Hands itching for the spirit, Jamie kept driving.

After stealing a car and running over someone, Jamie spent the next two hours driving aimlessly, hoping to find a gas station to get a map of sorts to call it a day. Driving was a stressful job which forced a person to focus on body parts with pinpoint precision while sitting. This meant that even the slightest push or jump of a leg could end in catastrophe and a whole new problem.

But that was not the only thing that bothered him. Jamie did feel the adrenaline in his veins slow down, but it had made him more angsty by the minute. It was dark and his headlights were on but he was still driving above speed limits. He felt relaxed, almost nostalgic as his eyelids felt heavy. The grip on the steering wheel slightly tightened.

Why did it feel so nostalgic? Was it the constant fear of being caught? Or was it the thrill of actually getting back at the government that ruined his future, that installed faulty wiring into Teresa's apartment, that screwed over the educational system and forced people to take out loans they could not pay back to actually survive? Or maybe, maybe it was the sweet familiarity, the calm business like attitude Teresa had as she was driving in someone else's car, money in her pocket, driving to a forest in the middle of the night-

No, Jamie cut himself off. Now was not the time to romanticize theft or looting. Or alcoholism. It wasn't even remotely helpful. Teresa had to do what she must and so must Jamie. He had a task at hand and he needed to fulfill it, even if he hated every minute of it. The gods had wanted something to change and having a plan fail halfway through would be bad.

Driving on the remote highway, Jamie spotted a crossroad with a gas station with a yellow neon 24/7 sign at the edge. Finally, he was getting far too sleepy to be considered safe for driving. He stopped the car a few feet away from the possible places to actually stop one in order to hide the license plate and his possible route. Closing the door behind him, he alerted the sleeping Raspberry, who woke up with a start. He made a a calming notion with his hands to the wildly flailing blob. He raised five fingers.

'Calm down. I'll be back in five minutes.' The message was clear and Raspberry calmed down. Jamie walked to the station quickly, hoping to finally get some sleep. He pulled up his hood, hoping to hide his face in the very least.

A jingle sound was heard as he walked through the doors and Jamie had started eyeing the chip and junk food isle. If he was gonna sleep, then he would have to wake up and drive from early morning, so breakfast would have to be quick and on the go. He started walking through the isle, trying to find something that wasn't going to damage his liver. He had the absinthe and space wine for that. No need to overdo it.

Spotting a few juice boxes in the freezer, Jamie opened his fanny pack to see his available sum. He skimmed through his pouch and, much to his surprise, he still had about ninety dollars left with spare change. He expected less but who's he judge his blessings. A ten dollar bill caught his eye and he pulled it out. That could be enough and it's not too much to draw attention. He pulled it out and shoved it into his pocket as he grabbed a juice box and as many granola bars as his tiny hands can hold.

Walking around, he saw brochures and maps at the counter. But what he really didn't expect was what was written there.

'Welcome to Minnesota!' Jamie nearly dropped his rations. Minnesota. He managed to drunk travel all the way to the other side of the country. He's almost impressed at his own stupidity. He's never gotten that far while drunk. At most, Teresa ended up hungover in the next city. Next side of the country was out of the question. If he had seen himself, he would have looked like a dead fish receiving shock therapy.

'Okay. Maybe, maybe I can this work. Somehow.' He thought. He walked to to the counter, ready to pay and maybe a map. Upon further investigation, he decided that he'd be better off stealing it. It reminded him of Teresa's college days when she had to put off eating to at least pay rent. Or use an alternative way of income.

Placing his items on the counter, he waited for the cashier to come out of wherever they were.

He nearly chokes on his own saliva when they do. Because it's not the cashier that comes from the back room, but the bartender who's supposed to be in Vegas.

There's a moment of silence between the two before Jamie can croak out a single word.

"How?" The bartender shrugged.

"Remember when I said that we both differ by the shape of our souls? Do you honestly think there wouldn't be any power that bends reality and it's perception of it? It's practically a packaged deal." Jamie was about to ask exactly what it was and why he keeps helping him, he stole your damn cat-

"By the way, how's Raspberry?" The bartender spoke, scanning the items.

"He's mad at me, threw a fit. Y'know, what anyone would do if they were dragged into this mess." Jamie said as he eyed the sum of his purchase. "I think he'll be rolling in joy when he finds out he can go back-"

"Keep em with you. For the time being that is." The bartender cut him off. Jamie looked at him, confusion glazing his eyes. "Trust me. Two heads are better than one."

Jamie was about to ask why before the bartender snatched a map from the counter and a marker from his pocket.

"Hey I'm not paying for that." Jamie retorted, clearly not wanting to spend more money than necessary. However, the bartender soon opened the lid off the marker and started crossing out the barcode, going as far as scritching outside the lines. Then a silver sticker of some racing car was slapped on the handy work.

