A/N: In which Starscream talks and there is plot development. And moderately unstable!Starscream. And one author who really, really hopes this interlude makes sense in the least. Those curious are welcome to ask – I don't mind giving spoilers after this point in the fic and this thing is planned all the way until the end.

It had started with something as simple as a comm-frequency.

(Some might have claimed had started with the satellite images Soundwave had sent back with the clear image of an Autobot Seeker, but Starscream did not agree – it was a Seeker and he would have felt it when it was ready to fly as one; glorious, unbound, and untouchable. He did not need a glorified communications system to find his kin, whatever their most exalted leader might think.)

It had started with a comm-frequency and a simple response. There had been a time when Starscream would not have cared for the well-being of one mere Seeker, much less a pathetic Autobot one, but that time had long since passed.

(Starscream had never been the best of Air Commanders, had never surrendered enough to that web of connections that bound all of Seeker-kin together, but he had been skilled and ruthless and brutal and he had done what he had deemed best for his kind. All, really, that could be asked from any Air Commander. It had not been Starscream's fault that most of his kin was worthless at best.)

The youngling had responded, uncertain and stubborn but not entirely a lost cause. An Autobot, perhaps, but clearly by leash and limitations rather than choice. Starscream, whatever other flaws he had-

(-And Starscream would argue with that; his predecessors had been weak, content, self-centered and arrogant without the perfection to back it up. Starscream was not. What they called weakness was strength, what they called egocentric insanity was command, and for all of their pathetic attempts on his life in the course of the War, Starscream-)

- was still the Air Commander and knew every Seeker that had been born under his wings. This youngling, chained and enslaved by the so-called goodness of the Autobots, was not one he recognised... and that had been enough to make instincts hesitate and bring up long-forgotten programming to handle a situation that was entirely alien to him.

Perhaps it had been a stolen youngling, kept it stasis. Perhaps it had been frozen on a worthless speck of dirt in the outer reaches of a utterly uninspired part of a galaxy, encased in ice as the fleshlings had claimed of it in their own report.

(Starscream did not believe that for a moment. There was justice in their leader's unfortunate imprisonment, as if the universe itself mocked the ground-pounder that thought itself Starscream's superior, but it could not be true for their unknown youngling. Old enough to fly, old enough to claim kin and mate and bonded but still too immature to have been so far away alone. Too young to have been present to fall prey to the planet as their leader had, and Starscream felt a rare moment of anger at whatever worthless kin of his that had let a youngling be taken and sent into Autoscum hands.)

Perhaps it had even been the sparkling of an Autobot Seeker, however unlikely and distasteful Starscream found that idea. Optimus Prime knew the truth, whatever it was, and Starscream intended to find out by whatever means necessary. Where there was one youngling, there could be others, and newly-reawakened programming rose up in anger at the thought of Seeker sparklings in the hands of unworthy ground-pounders.

It had not been an Autobot by choice, at least, Starscream knew that much. The connection was still there, the faint bond that connected any Seeker to its Air Commander. No Autobot Seeker had kept that bond... no Autobot Seeker that had stayed an Autobot, at least. It could be broken, painfully and in a way that left permanent scars on the spark of the Seeker that tore apart that connection. It was unnatural at best, an abomination to most-

(-because what true Seeker would irrevocably abandon their kin, their bonded, their trine-mates; deny a fundamental part of themselves and never feel that closeness again-)

- because once done, it could never quite be repaired again. The connection was still there which meant that the youngling was not yet lost completely. Deluded but... with some hope remaining, perhaps.

Worth, at least, a genuine attempt-

(-and if it had not been, none of Megatron's grand commands and threats of deactivation would have done a thing to make Starscream put actual effort into converting the worthless creature-)

- and further contact had yielded more useful information. Will lived up to his designation; stubborn, annoying, and a pest when he put his processors to it-

(-and there was no chance that the Autoscum had named him so; Starscream knew the kind of designations that Seekers-turned-traitors had claimed in their new lives and while 'Will' was not impressive for a Seeker, it was still a Seeker-name-)

- and still there was... potential. He had listened and more importantly, he had yielded far more than any of the Prime's worthless Seekers would ever have done. Fleshling and Autobot markings meant nothing – the Seeker was already under Starscream's command. It would merely be a matter of making the youngling see that.

It would mean reactivating parts of his own programming that Starscream had deactivated not long after the War began but that would be an acceptable annoyance to tolerate for what little time it would be necessary. Any actual connection to other Seekers was something Starscream had severed not long after pledging loyalty to the Decepticon cause. Anything beyond the absolute minimum of a superficial bond of an Air Commander that Starscream had not been able to dispose of despite his best efforts would be a weakness and a liability in combat; not just to himself and his trine-mates but to all of them. It had been... useful in peace-time, an indulgence and a thrill of power at the sheer command he held over his kin, but it would be useless in war. The base bond that remained no matter what was enough to keep watch over Seeker-kin. Anything past that was a potential risk and a weakness that could be used against all of them. The bonds with his trine-mates were strengthened instead to ensure their mutual survival, and he knew through that weak bond that his kin had followed suit.

