Starscream's body falls to the ground limply, optics black and charge dying along the color of his sensor spheres, but Skyfire quickly turns his attention back to Skywarp when he sees the empty needle protruding from the main Energon line in his friend's neck.
The other Seeker is more important now, for his Energon lines haven't been pierced, but slashed.
Slag it all, who knew gliding flaps could be used as blades?
When Ratchet pushes the Shuttle off the smaller Flier, Skyfire risks a look at the Cybertronian still trapped in the Quintessons' illusion.
Frenzy and Rumble are frantically trying to calm down the three active mechs kneeling next to the sprawled Air Commander, Energon still covering and dripping from the gliding flaps of his extended wings.
Skywarp's reaction was exaggerated, yes. Throwing himself onto Starscream while the Seeker remembered a battlefield and didn't recognize any of them was foolish, but pinning his arms to his sides was plainly asking for trouble.
And trouble he found, when the panicked mech tried to free himself.
Though Skyfire's first thought when the matte black wings flared wide open and hitched to their highest was that it was a menacing display.
Not an attack.
Thundercracker knew, that's why he cried his Trinemate's designation, but none of them was fast enough to stop Starscream when the gliding flaps extended—
And the wings plunged downwards with enough strength to cut through cabling and struts and Energon lines with no apparent difficulty, using that small and practically sealed seam between the shoulder plates and the chest-neck plating.
Skywarp's shriek and his harsh movement backwards, away from his Trine leader, would have snapped Skyfire into action, but the arc of Energon between the two Seekers and the charged cannons that the arms had become, no sign of the servos, suddenly against the purple-marked Flier's chest plates stopped all his gears.
Fortunately, the Decepticon teleported away to his blue-striped Trinemate's side, and then they were too busy avoiding the shots for the Shuttle to remain frozen in place.
When bright red—molten metal red—optics with the tell-tale paler spots and bands signaling the active targeting systems locked on them, Ratchet jumped onto the Air Commander, and pushed a needle filled with a clear liquid into his neck.
The matte black mech collapsed as if forcibly shut down, and the scientist rushed to Skywarp's side, pulling plating off of him to reveal the broken lines in an effort to seal them and avoid further loss of Energon.
But now that Ratchet's taken over—cursing and berating the grimacing Seeker leaning against his worried Trinemate—the Shuttle can turn his attention once more to his forced into stasis friend and the other three fake personae.
"—only a sedative." Frenzy explains calmly, talking in Cybertronian so that they can understand him, while taking the needle out of Starscream's Energon line. "That was his battle programming activating, and we couldn't have him deactivati—er, killing people, could we?"
"Looked to me like he was acting in self-defense." Prowl answers back, voice chilling cold and optics a pale ice blue glaring into the nervous Cassette.
"Skywarp's an idiot. That was supposed to be a hug, but he can't take things slowly even if it means his deactivation." Rumble scoffs, keeping a hand on his creator's shoulder plates as the dark blue mech kneels next to the Seeker. "Which it will, sooner or later."
"Sooner, unless he learns to use his processor instead of having it just run through prank plans."
"Aw, but you like my pranks." The purple-marked Flier pouts at Frenzy's words, voice loud enough to carry to the other group, though quickly followed by a yelp as Thundercracker slaps the back of his helm with a scowl.
"Skyfire." Slightly surprised at the use of English, the Shuttle nevertheless turns to the medic at his designation. "I've sealed all lines, but I need him in the Repair Bay to deal with the cables and struts. Can you carry him, carefully?"
"Yes, of course. But what about…" A quick glance at the suspicious looking processor-trapped mechs is more than enough to finish his sentence, and Ratchet's engine growls softly.
"I knew we shouldn't have let them out. Commander Megatron will carry Starscream, and you have to take Skywarp because you're the only one capable of not jostling him too much." The scientist nods in answer and, carefully, picks the injured Seeker up. "Everyone get out now. The only ones coming to the Repair Bay are Skyfire, Megatron and Optimus. And Thundercracker. I need you to herd our humans." Blaster and the Cassettes exchange wavering and saddened looks, but finally nod and step out of the closest door, with Frenzy and Rumble following after a last hug with Soundwave.
Slowly, almost warily, the two Decepticons approach the tense reprogrammed mechs, the Seeker with an almost mournful look on his faceplates.
No one has said 'I told you so', but Thundercracker is punishing himself enough on his own.
"We need to get back to the Med Bay. Commander Megatron will carry Reeds." The Flier explains calmly, voice eerily soft and low, as if in physical pain himself, but none of the other three move.
Except for Jazz.
The Head of Special Operations calmly stands in front of his companions, servos resting on his pelvic plating innocently, but blue visor darkened and with the tell-tale paler dots and lines of his own targeting system.