"The white parts of the barcode is the scanned, not the black parts. If you ink it heavily enough and add an aluminum sticker, you can get through security." This was a shock to Jamie. All his life, no, all his existence he's thought that they had been scanning the black lines on the barcode. He feels as if the government just loves messing with society for some reason. Or indoctrinate it with false information every now and then. He slid the map across the counter. "You can keep the marker."

Jamie hesitated.

He could do this but this person was already helping him more than necessary. Was it because the bartender actually believed him about Megatron and, what would be in three weeks, Mission City? Maybe, maybe not. What if they knew something? Jamie had knowledge but that didn't mean nobody else did. Still, he shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth.

"Oh, before I forget."The bartender started digging under the counter. An awfully familiar flask was put on the counter. "That wine might be strong but only with this stuff. Remember-"

"Only for emergencies."

Slamming the bill on the counter, Jamie grabbed everything he bought and the map and flask, practically flying out of the store.

He nearly dropped a few granola bars as he ran to the stolen car. He let whatever he had fall on the front seat and slammed the door shut.

His heart rate was rising again, that much was obvious.

Raspberry was already alarmed, jumping from the backseat into the back of the front.

Jamie slid into the front seat and twisted the screwdriver. The moment the engine reved up he slammed his foot on the gas. A sharp turn to the left and he was off driving into the thick forest.

Driving senseless through the woods was the worst thing Jamie could have done. He couldn't stay up like this but he had to get away. He needed something to keep him awake. His hands reached for the glove compartment and began searching for the radio. Hands fumbled with empty wrappers and boxes but not the thing he was searching for. For a second he tore his eyes off the road and when he looked back-

He slammed on the brakes as something grey caught his vision. He could hear Raspberry slamming into the back of his seat. The grey figure quickly ran across the road.

"A racoon. A fucking racoon, you must be shitting me-" Jamie wheezed. Raspberry had climbed up to the cup holders. He must have made the cat angry again. A small smack to his hands brought his attention to the blob. "Hey! What gives?!"

The swishing tail pointed to the clock. 01:12. It was already past midnight and he was still driving.

"You want me to stop?" Rapid shaking followed. Jamie sighed. Sleep sounded like a wonderful idea but driving in open daylight was risky, even if he was in the middle of nowhere. That and he didn't want to get attacked by a bear because he accidentally drove over some berries or something.

"Okay. Maybe I could drive around the woods and hide the car so no one would find me. But if another racoon starts terrorizing us, I'm driving and not looking back." He mumbled the last part as he drove into the woods.

After driving around for a couple of minutes, he found an uprooted tree. It was bug enough to hide the car bit whether or not it fell on something is a whole new problem. Jamie gave up on thinking about it as he was too tired to pay attention to anything.

Turning the car off and looking at the bag that had been lying in the front seat, Jamie thought about what happened. He had stolen the Allspark but now what? Stall for time? Find an Autobot who was on earth and just give it to them? Go back home and pretend nothing ever happened as a weapon of mass creation sits in the back of his closet?

The last one was almost funny. He could imagine how comically shocked Optimus' face would have been if he dug the Allspark from under his bed. But that gave way another problem. Keeping the Allspark away from the Decepticons was obvious with no questions asked.

The Autobots, however, will prove to be even less productive. Jamie had to keep in mind that he was holding an artifact that could very well decide the outcome of a war. However, that wasn't his goal, that was a possibility. His goal was to make sure that nobody died in a war. But that would negate the a bit of the meaning of the term "war". In "war" there are bound to be compromises, sacrifices, victims and martyrs. But they only come around when the opposition has an advantage or just really dumb luck.

If he gave either side the Allspark, it could give them an advantage; one you couldn't overcome.

If he gave it to the Autobots, they'd use it to mass produce souldiers to fight the Decepticons, who in turn would be angered by his decision, would fight back with a burning passion and vice versa. That was the worst case scenario. The best case scenario would be them leaving the planet immediately after gaining the artifact, heading straight for Cybertron, but the problem of getting there was bad on its own. Humanity won't be able to provide them with the technology that they need and even if humanity did, it would only make sense for them to want something in return. Flying to Cybertron on their own was risky on its own - Optimus spent two to three years floating around in space, frozen by the vacuum. They'd need a ship, but the onlu two known were both in the hands of the Decepticons.

The child souldier version of both parties wouldn't be that different though. The only difference being the circumstances under which the smaller bots would live. The Decepticon faction probably being the more brutal one in raising young. And he really, really isn't sure what the Autobots would do. The first movie had told them that Optimus wanted to restore his home planet, but he couldn't go there because Quintessa kept polluting it with her massive ego. Not that he knew at all. In fact, both factions would only find out about Quintessa after 10 years in the very least.

There was also the question of what Quintessa was. He's not even sure how she happened. She was surely a being higher than the Cybertronians, but she wasn't the one who created them. It just didn't sit well with him. If Primus created the Primes and everyone else, then it would be fine. It should have been fine, but it wasn't, due to the bias and hate the two factions had towards each other. But if Primus was the creator - he had to be - then how did the blatant disrespect even appeared?

