So this chapter is a little short, but as I stated at the end of the last chapter, that is because chapters 2 and 3 really should have just been a single chapter. However, I still think it is powerful enough to stand on its own and I hope you agree. Without further ado, the next installment of the degradation of everything that is Dreadwing.

Chapter Warning-Dark themes.

Chapter 3-Destruction Of A Spark

Dreadwing listlessly rose to sit upon the med table with an air of indifference to his surroundings. His normally sharp and focused mind was sluggish as he stared emptily at his own two servos resting upon his thigh plates. He had endured it just like that first time, but this time had been so much worse both physically and mentally. It was finally over, finished, to a point where he had accepted his loss and now all that was left was the insurmountable task of moving on. How was he supposed to do that?

How?

There wasn't an answer. Should there have been? Yes, somewhere in his mind he knew that he had something to do, something more than sitting here apathetically. Slowly, duty and honor won out over pain, spurred on by respect for his commanding officer and the knowledge that he needed to return to his assigned station. He didn't actually know how much time had passed, his internal chronometer had been dampened by the drugs and wouldn't be online for some time it seemed. He pulled himself together again, intent on appearing as normal as possible when he went before Lord Megatron.

Before he could even remove himself from the med table however, the bright red medic walked through the med bay door. "Dreadwing…uh…I am surprised you are up so soon," he exclaimed rushing over to attend to him.

"I am fine. I have survived far worse than this." Knockout looked at him with bold, expressive optics, the vivid red rings seemingly shocked by his admission. The looked confused him and pained him and angered him, his torrential emotions leaving him unable to know what he really felt. "Why do you stare at me in such a manner?" he asked defensively.

Knockout looked away then, his faceplates closing down to form an almost solemn expression as if it was he who had lost something and not the other way around. "I just…was expecting you to still be…afflicted I guess. Your reaction was much more severe than mine and yet I was still out for a few solarcycles after…acceptance."

Dreadwing contemplated on how to respond to that admission since he still felt partially guilty about the whole affair, as if he himself had robbed the medic of his bonded even though Breakdown had created the situation that led to his own vulnerability and consequential offlinement. "Worse this time around or not, you can only allow the loss of the same bot to affect you so much. I am a warrior and cannot afford to sit around and wallow in my misery now that I understand what has happened."

"I guess I can understand…wait. What do you mean 'the loss of the same bot?'?"

"No doubt you have concluded that my reaction is due to the loss of a spark bond. I have only ever been bonded to one mech, my spark twin, Skyquake."

"But that bond has already been severed. We assumed you had another bonded we were not aware of. How could this have happened?" he said placing his servo upon his faceplates in a manner that suggested he was thinking to himself.

"The night of my reaction I had a very intense and realistic dream sequence that included my late twin. In it we reconnected, rebonded, with the dream lasting what I suspect was several megacycles. I believe my spark created the bond once again due to influence from the dream, but in reality. It could not be sustained however when I awoke because my twin is truly offline, and that was when the severance occurred once again."

"But that is not actually possible. How could you create a bond to somebot who no longer exists?"

"I do not know, but I know what happened to me and what I felt."

"It would actually be consistent with the test results and spark scans I took from you throughout your stasis period, it just doesn't make sense physically. Dreadwing would you mind if I continued to study this, I mean I was going to continue to monitor your spark's stability anyways."

"Should Lord Megatron agree, then I will submit to your wishes. If that is all you require as of right now, then I must speak with our lord immediately."

"I told him you would be unavailable for a few solarcycles. Are you sure you do not want to take some time to heal or something?"

"I have accepted the situation and have moved on. I am fully capable of performing my duties as SIC." Without another word he left the medical bay and the medic along with it. Dreadwing headed directly for the command deck so he could inform Megatron of his functioning state. He didn't allow his processor to stagnate, didn't allow any thoughts of what had just occurred to surface nor those that quantified what he had lost. Thinking about it was a waste of time and processor power that would do nothing but cause him pain, so instead he kept his mind clear of all such thoughts.

