Disclaimer: I own nothing – at least nothing Transformers related.
AN: For mdnytryder, who suggested the title "Sympathy" originally for another story. Background music "Eva" from Nightwish and "Zombie" from The Cranberries.
Could be the same continuity as "Naïve" and/or "Caring".
Thanks to mdnytryder for correcting this chapter.
Special 3: Sympathy or Little White Lies (postG1, Ghost Starscream)
There was nothing left but ruins.
Wherever Starscream looked he saw only once proud buildings, now completely destroyed in a war that didn't belong to their builders, and corpses lying smashed and burned in puddles of greenish-yellow fluid, this species' form of blood.
This planet had been beautiful once, he mused, in a strange, purely organic way.
Wide expanses of grass and small plants and areas of thick jungles, small oceans with lilac-colored water, no poles (the planet rotated around two axes, not just one like most), comfortable temperatures over the course of the whole year, humid air….
A paradise for the humanoid, vegetable species that had lived here in their light bluish houses made out of stone, living plants and colored glass.
And now, thanks to the intruding mechanoids bringing their war to this peaceful world, everything was lost.
Forever.
Like so many times before, Autobots and Decepticons had spread destruction and despair until nothing was left.
And Starscream had followed in their wake, in a morbid case of curiosity, to view the carnage and chaos and to witness again and again what his species, as a whole, was capable of.
There was nothing left on this planet, only dust and the dead.
Primus wept over his children….
Movement to his right prompted him to float over to a pile of rubble to have a look.
Something shifted beneath the stones and rubble, then a small, greenish hand appeared, searching for some leverage to pull the owner out of the horrible grave this pile could be become.
Starscream hesitated, then he slowly shoved a piece of metal near the seeking appendage, holding it in place with a transparent foot and a lot of mental effort.
The hand brushed against the piece, stilled at the completely foreign feeling (this world hadn't known metal before the Cybertronian invasion), then it closed around a sharp edge and pulled.
Slowly but surely the rubble moved and first a head and then part of a chest appeared.
It was a Youngling of the planet's once-dominant species, Starscream concluded, a creature best described as "female" even if the genders of this particular species were hard to determine. He had categorized at least five different gender types among the dead humanoids, and with some corpses he wasn't entirely sure where to classify them.
The female shifted again, pale green eyes moving without seeing anything – she was blind, blinded by one of the explosions, for all he knew.
Her "hair" was black in color, with a bluish tint, and her features oddly expressive for something that had possibly evolved out of a weed.
"Is anybody there?" the femme rasped, still trying to see without eyesight, her voice small and desperate.
Her too-pale eyes wandered about, shifting above carnage she would never be able to see (which was better for her sanity, Starscream decided) until they suddenly homed in on Starscream's spectral shape.
"Hello? Is anybody there? Please, answer," she sounded more confident now, still doubting, but convinced.
Could she somehow feel him?
Had this species possessed telepathic abilities?
Starscream was torn between staying to satisfy his mostly scientific curiosity, and vanishing to follow the Cybertronian armies back into the vast emptiness of space.
In the end, his curiosity won.
"I am here."
The female Youngling sagged in relief, "Please, help me."
Starscream hesitated and looked over the pieces of rubble confining her.
They were too big to be lifted by his pathetic abilities.
If he had still been alive it would have been no problem, but as a ghost, a mere reflection of what he once had been, an afterimage of a life wasted and lost….
"I can't. I… was injured in the attack. I can't lift anything."
The desperation in the femme's face returned again.
Starscream floated nearer and knelt down, bringing his face close to hers. "You don't need my help. It feels heavier than it is."
She stared at him with her unseeing eyes, then she began to pull and wiggle, trusting a complete stranger.
It… intrigued Starscream somehow.
Could one be able to trust so blindly?
Or was it just a shared trait of the naïve Younglings of all species in the universe?
He watched as she fought and worked herself out of the debris until she finally rested beside it.
"Well done," praised Starscream for a lack of something better to say.
She smiled, exhausted, then sat up and looked around, still straining to see.
"What's your name?" She asked finally.
Starscream sat down beside her, marveling again how tiny most other species were in comparison to a Cybertronian's bulk. "My friends call me Star."
'If I had friends….'
"I'm Miree. Is… is it already nighttime? I can't see." The Yongling turned her face to him, slight lines of worry on her forehead.
Starscream looked around, at all the corpses lying in the pale sunlight and the many fires crackling in the ruins.
He quickly analyzed all the information he had gathered when he had studied the battlefield and the casualities.
There was a distinct possibility that this species was practically blind at nighttime.
Somehow this information brought him relief.
"Yes, it is."
Apparently he wasn't the only one relieved, as Miree's shoulders sagged, "I was worried. I'm not in my second stage of development yet. Can you see?"