Fingers would definitely be pointing if Jamie were to bring up the issue with both factions. Christ, he sees just how under qualified for the job he is. If he had more understanding and knowledge of the back story, he would be able to analyze the issue further and maybe come up with a theoretical timeline and spectrum of the problems that arose during that time. But even with the lack of knowledge, Jamie can already see just how much of a shitshow will happen.

He grabbed the bag and reclined the chair. He might as well get some sleep.

Jamie woke up to the floating darkness again. Huh, so either the gods were here to congratulate him or ask if he has a second phase for the operation. He realized he was no longer actually floating. Rather, he was standing on the Allspark in it's original size. The texture of it made it look like it was from mica stone but Jamie knew better. His shoes were the only thing between his feet and the cube but it wouldn't hurt to actually touch it, right? Sam had managed to carry it around for two hours minimum, so it couldn't be harmful, right?

Jamie crouched down and traced his hand across the surface. There was a soft vibration coming from it, almost like a hum.

A sharp chime went off in his head. Hello.

A few more went off. I believe this is our first meeting.

Holy shit. Holy shit, the Allspark was sentient. It hadn't shown any sign of sentience in the first movie so there wasn't much to go on.

A glow of light blue and yellow on his legs caught his attention. He looked up to see a pair of blue eyes and two pairs of yellow ones peering at him.

"Child, we meet again." The blue eyes were most likely Primus and the yellow ones were the other god's.

"Yeah, we sure do." Jamie replied, slowly shaking his head.

"Ah," Primus spoke up, eyes darting to the cube underneath Jamie." Allspark! My creation, it has been too long."

Several chimes went off but Jamie couldn't understand them. Huh, so it was a "speak when I speak" type of communication. Primus' eyes softened as he listened to the chimes jingle.

"Is that so? Has our dear friend been treating you well?" Primus asked. Jamie knew they were talking about him but probably not for long. He'd chew Primus out about the war and Quintessa later. Who knows how long it has been since they've talked; he'll let them have that much.

Jamie glanced over to the yellow eyes. They were staring lazily at him.

"Hey. So, uh," Jamie knew he was no conversation expert but he should have probably known her name."I wanted to ask you something. I never really got your name."

"I have many names, but my creations refer to me as S'rik." A yellow mouth had opened up with rows of teeth adorning it. Now since he thought about it, Primus didn't have a mouth. He must have had a voice box instead.

"It has come to my attention, that while you did steal that, " S'rik gestured to the Allspark, "this is an indefinite change that could be undone within this month's time. And with your current purpose being what it is, think of this a danger detector."

Before Jamie could ask, he felt something burning itself into his strings started growing out of Jamie's left arm, numbers and letters appearing on the back of his wrist.

Humans: 15,679,561; Cybertronians: 56.

"Any questions?"

"Yeah, just two. Number one: what the fuck?" Jamie jumped to the edge of the cube closest to the yellow eyes. Gravity was still distorted but at least it saved him the effort of walking all the way there. "What is this shit?!"

"It's a meter. It changes depending on what you do, seeing as you currently have the Allspark in your possession. I'm sure you can figure out the rest." Jamie was beginning to believe that the reason Quintessa wanted to kill S'rik's creations was because everyone else wanted to but really couldn't.

"Oh, sure, give a person a tattoo that tells him the exact amount of people that will die because of him and eventually guilt tripping him. No pressure." Jamie put as much sarcasm and poison into his words as possible.

"Second question, Teresa." S'rik said through gritted teeth.

"What the fuck is your beef with Quintessa?" Jamie winced at his own words. He hadn't meant to make it sound so rude, but the burning pain on his arm and S'rik using his first name just made him even angrier.

"My "beef" with Primus' bloodthirsty daughter, no, that thing, is what she did to my creations." Words of malice came from the mouth. "You are aware of the duty of the Primes, correct?"

Upon hearing the word "Prime", Primus tore his attention from the Allspark into the conversation.

"Erm, I guess? All I know is that they would search for solar systems with no signs of life and use the star for energon harvesting."

"That is correct. However, with this coming into play, Quintessa is in no way a Prime. Rather, she was originally supposed to be a messenger of mine. A leader of sorts." Primus said. "While the Allspark is the only source of new life for the Cybertronians, its energon harvesting qualities are...subpar."

"Not everything is perfect, so we can't really blame you. Even so, isn't energon a natural source of energy?" "Teresa" had once heard her friend call instant coffee "synthetic energon". Knowing that something synthetic exists, there should be a natural counterpart.

"Yes. Although the Allspark is able to create such energy, its options were limited to low-grade and medium at best in small. So the thirteen original Primes had to find an alternative method."

"But it took too long."

"Almost. So Primus over here decided to confront this issue with another issue."

"She was not an issue at the time."

"Then how did she end up hunting down civilizations and committing genocide of dozens of races of large stars to make it seem like they were uninhabited?! Mine were fortunate enough to see a pattern and flee."

