Part 19

Wordlessly, Starscream came down, landing so that small plumes of dust blew about his pedes. Silent, he and Skyfire regarded each other, studying the features and posture that had faded into out of date memory files.

Starscream saw little he did not already recognize—the tough armor meant for meteors and space debris rather than repelling bullets. Thrusters meant for deep space, not aerial combat. A few armaments lay haphzardly mounted here and there, some shielding, a standard firearm. His old friend was not meant for war and had barely changed in his brief time out of the ice.

Skyfire, rather, saw numerous changes. Without the overwhelming rush of information and war he'd received when first waking in the arctic, he now noted missiles and mounted canons, jet engines well-tuned and overpowered for tight turns instead of long data-gathering flights. Still symmetrical and handsome, Starscream was now weighed down with awkward shoulder armaments. Once there had been smooth lines and observational equipment. Now the soldier had swallowed the scientist.

"Skyfire," Starscream said, spitting the name like an insult. "Worthless scrapheap. I should burn you down where you stand."

Skyfire smiled, tilting his head. "So you like 'Starscream, Starburst'?"

The Decepticon pressed his mouth into a thin line and didn't answer. The hot wind blew between them, and Skyfire watched him with all the anxiety of wondering if Starscream's spark might be shot through at any second. This was a misison of capture, not a kill, but some Spec Op bot might have decided to shoot and take the reprimand from Autobot command, who probably wouldn't mind all that much anyway.

Every orn brought a new way to hate the war. He had to avoiding being shot by Starscream and avoiding seeing Starscream shot by his new friends. And he had to do it in less than a breem.

Fortunately, where his fellow scientist had been awake for millenia, their relationship was quite fresh in Skyfire's memory.

"Tell me," Skyfire said, "since I've been gone so long...what do you like best about it? Was it where I scrape your wings with my teeth?"

The hiss that came from Starscream slid through the air, echoing in the quarry. Behind him, his wings twitched in unwilling response. He bent, leaning forward, hands clenched, and his pedes slid in the dirt.

"Traitor!" he raged. "You have no right—! Who told you? You never would have found it on your own! It wasn't yours to see!"

Undeterred by Starscream's anger, Skyfire continued as calmly as before. "Or was it how I ground your wires under my heel—"

"Don't—!" Starscream demanded, cutting him off as if he couldn't bear to hear the words spoken. "Don't you dare say it! You have no right! You have no claim on me! None!"

The jet's voice rose to a fevered pitch, wavering from the sheer volume. He raised his null beam, holding it in a shaky aim at Skyfire's helm.

"I could end you here and now!" Starscream turned so that he aligned with his weapon, his side presented to Skyfire as he stared down the length of the canon. "Destroy you like you should have been four million years ago! You never should have woken up! You—"

"Or..." Skyfire said, undeterred. "Was it how I picked you up off the battlefield and held you?"

Starscream fired. A shield expanded in front of Skyfire just in time for the beam to splash ineffectively against it. A klik later, Mirage faded into view as he unloaded a round into Starscream's shoulder. From across the quarry, a second round blasted his knee into twisted metal. With a howl of pain, the Decepticon spun and crashed into the dirt, already curling up and turning on his front to try to crawl. His thrusters sputtered and leaked energon, sparking as they offlined.

"Coward," Starscream cried, stammering as the scorched receptors in his wing axles ground together. "Lying coward—you meant nothing! A trap, nothing but a trap—"

Hang back, Jazz said in Skyfire's commlink. We'll round him up.

Skyfire startled as Spec Op bots appeared from the crevices and impossibly shallow pits in the ground, shaking off camoflauging dust as they stood, guns drawn and levelled at the fallen mech.

Wait! Skyfire looked at Jazz, who'd somehow found a shadow that matched his hood's paint lines. Let me finish speaking to him.

'Bot, are you cross-wired? Starscream ain't one for listening, and he just took a coupl'a rounds in his frame. Ain't a mech alive who wants to shoot the breeze after that.

Please trust me. Skyfire looked at the handful of bots coming closer, all of them friends that he knew, but now completely alien as they approached cautiously, their rifle barrels aimed at Starscream's helm. If Skyfire wanted to salvage this, he had to convince the head of Special Operations to stand down.

Skyfire—

He'll surrender! Skyfire insisted. I can make him surrender!

Jazz stopped. A second later, so did Bumblebee and Smokescreen. Mirage vanished again but he left a faint line of dust clouds as he climbed back to the top of the quarry to act as sentry. The air crackled with the internal messages flying back and forth from Jazz to his mechs, all holding Starscream's life in the balance.

You got one breem, Jazz said, every trace of mirth wrung from his voice. If I even think he's calling for backup, we cut his cables and cuff what's left.

...thank you, Skyfire said with a bob of his head. As cold as Jazz sounded, he didn't have to give Skyfire that time.

And that precious amount of kliks left meant Skyfire couldn't be gentle. Going up to the wounded Decepticon, he knelt and grabbed Starscream's wing, hauling up him on his intact knee. Starscream cried out as his mangled limbs twisted and fell limp, energon and gear lubricant leaking out onto the rocks.

Skyfire was nearly twice Starscream's size. Flush against each other, the Autobot's advantage was obvious, easily clutching the smaller mech in his arms. He bent his helm beside Starscream's, whispering in his audio.

"Struggling only makes it hurt more," he said, holding him so that he carried most of Starscream's weight. "You're caught—"

"Megatron will find me—" Starscream yelped as Skyfire snaked his fingers down to his windshield and flicked an outside switch, forcing up the glass and then running his hand deep into his cockpit. Writhing at the sudden intimacy, Starscream gasped as a switch was turned and then locked down.

