"I then lifted the rascal aloft above my helm and dealt out swift justice! "
Bulkhead snorted. "You struggle to lift yourself out of your berth in the mornings, Ratchet."
"Oh, hush your forked glossa!"
Starscream rolled his optics as he walked into the main room. Ratchet stood in front of his desk and basked in the vivid green glow of his synth-en as he flexed and rolled his plating. The rest of the Autobots and human children watched Ratchet flex one action pose right after the other.
"They never stood a chance, you know that? They're so used to thinking of medics as just bots who fix injuries—it never occurred to them that a medic like me could also cause them! Hah!"
Bulkhead laughed and pointed finger-guns at Ratchet. "Hahaha, yes! Wait, what?"
Bumblebee let out a low beep.
Ratchet scowled and turned around and pointed a digit at Bumblebee. "Do you dare doubt me?"
"Yes!"
"Oh, pah! Everybody here needs some reason kicked into them! Especially you, Starscream," Ratchet said coldly.
Starscream tightened his plating. He just wanted some energon but now he was getting attacked instead.
A large frame stepped in front of his and blocked him from Ratchet. "I believe that is enough for now," Optimus said.
Starscream scowled. "You don't need to shield me! I can handle the likes of him!"
Optimus looked over his shoulder and down at him with a frown. "No. You can't."
Starscream stepped back. Optimus's sad blue optics stared right into him and Ratchet's vivid green ones shone with unfettered hate. He turned away and his optics lit up at the sight of the TV.
"Now, little Rafael Esquivel, do you see the TV and the footage upon it?" Ratchet asked.
The kids turned and looked at the TV. "It's… a monster truck?" Raf asked.
"Indeed," Ratchet said as he flared his plating. "Now look at the mighty monster truck. Now look at me. Now look back at the sheer power of the monster truck. And now—"
"—look at you?" Raf whimpered.
"Yes! Now what differences do you see?"
"Um… a lot?"
Ratchet's optics widened. "Wha— no, you were supposed to say that you see zero differences between me and that powerful truck!"
"But… you're not a powerful truck…"
"Yes, I am!"
Bulkhead ran between Ratchet and the mezzanine and waved his servos in the air. "Okay, okay, Ratch, take a chill pill—"
"I do not need to take a chill pill. I am the chill pill," Ratchet whispered.
Starscream barked out a laugh from the other side of the room. "Stop traumatizing the fleshie sparklings, you've already traumatized them enough already."
"We're already traumatized," Jack muttered.
Optimus looked down at Ratchet as concern began to crinkle in his field.
"Are you well, old friend?"
"Do I look unwell to you?" Ratchet asked as his vivid green optics twitched.
Bulkhead blinked. "Uh, yeah, you look like a scraplet who crawled into an engex supply and came out three days later. Seriously, I saw that once, it was wild— "
"I am no scraplet! I am the pede that descends upon them and crushes them underneath!" Ratchet snarled as he turned to face Starscream.
"You're acting out and you need to calm down," Bumblebee beeped in concern. "Both you and Starscream need to make peace with each other."
"Oh," Ratchet snorted. "We'll make peace. When he's no longer here."
"Well, I am here and I do not intend upon leaving anytime soon!" Starscream said.
"You will leave whether you like it or not!"
Starscream stood firm before Ratchet. "I know why you're doing this," he harshly whispered to the medic when they were only inches apart. He kept his voice low enough for only Ratchet to hear.
"And what is the reasoning I am doing this, hmmm?"
"You…" Starscream's faceplate spasmed. "You want to feel needed."
Ratchet's faceplate fell.
Optimus stepped up beside him and his field thrummed with caution, but now that Starscream had begun he couldn't stop.
"You're desperate, you want to be useful in a way you just aren't— "
"And you ruin everything!"
Ratchet pushed Starscream away and his optics flashed green. Optimus placed his servo upon Starscream's shoulder. "This must stop."
"Hey!" Starscream said. "I can't ruin what he already ruined first!"
Optimus stood between the two of them. "That is enough. This conflict will not be allowed to escalate any further. Ratchet, I am disappointed in you for starting this. And Starscream—"
He wasn't sure why, but the disappointed tone in which Prime said his name made Starscream feel sick.
"—you had an opportunity to end this, but you did not take it. Autobots do not start fights nor escalate them. We finish them."
"I… well…" Starscream trailed off when he realized the Autobots all had their optics on him. "Fine then! I'm leaving!" he huffed as he walked back down the hall and ignored the Autobot's gazes on his back.
The bright blue glow of his secret energon cube lit up his room.
Starscream tightened his grip on the cube in his talons as he laid back on his berth and stared up at the bland concrete ceiling. If he offlined his optics he could almost imagine he was resting underneath the sky instead of underneath what felt like a thousand tons of concrete.
No, he had to do something. Starscream sprang up from his berth and slid the door of his room open before he darted out into the shadows of the base.
"I'm stronger now," Ratchet's voice echoed down the halls. "Mightier than ever before!"
"And stupider than ever before," Starscream muttered to himself. The door to the lab came into view and he reached out his talon to throw the door open—but then went still.
"I am my own master now!" Ratchet's voice echoed down the halls and around and around in Starscream's helm.
Oh, that was it. Starscream threw the door open and marched into the lab. His tank churned at the sight of the synth-en. It shone so brightly that he didn't even need to turn on the light to see.
"I could destroy it," Starscream said. He clenched his talon so tightly that the tips of them dug into the soft mesh of his servo and drew out points of energon.
Just one swipe of his talons was needed to shatter these infernal vials and bring this entire mess to an end. Just one swipe—
Pedesteps pounded from behind him.
Starscream froze and felt his breath catch in his vents. He'd withstood the wrath of Megatron for thousands of years, so why did the wrath of one angry medic seem so terrifying all of a sudden?
He stood frozen in the lab and clenched his talons into even tighter fists as he began to shake—
"Stop," Optimus said. He stepped up in front of Starscream and gently grabbed ahold of both of his talons. He softly pried open Starscream's fists and grimaced at the sight of the energon on them.
"It's you," Starscream said. He knew he should have felt relief and that the tight wad of anxiety in his chest should've loosened at the sight of the Prime—but it still stayed just as tightly wound as before.
"I was looking for you," Optimus said. He looked at all of the synth-en in the lab and his field darkened around him. Starscream would have to make the Prime see reason, he had to.
"I'm glad you're here! Quick, if you extend your blade then we could destroy these wretched vials and bring an end to all of this!" Starscream picked up a vial of synth-en and held it up for Optimus to see.
Optimus frowned and looked down at the synth-en and then at Starscream. Oh, he knew that look very well, that look Optimus got on his faceplate right when he was about to bring your world crashing down.
"Help me destroy it," Starscream grit out. His voice sounded shaky to even his own audials. "Help. Me. With just one swift motion I could shatter this thing and end Ratchet's little temper tantrums. Let me."
Optimus knelt down before Starscream and frowned. His field flowed heavily around him with that same sickening sense of pity and concern.
"Would destroying his work really make things better?"
Starscream rolled his optics. "Yes!"
"Or would it just make you feel better?"
Starscream's grasp on the vial tightened and the tips of his talons left faint scratches behind on the glass. "It would make everybody feel better!"
"He would just create more, Starscream. More and more and more until the sight of it all would sicken you."
"I find all of this already quite sickening, Prime. Especially his behaviour towards you. What, did you seriously already forget the way he mouthed off at you?"
Optimus took a deep vent and his field roiled around him. Starscream's optics widened. Maybe he shouldn't have said that. Maybe it was best to forget that moment of weakness he saw Optimus display back on that mountain.
"I will never forget the way he spoke to me. Partly because his words were somewhat true and also partly because it is also my fault he is currently like this."
"And how is it your fault Ratchet decided to take the plunge and mess around with something he should not have?!"
"Because for once he is in the spotlight and actually feels… useful. Had I just acknowledged him more, than maybe his fears of inferiority would not be arising like this."
"And what about me? Whenever I mouthed off at you, was that also because of some fear of inferiority that I had?"
"Yes."
"Wha—you were supposed to say no, by the way!"
"I'm worried… that he will become like you, Starscream. Angry and feeling left by the wayside and acting out in order to try and regain control of his life. And that is why this right here," Optimus pointed at the vial of synth-en in Starscream's talons, "is not yours to destroy. Ratchet himself must dispose of his own creation. If we do it for him, he will never forgive us and never learn his lesson."
"'Never forgive us?'"
"I used to think that if I just showed Megatron just how destructive his actions were and showed him what terrible things he had created, he would see reason. But now I see reason and now I understand that cleaning up after him will never let him learn his lesson."
"'His lesson'? Optimus, are you even hearing yourself? You're seriously comparing that old… that old coot to Megatron? "
"I… do not know anymore. And while I also wish to see Ratchet's creation go—"
The synth-en pulsed with light and for a split second all they could see was just bright green.
"—we must not be the ones to make it go away. The right thing to do is not always the easy thing to do. Destroying it will also not improve the rest of the team's opinions as much as you think it will.
Starscream scoffed. "I'll only ever be seen as a destroyer, I may as well just prove everybody right!"
Optimus shook his helm. "You're not meant for just destruction. You can create."
"What?"
"You created a better version of yourself. Now give Ratchet the opportunity to create a better version of himself."
Starscream sat in the corner of the main room and sipped his energon alongside Optimus.
"Have you ever witnessed something amazing, Arcee?" Ratchet said as he stretched his arms out.
"Uh, yeah?"
Ratchet just looked at her. "No, I mean, something truly amazing?!"
Arcee sighed and nodded her helm. "Yes, Ratchet, I have."
"Wrong answer! You haven't seen anything truly amazing before, no, but... you're all about to!" Ratchet cackled as he picked up a large crate and hefted it above his helm. " Hooah!"
Optimus frowned and stepped forward with a cautious servo outstretched. "Please do not overexert yourself, old friend."
"You don't n-need Starscream, don't you see that? You don't need him, you just need me!"
"I need every member on this team. You are all vital to me."
Ratchet's field warped and crinkled around him with unhidden impatience. "No, just… don't you see how strong I am now?! No more fighting Megatron alone! And there will especially be no more sparing his life!" Ratchet grunted as he dropped the crates back to the ground. "You hear me? You're in charge, ohhh yes you are, Optimus, but I am now in charge of you! "
Optimus just stared at Ratchet. The nervous energy of everybody's EM fields kicked up a notch and the air was thick with tension.
"Ratchet, please calm down," Raf whimpered from the mezzanine.
"Yes, please calm down, you're scaring the kids for Primus's sake!" Arcee scoffed.
