A/N: This took me way longer to finish than expected when I first started it. Partially because I worked on the next chapter of YWOB, but mostly because I was tired and exhausted and my muse shifted focus to My Hero Academia and I have had limited time. I had a different idea for this scene as I was finishing it but I decided to stick with this one, since it's been established that in the reality Shade' calls home Starscream wasn't inclined to join Megatron. I don't think her existence in the beginning of the war would've changed that, even she did make friends with Megatron for a time. I think Starscream would see him turning to violence the same as he did in the original version of this reality. I still view this version as the same reality as YWOB, just a different timeline of events, a different version of it.

This is another snippit of the version of reality in which Shadebreaker grew up on Cybertron after returning to being Cybertronian and having to go through sparklinghood, being her literal age instead of her mental age. As established already, she sympathizes with Megatron's cause and actually spoke out first about the treatment of the lower castes. But at the end of the day, she's still Shadebreaker and she doesn't agree with the path he's chosen. She'd hoped she would be able to steer him away from it and, for a time, believed she could trust him, but when he turned to violence still, she realized that all the times he seemed to be listening to her, he was playing her and manipulating her. And she's not the type anymore to let that slide for the sake of friendship.

Hope you enjoy!

050 - Rejection

It was just a normal day off for the Elite Seeker trine. Starscream was testing some samples of something he was working on while simultaneously mentally planning for his meet-up with his childhood best friend and intended sparkmate while his brothers played a game of Commerce at the dinner table. They didn't get very many days like this, especially where Starscream could pursue his interest in science without worrying about anyone barging in and discovering him. His caste wasn't a science caste, so if anyone from the High Council or any die-hard functionist found out he was learning something outside his caste then he'd be sent to jail, possibly worse. He was lucky his brothers didn't believe all that strongly in the caste system themselves, despite their parents best efforts. Their brother's happiness was more important to them than their parents' approval. It was typical in trines, though. If they'd had a fourth sibling, it was hard to tell if the same would ring true for them.

Starscream smiled in content to himself, reflecting how lucky he was to have his brothers as trinemates and to have these times where he could just be himself. Shadebreaker, the friend he was meeting later, also encouraged his pursuits of science and even studied it with him despite it being far outside of her own caste.

He was interrupted from his thoughts as the door to their suite was suddenly smashed in, startling all three seekers in the room. Faster than any of the three could react, a squad of mechs poured through the door and had Starscream's brothers pinned and bound in the time it took the trine leader to turn around. In another second, Starscream's arms were twisted behind his back and he was forced onto his knees.

"Hey!" Skywarp protested as he was forced into the same position as Starscream. "What's the deal?!" He flinched as his arms were twisted painfully and he struggled some. "Let me go!"

"Shut up!" the mech restraining him growled, striking the mech in between his wings, making Skywarp cry out in pain.

"Fragger!" Thundercracker said, an intense fury in his voice. "Leave him alone!" He shoved his captor off and made a dive for the mech restraining Skywarp only to be shot by a blast of energy and falling back to the ground, smoke coming off where he was shot. Immediately a mech rushed to restrain him again.

Starscream's optics went to the source of the shot and his optics widened at the sight of the familiar mech. A tall, silver mech standing at a height well above Starscream's own stood in the doorway, a fusion cannon lifted, clearly powering down after firing a round. The mech had red optics filled with anger and hate and sharp denta were visible where the mech was snarling down at the trio of brothers.

"Why you!" Starscream growled, wings twitching in anger. "Let my brothers go!" He struggled a bit against the bot restraining him.

"That wouldn't benefit me very much, now would it? Starscream?" the mech said smoothly. He grinned toothily at the Seeker's distress. "I am Megatron and I am here with a proposal."

Starscream narrowed his optics at the mech and there was defiance in his optics.

"Whatever it is, the answer is no," Skywarp growled from where he was restrained. "We know how you work."

Megatron growled and motioned to the mech restraining the purple and black seeker.

Skywarp cried out as he was stomped into the ground by his captor in a painful strike between the wings. The mech exerted more pressure than necessary to keep the seeker pinned in order to inflict the most pain.

"I wasn't talking to you," Megatron said, aiming his fusion cannon at the youngest of the trine, powering it up.

"Stop!" Starscream yelled, trying to leap forward, though he was held back by the bot restraining him. "If you hurt either of them any further the answer is a definite no!" He growled, glaring darkly at Megatron.

Megatron paused and looked over at Starscream before a twisted grin slowly made its way onto his faceplates. "And what benefit do I get in letting them live?" he asked. He lowered his cannon and walked over to Starscream, lifting him up by his chest armor.

Starscream ground his denta and glanced over to where his trinemates were both pinned down. Skywarp was struggling to get up, only succeeding in making his captor cause him more pain. Thundercracker was unconscious from the blast he had taken, though the mech was still restrained regardless. He looked back at Megatron.

A sudden shout called both of their attention to where Skywarp was pinned to the ground—rather, where he had been pinned to the ground. The mech who had been pinning him was on the floor, evidence of having been given a harsh kick to the jaw—harsh enough that sparks were flickering and the mech had hit the ground with such force that he was now unconscious. What appeared to be a portal opened up underneath the mech that was standing over Thundercracker and the mech fell through with a shout of surprise. Where he ended up was anybody's guess.

"What?" Megatron asked, optics searching the room, even as the remainder of his team had something similar happen to them.

"It seems, Megatron," a new voice, a familiar one, said calmly. A purple and silver Seeker, shorter than Starscream, walked through the demolished doorway with the air of a bot that knew they were about to win. "That you failed to take into account the unexpected."

"Shadebreaker," Megatron greeted as he shoved Starscream away, causing the mech to slam into the wall behind him. "What is this?"

"Consider this a rejection," Shadebreaker replied, standing tall and wings flaring in both challenge and defiance.

"So, after all this time, the high caste femme doesn't actually side with the low caste bots," Megatron said in a tone so falsely surprised you could've cut the falseness with a knife. "I wish I could say I was surprised, Shadebreaker. You fought so hard for us."

"It's not that my opinions have changed, it's that you've shown your true colors," Shadebreaker replied, tone firm. "Tell me Megatron, how many innocents do you think must die to get your way? How do you justify forcing bots to do your will? Because we were making headway. We were getting people on our side. And now your violence is ruining it. This is not me rejecting the ideals I've spoken with you about. This is me rejecting your methods. Your madness."

Megatron chuckled in amusement. "You and Orion are so alike," he said. "Your ideal is a peaceful solution. There is no such solution." He reached toward Starscream, only to realize the mech wasn't there anymore. He looked around and the only thing he found was the mech's brothers disappearing through a portal. "Heh. Well, you've always been full of surprises. You never told me you could use these portals."

"It wasn't relevant," Shadebreaker told him. "I might've trusted you with that secret. If you hadn't broken the trust I had in you by turning to killing those with no power to be responsible for the suffering just because you wanted to. Killing those who were on our side even. You can't do that slag and expect everyone to roll over and be ok with that. That's not how the universe works. Nor should it be. Otherwise it's the Quintessans all over again. Just in new form."

"So naive," Megatron started.

"Save it," Shadebreaker cut him off. "You will not convince me that killing and forcing bots is right. This is where we part ways, Megatron. Whatever happens, at least I'll know I didn't let myself be a doormat. Not this time. Goodbye, my friend."

With that, Shadebreaker disappeared through one of those fascinating portals she could use.

"That femme," Megatron hummed. "Says such strange things sometimes."