New chapter! Short one again, but concentrates on some quite important stuff. Not much to say this time, so read on and enjoy!
Thanks to Hani tamersten and fan girl 666 for reviewing!
Kalis was quickly taken under the Decepticons' unexpected attack. Soon every Autobot in the city-state was either offline or captured. When the forces fighting in Altihex heard of this news, they increased their assault with a renewed vigor. And they had actually won even with the Autobot reinforcements. Both city-states were now theirs.
Megatron was very elated indeed, so happy that he could have done a victory dance in front of his troops. But no, he wouldn't do that. He still had his dignity to keep. Megatron did throw a celebration though, and that night the Decepticons gorged themselves on energon after rerouting the pipes to Kaon, or high grade, to be more specific. Many of them were over-energized already, stumbling around the command center while rambling incoherently.
Starscream's plan was extremely successful, which not only gained them the needed resources but also a bonus city-state. If the Seeker could come up with more ingenious plans like this, the Decepticons could very well win many more battles in the future. Starscream would make a fine second-in-command indeed; he certainly had the capability and talent. It was definitely better to have him serve as Megatron's closest advisor in matters of war instead of spending most of his solar cycles holed up in that small lab of his.
Still, in the middle of his good mood, Megatron felt a little disappointed when he thought of Starscream's strange behavior. The Seeker had been acting distant ever since he came back. He already had his suspicions when it was Oil Slick who reported the taking of Kalis instead of Starscream. And when Megatron met with his team, Starscream hadn't even glanced at his direction, keeping his helm deliberately lowered.
The warlord sighed as he downed another cube of high grade. He hoped it was his imagination bothering him, that it would soon go away when he over-energized.
Starscream emerged from the medical bay with all his burn wounds buffed out. Hook had warned him not to exert himself too much next time in battle, but the Seeker wasn't listening.
He wandered aimlessly down the corridor to nowhere in particular, his mind still going over what had happened in the pipes. His first concern had been Blitzwing, who was immediately treated after their return. Hook had diagnosed that much of the jet's internal systems had been eroded to some degree, though most were replaceable and he will soon recover. But Blitzwing's transformation cog was damaged beyond repair. He wouldn't be able to transform until he received a donor.
It was all Megatron's fault.
Starscream clenched his fists as he recalled the Steelstreak's last words.
You've seduced Lord Megatron long enough. Time to end your promiscuity!
It was because of his leader that he and his team was placed in danger like this. He probably didn't even know it!
The Seeker scowled again. And this happened just after he was starting to tolerate that fragger! Starscream must admit that he had been seeing Megatron in a new light lately when he wasn't being seductive. He started to find his leader's immature actions quite endearing and often had to resist the urge to giggle. He secretly enjoyed that little pre-battle bantering they had. And the way Megatron's faceplates twisted into that devilishly handsome smirk which he previously found irritating now had him melting on the inside…
Why? Why?! Why did he get into this mess the first place? He could have totally ignored Megatron when he first approached him. Instead he responded back with his deliberate intention to make the others jealous and with his request to be made second and before he knew it, they were playing this courting game.
A dangerous courting game that nearly got him killed.
This cannot continue on. Starscream had to stop it before anything like that incident happened again. Before the Decepticons lost a key battle against the Autobots just because of a jealous mech trying to get rid of his rival. Any other mech he bothered to tell his situation about would immediately advise him to break it off with his leader. In fact Skyfire wouldn't have waited until today and would have done so right after Starscream told him about Shockwave's threat. The Seeker could have saved himself from all this in the first place as he now fully regretted that he even had the foolish idea to rouse the jealousy of the others.
But there was no Skyfire, the kindly space shuttle who had rescued the Seeker so many times from potentially nasty situations he had created. There was only himself and the mentally unstable Blitzwing, the latter being in induced stasis from his wounds. Starscream was on his own, and now even he could see what had to be done.