"I can't have you transmitting messages out," Skyfire said softly. "Not that it would do you any good. You're wounded and surrounded. Look around yourself. How could you escape?"

Starscream refused to look up, resolutely staring at the ground, but his struggling softened into little more than trembling. A hot wind blew over his exposed cords and armor, sparking in the open air, and he shivered with a moan.

"I hate to hurt you," Skyfire whispered. "I hate to see you in pain. But the Autobots said they could capture you, and I leaped at the chance."

"I hate you," Starscream hissed, his voice hitching as his engine skipped. "I hate you."

"But you came here," Skyfire said. "And when you saw it was me, you flew down. What did you expect would happen?"

"I should've known it was a trap." Howling, Starscream cried out at the sky, giving a token thrash before slumping further into Skyfire's arm. "You'd never...never..."

His engine skipped again, hitching his voice into a sob.

"Wouldn't what?" Skyfire kept one hand in Starscream's cockpit, delicately tracing the small components. His other hand ran down Starscream's abdomen to his legs, nudging his thighs apart. The broken knee slid uselessly on the ground as Skyfire began to stroke his inner armor. Starscream jerked, unable to resist as Skyfire arranged him easily.

"This?" Skyfire continued. "Did you hope we would begin where we left off?"

"Stop," Starscream whispered. "Skyfire, I can't..."

"I know you can't," Skyfire said, gratified as Starscream turned his helm to face him, optics wide with disbelief. "Your foolish alliance with Megatron, becoming a Decepticon. You can't turn away from all that on your own."

He slipped his hand from Starscream's cockpit, running his hand up until he cupped the softer steel of his cheek. Starscream fit as neatly as he remembered, and the smaller jet seemed to feel it, relaxing against him as shock and overtaxed repair drives kicked in.

"So I'm taking away your choice," Skyfire said. "You're mine. The Autobots might have caught you but you're mine."

Starscream's lips parted in a gasp, and Skyfire stole a kiss, crushing him close while lightly touching his glossa to Starscream's denta. To his delight, after a token resistance, the Decepticon gave in, allowing Skyfire to delve as deeply as he wished, exploring the mouth he hadn't tasted in millenia. A tricky task when the lover was only half his size, but a task he thoroughly enjoyed.

Below, Starscream's legs spread wider, pressing his weight on Skyfire's hand. The motion was obvious, the intent clear. In front of the Spec Ops bot and no longer caring, Skyfire rubbed firmly against Starscream's skidplate, drawing out deep groans even as Starscream let his helm fall back on the larger mech's shoulder.

"You had your chance to come back willingly. Now I'm taking you."

And then his hand stopped. He lifted his helm, fully aware of Starscream trying to follow, and looked into the smaller mech's wide optics. In leaning after him, Starscream lost any semblance of balance and hung in Skyfire's arms, whimpering in the back of his vocalizer.

"Surrender," Skyfire said. "And I'm yours again."

"I can't," Starscream moaned, sounding as if he wanted to but was held back, and for a moment Skyfire froze.

"You don't want this?" Skyfire whispered, afraid he was wrong, afraid that Jazz would put a dozen rounds into the mech in his arms.

"I tried to find you." Starscream lowered his helm, pushing his face against Skyfire's hip and muting his voice. "I ran out of fuel. They wouldn't let me come back. I tried...I..."

As Starscream choked on excuse after excuse, Skyfire touched his back, rubbing a comforting circle, but he heard Jazz shift pede's impatiently and knew he had to end this. No doubt his breem was nearly up.

"I know you did," Skyfire murmured. "I expected nothing less. And we'll talk about that, and us, and the war and everything that's happened...after you surrender."

With his engine skipping and struggling to keep up with his vents, Starscream let Skyfire ease him straight, still supporting his weight to ease the pressure on his wounds. Self-repair functions had cut off the energon flow, but he still trembled in pain, embarassingly clanking against Skyfire.

"Starscream?"

"You still want me?" Starscream covered his face with his good hand, his other arm hanging limp at the shoulder. "After...everything?"

"Yes," Skyfire said, pushing his hand away and tipping his chin up, forcing him to meet his look. "Now surrender. To me."

Starscream went very still, hesitating with the weight of Megatron and millenia of war hovering over him.

"I...surrender."

Stasis cuffs snapped over his wrists as soon as he said it, their electric resonance synching with his own and nullifying the majority of his functions. As he went numb, he vented out in relief even as he sank down to his knees. The pain vanished, leaving behind a dull ache and a cloudy haze in his cortex.

"Now that was something," Jazz breathed, holstering his weapon. With a low, disbelieving whistle, he stared at a broken Starscream cradled in Skyfire's arms. "And it's gonna make for a hell of a debrief."

"Do you think they'll kill him?" Skyfire whispered, likewise staring at his Decepticon, running his thumb over the grey helm. "Or does he have a chance?"

"Good question," Jazz said. "If you can keep a leash on him, who knows? But...don't get your hopes up too much. Starscream's one sadistic, messed up bastard of a mech. He missed you just as much when he tried to kill ya."

Not arguing, Skyfire nodded once. He transformed into his alt mode, safely stowing Starscream and allowing everyone inside his cargo space. As he flew silently, he didn't partake in the Spec Ops bots' speculation about Thundercracker or what Optimus would do about their two Decepticon captives.

Starscream's systems hummed inside him for the first time in millenia. He concentrated on that comforting presence, savoring it the entire way back to the Ark.

TBC...