Human Interactions

The Mirror's Other Side

By Paperkat

08/14/07

Disclaimer: The Transformers movie and all related material belong to Hasbro, Dreamworks and Paramount, concept originally created and licensed through Takara Co. LTD.

The Disclaimer's Disclaimer: I stole the above disclaimer from Straya. Please for give me

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This chapter is short, but it has a lot of exposition, so hang with me guys. It will get exciting again in the next chapter.

The sky above was clear and blue, and below the crests of minuscule waves sparkled in the warm sun. Starscream thought he might be sick right here over the ocean. This 'rescue mission' had never been his intention when he had return to the Nemesis. His goal had been to broadcast to the Decepticons, to the universe, to anyone that would listen that Megatron had finally fallen. Then he had planed to take his rightful place as leader however, things had not gone as planned.

When he had arrived, Starscream had found the battleship frustratingly occupied. Despite his best efforts to leave them behind, Soundwave, his leeches, Hook and Thundercracker had found their way to the hidden ship. Starscream should not have been surprised. No doubt before his destruction, Frenzy had informed his master of Megatron's awakening and called the Decepticon leader's lapdogs to Earth. It still amazed Starscream that Megatron had not slipped and killed himself eons ago with all of the boot licking that went on in the Decepticon ranks.

Of course all they could think about was restoring their precious leader. Starscream scoffed at the sentiment. When had Megatron ever lead them to anything but failure? The Decepticons were to be rulers of a new order. And what did they rule? A dead world. The Decepticons were going to bring their people into a new era of absolute peace and prosperity, and now they were scattered and without order. His people were finally going to take their place as the supreme beings in the universe under his rule, and now they lived as refugees on backwater worlds.

Starscream had seen first hand the so-called intelligent life that was drifting aimlessly through the ether of space. Before he had joined Megatron's ranks, he had been a prolific explorer. He had traversed all of known space and beyond. Starscream had even been to Earth before this farce. Back then, of course, there hadn't been much to see other than a handful of organisms in the shallow seas and a planet rolling with energy to be utilized.

The Golden Age of Cybertron may have never ended if the Council had have listened to his proposal to tap primordial Earth and other young planets for energy instead of living off the rations of the Allspark. Cybertron had needed to expand, but instead the Council made their idiotic declaration. Instead of providing for their citizens, they had made a decree to limit the work of Creators thus controlling the population.

As a result, a vast number of femmes had opted to leave Cybertron looking for a purpose for their existence beyond their intended purpose. Their primary function as caretakers of sparklings and younglings was becoming obsolete as fewer and fewer Cybertronians were sparked. Femmes were a minority to begin with, only one out of every four citizens were configured with the necessary equipment to properly nurse sparklings and nurture the developing processors of younglings, after the decree that dropped to one in twenty. To Starscream's knowledge, all that remained after eons of war were a handful of reconfigured femmes in the Autobot ranks.

Starscream's own Bonded had been one of the femmes unable to tolerate becoming useless under the Council's decree. Despite the connection they shared, she had been one of the first to leave, but Starscream had promised his Bonded that he would find a way so that she could return. And he had found a way, but the egotistical Ruling Council had dismissed it, sighting the 'irreparable' damage harvesting energy from the developing planets would be to their evolving life.

What did it matter if some sponges and bacteria never develop a backbone? Their world was stagnant and existing without purpose. The Cybertronian Council would allow their planet to die of boredom before they would realize the need for change and betterment of their kind, and all for the sake of single celled organic life?

Most of the organic creatures polluting the universe were little more self-aware than a badly constructed Pre-load, and the worse of the organics were the humans. Given the bounty of a self-sustaining world and all they could think to do with it was destroy it. No, this planet was a gift; it was just given to the wrong species. Once Starscream dealt with this latest failure of Megatron's he could put his plan to restore Cybertron to all of its glory into action.

Of course Starscream wouldn't be having this problem if he had succeeded in separating all of Megatron's most loyal drones from the Nemesis, but unfortunately Barricade had butted in and insisted that Frenzy accompany them for long-range communications. Though the worse of the suck-ups had been left almost a whole sector behind, having that one loyalist in their ranks had ruined all of Starscream's plans to find Megatron and bury him for good.

So instead of returning to Cybertron and leading his people in rejuvenating their home world with the resources from this planet, he was stuck playing taxi to Soundwave's little parasite. Gathering useless Intel on the humans in an effort to restore Megatron's carcass. Presently, Laserbeak was adhered to the underside of Starscream's alternate form like a black and orange Earth tick. In fact, the little energon leech had tried to suckle from him as he would his master during the flight, of coarse a small discharge of Starscream's Null ray had stopped that.

When he was close enough, Starscream sent out a landing signal. He received confirmation to dock and readied himself, but didn't bother to let his hitchhiker know he was about to descend. The icy salt water hit like an electric shock, but it was the deceleration that really rocked Laserbeak causing the Pre-load to almost lose his hold.

The humans were foolish to think that the depths of their puny little oceans were enough to control them. Compared to the cold vacuum of space or even the vast gravity wells of their own home world this 'graveyard' was pathetic. The only thing they did get right was the water, and maybe that was what the simpering Autobots were counting on.

The salt, the sulfur of the thermal vents, and the pressure of the ocean pushing in the pure organic-ness of the whole slagging thing was enough to halt a spark. Halt it, but not destroy it. At worse it was a forced manual stasis, but it would take longer than the Earth's current history to permanently damage a Cybertronian under those conditions.

Of course Megatron's corpse had been in less than perfect condition when the humans had dumped it. Starscream would have smirked if he could, but he had learned long ago not to show any of his emotions other than the ones his 'leader' wished to see. It had been quite a pleasure to sit upon his perch during that final battle watching Prime and Megatron try their best to destroy each other, Starscream's only regret was that he had not stayed long enough to see the climax. If those human jets had not attempted to interfere he would have had the pleasure of witnessing the beginning of his own dream come true.

