AN:

Hello all, this is the chapter I'm sure you've all been waiting for –the chapter where we actually get to see Alexis and Starscream properly interacting. Well, at least as properly as a human child and the alien that tried to kill her can interact.

Hehe, yep, this was certainly a fun one to write.

Dear SunnySides: Oh, he won't be coming around for a while yet. He has a lot of issues right now and as far as he's concerned Alexis is just another one on his list. *yoda voice* Much anger I sense in this one, yes? Haha, not to worry though, these things take time!

Hope you guys like this chapter! Be sure to review and tell me what you think!


Disclaimer: I do not own The Transformers or any of the transformers characters. I only own my OC Alexis and the plot.

Beta read by my amazing sister, subterraneangem. Seriously, go read her stuff!


Always

"There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher."
~Victor Hugo

Chapter Four

Starscream came out of stasis with a jolt, his systems frantically trying to keep up with his rapidly awakening frame. He was struggling to remember where he was and not being able to see anything through the clouds of warnings and notifications popping up on his HUD and spamming his vision did not help in the slightest.

It took far longer than it should have for him to get ahold of himself and regain his bearings.

He was inside a half-collapsed warehouse where he had set up his temporary hideout.

Starscream growled lowly, brought a servo to his nasal bridge, and checked his energon levels.

24 percent.

Slag.

That was close to 6 percent lower than they were before he had gone into recharge. His internal repair systems were sapping his energon faster than he could possibly replenish it. At this rate his own nanites would be the death of him. There was no way for him to turn the systems off; he did need them to repair his battle torn frame after all. He figured that even if he did he would still have the same problem, only not from repairs but from the internal bleeding he was sure he had. That would probably drain his remaining energon faster than anything else.

So he left his self-repair systems be.

If he could only access his subspace systems, he could ration out the few cubes he had stored on his person. One could never appreciate what they had until they could no longer had it. How ironic would it be to die of energon depletion with a two full cubes in his subspace? The universe's cruel sense of humor was not lost on Starscream.

He needed to repair his subspace systems.

Deciding that he needed a more efficient means of tracking his search, Starscream turned to the wall he had spent the night leaning up against and began marking out a grid of the fallen city. His deadly curved talons scraped easily against cement wall –leaving clear lines behind every mark. While not the most ideal means of mapping the area, Starscream would rather do this than waste what little energy he had left scanning and mapping a digital copy in his processor.

So far he had explored only a small section of the city, Starscream realized absently as he drew the map from his memory when he had circled the city from above before the battle.

The seeker hummed lowly, thoroughly absorbed in his work as he divided the city into single hic quandrants to explore. The way he had been scouring the city before was extremely inefficient and it disgusted Starscream that he had forgotten everything experience had taught him so easily.

Starscream's dark musings were interrupted by a sudden shriek and the tell tale shifting of debris indicating that he was not entirely alone.

The seekers lip curled as he realized that the constant pattering of the human insect's fuel pump had failed to cease during his recharge cycle.

How unfortunate.

Further analysis of the rapid rhythm, however, told him that the organic was still in some form of recharge -although it was obvious it was not restful. Starscream's spark swirled discontentedly when the sparkling continued to emit soft sounds of distress. He ignored it.

Night terrors were not something he was terribly fond of despite being quite familar with them, both in himself and in others. They were simply another side affect of war. And Starscream had long since become immune to such unpleasant side affects.

The sounds died down just about the time Starscream had decided his map was as accurate as it was going to get. The seeker could still hear the sparkling's rapidly thumping fuel pump at the edge of his range as it slowly returned to a normal rhythm. His spark sighed softly with misguided relief.

Starscream made a sour face, disgusted at his lack of control over his own spark.

"You forgot the warehouse." A small drowsy voice piped up from behind him and Starscream whirled around with his null rays aimed at the source.

Alexis flinched noticeably, but didn't back away.

The giant metal being snarled lowly and lowered its arms, "What warehouse?!" he hissed harshly.

