=Chapter-2=
"Another side of the Reality"
Megatron and Starscream both watched the screen with overwhelmed expressions on their faces. Soundwave's report about the nature of the unknown seeker's anatomy was just amazing. The blue one was, indeed, a seeker… but not a common seeker, neither Conehead nor the pyramidal type. Although he seemed he was reformatted in order to seem like a Decepticon seeker, it seemed his primary form could have been quite similar to a seeker's robot mode; but not like a real seeker, just some flyer type.
Starscream, particularly, found him a bit disgusting: the right wing of the weird seeker mech was a sword and he had a powerful arsenal included in his body: the launchers of both sides of the head were powerful cannons, and he also had cluster bombs in both sides of his torso. And not only that: the unknown seeker seemed to be as fast as Starscream himself… in fact, he seemed to be able to rival the Air commander in his own field. And those abilities hadn't been caused by anything , they belonged to the unknown seeker. These characteristics made Starscream nervous.
On the other hand was Megatron; certainly he found the matter of the unknown seeker odd, yet he wasn't as nervous. Yes, the blue one seemed to have two launchers, which could match his own fusion cannon, and his other skills might match his SIC's, but Megatron found it… interesting. He wasn't scared at all, but he was particularly intrigued. In Megatron's mind, he couldn't be the leader if he was afraid of such things, or if he just didn't pay attention to them.
However, what truly made both of them nervous was the nature of the wounds he had, and the weird way he seemed to have appeared on Earth. Neither of them were unused to seeing butcheries in the bodies of other Cybertronians, in fact, both of them had inflicted many of those in the years of war. But having the lasercore open like a shell with an only slice, and having the spark exposed didn't exactly fit the usual damage that one could get. What kind of freaky weapon could cause that?
"Soundwave," he called, "How long till that seeker's reparations will be finished?"
"Reparations will be finished in a megacycle."
"OK" he agreed, "Let me know when they're finished."
"As you command, Megatron."
"Out."
And the communications screen turned off.
Starscream had listened to the conversation with skeptic interest. He couldn't stop himself asking, "What are you thinking? We don't know anything about that guy… A guy that heavily armed. You should take some kind of precautions before finishing his reparations!"
"Why?" replied the Decepticon Leader, "do YOU know something we should know? Do you know HIM?" His question was sarcastic. "Is he another of your long lost friends?"
The Air Commander flushed with anger at those replies. "I've never seen him!" he affirmed strongly Even I don't have any record about his real identity… and I should since it's part of my job."
Megatron smiled to himself. He knew Starscream well enough to know when the Air commander was lying and when he wasn't. He also got the scared tone of his harsh voice: he didn't need Soundwave's abilities to know what happened inside Starscream's freak mind. The Air Commander's mind was as easy to read as an open book. In fact, he was just a child…
"What do you think we should do with him, really?" Starscream asked, once calmed by Megatron's security.
"We're going to interrogate him as soon as he's repaired."
"I hope so, Megatron."
Soundwave had turned his attention towards the reparations and found the Constructions had almost finished them. Hook turned to face him, as well.
"The body's ready to get back its spark. We can place it inside his body, again."
The Communicators officer did a little gesture and gave them the spark-cube; Longhaul took it carefully and, helped by his mates, placed the shining spark inside the lasercore of the empty body. After a few seconds, the blue robot body, which had looked like just a machine, began to shine: the life returned filling the empty shell that its body was, the seeker was becoming his old self. The Constructions allowed the spark to recover; it needed some minutes to adjust the systems: a machine can't come alive so easily.
Then, Soundwave opened a common channel.
"Reparations are finished. Subject is ready for a total recovery," he announced to Megatron.
"Understood. We will come to the repair bay."
Shortly, the door opened and Megatron, followed closely by Starscream, stepped in the room. The Constructions and Soundwave watched them carefully as they came closer towards the reparations table where the seeker's body rested. For the first time, Megatron and Starscream could both look at the face of the blue seeker. It was oddly pink and had a dazed look.
"He's still in stasis mode" Scrapper informed the newcomers. The rest of his companions allowed him to talk, surely Megatron didn't pay too much attention to them.
"It doesn't matter" he replied. "Constructicons! Get out of here; you're dismissed!"
There was a puzzled look on their faces, but it was cut by Starscream's speech, "Did you not hear him? Get out of here!"
The Constructions nodded and ran out the room, but Megatron's strong voice stopped their leader.
"You don't leave, Scrapper… I need you here." The Constructions' leader walked back to the reparations table. "I'll need you to wake him up…" he informed, but his tone also suggested something more sinister.
As the Constructions left the repair bay, the three major rulers of the Decepticons, Starscream, Soundwave and Megatron himself, as well as the Constructions' leader Scrapper, were alone inside that room watching the "sleeping" blue seeker.
Now, the interrogation could begin.
"Can you perceive something, Soundwave?" asked Megatron, looking at the pinkish face of the unknown seeker.
"No. He's in stasis mode. Mind reading is not possible."
"So, we cannot get any satisfactory response till he wakes up," Starscream deduced. "Perhaps we should wake him up at once… This guy hasn't[F4] been sleeping for long and we need some explanations."
Megatron caught the imperious tone in the Air Commander's voice and turned towards Scrapper.
"You heard him. Wake up the seeker," he ordered, and Scrapper nodded.
