As per usual, I can't leave "good enough" alone. Please enjoy the below.

Starscream felt himself drift closer to reality. Unicron was dead. He had been told this by some voice far away and yet so very near. This thought gave him peace, but there was something else, something more, nagging at him, something that told him he could not yet let slip his grip on life. Something that urged him to resurface from the shadows of his subconscious. His vents struggled painfully as his spark pulsed stronger and stronger in his chassis. Each thrum brought pain, but it was a good kind of pain, the kind of pain that tells one they are alive.

There was a wry irony to it. The mighty Unicron was dead, or so some distant voice had told him. And here he was, a simple Seeker, burned and battered but alive. Alive, yes. He was alive.

A low sound of pain guttered in his throat, followed by the ineffective blinking of raw optics. There was some light filtering in hazily, shadows and shapes moving around him. But he was well and truly blind. The sounds of beeping and shuffling moved around the room, quiet and steady.

"Al-Alexis…?" He rasped. She had been so upset, he had heard her voice begging in his delirious dreams, terrified that he might die. And now, at last, he could reassure the child, and prove to her that he had not failed.

"Starscream, can you understand me?" A voice asked above him. A surge of disappointment washed over him as he recognized the voice as belonging to Red Alert, the Autobot medic. After a moment, he made a weak attempt at a nod.

"How do you feel?" The Autobot asked.

"...terrible…" He rasped, grunting as he felt Red Alert adjust one of the life-sustaining machines that was embedded in his side.

"That is to be expected." Red Alert murmured. "But is the pain bearable?"

Starscream did not answer at first as his processor struggled to grasp the question. His spark was still burning, why would pain matter?

"Starscream, did you hear me?" Red Alert asked, impliedly repeating his earlier question.

"...yes, it is…bearable."

"Good. That's good. It's a minor miracle you're still with us. If someone had told me we would be having this conversation when Optimus brought you in here, I wouldn't have believed them."

Starscream was barely listening, his hazy thoughts consumed by more important matters. Perhaps he had imagined the girl's presence….But no, she had been there. He knew it in his spark…

"Alexis…where is she…?" His vents heaved as his vocalizer struggled.

"Just wait for a moment." Red Alert's voice came again, it sounded strangely kind for a mech who had often taken shots at him on the battlefield. "I will get her. She will be so relieved to see you."

The sound of receding footsteps reached his audials and the whoosh of a doorway told him that he was now alone. The absence of distraction made him all the more keenly aware of the throbbing ache pervading his frame, his circuits trembling with every surge of his spark. Darkness crept closer, tugging at his consciousness, but though his awareness faded, he clung to the edge of waking, driven on by the promise of consoling the girl who had already cried too many tears over his pathetic spark.

Suddenly, like a shooting star, a small voice reached his audials that made his spark surge with warmth.

"Starscream? Are you really awake?"

"I'm here…" He murmured, the words themselves exhausting his strength. A sparkbeat passed, and he heard an intake of breath. Suddenly, Alexis's comparatively tiny body thumped against his damaged chassis, her small appendages thrown over his raw frame, clinging to him.

For a moment, all was silent. And then the soft sound of fluid pinging off steel floated up to his audials, followed by hitching breaths, a soft burbling noise. Why was she being so quiet? Was something wrong?

Red Alert's concerned voice came again. "Alexis, are you alright?"

"Yes…" A small voice sobbed. It was then that his tired mind finally realized that she was crying. She was crying for him. Over him. For a moment, Starscream's already sluggish thoughts crawled to a halt, pained and overwhelmed by the reality of her tears.

"….I came to see you every day…" She sobbed, gasping around tears that his blind optics could now only imagine. His charred body was surely not a pretty sight.

"…I know…I heard you…" He was exhausted and, despite his best efforts, his voice died away, trailing off even as he willed himself to comfort her.

"…I'm not going anywhere." He wheezed, trying again to force as much strength as he could into his voice, endeavoring to give her a sense of normalcy.

"Why would you do something like that?!" He heard her demand through her tears.

"It was the only way…to keep…my friends safe." A smirk pulled painfully at the corner of his mouth as he heard her make a wet, almost hysterical laugh. He was echoing their final conversation. She had asked if he would betray his friends. At the time, he had been unsure. But now…now, his priorities were clear. It was going to be alright. Unicron had been defeated. She was safe. They were all safe.

Red Alert's voice came again, "Alexis, I'm glad that you were able to visit, but I think we should leave Starscream to rest."

"…okay." He heard her whimper, hiccupping as her energy signature slowly faded away from his side. "I'll come visit you tomorrow," Alexis promised.

The Seeker wanted to protest, to rally himself, but his grasp on consciousness was already slipping. "…I'm going to be alright," he promised her. Or tried to. He was never really sure if he got the words out before he slipped back into delirium. But even so, the beacon of her hope burned bright within his spark, and reminded him of his promise. Yes, indeed, he would live. For her.

I might have another chapter in me. Unfortunately, I tend to think in non sequiturs.