Short-tempered and cynical to a fault, but what more could be expected from a young woman bound to servitude at the cost of her dignity and freedom?

Upon meeting a certain alien robot, the pair develop an unlikely relationship as she does the unexpected and saves his life. Adventure begins when they team up to fulfill their own ambitions.

Rating: M for self-harm, language, violence, and injury detail.

A/N: In this story, Starscream resembles the IDW version designed by the wonderfully talented Sarah Stone. I also imagine him having the voice of FOC Starscream.

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any affiliated characters. I own my personal characters and the plot of this story.


Prologue :


The entire city as far as the eye could see was ablaze.

The skies remained empty. Devoid of winged life. Smog, saturated with the stench of burning tarmac and incinerated flesh suspended above the gutted remains of the few residual buildings stood within the distance.

Vehicles stood motionless; their doors left wide open. Abandoned by those who had attempted to flee the city.

The majority, sadly, didn't succeed.

But there were those who'd sworn to protect us. Whose self-imposed duty it was to ensure humankind didn't fall victim to the barbarity of those known as the Decepticons.

Autonomous, robotic organisms, capable of disguising themselves among Earth's everyday objects.

Overlooked by the billions of the planet's occupants.

That was until the war began.

With outbreaks of unexplained, widespread violence and bloodshed becoming more frequent, cover-up became increasingly difficult for the Government to establish.

The truth that had been withheld from the public eye for so long was at last exposed, as the Decepticons assaulted and quickly overwhelmed New York City.

Following the death of their benevolent leader, Optimus Prime, and a year-long battle lost, the Autobots retreated, abandoning humanity and leaving it to its grim fate.

They failed to protect us. And in turn, those that remained were wasted and slain as Decepticon tyranny was finally free to spread like a plague across all continents of the world.

Cybertron still lying dormant, it will remain so forever, unless the Decepticons can obtain that which will ensure its restoration.

With a society shattered and forgotten, and the ground stained with the blood of the innocent, they scour the globe, ruthlessly tracking down and capturing any survivors in hiding.

Choosing slavery for promised, eventual, freedom, the remaining humans now serve as an important purpose to their cause.

The reaping of Earth's resources, thus leaving it a lifeless, decaying husk.


Chapter 1: Into Oblivion


Body weighed with pain and exhaustion, through gritted teeth she repressed the urge to slump forward and tend to the numerous injuries sustained during her capture.

For a fleeting moment, she allowed herself to remember it. Though it was difficult to remember everything.

The food supply had been scarce, and the little water she had managed to collect quickly consumed. For she hadn't anticipated how long she would be forced to reside within the confines of her sanctuary, an overturned truck on the outskirts of the city.

However, what had affected her most was not the burnt-out husk of a city before her, but the screams.

Random and scattered.

Shrill and sudden.

Piercing the air before an onslaught of gunfire had followed. People slain remorselessly once they had inevitably been discovered.

But the screams had finally ceased, and an eerie silence had ensued.

It had been quiet for hours.

Too quiet.

The only sounds to accompany her the consistent groans of pain from her neglected stomach.

Delving into the city in search of sustenance had been her ultimate mistake, for she'd wrongly assumed the alien robots had finally left the area.

There wasn't much left of it after all...

Hundreds of abandoned vehicles, merely twisted hulks of burnt-out metal, had blocked the length of road, bodies scattered amongst the rubble she passed.

Grey eyes had shifted deliberately upwards, checking the skies.

Being spotted by one of those things had one consequence. A consequence she hadn't been willing to face.

Hesitant as she had been to continue, the prospect of food and water had driven all reason from her mind, pushing her onward, the mass of bodies thickening the further she did.

At last, after hours of walking and checking abandoned places to no avail, she looked to the steadily lightening skies and had decided it would be unwise to continue.

Not until nightfall again, anyway.

Still a considerable distance from her refuge, it hadn't been long before she fearfully noted the ground trembling slightly beneath her feet, the remaining glass panes still fixed within a nearby shop's structure rattling gently.