Starscream turned towards Megatron, a bit surprised by his speech. He didn't expect the Decepticons leader to value his judgment. Usually, as soon as Starscream opened his vocalitator to speak, it was immediately closed by Megatron; the Decepticon Leader didn't usually listen to him.
However, Scrapper did as he was commanded and began to manipulate several controls on the seeker's cockpit. The others just waited for the results.
After several seconds, the body of the unknown seeker shook as it began to wake up. His odd blue optics also shone and the readings showed the mech truly was waking up.
Finally, they could know who, or what he was.
Starscream's blue body began to come online again. He became aware that he was lying on some kind of metallic surface; slowly the audio receptors and optics came online, too. He only heard the decompression of his own systems and joints as he tried to move; then his optics focused as they came back on-line, and he found himself staring at a metallic ceiling. It seemed oddly familiar: obviously it was Cybetronic but he didn't recognize the place. Perhaps if he looked around he could get some idea of where he was. His last memory was of an incredible pain in his whole body, and that he was fighting in Cybertron's ruined surface, but now he seemed to be fully-repaired, his energy-levels were high enough to let him move, speak and for other life-support tasks… but he wasn't fully-recharged enough for a battle. He also sensed that Swindle was still attached to his left arm.
Had the Decepticons repaired him after that? Or maybe the Autobots? ... But, why? What happened in the end? Where were Optimus and Megatron? And the most important thing: what happened to Unicron?
But he didn't recognize anything at all… or anybody, really. He got up clumsily and found himself looking at four strangers, and he wasn't aware that he was slightly open-mouthed[F5] . In fact, the blue seeker did not recognize them at all, even though they also were Decepticons like him… at least, they had the Decepticons' symbol.
But they were... odd, to say the least. The biggest of them all was a square-shaped guy, taller than him, with a big helmet and harsh features: his jaw was long and square, and his optics seemed to show a bad tempered character. But there were other aspects which caught his attention: his grey-silvered paint job and the big dark cannon attached to his right arm. Starscream didn't remember any Decepticons from the army who had such a showy paintjob… and the big canyon on the right arm reminded him of Megatron's. Besides, this guy had a big Decepticon symbol on his chest, as if he was trying to make it clear that he was the biggest rank around. It didn't make sense because Starscream would have recognised such a high rank among his soldiers.
On his left was an even weirder guy. He was shorter than the previous guy and his face was just… well, he didn't have a real face: a big red optic occupied the upper half, while a white face-mask occupied the lower half; his paintjob was dark blue and white and his chest seemed to have some kind of weird compartment. But the most disturbing thing about the masked guy was that his face didn't seem to show any kind of emotion. It was just blank… even that lousy Autobot, Jetfire, while having similar features, had a face more expressive than him.
However, the blue-white one wasn't the only masked one there. Next to him there was another Decepticon with a white mask and a big red optic, but this one had a big grey helmet and his yellow and purple body was very functional. In a weird way, he had some kind of resemblance to Scavenger. Starscream also thought the yellow-purple guy was the one who repaired him (or supervised his reparations) because he was the closest to him and he was manipulating the reparations table.
Finally, there was the guy who looked most like him. He was as tall as him, had a yellow cockpit on his chest and two big silvery-white wings on his back; besides that, his dark face was quite similar to his as well as the general shape of his body. However, his optics were instead hexagonal and red, not like his, which were pentagonal and blue… and he didn't have his rifles located on his arms, either. He should be a seeker like him, only he had never seen a seeker with such a design. That guy obviously had similar thoughts because he was looking at him sharply and his face had a certain smug expression.
…But those thoughts were interrupted by the silver-grey guy.
"Well, well, well… I see our guest woke up, finally," the guy smirked in a hard voice. "Welcome to Decepticon's HQ," he announced.
"'Decepticon's HQ!?" Starscream exclaimed, "I don't recognize these… Where are we? And where is everybody else? What happened to them?"
When the blue Starscream spoke, the rest of the crew were a bit surprised. The unknown seeker had a rasping voice which sounded like… Starscream's. But it didn't have his characteristic harsh tone: in fact it sounded like it would if the Air Commander would make the effort to speak softly.
Now, Soundwave could read the seeker's mind and he known the blue one was genuinely confused. It may be because of the effect of stasis mode, but that shouldn't affect him so much. Besides, his questions gave a hint about his real identity: this guy should be in another place surrounded by other people. Another battle, perhaps? It might explain his severe wounds and heavy weapons.
"When we found you, you were alone and heavily damaged," Megatron informed him coldly. "We've repaired you… And now, we hope you can answer some of our questions."
Starscream looked at him, puzzled. Certainly that silvery guy seemed to be some kind of authority, but he didn't recognize him at all: the high Decepticons ranks, besides Galvatron himself, were Thrust, Demolisher and himself, and there wasn't anybody like that silver mech back on Cybertron. So, who was that guy? He should recognize him as one of Galvatron's lieutenants!
"I don't see why I should answer you," he replied. "I'm of higher rank than any Decepticon here and I only obey… we only obey Galvatron."
At this speech, there was a startled look on the face of every single Decepticon there, of course.
"Galvatron?" Megatron exclaimed; he recognized the suffix "-tron" as a word assigned to certain Decepticon leaders, "Is he the leader of another faction?" he asked, suspicious; this odd seeker didn't seem to be able to recognize him…or perhaps he was only a rebel and he just wished to be killed.
