"Look at them, Soundwave. Look at the way they stand beside each other, talk to one another, support one another—"

Soundwave watched as Megatron suddenly transformed his servo into his blade and cleaved it into the center of the computer console. It tore apart with a metal screech and jagged fragments of glass flew out into the air in a sharp cloud of rage. They sliced past Megatron's frame and left behind hundreds of tiny white scratches all across his chestplate. Megatron didn't seem to care. He only turned around and went back to staring at the security footage from the ship.

This wouldn't do at all. Megatron could not possibly lead the Decepticons in an effective way if he was completely obsessed with the two traitors. Soundwave had long thought that the aching wound that Orion's betrayal had left behind within Megatron had healed.

"They're brothers, do you see that? Brothers!" Megatron hissed.

Soundwave was wrong.

He wondered for a moment what was going through the Seeker's helm. Was he proud for so cleverly manipulating the Autobots into accepting him into their fold? Or was he still an anxious little creature, all hunched over himself and jumping at every shadow?

Starscream walked beside Optimus, anxiously, yes, but at the same time…

Soundwave frowned. That couldn't be right. The Seeker was a frightful creature, there was no way he could possibly feel calm and safe beside the hulking Prime.

Yet that was exactly what it looked like. Soundwave saw it, and Megatron did too.

"Soundwave, I have no time nor patience for Starscream and Optimus's new… friendship," he hissed out. "Starscream should never stand that tall. He should be beside me, with me, serving me—"

His optics lit up a brighter shade of red and his field suddenly expanded in a storm of static. Megatron slowly turned around as a sharp grin crossed his faceplate.

"Oh, Soundwave. The only reason the traitor is so confident is because he's so self-assured that he has everything under control. Return to the ship and make it clear to my rogue second just who precisely is in charge here."

Soundwave gave a single nod and activated the groundbridge.

"And Soundwave?"

He turned around. Megatron had that feral look again, yet there was something even more cruel hidden in his optics this time.

"Make sure to play the footage of him killing Cliffjumper. It will surely kill Starscream as well. And when the Prime sees the footage, when sees just how despicably and cruelly he ended the life of the soldier he saw as a son… well… there might not even be a Starscream left behind for you and I to reclaim, now will there be, Soundwave?"

He gave a single nod before he silently slipped into the whirling green light of the bridge. The Prime would not deactivate the Seeker, no, but Soundwave was also uncertain as to whether he'd really hand Starscream back over to Megatron.

It would be fun to test the Prime's limits.


Optimus just stood there. Smoke curled out from his hot blue blaster and his entire frame shook slightly as he took deep vents to get his frame to calm down. The corpses of energon covered drones were scattered all though the hall.

Starscream said nothing. The silence seemed to stretch on for a thousand years as he waited for the Prime to finish calming down.

He clenched his talons into fists and wished, not for the first time, that his blasters had not been disabled. If he still had his weapons, he could still fight, he could still somehow protect Optimus in return.

He frowned. It had been a long time since he'd felt an urge to protect another mech. The last bot he had felt that kind of emotion for was...

"We took a right, yes?" Starscream said as he shook his helm. He wouldn't think about his old relationship with Megatron. He couldn't.

"We have taken three rights already. Starscream… we are rather lost."

Starscream scowled at the shadows of the halls. The walls were uncomfortably close and just barely large enough to fit a Seeker and a convoy at the same time. The dark shadows of the rotten rafters above their helms stretched endlesssly above them and only Primus knew what was hidden up in them.

He yelped and jumped back as a servo landed on his shoulder.

"It is just me, I am no enemy," Optimus said.

Starscream shook his helm and groaned. "What—? No, you need to stop!"

Optimus frowned. "Stop what?""

"What's with… this? All of this encouragement and warm touches and…? You want something, don't you?"

"You do not understand why I'm being kind to you," Optimus said. It wasn't a question, just a statement. His field pulsed with sadness.

"You're the one bleeding here, so why are you trying to comfort me?" Starscream shrieked.

A thin stream of energon trickled down from where a blaster bolt had struck Optimus's plating. Starscream tried to wrench the red plating back into place, but it only kept bleeding.

He didn't understand all of this sudden kindness and compassion and… everything. There had to be a price, there had to be. Nothing ever came free during this mad and endless war. Megatron had taken him, taught him, helped him avenge Vos—all for a price. Starscream still wasn't entirely sure just what that price was, but he had paid it ten times over. He'd given everything to Megatron, he'd given and given and given—

And now Prime wanted something from him. And Starscream had nothing left to give.

"I choose to be kind to you in the hopes that one day, you'll be kinder to yourself."

Starscream just stared. "I don't understand," he said softly. "I think I'm going insane… more insane than I already am, at least. You Autobots… you just make no sense—"

"It makes sense to treat your soldiers with respect. It makes sense to care for their wellbeing and look after them. Megatron knows this, knows the sense behind it—yet continuously abuses them. He abuses you above all others, all because the abuse makes sense to him."

Starscream let out a deep vent and leaned heavily on the rusted wall. The dark abandoned halls of the crashed ship stretched on away from them and the harsh red glow of the emergency lights and his optics lit everything in a blood-red glow. Optimus's optics still shone bright blue amidst the darkness, though. It never took too long for Starscream to find the Prime. Optimus was always with him. Always.

To think that maybe Optimus chose to spend time with him not because he wanted something from him, but just because he simply desired to be with him—

Starscream groaned and rubbed his helm as a processor-ache came on.

"W-well… if you don't want anything from me… then what does Megatron want from me?"

"HE WANTS YOU BACK."

