Ch. 115

"The desert. How wonderful. Because this is exactly what I need."

Optimus smiled, "Perhaps it is. Will you continue to follow me, please?"

The Prime walked slowly through the starry night and across the sands of the desert, the wind wisping at his peds softly. The seeker followed behind but was not as entranced as the larger mech was at the view they were being given. He was too distracted. Had everything really led to all this because of him?

"What are you thinking about?"

Starscream stumbled and almost fell, the Prime catching him carefully, "I am sorry," he apologized, "I do not mean to pry."

The seeker huffed and pulled away, "Of course you don't. You just care far too much."

Optimus nodded, "Perhaps."

Starscream grumbled and walked faster, "I'm thinking about everything. This whole giant mess that keeps getting bigger. It's suffocating."

"What would you change now if you could?"

The seeker snorted, "Everything! At this point, the life I had before was far easier and a much better prospect. I didn't have to worry about it all. I could just go with the flow and be happy that I didn't land on my aft. Now everything's an issue. Everyone needs or wants something. I can't help them. They want me to and I can't. We've been laboring over the fact that I can tell near enough the events that are supposed to happen next and we've dealt with the changes. But what about the things that aren't supposed to be happening?"

"Such as now?" Optimus asked softly.

"Yes," Starscream huffed, "just like right now. You and I aren't supposed to be doing this. But we are. And what kind of repercussions will this little moment have, hm?"

The Prime shook his helm, "I do not know, Starscream. What I can tell you is that we are taking each day, each moment, step by step. There was no right answer for you when you were drawn back to the past. You could have salvaged enough to continue as though nothing had happened. You could also have taken everything. You could have destroyed us all. But you did not. You have been very generous with your time and strength. You trusted us even after all that you knew could happen. That has been the greatest thing you could have done."

The seeker hummed, "Trusting you?"

Optimus nodded, "Yes."

Starscream rolled his optics, "Why must you be so understanding and caring?"

The Prime smiled wider, "It comes alongside the collected knowledge of the Primes."

Starscream laughed in surprise and Optimus chuckled lightly. The seeker quieted quickly however and his optics fell to the ground, at the many grains of sand around them. He sighed heavily.

"Is there going to be a point to all this?"

"For this situation?" Optimus questioned, "Or for the whole of the end you fear will come?"

Starscream shook his helm then shrugged, "I want to say both but I'm not even sure at this moment..."

The Prime led him along carefully, "This predicament you have been challenged with, as we all have in our own way, is not something I can advise you on directly as it is a situation that has never been documented before. In all of my studies, I have never come across in the archives of a tale quite like yours. It is a unique problem for our history. Certainly for yourself."

The seeker grumbled and leaned away from Optimus's servo that was resting on his back, "Then give it an educated guess because something Megatron said greatly upset me and I need an answer."

"Is this the reason why you felt the need to touch the Star Saber?"

"Ye-"

Starscream shut himself up. He didn't want to think, let alone give the notion, of what the insane warlord had theorized. Because that's all it would ever be: a theory. It was a theory tested and proven false by the seeker himself. He wasn't a- No. He wasn't even going to think about it.

Starscream grumbled, "I don't want to discuss it."

The silver mech began to walk faster but Optimus easily matched his pace, "Is this due to relief or disappointment?"

The seeker whirled around, his wings high and his optics wide, "Do you think-! I never wanted to be a-! How... how dare you assume-"

"I do not mean to interrupt," the Prime hummed, "but your answer to my query is proof enough."

Starscream snarled quietly and crossed his arms tight across his chest plate, "My stammering tells you nothing."

Optimus shook his helm, "It tells me more than what you are willing to say yourself. You are disappointed. May I ask why?"

The seeker kicked the side of his ped into the sand, "I don't want to think about it..."

"That is neither an answer for me or for yourself," the Prime frowned softly, "I am not upset with you for your denial, but it does you no justice to hide yourself in the shadows."

Starscream growled, "And what good is it to admit that I may, or may not, have wanted to have that title? To be a Prime?"

Optimus stared him down, "Because I do not believe you wanted such a thing in the general sense, which is what you fear. I believe you wanted to be a Prime simply to have an answer as to why this has happened to you."

The seeker's wings perked and he quickly looked up at the Prime, who smiled, "Am I correct in this assumption?"

Starscream nodded quietly, turning away, "And yet, what good has it done me to hope even for that? I'm not a Prime. Or..." he trailed off, but started up again slowly when he felt Optimus's servo on his shoulder, "... Megatron claimed that this power I have was only available to a Prime. That I could only have this if..."

Optimus shook his helm, "I do not wish to complicate your theories further, but this power you have is far beyond what a Prime could ever hope to wield. It far more resembles that of Primus himself."

The seeker threw up his servos in defeat, "Well thank you," he chuckled sadly, "you've definitely made this far more complex."

"And is there anything wrong with idle thoughts resting on that theory?"

"Of what?" Starscream hissed, "That I somehow derive this power from a god? Why not go the whole nine yards and say it's a power given to me by a magic amulet or sacred energon concoction?!"

Optimus frowned sadly, "I have upset you."

The seeker grumbled and shook his helm, "No, not you. The whole thing is upsetting. Fine, I don't get any aid in learning how to control it or figure out how it truly works, but at least give me a sign as to where it came from..."

The Prime nodded, "I understand. This whole undertaking has you feeling lost. If not from your situation then from a part of yourself."

Starscream crossed his arms again, "... Did I have it before...? Before I died? And if so, why didn't it work then? I may have deduced a few things in my own helm as to what it is, this displacement, but... why didn't it work before? And why now? Where did it come from?"

Optimus took hold of the seeker's servo and started walking him again, "Perhaps those are questions best left unanswered. There is far too much for you to deal with already. When you are ready for the answers, they will come to you."

Starscream rolled his optics, his wings swaying gently when a scent reached his nasal sensors, "I smell salt... And that sound..." he frowned into the darkness, "Where exactly are we?"

The Prime gestured out into the dark, "We are in the deserts of a country called Egypt," he explained, "and I find the shorelines on this planet to be very soothing. I thought you would enjoy listening to the waves as I do."

The seeker gave Optimus a look, "Childish... but yes. It's something I'll agree with. And how long should we listen to the waves, oh great teacher?"

The Prime sat Starscream into the sands just beyond the tide's reach then sat beside him, "As long as you need to listen to them for, oh young student."

Starscream laughed again but this time it felt more genuine. And Optimus was right. The desert and waves were just what he needed.