"What? ...Of course not! He's the leader of all Decepticons; Galvatron is Megatron's actual name... He changed it after he was upgraded. You should know that!" The seeker answered.
Megatron stifen flushed at that explanation. What was that crazy seeker talking about? The seeker was not able even to recognize his leader in front of his eyes? He had not changed his name… And what was that "upgrade" thing the seeker mentioned?
"This is a waste of time!" Starscream intervened, "his explanations are just nonsense!"
"Correction," Soundwave cut him off, "He's telling the truth or he thinks he's telling the truth."
"Of course I am!" spat the blue seeker. "Is it that you guys aren't aware about what's happening, or what?" he demanded to know, although he was a bit confused about how the white masked guy managed to know he was telling the truth.
"The only thing we're aware of is that what you're saying is nonsense and we don't know who you are," Starscream spat back. "So, start answering correctly every single one of our questions, or you'll regret it."
The blue seeker looked surprised at the dark faced seeker. Certainly he didn't have a lot of respect among high ranked Decepticons… but a low rank soldier never would talk to him in that way! And certainly, these guys didn't seem to know who he was, but how? Couldn't they recognize him? Even his own kind? ...It could be because his body and paintjob were changed on Earth and after the upgrade process; after all, even his energy patrons were slightly different. Perhaps that was the reason they couldn't recognize him, but better to gain their respect, first.
"You're the one who should answer my questions, soldier… You even don't know who you're talking with!"
Of course the dark faced seeker didn't take that so well.
"What!?... How do you dare to question my authority? You're damned for this, sol-" but his speech was cut off by Megatron's arm.
"And just… who are you supposed to be, Mr…?"
Finally somebody with *some* sense here.
"I am Starscream… Former high rank Seeker soldier assigned on Earth Mission, along with Demolisher and Cyclonus," he answered in a tone full of security. Now, those soldiers would learn who he was!
There was short silence; the blue seeker thought he had gotten the result he wanted. Everyone there seemed to be stupefied, the face of the other smug seeker changed between twenty different moods before showing a definitive one. Starscream thought it was just his speech that got his attention.
He was wrong...
"You impostor!" Starscream shouted, throwing himself upon him. "How dare… How DARE you call yourself by my name!? The blue seeker found himself facing a cannon rifle, "I'm the real Starscream... I AM Starscream, the Mighty!" the dark faced seeker roared.
The blue seeker was just so stunned by such a reaction and speed that he wasn't able to say anything too coherent.
"What!?... No, way!" he managed to say, "It cannot be that you're named by my name…"
"Same for you! There is only one Supreme Decepticon Air Commander, and that's me!" The dark faced seeker answered. "So start to tell the truth, specially your name, impostor!"
The blue optics of the odd seeker flashed. He wasn't prepared to be threatened in that way by a crazy seeker who claimed to be him.
"First, get off me! ...I won't tolerate you shouting at a high rank like me!" It was the truth… Even if Starscream might have quite a good character for a Decepticon, he was really tired of the bashings, threats and insults from his companions. "It would be better you to do so…" he suggested as his left wing began to move to become into the sword. The dark faced seeker caught the menace, but he was too angry to worry about that, besides, he was fully-recharged, unlike the blue seeker.
"I do not accept threats from an impostor!"
"I am not an impostor!"
"SILENCE!" roared a strong voice.
The dark faced seeker stopped himself; he knew that voice so well that he knew what would happen to him if he didn't obey. He couldn't help but grunt to himself. Immediately, he was dragged back by a strong servo hooked on his left wing. The pinked face seeker was also surprised by such a demonstration of authority; he was becoming more confused every minute.
"We won't resolve anything using shouts and threats," the silvery guy spat, and then, he turned towards Soundwave. The communications officer understood Megatron's intentions.
"He is telling the truth. Starscream is his real name."
"Of course! I got it when I was activated for the first time… Why do you guys doubt my identity!?"
"Because the REAL Starscream is me! ...Transformers' names cannot be repeated!"
"Silence, Starscream… Both!"
"But Megatron…. He's…" The dark faced seeker complained. Then, he got a reaction he didn't expect.
"Megatron? ...You call yourself Megatron!? That is not possible! ...You're not Megatron!"
The four Decepticons' faces turned towards him.
"What did you say?" asked the astonished Decepticon Leader. It was the truth: the blue one didn't recognize him!
"You aren't Megatron… Galvatron, I mean."
There was another silence, the three Decepticons leaders felt more confused after the last speech from the odd seeker. He called himself 'Starscream' and he claimed the actual Decepticon Leader wasn't the 'real' Decepticon Leader, but a guy who had been upgraded and changed his name into 'Galvatron'. What was happening inside the seeker's freaking CPU? Then, Megatron found himself doing something he didn't really want to do.
"Soundwave?"
"He is telling the truth. You are not his idea of Megatron. He thinks of 'Megatron' as a different person."
"You cannot be serious, Soundwave," Starscream spat, "He cannot call himself like me… and he cannot even recognize Megatron as Megatron! This guy is just crazy!"
The pink faced seeker listened with attention. That white masked guy seemed to have the skill to know when a person was telling the truth, or when somebody was lying. Now he understood why that guy was there along with those crazy Decepticons who claimed to be his own team and even himself… and they said he was the crazy one.