Ratchet's helm whipped around and he looked right at the kids. "I am doing all of this for their sake. One day Megatron is going to march in here, you know that Optimus? Just march right in here and ruin everything just because you both didn't have the guts to take him out when you should have!"
Optimus blinked. "'Both'?"
Ratchet looked at Starscream. "You had sooo many chances—"
Starscream slammed his unfinished cube down onto the counter. "And you've had so many chances to bury this!"
Ratchet's optics widened. "No, no, don't you all see that I'm just as strong as Megatron now?! I can take him too! I am strong, don't you see that now ?" Ratchet grunted as he reached down and picked up two crates this time. He lifted them high over his helm and looked down at everybody with raw desperation in his optics. "I can stand beside you, Optimus!"
Optimus reached his arms out to steady Ratchet. "Please put them down before you hurt yourself."
Ratchet's faceplate fell and a sharp stab of dejection shot through his field. He sneered and chucked the crates to the ground.
Bulkhead gasped. "Ratchet, we needed those!"
"You know what, fine! Be like that then!" Ratchet grumbled as he stomped off and marched right past Starscream. He took one long glance at the Seeker before he vanished back into the shadows of the base.
He'd make them all see the truth one day.
The vial of synth-en fell to the floor and shattered.
"Frag," Ratchet swore. The vial shattered just a few feet away from the tips of his pedes. He could make more. This wasn't a big setback. It wasn't.
So then why did it feel like it was?
The pile of spilt green synth-en grew bigger and bigger until the only thing Ratchet could see was just pure green.
He shakily clutched onto another blue cube and steadied it under his lab equipment. He took his vial and poured the right ingredients into it, yes, so close, so close to fixing this energon, so close to gaining more strength—
His servo shook and he knocked the cube of energon to the ground again. This time it did not miss his frame.
The bright blue and green energon sluiced down his chestplates and fragments of glass stuck to his transformation scenes. Ratchet shakily rubbed some of the spilt energon onto his servo and watched it drip through his digits and melt away into the darkness.
Ratchet clenched his servo into a fist and slammed it onto his lab's workbench. He successfully made synth-en before, so why was it suddenly so hard now?
It had to be Starscream's fault. That Seeker's presence was ruining everything. "If I can figure this out, I can be stronger, faster, better —"
He was going to prove to them that he wasn't weak, oh no, he wasn't weak at all.
But the ache had already begun to settle back into him, that tired achiness that had infused his struts down to his core for millennia and that the synth-en had only just now gotten rid of.
Ratchet grumbled to himself as he started up another batch of synth-en. He wasn't weak, he was strong, he could go toe-to-toe with Megatron, with Optimus, and even with Starscream.
Starscream was the problem. He had to be the problem. It was the only explanation Ratchet could even think up, the only explanation he could even bring himself to accept.
The Seeker was the problem because the Seeker saw him as weak and underestimated him—
And he was not something to be underestimated.
It wasn't his fault that he kept shaking and ruining his own lab work. No, it was Starscream's fault, it was his equipment's fault, it was the universe's fault. If he just had some more regular energon then he could drip the synth-en into it and invigorate it. Yes, that was what he had to do for now. He took the last cube of synth-en he had left and chugged it.
Ratchet sprang up from his desk and let the green glow of the synth-en behind him light his way as he marched into the hall. That familiar determination he loved so much settled back into him and that terrible ache began to dissipate again. The days of intentionally stifling his own energon supply so that everybody else could be fed were now over.
Optimus's door drew ahead and Ratchet paused outside of it.
"You brought him here so that he could find energon for us, is that so?" Ratchet harshly whispered to the door. Optimus couldn't hear him, no, but this still felt like something that needed to be said. "Well, you know what?! You're going to wake up and you're going to find a whole bunch of new energon for us—and not one little bit of it will have come from Starscream. Ohoho no, it will have all come from me!"
Ratchet stomped into the cold and dark mainroom and turned on the computer with a flash of light and determination. The coordinates for a mine that the Autobots needed to raid flashed onto the screen and burnt themselves into his optics.
There.
He didn't need backup, he didn't need anybody but himself, right? Ratchet shakily typed into the coordinates and watched as a brilliant green groundbridge illuminated the darkness of the main room.
He cracked his knuckles and tightened his armor. All he had to do was stride through that bridge and do what nobody else ever could.
Ratchet suddenly turned around and glanced over his shoulder and stared into the dark shadows of the corridors. He didn't know who it was he feared to see behind him—Starscream, Megatron, Optimus—
"Slag it!" Ratchet swore as he slammed his fists down onto his workbench. He was strong and invigorated now and he no longer had any need to fear any of those mechs. The only thing he had left to fear was—
He shook his helm and stared into the bright green depths of the groundbridge as he walked up to its edge. The sheer energy of the bridge sparked and flared all around him. Is this what Optimus and the rest of the team felt right whenever they were about to depart on a mission as they stood upon this precipice? Sheer excitement, sheer glory?
If so, then why wasn't he feeling either of those things?
"The time of doubt is over. "
Ratchet ran through the bridge.
"I am the siren of the night," Ratchet softly whispered to himself. He sat in his alt-mode atop a tall hill and looked down through thick clusters of pine trees down into the valley below. The purple and red glow of Decepticon drones and machinery glinted beneath him, blissfully unaware of the powerful and invigorated mech right above their own helms.
If he closed his optics and ignored the unfamiliar stars above and the more unfamiliar organic lifeforms around him then he could almost pretend that he was looking out over Cybertron instead.
Almost.
"I'm goin' to, I'm going to take you down! " Ratchet laughed as he transformed and shakily pointed right at the mine. His voice echoed into the cold air and down into the valley below. There was no response except for the wind.
Victory was near. All he had to do was transform, rev his engines, and just go. Those miners would never stand a chance against him, ever.
He flared his plating, flexed his talons, sent power to his t-cog—
And then froze.
The synth-en should've kicked in by now. The synth-en, the power, the determination—
No, he was supposed to feel energized.
Ratchet shivered.
But all he felt was cold.
The air was warm, though, and the sheer waves of heat from the flurry of mining activity below only made everything worse. Ratchet grumbled and flared up his plating again. All he had to do was go down there and take his revenge and claim his glory
The power was there. He just needed to wield it properly. But how?
"But for who?" he said softly to himself.
Who would be around to witness him? He needed to show his strength to the world, he needed his enemies to see that he was not some rusty old tool left behind on the wayside.
"I'm not the tool," he whispered. "I'm the weapon. "
He needed an audience.
He wasn't doing this for himself—or was he?—he was doing this to win his rightful respect.
No, it wasn't the fear of the drones below that made him turn around. He took one last look at the glimmering mine below, took a deep and shuddery vent, and turned around and stomped back to the groundbridge. His frame shook harder and harder with each step away from his revenge, but he would just have to be patient for now. Patient.
He needed someone to witness his moment of glory and the drones down below wouldn't make for a good audience. He was going to kill them, after all.
"I need them to respect me, all of them, but especially…" Ratchet's optics widened and his breath left his vents in a wheeze. "Especially him. "
Starscream laid awake on his berth. The air buzzed around him and even the comforting presence of his hidden energon supply wasn't enough to calm his panicked spark. But then again, when was he ever calm?
Shaky pedesteps pounded behind his door. Starscream turned around and squinted at it as a bright green glow shone from under the door crack.
"Oh, not again—"
The door slammed open with a clang and there stood Ratchet. "Hooah, " he whispered.
Starscream groaned and buried his faceplate into his berth. "I have no patience for your mid-life crisis!"
"Mid-life what-now? Pah, I don't have patience for your sass! You're coming with me!"
Starscream scoffed and stared at the wall. "Oh, and where are you going to take me, oh mighty Autobot?"
"On a mission unlike anything you've ever seen before. You're going to see this in action!" Ratchet smirked as he rapidly gestured towards his frame.
Starscream just stared at him. "A run-down cog? I've seen plenty of mechs like you in action before and I can assure you that it's not pretty!"
Ratchet's optics twitched. " No. You j-just don't understand, do you? Soon you'll learn to respect me the same way you respect Optimus. I know that you haven't given us all of the locations to the mines yet."
Starscream stiffened.
"Ooooh, don't play dumb with me!" Ratchet laughed as he swayed on his pedes. "You're intentionally only giving us a few at a time b-because you're scared that if you give them to us all at once we'll no longer have a use for you and dispose of you!"
Starscream continued to stare at the wall and he tightened his plating. "Maybe," he said flatly as his annoyance ebbed away and was replaced with fear. "Maybe not. How do you know that?"
"You didn't t-tell us about the mine that I'm about to take you to." Ratchet stared into space as his field vibrated with unshed energy. "You're my audience and I-I'm going to make you see just how strong I am and then when I do, I will never be disrespected ever again, never forgotten again, never laid to the side again, never—"
Starscream rolled over and stared at Ratchet with wide optics as he mumbled on and on.
"—and never seen as second-best again! So come on!"
He thought about it for a moment. He'd already had a nasty encounter with Megatron and was not in the mood for another.
"If you want to go and get yourself killed, be my guest."
Starscream rolled back over and sighed. Sooner or later the insane medic would get bored and move on.
Something silver flashed beside his throat cabling. Starscream looked to the side and his spark sank at the sight of Ratchet's silver saw extended right beside him.
"Are you willing to come with me now? " Ratchet grit out.
Starscream, now fully awake, slowly sat up and glared at the shaky medic. "Perhaps."
"Then let's roll out! Or, well, in your case, you'll just have to walk out." Ratchet thumped his fist into his other servo. "Hooah!"
"Stop saying that, please, and hey—! " Starscream yelped as Ratchet grabbed onto his talon and ran down the hall with him in tow. The base's doors sped by them one by one as Ratchet ran like the wind.
Optimus's door was up ahead now, it would be so easy to reach out with his talon and give it one knock and stop this nonsense—
His talon froze in the air and Starscream watched Optimus's door retreat behind them as he was dragged off.
The bright green groundbridge came into view and Ratchet suddenly paused as he ran up to its threshold.
"What now?" Starscream sighed.
The bright green glow of the bridge cast everything in a harsh green light. Ratchet turned to face him and Starscream watched as his optics shone green and years of exhaustion lifted from Ratchet's faceplate.
"Everything," Ratchet breathed. He ran through the bridge, one servo tightened into a fist and the other clasped around Starscream's talon as he dragged him through.
Starscream resisted the urge to stare.
The both of them stood on a high hill that overlooked a mining operation in a valley down below. The bright lights of drills and miners glinted in the night, but so did the lights of a nearby human settlement. The distant whir of a highway echoed through the cold night air, but Ratchet didn't seem to notice. His breath frosted in the air and he hungrily looked down at the mine with raw anticipation in his field.
