I'm so sorry this took so long!


He didn't like being underground. It felt like he was in that cramped cell all over again. As he shuddered with the recollection, a warm servo clapped the back of his helm.

"It's not so bad down here." Skywarp must have been a telepath. "It's either this or on the surface where the bot-scum can sneak up on us." Skywarp started to fidget and glance worriedly at the walls like they'd give any nanoclick.

Not a telepath, just a seeker. He smiled briefly.

'A seeker.'

They signaled for him to follow them as they passed countless make-shift berths. Some were occupied by mechs either sleeping or injured.

"How do you do it?" He asked wearily as they started passing through a cramped tunnel.

"Do what?" Skywarp skittishly stared at the walls. Thundercracker increased his walking speed.

"The popping thing." Skywarp gave him a confused look.

"The what- Oh! The teleporting!" He started to laugh. "Yeah, I dunno. I could kinda always do it."

They finally made their way into a bigger alcove with six or so mechs running around several occupied berths. He recognized some medical equipment. All of the equipment was stained in energon. He moved to the side to get out of one of the purple and green mech's way only to step on something that crunched.

He turned his helm and realized he had just stepped on the servo of a dead mech with an Autobot symbol on its chest. He slowly turned his helm up and realized there was a pile of bodies sporting both Decepticon and Autobot symbols.

"Mind the body pile." One of the mechs approached him. He darted away from the pile and behind the other two seekers. "What do you guys want?" The grounder turned to glare at them. Starscream noticed Thundercracker and Skywarp glare back.

An uncomfortable silence settled before the grounder grit his dentals and snapped at them.

"I don't have all cycle! What do you want?" Thundercracker stepped to the side, revealing Starscream behind him, and grabbed Starscream's arm, pulling him before the mech.

"Megatron wants this seeker repaired and fully functional in one cycle." He put emphasis on the 'one'.

'Wasn't it two cycles?' He turned to question Thundercracker, but met cold optics that told him to shut up. He slowly turned away. He preferred Skywarp's company. His trine mate was... not so pleasant. He took to staring wide-opticked at the grounder before him.

"What's his designation?" The mech looked at him with disgust. He decided to try to break the tense conversation by offering his servo.

"Hello, Designation: Sta-" Thundercracker smacked his proffered servo down.

"His designation doesn't matter! It's a direct order from Megatron! Do it, Hook!" Thundercracker was making Starscream nervous.

'Are they about to fight?' He noticed the other grounders had stopped what they were doing and were glaring. He was going to ask Skywarp what was going on only to notice he was still glaring as well.

"You are not a member of the command trine anymore. You are not a trine mate of the Air Commander anymore. You are not even part of a full trine. You don't hold any sway over the constructicons and as such should learn to speak with humility when requesting something. It's not our fault your trine leader was damaged beyond repair." Hook gave a smug smirk as did the rest of the ground pounders.

Starscream slowly looked back at Thundercracker. He looked defeated and Skywarp looked worried. Hook obviously hit the nail on the head. He felt angry again.

'Fragging grounders…'

He shot his head back to look at Hook.

"What are you so smug about working in a fragging cave with outdated tools?" All six of the grounders shot surprised looks at the pint sized loud mouth. "I wouldn't trust a bunch of outdated junk like you to repair my wings! Primus knows how out of date your knowledge on seeker anatomy is! You just admitted to being incapable of repairing a seeker! Worst medics ever!" Hook glared and shot his servo out effectively grabbing Starscream's arm.

"Oh look, we're out of pain killer." He gave an evil smirk and proceeded to lift and slam Starscream onto his chest on top of an energon stained berth.

'Slag it.' He could not hold his glossa for all of the knowledge on Cybertron.

"Figures you wouldn't know to try to keep pain killer stocked during a fragging war!" He felt a large servo grab his bent wing causing him to hiss in pain.

"This will hurt." Hook stated nonchalantly before twisting the wing back into place. Starscream kicked and screamed frantically. He miraculously landed a kick on Hook before he finished bending the wing back in place, causing the other grounders to come assist in holding him down. He screamed as loud as his fragged up vocals would let him.

"Scrapper, shut him up!" Hook snapped as he continued struggling with the wing. Scrapper grabbed a metal bar and put it in Starscream's mouth.

"Bite down." Starscream obliged.

It took about two joors before they had successfully repaired any physical damage on him. He was in pain.

When they were finished, he slowly got up and pushed himself off of the berth. His legs refused to cooperate with him as he landed on his aft on the floor in something wet. Leaning against the berth for support was a welcome option.

The 'Constructicons' chuckled. He would never purposefully antagonize the medics again.

He looked around the room to notice it was void of Thundercracker and Skywarp.

"Tch."

'I was defending them too.'

He looked down at the puddle he was sitting in.

'Energon. Gross.'

"Savage, outdated, and barbaric, really." He gave a lazy grin to the constructicons. Hook returned the grin, but with a colder look in his optics.

