Some time ago, I made the mistake of starting many stories at the same time. The result was that I couldn't keep pace with them all and I was forced to leave some of them in hiatus in order to concentrate in 'only' three or four.

This story was one of the sacrificed ones, but during the past months I have received many petitions to continue it. At the end, I'm a fan who writes for other fans, so I decided to open the drawer and add this fic to my list of ongoing stories.

Eventually I'll do the same with my other stand-by fics. The only thing I can assure is that I don't plan to leave any of my fics unfinished. I started them all because I loved them, and that's the same reason why I'll finish them. Just bear with me a little. I actually shouldn't be writing fanfiction and focus only in my personal projects, but I can't and won't leave my vice behind. I love it too much :o)

Okay, let's keep going now. Feel free to read the prior chapters because you may not remember a damn thing about this story. After all, the last time I updated was… ugh… July of 2011…

Many thanks to iratepirate for revising my grammar despite her tight schedule. You're the best, hun!

Chapter 10

Skyfire looked at his shadow on the wall. The black figure mimicking him looked back in silence, reminding him that switching places was not only impossible, but futile. Once again, the soft silhouette that was supposed to be his own wouldn't give him any shelter. This was one moment in his life that he wouldn't be able to avoid.

When he reached the door at the end of the corridor and requested access, he took a moment to acknowledge the orange walls of the ship that had become his home. He felt bad for not considering them as welcoming as before.

His shadow seemed to agree.

"Starscream and I are not exactly on speaking terms," he said three terrestrial minutes later, unable to find the tranquil harmonics of his voice. It was ironic that his vocalizer also had a shadow, it too unable to give him any protection. He was so transparent at that moment, so defenseless. He didn't like it.

"I know," Optimus Prime's reassuring tone came to Skyfire's aid, reminding him that if there was one mech in the Universe who wouldn't take advantage of his momentary lapse of weakness, that was the leader of the Autobots. "But you are the only one in this base he will listen to."

Skyfire doubted that. It was true that he had had a close relationship with Starscream once, but all those vorns of friendship had ended in a single moment, with a single shot and with a single, painful word.

"Starscream used to listen to me, Prime… thousands of vorns ago. He won't do it now." Talking about time felt so surreal. Skyfire knew that a small eternity had passed since his comm-link shut down when he was requesting assistance from his best friend and partner, but for him all those millions of human years had been nothing, not even nano-kliks. After the white mist of the ice dissipated, the next thing he had seen was Starscream's face, the same Starscream he remembered. Or at least that was what he had fooled himself to believe; he hadn't taken the time to realize how different Starscream looked with that twisted smirk on his face, not to mention the weapons mounted on his arms…

"Starscream trusted you once, Skyfire. He may still do so. I need to know his real intentions before making a decision about him, and you are the only one who has a chance of obtaining the closest thing to the truth."

Skyfire fidgeted slightly, feeling more and more uncomfortable by the minute. He knew he should have complied from the beginning; Optimus Prime was being gentle instead of assertive, but he was giving an order nevertheless. It wasn't in Skyfire's nature to go against authority, but Starscream had the ability - amongst many others – of shaking practically every bit of Skyfire's personality. The pacifistic scientist had been aware of that ever since he had laid his optics on that arrogant and brilliant Seeker for the first time.

"I'll do it," he said, defeated. "But don't expect much. It's true that I know Starscream, that's why I'm certain that this is a mission meant to be lost."

Many feelings invaded Skyfire every time he thought about Starscream. Sadness, longing, shameful lust... But as he walked through the corridors of the brig, all he could feel was anger. Anger at Starscream for putting him in a very uncomfortable situation, anger at Starscream for making fun of a human, pacifistic form of resistance, anger at Starscream for betraying him…

Skyfire stopped and shook his head. More than ever, he needed a controlled, cold spark. Allowing Starscream to mess with his feelings wouldn't do any good, as many past experiences demonstrated.

He struggled to leave anger behind once he arrived at the high security cell located at the end of the brig. But even if he hadn't succeeded in returning to his normal, tempered mood, the sight before him made him realize that he would have preferred a more disturbing image, one that reminded him that he was upset and that he had every right to be so.