It was hard not to stare at Ratchet. The way he looked down with greed, the way his plating twitched and shivered—
"Are you ready?" Ratchet said suddenly.
Starscream offlined his optics and let out a deep vent as a blast of wind blew by. "This is a foolish adventure and you're going to get yourself hurt."
Ratchet glared. "I am already hurt." He transformed and drove down towards the mine at full speed.
Starscream swore and sprinted after him as Ratchet transformed back into his root-mode and jumped down to the mine with a flash as he extended his blades and set to work.
"And there goes our only medic," Starscream sighed to himself. He stood back and listened to the sounds of blasterfire and grunts of pain echo through the air. He should do something, should find some way to contact Optimus—
Ratchet let out a grunt of pain.
—but Starscream found it hard to summon any pity for the medic.
Starscream crested the ridge and looked down into the valley below. Hopefully Ratchet hadn't gotten completely destroyed by the drones, he still needed somebody to repair his wing after all.
He blinked. Then he rubbed his optics and looked down at the mine yet again.
Ratchet's blade flickered and flashed as it sliced through the drones with one casual flick after the other. His optics glowed a vivid and feral shade of acidic green as drone after drone fell down before him and was crumpled underneath his pedes. Ratchet let out a single whir of his siren—
Before he then shoved his sword through a drone's chestaplate.
Starscream watched the slaughter go on with wide optics. The battle grew more and more distant for some reason. He looked down and saw that he had instinctively taken a few steps back.
"Ohh, this can't be happening," he groaned to himself. He should be glad, right? Glad that the pesky medic could hold his own.
But the sense of dread within him just grew even more unpleasant. Those grunts of effort, the flash of that sword, the anger in his optics, it was familiar...
Starscream shook his helm. No. This upstart medic was no Megatron.
The anger, though, and the slices of his sword, and—
There were more differences than there were similarities, yet, but there were similarities between the flustered rage of Ratchet and the ignisive wrath of Megatron.
"Like what you see?" Ratchet laughed as someone else's energon dripped down his chestplate.
Starscream blinked and took in a shuddery vent. "Yes," he said as his spark pulsed within his own chestplate.
"I have reaped my harvest and now you will never disrespect me ever again." Ratchet smirked and sauntered over to a nearby blue crystal of energon. He held it aloft above his helm and laughed, laughed and laughed and laughed, a loud yet joyless noise that almost managed to blot out the sounds of the highway.
Starscream anxiously glanced over at the lights of the highway nearby. The road was far, yes, but not far enough. What was Megatron thinking when he put a mine so close nearby?!
And Ratchet just continued to laugh, that awful shrill pained noise and—
Ratchet was silent now. He stared over the fallen bodies of drones and reached down to pick up more and more shards of energon.
A smile spread across his faceplate. "Yes, yes—"
A blue energon shard dropped to the ground and shattered. He shakily reached down and scooped up some of the spilt liquid. Ratchet watched the energon sluice through his digits and felt bits and pieces of its shattered fragments shift around within his transformation seams.
His optic twitched.
Starscream stepped up to him. "...Are you okay? Please don't begin boasting again."
Ratchet twitched again. "Where is it?"
"...The what?"
"The respect!" Ratchet spat. "The gratitude, t-the appreciation, the…"
Starscream stepped up to the deject medic and crossed his arms. "Oh, you thought you'd get instant glory for doing this, huh? You thought you'd get that sweet validation you'd wanted so badly?!"
"I— yes! Why wouldn't I expect that?!"
Starscream flared his wing and pointed at all of the fallen frames. "You can't just expect instant gratification, that's not… that's not how life works! I wish that's the way it worked, but, well." He looked back up at Ratchet. All of the rage was gone and now replaced with confusion as a thousand conflicted emotions rippled through Ratchet's field.
Starscream sighed. "It's tempting," he said softly. "Tempting to just go in and kill all your enemies because you think it will make people give you the praise that you think you rightfully deserve."
"Is that why you killed Cliffjumper?"
Both mechs went still and just stared at each other. The only sound came from the far-off whir of the highway and the distant crackle of their groundbridge.
Starscream flattened his armor and began to march back up the hill. Ratchet's confused and conflicted field fizzled around him and he transformed and drove up to Starscream in a spray of dust.
"Okay, perhaps I could have phrased that better—"
"Move." Starscream shoved Ratchet off to the side.
"—but you know I'm not wrong!"
The trees rustled off to the side but the sound Starscream heard the most clearly was the pulse of his own energon in his lines.
Ratchet ran to keep up with his long strides. All Starscream had to do was make it through the bridge, go back to base, crawl into his room, and scream into his berth for five hours. Let Ratchet deal with his carnage, his hard-won energon, and with the slagging consequences of his own actions.
The trees rustled again and this time Starscream could not ignore it.
"I am not like you, if that's what you thought I was implying. We are nothing alike!" Ratchet scoffed.
The trees rustled again and voices echoed through the air. "Did you hear that?" an unfamiliar voice said.
"It was like this… weird laughter?"
"Jesus, that was loud, it must by a coyote—"
The light of a flashlight swept through the trees. Starscream's spark froze in his chestplates.
" — I am the siren of the night!" Ratchet said.
"Your little slaughter summoned humans right to us!" Starscream shrieked. "Curse you and your idiocy and curse Megatron for putting his stupid mine right beside a stupid human road!"
"I think I hear arguing?"
Ratchet's optics widened. Finally, it was time for the old cog to see reason and get out of there.
"Let them come."
"What? Am I having an aneurysm? That's the human term, right? The term used by the creatures that are about to discover us?! "
"Do you fear them?!" Ratchet said as he swept his arms outward. The beam of a flashlight shone against his back. "Do you fear this? Optimus s-says I don't care for them. But I'm strong, they'll all see that, everybody, even the fleshies!"
The humans broke through the treeline and gaped up at the sight of the two bots. Ratchet stared off at the dead drones around him as his frame began to twitch and he paid no mind to the gaggle of confused humans at their pedes.
"You see nothing, you got that?" Starscream hissed down at them.
"Hoooahh..." Ratchet moaned.
The urge to smack Ratchet rose up within him suddenly, but Starscream stilled. That last "hooah" sounded different from all the others and Starscream cautiously turned around to look back at him.
Ratchet stared right at the frozen humans. "You know, we should all be on Cybertron protecting Cybertron, y'know that, right? But instead we're all here protecting your little world and your little fleshie selves. Do you like that, humans? " Ratchet shook out as he pointed at the humans. They began to scream.
Starscream dragged his talons down his faceplate and internally screamed. It was too much, too much noise, too much emotion, too much spilt blood—
Optimus would want none of this.
Starscream stepped in front of the humans and spread his wing out over the infernal creatures as they screamed louder. "Ratchet, you need to back off! I'm sick of you and I'm sick of this situation you put us in, okay?!"
"What are you doing? Why are you standing over the humans like that?" Ratchet laughed as he spread his arms out. "We have no foes here, I've seen to that! Why are you protecting them?"
Starscream took a deep vent and looked down at the frightened humans underneath his wing.
"To...protect them from you."
"I am not going to hurt them! What, so you'll defend a bunch of organics, but not your own fellow Cybertronians?"
"That's different!"
"How?! What, you seriously think that I'd hurt humans?" Ratchet said. His voice started out strong but ended strained as he sharply inhaled and took a shaky step back. "That's what Megatron would do and I am no Megatron!"
"You said you wanted to be like him just a short while earlier!"
"That… that was different!" Ratchet groaned as his optics flickered and as he held his helm in his servos. "I just, I just want to be powerful like him! I want to be respected, feared… just not…"
The wind whistled past their frames and for just a moment there was silence.
"Just not second-best anymore?"
Ratchet stared at him and took a shaky nod. "E-exactly."
Starscream groaned. "Off you go, shoo," he said as he swatted at the shrieking humans. "Go back to wherever it is you all live. Go back to your burrow or nest or something!"
The humans ran off into the woods in a flurry of activity and Starscream had to shake his wing at them in order to get the last of them to scatter off.
"Good grief," he muttered.
Ratchet just stared at him with shock in his field. "You just showed more kindness to those fleshies than you showed to other Cybertronians in thousands of years," he said softly.
Starscream watched the humans run off. "Perhaps, but I just didn't want Optimus to get all up in my business if he found out I stood by and let you unload your mid-life crisis on a bunch of frightened fleshies!"
"You gave them freedom, y-yet gave so many Autobots no freedom at all. "
Starscream knew exactly what to say to grind Ratchet's gears even more.
"Well, freedom is the right of all sentient beings!"
"Do not dare to use Optimus's words against me! What, so you mock Optimus's 'Autobot catchphrases' but then shout them at me when it's suddenly convenient for you?"
"I mock them because I know that they're true and I hate that!"
"What?! 'Freedom is the right of all sentient beings'? You hate that?" Ratchet let all of the energon shards in his arms drop to the ground and shatter in a sharp blue flash.
"Because— because—" Starscream stuttered as the wind blew harder. "Because it's not true! Not every single slagging sentient thing deserves freedom!"
"Ohoho!" Ratchet laughed as he spun around in the cold night air. "And you think you can be the judge of that, huh? Tell me, who deserves freedom and who 'slagging' doesn't ?"
Starscream stayed silent and just stared at Ratchet with wide optics.
"Huh?!" Ratchet shrugged. "Who? Who?! Soundwave?"
Starscream grit his dentae.
"Knock Out? Breakdown?"
Starscream took a step back and anxiously rubbed his helm with his talon.
"Megatron?" Ratchet shouted.
Starscream felt a growl rise up within him.
Ratchet just stared at him. "Who doesn't deserve freedom in your view? Who? Starscream…"
Starscream held his talon to his intake and just stared off into space. He should've just let Ratchet saw his neck open and be done with it. He should've done anything he could to prevent himself from getting into this situation.
"Are you referring to yourself?" Ratchet said so softly. Starscream finally turned and looked at him. That was the softest he'd ever heard the medic speak to him since this whole debacle began.
"Uh…"
A honk boomed through the night. They both turned and saw a pair of headlights shine brightly in the night as they drove towards them. The ground shook as Optimus drove up to them and suddenly transformed.
He towered over the both of them and glanced back and forth between Starscream and Ratchet.
"His fault!" Starscream shrieked.
"Wha—hey!" Ratchet scoffed.
Optimus shook his helm. "I understood that the synth-en was making you reckless. But I did not expect this kind of behavior from you, old friend." Optimus turned to face Starscream. "He dragged you along, did he not?"
Starscream grimaced and nodded.
