Chapter 4: Starscream Wakes
Rachet had Optimus order more parts. Apparently, some parts were more damaged then the Autobot leader had originally thought. Rachet had removed several armor upgrades from Starscream. Without them, he looked a lot more like the Seeker Optimus remembered.
Bumblebee and Bulkhead had found every part that had come off the Seeker, and the medic had searched through them and threw away the parts that were too badly damaged to be of any use to Starscream, but kept the ones he thought he could repair.
Prowl would occasionally ask for Optimus' assistance when it came to memories about the mech, and Sari said that creating the spark would take longer than she expected. After two days longer than she had originally planned , Sari had created a new spark.
It was white and unliving and would remain so until it went into Starscream's spark chamber. Rachet knew that it would be just plain stupid to put the spark in before he and Prowl were finished with their work.
"Optimus, I need your help," the old medic said one day.
Optimus walked over and looked the Seeker over. He was looking a lot better than when he had first found him. Many of the dents were out, most of the gashes were patched up, his optics fixed, and the hole in his forehead, where the All Spark fragment once rested, was filled in. But when you looked closely enough, you could see thin scars on his chest, neck, shoulder, and wings. They were millions of years old and were almost impossible to see. He turned his gaze to Rachet and asked, "What do you need help with?"
"You ordered that new set of wings like I asked?"
"Yes, they should be here tomorrow. But Sentinel is getting a little suspicious about us asking for so many parts."
"Since when do you care about what Sentinel thinks?"
"Good point."
"Anyway, I need you to hold Starscream up while I remove these wings."
Optimus nodded, then gently brought the Seeker to a sitting position, one hand propping up his head, another around the Seeker's slim waist to steady him. Removing the wings was fairly easy, since they were so badly damaged.
But Optimus knew that it was painful for Starscream, since the wings were one of the most sensitive parts on a Seeker's body. As Rachet removed them, Starscream tensed up, flinched, and whimpered. When he had them off, the medic hauled them over to a garbage truck they had brought in.
Since most of the things they threw away were too big to put into a garbage can or dumpster, they had to settle for the garbage truck or to walk down to the dump themselves. He dropped the wings in and there was a loud crash, which startled both Prowl and Optimus, when the wings hit the bottom of the truck.
Rachet took a minute to breathe, then asked, "How can he even walk with those things on his back? Even Bulkhead would fall over with them on."
Optimus and Prowl laughed at this, even the medic chuckled after a minute.
"Alright Optimus, turn him over so I can put the temporary plating on."
Optimus did so, then watched Rachet as he took some platting off a tray setting close to the berth, then began to weld it to the Seeker's back. Starscream continued to flinch and whimper as the medic welded the plating onto him.
"Okay, turn him back over."
Optimus did as requested, and gently got the Seeker on his back. The mech sat back down and watched the medic and Prowl continue to work.
***
After about a month, Prowl had finally fixed and retrieved all of Starscream's memories, fixed his personality, retrieved all of his knowledge on blades, agility, and completely turned off his null-rays, since he didn't know how the Seeker would react when he first woke up.
Shortly afterward, Rachet had finished all of the major repairs to Starscream's body. All that was left to fix, was his vocalizer, which would take another month to repair, several wires that either snapped, but easily repaired, or short circuited, some of his circuits were over-loaded, and some of his systems were still down. Other than that, he would be able to get up and move around a bit, but Rachet would recommend he didn't, rather than risk him falling apart.
The medic put the new spark in the newly repaired spark chamber. A second later it came to life. Instead of an evil Decepticon color, it glowed silver blue. It healed all the minor damaged wires quickly and brought all of Starscream's systems back on-line. Optimus looked down at his friend and waited.
***
Starscream felt his systems coming on-line. He kept his optics off-lined, not wanting to see the Decepticon base, Blitzwing, or Megatron. Especially not Megatron. He began to wonder if the procedure was done and that he would be able to think and feel, but have no control. He shook that off quickly, thinking that idea ridiculous.
The Seeker then noticed that his whole body ached. And he had the biggest processor ache in the history of processor aches. What? He had been repaired before he was put into stasis. His tanks were aching too. He was hungry? Why was he hungry? He'd had a good few energon cubes before he ran into his father. His energy levels were also desperately low. What in Primus' name was wrong with him?
He then noted that his body felt stiff and the aches, in some places, were beginning to throb. He also wasn't restrained and he could feel several cables and wires invading his cockpit. He on-lined his optics and nearly growled when they didn't come on as quickly as they should.
At first, all he could see were shadows. Then he could make out a few shapes. Finally, he was looking up at a mech with and Autobot insignia on his shoulder. He stared into the oceanic optics and saw something familiar. The Autobot smiled and took his hand and ran his thumb over each of Starscream's digits.
The Seeker remembered his child-hood friend, Optimus, and how he would do the same thing this mech was doing when he was upset. He looked more closely at the mech's face, then recognition hit him.
"Optimus?"
He froze, he felt his lips move but no sound came out. That was another thing to add to the growing list of what was wrong with him.
'What's happened to me!?' he asked himself, panic beginning to rise in his spark.
Optimus sensed Starscream's panic and gently squeezed the Seeker's hand. It helped calm him, somewhat. "Yeah, it's me Starscream," Optimus began, "I knew this is going to be a shock but…You think you've only been in stasis for a few cycles don't you?"
