Chapter 23 Unimaginable Pain
On the other side of the base, Bumblebee fidgeted as Blitzwing played with his horns. "Ok, why are you obsessing over my horns?" He demanded. When Blitzwing ignored him and continued playing with his horns he started wiggling. "Would you let me go?" He almost begged. Still, the triple-changer ignored him, so he started wiggling harder.
"Oh stop squirming." Blitzwing stated calmly.
Bumblebee glared back at Blitzwing. "Well sorry for being a little uncomfortable!" He snapped. "I'm not use to someone playing with my horns."
"I can't help it, they're just…there." Blitzwing replied.
Bumblebee grumbled. "Well, could you stop playing with them?" He demanded. "I don't like the sensation I'm getting from that!" His optics widened when he realized what he had confessed. "Opps."
Blitzwing let out a small chuckle. "I've never met a mech who felt zat in his horns."
Bumblebee shrugged. "Not many Transformers have horns." He replied. "Or at least, none like mine."
"True." Blitzwing agreed.
While Blitzwing continued to stroke and play with Bumblebee's horns, Starscream had woken up with the sudden urge to replenish his energy levels. He shifted out from beside his mate, waking Megatron up in the process.
"You ok?" He asked softly as he looked up at his mate.
"I'm just hungry." Starscream chuckled.
Megatron nodded with a smile. "Ah, yes. The downside to carrying a sparkling; you need to ingest energon more often." He murmured gently.
"I'll be back." Starscream stated gently as he turned to leave the room.
Megatron nodded before he placed his head back on the bed. "Be careful." He yawned as he powered his optics down.
"I will." Starscream laughed as he turned and started walking towards the mess hall. Megatron smiled before he slipped back into recharge, his hand resting where Starscream's body usually was.
Starscream made it to the mess hall without any incident. He grabbed a few cubes, drinking one down quickly, before he turned to return to his room. He could almost hear the happy twitter of satisfaction inside his helm and he couldn't stop the smile from forming on his lips. He was completely oblivious to the red optic stalking him in the darkness. A noise sounded behind him and he turned to investigate, sipping casually on another energon cube. His optics widened in horror and the energon cube slipped from his hand to land with a loud crash, shattering upon impact. The optic was barely three feet away from his face. He backed up only to find himself up against a wall. He slid down to the ground with a weak whimper.
'What's wrong?' Megatron's groggily voice asked through their bond.
'It's Lugnut!' Starscream cried out in terror.
'Frag!' Megatron replied before his spark started to get closer to him.
Starscream's focus was brought back to the real world when a large cannon was placed against his chest. "Oh Primus, don't!" He shrieked in terror before hiding his face.
Lugnut growled. "By destroying you Lord Megatron will be freed from whatever mind control you have him under." He stated coldly.
"Can't you just get over yourself?!" Starscream growled.
Lugnut snorted. "This is not concerning I, traitor." He snapped. "Our glorious leader needs to be liberated from whatever you have done to him." He stated before he started charging his gun. "Prepare to say "good-bye"."
Starscream felt tears stream down his face in pure terror just as Megatron burst into the mess hall. "LUGNUT!" He snarled. Starscream gasped. A weight had been lifted; he and his sparkling would survive. Megatron walked over to Lugnut, who was still charging his gun. "What are you doing?" He demanded.
Lugnut began to pull the trigger on his gun. "Saving you, sir." He replied.
'Starscream, move!' Megatron shouted to his mate as he moved to grab the gun a moment too slow. An explosion rocked the room and Megatron felt his spark stop beating in terror.
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"What was that?" Bumblebee asked as he snapped his head up.
"Let's go!" Blitzwing shouted, his anger face currently taking control. He grabbed Bumblebee without even thinking very much about it and started heading to the mess hall.