"..." A wave of guilt washed over Primus' eyes. Jamie felt like he was better off just sleeping dreamlessly. Still, he knew Quintessa was an antagonist but not that much. Mass genocide was not a debatable issue. Never debatable. In no way would there be "grey areas" or "pros" of that.

"You still care about her? Even after she used her authority as a messenger for colonization? Even after lying to your creations about being the one who created them? All that and you still care?" The questions came out before Jamie could even think further on the subject. He couldn't try to get an answer as to where it came from. This information - it just kept slipping into his mind. "She did all of that and you still don't think she should be punished?!"

"...S'rik, believe you can continue with the issue at hand." Primus answered. Jamie could see that his optics had dimmed, even if just a little.

"Don't change the subject!"

"Starscream." Said Primus suddenly.

"Starscream? What does he have to do with Quintessa?"

"Nothing. He is, however, heading to your location." Jamie's eyes widened. The Decepticons found him. Shit, damn it. He had to think fast. Really fast. "I suggest you wake up and deal with the issue."

Jamie shot up from the driver's seat fast enough to make the paper air conditioner dangle. While the adrenaline in his body was forcing him to start the car and adjust the seat, his mind was somewhere else. Starscream was Second in Command in the Decepticon army. He was coming with guns and weapons that surpassed what he had. He also had a clear resentment towards humans, namely calling them squishies. This all meant one thing.

Starscream was going to find out he had the Allspark and kill him for knowing about it in the first place. Searing pain etched itself into Jamie's wrist. He pulled his sleave down.

Humans: 16, 567,890; Cybertronians: 62.

Bloody hell, how in the world had the number jumped so high up?! Was Starscream really that trigger happy?! But, this was Starscream.

"Shit, merde, merde, merde-" Jamie started cursing in French. There was something about cursing in his first language that really made him feel better, even if only a little. He had to hide that for a good fourteen years, with Ron's parents being from England. Learning English wasn't exactly bad, but he'd love to be able to speak both languages in the very least. After centuries of peace, the French and the English still hate each other after all, even if only subtly.

Raspberry had woken up at the sound of the engine revving and looked up at Jamie. Jamie looked over at the clock. 03:56. Almost four in the morning and he was already getting chased. Great way to start the day.

" Nous sommes niques. C'est un foutu badel, c'est foutu-"

Jamie barely finished telling Raspberry how absolutely screwed they were before slamming on the gas and ploving through the woods, narrowly missing a collision with several trees. He grabbed a few of his rations and started munching them as quickly as he could. He'd need the energy and every ounce of luck he still had, ignoring the pain on his wrist.

Starscream had managed to get to the general location of the signal yet a problem arose. Despite a small empty human residence nearby, the perimeter was covered in vegetation and hid most movement on the ground from him. The closer he got to the signal, the more distorted his sensors got. The radiation was most likely spread out and the cause of navigation problems and glitches. Simply flying around the perimeter and continuesly scanning would do no good.

"This is a waste of my time and skill. "Shockwave is willing to share his rations" my aft." This could at least give him some time from the cramped spaceship. He shifted out of his alt form and walk through the area but the radiation was messing with his scanners.

This meant the signal was using its own signature to cloak itself. Smart, but only to an extent. He'd have to search in his bipedal form to find Gamma and hopefully wipe it off the face of the damn planet or take it in hopes of better living conditions.

Transforming in mid air, he scanned his radius. No abnormalities, except for the hints of static .

Starscream started to scan for areas of stronger radiation. There should no doubt be a stronger signal closer to the signal. He began strolling towards a strong trail of radiation. The more he walked, the closer he got.

But suddenly, the radiation had dropped quite suddenly. And he detected movement. Starscream whipped his helm to the sound of it only to have his optics glitch and static flood his sensors again. He was beginning to get agitated with this...thing.

However, this gave him a direction to move in and he wasted no time heading in that direction. The fluctuations in radiation continued but Starscream was able to make out heat signatures and movement. Despite the thick forest making things worse, he could somewhat see something that of a car moving.

A Decepticon? Wouldn't they have contacted the Nemesis first? An arrival of other Decepticons hadn't been signaled and they'd have to somehow land on this pit of dirt in precise timing of it being on the opposite side of their previous position. Either way, that was as likely as them finding Megatron.

An Autobot? That seemed rather unlikely. They haven't encountered one in mega-vorns. But if it was, then Starscream was going to have a blast beating the bot into the dirt. A large energon suply, extra free time and now free lethal target practice? Primus must be smiling upon him!

Ripping through the trees in excitement, he was readying his cannons. The car he was chasing picked up its speed. Either the Autobot was desperate to survived or just overly proud in his evacive methods.

Firing off several shots, he watched as the vegetation and soil exploded in flames. The car was unharmed as it flew through the woods, narrowly missing his shots. Hmm, the damn thing seemed fast. He chased the car through the forest in the direction of the settlement. Was it trying to hide there? It wouldn't be likely, since the settlement was small.

