Chapter 8: Time Out II

A/N: Sorry for the long update, there seems to be a problem with the last chapter, so I've reposted it again. Thank you to everyone who's helped me, reviewed and added me to their favs! I would also like to thank my younger sister who's proof reading the fic starting from this chapter and rechecking the past chapters, so they should turn out better; 'probably gonna revisit them to make amendments. At least now there is a third party checking it who (a) reads more books than me and (b) knows better. Thank you very much everyone!

"So, what happened."

"Slag, that's what happened."

"No seriously, TC, 'Screamer always tells me what's going on first." Skywarp sat back in slight disbelief at the red seeker's change of bosom buddies. In spite of his arrant gossiping or, quote Soundwave, 'Skywarp's verbal exchange of information regarding and disregarding internal affairs', he hardly told anyone besides Thundercracker what the aerial commander chooses to tell him first. It took the indigo jet vorns of comity with the red jet to earn her trust, and another few years to learn when to not speak of her secrets, which is most of the time, every time.

Thundercracker leisurely skimmed through the data pad in his hands. "So she told me first. Big deal. Why don't you go ask her yourself?"

"I don't HAVE to ask her!"

"You wanna know?"

"Yeah-"

"So go ask her."

"No, no, you don't geddit-" The purple seeker's hands repeatedly pushed the air in disagreement with his blue counterpart's statement. "…If I get told somethin', I tell you. But if you get told something-"

"I shut my trap." The reflection of new facts ran itself on Thundercracker's optics as he perused the data pad.

"…Aawh, darnnit."

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"To think that you've sunk to this level, Prime-URKH!"

Megatron felt the ground leave his feet has the laser blast hit him squarely in the chest, sending the grey mech flying back into the cavity of the mountain. Brushing his hand over the darkened spot, the tyrant swept the flakes of ash shivering into the air, and took immediate aim at the Autobot leader. The foreboding charge from Optimus Prime's rifle complemented Megatron's cannon, growling equally for a vengeful reprisal. Neither would falter to the other…

…Until Starscream broke from the sombre obscurity, shielding the Decepticon commander with her body. Silver wings sheltered the silver mech, earning questionable looks from both leaders. Optimus Prime reserved himself from any action in his infinite patience, while waiting for the weak seeker's next move. Megatron looked flabbergasted at the lethargic female.

"(What are you doing?)" Starscream discounted her leader's remark and sluggishly dragged her body to turn and gaze at the vertical Transformer.

"(Optimus…)" she heaved, feeling her chest getting heavier with each strain. "(You won't hesitate to take a life of two Decepticons, am I right?)"

"Like the humans say, 'to kill two birds with one stone', Starscream." Optimus' gun shrugged lightly with his opinion. Aside from her haggard motions, the red Autobot did see something noticeably different about Starscream. "...Or to save a million innocent lives from the Decepticons. Although I have to say, what you've done here is something new."

A coughing rasp feebly echoed within the cave, and Starscream looked up from her chuckling. "(What about…three Decepticons…? Or, to be politically correct…)"

"(…Two Decepticons, and one…innocent…life…?)"

The last sentence from Starscream explained her latest deed to be, in every aspect, very much like herself. The aspen tyrant made no hesitation to lift them both from their supine position as comfortable as he could afford, and with little effort, aimed the barrel end of his cannon at his unborn progeny. A sharp prod from the black steel stressed the spark's existence, and Optimus could only watch in silence as his opponent gradually receded to the other end of the cave, where his army anticipated his emergence from the hollow. A few curious heads peeped from the light flooding from the entrance, and Starscream felt her lips curl into a flimsy smirk, before falling into stasis lock.

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"I KNOW that part."

"Good."

"…C'mon TC!"

"I couldn't tell you more even if I could, other than the fragging obvious."

"So tell me the fraggin' obvious."

"Okay then."

"Fine."

"All right."

"Yeah, (tell me)."

"Hum."

"…Tell me already you slaggin' bucket of wasted AFT parts!"

