Okay, so I know I said I wouldn't post chapter four until five was done, but I've gone to see Mr. Peabody and Sherman twice and my mind is on them right now. It will be a while before I finish chapter five of Seekers Past, so I thought I'd just go ahead and post this chapter. Enjoy!
"How?"
Skywarp hauled Starscream off the berth in a tight hug. "Did ya miss me, Screamer?"
Starscream could barely speak. He had watched his Trine mates die, felt their very sparks be extinguished. How could Skywarp be alive?
But he was alive. And that was what mattered, right?
"Skywarp!" Starscream laughed jubilantly. "Skywarp, you're alive!" He wiggled around and wrapped his arms around his brother. "I never thought I'd see you again!"
"Touching."
Starscream jumped. He had forgotten about Shockwave. He pushed himself away from Skywarp, clearing his vocalizer awkwardly.
Shockwave stared at the Seekers, noting the almost pleading look in Starscream's optics. "I will leave you two to your reunion."
"Screamer! Where've you been?" Skywarp yelled in excitement.
"Where have I been?" The Seeker shouted back. "Where have you been? All this time I thought you were dead!" His words took an angry tone. "Why haven't you contacted me?"
Skywarp looked confused. "Dead? But... But I thought you..." he trailed off, extreme sadness dimming his optics.
Starscream looked at his pedes, racking his mind for the words to say. It had been a very long time since he had genuinely felt the need to console someone. He wasn't sure he knew how to do so anymore. "I... What happened, Skywarp?"
Pain. Excruciating pain. White hot and spreading slowly through his frame.
Skywarp tried to stand.
"Star-" He gasped as another jolt tore through his armor. Something had fallen on him. Something had exploded.
His world went black.
When he onlined his optics again, everyone was gone. He stood on a dead planet. Alone. Completely alone.
"Starscream?" he called, listening to his voice echo in the stillness. "Thundercracker?"
Nothing.
He felt his wings tremble, tried to still them. His spark felt different. Hollow.
"Starscream!? Thundercracker!? Answer me!" His voice was desperate, pleading. "Please," he begged. "Don't leave me."
Skywarp fell to his knees, shaking violently. A cold wind blew over his frame. It whistled through the rubble.
Skywarp curled in on himself. "I don't want to be alone," he whispered.
He sat there, for what seemed like ages, willing himself to wake up from this nightmare. The silence was screaming at him, mocking him.
Skywarp couldn't feel his brothers' bond. They were dead. They had left him.
Anger boiled the energon in his veins. He shrieked into the emptiness; a cry of pure despair from the darkest depths of a broken spark. He transformed, soared into the sky, allowed his body to drop in a free fall.
If his brothers were dead, if he truly was alone, then what was the point to living?
He dropped. The ground getting closer and closer.
"Screamer. TC," he whispered.
Suddenly, the purple and black Seeker pulled up. He flew high, transformed to bi-pedal and dropped to perch on one of the few roofs still in tact.
What if his brothers weren't dead? What if they were just really, really far away? Or shielded! They could be shielded, right? To keep him from feeling their bond. It could happen... maybe.
Skywarp tried to connect to his Trine's bond, but only felt a dull ache in his spark.
"They gotta be alive. They just gotta."
He dropped again, feeling the air slice around his wings. If Starscream and Thundercracker were still alive, they would come back for him.
"They are alive," he said, determined. "They are coming back for me. I just gotta wait."
"Do you have any idea how long I've waited for you, Starscream?" Skywarp spoke in little more than a whisper. Anger. Fear. Depression. They had stolen the Seeker's voice.
Starscream stared at his pedes. "I..."
Skywarp lunged at his brother, talons poised. He knocked Starscream off balance. They crashed into Shockwave's desk, spreading his tools across the floor.
Starscream yelped, twisting and turning in an attempt to escape his brother's grasp. What had gotten into him? Skywarp was an idiot with a temper, but he would never just fly off the handle at Starscream without good cause.