Starscream can do it. He can cut off all ties to Megatron and completely ignore him. He never really developed any feelings for him beyond toleration anyways. It shouldn't even take much effort, if any at all.
Unknowingly, Starscream's wandering brought him to the command center from which shouts and off-key singing reached his audios. He pulled himself from his morbid thoughts and curiously went to investigate. What was going on in there?
The double doors flew open to reveal Decepticons all over the place, sprawled over the consoles and lying on the floor. Some were stumbling around in an erratic fashion before tripping over their own pedes to join their comrades on the ground. Empty cubes and pink energon spills littered the place. All in all, the normally-orderly command center was a mess.
Starscream was about to take a deep breath and yell at them for this unconventional behavior before he remembered that Megatron had promised to throw a celebration for today's victory. Starscream had failed to recognize it as a high grade drinking party.
Ugh… he hated those. Never saw the point in getting wasted and waking up with a pounding headache the next day. By the way, where was Megatron? Shouldn't he be supervising the entire thing?
A shadow moved at one side, and Starscream was suddenly swept off his pedes and crushed against a larger familiar spiky frame.
"Ah, Starscream!" Megatron's somewhat disgruntled voice reached him, "You missed all the fun!"
"Argh! Get off, you afthead!" Starscream could smell the strong odor of high grade emitting from his leader. That fragger himself was over-energized already! He tried to pry at Megatron's surprisingly firm grip around his thin waist, but it didn't budge. He was stuck with the intoxicated mech when he wanted to avoid him the most.
"Now that is no way to treat your leader. But I don't care really. Here, have a cube." Megatron slurred, shoving an empty container in front of the Seeker. He at first refused to take it, and then did so out of the hope that Megatron would release him. No such luck. Instead the warlord flung his arm over Starscream's shoulder and proceeded to stagger into the hallways.
"Man, you should try the high grade. Powerful stuff, it is. Prolly will knock you out in one cube."
"And probably knocked you out in half!" Starscream renewed his struggle, "Now release me at once!"
"I still hafta congratulate you. Without you, no high grade! And the whole thing went smoothly too. The Autobots never knew you were coming, and then you were like 'Gotcha, Autofools!' and then the whole thing was over! Easy as pie!"
That's it. Starscream's temper boiled over. All his frustration, disappointment and stress burst forth in an angry torrent. With a strength surprising even himself, the Seeker grasped Megatron's arm and flung it as hard as he could. The larger mech immediately lost his balance and hit the ground hard.
"You think it was so easy?!" He screamed at his dazed leader, not caring if he was listening or not, "We were almost killed in the tunnels! The high grade you were so happily drinking was bought by the toil of my team. And you have the nerve to call it 'easy as pie'?! Of course you didn't know what happened. You were drunk off your aft!"
With that, Starscream stormed off furiously to his room, but not before hurling the empty cube at Megatron's helm. He entered and threw himself onto his berth, still seething with suppressed anger. But Starscream soon found himself sobbing miserably instead the next few cycles.
What was wrong with him? One moment he was in shock from the underground pipe incident, then he was angrily accusing his leader for it, afterwards he was loath to make the decision to leave Megatron and now he was crying?
Starscream later fell into recharge in tears. He wasn't sure how he could get up and face the next solar cycle. Heck, he was even sure how he was going to cope with this entire thing. But he knew he shouldn't have got into it the first place and was now suffering the consequences.
This solar cycle was going to be a nightmare.
Perhaps it was already made obvious when the first thing Megatron did in the morning when he onlined was to bolt to his personal washracks and empty his churning tanks in the waste receptacle. Then he was left with a pounding headache that grew worse as time passed by along with the acrid taste of half-processed energon in his mouth. It was a miracle that he made his way back to his quarters last night.
Megatron managed to drag himself to the command center, already dreading the coming work. He inwardly sighed when he saw the large room still scattered with the remains of the celebration from last night. Megatron had gotten over-energized, he knew, after downing three cubes of high grade in a row. Being a lightweight, he should have known better.
