They stay on the slope over the entrance to the cave as the Maximals come and go with the materials to build their new base, which includes almost the whole of the command deck of the Axalon.

Hadn't he been so tired, Dinobot would have gone inside to see what they're doing, but… the sun just feels so nice…

"You're not resting." He turns slowly to where Starscream is lying next to him, optics black, enjoying the sunlight. "Mind explaining?"

"I just… have a lot to think about."

"And can't it wait?"

"Obviously not, because I would be resting otherwise." He hisses, and the Seeker stretches before sitting up.

"Alright, alright. What is it?"

Instead of answering, Dinobot looks down, unsure if it is the right time for such questions… or if there will ever be a right time for them.

"What Ravage said back in the ship…" He can feel the Decepticon tense, but doesn't look up from his dangling pedes. "You said something of the like when I became a ghost, about how you weren't a traitor… But—"

"No one believed in Unicron." Dinobot goes silent at Starscream's voice, turning to see the Flier staring at his open servos, resting on his lap, though he's not focused on them. "Actually, no, that's not true. Everyone believed in Unicron, as we believed in Primus, but… He was an idea, a metaphor, for destruction, some kind of… Creator of Corruption, as Primus was the so-called Creator of Perfection. He was the Unmaker to the Supreme Creator, the Dark to Primus' Light. But none thought him an actual being. Least of all a planet eater." Optics go black for an instant before the Seeker looks up at the blue sky, gaze still lost in the past. "Megatron had grown obsessed with the Autobots. We had Cybertron, new supplies, we had started rebuilding… but the Autobots still functioned, and that's all he cared about. They had been forced off the planet, hiding on the moons and their city on Earth, they weren't an actual problem, and once Cybertron was rebuilt, they would be even less… but he didn't care. He wanted them destroyed, obliterated. So Soundwave, Shockwave and I worked out a plan to get rid of Megatron."

Dinobot tenses, startled, and more than a little suspicious at those words.

After all, Starscream is known as the biggest traitor in Cybertronian history, and Soundwave and Shockwave, unless he's mistaken, were the most loyal of Megatron's lieutenants.

The Decepticon doesn't turn to the Predacon, doesn't even twitch.

Instead, he smiles.

A sincere and sad smile, almost to the point of it being spark-wrenching, and his optics are focused once more, even if what he's seeing is far away, invisible to all that do not share his frame type.

Seekers always know where Cybertron is.

"It wasn't easy, we couldn't outright deactivate Megatron, and depending on how he went out it would… look too suspicious. And we needed as many Decepticons accepting the change of leadership as possible. But, ultimately, Megatron himself gave us the perfect opportunity. The last attack to Autobot City, on Earth, left him badly damaged, and our escape was so hurried that we ended up being carried by Astrotrain instead of a transport spaceship. He was damaged as the rest, and low on energy, and he wouldn't have made it back to Cybertron with all of us… So I suggested we got rid of the more badly damaged."

"What?! You cast away your own troops?" Dinobot asks, startled, and finally gets the Flier's attention on him as he gives him a knowing smile.

"We hadn't been idle in the first part of our journey. All of the most grievous damage had already been treated, so none was actually at risk of deactivation, though they wouldn't have made it back to Cybertron on their own, even if they all had the ability to… And those that could not be saved had already grayed out." He answers, voice lowering to a whisper as he once more looks up at the sky. "So, as the bunch of survivors we were, we cast the weak aside. Even my own Trinemates."

"Your own… but, aren't they like…"

"The most important mechs to a Seeker? The irreplaceable battle companions, wingmates, and, some may say, brothers? … No, they are not." The Predacon jerks back at that, studying the Flier's humorless smirk in utter confusion and disbelief. "They're just two Seekers with whom you share a three-way bond, allowing all of you to form a perfect three-mech Wing. Feelings aren't needed. Sometimes, they aren't even wanted. But after almost ten million years… yes, they were family. My little brothers. I would have given my spark to save them."

"But didn't you just say…"

"I threw them off Astrotrain, yes, but they weren't in danger of deactivation. And while they couldn't make their way back to Cybertron on their own, they could wait for me to send someone for them as soon as we got back and Megatron's deactivation was made official. I promised I would go back for them all… None of us ever thought Unicron would get to them before us."