Optimus sternly stared at Ratchet before he then turned around and walked back in the direction of the bridge. Starscream and Ratchet obeyed his silent command to follow and shuffled off behind the Prime while still under his shadow.
"I can never escape your shadow, can I?" Ratchet whispered.
"What was that?" Optimus asked.
"Nothing, nothing."
Starscream stared at Ratchet as they stepped back through the light of the bridge.
Starscream dragged his talons down his faceplate and groaned as he walked back to his room. He knew his supply was fine, but that faint paranoid voice in the back of his helm that accompanied him for thousands of years whispered to him that something was wrong, something was wrong.
The faint sounds of angry voices echoed through the empty halls. He couldn't discern the individual words, but Optimus's distinct yet disappointed voice and Ratchet's frazzled one were unmistakable.
There was a shout, then a door slam, and then—
Somebody moved at the other end of the corridor and the frazzled edges of a scattered EM field brushed against his for just a single moment.
But it was still long enough. He knew anxiety when he felt it. Starscream whirled around and watched Optimus walk down the hall and towards a very familiar and very dreaded door.
He should just go back to his room and slam the door shut and clutch his energon close and pretend that everything was fine and that the synth-en didn't exist.
But that voice in his helm continued to say something is wrong, something is wrong.
And he was going to find out what.
Starscream walked down the hall after Optimus and peered into the lab. The bright green glow of the synth-en cast Optimus's frame into deep shadow. His normally calm field thrashed around him with indecision, an emotion Starscream had no idea Optimus could even feel.
The inner nastier side of himself whispered to him to just leave the Prime and his odd habits behind.
Starscream stepped forward anyway. "Oh, so when you lurk around in the dark no one throws a fuss, but when I lurk I'm being 'creepy' and 'mopey.'"
Optimus turned around and looked at Starscream with wide optics. "I did not expect to see you here."
Starscream snorted. "I could say the same for you! Didn't you tell me to stay away from here?"
Optimus offline his optics, yet could still see the bright green glow of the synth-en shine through his opticlids. "I did say that," he said very softly. "And here I am, on the verge of breaking my promise to leave his synth-en alone."
Starscream stepped into the room and stared at the synth-en alongside him. "You don't break promises, you're Optimus Prime. I'm the promise-breaker here."
"I promised Ratchet we would always stay together, yet it seems I have broken it. We still live together, yes, but… it seems a rift has widened between us without my knowing."
Starscream sighed. "He's high. "
"But he is also right about some things. I did feel guilty about failing to rescue Megatron. I wanted to alleviate that guilt and yet also help my team, and I felt that convincing you to join us was the best way to do so. He speaks the truth."
Starscream scowled as his spark sank. "What, so you rescued me out of… spite?" That word felt wrong to use, but it was the only word he could think of at that moment.
"No," Optimus said as he leaned down and looked at him. "Not in spite. Never out of spite. I rescued you because I felt not spite, no, but concern."
"And… guilt?"
Optimus took a deep vent. "And that."
"Is that a bad thing, though? To rescue someone out of guilt?" Starscream said. This entire situation felt completely and utterly wrong and made his tanks churn. He was supposed to be the sad bot in need of comforting, not the comforter.
But maybe it didn't hurt to switch things around now and then.
"I cannot help wonder about how… genuine I am."
"Okay, you're losing me here. What does being genuine have to do with sadly staring at creepy green liquid in the middle of the night?"
"Did I rescue you because it was the right thing to do, or because it was what the Matrix told me to do?"
"The Matrix spoke to you about me?" Starscream whispered as he stared at Optimus's chestplates.
"I do not always know which thoughts are mine and which thoughts are its own. But what I do know is that back when I became Prime and Megatron had just started warlording, back when I still thought he could be redeemed, my idealistic thoughts were entirely the product of my own desperate desires. The Matrix told me that Megatronus was lost. I thought otherwise. Cybertron paid the price for it."
"...I… listen, creepy Primal artifacts are not exactly my area of expertise, but… I think we all have that voice in our lives that tells us to follow reason and that we always end up ignoring!"
Optimus sighed. "Perhaps."
" You're my voice of reason, do you know that? And you told me that the right thing to do is not always the easiest thing to do, and right now the easiest thing to do would be to shatter that stupid synth-en—"
"—but it would be wrong," Optimus finished.
"Yes, see, I'm not completely terrible at comforting bots! See, all the synth-en did was create a new and nasty side of Ratchet."
Optimus's field went cold around him and Starscream stepped back. A chill went down his struts and somehow he knew that was the wrong thing to say.
"The synth-en did not create a new and terrible side of Ratchet," Optimus said as he stared at the synth-en. "It merely revealed it. Everybody thinks that that fateful day back in the Senate was the moment Megatronus became evil when in reality it was the moment he revealed his evil. His true nature was hidden all along—except it was not. It was in plain sight. I did not see it because I did not wish to see it. But Ratchet saw it. And now I wonder if Ratchet's distress and feelings of inferiority have been obvious all along and I did not see it because it was not what I wished to see."
Starscream stared at the synth-en and swallowed the emotion that threatened to rise up his throat. "You see his distress now, and that's better late than never. Megatron was— is— the same, you know. He thought you'd join his side and stop being Prime. He still thinks that you might do that, I think. But he doesn't see that because he doesn't wish to. Ratchet thinks I'm his replacement when in reality I'm your replacement. Megatron and Ratchet's optics are still shut. Now yours are wide open! And hey, I don't blame you for ignoring the old cog—I would have tuned him out too! Even if ignoring his warnings was the wrong decision and a mistake, you're obviously doing everything you can to correct that mistake. Sooo..." Starscream shrugged.
"Hmmm. I suppose you are right."
Starscream scoffed and puffed up his plating. "You 'suppose'? Of course I am right! When am I ever wrong?"
Optimus just stared at him.
"Uh," Starscream groaned. "Don't answer that question. Stop moping and go back to your berth."
"Perhaps I will do just that. Thank you, Starscream. If only you could listen to your own lessons," Optimus smiled.
"Wait, what?"
"Joining Megatron in the first place was the wrong decision and a mistake, but you are obviously doing everything you can to correct that mistake. But you do not see that because you do not wish to see that. You continually believe you are hopeless and a lost cause, yet your words this night have clearly proven otherwise."
Starscream just stared at him in return. "...Go to sleep."
Optimus smiled and walked out of the lab, but Starscream lingered behind a moment longer.
He stared at the synth-en until all he could see was green.
"Now, here is how to insult somebody in Vosian!" Starscream said as he leaned down over Raf.
"Uh, does he really need to know that?" Bumblebee blooped.
Starscream instinctively stepped back from Bumblebee. "Yes!"
Bumblebee warbled sadly. "Still distancing yourself from us?"
Starscream rolled his optics. "I've said it a million times before, yes. Now here's my favorite insult to use on Megatron—"
The computer near the groundbridge beeped loudly and Arcee squinted up at it. "Looks like the 'Cons hit another vein."
Optimus beckoned him over. "Starscream, are you aware of the layout of this mine?"
He moved away from Raf and squinted up at the unfamiliar signal. All of these tunnels were completely alien to him. Megatron must have begun to build new mines. A cold feeling settled in his tanks. He was outliving his usefulness and now Megatron had begun to move on.
"I… do not."
Optimus nodded. "Autobots, roll out!"
Bulkhead ran up to them. "Hey hey, shouldn't we wait for our secret weapon?"
Starscream blinked up at them. "Oh, I'm honored, but—"
"Trying to take my place again, hmm?!" Ratchet scoffed as he strode into the room.
Optimus frowned. "This mission is unlikely to require medical expertise."
"But you never know if it may require additional firepower! Bumblebee can handle groundbridge duty."
"I can?"
"Oh yes! It's time to put some hurt on those Decepticons!"
Optimus looked back and forth between Starscream and Ratchet. "Perhaps it would be best for the team if both Starscream and Ratchet accompanied us."
Starscream's spark pulsed. "Uh, can I just stay here and teach the children vulgar things?"
Optimus shook his helm. "I am afraid not."
Arcee walked up to Optimus and beckoned him down. "Are you sure we should really let Ratchet go with us? Especially with Starscream also tagging along?" Arcee whispered harshly.
Ratchet struck a pose and punched the air. "Hooah!"
Optimus frowned. "I fear that if we leave him here he will create and consume more synth-en. Bumblebee will not be able to supervise him due to being on bridge duty and neither will he be able to supervise Starscream. I fear that Starscream will flee back into his room and seclude himself away again as his anxieties consume him. No, it would be best to have them both with us. They need to make their peace."
Arcee grimaced, but then nodded.
"You have nothing to fear, Arcee," Ratchet smirked. "You've got this ambulance protecting you and ready to save your little wheels again at a moment's notice."
Arcee groaned and Starscream shuddered.
"Signal's weak. They may have hit a vein, but they won't find much of an energon pulse—not here."
Everybody crouched behind some boulders and looked down at the Decepticon mining operation down below.
Starscream rolled his optics. "My mines were better!"
"I take some comfort in the fact that Megatron seems as desperate to find the stuff as we are," Arcee said.
Ratchet looked over his shoulder and at all of them. "Do you two always talk this much during these missions? Stay here, Starscream, and let us get to work." Ratchet cracked his knuckles before he transformed and drove down the hillside. " Hooah!"
The drones looked up in fright at the angry ambulance. "Autobots!"
Starscream lingered behind and sat by the rocks as all of the Autobots charged forward and unleashed mayhem down below.
"Oh, look at me," he moaned to himself as he kicked the rocks. "I'm being sparklingsat! I should be down there fighting, not moping up here on the rocks. Moping—when have I ever moped? I am mope-free!"
Starscream sat back and hummed as he watched Ratchet violently slam into drone after drone. He had to admit that it satisfied him to see other bots suffer as a result of Ratchet's madness. A rogue miner drone made a run for it and caught Ratchet's optic. He wasn't sure why, but Starscream's spark chilled as Ratchet slowly picked up a rock and took aim.
He rapidly glanced between Ratchet and the rest of the Autobots. No, the rest of the team was too low, there was no way they'd be able to witness what was about to happen.
Ratchet angrily stalked across the ground. That drone had no idea what was coming.
Starscream rose to his pedes and swerved past the battle and began to climb up the mountainside. Some compulsion deep within him told him to keep an eye on things, the same compulsion that kept him alive and helped him avoid Megatron's wrath all these years.
A distinct clang echoed into the air and Starscream winced as Ratchet's boulder presumably made contact.
"Why the big rush?!" Ratchet's voice echoed through the hot air.
Pebbles slipped out from underneath Starscream's pedes, but he grit his dentae and continued to climb up.