Megatron plunked into his throne heavily and allowed his helm to thud against his desk. All he wanted to do right now was to just go back to his berth to recharge, preferably with his favorite Seeker curled up beside him…
Speaking of Starscream, Megatron had a nagging feeling that he had done something to upset him without meaning to. Starscream had refused to look at him when he returned, and now he was completely avoiding him. For one, he wasn't at his usual spot in the lab this morning.
What had happened? Didn't he part with Starscream with a rather amiable mood? He even had the audacity to show some of his snark back them.
Ugh… even thinking was starting to make Megatron's helm ache further. Perhaps he should take it easy for the day.
Or not. His thoughts soon turned back to Starscream again. Maybe his attitude change had something to do with the attack in the tunnels. Megatron was the most outraged when he heard of this report immediately after the Kalis team's return. His lab assistant (his lab assistant, for spark's sake!) had directly targeted Starscream with the intent to offline. If he hadn't perished by the acidic toxic waste, then Megatron would have executed the mech himself for daring to assault his Seeker.
But still… why did it cause Starscream to avoid him? If Megatron had to know the reason, then he had to know the full story.
He planned to ask Blitzwing first. From his observance, he and Starscream were close comrades and should know something the others didn't. Megatron had to wait several days though for Blitzwing's recovery though.
These few said solar cycles were a torture for him. Although the Decepticons were now full of energon and content, Megatron was in a bitter mood. He hadn't seen Starscream in days, literally. He still received reports and other statistics from him but other than that, it was like the Seeker had vanished. He wasn't in his lab when Megatron went to look. His room was always locked, so that was out of the question.
Megatron had sent at least three messages inquiring about Starscream's absence, with the most recent one bordering on the edge of a threat.
- You have at least one orbital cycle to do something before I blast down the door of your room and demand an explanation from you.
Then the other blocked him after that. But at least he had gotten a response out of Starscream.
This whole avoiding was frustrating him as time went on, and he envied Starscream a little for having a mech he could confide in. The warlord was completely on his own.
Finally with a note from Hook that he could only visit Blitzwing for ten cycles, Megatron entered the med bay apprehensively and approached where the recovering mech lay on his berth.
"A surprise to see jou here, Lord Megatron," Blitzwing rotated his helm to face the warlord, "Iz zhere something jou require of me?"
"Hook said you damaged your transformation cog beyond repair, did he?" He felt the need to first inquire of the other's health.
Blitzwing sighed sadly, "Yes. I can no longer transform. A great inconvenience, nien?"
"You can still fight. I will place you in Straxus' ground troops." Megatron promised.
"Thank jou. Zhat vill be acceptable."
"Blitzwing, I meant to ask you about the attack in the tunnels. Starscream is not being himself, and I have feeling that it was responsible for it." Megatron changed the topic as he seated himself beside the injured mech.
"He is being stressed as of late," Blitzwing agreed, "Zhe attack unsettled him greatly."
"Is there something more to it?"
"Vell… Steelstreak did tell him something about you… and seducing… and about promiscuity? I'm not sure. I only heard fragments."
Megatron felt a familiar chill run down his backstrut at the words. This seemed to be another scenario he was horribly familiar with.
"Jou don't think it has anything to do vith… zhat, don't jou?" Blitzwing confirmed his suspicions.
Megatron didn't answer. He was too deep in his thoughts.
He can't believe that it happened again, that the Decepticons were fighting over something like this. Megatron hadn't meant to start the courting rivalry, but was simply speaking to Shockwave over some matters. Then his second had unexpectedly brought up the attention he was attracting from most Decepticons.
"Perhaps it is your stately visage," Shockwave had mentioned, "But almost every mech in this faction had been hopefully looking forward into courting you. I think you should do something to discourage it if you do not wish to participate in such activities."