Dinobot tenses, optics widening, as the Flier curls into himself to stare at his clenched servos with deep sorrow.

"We had to make a bit of a fuss when we got back to Cybertron, a coronation for me to be declared the leader of the Decepticons, for no one expected anything less… we had it all planned, how, slowly, the facade would be shed off, so that we could all get used to the changes… but the coronation needed to happen. Astrotrain was to be sent for those we left behind immediately after, to get 'those strong enough to survive', but to leave Megatron. I would have gone with him, and Shockwave and Soundwave would have taken care of organizing everything so that the changes could begin… But, out of nowhere, Galvatron and his Sweeps flew in." Starscream's optics go black, helm resting in his servos almost in despair. "For an instant, I had hope, that Megatron was back, that he'd somehow come back to take care of everything and that the revolutionary I gave my word to follow was the one standing there… I was a fool. Before I knew it, I had been shot down and my frame turned to dust. By the time I realized I hadn't joined the Well of All Sparks and managed to put myself together, the whole mess with Unicron was over, and my fellow Decepticons were surviving on scraps on Charr while the Autobots basked under their new Prime in a Cybertron that, a moment before, had been ours. Shockwave was gone, my Trinemates had been twisted into unrecognizable minions and my leader was even worse than any of us could have ever imagined. I did all I could to aid the Decepticons, I helped renegades escape and hide from Galvatron, I possessed Sweeps to find them supplies, whether Energon or parts, and, more than once, I got them to safety during or after battles, but… In the end, I was just a ghost." The servos fall to the Flier's lap once more, and his pained optics go to the sky again, before a tiny smirk, somehow proud, appears on his faceplate. "So, I tricked Unicron into giving me a new frame."

"You tricked the Unmaker?!" The Predacon exclaims, uncaring about how high pitched his voice has gotten, and gets an amused look in answer.

"I defied deactivation, am defying it every nanoklik I'm still here, and you think I wouldn't trick Unicron?"

Instead of answering, Dinobot grimaces, though not even he would be able to say if he's confused, stunned, awed or disbelieving… Maybe a bit of all that, and who knows what else.

Starscream laughs.

Loud, sincere, joyful, leaning back on one arm as he curls into himself, before allowing himself to just lie down on his back to keep laughing.

A moment later, once he's over the shock, the Raptor starts laughing too, soon ending on his back too and staring up at the cloudless blue sky with a big smile on his faceplate.

"Yes, I guess I should have seen it coming." He answers once they've both calmed down, and the Seeker snickers a bit more. "So… did you manage it?"

"Manage what?"

"Trick Unicron."

And the calm and almost happy atmosphere darkens so suddenly that Dinobot has to reboot his optics to make sure there's nothing literally casting a shadow on them.

The sky is still blue and cloudless.

But Starscream is once more staring at nothing as his servos clench into fists over his cockpit.

"I did. It was supposed to be an exchange of favors, I would get his head connected to Cybertron, so that he could have a frame, and he would get me a new one. But, oh, what bad luck, I had nobody to possess to connect him. So, he gave me a frame for me to able to, and I just flew away. No way was I going to help that monster destroy my home-world."

"Then, why are you a ghost?" The Predacon asks after an uncomfortable silence falls over them, and the Seeker snarls at whatever he's remembering.

"Galvatron was a fool, glitched beyond repair. He shot at me every time I made myself visible, even though it did nothing to me—I'll teach you that trick later—" He adds the last part quickly, to silence Dinobot before he can ask. "—but… I ran into them almost immediately after getting a frame, and that time, he could damage me. Unicron-made frames, however, are far more resistant, so I survived, but… I was drifting in space, I crashed somewhere and… the next thing I was aware of, I was a captive of mechs sporting red brands." Optics go black again, and the fisted servos start to tremble as the Seeker grimaces in pain. "I don't know if they were Autobots or Maximals, but they knew who I was, and what my spark was capable of, so they… studied me, experimented on me, without care for my pain, without holding back, because, after all, my spark is immortal, I can't extinguish… but I could still suffer." The Raptor slowly sits up, frame tense with horror and disbelief. "There was a disturbance when Protoform X broke into a murderous rampage for the first time, though I didn't know it back then, and the force-field restraining my spark in my destroyed frame weakened to the point I finally managed to escape." Red optics brighten again, agony clearly reflected in them as they once more lock onto something far beyond the blue of Earth's sky. "The world I was met with was no longer one I recognized."

