Chapter Text
For a certain silver colored seeker, life couldn’t be better.
His stupid, controlling maniac of a leader has removed HIMSELF from the Nemesis to go gallivanting off in search of new ways to rub up against the Prime on the battlefield in terms of power.
Did Starscream expect him to actually come back with anything?
Maybe.
He wasn’t stupid, and he knew well enough that Megatron wasn’t either. He still had his way with words reminiscing of his time back in the pits of Kaon so there was little doubt he could talk something in or out of some shady deal in order to strengthen Decepticon power. Of course, unless that odd treaty between the intelligent species of space, regarding the aid of Cybertronians in their civil war was still active. Stupid thing really.
It’s not like it’s THEIR fault it got so out of hand. It was supposed to be over rather quickly. If it hadn’t been for some red shiny hunk of a librarian, perhaps he could be sitting high up in some Vosnian tower drinking high grade with his-.
A notification on the main command interface interrupted his thoughts.
“Autobot detected in close proximity.” Came the choppy cuts of different voices, unmistakingly the work of Soundwave.
“Deploy Vehicons to deal with it, I don’t have time for this… energon isn’t going to mine itself!”
He dismissively tossed a servo behind him as Soundwave released the order.
Now, where had he been? Yes yes, a life of luxury and comfort away from the constraints of the Autobot hierarchy. A nice life with his-.
This time it was an explosion. The boom sending a tremor through the ship and setting off a few notifications itself. Starscream narrowed his gaze at the glass, scowling as a massive cloud of smoke rose up to greet him. Of course it was his brand new energon mine. He tsked.
“The energon… it’s worthless to me now.”
Like seriously! What kind of idiots decided it was a great idea to go shooting blasters around newly mined energon crystals? Uneducated vehicons and a dastardly Autobot that’s who.
[::--::] Commander, we have apprehended the Autobot. Designation: Cliffjumper. Requesting board. [::-::]
The vehicons actually caught something? A sliver of a grin licked its way back up his faceplates as he answered back with his own comm.
[::--::] Well bring him up then [::--::]
The seeker’s wings flicked up as he shifted to face the majority of the bridge. Soundwave was ready and waiting. Starscream gave a nod and the silent mech immediately began protocols to accept their new “guest”.
He turned back to the main computer, suppressing a shiver. It never got better, that feeling of something crawling up your spinal strut. Just knowing the blue cassette-carrier knew everything before he was told was unsettling enough, he tried not to think about what else the menace could be hiding. What a creep.
…
The bashed and burned chunk of Autobot recovered by the Vehicons was thrown to floor in front of his pedes.
No wonder the Vehicons of all things managed to catch this one, the grounder was already burnt to a crisp, sadly his spark was still pulsing. The seeker could always fix that couldn’t he?
The pile of scrap lifted his head, energon already leaking from a few decent gashes in his plating.
“Scream? It’s been a while.”
The Autobot coughed a spurt of energon onto the floor. Starscream’s wings flicked upwards once again at that, he didn’t fight the smirk it brought either.
“So, where’s your master.”
The smile dropped immediately.
“Never mind him.” He flicked his clawed digits to the side.
He could always use this one to get intel on the Autobots to stay on top, but then again, the fool put him in a sour mood. From the destruction of his new mine to the snide comments, it’d be so much more satisfying to put the poor thing out of its misery. Besides, what was just another Autobot? He probably wouldn’t talk anyways.
“I am my own master.”
Starscream pulled back his servo, intending to strike. However, his third interruption of the day had other plans. The Nemesis shook this time, actually shook. The hull creaked, deck tilting as the whole ship was forced downwards by yet another explosion.
“For the love of—! Soundwave!”
“Ship status: breached. Cause: Autobot reinforcements.” Came the hodgepodge of voices.
“Reinforcements already?”
The seeker’s wings flared out to steady himself against the onslaught of gravity.
“Well do something about it! Don’t just stand there!”
“Soundwave: working.”
“Work faster!”
