Ch. 247

Starscream ducked when two large claws reached out to grab him. The injured Insecticon dove to the side as Optimus jumped in the middle of the group, firing rapid and focused shots into one Insecticon as the rest scattered and looked for cover, aside from their lead, who had taken to chasing after Starscream. The seeker was in a state of shock at the situation, how it had gone from looking so promising to becoming a complete disaster. His mind was foggy with those muddled emotions again, both the fear at the escalation and hearing the name of his greatest abuser fighting to be at the forefront of his thoughts. His focus, however, quickly shifted to the state of his own being as the lead Insecticon charged in an attempt to grab him once again.

"Be still, seeker!" he snarled in annoyance, swiping in the hopes of grasping a wing or limb, but the smaller mech kept avoiding him, "Your place is beside our master! Your defiance blinds you!"

Starscream tripped jumping backwards, the slip saving him from the Insecticon's grasp once more, and he tumbled into a rock as he tried to roll away, "Have you even seen him?!" he squealed, "Attacking everyone around him, treating every situation like nothing is wrong! He's lost his mind, he's-"

The seeker yelped as he scrambled up from the dirt and narrowly missed being hit by blaster fire from one of the other Insecticons doing battle with Optimus. Starscream decided that was where he needed to be.

The lithe mech ducked again to avoid the lead Insecticon's claws and dove ped-first beside Optimus, transforming out his blasters to fire at the bugs and keep them back. The Prime stayed close as he stood above him, providing him cover as the pair quickly realized that the Insecticons weren't willing to risk firing down on the pair and hitting their master's prize. This gave them an advantage.

Starscream kept firing wild and rapid shots from his spot in the dirt while Optimus focused more heavy fire on the Insecticon he had been aiming at earlier. The bug spiraled out of the air and dropped in a shower of fiery sparks as it skidded along the side edge of the plateau before dropping out of sight. The Prime stepped back as he focused another shot then stooped low, scooping Starscream up around the chest plate to set him on his peds as the seeker kept wildly firing.

The lead Insecticon shrieked and the remaining functioning pair backed off to fly beside their leader. The final Insecticon, wounded from the collapse of the mountainside earlier, stayed huddled beside a rock as he watched.

Optimus set his blaster by his side, "This can end! Now!" he yelled out, "Starscream will not be returning to the Nemesis! But you can stop this, here and now! Stand down, part ways from us, and you will live to see another day!"

The lead Insecticon chuckled, his mandibles clacking, "You presume much, Prime. The seeker has lost his way. Our orders come from Bombshock, given to him by Lord Megatron himself," Starscream flinched and hid himself behind Optimus as the bug hissed, "Retrieve Starscream, second in command of the Decepticons, and assure his safe return to Lord Megatron," his visor flashed, "in whatever fashion suits his... rescuers."

Optimus didn't wait to hear anymore. The Insecticons had affirmed their decision. He wrapped an arm around Starscream to keep him back as he raised his blaster and fired down upon the group. The seeker desperately tried to find focus on the severity, the rapidity, of the more pressing issue as his mind blanked and laid a haze over the sounds of the battle around him. All he could hear as he transformed his blasters away and covered his audials with his servos was the echoing sound of his name. The one who hurt him, over and over. The monster he never could seem to escape...

Optimus glanced behind him, his optics widening as he watched Starscream begin to crumble and lower himself to his knee spikes as he further dissociated. The Prime wasted no time in throwing an arm around the smaller mech's chest plate and pulling him close, as he dodged and ducked from collected blaster fire. With the seeker having become a new challenge, Optimus tried to think quickly, the three fight-worthy Insecticons beginning to close in.

"Starscream!" the red mech shouted over the sound of missed shots hitting dirt and the roars of the bugs drawing closer, "Starscream, please! I know how much you are hurting! I know-" he clutched the smaller mech closer as he dove behind a boulder and transformed his blaster away, "I know how afraid you are and how much you have suffered already! But I need you!" the Prime grabbed onto his shoulder plating, "Please! I cannot protect you without your help! Starscream, I need you-"

Optimus grunted in pain as a sharp spray of rock from atop the boulder hit him along the back of his helm and shoulders from a blaster shot. Starscream's optics brightened and he growled as he stood to see over their cover, launching a missile as quickly as he could aim.

