Ch. 163

Starscream shook terribly. He hadn't been able to get a hold of himself since Megatron had visited him earlier. The seeker had very clearly heard the beast, Predaking, roaring above on the flight deck. There was no sense in the warlord trying to lie about it when he came to see him shortly thereafter. And then to confirm it and say the creature's name aloud...

Starscream had to stop himself from heaving. Memories of pain and agony quickly flooded his helm and made him dizzy. He slid himself against the far wall of his cell and sunk to the floor, trying to find a cool spot to settle into. Another wave of nausea made a sour taste grip at the back of his throat. His helm was splitting. His spark felt as though the hiccup were to activate at any second. The silver mech couldn't handle what had all transpired over the course of only a few days: his capture, his torment, the Autobots-... and now the Predacon...

Starscream fought to stop a loud whine from escaping him and buried it under a growl. As long as he was trapped in the brig of this place, Megatron had already won. That thought alone was the only thing keeping him going... even if being an 'Autobot' classified him as an endangered species.

A soft tapping at the door of his cell made Starscream quickly look up and regret the action immediately as his helm throbbed angrily. He already knew who it was tap-tap-tapping at his door... Who else but the madmech who insisted the seeker was still his second-in-command?

The door slid away and Megatron stepped through, a gentle smile upon his faceplates, "Ah, my dear Starscream... Something seems to have put you off."

Starscream didn't say anything as he grimaced at another pounding throb. It was behind his optics, aggravating the nausea he had created through all his anxiety. The cool of the wall and floor had started to help before the irritation that was 'Megatron' had decided to bother him. Again.

The warlord came forward to kneel in front of the smaller mech and the door closed behind him, "If you are unwell, then it is my duty to find you proper treatment," he reached out to touch the helm of the seeker and was met by his prisoner's bound servos smacking him away.

"What do you want?" Starscream hissed, wincing at the sound of his own voice.

He sounded broken and tired. He sounded easily malleable and without menace. So he had been right. His menace was gone...

Megatron smirked and took hold of Starscream's wrists to stop him from striking again, "I require your presence."

The seeker did his best to snarl and dug his peds into the floor to prevent being dragged away, "Well I refuse to give it! Let me go!"

The warlord ignored his second and lifted him with an arm, snaking his other around to his side to pin his victim to his chestplate. Starscream struggled to free himself but was near to freezing in terror when he felt Megatron let his arms go in favor of pulling him back against him tighter. It was a controlling position even if he still had the use of his T-cog. His wings back against the warlord meant he couldn't properly set them if he needed to fly away. Not that he could, but still...

"Stop resisting," Megatron murmured, "I am not going to harm you, I am not here to exacerbate your pain."

Starscream found enough of his voice to snarl, "What and this is you helping?! Haven't you made me suffer enough?!"

The warlord smiled and reached up carefully, taking hold of the smaller mech's helm. The seeker's optics widened and he turned away quickly but this didn't deter Megatron from getting a hold of him and pressing his claws gently into a soft portion of metal on the side. Starscream felt the pain in his helm ebb away and cursed inwardly when he felt gratitude fill him. When the warlord was sure his prey would no longer struggle, he allowed his other servo to engage on the other side of the seeker's helm, pressing into the opposite pressure point firmly.

"Relax, my dear Starscream," Megatron murmured, "I have already told you, I am not here to harm you."

Starscream grumbled softly as the ache in his helm died down further, "Then why are you here?"

"I have already told you this, too. I require your presence."

The seeker scoffed, "Elsewhere?"

Megatron chuckled, "Here will do for now. I will admit, I have been unfair to you. You have been on a journey of self discovery or sorts, haven't you? I was not very respectful of that."

Starscream made to growl but the sound came out as a whimper when the claws pressed at his temples dug in carefully, edging the pain further away, "Is... is that what you've deluded yourself to? That I became an Autobot because I wanted to do a little 'spark searching'?"

The warlord smiled, "There is no reason to continue this charade, my dear Starscream. They are gone now. Why fight? You know you are welcome here. You always have been."

The smaller mech scowled, "I left your faction and your side. I will not stand beside you."

Megatron's smile didn't falter, "Are you not already with me simply by being here? Time is a commodity I have very much of at this moment. The longer you are here, the more you will come to your senses. I would truly despise indulging in the methods Shockwave has asked me to use, but should time press on and you remain stubborn I will be forced to break you again. I do not enjoy breaking precious things, my dear Starscream."

Starscream glared and pulled his helm away, upset and happy to have the ache ringing in his processor once more, "Don't you dare. Your tactics won't work on me. If you intend to torture me, then do it. Don't use lies and deceit to try and sway me. I'm beyond that."

