Emotions that had no words to define them made Starscream's body heavy. Sudden realizations burst through his mind and the world was less muddled yet even more horrible at the same time. The fact remained that he finally understood what he had done, and he hurt because of it. He felt guilt for the first time in a long time. His wings unintentionally drooped.

"I killed you," Starscream whispered after a brief pause.

He turned and looked at Cliffjumper with true regret in his eyes.

"I murdered you."

The blue optics of the other held no sadness or anger, but… more like some kind of hard-achieved wisdom. How is he not fragged-up with anger and attacking me right now? Doesn't he want to make me suffer for what I did?

"Yep," Cliffjumper grinned a little.

"You- you don't... You're not angry?" he gasped. "But I-er... uh-"

Cliffjumper replied, "Meh. Of course I used to be, but I had a long time to think."

"But don't you still care? I- I stole your life, like those Predacons stole mine!" Starscream choked. "I mean, how could you possibly-"

"Scream, chill. That was a long time ago."

But Starscream swept an arm back to indicate the oblivious Autobots behind him. He cried, "You should be there! It is because of what I did that you are not!"

"Okay I will admit, it kinda sucks," Cliffjumper said. "but I've learned to deal with it. Or rather, to forgive."

Starscream's voice dropped now into a strained whine.

"You can never forgive me, can't you see that?"

"The only thing I see is exactly what makes it possible to forgive you," Cliffjumper said. " That is you realizing what you have done. For you, that is an accomplishment in itself."

Starscream emitted a long and broken exhale. He looked at the Autobots for a second, then back at Cliffjumper, who was still watching him. The wings slowly rose back up.

Then more quietly he asked, "Then why are you still here? Why can't you join the Allspark?"

"I'm not one-hundred procent sure, but maybe because I wasn't ready to go or something. I didn't want to leave Arcee without knowing if she'd be okay. But then maybe because I needed the time to forgive you."

"You've been watching the whole time…"

"Yes. I saw it all. I saw Arcee suffer, but then for the first time, I saw you suffer. You were leading the Decepticons, and I remembered resenting everything you did too. But Megatron returned and beat the livin' scrap out of you and I was like, frag that's different. I was confused. I saw things after that, like how Megatron was going to shoot you in the face but then Arcee unintentionally saved you. That was the weirdest thing. Then you trick Arcee and fight her later, that geared me up. When she was going to slice your throat I was all for it. But she let you go. After that I was thinking differently."

"But why? Maybe I should-"

"No. Watching how you changed personally was much better. When you went rogue, it was interesting to see how much you relied on self-preservation. I realized how you were treated affected you. But nothing surprised me more when you saved Arcee's life. I was powerless, and it was the worst feeling, I thought I was going to watch her die in front of me. Either by Airachnid or by you. But you cut her lose, and since then I stopped hating you."

Starscream murmured, "I did that because she didn't kill me before. It made us even."

"But you didn't kill her without mercy. You do have some ounce of respect in you."

"I killed you without mercy. I killed you just because I got angry. You asked me where my 'master' was. I didn't want anyone to refer to me like I was anybody's slave…"

"I know," Cliffjumper said. " I learned about how you felt. You were hurt and often had your life threatened, and Megatron oppressed you often more than others. No one understood your issues, and I made it seem as exactly as you put it: that Megatron owned you."

"But I still only did it because you had irritated me," Starscream sighed. "I stabbed you and made you watch your own blood spill out as you died. The Predacons did that to me, and I will never forgive them."

"Let's take a walk," Cliffjumper suggested. "We shouldn't stay in here. We could walk through the new streets and chill out or something."

"Outside? No! Not at night!" he gasped.

"What? Scared of the dark Scream? I would have thought Decepticons-"

"No, no, of course not. But do you not know? The creatures, with purple optics and claws- they hide in the shadows…"

Cliffjumper grinned. "Creatures? You must be joking, the only other things in this world are lost sparks like us."

