The last time Jack had encountered Starscream was coming out of the shadowzone, along with Miko and Raf. As far as the Autobots were concerned, they had last seen him during the encounter with Megatron the night Jack was taken by Umbrella. Since then, he had been absent from every run-in they had with them. He wasn't even there during the attack on Outpost Omega One. Not that it mattered to Jack anyway. There had been much bigger things to worry about these past few months than why old screamer was always a no show. But here he was now, in an abandoned 'Con spacecraft, seemingly alone, and looking none too happy with his present company.
Jack looked up at Starscream behind his blaster with a tired and bored expression. He honestly didn't care what happened at this point. Worst case scenario, he dies, Umbrella gets fragged over, and the world is safe. But Starscream was evidently more concerned with the situation, if the poorly hidden panic beneath his ticked off expression was of any indication.
"Where are they?" He asked lowly, but aggressively.
"What?" Jack asked in a tired tone.
"Where are they?!" He yelled a little. "Where are the Autobots?!"
Again, Jack was just too tired to care.
"How should I know?"
Starscream growled in frustration and moved his blaster closer to Jack.
"Don't play games with me, you disgusting human. You're one of the Autobots annoying little pets that like getting in our way. If you're here, then they're here. So tell me where they are!"
"Not here."
Starscream looked dumbfounded, probably more for that fact that Jack was not intimidated at all by his presence.
"Do you think I'm an idiot?!"
"Yes."
"Argh!" Starscream pitifully growled.
He raised his blaster and shot at the ceiling of the room they were in before putting it back on Jackson, causing hot smoke to wash over him. This just annoyed him.
"Now then, how many are here? Is Optimus Prime with them? Did you bring the Decepticons with you? Did you lead them here?!"
That intrigued Jack because that meant that Starscream was indeed on his own. And the way the urgency of his voice rose with the last two questions, he was clearly on the run from them.
"The Autobots aren't here, Starscream."
Jack's answer only confused Starscream...which just pissed him off. Starscream growled...again...and suddenly reached out with his servo, snatching Jackson off the ground and holding up to optic level. As he raised him up, Jack felt a familiar instinct kicking in and struggled to keep it in check.
'No.' He thought.
"Now, I'm going to ask you one last time, human. Where are your Autobots masters?"
As much as Jack didn't want to be dealing with Starscream right then, he most certainly didn't want to lose control again and have another blackout, like back at the blacksite. Over the last two weeks, he had gained some modicum of control over his mutation and kept himself from using it unless he needed to. But with Starscream threatening him like this, his defense was activated and felt himself slipping into what had begun referring to as the "green zone".
"Answer me, meat bag!"
"Put me down, Starscream." Jack urgently asked.
"Don't give me orders, you little..."
Starscream was too angry to think of a proper insult.
"Either you tell me where they are or I'll fly you into the stratosphere and eject you into space."
Jack felt his right eye pulse.
"I'm warning you. Put me down, now. I'm not kidding."
"Warning-Warning Me?! Who do you think you're talking to?! I am Lord Starscream, Rogue Decepticon!"
That didn't make any sense.
"You are a mere bag of meat a bones from a ball of dirt and rock. How dare you threaten..."
As Starscream ranted on about how great he was and how Jack was beneath him, the teen felt himself drift into the green light he came to dread. He soon dropped his head as if he had lost consciousness.
"You cannot begin to fathom the torment I can bring upon insignificant vermin like you. You'll know pain far beyond what you can-ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!"
Jack's response was to lift his head and stare straight up at Starscream, his eye glowing brightly once again.
"Your eye...What's wrong with your eye?"
Several thin spikes then protruded from Jack's body and pierced through Starscream's servo, making him yell in pain, along with shock. He tried to let Jack go, but was unable to open his servo up. The spikes then retreated back into their host and Jack fell from Starscream's grasp. He landed safely on one knee and Starscream pulled his hand back and examined what was done to it. He took several steps back and turned to Jackson on the ground, far beyond angry at this point.
"That was a big mistake!"
He raised his armed blaster and fired directly into Jack. To his shock, Jack wasn't vaporized in an instant, but thrown back into the panel instead. When he fell forward, he had left a dent on the hard metal. Jack stood straight and Starscream saw that his body had completely changed. His flesh had become black and hardened like pure carbon. His human features were no longer visible on his face, except for his glowing eye. His hardened form symmetrically broke apart and softened, before seeping back into his skin, leaving Starscream further confused.
"What is this?!" Starscream asked in a panic. "What's happened to you?!"
Jack's answer was not a verbal one. He whipped his hand and shot out another vine from his palm, which latched on Starscream's throat. With the clench of his digits, Jack pulled himself up to Starscream and made his way around to the back of his neck. Producing a second vine from his other hand, he connected it the first and began tightening them as he crossed his arms and began strangling Starscream. The Seeker began to choke as his energon lines were being cut off. He fell to his knees and hunched forward as he began to weaken, which allowed Jackson to tighten his hold even more. He then connected the vines into his left palm, leaving his right free. Drawing his arm back, an onyx spike came out from above his fist. Jack was ready to pierce it through the back of Starscream's helm and out of his front, but when he jerk his fist forward, he stopped just before it could touch him.
Jack's green eye began to dim and his face showed signs of struggle. His arm shook as if it were being pulled from two sides. Jack's expressions were returning and he was able to shut his eyes and look away.
"No." He grimaced. "No...I'm not a weapon...I'm not a weapon."
He was thinking of the Tyrants, who acted on orders and lacked any control or will. He felt like them whenever he was like this. Jack grimaced and groaned as he struggled to regain control.
"I'm Jackson Darby." He struggled to say. "I'm Jackson Darb-"
Jack was suddenly cut off when Starscream rose to his pedes and threw himself down on his back. Jack's vines were released and Starscream picked himself back up and backed away into the console behind him with his blaster raised. He coughed out the static in his voice box and stared at the human that was indented in the ground. Once again, he was armored.
Jack stood back up and his eye was glowing brightly again. His instincts had retaken him. Starscream shifted his servo back and armed his missile. Wasting no time, he loosed the missile and it hit Jackson dead on, exploding on impact.
Starscream didn't even have a second to breath in relief when Jack emerged from the smoke without a single scratch on his smooth, black surface. Starscream quickly raised his other missile, but his arm was pierced by a shard projectile and caused him to fire his missile into the wall. Jack stood there with his palm opened and a hole in the center of it that was quickly closing up.
As Jack's armored form broke apart and absorbed back into his skin, he fired another shard into Starscream's shoulder, which threw him back into his console and made him slide down on his aft. He looked on in horror as Jack slowly approached him with the blankest of expressions, his eye illuminating green.
