Author Note: Afterburners are a royal pain in the proverbial to work when you're trying to transform into a fighter jet. Why did I think that this costume was a good idea... /sad

The Rest Is Silence

Chapter 6 - The Price of Freedom

Just as I feared, Laserbeak had seriously hindered all my attempts at finding out more about my missing past. Every time that I tried to interrogate another Decepticon, or search through the files on all the warriors that Megatron kept in the databank, our 'glorious' leader himself would appear moments later and order me to carry out some menial, pointless task. It was a way of keeping me busy, and it was most infuriating. I tried once to order my subordinates to carry out one of these tasks for me so that I could have more time to search the databanks.

I did not make that mistake again. Megatron made sure that I knew I was to carry out these tasks and not to delegate them to others. The details... are not important. I shall say that Megatron is a harsh teacher, and leave it at that.

... Megatron knew something.

I was sure of it. He had started unloading these piles of work on me almost immediately after my conversation with Thundercracker. I had thought that there was nothing incriminating in that conversation - it was simply a case of me asking one of my fellow seekers to join me in a bit of nostalgia, where was the harm in that? - but apparently, something in it had upset Megatron significantly. I couldn't for the life of me work out what it was, whether Megatron did not want me searching for answers to questions about my own past or whether I was dangerously close to discovering some sort of secret about the Decepticon cause that could undermine it. Either way, Megatron should not have been so keen to keep me from finding my answers.

Being so trapped within the Decepticon headquarters was stifling. After just a couple of days of being under such close surveillance, I was longing to leave the crashed ship and to fly free in Earth's atmosphere. As someone who relies so heavily on flight, I do not cope well when I am confined in small spaces for long periods of time, and, while I was given so many useless jobs, none of them took me out of the space cruiser. Perhaps Megatron was afraid I would have a rendezvous with someone if I left the vicinity. Whatever the reason, the inability to stretch my wings made me more snappy and irritable than I usually am, which in turn caused me to lash out at my fellow Decepticons and alienate myself from them even more.

I had reached the metaphorical dead end. All of my bright ideas about information sources had either been foiled by Megatron's sudden appearance or had been useless anyway, and I had run out of places to turn. If we had been on Cybertron, I could have easily pulled up a virtual profile of myself and gone through the records, but they were not important enough to have been brought with us when we came to Earth so many millions of years ago.

It was not like me to be defeated by something like this. I am much more intelligent than that. It made me wonder, in a vague and distant way, whether the Autobots had tampered with my intelligence modifiers when they had been fixing me.

Then I had the most wonderful idea.

I had been fixed by the Autobots. None of the Decepticons could deny that - they had all known that I could not have carried out the repairs on myself, I had been that badly damaged after the mountain fell on me. I could simply go into the Decepticon medical bay and tamper with my own inner circuitry; the idea that the Autobots could change my intelligence chips made me consider the possibility of jump-starting my long-term memory chips. Glancing around, I once again caught a flash of red that showed me Laserbeak was still trailing me. As soon as this was all over, I really would have to point out to Soundwave that his Casseticons were not the most subtle of beings. Ignoring the drone, I purposefully made my way to the medical bay.

For once, I was lucky. The bay was empty, which meant that I could relax and take my time; I doubt I would have opened my body if there had been another Transformer present. It would be too much like revealing a weakness. I would feel too exposed.

It was an easy procedure. Open my chest cavity behind the yellow canopy that made up my cockpit when in jet mode and channel a large electrical surge into my long-term memory chip. It was the same treatment we had given to Skyfire when we had at last extracted him from the Arctic ice, and it had worked wonders for him. I just hoped that my results would be as satisfactory. I hooked up the generator onto the microchip and flicked the switch. The sensation was... strange, but not unpleasant. It was a sort of full-body shudder followed by a lingering prickling feeling.

It was as though a haze of fog was cleared from my mind.

I remembered. I remembered coming back to Cybertron after losing Skyfire, somehow convinced that it was my own fault for not finding him, and I sank into depression. The days then seemed to meld into one, and I spent all of them alone and guilty, utterly sure that my continued existance was a curse, that I should have been the one to die (because I was so sure that Skyfire had perished in that powerful windstorm). It was then that I had met Megatron.

He had been the leader of a small but rapidly growing group of individuals who would eventually come to be known as Decepticons. He was powerful, strong and very popular, but I remember feeling sorry for him, surrounded as he was by people who only liked him for his influence and no one he could trust. Looking back, that seems like such a ridiculous emotion to have for Megatron, of all people.

