CHAPTER 4
Autobot Seeker
After an uncertain amount of time spent in darkness, Starscream sensed a bright light right in front of him. He blinked and tried to look away, but eventually he opened his optics completely. He saw Ratchet holding a flashlight of some sort, shining light into his optics.
"Good, good," Ratchet said. "Optical function seems intact. Processor function seems stable as well. Starscream, can you hear me?"
"I can hear you just fine," Starscream said annoyed and found that he couldn't move. "Can you please remove whatever's holding me down so I can stand up?"
"I'm not holding you down," Ratchet replied. "You're free to get up."
"I can't move," Starscream informed. "I can barely keep my optics open. I feel...tired."
Ratchet hummed. "When's the last time you refueled?"
"Refueled," Starscream repeated, "on what?"
"On Energon, of course."
"What's Energon?"
Ratchet sighed and disappeared from his view. "It seems like your energy readings are low. Perhaps a lack of Energon has caused you to have limited motor function. I'll be right back, stay put."
"Can't really...go anywhere," Starscream said and struggled to keep his optics open. He wanted to sleep.
"Ey, ey, don't fall asleep," a white Autobot with large audio receptors and winglets said and snapped his digits in front of Starscream's face, waking him up. "May not wake up again in your condition."
Starscream blinked and tried to keep his optics open, all while sitting straight and stiffly in the chair without being able to even turn his head. A pair of small Autobots appeared in front of him, checking him out. They looked identical, aside from the fact that one was red and the other was yellow, both having black helms, arms and legs.
"Mech, he's really out of it, huh?" the red one said to the other.
"Yeah, he looks like he's about to fall over," the yellow one said.
"Ey Sideswipe, Sunstreaker," the white bot said, "leave the patient alone, would'cha?"
"Aw, come on, Wheeljack, we just wanna mess with him a little," the red one, probably Sideswipe, said.
While Wheeljack shooed away Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, Starscream could no longer keep his optics open. He closed them for just a second. When he opened them next, suddenly a lot of Autobots stood and stared at him, some with worried expressions, others with curious looks on their faces. He raised an optical ridge at the sight.
"What?" Starscream said confused. "Why are you all looking at me? Do I have something on my face?"
"Starscream, you had us worried sick," Wheeljack said, seemingly genuinely worried. "You've been out for hours since you woke from Ratch's operation!"
"Out? What do you mean? I just blinked."
"You'd be surprised how easily you can lose consciousness merely by resting your eyes," Ratchet informed him. "Well, your energy levels are returning to normal, at least. But it seems you have a lot of internal damage, some of it seems old. You're more damaged than I thought. What in the name of the AllSpark happened to you?"
"What's the AllSpark?" Starscream asked, his dizziness and exhaustion slowly fading.
"It's where we all go when our Sparks extinguish," Optimus explained.
"...What's a Spark?"
"It's what keeps us alive," Ratchet explained. "It's the culmination of our being, what makes us who we are."
"You guys may want to return to your own stuff," Wheeljack said to the others. "This could take a while."
The other Autobots dispersed and returned to their own corners, some transforming and exiting through the big doorway. Starscream didn't fail to notice this.
"What did he just do?" he asked.
"He transformed," Optimus asked. He, Ratchet and Wheeljack were the only staying at the medbay with Starscream. "It is something we Transformers are naturally able to do."
"Can I transform too?"
"Yes. You turn into a jet."
"A jet? That's something that can fly, right?"
"It is."
Starscream silenced for a bit, seemingly thinking. "You told me before that I was a warrior. What kind of warrior was I?"
"You are something we call a Seeker," Optimus replied. "A warrior that excels in aerial combat and searching for targets from the sky."
"Seeker," Starscream repeated. "I'm a Seeker. That's right. I'm good at flying. But...how do I fly?"
"You'll find out when you've recovered enough," Ratchet replied. "Until then, you stay here."
Starscream's gaze fell on his arms. "What were those things that came out of my arms?" he asked. "Those long rod things that keeps making others attack me?"
"Those are guns," Wheeljack explained. "Specifically, yours are called null-ray cannons. They're used for combat, to attack and protect yourself from your enemies."
"Who are my enemies?"
Optimus made little hesitation in answering him. "Megatron."
"What's a Megatron?" Starscream asked.
"Not what," Wheeljack corrected, "who. Megatron's the leader of the Decepticons. He hates you."
"He hates me?" Starscream repeated confused. "Why?"
"Good question. But every time you two meet, he beats you to scrap and blows you to pieces."
"Blows me to pieces?!" Starscream exclaimed in horror. "I don't like this mech at all! Have I ever won in a battle against him?"
"Nope," Wheeljack continued. "He always makes scrap out of you, but you keep coming back and you keep trying to beat him. And every time you fail."
Starscream looked at the floor, starting to shudder. He didn't know why, he had never met the mech before, yet he was already trembling in fear. Perhaps the memory of his apparent fear of this Megatron was too strong to have been erased from the Seeker's processor.
"Did he do this to me?" Starscream asked silently, perhaps more to himself than the others, regaining control of his shuddering. "Is he powerful?"