"It seems there are *two* different Starscreams, here." A new voice entered. "So, perhaps he isn't mad and there is another Megatron out there, really." The Statement came from Scrapper, who thought this after listening carefully to the whole scene.
"Shut up! ...Nobody asked your opinion, Scrapper!" Starscream was just too agitated to catch the logic behind Scrapper's opinion.
"It makes sense," Soundwave replied without hesitation. "The Coneheads told us that the blue seeker dropped from a warp in the sky. I cannot recognize any kind of madness in his mind. That might explain why he thinks he's 'Starscream' and there is 'another' Megatron."
There was short silence.
"So … That was how I came here…" said the blue seeker amazed by this realization, "I dropped from a warp in the sky!"
"That's just stupid! His spark was just damaged in the reparation!" exclaimed his counterpart.
"No way!" complained Scrapper, "we do know how to do our job! His spark was in perfect condition!"
"That's not what I'm seeing!" the Air Commander replied. "This guy is just stupid or mad."
"Shut up, Starscream. Perhaps it's the reason for all this mess."
"Bleh!"
Megatron was going to reprimand the Air Commander, again, when the blue seeker surprised everybody once again.
"Tell me," he asked to the odd mind-reading guy, "What was that warp like? ...Do you have any idea about it?"
"They said the warp was similar to Space Bridge's transport cone, but smaller," answered Soundwave knowing the blue seeker's question may explain all this mess.
"So... Do you know if it looked like water waves?" asked again the blue seeker with curiosity.
"It might be. The Coneheads didn't tell very much."
"I see…" the blue seeker trailed off.
Megatron, Starscream and Scrapper listened carefully to the dialogue. Everyone began to come to their own conclusions, even the blue seeker.
'It might be… I was caught by some kind of Unicron's power or something, and I was dragged to a place where there is another version of every single person I knew, even me...' He sighed. ' If I had never met Unicron, I wouldn't think such a possibility might exist… That warp should be very similar to the warp-gate used by Sideways.' Starscream knew it was the truth.
Before the whole Unicron affair began, he never thought about the powerful possibility that the power of Transformers' technologic could do, but after tasting the Minicon's power in his own body and seeing all the later events, he had to change that idea. Starscream wasn't a fool, in fact, he was quite clever… but he also was quite naïve and he had usually been marooned by Megatron and his companions. Therefore, he thought the reason behind his weird situation wasn't a coincidence.
However, he was so amazed by his own conclusions than he didn't notice the odd mind-reader guy in front of him was *listening* to every single thought of his.
On the other hand, there was the Decepticon high rank. Megatron had begun to form his own conclusions: he doubted that weird seeker was really mad, he knew that Soundwave and the communicators officer would say if the blue seeker was crazy or not. Instead he knew what his Officer meant to say, and the double version of the Air Commander seemed to think so, too. If they both were right, it may explain why there were *two* Starscreams here right now, and, apparently, there were *two* Megatrons, too. But, why? And how had they managed to meet another of their counterparts?
"Are you suggesting our guest is the Starscream of another reality?" the Decepticons' leader dared to ask.
"He might be. We know there are other dimensions. The Space Bridge uses them to make the space travel possible by blending the space. This Starscream jumped from his dimension and landed here through a space bridge; he also believes that's what happened."
"Yeah… Over Ramjet's cone, right?" mocked the Air Commander skeptically, "get out of here!"
Starscream, the red-silver one, hardly listened to the explanation. He also knew what Soundwave, and even the other *Starscream*, meant to say. He had been scientific, he knew about another realities, dimensions and such and of course, he was aware of the "Maccadam's Old Oil House" stories about that place being a nexus between universes… But he never gave credit to those legends nor experimented with those theories: he had been an explorer, not a physicist, besides, he wouldn't have dared to play with dimensions and Skyfire would never have approved it at the time. It didn't matter right now, Starscream just did not want to recognize the blue seeker was, indeed, him, but from another time and place!
Scrapper just thought the whole matter was too big for him. He didn't want to be involved in the High Ranks' affairs. He also caught the general idea about where the blue seeker came from, but he didn't find it pleasant. Did it mean there were other versions of every single Decepticon from the Army out there? And why did they meet Starscream's double, precisely? He shivered every time he thought about it.
On the other hand there was Soundwave. As usual, he kept his own thoughts to himself; nobody in the army could know what plans and intentions he had. Megatron trusted him as long as his intentions were useful for him and Decepticon's purposes. Soundwave always helped his leaders and Decepticons in general, when he thought it was useful. He would help Megatron with this matter if he thought it was necessary.
But Megatron himself wasn't really sure why Soundwave was giving his all to help him.
"I guess we should think that possibility is real," Megatron said after a pause. "But… I'd like to know better who you are. I'd like you to explain the whole story from the beginning," he finished, making a significant gesture with his canyon.
The pinkish faced seeker watched it carefully. Inside him, he knew very well the meaning of that gesture, but he also sensed Swindle twitching on his left arm. The little Minicon hadn't shown himself to those Decepticons, and now, Starscream could feel his worry about the latest events. The seeker knew his little companion didn't want to be exposed to those 'Cons.
"I suggest you do that," added the dark faced seeker, "I also want to know if you're me, really… Because, as far I'm concerned, I don't want you to be myself." His voice was full of scorn.
The blue one frowned and added: "I could say the same, too."
