I would like to make a shout out to Saiyanpride248, if it weren't for her this chapter would of probably taken longer to post.
I do not own Transformers Prime, but this story is all mine!
Chapter 5
Starscream was running around trying to examine everything he saw from the moss on the trees to the bugs in the dirt. Arcee just followed him with a bewildered expression, occasionally he would say things like 'fascinating' or 'Arcee come look at this!'. As Starscream was examining a butterfly that landed on a flower with his magnifying glass Arcee began pondering "Where did he get a magnifying glass?" This Starscream made her question everything she new about the old one and pretty much every Decepticon, did they all use to be like this? The more she thought about it the more she wanted to know just who Starscream was before the war.
"Starscream, what was the science academy like?" Arcee asked while cursing herself for doing so.
Starscream turned around with a surprised expression "Do you really want to know?"
Arcee began screaming in her processor to say no but before she even knew it "Of course."
"Well okay," Starscream felt his face plate begin to heat up. "Come take a seat," Starscream gestured towards an adequately sized boulder.
Arcee complied and sat down waiting for Starscream to begin.
"Lets see where to start," Starscream began pacing, "oh I know let us start from the beginning."
Acree was far past regretting her decision.
"Well I grew up on the poor streets of Kaon with my brothers Thundercracker and Skywarp-"
"Wait a minute, you have brothers?" just when she thought Starscream couldn't surprise her anymore.
"Yes I do, sorry I must of forgot to mention that. I wonder where they are now, probably helping to fight Decepticon tyranny," Starscream laughed.
"Yeah probably," Arcee said hesitantly.
"Oh how I miss them, I was the oldest so I always had to look after them growing up on the streets of Kaon. Thundercracker was born in the middle, I may have been the oldest but most of the time he was the most mature and level headed. Skywarp being the youngest was always naive and energetic, he was always in high spirits never allowing us to get depressed." Starscream grew a sad smile at the memories.
"It's official, we were 100% wrong about Starscream," Arcee thought in awe.
"Anyway, growing up in Kaon we attended various schools to prepare for our future lives on Cybertron. I loved every minute of it, I excelled at every subject but my very top scores always came from science. I enjoyed all the sciences, my instructors took quick notice of my scientific curiosity and after graduation they suggested for me to take the steps of science further by attending one of the more prestigious academies in Iacon. I was excited to attend and getting in was a cinch, but my brothers didn't share my enthusiasm." Starscream's smile began to falter.
"They were happy for me by all means, but they didn't like the idea of me leaving them. I promised them that I would write and visit them as much I could, but now I realize I was just being selfish."
"You were not being selfish Starscream, you were just following your dream and there is nothing wrong with that," Arcee said reasurringly. "Your brothers should have been more supportive."
"No do not blame them, Thundercracker and Skywarp were never that interested in scholastic learning. After they graduated their interests were mainly in the coliseums, they took great pleasure in watching warriors take part in battle and I could tell that they wanted to be warriors themselves. They watched battles almost everyday, their favorite gladiator was a large brute that named himself after one of the 13 original primes, can you believe that?" Arcee tensed at the mention.
"But lets get to the part you want to hear, my days at the science academy. It was everything I ever dreamed of, my hunger for knowledge was finally fulfilled. It was a great environment for learning, there was no one you couldn't turn to for help." Starscream said but the way he said it seemed a little off. "I learned various sciences while I was there, I was too fascinated about it to just learn one branch of it. I had to learn it all!" Starscream noticed Arcee giving him an odd look. "Sorry I tend to get a little over excited," Starscream said flustered.
"It's okay, your kind of cute when your nervous," Arcee said jokingly.
"I will have you know that I am a full grown mech, I'm not cute I'm handsome," Starscream stated while crossing his arms.
They began staring at each other for a couple seconds until bursting into laughter. Starscream was practically clutching his inside while Arcee almost fell off the boulder laughing so hard. Arcee never thought she would act this friendly with Starscream ever, here she was laughing and sharing a joke with someone she completely despised a couple days ago. For Starscream this was an exhilarating experience, from the beginning he could tell there was tension between Arcee and him and he was just happy to tear down some of her walls that always seemed to surround her.
"Well I have one more question for you," Arcee said as she stood up trying to calm herself down.
"Shoot."
"Well I've been wondering this for a while now, why does a science geek like yourself need those claws don't they do more harm than good?" Arcee asked.