It was difficult to be angry with Starscream when he was recharging, perhaps because it was the only moment in which his expression was not scornful. Even when they had a close friendship and no enemy factions between them, Starscream had always mastered the art of exposing perfect innocence on his facial features - later, Skyfire would regret not having spotted the hypocrisy. But even now, when he was perfectly aware of how twisted his former friend really was, he couldn't help missing Starscream, his Starscream, the one that would never have placed a friend behind his ambition, much less tried to kill him…

"I knew you would come, Skyfire. You were always so predictable."

The Autobot startled, much to his irritation. He should have expected that. He had never been able to take Starscream by surprise and it seemed that things would remain that way.

"I thought you were recharging," Skyfire said, his voice more coarse than intended.

"I had my secondary systems on alert. I wouldn't be so foolish as to recharge in a place in which half of the crew wants me terminated." Finally, the cunning red optics illuminated the partial darkness of the cell and focused on Skyfire. The innocent expression was gone. "Or perhaps more than half…"

Skyfire's internal struts shivered. "Your termination wouldn't satisfy me."

"Wouldn't it, really?" Starscream said, moving to sit on the ledge he had been lying on. "Strange. I would have sworn that there's a part of you that wouldn't exactly choke on such possibility."

Once again, Starscream was stripping Skyfire to his barest components. Millions of years may have passed, but the Seeker still knew which buttons to push.

Out of words as he was, Skyfire felt almost grateful when Starscream put an end to the awkward silence with a grimace of contempt. "Did Optimus Prime send you? I trust you told him that it would be a waste of time."

"I agree with that, but he insisted that I should come."

"Ah, good ole Prime and his eternal need to prove his infinite kindness…" Starscream chuckled slightly. "What would we do without him? There's no such thing like perfect tyranny without some idealistic fool to mock. But I don't blame Prime. He needs to reassure himself that he is a savior as much as his troops need to believe in him. I'm glad you found a place to belong, Skyfire."

The Autobot couldn't help narrowing his optics. It wasn't the not-so-subtle insults, but the fact that he was forced to realize that Starscream had always been like that. Skyfire had lost count of the solar cycles he had spent trying to find explanations for the mutation in Starscream's personality, but now he was being forced to admit that such mutation never happened. Starscream had always been capricious, and arrogant, and opportunistic, and ambitious, and mocking, and manipulative, and rancorous… Skyfire didn't feel like continuing the list.

The need to walk away became more urgent than ever, but he had made a promise to Optimus Prime.

"Are you done with the pretenses?" he asked severely, feeling something related to satisfaction when Starscream didn't seem to like his small success. "Then perhaps you could tell me the reason why you are toying with your life so recklessly."

Thousands of vorns had passed and many things had happened in Starscream's life, but Skyfire could still read him. The Seeker kept smirking, but the slight way in which one of his optics narrowed said more than a thousand lies.

"I beg your pardon. Toying with my life?"

Skyfire shook his head. No, he wasn't going to allow Starscream to take control of the conversation and drag it to ironic land. It had always been like that, and it had to stop.

"You are not a fool, but nor am I. Spare me the ironies, Starscream, and get to the point. The sooner we are done with this, the better. You know perfectly well what will happen if you keep depriving yourself of Energon. Why are you doing this?"

Starscream looked at him deeply before leaning his back against the wall and lifting one leg onto the ledge.

"And why should I tell you, Skyfire?"

Starscream didn't say the next line, but still Skyfire could hear it as clearly as if the familiar screechy vocalizer had said it.

"Why would you care?"

Why would he care, indeed? Starscream had betrayed him, mocked everything they used to believe in and had tried to kill him… Some things were beyond forgiveness.

Still, he said it. "Perhaps because we were friends once."

And, of course, Starscream smirked, making Skyfire hate himself for causing a reaction he should have predicted. The friendship card wouldn't work, not with Starscream, who considered that single word ridiculous and pathetic.

It hadn't always been that way.

"Friends? Please, Skyfire, I gave you more credit than that. We were not friends, but partners in search of similar goals."

Yes, there was a time when science was your passion, when we both dreamed about marvelous discoveries that would benefit all our fellow Cybertronians. What happened to you, Starscream?

That it was when it became painful, when Skyfire forgot about the many reasons he had to be resentful.

"You said you looked for me." He spoke before he could realize what he was saying.

To his surprise, Starscream didn't laugh. The Seeker wasn't expecting that.

