17. Duel

"You've got bearings, I'll give you that," Skywarp told me, not even bothering to hide a grin of anticipation. A medic (or, well, as close as we had) was giving me a quick maintenance check, having already finished with Starscream. I could see my creator across the arena, speaking in databursts with Thundercracker, his chosen second. To my surprise, Skywarp had volunteered to be mine, ignoring the glare from his trineleader.

"I don't want you to break with your trine," I'd told him, to which he had replied, "You are trine."

The medic checked my plating and weapons systems, ensuring that I was in peak condition. I needed to think, to plan. I had to win, but how? I'd fought and defeated other Decepticons, but Starscream was in a league of his own. I would have to be quick on my landing struts and my processor.

/Don't let him take it to the air,/ Skywarp advised over my comm, /or he'll hand you your aft on a cybertrate platter. On the ground, you might actually have a chance./

I shot him a withering look. /Thanks ever so, Skywarp./

The medic pronounced me fit to battle. I'd heard of mechs losing all fear once they stepped into the ring, and it had happened to me on several occasions, but now my nervousness only increased. Perhaps it was because Starscream was opposite me, or perhaps it was because this duel would determine our future.

Starscream's face was unreadable as he moved into place opposite me. Traditionally, this was a duel to termination, but Skywarp had told me of one or two instances when Megatron had allowed a challenger to live. That didn't really help. A mech could go through a lot without dying.

Shockwave and Soundwave, our official referees, stood on either side of the ring.

"You may use any weapon at your disposal. If you leave the ring, you forfeit," Shockwave said. "The second may intervene if the combatant is temporarily disabled; the second may only fight for one breem before the combatant must re-enter the ring or forfeit. You will receive no medical assistance during the duel. You will battle to termination or forfeit. Do you understand?"

Starscream and I nodded. Shockwave motioned to Soundwave, politely offering him the honors. Soundwave's visor flashed.

"Begin," he intoned.

Before Soundwave's voice had stopped echoing, Starscream moved, his thrusters giving him an extra boost. I snapped my head back instinctively and his kick lost some of its intended force, though it still made me stagger back two steps. My reflexes saved me from taking a null-ray blast to the face. I heard the cannon powering and ducked, feeling it go overhead. I couldn't afford to take a hit from that. I had to keep my audios tuned to their finest to hear the tell-tale noise of the cannons powering up.

I was ready for him now, but now Starscream waited, mouthplates curving up slightly. I fired on him, but he dodged into the air. He dove, firing repeatedly, and I darted to one side and up, forced into the air. Starscream was on me in an instant, claws tearing at my armor, delving in towards my wiring. I tried to disengage, but the moment I had gotten clear, he struck me again. Warnings flashed in my vision and I took the most viable course of action, cutting my thrusters and falling. Startled, he released me in order to stay airborne and I crashed to the floor in a heap. I heard both groans and cheers from the spectators. Rather than finish me off from where he was, Starscream landed, wings flicking back proudly. I might actually stand a chance if I could take him by surprise here.

"Is that all?" he asked mockingly, arrogance making him drop his guard as he came nearer. I waited until he was almost on top of me, then flung up an arm and fired. He skipped backwards, scorched and smoking in several places where I had struck him. More cheers—so many of them were hoping that I would win. But I couldn't think about that right now. I had to concentrate.

I took the initiative, moving in to attack at close quarters. I was physically stronger, and here I could use that to my advantage. Besides, I would be out of the reach of his null rays.

It was clear after half a cycle that I'd made a wise decision. Starscream was struggling, just barely, but it was enough. Here I outmatched him… here I could defeat him!

But Starscream was fast, and that made it difficult. He was no pushover, even in his weak area, and he wielded his claws with painful efficiency. He looked confident, as though he'd expected everything I threw at him. And he'd taught me most of it, of course. But I hadn't relied purely on Starscream, had I? I'd made a name for myself sparring with my fellow Decepticons. I'd spent megacycles in the Archives learning from the old arena fights. And I'd learned some tricks from the best melee fighter I'd had the good fortune to meet.

I feigned a stumble, pretending to be off-balance, and Starscream took the bait, closing in as I'd expected. The surprise on his face was almost comical as I, perfectly stable and ready, seized him and successfully sent him sprawling. I heard a familiar whoop over the tumult and a loud shout of "That's my mech!"

Starscream had landed awkwardly. I took the advantage and fired on him, deliberately aiming to disable rather than deactivate, but his reflexes kicked in and he returned fire, forcing me to dart aside. He pulled himself up, clearly favoring his right leg, but I knew better than to underestimate him now. He wouldn't make it easy for me to end the duel decisively without killing him.

But now he had me on the run; it was all I could do to avoid his lasers. He looked serious about this… Primus, he wasn't going to do this halfway. He couldn't terminate me, but short of that he would do whatever he had to.

