jams like, for example, if you pick a fight with the other Cons. You're one of Optimus Prime's most loyal followers, and I know about the majority of this flying scrapmetal will want to beat the life out of you."
"It would be better than sleeping side-by-side with-"
"YES, me, I think I understand that clearly, two-wheeler, but at the moment does it matter? You're here, I'm here, you're in my quarters, the one haven you can possibly have that isn't the medical bay!" Starscream stood up and walked towards her with a burning gaze of hatred and annoyance. "Face it, Arcee, you're stuck here. You won't be able to leave unless you give that bumbling brute out there what he needs! Since I have no clue in what his actions will be, all I can say is that you might as well make it home here!"
She felt like she was being scolded as a sparkling by an incredibly childish adult. But to her dismay Starscream was right. Both Primus and The Pit knew just how long she'll be here, how much farther it will be from her friends. There will be a chance the Cons may even leave Earth all together, though it would be a happy ending to the Bots and humans, she wouldn't even have gotten to say good-bye to her team, to her partner, Jack.
Arcee let out a shuddering sigh and looked up at Starscream with misty optics. "...Alright."
Starscream produced an accepting smile. "Good..If you'd like..I'll sleep on the floor tonight, and you may take the berth. You're a guest here, and guests must be treated as properly as can be."
"...Thank-you..," she said in her most quiet voice. What choice did she have to not say so?
Knock Out had played with his tools, bored out of his mind whilst Breakdown was too busy throwing an empty cube of energon into the air and batting at it like a cat. The doors to the medical bay opened once more, both expecting it to be a dismantled drone, only for it to reveal Lord Megatron. The two quickly exited their small routine and stood up, back straight, helm head high, and arms to the side.
"G-greetings, my lord!" Knock Out smiled.
"Cut the scrap, Knock Out, have you examined Arcee thoroughly and carefully?" Megatron leaned in closer to the smaller mech to where their foreheads nearly touched.
"Y-yes, yes, I did!" he ran over to the large monitor and logged into the saved file that shown the very body format that was the female Autobot. The body circulated slowly, showing every little detail from what was Arcee's functioning unit. But this wasn't what Megatron needed so far.
"Her CNA, I need it directly from her spark chamber," he stated.
"You make me do a body scan, and all you need is her-!" Knock out would've started his rant about just how psychotic the Autobot was with him if Megatron hadn't made a grab for his head and pulled him up high into the air, to where he hung over his and Breakdown's heads.
"Her body scan was only the beginning, you pompous rust eater! I need her CNA as the second part, and not just any CNA you can receive from just anywhere on her body. The spark chamber contains the strongest. Do not underestimate my orders, Knock Out!"
"O-of c-cou-course!" Knock Out stuttered, feeling his lord's grip growing tighter and tighter. Megatron gave him a disgusted sneered and dropped him, a loud thud echoing the room. Knock Out coughed, grasping his sore helm, and peered back up at him with fearful optics.
"..If you don't mind me asking, my lord, what's so special about Arcee?" Breakdown asked which gave him a stern look but that was when Megatron finally let out a calming sigh.
"She's just...she's just a very special essential part of my plan. I cannot speak further of this," Megatron went to leave but Breakdown blocked him. This took a lot of courage for the brute, because it all vanished when he felt his leader's furious glare burning into his processor and started to fumble with his servos. Knock Out took a good look at his partner before quickly looking away, believing it would be the last sight of him to ever be alive.
"C-could you at least tell us? Truthfully it's not my place to ask for more out of you, but if you told us-"
"It is not against my will! If it is of no importance to any of you, than what what would be the use to allow such information to flow through one audio receptor and out the next! It would be a waste of my breath and a waste to use more of whatever intelligence you have left! Step aside, Breakdown, if you value your life!"
Breakdown did so and didn't dare watch his master leave in a huff.
"...Dumb Exhaust Port," Knock Out threw a wrench at him.
When did she go to sleep? How long had she been in such a deep recharge? Why had the berth suddenly become so warm? Why did she suddenly feel so at peace, without always waking up each day since Arcee had been on Earth feeling so tense? Was it because she now had no other reason to feel like that again? Was it because her worst fears have already been experienced and so forth no point? Or maybe it was because there was finally someone to show her that there was nothing to be scared of this morning...?
Or maybe it was the fact that something was squishing her into the berth, a sort of fluid dripping down her cheek, and an agonizing sound that just made her want to rip the source of it apart with her own denta.
Arcee groaned, her face so squished her lips were pursed. The source that made this so was dark in her line of vision, and was even warm. Her anger was soothed by this warmth, not just the temperature but just the sudden feeling of finally being held. This was interrupted by a snore.