The memories were hazy, through age rather than any further fault with my memory chip, but I remember Megatron eventually coming up to me and... he was kind. I remember him complimenting me on my exceptional results, and I remember him radiating concern about my sadness. Was I mourning someone, he asked, and my response was positive. He offered me the protection that Skyfire had given me, and I was at last able to move on from my grief - I did this by turning Megatron into a replacement Skyfire. I suppose that Megatron's kindness then was a mask to get me into his trust and cement me in the Decepticon cause, as even then I had enormous potential to be a great strategist and warrior. It worked. I was ecstatic that Megatron, the most influential robot I knew at the time, had accepted me, a friendless reject, into his inner circle.

Then... there was nothing. The period from my meeting Megatron to my becoming a ruthless Decepticon killer - including, of course, the period in which my personality had changed - was still missing. I didn't understand it. If it had not been a fault with my memory chip, then what could it possibly be that was keeping my past from me?

But I had no further time to think, as the door to the medical bay slid open suddenly, and with a powerful force. Shocked at being caught off-guard, I looked up.

And stared straight into Megatron's cruel face.

"Megatron...!" I gasped, caught completely unawares. I had been stupid! I knew Laserbeak was still following me, but had I honestly believed that Megatron would allow me so much time on my own? Now, as my leader stood before me, radiating fury, I knew that I would pay the price for my freedom.

"What were you doing, Starscream?" The anger so clearly written on Megatron's face was only slightly apparent in his voice, and I admit that I was impressed by his self-control. Yet I could not see why he was so angry with me. Other Decepticons were allowed to use the medical bay freely, so why not I? "What were you tampering with?"

"I was checking over my intelligence modifier," I lied hurriedly, "The Autobots - I thought they might have -"

"How dare you lie to me!?" Megatron all but screamed, dealing me a backhand so powerful that the soft grey metal of my face dented in a line from my left optic to just above my chin. I flew across the room, crashing through the operating table and into the wall on the other side.

"Megatron - please -" I begged, disgusted by my own pathetic whimpering but unable to find the courage to do anything else. Megatron's anger filled me with a deep sense of shame. I didn't know why it upset me so much, and I couldn't understand what I had done wrong. Before I could pick myself up from the floor, his black hands had locked tightly around my throat in a painful grip. I clawed at his arms desperately, trying to get him to let me go as he picked me up off the ground by my neck.

"How dare you defy me, Starscream?"

"Forgive me - please, please, I'm sorry!" I meant none of it. I never did. All the apologies I gave Megatron were false, and he knew it. He responded to my pleading my throwing me from him, and I cowered where I landed. I don't know why I get so scared of him. He is bigger than me, yes, and stronger by far, but I am so much faster than him. Even if I could not kill him, I could still flee from him and hide until he had calmed, but something about his temper paralyses me.

The click was so quiet it was almost silent, but I heard it. It was the sound of the door locking. With that small action, Megatron had both blocked my only escape route and prevented any other Decepticon stumbling in and distracting him. I backed up against the wall in utter terror, trying to make myself a part of it. Anything to save me from the impending pain. Why, why was Megatron in such a rage? What had I done? My leader's hand shot out and grabbed me by the chin as he brought his optics down to my level. I tried to hold his gaze, to show I was unafraid, but my own eyes were wide with panic.

"Does the Decepticon cause mean so little to you?" He hissed in my face, and I flinched away as best I could. I didn't understand. I hadn't done anything. "You've sunk low before, Starscream, but this is unforgivable."

"I don't -" I tried to say, but I was cut off when Megatron slammed the back of my head into the wall, leaving me dazed as the impact unsettled my equilibrium.

"Then why don't you watch? It should refresh your memory." I heard the sounds of the words, but I could not make any sense of them; the room was spinning, and I was feeling nauseous. I was vaguely aware of Megatron inserting a micro-chip into the computer that was usually only used to store medical records. The screen flickered on, and Megatron's voice cut into my mind again. "This is a video taken by one of our aerospace security drones, just above this facility. I want you to explain it to me."

The screen showed the ocean surface, with small waves crossing it. There was nothing out of the ordinary, until... a brief streak of white. I saw it, but it took me a few moments for my recovering conscious to understand what I was seeing.

Oh... oh Primus no...

Megatron rewound the tape and played it again, stilling the image just as the white passed the camera. It was unmistakable, now that I could see it clearly. After all, we had been friends for many, many years, and he was the only mech I knew who kept his Cybertronian transformation while living on Earth.

But what was Skyfire doing flying around our headquarters?

"I take it from the look on your face that you know who this is, Starscream." Megatron was snarling at me, and I stared at him blankly. "He has been sighted no less than three times in the few days since you returned from being 'imprisoned' by the Autobots. Laserbeak has been watching you trying to dig up information, and no doubt you were infusing a databank chip into your circuitry when I walked in on you. You were willing to sell out the Decepticon cause just to discredit me as a leader? You disgust me!"