(Perhaps, before, there would have been time and the luxury of curiosity and scientific interest to consider what a shift like that would do to them, but it was not before and War offered no such luxuries. Survival mattered above all else and idle curiosity was not something Starscream would have time for again.)

To bring it back to gain the sufficient hold needed on the new Seeker did carry a risk, Starscream knew, but not enough to be a genuine concern. The few Seekers that were left were all-

(-too few; so few that it had never been a concern what such a loss would do to their kind because it had been inconceivable that Seeker-kin would be reduced to what it now was; so few that the network of bonds and connections that had once fed them strength and skills and made them think and act as one entity had now reduced them to shadows of their Air Commander: unstable, mercurial, sadistic, and brutal. Few and becoming ever fewer; no longer genuinely alive, but merely-)

- survivors, used to war and well able to handle it should it come to that and the benefits far outweighed the risks. His programming did feel... peculiar when he brought it online again but that wasn't a concern to Starscream, either. It had been a long time since he had been able to remember how that programming had originally felt, much less actually had it online, so some shifts in his processors were to be expected.

There might even, to Starscream's furious disgust, be bits of ground-pounder coding there for it to clean out first before it could function properly. He had spent entirely too long in the company of their glorious leader and like a virus, the mech had a way of infesting every part of a system. Starscream wouldn't even have put it above their most magnificent leader to have done it on purpose – force his own pathetic limits on Starscream in a vain attempt to prevent the only worthy leader of the Decepticons that remained from claiming his true place.

In the end, though, it was all merely a minor annoyance and easily handled and so Starscream ignored it and focused on the Seeker itself. Megatron listened-

(-of course he listened, as if something sparked as a ground-pounder could possibly understand what Starscream was doing-)

- and heard nothing that Starscream didn't permit him to hear. Will was a Seeker; he would understand what Megatron did not. Starscream could speak of loyalty to the cause, of the glory of Megatron, but in the end any Seeker was loyal to its Air Commander, whatever Megatron's inflated ego might think.

It had started with a comm-frequency, had continued with a simple response and long-dormant coding brought back online... and for a moment, that was where Starscream had almost thought it would have ended, too. It had come close – the words had been purely Autobot drivel and worthless declaration of loyalties to a Prime that cared nothing for their kind, but the bond remained. By choice or by ignorance, the bond remained and so did Starscream's influence. He used that newly-reawakened programming to reach out and strengthen that influence and to his surprise, found more than one bond respond.

One Seeker and one re-emerging memory of the faint, faint bond of the groundling medic – Seeker-kin turned Autoscum when he should have stood by his kin and true faction, a coward at best and guilty of treason at worst, but someone with enough Seeker-programming to enable a bond and one that had, Starscream noticed with no small amount of satisfaction, never formally been broken, either. Lost, forgotten, ignored, but not broken – by choice or ignorance, as with their Seeker, it didn't matter as much as the fact that it was there. Worth, perhaps, the attempt at reclaiming him. There were precious few medics left and even fewer that had been trained by Seekers, and Starscream carefully put aside those half-formed plans for a later time.

He had strengthened that bond and he had used it and when they had spoken again, he had seen the effects as well. The youngling had yielded and Starscream had spoken and drawn on echoes of genuine beliefs he hadn't held in a long time. Memories of what had been and what could have been but still genuine and that had carried through as well. It had been less difficult, too, than Starscream had thought but then, the memories were still there to draw on.

There had been power and ideology and the sheer, raw presence of Megatron in his prime-

(-not a Seeker, never a Seeker, but with wings and that was more that Optimus Prime could ever claim-)

- and while the reality was gone, the echoes of it remained. He was trapped at Megatron's side now but even as he plotted to dispose of his leader, he never regretted his choice. Then, as now, it was about survival, always survival; the one duty to Seeker-kin above all else. Neutrality would have seen them crushed between opposing armies and Optimus Prime had been the weaker foe.

(The merciful one, the forgiving one, should they end up on the loser's side.)

Starscream craved power, craved the satisfaction of an enemy brought ruthlessly to its knees, but he was the Air Commander and he had to consider all eventualities. Kin mattered, however worthless it might be. Kin mattered above all. The rest, Starscream knew, was irrelevant and so there was never really a choice.

He had spoken, Will had listened, and underneath it all, in the echoes of their bond, Starscream felt the presence of mates as well. Ground-pounders and Autobots-

(-because what else did that worthless faction have-)

- but it did not change the fact that they were mates.

A true groundling mate to a Seeker would follow, he offered through their bond even as he spoke the words out loud, a longer, more detailed explanation to distract his youngling, stress the importance of his words, and make their Prime remember to fear.

If they were true mates, if Will was a true Seeker, then Starscream could decimate their worthless faction through nothing more than reclaiming the kin that was properly his. Claim the Seeker and the mates would follow. If they were true to their mate, they would follow.

They would follow, they would be claimed, and Starscream had hid the victorious smirk he had felt not long after as the bond flared distantly under his focus and a panicked distress signal had followed suit. The youngling had reached out-

(-and a youngling it was, because he remembered that feeling, the panic of someone young and inexperienced denied its wings for the first time-)

- and with it came the knowledge of the mate it had bonded with in the moment of blind panic before the connection fell silent again and Starscream's eyes glowed brighter in satisfaction.

