Welcome to the third chapter, in which Scavenger makes a horrifying discovery about Dirge, and Starscream insists on making a cameo. Thanks so much, Giddy, for the very encouraging review! This is a strange little story to be sure, but I'm glad you've enjoyed it so far. :-)

Into The Crypt

Scavenger watched numbly as Dirge tapped a code into the freight elevator's control panel. The ancient mechanism hummed to life, gave a slight shudder, and began its descent. Scavenger vented a sigh of relief as the streets of Kaon slipped from view, taking the stars along with them. He could finally relax a little. No one was going to come looking for them down here. At least, he didn't think so.

He hugged the urn, now filled with Starscream's remains, more snugly against his chest. It felt heavy in his arms, though not nearly as heavy as he thought it should feel. Of course he knew the urn probably had a set of antigravs built into it somewhere, but Starscream's entire frame was in there. Shouldn't there be more to it?

His spark. That was the missing piece. Did a spark have weight? Was there substance to it, or was it completely ephemeral? And what did it mean that Starscream's had been given? Was it still given, even now, or would such a bond have crumbled along with his frame? He thought again of Starscream's bondmate, and felt a fresh stab of resentment toward the unknown mech.

"So who is he?" he asked. "This bondmate you mentioned."

"I cannot say," Dirge replied. He was standing with one arm braced against the wall, wincing slightly with every jolt and bounce the lift gave as it descended.

"Meaning you don't know?"

"Meaning that I cannot say."

"Is he someone I've met?" Scavenger persisted as he considered, not for the first time, his mental list of potentials. Dirge had as good as implied that the mech in question was still alive, so that eliminated some of the more obvious choices, such as Megatron or Starscream's trinemates. Dirge had also said that he thought Starscream's spark had been given long ago, which weighed against the possibility of it being any of the younger mechs, such as the Stunticons. "He should be here," Scavenger said. "If he cares so much, then he should be here to help bury him!"

Dirge gave him a long look. "Have you ever lost a bondmate?"

"No," Scavenger admitted. "I've never been bonded." The truth was that he'd never even been close, since Starscream had been his first, and only, lover.

"I did not think so."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Scavenger demanded.

The lift came to a halt. The doors rattled open and Dirge stepped into the small receiving area that lay beyond, picking his way carefully between the towering stacks of crates. These were filled with construction supplies, intended for Starscream's ambitious Crypt restoration project, which would now remain forever unfinished.

"If you had ever been bonded," Dirge said, "you would understand why Starscream's bondmate might not be able come here immediately."

"Fine," Scavenger muttered, glaring at the Seeker's back. Everyone seemed to have access to some kind of secret knowledge that had always eluded him. It wasn't his fault. It was just that no one had ever wanted him, and this whole time he'd been thinking of Starscream as a potential mate, there had always been this other, shadowy presence lurking in the background. He'd never even stood a chance. The bitterness that came with that knowledge seeped into his voice as he added, "You know he was just doing us because he felt sorry for us. We're the two least fraggable mechs in the whole Decepticon army. "

"Least fraggable, hm?" Dirge cast an amused glance over his shoulder.

"Oh, come on," Scavenger said wearily. "You've got your death-thing and me… well. I'm just ugly."

"You're giving him too much credit. I think he just chose us because we weren't a threat."

Oh. As if this entire situation hadn't been humiliating enough. "He fragged us because we were safe?"

"Safe isn't a bad thing," Dirge replied amicably. "We all need to feel safe every now and then."

"I didn't want to be safe!" Scavenger threw back at him. "I wanted it to be more, I wanted…"

"I know."

They had arrived at the set of plain utility doors that would take them into the Crypt. It was one of several ways of getting in, though it was the one the Constructicons had used throughout the restoration attempt due to its proximity to the freight elevator. Dirge paused before the doors, his dark hand resting on the release panel. "We need to be quiet now," he warned.

Scavenger huffed. It was typical, he thought. His emotional world might be falling to pieces, but work, as always, came first. He stomped after Dirge as the Seeker stepped through the doors, which closed silently behind them, their outlines seeming to melt into the surrounding wall. The scale of the Grand Atrium was truly awe-inspiring. The oval-shaped room was massive, its vaulted ceiling lost in darkness. A ring of towering statues, each one taller than Devastator himself, guarded the perimeter, their unseeing gazes fixed on the great flame that roared and crackled at the center of the room. It was toward this flame that Dirge was determinedly limping.