He definitely did NOT screech as the deck tilted up slightly, vehicons and other equipment were sent flying downwards by the pull of gravity. Soundwave took perch on top of a computer to avoid joining the pile of parts and sparking wires below. The Autobot had been thrown clean against the bridge’s glass and had barely moved since.
Good. One less variable to worry about, he’d offline him later.
Starscream grabbed at his own computer, surveying the rest of the situation.
“Soundwave, status report?”
“Breach: located. Autobot reinforcements: on board.”
“WHAT, THEY’RE ON THE SHIP!?!”
“Affirmative. Two Autobots: approaching rapidly.”
As if on cue the door burst open accompanied by the sound of more blaster fire. An Autobot clad in green with a bulky frame burst in, immediately opening fire on them and onto the glass. It shattered instantly and the brute slid across the floor and back out into the outside world.
“See ya scream!”
Starscream screeched with rage, thrusters heating up intending to follow. A blaster shot to his side stopped him.
“Servos off con.”
The second blue Autobot followed the same path as the first except landing next to the possibly unconscious body of his prisoner. That cursed two-wheeler, she was this one’s partner, wasn’t she? Even better to let them die together. He raised his arm, weapon systems prepped. Two for the price of one. He fired, the red missile streaking towards them but he was all too late.
The Autobot dodged, letting it form a much bigger hole in the ship’s hull behind her before dragging her partner through it, dropping down and away from his clutches.
Then they were gone, Starscream’s arm still raised from where his missile had been launched. He slammed his servo onto the top of his console.
“Primus slaggit!”
“Autobot readings: vanished.”
“I can SEE that Soundwave, I have optics!”
“New reading: located. Lord Megatron requesting ground bridge from deep space”
Oh, now this was just great.
“Tell him we’re low on energon or something! We are in no position to be welcoming back our esteemed lord at the moment.”
He grunted as the ship was finally restabilized, going over and typing a few commands into the main computer.
“What I’m doing is important and I will NOT have him ruining it again.”
“As faithful as ever Starscream.”
The seeker’s wings went ridged, lowering slowly down his back. Heavy footsteps sounded behind him as he turned his helm slightly to face the new, horribly familiar voice.
Of course, Soundwave had opened the bridge anyway… slagger’s loyalty to the rust bucket ran deeper than the fragging ocean!
“Lord Megatron, I am er- pleased to see you have returned safely.”
“Oh, I’m quite sure you are, what with all your… important endeavors.”
The silver mech took another hefty step forward, each movement of his pedes sending the seeker’s wings down a notch further shrinking in on himself at the looming implications that usually followed one of their disagreements.
“I hate to imply failure on your part my Lord, but I do fail to see an army the likes of which you swore to return with…”
He tapped the tips of his digits together, flexing his wings up and down in an attempt to cull the emotions of mixed anger, disappointment and fear flooding his processor.
“My army will come, my time away has yielded a more material means of materializing them.”
The warlord reached into his subspace, bringing forth a long purple crystal about the size of his servo out of it. The pit in Starscream’s tank only grew deeper.
“A solidified form of the matter the ancient texts refer to as the blood of Unicron.”
“Unicron the destroyer? But it is said that his blood is the anti-spark…”
He crept around the other’s large bulk, keeping his steady red optics peeled sharply on the malignant crystal.
“Plucked from cosmic shores, gaze upon dark energon.”
The dread slowly dissipated, replaced with that sharp griping desire that usually accompanied many of his plot’s downfalls.
“Legend says that it holds the power to revive the dead...”
The possibilities were truly endless, weren’t they? Oh, what he could do with a power such as that.
“We require only a cadaver to be certain.” The mech’s gaze turned on him. “Are you willing to make the ultimate sacrifice?”
His anxiety came back threefold. Of course he’d pull something like this! Any excuse to get him out of the picture was a welcome one to the rust bucket and what better way than an excuse that also fuels the cause and his own interests?