Megatron laughed, "Yes, of course! You are truly ascended to a level that I simply did not wish to use... So I will ask you again, my dear Starscream: will you give up this little... tantrum of yours? A Decepticon sigil is already prepared for you and Shockwave assures me your optics can be retouched."

The seeker scoffed, "Kill me. I want you to wrap your servos around my throat and choke the life out of me. That is the only way you will be able to keep me by your side, by dragging around a corpse."

The larger mech's optics glinted darkly and his claws drew up the sides of his prisoner's arms, causing sparks to escape from the contact. The scratches burned lightly and Starscream flinched when Megatron gripped his arms just under his shoulder plating. Both didn't move for a moment. The seeker felt uncertainty build a home at the beck of his helm. What was it this insane monster wanted? It was as though he couldn't voice his own ambition and the end game beyond it.

"Starscream..."

The seeker shuddered when he heard his name. The tone surrounding it wasn't a warning or threat. It was a delusional cloud. Everything was still fine, everything was where it should be, everyone was playing the roles assigned and nothing had changed... at least, in Megatron's optics.

The warlord suddenly stood, taking Starscream with him, and the smaller mech thrashed out as violently as he dared as he was led out of his cell. Megatron wordlessly escorted his prey down the hall to the lifts. This routine already had a foreboding event attached to it. Something bad was going to happen and Starscream didn't want any part of it.

The seeker growled as he twisted and tried to loosen Megatron's grip on him. His peds dug in hard, even after he was dragged into the lift, and he thrashed against his captor angrily, even as Megatron smirked down at him. It only took a single, clawed servo wrapped carefully around both of the lithe mech's wrists to cease anymore rebellion in the physical sense. The larger mech stared down at his second and relished in the glare he was rewarded with. The bright fire in Starscream's optics, the challenge that yelled in one strong voice 'I am not done yet', made Megatron's spark flutter. He was never one to back down from a challenge.

The lift stopped abruptly and Starscream's optics broke contact as he gasped quietly and looked to the door. Megatron opened it with a smile, revealing they had come to the flight deck, and the warlord felt himself swell with victory as the mech in his hold began to tremble.

"My dear Starscream, there is someone I would like you to meet. But I suppose you already know him..."

The seeker's intakes came in short pants again. His optics widened and weakness overtook him as the ache in his processor and the wave of nausea that crashed into him became nothing but sprays of mists in the ocean of terror that filled him from his peds to his helm.

Megatron wrapped his arms around him as Starscream struggled harder and pulled him out from the lift and onto the deck. The smaller mech shuttered his optics and focused on his intakes, trying to listen to the dull burn in his audials rather than the sound of large, flapping wings and the hard 'thud' of a landed flier.

"My dear Starscream..."

The seeker heard the hot, expelled intake before he felt it slither up his back, this creature he refused to set optics upon taking in his scent as a way of making introductions. Starscream felt the coming of another heave forcing its way up his throat, but what finally emerged was a shriek when he felt a nudge into his wing from the beast.

Megatron sneered as Predaking backed away in surprise and those once shuttered blue optics came alive with fear and desperation. The warlord held onto the seeker tightly as Starscream clung to him, screaming and trying to find some way to escape.

"NO! NO! KEEP HIM AWAY, KEEP HIM AWAY FROM ME!"

Megatron purred and knelt to the floor with his treasure held tightly against him; in a twisted act of punishment, the larger mech turned his second around and forced his helm to look up at the beast that plagued his nightmares, to gaze upon the creature that struck such fear into him.

"Look," Megatron chuckled softly into his audials, "Look at him."

Starscream couldn't hold back the tears that escaped him, that he hoped would blur his vision too much for him to see and he cried harder when the far too clear visual of Predaking became evident. The Predacon stood before him, looming, unassuming, even in all the might he portrayed just by being in the form that he was in.

The seeker wailed again and struggled, Megatron easily keeping him pinned against his chestplate, "NO! NO, TAKE ME BACK TO MY CELL, I WANT TO GO BACK TO MY CELL!"

Starscream somehow managed to turn himself back to hide his form against Megatron, but even in this small victory the warlord wasn't done, "I cannot do such a thing. There isn't enough room for the pair of you in the brig," the seeker's sobs hitched and his tear-filled optics looked up in such shock that the larger mech was sure his plan was already beginning to work, "Since there are no Autotbots left," he purred, stroking tears from the seeker's faceplates, "and you are indeed a precious treasure, I have no choice but to put Predaking in charge of guarding you, my dear Starscream..."