"Perhaps I should. I suppose that if I ever so much mentioned that I was seeking a mate, the entire army would respond." Megatron hadn't taken the warning seriously back then, nor had minded the Decepticons' interest in him. He was rather young and good-looking compared to most, and sometimes even enjoyed the almost adoring attention he had received from his subordinates.
But somehow this conversation was overheard, distorted and spread throughout the entire faction and before Megatron knew it, mechs and femmes were all clamoring openly for a chance to court him. At first he was quite pleased at this sudden competition because it cemented his leadership and did away with any oppositions the Decepticons might have against him, not to mention the inpouring of various gifts that often proved useful. Megatron had resolved to maintain an easygoing attitude to those suitors and have them remain favorable with him for the duration of the war… until Starscream came along.
The Seeker was part of the reason why the warlord started to break up this whole courting thing by declaring himself single shortly after his initiation. In addition, Megatron had caught three mechs brawling in the main corridor of the base with a large crowd cheering them on. He was less than pleased when he discovered the fight stemmed from a disagreement arguing what kind of mech their leader would prefer. This was totally unacceptable behavior in an army, and Megatron soon made his declaration also for the sake of keeping the Decepticons ready for battle. He did not need his army turning on itself just to gain their leader's attention.
Didn't Megatron make it clear in the clearest way possible that he wanted Starscream and would accept no other? The Seeker was the first mech he truly desired for interfacing, not because of some obscure reason or just the need to fool around. He simply wanted Starscream, and he would have him one way or the other. There were others fighting over his attention and preventing him from pursuing his interest? Fine then, the warlord would shove them all aside in favor for Starscream. No Decepticon would possess the nerve to defy his decisions.
But why hadn't Megatron thought of what might happen to the other? The Seeker must have been blaming him for placing his life in danger. Slag it all for happening again! He should have come up with a failsafe plan a long time ago before the war had started up once more. Only sheer luck prevented the Kalis operation from being a complete failure.
It was only now that Megatron realized how serious the situation was and felt almost ashamed how he so casually dealt with his pursuers. He had been a fool for placing the other's life in danger like this. In a way, he was directly responsible for the incident in the tunnels.
Megatron's first impulse was to appoint Starscream second-in-command as soon as he could. It was one of the surest ways of protection, and would serve as a message to every mech that Megatron would no longer change his mind and that whoever harmed Starscream would have their leader's rage to answer to. He should have been more careful in the first place. Forget his desire to be intimate with the Seeker for now, he had to do something to compensate. Forget also his intention to test Starscream for his loyalty and abilities when his life was at stake. He could always do it after he becomes his new second.
It was the least Megatron can do now to make things right.
"Megatron! If you don't finish your visitation in the next three cycles, I will kick you out even if you were the supreme ruler of Cybertron itself!" Hook's irritated voice reached him. Slag. He must have exceeded the time limit by now.
"Blitzwing, I was just wondering if I couldn't find Starscream anywhere on the base, then where would he be?" Megatron asked hurriedly. He had no idea why that question came up, but it seemed logical that the other would know where Starscream was.
"He usually shuts himself in his lab or his room. And he likes a certain ledge on zhe west roof. Says it's his favorite thinking spot, so its zhe most likely spot for him to be."
"Thank you for your information. I wish you a swift recovery." He stood up quickly to leave.
Megatron had a Seeker to find and possibly, to promote for sure.
Okay, okay! I know you all are dying to see a drunk Megatron having his way with our favorite Seeker, but sadly I'm not yet comfortable in writing stuff like that. So here you have Megatron as a happy drunk and Starscream being emotional. Sorry if I made him a little OOC, though I always thought that Starscream was prone to strong emotions maybe when he was younger.
By the way, I might decide to add some mech-lovin' in the next chapter… by popular demand of course. Come on, I collect reviews similarly to some people who collect quarters, and I will try to reply to all signed reviews if I could from now on. Your encouragements and feedback are really helpful in helping me to develop the plot!