"Stay away from me!"
Jack's reply was to shoot out another vine at Starscream's neck again. It wrapped around it and Jack tightened it with one hand, once again, strangling Starscream. The seeker felt his energon being cut off once more and his frame beginning to weaken. His optics were dimming and he was about to fall into stasis.
Suddenly, Jack's face change and he realized what was happening again. He began breathing heavy in a panic and quickly released Starscream. His vine retreated back into his palm and Jack fell on his hands and knees. It happened again, he'd lost control. He thought he was beginning to get a handle on it, but all it took was an single act of aggression, not even a threat to him, and Jack reacted. It was just like Wesker said, he reacted on instinct and attacked at the slightest sign of danger. This was exactly why he was on the run and why he couldn't be with his family. This was why he needed to die.
"Oh, God." He whispered.
It just hit Jack there. Not even a blast from a Cybertronian could kill him. That was his last hope, the only way he thought he could keep himself out of Umbrella's hands. Now, that was lost...along with everything else.
Starscream managed to stand back up, not wanting to get near Jack.
"What the frag are you?!" He yelled.
"I warned you...I warned you to let me go." Jack weakly said, still on his hands and knees.
Starscream could only stare, too horrified to even respond in his usual manner. Jack got up off his hands, but was still on his knees.
"Get the hell out of here, Starscream." He said gently.
The only reason Starscream didn't scoff at Jack having the gall to kick him out of his own control room was because he was too scared to even try.
"I said go!" Jack yelled.
Starscream didn't have to be told a third time, but Jack said it anyway.
"Go!"
Starscream was out the door and halfway down the corridor. Jack hunched forward, his head burying into his hands on the ground. He really wasn't human anymore. Everytime he lost himself, he was reminded of that.
"I'm not a weapon...I'm not a weapon."
Lies...Jack knew what he was. A weapon was exactly what he had become, a perfect weapon, a weapon capable of adapting and modifying itself for any purpose. He was a sword, a shield, an arrow, a whip and God knows what else. He was the ultimate weapon, just like Jill had said way back when. But he wasn't Umbrella's weapon. Jack was never going to be theirs. Either he'd kill himself or them before he'd let happen. but unfortunately, he had no idea how to do either.
Jack didn't know what the do anymore. Alone and in a Decepticon ship, Jack was truly lost.
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Leon and Helena looked on as The President observed Fowler's headless body beneath the tarp. As a politician, he was very good at hiding his emotions. But Leon could see it in his eyes, the sadness, the loss. William was his friend...and now, he was gone.
"Why didn't you just fall back when I told you to?" Benford said in regret.
President Benford lowered the tarp. He couldn't look at him any longer. He rested his hands on the metal table with his head lowered.
"I'm sorry, William. I didn't want this."
"This isn't your fault, Sir." Helena said. "This is on Umbrella, not you."
"No..." He said. "Everything that happens to him or either of you is on me...Because I am the President. That means that I make the decisions...and I carry the guilt when they get someone killed."
This was one of the may reasons that Leon never led a team of his own before now. He didn't want to carry the burden of a whole team on his back, or the risk of letting them down or leading them to their deaths. He always worked better on his own, or at best, with a single partner.
"Did he have any family?" Leon asked.
"A mother in South Carolina...An ex-wife, if that counts for anything. No kids. His work was his life."
Adam Benford looked back up, directly at his subordinates.
"What about Jackson Darby?"
"He's still in the wind, Sir. We have no idea where he might be." Leon answered.
"We have to find him before Umbrella does. Fowler wanted to protect that young man. He can not have died for nothing."
As much as Leon hated to lie to the President, who was also his friend, he neglected to tell him about Jack being infected. He wanted to give the kid a fighting chance to live through this, but he knew the President would have to make a hard call Leon didn't want to think about. June Darby was broken enough, he didn't want to twist the knife further.
"You two head back to the Autobots. Keep me informed if anything develops."
"Sir." Helena answered.
"Sir." Leon followed.
Both of them lingered on Fowler's body for a few moments longer. It was decided that he would be cremated and his remains scattered over his hometown in North Carolina. There was at least enough of him to do that. Leon and Helena left The President alone with Fowler's body.
"I was told that William was last seen leaving the premise with Derek Simmons."
Both Leon and Helena stopped where they were. Leon began clenching his fists.
"There is no doubt in my mind that he is responsible for this."
Leon turned around and saw the President look directly at him.
"When you bring down Umbrella...I want you to nail that son of a bitch to the wall. And then, I want you to drag his goddamn name through the dirt. I want this country to know who Derek Simmons really is."
Leon had never seen the President this way, but then, nothing had ever struck so close to home, aside from his daughter being kidnapped. This was personal to Adam Benford. After everything that happened, it was personal to Leon as well. Fowler was a good man. He deserved justice for what Umbrella did to him.
Leon and Helena left the White House with an understanding of what was expected of them. But neither knew how to accomplish that. There were still so many pieces left before they could begin to tear Umbrella down.
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Leon and Helena were bridged back to Raccoon City. That felt strange to think about to Leon, being back where it all began. He was approached by Optimus Prime, who had clearly been spending time with June, if his dispirited demeanor was anything to go by.
"How did President Benford respond to the news of Agent Fowler's death?"
"He was...upset, even if he didn't show it. He wants to do right by Fowler."
"As do we all, Agent Kennedy."
"We decided that when this had all been settled, we're going to give him a proper send off in his hometown. Fowler deserved that much."
"Is it...possible that my me and my Autobots be allowed to attend his Funeral?"
"We'd have to get the okay from The President, but Fowler would definitely want you guys to be there."
"He'd want Jack there too." Helena added. "Any news?"
All the Autobots became even more discouraged at the question.
"I see." She replied to the atmosphere.
"Jackson is proving to be most difficult to locate. Even with the assistance of Rafael, we've been unable to track his whereabouts." Optimus said.
"Kid's stayin' off the grid." Barry added. "Smart move."
"Yeah, well." Chris began. "With the way he is now, he's probably too scared to be around people. What's the news on his blood?"
Josh stepped forward.
"Doctor Jenkins is studying the sample of Jackson's infected blood. She says that she is close to developing a vaccine for the G-Virus."
Leon turned to Arcee, who as expected, stopped what she was doing and turned to Josh.
"Could she make a cure Jack's blood, Josh, something that could fix him?"
Josh went to answer, but Leon could see his hesitance to crush the little bit of hope that Arcee had just grabbed on to.