"I assure you they are real. They are hunting me, and have already inflicted harm." Starscream shivered.

Cliffjumper inquired, "What do they look like? Where are they?"

"Some are like small Predacons, others are like grisly, mutated terrocons. They attacked me in Vos, and there are a lot of them."

"Strange, I have never encountered them before. Maybe Unicorn has something to do with all this? Like with the purple optic gig and all." Cliffjumper shrugged. "Even locked up, he might have control in the spirit world."

"But I couldn't harm them. My guns didn't hit them and they heal instantly. We can't stop them."

"Don't stress about it. If you don't want to go outside, then we won't go outside. Just recharge until morning then, okay? We can fool around in the morning."

Then Cliffjumper walked through the wall and left him. Starscream was left blinking after him.


The day was well underway. He rose from the floor, finding that the only person in the room was Ratchet working on a computer. He walked out of the room, then went to exit the warship. Once again he was relieved to see no dark creatures. He then thought of the Sea of Rust, and then he was there at the construction site.

"Yo, Scream!"

Cliffjumper stood up from where he had been sitting and watching the construction. He waved. He actually waved to me.

"Nice day today isn't it? It would be better if we could feel the warmth of the sun though," Cliffjumper joked. "But it took you long enough to wake."

Starscream did not want to spend any time jesting. He wanted to have some questions answered, for he was still new to this world.

"Why do I recharge if I am dead? It does not seem that I tire…"

"It's something to do to pass the time I guess."

One of Starscream's wings twitched.

"Who else have you seen in this world? Anyone else we know?" he asked.

"Surprisingly yes," Cliffjumper replied. "For a long time Skyquake was here. He didn't want to talk to me so much, but he was waiting for Dreadwing to go to the Allspark with him."

"So having your body infected with dark energon does not affect your spirit," Starscream mused.

"Not at all." Cliffjumper winked. "But those are the only other people I've met. Or talked to, for that matter."

"Is there anything you can do to the other world? Can you show your presence or are we condemned to be unseen and unheard?"

"Nada. As far as I know there isn't anything I can do," Cliffjumper replied.

"Strange. When I screamed the screens static." He smirked.

"Well they don't call you Starscream for nothing." Cliffjumper smiled. "But that's pretty neat. Not as cool as it would be to communicate with somebody... ha, yeah, that would just make my day."

Starscream put out, "We should at least try then, if you didn't know this, then who knows what we could be capable of?"

Cliffjumper could only shrug again, then say, "Anything else you want to ask? Let me be your guide for all experiences of the afterlife."

Starscream was not amused by his cheerful mood.

"What about touching objects? Can that happen?" he continued.

"Only the floor on which we walk. Can't even lay on a berth to recharge-"

It was then he remembered, after recommencing all his recent memories of the new world through his mind. The most stunning thing that he had forgotten; it made him double take.

"But I have! I did in fact lay on a berth!" he gasped. "It was before I realized my passing. I was in the med room, and I awoke on the berth!"

Cliffjumper laughed, "Man you took yours way worse than I did. I mean, I never went nuts or anything-"

"This is no laughing matter!" he growled back harsher than he meant to. "What if we can affect the physical world? If we can get someone to know what's happening?"

"Even if you're right, Scream, they couldn't help us anyway. We are beyond saving."

"But what if we could touch things? Maybe there is a way, but we need the find it out for ourselves," Starscream implored. "Maybe we could touch someone, make …."

He trailed off, stopping when he realized what he was going to say in front of Cliffjumper.

"Could what? Hurt them?" Cliffjumper's tone lowered. "You need to figure out some things, Scream. Don't you realize that it's not all about revenge? It isn't a solution, but it only makes problems worse. You of all mechs should know that."

Cliffjumper looked at him solemnly, and then vanished. Starscream looked around, but he was really gone, teleported somewhere completely away from Starscream.

"What? How dare you fraggin' just leave me? Just when we had just started resolving our differences..." he muttered to himself.