Starscream chuckled "Well that is a good question, it simply depends on how you look at it."
"How so?" Arcee questioned.
"To the untrained eye they simply look like weapons used for destruction, but it is an elegant tool that can be used to destroy and to create," Starscream explained. "It also depends on the wearer."
Starscream stepped towards the boulder "In the wrong hands they are destructive and cause nothing but pain and sorrow." As he said this Starscream made a quick swipe and the boulder had five deep slash marks across the middle. Starscream walked towards Arcee and raised his hand "But in the right hands..."
Starscream slowly grazed Arcee's arm with his fingers sending a shiver down her back "They can be delicate to the touch."
Arcee broke the contact and stepped back wide eyed "What just happened?"
"I...I have to go," Arcee quickly transformed and headed in the direction back to base.
Starscream stood there alone in silence staring off into the distance where Arcee disappeared before releasing his rage on the boulder reducing it to rubble "I am such an idiot!"
Starscream sat down and leaned against one of the multitude of trees in the forest sulking in his own pity "You were right, you were always right..."
He sat there with his head in his hands for who knows how long before something took him away from his thought "What's that sound?"
Starscream stood up and tried to listen harder for the sound "It sounds like...drills?"
Starscream began walking towards the source until he came to an edge that led into a deep gorge. But what was inside was what really surprised him, various cybertronians that all looked the same were manning drills and digging into the ground. All of them had sinister purple insignias brandished on their chests and they were all surrounded by large energon crystals.
"They're drilling through this beautiful ecosystem for energon? Who gives them the right!" Starscream yelled angrily.
Starscream noticed in the middle of the whole operation stood a large imposing figure yelling out commands "Alright I want all this energon collected and this whole deposit drained of it's resources, when the task is completed call in so we can bring in the Nemesis for pick up."
Starscream's eyes narrowed when he realized who that was and growled "Megatron."
"Soundwave send in the ground bridge!" as he said this a large green portal similar to the Autobots' appeared and Megatron stepped through disappearing.
Starscream activated his comm-link "Starscream to base, come in please this is an emergency."
"What is the problem?" Ratchet asked.
"I stumbled across a large energon deposit and the Decepticons are making quick work of it, I need reinforcements."
"Well that is going to be a problem, I can't get an accurate lock on your current location. The Decepticons must be messing with our frequency. Your reinforcements will come but your going to have to wait a bit."
"What! But by the time they get here it may be too late!"
"Starsceam get a hold of yourself. Backup will arrive, you are just going to have to be patient and stay put." Ratchet said ending the call.
Starscream began debating whether he should follow orders or take matters into his own hands, sadly his decision was quick.
The Vehicons were busy uncovering more energon until they heard a strange sound, a missile came barreling towards one of the drills and quickly decimated it engulfing the driver in the explosion. Another missile appeared and did the exact same thing to another drill, they followed the direction of where the missiles came from in the first place and saw someone they never expected to see.
"Starscream? But ain't that slagger dead?" one Vehicon uttered.
A couple remaining Vehicons began talking about what to make of this, most of them thought they were seeing things or this was some sort of sick nightmare and some even thought that it was Starscream's ghost out for revenge.
"Who cares, if we bring in Starscream just think how ecstatic Megatron will be," a Vehicon stated.
That was all they needed and the rest of the Vehicons got into fighting positions, Starscream was quickly bombarded by blaster fire. Starscream shot some more missiles but his inexperience with the weapon caused him to miss most of his marks. He managed to wound some of them but that was only because the explosions from each missiles had a big enough range to reach their intended mark. Starscream decided to change his approach and transformed into jet mode, he took to the skies and continued to bombard them with his cluster bombs. One Vehicon managed to make his mark and got Starscream right in the wing, Starscream began plummeting to the ground but managed to crash into the Vehicon that shot him knocking said Vehicon out. This may have been sloppy in his books but it was still effective. He became surrounded by the remaining Vehicons, Starscream transformed back into robot mode and began to swipe with his claws but not as gracefully as he preached to Arcee. Nonetheless he managed to hit his targets but not enough to take them out of the fight, the remaining 'cons began beating him mercilessly. They began throwing insults at the seekers damaged body now laying on the ground, commenting how they expected so much more from him. For some reason that comment made him feel more pain than the external wounds he was carrying. Starscream could feel stasis lock coming closer.
"You were right, you were always right...Skyfire,"