Sorry this one took a little longer than the others, but exams are still a thing (unfortunately). On a brighter note, my first ever reviews! 3 Thanks a bunch you guys, it's nice to know you're enjoying the story so far! I don't know how many chapters this'll end up having, but you can be sure it'll continue for the foreseeable future.
Enjoy, and let me know what you think as always!
"Right, so… Got another trick up your sleeve, TC? We're gonna need something pretty spectacular to fix this." Skywarp and Thundercracker sat in the same lounge room as they now regularly used, due to a bedridden Starscream hogging their own quarters almost full time, and both seekers barely had the heart to look the poor thing in the optics anymore, and so left him to his own devices. In fact, the problem had gotten worse than when it started, as Starscream now needed to be practically force fed for energon to make its way into his systems. He refused to exit unless the air commander's life directly depended on it, in the slight chance that he might come across 'him'. It was pretty obvious who that was.
"What are we supposed to do? Even if I had something, there's no way Starscream would agree to it, let alone listen. Have you seen the guy? He's like a sparkling, except without the cuteness." Thundercracker laid his helm into his servos, rocking side to side a little as he let out a deep groan.
"We can't give up yet!" His other trine member exclaimed, "We don't even know how Megatron feels, there's still hope!"
"You think he would have miraculously fallen head over heels for Starscream after he'd just been informed that he was supposedly informed that said seeker loves Soundwave?" The blue mech shot back, drawing out a small whine from Skywarp.
"I wasn't going that far…" Skywarp muttered, now having his own doubts about the whole thing.
"Well, we'd better head off. Apparently we're making another raid on an Autobot outpost today."
"Is Screamer coming?" that question was answered for Skywarp as the seeker himself peeped through the doorway in a shy manner than almost disgusted the rest of his trine, before pulling up to a comfortable distance behind them. Skywarp tried slowing down to walk with him, though Starscream simply slowed down by the same amount without having to even look up, which resulted in all three seekers spacing apart. They felt like that, too.
When they arrived in the main control room, the seekers discovered that mostly everyone had already arrived. Various faces made note of their arrival, either giving a nod of approval or stepping back a few paces for their own safety. Starscream was eventually forced in between his two trine members, Thundercracker resting an arm uneasily on his shoulder. Whilst he made no effort to remove it, Starscream didn't exactly welcome the touch.
And then there was another unwelcoming sight.
Sitting where Starscream would have normally sat, Blitzwing had spread himself around in a luxurious manner, not noticing the three fliers until they all stood at arm's length. At which point, the whole room had practically fallen silent, save a few coughs in the background. As if on cue, the relaxed mech noticed this change in atmosphere, waking from his daydream to find three pairs of optics stare at him, as well as a good deal more scattered around the place.
"Ah, sorry, didn't see ya there!" He said, though it was difficult to tell which persona he was under this time. "I'll just get out of your way here…" He mumbled, trying to escape any high pitched wails, before a servo gently pushed him back down. Surprised, the mech looked up to meet Starscream's gaze, though he had currently turned away to stare at nothing in particular.
"No, that's quite alright." He murmured, encouraging a few gasps out of the crowd present. "I'm not a sparkling, so I can stand just fine." And then, for what could well have been the first time in his whole life, the seeker smiled. Not out of sadistic pleasure, or any self-confidence, but just smiled with genuine happiness. Blitzwing as well as the two seekers felt like they should say something as Starscream walked away to mingle with the crowd, but couldn't. All their vocalisers had been simultaneously locked in an icy grip, as well as their optics locking onto the seeker like a hawk studying its prey.
Megatron entered the room with a louder than needed display, the door almost swinging off of its hinges as it slammed against the adjacent wall. His expression remained blank as he sauntered towards the front, though he smirked inwardly at the path cleared for him by his underlings. The tyrant had always liked attention. The way some of them cowered in fear at his mere presence, the gladiator couldn't have asked for anything more wonderful than that feeling.
Once standing before all his subjects, he glanced briefly to his right and left. Soundwave was there of course, not showing anything of interest… as usual. And then, he noticed that a certain betraying seeker was missing to the other side. Not bothering to check who had replaced him, the warlord's optics briefly scanned the crowd, eventually finding Starscream at the front, looking incredibly unsure of something.
"Maybe he can't stand being near Soundwave… hm hm hm." Megatron thought smugly to himself. Well, he would probe further into that later. He had things to do at that moment that required his immediate attention.
