Title: Shattered
By: Ceris Malfoy
Summary: "Rumor has it that he discovered something so terrible that it destroyed his very sanity." It wasn't so much what he discovered, so much as a great and terrible abyss that forced its way into his very ember.
Inspiration: Piole generously sent me a link to download Shattered Glass, and I practically devoured it. This is only one of the ideas that hit me while I was reading, but it is my favorite. This particular fic deals primarily with Optronix before the events of Shattered Glass, and how he became the Autobot Tyrant Optimus Prime. And guess what? It's all 'Screamer's fault. XD
Continuity: TF Crossover. G1 and Shattered Glass, with events and situations from both the 1986 animated movie and Bay-verse.
Status: Part 4 of 4
It started.
Optronix or Optimus Prime, as he was now called, had finally declared himself ready. He still had difficulty defeating Starscream, but no other could touch him, so what was the point in waiting any longer? Starscream argued with him for long hours, progressively growing more and more incoherent as he went, until finally he disintegrated into wordless shrieking. Optimus had been horrified, but not really surprised. The seeker's sanity had long been held in question, after all.
Speaking of Starscream, he had finally found out what the tri-colored seeker was hiding. He had gone to Prowl – a cold tactician with little-to-no emotional programming – who had introduced him to Jazz. Jazz, Optimus had quickly learned, was truly dangerous – to himself and everyone around him. Just like Prowl was lacking on the emotional-programming, Jazz had no moral-programming to speak of, and a glitched logic-processor. A master at both espionage and assassination that just so happened to moonlight as hacker and bounty-hunter, Jazz wasn't too picky about his assignments.
After nearly a full vorn of careful stalking and watching, Jazz had reported that Starscream was hiding another seeker. Based on the fact that the two seekers bore almost exactly the same energy-signature and processor-speed, and did share the same designation, Jazz reported that he believed Starscream had split his ember – a belief Optimus had allowed Jazz to keep. Optimus knew the truth of the matter though – this new seeker was Starscream's other, the version of Starscream born naturally to this universe.
Optimus investigated the matter himself, curious about what Starscream's other was like, and had barely even met the mech before he had been hooked.
The shy, pacifist, seeker with his blue optics and familiar bulky frame, contained all the intellectual brilliance of Starscream, without the madness or the extreme methodology. Optimus wasted no time, barely needing time to realize the benefits of having that brilliance belonging solely to him. Decision made, he carefully began courting Starscream's other.
The seeker was receptive and eager, flattered by the attention of the older mech. Optimus barely even needed to work at it – the seeker practically gave himself up, seemingly as keen on the idea of a true merge as Optimus himself was. That the seeker was a pacifist and against fighting really didn't bother Optimus, because he had no intention of letting his seeker fight. He wanted that brilliant mind and that raging ember under lock and key, held high above all others to be worshiped and protected. And it seemed like this other Starscream was receptive to the idea, right up until Optimus revealed his plans for Cybertron. The disgust with which the seeker refused his proposal infuriated Optimus, and in retaliation, he forced the seeker to watch what would come to be known as the official start of the war: the destruction of the seeker's home-city.
They watched Crystal City burn: the seeker crying and struggling in vain to escape Optimus' brutal grasp; Optimus idly wondering where Starscream was.
"You!" Optimus Prime snarled, enraged beyond all sense of reason at this betrayal. Part of him was angry at himself – he had known that Starscream was as fickle with his loyalties as he was with his moods – but most of him was raging at the fact that Starscream had led Megatron and those slagging Decepticons right into the heart of his base!
"Me," Starscream agreed easily, amusement written all over him. He motioned Megatron towards the entrance to the prisoner cells, and the Decepticon leader wasted no time in freeing his comrades, even going so far as to claim Starscream's other.
Optimus snarled again, but made no move to stop them. All of his lieutenants and their teams were elsewhere fighting off the rest of the Decepticon rebels, and he was seriously outgunned. Besides, he had to keep the real threat in his sight – Starscream was dangerous, more dangerous then he had led the others to believe. After all, Starscream was a genius, a prodigy of war, and the seeker no longer had any sanity to temper his reactions, if indeed he had had any to begin with.
Several tense moments passed as prisoners were repaired enough to risk moving on their own. Through all of it, Starscream stood in the middle of the command center, utterly relaxed and smiling pleasantly. Megatron at last reappeared, clasping the red and white version of Starscream to him tightly, the jet-former whimpering in his arms as his severe wounds were jostled. Megatron motioned for the rescued Decepticons to leave, watching his mechs with concerned optics as they staggered out.
