JMJ

Chapter Forty-Six

The Last Decepticon

Although, it was not long before Bumblebee's return, the loneliness Starscream felt after that taste of renewed company was enough to make him ill. It seemed to sever his link with the outside-world more than before. He wanted to fly in the sky so badly he could taste it just as much as any bird in a cage. He almost thought Bumblebee would not return at all so that when the door slid open a few days later he could not contain his relief, nor did he try to hide it.

"Oh, Mr. President!" sobbed Starscream clasping his hands together. "You actually found time in your busy schedule for your lowly prisoner. The lowliest of all your—"

"Don't do that, Starscream," said Bumblebee shaking his head with a cringe as the door shut behind him.

Starscream wrinkled his face. "You don't want me to be polite?"

"Most people would call that groveling," said Bumblebee.

"Some people like groveling," Starscream insisted.

Bumblebee shrugged. "No one I know."

"Ahem! Well," said Starscream awkwardly and then sarcastically added, "Good afternoon to you too then, esteemed President!"

Bumblebee smiled in a way that Starscream took for cheek. "Good afternoon, Starscream."

"No one asked you to come, you know," retorted Starscream. "I'm on edge. You can't blame me, being excluded from society and all."

"You know why you are," said Bumblebee with full-seriousness.

"Because I don't play well with others," replied Starscream dryly, but before Bumblebee had a chance to speak again, Starscream asked, "How's my new cell coming?"

"It's coming," said Bumblebee. "You'll get it soon enough."

"Will it have a view?" asked Starscream.

Bumblebee nodded. "Yes, a pretty good view of the capital."

"And the sky?"

"Yes."

"And I'll have more room?"

"A little."

"Is Skywarp getting a similar cell?"

"That hasn't been discussed," Bumblebee admitted.

Though he searched with Cybertronian precision, Starscream could find no irony in his face, and he pouted.

"But he is alive still?" muttered Starscream backing away a little and seating himself on his bench attached to the wall.

"He is."

"What happened? Is he still recovering?"

Bumblebee sighed.

"Yes," he said after a careful pause that Starscream watched with keen interest. "The corrosion was so bad that most of his brain modules had to be replaced."

"Replaced?" Starscream demanded, and he paused to consider this a moment and ignore the chill down his back strut. "But that would mean he wouldn't remember very much."

"Even his common knowledge had to be replaced, yes," said Bumblebee.

Starscream was taken aback. "But that means he doesn't remember being a Decepticon, does he? He doesn't remember the war. He doesn't even remember the conflict, does he?"

"I don't know what he remembers exactly," Bumblebee said. "So far, I'm not sure that Skywarp is recovered enough from the procedure to know himself what he remembers and what he doesn't."

"What did you tell him?" Starscream wanted to know.

Bumblebee returned him with a very firm look. "The truth."

"Hey! I wasn't the one who lied to Optimus Prime like Megatron did!" Starscream spat defensively before he even thought about what he said.

The memory of finding Optimus not recalling the war or his transformation into a Prime from the simple secretary Orion Pax and Megatron apparently taking advantage of all that had taken a downright dive and a splash into Starscream's neural net. Starscream had been in exile at the time. He had had no reason to help Megatron with his foolish plots to keep Prime as a pet to do his research for him.

"I told him the truth!" Starscream insisted. "Everyone knows that!"

It took a few seconds for Bumblebee to understand what Starscream was even saying and even when he did he looked annoyed. "I wasn't even thinking about that."

Startled, Starscream blinked. "You weren't?" He paused. "Yes, you were!"

"No."

"Hmph!" growled Starscream, and then after another pause he asked hesitantly, "Well, then how did Skywarp take the truth?"

Bumblebee's optics lowered. "Not very well."

A feeling of petty satisfaction filled Starscream, and with a strange sort of smile he asked, "Didn't he?"

Though, he still was beside himself in trying to convince himself that Bumblebee was lying to him, at the same time he thought Skywarp deserved what he got.

"He was already angry that he couldn't remember anything," said Bumblebee simply. "Ratchet explained that although his memories were not intact, his emotional balance is. He didn't start over like a hatchling. He woke up just as much a Decepticon as ever only now without knowing why."

"So basically you're trying to tell me in your own Autobot way that he's just as crazy as before only in a different way," remarked Starscream lightly.

Bumblebee shook his head. "No. Once we told him, yes, at first, he was in a fit of rage, and we did have to lock him up for a time, but he's calmed down since then."

"It was never Skywarp's way to be in a 'fit' of anything, anyway," remarked Starscream. "If you're smart you'll keep him locked up, Mr. President. He's less trustworthy even than myself, you know." He put his hand to his chest before going on with a flickering blink. "Do you want to know what he did when he was still lingering trapped on his energon mine as king over the vehicons? You have no idea."

"Not especially, no," said Bumblebee.

Starscream sniffed. "Then what do you plan to do with Skywarp now? I was only trying to warn you."

"Jetfire's taking care of him."

"Oh, well, that would keep him under control, I suppose," muttered Starscream.

Bumblebee shrugged candidly. "In more ways than you know, Starscream."

Starscream made a face.

"What are you playing at? That Jetfire talked sense into him?" he scoffed.

Bumblebee seemed to consider something— lying, perhaps— but closing his optics, he decided against it.

"Since you guess it, yes," he said reluctantly.

Starscream was dumbfounded.

"What!?" he demanded.

His body tensed, his spark began to burn hotter than usual, his mind too. His brain practically froze with shock that felt like terror worse than a blaster in front of his face. He gaped with horror and rage as he bolted from his seat.

"You can't possibly mean to say that you actually are letting him go free!" he squealed.

"He's not exactly free to do anything," said Bumblebee tersely. "He's under supervision."