The seeker chuckled nervously, “There might not be a need for that, there are quite a numerous number of drones just beneath us! Why inconvenience the cause with a key player out of the game?”
Starscream took a step back, Megatron took one forward.
“Don’t be so disinclined to add to the war efforts Starscream.” He raised the shard menacingly.
Now he really wished he’d killed that Autobot when he had the chance, there didn’t seem to be very many escape routes he could take from the situation.
“But what about the things I’ve been doing here! Without my supervision we will surely be put far behind compared to our enemies.”
“I’m sure whatever ‘important things’ you are referring to as you’ve mentioned before will function quite well without you. I have returned after all, and it is I who gives the orders, not you Starscream.”
He was fragged, completely and utterly fragged. Megatron seemed dead set on feeding him to the wolves, or whatever dumb phrase humans said, in order to push his cause forward. He was NOT having any of it.
“Please master think! The implications, the losses!”
So, he reverted back to what he knew best, the tried-and-true method of begging for his life.
“Such actions are rash and uncalculated! Whose to say that hunk of rock even works correctly!”
Megatron continued to advance.
“What would you even lose with the deactivation of a singular vehicon? Compared to that of one of your very own commanders the risk is much lower!”
The seeker was so close to just pushing his knee joints to the ground and finishing the act he put on for his life when said silver mech hummed and slightly turned his chassis to survey the mine. Starscream remained hunched by the closest wall, wings flat against the surface behind him to stop them from shaking.
“You there.” The warlord’s voice sounded.
The vehicon in question turned obediently, standing at attention. Then his chassis crumbled with the force of a purple-colored cannon. Starscream couldn’t help but wince, better some nameless drone than him. However, the implications beforehand angered him. Megatron had never truly meant to deactivate him, the fragger just wanted to see him grovel. Somehow the realization felt worse than believing he was about to meet his end, of course the only pleasure his master ever took from him was the sight of the seeker desperate and pitiful, total control over his own life in the warlord’s sharp silver claws.
It disgusted him to no end.
He watched Megatron stalk up to the smoking corpse before spearing it through the chest cavity, burying the shard deep within the bot’s body.
“Let us see if power born of darkness can reignite the spark.”
The corpse thrashed and arched off the ground as it screeched, bright glowing purple streaks shooting up its plating like lightning bolts, turning the blue in its fuel lines a neon purple. Starscream took a step back. Megatron took a step forward.
The vehicon shrieked in what could only be described as agony, writhing and shaking, limbs digging deeply into the mine’s floor as the light from within shone brighter. It skittered up, crawling across the floor straight for them. Starscream stumbled back to the side while Megatron merely tilted his body, letting the creature fly past them onto the chassis of an eradicon. They tussled and squirmed, but despite the vehicon being weaker by design, it soon began tearing apart the plating of the other, ignoring the shots taken at its helm.
Starscream changed his mind immediately about the dark energon’s use.
“This is your plan!? Bringing drones back from the dead to ATTACK US!”
“That is no longer a simple drone, Starscream, it is a mindless beast, its only instinct to destroy everything in its path.”
His tone was monotonous and level but the way the warlord’s optics shone with untapped desire and excitement rivaled even the newly birthed terrorcon’s.
The revived vehicon lunged for them again, and this time he met it, silver met silver when a thin triangular blade emitted from his vambrace, cleaving the monster clean in half.
“There Starscream, lies the indestructible seed of my army. The ultimate weapon.”
It fell weakly, small servos just barely clinging to the edge of the mine’s cliff. That was until Megatron’s pede came down heavily, discarding it to the floor below.
"Once I learn to control it.”
Now there’s a thought. Control the dark energon crazed maniacs? Oh please, like Megatron’s thick helm ever could, what could POSSIBLY control THAT. He was delusional now, truly and utterly delusional. Space must’ve made him insane.
He followed him back to the ship anyway, it would be entertaining to see the fool fall victim to his high hopes, perhaps he would finally meet his end along the road.