Optimus Prime sneered. Such weakness would have long been culled from his ranks – if his troops weren't tough or clever enough to get out on their own after making the cosmic mistake of getting captured, then there was no reason for him to come get them.
Megatron at last started to follow his rescued mechs, pausing briefly beside Starscream. "Are you coming?" he asked warily.
Starscream's empty gaze never left Optimus. "No," he purred.
Megatron glanced at Optimus Prime, blue optics wide and afraid, and Optimus was stunned to realize that he wasn't the only one to recognize that Starscream was completely glitched. Megatron seemed to steel himself, then asked, "Are you sure?"
Starscream smiled, and the smile was a dark promise that had both faction leaders flinching back. "Quite sure," he said easily.
Megatron didn't hesitate. He clasped Starscream's other tighter to him, and left, never once looking back.
They had barely left when Starscream was suddenly behind him – Optimus had never even seen him move. He had known that the seeker was fast, but he had never been tested against that speed. Now he wished he had insisted the seeker fight him at full strength. He didn't risk moving, for Starscream had the barrel of one of his null-rays pressed firmly against his helm.
"Don't move," the seeker murmured.
And Optimus wouldn't. Despite the fact that the null-rays were a decidedly non-lethal weapon, at close-point range at full power, the damage they could do to a mech was considerable enough that even he paused in the face of them. Considering the vulnerability of the area where Starscream had chosen to aim, there was not only the risk of physical and mental damage, but the very real possibility that he wouldn't survive the blast.
The second barrel pressed firmly against the base of his spine, and he had only a moment to wonder at why Starscream seemed to be considering the exact angle the barrel was aimed at before it fired.
There was blinding agony for several long moments, and then his systems started to go numb. Optimus saw, more than felt, his body collapse on the ground in a tangled heap at Starscream's pedes. He was helpless to do anything but lay there, his systems unresponsive. He was at the complete mercy of a psychotic seeker; one he had dismissed as a threat to his safety only to find he was the biggest threat of all.
Starscream straightened him out and flipped him over to lie on his back. Clawed-servos traced delicately over his frame, easily finding areas that would have normally stimulated him straight into overload, but now merely tickled unpleasantly. Though he was terrified, he was forced to do nothing but watch as Starscream eventually stopped his exploring, and settled down to business – opening the protective chamber that hid away his ember.
Behind the terror was the grim thankfulness that his systems were numbed, as he was sure that the pain of having his chassis practically ripped open would have sent him straight into stasis-lock. He wanted to know exactly what Starscream did to him, because also lurking behind his terror was a rage unlike anything he'd ever felt before, a rage that promised him one thing: he would make Starscream pay for this.
Starscream eventually opened his own chamber, and Optimus couldn't help but stare at the seeker's spark. He had seen it once before, a long, long time ago, and had been mesmerized by the soft golden sphere of light. But now, his stare was one of disgust and abject horror. That beautiful golden spark looked like it had been shredded: multiple fragments were barely hanging on to the whole, and some fragments were actually spinning around separately. But that wasn't the worst of it. The worst was right in the center of Starscream's shredded spark: a black void that didn't pulse, didn't spin, or otherwise give off any sign that it belonged to a living mech.
Optimus didn't have time to contemplate on what this meant or even what could have caused such a drastic change in Starscream's spark, as the seeker promptly leaned down and merged spark and ember both.
Pain, phantom and just beyond his reach, rocked his senses and he was distantly aware that what he was feeling wasn't his pain, but rather a dim echo of the pain that existed in Starscream's systems. Alongside the pain were also anger and fear and a terrible yearning; a desperate hunger unlike anything he'd ever known. And below that hunger was a great Abyss, an endless emptiness that echoed piercingly, and it was looking at him. There was no other way to describe it – though that void had no optics or anything that betrayed the slightest hint of life, it was nonetheless watching him. He had the vague impression of movement, like that void was an entity all its own, preparing to pounce, and then….
Optimus screamed.
I've decided to put the epilogue in it's own chapter. I told you this wouldn't be a long wait. XD I wiffled, obviously, on what to do about how to introduce SG!Starscream. And while I'm not totally happy with it, that's the version I'm sticking with. RnR?