But was there good cause? Starscream thought Skywarp was dead, yet here he was. Alive. And Starscream had never come back for him.
New rage bubbled within the Seeker. His optics flashed as he managed to kick Skywarp off of him. He sprang to his pedes and lashed out at his brother.
He caught Skywarp's left wing, spun and threw him across the room. Then he screamed.
All his past regrets, all the pain of every beating he had received from Megatron, the scars of every battle, the slicing pain of every emergency surgery, the wounding of his pride, the loss of his Trine, every blunder, every failure. It all came out in that one, long, spark wrenching shriek.
Finally, Starscream dropped his wings. He hung his helm, optics shuttered. He knew Skywarp had approached him. He knew his brother's claws were aimed at his spark chamber. He just didn't care.
He had failed. He failed his Trine. He failed his master. He failed his planet. But most of all, he failed Skywarp. So Starscream stood, optics shut, waiting for the stab of death to mix with the pain of his spark.
He was useless. Pathetic.
A sudden weight fell on the silver Seeker, knocking him to the floor. It crumpled atop him, trembling.
Starscream onlined his optics as he sat up. Skywarp had fallen on him, zapped of his strength by grief.
He had tried to forget about his Trine, but bonds so strong could not so easily be disregarded. He had often tried to convince himself that their demise was truly at the hand of Megatron. Yet, as Trine leader, he always took responsibility. He should have stayed with them. He should have protected them.
Now, as he looked at the top of his brother's helm, felt his quivering frame against his own, he felt an odd mixture of guilt and relief. Skywarp was alive!
Starscream had tried to remember himself as the biggest of them, though he new that title belonged to his still-lost brother, Thundercracker.
Actually, to any other Cybertronian, the three Seekers would have looked identical. It was the small details that made them different.
Thundercracker had been tallest and bulkiest, though all three were considered to be quite lithe. He was mostly blue with silver face and chest and black at the joints. His optics were a darker shade of red than the others.
Skywarp's height and width were in-between that of his Trine mates. The crest atop his helm, tallest of the three, was a striking purple, as were his joints. The purple wouldn't have been so special, in Starscream's opinion, had it not been so dramatically contrasted with the stark black that covered most of his body. His face and chest were the same silver as his Trine.
Starscream looked over his brother. He bore no scars from the war or his tragic "death." Only the dings and scratches of one who had spent countless years alone, foraging for energon scraps.
Starscream pushed himself forward, leaning into his brother. He hadn't had a Trine to take care of in so long. He didn't remember what it was like to put one's self aside for the sake of someone else. But in that moment, Starscream imagined he could still feel his Trine's sparks pulsing in time with his own.
He imagined he was still capable of caring for his brother the way he once had.
He swallowed his pride and wrapped his arms around Skywarp. He pulled his wing mate closer, wishing he could still speak in a way that would sooth a hurting spark.
Skywarp shook harder, clutching Starscream to himself. If this was just another dream, he didn't want to wake up. It felt so real. And Starscream had come back for him. He finally came back!
Starscream's spark jolted in excitement, seethed in pain. Back and forth, back and forth. He though he might go find an Autobot to gut just to release the frustration.
He held Skywarp firmly. He willed himself to remember. What was Trine? What had it once meant to him? Had he fallen too far to experience it again?
And why did his spark still ache so?
"Screamer?" Skywarp whispered.
Starscream smiled down at his brother. "I know." But did he really?
Skywarp tentatively sat back. Optics shifting, not wanting to look at his Trine leader.
Starscream placed a servo gently on the teleporter's shoulder. "Skywarp."
A pause.
Their optics met.
"Yeah, Screamer?"
"Don't call me that."
Wide smiles split both faces and the long separated brothers embraced once more. Though, once hidden, Starscream's smile faltered. He understood what was wrong with his spark. He knew what had caused the throbbing, shooting pains.
Skywarp, his Trine mate, was sitting beside him on the floor and no matter how hard Starscream tried, he could not feel his brother's spark.