The weapons specialist, the two-legged cannon with far more ammunition than sense; stubborn and simple, but also violent and strong. A proper mate, if one had to deign to claim one among the grounders. He had contacted them to mock them and taunt, to remind the Prime that there was someone out there who kept an eye on that young Seeker and would tolerate no more abuse of him, and most of all to leave a lasting impression on that young Seeker that had instinctively reached out in a moment of panic. Starscream's words would filter back to him and remind him just where his true loyalty should be. A more time-consuming approach than Starscream might have liked but worth it all the same.

Ironhide was firmly claimed and the rest would follow. Ironhide and... the whisper of an undercurrent that was almost familiar and annoying in a way that made Starscream's optics narrow before he dug deeper into that bond. Strangely familiar and... Seeker-ish. Seeker-ish but not a Seeker – the medic, then.

Trying to replace what you once had, Hatchet? Starscream hissed over the faint bond with the medic. The Hatchet wouldn't hear it, what was left of his programming was too weak for that, but it satisfied some fundamental bit of programming in Starscream that demanded retribution for the betrayal of their own.

(Stronger than it had been before, stronger than it had even been since not long after he had severed all but the most basic of their connections as they had joined in the war, but Starscream did not notice that. He had responded before, demanded retribution before, but that had been a matter of principle, a demand for respect, and not something that came from the very foundation of his programming. This, he did not notice, either. He had remembered once what the world had felt like before, around kin and mates and with instincts that did not need to be reined in to avoid the displeasure of their leader, but that had been a long time ago and Starscream had not lingered on what had once been.)

Retribution was needed and then... perhaps not. The bond with the medic remained and the ground-pounder was apparently a mate to their young, new Seeker, and if Will came under Starscream's domain, so would the medic.

Forgiveness could, perhaps, be earned. The bond remained, after all, and Starscream held command over any creature in Seeker-domain. The Hatchet could be influenced and made to see sense, and Starscream would deny the Autobots their prized medic and claim it for himself in one swift move. Worth, perhaps, some lenience with a creature that obviously had not known better.

The weapons specialist, the medic, and something else, faint and barely there at all, but unmistakeably a bond of some kind. Not something Starscream could identify, though, and so he pushed that thought aside for the moment, too. If it mattered, he would learn. If it was a proper mate, Starscream would find out its identity, it was only a matter of time. If not, it would not matter, anyway.

The newly reawakened programming still felt strangely foreign to his mind at times as it settled into places in his processors that had been occupied by more important matters, but Starscream ignored this passing annoyance. It was useful programming, after all. There had been sound reasons for restricting it when they had first allied themselves with Megatron and now there were just as sound reasons for permitting it back, if at least for a brief while.

When he bonded with his trine-mates again, that change would be carried on to them as well, but that, too, was an acceptable annoyance. They were strong-

(-almost the best, almost his equals, or he would not have tolerated them-)

- and they would adapt as they always had. It would weaken them for a time, perhaps, leave them open to outside influences, but their supremacy was unchallenged on this pathetic speck of dirt and so the benefits outweighed the risks. He needed that programming for now and to deactivate it before their new Seeker was truly theirs was not an acceptable option.

He would tolerate it for a while, he would claim their Seeker, and he would decimate the Autobot forces in the process. Not for the cause or for Megatron, but for kin. And perhaps, in his darkest, most brutal fantasies, it would gain him the advantage needed to dispose of their useless Lord and claim the Decepticon throne and the glorious, new future he would lead them to.

Perhaps. For now, he would tolerate and endure and play his games as he claimed Will for his own right under Megatron's impatient glare.

(Skywarp and Thundercracker, educated through aeons around their trine leader, would know better than to question Starscream's words. They would adapt as their Air Commander had, and they, too, would carry on that coding, and in the end the change would spread from one trine to the next as they avoided their ever-mercurial and notoriously busy Air Commander and went to his trine-mates instead as they always had when their reports or orders or requests it did not require Starscream's direct attention.

Perhaps someone from before, before the War and Megatron and the countless losses would have been able to tell that it was stronger than it once had been and remember that even the Air Commander was not invulnerable, that any bond went both ways and that sometimes the most dangerous viruses would sneak past because the carrier looked harmless.

But there was no one left to remember and if there had been, they would, perhaps, have let it run its course regardless because they would also remember that Seekers had never been meant for what they were now: few and isolated where they had once been numerous and an entity as a breed in their own right. They would know the consequences of suppressing their programming to that extent and they would see the last, frantic warning signs for what they were and not merely the Seekers' notorious temper and impatience that those signs had long since been dismissed as.

But there was no one left and unseen, unnoticed, one small bit of coding after another was changed and repaired as needed and came back online to be dismissed by Starscream as nothing more than an annoyance to become used to in time.

A Seeker would have noticed.

But Starscream, with programming suppressed and dismissed and outright rewritten as needed, had long since ceased to be a true one of the kind.)