Their helms shot to the side and they both scanned the darkness. The harsh mechanical voice had suddenly boomed out of the shadows and then stopped speaking just as soon as it began. The air began to buzz, Starscream's HUD glitched, and a violet glow appeared at the end of the hall.

Optimus swiftly rose his pedes and transformed his arm into a blaster before he pointed it into the darkness. The ship moaned all around them and the sound of one thousand year old metal creaked above their helms.

Optimus's optics widened and his field suddenly went hard and cold.

Starscream didn't move, didn't say a thing as Optimus just continued to stare out into the darkness.

"Starscream… I do not think that Soundwave is in this hallway."

"Well, then why—?"

"He is above us."

Starscream froze. He slowly looked upwards and into the dark rafters above.

A violet light flashed from up within the shadows of the rafters. The sound of approaching drones boomed throughout the hall.

"Starscream, he is here—"

The air began to buzz.

"—he is right up above me—"

Optimus grabbed ahold of Starscream's torso and held him there tightly.

"—which is why it is crucial to me that you understand that I am going to do this—"

Soundwave let his cables loose and let them swing down into the air as they began to flash with bright purple light.

"—which is why you must understand I am doing this to save you—"

Suddenly, Starscream found himself being thrown into the air. He tumbled through the hall and slid to a grinding halt all the way on the other end of the corridor with a screech and a bang. A whole contingent of drones came marching out of a side hall beside Optimus and he immediately set to work slicing through them. Starscream just sat there on the floor, his jaw dropped as he watched the fight rage on without him.

"Optimus, did you just throw me?!" Starscream screeched as he rose to his pedes. He opened his intake and prepared to yell at the Prime—

Chunks of jagged metal fell from the ceiling and struck the ground. Starscream narrowly dodged each one as the whole ship began to collapse. For a brief moment Starscream saw Optimus stop to stare at him as the Prime killed the drones, his blue optics wide as he stared at Starscream.

Starscream jumped back and just barely avoided having his helm caved in by a steel beam. He opened his intake to say that he was fine, when he froze. Optimus still fought the drones and his sword flashed and blaster fired as he tore through them, but something else seemed to worry him. He shoved a drone away and looked back at Starscream again right as he opened his intake to say something.

No, he wasn't looking at Starscream. He was looking at something past him.

Starscream turned around. Soundwave stood behind him and his outstretched cables flashed with bright violet light.

Shock filled Starscream's field. He hadn't even heard him come, he hadn't even seen Soundwave appear amongst the falling debris. The ceiling creaked and groaned precariously and Starscream scrambled backward away from Soundwave just as the ceiling above him snapped. A piece of metal struck his helm and sent a sharp lance of pain right through his processor. Error messages flashed onto his HUD, his optics flickered, Soundwave's visor pulsed with light, and Starscream blacked out.


They had found him. They always found him. But they could not always capture him.

Hot acidic rain poured down from the starry skies of Cybertron and cascaded down Starscream's frame. The blue paint that had been smattered over his frame in order to disguise him peeled away under the onslaught of the acid and sluiced down into the street below.

Several engines thrummed and the sharp clacking noises of bots transforming echoed into the alleyway.

"Slag," Starscream shook out. He wasn't sure how the Enforcers had managed to find him this time—but that didn't matter at the moment. They had found him, they had shot him, and now they were going to take him, and he could not allow that to happen. He'd already lost Skyfire to the council's machinations, he could not afford to lose himself to the Council as well. Energon dripped down from the sparking blastermark scorch on his wing.

Someone laughed. "Oh, if only you had joined me."

He whirled around. Megatron stood in the shadows and watched him with his blood-red optics.

Starscream instinctively stepped back and froze. His helm whipped around and scanned the alleyway as the sounds of the approaching Enforcers grew closer and closer.

A sharp talon suddenly closed around his shoulder. Starscream yelped and tried to pull himself away as Megatron dragged him forward until their chestplates were inches apart.

"You know, you could have avoided all of this if you had just joined me, little Seeker."

Starscream snarled. "I—"

Megatron laughed. "See, I know how you work, Starcream. You're going to list off all of the reasons why you shouldn't join me and why I should just leave you alone, hmm? Well, I can assure you, Starscream, that there is a very good reason you should join me standing in the alleyway right there."

Megatron leaned in and spoke right into Starscream's audial. The bright searchlight of an Enforcer suddenly shone upon them and blinded Starscream.

"If you tell me to leave you alone, oh, I'll leave you alone. But I can assure you that they won't leave you alone."

The Enforcers closed and in their visors gleamed in the light as they blocked off the entrance to the alleyway.

"Seeker," the leader said. He spat the word out like it was poison. "You are coming with us."

Starscream winced as his burnt wing twitched and blew out more sparks. The Enforcers were lacking in kindness, but they had good aim. Very good aim. He looked closer and squinted at them. This wasn't the same group who had been hunting him down recently and who had shot him—this was a different group of Enforcers he had not yet encountered. They had done nothing to hurt him.

"You need somebody beside you who knows how you work," Megatron whispered as the Enforcer's blasters whirred up to full-charge.

Starscream blinked acid out of his optics. "I—"

"Resistance is pointless. You will be arrested," the head Enforcer monotoned.

Starscream pulled himself away from Megatron and stumbled away from the gladiator. He turned around to face the Enforcers and he snarled.

"I don't think so, grounder-pounders! I'm a scientist! I've done nothing wrong, I just create scrap! I'm staying right here," Starscream hissed as he stood tall and as acid poured over him.

"You are a warframe. You are only good for destruction." The Enforcer tilted his helm as if Starscream's claim that he was a scientist was interesting to him."You are wanted by the Council."

"Well, I don't want them."