"The secret one." The girl stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. A tiny smirk grew on her face at the mech's confused and furious expression. At least that what she thought it was. It was hard to read the metal man's face.

"Tell. Me." Starscream ordered demandingly, his denta grinding together.

Fearlessly, or at least what she hoped looked fearless, Alexis jumped down from her hiding spot and walked over to the wall Starscream had used to draw his map. It took up the entire wall and most of it she couldn't reach.

"It's underground. I found it when I was exploring." When she had been hiding. "It was full of boxes and weird things." It had reminded her a lot of her old dentist, with all the important looking equipment -although she had no idea why there would be a dentist under her apartment building.

Alexis looked the map up and down, looking for something in particular. When she found it, she pointed excitedly, "There! It's under the apartment house where I live!" she declared, jumping up and down to try and reach where she was pointing.

Starscream leaned forward, his frame creaking ominously above her and Alexis shrunk back closer to the wall. He drew a light 'X' over the building she had indicated.

He could feel her fear through the increase in her heartrate, he could smell it coming off her. He didn't relish in like he normally would, but he grinned viciously down at her anyways.

In one swift movement Starscream turned away and broke the brief optic contact –leaving the squishy sparkling desperately clutching the wall. She never looked away though.

Crouching low, the seeker ducked out of the building and set off in the direction of the underground warehouse. He had a feeling that the warehouse contained much more than the human sparkling could comprehend. Certainly something worth investigating in any case.

Alexis stood there quietly, taking short steady breaths to calm herself as she slid down the wall and landed on her rear with a heavy thump.

Breathe. Just keep breathing. She was okay. He hadn't hurt her.

Yet.

Alexis shook her head violently, dirty locks of blonde hair clinging to her face. She wasn't afraid of him, but he still scared her. She didn't want to be afraid of him. She wasn't supposed to be afraid of her guardian angel was she?

Besides, he hadn't killed her when she thought he was going to, so that must mean there was some good in him.

Right?

It took the girl a good few minutes before her knees would hold her weight without shaking. Alexis quickly decided that she would follow Starscream and let him lead her back to her apartment so that she could get some food and water. She was starving and her throat ached and burned painfully from her screaming earlier. Maybe she could find some of her clothes as well –the ones she had on were smelly and stiff from dried blood and other grime.

Her stomach rumbled hollowly as if to further punctuate her thoughts. Yes, food would be good and she didn't know how to get back to her apartment on her own anyways.

Mind made up, Alexis scrambled haphazardly through the fallen pieces of rubble and made her way out onto the streets. She could barely see where Starscream went, but was quickly able to catch up to him when she caught a glimpse of his massive wings around the corner of a ruined building.

As she got closer to him, she knew he had sensed her presence when he stiffened and his wings flicked rigidly upwards.

Other than that one small tell, Starscream simply continued walking and ignored her steadfastly. Alexis could tell he was ignoring her because he wouldn't look in her direction even if she was right there for him to see. She followed him for a few moments longer –having to nearly jog to keep up with his giant footsteps.

The little girl trailed behind him silently for a few moments before she felt it start weighing heavily on her.

"Thank-you." She said suddenly, surprising even herself.

Now this made Starscream pause, even if only for a second. The seeker snorted, glancing down at the tiny human scraplet with contempt. "What do you have to be thankful for, fleshling?"

Alexis slowed down, biting her lip all while holding Starscream's gaze. "Thank you for not killing me." Starscream frowned, his optics narrowing as she continued. "I know you wanted too, but you didn't." She offered, looking down and shrugging her shoulders.

Starscream didn't know what to make of her sincerity.

The seeker chuckled lowly, then laughed out loud. The human insect really believed that he had spared her of his own will?

"You know nothing." Starscream stated caustically, his tone sharp and derisive. "You honestly think I spared your worthless life? Let me tell you now, you are only alive because you are not worth the energon it would take to kill you."

His words were cruel and ate through her like acid, despite her knowing that they were true. Her father had always told her the same thing and now Starscream was too. How could it not be true?

Tears rapidly welled up in her big brown eyes as she processed the words, but she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

Not that he would care.