The walk to the bridge felt longer than he remembered and he was relieved when finally the doors parted before him. Only his master and Soundwave were present, both mechs focused on a screen that showed detailed plans but of what he did not know. "Lord Megatron, I am at your service."

"Dreadwing," he stated turning around to view the seeker's kneeling form. "Rise. I was told your recovery would take a great deal longer."

"Knockout overestimated the extent of my condition. I wished to inform you of my return to service in person and assure you that I am unaffected by what has happened."

"And just what has happened?" his leader inquired, the anger evident in his tone. "You are well aware that all bonded pairs must be documented in the historical record for precisely this reason."

"Yes, Lord Megatron. I have explained to the doctor that this was the result of an overly realistic dream sequence in which I rebonded with Skyquake," he explained noting Soundwave's abrupt turn as he focused on the conversation. "He wishes to perform more tests as it is a yet unexplained phenomenon, but I can assure you that I have no other bonded, Master."

"A dream sequence. Highly unusual," he stated thinking aloud. Dreadwing thought he saw a flicker of something pass his leader's optics, but he must have imagined it because a second glance showed nothing. "You will submit to additional tests, but at a later date. For now return to your quarters. You will report to the bridge at your regularly scheduled shift next solarcycle."

"Yes, Lord Megatron." Although the proud seeker wouldn't have admitted it aloud he was more than ready to head to his quarters and rest for the remainder of the solarcycle. He departed with no lingering glances or final words, intent on arriving at his quarters so he could simply recharge undisturbed. That however, was not going to be possible for as soon as he entered the living area his recharge deprived processor began to divert more energy toward maintaining its functioning capacity. He had hoped otherwise, but he knew that this was likely to happen, his processor now ready to plague him with thoughts, memories, and feelings despite his fervent efforts to avoid it all.

The rest he so desired alluded him for cycles, each one passing by as its own individual eternity in which he struggled to find relief. His conscious mind did not abate, it never stopped trying to open memory files, new and old, all of them tainted with his twin's presence. Autonomic recharge would never come with his processor trying so valiantly to get him to address this issue before him, and that was something he just could not do right now. Dreadwing instead chose to manually power down, but even that proved to be a challenge, preceding systems inexplicably firing back up as he moved to shut the next one down.

It was a torturous cycle of frustration and misery when all he so desperately wanted was to rest. And yet he knew that there was a high probability that he could have another dream sequence, and even more painful than the last. "Even now I will get no peace," he growled to himself in exasperation tinged with anger as he got off the berth and headed for the exit.

At this point it was no longer a comfortable recharge he sought, it was merely to have his processor shut off completely and that required help. He had not intended for anybot to know this event was affecting him in such a manner, but he required sedatives and that meant he would have to visit the medic. Dreadwing also knew that Knockout, although normally untrustworthy when it came to keeping such a thing quiet, would be able to control himself given the circumstances.

When he entered the med bay Dreadwing found Starscream and Megatron undergoing a cortical psychic patch, which, in his haze, he had forgotten was to occur. His optics immediately fell on Starscream's form, segments of the dream streamed to the forefront of his processor, and his sparked ached in a way he did not fully understand. Lust was there, but so was affection and a feeling of kinship that should not have been incited by the other seeker's presence.

The lithe form trembled on the table, tossing as if in a recharge full of turmoil, but this was not recharge. The pervasion and forceful penetrance of his mind was causing the seeker the type of discomfort that only Megatron could truly instill. Starscream arched on the table slightly, his entire frame giving a heave and whine through his vents. Dreadwing decided then that it was time for him to leave given that there was nothing further for him to do here. This was a matter for his lord to handle and the medic was nowhere to be found anyways.

Or so it originally appeared. A loud mumbling drew his attention to the back of Megatron's med table, where the medic was busying himself with something nefarious given the words. The seeker moved forward soundlessly to find the small red mech beginning to disconnect the transference cable from Megatron's still form. Dreadwing immediately grabbed the servo and asked, "Everything…okay here?" in a dark tone that clearly said he knew exactly what was going on. He then let go with a threat in his optics and waited to see what Knockout would do next.