"Very powerful," Optimus replied. "I am surprised you are still alive after all this time. We have not seen you for months. We thought Megatron may have finished you off for good."
"Months?" Starscream repeated concerned. "I've been gone for months? I..."
Starscream silenced as something appeared in his mind. His pupils narrowed as the image of a horrid face appeared in front of him for a split second. He let out a shriek as stings of pain appeared in his head and chest and clutched his servos on those parts. The Autobots perked to attention by the scream, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker drawing forth their weapons, but Optimus spread his arms out to calm everyone down.
"Starscream, are you alright?" Optimus asked as everyone seemed to calm down.
"Are you in pain?" Ratchet asked and was about to take forth his tools to examine him again.
Starscream huffed as the pain subsided. "Just a stinging," he replied. "I'm fine. I'm better now, actually."
Removing his servo from his head, he instead grabbed the large cable on his chest and pulled it off without permission. He then proceeded to pull off the other cables and wires attached to him.
"Hey, I didn't say you could take those off," Ratchet scolded, but only made a halfsparked attempt to stop him.
Eventually Starscream was free and rose onto his pedes, unsteady at first but after taking a few steps, he regained his balance. No one tried to stop him, but Wheeljack held his arms forth in case he were to fall down, as he was still limping a bit.
"Easy there," Wheeljack said. "Take it easy."
"I want to fly," Starscream said. "I can fly, right? I want to go fly."
"You can't fly yet," Ratchet said and was already pushing the Seeker back to the medbay. "You're not in shape yet to be doing something as complicated as flying. You need to rest for at least a few hours first, maybe even a day."
Starscream huffed in annoyance but oblieged. As he sat back down in the chair, he took notice of the red face on Ratchet's shoulder, right above his pulse marking.
"What's that symbol you have on you?" Starscream asked, having noticed all the Autobots had the same symbol.
Ratchet followed his gaze and looked at the symbol. "Oh that. That's the Autobot insignia," he explained. "It shows that I'm an Autobot."
Starscream hummed and turned his gaze to his wings. He stiffened as he saw similar red symbols on them, in the same face shape as the Autobots'.
"I could have sworn those were purple..." Starscream mumbled to himself, then turned back to Ratchet. "It seems I have them too. Does that mean I'm an Autobot too?"
The Autobots shared brief gazes, not answering right away.
"Yes," Wheeljack answered. "You're one 'a us. You're an Autobot Seeker."
"Autobot Seeker," Starscream repeated, thinking about the word. "So I'm your warrior of the sky?"
"Uh-huh," Wheeljack replied.
"But you said before you hadn't seen me for months," Starscream continued after thinking. "And you thought Megatron had finished me off for good. Did I disappear?"
Again the Autobots shared glances before answering.
"Last time we saw you," Optimus explained, "you engaged in combat against Megatron. You took off with him to battle somewhere else. He was the only one to return. We all assumed he had terminated you."
Starscream listened intently to their explanation and thought. Something seemed odd, though he wasn't sure what.
"Why didn't you look for me?" the Seeker asked suspiciously. "You said I had come back before, several times. Why not check if I was still alive somewhere?"
"We did look for you," Ironhide went in. "But we couldn't find you anywhere, couldn't track you anywhere. So we just assumed the worst."
Starscream hummed. Something still didn't seem right. Suddenly it came to him.
"You told me you didn't know me very well before," Starscream said. "But if I'm part of your faction, shouldn't you know me, like you know everyone in here?"
Optimus and the others shared glances yet again. Starscream wasn't sure if the sharing-glances thing was part of how bots explained things to one another, but it was beginning to irritate him a bit. He felt like they were hiding something from him.
"It wasn't a lie," Prowl went in, not having said anything since the Seeker woke up. "We don't know you very well because you aren't stationed here. You were stationed in a different base, on a different continent. We Autobots know each other by name and looks, but we know those we are teamed up with better than the rest."
Starscream hummed, contemplating the explanation. As he couldn't remember anything, whatever they told him could very well be true. He wasn't certain why he doubted their trustworthiness. Though there was still one more thing that bothered him.
"When I woke up earlier," Starscream began, "after I lost my memories, out in the desert, I saw something on my wings. They looked similar to these Autobot symbols, but they were purple and in a different shape. Why would they look like that?"
"You had been pretty low on energy and Energon," Ratchet explained, "as well as having sustained heavy internal damage. That, combined with the typical heat of the desert, likely caused you to hallucinate."
"Hallucinate?" Starscream repeated. "What's that?"
"It means you see somethin' that isn't there," Wheeljack explained instead. "Or you see things different from what they actually look like."
"Huh." Starscream racked his processor, still not completely convinced by these Autobots' explanations. He finally remembered why. "If I'm an Autobot, one of you bots...then why did you lock me up? Why did you attack me? Why were you ready to attack me?"
The Autobots once again shared glances and went silent for a while, probably longer than Starscream would have liked. He knew something was wrong, he just needed to press on until one of them slipped and he would know the truth. So far, though, he couldn't determine whether they were being truthful or not.