Starscream drove me back to the edge of the ring. I fired up my thrusters, but he'd anticipated this and followed me into the air, catching me only a few astrometers up. He dug his claws into my wings, calculating and brutal, tearing at energon lines and slim support struts, ripping through thin plating. I screamed and struggled, kicking, trying to burn him with the heat of my thrusters. He slammed me into the ground hard and I coughed up energon. The crowd had fallen eerily silent. Unlike in other duels, where they would be yelling at the apparent victor by this point, urging him to either terminate the loser or let him forfeit, they all waited to see what Starscream would do.

He wouldn't kill me. He couldn't kill me – to do so would be to extinguish his own Spark. But losing now would mean losing the support of those Decepticons who seemed so confident in me. And Starscream would make it hurt.

I couldn't afford to lose.

My processor whirled. Claws? Not good enough. Cannons? Torn off in Starscream's aerial assault. Thrusters? Trapped under Starscream's legs. What other weapon did I have at my disposal?

In a flash, I remembered cool, blue-tinted darkness and the Archivist's voice. "When you're too close for guns and too far for claws, then what do you use? When these 'archaic' and 'outdated' weapons save your chassis, then you'll appreciate them…"

And I remembered Ramrod pinning me to the ground and guiding my hands, saying, "It's not much, but if you ever need to distract someone for a klik or two…"

"Trust me," Starscream hissed softly, his expression betraying none of his feelings, "this will hurt me more than it will hurt you."

"Yeah, I'll bet it will," I answered, just before I shoved my claws into the circuitry where his waist met his hips and tugged hard on whatever wires I could grip. It worked now just as it had when Ramrod first showed me the trick, making the older Seeker jerk back involuntarily at the wrench on his motor systems. It was just enough to allow me to reach back with both hands and receive the swords that my wings had just produced. I had just a moment to relish the shock on Starscream's face; he had just enough time to begin a startled "What—?!" before I struck, sending him scrambling backwards.

Just like that, the tide had turned. I had Starscream just where I wanted him, out of range of both claws and cannons. The twin swords seemed made for me; it mystified even me how natural I felt at this, how smooth. I'd never fought with them before, yet I knew exactly what I was doing.

Starscream was struggling, faltering, spooked. Finally I knocked him off balance and sent him to the floor. He was battered, sparking at the joints and dripping energon from his wounds. One of his null-rays and part of one wing had been sheared off, his left arm was useless from the elbow down, and it looked as though he could no longer stand on his injured leg. There was a particularly vicious gash on his midsection where he had twisted in an attempt to avoid a slash on his other wing.

He glared up at me and wiped a trickle of energon from his mouthplates. His vents heaved and he attempted to struggle up using only one arm and one leg, but froze when I slid the end of one blade under his chin, tilting his head back. The crowd had again gone completely silent; aside from Starscream's and my intakes cycling rapidly, there was no sound.

"Do you submit?" I asked. My voice wasn't loud, but in the overwhelming silence it rang like a shot.

"Never," Starscream rasped, optics flashing. I pressed harder and a bead of energon welled up where the sword's point met his throat. I saw Thundercracker twitch out of the corner of my optic.

"Do you submit?" I repeated. If it came down to it, I would order him to surrender. I would not kill my own creator.

Yet if I had to order him, the guilt would gnaw at me forever. I would never be certain whether he truly believed I was ready for this.

Starscream's face pulled tight in a brief, pained grimace. "Yes," he said. "I submit."

The Decepticons exploded. It seemed that everyone wanted to touch me, to speak to me, but after a cycle of chaos, Soundwave and Shockwave managed to herd them back.

"Now you've done it," Starscream muttered as I helped him up, giving him to the support of his wingmates. "They'll be useless all orn… my Lord Commander."

"You've really got them riled up," Skywarp added. "Don't you wish to address the troops, my Lord?" It was more comfortable when Skywarp said it… I could be sure that he was joking. Almost.

I looked up into a sea of red optics. The weight of my new responsibility settled onto me and I suddenly thought of Optimus. For a moment I was homesick—I missed Optimus with all my Spark. I wanted to see him and speak to him, tell him of everything that had happened. But first I had others to speak to.

Lost for words, I glanced at Starscream, who smirked.

/When in doubt, you can always fall back on an ancient strategy: keep it short./

I nodded gratefully, already dredging up the words as I looked back at the Decepticons… at my Decepticons.

"Thank you," I said. "Thank you for supporting me… I hope that I've earned it." I hesitated. How could I state my cause in a way that they would appreciate? "I will end this war. We will have our freedom."

This was enough for my mechs, who once again flooded towards me, some congratulating, others just reaching out to touch me, expressions of awe and wonder on their faces. They acted almost reverential, as though I were an icon so sacred that I would bless them with my touch.

Lugnut loomed behind me, but refrained from embracing me. His jaw had been repaired, but his vocalizer, one of the most delicate components in the Cybertronian body, would take some time to heal. His presence kept the crowd away from one side of me. The constant press was beginning to make me claustrophobic.

