Ch. 93

The other seekers still seemed edgy and frantic.

"Where did he go?!"

"He's gone!"

"Is that going to happen to us?!"

"Now he's dead a third time!"

"Silence!" Starscream yelled, the flock going quiet; he growled softly, "He's gone. Yes. But something he realized I now realize. That is probably why he was here, why all of you are here."

"So what?!" Orange snarled angrily, "We're all just figments to you-"

Orange's chassis went transparent then disappeared, a new thought entering Starscream's mind: these seekers, these clones of him, were all figments, constructions created to help aid in these lessons he was supposed to learn.

Green squealed, "Now he's gone, too!"

Starscream growled; he had to regain control, "Quiet! No one panic... He is gone because he just realized a new component to all this: the lot of you are figments. You're only here to help me discover something."

"Each of us?" Red questioned.

Starscream nodded and Blue hummed lowly, "So if each of us has something we're individually supposed to help you realize, how do we know what we're supposed to help you realize?"

"This didn't come with an instruction manual," Green grumbled.

Starscream scowled, "No. It didn't. And I don't know."

Green sighed, "Well... let's think."

"About what?" Red snapped.

Green glared, "Anything! If we're figments, then we must have something worth passing on before we're ready to move on, so just start thinking!"

Red began frantically tapping his claws, "Alright, ok, so ah... knowing the future!"

Blue nodded, "Yes, that's a start."

Red continued, biting down on his lip in thought, "What if it's a more complex situation than just a dream state or spark transference?"

Green's optics widened in excitement, "Or perhaps not solely complex, but a mistake? Humans suffer from 'seeing their lives flash before their eyes' all the time!"

"How much is 'all the time'?" Starscream huffed.

Green shrugged, "I don't know, when they're dying. But what if this was something similar?" the more he spoke, the less material the seeker seemed to be, "What if you were supposed to relive these memories and moments all the way from the beginning and something stopped you and pulled you out?"

Starscream watched carefully and nodded, "I... felt the hiccup stop me... Or, at least my spark, and then something took hold..."

Green smiled, "You were supposed to keep going, you weren't supposed to stop! You weren't supposed to be pulled through either, so the hiccup-"

The seeker disappeared. A new thought finished in Starscream's helm: he had been on some sort of spark journey that had not gone the way it was supposed to. Whether other bots went on a similar journey, he was uncertain, but his hiccup, combined with a dark and ugly stain on his spark journey had pulled him through. To the past.

Red and Blue sighed quietly as Starscream nodded, "Alright... moving on..."

Red lowered his wings, "This is getting harder."

The silver mech nodded, "It is. But we can't exactly stop now."

Red frowned and nodded back, "Green was mentioning the hiccup before he... ... We should start there."

Starscream flicked his wings, "Alright, then what could it be?"

Red crossed his arms as he speculated, "Well, it only ever happens in moments of peril. It's not like you've been able to use it for skipping across the halls of the Harbinger for fun."

"Taking that into account," Starscream mused with him, "I've noted that it only really happens when I could potentially die. Or, in the case of the ToxEn, it would attempt to work unless blocked by something."

Red frowned gently, "It seemingly works by using other moments in time to realign a situation in your favor. Or maybe not even time itself, but dimensional breaks that could end up-"

Red disappeared very quickly, his voice echoing into the dark. Starscream felt the new thought in his mind, loud and clear: his hiccup, however he had come across it, was a gift that was keeping him alive by fluctuating the reality he lived in. It altered his position, just enough, to keep him from being blown up or gutted or torn apart, then set him back in his reality to continue fighting on.

Starscream stared at Blue. Blue stared back.

"And then there was one," Blue murmured.

Starscream snarled, "Don't... don't say that."

"Why?" Blue frowned, "It's the truth."

Starscream growled at him, "Because I don't want to hear that."

"You just wonder what will happen if I disappear."

The silver mech went to retort then stopped himself. This was true. He was afraid of what Blue's realization would mean for him. Would he be stuck alone? In the dark?

Blue sighed and sat on the unseen floor, motioning for him to join him, "I think I know what I am supposed to realize," he confessed, "but I don't believe it, so I'm not gone yet."

Starscream's wings perked as he sat, "W... What is it? Tell me- wait... Don't tell me..."

Blue frowned, "Make up your mind. You said it yourself, if we make these realizations, we'll all be free."

Starscream nodded lightly, "Well... y-yes, I did..."

Blue smiled weakly, "Then I have realized this: you have to figure this out on your-"

Own. The word echoed throughout the void and Starscream flinched, looking around. Blue was gone. He was alone. The seeker moved to stand but couldn't find the strength to. He was trembling again. Starscream mulled the new thought he was processing over and over again. He was supposed to realize something, just as the others did. But he had no idea where to start.