"'Told you all that I know, 'Warp."

"...Slagging aft-faced bastard."

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"You never cease to amaze me, Starscream." The seeker continued filing her reports, while Megatron threw his questioning one-liners with little effect. When her optics flickered online in the med bay, Starscream received and resumed her duties in filial resolution, lacking the biting sarcasm and complaints that followed. It was as if the incident converted the female to a rigid vow of silence, which she fervently practised on the troops, her comrades, and her overall duties as an aerial commander. 'Speak when you're spoken to' was a principle she altered greatly, and Megatron was slowly exhausting his list of piquant remarks to throw at his second-in-command. At the end of the second week, the silver Decepticon found the peace too suffocating for his liking. And quiet was not part of her nature.

The older Decepticon tromped over to the seeker to observe her current work, a small excuse to hover over her indifferently when he was slightly concerned about her health. Was it the limits he imposed on the seeker? House arrest, weapons confiscation and the newly enforced energon rationing was a sound security plan for a femme con as notorious as her. Without jeopardising the spark's growth, these precautionary rules kept Starscream from any attempts to escape the Nemesis if she tried. Is she depressed? Will it affect the spark resting inside her? With his rigid schedule for the jet, it was a closest Megatron got to falconry, but instead of using a raptor, he had a recalcitrant sixty-foot F-15 at his disposal. The silver mech wouldn't know how to shoo the black cloud hovering over her head, but there was a remedy to solve his curiosity.

"What's wrong, Starscream," the pale tyrant's question did not sound as sympathetic as his words should be, but his stony disposition was already etched into his character. "Have I grossly upset you, or is this another phase in your state of gravida?" His aerial commander mulled in her respected silence over her data pad, nearly dismissing the mech's question if her equation over her work was more Gordian. After much contemplation, the female continued her other work, setting the data pad aside to gaze at the screen in front of her with deadpan enthusiasm. Megatron might have bellowed an order to get an answer to his question if his creation wasn't nestled in her systems, but in all his years of experience as a Transformer, Megatron did not want to see his offspring's spark literally pop out of a femme con in fright.

"…Starscream…" the aforementioned seeker heard her leader hiss a new threat into her audio receptor. "I asked you a question…"

'And I'm not answering it,' she breathed a heavy sigh to herself. 'What's the point of living if-…what's the point of living. If I'm going to go soon, I might as well humour him.'

"…Yes, my lord."

"State the reasons to the cause of your depression." Starscream rotated her chair to look at the source of her misery with dimmed optics. "…What's going to happen after it is born?"

"Clarify your question, woman."

"Don't play dumb with me, you ignoramus."

"That was your tight-lipped game the whole week!"

"I'm going to be destroyed after it's been born, right? That's how you'd like me to be!"

"Thanks for the brilliant idea, I'll remember that for a near FUTURE!"

"I've done my loyal duties as a soldier under your forces, I've followed your shadow and kissed the ground you walk on, but your altruism does not extend to me? Bucket-headed-!"

"That's because your grovelling is pathetic, and does your vocal component come with any better insults, Starscream? I thought a bigger ego meant a bigger circuit board!"

"…Yes, it is pathetic. And I was sick of being pathetic for you. I'm sick of being obedient to you. I'm sick of being loyal, being faithful, being everything under your call! Everything I did for you didn't matter at all! What's a femme con to do when she's tried EVERYTHING in her arsenal, to prove her puny existence in the optics of her leader? I've become what you wanted me to be!"

"And THAT is why I should terminate you!"

"GO AHEAD THEN! Take your best shot, right where our spark's at! That's not why I rebel all the time!"

"All the time is RIGHT! Why do you rebel then?"

"Because I LOVE YOU!!"

"I KNEW IT!"

Megatron quickly lunges in for the kill, taking the battle with their tongues literally, only stopping to raise his lips from hers to throw in a grumbling comment.

"…And stop that pathetic snivelling. Do all females cry when this happens?"