"Just trying to get as far as I can from the Autobot stink!"
"Does your boss know you have a potty mouth? Maybe I should pay him a visit and tell him?"
Starscream halfway up the hillside. No, there was no way Megatron could be here at this puny mine. He couldn't afford to have another run-in with the warlord. He still remembered the way the wind whistled past his dangling frame as Megatron held him high over the sheer mountainside and—
"Get melted, wheel grinder!"
"Melted? Now there's a concept! I won't ask you a second time. Where. Is. Megatron?"
Starscream yelped as a rock slid out from under him and nearly made him fall again. The wind whistled past his frame and—
"Why would I not hurt the city, hmm?" Megatron's voice echoed in his helm.
"—and why should I not hurt you, hmm?" Ratchet shouted down at the drone.
Starscream looked down at the dizzying drop below.
Optimus fired off another volley of bolts and looked up just in time to make optic contact with Starscream up on the cliffside. He had only a fraction of a second for his optics to widen before he was drawn back into the battle.
Then the screaming began.
The sound of melting metal bubbled through the air and made Starscream cringe. He'd taken fire from the forge and melted down enemy Autobots before, yes, but that was his past eviller self who had done that—this was Ratchet doing the torturing now.
The drone sobbed. "H-he's down in the tunnels, scouting them, the energon supply, just go down there and—"
"Stop holding out on me and just give me what I want!"
Starscream hoisted himself over the top of the cliff and took a deep vent at the sight of Ratchet knelt over a wounded miner.
"No, no, no! That's all I know, really! Wait… Commander Starscream?" The drone twisted his burnt and melted helm as wonder filled his field.
"Ah, not quite," Starscream said as he stepped back. He made a mistake, he shouldn't have gotten involved—
Ratchet glanced back and forth between the both of them. "Ohhh, you're just good ol' BFFs, aren't you?"
"Good ol' what? " Starscream blinked.
"I bet you're brothers! Decepticon pals! Well, I won't let you two have your little reunion! "
Ratchet swiftly transformed his melter into a blade that gleamed in the light. He raised it high above his helm—
The drone shouted. "Commander!"
—and Starscream lunged forward and caught Ratchet's blade just before it descended upon the drone's neck.
Ratchet's field bloomed like a bruise and raw betrayal burnt through it. "You… you dare choose him over me? You, the supposed Decepticon-defector, still feel pity for your soldiers?"
"This isn't what Optimus would want!"
"Commander…" the drone began to sit up. "Please, make Megatron see reason!"
"Shut up!" Starscream snapped. "Do I look like your Commander to you?!"
"Yes! You managed to command the Autobot, so s-surely you can command Lord Megatron to stop his mad operation?!"
Starscream and Ratchet squinted at the drone and spoke in unison. "What are you talking about?"
The drone rapidly glanced in both directions as his field flowed with unease. "He… he's got this new big operation..."
The sound of heavy pedesteps pounded through the air as Optimus, Arcee, and Bulkhead ran up to them. Optimus's field flared with surprise as he beheld the sight of Ratchet's outstretched blade.
"Ratchet, what did you nearly do?"
"I got results, and I'm going to get more!"
The drone jumped to his pedes, but then Ratchet slammed his own pede down onto his back and leaned in close. "What big operation? What?"
"M-megatron, and the humans—"
Optimus tore Ratchet off of the drone. The miner jumped to his pedes and made his escape.
"You are breaking protocol! That was a Decepticon miner! Servant class! Not warrior class."
Starscream watched the miner run as fast as he could. The drone turned around and took one last look at Starscream. His field bloomed with desperation, and then he vanished around a corner.
Ratchet grumbled. "Oh, let me guess, I'm just the medic!"
"Autobots do not inflict harm unless all other options have been exhausted. It is what separates us from the Decepticons. Starscream… you did well. Were you truly still a Decepticon, you would have let Ratchet strike."
Starscream continued to blankly stare at the spot where the drone had vanished.
"Pfft, is this really the time for another lecture, Optimus?" Ratchet shouted. "You didn't just happen to discover Megatron's current location, did you? Well, I did! And do you happen to know where there is a stockpile of raw energon ripe for the taking? Well, I do!"
Bulkhead held his servos out. "Come on, Ratchet, calm it down! Look, you already went and traumatized Starscream! Look at him, he's got the jitters!"
Starscream continued to stare at the drone's pedeprints in the dirt.
Commander.
Some of the soldiers thought he would still serve Megatron.
"Calm is the last thing we need!" Ratchet grumbled as he paced in a circle. "Calm is what lost us Cybertron. The 'Cons have a warship, an army, and all this energon scouting! You think Megatron isn't gearing up for something big?! That drone would've told us what he's now up to were it not for your interference, Prime! We're squandering our resources, chasing after his crumbs, when we really need to be hitting him hard and hitting him now! Precisely where it hurts! "
Optimus frowned. "A direct assault on the decepticons would only provoke retaliation and lead to incalculable losses. I will not endanger innocent human lives."
Starscream gulped and finally turned around. "I… think they're already in danger, Optimus."
Optimus's optics widened.
"Yet you seem to have no problem endangering our lives!. Just ask Cliffjumper—"
Oh frag no.
"—oh, I forgot! He couldn't be here today! And that's his fault!"
There was silence for a moment. Four EM fields bloomed with pain.
Then came the anger.
Arcee lunged at both Ratchet and Starscream. "That's it! Just when I barely learn to tolerate his presence, you just have to throw that fact back into our faceplates!" Bulkhead held her back as gently as he could as he stared at Ratchet with raw hurt in his field.
"You know your problem, Optimus?" Ratchet scoffed as he turned to look at Optimus again. "For such a big strong bot, you're soft . You pick up murderous Seekers and stache them away and shield them like they're lost cyberpuppies! You didn't pound Megatron into scrap when you had the chance. Many chances, in fact!"
Optimus stepped forward and loomed over Ratchet. It was subtle, but there was definitely something tight about the way Optimus held his plating close to his frame.
"I am afraid that the synthetic energon has imparied your judgement, old friend. I am confining you to base until further notice." Optimus sighed heavily. "Bumblebee, bridge us back," he said over the comms.
Ratchet huffed. "Fine." He cast a quick glance at the entire team, but his green gaze lingered on Starscream.
Starscream shifted nervously on his pedes as Ratchet stomped off back to the newly-opened bridge. There was something about the way that medic carried himself and something about the way his gaze had lingered that felt… off.
Ratchet's silhouette vanished into the whirling portal and Starscream let out a vent of relief.
"What a drama queen," he muttered.
Optimus's optics widened as he stared at something past Starscream.
Starscream huffed. "Yes, I know that's quite ironic coming from me, but—"
He turned around just in time to see Ratchet run back through the bridge and bodily slam Bulkhead into the ground.
Ratchet ran up to Starscream and leaned in so close that the only thing Starscream could see was his bright green optics.
"Watch me do what you never could!"
Ratchet revved his engine as he transformed and left them all behind in a cloud of dust. Starscream stood there in shock as Ratchet let out one loud honk and then vanished.
Optimus sighed heavily and helped Bulkhead get back to his pedes.
Ratchet hurt Bulkhead.
Well, not badly, he just tossed him, but still—
Ratchet had taken Bulkhead, that green oaf that had latched onto Starscream and that Starscream couldn't really bring himself to mind, and then just tossed him.
"Where are you going?!" Arcee shouted after Starscream as he began to run.
He cursed his lack of his wing, he cursed his inability to transform, but most of all he cursed himself for creating the synth-en in the first place.
"I'm fixing this!" Starscream shouted over his shoulder as he ran around the bend that Ratchet had driven around. "I'm not going to let him make my same mistakes!"
A much louder honk boomed behind him and Starscream skid to a stop in the dirt as Optimus drove in front of him and rapidly transformed. Starscream tried to swerve past the Prime but Optimus was faster.
"I understand that this is difficult for you to watch—"
"Let me go!"
"—but we cannot afford to be reckless about this, Starscream."
The two of them just stood there and stared into each other's optics.
Bulkhead and Arcee stood behind them both and their own fields flickered with nervous anticipation.
Maybe… maybe Prime was right. Maybe he should just shuffle off back to base with the rest of the 'Bots and wait for the medic to reappear on his own time.
Shouts echoed through the air and a hot blaster bold slammed into the dirt between Optimus and Starscream's pedes. Optimus firmly pushed Starscream away from him and let loose his own volley of blasterfire at the approaching drones.
The drones. The drones. Ratchet would just hurt more and more of them until he got what he wanted.
Starscream could turn around and walk back through that bridge to that cold cold base, full of that wretched synth-en he couldn't even destroy—
Or he could maybe save somebody from the synth-en.
Starscream ran past Optimus and dodged underneath the blasterfire as he ran deep into the mine. The shouts of the rest of the Autobots echoed after him as he jumped down into the mine's depths.
He turned around and saw Optimus there with raw fear in his optics. Then a blaster bolt slammed into the dirt nearby and sent up a cloud of dust that obscured everything.
Starscream took a deep vent and ran deeper into the cave. He was going to find that stupid medic whether he liked it or not.
"So, let's say you're an idiotic and angry medic looking for a new target to take your repressed anger out on," Starscream mused to himself as he sprinted through the mine's tunnels. "Where do you go?"
He glanced back and forth between two identical tunnels that branched off. Starscream took a deep vent and rubbed his talons down his faceplate. "Oh, this was a bad idea, wasn't it?" It wasn't the first time he'd thrown himself into a stupid situation and would most certainly not be the last.
Maybe he should just turn around and go back to base. But even Starscream understood that it was too late to turn around the same way he understood that if Ratchet discovered Megatron it would be too late for the medic to turn around as well.
Starscream sprinted faster.
He turned around a corner and nearly tripped over the prone frame of a fallen drone. Starscream stepped back and then looked up and saw another fallen drone. Then another. And another.
The air fizzled with nervous energy and a low and desperate voice echoed through the tunnels.
"I'm strong, I can be strong, just like Optimus, just like Megatron, I am the siren in the night—"
Starscream took a deep vent as he turned around the corner. "Hello, any stupid medics here?"
Ratchet whirled around. His frame was covered in spilt energon—Starscream could tell it wasn't his because it was blue, not green—as he held up the deactivated frame of a drone above his helm.
Starscream blinked. "Um. Could you put that down?"
Ratchet said nothing and continued to stare at Starscream with wide and unseeing green optics.
"Listen, I did not haul my aft down here just for you to space out on me! Move it, you're worrying Optimus sick!"
"I'm strong like them, aren't it?" Ratchet asked so softly.
