"Isn't it amazing?" Bumblebee cooed. "The sunset just looks so PRETTY!"

Optimus Prime was not impressed. While some aspects of earth were taken for granted in the past and now appreciated, he still couldn't accept different waves of light being filtered through different atmospheric thicknesses as 'pretty.'

"This is nice," he commented. As Dr. Arkeville, he was a reticent individual, and that hadn't changed. Bumblebee leaned back and maneuvered Prime's arm around him.

Was this normal? The small yellow Autobot sighed contentedly. "I haven't heard from you in awhile. Have you been going offline all right?"

They slept! Oh, good! Optimus had felt run-down but had no idea how they recharged. He now had an opportunity to get some assistance.

"Not really. I think...I might need some assistance." There was a small thrill to the danger of this. What if her were behaving inappropriately? When he was human he'd never really noticed women, never really looked at one unless she were in an issue of Playboy or Hustler; whilst his fellow academia nuts were either harassing the undergrads forced to work/study with them and the TAs who were a little too weird, he'd been BUSY. After graduation there was no point in interacting with anyone worth his time, he had a world to take over.

Bumblebee went from friendly concern to business in less than a nanosecond. "Usual time and place?"

Prime didn't even know where his room WAS, let alone what this coded phrase meant. "I was thinking something different. Why not just go back there when this is over?"

"Isn't that dangerous?"

Optimus really didn't have much of a choice. "I'm Prime, who's going to question it?"

Wrong answer. "Okay." He said it with a trill in his voice that Dr. Arkeville's TA used whenever he thought his boss was about to hoist his own petard.

"Am I incorrect?"

Bumblebee must have realized his faux pas and immediately stammered something about it being all right, he didn't mean anything bad by it-

"Forget it, I can take care of myself." Optimus transformed, stumbling a little less obviously when he rolled out, and ignored Bumblebee the rest of the drive home...which was tough when he got lost. They came back and Prime allowed Ratched and Wheelcheck to guide him back to his room. He didn't need to plug anything in, apparently. Good. Lesson learned, however.

No more excursions!

Starscream marched into his lab with a desperate expression and a quick gesture that were wasted on a nonexistent audience. Good, Dr. Arkeville had enough sense to hide. Especially with Octane on Starscream's heels.

"You told me it wouldn't work without that compressor built, you derided the whole collection project without your input, we got in trouble for not including you, and now you're backing out, which is TYPICAL. Just give me the plans and let me fix this before we get another lecture!" He held out his hand and Starscream scowled deeper.

"The plans...are electronic. I need to..." how did they transfer information around here? He needed to be guest-free in order to get Dr. Arkeville to find these plans first! The door slammed behind them and there were exactly two astroseconds of pre-impact before Octane had his lips mashed up to Starscream's.

Kissing...he'd forgotten kissing. Prime hadn't had workable lips in a million years, it had seemed. He forgot how specific the touch was, the electricity in it, and...wow, this kid was enthusiastic. Starscream's body was humming and aching for more touching, reaching for him and pulling the Decepticon on top of him onto the lab table in one fluid motion that didn't break the embrace. He had to have more. It didn't matter what the being before him had done to Autobots; he was going to have something done to HIM and LIKE IT.

"Starscream," Octane puffed, as the subject of his sentence began biting down HARD on his lover's neck, "I didn't know ya had it in ya."

"Shut up," he replied. Hearing someone else's name was a definite turn-off. There was an evil sadistic thought that made him wonder how Octane would react if he knew the truth. All the better to use him now. Octane touched Starscream's wings and something inside of him surged. He was close; he was so close-

There it was. Cold, red, precise like a laser, but an intensity not felt before. Octane let his go reciprocatively and it felt AMAZING. Starscream was still dizzy from the first wave; the second wave would have made him swoon if he were standing. Octane lay in his arms and giggled.

"That was quick," he commented. "And loud."

He was supposed to be silent? Oops. Lust had evaporated back to contempt. "I told you to shut up. Now leave."

This was normal, apparently. Octane got up, reminded Starscream to transfer the plans to his computer drive, and marched out.

Dr. Arkeville gave out a grunt at that moment and a sigh, gasping for air as though running a race. Starscream found him behind a cage, laying low while wiping off his lap with a corner of a rag, looking guilty and accusatory at the same time.

"You are overreaching your necessary construction of a facade of me," he barked. "I DO NOT take him HERE!"

Starscream gestured to the door. "He started it!"

"You tell him no, he grinds his jaw, calls you up tonight and you meet in the basement! The whole BASE can hear you in here!"

Stupid human. "The whole base can hear you NOW!"

"ARRGH!" Dr. Arkeville punched his chair in frustration, giving a yelp of pain and tearing up. He'd hit with his injured wrist. Starscream felt guilt overtake his indignation. It had to hurt to watch his own body be touched through another.

"I'm sorry I was intimate with your botfriend."

"I HATE THIS BODY!" he screamed back. "Get me mine back!"

