Ch. 156

He hadn't felt this free in what felt like an eternity. The wind flying passed his faceplates, the tickle of currents on his wings, the last of the warm day whistling against his chestplate even as the cool night began to overtake everything else. Starscream smiled. This felt right. It wasn't what he had wanted, but he didn't care anymore. He was away from the Decepticons, away from his prison, away from him.

The sound of a roar followed his descent along with a transformation sequence. He was being followed. Freedom was starting to look farther and farther away. As Starscream fell through the sky he turned his chassis to see Megatron's alt. mode flying after him. The seeker's optics widened. There was no escape, was there?

"STARSCREAM!"

Starscream squealed and just barely managed to alter his position in the air to dodge a tackle from the warlord. No other sounds from above him gave any indication that others were coming for him. This was between the lord and his second.

"YOU DARE TO TAKE YOURSELF FROM ME?!"

Megatron turned hard and flew back up, aiming to slam into the plummeting mech as he fell. But Starscream turned to face him and the ground and angled his wings, avoiding the attack a second time as the Earth began to come up fast. The seeker hoped his hiccup wouldn't activate. It was a scary thought, but he actually hoped that he would crash into the ground below and this nightmare would end. He knew Ultra Magnus was coming, that he would be here any day now, but if Starscream was still alive then Megatron would still have the advantage. If he was the only one left after all this, the seeker knew he would have a better chance at doing... something.

"I WILL NEVER LET YOU GO!"

Starscream felt a sharp stab in his back and he squealed, feeling sharp claws wander over his chassis and latch onto him tightly. He cried out in pain as he was spun back around to face his nightmare, fiery red optics boring into his chassis with an anger that could be felt in every fiber of his being.

Words were lost under terrified screams and pained cries as the seeker tried to free himself from Megatron's grasp. The wind swirling around them threatened to tear the two from each other but the warlord's hold was stronger than nature's will. Starscream sobbed as his bound arms missed crucial moments to fight back, as his frantic kicks and smacks did little or nothing to deter the larger mech into releasing his grip. A sudden thought occurred to the seeker and he threw his wings open wide, hoping the stiff air around them would spiral against the limbs and send Megatron flying off him. But the warlord quickly reached around with an arm and encircled his wings, crushing them against his back.

Starscream shrieked when he felt a searing pain ripple through him. He felt energon leaking from his back, his thruster crushed and wings torn at the joints. Megatron reached around him with his other arm to ensure the smaller mech couldn't wriggle away and used his legs to entangle around the seeker's. He had caught him once again. But that didn't stop the pair from continuing their descent.

Starscream still held out hope. Through all the pain and fear, he was still hopeful that his hiccup wouldn't work. And if both of them crashed, from the distance they had fallen, there was more than just a chance that neither would live to heal through the injuries. Just that little bit of hope...

The seeker's hopes were dashed away when he felt the slowing of time around him. The hiccup charged and began displacing his chassis, Megatron's with him, and just before the pair hit the ground they were shot to the side. The warlord curled himself around Starscream and held onto him as tightly as he dared while he allowed his own chassis to act as a shield, the two rolling painfully into the dirt. When their momentum finally died down and they stopped moving Starscream found himself pinned under Megatron, the smaller mech shaking as he cried.

Neither spoke as the darkness of the night was broken by the glow of the trickling leak from the seeker's energon. The warlord parted from Starscream only enough to pull his arms above his helm and inspect the mech for other injuries. The seeker was too weak to fight back. He felt his mind slipping, reeling from what he had just tried to do out of anguish and desperation. And because he had failed, he would now be used to destroy everything.

Megatron couldn't take his optics off his devastated prisoner. What he had tried to accomplish angered the warlord. It made him want to thrash and beat the mech as he had done before. But he couldn't be that rash. He had just proven to the seeker that the Autobots were vanquished, that everything he had been exposed to these last, long months was gone. He had to be... patient, understanding. And now that he possessed Starscream, it was only a matter of time. He couldn't hold out forever.

"Starscream..." Megatron said softly, leaning forward to speak into the seeker's audials, "My dear Starscream... I will never let you have the opportunity to attempt an act such as this again. You will submit to my rule and dominance. I have caught you, my dear Starscream, and now that they are gone there is no one to come for you. Whether you stand with me of your own volition or if I have to force you myself, you will aid my total control of this universe. I caught you. I caged you. I have you. You are mine, my dear Starscream. Never forget that. You are mine."