"I believe that everyone here has been briefed on their role in this operation" the commander bellowed, his glare washing over each and every one of the mechs stood before him as he continued, "I trust that no one has been so stupid to forget?" He received no response, besides the sound of Thundercracker struggling to keep Skywarp's arm shooting up as a 'harmless practical joke'. Thundercracker vowed he would one day put the 'harm' into that joke to teach the troublemaker a lesson.
"And… That there are no complaints?" A few whispers emerged from scattered locations, though they particularly centred around Starscream. He was the one who always stood up for everyone else, always had an opinion to voice, an insult to inflict the Decepticon leader with. Patiently, the soldiers waited. And they waited more. A few mechs even tried to push Starscream forward to gain some sort of response, thinking that he'd merely dosed off instead of choosing to stay quiet. The seeker only stood his ground at the pressure applied to him, not paying it any mental notice. Megatron too had been staring at his air commander for some time, not exactly knowing what the flier was playing at. He squinted his optics to gain any clues that might prove useful, but he found nothing. Just a sullen seeker, trundling on the spot, ignoring the physical pokes and prods at this frame. He should've been happy that no one objected to his thinking, but for some reason… Megatron couldn't help but feel a little empty at this lack of reaction. It just felt a little weird. He almost missed the high screeched of outrage that could always throw off his whole processor from the sheer force of its pitch and volume. Oh well, the commander would have to do without it today.
"If that's the case, what are you idiots all waiting for? Let's go already!"
Starscream through flew the air with a majestic style replicated by no other flier in the whole galaxy. How he adored the feeling of wind brush past his plating with breath-taking speed, sliding so easily along and feeling so cool to the touch. If only for a short while, it always allowed him to forget any problems clotting in his mind and move without a care in the world.
He'd finished his task easily, of course. All he'd been ordered to do was take care of any ground troops firing at the rest of the fliers. It was ridiculously easy for the air commander, given how the Autobots really needed to look up the term stealth, as well as get their optics checked from how they were shooting. Wasn't he the best flier within all the Decepticon ranks? Why did the Megatron give him such a simple task when he knew that the seeker was capable of so much more? Probably to avoid giving him credit for any real accomplishments, of course.
Starscream eventually got bored of just randomly flying, and since no one looked to be in need of help (why would they against such pitiful excuses for soldiers), he decided to go and spectate some of the other battles. Maybe he'd get to shoot some more stuff, if he was lucky. He gracefully transformed back to his original form and landed without so much as a stumble. Various shots streamed past in the background, though none of them flew close to the air commander.
As it turned out, he was in luck. Not too far away, he could spot Megatron and Optimus fighting, hand to hand combat of course. Neither of them would stoop so low to use weapons against each other, Megatron for his pride and Optimus due to his honour. Neither of those reasons Starscream could comprehend. Who cared about those things when you could change the result of a battle, maybe a war even.
Despite this, the seeker moved closer to spectate. It wasn't everyday he got to see the two powerful mechs fight amongst themselves free of all distractions. Starscream could only stand in awe, thoroughly impressed by the strength displayed by the two leaders. In some small part of his mind, he'd take those abilities any day over his flying, though he'd never admit it to anyone.
And then, a glint of something distracted him, hidden by a not too far away rock. Could it have been…
Megatron threw punch after punch, most of them missing, though one that did catch the Autobot leader in the chest sent him flying back a few metres to land back on his pedes. It created a more than noticeable dent in his armour, and Optimus grimaced at this new development. Neither leader wavered for a moment, always eager to throw the next hit. It was surprising yet amusing to the Decepticon leader when Prime began to stagger on the spot, struggling to keep a strong footing after one particularly damaging kick to the shin.
"What, done already?" The silver mech taunted, walking towards his opponent with a menacing smile planted firmly on his faceplates. "Maybe it was a little too much to expect an autobrat to be a worthy opponent."
And then something surprised the tyrant. Optimus seemed to be smiling.
"…What?"
And then the shot flew out of nowhere, hurtling towards Megatron at a pace that shouldn't have even been possible to reach. Megatron muttered some curses that shouldn't have been known by adult mechs, let alone sparklings, and prepared himself for the inevitable blow.
He felt the impact, but none of the pain. He glanced at Optimus, who gave him an astonished look, mouth agape, and he then fixed his stare on where the wound was. Megatron slowly placed a servo down to his stomach, drawing out a thick puddle of energon. It looked different to his own though. And then he averted his gaze downwards, to find a limp, bleeding figure at his feet.
Starscream.
Starscream slept. Well, if you could call it that. He wasn't conscious, merely just lulling in the empty blackness he was all too familiar with. Nowhere to go, nothing to do, just left to his own self-conscious. The seeker experienced this often, as we was always injured in some way, sent into the bleak abyss of his own mind.