Starscream rolled his optics. "What are you going on about…?" He trailed off when he saw the look on Ratchet's faceplate. There was still anger there, oh yes, but there was another emotion there on his faceplate that Starscream knew very well.
Desire.
"Ratchet, please put the drone down and come with me," Starscream said as softly as he could as his processor went into overdrive. Ratchet desired something, but what? Revenge, obviously, but something more, something so much more—
"Tell me, Starscream," Ratchet grit out as he continued to hold the drone's frame aloft above his helm. His arms began to shake. "Tell me I'm strong like Optimus or Megatron, or both. Tell me that I deserve to stand by Optimus's side. That I deserve to not just fix his side, but to also be beside him."
"Uh…" Starscream stepped back. So that was what Ratchet desired. Revenge, yes, but—
Validation.
Starscream clenched his talons into fists. He knew that desire very very well.
"Yes, you're sooo strong, just like good old Optimus! Who, might I add, is somewhere behind us and anxiously looking for you. So if you could just…?"
"You're lying, " Ratchet spat out. He threw the drone's frame to the ground and it slammed into the dirt in front of Starscream's pedes. A cloud of dust billowed into the air and the only available source of light was the harsh green glow of Ratchet's optics. "You're lying like you always do!"
"Well, I am not lying when I tell you that this is all a very bad idea!"
"Bad idea? Hah!" Ratchet laughed as he marched down the tunnel. Starscream sighed and ran after the medic. "Sparing Megatron's life time and time again was a bad idea! This is the only good idea anybody's had in centuries!"
Starscream grunted as he grabbed onto Ratchet's arm and tried to pull the angry mech away. They weren't even anywhere near Megatron yet and Starscream could still feel the raw power and anger within Megatron's field fizzle in the air around them. The warlord had been here, yes, and probably still was. A child settled upon Starscream's spark.
"Ratchet, I understand what it's like to be under the synth-en's power, I know what it's like to hear its whispers. Ignore them !" Starscream begged.
"Ignore them?" Ratchet spun around and shakily pointed at Starscream as his green optics began to twitch. "You dare ask me to ignore the new voice of reason within my helm? I am not just wielding the synth-en, I am the synth-en! And I am not something to be ignored. It's time you learned that!" Ratchet shouted as he swung out with his arm and struck Starscream. Starscream fell back into the dirt and looked up at Ratchet with wide optics.
Ratchet twitched and stared at his own servo as he froze. "I… I did not mean to hit you that hard…are you okay?"
"Oh, you didn't mean to hit me? Still doesn't change the fact that you just did!" Starscream hissed. He should turn around, just get up and leave this wretch behind with the warlord and save himself while he still could—
"I've underestimated my own strength," Ratchet said as he stared down at his shaking servo. "I'm stronger now. I am my own master now."
Starscream froze too.
I am my own master.
I am my own master.
I am—
Starscream's optic twitched.
—my own master.
"You're becoming like me, Ratchet!" Starscream shouted as he stumbled to his pedes again and ran off after him.
A new voice echoed through the cave. Ratchet's optics widened and his field vibrated with energy as he followed the echo of Breakdown's voice.
"Yeah, she's kinda domineering, and the extra arms are weird, but I find myself intrigued by her."
First of all, no, why? And second of all, no, why?!
Ratchet let out a sharp whistle.
Breakdown came into view and smiled at the sight of Ratchet. "I was wondering when you might show!"
Starscream panted as he ran to catch up. "Primus, you're fast for a grounder, and—"
He locked optics with Breakdown.
"Oh, no, you did not see me here!" Starscream whimpered as he grabbed onto Ratchet's arm and tried to drag him away.
"'Scream, it's… been a while," Breakdown said. His usual confidence and bravado was gone now and replaced with a hint of uncertainty.
"Now watch closely, Starscream, and let me show you how to properly dispose of an enemy. Primus knows you need lessons!" Ratchet flexed his plating and beckoned Breakdown forth with a come-hither servo flick.
Breakdown grimaced. "Uh, what the frag?"
Ratchet shook his helm and grumbled. "Just never mind that and come fight me! "
The rest of the drones milled around them and watched on in interest as the nervous energy in the three mech's fields reached a new high.
Starscream dragged his talons down his faceplate and pretended this wasn't happening. Everything was spinning out of control and whenever that happened he had no choice but to go to the one person in the situation who did have control.
Which meant he would have to beg.
Starscream ran before Breakdown and dropped to his knees and Primus, he did that with far too much ease and familiarity—and looked up into Breakdown's single confused optic.
"He's high, Breakdown! Not on engex, but… worse. Don't fight him. Let us leave! Let us pretend this never happened!"
Breakdown blinked down at him. "Starscream…" he transformed one of his servos into a hammer. "You know I can't not fight you."
"But why?!"
"Oh, trying to steal my victory from me now? First you steal Optimus's spark, then you steal my place at his side, and now you're trying to steal my moment of glory!"
Starscream's wing fluttered. "You really think that I stole your place?"
The overconfidence in Ratchet's field faltered for a moment and he frowned for a split-second. But then the moment of weakness passed and Ratchet scoffed. "Doesn't matter! I'll just take my place back, how about that?"
Starscream shook his helm. "Ratchet…"
Breakdown walked right past his prostrated frame and right towards Ratchet with his hammer extended.
"No, frag, stop, why are you even doing this, Breakdown?!" Starscream shrieked.
He stopped in his march for a moment and watched Ratchet strike action poses at the other end of the tunnel.
Breakdown did not turn to look back at Starscream. "I have to do this," he said softly.
"But why?"
"Because—because slag it, Starscream, that's how war works!"
"You were an Autobot once, so why not be one again?"
Breakdown whirled around and loomed over the Seeker. "We discussed this. "
"Not enough! Not nearly enough!"
"'Scream, I…" Starscream watched as Breakdown anxiously rubbed at his neck cabling. "It's just the way of things, Star."
He turned around and began to march right back towards Ratchet.
Starscream groaned and mentally prepared himself for the inevitable pummeling Ratchet would receive—
Only to recoil in shock as Breakdown's frame was flung backwards with one mighty punch.
The ex-Wrecker slammed into the dirt beside Starscream's awestruck frame. His single yellow optic looked at Ratchet in fear as he blearily rose back to his pedes with a grunt before he turned and began to hobble down the tunnel.
Starscream watched him shuffle off before he then turned around and glared at the medic. "Ratchet, why?"
Ratchet looked up and his green optics glinted coldly in the dimly lit tunnel. "Because it is the way of things."
Starscream flinched.
"Oh, no no no," a new voice said. Starscream looked up just in time to see Knock Out. He watched Breakdown hobble past him with wide optics.
"Get to Megatron," Breakdown harshly whispered as he limped off to the warlord.
Knock Out glanced back and forth between Starscream, Ratchet, and Breakdown's scratched finish before he transformed and drove off down the tunnel. Ratchet gave a whoop and ran after him.
Distant yet familiar voices began to echo down the tunnels.
"You were supposed to have located a fresh energon source by now!" Megatron shouted. That angry voice sent cold shivers down Starscream's struts and brought back even colder memories. That rage, that indignation laced into every syllable—
"Apologies, Lord Megatron," Knock Out's voice said, still just as smooth as Starscream remembered it as being, but with a new hint of fear hidden behind the words. "We got a little distracted by the new Autobot who attacked us."
"Really? And what new Autobot would that be?"
Starscream held his helm in his servos as Ratchet bolted past him.
Breakdown stood in the tunnel before he then crumpled into a heap. Ratchet stepped into view and flexed his plating. "Hooah!"
Knock Out pointed his servo at Ratchet. "Well, uh…"
" That is your fearsome new adversary?" Megatron mused. "Hahahah! He's Optimus Prime's medic!"
"Oh, you idiot!" Starscream grumbled. He turned around the corner and—
"You," Megatron breathed. Hearing the warlord was one thing, but seeing that massive angry frame and all its sharp and painful and oh so familiar corners was a different thing altogether.
Starscream locked up. Ratchet looked over his shoulder and frowned at the sight of Starscream's frozen frame.
Knock Out rapidly looked back and forth between Megatron and the Seeker. "Now now, let's not do anything rash here, you've been taking too much dark energon lately, you need to rest my Lord—"
"So the time has come for the prodigal son to return!" Megatron shouted as he pushed Knock Out off to the side and began to approach Starscream. "I remember the last time I saw you. The raw fear on your faceplate as I dangled you above that cliff. But now you dangle over an even deadlier and greater danger." He reached his talon out for Starscream to take. "Oh, Starscream."
Starscream began to rapidly step back. "Oh, no no no! I'm sick and tired of you, you know that?"
Megatron just laughed. "You will never be tired of me. That is why you are here, right? For me?"
Starscream fluttered his wing nervously. "When has anybody ever been there for you?!"
Megatron snarled. "There was once a mech I called 'brother.' Then he abandoned me and then replaced me with you! If you are not here for me, then for who?"
Ratchet slapped his thigh as his field roiled with energy. "You want a piece of this hot ambulatory action, huh, huh? Because I'll give you one!"
Megatron blinked and looked back and forth between Starscream and Ratchet. "So you are here to play sparklingsitter, are you now? And how is that working out for you?"
"Fine!" Starscream spat.
"HOOOAHHHH—"
"Shut up!" Starscream shrieked.
Knock Out laughed. "I don't know what I expected to see from my Autobot competition. But I was not expecting… this."
Ratchet pointed an accusatory digit at Knock Out. "I've seen sparklings with better finishes than that!"
Knock Out gasped. "Kill him instantly!"
"Megatron!" Ratchet shouted. "I'm going to beat your aft!"
Megatron hummed. "I cannot wait to see how you plan on doing that. When have you ever 'beaten' anything even once in your life, Ratchet? You have always played catch-up and always will."
"Okay, no no no, there will be no 'aft-kicking'!" Starscream ran up beside Ratchet and began to tug on his arm. "If we hurry we can get out of here!"
"Pah!" Ratchet swatted Starscream's desperate talons away. "The coward's way is not my way. Megatron, I... am your doctor of doom! HOOAHHH—"
Ratchet ran forward at full speed with his fist extended and Starscream's jaw dropped as he slammed it right into Megatron's faceplate. Megatron's entire frame was thrown backwards and hit the tunnel with a crash that reverberated through the air and stone itself.
The dust cleared.
Megatron blinked, but instead of the usual rage he had come to expect from the warlord, there was nothing but calm. The familiar chill of fear settled down over Starscream's spark.
"Ooh, ooh," Ratchet said as he brushed off his knuckles. "Did you see that, Starscream? Papa's still got it!"
Megatron rolled his shoulders and rose back up to his full height. " Alright then."