Ramrod appeared at my side, his wide grin splitting his face, but all he had time to say was "You forgot to watch your back left again! We'll work on that!" before Starscream pulled me away.

/Come with me,/ he commed. /There's something… I have to tell you./

With some help from Lugnut, we extricated ourselves from the crowd and I helped Starscream towards our quarters.

"Starscream?" He answered with just a glance. "I… I don't want this to come between us. I understand what things were like between you and Megatron, and I don't want us to be like that."

"Does this mean I'm your second-in-command?"

"I couldn't ask for anyone else, Starscream. You're the best there is."

"Of course I am." He smirked. "Don't worry. You're not nearly as insufferable as he was."

His smile faded. He was acting oddly, his energy field pulled tightly about him, his optics on the floor. There was too much tension in his frame. Whatever he had to tell me, it would be difficult for him. His strange behavior aroused my curiosity at once, but I waited until we were safe inside my quarters.

"We should…" Starscream trailed off vaguely, gesturing at the chairs. I sat, now burning with anticipation. He only remained seated for a few kliks before struggling to his landing struts again, hobbling back and forth, his movements quick and agitated.

"You've noticed how they all stare at you," he said finally.

"I've noticed." A bit late for this, since Hurricane had already told me why. I tried to predict where Starscream was headed with this.

"They… many of them… they think you're Megatron, that he's come back. That he's returned. It's rubbish, of course, but they're on the right track. You… were meant to lead the Decepticons… it's the very reason for your existence."

"What do you mean?" I asked, foreboding churning in my Spark.

"I can't find the words," he exploded, turning on me in his desperation. "How do I say in a moment what I've been hiding for two hundred vorns?"

"Try," I whispered.

"I didn't want you to know. Anybody to know." Starscream paced back and forth a few more times, optics burning wildly.

"Tell me," I said softly. It was an order, and he had to obey.

"Your co-creator… your code writer… it was Megatron." He cycled an intake, then said it again. "Megatron was your creator."

My world ground to a halt.

Megatron. The cruelest and most brutal Decepticon, the very thing I rebelled against, had contributed to my programming.

I'm not like Megatron, I'd insisted. But I was like him. I was Sparked like him. I was Sparked… from him.

"No," I said flatly. "I… he can't be."

"And yet."

"Why didn't you tell me before?"

Starscream finally sat, expelling air from his vents in a forceful sigh. "When you've fought for millions of vorns to become leader, you don't want to give it up to anyone. I admit it: I didn't want you to get ideas. If I'd told you what you were Sparked for, you might have actually wanted it. In the end, you did this because you thought it was right, not because you thought it was your right."

I dropped my head into my hands. "How? Why?"

Starscream was silent for a long moment. I glanced up to see once again the expression of shame that had haunted his face back in the cave that had been our shelter the night he'd revealed that he was my carrier-creator.

"I hated him," he hissed, his voice layered with too many emotions to name. "I hated submitting to him. He wanted an heir, in case anything should happen to him. And he ordered me – me, the Air Commander, second-in-command of all Decepticons – to Sparkmerge with him like some common pleasurebot, to carry his sparkling, his 'heir' when I should have been the one to inherit the Decepticons. And then he bound me to you. Forced me to swear loyalty, obedience—!"

He shut his mouth, slowly unclenching his hands, calming himself.

"Do you hate me?" I asked. "Because of what I am?"

"I did, once," Starscream said. "When you were still within me, in the vorn following Axis. You were a symbol of Megatron. A reminder of his dominance, the humiliation he put me through. But then…"

He watched me for several kliks. I waited patiently.

"And then… you were Sparked. When I saw you…" He shook his head slowly, looking faintly bemused. "I could never hate you, Nova. Never."

After a comfortable silence, Starscream said, "Well, then. You're in charge now. Your orders, Commander?"

I didn't much feel like giving orders. I needed to leave Kaon and regain my balance. Everything had happened so quickly this orn. I needed to find myself after losing my bearings.

And I had other matters to consider, such as my strategy. Unlike Starscream, I was uninterested in conquest or the destruction of the Autobots. All I wanted was freedom for all Cybertronians. I was not, however, so naïve as to assume that the Senate would simply agree to give us liberty and equality without a fight. In their optics, our revolution was nothing but a slave revolt, a mad struggle of the rabble.

"We'll strengthen our hold on the southern hemisphere first," I said. We could hold our own on the defensive. Sooner or later, hopefully, the Autobots would simply tire of fighting. Many already had, I knew from growing up in Iacon. "No more northern expansion for a while. Just give them an orn or two to rest. I… I have something I need to do."

"Someone you need to see?" Starscream asked shrewdly. I wondered if he meant Optimus or…

Apis. Suddenly I wanted to see her more than anything. But first I would have to contact Optimus. I still had his comm signal, and now I wondered why it had never occurred to me to speak to him before now.

"Get yourself repaired," I told Starscream.

"You too," he said. "I want you healthy before you fly off into parts unknown."

"Don't worry," I murmured, already planning. "I won't even leave Decepticon territory."