"Frimuth!" she tried to hiss. She wasn't being held, she was being laid on. Starscream's arm was the reason why her face was so disorted as it drapped across her helm while his head rested on top of it. A string of drool plopped onto her cheek and left a slithering trail to form a puddle beneath her chin. The lowest part of his body suddenly bonked into her, causing him to release multiple grunts as though in a struggle, then got back to his snoring. She couldn't shake him off because he was practically pinning her to the platform. For such a skinny mech he sure was heavy and so forth was stuck there for who knows how long.
"Why meh?" Arcee asked, optics trying to meet with the ceiling. "Outta all da oders, why hem?"
There was a startling snort and then a groan. Finally the Seeker was waking up.
"GIT OFFFA ME!"
"ARCEE?!" Starscream leapt off of her, his string of drool flying in midair and splattering all over her face. Arcee snarled, bolting up the moment she was freed and lunged towards him, right fist pulling back in preparation for impact. It was as though time froze. Starscream's panicked expression churning slowly into a wince as he too readied for her unexpected strength to damage his face. Arcee's battle cry came out in slow motion, like a forever moan. She would've finished it if it weren't for a ball of sparking electricity suddenly burst into her side and send her flying into the wall, her back creating a sickening crack that echoed everywhere.
Up so high on the wall, Arcee fell ontop of a few shelves before she landed with a loud thump a moment after a separate thump sounded not too close to her.
"You idiot!" Starscream's voice shrieked in the air. Arcee was stunned, time soon returning at a regular pace as her body started to react in jolts after being electrocuted. She couldn't speak besides her voice box letting out sudden stutters. Her optics literally shaking in their sockets as she tried her best to keep focus.
Starscream finally came into her view. His face was surprisingly concerned as he tried to touch her gently, only to be shocked. He growled and glared up.
"You idiot, you fragging idiot! You didn't have to use that thing on her, as much as it was a mere accident, she had the right to strike me!"
"I'm the idiot? You're allowing her to hit you?!" Of course it was Knock Out, who else contained the power of electricity within a staff?
"She's our guest! As much as it is confusing as how she must be treated like one, we must obey our master's orders!"
"Oh, so NOW you want to listen to him! But why not, if it involves a pretty little femme, who gets to sleep in your berth, follow you wherever you go, and must do whatever you say!"
Starscream roared, lunged forward, and began to attack the crazed medic by slashing his long claws at his chest. Knock Out screamed-and she meant, screamed in peril, using his prod to block Starscream's attacks and away from his paint.
"What is going on over here?!" Megatron's voice boomed, giving Arcee's body an extra strong jolt. The floor itself shuddered in fear when his pedes stomped across it, his knee landing in a thud to kneel as she felt his cold servo roughly grab her helm and lift it up to make stern optical contact. Arcee's vision began to blur once again, everything acting like an illusion. When Megatron's face appeared, at least two more of him popped up.
"Knock Out, you should be careful next time when treating our guest such a way. Prepare your medical bay."
"Y-yes sir." Knock Out and Starscream gave each other disgusted sneers before the sportscar ran off and Starscream watched Megatron suddenly pick up Arcee, who let out a groan. Her back spasmed in a pain too great for her to handle. Starscream tensed, the emotion he had felt with Arcee in the beginning come back up, but alongside it another emotion that fueled his anger towards Megatron. He didn't know why it came back, he just knew that he hated the fact of Megatron touching Arcee.
Megatron stared at Arcee for a little then suddenly gave murderous optics to the Seeker standing not too far away.
"I told you to keep her out of harms way," he said in a voice that just dripped with venom that might've been Unicron's.
Starscream didn't know how to say the rant he was planning in his processor as his voice box only let out a, "Ehheheh.."
Megatron didn't stop glaring at him until suddenly his servos moved swiftly to position Arcee's body in his arms. By having her face near his chest and her body twisted in an angle that appeared abnormal, he allowed himself to twist it the other direction and then be answered with another CRACK! from her. Arcee gasped loudly like she was receiving her first breath.
He roughly placed her back on her feet, which only made the Autobot femme fall to her knees and begin coughing.
"Th-the medical bay?" Starscream asked hesitantly.
"Only to get Knock Out out of here fast enough before I could kill him," Megatron continued to stare at Arcee before walking out. Once gone, Starscream rushed to Arcee and helped her up.
"Are..are you alright?" he asked. His tone, to Arcee, was surprisingly full of such concern. She should've felt safe, yet she didn't and shoved him away roughly. She used the nearby wall for support, resting her helm as she stared off to where Megatron had dissappeared. The pain was slowly going away and the fact at just what Megatron had just done, though helped, was irritating her greatly.
"I'm-I'm fine...just a surprise that's all...but I just didn't know..," Arcee coughed some more, "..he knew such a method."
"Method? What method!? The method to nearly breaking your back into more pieces than it was already? I'm surprised he managed to control his own strength and not just SNAP you in half!" and there it was, finally, Starscream's rant.
Pfffffffff sorry this took so long! Maaayybeee I should've put a reminder that it would take a while before finally seeing serious Starcee action and that there would be a few hints of Megatron/Arcee, but not in a romantic way.