"It looks like there is still a small kink in your wing to ding out." He made to reach for Starscream but he was already on his pedes and running through the entrance.

"I wouldn't expect anything better from grounders!" He smirked at his ability to get the last word.

After a nanoclick, his wing was screaming at him to slow down as it dinged into various formations sticking out of the walls of the tunnel. He slowly walked the rest of the way. Someone was approaching him from ahead.

"Starscream!" It was Skywarp and he was holding a cube of energon. "Hurry up and drink because I have to take you to get cleaned up and then recharge!"

Starscream wondered briefly where Thundercracker was, but dismissed it. He greedily downed the contents of the cube.

'Woah.'

"That wash shtrong…" He wobbled a little. His vision was getting a little too hazy and his voice becoming static. He suddenly had trouble standing.

'Was it poisoned?' he wondered. Skywarp started chuckling, 'It was poisoned.'

"Have you never had High Grade? Primus, what kind of a seeker are you?" He gave Starscream a playful smile.

"A mashure one wif too musch work tuh do." His optics flickered. Skywarp reached out and steadied him.

"C'mon, to the wash racks!" In a flash they were in another room. He felt like purging with the sudden change in scenery.

Liquid was steadily leaking through the ceiling, and a few other Decepticons were bathing beneath these leaks.

'Must be beneath a river bed.' Skywarp dragged him over to a rack with cleaning supplies and started pulling out and throwing various containers on the ground. A few nanoclicks later he stopped.

"A-ha!" He held up a certain cube and seemed pleased with himself. "Cleaning time!"

Skywarp scrubbed at him for a joor before rinsing him off. It had been a solar cycle since he'd been clean. They really didn't care about how clean mechs were in the Elite Containment Center.

"Isn't your color scheme attractive? I bet the seekers were lining up to be your tri-" Skywarp stopped talking as realization obviously hit him. They both briefly shared a pained look. Most of the cleaning was conducted in silence, save other Decepticons talking. They didn't quite make optic contact for a while. Skywarp seemed extremely focused on a particularly stubborn smudge on Starscream's chassis. Starscream took to watching the other Decepticons. They were so weird.

Occasionally when he met another mechs optics he would receive a smirk that made him uncomfortable, and maybe a bizarre gesture involving digits and a glossa. A few times Skywarp had to snatch his attention away from the other mechs, telling him to not give them any ideas.

"Ideas about what?" He finally asked. Skywarp stopped mid-scrub, and looked Starscream in the optics like he was thick in the processor.

"You know…" He resumed scrubbing an arm. Starscream scowled in confusion. This was almost like talking with Skyfire.

"No, I don't know. Tell me." Skywarp violently started.

"Shhh…," He whispered, "lower your voice." He leaned in to Starscream's audials and whispered, "They're gonna think you wanna face." Starscream scrunched up his face in annoyance, and whispered back.

"What is 'face'?" Skywarp was starting to look more annoyed.

"You know, interface." Starscream's optics widened in recognition of the word. Skywarp seemed to believe that he had answered Starscream's question adequately and went back to scrubbing. At least until he heard the tentative whisper from Starscream.

"The thing you do after a bonding ceremony? Will they think I want to bond with them?" Skywarp deadpanned. Hysterical laughter soon followed. Starscream glared. Why was this so amusing? "What?" He barked out in his raspy voice. Skywarp managed to control himself somehow.

"What yourself. Where the pit did that nonsense come from?" Starscream felt a bit hurt that Skywarp would refer to Skyfire's words as nonsense, and said no more.

Half a joor later they warped back to the sleeping barracks.

"You'll be sleeping in our berth so you don't get ra-Hey!" Skywarp snapped at the coneheads surrounding Thundercracker.

'Probably threatening him for his insubordination earlier.'He thought absently. Skywarp ran over and shoved his way into being a barrier between Thundercracker and the coneheads.

"Frag off!" He started to yell. The coneheads were suddenly distracted though. They were staring at Starscream with surprise. Whether it was because he was still online, or whether it was because his color scheme was not brown, he was not sure.

"Looks like a new seeker has joined the ranks." Ramjet wore a predatory smirk as he approached. Starscream had an urge to back up with every step taken towards him. "Time for a little initiation."

"You should probably pull your helm out of your aft before it gets stuck." Ramjet's jaw dropped. "Or is that the problem?" If there was one thing he learned at the Elite Containment Center, talk big. He shot the nastiest smirk he could at Ramjet, though it was short lived as Ramjet lunged at him.

He ducked at the last astrosecond causing Ramjet to miss him completely and land faceplates first in an empty berth.

"What an outdated model!" He exclaimed in mock surprise. He smirked in triumph and let out a high pitch laugh at Ramjet's embarrassing failure of an attack.

Ramjet let out a shriek of rage and lunged off of the berth at him again only to have Starscream hop over his head and grab his flailing pede. He used the momentum to swing Ramjet around and release him into a wall.

Glee lit up his faceplates as he became super-aware of his surroundings with a rush of the High Grade energon pumping through his systems. He was a seeker after all. He grew up fighting with his peers and surpassed them in military skills.