To think, the great and mighty Megatron had finally realized his so-called destiny and became one with the Allspark, just not in the way he had anticipated. Oh, how he would have relished watching that tiny little organic, as a human might say, 'Giving it to the Man'.

Starscream transformed as he approached the open decent tube, further slowing his speed. It had the bonus effect of finally flicking off the parasite. Laserbeak tried to scream his displeasure but the water muffled it in a comical way, only fueling Starscream's amusement. Once they were inside the tube it sealed itself ensuring that the pressure inside would maintain itself all the way down to the Nemesis. For lack of a more appropriate word, the two of them flew down to the air lock and from there they entered the Nemesis.

If there had been any Carilian crystal windows, Starscream would have been able to see the thermal vents of the Laurentian Abyss that were now powering the Nemesis in its constant struggle to keep the ocean out and its occupants functional. The very thing the Autobots probably counted on rendering the deactivated Decepticons completely inoperable was now sustaining them.

Laserbeak gave another indignant screech before racing off, no doubt to tattle-tail to his master. Starscream wasn't worried however. Soundwave wouldn't dare openly confront him without Megatron around.

The Nemesis was massive and seemed even more so by the limited number of crewmembers. Counting Soundwave and his leeches as one unit, there were only five of them for a vessel meant for dozens. It was so desolate that if Starscream stood in the main corridor, he could hear the movements of his 'comrades' in the adjoining hallways.

But right now Starscream wasn't looking for company. All he wanted to do was to deliver his report and resume work on convincing the rest of the Decepticons to end this folly and return to Cybertron and recruit more forces to mine energy. Knowing that the other two Decepticon officers would only be in one place, Starscream made his way to Hook's surgical lab.

Once he entered, Starscream took a moment to look around. Littered about the lab were parts and pieces from various Decepticons. Some were killed prior to their arrival to Earth, and some were far more resent. One would have thought that Hook would have had some loyalty or even empathy to his own team member, but Bonecrusher's bits were unceremoniously dumped among the others. The self-proclaimed 'Greatest Physician Ever Sparked' was currently bent over one of the two fully intact carcasses in the room.

"Oh, you're back," was the surgeon's only response when Starscream leaned against a table covered in cannibalized parts. Hook hadn't even bothered to turn around when he had said it.

"Yes, the mission was singularly unsuccessful," Starscream reported, looking over at the unmoving Soundwave in the corner with Laserbeak on his shoulder. The metal bird looked quite smug for a Pre-load. "But, I imagine you already know that."

"I don't know Starscream," Hook said, looking up and giving him a self-satisfied, knowing smirk that set Starscream's processor on edge, "I think that it was highly successful."

"I hardly see how," Starscream drawled as he pushed around Frenzy's left over parts with the very tip of his finger causing Laserbeak to hiss angrily.

"But that is where you are wrong, as you often are," Hook told him, grinning in a way that made Starscream decidedly nervous and if he didn't know any better Starscream would have swore Soundwave was smiling too. "You were not here to witness my success."

"What?" Starscream asked unbelievingly. He couldn't possibly mean... Megtron's core spark casing was empty, they all had seen it. Visual confirmation was the only reliable way to determine if a Cybertronian was permanently deactivated. A spark was next to impossible to detect when it was either new or weak from injury, but it always glowed. From where he stood, Starscream still could not detect the light of a spark inside Megatron's shell.

"I have, once again, performed a miracle," Hook crowed, his smile only getting wider as he spoke. "And the work is remarkable, if I do say so myself."

"And you usually do," Starscream muttered sarcastically, but suddenly a thought occurred to him. "If you knew that you could repair him, why did you send me out with Laserbeak?"

"It got rid of you didn't it?"

Starscream didn't even have time to seethe at the pure audacity of Hook's remark before his spark froze and a familiar presence linked with his communications channels.

"What is the matter Starscream? Not quite the outcome you wished for?" Megatron's voice slid over his internal receptors in sarcasm that was hard to ignore, but Starscream managed anyway. He knew better than to speak his mind.

"Of course not, Lord Megatron. I only live to serve you and our cause. Had I known that you would be reactivated so soon I would have waited patently instead of scouring the Earth to find a way to bring you back." Starscream knew the lie was transparent but it was a game that he and Megatron had played for as long as they had known each other.

Why Megatron wished to keep someone in his ranks that was so obviously critical of his leadership abilities was beyond Starscream. He would have terminated himself eons ago, but whatever Megatron's reasons were Starscream would cater to the Decepticon leader so long as it kept him in the upper ranks of the forces.

"Of course you would have, Starscream, of course you would have," Megatron agreed coolly. "Come closer and let us discuss the destruction of the Autobots and the rebirth of our world."

Starscream bowed his head and complied, still unnerved by the lifeless open chest of Megatron before him. Even as he got closer he could not detect by sight or by sensor a spark within the corpse, but the signature of the communications link was unquestionably Megatron's. Starscream looked up questioningly to Hook were he stood at the other table, arms folded and self satisfied smirk fully intact and then to Soundwave. The usually mute communications officer was chuckling with malevolent humor.

"That is why you will never lead, Starscream," Megatron said, his audible voice was biting and sharp and not his own. The body on the table Hook had been working at sat up and turned to Starscream. "Your inability to think outside of your own ambitions will always leave you second best."

"But this is impossible," Starscream insisted, looking between Megatron's corpse and the body that obviously must hold Megatron's spark.

The Decepticon leader's new visage smiled quite savagely, a look that did not quite fit the otherwise docile features.