"…I…I'm so happy-"

"What th' SLAAAAAAAAG-? WHO WROTE THE SCRIPT?" Skywarp lanced his arms out at the TV in front of him, as his blue counterpart shrugs nonsensically. "Maybe she's taking a chance to show our leader that she still cares…or maybe it's some form of redemption, or, or…why are we still watching this?"

"Because TC, 'Screamer mentioned she gave the directors some ideas in exchange for some moolah. (Damn female, I want my royalties too 'con…)" Thundercracker made a thoughtful face and turned back to his comrade. "Do you think she's well, how do I say this, portraying her feelings onto the show? Soaps just exaggerate things, but is this what Starscream's really thinking about?"

"Hmm, well ahhh…it does kinda remind me of her when we were younger, but…that's when we didn't know better I guess." Skywarp gave his friend a deserved nudge in the wing. "You still haven't told me what happened between the two."

A childish frown gave way to Skywarp's visage when Thundercracker shrugged again. "I already told you 'Warp, I really don't know. You'll have to ask the lady con yourself, but I doubt she'll have much to say. It's her life, leave it be."

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In another room aboard the Nemesis, the same show was rolling its credits across a larger screen, being watched over by a pair of optics less tolerant of its existence. Megatron gave his second-in-command a heavy glare as she was organising her work into a neat pile of data pads.

"Is it true you've contributed to this absolute rubbish of a show?" the silver mech growled in slight disbelief. Starscream lazily continued her finger picking habit from the morning.

"And earning every credit, your lordship." Her usual scoff at her leader took a different turn since the incident. Lacking the connotation of fervent passion against her leader, Starscream's laced words were dry of its poison. Megatron was half-concentrating on what was playing two hours ago, but the shallow programme had its extensive truths, albeit the exaggeration of emotions. The highlighted fact remained that he never did give Starscream much respect for her contributions to his army, and with such scarce rewards for his troops in general, he made her look the poorest amongst her peers. Even Soundwave's cassettes gathered more praise in the past years.

"As if I should feed that massive ego of yours. I'd rather cover myself in energon chips and dive in a pool full of Sharkticons."

"There's a crateful in Storage Room 3 if you'd like to know." Time spent in the storage area was not wasted with the femme con, but Megatron decided to save that insult for the 'near future'. "Don't be such a spoilt child, Starscream. Why would you need me to remind you of your seamless work performance? Letting you know of your mistakes is much more constructive than inflating that blimp you call a head, which has been a problem I've underlined eons ago."

"Give me more respect, and maybe I won't betray you as much as I do!" she snarled.

"You've improved SO much over the vorns, Starscream! And to think that you would selflessly jeopardise your spark and my child's own to save your beloved leader? Good JOB!"

"THANK you, your magnificence! THANK you for putting me under house arrest for all those vorns that I've served under you! And to think that having my weapons confiscated isn't enough, I can't leave the room without you exiting FIRST now, CAN I?"

"Maybe I'm just concerned over your bumbling BUFOONERY over the last few months while you carry MY child, you've left me with LITTLE CHOICE!"

"Well, OUR child's EXTREMELY, GRATEFUL!"

The duo stopped raising their voices to take notice of their bodies heaving with anger, the seeker looking more tired in comparison to her leader. Both minds raced feverishly to conjure the last words to end their argument, now brimming with familiar sentiment. Starscream mentally cursed to herself when Megatron activated his vocal component before she parted her lips.

"All that SCREAMING must make you HUNGRY!"

"OF COURSE I AM!"

"THEN GO GET SOME ENERGON YOU STUPID FEMALE AND GET OUT OF MY SIGHT!"

Megatron's agitated scepticism grew to a tumultuous size when the female seeker in front of him started shaking…and crying. Maybe it wasn't a good idea to turn the only female in the galaxy capable of bearing his children, to gladsome suicide.

"For the love of PRIMUS, WHAT'S WRONG NOW?" Megatron felt too self-conscious of the situation bearing similarities with the T.V. programme breems ago.