After several misfires, he managed to hit the engine and make it stop. The car stopped and began smoking, but the signature was still resonating. It just made him even more angry with the mission. The engine was one of those parts that could cripple a warrior easily if hit at the right angle. Starscream had done that a few times and almost every time the opponent's energy signature dropped rapidly. For the signature to rise even with the mortal injury was absolutely-

Suddenly, a young human jumped out of the car and the energon signature followed it. It followed it even as the car exploded and a multitude of scrap flew into the fauna.

Oh.

This was a problem. If the source of the signal was an item that the human was carrying, then the human could be dealt with easily. However, if it was the human, then a more controlled and careful method would be necessary and Starscream was not a fan of organics, no, it was Scapel who was the mad scientist of the group. Well, him and Shockwave, but Shock was much less fanatical in his experiments.

With the vehicle destroyed, the human would have to resort to running. The small locals were usually slow and it would be easy picking now. Starscream, although once a slave, was a self taught master of immediate plotting. In this case, most would take cover in buildings so he could easily smoke it out. However, signal Gamma proved to be an anomaly of the most annoying type.

"Hold still, you piece of scrap!"

The fleshbag, as the locals say, "runs like a mothefucker", even with the extra bag in its possession. From jumping into and under large objects to just running around him and under his peds. Downwards into small openings which were too small for his digits to reach into. Yet at some times, if he got far enough for a singular klik, he'd try to get into cars or buses before giving up on it to hide. The crafty little scraper was trying to shake him off or outrun him using other vehicles but it was also fiddling with the items inside its bag. Perhaps signal Gamma was an item and not the human he so vehemently wanted to shoot. He hoped so, he wouldn't let the damn fleshie anywhere near his cockpit.

He ended up chasing signal Gamma all the way to the edge of the town, near a large abandoned building. If Starscream recalled correctly, it was a prison.

It's fast, but not fast as his guns. He's decimated several buildings in hopes of immobilizing or cornering it but its eyes never left his frame. Starscream's temper was running short and so was the human's breath. His yells mostly consisted of shocked sounds and what could be understood as profanity but the seeker tried to ignore it. Keyword tried. Starscream was already close to chopping it's head off, letting it slander his greatness was simply asking for torture. He's positive that "enfoiré" is an insult. Maybe he could give it to Skywarp or Thundercracker if it begged for mercy or tried to fight back. Depended on which. Thundercracker had been rather fond of the local species, claiming to see them as amusing and fun to mess with. It would definitely give Starscream some support from his fellow Seeker. But if the damn thing tried as much as anything on him, Skywarp would have a new plaything.

It stopped, leaned over the wall of a house with a stumble and Starscream didn't hesitate. He lunged forward to grab it when suddenly it ran straight at him. Perhaps the human was dumber than he thought.

However, the human slipped from under his grasp and made haste into the abandoned building.

"You slagging-" With whatever energy it still had left, it ran towards the building and jumped through one of the windows. Frag, Starscream was getting rusty if he couldn't catch a single organic. This was outrageous! What was that thing, a damn sports car with nitro addiction in bipedal shape?!

Looking over the rest of the town and seeing the whole mess that had just unfolded, he's sure that it would be suspicious if the prison didn't join the mayhem and scrap as the rest of the settlement.

Jamie has never exercised so much in his whole life. He had barely managed to get a few kilometers through the woods when Starscream just straight up ran up to him and blew up the Mercedes he was driving. After that went some of the closest calls to death that he has ever had. He used whatever parkour trick he saw on TV and hiding spot he saw yet even so that helped in absolutely no way. No matter how he'd maneuver through the town, Starscream was always on his heels.

He knew this was going to happen, really he did. But he realized that no matter how mentally prepared he was, his adrenaline filled mind had never experienced something as terrifying as this. The concept was so foreign and no mental wall could help him overcome the sheer fear of the situation. He had tried to fetch the thermos, the flasks, anything that should have remotely helped him but Starscream's ugly fucking mug kept finding him. Was it the Allspark? That and maybe because the ghost town was so small that you could hear a cat knock over some cans on the other side of it.

Ironically enough, hope came in the form of an abandoned prison, empty of anything. He had managed to get to the second floor before his asthma really made everything terrible. He had been coughing and wheezing ever since he got anywhere remotely close. He barely managed to whip his enhaler out in the nick of time.

Running across the halls, Jamie saw Raspberry open the bag from the inside, a box of ammunition stuck on his head.

Wait, ammunition!

"Raspberry, move." He said, pushing the cat away. He grabbed the shotgun and yanked the box off of Raspberry. He loaded two rounds in and shoved four more into his fanny pack. The weight felt odd and out of place, with whatever muscle Jamie had. The shotgun would have fit perfectly in "Teresa's" hands but now was not the time for reminisce. Putting the gun aside, he grabbed a flask and the thermos, wondering if this was going kill him before Starscream. The drink he had at the bar was watered down. He had no idea what the solid version would do. He decided to go for the flask and the crystals inside first.