"BACK OFF!"

The shrieking command had the Insecticons scattering faster than the actual assault, the missile almost hitting the wounded bug by his rock and forcing him to dive for safety over the plateau and into the trees below.

Starscream stepped onto the boulder, sparks beginning to travel between his wings, "I AM NOT GOING BACK! I AM NOT A DECEPTICON ANYMORE!" his wings began to vibrate angrily, "You must have mistaken my earlier mercies for weakness, but this is only one of the many mistakes you have made today," he hissed, "You should have taken my offer because now I will show you exactly what I am capable of when it comes to DEFENDING MYSELF!"

Starscream launched his second missile and he heard Optimus transform out his sword, the pair leaping off and over the boulder to meet their opponents head on. The seeker ran at the closest Insecticon that dared to meet his challenge and punched him in the faceplates to throw him off balance, ducking down to allow Optimus to jump over him and use his blade to slice the bug back. The Prime turned sharply to block the claws from the lead Insecticon while Starscream stayed at his back, firing at the third to halt an assault from behind. Optimus reached behind him to grab Starscream and switch their positions with a quick twirl, the red mech slicing across the faceplate of the bug when it got too close while the seeker laid cover fire down upon the lead.

The pair moved their way towards the edge of the plateau as they kept their pursuers at bay, both hoping to end the conflict with an escape rather than anymore death. A distraction in the form of a loud COMM beep caused Starscream to misstep and Optimus had to catch him, allowing an Insecticon to move in and block their path.

"WHAT?!" the lithe mech snarled into his COMM.

"Uh, h-hey Starscream," came Smokescreen's voice, "You got a few minutes to-"

"NO, I really slagging don't," he growled into the COMM, maybe a bit more than he wanted to, "This is the worst time you could have picked to call me!"

"Oh, uh, I'm sorry."

Starscream covered his audials to prevent the sound of a blaster shot from being heard in the other end of the line, "Don't tell me 'sorry', wait for me to call you back!"

"Starscream, wait, I have-"

"I SAID LATER!"

The seeker cut his COMM and shut it off, grunting in surprise when he felt Optimus pull him out of range of grabbing Insecticon claws.

"Trouble?!" the Prime asked over another blaster shot.

Starscream roughly smacked then elbowed an Insecticon in the slice mark across his chest plate to send him back, "I should've turned it off earlier! We don't have time for a nice chat right now!"

"Call them back! Tell them to send you a bridge!"

"NO!" Starscream ducked under Optimus's arm to rush at the Insecticon with a slash across his faceplate, aiming to punch into the wound, "This is OUR fight! I won't drag them into this!"

"Your safety-"

"OUR safety!" the smaller mech emphasized, "And I won't drag them into this when I KNOW what we are capable of!"

Starscream glanced back for only a second and missed seeing the lead Insecticon running at him until he was tackled into and sent sprawling to the ground, his slingshot falling from his chassis just within reach. The lead made to jump on him and the seeker scrambled to grab the small weapon as he rolled away, pouncing on the bug's backplates as he used the cord to tangle the Insecticon's grabbing claws.

"I just fragging made this!" he snarled, pulling back on the cord and handle to gain leverage, "I haven't had a slingshot in eons and now you're making me break it!"

The lead shrieked as his arm was wrenched behind him and he dropped to his side and rolled, slamming Starscream into the dirt and snapping the cord of the slingshot. The Insecticon recovered quickly and grabbed the smaller mech by his chest plate, throwing him roughly into a boulder, "Insolent!" he snarled, "Lord Megatron will assure that once he has made use of you, that you will pay for EVER having defied him and your Decepticon brothers!"

Optimus ducked down and ran to defend Starscream, but the pair he was fighting grabbed hold of him and pinned him to the ground.

"And you," the lead hissed, "Lord Megatron has no use for you as a living prisoner. Take him!" he ordered his kin, pointing to the sky, "Drop him from a decent height. I wish to have a bit of target practice before we salvage what is left and return with our prizes!"

The Insecticon drones wasted no time in grabbing Optimus as they transformed, taking to the air. Starscream moved to get up and was met with the lead's clawed ped against his chest plate to keep him still.

