Chapter 1: Back in Time

Starscream felt like he had just fallen into a dark abyss. No light. No sound. Nobody Nothing. He was nothing but numb. He was alone. And he was not feeling the pain he was supposed to have either.

Where was he? Starscream thought to himself. What happened? Then he remembered his horrible encounter with the Predacons. Was he still alive? Or was he finally dead?

Through the many years of war, Starcream could say that he had always been afraid of being killed by his master, living in constant fear for the past million years as he attempted terminating his master infinitely, never thinking about the consequences, only to realise that he would fail miserably way too late. Then the punishments would come. They were harsh, and sometimes aimed for his spark, although he always somehow managed to survive, waking up in Knockout's Medbay. Even the medic had commented that his survival through these years was a miracle.

What he had never expected was for his spark to be extinguished by some Predacon clones, especially not by the clones that were created by Shockwave! Out of every single being, it had to be Predacons! Even the Autobots would have been better! He regretted not killing that beast when he had the chance to. That horrible Predaking was probably seeking revenge for the past treatment he had given him.

Well, it wasn't entirely his fault anyways, was it? That was the fastest way of training a beast, by giving it a lesson. If he did not train that beast properly, it would end up with Megatron training him with his cannon. He was just doing what he had to do. And those three beasts were never kind to him either. They literally snarled at him aggressively everyday.

Ugh. Why must those three be so aggressive? They could have just ripped out his spark like the way he ripped out Cliffjumper's, but ripping his frame? That was just unnecessary pain! He definitely did not rip any mech's fame into pieces before! That was Megatron's doing!

And speaking of Megatron, that tyrant! Starscream always knew that Megatron was not a fit leader, not like he himself was a great one either, but disbanding the Decepticons? What was he even thinking about, just abandoning the army like that? Did he even think about the consequences of what would happen to the fate of Decepticons if he surrendered? Well, it was just Megatron being Megatron. Always impulsive without looking further into the future.

At least he won't be feeling pain for some time. He was free for this short amount of time. No more ripping of his frame or wings and no more beatings with fusion cannons pointed to him in his faceplates! His frame was already gone anyways.

Now he would either rest in peace in the All spark without seeing any annoying Autobots or Decepticon, or wake up in a broken and tattered frame, but Starscream doubted that. Currently, the only capable mechs of saving him in his current state are the Autobot Medic, Ratchet and the traitor Knockout. And they probably would not be willing to fix him, for sure. Even if they did, it would be on the condition that he was found first. So the most logical option was that he died. He was supposed to die a long time ago, with Skyfire…and he had lived long enough to be considered a miracle. But now, he will finally be able to see Skyfire, Thundercracker and Skywarp! He missed them so much.

Starscream felt himself sinking even more. Even though he was surrounded by darkness, he felt peaceful and calm for the first time in many years. Was he at the Allspark now? Was there a chance that he was still alive, again?

Suddenly, he heard muffled whispering. He knew someone was talking, and it sounded a little aggressive. There were only two possibilities to this. One, was that he was at the Allspark with the other dead mechs. Do mechs fight in the Allspark too? Two, was that he was still alive and he was waking up. So he was saved by those Autobots?

He was starting to see a dim light, and the voice he heard was now louder and clearer. It was screaming in his audios, and that voice was also surprisingly familiar. What disturbed him the most was the sentence that voice just said. It gave him horrible memories. He shuddered as the voice ran through his processors.

"Scream It's been a while So, where's your master?"

The light source was getting brighter. He finally started seeing some colours other than black. Why was he hearing all of this? He felt like his claws touched something. His vision was getting clearer by every second. He felt his servos move in fear and it tugged something. Something that was definitely not good. His vision was now clear with his senses, and he was shocked with what he saw. This was probably another nightmare. And he heard another terribly familiar voice.

"I am my own master."

Starscream stared in shock at the red Autobot lying in front of him. It was Cliffjumper. The dead Autobot. He was right in front of Starscream, with his servos chained up with cuffs. Starscream then looked at his own servos. They were stained with bright blue energon. Realising that he had just snuffed out Cliffjumpers spark, he gasped with horror.

No! This was not supposed to happen! Not like this! Starscream glanced back at the Autobot.

No, Cliffjumper was not dead. Not yet. But energon was leaking out of his chest plates and he was going to be permanently offline soon. Cliffjumper, panting as energon leaked out of his chest plates, looked up into his optics, with a look of defiance in it.

And then the Autobot's optics went dim. He was gone.

On the Nemesis, Starscream strolled around his room as sighed for the infinite time. It had been three hours since Cliffjumper's death, and his processor was in a complete mess. Everything he had experienced in the past three hours was so surreal and impossible, yet it felt real too. And after thinking through this fact for the past three hours, he could do nothing but accept this fact:

He had travelled back in time.

He had gone back to where everything had just started, and for some stupid reason, he had just killed Cliffjumper, again! It was annoying enough that he killed that mech once, and he did regret it as much, but killing him again? Was Primus giving him some kind of joke? Sending him back in time right after Cliffjumper's very death? Could Primus not choose a timing better than this? Even a minute earlier would have saved him from all of this mess! Why now?

Frustration gnawed at his insides. Starscream had never been one to let guilt control him, but this time it was different. He had let his same mistakes happen again. He started feeling the pressure of his regrets pressing on him, dragging him down. This… wasn't just about changing his own fate anymore. He couldn't ignore the lives he had destroyed like he used to anymore.

Starscream sighed in exasperation as he stomped out of his room. Now he had important things to work on. And he would start on Cliffjumper first.

As he hurriedly walked through hallways of the Nemesis to the prison cell, Starscream was stopped by one of the Vehicons named Steve, if he remembered correctly.

"What's the matter, you fool! Can you not see that I have important things to do?" Starscream snapped, rolling his optics to express his annoyance, though his voice faltered slightly. He crossed his arms upon his chest plates, "You better have something important that's worth my time!" He really needed all the time he had to deal with all of this mess!

"Co…commander Starscream…" Steve stuttered, "Commander Soundwave requested your presence in the control room…to discuss important matters…"

Starcream narrowed his optics as he grumbled to himself. What was so important that Soudwave needed him? Cliffjumper was his current —Scrap!

Realisation hit him again. Megatron. Megatron would be back today.

Starscream wanted to smack himself for forgetting. How could he forget such an important event? Now he had even more things to do.