He carries no visible weapons, he shouldn't have any installed, what with him being a 'civilian model', but Skyfire remembers an unexpected encounter with a pale skinned brown-haired man wearing green contact lenses, and knows the small, almost tiny in comparison to the Decepticon leader, mech doesn't need weapons to deactivate some-mech.
Or make them suffer.
His serious expression is more than enough warning.
"And if we refuse?" Soundwave asks almost calmly, still next to the downed Seeker and with a servo resting on a cannon-arm, but the two Decepticons don't look away from the saboteur.
"Going to the Med Bay or one of us carrying him?" Megatron returns with a patience his tense frame doesn't show, also aware of how much harm the deceivingly harmless mech in front of him can do.
"Both."
Prowl's doorwings fan menacingly when Optimus steps towards them, but Skyfire's busy following Ratchet out, Skywarp still in his arms, to hear what the Autobot leader answers.
The door closes, but the Shuttle doesn't relax, and neither do medic nor patient.
"I slagged it all big time, didn't I?" The Seeker whispers, optics dark and helm resting against the scientist's upper arm plating as if his neck-struts don't have the strength to hold it up anymore.
"Sooner or later, someone would have." The smaller Autobot answers gruffly, though without the harshness he tends to use on patients that got themselves sent to Repair Bay because of their, or their actions', stupidity.
"But it was me. It's always me."
"If you couldn't teleport, it would have been me." Skywarp twitches a bit before looking at the Shuttle expectantly. "When Starsc—Steve said that about hearing Thrust and Ramjet and Thundercracker, I realized he had been Starscream all along and… I guess I hoped he still was. I was about to walk up to him, maybe even embrace him too, but you can't race a teleporter." To his relief, the Seeker snorts with a proud smirk.
"Slagging right you can't. Only Screamer could have a chance against—" And, feeling as if living through a deja vu, the Decepticon's smile vanishes as he falls silent, mournfully huddling into himself as much as his position in the scientist's arms and his injuries allow him.
"He was spark-broken when he lost you." Skyfire whispers softly, folding his wing partitions back as they enter the Repair Bay. "Commander Storm—I mean, Megatron—he put him and Soundwave in medical leave, because your loss, and the twins', hit them too hard for them to keep working."
"What?" The black mech whispers, not even wincing as he's carefully put on a table.
"He showed me some pictures of your 'meeting'. The one you took when you first met." And Skywarp smiles once more, a gesture far smaller and more sincere than any of his usual big grins. "And told me of your first flight, and about the High Grade—" The Seeker barks in laughter, shaking a bit in mirth, as Ratchet fetches his tools. "And then he realized you were gone and… cried."
Silence.
"He… what?"
"He cried. For you, and Thundercracker. For his family."
Ratchet pushes him out of the room, but Skyfire manages to see Skywarp's optics flicker sadly with a small hopeful smile on his faceplate.
Motormaster just gives First Aid a nod before helping Breakdown down the berth and walking out the room.
The leg was reattached, but it needs to be integrated by the Stunticon's systems, which means it'll be some time before the shy mech can walk without a limp and be allowed to transform, something that also applies to Drag Strip.
None of his gestalt-mates complain about the check ups, nor about Motormaster being there.
Today, the competitive F1 car hasn't joined them because he was checked in the morning, after a stunt with one of the Autobot twins knocked him down on his integrating arm, so only Breakdown and the gestalt leader themselves have come, the other three staying in the Rec Room and trying to come to terms with all the new things of this time one hundred years in the future they've been shoved into.
And the fact they're living with squishies.
Not that the meat bags are around all that much, at least not in the areas the Stunticons are allowed to freely roam, but it's still weird to walk down a corridor and receive a respectful nod from every human they cross, instead of having them run away shrieking in fear.
It's almost scary, how some of them even try to make small talk.
But Megatron has given orders not to flatten them and to be polite—the first I hear insulting the meat bags to their faces will be playing tour guide for them with their voice box torn out and their transformation cog blocked, understood?—, so they just nod and excuse themselves every time such a thing happens.
Even creepier, though, is that there are some of them, not just Autobots, but Decepticons too, that are perfectly at ease around them, like Scrapper, Scavenger, Long Haul, Blitzwing…
Not all are confused by the new point of view regarding humans, but not everybot is perfectly content around them either. Thundercracker, Skywarp and the Cassette twins, per example, tolerate them, but aren't all that friendly to the squishies.
But, despite being as uncomfortable around them as the next mech, Megatron has ordered them not to damage the meat bags, so Motormaster obeys, and so does his gestalt.
Dealing with Autobots is even worse than seeing squishies walk around calmly, made even worse because some of them act as if they were never at war to begin with.
Shockwave told them that it is because some of them have been around since the creation of the truce, while others remember interacting with them in the Protectodome, and, as thus, don't recognize them as enemies anymore.