-..-
They split off early on, once back at the ship, Megatron to his respective corridor and Starscream to the bridge. The nemesis was still wracked with destroyed sectors, wires hanging low and sparking accompanied by the remains of the window. Most of it had been replaced to the point where it was usable, but the signs of his previous failure remained. He made sure to scowl at Soundwave before taking up his place at the central computer. A ping from the silent mech interrupted him before he could even start.
“Oh, what is it now?”
The silent mech’s faceplate bore a frowny face, clearly mockingly.
“Ugh primus just tell me, don’t give me this nonsense.”
A video recording popped up on the main interface screen, broadcasting the whereabouts of five of the six blasted Autobots sneaking through his mine. Well sneaking was an overstatement.
“Do all mecha think they can just go blasting in an energon filled mine! IDIOTS ALL OF THEM!”
He turned sharply, pulling up a video comm on the side computer, the connection cut through straight to Megatron.
“Lord Megatron.” He gritted out. “Intruders have been detected in the mines.”
The warlord turned his head slightly.
“Optimus?”
The seeker fought the desirable urge to roll his optics and scoff at the mention. When was he never focused on the prime, it was frankly disturbing.
“Indeed.” He muttered instead.
“I need more time to prepare an appropriate reception for my old friend. Ready the ship for departure.”
Starscream flared his wings in outrage. “But the energon I’ve mined-! The Autobots will seize it!”
Megatron fixed his sharp red glare onto him, clenching his servo tightly with frustration.
“Then blow the mine.”
The connection was cut abruptly. Cool rage simmered just beneath his plating as Starscream longed to live up to his namesake and scream out his own frustrations at the STUPID decisions his ‘long lost leader’ was making.
“Blow my mine? BLOW my mine?” he snarled under his breath as he headed for the hangars, ignoring the side look from Soundwave.
“Doesn’t even understand the necessity of vast energon resource pools! Stupid, stupid decisions, slagging idiot FRAGGER making stupid slagging decisions!”
Sharp quick pedesteps accompanied his partly contained outburst as he ripped a large grenade from the armory walls, weighing the explosive in his servo mindlessly.
“I’ll show him where stupid idiotic decisions lead.”
Upon reaching the hangar floor he jumped, ignoring the much easier way down, landing firmly on the mine floor once again, thrusters hot and wings wide. At least blowing up the pitiful frames of their Autobot adversaries would give him some joy, albeit a little amount. But as to how they discovered his prized operation? Mhm, he had to know that first.
The seeker crept along the platform lining the center of the mine, audials primed, the flats of his wings pointed outwards, the sensors searching for changes in the atmosphere below. Ah, there they were, he snuck closer.
“These are definitely the coordinates Cliff gave us.”
That was that blue two-wheeler, the one who oh so kindly kicked him in the chestplate, and this Cliff she mentioned, the red, horned imbecile who got away. Pity he never succumbed to his burns and gashes. Nevertheless, he got his answer, the red one snitched. Must've seen something he should'nt have during his short stay on the Nemesis.
“Autobots careful, we are here for energon yes, but also the scout the truth, we must confirm whether Megatron has returned or not.”
There he was, his master’s prized Prime. Now it was his turn with the talking stick, hmph human slang was always bizarre. A laugh rolled out of his intake, cold and ugly as he sneered down at his company.
“Prime.”
The group looked up.
“I’d stick around but… I’m squeamish.”
Starscream made a show of switching the explosive on and letting it fall from his digits, the beeping from the cylinder growing fast and rapid. He took a second to take in the horrified and furious looks on the enemy’s face plates before diving off the platform and transforming himself, shooting upward, thrusters screaming as he circled fast and high into the waiting sky. He transformed again, freefalling as he watched the crater explode into blue smoke and fire. On a typical day he’d enjoy such a sight, especially knowing the damned bots were trapped beneath, but now, he mostly felt bitter. For one he was now back to leader number two and secondly, TWO MINES were obliterated! It felt like a slap in the faceplates for all his hard work to amount to this. Whatever.