They pointed their blasters right at him. Trapped in alleyway, surrounded by Enforcers, a walord's optics on him, flightless—he'd been through worse before. But he was tired of this. Tired of having to pack up and move to a new city all the time, the Council hot on his trail, assuming a new paint job and a new name everywhere he went. But most of all he was tired of Skyfire not being beside him. Soon he'd return to that icy backwater planet and save his friend. Soon. In the meantime, he had company to deal with.

He glanced to the side and up into the tall buildings that towered over him. His wing was busted, but he could still rely on his talons. It wouldn't be hard—a single burst of speed, a single jump, and then he could be clinging onto the side of the nearby building as he climbed up it to freedom. They could shoot at him, but their shots wouldn't hit him. Starscream could ensure that. He was a fast climber.

But on the other hand...

Megatron watched him, an amused glint in his optics.

The head Enforcer moved forward, his faceplate expressionless. They never showed any true emotions, they were just faceless mechs. For a single moment Starscream considered if they had faceplates under their masks—if they were just as tired as he was.

"Why sit here in the rubble and let our anger consume us when we can instead use our anger?" Megatron said. The Enforcers closed in on them and their engines began to rumble louder as they neared Starscream.

He had to stay away from Megatron, he had to. He was dangerous, his trinemates said so… yet the gladiator was right.

The Enforcer charged up his blaster.

Why should he just sit here and await death when he could deal out death instead? A small voice in the back of his helm that sounded suspiciously like Skyfire disagreed. This was a different group of Enforcers from the ones that had hunted him down before. They hadn't hurt him, he could escape, he didn't have to hurt them—

"You are coming with us," the grounder said.

For a split moment Starscream smelled ash.

"Under the name of Sentinel Prime—"

He could scale the walls and flee, he was a good climber. He knew he could do it. And yet—

"You have been accused of murder—"

He could flee. He could. But he could also do something else—

"They say you are only good for destruction," Megatron said. "Why sit here in the rubble and let our anger consume us when we can instead use our anger?" he repeated. Starscream's optic twitched.

The Enforcer pointed his blaster right at Starscream's chestplates.

He could flee and escape to a new city. But then the Enforcers would find him again, and then they'd drag him kicking and screaming to the Council one day. He couldn't avoid them forever.

The Enforcer charged up his blaster and his visor reflected the bright deadly light.

Skyfire was still buried under a hundred tons of ice. Because of the Council. Because of the Council and the Enforcers.

"Choose, Starscream. Your rage is a weapon. Wield it. They say you are only good for destruction—"

Megatron leaned in again and whispered into Starscream's audial.

"—So prove them right."

Starscream took one last look at the nearby building and a quick and easy escape. He looked away and right at the Enforcers as he unsheathed his talons.

Starscream made his choice. He lunged.

The head grounder went down with a crash as Starscream dug his talons underneath the thick metal sheets of his armor and pulled. The other Enforcers grabbed him with their servos and tried to wrench him off of their leader as a hint of panic entered their voices.

Starscream held on tight. He hooked his claws deeper into the mesh of the Enforcer pinned beneath him and felt warm energon flood his talons.

He felt it. For a single moment the Enforcer's hidden field lashed out around him, hissing and roiling with static and some emotion—

Fear.

Starscream froze. The grounder was scared of him.

They took advantage of his brief lapse of focus and wrenched him off of their leader. Starscream hissed and kicked and clawed the Enforcers as Megatron silently watched him under the onslaught of the acid rain.

Starscream leaped free of them and ran off into the night as the hot acid poured down his frame and stripped his paint away, his energon mixing with the acidic rain in the street gutters as he ran along.

There was something off about their confrontation—a hint of fear there that didn't come from Starscream, but from the Enforcer he had been attacking. Starscream shook his helm. He didn't have enough time to consider why that twinge of fear felt important, or why it made his spark freeze up in his chestplates.

Starscream kicked them away and quickly scaled the side of an acid-drenched building. The high spires of Iacon gleamed all around him and the air shook and rumbled as another bot flew up into the air beside him. Megatron glided through the air and his massive frame hovered right beside Starscream as the Seeker hurriedly climbed the building.

"You didn't need me to kill them myself, now did you?" Megatron laughed. His laughter made a deep sense of unease settle upon Starscream's spark… and yet the warlord was right. Starscream's servos were covered in the energon of those who had wronged him. Justice hadn't been served yet—the other Enforcers would still pursue him. But by just using his rage, Starscream was able to get rid of one, and that in itself was a small victory.

"Your rage is your weapon, Starscream!" Megatron shouted as he flew over Starscream and his shadow fell across him. "And you need me to help you wield it!"

Megatron flew off and Starscream watched the bright violet glow of his thrusters vanish into the night. A strange sense of wonder, fear and exhilaration—but most importantly, pride coiled around Starscream's spark. He hadn't felt pride in a very long time.

Vos had not been avenged. Not yet. But in the meantime, he would rid the world of the Enforcers. Maybe he'd even join the warlord. No, he wouldn't let them hunt him down again. No, next time, he would hunt them down.


Starscream jolted awake. Optimus was nowhere to be seen, there were rocks and pieces of bent metal everywhere, and he was completely alone.

"Slag," Starscream swore as he stood up. He grimaced as he clambered over the fallen frame of a drone who had been crushed by the debris.

The air buzzed and the entire ship glowed with a strange violet light. The mezzanine he was standing on was twisted and bent out of recognition and he wasn't anywhere closer to the exit. If anything, he was even deeper in the ship.

"Optimus?" Starscream's voice echoed out into the depths. The air began to buzz even more. A sudden feeling of unease had only a fraction of a section to work its way through his frame before suddenly the ground gave out beneath him.

