i'm not so great at writing character dynamics i'm not familiar with! megatron and starscream are definitely one of those deals. but well. skyfire being skyfire, despite not remembering jack shit. and starscream's…starscream.


"I'm not letting you send him out there without proper training!" Starscream hissed, his optics narrowing to two pinpricks of bloody red light, "Things will go wrong and most of our soldiers would be inside him, do you really want to take that big a risk?! Are you trying to lose more than half of your army? Stop being idiotic, Lord Megatron."

The warlord's frown was impressive, and it was a wonder he hadn't struck Starscream yet, "Again and again, you test my patience. You defy me, you disrespect me, and you-"

"Cut the slag," interjected Starscream, ignoring the gasps and snickers coming from the other Decepticons currently in the command room, "Either you order to send him into battle, or not. I'm not letting you. Beat me to slag, whatever, make it a public show. I'm not backing down on this one, Megatron." There were things unsaid, but Skyfire was there with them, and Starscream wasn't going to address those issues.

Megatron was a mech of a few moods when it came to his Second-in-Command. Most of those emotions were negative; all of them, really; ranging from extreme violent urges to mellower ones. Right now, he was amused. It was an odd transition.

"You really do care about him, don't you?"

Starscream's optics flared in great offense, fighting the urge to glance at Skyfire to see if he heard. Of course he did. Why did Megatron have to complicate things out of proportion?!

The silence was loaded with tension, almost exclusively coming from Starscream as he pointedly looked at a monitor and frowned at it. Megatron's smirk felt like it was burning through his plating, and if Starscream looked at the mech, he'd probably do something stupid. Not to say he hadn't already fragged up.

Megatron walked towards him casually, all slow deliberation and the background noise of the watching Decepticons died down. A plea sat heavy on Starscream's glossa, but he really wasn't going to back down about Skyfire. The shuttle was his friend. His responsibility, despite how disgustingly sentimental the notion seemed.

Black fingers curled over the distal part of his left wing, and Megatron leaned in, his voice quiet and dangerous, "Your concern is touching. But challenge me in front of my soldiers over some petty stranger again, and I will kill you. I'll make him watch, too. Do you understand?"

Typical. But the pressure exerted on his wing was really starting to hurt, and Starscream nodded quickly, grimacing, "Yes, sir."

"Good," Megatron let him go, and smirked once more, "Since you care for him so much, you're in charge of his training. Polish him till he is battle-ready. Take too long, Starscream, and pay the price. I will hold you accountable for every mistake he makes."

"As you wish, Lord Megatron," replied Starscream through gritted dentae. The warlord was definitely trying to antagonize him. The Decepticon SIC reduced to a babysitter? Shameful.

Megatron lifted a hand and waved in dismissal, "Get out of my sight and bring him with you. I await reports of significant progress, Starscream."

Starscream bowed slightly and turned around, jerked his head at Skyfire so the shuttle would follow, and left the command room. His spark was fiery and bright with repressed anger, but there was nothing he could do at the moment. It wasn't as if added hatred for his master would kill him, it was more like fuel to ensure his eventual success of overthrowing the moronic buckethead. Someday.

He strode confidently in the hallways of the Nemesis, a clear destination in mind. Battle techniques and strategies took a number of things into account, skills and frame type being one of the major aspects, and there were only two other mechs as large as Skyfire.

Skyfire reset his vocalizer suddenly, loud enough for Starscream to hear, "I'm sorry, Commander."

The apology made Starscream slow down, turning a little to frown at Skyfire as they continued their journey, "Why the slag are you sorry?"

"I don't want to assume anything, but all of this seems to be caused by my presence? Lord Megatron's orders, I mean. I apologize, just in case."

Starscream watched him for a while, giving the notion some thought, "You know, this actually could be your fault. I doubt we would be here if you hadn't crashed on this stupid planet in the first place. If you had been more careful..." his voice trailed off, and he shook his head, "No. We never expected a planet to have such a volatile climate. It isn't your fault. There was just ice, everywhere. You were experienced, more than I was, but neither of us had gone on extensive explorations prior to meeting each other. It was pure bad luck, I suppose."

He had gone off on a tangent, a little distracted by thoughts of the past. It really wasn't Skyfire's fault, nor was it his. That didn't explain the bitter, black taste in his oral cavity but that didn't matter much, either.

They kept on walking, seemingly less tense than before. Skyfire asked quietly, curiosity evident in his tone, "I was more experienced?"

"Yes. You were a lecturer at the science academy. I was a student. You travelled a few times before we met and partnered up."

"You must have been a really good student to have gone on explorations so early."

Starscream scoffed, his tone turned smug, "Good? I was one of the best. They weren't open to accepting warbuilds into the Academy, much less fliers from Vos, but I showed them. You had a hard time getting accepted yourself, but unlike you, I did it with flair. Everyone knew who I was. You were the quiet, nice shuttle who did a good job at teaching, but I was the bright, loud seeker who shot down each and every one of their shallow assumptions. They hated my guts, and I hated them in turn. I would have blown them all out of the water academically if they didn't frag up and not send a search team for-why am I even telling you this."

He stopped in front of the door to Astrotrain and Blitzwing's shared quarters, and folded his arms, meeting Skyfire's optics. The mech looked exactly the same as he did millions of years ago. The only noticeable difference was that he had a different look on his faceplates.

Skyfire would have looked at Starscream in a certain way, before, the light of his optics turned dim with fondness, his lip components always curved slightly into a small smile, one that made Starscream feel all weak and soft inside. He seemed simply curious, now, watching Starscream like he was viewing a datapad. There wasn't any deeper emotion there.

"This means nothing to you. Why should you even know? You're not that mech anymore."

The shuttle frowned a little at Starscream's words, "With all due respect, Commander, even if I don't remember these occurrences, they were a part of my life. They're part of me, and how I am the way I am. I may not ever remember, but I've existed for millennia, as you have informed me, and that has to count for something, right? It must have mattered somehow, don't you think?"

'No,' Starscream thought, ignoring the ache in his spark, 'It doesn't, apparently.'

"Whatever," was what he said instead, unfolding his arms and moved to push open the doors of his subordinates' habsuite, wanting to drop the conversation as soon as possible. Whatever answer he chose to give Skyfire didn't matter, either. He was nothing to Starscream, just as Starscream was nothing to him.

Maybe if Starscream kept reminding himself of that, he'd believe it.