"Arcee..." Leon began. "There is no way to fix Jack."
And just as he figured, Arcee's expression fell.
"You don't know that." She desperately said.
"I'm afraid, I do. I've seen it for six years. Once the viruses take effect, there's no way for it to be undone. I'm sorry, Arcee, but...Jack's change is permanent. There's no going back for him."
Arcee looked away, hiding her expression from everyone. That felt horrible to Leon, telling her such a hard truth. But false hope was far more cruel. She went back to what she was doing, clearly trying to keep herself distracted. The uncertain look on her face was easy to see.
The others were no better off. When Optimus was not doing what he could to find Jackson or Wesker, he was trying his best to help June cope with everything that was happening. June, herself, was where she had been been since the incident. She was still unresponsive to anyone, not saying a single word. She wasn't catatonic, she still went through all the motions of the day to day routines. But she had been completely mute and near emotionless. It was like she was a shell of the woman she had been. Jill believed that she had been traumatized by seeing what happened to Jack. Neither Optimus, Arcee, nor Jill could break through to her.
Jill was more a less the same as Arcee, as she had been close to Jackson herself. More than once, he had noticed the wetness in her eyes whenever she disappeared somewhere in the base. He'd actually saw her crying by herself when she thought no one was around once already. He couldn't blame her.
What concerned Leon the most were the children. Miko had been by Bulkhead's side since they had arrived beneath Raccoon City. He had been told that she was already less than her usual, energetic self since the destruction of Jasper. But now, Leon could see the constant state of fear she was in. Twice, she had been forced to abandon her safe haven because of Umbrella and no doubt, she feared it happening again. She had become more active as she could around the base, mostly helping Rebecca mix herbs and Jill care for June. Though while Leon could tell she genuinely wanted to help the mother, it was obvious that she was really keeping herself busy so as not to face the reality of the situation. She had been through a lot and was not ready to confront it yet, especially now that Jack wasn't there.
Rafael was a truly sad case, as the once shy but charming boy had become extremely closed off. He, like Miko, was scared. But he also seemed angry about something but wouldn't say what. He stayed close to Bumblebee, but his responses to anyone were always simple and quick answers, as if he had no desire for conversation. Leon feared that the experience he had endured not only scarred him, but it had left him jaded. He hoped that wasn't the case. Rafael was far too young to be this way.
Even Doctor Ratchet was at a low point, choosing to work on Jackson's replacement eye that was of not needed anymore. Leon hoped that this was the bottom for the three teams. Things couldn't get any worse or someone was going to break and he knew that it'd be one of the kids. They so desperately needed a win right now, either getting Wesker or bringing Jackson home.
Leon thought for a second. A recurring idea had come back to him once again. He had been playing with it for a while now, but was most uncertain if it would be the right move. But things couldn't stay the way they were at the moment. Everyone was close to the edge and they needed something to pull them back from it.
Leon left the main hall and retreated to a secluded area of the base. He found himself in what used to be an office space. Taking a seat at one of the cubicles, Leon pulled out his phone and pulled up a number. He did nothing but stare at it, debating whether or not he wanted to call her. She had come to him with her own doubts and had told him about Jackson Darby. But that meant she had been working with or for Wesker prior to that meeting. Could Leon trust Ada? Could he trust her to betray Albert Wesker for him? He kept asking himself that as he continued to stare at her number.
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Jack was still sitting against the console in the same area Starscream had found him. It was funny to him. The G-Virus made him the perfect hunter, stronger, faster, near indestructible. Yet, it also robbed him the will to want to do anything with his down time. Whenever he wasn't hunting for food and staying on the move to stay ahead of Umbrella, he just stayed in one spot, waiting for enough time to pass before he felt he had to move again. But what else was there to do? Now that he had left his family behind and basically had nothing to live for, nothing really seemed to matter. It just all seemed pointless now.
"Great, I'm turning into Rust Cohle." He said to himself.
Jack rested his head back, against the console, attempting to get some shut eye. But then, he felt his chest pulse and he quickly stood up, extending two claws from between the knuckles of his right fist. He turned his mismatched eyes to the doorway, where after a few seconds, Starscream passively entered the room. He stopped just into the area when he saw that Jack was ready for him, looking as if he was staring at Megatron himself.
"I...don't mean to disturb you." He meekly said.
Jack was still in control, but he was also ready in case Starscream was up to something. Though, he knew that if he was, the green zone would take over.
"What do you want, Starscream?"
"Well...I just came for my intake."
Jack was confused, which Starscream appeared to recognize.
"My energon." He said, pointing to a corner of the room.
Jack hadn't notice a large tarp draped over something and could see a faint blue light coming from beneath it. He looked back to Starscream, who was clearly navigating a minefield in his head. Jack waved his hand, uncaringly, and Starscream cautiously moved forward while staying as far away from him as possible to get his energon. Once he did, he quickly made his way back out the room without another word. Jack waited for a few minutes before drifting off.
Another hour went by when Jack suddenly shot a black spike into the wall by the doorway. Starscream stuck his servo out from behind it in a surrendering manner.
"It's just me, don't shoot." He said.
"What now?" Jack asked impatiently.
Starscream stepped back into the doorway, looking even more unassertive than before.
"Well...uh..."
"Spit it out, Starscream." Jack said.
"The console...I need to use it."
Jack stood up, suddenly feeling suspicious.
"What for?"
Starscream appeared cautious again.
"Nothing important really."
Jack flexed his fingers and a large, talon like, blade came from above his wrist. Starscream was quick to give in.
"I-I need to monitor radio chatter."
Jack was still suspicious.
"Radio chatter?" He skeptically asked.
"For Decepticon activity...I need to know if they're up to something or if they're close by. You'd want to know if they're closing in on us, wouldn't you?"
Jack narrowed his eyes, not really trusting Starscream. He looked up at the console and used his black vine to pull himself up to the control panel.
"Alright, show me."
Starscream pulled back and was visibly unwilling to get too close to Jack. Jack found this kind of funny.
"What's the problem?"
"Uh...Well..."
"Come on, let's go. I wanna make sure they aren't close by either. Show me how it works."
Starscream seemed to swallow his fear and slowly approached the console.
"Um..."
He motioned to show that Jack was standing over the controls, which Jack moved away from. Starscream began powering the console, keeping his optics on Jack, very jittery about the whole thing. The console came on and he was about to input commands.
"No funny business, Starscream." Jack warned.
"O-Of course, not."
Starscream input his commands and began tuning something with a series of codes. Suddenly, sounds of static began coming through the screen. Starscream cycled through numerous codes, becoming more curious about the constant static between each of them.
