CHAPTER 8
As Starscream exited the GroundBridge into the cove that once served as his home, he was saddened to see how…destroyed it was. The once beautiful orange cliffs were torn and black from the explosion, the lake was gone and so was the waterfall, along with the cliff it had beset. The trees had been completely annihilated, and the entire cove was now more of a barren wasteland than a lush oasis in this desolate desert. Starscream took a step forward and felt something by his ped. He looked down. Metalhawk's grave. The sight saddened him even more than the area. The mound had not taken as much damage as the rest of the cove, but a significant part of the top had been blown away, and tips of the bird's withering feathers could be seen.
"So, you are Starscream, the Betrayer?" a deep, unfamiliar voice sounded.
Starscream looked around and spotted a figure in the darkness, at the remains of the former waterfall. It seemed to be a human, a muscular one for that matter, on an even bigger and more muscular motorbike. The human looked real, but Starscream could see the moonlight shine through his body. A hologram. He glanced at the bike and saw the outline of the Unicronian insignia at the front, between its yellow bike lights. That must be that Nightbird guy.
"I am the one who was betrayed," Starscream replied irritated. "But yes, I am Starscream, future leader of the Decepticons- What's so funny?"
The hologram was laughing. "You're never going to be leader of anyone," Nightbird replied with a deep voice. "Trust me, I know."
"And how would you do that?"
The bike turned and made loud noises, the lights pointed at the Seeker, almost blinding him. Starscream almost knew what was about to happen, but the bright light seemed to stun him.
"Because I will end you!"
A deafening whirr-noise, lights turning off thus delaying the Seeker's sight in the darkness, and in a short moment, the bike had jumped into the air – the hologram disappeared – and transformed into a sleek mech who knocked Starscream over and stood on his chest to prevent him from standing up again. When the mech spoke again, 'his' voice had gained a slightly lighter tone, indicating it was a femmebot instead.
"Who – who are you?!" Starscream exclaimed under the bot's surprising weight despite being about the same size as himself. "What do you want?!"
"I am Nightbird," she replied and raised an arm; she seemed to be holding a dagger of some sort. "Ex-Unicronian and professional assassin. I am here to collect my quarry – you!"
Starscream let out a scream as she was about to strike him – but he was surprised not to feel any pain, and to still be conscious. He looked up and saw that she was gone. Instead, he heard loud groaning and shouting from a fight. He could hear bits and pieces of dialogue.
"Get out of my way! Let me do my job!"
"Never! We will not allow you to harm him!"
"He's too important to let a lowly criminal like you destroy him!"
"Hey, are you alright?" someone said above him. He looked up. It was still hard to see, but he recognized the orange blurry parts as Sideways, who was holding a servo out in front of him. The Seeker took his servo and got back on his peds.
"Y-yes," he replied, still shocked over what had just happened. "How—"
"Later. Right now, we have to get you to safety."
Starscream looked behind him, and as his vision began returning to him, he saw Nightbird fighting singlehandedly against the Blendtrons, who all were blocking her path to Starscream and Sideways. Thrust was nowhere to be seen. He noticed the Blendtrons were in their alternate modes, all Fuzors, like an orca-elephant, a lizard-dragonfly and a lionfish-hornet.
Sideways pulled the Seeker's arm, encouraging him to follow. As he didn't seem to have any choice, he complied and followed the orange mech. As they had moved a good distance from the battle scene, Sideways switched to plane mode, which was identical to Soundwave's, except having more wing at the front.
"Come on, quit dawdling and transform!" Sideways ordered the Seeker.
"I can't," he replied.
Sideways reverted back to robot mode and faced him. "Oh, right. I forgot you lack a body-part now."
Starscream was about to ask him how he knew, as he hadn't met with any Heralds since before he lost his T-cog. But Sideways silenced him by grabbing both his arms tightly.
"What are you doing?"
"Getting you out of here. Hold on tight!"
Before Starscream could respond, the world around him suddenly swirled and pulled him forward with such speed, that it felt like his limbs were being torn from his body. He wanted to scream, but nothing came out – he couldn't even move at all. He could barely make out Sideways other than a blurry orange-black shape in front of him. Then suddenly, everything went still, and Starscream was about to fall over but was caught in the last second by Sideways who was still holding onto him. The Seeker looked behind him and realized he was standing on the edge of a cliff in the canyon. Had Sideways not caught him, he would have fallen and turned to scrap, thank you so much, MECH, he thought angrily to himself.
"Are you alright, Starscream?"
It was still late evening, so they couldn't be too far from the cove, apparently. Starscream turned and looked at Sideways. "I'm fine," he replied. "But why—"
"We can't dawdle all night. Nightbird—"
"WOULD YOU JUST LET ME TALK FOR A MOMENT?!" Starscream yelled, sick of being interrupted all the time. Sideways silenced and looked at him, waiting. "I…was almost slag—I mean, I had everything under control, and then you Heralds of Unicron just barge in and take me away without telling me why or what the Pit is going on here! Why the FRAG was that femmebot trying to slag me? Normally they don't try to kill me before we get to know each other! And why won't you imbeciles ever tell me what your deal here is?! Yes, I heard from those 'Blendtrons' that you're looking for 'Nightbird', but why is she after me?! WHY CAN'T EVERYONE JUST LEAVE ME THE FRAG ALONE?!"
He paused and gasped, feeling a burden of tension inside him having just left his body. Sideways took his chance to speak.
"I can understand why you're upset. You got betrayed by your fellow Decepticons, reduced to a lowly outcast, scavenging for the smallest, most miserable scraps of energon just to survive. For some reason, you've been inexplicably hungry these last few months, not to mention rather…hysterical. You're confused, I get it. You don't know what's going on here. I will…look past the rules we made when we arrived here, and…I will try to answer your questions as well as I can. So…ask away."
