Past

Cybertron-Iacon

Young Starscream looked at Ratchet, his optics wide, "What?" he asked, not sure what he heard. Ratchet rolled his optics, obviously annoyed, "You're from the future," he muttered. It made sense now.

"Yes, we are," Starscream said. Young Starscream turned to his older self, "And, in the future, you work for Megatron," Young Starscream grimaced at that thought.

"I end up working for him?" he asked, obviously not pleased. Starscream nodded, "Then I'm not going to when he asks me. I'll say no."

"You can't do that," Ratchet said, crossing his arms, "If you change that event, that one single event, it will alter the course of the future, and things won't be the same when we go back," Starscream nodded, "Arcee may not be pregnant no..."

"ARCEE IS PREGNANT?"

"In the future," Starscream said. Young Starscream looked at him, optics wide once again, "We...kinda end up together," he said sheepishly. Young Starscream smiled at this thought, "Things are complicated in the future," Starscream said, leaning against the wall. Ratchet nodded.

"Especially with us being back in time," Ratchet said, "We need your help Starscream. We need somewhere were we can build our own time machine so we can go back to our time, and help the Autobots," Young Starscream looked from Starscream to Ratchet, the gears in his cervo working.

"A time machine," he repeated, but almost to himself. He tapped his talons against his chin, and nodded, "You can use my lab in Crystal City. I'm the only one who was access to it," Starscream and Ratchet smiled, "Follow me."

Cybertron-Crystal City

Young Starscream lead them through the halls of the laboratories. Ratchet was amazed. While on Cybertron, he had never had a chance to visit Crystal City, and he wished he had. It was such a marvelous place. Starscream was also looking around, taking in all the familiar sights and sounds of the labs. He sighed, smiling as he did.

Young Starscream punched in the code, and the door swung open. Starscream and Ratchet walked in, and looked around, "This is my lab. You can use it as much as you like," he said, and Starscream ran his fingers over the equipment. Ratchet looked over at Young Starscream.

"What about your trine?" he asked. Young Starscream frowned, as he didn't understand the question. Ratchet could tell by the look on his facial plating, "How are you going to hide us from them, or explain us to them?" Young Starscream crossed his arms. He hadn't thought of that.

"Well, Megatron asked me to find out about you guys, but they couldn't know. They're going to find out anyways so I might just have to tell them," Young Starscream said, leaning back against his desk, "Anyways, I have an experiment to get to. TC and Skywarp are waiting," Starscream nodded, and grabbed a data pad. He began writing on it. Young Starscream silently left the room, locking the door behind him.

Starscream had memorized the schematics and equations for the time machine, and he was writing them down so Ratchet could see them as well. He looked up, and saw Ratchet sitting on a desk, silent. Starscream looked back down at his data pad, "Red Alert," Starscream looked back up at Ratchet. The medic was looking right at him, "Her name was Red Alert. The femme."

"Ratchet, we don't need to talk about this if you don't want," Starscream said softly. He understood how hard it was to talk about losing someone.

"I need to," Ratchet said, "Optimus and the others don't know," Starscream nodded slowly, "We met in medical school. I had already been there for a while, and she was new. One day in class, we got matched up for an assignment, and we just clicked. I knew I wanted to spend more time with her," Ratchet shook his helm, chuckling, "I was falling in love, but I didn't know if she felt the same."

"You never asked?" Ratchet shook his helm again.

"She ended up asking me. She said, 'Do you have feelings for me? I have feelings for you, and I don't want to waste my time on someone who doesn't feel the same way.' So I told her, and we started seeing each other," Ratchet leaned back against the wall, "I was so happy, thinking about how we could raise a family and leave in peace. As if that would happen. The war officially broke out five solar cycles later. I got called to work on the front line and she back at the hospital. We would send messages to each other everyday, and I did get to go back and see her," Starscream was now sitting on the desk.

"If you don't mind me asking, how did she...go offline?" Starscream asked gently. He knew it was a touchy subject. He had personally messed up Knock Out's finish on numerous occasions when the medic had made a remark about his trine. Ratchet opened his optics, and looked right at Starscream. Starscream saw mech fluid in the corner of his optics, but Ratchet's voice was steady when he spoke.

"The Decepticons decided to ambush a part of Iacon, where the hospital was. The attack was lead by Shockwave, who drilled a tunnel for the Decepticons to use. Red Alert had set off the alarm, and tried to stop them from getting through the tunnel. Shockwave..." Ratchet breathed out, but when he spoke his voice was shaky, "Shockwave pushed her down on the ground, and stepped on her. He tortured her, demanding information, but Red Alert didn't say anything. She was strong, and then..." Tears began falling down Ratchet's facial plating, "He stabbed her just below the spark, as if to leave her online to feel her wounds. And then, he leaned down and whispered, 'You'll be alive long enough to see Ratchet.' He knew that we were almost together."

"Did...did you get a chance to bond?" Starscream asked, even though he already knew the answer. He wanted to hear it from Ratchet.

"No," Ratchet said quietly, "When I found her, I promised myself I would offline Shockwave before my spark stopped beating. I would offline him for offlining my almost sparkmate," Starscream got off the desk, and walked over to Ratchet. He sat down on the desk next to him.

They sat in silence for a while, and then Starscream spoke, "The day before the war started, I was out on Trypticon doing research on dark energon. Thundercracker and Skywarp were back in Crystal City. I knew something was wrong, as I could feel it in my spark. I left Trypticon, and went back. When I got there, part of Crystal City was destroyed. I ran through the wreck, calling out their names. The pain I felt in my spark... was nothing like I'd ever felt before. I came to part of the lab, and...it was destroyed. I combed through the wreckage, and I found both of them. Barely alive. I knelt down, and...I held both of them, one in each arm. I could feel their lives leave their sparks," Starscream closed his optics, and his voice was shaking when he spoke again, "Then I heard his voice, 'I told you they would get hurt.' I turned around and it was Megatron."

"Megatron... offline them?" Ratchet asked, horrified. Starscream shook his helm.

"A 'Con did, under Megatron's orders," Starscream said. Ratchet looked at the insignia on Starscream's chest. It glowed red. They weren't so different after all. They had both lost bots they care about, and Ratchet now understood why Starscream wasn't too fond of Megatron.

If he ordered a 'Con to kill Starscream's trine, then it would cause issues between them.

"Why did you work for him after he did that?" Ratchet asked. Starscream opened his optics, and mech fluid was in the corners.

"I didn't really have a choice. I was already kind of working with him, and he said we would bring Cybertron back to its glory days. Even though I wanted to offline him right then and there, I restrained myself. Arcee came over that night, and I broke down in front of her," Ratchet placed a hand on Starscream's shoulder.

"The war left no one untouched."

In my shoes
Just to see what it's like to be me
I'll be you let's trade shoes
Just to see what it'd be like to
Feel your pain you feel mine
Go inside each other's minds
Just to see what we'd find
Look at shit through each other's eyes

The song used in the last part of the chapter is the chorus from "Beautiful" by Eminem. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!