Ratchet charged again. "For CYBERTRON—"
Megatron casually reached out and grabbed onto Ratchet's outheld fist. He grabbed and then—
—he began to twist. Ratchet's pained cries echoed through the tunnel and through Starscream's audials.
He'd heard Megatron elicit those same kinds of pained cries from his victims before, but most of the time, Starscream was the victim. Never Ratchet. Never someone else.
And that just felt wrong.
"Is that so, Starscream?!" Megatron laughed as he twisted Ratchet's arm around more and more. "It's good to see that your time with the Autobots hasn't completely rid you of all of your habits. You still spill your thoughts to the world!"
Ratchet grunted in pain. "Stop twisting, stop! "
It was too much too quickly. Starscream felt movement behind him and turned around and stared into the wide red optics of Knock Out.
"I should capture you," Knock Out said quietly as he held out his electro-prod.
"Uh, no need for that!" Starscream laughed nervously.
Megatron's grip on Ratchet's fist loosened slightly. Finally he would let Ratchet go, finally—
Megatron looked up and his optics locked onto Starscream's.
For several moments the two of them just stared at each other as if there were nobody else in the entire world. The sound of Ratchet's screams faded to a dull dim in the background as the sound of Starscream's own frantic sparkbeat thrummed louder and louder with each second.
"...So. You finally decided to show your own faceplate again, Starscream."
Megatron gave Ratchet's arm another cruel twist and made the medic scream all the louder.
"Do you hear his cries?"
Starscream stepped back but felt himself collide with something. Knock Out kept his electro-prod extended behind Starscream and stopped the Seeker from getting away.
"I hear them, Megatron," Starscream said. Ratchet looked over and his wide and pained green optics looked into Starscream's frightened red ones.
"Get him to let him go," Starscream harshly whispered to Knock Out behind him.
Knock Out's frazzled field sparked with indecision and his grip on his electro-prod shook.
Ratchet's screams grew louder as something within his arm snapped.
"Knock Out, stop him!"
"You know I can't! You're our shield! " Knock Out hissed back.
"—stop, stop stop stop— "
"You want me to let him go?" Megatron hummed as his sharp red optics locked back onto Starscream's.
Starscream swallowed the panic that threatened to rise up in his throat. "Yes! He can't possibly be any use to you if he's broken!"
"On the contrary, Starscream," Megatron said as he finally let go of Ratchet. "I specialize in breaking things."
Starscream stepped back, but his back hit Knock Out's electro-prod again. He cast one last desperate look over his shoulder. Knock Out's optics widened—and then he looked away as he gave one single thrust. Starscream stumbled forward towards Megatron and Ratchet and winced at the sight of his twisted arm.
"Ratchet is rather more spirited than I recollect," Megatron hummed.
Knock Out shrugged. "Chemical enhancement perhaps?"
"Frag, get up you idiot, get up! " Starscream harshly whispered to Ratchet.
Ratchet stared at his dented arm and began to shake harder. "You should go. S-save yourself."
Starscream leaned back. "What?"
Ratchet whipped around. "I said —"
Megatron lunged forward and stabbed the tips of his talons deep into Ratchet's chestplate. Starscream threw himself backwards and watched as green synth-en gurgled out of the new spiderweb of cracks that criss-crossed Ratchet. His green optics flickered and he fell to the dirty ground with a grunt as a puddle of thick green synth-en grew underneath him. The green puddle reached Starscream and painted the tips of his pedes bright green.
"There's your laboratory sample, Doctor. Find out. If a chemical can do this for Optimus Prime's lapdog, heheh, imagine what it could do for our troops. And you, Starscream..."
Starscream went still. He looked up at Megatron and for a few seconds they just stared at each other.
"Did you notice?" Megatron rumbled.
He leaned down and Starscream flinched as his hot breath washed over him and mingled with the acidic stench of the synth-en in the air.
"Did. You. Notice?"
"Notice how you stabbed him?! "
Megatron smiled. "Did you notice how I stabbed Ratchet the same way you stabbed Cliffjumper?"
Starscream's optics widened. Ratchet's frame went still beside him.
"Am I going to die the same way he did?" Ratchet wheezed.
"No! No, you won't," Starscream said.
"Once again making promises you cannot keep. It seems to be a habit for you nowadays. Perhaps I should break this promise for you," Megatron said as he pointed his fusion cannon right at Ratchet. The bright purple glow of his cannon washed over the whole tunnel.
"Oh, Starscream, I've been a fool, a fool— "
"Hey, hey hey hey, you, stop moping, and you, " Starscream said as he looked up at Megatron and flinched. "You've won. He's down. And... you have both of us."
Megatron leaned down over Ratchet's frame and chuckled. "Right you are, Starscream. I knew you would come crawling back to me one day, but I never expected you to do so while being led on by Ratchet of all mechs. Oh, Ratchet. You're still the same failure you were back in the old days."
Ratchet's field filled with fear as Megatron leaned in even closer. "D-don't you dare bring up the old days!"
"The old days, the good days," Megatron said wistfully, "the good times that you brought to an end. I wonder, how hard did you actually try to convince Pax of my true nature?"
"I t-tried so hard, so so so hard, but he wouldn't see reason—"
"No. You just couldn't be reasonable, that was all. Oh, had you just seen the truth that I am Cybertron's future conqueror and ruler and had you just joined the right side of the war, then maybe you wouldn't be bleeding out here. Maybe."
Ratchet turned his helm and stared at the wall as Megatron leaned in even closer. "I c-chose the right side."
"Had you not been so stubborn and so foolhardy then this war would not be happening. You are truly a doctor of doom indeed," Megatron laughed. "And you. "
Both Starscream and Ratchet held still as Megatron turned his attention to the dirtied Seeker again.
Megatron's talons lunged out and he grabbed ahold of Starscream's talon. He lifted it into the air and hummed as he inspected it. "I'm surprised the Autobots haven't declawed you yet. But no matter. It is time for you to return to my side by doing what you do best."
Starscream forced his plating to lay flat as Megatron hoisted his arm higher into the air. "And what would that be?"
"Killing."
He gripped onto Starscream's talon and forced it down onto Ratchet's new wound.
"No, what are you doing—? " Starscream shrieked.
"I am helping you reclaim your true self! Take the plunge, kill the Autobot, and then come back to me! " Megatron shouted.
It would be so easy to take that plunge and dig his talons deep into that sickly green wound, it would be so so easy—
Ratchet looked up at Starscream with raw fear in his optics.
It would be easy, yes. But the right thing to do is not always the easy thing to do.
Starscream pulled with all his might and forced his talon away from Ratchet's chestplate. Megatron's field exploded with hot incandescent rage and his optics flashed blood-red.
"You dare to deny me?" he said so, so softly. Starscream could handle the anger, the screaming, the noise that the warlord made when he was angry. But he could never handle the quiet, that soft tone of voice Megatron used when his rage reached new levels.
Starscream took a deep shuddery vent. "Yes."
Megatron was silent for a moment.
"Uh, my Lord?" Knock Out said as he shuffled forward and looked anxiously at Breakdown's prone frame. "What about Break—"
Megatron gripped tightly onto Starscream's talon but this time he forced Starscream's talon down and onto his Autobot badge.
"Scratch it off!" Megatron roared.
"What?! No!"
"Get that thing off of yourself! I will rip that infernal badge off of you and then rip out Ratchet's spark!"
Starscream spread out his single wing and used it to shield Ratchet. Knock Out's optics widened.
"I don't like him, okay?! He's a jerk, but he's the jerk who repairs me!"
"Oh, I feel so loved," Ratchet grumbled.
"Shut up!" Starscream hissed down at him. "Megatron, please, stay your servo, do not strike him—"
"And why should I not, wretch? Are you saying that you want to take the hit for him?"
Starscream's optics widened and his words choked in his throat. "Well, I, um..."
"Ohoho! And here I was thinking that you were an Autobot now," Megatron hissed the words out like venom. "I thought you'd become all self-sacrificial, all noble. How wrong I was. Are the Autobots aware of how they completely and utterly failed to rehabilitate you? You're still the same selfish, sniveling, scheming—"
Something silver flashed into the air and Megatron reared back and cried out. A rivulet of energon streamed out of a thin and long gash on the side of his faceplate.
Ratchet had his saw extended and held right up against Megatron's neck cabling.
Knock Out ran forward and helped Megatron rise to his pedes. "That will certainly leave a dent in your finish, let me see—"
Starscream reached his arms underneath Rachet's and dragged the medic to his pedes. Ratchet swayed dangerously and held one arm to his bloodied and cracked chestplate and held another arm over the Seeker's shoulder.
"Comm for help. Now!" Starscream said.
Ratchet took a deep vent and activated his commline as Starscream led him away from Megatron and deeper into the depths of the cave. Megatron held his talon to his bloodied faceplate and swore as Knock Out fretted over him.
"Starscream…"
He wasn't sure why the sound of Knock Out's voice made him pause and turn around. He looked back over his shoulder at Knock Out.
"Still the shield as usual, I see."
Starscream's optics widened. "I…"
Ratchet groaned in his arms and Starscream sighed and hoisted him up farther onto his shoulders. "You're a real pain in my aft right now, you know that?!"
"I know, I know," Ratchet said softly as they fled.
"You wanted to fight, so let's fight! " Megatron shouted. Starscream and Ratchet both looked at each other as the sound of Megatron's rage echoed through the halls. The air suddenly shifted and Starscream looked up with wide optics at a massive drill that had been thrown into the air. He grabbed onto Ratchet's arm and flung himself to the side just as the drill slammed into the ground where the two of them had just stood.
Ratchet looked at the crashed drill as shock blared in his field. "I think I might have made him angry."
Starscream sputtered. "Oh, you think so?!"
"This is all your fault, this entire war, everything is your fault!" Megatron shouted.
Ratchet's faceplate fell. "Is… is he right?"
"He's taunting you, that's what he does, so just ignore him!"
He hoisted the grumbling medic higher over his shoulder and limped down the strange and unfamiliar tunnels. If they were quick and quiet they could find the rest of the team in no time.
A flurry of blaster bolts shot the ground right in front of both of their pedes.
Starscream blinked down at the singed ground. "What…?"
"Why are you just standing there?!" Ratchet wheezed.
"Because…" Starscream looked up at the rows of drones in front of them. It would be so easy for any one of them to just shoot and kill them.
Yet none of them took the opportunity.
"Because they intentionally missed, Ratchet!" Starscream grunted as he dragged Ratchet farther into the corridors. He dragged the medic behind a drill and the two of them crouched on the other side of it as the sound of the drone's pedesteps echoed around the cave.
"They wouldn't miss unless they want us alive," Ratchet breathed.