Swallowing thickly, Alexis steeled herself and kept walking behind the mech, although at a much more subdued pace. She ducked her face under the collar of her shirt, scrubbing fiercely at her tears. She was a strong girl, just like her mama always told her. She wouldn't let her meanie angel make her cry.

It seemed like only moments passed before they finally came up to her apartment complex.

It brought Alexis a huge surge of relief to see her home. It was one of the few buildings that remained relatively unscathed in the battle. A few windows were shattered here and there and it looked like a wall on the far side had caved in without disturbing the rest of the building. Aside from that, it was in pretty good shape.

Alexis found herself smiling despite everything else and ran ahead of Starscream and into the building. Her apartment was on the third floor and her mother always left a spare key with the receptionist under the keyboard. She grabbed it quickly and rushed up the stairs.

She was home.


Starscream inspected the building with a wary glance and hummed lowly to himself. It would be no easy task gaining entry to whatever warehouse lay hidden underneath. His scanners were useless until he had the energon required to run them. He was essentially blind to everything hidden from his optics. He didn't like it.

He watched the human sparkling enter the building in a frenzied rush. The seeker cared little for the squishy's motives and let it be.

He didn't need the distraction in any case.

He tapped lighty with his thruster pede, his helm cocking slightly as he focused on the hollow sound and felt the echoing vibrations through his thrusters. Starscream's lips curled.

He despised the idea of going underground.

However, underground or not, Starscream would do whatever needed to be done to get off the filthy planet he was currently stranded on.

But first he had to find a way to actually get into the bunker.

The winged mech glanced at the one remaining missile attached to his upper arm. While he currently had no way of firing the explosive, the missile itself would still be servicable. It would simply be a matter of manually detaching the balistic weapon and rigging it to blow while he took cover.

Starscream grimaced at what he was about to do and placed a clawed servo around the missile mounted on his appendage. Gritting his denta, Starscream slowly vented out and yanked -ripping the attached explosive straight out of his arm.

The seeker let out a short roar of pain, startling a small flock of carrion birds, before clamping down on his vocoder and stifling his pain to a series of low hisses and vulgarities. A string of increasingly urgent alerts began popping up on his HUD, notifying him of his newly inflicted damages.

He was leaking out what precious energon he had left and he only had a few klicks to patch himself up before the self inflicted damages sent him into stasis lock.

Ever so carefully, Starscream placed the still active explosive to the side and swiftly went to work on clamping down the energon lines in his arm. Had he tools of any kind at all, he might have not had to resort to such a... primitive means of removing the missile from his person, but alas.

He made do.

Its what he always did.

Starscream's crimson optics flickered briefly and dimmed for a short moment as he dealt with the torrents of new warnings flooding his vision. He pushed them away with a harsh thought and rebooted his optics to clear the static starting to form in the corners.

The seeker grunted when he tweaked one of the more sensitive wires in his arm and sent a fresh wave of pain coursing through his systems.

Okay, so maybe not one of his brighter ideas, Starscream thought darkly as he finished up on his arm.

Wincing only slightly, Starscream pulled himself up with his good arm and leaned against the building nearest to him with a groan. The building shuddered, but otherwise remained intact.

If his calculations were correct, and they always were, then he should be able to place the missile at a specific point that would open up the underground bunker without caving it in.

The only problem would be getting where he could place the makeshift explosion without being caught in the blast.

There was a small gasp from below, and Starscream turned to see the human sparkling standing next to a puddle of his energon. The seeker's initial glower quickly turned into a leering grin despite the pain searing through his arm.

Perfect.


So if you didn't believe me when I gave those warnings in the first chapter, do you believe me now? Starscream is not a nice mech and Alexis has a past of her own that influences her actions around him. These two poor, lost souls are not going to be good for each other for a long while yet.

Also for those wondering about the other bots and cons, you'll just have to be patient. This story is very Starscream centric and the other guys won't be showing up for many years yet. Yes, that's right. Years.

Until then, enjoy all the lovely Starscream angst!