"Still nothing?" He muttered to himself.
"What is it?" Jack asked, with a commanding tone.
Starscream nervously gave Jack his attention.
"Uh, the radio chatter...It's clear."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, there is no chatter, meaning no Decepticon activity."
Jack became intrigued.
"Is that out of the norm?"
"Normally, no. It happens every once in a while. But it's been like this more often than not. Over the last deca-cycle or so, there's been next to no activity from Megatron of his ranking officers."
Jack stepped forward, growing more curious.
"Deca-cycle? What is that, a week?"
"It's the same length as one lunar cycle on this planet?"
"A month, huh?" Jack said to himself.
He began thinking, wondering what this all meant.
"What was the last thing you heard from your 'Con buddies?"
Starscream, who was probably wondering why he was answering to a human of all things, thought for a few seconds.
"The last bit of chatter I heard was something about a failed mission to offline Optimus Prime. Megatron was apparently furious over it, more than usual anyway."
Jack tried to think of the last time Optimus had locked horns with Megatron.
"The Forge." He muttered to himself.
"What was that?" Starscream questioned.
Jack remembered his company and corrected himself.
"Nothing...What else have you heard?"
Jack didn't know why he was trying to get any information out of Starscream. Even if he did have something useful, it wouldn't do either him or the Autobots any good. It wasn't as if he could pass this intel on to Optimus, who even if he had known where they were after being compromised again, Jack wouldn't go anywhere near. Besides, the Autobots could handle the Decepticons. Unless Starscream had intel on Umbrella, there was no point to this.
"Well...Honestly, prior to that, things were still quiet. Megatron must've been preoccupied with something."
"Yeah." Jack said bitterly, knowing that he had been plotting with Wesker.
Jack didn't notice right away that Starscream had stopped listening in on the radio waves and was staring at him. When he glanced up and saw this, he became annoyed.
"What?" He asked.
Starscream must've realized what he was doing because he snapped out of it and took a step back.
"J-Jack, was it?"
"Yeah." Jack answered, cautiously.
"So...If you don't mind me asking...Are you...human?"
Jack was already done with this conversation.
"I mind you asking."
Starscream backpedaled.
"Uh, very well then."
Starscream went back to working at his console, or at least pretend to be, as Jack could tell. He was still glancing at him every few seconds.
"Can all humans do...whatever that was you were doing?"
"I said we're done with this conversation, Starscream."
"Yes, I know. But..."
"That means stop asking questions." Jack cut him off, impatiently.
"Alright, alright." Starscream said quickly. "No, need to get testy."
Again, Starscream began pretend he was working on something at the console. But Jack ignored by lifting his sleeve up and looking at his old scar. How ironic it felt to him that the one part he thought was still his was the part of his body that wasn't there.
"I'm not sure what you are, Jack."
Jack shut his eyes, fed up with Starscream's refusal to keep his mouth shut.
"But I must say, if this is normal for humans, you're not as weak and pathetic as I thought you were."
Had Starscream not seen something coming from the side of his vision and reacted quickly enough, the extremely long spike that came out of Jack's wrist would've went straight through his optic. As it was, the needle-like end of it was less then an inch away from him. Standing on the console, was Jack, who was royally pissed by this point. Starscream held his hands up to try to defuse the situation.
"Pathetic was not what I meant to say." He nervously said.
"Shut. Up." Jack said.
"Alright. Alright...Not a word."
Starscream was truly scared from what Jack could see. But as mad as he was, he really didn't want to kill him. His mutation made him dangerous and uncontrollable once he was in the green zone, but as himself, Jack was no more cold-blooded than since before he met the Autobots. He had no reason to kill Starscream. Jack calmed himself down with a deep sigh and withdrew his spike.
"Get lost, Starscream." He said.
"Will do." Starscream replied.
The Seeker nearly left a dotted outline from where he was standing with how quickly he exited the room. Jack took a tired breath and sat down atop the console. But the fact that he would've gouged out Starscream's optics if he hadn't moved at the last second had left a bad taste in his mouth. He didn't know what came over him when he did that. He just got mad and reacted. He had never done that before and it wasn't because of the G-Virus. He was in full control that time. It was all starting to get to Jack and he was getting more scared than he already was. He was afraid that he was losing himself in the madness. He ran his head through his hair, which had gotten longer during his travels, and let his head hang low.
"I'm losing my mind."
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While the rest of the teams were brainstorming on how to find either Wesker or Jack, Rebecca was grounding up herbs for the missions. She wasn't a combative field agent like Chris or Jill, she was a medic. She could hold her own if she had to, but out there, her team relied of her to keep them from bleeding out or their wounds going septic when they took a hit. That's why she always spent her tome preparing herbal sprays for her teammates. No one ever died from having too much medicine. Well, unless it was like prescription drugs or something that you could overdose on, but...
Rebecca mentally slapped her own head. Even in her thoughts, she had her foot in her mouth.
"You dodo bird." She said to herself.
Rebecca kept on working, but looked to the other two presences in the room. Sitting in her wheelchair with the same dead expression she had for the last two weeks was June Darby. Like everyone else, Rebecca hoped that the mother wasn't too far gone. She hoped for Jackson to be found so that June could come back from this pit of despair she was free falling through. In the weeks that passed, she had regained her strength to walk without too much pain, but she just lacked the will to do so. Jill, Arcee, and Optimus kept her moving periodically, so as to avoid loss of muscle or sores. But if they hadn't been getting her to move, to eat, to do anything, June would've just sat in here wheelchair until she starved to death. Without her son, she really had no will to live.
Rebecca then turned to Miko, who was sitting behind her, brushing her hair. The young girl had really stepped up since the move. Before the first move, Miko was normally getting into trouble or causing mischief. At the blacksite, she was much more quiet and withdrawn, at least until Jack came back around. Now, though she was still quiet and a little closed off, she was out and about, helping any way she could. She asked Jill to teach her how to strip and clean handguns so she could do so for the team's sidearms. She'd even help Rebecca mix her herbs for first aid. But most of the time, she'd be with June, making sure she ate, helping her in and out of bed, walking with her around the base.
But all of this was to keep herself from thinking about Jackson and what he was doing, or might have done already. There was a cloud hanging over the whole base about that and no one wanted to talk about or even think it. But they all knew what it was. When someone feels they have nothing to lose, it often ends one way.
Having depressed herself, Rebecca took a break from her herbs and decided to stretch her legs. As she was about to leave, she turned to Miko.
"Hey, Miko?"
"Yeah, Becca?" She stopped brushing June's hair to reply.
"You've seen Raffy anywhere?"