He opened the flask and shaked down a handful of the crystals. They were a pale green colour which simply screamed "poison". Jamie sighed. This was probably going to taste like expired coffee brewed with a lemony fizzy drink but it was better than dying by Starscream's fingers. He threw his head back and swallowed it all at once.

It later turned into a terrible decision as hid throat, mouth and tongue burned. Jamie was briefly reminded of a child in his neighborhood who swallowed a whole spoonful of malic acid and then proceeded to be shipped off to the hospital.

A loud crash resounded not too far behind him and Jamie grabbed the shotgun and took off in the hallway. He shoved the flask into his bag and began rummaging for the thermos. Another crash happened, the shotgun was getting heavy in his hand. Everything in his vision was getting distorted and his vison was sharpening.

The thermos was finally found when he was a bit away from a main hall of sorts. He flicked it open and took two gulps, unable to bear the pain in his throat. But the feeling of it going down, changed something. As if a switch had been flicked and gave rise to something else. It was horrifying and something he had never experienced. He shoved the feeling down, or at least tried to as he fumbled with the lid.

His head was spinning, words and phrases of a language he couldn't recognize coming from his lips without his knowledge. Intrusive thoughts and feelings suddenly poured into his head, each one showing something different than the last. He couldn't concentrate and stumbled a little from what was happening, nearly dropping the shotgun.

He barely managed to stuff it back into the bag, when a large metal hand grabbed him.

When Starscream grabbed the pest, he expected lots of things. Screaming, thrashing, weakly hitting his digits. The vermin pointing a relatively primitive gun at him was not one of those things. Neither was seeing its eyes glowing in a shade of purple, something that was far from natural among the fleshbags.

The gun wouldn't do much against him. Cybertronian metal was far more durable than the metals found on the planet. It would be like throwing a pebble at him. Gently.

The child took quick aim and unloaded two rounds straight into his optic. Pain seared into his processor and, almost instinctively, he threw the child across the room. He grasped his optic in pain as the child screamed a few pitches higher than usual. The little slagger actually got him! How dare he?! Screw Shockwave and Soundwave, it was personal now!

His other good optic saw the fleshbag's head hit the wall with a sickening crack. However, something odd was going on, as Starscream saw that the child's biological body behaved unnaturally in comparison to its organic build. The hair, which typically was supposed to be soft and moldable, had seemingly turned into a solid and shattered into pieces yet blood still splattered the wall. The sight reminded him of a bowl of high-grade hitting a wall. But the crack was followed by the sound of something breaking and falling to the ground. Shards of a dull, grey crystal fell to the floor and not even a klik later was the body followed. The figure fell on the floor, the now short hair falling over its eyes. The sack it was carrying slumped off its shoulder onto the ground. The radiation was beginning to dull, almost seemingly gone, with only the energon signal left. Starscream gave a cautious scan to the body.

Temperature - 37degrees, 40 degrees, 45 degrees, 47 degrees. The temperature kept rising.

'But It's dead.' Starscream thinks. Perhaps this is a human thing that happens. They bury their dead do maybe they do it to avoid human combustion? Who knew, humans were weird. They never devoted any research to them.

Humans were soft, organic and fragile. They would fall over even with just a flick of a digit.

A sigh left his frame. Perhaps they treated them unfairly, but even so, it would happen eventually to them as well. An organic species is not known to last long, especially one as primitive as this one. One klik they were on the edge of their second Renaissance, the other their species was on the brink of the Apocalypse. It was a grueling cycle he saw amongst these types of planets, with cultures that went as they came.

Even if their existence was somewhat special, they were only one of hundreds out in the universe. They might as well use them for something good.

It made Starscream feel sentimental about the sketch of the idea of putting the race to serve them as slaves. He personally experienced it, for back before the war, before he met Megatron, Seekers were commonly used as slaves, with nobles and elites blaming their rare frames and calling them "defects" and "below them". The humiliation and rage was forever burned into his processor and the thought of doing the same thing that the elites did to Seekers to the humans, as they say, "left a bad taste in his mouth".

He kept brushing those thoughts back. This was war. War had consequences and prisoners, prisoners who were then defected into servants or killed. Sacrifices were necessary. They lost their planet, their culture, their home. This fate befell on the humans even before they were created. The minute the Allspark landed on their planet, they would be inevitably involved in their war. It was only obvious that they'd be seen as less, being primitive and far behind on their development.

Child souldier were common back when the war was still on Cybertron, sparklings being forced into warframes with guns and weapons and into the front lines. It was a characteristic of the Autobot faction during the beginning of the war. They ended up making monsters, adrenaline junkies and cannon fodder. They didn't know any better, they didn't have any choice - everyone kept saying. Still, they kept forcing sparks out of the Allspark for war until the Allspark refused to bend to them. And they sent it away.

It was frowned upon, then it happened more often and soon enough it became normalized. Then it stopped and everyone kept asking "why are there so little souldiers?".