Of little concern to Megatron, Starscream mentioned it anyway. "My…my creator disowned me just yesterday…"

Repeat. T.V. programme. "So? I thought he disowned you before (and to think that he didn't do it eons ago)…"

"…No…That's the thing, I-…I didn't…not before I-" in-between uncontrolled sobs, Starscream drank her tears careening down her cheerless face. "Now, now, he-…he said that even if…even if I became what he would have been proud of, he wouldn't… he wouldn't take me back! I've never-! I've never…NEVER cried to his stupid tune before, but-!"

Megatron was on the brink of going into stasis lock, if only to elude his aerial commander's outlandish behaviour.

"And you cry like this again BECAUSE-?"

"BECAUSE YOU TOLD ME TO GO AWAYYYYY!"

On utterance of the last word, Starscream's body arched to meet the floor, letting her uninhibited tears drown her nasal component. The silver tyrant's worldly experiences rarely included an erratic female howling like a banshee, and Megatron had three choices: one, turn off his audio receptors and leave the room, so she can kill herself in the midst of her riotous manners. Two, cajole her capricious nature to vent on less arduous topics, like the non-existent stock exchange back on Cybertron, or three, bellow at her (with reason) until she clamps her mouth shut. Another quick and easy fourth option was to kick her cranium in hopes that her vocal chords would go offline with her cerebral circuits, but that could jeopardise the spark; so did option one. Not one to dabble in fictitious gambling, Megatron discarded options one, two, and four…after some consideration.

"Stop your BLUBBERING female! I KNOW it has been very stressful these past few months-"

"YA' THINK?"

Megatron had to shut his foot down before it met her face. "SHUT UP YOU PATHETIC SLAG!"

The red and pewter female heeded his orders after five solid minutes, tuning her wailing down to snorts, hiccups and other indiscernible sobbing. Megatron had to wait another astrosecond before he could hear his teeth bruxing again. Using his unburdened arm, the tyrant hoisted his aerial commander from her turtled position to meet him face-to-face.

"For all the military professionalism you possess, you still break down into an unprofessional fit whenever things don't go your way! Our relationship in the past does not grant you any rights to take emotional liberties with me, female! And I may not know your creator as well as you do, but what he did was not to spite you entirely! As a Decepticon loyalist, it's only fair that he rids himself of unorthodox treachery such as yours!" The silver Decepticon's air vents churned violently in agitation next to the seeker's body, shaking piteously to her unbridled misery. A weak whimper escaped her lips as her head hung limply onto her own shoulder.

"…That aside, I don't think he knows what he's losing (other than a good audio session)," Megatron set the femme con down when her legs quivered for the solid ground below. "Counting your fortunes to your faults, I don't see a lot of intelligent females holding high ranks in the Decepticon army. Be grateful."

"…(Well…)" she quibbled. "…I-…I guess it's the spark I'm carrying…('feeling a lot different since-)…"

He couldn't believe it. In less than a quarter of an hour, Megatron had somehow managed to curb and survive the red jet's epileptic fits. An experience for keepsakes, surely. Megatron paced his room like an ambivalent child, before recalling his original plans for the day. He mentally sighed when he realised he cannot omit Starscream from it.

"The humans have created a new power plant roughly due north-east from our base. I was planning to send Laserbeak to gather more information on its physical geography, but your extreme state of 'cabin fever' has convinced me you need a breath of fresh air. As do I." Megatron marched to the door, grumbling under his breath.

"...(From you. Loopy female.)"

"I'm well overdue for my outies…" Starscream sniffed the last of her unhappiness away, and waited for Megatron to leave the room. "(…Stupid, 'I'm-Too-Handsome-For-Anyone' mono-browed monstercon-)"

"Did you say something, woman?" A sharp turn of his heel brought Megatron glaring back into the room.

"(Clomper-stomper-) Coming!" Starscream chirped awkwardly.

A/N: Sorry this chapter took so long…I was having a reeeeally long mental block. And I'm also prone to being retarded at night, which is the only time I choose to write. Thanks again for your comments :D