The medic looked scared knowing he had been caught in such a traitorous act, but attempted to play it off anyways, "Just…checking…cable integrity."

Before anything else could be said, Megatron's low rumble drew both their attentions' back to the screen displaying what was going on inside of Starscream's processor. "Is it any wonder that I have come to value loyalty above all else?"

"Well you know, we are Decepticons. I'm sure that even your beloved Dreadwing isn't perfect."

"No bot is perfect Starscream, but like his departed twin, Dreadwing understands honor." His spark gave another heavy thud at the statement and then the images began to play. At first they were new, the scene that had unfolded before Soundwave had begun to record playing out from Starscream's perspective. His anger flared white hot at the smaller seeker's disrespect and arrogance in trying to make his twin bow before him. The anger was squashed once again under a vehement onslaught of spark pain.

He had seen these next images before, but it was just as spark-wrenching, if not more, as it had been that first time. He couldn't tear his optics away from the sight of the Autobots destroying what was once his proud and loyal twin. Fortunately, the screen cut away before the sight of his broken, deactivated form could be shown.

What came next however, Dreadwing could never have imagined. At first he did not understand what he was seeing, but the knowledge he had logged about dark energon, and their next words allowed him to make the connection. "I understand he perished that solarcycle."

"Well Skyquake is neither living nor offline, and no doubt continues to wander through some dimensional nether realm in search of his…missing limb." His anger was climbing with each passing word the loathsome seeker spoke until it hit an apex at the knowledge that Skyquake's frame would never rest. Forever it would wander aimlessly until it corroded away from the ravages of time, left as nothing more than forgotten rust.

And yet all his anger could not be directed at Starscream alone. "It would be wise to keep that to yourself around the warship," and his optics narrowed in hatred and disgust at the careless betrayal of his 'one true master', who only moments before had spoken of valuing loyalty above all else.

The medic spoke but his audios were deaf to all outside of his own helm, thoughts percolating at his new enlightened state. He didn't wait to see what else would come about from this misbegotten look into the Decepticon officers' minds. His pedes carried him swiftly away from the med bay without conscious thought, his processor only focused on the seething rage within him that was burning hotter and hotter with every step he took. His servos clenched repeatedly in a want to destroy something, someone, to rend metal from the frame, to tear limb from limb with his own massive servos. His wings flicked in anticipation of it, his abdominal plates pulled taught in agitation, and yet there was nothing he could do. That wretched excuse for a seeker was beyond his grasp. Megatron had welcomed him back to their ranks and with it a certain guarantee; deactivating fellow officers was not allowed.

And what of Megatron himself? Right now Dreadwing could feel no loyalty, only hatred, toward the one Cybertronian he thought would never betray him. Maybe it was because of his swirling emotions or his overwrought processor or the pain he felt so readily from an age old event, but for the first time in his long life, he didn't want to call himself a Decepticon.

His wandering pedes had led him atop the warship and out onto the flight deck where he stood alone and finally…finally, he understood. He understood everything.

One of this planet's fierce thunderstorms pelted his heated frame with bullets of cold water, each impact causing a minute flutter in his sensitive wings. Lighting struck in the distance, alighting his dark plating in bright flashes of white hot light. His optics were pits of glowing red fire, the outward expression of the unadulterated abhorrence and fury that spread from the core of his spark and filled him up endlessly. It tore through him, stealing away every other emotion he possessed until there was nothing left, and he released it all into the black night in one piercing, rage-filled scream…of a bot…

…who had lost everything.

I don't even know what to say anymore. This fic is just getting sadder, and yet I feel like it has almost turned into a justification. I mean, I never intended to write it as such because I never even intended to turn this into more than a one-shot, but it's almost like a what if. What if this is what happened behind the scenes in the show? Why everyone behaved as they did. I'm not actually saying I believe this is what happened, because I do not, but I guess anything is as plausible as the next when it comes to sci-fi/fantasy fanfiction. ;-)