Second stage of development?
Perhaps his former theory wasn't that sound….
Could only the adults see in the dark?
He would ask, but then she would know that he wasn't like her….
"I can see. If you want, I will be your eyes until dawn."
She smiled, thin dots along her brow lighting up to a pale lavender.
It was… adorable in a slightly disgusting, organic way.
"I can't feel anyone else around…. Have they all run away from the gleaming monsters?"
There was so much hope in her voice and no hint of the ugly question 'When they did, then why did they leave me here?'
Starscream looked at the carnage and then back at the little femme.
He didn't know why, but he just couldn't take her hopes away. "They fled. I saw them running to the north. We can go searching for them, if you like. I don't think the monsters will return very soon."
The youngling stood up, clearly showing signs of being familiar with temporary darkness.
She held her hand out in his general direction, "That would be nice, Star. Should I help you up?"
Starscream stared at her hand and then at his own translucent limb.
He managed a wrily half-smile, "Err... thanks. I think I will manage... somehow."
He vanished and appeared right beside Miree, her head turning around to face him again.
She clearly could sense him, at least to an extent.
Fascinating.
"Will you be able to follow my voice, little one?" he asked with a frown.
He wouldn't be able to lead her physically.
She nodded and stepped forward, almost tripping over an arm ripped from its owner.
"Move to the right", Starscream hurriedly instucted, not willing to destroy her illusion.
She obeyed without a question, moving like they had done something like this a thousand times before.
Perhaps she had, Starscream mused as he followed her through the destroyed town, directing her through the rubble and avoiding the dead.
It would be logical for this planet's Creators to lead their offspring through the dark just like this.
He would have liked to know more about this species, but unfortunately it seemed as if his little femme was the only one left on the whole planet.
His thoughts wandered as he tried to determine the best way to tell Miree about her sad destiny.
"Your voice sounds strange."
This little, innocent question brought him back to the real world and he instantly bristled.
He had heard enough jokes about his voice for two lifetimes (and beyond that), he didn't need a tiny organic laughing at him, too.
"Does it now…" he murmured tensely, watching the little thing walking beside him closely.
She smiled her lavender tinted smile and nodded, pale eyes calm, "I like it. It is special. That means you are special. Don't you think so?"
She turned to face him as they walked.
Starscream didn't know what to say.
Nobody had ever described his voice as something special in a positive way.
Or even said that they liked it.
Even Skyfire had only managed a lame, "It's certainly unique."
"Thank you," he murmured, now slightly flustered.
This little femme was certainly strange.
"Well, it's the truth. It is special and your accent sounds nice." She smiled again, lavender dots flashing.
Starscream grimaced.
Accent, yeah right.
His kind had a CPU superior to the mush every organic carried around in their heads (or other places) and they could learn other languages in a matter of mere seconds to some minutes – but they just couldn't find a way to erase the metallic undertone their vocalizer created.
"Your voice isn't that bad either," he answered lamely.
He wasn't good at this stuff.
He could insult and order, even kiss up to somebody if it was required, but he could not, for the life of him, compliment another being without it sounding forced.
But the little femme didn't seem to care and just smiled.
It was foolish, Miree couldn't even see it, but for some reason Starscream couldn't comprehend, he made an effort to smile back.
They wandered further, leaving the town behind and reaching a wasteland. Where once had bloomed wonderful flowers, there was just dust.
Miree hesitated when her bare feet touched the dead land, but when Starscream encouraged her to go on, she followed his voice with a trust that again left him wondering.
He just had to ask, "Miree? Why do you trust me? We don't even know each other? For all you know I could be one of the monsters. Or the ghost of one, trying to eat your soul or something like that."
The Youngling began to giggle, a sound that reminded Starscream of wind caressing fine metal pipes. He liked it somehow – even if it came from a disgusting organic.
"I don't think these things have ghosts. They would need a soul to leave one behind when they die. And you have a soul, I can feel it. It feels… like a warm, bright light, like a little sun. Is that the reason they call you Star? Because your soul is as bright and beautiful as one?"
Such innocence….
Such a completely inverted image she had of him.
He suddenly felt ashamed of himself, and strangely enough, for his species, too.
"I don't know, I never asked."
Starscream fell silent after that, pondering over what Miree had said.
A warm Spark, a bright Spark. That just didn't seem to fit.
Nobody would ever have joked over something like this back on his home planet.
It was just too… wrong.
After some time he noticed that Miree was slowing down, her movements becoming more sluggish and uncoordinated.
He grew concerned and surprised himself with this emotion, "Are you tired? We can rest here if you want."