"But isn't he still a danger to the rebuilding of Cybertron!?"

"He wants to join Cybertron as it is and leave the past behind him," said Bumblebee. "It's a trial run."

"But how can you be sure?" whimpered Starscream.

"We're not one hundred percent. You know Jetfire's watchfulness better than I do, I think."

Envy roared, despair screamed. He felt that he would fall in front of Bumblebee right then and there into every imaginable part scattered across the cell floor. He felt like the whole universe had abandoned him. He felt so alone and miserable until at last he admitted that he wished he could have switched places with Skywarp. He burned for it until at last he spoke and managed, "Th—that means I'm the last Decepticon."

"That's not exactly…" Bumblebee knew he should have kept Skywarp a secret. It was littered all over his face, the regret, but Starscream did not see that now. He was too busy turning to him in panic.

"Please!" he begged without allowing Bumblebee the chance to finish; he clasped his hands tightly together and bowed his head low beneath them. "Please! Take out my brain modules too! I beg you!"

"What?" Bumblebee cried. "No!"

"But then I could be free of this curse!" screamed Starscream. "Please, Bumblebee, have mercy!"

"No," said Bumblebee. "Starscream, get a hold of yourself."

"I don't think I can! I don't even know if I can be free! I don't know anything anymore! I'm sorry! Alright, I'm sorry! And I would have told Optimus Prime I'm sorry a million times, but he's not here! I know now. I understand I was wrong! I know that now! I was a murderer! A betrayer! The Decepticons were wrong! I'll give them up! I'll be an Autobot! I'll do whatever you say! Please, Bumblebee, have mercy, have mercy!"

At first, Bumblebee looked so disgusted that he looked at Starscream like he might have fired at him to end his misery—not that Bumblebee would ever have done such a thing to an unarmed prisoner, but he got control of his expression too before Starscream had finished.

By the end of Starscream's panicked ranting, Bumblebee sighed and said, "Starscream, you don't really mean it."

Panting and gasping and writhing on his knees, Starscream almost did not hear Bumblebee. He still felt like he was going to burst.

"It's only because you're in a cage," Bumblebee went on. "The moment we let you out how can you say that you won't just go back to your ways again? You've lied to us and yourself so many times. Even if you give up the Decepticons, even if you claim to be an Autobot, you'll still be what you are. It doesn't work like that. Even if we replaced your brain modules like Skywarp, you'd be so angry and confused that you would blame us for it, Decepticon vs. Autobot, or not."

"I…" Starscream lowered his head. His wings drooped with it. He knew that he would blame them. He knew Bumblebee was right about everything he said.

"You wouldn't believe that you would have willingly given up your memories."

"You won't even give me a chance otherwise," gasped Starscream. "I've learned my lesson. Can't you see that?"

"But you haven't," said Bumblebee. "There's more to this than being a Decepticon. There was evil before and there will be evil after. It's just a name. You still only care about yourself and no one else."

Slowly the words sunk in. Slowly, slowly, Starscream calmed down. He hated being himself. He hated what he had become, and he feared that what he perceived Bumblebee was saying was right, and that he was doomed with no way to escape.

He shook his head. He could not believe that.

"Optimus said that every sentient being has the capability of redemption," said Starscream very softly.

Bumblebee nodded. "Yes. He did say that."

"Then…" Starscream hesitated. "Please. I would ask Optimus. I would be his humble servant to the end of our days if he was alive now. You must believe me. I'll be yours in his stead. What must I do? Even if I never escape this cage, at least I could escape this constant mental anguish, so that I can at least live with myself."

Bumblebee was taken aback at first by these last words of his sentiment "even if I never escape this cage". Bumblebee could not help but ask, though quite doubtfully, "Do you really mean that?"

"I don't know," Starscream admitted fidgeting a little. "I really don't know anymore."

"There's only one way you can escape, Starscream."

Starscream lifted his head miserably and carefully with searching optics.

"You have to think about others more than yourself and let go of your pride."

A strange sort of fear told hold of Starscream's mind and face.

"For real," emphasized Bumblebee.

Starscream nodded, a sort of daze had overcome him as he stared at Bumblebee's optics. A lid ticked queerly, and his wings twitched, but again Starscream nodded.

"Even a lot of Autobots had to let go of their pride," said Bumblebee. "It's a hard thing once it's been inflated. I know. I understand that. I mean, I can't say that I understand being a Decepticon, but I do understand having to let pride go. I had to too. Optimus had a hard time getting us to understand. Are you willing to do that?"

Starscream nodded. "Even if it takes the rest of my life, but I hope it doesn't take that long." And he moaned. "If only Optimus was here."

"That won't help either," Bumblebee told him with a shake of his head. "You had your chance when he was alive. Many chances. He pitied you, you know, and he would have helped you, but now you have to do it without him online."

Starscream nodded yet again, but the fear was prickling his neural net even more than before.

"Yes, he did pity me," he said. "He pitied me from the moment Megatron took me under his wing. I did not see it that way at the time. I thought he was only afraid of me or did not think I was good enough, and that that pity only came later, but you are right. Even if he did fear what Megatron's powerful words would strengthen me to do, he'd always…"

"Okay, okay, stop feeling sorry for yourself."

"I'll try." Starscream closed his optics as solemnly as he could given the emotional drainage he had just gone through. "I'll try…I know this my last chance. It's the last chance I asked for, and I'm determined not to waste it. But know this, Bumblebee, on this day I vow that if I am the last Decepticon, I will end them!"

Starscream almost expected Bumblebee to say, "We'll see." His face still said it, but he said nothing. It made Starscream feel uncomfortable.

It was the uncertainty.

He had tried to sound meaningful, but somehow it only made it feel emptier. Did he mean it? He did not know what he meant anymore than Bumblebee did.