The small silver aerial quickly retook to his jet mode, transforming one last time to land firmly back on the nemesis. What a waste.
Stalking through the hallways once again, he decided that if he couldn’t hold onto his prized findings, he could at least gloat about exploding the bots to his leader’s face. That would cheer him up. His digits brushed the control panel, opening the door to where Megatron had disappeared too.
“I don’t think you need worry about further Autobot interference, master. Not with Optimus gone.”
The warlord exhaled gruffly.
“And what evidence do you possess of this fact?”
Was the mech going senile? The evidence had been just below them; he swallowed the frustration bubbling up again.
“I destroyed the mines, as you instructed.”
“Optimus is not so easily destroyed. We have millennia worth of battles behind us to prove it.”
So, what if it was a valid point? It didn’t count! Not in his rulebook, here he was dead WRONG. What could have possibly survived THAT.
He flicked his claws together, watching as Megatron turned back to his glowing hunk of dark energon he’d planted right in the center of the bridge.
“Maybe you should take a break, My lord. I worry that too much contact with the dark energon might allow its properties to adversely affect you…”
It was a battle in of itself to keep any sort of tone from his words. Now that he thought about it, it would make sense the stuff would addle with the warlord’s processor, simple minded mechs often succumbed too easily to outside causes.
“Or perhaps, Starscream, I have not permitted myself contact enough!”
What did he-? The seeker jolted as Megatron lunged for the clump of crystal, prying a smoking, glimmering shard from the pile.
“Wait! Lord Megatron! No, not your SPARK chamber, you don’t know what it will do!”
Neither did he! And if this Megatron before him became anything like that ravaged vehicon he wouldn’t live to see the skies again. Starscream watched in horror as the shard was plunged deep into the silver mech’s chestplate. Reactions similar to what happened before started showing, the shaking, the groaning, the writhing. He gaped and stumbled back, reaching for the door. It was closed and the control panel sat a good length away; it was too late for him anyways.
He watched. He watched and he waited as the light ripping across his master’s chassis grew bright before ceasing entirely. The suddenness made him pause, what?
Deep and heavy intakes filled the room as Megatron slowly came down from whatever high had been induced by the sudden charge of dark energon. The seeker chuckled nervously.
“Lord Megatron…”
“It as if the blood of Unicron the destroyer flows through my veins. As if… I hear his very thoughts! I now know what I must do.”
Starscream watched as he ripped another shard free from his collection and turned to face him. He couldn’t mean…? The thought elected a strangled sound from his vocalizer before he could stop it. Then he was watching the mech walk past.
“What can I do to assist you, Master.”
“Quit groveling and await my command.”
Groveling!? He wasn’t groveling! At least not now! The NERVE. Red optics narrowed at the back before them; gaze fixated on the plating leaving the room. Oh, to drive a sword through it, the glee it would bring him was unmeasurable, surely the highlight of his function.
Soon enough he found his way back to the main bridge. He stopped at the front of the room, watching the dark shape of Megatron’s alt mode disappear into the distance through the cracked glass. He scoffed to himself, turning only to shriek as he came faceplate to faceplate with Soundwave.
“Soundwave, stop doing that…”
The Silent mech merely showed a smiley face.
“If you have something to report, just tell me later, or handle it yourself!”
He walked past him carefully, of course the seeker could always go ahead and stir the pot like usual, but after the whole test subject fiasco and the wretched loss of his hard earned energon mines, he wasn’t exactly feeling up the task. If only he could get his servos on some control around here again, like how it had been before Megatron decided to return. Even just small bouts of insight into how to succeed and come out on top before the warlord could ever think too.
Insight? That’s it!
Megatron mentioned knowing what he needed to do! Directly after taking the dark energon too… he wasn’t present on the ship either it was like a path lain by Primus himself. The key to his final victory. Doing a full 180 turn, the seeker headed straight back for the chambers holding the dark energon. If he couldn’t gain the upper hand through physical means, he’d just have to do it through more mystical means. Upon reaching the room, he plucked a small shard, holding it up to the light. It was leagues tinier than Megatron’s but he didn’t think it mattered much, besides, the smaller the chunk the smaller the risk. A lesser dose would surely be safer than whatever nonsense the warlord started off with.