Starscream rested his forehelm against the drill. "They don't just want to take me alive. They want you, too."
"What—why? I'm just a medic!"
Starscream let out a harsh laugh. "Oh, so now your delusions of grandeur have finally melted away!"
"Starscream, I…" Ratchet trailed off. A thousand emotions flitted across his faceplate. He opened his intake. Then shut it.
Starscream sighed. "They want you because they can tell that you're under the control of something, so that makes them think they might be able to control you too. And I swear I will not allow another mech to fall under Megatron's control."
Ratchet's optics widened and he stared at Starscream. "And why not just leave me behind to get captured? I know that's what you want to do."
"No, it's not," Starscream sighed.
"Does the cyberwolf pity its prey?" Megatron shouted. "It does not. It kills it!"
"I want you to suffer for being an afthead, but not like that! Never like that. There are… not many mechs who deserve to suffer under Megatron like that."
"Those who suffer through pain overcome pain. Are you ready to be overcome yet, Starscream?" Megatron's voice echoed around their helms as he tried to find them.
"I hate him," Ratchet snarled. "I h-hate him and I hate how fake his words are—he says feeling pain will make you stronger, but all it's done is made me feel weak. I'm sick and tired of this pained war! But then the synth-en came, and n-now… now the pain is tolerable!"
" You're the one in pain here?! You tried to cut my neck cabling just a few hours earlier!"
Ratchet's optics widened. "I… yes, I did do that! I had to!"
"'You had to'?"
"The threat of violence was the only way to motivate you!"
Starscream rolled his optics and stared up at the rocky ceiling above his helm. If he closed his optics then he could almost ignore the stone blocking him from the surface and he could almost pretend he was back on Cybertron again.
Almost.
But he was not on Cybertron, he was here with an angry medic and an even angrier warlord after him.
"You weren't going to cut my neck cabling open," Starscream breathed out.
Ratchet squinted up at him. "What? Of course I was, I was dead serious!"
"No, you weren't. If you wanted to kill me then why did you even bother to wake me up? Why did you even bother to drag me outside to that mine?"
"I…"
"You didn't want death, you wanted an audience, " Starscream hissed. "Someone who could look at you and say, 'wow, you're sooo scary, so worthy of respect, so amazing,' so that for once in your pitiful life you could feel validated! But that begs the question—why did you want to be validated by me and not Optimus?"
Purple lights shone from behind them. Starscream hoisted Ratchet up higher on his shoulder and dragged the bloodied medic into a dip in the cave's wall as the drones grew nearer and nearer.
"Why me?!" Starscream grit out.
"Because—because I just wanted a bot I saw as an enemy to finally fragging respect me, okay? I'm just a mech who wants respect! Why are you being so aggressive with me all of a sudden?! "
"Because I'm that mech too, Ratchet! And you are making the same mistakes that I did!"
Ratchet took a deep vent. "I am?"
"Yes! You think that destroying and killing everything will get you the respect that you want! Well, you know what? It won't! " Starscream laughed shrilly, but there was no happiness in the harsh noise at all. "I learned that from experience."
Ratchet leaned heavily against the stony tunnel wall as a firefight shook behind them. Starscream took a deep vent as a thousand thoughts ran through his processor. Ratchet knew he was familiar with synth-en, yes, but not how familiar.
Pain rippled through Ratchet's field, raw pain, but Starscream wouldn't, no, couldn't relax until he knew the medic had seen reason.
"Ugh…" Starscream groaned. How the slag do you comfort a bloodied mech nursing a wounded chestplate and an even more wounded ego? "You… you understand that you don't need to be like this in order to be respected, right?"
Ratchet glared at him. "Be like 'this'? What is that supposed to m-mean?"
"What I'm saying," Starscream inhaled sharply, "i-is that you don't need to be angry like this. You're going about it all wrong! They already respect you, don't they?"
"P-pah! Y'know, there's a reason Optimus calls me 'old friend' and not 'old brother,' okay?! Because I'm just his friend, we are close, yes yes yes, but at the same time…"
Starscream frowned. "Not close enough?"
"I just wanted to be strong enough to keep him safe, do you understand?"
And he did. He thought of a desperate shuttle and the cold and harsh optics of an older Prime. He thought of the old but now reopened wound inflicted on his soul after he tried—and failed—to be strong enough for somebody else.
The synth-en, Skyfire, he could tell it all to Ratchet and make him understand—
But his glossa stayed still and his intake stayed shut. No, he would never unbare that private side of himself out to anybody. Maybe Optimus, maybe, but Ratchet was no Optimus despite what he may think.
He just had to say what Optimus would say and surely Ratchet would see reason.
"It's the synth-en ruining you and corrupting you!" Starscream whimpered. And that was true, wasn't it? But he couldn't help but get the nagging feeling there was more to this than that. "It's making you act not like yourself and your friends just want your old self back! And this fragging synth-en has stolen the real you away. I'm sick and tired of watching them all mope—yes, I'm a hypocrite, I can mope, but not them—and I am especially tired of your madness! So just... Stop. The. Synth! "
Ratchet turned and looked at him with wide optics. Hope fluttered in Starscream's spark. Maybe he finally understood, maybe Starscream successfully managed to emulate Optimus and—
"The synth-en isn't the problem. The way I used it is the problem here," Ratchet said as he shrugged Starscream off and shakily rose to his pedes.
His spark sank and the hope in it dimmed.
No, no no no, this wasn't supposed to be happening. Starscream held his helm in his talons as he internally screamed. Ratchet was supposed to see reason, but he was still just as blind as before. That's now how any of this was supposed to work! He tried to be like Optimus, he thought he could sit Ratchet down and just talk to him, the same way Optimus tried to talk to him, to educate him—
But he failed. He was no Optimus. Neither was Ratchet, but he still didn't seem to understand.
A dark shadow appeared at the other end of the tunnel and a hot red glow lit up the air. "Do you remember the old days, Starscream? We could have them back if you just joined me and left this ungrateful wretch of a mech behind." Megatron came into view and held his servos out placatingly. "You cannot fix what is broken and this medic is a very broken mech indeed. Come home."
Home. He wasn't sure where that was anymore. But it was most certainly not with Megatron.
Starscream looked to the side—
Ratchet was not there.
"Where did you get off to now?!" Starscream breathed in terror.
"Hooaah!" Ratchet shouted. Megatron whipped around and saw Ratchet high up above him with a drill held aloft over his helm.
Megatron's optics had only a fraction of a second to widen before a smirk crossed Ratchet's faceplate.
"I can be strong !"
He chucked the drill at Megatron and the warlord gave out a guttural cry of pain and outrage as he slammed into a pile of energon and shattered it in a scintillatingly blue explosion.
Ratchet turned to face Starscream.
"I… I did what you never could!"
He took one last vent and then his green optics went dim. Ratchet fell backwards into the dirt and Starscream stood still as the dust in the air settled.
Low laughter echoed through the cave. Megatron stared out at Starscream from under the drill. "You just escaped one tyrant and exchanged him for another one, didn't you?"
Starscream gulped and tried to think of something, anything to say—
But the volley of blasterfire Optimus unleashed as he ran into the cave did all of the talking for him. A wave of drones emerged from the other side of the tunnel and a new firefight began. The air flashed and pulsed with the red and blue glow of exchanged blasterfire, but the only color Starscream could see was the dried green synth-en smattered over Ratchet's frame. It was the only thing he could focus on as Arcee dragged him away, as Megatron roared away, and as Bulkhead propped Ratchet up and took him away down the tunnel.
The green synth-en dripped and dripped and the green groundbridge opened up and all that he could really remember from that moment forward was just the green—
"So," Optimus said softly.
The two of them stood in the lab in front of the synth-en together.
Starscream grimaced. "When did I walk in here?"
"You don't remember?"
"No."
"You have been in a daze ever since the incident in the mine."
" Incident. Is that a new word for 'failure'?"
Optimus hummed and the synth-en pulsed. "Do you feel that it should be?"
"Well…"
He turned to look at Starscream in the optic. "Do you honestly feel that your inability to completely protect and convince Ratchet is a failure of yours?"
"I don't know! Most of the time I know when I've messed up—Megatron saw to that—but now… am I really at fault here, Optimus? I just don't know. I tried to convince him to stop this madness, I tried so hard, but Ratchet wouldn't listen. What did I say wrong?!"
"Maybe you said everything wrong. But maybe you also said everything right. Ratchet will not change unless he wishes to and as of so far he is not ready for that. When he is ready, though, I know that you will be beside him."
Starscream let out a sigh and just watched the synth-en endlessly bubble on. Optimus knelt down and turned his shoulder and made the Seeker look at him.
"Do you understand that Ratchet's refusal to see reason is not entirely your fault?"
"I… yes. Okay? I get that, but it still feels wrong to try so hard to fix a mess, only for everything to fall apart right again! How can I be worthy to carry on the Autobot legacy if I can't even convince an Autobot to follow his own slagging protocols?!"
Optimus smiled sadly. "You are worthy to carry on this legacy not because you are a perfect Autobot, no, but because you are trying to be a perfect Autobot."
Starscream just stared at him in silence. He felt neither the euphoria of victory nor the crushing blow of defeat—all he felt was empty.
"Not every story in life will have a perfect ending. But this is not the ending and I can tell that you are not ready to give up on him. You're willing to keep trying, and that is what makes you worthy."
This better not be the ending. He wasn't done with that old cog yet and would smack him if he had to in order to get him to see reason!
"Hopefully it will not come to 'smacking,' but I am glad to see that you are determined to keep trying. You tried, you are still trying, and that is what is important. Do you understand?"
He did understand. Constantly trying and then failing to kill Megatron was how he learned the importance of not giving up. But never giving up on trying to kill somebody you hate is not the same thing as never giving up on trying to save somebody you… kinda-sorta only hate-ish. He was probably speaking out loud right now, but he found it hard to care.
"And you keep speaking out loud because you are still determined to prove to me that you are being open and honest—but you have already convinced me of your openness. I have been convinced for a long time. Now you just need to convince yourself that you've changed and are better now."
He's better now, he knows that now. He knows more about how life works—and now he feels enlightened and empty all at once.
Optimus wrapped his arm around him. "You are a good bot, Starscream."
He wasn't so sure of that yet.
Thank you all for your patience! Another amazing and sublime piece of fanart was drawn this time by yeetmetothehell on tumblr, you need to see it, everybody needs to see it, I need to beam it to space, I don't know how to post the link here though but trust me when I say that it is gorgeous!
How is the dialogue going so far? I'm worried that there's too much talking and not enough action and would like to know if I should add or decrease the amount of chit-chatting between the characters. Thanks for reading!