Miko's expressed changed and she dropped her distracted facade.
"No...Raf's...Raf's been kinda doing his own thing. You know?"
Unfortunately, Rebecca did know.
"Alright, thanks."
Rebecca left Miko and June alone as the teen continued to brush the mother's hair. As she did, she began humming the hymn June had sung during the attack. Sadly, it didn't get the reaction Miko was hoping for. She stopped brushing and embraced June in her chair, resting her head in her neck.
"I miss him too, Ms. Darby. I really want him to come back...But everyone says he's still out there and he's okay, for now. Please, don't give up on us. We all really need you. Please, say something."
June didn't say anything, but Miko felt a tear fall on her hand. June was there, she wasn't lost. But she was down and didn't have it in her to get back up. They needed to find Jack or else June would never talk again...or worse."
"We love you, June." Miko said. "Hang in there, okay?"
Miko kissed the top of June's head and went back to brushing her hair. She was afraid to hope for anything less than things not getting worse than they already were. But she was also afraid of not having hope and ending up the same as June. Jack had lost hope and he was gone now. It was time for Miko to step up and be there for Rafael, just as Jack did with them. Even if he never came back, she was going to do right by him. She was going to make him proud.
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"Hey, Bee?"
Bumblebee looked down and saw Rebecca at his pedes.
"I wanna talk to the little guy. Is he around?"
Bumblebee responded, but of course, Rebecca could not understand him.
"Right, the beeps."
Even though she didn't a get word of what he was saying, Bumblebee's optics expressed clear concern, which concerned Rebecca. The pair walked around the base, searching for Rafael. Unfortunately, the kid was nowhere to be found. Chris had mentioned Piers going up to the surface and the two figured that would be a good place to check. Sure enough, Rafael was sitting outside the Umbrella facility with Piers watching over him. However, Piers was keeping his distance, as if he didn't want to disturb Raf.
"Piers, what's up?" Rebecca asked. "What are you two doing out here?"
Piers looked to Rebecca for a second before turning back to Raf, who sat on the ground in the middle of the courtyard, focused on his laptop.
"The kid asked me if I could show him the way up. Apparently, he needed to get out from the bunker and get some fresh air. I figured I'd watch him until he was ready to go back down, just to keep him safe."
Bumblebee asked something of Piers, but he had no better luck getting it than Rebecca. Rebecca asked a few more questions of her own.
"How long have you both been up here?"
"About two hours...He's really into whatever game he's playing on that computer of his."
Rebecca and Bumblebee looked on at Raf, who hadn't acknowledged either of them at all.
"You can head back down if you want." Rebecca said. "We've got it from here."
"Alright...Just keep an eye out for wild dogs."
Piers looked on for a few seconds before leaving. Everyone seemed to be worried about Rafael. But then, he was the youngest person at the base. Rebecca and Bumblebee walked over to him and stopped just behind him. Rebecca hunched forward to get his attention.
"Hey, Raf." She called, but Rafael didn't respond. "What'cha doin' up here by yourself?"
"Piers is with me." He responded plainly.
The lack of emotion concerned the two of them.
"Okay...So, what are you doing?"
"Researching." He answered in the same way.
"On what? It's not like you've got homework to worry ab..."
Rebecca saw what he was looking at. It was a database of all known B.O.W.s and classes along with there characteristics and the like.
"Rafael, how did you..."
"Hacked your database."
Rebecca pulled back in shock, not just because of his answer, but how he answered it. This was not the child she was used to.
"Raf, that wasn't a good thing to do." Bumblebee stated.
Rafael ignored Bumblebee and kept reading what was in from him.
"Are you listening?"
"I heard you, Bumblebee."
Bumblebee's reaction was the same as Rebecca. This was not the lovable little buddy they both knew.
"Raf...Why did you hack our database?"
"So I can learn everything about every B.O.W. you guy's ever encountered."
"Okay...What for?"
"So if we're compromised again, I'll know all their weaknesses. So you guys can take them out when you go after Wesker."
There was a little more emotion in that answer, but it was anger.
"Raf..."
"Wesker found us twice already. Ms. Darby got hurt because of it and Agent Fowler's dead. I'm not gonna sit around and wait for it to happen again."
"It's not gonna happen again, buddy. Umbrella doesn't even know about this location."
"You don't know that, Bumblebee."
"Raf, listen." Rebecca said as she sat next to him. "We're taking every precaution to make sure you guys are all safe. Umbrella thinks this city is a dead zone. They'll never think to look here. It'll be alright."
Rafael didn't react in a way that insinuated he believed her. He didn't react at all, in fact.
"I know what this is about." She continued.
"I told you what it's about."
"Yeah, but I know what it's really about...You're worried about Jack."
Rafael stopped scrolling and his eyes stopped panning over the screen.
"We're all worried about Jack...But we're trying our best to find him and bring him back home."
Rafael lowered his head shut his eyes, but he wasn't crying. Rebecca saw his face. He looked angry.
"I don't care."
Rebecca wasn't sure if she had really heard that.
"What?"
"I don't care about if you find Jack or not."
"Raf...I know you're scared, but you shouldn't say things..."
"I don't give a crap about what happens to Jack, not anymore."
"Raf!" Rebecca said in shock.
Rafael shut his laptop, stood up and went to head back down. Rebecca looked at him, unable to believe what she had just heard.
"I don't care where he is or what's happening to him. He made me and Miko a promise...and he broke it."
Rafael left without another word and Rebecca watched as a total stranger walked away from her. This was not the Rafael she had come to know. She knew he was struggling with what happened before the move, but she didn't know where this sudden hostility towards Jack came from. She looked up to Bumblebee, hoping for some kind of answer.
Bumblebee's expression wasn't nearly as shocked as hers. He must've seen this behavior before.
"'Bee, what going on?"
Bumblebee couldn't answer her with words. Instead, he played a recording from a few days ago. Bumblebee was talking in his own manner in the beginning, then Rafael's voice was heard.
::I don't care why he did it, Bumblebee. Jack promised us.::
From the tone of his voice, Rebecca could tell how upset he was.
::We were supposed to stick together, no matter what. No one was gonna be a hero...And then he left. He abandoned us...He left us alone with Umbrella...So, I don't care anymore. I don't care about Jack.::
Rebecca's heart fell to pieces as she listened to all this. It was worse than she thought. Rafael was worried about Jack, but he was also angry at him for running away. As smart as he was, he was still only a child and he was hurt by being left behind.
"Oh...Raffy." She sadly said.