Starscream slid towards the abyss beneath him and his pedes made sparks fly as his frame slid down the metal slope of the mezzanine towards the darkness below—

An arm suddenly wrapped around Starscream's midsection and pulled him away from the edge. He yelped and scrambled back from the dark ledge ahead of him as whoever rescued him pulled him away from the darkness.

He just sat there as his frame shook and as his vents breathed heavily. Starscream would have been fine had he fallen—he would've been able to transform and fly to safety. Despite that, Starscream still felt a sense of dread as he looked over the edge into the abyss. There was something there in the shadows below that made his spark freeze and his frame tense up. Whatever was waiting for him down there was not pleasant.

"About time you caught me! You sure took a while," Starscream grumbled to Optimus as he grabbed ahold of the arm around his midsection and tried to pull it away.

The arm wouldn't budge. Now that he noticed it, Optimus's arm was unusually thin. Starscream normally felt the Prime's massive field hover around him, but all he felt was nothing. The only thing he could sense was his own sharp and staticky anxiety-ridden field.

"Optimus?" Starscream said. He tried to wrap his servo around the arm that was restraining him and pull it away—

The arm tightened. Whoever had their arm around him tightened their servo and dug the tips of their knifelike digits into the seams between Starscream's armor. Starscream's jaw dropped as he felt energon prickle up from whoever was digging their servo into him.

"Frag off!" Starscream shouted as he slammed himself backward, throwing him and his captor's frame hard into the wall. The mech restraining him only tightened their arm around him in response.

Starscream writhed and kicked as he tried to catch a glimpse of the dark mech restraining him—

The air began to buzz.

"STARSCREAM," a voice recording said.

Starscream felt his breath leave him all at once. Soundwave tightened his grasp around him.

"Two days left, Starscream," a recording of Megatron's voice said. Soundwave tightened his arm even more and Starscream felt a hot slice of pain shoot through him as something deep within his internals snapped.

Soundwave's arm tightened and tightened and tightened around Starscream as he flared his wings and struggled to break free. Static laced his vision, his optics flickered, his entire frame creaked and groaned as the sharp plating of Soundwave's thin—but strong, so so strong—arm began to cut into his midsection and draw even more blood—

"Soundwave," Starscream hissed out breathlessly. He reached back with his servos and tried to claw Soundwave. Two cables wrapped around his servos and immobilized them.

—bleeding on the ground, vents coming in harsh gasps, Megatron looming over him, raising his pede—

"STARSCREAM," a recording of Megatron's voice said. Each syllable bursted with raw anger as it boomed out into the dark halls.

"S-soundwave, I would perhaps appreciate it—" Starscream began to say as Soundwave tightened his arm again. "—if you would let me go now?!"

The metal door banged. Somebody was trying to get into the room.

The sharp plates of metal that covered Soundwave's arm began to dig into Starscream's mesh and draw thin droplets of energon from his frame. Soundwave's helm leaned in and he could feel the cold smooth surface of his blank visor graze the back of his helm.

"You will never be able to let go of me, Starscream, and I will never let go of you—" a recording of Megatron's voice said.

More energon dripped down from his abdomen. "Soundwave, please, don't you remember all the years we spent serving together as a-allies?! Just stop this madness, just stop it!"

The door banged again. Starscream prayed that it was Optimus out there trying to pry his way in.

Soundwave tilted his helm as if he was considering him. "I REMEMBER HOW..." he said.

Starscream's slumped in relief. The arm around his midsection loosened—

"You went over to their side," a recording of Knock Out's voice said.

Starscream froze.

Soundwave's arm tightened harshly again, and this time it dug into his frame so much it made all of Starstarscream's breath leave him at once.

"You're an Autobot now, whether you call yourself one or not," a recording of Breakdown growled.

"You want to bring me back to the Nemesis?! T-then get it over with! Why are you waiting, why are you just stalking me instead?" Starscream shouted.

"Starscream?" Optimus shouted through the door. It banged again and a large dent formed in it as Optimus beat upon it from the outside.

Soundwave looked down at Starscream and his visor blazed violet.

"NOT HERE—TO CAPTURE."

Starscream blinked. "Then why—?"

"HERE TO—reveal the truth to them," the recording of Megatron's voice said.

Starscream blinked sluggishly as more droplets of energon cascaded down from his midsection. "To reveal what truth to... who?"

"THE AUTOBOTS."

Soundwave burst into action. He let go of Starscream and wrapped his cables around his entire frame before he then dragged Starscream down the dark halls and into the shadows.

"Starscream!" Optimus's muffled voice shouted from outside the door.

Starscream opened his intake to respond before his faceplate was slammed hard into the ground as Soundwave bodily dragged him into the ship's depths.

"NOT—YET. YOU MUST SEE."

"See what?!"

Soundwave hoisted Starscream in front of him. The Seeker blinked and tried to get ahold of his bearings as he looked up in front of him at two massive metal doors that had the Autobot badge blazed upon them.

Starscream's spark sank. He'd been here before. He'd been down this ship, through these doors in the past so many years ago.

"YOU MUST SEE," Soundwave robotically repeated. He kicked the doors open with his pede and dragged Starscream into the darkened command deck of the ship.

He slammed one of his cables into a computer console and the emergency lights all came on at once and flooded the room with blood-red light. Starscream's jaw dropped.

The deactivated frames of Enforcers were scattered all across the room. Familiar slash marks littered their frames.

"Do you know what happened after you killed them all, Starscream?" a recording of Megatron's voice began to say. "I had Soundwave hack into this ship and commandeer the autopilot before then sending it through a spacebridge to the battle above Earth."