Scavenger froze. "Hey wait!" he said, "We're not gonna—" He broke off as his too-loud voice echoed and re-echoed throughout the room.

Dirge gave him a warning look. "Going to what?" he asked in a low voice.

"Going to put him in there?" Scavenger whispered, pointing to the flame.

Dirge smiled faintly. "No." He hobbled to stand before the flame and bowed his head. Scavenger hung back, still clutching the urn protectively against his chest. He wondered if he should be offering a prayer, but he didn't know any. His own people's main form of religious observance consisted of building things, and besides, his mind was too filled with other, decidedly non-lofty thoughts.

It wasn't fair. None of this was. Maybe Dirge was right, and there was some hush-hush secret known only to bonded mechs, but it still seemed wrong that Starscream's bondmate wasn't here. He thought about the crown, which was still safely hidden within his subspace. If this supposed bondmate was here, he'd probably want it. He'd probably think he was entitled. Well, Scavenger decided, that wasn't going to happen. He might not have been Starscream's mate, but he was still the one he'd turned to, the one who had made him feel… safe. And he'd keep the crown safe, too. He'd earned that right.

He realized that Dirge was watching him. "What?" he muttered, suddenly self-conscious of the fact that he had yet to put his mask back in place. He'd kept his face unshielded while they were gathering the remains, having feared that his tanks might once again rebel, and he hadn't yet put it back into place. Now he wondered if his expression might have somehow betrayed what he was thinking.

"You are wrong, you know."

Scavenger tensed, bracing himself to go on the defensive. "About what?" he asked.

"About being ugly."

Scavenger's shovel-tail hit the floor with a clang that resounded, gong-like, through the chamber. "Wh..what?"

Dirge glanced aside and made a small, embarrassed sound at the back of his throat. "Shall we?" he suggested, as he started toward the doors at the far end of the chamber.

Scavenger stared after him for a moment, then tucked his tail up behind his back where it couldn't cause any more trouble, and tiptoed after him. He supposed that deep down, he'd known all along that they would end up in the room beyond that door, and this was the part he'd dreaded most. He knew that room all too well. Of the Crypt's many halls and galleries, it was the largest and the grandest. Only the very highest-ranking Decepticons found their resting places here. It was reserved for warlords and great heroes, and so it was also where the most intensive restoration efforts had been focused.

Scavenger shuddered as he recalled what some of those efforts had ultimately entailed. He glanced around uneasily as they stepped across the threshold, half expecting the enraged spirits of Murdron, Dery, Cannibaron, and the others whose markers had been disturbed to swoop down on him. Dirge, however, seemed unconcerned about this possibility. He headed straight for the trio of newly installed markers at the far side of the chamber and paused beside the third, the one that still lacked a statue, and rested his palm lightly on its flat upper surface.

"You can leave the urn here, for now," he said.

Scavenger froze. "Here?" he echoed. "You can't put him here!"

"Where else would you suggest I put him?" Dirge asked, gesturing to their surroundings.

Scavenger glanced around. There were, in fact, no other places to put Starscream, since the other two newer platforms were already occupied by statues of Megatron and Thundercracker, respectively. This was the only spot available, but that certainly didn't make it right.

"But… this is Skywarp's marker."

Dirge shrugged. "I do not see his name on it."

"I was here! I was standing right here, on this very spot, when you guys talked about this!"

Scavenger had, in fact, been a bit closer to Megatron's statue at the time, since the Constructicons had just finished installing it. He'd been shoveling construction debris away from the marker's base when the sound of a loud, familiar voice—one which he'd often heard described as shrill, harsh, and grating, though Scavenger personally preferred stentorian, which sounded more dignified, not to mention poetic—had prompted him to transform out of his power-shovel mode and snap to attention.

"So let's see it, then!" Starscream had said as he stalked in from the Grand Atrium with Dirge at his heels. Starscream, unlike other mechs, seemed to hold no particular awe of this place, nor its acoustics. His voice and footsteps rang through the entire chamber, seeming to shake dust from every shadowy corner.