The only Protectodome Motormaster remembers is the broken into dome that covered the sky when they managed to get out of the underground facilities of the Quintessons.
Apparently, Menasor made an appearance once, almost at the beginning of the Invasion slash Capture Operation, on the Quintessons' side, but none of the Stunticons remember it.
Since all Decepticons that remember such an event said the Combiner was more 'docile' under Megatron's command, the gestalt decided it was a complete and utter failure, and that's the reason they were brought underground to be worked on.
Not that they prefer to remember that.
Lost in his musings as he is, Motormaster would have slammed into the black frame as he entered the main area of the Repair Bay, but the tension in the room quickly brings him back to the present.
So, he finds himself barely out of the threshold of the corridor to the individual rooms, with Breakdown timidly peeking out from behind him, and staring at Megatron's straight and stiff back plating.
A quick reboot of his optics later, he's looking into annoyed dark red.
"Are you planning on standing there all orn long?" Startled by his leader using Cybertronian to address him, since they've been speaking English so as to not disrespect the fleshies, Motormaster can only reboot his optics again before doing a quick swipe of the room.
Optimus Prime and Ratchet are there, the first standing next to the Decepticon and the second working on a winged matte black mech on a berth, but they're not the only ones inside.
Three others are standing opposite the faction leaders, though as close to the occupied berth as they can without disturbing the medic. And all them, plus the one being repaired, are quite well known to the Stunticons that dug them out of the rubble.
"I didn't know they were active." He muses out loud, and two visors, one red and one blue, look him over with suspicion while blue optics analyze him calculatingly.
He can feel his plating tingle with the discomfort of being examined and categorized, but refrains from even the smallest movement.
That doesn't feel right.
"Motormaster, Breakdown, these are Ron Fowler, Jazz Smith and John Sanders, and the one on the berth is Steve Reeds."
Stunned, both Stunticons turn to stare at the Prime.
"Did the Quintessons corrupt your databanks?" The gestalt leader asks skeptically, a klik away from activating his targeting systems, without taking his gaze from the red and blue mech.
He's not taking any chances with an injured brother present.
"They are still suffering the effects of the Quintessons' modifications. We're looking for a way to get them back to what they should be." Megatron answers, an order in his voice for the two Stunticons to stay silent.
"The question is, who are you trying to get us be?" All optics turn to the Praxian at those words, Doorwings spread wide almost menacingly. "Prowl and Starscream, or Fowler and Reeds?"
Both Autobot and Decepticon leaders exchange a look as the medic stops whatever he's doing to the black frame.
"Prowl and Starscream, of course. And Soundwave and whoever you're supposed to be, saboteur." Motormaster answers instead, gesturing to the black and white mech when he doesn't find his designation in his databanks.
"Jazz, I think." Breakdown answers at his back, and the gestalt leader nods.
"Yeah, that."
"There are no 'ours' nor 'yours', is there?" Soundwave whispers, looking down at his servos before clenching them tightly. "We're all supposed to be the same."
"We are." The Prime finally answers tiredly, and the visor that looks up at him is a pale pink in what Motormaster recognizes as ire.
Following deeply ingrained survival codes, both Stunticons step away and look down, trying for obedient and harmless.
"Then, someone has done something to us. Either those so called 'Quintessons' made us think we are what we now are, or you have done it." The gestalt leader feels the tension and shock fill the room at the Communications Officer's words, but he doesn't look up.
Instead, he takes a smaller step back, pushing Breakdown further from their Supreme Commander and closer to the corridor they've come through.
Just in case.
"We have done it? Why would we—?"
"To keep us contained? Controlled? Working for you? Oh, don't look so horrified, we do trust your words." Motormaster chances looking up, but quickly returns his optics to the floor at the deadly smirk on the Praxian's faceplate. "We believe you were the Black Beasts all along. And that you're trying to change us into these 'Starscream', 'Prowl' and the rest. As for whether they already existed before you took us from the Protectodome and got us this bodies…"
Both Stunticons shudder, not needing to see the speaking mech to hear and feel the rage ravaging his body, along that of the other two active ones.
"Enough of this slag!" The sound of a heavy step goes almost unnoticed after the bellow—
But the crash of a thickly armored frame being slammed into the ground is impossible to overlook.
Before he knows what he's doing, Motormaster is once more looking up.
And, this time, he's unable to turn away, despite the terrifying and shocking scene.
Megatron is on the ground, lying on his front, with the comparatively small black and white saboteur hunched down on his back, keeping one powerful silver and purple detailed black arm immobile by pressing it between one pede and the larger mech's own back struts, while the other is… disabled by the medical scalpel buried in the joint.
Effortlessly, the Autobot pulls the tool out to press it against the main Energon line on the neck.
The Stunticon leader knows he should have reacted, jumped to defend his leader, but he can't even make the smallest of gears twitch.