Megatron and the rest watched the quarrel between the two seekers. The Decepticon leader knew that, if they both still fighting, they would never get any good response; besides, he wanted to know this new Starscream better.
"Let's go ahead with the interrogation, them." His face had a nasty smirk, but suddenly, that smirk turned towards the dark faced seeker, " But before that… Starscream, go out, and you too, Scrapper. It's an order."
Scrapper seemed a bit puzzled, but he nodded and walked towards the entrance door. But Starscream was another story….
"WHAT!? No way! You cannot be serious, leader!" he exclaimed, stupefied. "He may be me, myself… Why do you order me to not be present in the interrogation!?... I demand to contribute!" His screeching voice resonated through the whole room.
"It is an order, Starscream. Get out of here, now!"
"But Megatron… Your orders are nonsense! I should be the one who interrogates him! He is me!"
"Indeed, that's the reason that I order you to leave this room."
"No way! I refuse that order… I demand to be here and…"
But his speech was cut off by a powerful strike to the seeker's face; he winced and fell spectacularly to the metallic ground. When the Air Commander lifted his optics, still stunned by the fast events, he found himself looking at a big fusion canyon.
"You demand nothing!" Megatron affirmed. "I suggest you obey my order now! Do you understand?"
Starscream nodded and raised himself on his pedes, then, he followed Scrapper. His face showed his fear as he went out the room.
Megatron observed him coldly and Soundwave had an inexpressive face, but the pinkish faced seeker had a very different expression on his face: he had observed the whole scene with anxiety and in the end… he had a strong deja-vú feeling.
When the door closed behind the two Decepticons, Megatron turned back towards the seeker and Soundwave, then, he made a new order: "Soundproof this room, Soundwave. I do not want anybody to find out what we say here."
"As you command, Megatron," was his simple response.
After several seconds, the two Decepticon leaders addressed the blue seeker once again. They were powerful enough to deal in combat with that seeker, besides, he wasn't fully-recharged, and so he couldn't match their forces. They would be able to get a response from this mysterious seeker without using any kind of device, and only then would they know the truth.
On the other hand, the blue seeker knew it was going to be… hard. If it was true that he jumped from his universe and landed here, then there were things which were different. He already had seen many of them: he met his counterpart, as well as Megatron/Galvatron. Both of them were former Decepticons and occupied high rank positions among his faction; he also noticed everyone there was armed with some kind of weapon, even that Scrapper guy… so it may be because of some kind of conflict. Against Autobots, perhaps? Or against Unicron, like later events in *his* world? Or against *another* thing? But here he had Swindle still twitching on his arm, and he knew there was a strong reason for that: his little companion didn't want to be exposed and he was afraid of the whole matter. But, why? Perhaps there weren't Minicons in this Universe… Whatever happened, he made up his mind to not say a word about the Minicons, or about anything else from the later events of his life.
But he forgot the guy with the big red optic: he could tell when he was lying and when he wasn't… but he also could know when he was hiding information, too.
Megatron turned towards the blue seeker, who remained sitting on the metallic table, and began to speak:
"So… You said you were a high rank among Decepticons faction. Which rank do you have?"
"I'm the Lieutenant, along with the rest of my companions," he answered simply. As long he had been there, he had found out his counterpart was the 'Air Commander'… it was a little different than his rank.
"…And you are under my counterpart's orders, aren't you?"
"Yes, that's right" he affirmed. "All of us."
Megatron frowned at this affirmation. He had learned to not believe in Starscream's strong affirmations.
"Why are you under his orders?"
Starscream knew it was an important question. He chose his words carefully. "I've always been a former Decepticon, so I was assigned under his rule to Planet Earth's mission… We, the Decepticons, needed to travel to that planet in order to get any kinds of weaponry for overcoming the war..."
Megatron chuckled; he was pleased by this response. It was impossible that the seeker could know the Decepticons also were on Earth because they needed it to be victorious, so their universes seemed to be fairly similar if he was telling the truth.
"So, there is a war on our homeplanet, then?"
Starscream nodded and continued speaking, "Yes, there is… The war started more than 4 million years ago. The Decepticons fight against Autobots in order to rule Cybertron and later, the universe."
Megatron was pleased; his homeplanet also was called 'Cybertron'; the war's length, however, was different, but as a whole things remained the same.
"I see… And were the war's factions were matched, otherwise what's the reason you had to travel to Earth?"
"Yes, both factions are matched. Decepticons control half of the planet, and Autobots the other."
"So, Deceptions rule the surface and the Autobots…"
"No, no… I meant each faction ruled a hemisphere, and…" he trailed off when he noticed how easily Megatron was getting that information from him.
"Bitter irony… every faction rules a region of Cybertron, in the end." The Decepticons' leader said to himself, but he became interrogatory again, "And what about the Autobots? Did they come to Earth, too?"
"All Transformers did."
Megatron turned towards Soundwave, who made a small gesture, and suddenly began to laugh; it wasn't a nice sound. Starscream looked at him in surprise.
"You know, Starscream? ...You're doing this so well. I didn't expect such collaboration like this from you." Starscream frowned as Megatron kept speaking. "In this universe there are two transformers factions, too. And we also are at war… and actually we're on Earth."
Starscream lifted his optics at this explanation.
"Does it mean… we, this HQ, are on Earth?"
"Yes, it does."