"No - no - I didn't -" I tried. I had to make him realise, this had nothing to do with me...!

"I have had enough of your excuses! I have been pretty tolerant of your treachery, but that ends now! Your termination is long overdue, you miserable pile of scrap!" He levelled the barrell of his fusion cannon at me. It is not the first time that I have stared at the wrong end of that horrible weapon, but it is the first time that I have felt such hatred emanating from Megatron while he was pointing it at me. I was certain that it was the end but, for once, I was innocent. If I had to die, I didn't want it to be over a misunderstanding.

In sheer desperation, I manouvered my null ray so that it was aimed point blank at Megatron's chest, and I fired it without hesitation. My leader dropped to the floor, temporarily disabled, and, for a minute or two, all I could do was stare at him. I was severely shaken up by my close brush with death, and the beating I had endured was taking its toll on my body. My mind raced through the options, and I realised that there was only one logical one.

I had to flee.

Well, enough was enough. For too long I had been Megatron's scapegoat. I was always blamed when his plans failed, and I was never praised when mine worked. I even sometimes took the brunt of his anger at mistakes the other Decepticons had made. I could not take any more, and besides... I could not think of anything else I could learn about my missing history from hanging around here at the bottom of the ocean.

Hurriedly, I took the elevator up to the ocean surface. Megatron would awake any moment and brand me a traitor, then I would have all of my fellows on my tail. The less time I spent loitering, the better, and, as soon as the exit hatch opened, I transformed into my jet mode and flew into the blue sky. If I had not still been in shock at the speed of the events that had resulted in my exile, I would have noticed the large white Cybertronian turbojet appear seemingly from nowhere and follow me.

I don't know how long or how far I flew. I lost myself in the feeling of the air rushing against me, of finally being free in the sky again after days of yearning for it while confined to headquarters. As the distress wore off and dissolved into anger at my unfair treatment, I finally noticed the Autobot tailing me. It was definitely Skyfire, and this irritated me even more. This was all his fault. I had already told him I had no wish to see him again. Why did he not leave me alone? The time had come to set him straight once and for all.

There was a landmass far below me. I don't know what continent it was, but it seemed like a logical place to land and get rid of Skyfire. As I had expected, when I started to descend, so did he, and when I landed on the deserted beach and transformed, he was not far behind me in doing the same.

I turned to face him while he was dusting the sand off himself after his landing, and I stood my ground, clenching and unclenching my fists. There was a rage at the unfairness of this all building up inside me, and I knew that Skyfire would have to take the brunt of it in the same way I had dealt with Megatron's. And I didn't care.

"Starscream! At last." My old friend approached me, clearly thinking I had stopped to have a nice chat with him. His jovial expression faltered at my stony glare, and then it melted into concern when he saw the dent in my cheek. "You - you're injured! Are you all right? Who did this to you?"

For a long moment, I could not speak; I was so infuriated that I could barely open my mouth to form the words. Then, eventually, I raised my hand to run a finger along the fresh scar that marred my grey cheek and, in a voice venomous with the contempt it contained, hissed his answer, my voice rising in volume with each word:

"You did. You did this to me. This is all your fault! Do you hear me? You caused all this! JUST STAY AWAY FROM ME!"

I will never forget the look of horror that crossed Skyfire's gentle face upon hearing those hurtful words, and, as enraged as I was, I couldn't resist telling him all of the truth in my awful, twisted logic.

"Megatron almost killed me because of you. Because you were stupid enough to fly over our headquarters. He beat me until I had to beg him to stop, and he would have killed me, and it's all your fault. You have never done anything but hurt me! Why the slag can't you take a hint? I never want to see you again!"

"I was... I was searching for you." Skyfire said brokenly. "I wanted to make sure you were all right."

"WELL, I'M CERTAINLY NOT NOW!" It was cruel of me, to do this to Skyfire. It was cruel, he really didn't deserve it, but I was so outraged at the unfair treatment Megatron had dealt me that I couldn't stop myself from venting it upon this innocent soul. In a way, I was speaking the truth. Even if he had only wanted to bring me safety and happiness, all he had brought me was pain. At that moment, I truly hated him for all his goodwill and all his caring feelings for me.

"I want to help you, Starscream..." He was saying, trying his hardest to calm me down. It did not work.

"I don't need help from someone like you." I spat at him in response to his kindness, and, with one last hate-filled snarl, I transformed and took off without another word, safe in the knowledge that I was much faster than him, and that he would not be able to catch up with me. It didn't matter. Skyfire was still standing there, in that same place, when I entered the stratosphere.

I would regret it later.