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Starscream lay on the ground panting, his optics closed. Megatron stood there frozen before he grabbed Lugnut by the throat. "You...dirty...good-for-nothing...slagger!" He snarled as he tore each of Lugnut's limbs off. "I warned you that if you attempted to harm him I would kill you!" He tossed Lugnut's body aside and raced to his mate's side. "Starscream?" He murmured softly as he touched his mate's face. Starscream opened his optic shutters and Megatron sighed in relief. "You ok?" He asked. He frowned in worry as Starscream remained silent. "Starscream?" He asked again. 'Tell me you're alright.'
Starscream turned his head to look at his right wing. Only a few shards of metal and loose, sparking wires were left where his wing use to be. Energon was escaping quickly, smearing the ground beneath it a rich lavender colour. Megatron knew that the wound was hurting his mate, but he was relieved that it was the only injury that he had.
"Hang on a minute." He murmured as he placed the Key near Starscream's chest plate. When the metal shifted to reveal the slot that would allow the power of the Allspark to flow through his circuits, he placed it in and watched as his mate's wing was healed entirely. "There, good as new." He stated. Starscream stared at it blankly and Megatron's fear increased slightly. 'What's wrong?' He asked as he caressed his mate's cheek.
Bumblebee gave Blitzwing's chest a small shove. "We should leave." He murmured. Blitzwing nodded and quickly left the room.
"It's dead." Starscream stated flatly.
Megatron's spark stopped pulsing. "What?" He whispered, even though he knew all too well what his mate meant.
Starscream stared ahead blankly. "The stress was too much for her to handle at such an early stage in her development." He stated, no emotion present in his face or voice.
Megatron fell onto his aft as his legs gave out. "S-s-she?" He squeaked. "It." Megatron's face constricted in pain as a tear slid down his face. He couldn't finish his sentence; the pain in his spark was too much to bear. His first sparkling, not even a day into its development, had just been killed. Not only was it his sparkling, but it had been a femme. A femme…he had almost had a daughter.
"She said that she was sorry that she had to leave you, and that she'll be waiting to meet us in the Well of All Sparks. She said that she would look forward to meeting her brave father." He stated, tears streaming from his optics.
Megatron choked back his tears with a sorrowful laugh. "Was she talking about me or you?" He asked softly. He wiped his tears away before he pulled his mate close to him. "Frag." He snarled. "I shouldn't have let you come here alone. What was I thinking?!"
"She was talking about you." Starscream replied flatly.
Megatron smiled weakly. "You are brave as well, my little Star." He murmured. "You are very brave."
"I wonder what she would have been like? She seemed sweet." Starscream stated, still lacking any emotion.
Megatron nodded. "She did." He murmured. He could sense that Starscream felt hollow over the loss and he prayed that his mate wasn't blaming himself for the loss. Who could have predicted this? He turned to Lugnut's twitching body as the scum groaned in pain. 'I'll kill him.' He thought to himself. 'I'll fragging kill him for this!'
Starscream dragged himself over to Lugnut, his optics staring ahead of him blankly. "Why did you kill my sparkling?" He asked calmly, a strangely empty smile on his face.
Lugnut grunted. "That wasn't my intended outcome." He replied hoarsely. "But, we are having a hard enough time looking after all the mechs and femme in the base. How are we supposed to care for a carrying mech and a sparkling later on?" He demanded.
Megatron bit back his snarl of anger as the taste of unprocessed energon filled his mouth. "That's it? That's why you killed her? Because there wasn't enough room?" Starscream laughed coldly. "If it wasn't your intention, why was the barrel aimed at my spark?"
Lugnut shook his head slightly. "I wanted you dead." He replied. "The sparkling could have been removed and given to a donor." He replied. "But there wasn't enough time for that. So, it had to go too, as company."
Starscream laid hid head on Lugnut's chest. "I can hear your spark pulsing." He stated with a hollow voice.
"So?" Lugnut asked in annoyance.
"I'm going to miss the sound of her spark next to mine." Starscream replied.
Lugnut snorted. "You said so yourself that she wasn't far enough along to hear anything." He spat.