"I see…" he answered, hiding the grief in his voice. "It seems there aren't many differences between our universes…"
"Not really," cut off the harsh voice of the Decepticons leader. Starscream found it really different from the leaders he knew. "You were heavily damaged, almost dead… and when we re-activated you, you started to ask for several people. What does that mean?"
Starscream grunted to himself. That question was important; he couldn't lie if that masked guy was there.
"I was fighting fiercely and I got several wounds… My last memory is a powerful beam of blue light which caught me before I could even react. I don't know how I got here."
Megatron frowned. That beam of light might be a strike destined to kill the blue seeker, but he also knew the light beam might be something similar to the time machine he created to exterminate those annoying Aerialbots. Perhaps the Autobots created something similar and that made the seeker jump to this universe.
"Why you were fighting? And where?" he demanded to know.
"I… We went back to Cybertron and the final battle between the *two* Transformers factions began. It was really hard, I guess."
"I see." Again, there was a nasty smirk on Megatron's face. If this Megatron was like the one who Starscream knew, he was sure the smirk was caused by the idea of a final battle between the two factions. However, Starscream himself was surprised when he realized he didn't like the idea of battling against the Autobots anymore.
Soundwave didn't find any of those explanations funny: he knew the blue seeker was hiding several facts, and he also noticed the grief inside the seeker's spark. Certainly, there was a war between the two Transformers factions, and there was a final battle on Cybertron, too… those were true. But he knew the heavy wounds which the seeker had weren't caused by a battle against any 'Bot, and he doubted the beam of light which caught the seeker was caused by the Autobots; he even doubted the beam that transported him to this universe was deliberate.
This Starscream *also* lied…
In that moment, Megatron turned towards his Communications officer as if he was looking for some kind of approval from him. Not about the whole matter, Megatron wouldn't do that, but for any sign of lying from the seeker. The dark blue transformer knew what he should say:
"He is telling the truth, Megatron."
"I see," he answered, turning back towards the blue seeker. "… You seem to be a very capable soldier in your reality, Starscream." The optics of the seeker widened; he didn't expect any kind of recognition. "But I want you to explain more about you and your universe"
The pinkish face of the blue seeker had a puzzled look. "What… what do you mean?"
"Your optics, for example… I find them disturbing; they're blue. And that upgrade process you mentioned, too."
"My optics? I don't see why. What's wrong with them?" Suddenly, Starscream didn't feel sure anymore.
"They're blue," Soundwave answered, catching his attention. "Autobots have blue optics, Decepticons' are red."
Starscream's face had a surprised look for a few seconds, till he recovered himself.
"Oh, I see… It may be so in this reality. Where I come from, Decepticons and Autobots have very different optic colors. Galvatron… Megatron, I mean, has red optics; but mine were yellow before I was upgraded."
After listening to his explanation, Megatron and Soundwave couldn't avoid turning to each other: it was silly, but it also was a significant difference between their realities. Decepticons, or rather, the military Cybertronians always had red optics; but Autobots or regular Cybertronian workers had blue optics. Other color schemes were for neutrals, empties and such. But if the seeker was right, optic colors weren't the most important matter right now.
"And what is the upgrade process you mentioned? Is it related with the fact your transformation-cog was reformatted *twice*?"
Starscream seemed a little confused, but he recovered himself quickly knowing he shouldn't show any sign of doubt.
"We were all reformatted when we arrived on Earth. Our alternative forms are thought to be more useful for fulfilling our mission. That's because my alternative form looks like some kind of earthling vehicle."
"And I guess Earth is also populated by the flesh creatures, humans," Megatron replied and Starscream nodded with a poker-face. "… I see some things *never*change," finished the Decepticons' leader, but Starscream didn't catch on.
"Why was your body reformatted for a second time?" the odd guy who could read minds asked suddenly. Starscream decided he should tell the *truth*.
"It was necessary. Autobots did it, too…So several of us were upgraded: my companions, our leader and myself. That was when my color scheme was changed, although my reformatted alternative mode remained."
"So, that was because your optics were yellow, right?"
Starscream nodded, and added in a puzzled tone, "My original paint-job was different, too. I was red and white… At that time I guess I had more resemblance with my counterpart here…"
Meanwhile, the Decepticons HQ's population could not remain silent at all these events that were happening. Certainly Decepticons didn't generally get along peacefully among themselves, but it wasn't a fact: Seekers, Constructicons, Triplecharges, every single individual Decepticon had a better affinity with those of their group; it was just that a group didn't always work well with another group. Constructicons didn't tolerate Soundwave really well, and the Seekers were too independent to pay attention to anybody… The whole situation made Decepticons seemed to be a bunch of rude guys without any affective ties among themselves, unless you watched them carefully.
But those facts were nullified by a new fact…
Once the Constructicons were free from any vigilance, they began to talk among themselves about their latest accomplished task, but soon they were joined by the seekers. They all found themselves talking in a corner of one of the war rooms near the repair bays where the Constructicons had been working for hours.
"Are you serious?" Thrust exclaimed, "that seeker was reformatted twice!?" Hook nodded. "Wow! What a freak!"
"But, why?" Dirge asked.
"If we knew that, do you think we'd be waiting here for a response?" Long Haul spat.
"The only ones who will find out something are Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream," Ramjet affirmed and Thundercracker nodded at him.
"That's just annoying!" Dirge complained, "That guy's a seeker like us… but I'd care to know if there's a freak seeker among us!"