With haste, she had squeezed between the wooden boards nailed haphazardly into its walls, crouching within the shadows. A wave of fear rippling throughout every fibre of her being as her eyes descended to the dirt dancing and shifting at her feet.

With each passing second, the quaking had grown in intensity, the panes rattling so erratically, it seemed they were clinging to the very vestiges of their structure for dear life.

Then the sound had come.

The familiar, terrifying hum.

The reverberating hum of a type of hybrid engine.

One not of this world.

The ship had materialised quickly, gliding at ease above the wreckage and devastation below as its colossal shadow immersed the remnants of the building gradually in darkness.

Eyes wide with fear alongside awe had roved over the underside of the passing vessel, studying the odd, alien glyphs engraved into its surface, the strange, fortified metal it appeared to be made of...

The scream of a jet engine overhead had served as first warning; followed by a beam of reverberating light and debris propelled throughout the building as it was blown to smithereens.

There had been a sharp pain across her forearm—a stray piece of glass piercing clean through fabric, flesh, and muscle, and then the steady, unchecked spreading of liquid heat descending her arm and dribbling from her outstretched digits.

Everything was a vague blur thereafter.

The screech of the ship's thrusters as it bore down upon her... the familiar clicks and whirrs as something nearby transformed... approaching, ground-trembling footsteps... the pounding of her heart in her ears as she had fled, descending rubble and fire at her heels...

Her memories were pushed aside once more as she became aware of erratic, snivelling gasps originating from someone to her left.

Another, on her right, sat motionless, staring blankly ahead. They gave the impression they no longer cared what fate awaited them, they were just willing to accept it.

Bloodshot eyes lifted from the dry, harsh ground she had been forced to kneel upon for the past half hour, observing the metal Citadel some 900 feet above.

It seemed, she thought bitterly, that they had already constructed a substantial sized base for their operations.

Again, her eyes wandered, warily stealing another glance at the being stood rigidly before them.

A towering purple figure whose rectangular face was featureless, save for a single, glowing orb within its centre. An eye?

She had gotten glimpses of their faces before. Having been on the run so long.

Humanoid in appearance, except for those awful glowing red eyes. But this one was different. She'd never seen one like this before...

A low growl to her right made her flinch, said growl belonging to a large, metal cat-like creature.

A panther?

It had approached shortly after their arrival, circling them with an intense, unnerving gaze, undoubtedly, there to prevent any opportunity of escape.

A voice, cold and calculating, spoke up suddenly from somewhere above her.

"Where the slag is he? It's been two joors already."

"Perhaps he will get his aft kicked again, like the last time." Another voice, oily and cunning, answered in reply, followed by a derisive cackle. "You know him, he never learns. His pride and arrogance will always be his undoing."

A slight breeze whispered over the dry landscape, encouraging shudders from the huddled, ragged-clothed humans.

The silence was unlike one she'd ever known.

This is where they had been rounded up, flanked by six Decepticon troops whilst forced to await a fate unknown.

In the weeks before the conflict had engulfed the world as she knew it, the media had been overwhelmed with supposed terror attacks. One after another. Each worse than the last.

Details, however, were always scarce, inevitably prompting people to start questioning what was really going on.

Everyone hurried from place to place. Only if absolutely necessary. With unnerved expressions and a reluctance to linger or chat with anyone.

An unnerving, constant feeling of impending danger had coated the air everywhere, everything eventually closing up due to lack of business or use. Only the scattered food banks remained open. Eventually unable to cope with the sheer volume of people desperate for supplies.

New York was the first to go down. The truth finally revealed as its inhabitants live-streamed the initial attack.

In the footage, people could be heard screaming, sobbing, shouting for loved ones, covered in soot, blood and debris as they fled, breathing erratically amongst the sounds of gunfire and explosions rocking the city overhead.

Jets had ripped through the skies, bullets raining down upon anything and everything in their path, buildings blasted and crushed beneath the feet of the metal giants who'd finally revealed themselves to the world.