Miree hesitated, then she nodded and sank to the ground, clearly exhausted, her face pale and her breath short. "Do we have to go on much longer? I'm not feeling very well."
Starscream's worry grew and he wished he still had his scanners.
"No, not much longer," he answered absentmindedly, as he gave her a visual once-over.
He bit back a curse at what he found.
How did he manage to overlook that?
There was a wound in the back of her leg, steadily leaking blood.
Miree was too numb because of the shock to feel the pain – but Starscream should have seen the damage when he first met the little femme.
Now that he thought about it, she certainly would have internal damage, too.
She would not end up living a lonely life after all.
Starscream didn't know if he should be happy or sad about that knowledge.
He knelt down beside her and slowly extended a hand, almost touching her before he decided otherwise.
"I'm… I'm sure we will reach the others soon. You'll see. They will all be amazed at how brave you are."
She smiled again, this lavender-tinted smile he could come to cherish – had come to treasure in only a few hours of her company.
This was so confusing....
How could one little organic femme mean more to him than most members of his own species?
Just because she was nice to him?
Because she knew no prejudice?
Because she trusted him so easily and would never hurt him knowingly?
Because she truly needed him?
Only once before had he felt so utterly helpless….
He hated this feeling but couldn't bring himself to hate Miree for making him experience it. Never….
"It's cold…," the Youngling whispered, hugging herself to keep warm.
Starscream looked up to see that the sun began to set.
He hesitated, then said, "The sun will rise soon. Then it will become warm."
She smiled again, still trusting, always trusting.
"Then I will be able to see again. I will finally be able to see you. Who knows, perhaps I have seen you before but never spoke to you? Wouldn't that be funny?"
Starscream floated anxiously around her, not knowing what he should do, "I doubt that. I was… on a journey though, you know?"
"Oh…. Did you see many things while traveling?" She sounded even more exhausted now and seemed to struggle against falling asleep.
Starscream knelt down next to her, "Yes, I did. Some things were astounding, other things, not so much. And some things were simply special and incomparable. I will tell you sometime, okay? Now you should sleep. You have a long journey ahead of you, little one."
Miree lay down, curling up in the dust as best as she could, smiling again, always smiling….
"You'll wait for me, right Star? And then we will find the others. My parents will be happy to meet you…." She blinked and her too-pale eyes darkened.
Starscream hesitated, then he brushed his nonexistent fingers over her hair, willing it to move so that she could feel the caress.
She smiled again, just for him, and he smiled back, feeling his immortal Spark break like it had never been broken before, not really understanding why.
"I will wait for you. Everything will be all right, Miree. Everything will be all right…."
He stayed by her side through the whole night.
Even when her breath stopped, and whatever counted as her heart went silent, he stayed and watched over her.
Just because it felt right, somehow.
Starscream sat there, silently brushing her hair when a strange glow began to appear all around him.
He looked up to see the town they had left just hours earlier almost as bright as at daytime, only the he light was somehow softer.
When the same sort of glow began to emit from the ground not far from him, he stood up, ready to defend himself and protect Miree's body, if needed.
Tendrils broke out of the dirt and a strange creature heaved itself on the surface, some sort of plant with no apparent features but a bluish blossom that reminded him eerily of a head. A head with a large jaw.
He took a step back.
The creature took no notice of him.
It made its way over to Miree's dead body, parts of it always staying in the ground, and lifted the little body effortlessly.
Starscream took a step closer, ready to defend the little femme, even if it was completely illogically and he could do next to nothing.
Now the strange plant seemed to "see" him and turned to fully face him, the little body pressed closely against its "chest" as if protecting it.
For a long time they both stood there, evaluating each other.
Then the plant being suddenly lost it's tenseness and extended one tendril to brush Starscream's cheek.
The ghost gasped when it actually touched him and felt completely real.
And suddenly he knew that this plant creature was just like him – and more.
It was a spirit - a spirit sent by this living world.
The tendril moved back and the creature, an extension of the giant sentient planet Starscream stood on at that very moment, melted into the ground again, taking Miree with it.
Starscream knew now, that the planet would wait some time until it was sure that every threat to its children was far away, then it would cover its surface with life again.
Like Cybertron would do, once the horrible war finally ended.
He sat down again and watched the sun rise in a lavender sky.
He wondered what the Autobots would have thought of the entire previous day.
They would have probably called him a liar, a typical Decepticon. Every sentient creature had a right to know the truth after all….
But if he would have told Miree the truth in every cruel detail, they would have probably called him merciless.
Again, a typical Decepticon trait….
But how could they say that, while they had helped to lay this whole planet to waste…?
He shook his head, getting rid of these thoughts.
It didn't matter what they thought.
Some things just shouldn't matter.
There were so much more important things out there.
That had taught him a lavender smile….