"Our Cybertron." The Predacon whispers, and the Seeker's frame goes limp, as in defeat. "Maximals and Predacons and the Pax Cybertronia."

"Yes."

"How did you end here?" He asks softly, gesturing to the rocks and dirt of the organic planet they're on, and, slowly, the Decepticon sits up.

"I wandered, learning of what had happened, of where everyone had gone, until I couldn't stand it anymore. I had eternity before me, but my life had ended the instant Galvatron had shot at me the second time. So I went away. I… I guess I wanted to find something else, anything else, that wasn't related to Cybertron, that could help me… forget. And that's when I saw two ships battling, and space-time was ripped and… It was a chance to vanish, maybe even to change things. So I seized it, and followed." He finishes, staring down at his servos on his lap once more, and silence falls over them.

"Why tell me?"

"I don't know." The Decepticon whispers, and they exchange a look, curious and slightly amused. "Guess I just needed to get it all out, after…" And the mood falls once more, with Starscream turning his attention to the sky again. "If I ever meet any of your Tri-Predacus Council, I'm going to deactivate them slowly and extremely painfully. And, once their sparks leave their frames, I'm going to make them suffer even more."

"I thought you would reserve such a fate for the Maximal High Council?" The Raptor asks, mildly curious, but, somehow, not really surprised.

"Them too. But they just messed with me. Your Council took Soundwave's surviving Cassettes and reprogrammed them to serve the Predacons. Laserbeak and Buzzsaw deactivated trying to intercept the Axalon, and Ravage was forced to his own destruction by that faulty coding." The Flier snarls menacingly, and Dinobot can literally see lightning crawling all over his plating as his spark flares with boiling rage. "The Predacons are the Decepticons' descendants, so as soon as a chance to insure Decepticon victory came, no matter how useless or threatening for the future, that faulty programming forced him to go along with that Megatron mockery's plan." The ire disappears quite quickly, though, as the Seeker once more curls into himself with a pained look, a servo pressed over his cockpit, where his spark chamber would have been had he a frame. "I was supposed to protect them, to take care of them all, that was why I was going to be their leader, to watch over them. And then, there would have been no need for reprogramming or reformatting, and the Maximals and Predacons would have never existed as you knew them, because… We would have worked something out."

That… explains quite a lot.

Carefully, Dinobot rests a servo on the older ghost's shoulder plate, and the Decepticon seems to calm down a bit.

"When… the ship exploded, what happened with Ravage?"

They stay silent for a bit, simply sitting next to each other, feeling the sunrays and the breeze on their non-existent bodies.

"No Cybertronian can reprogram a spark. He was… the Ravage I knew, before Galvatron, before Unicron. He… apologized for not listening, for blaming me when I had no control over the situation and… He told me about Laserbeak and Buzzsaw. He said… they had all been worried about me when I vanished so suddenly, centuries ago. He was tired, broken far more than the war ever could… And he smiled and said that his part was over, that it should have ended long ago… And that I had someone else to care for now." Dinobot stiffens at that, but, without looking away from the ground, Starscream smiles. "He asked me help, one last time. He asked me to help him get back to his family and… I let him go."

They stay silent after that, watching the Maximal activity down below and the sun move across the blue sky.

"Shall we rest?" Dinobot asks softly after some time, and the Seeker smiles as he lies down again.

"Yes. I have a lot to teach you once we're back in working order."

The Predacon smirks, more happy than he lets show, and gets onto his back too, optics going black as he enjoys the sun.

And if the two ghosts move a bit closer to each other, it's no one's business.

AN: And finally (almost) everything is explained. Now, one more scene and then we can, at last, get to season 3 and some major plot-hole filling *cheers*

By the way, the title is taken from the latest X-Men movie XP (which I have yet to see, so go me...)