Soundwave's cables wrenched Starscream up and onto his pedes. Even after a thousand years, all of the destruction was still there. All of the results of his revenge were scattered across the entire bridge. Starscream had wanted revenge on the Enforcers who had hunted him down and confronted him, and Starscream got exactly what he wanted.

"I had hoped the arrival of a ship full of slaughtered mechs would crash into one of the other Autobot ships and bring one of them crashing down with it. Unfortunately, this commandeered vessel missed and ended up just crashing onto this wretched world instead, where it waited to be of use again."

It was still there. The frames of the Enforcers, the scorch marks his own blaster had left behind on the walls—all of the evidence of Starscream's crimes were still there after a thousand years.

"Oh, but the time has come for this ship to be useful again, Starscream! All of the horrors you left behind are still here." Soundwave leaned in to Starscream's audials and played the voice recording of Megatron so loudly that Starscream felt as if the warlord was there beside him. "Imagine how shocked and horrified the Autobots will be when they see the evidence of just how brutal you are."

The computer consoles lit up and one thousand year-old footage of Starscream slaughtering the Enforcers played out on the screen. Starscream kicked his pedes and scrambled to get away, but Soundwave cables just lashed out and wrapped ahold of him and forced his helm upward to look at the footage of his crimes.

"The Autobots already know I've done bad things," Starscream scoffed. "They won't learn anything new by seeing any of this!"

Soundwave tilted his helm. His visor lit up and a picture of Starscream standing over Cliffjumper with his talons embedded in his chestplates flashed onto his visor.

"They'll learn how you killed Cliffjumper. How much he suffered as he died..." Megatron's voice said.

Starscream froze. "Soundwave… that isn't a recording of Megatron's voice... is it?"

Soundwave slowly shook his helm.

"No, Starscream," Megatron's voice said. "My voice is coming from no mere recording. I'm here, Starscream. I am always with you. Always."

"What is this?! Some new method of torture?"

"Of a sort. You brought this all upon yourself, Starscream."

Soundwave's cables loosened and Starscream darted away from him and ran to the door. It was locked shut.

"Primus," Starscream moaned. "Why can't you just pick me up and take me back to the Nemesis? What's with this whole elaborate plan?!"

Soundwave's visor flared and Megatron growled on the other end of the transmission. "And why would I do that when I could just let the Autobots drop you off like a sack of potatoes instead? Or perhaps, I could just wait for you to flee from them and return to me yourself?"

Starscream laughed bitterly. "Oh, of course, of course, this is just your latest method to get me back!" he choked out.

"This is merely the beginning, Starscream. You can either wait for the Autobots to rip you to shreds once they discover just how brutally you killed their teammate—or you can return to me yourself and receive a less painful beating. Choose. You still have two days left."

Starscream snarled at Soundwave and kicked at the door as he desperately tried to escape the dead frames and Soundwave's blank visor and the footage, Primus, all of the footage playing upon all the walls of all his crimes—

"I'm not going with you!" Starscream yelled out as he shoved his bleeding talons into the seam between the doors and wrenched them open with a terrible screech.

"Two days, Starscream. Two days!" Megatron's voice boomed.

Starscream ran through the gap in the door that he had created and bolted down the hallway. The old audio of him killing the Enforcers blared through the gap in the door and echoed after him as he ran away.

He ran out, away from the corpses and the recordings and the memories until soon the command deck door was just a distant speck at the end of the hallway.

He found himself back in the main room. The door was completely torn open as if a large frame had pushed its way through it. Starscream froze. It couldn't be Megatron, could it?

Starscream skidded around a corner and his frame banged into something hard. He yelped and jumped backwards—

Something touched his helm.

Starscream screeched and clawed at the servo that tried to reach for him. Suddenly, two large servos closed around his shoulders and began to lightly shake them.

"Starcream, calm yourself, it is me. There is no need to fear," Optimus said.

He jolted and looked up at the Prime. His frame was dented and scuffed and his field blared worry as the Prime crouched in front of him and his blue optics lit up the darkness.

Starscream blinked and shuffled away from Prime. There had been spilt energon, and a frenzied battle, and the Enforcers—

"There's just me, Starcream."

His wings fell. "...Did I say all of that out loud?"

"Yes. I do not know where Soundwave went. I tried to reach you, but I had to cut through the debris. By the time I reached you, Soundwave had vanished down a corridor. Did he hurt you?"

"Well, he downright traumatized me, that slagger! He just needs to crawl back to Megatron and stay there beside him!"

"I thought that throwing you away from Soundwaves and the drones would help get you away from Soundwave's wrath... I was wrong. I apologize. Are you alright? What did he do to you? Are you harmed?"

Starscream opened his intake, prepared himself to tell Optimus everything he could—

—And realized that he couldn't. The only sound he could make was a keen as he tilted forward and fell to his knees. Static laced his vision and his spark pulsed in his chestplates as nausea overwhelmed him.

"Starscream? Are you well?" Optimus asked gently as he knelt down beside him.

"I'm… I'm not fine, Prime. This was a trap, all of it! Soundwave is still here, Optimus, he's here and he's waiting and—when is he not listening to us, huh?! When is he not creepily lurking around and spying and watching and—" Starscream kicked the wall with his pede in his anger. The sound of his pede sharply hitting the wall echoed down the metal halls.

"Starscream—"

"And I don't even know why! I mean, sure, Megatron saved him in the arena and all that, but that was millennia ago and Megatron isn't the same mech he was before and—"

"Starscream, your helm is cracked open," Optimus said. He placed his servos atop the back of Starscream's helm to wipe away the spilt energon that was smattered over his helm. He stopped for a moment to just look at Starscream.