Our new leader, Scavenger thought, admiring Starscream as he strode up to Megatron's statue and paused before it with his fists on his hips. He looked every bit the leader he now was, and Scavenger couldn't have been more proud of him. The damage he'd sustained during the battle at Autobot City was long gone, and his frame had been polished to a deep luster. Scavenger envied whoever had done the polishing, but it was hard to argue with the results. Starscream was a vibrant presence even here, in the darkness of the Crypt, and his fearlessness was somehow inspiring.

"Ah, yes," Starscream said, glancing the statue up and down. "A very lifelike portrayal of our late, 'great' leader. Perhaps a touch more effective than the original, considering that all this one has to do is stand here, but that's no criticism of your artistry. You have done a magnificent job, Dirge."

Dirge, who was now standing just to his right, offered a slight bow. "I am honored."

Starscream continued to gaze at the statue in silence, and Scavenger, being as close to Starscream as he now was, was perhaps the only mech in the room to notice the slight flicker in his expression. For just a moment, it seemed as if the smirk faltered and was replaced by something else entirely. Something almost… haunted. It was gone again so quickly that Scavenger questioned whether he'd really seen it or if it was simply a trick of the light, but he suddenly felt like an intruder. He wanted to back away, but also didn't wish to draw attention to himself by moving.

One of the unspoken agreements of his relationship with Starscream was that they did not acknowledge one another in public. Scavenger had found this hurtful in the beginning, when Starscream had first begun making his sporadic visits to Scavenger's quarters, but he was used to it by now. His only regret was that those visits had become less frequent as Starscream's leadership obsession had grown, and they had stopped entirely a few months prior to the Decepticons' departure from Earth. Scavenger was hoping this would change once Starscream was inaugurated. Surely with his long-held ambition finally realized, he would have time to focus on their relationship and, just possibly, make it public.

He was still trying to decide what to do when Starscream suddenly spun away from him, and the statue, and stalked along the gallery. "So where are the others going?" he asked, still not bothering to modulate his voice as he glanced around.

"Others?" Dirge asked.

"Yes, Dirge; as you might recall, I specifically ordered that the markers for Thundercracker and Skywarp be placed in this chamber, the highest position of honor available to any Decepticon!"

"Perhaps there has been a misunderstanding," Dirge replied. "There was space for two additional markers in this chamber. One of them obviously had to be for Megatron, so I made alternative arrangements for—"

"Alternative arrangements? Let me see that!" Starscream snatched the datapad Dirge was holding and began flipping through floor plans of the Crypt's various levels. He paused on one and gave a sharp, angry flick with his wings. "Down there?" he snarled, turning on Dirge. "In the lower east wing? There?"

"That was as close as I could place them to their clan and creator-trine," Dirge replied. "This Crypt is very old, and finding two spots side by side is no easy matter."

"They belong here!" Starscream stomped over to the one spot that remained empty. There was a tomb platform already in place, since Dirge had ordered the Constructicons to build one, but there wasn't, as yet, a statue. Starscream hopped up onto the platform himself and stood with his feet planted wide, his gaze defiant. "I won't accept anything less."

"But there is only space there for one marker," Dirge argued. "We could bring one of them up here—possibly Thundercracker, since he was the higher ranking of the two, but—"

"You mean split them up? They did everything together! They quartered together, fought together, flew together, and even—" Starscream broke off, his hands clenching into fists. That faltering look was back, and Scavenger was certain now that it was more than just a trick of the light. "Died together," he finished, in a much quieter tone.

Scavenger frowned behind his mask. Was this Starscream's reason for wanting the Crypt re-opened? He had even gone so far as to postpone his inauguration by an entire day-cycle so that the Constructicons would have extra time to work on it, and he'd overseen the project himself, checking their progress regularly and berating them if he thought they weren't working fast enough.

Throughout, he'd seemed agitated, jumpy, and—if such a thing were possible—even more easily angered than normal. He'd even yelled at Scavenger once, though Scavenger had instantly forgiven him. He knew Starscream was just like that when he was, well… upset. Except that didn't make sense. What did Starscream have to be upset about? He finally had everything he'd always wanted. Shouldn't he be happy?