"Fifty two thousand vorns ago," Skyfire continued. "When I crashed on this planet, you said you looked for me."

A slight twist of disgust in the corner of the mouth altered the Seeker's perfect features. "And what if I did?"

"As members of the Cybertronian Intergalactic Exploration Unit, the protocol dictated three solar cycles of search in case one of the members got lost. You searched seven cycles for me. Why?"

Starscream didn't reply, but his narrowed optics indicated that he was not in the mood for mocking Skyfire anymore.

"We had the exact amount of Energon required to return to Cybertron. You risked your own life when extending the search, not to mention that you openly defied the Science Ministry's orders."

One of the first things Skyfire had done when being admitted into the Autobots was exploring Teletraan One's database. He had more than fifty thousand vorns of history to catch up on, but his first search had been focused only on one name. He learned that Starscream had been accused of murdering him during their exploration mission and therefore expelled from the Science Ministry and from any activity related to science. He hadn't been sent to Garrus-1 only because the Ministry hadn't found enough evidence to support the murder accusations and bury the Seeker forever in the worst Cybertronian prison ever built.

Science was the one thing that Starscream had ever loved. There was no doubt that the abrupt termination of his career had sent him right into the Decepticons and their web of lies and violence. There was a part inside Skyfire – not as small as he liked to pretend – that kept blaming himself for that.

"I looked for you for the same reason why I was willing to name you my Second in Command once I got rid of Megatron." Starscream got up and approached the energy bars. "You were my partner, my reliable and docile partner. The kind that wouldn't stab me in the back… or at least that's what I used to believe."

Skyfire frowned. More than those last words, it was their bare cynicism that angered him. "I… stabbed you in the back? I recall it was you who ended up with a smoking gun whilst I was left for dead."

"I may have shot you first, but only in response to your treason."

"Treason? You tried to kill me because I refused to execute the Autobots!" Skyfire couldn't believe what he was hearing. It had been painful, but somehow he had learned to admit that the one he had considered his best and only friend had betrayed him. But the fact that Starscream was actually trying to reverse things on him… it was too much.

"You always were a drama queen." Starscream smirked, his face beautifully bathed by the purple light of the bars. "I'm not exactly interested in the 'who-betrayed-who' argument, but if you are so eager to defend the indefensible, I'd be happy to indulge."

Skyfire shook his head, finally realizing his mistake. "I refuse to have this conversation with you, Starscream. You are not going to drag me into your games, not this time. Remember that you are a prisoner in this base. You are very far away from your territory."

"There are so many inconsistencies in what you just said, but I don't feel like embarrassing you anymore." Starscream smiled wickedly and returned to the metal ledge. "Are we done talking? I'm tired and I'm sure you can understand that in my current condition even an action as insignificant as using my vocalizer can be exhausting."

Skyfire carefully scrutinized Starscream's movements. Even for the shuttle's advanced scanners it was difficult to tell if the lack of energy was the cause of Starscream's unusually slow pace or if he was simply trying to protect his Energon reserves.

"It wouldn't be if you refueled," Skyfire said in low voice, mostly because he wanted to hide his rancor. "Just how low are your energy levels?"

Starscream snorted as he lay down. "Why don't you tell me, partner? Go on, scan me. I promise I won't blush."

There it was again, anger, an acquaintance that was becoming regular every time Starscream was involved. "Does everything have to be a joke to you? It's your life we're talking about, Starscream!"

"I ask again: why would you care?"

Despite his annoyance, Skyfire couldn't help smiling. "Actually, you didn't ask before."

Starscream grimaced, and Skyfire enjoyed his little victory. A small eternity may have passed, but they could still read each other.

"I know you, and you wouldn't do something as insane as this if it didn't gain you something," Skyfire went on, not having the malice – or the masochism – to rummage through open wounds. "Something big. So what is it this time? Rank? Power? Total control of the Decepticons?"

There was nothing that Starscream, the new Starscream, wanted more than to become the Supreme Commander of that army of mercenaries. That was the one thing that Skyfire couldn't fit anywhere when comparing the mech inside the cell with the one that had been his closest friend. He may have been presumptuous, antisocial and – as the members of the Science Ministry liked to call him – an obnoxious jerk, but the Starscream that Skyfire had known would have never compromised his love for science, much less his ethics, in the search for a stupid crown.