"Well, what are you doing? Is this another Autobot ritual?" Starscream scoffed.

Optimus shook his helm as he wiped the energon away. "No, I am just wiping you down… Megatron never bothered to check on you after a battle, did he?"

Starscream frowned. "He only came by after a mission to judge, never to help." He remembered the way Megatron's shadow had fallen over him after the Enforcers closed in and Starscream had gotten away, he remembered the way his violet engines blazed in the night—

"Your rage is your weapon, Starscream! It is a weapon! And you need me to help you wield it!"

He held still as Optimus wiped the energon away.

"Prime… do you think he'll ever get over me?"

Optimus's engine hummed thoughtfully. The sound of his engine rumbled down the halls and echoed into the darkness.

"One day. He managed to mostly move past my betrayal."

Starscream scoffed as his helm ached in pain. "Mostly?"

"He still tries to bring me back to him occasionally," Optimus said softly. A thin line of energon trickled down his arm.

"When… when did that happen?"

Optimus blinked and looked down at the scratch on his red armor. "During the falling debris. Starscream—"

"Megatron won't stop hurting you too," Starscream said numbly. "He won't ever stop, will he?"

He wouldn't become like Optimus, would he? Eternally hunted down by Megatron, constantly worried about his presence looming over him? Except Starscream was already like that, wasn't he? Optimus was going through the same thing he was. He was the only mech who had been hunted by Megatron just as much as Starscream was. And he had had to go through it alone. Suddenly, Starscream felt like he was seeing the Prime for the first time.

Starscream thought of a Seeker dying in the rubble of Vos. He promised to be there for her, so he'd promise to be there for the Prime as well. His vision was all staticky, Optimus's faceplate was blurring—he couldn't tell who was sitting beside him—was it that dying Seeker or was it the Prime? But he had to say something, to them, something—

"I'm sorry Megatron killed that innocent mech. He wasn't a towersmecha. He wasn't. But that didn't matter to him, did it?" Starscream said blearily. "And I'm sorry he wielded and m-manipulated you like a weapon, even though he saw you saw as a brother." Starscream hadn't even committed those crimes, yet he still felt the need to apologize for them. He'd helped Megatron rise to power and he couldn't help but feel a weird twinge in his chestplates whenever he heard about what crimes Megatron committed using that power.

He thought of the dead mechs all heaped up on one another in the command deck, the mechs he'd killed as revenge for bombing Vos, except he's not even sure if they bombed Vos—

"And I'm sorry I killed them all—"

Starscream froze. He wasn't supposed to say that. He couldn't let Optimus find the command deck. Not now, not ever. Optimus looked at him. There was a strange hitch in the Prime's field Starscream couldn't quite place.

"—I was apologizing! For killing the… the, um, the…" Starscream sighed and let his helm hit the wall behind him. "I'm sorry."

"...For what?"

Starscream offlined his optics. "You'll see."

Optimus shook his helm. "Megatron ruined Cybertron, he ruined our mission, he ruined your ability to not flinch whenever anybody touches you—"

"What? I don't flinch!" Starscream scoffed. "I don't flinch whenever you touch me."

Optimus finished wiping away the last of the energon from his helm. "Only whenever I touch you."

Starscream went silent.

"We will stop him from ruining anything else, Starscream. We will stop him."

Optimus just rested his servo atop his shoulders as they sat there on the ground.

"We will escape and Soundwave will not capture you. I will ensure that."

He's not here to capture me, Starscream almost said. He froze for a moment. He could tell Optimus about what Megatron had said, but that would require telling him about the bridge littered with the dead frames of the Enforcers he'd killed and would require telling Optimus about how Soundwave was trying to show him the footage of Cliffjumper's death.

Optimus couldn't see that footage. Starscream would see to that. He was ostracized enough already, if the Autobots learned specifically how their beloved teammate perished at his talons—

"Good. Let's… let's just get out of here."

All he had to do was ensure that Optimus never reached the bridge. Then he'd never see the evidence of his crimes and then he'd never have any doubts about whether he really wanted Starscream following him or not.

"Are you well enough to stand?"

"I'm… fine."

"Good. Ratchet, I need a bridge…" Optimus said as he began to comm Ratchet. Starscream stared off into the depths. He knew what horrors were down that hall. And he would never let Optimus see them.


There was a battle above his helm.

Starscream swore and jumped away to avoid the falling debris. He couldn't find his trinemates, everything was on fire, and the stupid Decepticons and Autobots were fighting above him in their stupid spaceships.

He'd tried to run, he'd tried to avoid the war, but he got caught up in it. No matter where he went, there was fighting. Sooner or later he'd have to make a choice and decide which side to join. Neutrality was no longer an option. Those who remained Neutral perished. Even the greatest soldiers upon Cybertron, such as the Enforcers, had already fallen. So few of Vos's killers remained.

A rumbling noise boomed through the air. Starscream turned around and jumped back as Megatron transformed and flipped onto the ground beside him.

Starscream hissed and scrambled backwards. Slag it, he didn't have time for this.

Something distant and silver passed by far off behind Megatron's helm and a deep sense of dread filled his struts. Starscream leaned over to look past Megatron's bulking frame. A silver ship slipped in and out of the ash clouds. He didn't know why, but the curve of its hull seemed familiar to him.

Megatron growled and grabbed ahold of Starscream's shoulder.

"Listen to me! This is your time to fight! Use your rage—Oh. Oh." Megatron leaned in as Starscream began to shake under his grasp. "You recognize that ship over there, don't you?"

Starscream numbly nodded and watched as the ship flew out of an ash cloud. The Autobot insignia was branded onto its side and shone brightly in the red light.