Starscream stared hesitantly at the mech for a while. He had so many questions, but which one was most important?
"Why am I so hungry all the time? Why do I get these cramps in my chest?"
Sideways held a servo on his helm. "I'm afraid I can't answer that. It's something you have to find out yourself. Rules," he added, as the Seeker was about to protest. "All I can say is…it's going to change your life."
"Fine…" Starscream thought – mildly concerned about the answer – for a while. "Then, why is Nightbird after me?"
"Ah, yes. See, the Blendtrons, they explained to you before that we are looking for a traitor, right? Well, that traitor is Nightbird. She betrayed the legacy of Unicron, because…she's trying to change the future."
"The…future?" Starscream repeated confused. "Why would she do that…?"
Sideways scratched the backside of his head, apparently trying to figure out how much to tell the Seeker. "Okay, I know I'm not supposed to say this, but…we, the Heralds of Unicron – and Nightbird – are from the future."
Starscream stared at him. "This is a joke, right? Transformers from the future? Arriving in the past? How is that even possible? You got me there, heh-heh…"
But Sideways didn't laugh. This made Starscream's smile fade. "You're serious? Really? But that's impossible! How can anyone travel through time?!"
"It is difficult, I have to admit," Sideways replied casually. "But knowing the right people…it is very possible. Nightbird arrived here, in the past, to change the way the future is. And to do that…she has an idea it includes eliminating you."
Starscream gulped inwardly. What are you so afraid of? a voice inside his head asked. She's barely the size of Bumblebee, you can handle her just fine. No need to worry. "Why…would she think that?" he asked, trying not to sound like he cared.
Sideways shrugged. "Who knows? But either way, we can't let her change the past in any way. Killing an organic, a Cybertronian or destroying an area, even the tiniest change could cause great disaster in the future. Maybe there won't even be a future. Either way, from the future, Master Unicron has sent me, Thrust and the Blendtrons to stop her from changing the past. But, well, it's too late already, since you've seen us, we've interacted with you, and I…well, told you we're from the future. But that's beside the point here. Little things like revealing you're from the future, that's not really important once you get to know the people from the past. No, we're talking about actual removals or additions to the timeline. Such as your destruction. We can't have that, now can we?"
"Well…of course not!" the Seeker replied eagerly. "I want to – I need to survive! But, back at the cove, the others said I was 'too important' to let destroy, didn't they? Surely if I didn't have a major impact on the future, then you wouldn't bother…?"
"Yes, no, that's where I can't talk. See, I can tell you we're from the future, but I can't tell you what happens in the future. Because if you know what happened – or rather, will happen – then it won't happen, because you know it will happen and then something different will happen, thus the old happening won't happen. Get it?"
"Uh…sure," Starscream replied, not actually following. "Okay, so stay away from Nightbird from now on. Got it. And I guess that also explains why you're trying to protect me…I guess. But…" He suddenly remembered where they were and looked around. "Hey, what just happened before? How did we end up here, in the canyon, when we were just at the cove?"
"That, I can tell you," Sideways said, somewhat eagerly. "See, I have the ability to warp. I can warp through time and space, at a minimal distance, that is. And no, I am not the one who got us here to the past. Someone else did. Someone…we all meet at some point."
Primus? Starscream thought in his mind. "Then, how come you didn't—" He silenced. He almost revealed his hideout at the Harbinger. No one was supposed to know where he lived, that would break his security! He quickly changed it to: "H-how come you knew I was in trouble? And where to find me?"
"Well, the Blendtrons were checking in on you, in the Harbinger. Yes, we know where you live," he added by seeing Starscream's horrid look. "How do you think we've been able to find you in the past? No pun intended. Anyway, so the Blendtrons checked on you in the Harbinger, and of course you weren't there. They thought you might have gone out to find energon, but there was a whole tank filled with the liquid stuff. Then they found a tape recorder that was still going."
I forgot to turn off my log? Starscream thought concerned, not remembering ever ending the log, actually.
"They then played the recording back, and that's when they found out you had gone to the cove to meet with Nightbird. They then contacted me, and I immediately warped in and brought us to your location."
"So you know the location of the Harbinger," Starscream repeated. "Then why didn't you just warp me there instead of up here on this rock?"
"I would have, but I didn't want to risk it with her in the area. She could have caught up to me and gone with us, and even if we'd have gone there without her, she can still track my latest warp locations. She has an interesting tracking system, that little assassin. She can track all sorts of energon at any given distance, and she can even detect warping patterns and where a GroundBridge has been. But she won't be able to detect you from up here at this distance, so now you can safely open a portal and return to your ship."
The way Sideways ended the conversation indicated he expected the Seeker to leave right away. But Starscream hesitated. "How do I know you're not lying and will follow me when I do open the portal? You leave this area first, then I will too."
"Please trust me on this one. I need to make sure you're home and safe, before I can regroup with the others. This is for your own safety."
"I'm not buying that. Why should I trust you when you don't trust me?" Not that I blame him, he thought. Nobody should trust me.
The two stared intense at each other for a long moment. To Starscream's surprise, Sideways walked backwards, until he was on the other side of the cliff. "Now will you believe me and leave?" he shouted to him.
Starscream hesitated, but then pressed the button and activated his GroundBridge. It appeared right behind him, where there wasn't any ground underneath. He watched Sideways carefully as he jumped through the GroundBridge, back to the Harbinger. As he arrived back in the ship, he quickly pressed the button again, shut the bridge down and sighed in relief.
"That's enough excitement for tonight, Starscream," he said to himself.