"We will," Starscream assured him, relieved to be changing the subject. Now that the initial urge to merge was over, he was left with residual guilt. Same old Optimus. "It might come sooner than you think. Megatron noticed that Optimus is acting weird and wants Lazorbeak to investigate."

Dr. Arkeville looked up. "You said something, didn't you?"

He fluctuated between guilt and resentment that Starscream had told him nothing before his meeting. "Thanks to you not telling me how to act, I'd already been yelled at for standing in the wrong place, not saluting correctly, having no idea what any of your projects were-" he got a semi-apologetic grunt for that. "When I didn't say anything, Megatron became suspicious and put me on the spot, where I accidentally mentioned that Omega Supreme was on a mission, and he was furious I couldn't explain how I knew that-"

"-How have we not conquered you yet?" Dr. Arkeville postulated. "The Autobots are run by a drone with no logic function!"

Starscream found himself in the human's face. "THAT was uncalled for!"

"Don't you know me? You ALWAYS tell him his plan is stupid! That's your job: find the holes in his plans so that he can execute them correctly! If you say nothing, he assumes you're holding back so that he will fail!"

"How would I know that? I don't spy in your base!" That was a stupid thing to tell him. He was, after all, still Starscream, not the man before him, who had stopped turning red with anger and was back to being coolly sarcastic.

"Which brings me back to my initial statement."

Flustered, Starscream turned and headed to another part of the lab. "Yeah-well-I nailed Octane and you had to watch."

Dr. Arkeville's smile was not seen and response was not heard. "I forgot to thank you for that."

Humans needed sleep. With sleep, came dreams. Dreams of war, dreams of lies, dreams of dragon's fire, and the beast that will bite...heh. Dr. Arkeville smiled superciliously in the darkened corner of his cage. That idiot Blaster once assumed that heavy metal would have the bagpipe effect, when all it did was get him a cannon blast from Megatron, who hated anything human. Funny how "Enter Sandman" had stuck, though. Soundwave got it for him online-

Soundwave.

"Starscream!" Dr. Arkeville screeched. Starscream was recharging on the auxiliary plate nearby, coming online with a grunt, red eyes luminescent.

"What?"

"Soundwave can read your thoughts, he'll know your processor pattern is disparate- if your behavior didn't already give it away - he probably knows I'm here already!" Human panic was terrible, too. He wanted to run and hide.

"Except that he hasn't."

"He could be saving it up for blackmail, or WORSE!" This mech was so profoundly deficient in basic awareness of danger it was nauseating! Or was that the panic?

Starscream sat upright and placed a hand on the table that held the cage, as though reassuring Dr. Arkeville vicariously through the furniture. "Based on how I've seen him operate, he's not like that," he refuted. His voice was low, slightly deeper, more of a hiss. He glanced at the chamber door, squinting slightly. "Radar indicates no one. Who can do stealth mode?"

Dawning comprehension hit Dr. Arkeville. "His tapes. Ravage, mostly. Except that...I activated my Detector before you put me in here. Did you hear something?" The intended recipient was not there to hear it, having clunkily left the room to investigate the laboratory. They were hiding in a mere closet, one Starscream had made for his busiest work sessions/intense moments of paranoia.

He was gone for what seemed like forever. All Dr. Arkeville could hear was the loud noise his fuel chamber was making. He bit back the urge to call after the Decepticon, in case silence was crucial. Although this Starscream was a klutz.

The red lights emerged from the other room, sliding sideways and back as the head shook them. "Nothing. This moment is perfect, though. If they wanted to inject fear into you, while you are ruminating and at rest would be the perfect moment for harassment." He stood in the entryway, scratching a shoulder and looking so much bigger than usual.

So if they could read his mind, then they would have planted the idea. "He didn't. It was a natural progression of thought. Soundwave's implementation is clumsy and amateurish, hence Megatron's need to be diplomatic to those he wishes to turn to his side."

"Good," Starscream replied, edging in the dark to find the recharge plate while lingering over his door watch. "I wanted to wait until tomorrow to tell you, but we can go over this now."

Dr. Arkeville reached for the granola bar from the food and beverage stash he'd been smart enough to get when he forced a reluctant Starscream to pillage a supermarket before their return to base. "Proceed."

"I thought about your and Megatron's admonitions regarding how Starscream is supposed to behave in a normal setting." Dr. Arkeville's mouth was full and the Gatorade was a disgusting flavor, so he offered no verbal encouragement. "When you said he'd assume you were up to something, I remembered a detail in your notes. When I looked up your list, I saw that this plan HAD been done, but the twist I had in mind had NOT. Nor had it been combined with ANOTHER plan that almost worked."

Another guzzle of beverage kept him from goading.

"THIS plan will also let YOU kill him, not me."

Since his mouth was clear, there was no comic reaction, merely doubt. "I don't think you will give up that privilege so easily. Besides, any plan can still be thwarted by Soundwave."

The red lights narrowed into slits and a vague outline of a smirk could be almost seen. "Not if he thinks Soundwave is in on it, too."