Or would he?

"What do I gain?" Starscream retorted. "Certainly not a delightful moment with you. I meant it when I said I was tired, Skyfire. Tired of you!"

Starscream had always been voluble. Skyfire used to love that part of the Seeker's personality, but now he definitely didn't find those mood changes appealing.

"Did I touch a sensitive circuit?" Skyfire tried to sound neutral and forget about the pain he felt when he remembered that his former friend would have no trouble in hurting or destroying him. "Then perhaps we could address the real reason behind this charade of a hunger strike. I can tell you for sure that said reason is not slightly interested in what you are doing."

Skyfire had really tried to avoid the Megatron card, but he understood that there was no other way he would hear something related to sincerity coming from Starscream's vocalizer. Experience had taught him that the best – if not only – way to get the truth from the Seeker was by upsetting him.

The hint turned out to be accurate when two narrowed slots of hatred looked back from inside the cell… Accurate, but painful.

Skyfire sighed. "You were always so transparent, at least you were to me. Ever since you reactivated me, I noticed how desperate you are for Megatron's attention. Is that what this is all about? You have tried – and failed – to dispose of him as many times as you have tried to make him proud of you. Is starving to death the ultimate way you have found for him to notice you?"

It was very, very hard to render Starscream speechless. The Seeker always had big, clever words to come to his aid, but this time he looked genuinely taken by surprise. Skyfire knew that it was not ethical to feel a slight satisfaction because of that, but he needed answers. Besides, Starscream was not the only one getting tired of that uncomfortable conversation, especially the latest twist.

"Like everybody else, you seem to believe that my entire existence spins around Megatron." Starscream finally said, his tone darkening. "And just for the record, Megatron notices me alright."

"Maybe I am wrong. Maybe everybody is wrong. But it's hard to think otherwise seeing you trying so hard to prove that point."

What came next was a dark smirk; Skyfire didn't like it. "We may have broken our association, Skyfire, but believe it when I say that it pains me to see you joining the army of mindless dolts that don't dare to think outside the box." Starscream leaned one arm on his bent knee, causing Skyfire's shameful lust to ache in involuntary response. "It's true that we were friends once. It's true that I looked for you for seven cycles despite putting my own life at risk. That's why I'll be honest with you, partner. It did start with Megatron – what doesn't? But it became much, much bigger. What can I say? Life is a perpetual lesson and I'm just beginning to discover the advantages of pacifism."

Skyfire didn't frown much, that's why he felt physical discomfort as he did it. "Mocking one of the most honest and brave attitudes with which a fair mind can oppose tyranny is very vile, Starscream, even for you. I wanted to believe that you still had some decency left in your spark, but now I see that I was completely mistaken."

"As always, you expect too much from me. And, as always, those things you expect don't exist. Or maybe," Starscream hissed his painful counterattack, "maybe this is about something else. Poor, poor Skyfire… I thought that by now you would have overcome the fact that I never gave you what you really wanted from me."

Skyfire was shocked. Despite Starscream's cynicism and cruelty, that was a low hit that the Autobot hadn't expected. Starscream had his defects, but he was also a classy mech…. or used to be.

"This conversation is over!" Skyfire really hadn't meant to yell, but extreme emotions were something very hard for him to control.

"Still the big child, I see." Starscream shook his head. "I thought you had come here to have a rational, civilized conversation. But, as always, the perfect scientist doesn't have a clue what to do when things don't go his way. That storm that buried you in the ice was nothing but the story of your life."

Skyfire didn't reply. Starscream didn't deserve his reply. As a matter of fact, Starscream had never deserved anything from him; not his friendship, not his love… As far as Skyfire was concerned, the Seeker could starve till deactivation and free the Universe of his poisonous presence.

Anger was his only companion as he left the brig. Skyfire didn't look at his shadow this time, certain that it was a horrible sight.

To be continued.

I'm not naming the chapters of this fic, but this one would definitely be entitled 'Traitor'. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the word that Starscream told Skyfire right before shooting him in the episode 'Fire in the sky'. Now the question would be which of them fits better for the T word. If we are fair a make a list, ethics aside, we may find that the final score would be tighter than we initially thought.

Please let me know your opinions and if you are still reading this story. I'll make sure to reward my old readers and to surprise the new ones. Thanks for reading and see you soon :o)