Starscream shaked his helm. Now was not the time for reminisce, he had to investigate that energon signature.

The corpse twitched. Starscream halted. It was...still alive? Impossible, their bone structure was too soft to-

There was another crack, this time from the broken arm that was snapping itself back into place, something was smoking from under the cloth it was wearing. The same thing happened with its head as its head twisted into different angles. Starscream scanned the not-exactly dead human again.

Slag, the temperature was rising at an abnormal rate, with chemicals beginning to form in several places.

The body began changing color from the pale flesh color, to red, then orange. The concrete around it began heating up as the heat spread. Starscream took a step back. What physical abomination was he witnessing?

The head turned to him, sneered and charged at him.

Starscream tried to grab him again, hopefully another throw would-

The fleshbag grabbed his digits and it burned. Metal melted as the human began turning into a literal furnace from the pit. It dig into his wires and ripped them off, throwing them aside as if it were scrap.

Starscream howled in pain and formed a cannon with his other good servos and blasted the human. It dodged but that didn't stop Starscream's fury.

He was enraged! The damned scrapling was supposed to be dead! He didn't give a slag about the mission anymore, it needs to die.

But what messed with him the most was the look on the fleshbag's face. It was gruesome, angry and willing to rip him apart. But worst of all, it reminded him of Megatron.

Not the Megatron who started the war, who foolishly tipped the balance. No, not Megatron, who was leader of the Decepticons. Megatron, gladiator of the pits of Kaon. Megatron, who fought for his life cycle after cycle. Megatron, who had become hateful towards the system the Primes had put them in. The Megatron that had gained ideas and started spreading them. The ideas that the system resented, but Starscream. Starscream listened. And he heard. He felt as if they were thinking the same thing.

But that was the old Megatron. The old Megatron, who had wanted nothing more than equality on Cybertron, so that places like Kaon stopped existing, had long since been replaced by someone else. He doesn't remember when it happened but Megatron, who he had once thought of as a friend, an ally, became drunk with power and settled his sights on conquering Cybertron as a whole. His strategies became more and more holeful. His behavior had gotten worse and everyone assumed that it was simply the war taking its toll. No, it wasn't the toll of the war. He had heard stories from him, about how he would fight day and night at times and even then he was in a clear state of mind. Something else had happened. Something had replaced the real Megatron he knew.

It enraged him. His companion, someone who he's seen laugh in the face of death, replaced by this thing. That was most likely the rise of his backstabbing tendencies.

Sure, he and Megatron had rejoiced together victory after victory against the Autobot faction. They reveled in the energon of their enemies! They had taken down giants, larger than even Megatrons frame! And oh what satisfaction did it bring.

But oh how he loathed the new one. His behavior was no better than those who ruled above and soon enough, Starscream had began to hate the friend he once thought he knew. Subtle sabotage, leaking information, relentlessly but sneakily giving the opposition hints. He did it all out petty rage and disgust at what Megatron had turned into. He wanted to smack some sense into that processor of his but-

He couldn't. He just couldn't. Their relationship had gained a gap. A gap that had turned them from equals to nothing more than master and servant. He had hated the current relationship so badly, he simply wanted to tear it apart. But, he couldn't. This power dynamic had turned slowly and stayed that way for vorns. For so many vorns. So long, that Megatronus, gladiator of Kaon, seemed like nothing more than a dream. A mere illusion of reality.

He never wanted this. Not this war. Not this outcome. None of this.

Yet a skeptical part in his processor told him that Megatron used him for personal gain. He was one of few Seekers that had outright voiced their displeasure about the system. And what better way to gain followers than to have someone who's felt such pain firsthand? Starscream had listened and it was probably the smartest thing he's done in his life.

What little of their friendship was left had decayed and rusted over through the tides of war. Some who had known him before the revolution would ask just how did their companionship, born from the very ends of the pit, had twisted itself into the awful coexistence that it was. Starscream never gave them the answer. In the end, the only reason why he kept following him was out of hopes that they might win the war and fear. Fear of being scrapped.

Signal Gamma had stopped dodging as the surrounding temperature rose up to staggering levels, both from his blasts and from the human's teleporting shenanigans. The concrete was growing a bit too hot for his comfort.

Megatron had turned merciless and he turned a blind eye. It happened.

Megatron made a deal with Sentinel Prime, a Prime of the opposition and old times, who's ideas were no different from the time of the Second Dark Ages. He kept his voice box shut, hoping that this was indeed all for the sake of the Decepticon cause.

But then Megatron so very foolishly went after the Allspark. It was, by far, Megatron's stupidest decision that almost guaranteed their loss. He reached out to him, hoping, praying to Primus that there would still be a shred of the past left. And Megatron? He backhanded him. He ignored his duties as a leader and whatever sliver of hope Starscream still had was gone.

He had taken over command, pulled their army out of the gutter and threw his whole being into winning the war. Or at the very least, fix the problem Megatron had started.