"You...were acting oddly last time we met you," Optimus decided to explain. "And perhaps we had forgotten about you during these many months of your absence. Last time we saw you, you had not been so...mangled. We were being cautious, until we found out it was you."
"And my team here's pretty much all Grounders," Ironhide explained. "The others were probably just a bit surprised to see a Flier like you in our base."
"Grounders? Fliers?" Starscream repeated. "What are those?"
"Fliers can fly," Wheeljack explained. "Grounders can't. Simple as it sounds."
"Right," Starscream replied, feeling stupid for asking. "So you bots were surprised to see me and cautious of me because you forgot who I was, is that it?"
"That's right," Ironhide replied.
"You remembered my name though," Starscream pressed. "So did that screamer there," he added, his gaze falling on Leon, standing on the floor next to Optimus Prime. "Yet still they attacked me. I find that odd, considering I am one of you. I am one of you, aren't I?"
The bots gazed between each other and Leon. They seemed to be getting a bit nervous, at least that's what it looked like to Starscream. Now they were bound to slip.
"The general human population isn't really aware of your existence," Leon explained with his low human voice. "And, like the others said, we don't know you very well. We thought you were going to attack us when your guns appeared on your arms. I misjudged you, and my misjudgement cost me the lives of several of my men. I can't say I like you for doing that, but I suppose I'm the one to blame. I won't apologize to you though, as you can imagine."
Starscream squinted his optics as the human explained. "Imagine what? Why won't you apologize to me?"
Leon and the Autobots seemed to stiffen, apparently surprised by his response. Leon's surpise quickly turned to anger.
"I won't apologize to you because you killed my men!" the human snarled.
"What's kill?" Starscream asked.
They fell silent. They stared perplexed at him.
"You don't even remember the concept of killing?" Ratchet remarked with concern. "Or death? Life?"
"Death? Life?"
They fell silent once again, perhaps considering how to explain to him.
"We are all alive right now," Optimus explained. "We all stand here, conscious, breathing, our Sparks beating. As long as our Sparks beat, we are alive. But when our Sparks extinguish, we die, and we do not come back to life."
"Most of the time, anyway," Wheeljack added silently to himself.
"What happens when you die?" Starscream asked intrigued.
"You cease to exist," Leon explained, apparently having calmed down. "You can't do anything, everything is darkness, like falling asleep and never waking up."
Starscream seemed to stiffen by the explanation.
"Probably not the best way to phrase it, Leon," Ironhide commented to the human. "Now he'll never go to recharge."
Starscream didn't seem to dwell on the poor explanation though. Instead he seemed to be thinking.
"And I did that to those screamers?" Starscream asked. "When I swiped, and my servos turned red, did I kill those screamers?"
Leon and the Autobots seemed to frown a bit by his question, probably angry over Starscream calling the humans 'screamers', as if he meant to insult them. They knew he didn't know better though, so they tried to calm themselves before answering.
"Yes," Optimus replied as the first, being the best at holding back his emotions. "You killed humans, albeit by accident, I hope."
"I don't know why I did what I did," Starscream said darkly. "When those screamers fired their guns, something in me just...clicked. Then I suddenly found my servos stained red. Why did that happen?"
"We humans have blood in us," Leon replied, trying his best to keep control of his emotions. "It keeps our bodies going. We bleed when we get wounded."
Starscream hummed. "Interesting," he said with little care for the meaning. "Do I have blood in me too?"
"No, you have Energon in you," Ratchet explained, trying to be patient with the ignorant Seeker. "All Transformers have Energon flowing through our bodies to keep us functioning. Without it, we can't function, and eventually our Sparks extinguish."
"And then we die," Starscream added in conclusion. "That's right. Our Sparks keep us alive, and Energon keeps us functioning. Why have I forgotten such simple facts?"
"Your memory chips are completely fried," Ratchet decided to explain. "It appears you have forgotten almost everything aside from basic speech and motor function as well as your instincts. Have you remembered anything on your own?"
"I remembered the desert and the tanks on my own," Starscream replied. "While I was in that cell. I also remember flying...but I'm not sure how I'm supposed to fly. And there are...other things. Things I feel I should know but I don't. I can't really explain it."
Ratchet hummed. "Well, the fact that you remembered things on your own means that at least you'll be able to remember things as time goes. Rest for now, and tomorrow, if you've recovered enough, I will allow you to leave. Perhaps then we can see if you remember how to fly and fight."
Starscream looked intently at the medic and the other Autobots. "Alright," he replied. "Where do I rest? In the cell?"
"No, remain here in the medbay," Ratchet replied. "You can sleep on the table over here. And this time, keep the cables on! If you take them off again before I approve, your recovery will only take longer."
Starscream rose from the chair and limped his way over to one of the two tables and laid down. Before he went to recharge, he had one last question.
"Where am I, exactly?" Starscream asked, looking at Optimus.
Optimus hesitated for a moment before he responded. "You wandered into one of our secret bases," Optimus replied. "You are currently in Metroplex City."
