Ch. 14

Starscream saw the mine up ahead. It was another shot into this nightmare. Megatron dove and transformed first, the seeker following suit. The warlord was so intent on the both of them walking inside, he failed to notice tracks left by small and large bots. Even humans.

'Good,' Starscream thought, 'they're already here.'

The seeker kept a light glare on his faceplates as he pressed on, only startled from his thoughts when Megatron spoke, "Have you nothing to inquire about from me, Starscream? You are unusually silent."

Starscream glanced at the warlord for only a moment, "I grow concerned the longer we keep Airachnid aboard the Nemesis. She only allowed her capture due to her lack of medical expertise. I do not believe trusting her would be in the best interest of the Decepticons or yourself, my lord."

Megatron chuckled deeply, "And yet, she has been very well behaved, has she not?"

"Only a ploy, I assure you. But if you give it enough time, she will slip up. Acts are hard to keep going forever."

They entered the main chamber of the mine and Starscream stared at the drills that had been left behind but said nothing.

Megatron looked back at him with a glare, "How intriguing. Have you any explanation for this, my second?"

The seeker crossed his arms, "If I am correct, this mine was a collection of five mines I was overseeing at once. I ordered a pullback of resources from three of those mines to exploit the remaining two more vigorously. Obviously, these pieces of equipment were neither broken down, nor transported due to time constraints."

The explanation was not entirely false. Not. Entirely. Yes, Starscream had been forcing the drones to work five mines at once instead of the usual one or two, but these drills he had left back on purpose for his own use in case of emergency. Energon drilling was hard work after all.

Megatron growled, flexing his claws, "Oh, really?"

The warlord slammed his clawed servo into the side of the mine's wall and pulled out a sizable chunk of raw energon.

Starscream again gave little reaction; he wasn't surprised this time, "Dear, seems I pulled them too soon."

Megatron snarled, dropping the energon and stomping on it, "That is your excuse?! You think I do not know you have been hoarding back a supply of energon for your personal use?!"

The seeker scowled right back at him, "I gave you an answer to your question! I can't add more to something I have already explained!"

Megatron roared, "Do not take me for a fool, Starscream!"

Starscream still held his ground, even as Megatron approached him menacingly, "I have been wise to your transgressions from the very beginning. Not only did you pluck the dark energon from my chest in a failed attempt to snuff my spark, but you tried to raise your own undead warrior with it!"

The seeker still wasn't phased as he let his wings stay high, his optics boring back into Megatron's. He had been terrified for his life before. But he knew how this played out. Arcee was maybe a minute around the corner with Jack. And this time, he wanted to really stick it to the larger mech.

"Yes!" Starscream roared back, "I did! And do you know why? Because you abandoned the Decepticons when we could have used you most! And for what? Dark energon? Something that was fabled, a myth! You left us for a fragging fairytale! Three years we waited and you return with a purple crystal that can raise our dead? Well how well did that plan work out, LORD Megatron?! Because I don't see a mass of undead warriors tearing into the Autobots OR this planet, do you?!"

Megatron was thoroughly surprised. He had expected Starscream to be cowering by this point and yet here was the seeker, still fighting back hard. Soundwave had been a perfect spy for him against Starscream; he had all of his little secrets out in the open now. So why wasn't he submitting?

The warlord growled, his cannon charging as he aimed, "I have had enough, Starscream. The only reason I have allowed you to live this long is because it amused me to watch your failures. But I have grown weary-"

A whirring noise caught Megatron's attention and Starscream finally cringed when he realized where the noise had comes from. He looked off to the side to see Arcee aiming her blasters at the pair of them, Jack hiding just behind her. The seeker grimaced when he noticed they were a few seconds early.

"Scrap," grumbled Starscream.

Megatron looked to his second when he heard him speak and roared, his cannon firing. In the same moment, Arcee shot at Megatron with her blasters. But everything slowed for Starscream as it had when he was nearly blown up by the missile MECH had shot at him during Breakdown's rescue.

He felt the surge of electricity in his chest again, in his spark, and his whole chassis hiccuped. The seeker coughed in pain as he was thrown to the side by the force of whatever was inside him towards the opening Arcee had come from and out of the way of Megatron's cannon blast. The warlord didn't have time to comprehend what had just happened. He blocked some of Arcee's blaster fire as the femme charged at him, her small frame slipping passed his attempts to hit or grab her.

Starscream sat up with a groan and felt the area begin to shake. Megatron's missed cannon blast was causing the cave-in to start. The seeker scrambled to get to his peds when he heard Jack just behind him, clinging to the rock walls. Slag it all, why couldn't the Autobots ever keep track of their humans?

Starscream snarled at himself as he was put into this situation a second time and again at how he only had seconds to decide how he was going to handle it. Arcee cried out when a well placed punch sent her flying towards Starscream, the femme crashing into him and slamming them both against the wall next to Jack.

Megatron roared and aimed his cannon at the pair of them, intending on finishing them both with one blast. His attempt was thwarted when a large piece of the ceiling crashed into the warlord and dug him down into the caving ground, pinning him under rock and rubble.

The ceiling continued to crash down in the main chamber. Jack stumbled to get to Arcee and tripped, a pile of rock coming down to crush him. It became very dark and when everything finally stilled, the boy realized he hadn't been killed.

Jack coughed dust from his lungs, shaking as his eyes tried to get used to the dark, "A-Arcee?" he coughed again, "Arcee?"

Bright red optics powered on and sent Jack scuttling back in surprise into a clawed servo just behind him. Starscream glared down at the boy and grumbled, wincing when he felt the rock above them crush down harder on his back and wings. The seeker had leaned over just in time to stop Jack from being killed. Again.

"Jack?" came Arcee's response, her optics now visible in the dark, "Are you alright?"

Jack just stared at Starscream and quietly nodded.

The seeker huffed, taking in sharp intakes as he tried not to move, "She can't hear a nod, Jack," he hissed.

The boy trembled, calling out, "Y-yeah, I'm fine."

Arcee's small headlights flickered on and she grimaced when she saw how they had been trapped. Starscream's large wings had created enough of a pocket so they hadn't been crushed but his legs were currently being pinned by Arcee's chassis. The only leverage the seeker had were his arms and that was barely enough to keep the rocks from killing the human he was face to faceplates with.

The femme tried to move off Starscream's legs but a surprised whine from the mech's throat and a groan in his wings made her stop.

Arcee settled and growled, intaking heavily, "Scrap."

Starscream couldn't agree more. And what was worse was he didn't know what to do next.