Starscream nodded, an unknown fear bubbling up in his spark.
"Star, you haven't been in stasis for cycles. That day Megatron went into your memory was millions and millions of stellar-cycles ago. You've been a Decepticon all of those stellar-cycles."
Something snapped inside of the Seeker, he felt his optics widen and he shook his head. No. No, it couldn't be true. It couldn't be! But even then, the memories of all those years that had been stolen from him returned.
He remembered his battles on Earth, he remembered fighting Optimus and his team for the All Spark. How it shattered and a piece became embedded into his forehead. He remembered everything, from his numerous attempts to kill his friend and his team, to every last one of his cruelties, and how had nearly deactivated.
Starscream heard several loud, frantic beeps and his systems were going wild.
"Optimus!" a voice exclaimed, "He's panicking!"
He remembered that voice. It belonged to a dark-skinned, organic, red-headed girl, Sari. He had tried to kill her too. "Star," Optimus said, continuing to squeeze the Seeker's hand gently, "You've got to calm down."
'I can't!' Starscream shouted in his mind.
The beeping noises continued to become more frantic. He lashed out at them with his free hand. His clawed digits connected with one of the devices monitoring his systems. It sparked and fizzed, then fell to the ground. One of the beeping noises stopped. But the second the device hit the ground, Starscream felt pain in his chest.
He didn't look down, afraid of what he would see. He grabbed the cables invading his cockpit and yanked them out, causing himself more pain and damage. He didn't care. He wanted all of these noises to stop, he wanted to be rid of the cables, he wanted these memories to go away; he wanted it all to go away!
An old, white and red mech grabbed Starscream's arm and held him down; Optimus doing the same on the other side. The Seeker banged his head on the medical berth once, in frustration. He started to squirm against the two mechs restraining him.
He heard the older mech exclaim, "Optimus, his systems are shutting down again!"
"Star! Please, calm down!"
Starscream clenched his hands into fists, his claws sank into Optimus'; he could feel his blood soaking his finger tips. The Seeker now remembered the older mech. Another he had tried to kill, Rachet.
He thrashed and squirmed harder. All these painful memories of the things he did, he wanted them all to go away!
Rachet grabbed a syringe from the night stand by the medical berth, then practically stabbed the needle into Starscream's neck. All the Seeker felt was a little sting as the needle pierced his metal flesh, then he felt the cold liquid enter his systems. Then he felt nothing. He went suddenly lax, and he couldn't move any part of his body.
"Rachet?" Optimus asked.
The old mech got off the Seeker, then sat the syringe back down and explained, "Just a paralyzing serum. He'll be fine. Just don't want him causing anymore damage to himself."
Optimus looked into Starscream's, now silver, optics. The panic was still there. He wiped away the silver tears that Starscream didn't realize he had been crying. Then he gave him a small, sad smile.
"It's okay Star," he began, "You're okay…You're safe."
Starscream calmed down a little. He off-lined his optics, suddenly feeling tired, and went into a dreamless recharge. Rachet started removing the different devices from Starscream's cockpit. Optimus pried his hand out of the Seeker's then asked, "What are you doing?"
"His spark healed all the major damage. So he doesn't need these any more. All that's left to do with him it to fix his vocalize and everything he damaged."
Optimus nodded then looked down at Starscream with a sad expression.
"Not exactly how I wanted it to go." he said to no one in particular.
Rachet gripped the mech's shoulder comfortingly and said, "He's going to need time Optimus. It's going to take him awhile to get used to all of this and to think and sort out what's happened to him."
"Yeah…I know."
Sari tapped Optimus' foot; he looked down at the girl, then lowered a hand down to her. She got on and stood in his palm as he raised her to his optic level.
"He's going to be alright Optimus." she reassured.
Optimus sighed. They kept saying that the Seeker was going to be fine, but how could they be so sure? He had just had the biggest panic attack the Autobot leader had ever seen, and he had nearly put himself back into stasis. He shook his head once, he was just going to have to trust them.
Sari sat in his hand and looked at the recharging Starscream. "He looks so different now."
Optimus nodded, he, Starscream, looked more like his old self. The girl smiled and continued, "He looks peaceful when he's asleep."
The Autobot leader chuckled, then sat her down to go about her business. He sat down next to Starscream's berth and watched Rachet work. Optimus smiled, this Starscream was defiantly the one he remembered, just with different coloring.
"Prime, I just realized something," Rachet said, "We don't have any place for Starscream to stay."
"Wrong. Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Prowl, and I cleared out a space for him the other day. Got a berth, bathroom, self of data-pads and books, and other bare necessities."
"Hmm…thought of everything."
"Mm-hm."
Rachet looked up from his work and looked at the Autobot leader. He noticed the mech's bleeding hand.
"You want me to take a look at that?" he asked.
Optimus looked at his hand and said, "Don't worry about it; just take care of Starscream."
"Well at least go patch that up."
Optimus looked from his wounded hand to Starscream. Rachet rolled his optics and said, "He's still gonna be here when you get back."
Optimus' cheeks turned a light purple. Was he that obvious? He shook his head, then went to his quarters to fix his hand.
I'm on a roll! I love that I was able to get this chapter up before I went to bed. But now I must go and sleep, before I am chewed out by my mother. Hope you guys out there enjoyed this chapter, I'll have another one up tomorrow. See ya!