"I do understand," Dirge said, his tone sincere. "And yet, there is simply no space here to put two additional markers."

"Then make space!" Starscream exploded. "Move some of these old rust-buckets," he gestured to the surrounding forest of statues, "and you'll have plenty of room for two additional markers! Easy!"

Dirge stiffened, and Scavenger thought he even paled slightly. "Starscream," he said, "it is hardly ku'at to—"

Starscream leaped from the platform, grabbed one of Dirge's intakes and hauled him so they were face to face. "That's Lord Starscream to you," he growled, "and I don't care about your stupid taboos! Make it happen, and that's—"

"Um, Starscr… er, sir?" It was Rumble, walking in from the Grand Atrium.

Starscream released Dirge's intake. "What do you want?" he demanded, glaring down at the small Decepticon.

"Couple things. For one, we really do have to check the fitting for your cape."

"I've already told you, I have more important things to concern myself with right now!"

"Your inauguration's next day-cycle," Rumble argued. "C'mon, it's tradition. The purple cape represents, like, the mantle of Decepticon leadership being passed down."

"There isn't going to be an inauguration," Starscream replied. A stunned silence fell as Starscream glanced back at Megatron's statue, optics narrowing as he added, with a smile, "It's going be a coronation, and I have absolutely no intention of following in Megatron's footsteps of folly!"

Scavenger's audials perked up at that. Starscream had given very little indication as to what his plans were now that he was the leader, though of course rumors were flying thick and fast. Theories ran the gamut, everything from launching an all-out attack on the Autobots' moon base, which had long been a sore point between Starscream and their former leader, to establishing peace talks with the Prime, if he still lived, and finally putting an end to the war. Secretly, Scavenger was hoping for the latter, but Starscream hadn't spoken to him of any possible future scenarios. He supposed he would have to be patient and wait for the ceremony like everyone else.

"You said there were a couple of things," Starscream said to Rumble. "What's the other one?"

"Oh yeah," Rumble said. "Soundwave said to tell you that Laserbeak spotted Shockwave apprahendin' a couple Autobots."

"That's the second thing you saw fit to tell me?"

"Yeah, well, I guess he's gonna interrogate 'em, and—"

"Oh, I'm sure he will," Starscream interrupted, his voice sinking to a dangerous purr. "Tell Soundwave to send him a communique congratulating him on his recent capture, and that he is to await my arrival before commencing any questioning. I will oversee the interrogations personally."

"Y…yes, boss," Rumble said, looking puzzled. His optics seemed to go out of focus for a moment, and Scavenger guessed that he was communicating with Soundwave. "Done," he said after a moment.

"Good. As if that fool Shockwave could accomplish anything without my supervision," Starscream said. He started toward the exit with his wings swept back and his head high, then paused mid-stride and turned back to Dirge.

"They belong together, and they belong here," he said. "Do whatever it takes to make it happen."

With that, he spun on a heel-thruster and disappeared into the Grand Atrium, and that was the last Scavenger saw of him until the inauguration itself. Several tombs had been shifted to make space for an extra marker, a task that none of the Constructicons had been comfortable doing, though orders were orders. Thundercracker's memorial had been set in place first, and the Constructicons had built a platform for Skywarp next to it. They had run out of time, however, and Skywarp's platform remained without a statue. Now, standing here alone with Dirge, it seemed to Scavenger that he was the only one left to enforce what had turned out to be one of Starscream's final wishes.

"He wanted Skywarp to go here," he said. "He wanted them together."

"And indeed, they would have been," Dirge answered calmly, "had Starscream not interfered."

"But…" Scavenger stared at the empty platform with a growing sense of unease. Something about this wasn't adding up. "If both TC and Skywarp were supposed to be somewhere else, then… who was this one for?"

Dirge glanced to the side, not answering.

Scavenger's mind flashed back to the image of Starscream standing right here, atop this very platform, and his spark clenched with sudden horror.

"You…!" He took a stumbling step backward, clutching the urn in front of himself as much for his own protection as for Starscream's. "You knew!"