Rage filled every circuit of his being.

"That was one of the ships that bombed Vos! They're murderers! Megatron, we need to stop them!" Starscream shouted. His wings flared and he tried to run and transform, but Megatron held him back.

He wrenched Starscream around until he and the Seeker were faceplate to faceplate. Megatron reached his massive servos around Starscream's helm and held his helm steady until their faceplates were a breath apart.

"Oh, Starscream," Megatron said softly, so softly. His hold upon his helm was gentle. "I won't stop them. But you can."

"I—"

"I cannot stop and fight beside you every time you want to go off on some mad crusade!" Megatron growled.

Starscream's wings fell. "But… you said we'd do this together!"

"Things change!"

"What—Are you scared? Is that what this is?! You say you'll help me avenge Vos, and then the very next moment you choose to just sit by and do nothing?"

Megatron suddenly lunged forward and slammed Starscream into a wall. "I have better things to do. A good commander cannot fight beside his soldiers, he must be above his soldiers! I have to fight the Prime!"

"He's not even here! You're just making excuses—"

"Listen closely, for I will not repeat this. You will bring that ship crashing down by yourself, or not at all. I am too busy watching my grand plan unfold to join you on some joyride."

Shock filled Starscream's field. "You… you don't want to help me? You said you would… you just want to watch Iacon burn!"

"Choose. Choose now! They are getting away, Seeker! Avenge your people now, or avenge them never at all!"

Starscream stared up at Megatron. The massive warlord towered over him and his frame was lit up by the light of the blazing fires all around them.

"Well—"

Megatron growled. The Autobot ship sent a bust of power to its engines and rocketed off as it flew farther and farther away.

He did have a point. He couldn't drop everything to fight beside Starscream all the time, could he? Even though he had promised—

The ship broke the sound barrier as it escaped Cybertron's grasp.

Starscream snarled. He had to avenge Vos, he had to. With or without Megatron.

"I'll do it," he said shakily.

"You made the right choice to join my Decepticons, Starscream. You are learning the way of things."

Starscream growled. "I haven't committed to anything yet, you know!"

Megatron whirled around as his optics blazed red. "Oh, Starscream. Is that what you tell yourself? Go ahead, bring them to ruin. Destroy them for me or I will destroy you."

He pushed Starscream off of the roof of the building and Starscream transformed and rocked into the sky. His field filled with more and more anger as the ship drew closer and closer.

He flew around the ship's vast silver hull and felt doubt suddenly enter his processor. This was the right decision, right? Right?

The side of the ship exploded as one of his missiles struck it. Starscream burst onto the ship and ran down the halls. The command deck was nearby, he knew it.

"Destroy them or I will destroy you," Megatron had said. Starscream couldn't avenge Vos if this ship wasn't destroyed, or if Megatron killed him. This was something he had to do. He pushed down the little protesting voice in his processor that sounded like Skyfire.

The massive metal doors to the command deck of the ship soon loomed ahead of him and the light of his blue optics lit up the Autobot badge blazed upon the doors. Beyond those doors were the slaughterers of his people. Beyond those doors were his revenge.

Starscream placed his talon upon the door and his other servo transformed into a blaster that was ready to fire. He looked at the doors, he took a deep vent—

He froze. The entire ship shook and rumbled around him as it flew along. Soon it would be too late, soon they would realize his presence and cut him down. It was now or never.

He kicked the door open and raised his blasters. He snarled, ready to shoot down the wretched mechs who had bombed his people—

A room full of Enforcers stared at him, their optics wide and shocked and their fields full of some strange emotion.

Starscream just couldn't bring himself to move. His memories of the Enforcers came back to him.

—Cold gleaming armor—

—Pointing their blasters—

—A twinge of fear in their fields that made his own spark ache with familiarity—

He took a shuddering vent. That was that strange feeling in their fields. Fear.

Starscream's processor ran into overdrive. The Enforcers couldn't have bombed Vos, right? It was the new Prime who commanded the Autobots and the Enforcers were only loyal to the older Prime, Sentinel. Unless the new Prime had hired them? They had their own ships, why were they on an Autobot one? He thought that since they had hunted him down, they'd also hunted down the remaining Seekers as well—right?

The Enforcers sprung into action and fired at him, forcing him to jump away. This shouldn't be hard. It should not be hard to just kill them, to give those bots the brutal death they rightfully deserved, to let them suffer as the dead Seekers of Vos had.

"Promise me," the dying Seeker had whispered.

But these weren't the bots who bombed Vos, were they? This was a different group from the one in the alleyway.

"They are monsters," Megatron had said to him.

Starscream's blasters began to shake.

They felt fear just as he did. They were just doing their job.

"Destroy them or I will destroy you," Megatron's voice whispered in his helm.

Starscream took a deep vent as he dodged their blaster bolts. They were attacking him, it was too late, they had hurt him and Skyfire and Thundercracker and Skywarp and all of Vos so so so much—

It was time to pay it back. He'd hunted them down, he couldn't stop now.

Starscream took a deep vent and made his choice. He lunged forward and he—


"Gah!" Starscream yelped as a servo landed on his shoulder. Optimus looked at him in concern.

"You tuned out. I am sorry, Starscream, but I believe that the comms are being blocked. We are going to have to find the exit and try to get contact with Ratchet when we are outside."

Starscream growled and kicked the wall. Nothing, absolutely nothing was going to plan. But he was Starscream—if he had been able to endure Megatron for a thousand years, he could surely avoid his newest method of torture for a few more hours. He had time—well, at least until the ultimatum happened.

Two days. Just two days left.