Now, does the manner of consumption matter? Eating it was probably off the table, and he did NOT want THAT in his tank, whatever, he’d just follow the brute’s method. Taking the smaller purple shard, Starscream jabbed it underneath his chassis plating, lodging it right against his spark chamber. He tapped his digits against his plating, waiting. Nothing was happening.
“Oh, don’t tell me I have to take the same amount as that oaf-! GAHH.”
The burning started suddenly, crawling up his spinal strut and sending static shimmering across the flats of his wings. He gasped, feeling a coiling tightness wrapping itself around his vocalizer, a purple glow starting to radiate from the cracks in his armor. The seeker felt his entire body shudder; he clawed at his shoulder pauldrons and arms leaving faint marks on the metal as the burning only grew.
The visions started in flashes. Just short fuzzy images that filled his optics, imprisoning themselves deep within his memory banks. Then they got clearer. He saw cave ins and destruction, human contact and devastation, there were beasts of great power he didn’t recognize and faces he did. They came so fast but were so clear within his processor. A sudden pain and terror wrecked his frame, and he saw nothing but his own energon spilled out before him. The liquid pouring out from gouges and bites that had crushed and mangled his armor into pieces. And then it was gone, filtering out into new flashes of events. Starscream took a staggering step backwards, trembling servos reaching up to grip his helm.
They were all coming so fast, so many, probably all of use somehow but it was TOO much, he felt like his processor was about to implode.
“Tch, disgusting spawn of-.”
A voice drifted above all the chaos taking place inside him before the shard of energon was promptly launched outwards from within his plating. It bounced once, then twice on the floor before coming to a stop at his pedes.
Starscream collapsed to the floor, panting on his knees while struggling to come back from the experience. The burning subsided slowly but surely and the light ceased along with it, and yet a lingering ache deep within his core remained.
“What… the frag… was THAT.” He screeched indignantly. “None of that was helpful it was- it was PITIFUL! I die? I DIE!? This piece must be FAULTY! Theres no way in pit my end would come in such a way! And so soon, it’s all a lie, a JOKE! It must be, I won’t accept it any other way!”
He forced himself up, dusted off his plating and made a beeline for his quarters. Yes, it was all some big joke, some façade, some fabrication the unmaker himself decided to weave. Surely the divine also joked around a little, that’s all this was. Just a punishment for being too overzealous and arrogant. Yes, that was it, just got a little too power hungry on the wrong day.
The seeker shoved open his berthroom door, slamming it behind him and locking it with a sharp click. He spent the next couple of hours pacing back and forth in front of his berth, muttering some things and hissing others.
“Should I write all that I saw down?”
No, it was too hard to forget. The images and feelings he felt in the moments he saw were burned there. And when he meant burned, he meant BURNED.
“No, it doesn’t matter if you can remember it all because it’s NOT REAL.”
Why did he have to keep coming back to this part. It was obvious enough that whoever, or whatever he saw, wasn’t HIM. He couldn’t be that stupid; he would never be. Perhaps if fear and other factors were pitted against each other, he could be rash, but it didn’t seem like that was entirely the case.
He clenched his servos tightly, tempted to dig them into the soft mesh of his protoform for a bit of a pain anchor in whatever spiraling situation he found himself trapped in.
“That’s it, I need to stop, calm down, rationalize. Let’s review this joke of a day.”
The Nemesis was in need of hefty repairs, the Autobot prisoner and his little friends MIGHT have escaped, MEGATRON was back with DARK ENERGON no less! He had somehow seen his FUTURE, which was not so good mind you, AND two of his energon mines had been destroyed. TWO.
Yes, that last one was just as important.
Forget what he said earlier about life being good!
Frag, what was that human phrase?
Oh yes… He’d jinxed it.