He managed to do better, focusing on strategies and tactics rather than sheer numbers alone. It saved him half the Decepticon army, but didn't sway their loyalty from Megatron, even if he abandoned them.

Cybertron fell, the cause for both factions was lost but the war was still on. A new goal was now in place.

Find the Allspark and restore Cybertron.

For once, Megatron's dumbest decision seemed like the smartest.

He tracked down the approximate coordinates and managed to shrink down their territory to a solar system.

Flying to the Nemesis, he had thought that he would take command again and begin searching.

He was proved wrong when he saw the Fallen. The first Decepticon faction leader was seen as the more favorable option for leading in Megatron's absence.

That didn't mean he trusted him though. The only way he outranked Starscream in favor was in terms of experience. Nothing more. He was an old mech, older than Sentinel. And Starscream had a knack for hating old ghosts. There was something odd about him, like there was more than meets the eye.

Starscream was knocked back into reality. Quite literally. The signal had resorted to flinging stray debris at him. The hot concrete had become molten in some places and it was quickly becoming a hazard to both his face plates and helm. The signal was getting better at its aim. He used his jets to fly up from the ground but only enough to keep him away from the floor.

The molten ground turned into a very light purple scorching liquid as Starscream's processor screamed at him to get out of there. That was not energon. That was most definitely not energon. He didn't get a chance to scan it before the signal started yelling at him again.

"Get out of my sight!" Yelled the child- no, not a child, not even an organic, unless the information Barricade had been feeding them was false. Signal Gamma was a better name for the physical anomaly he was currently attempting to capture.

It flew at him, bouncing off the cells and metal bars for momentum and melting them off almost immediately with a noise that made Starscream's sensor bleed.

Starscream knows that Cybertronian metal isn't something that easily melts but that doesn't mean that signal Gamma is simply thermodynamic. Radiation is not something that they've experimented with and Starscream doesn't want to find out more than others.

The signal grabbed his ped just as he managed to fly out of reach and started scaling him like the meddling cockroach it was. Starscream tried shoving it off of him but with no success before-

The fleshbag came into his line of vision, reeled his arm back and-

Pain. Screeches and static. It felt like a molten needle was pushed past his optics into the inside of his helm. Nothing but pain exploded in his helm as he scratched at his face plates in hopes of getting it off of him, he's sick of this slagging-

"The back of his cell was anything but quiet with the match and the roaring audience outside. The newbie must be getting a lucky shot-"

Something in his processor buzzed.

" "Megatronus, is this-"

"Don't touch that! It's personal."

"You write poetry?!"

"I said don't t-"-"

Memories started flashing in his processor. Was this what the human's called "life flashing before one's eyes"?

" "Megatronus, perhaps you should-"

"Megatron. That is I will be called."

"Excuse me?"

"We are changing this world, Starscream, it's only obvious that I should go under a new name into a new world."

"Really? That does sound nostalgic. Maybe I should-"

"No.""

How ironic. His life, his whole miserable life was going to be the latest thing he saw.

" "Megatron, please, I beg of you, have logic. You can't just leave the entire army to go on a hunt for the Allspark! Think of our cause!"

"Didn't i tell you to call me 'Lord'?"

"If you go through with this then there will be nothing left to rule!"

"Silence, you pest! Are you questioning my leadership?!"

"This has nothing to do with leadership! How do you expect the Decepticon cause to win this war if you're not even going to bother-!" A gun was pressed against his helm, nearly denting it.

"Starscream, you have one klik to undo your mistake or else.""

Pathetic. Truly pathetic.

The pain was too great and before he knew it his back collided with the earth underneath him while he kept scratching at his faceplates.

He grabbed something soft and, with what little strength he still had, pulled it off of him as quick as he could and threw it weakly into the distance.

Getting up was no easy feat after that. Energon poured from the cavity in his head. He was in a near offline condition, if he didn't get back to the Nemesis-

He'd rather not think about that. He tried to ignore the pain and transform, to get off this next level pit. His frame didn't listen to him, the pain kept throwing off his concentration and he was fading fast.

'C'mon, Starscream, pull yourself together.'

"You." He's not even bother looking at that fragging monster. No, he has other things to worry about. "And me. We've lost someone very important to us. Slipped through our fingers, never to be found."

There was silence. Nothing but the hiss of molten rock to fill the night.

"So you saw, huh? If you think I'm like you you're wrong. You're nothing but a-"

"Megatron and Megatronus are two different personas. And one is most certainly gone for good." Starscream gave out a wheeze. Primus, this was ridiculous. The enemy was sympathetic towards him, how low can he really go?

"Oh, you have no idea. Can't even think of that scraper without wanting to punch someone. I trusted him, I followed him, I nearly died for him!" Starscream's T-cog was probably damaged. He sent out a distress signal to the Nemesis and Soundwave.

"Yet all he did was spit on you."

"He sure did." Starscream barely managed to stay awake to see the signal and coordinates delivered before falling into stasis.