"Well… then let's just go," Starscream said as he grabbed ahold of Optimus's servo and dragged him down the hall. For a brief moment they walked right past the open hall that led down to the command deck, all the way right down to the carnage and the horrors and the bodies—

Optimus briefly glanced at the hallway. Starscream felt his spark freeze in his chestplate.

"No, no, not that way, the air… is too still down there, we're looking for somewhere where it's not still, where the fresh breeze is coming in from... and w-where the exit is!" Starscream said breathlessly.

Optimus just looked at him. "Very well then. We should keep moving."

Starscream tried to hide the way his frame slumped in relief. He could do this, he could. He just had to keep Optimus away from that wretched room, and everything would be fine. Nobody would ever have to learn about what he did to the Enforcers and to Cliffjumper.

The security cameras recorded everything.


"I've been seeing your ugly helm far too often lately, Soundwave!" Bulkhead shouted.

Soundwave stood in front of the burning remains of a large military building. His blank and expressionless visor reflected Arcee, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead as he calmly stared back at them. All around them was devastation. The airfield was pocked with blaster marks, planes were flipped over, and entire buildings were on fire.

Soundwave said nothing. He merely extended his cables out around him and just stared at the Autobots.

"Uh… what's he doing?" Bumblebee beeped. All three of them had their blasters drawn and pointed directly at the Decepticon's chestplates, yet he still did nothing.

Bulkhead shrugged. "Er, nothing. He's just standing there being creepy."

Arcee scowled. "He's never doing just 'nothing.' He's planning something."

Soundwave's visor flashed violet and he began to walk off past the burning building.

"Hey, get your purple aft back here!" Bulkhead shouted as he ran off after Soundwave.

"Bulkhead, wait—" Bumblebee beeped desperately. Soundwave walked right up to a massive cloud of smoke that was belching out of the side of a building. He turned his helm over his shoulder, flashed his visor at them, and then vanished into the billowing clouds. Bulkhead ran after him with a massive roar.

"Scrap!" Arcee said as she and Bumblebee transformed and raced into the smoke cloud. Only their bright headlights lit up their dark and smoky surroundings as they drove endlessly through the ashy darkness. They dodged and swerved past flaming piles of debris and the smoking husks of jets and cargo planes.

"Where are they?" Bumblebee beeped. A loud buzzing noise suddenly vibrated through the air.

"I... I don't know…" Arcee said as the buzzing grew louder. She drove around a corner past another piece of flaming debris and came faceplate to faceplate with—

—Starscream.

Arcee suddenly transformed and pointed her blasters right ahead of her. A smoking F-16 jet with bent wings and a shattered and broken cockpit was right in front of her.

"You, you—" A sudden burst of rage rose up within her and then quickly faded away at the sight of the broken jet before her. "You're not Starscream," she said. It was just the jet that he had modeled his alt-mode off of.

"NEGATIVE," An electronic voice spoke.

Soundwave's thin cold servos landed on both of her shoulders. Arcee froze and slowly turned around until her faceplate was inches away from Soundwave's freezing cold visor. Something sharp pressed itself into her abdomen and she didn't have to look down to know that it was the barrel of a blaster.

"Soundwave," Arcee gritted out.

He tilted his helm as if amused. "THAT IS NOT STARSCREAM. NEGATIVE. BUT THAT—COULD—BE HIM." Arcee shivered as Soundwave spoke with the voices of ten different mechs spliced together.

Arcee blinked in confusion and turned around to look at the smoking and burning jet. "That's not Starscream, unfortunately. What are you getting at? Where is Bulkhead? What did you do to him?"

The buzzing grew louder. "THAT—FLAMING JET—COULD BE STARSCREAM...IF YOU JUST—ACTED."

Arcee's optics widened and she looked back at the burning jet. "What are you saying, Soundwave?"

"LET ME—SHOW YOU—"

A datapacket suddenly pinged in her helm. Arcee scowled. "Do you seriously think I'm going to open up whatever message you sent me?"

Soundwave leaned in. "YES. YOU HAVE TO FIND OUT—WHAT HE DID—SOONER OR LATER."

"What, Starscream? We already know what crimes he's committed. He's a monster, we've established this. Now where is Bulkhead?!"

Soundwave let her go and stepped over the burning jet. He silently stared at her from across the flames as they lit up his thin frame in bright bursts of red and orange. "You know, when I found Cliffjumper's corpse, I was rather surprised. It was so…"

Arcee froze. That wasn't Soundwave speaking. It was a recording of Megatron.

"So… mutilated, is the word, yes? So broken. So ravaged. Starscream did a number on the Autobot, he really did. I stood there and I wondered to myself 'Oh, what did Starscream do to you? How did you get into this state, young Autobot?' I wanted to find out. Wouldn't you like to find out, too?"

Arcee just stood there and stared at Soundwave. "I—"

"Don't you want to learn what Starscream did to Cliffjumper?"

Arcee scowled at Soundwave. "You—!"

"LET ME—SHOW YOU."

Arcee looked at the datapacket Soundwave had sent her on her HUD. It would be so easy to just open it—

Blasterfire scattered across the ground as Bulkhead and Bumblebee charged out of the smoke as they fired rapidly at Soundwave. His visor went dim and dark as he effortlessly dodged each blaster bolt and smoothly transformed before he glided into the air. A shadow passed over Arcee's helm and she watched Soundwave's alt-mode fly off into the dark cloud of smoke as if he were never there.

The three of them breathlessly stood there and stared at the hole in the smoke clouds where Soundwave had once been.

"'Cee! What did he do to you?" Bulkhead shouted.

"He…" Arcee trailed off as she looked at the datapacket on her HUD. "He gave us a way to find the truth."