"Such a waste," the bug chuckled, "for all the fight the two of you gave us, you have still lost. And for your irritating hinderance," he added, "I will make you watch as I fill your precious Prime with holes and tear his helm from his chassis. Your mercies have meant nothing; you are simply weak."

Starscream growled to fight back tears and dug his smaller talons into the Insecticon's ped, shaking his helm, "Let me go!"

The lead dug his claws in, "You still presume you can do anything to save him? To save yourself? Look at where he is now," the Insecticon grabbed the smaller mech's helm to direct his gaze, "It will not matter how fast you are able to fly. When he is dropped, the impact will kill him."

And it was true. A red shape in the sky between two dark masses. That's all Optimus was now. Starscream shuttered his optics and grit his dentals.

"I've..."

The lead quirked his helm and leaned in, hissing into the seeker's audials, "Speak up, prisoner."

Starscream took a deep intake and growled as he opened his optics again, the gold ring in his left optic glowing brightly, "I've handled MUCH WORSE!"

As his chassis began to spark with an electrical current, he slammed his forehelm against the lead Insecticon's faceplate and sent him flying back. Starscream quickly scrambled to his peds and transformed as Optimus was dropped high above him, the two Instecticon drones retreating to meet the seeker as he flew up after them. The red and white mech didn't bother to fire his weaponry, instead passing within proximity of the approaching bugs as his electrical current escaped from his chassis and tore through the pair, sending them spiraling down for emergency landings in surprised shrieks.

Optimus reached out towards Starscream as the seeker transformed back and grabbed onto him, his wings spread wide and his thruster screeching as he desperately tried to gain lift.

"Starscream, I am too heavy!" Optimus shouted over the wind.

The seeker shook his helm, "No, you're NOT!"

"Let me go-"

"I can save you!"

The smaller mech's grip slipped and he latched his claws onto Optimus's servo as they continued to fall.

"This isn't my first fall through the sky!"

"I do not know if I like hearing that, Starscream!"

Starscream teared up from the pain in his wings and the strain in his thruster, "The only difference," he shouted, "was that my power saved him and me when I didn't want it to!" the electrical sparks running between his wings, the current now glowing with white, began to focus around his thruster, "But now I want to be the one to save you because it's what I choose!"

Starscream let out a surprised cry as his thruster and back exploded in white sparks, their rapid decent slowing to a light glide as Starscream's optics blew out in white followed slowly by Optimus's.

"Optimus," Starscream huffed out an intake filled with white electrical static, "would you care to take aim?"

"Indeed," the Prime transformed out a blaster and aimed the closer they came to the ground, "I would."

From their distance up, they could see the forms of the three Insecticons waiting for them, the three left that had decided to give them so much trouble. As soon as Starscream could see the start of a curling snarl on the lead Insecticon's faceplate, he increased his already tight grip on Optimus's servo.

"Optimus!"

"Now!" the red mech fired.

The simple yet bright white blaster fire flew from the Prime's weapon and hit the plateau only a couple hundred feet away. The impact engulfed and shattered the mountain top, turning it into a shallow crater. The resulting explosion's blowback threw Starscream and Optimus off course, sending them spiraling into the air. The seeker kept his grip on the larger mech as the more aggressive sparks ebbed away and instead engulfed them in the familiar feeling he had grown accustomed to, the pair smashing through the tops of tall trees on their way back down and narrowly, yet miraculously, avoiding more fatal impacts by mere inches.

Starscream struggled to keep his hold the closer they came to hitting the ground. A stronger branch the two crashed through almost separated them and the first painful impact on the ground almost sent him flying away as momentum threw them further still. Optimus managed to keep him close but as they tumbled again and came down for another impact, Starscream suddenly pushed the Prime off against their driving momentum and into a large growth of shrubs, sending the smaller mech still falling down the mountain.

"STARSCREAM!"

The seeker didn't continue rolling too far. As he twisted himself to see where he was falling to, his chest plate slammed into the tall trunk of a tree and halted him to an abrupt stop. As painful as it was, his gasps and coughs to regain his intakes were his relieving indications that he was very much alive. Starscream carefully pulled himself away from the tree's trunk, rolling on his side to face towards where the plateau of the mountain once resided and where he had stuck Optimus somewhere up in the brush. This should have been the end of his worries, but this, unfortunately, was when a flying piece of rock from the explosion cracked against his helm.