"Please don't tell me you're the Air Commander." One hateful glare from the downed Decepticon confirmed his suspicions. He laughed maniacally.

"How desperate!" He actually fell back on his aft with laughter, the high grade coursing through his fuel lines and affecting his processor.

'The Decepticons are fragged with this leadership!'

"Soundwave: Not amused. Seekers: Recharge now." He froze. How did Soundwave sneak up behind him without him noticing?

"Starscream: Too cocky." He glowered at Soundwave.

"Nice to see you too."

'Afthelm.'

Soundwave was quiet, but Starscream soon felt that sharp stabbing pain in his processor. The High grade made it difficult for him to block with his mental barriers.

He blacked out.


"So, Starscream, care to explain why you've managed to survive so long?" Megatron seemed slightly impressed.

"I have unfinished business." Starscream didn't want to volunteer more information than was needed, and tried to keep his mental barriers up. He was very displeased with how easy it was for Soundwave to offline him. He was so exhausted and drunk though… it wasn't really surprising that he slept for two cycles. Oddly enough, when he awoke Skywarp and Thundercracker were curled around him in a protective gesture. It was slightly reassuring, apparently only Skywarp left to obtain energon cubes, but aside from that the two never left his side while he was vulnerable.

Megatron leaned back in his makeshift throne looking bemused. "Such as?"

"The eradication of the Autobots and their supporters." He wasn't lying. That really was his long term goal. Megatron widened his optics in slight surprise. The room was busy as always.

"And how do you plan on accomplishing such a task, sparkling?" Starscream's initial thought was 'through you.'

"I've thought it over, and it seems best that I join the Decepticons." Megatron let out a spark-stopping bark of laughter.

"Oh really." That dangerous glint was back in Megatron's optic. "What makes you so certain that the Decepticons require your obviously limited expertise and your smart glossa?" A jab at his age.

"The fact that it's the only smart glossa in this room." Megatron scowled. Starscream almost winced…. Almost. Megatron was right about one thing. His smart glossa was not a desirable appendage. Megatron got up from his throne, towering over the seeker despite the distance between them.

"Start talking fast." Megatron rumbled out of his vocaliser as he approached Starscream. Starscream obliged.

"The Autobots have the upper hand against the Decepticons!" Megatron didn't stall, but looked more annoyed with Starscream. He was now standing over the seeker, blocking out any small light that may have been illuminating the seeker. Starscream was bathed in the red light of the gigantic ground-pounder's optics.

"We outnumber them." He stated plainly.

"They make up for that with improved weaponry courtesy of their scientists." Megatron seemed to be considering what he was saying. Good. "That large number won't last if you don't improve your outdated weapons." Starscream looked smug, but he felt smug.

"And how can you assist with that?" Megatron crossed his arm and stared at Starscream in perplexity and annoyance.

"I was the top student in the science academy at Iacon." There was silence, then a ringing laughter all throughout the room. Apparently every conversation they were going to have would have the undivided attention of Megatron's followers. They didn't believe him.

Megatron stopped chuckling long enough to choke out, "Well, great scientist, care to explain what you were doing in a holding cell at an Elite Containment Center?" Starscream was starting to feel his rage boiling up at the memory of why he was there.

"Designation: Starscream. The council finds you guilty of the murder of the elite Cybertronian Skyfire." Starscream felt energon tears well up around his optics.

"B-but I didn't do anything! I remember the coordinates of the planet! He may just be stranded! I came back to organize a search party!" He was frantic. Why weren't they listening?

"Battle Dro-" The council member stopped himself from saying 'battle drone', but Starscream was now livid.

"I am not a battle drone! I'm a scientist and I need your help before it's too late! Why aren't you helping me! Why aren't you helping Skyfire!" He actually was crying now.

"Take him away." The council member flicked his servo in a dismissive gesture.

"I was framed." Megatron started outright laughing. The action was mirrored by the rest of what Starscream had started to see as mindless puppets and yes mechs running around the room.

"Yes. Of course." Megatron fixed the seekerlet with a haughty gaze.

"You don't have to believe me, but I was a student under the weapon master, and now Autobot, Wheeljack. A solar cycle ago, I helped him design and build the weapon that blew away a chunk of the Autobot forces on the battlefield a few cycles ago. In fact, I was the one that stole and fired it to help out the last remnants of my race. I obtained a few of the vital parts when I dismantled the fragging thing, and I am the only one with the know-how and expertise to replicate it." Megatron's faceplates looked disbelieving. "Have your fragging processor reader confirm it. Primus only knows he enjoyed the inside of my processor two cycles ago." He shot the telepath a contemptuous look.

Megatron looked at Soundwave in annoyance. Apparently the telepath hadn't mentioned any of this yet. Starscream couldn't blame him considering how busy he looked. Soundwave abruptly stopped working at some scraptastic terminal in the room and looked towards Megatron.

After a moment of relative silence Megatron bellowed, "Everyone out!"