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It was no secret to anyone who knew Starscream, Decepticon or otherwise, of his distaste for humanity. It extended to all organic lifeforms, in fact, but humans most of all. Because of their size, numbers, and the rate they multiply (to say nothing of mating habits beforehand), he saw them as vermin. How the Autobots could stomach their presence eluded him.
Suffice to say, he was not happy in the slightest at the current situation he was in. A human had trespassed into his territory. Worse, it was one of the Autobot's humans, who he flat out despised. But that wasn't enough, no, of course not. This human had taken over a part of his ship and was even ordering him around. Something had shifted horribly off balance in the natural order of things. Starscream was a Decepticon, a Commander of his own armada, once upon a time. How did he sink so low as to end up like this? If Airachnid ever found out of what he had been reduced to, she would torment him with the knowledge for eons to come.
But there was an opposite point to this situation. The human, Jack, had undergone a very drastic change.
Before all this, the war, the loss of Cybertron, Starscream was in fact a scientist. And while organic research was something he had no experience with, prior to coming to Earth, what Jack had become was very intriguing to him. Starscream was certain that whatever had happened to him was not normal, as he had neither seen nor heard of any such transformation. Not only that, Jack was actually capable of being a threat to a Cybertronian like himself. While his pride made him consider this a gross perversion of the balance of power, the scientist in him made him wonder how this came to be. A part of him, a small part, wanted to know more about Jack. Scrap, perhaps he could be of some use to Starscream. If he could control such a being, he might be able to use it against the Autobots, maybe even Megatron.
That was an entertaining little thought, but Starscream wasn't about to play that game. He was certain that Jack was more than capable of snuffing him out for good and as much as he hated having to tiptoe around him, he was not going to end up on the business end of those black spikes he was somehow able to produce from his body.
The bottom line was, Starscream was in a bad position. His location was compromised and he was currently sharing his living space with the enemy. It was becoming clear to him that he was going to have to abandon his hideout before Jack either brought the Autobots to him or just decided to take him out himself. The thought of being forced back on the run because of a human ticked the Seeker off something fierce. But no one knew better than Starscream the value of cutting losses.
"Starscream."
"Ah!'
Starscream nearly jumped out of his frame at the sound of Jack's voice, almost falling on his aft when he saw him in the corridor. He quickly backed into a wall, hoping the human wouldn't take a step closer. Of course, he was now cornered and if Jack decided to attacked, he would be thoroughly fragged.
"W-What is it...What do you want from me?"
Strangely enough, Jack didn't seem as hostile or belligerent as he was before. He still seemed exhausted and somewhat shutoff from the world around him. He looked up at Starscream, with a curious expression on his face.
"You've been listening in on the Decepticons for a while now, right?"
Once again, Starscream didn't like that he was now answering to Jack, but he wasn't going to say what he felt and risk getting impaled.
"I...I suppose."
Jack's expression was thoughtful and focused, as if he was planning something. Starscream could see the wheels in his head turning.
"Let me ask you...In the past few weeks, have you heard the names Umbrella or Wesker?"
Starscream was actually surprised at the question, because he was familiar with both those names. They met nothing to him and he never put much thought into either of them, aside from wondering why Megatron was so set on finding them, whatever they were.
"I have...A lot, actually."
Jack was thinking again, but he wasn't the only one. Now Starscream was asking himself questions of how Jack knew of these two names and why they were so important that both the Autobots and the Decepticons were chasing them.
"Could you listen in on the 'Cons some more?" He asked, genuinely, as if they weren't enemies.
But Starscream wasn't afraid, nor was he insulted, because he too wanted to know more about this. In fact, his own curiosity made him forget just how dangerous Jack had become.
"What's going on?" He asked.
Jack looked surprised that Starscream worked up the nerve to ask that.
"Why are you here? What are Umbrella and Wesker and why are the Autobots and Decepticons so interested in them?"
Strangely enough, these questions didn't set Jack off like the last time. In fact, Starscream could tell he had the answers, but he saw a reluctance to give them. Why was that? It wasn't as if Starscream could hurt him.
"And does this have anything to do with whatever happened to you? Because I'm fairly certain that no other human can do what I've seen you do."
Starscream observed Jack closely, trying to read him as best as he could. The human took a few moments and ultimately submitted to a decision.
"Tell you what, Screamer." He began. "You open up the comm link for me to listen to and I'll tell you everything that's happened since we last saw each other."
Starscream was thrown through a loop of confusion. While it was better than being ordered to do something, it still confused him as to why Jack was now bargaining with him instead of just threatening him. But Starscream wanted to know what was going on.
"Very well. But if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not have to work at spike point so if you don't mind keeping those...things away from me while I get started."
Jack sighed in exasperation.
"Fine, whatever."
This was a bizarre scenario Starscream had found himself in. For now, he was working alongside a human, allegedly. While it left a bitter taste in his mouth, he figured it was best to make nice with him until he figured out what was going on. He might've not cared about it at all in the past, but knowing that both sides had gotten mixed up in this Umbrella/Wesker business, Starscream had to wonder how big it was. And if it was that big, eventually it would find its way to Starscream's door. So as far as he was concerned, he was just gathering information and being prepared. Of course, the situation had already ended up on his doorstep in the form of Jack and he had no idea that Jack was actually the center of this whole conflict.
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Very few people knew how to contact Ada and when someone outside of that small group wanted to get to her, they had to go through them. When her disposable phone rang, she figured that it could only be one of two people, Albert Wesker or Leon Kennedy.
"Who is this?" She cautiously asked.
There was a pause.
"Ada."
Had it been Wesker, Ada's defense would've went up immediately. The untrustworthy bastard was not above setting her up and for all she knew, he could've been watching her, even as he called her. But hearing Leon's voice, her guard dropped and her heart skipped a beat. No one else could do that to her. But even if he was her only weakness, she wasn't going to let him hear it.
"Well, this is a surprise. I wasn't expecting to hear from you so soon."
"Sorry, Ada. Things have gotten a little more...complicated."
Ada tried not to be disappointed, as she expected as such. Men always seemed to complicate things.
"I'm guessing I won't be wearing my lacey garters and stockings this weekend."
She knew that whatever Leon was doing on the other end, what she said had flustered him. She loved to tease him.
"So, what do I owe the pleasure, handsome?"
Once again, Leon didn't answer too quickly.
"Ada...I need your help again."
Ada was sitting down with her legs crossed, but hearing that Leon needed help made her stand up in intrigue, and perhaps a little worry.
"My help?" She asked.
"Another job, basically."
Ada sat back down in her chair.
Things must've gotten more than just complicated if Leon had gone to her with another task.