The Head of Special Operations isn't smiling.
Back when Autobots and Decepticons were at war, when no one had heard about Quintessons, or, at least, didn't know they were their whole race's creators, the black and white TIC was pretty well known by being one of the better—if not the best—at what he did, to the point he could act cool and cocky while sabotaging the other party.
Always with a smile on his faceplate.
The broken Quintesson body was a shock, but mostly rage.
The completely serious tiny mech thinking himself a human on the back of the Decepticon leader is a shock, too, but this time caused by horror.
And the Praxian just spreads his doorwings wider and higher, a gesture of superiority and threat, as the one in Soundwave's body analyzes them with an intensity that should have been accompanied by the prickling in his processor that results from it being read, but that it doesn't.
It doesn't make Motormaster calm down.
"You will tell us everything."
It sounds like a statement some-mech would make about the weather, instead of the order it is, and the gestalt leader has to fight not to step away in fear, keeping his optics on the silvery white 'Bot.
Breakdown twitches, and blue optics are suddenly on them.
There are no tell-tale paler spots or lines from target lock, but both Stunticons can feel as if a thousand visual arrays are on them.
With a start, Motormaster realizes the doorwings are angled to face them.
Is this what the Quintessons have turned him into? And if that is what has become of the Praxian, what about the rest?
Horrified, the Decepticon steps back, plating tingling with shivers as he looks away and huddles into himself, trying to appear smaller and obedient and non-threatening and knowing he's not suceeding, because those he wants to appease don't understand Cybertronian communication despite speaking only their language.
"Starscream was the Second in Command, and the Air Commander. He was a Seeker, a Flier frame type, and obnoxious and treacherous and always ready to do anything to get what he wanted. Soundwave was the Third in Command and Communications Officer. He was a Cassette Carrier, always silent, and spoke in a monotone and almost computer-like sentences, and was also a telepath and would use any information on you to get the upper hand. They were both Decepticons. Prowl and Jazz were the Second and Third of the Autobots. One was a tactician, and the other the Head of Spec Ops. Prowl was always serious, and Jazz always cheerful, but they were the best at what they did." And Motormaster falls silent, not knowing when he started talking, but too scared by still being targeted by what feels like the full sensory power of the Praxian.
The sensation vanishes so suddenly that the Stunticon leader almost misses the pained static burst.
Almost.
Again acting without confirmation from his conscious motor controls, the Decepticon finds himself looking up once more.
Soundwave falls to his knees, writhing in pain, while the Doorwinger quickly kneels by his side.
The saboteur doesn't move, still threatening Megatron with the scalpel, but his visor is now slightly tilted upwards, and there are paler spots and lines of his targeting systems on it.
The sensation has lessened, but is not more pleasant than when he had the Praxian's attention.
So, Motormaster stays still, letting Breakdown step closer to his leader and watching the Prime panic and the medic despair as neither of them is willing to risk the Supreme Commander's function by moving.
Until tendrils of white lightning arc over the Cassette Carrier's helm, his keening dissolving into creaking static.
The Doorwinger doesn't move away, but neither him nor the saboteur stop the red-accented white mech when he kneels next to his patient.
The medic injects the Communications Officer with something and, in barely a couple of kliks, Soundwave falls into stasis.
"He overwhelmed himself by forcing his processor. I know you want to know the truth, but pushing you to the point you overcharge, and possibly damage, yourselves is not the solution." And it isn't until those last three words that the growling and menacing tone the Autobot Chief Medical Officer is known for makes an appearance.
"So what would you suggest, doctor?" The Doorwinger asks calmly, and the saboteur steps off the Decepticon leader as if he's nothing more than the last step of the staircase.
"Reviewing memory files of those who knew Starscream, Soundwave, Prowl and Jazz."
There are many things that have gone wrong today, but nothing is worse than the nod the Autobot SIC and TIC give as answer.
AN: Hi there, everybody! Would you look at this? I managed to get the next chapter up :D I'm so proud of myself...
And the next one is coming along nicely, too. It's practically writing itself on its own! So, if nothing happens, next weekend there will be another update, right on schedule.
If not, wait for it the following weekend. I've decided that no matter when I complete the chapter, I'll be posting it on Friday/Saturday/Sunday, so that you know when to look for it.
Lets hope I can keep this up, though.
Angel Heart: I'm glad you enjoyed the interactions between the characters, I can't help but think Soundwave and his Cassettes are mostly background, in that chapter, which is something I strongly dislike.
I'm glad you liked how the chapter went, I wasn't so sure about the end, but... I couldn't fight Screamer nor his memories T.T
Yup, a job is the perfect reson. More so because I actually enjoy it, and it doesn't seem to get in the way of my writing, for now. Enjoy your vacation, and don't worry about new chapters, they'll be waiting for you when you come back ;)