The United States military proved unable to stop them, leading to similar attacks spreading to other cities across the globe.

Anyone left—few though they were—were forced to evacuate.

Survivors knew to avoid cities, keeping instead to the coast or countryside, hiding by day and travelling by night...

For perhaps the first time since being captured and rounded up with them, she properly studied the faces of those around her.

Did she recognise anyone here?

No. No one.

The majority of those she'd known had died in the initial attack.

Day after day, after keeping her phone off to conserve battery, she'd attempted to contact those on her call list.

Most lines were simply dead. Some just rang off.

She had finally received contact from two others though. Around the third day in. Messages assuring her they were safe.

Her phone had died not long after.

She could only assume that they still were. Holed up somewhere. Hopefully with family... with friends.

Perhaps in one of those refugee bunkers deep underground that she had heard passing rumours about.

Places that couldn't be detected nor reached by the Decepticons...

The robots flanking them braced suddenly, their attention drawn to something now approaching.

Sure enough, the familiar distant sound of a jet engine tore through the skies, the humans instinctively huddling closer together in apprehension.

With a deafening roar, it shot over them, whipping up their hair in the process.

Squinting with her good eye as it banked, gliding in a lazy arc around the top-most spire of the Citadel, she could just make out its colour as a rich, dark red.

The sounds of shifting, retracting metal filled their ears as it descended with breath-taking speed, changing shape with its approach.

Abruptly cutting the power to its engines a few feet above, the newcomer free-fell, cracking the ground beneath its feet as it landed with an earth-trembling thud and stood to full, humanoid height.

Large wings now protruding either side of a broad, cockpit-clad chest, the Decepticon briefly studied them in passing, a menacing scowl etched upon its face as it passed the faceless robot entirely and approached the nearby drones.

Unlike the dull silver of the latter, its armour was comprised of several colours; hues of white and grey splashed amongst the crimson of most of its body, small segments—yellow in colour—breaking up the overall exterior seamlessly.

Its large, red wings bore a purple insignia upon them.

One she recognised all too well...

A voice, this one new to her ears and of human origin, spoke up quietly from nearby.

"It's him. The one plastered all over the news when New York went down."

"W-Who is he?" A second voice, hushed and strained, stammered in response.

"Not sure exactly..." the other whispered uncertainly, "but rumour has it, he's lieutenant to the head honcho who runs this shit show."

"And... have you ever seen him ?"

"No. But I fear we soon will be..."

"Starscream, what took you?" The purple Decepticon rumbled in a voice monotonous and devoid of emotion as he stepped forward, making his presence known.

"That's Commander Starscream to you," the newcomer ground out, turning to look upon the other with a brief scowl before adding curtly "and I had a slight delay."

"Megatron requested your presence a mega-cycle ago." The monoptic replied, undaunted by the jet's attitude. "Our Master lacks patience, as you know."

Clearly indifferent to this warning, the jet rolled his red eyes skyward, muttering something unheard.

"I'm more than capable of carrying out my duties, Shockwave." He stated smoothly, studying the tips of his digits in a rather girlish manner. "Promptly or otherwise."

The tension was palpable, and the humans gathered below looked between the two huge beings with growing uncertainty.

"Thundercracker and Skywarp failed to respond to my attempts of contact, resulting in me having to temporarily handle your collective duties." Shockwave continued, eliciting an annoyed growl from the other. "They accompanied you only this morning. Where are they?"

"Busy." The jet returned briskly with a careless wave of his hand, but before the perplexed mech could question him any further, he turned his winged back on him, a slight, satisfied smirk in place as he addressed the drones.

"Is this all of them?" He demanded with folded arms, jerking his head in the direction of the gathered humans with no expressed regard for the beings in question.

"Yes, Commander." one replied, stepping forward from the others and offering a short, respectful bow.

"Good," The jet growled with a curt nod to his subordinate before turning to study the huddled group of humans, those of which immediately shrank back.

Sneering with satisfaction at their display of fear, he motioned to the drones with a sharp snap of his fingers.

"Bring them."