"Is that so? Well, whatever it is, I'm sure I'm up to the task. But there's still the matter of your previous payment. In case you forgot, I have an IOU for one night with just the two of us."
"I haven't forgotten, Ada."
"Well, you know me well enough to know that I'm not one to start a tab for my clients. Until I'm paid what I'm owed, we can't do any further business."
"Ada." He said, lowly.
"Hm, nope. No sell, gorgeous. You can use your sexy voice all you want, but I'm a woman of principle." She said as she slowly rotated in her chair.
"Ada, please...I'm desperate."
Ada stopped her teasing when Leon told her that. He most certainly sounded desperate. What exactly happened that made things "complicated".
"What's going on, Leon?"
Ada could read his expression without seeing his face, just from the way he was breathing on the other line. He sounded exhausted and on edge.
"I need to find Albert Wesker."
That's when Ada suddenly felt something in the pit of her stomach, worry she had rarely felt. Albert Wesker, yeah, he would be at the center of Leon's complications. Those were two paths she'd hoped would never cross each other. Leon's skill was near superhuman at times, but even he was no match for Wesker.
"Leon, do have any idea who Albert Wesker is?"
"I know who he is, Ada, and how dangerous he is. That's why I need to stop him."
Never before had Ada felt such panic for someone else and he wasn't even in immediate danger. But the thought of what Wesker could do to him...
"Listen to me, Leon. Listen very closely. Stay away from Albert Wesker. You have no idea of what that man is capable of."
"I'm afraid I do. I've seen it for myself."
"What?"
"I know all about him and the T-Virus and what he's able to do."
"If you know about him then why do you want to find him?"
"Because he has to be stopped. He's...He's in charge of Umbrella now."
Ada had never been given information that she didn't already know, nor was it ever something as serious as this. Wesker at the head of Umbrella, that was truly frightening to her. The end of the world didn't seem too far off, all of a sudden.
"We can't allow him to take things further than they've already gone. We have to take him down. And you're the only person I know that can find him."
Ada lowered her head. This was it. This was the moment she always knew would come, the moment where she had to pick her side and show where her allegiance truly lied.
"Ada...We need to find him and soon. You know what'll happen with him running Umbrella."
She most certainly knew, alright. Wesker was always making power grabs and things always got too serious when he did. With him at the top, the scale of the fallout would be global. The question was, could he really be stopped?
"Ada?"
Could Leon and The D.S.O. take him down? Or would they just be like countless others that were crushed by Umbrella? What was the next move for Ada? Would she align herself with Wesker, hoping to stay in his good graces to survive? Or could she help Leon and rid the world of a threat that needed to be removed? Could she truly align herself with the greater good? Or was her only option to do whatever it took to survive, even if it meant making an enemy of the only person she ever felt anything for? She hoped that Leon couldn't read her as she read him, otherwise, he'd know of how badly she was struggling with this decision.
"Ada, are you..."
"A month, Leon." She said suddenly.
"What?"
Yes, going against Wesker was not the smart play. The odds weren't in her favor. Throughout her career, she had taken lives and done truly reprehensible things to innocent people. If there was a hell, she knew where her eternity lied. Doing this one good deed would not wash away any of the bad, but it at least left her with one line she wouldn't cross. Leon saved her life, made her feel something for the first time since she was a child. She couldn't betray him, not even to save her own skin. She loved him, afraid as she was to admit that. But that love he felt back meant everything to her. If she lost it, she may as well have been dead anyway.
"If I do this for you...you're mine for a month. Call in some vacation time, turn your phone off, and forget about everything else. Give me that...and I'll help you."
The was a long pause on Leon's line, but he responded.
"Ada..."
"Do we have a deal or not."
Another pause.
"Yes...Yes, we have a deal."
Ada knew that the chances of this actually working out were slim and in all likelihood, one of them was going to end up dead. But there was no suppressing the hope that things could be different this time, that maybe, the two of them could be happy, if only for a short while.
"I'll find him. But Leon...The time I getting from you, that's not just a payment to me. It's a promise you're making. Break it by dying..."
Ada didn't have the heart to threaten him.
"Don't break my heart, Leon."
Again, she could read him by how he sounded without speaking. She had taken his breath away. In truth, her heart was pounding just as much. They both wanted this and they were both terrified.
"I won't do that, Ada, not to you. Thank you."
"You'll hear from me soon...Bye, Leon."
"Bye, Ada...Be safe."
Ada hung up her end and stared at her screen for a few moment. She realized what she had just gotten herself into.
"What did you just do, girl?" She asked herself.
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It was at this point that Starscream was beginning to question his decision to help Jack. At the moment, he was carrying Jack in alt form, heading straight for the Nemesis.
'How did I end up like this, again?' He asked himself.
It happened while he and Jack were listening in on Decepticon chatter. Just as before, it was mostly quiet. But then, Jack heard that Soundwave was actually going down to Earth to search for Wesker himself by manually hacking any database he could get to. That told Starscream just how impatient Megatron was becoming.
Knowing full well that Soundwave was the Decepticon's spymaster, and Starscream made the mistake of mentioning that he could track the Nemesis through the Harbinger, Jack apparently saw an opportunity to steal intel from the Decepticons. He actually wanted to sneak aboard the warship, while Soundwave wasn't there to spot them, and steal the information from right under their noses.
The thought of it amused Starscream, but he didn't have a death wish. Obviously, he wanted nothing to do with this hair brained scheme of Jack's. Soundwave wasn't there, but Megatron still was. So of course, he refused to go along with Jack's plan.
That's when Jack gave him three options. Take him to Nemesis and help him or take his chances with a very ticked off human who was clearly not as human as he appeared. The third option was that Jack contacted the Autobots and gave Starscream's location away. He mentioned that Optimus' femme Second In Command had found out about him being the one who snuffed out Cliffjumper and that she wanted payback for that.
Starscream didn't have many options, so there they were. Jack hadn't even explained what the pit was going on yet. This whole thing seemed like a bad idea and Starscream was tempted to just eject Jack from his cockpit and hope the fall would kill him. The only reason he didn't was because, with his luck, Jack would also have the ability to either fly or breath in space or both. The seeker wasn't taking that chance.
They caught up to the Nemesis and managed to fly in undetected. Starscream transformed with Jack in his servo, he used one of his vines to pull himself upon his shoulder. Starscream didn't care for that. He really didn't like the feel of whatever that vine was on his frame.
"Alright, which way to Soundwave's control station?" Jack asked as he pulled the shroud he grabbed before leaving over his head.
"You let me worry about that. Just stay put and don't make any noise."