"I'm right with you… we already have enough with Screamer, here" Scavenger answered.
"Be quiet! That's my line!" Skywarp warned him.
"Anyway, it seems you Seekers will have a new wingmate among your ranks," Mixmaster pointed out. "Wonderful…!"
"I don't find a freaking seeker like him among us 'wonderful'… I won't trust him till I see what happens next."
"You'll never get such a chance. Megatron will tell us what will happen," Long Haul answered him.
Thundercracker frowned at this. He was uneasy: usually he always was a bit in disagreement with the things which happened around him… but it was different. His companions talked about the weird warp in the sky, and now, the Constructicons also said the unknown seeker had a very odd design… like a sword-wing and blue optics. Those were worrying for a seeker like him! But none of his wingmates seemed to notice how important it was… well, perhaps Dirge did. But Dirge was just pessimistic by default.
Suddenly, they all heard a quarrel near the repair bay-4. They knew those voices…
When Starscream and Scrapper both left the repair bay, the Constructicon Leader found himself dragged and punished violently against a wall; he barely noticed what was happening till he found himself looking at a cannon. The Air Commander was aiming at him with one of his rifles, his dark face and ruby optics shined dangerously, and his voice was really harsh.
"Do NOT dare to tell anybody about that seeker!" he threatened him, "Do NOT say he is me, my counterpart from another reality! DO you understand, Scrapper!?"
"I... I do, Air Commander." In some odd way, Scrapper knew that Starscream wasn't bluffing.
"Good," answered Starscream lowering his rifle from his face, "I didn't expect anything different from you, Scrapper." He paused as he let him go, "I hope you can understand how important it is that there is a counterpart of mine from another universe here right now." As usual, Starscream hid his fears behind a cocky speech.
Starscream stepped back and let Scrapper walk away from him. He watched him move away, then, he turned back towards the single entrance of the repair bay-4. He was sure he had been serious enough to make sure that Scrapper wouldn't say a word about the latest discoveries; he was a Constructicon, and he knew what a null-ray from the Air Commander could do to him if it reached his main control CPU mind.
Starscream's right servo reached and caressed the entrance door of the repair bay where Megatron, along with Soundwave, were interrogating the blue seeker. Then, he leaned against the door, hoping his audio-receptors could catch a word from inside; shortly, he moved away.
"Damn it!" he murmured, "They soundproofed the room! I cannot hear anything from inside!" He turned on his heels and began to pace back and forth, as he used to do when he thought hard about a problem.
He hated Megatron… That wasn't anything new, but actually it was an important fact. He hated him right now because he knew, all of them knew, that the blue seeker inside the repair bay may be him, or rather, a counterpart of him from another reality. And the Decepticons Leader was the one talking with that guy, and not him; he could get what they were saying if the soundproof system was deactivated: in fact, he could do that using only his null-ray… but the controls were inside the room.
Starscream had a lot of mixed feelings about this… version of him: he had read carefully the Constructicons' report about the odd anatomy of this version of him, he knew about the sword-wing, the clusters-canyons, his speed and skill in the air… It was like a remade version of himself with every single one of his skills! Starscream knew their common skills were matched; there were differences, though. And those thing, both those in common and different things, made him very nervous. Megatron, and that bastard Soundwave, were getting all information from him before he could have any chance to do so or to find out something in his favor. What if the new Starscream was better than him? Or, if he wasn't, what if that version of him was luckier than him and the Decepticons Leader decided to replace him with his counterpart?
Starscream began to shiver as he paced, and he turned to view the entrance.
Could it happen… again?
Yes, it almost happened several years ago. Starscream remembered the incident, it happened when Megatron got infatuated with that primitive puppet, Nightbird, and threatened to replace him with her… a femme robot that could not even speak and fly! She wasn't even a Cybertronian. If Megatron dared to think he was dispensable, therefore, he might also think he could be replaced by an improved version of himself!
What would he, Starscream, the Air Commander of Decepticons Army, do in such a situation like this?
Starscream began to panic at this thought.
But the other seeker was also him…
How different was this version of him from the Air Commander of this reality? He knew the physical differences between their bodies, but Starscream also found them disgusting, the same thing that he felt when he read the Constructicons' report. But now, there was a new reason: Starscream proclaimed that he was the most beautiful among seekers, which he did so because his paint job was certainly unusual among his kind. White-silver body and wings and a red torso which shined easily; not like the common seekers who were usually in different shades of blue, grey, purple or green… cold colors, really. However, this version of him had a paintjob which matched Thundercracker rather than himself. And plus, there were those blue optics, too…What kind of version of himself was that guy, who even had Autobot's optics? That was disgusting!
But there was another more important reason… a reason which Starscream did not dare to face up to. Starscream was very emotional: every single feeling of his was reflected on his face like a mirror before he even could realize it. But Starscream wasn't brave enough to admit his own feelings; he was not able to face up to them, to face his fears and insecurities. So, he did not want to meet his counterpart because he was afraid of what he could find out about himself from his counterpart. Besides, he was afraid of a possible rejection: if he did not face up to his counterpart, he could lose every single thing he had gained from all his life in the Decepticons Army.
It was a matter of survival: that guy, or him.
He had to do *something*.
Meanwhile, Scrapper had walked towards his companions; they were talking with the seekers: it was an unusual image, but he could imagine easily why they were meeting in a corner. He found himself not trusting to go and speak with them and the seekers crew, the image of the Air Commander threatening him with his null-ray and the dangerous glint on his ruby optics was a powerful dissuasive.