"You're right, I guess. But, I could hear it in my mind." He stated with a smile. "Such a beautiful sound too; almost like she was singing to me."
Lugnut growled. "Sure, sure." He sneered.
"She would have been beautiful." Starscream murmured.
Megatron turned away as the energon still in his fuel tanks rushed past his lips. He coughed as his body tried to get rid of everything in him. He didn't know what had caused him to expel his fuel, but he had a slight feeling it was the loss of his daughter. Megatron wiped the leftover energon away from his mouth. Frag he hated throwing up, it always burnt his throat like there was no tomorrow. He felt the Allspark fragments burn slightly in his subspace and he suddenly blacked out.
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'You ok?' A small voice asked him, seeming to come from all directions at once, yet he strangely didn't feel overwhelmed by it.
'What? Where…where am I?' He asked, his voice echoing strangely around him.
'Unconscious, but you're ok. Primus said I was allowed to talk to you, before I actually had to stay.' The small voice replied with a gentle giggle.
'You're…you're a femme.' He murmured.
'Yup. Do you love me?' The femme voice asked.
He was confused for a moment, until something clicked in his mind. 'You're…you're my sparkling?'
'Uh huh.'
'Then there are no words to describe my love.' He replied gently.
'Thank you. I can't wait to meet you. I really am sorry I had to leave. I was just in a lot of pain so Primus told me to come with him. I told my other daddy that I'd see him in the Well of All Sparks.'
'Starscream told me that. What...what would your name have been?' He asked.
'I never really thought about it. But, I did like Oblivion. It sounded pretty.' She replied.
'Then you are Oblivion.' He replied with a chuckle.
'I have to go now. Bye! I love you so much Daddy.' The voice, now dubbed Oblivion, chirped.
'I love you too...Oblivion.' He murmured in reply.
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Megatron came to with a soft smile on his face. He had the fleeting feeling of tiny hands touching his face and a happy giggle that he knew for sure was from his daughter. As quickly as it had occurred, it faded away. "Oblivion," he murmured softly, "you would have been a beautiful femme." He smiled sadly as he rolled over onto his back and looked up at the ceiling. Tears crept down his face.
"Take a look for yourself." He heard his mate state.
"I DON'T NEED TO SEE THAT, THANK YOU!" Lugnut shouted.
Megatron would have growled, but a small giggle that echoed in his mind made him stop. He hung onto it, playing it over and over in his mind until he had recorded it entirely before storing it away in his memory files to share with Starscream later. He pushed himself up into a sitting position and let a broken sob pass his lips.
"You are as blind as I thought." Starscream stated somewhere to his left.
Megatron stood up shakily before he walked over to his mate. "Leave him Starscream." He stated softly. "He isn't worth of your time."
"I want him to live." Starscream said. "I want him to live knowing that he killed my sparkling."
Megatron nodded. "You're right. He doesn't deserve an easy escape into the Well of All Sparks." He stated as he bent down and repaired Lugnut with the Key, but kept his energy levels low. He took Starscream's hand gently and stood up. "Come on." He whispered softly. Starscream pulled himself up weakly, lacking the will to even stand. Megatron led Starscream out of the mesh hall and to their quarters. He held him close to his chest the whole way, sensing that his mate needed a lot of comfort.
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Bumblebee shifted as he leant against Blitzwing. "Do you…what do you think happened?" He asked sadly.
Blitzwing's arms tightened around him before he felt him kiss his helm gently. "I don't want to know." He replied, his calm persona in control.
"He looked so lost." Bumblebee murmured. He shook his head as tears crept down his face. He buried his face into Blitzwing's chest. "Primus! Something horrible must have happened!" Blitzwing nodded, running a hand over the smaller mech's helm, trying to comfort the yellow mech to the best of his ability. He just hoped that he wouldn't have to keep doing it; Bumblebee wouldn't be able to survive for long in the army if he was unable to overcome the horrors that occurred during the war.