"Tell me again why we didn't just use your little mini ground bridge."
"Handheld ground bridge, and we didn't use it because it's not powerful enough to make such a jump. That and it'd be impossible to use it without being detected. Don't question my methods, human. I've done this plenty of times before."
Jack looked up at Starscream as he snuck around the corridors.
"What for?"
"To steal energon, what else?"
"So...You've been sneaking aboard one of the biggest Decepticon warships on Cybertron and getting past Soundwave and the drones...just to raid their refrigerator?
"Mock me if you wish, Jack. But down there, I'm on my own. When I can't find a mine to scavenge, I have to make do."
"Jeez, what the heck did you do that you had to go on the run in the first place?"
"How about you tell me what the pit Umbrella and Wesker are before I tell you anything else."
"Later for that. Just find that console so we can get the intel and get out of here."
Eventually, they managed to find what they were looking for, Soundwave's work station. Luckily enough, the area was unguarded. Starscream walked into the room and stood in front of the controls. He looked at Jack, expecting him to get started. Jack, of course, was confused as to what he wanted.
"You're the one who can read this mumbo jumbo, not me." Jack said.
"I know that, but what exactly am I suppose to be looking for?" Starscream replied, impatiently.
"Just search for anything with the names Umbrella Corporation or Albert Wesker attached to it."
Starscream did just that and within seconds, numerous files appeared on the giant screen.
"Not as much as I thought they'd have." Jack said.
Starscream observed what he could, seeing translation of words like "bio-organic" and "viral outbreak". All this appeared to be matters of human affairs. Why was Megatron so focused on something like this?
"Alright, that looks like everything they have." Jack said. "Copy it all and let's get out of here."
Starscream scoffed smugly.
"That's be a foolish thing to do."
"What do you mean?"
"If I make of copy of this intel, it'll get logged into the system and Soundwave will know somebody was here. Once they check the surveillance footage, they'll see we were on the ship and they'll come looking for us."
Starscream saw that Jack hadn't thought of that.
"Scrap." Jack said.
"You see anything of importance with what they have?"
Jack observed the files as quickly, but thoroughly, as he could. But as he read every file, he was beginning to see that it was all information that was either outdated or already known by the B.S.A.A. Most of it were the locations of previously compromised blacksites of Umbrella, meaning they were abandoned. Among them were the three locations that the B.S.A.A. and the Autobots had attacked when Jack was captured. All in all, the intel he was looking was was useless to him.
"Dammit." Jack said.
"What?"
"It's worthless...They have nothing. They're in the dark, same as us."
Starscream was very annoyed that he had taken such a risk for no reason.
"Well, if that's the case, can we please leave before we get spotted."
"Sure, let's just go." Jack said in defeat.
Starscream wiped his search clean and set everything back the way it was before. They made their way back to the exit that lead to the landing strip.
"This little espionage mission of yours better not lead any of them back to the Harbinger." Starscream said as he transformed.
"The longer we wait, the more likely it will."
Starscream flew off and the two headed back to their hideout. But neither of them had noticed that they had been spotted as they were heading back to strip, nor did they see that the Decepticon watch them leave.
Airachnid walked to the edge of the strip, watching Starscream disappear into the clouds. She would've followed him, but she didn't want to risk running into Soundwave, who was sure to be on his way back by now. She was still on a short leash with Megatron.
Nonetheless, she found this very interesting. Starscream had come back to the Nemesis and left just as quickly for seemingly no reason. And he had a human with him. What was the meaning behind this. What was he looking for aboard the Nemesis and why was he traveling with a human? Airachnid was going to have to pick her moment, but when the time came, she was going to find Starscream and get her own answers. And when she brought him back, she would once again have a lightning rod that took Megatron's wrath off of her for a while.
"The Harbinger, hm?" Airachnid said to herself. "Now, I know where to find you, my dear Starscream."
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Well, this is an interesting turn of events. Ahoy-hoy, my readers, and welcome back to Old Nightmare. So, when we last left off, Jack had a mostly inconvenient run in with Starscream. And as you can see, inconvenience was about all Starscream managed to be to him at first. We saw a little more of what Jack could do and how powerful his new form is. Jack has very "Greed-like" armored form that manifests around his flesh and the ability to produce spikes all over his body, very much like the Iron Maiden from RE5. This has no connection to the Plagas, it's just very similar. Also, the black vines that Jack keeps using is meant to look like the "Far Reach" spell from Dishonored, which pretty much what I based them on. They're not magical or spiritual or anything like that. They're physical and organic.
Let's talk about Miko and Rafael. Miko is trying her best to keep from panicking. I kind of want it to be like she's filling the role of Jack, now that he's gone. Miko doesn't think that she's ever going to see him again and she's going to try and be the one who keeps things together between her, Rafael and June. Rafael...I know I'm writing him a bit unlikable. His reason to be mad at Jack is not meant to be, well, reasonable. He's deliberately not seeing it from Jack's point of view because he's scared and angry. But as smart as he is, remember, he's just a kid. This whole thing has got him turned upside down and he's just venting and acting out and really, you can't blame him. The next chapter will have us going a little deeper into why he's so angry and how he feels about Jack running away. Poor kid.
Ada and Leon, whoo-boy, have things gotten serious between them. After playing the anti-hero for as long as she's known Leon, Ada finally picked a side. Whether or not it stays that way after it's all said and done is uncertain. But she knows a greater evil when she sees it and decided to run with someone she loves and not someone who's going to burn it all to the ground. Really hope things work out for her and Leon and they get to enjoy their month long getaway. Lucky bastard. Am I talking about Ada or Leon? You be the judge. (Why not both?)
Back to Jack and Starscream. Looks like we have an unlikely alliance between the two. I know that Starscream helping Jack happened a little fast, but he's mostly just in it for himself. Megatron being so gung-ho towards Umbrella is a huge red flag and since Starscream can't leave the planet like he tried to do in Rise of The Predacons, He's trying to learn as much as he can to protect himself. One of you believed that he would try to use Jack, and you would be right. But after seeing what Jack could do and how little Starscream could do to stop him, he's too smart and too scared to try and pull a fast one on him. Airachnid, on the other hand, we have no idea what she might try to do. And now that she's on Starscream's trail, she's on a collision course with our boy. How do you think she's gonna react to the new Jack Darby. She's in for a surprise, that's for sure.
Well, that's it for this chapter. Gotta get back to Airi and her path to recovery in ASOG and of course, the clash between Team Prime and Spawn in The Sad Man after. I'm really liking where this story is going and I can't wait to get back to it. I'll see you guys when I get there. Salutations, young cosmonauts.