He hated it here. He wanted company. Despite the way the air commander acted, he actually liked the company of other mechs over solitude. True, they weren't as smart, and a lot of them had their own annoying traits, but… They were interesting enough to keep Starscream entertained. The one thing he loved about them was that unlike any chemical reaction or calculated fight, they couldn't be predicted. What they wanted, what they thought about, Starscream hadn't yet conducted a single formula to determine answers to those questions.
As he felt his consciousness slowly return to him, the flier also felt pain to the right side of his chassis. Great. Maybe Megatron had decided to use him for target practice. Hook was normally the one to perform the repairs, but… The touch of tools felt to gentle to be his work. There was no ridiculously blinding light glaring down from the ceiling either, similar to the repair berth that was practically reserved for the aftermath of Megatron's wrath. Then where exactly was he?
Ignoring the pain in his chassis, the seeker tried pushing himself up from the berth, only to be startled by a large servo pushing him back down.
"Don't do that." It mumbled, surprisingly close to Starscream's helm. He recognised the voice, but the pain in his chest wouldn't let him think straight, and so he couldn't pin point exactly who it was repairing him.
"You need to get some recharge." It came again, powerful yet calm in its own way. Curiosity really overtaking him, Starscream managed to open his optics for long enough to recognise the helm looking down at his frame.
"W-What are you…" He stammered, not able to form a proper sentence under his confusion.
"Good morning, sleepy head." Megatron smirked down at him, poking near his optics with something Starscream couldn't recognise with such blurred vision. It was still annoying though.
"Stop that…" The seeker mumbled, not even having the strength to push it away. Though he laughed at the seeker, Megatron obliged, and carried on addressing his injuries. Starscream now had even more questions arising in his already hurting processor. Fortunately, the commander began to address these questions for him as though he were peering into his thoughts like the oh so nosy third in command.
"You were shot by one of the autobots." Megatron said, still working away whilst he was explaining. "Well, I was the one they were trying to hit, you somehow got yourself injured" he continued, trying to hide a scoff with a free servo, which should Starscream not have been so sleepy, he would have picked up on in an instant. What he did pick up on though, was what happened what he could only imagine was a few hours ago. He was watching the two faction leaders fight (Megatron winning, of course), and then some sneaky Autobot had fired a shot from miles away. Before he'd even realised what was going on, Starscream had somehow ended up in front of his leader, right where the shot was headed for.
"It was certainly… Interesting, to say the least." The tyrant mumbled, ceasing all movements around Starscream's injuries. "I didn't think loyalty was something you possessed." Starscream didn't know what to reply. Though there was mockery clearly present within that sentence, it also sounded kind of like… a compliment. The seeker wasn't experienced with receiving such things, and therefore didn't know how to respond at all. He almost panicked as the silence continued to loom over the two mechs.
"Why are you repairing me instead of Hook?" He asked. There was a short pause before Megatron answered.
"Do you want Hook repairing you?"
"Not really." Starscream replied. It didn't take much thought to answer.
"Well, that's why then. Besides…" Megatron began, now continuing his repairs on the seeker, "I'm not such an incompetent leader that I can't even take care of my own second in command." Starscream felt a little embarrassed at having to be taken care of, but also a little happy that Megatron considered him worth his time.
"Now, I think it's time you got back to recharge" The Decepticon leader teased, poking him again in the same spot.
"I'm not a sparkling!" Starscream hissed, ignoring the fact that his systems were practically begging him for rest. He absolutely hated being treated like a child, and Megatron always seemed to do so for no reason.
"Need a blanket?" The commander smiled, amusement all over his faceplates. Instead of sticking out his glossa to really not support his point, the seeker ignored the taunt, giving into recharge after a moment's silence.
Megatron allowed himself to look at his air commander before getting back to work. The small fluttering of wings, gentle clenching and unclenching of servos, slight blinking of optics… Considering how much a fuss he was when online, it was hard to consider that the seeker could ever be so calm. Even harder to believe, the very same treacherous mech had willingly laid his own life on the line for him. Starscream, the one who had a multiple plans each and every day to overthrow Megatron, had done this for him. He briefly checked that Starscream wasn't pretending to be awake, before letting out a sigh.
"Thanks." He muttered quietly to himself, just in case someone else was watching. Adding the final touches to his frame, Megatron got up and allowed himself to leave the seeker in peace.
"I still didn't ask for your help." He added to reassure himself.
Aww, little Starscream needs his recharge! Next time, Thundercracker's got another ingenious idea from the humans!