But he didn't count on his own companions…
"Hey, there's Scrapper!" Bonecrusher exclaimed and the rest of the crew turned towards him with surprised looks on their faces. "What's happened? Why are you no longer with the Commands?"
Scrapper hesitated and in his confusion, he allowed his companions to approach him.
"What happened in there?" Hook asked. "Where are the supreme commanders?"
The Constructicons leader realized *something* when Hook made his question, something which allowed him to speak; Starscream didn't have any power over him at all.
"They still meeting with our *patient*," he answered, "they're interrogating him"
The Constructicons and Seekers exchanged looks as equals and turned back towards Scrapper.
"So…?"
"I woke our patient up, and I think we already know his identity."
"Okay, stop making yourself interesting. Who-is-he?" Mixmaster demanded to know.
"…You're not going to believe it," Scrapper answered after looking for Starscream with his view.
The Starscream from another reality had been talking with Soundwave and Megatron for a long time, he answered every question they gave him as well as he could. Anyway, the seeker hid several facts in spite of what they could do to him if he lied: he didn't talk to his leader counterpart about the Minicons, nor of Unicron, or his wish to team up with Autobots; or how he got his body upgraded, as well as his respectful demeanor towards humans. He had realized that he couldn't trust anybody from this reality, mostly because he had been threatened by his counterpart, as well as being interrogated by a guy who could read minds, and a Leader with the same amount of favor than the one he knew. Moreover, he noticed Swindle still twitching on his arm.
Anyway, he also found out several things about this new reality: the first point was that his counterpart was the Air Commander, along with the mind-reading guy next to him. He also knew there was another war between Cybertronians, and both factions also ended up on Earth because on this planet was the *key* to get the final victory, although Starscream wasn't really sure about what that *key* was. Still, he found it amazing that the main things in their universes were the same: perhaps the war between both factions was so important that it had to prevail in all possible realities?
But overall, Starscream didn't know what was his destiny. Dead? It was the most probable in his universe, but here, it was just another possibility. Leadership? That almost made him laugh. To be a common soldier? He already was so….
Megatron had listened carefully to all the explanations and answers from Starscream. He was clever enough to know that there were *holes* in his explanations: it was certain that Starscream couldn't know *everything* about his reality, and certainly he was also confused since he wasn't able to explain coherent facts. Soundwave had interrupted him and asked interesting questions, but he had the feeling the Seeker was hiding important facts.
He should take care of those…
"Very good, Starscream." The seeker lifted his view towards the Decepticon Leader. "I'm pleased with the greater part of your explanations. It's nice to know the Decepticons may win the war in your universe, and you help our cause a lot."
"Tha…Thanks," he managed to answer.
"By the way…" he began with a smirk, "we… I don't know if I can trust you." There was a startled look on the seeker's blue optics. "So, while you remain in this reality, you will be locked up in a monitoring cell."
"What!?" came the Seeker's startled exclamation. Starscream didn't believe what he just heard. "But, why?"
"I don't trust you. You haven't told us the whole truth," Megatron answered easily. "Consider yourself lucky that I don't kill you right now for trying to lie to me."
Starscream shivered. He did not expect that: this Megatron was just like the one he knew, this Decepticon leader would punish him for whatever reason, just like Galvatron did. And he did not want to be punished by a triviality, again… He had suffered that lots of times!
"Why!? Why do you think so?" It was a silly question, but Starscream suffered from his same problem, again. He didn't find a better way to defend himself. "I've answered every one of your questions! I've demonstrated I'm loyal to Decepticons till the end! ...Why do you punish me!?"
Megatron was twitching; in the end, this Starscream was just like the one he knew… the only difference was that his whimpers weren't so out of tune.
"Soundwave, call the Stuntitcons and give them the order to lock him up in a security cell," he told his Officer as the Decepticon leader rose and began to walk towards the entrance.
"As you command, Megatron," was Soundwave's simple answer. The communicators officer was inwardly pleased with the order.
"But, Megatron, sir…!" the Seeker begged. "Please, sir! …Give me a chance!"
Suddenly, Megatron stopped, and turned back towards the seeker. Soundwave and Starscream were both startled by the look in his eyes.
"What did you call me?" he asked coldly.
There was a silent pause, nobody dared to answer.
"So… sorry, sir. I don't understand," Starscream finally managed to say. He was genuinely confused.
"That's what I wanted to hear." There was a pleasant smile on Megatron's glossa. "Soundwave, give my orders. This Starscream is free to do as he wants … inside his quarters."
Soundwave's big red optic darkened dangerously, but he agreed.
"As you command, Megatron."
"Come with me, Starscream."
The blue seeker didn't know what just happened, but he obeyed diligently.
*Notes: First. Special Thanks to Skins Thunderboumb who had helped me as beta-reader. Thank you very much. I'm writing this story in coming chapters, which is not usual for me. I'm used to writing with a story in mind, and later, when I have the idea completed, I write it on my computer. That makes this story simpler than my other stories (which aren't focused on TF), I also am using a simple writing style in order to translate it into English. I'd play more with grammar and words if I knew how do it. Still, if you want to enjoy my "What if?" fancomic, it gives an idea about how this story works ^^
Re-edited by CathLeigh.