Chapter Text
The fear in Starscream's optics was very noticeable, they were restless but he did not lose sight of Megatron, who was cleaning his servos that were dirty with energon.
He had a suspicion that the warlord had beaten to death a drone that was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Megatron has always had outbursts of anger when things didn't go as he wanted, Starscream was always the collateral damage to Megatron's outbursts or was the cause of those outbursts that provoked his Lord to give him a lesson for both the seeker and the rest of the army not to make these mistakes.
Starscream was saved from these outbursts of anger of the warlord in these last five solar cycles.
If it could be called luck to be locked in a dungeon and without the possibility of consuming a single drop of energon as punishment for his multiple failures according to his master, he was starving, sitting in this attempted bed.
His tank was near its limit, 14% to be exact. He had to think carefully about his words or he might die in this dungeon.
“My second in command.” Started the warlord, leaving aside that piece of cloth he used to wipe his servos on the floor of this dungeon. Starscream saw how this one approached him, Megatron walked without that weight that made the floor tremble every time he approached the seeker, his look was calm and without that aura of anger that he always transmitted every time he looked he met Starscream's fearful optics.
Starscream's energon cooled down, his systems were put on alert, Megatron was planning something, it was no coincidence, the confinement, the punishment without energon and his weakened state before the lack of it. Megatron stopped half a meter from Starscream, he placed his servos behind his back.
“About seven solar cycles ago, Soundwave detected a signal, an Autobot signal to be more exact.”
Starscream bit down on his glossa to keep from letting out a gasp of surprise. Soundwave, that glitch.
“Although I was thousands of miles away from that location and had no intention of confronting those attempted soldiers Prime has on his team, but Soundwave communicated a detail that caught my attention.”
Megatron took a step forward, coming within inches of Starscream, who began to tremble.
“You went where that signal came from.” Megatron leaned a little towards Starscream, he watched as panic and fear came over those red optics. Those optics he loved to see them like that, fearful, looking like they were about to cry.
"Soundwave sent Laserbeak to find out what your true intentions were, since you're not the type to throw yourself into combat. But what a surprise Laserbeak encountered and caught me off guard." Megatron's gaze hardened.
“There you were, along with Optimus Prime.” Starscream for a moment stopped breathing. “According to Laserbeak, Prime offered you a rather tempting proposition, since you showed interest.” Starscream wanted to run, hide and disappear. No matter what answer he gave, this was not going to end well for him. “What did he offer you?”
Starscream didn't answer.
“TELL ME!” Starscream trembled, but this situation could get worse if he remained silent but he knew that this answer would annoy Megatron even more. He bit his lips slightly.
“He asked me to join the Autobots.”
Silence reigned for a few minutes, until Megatron's servos were in Starscream's neck, fear was present in the seeker, several alerts were present in his CPU, his vents were straining to breathe, his vocalizer was suffering damage from the pressure of the servo force and his tank was losing power. Starscream wanted to scream, but those servos prevented him from doing so.
"YOU DARE TO ABANDON ME? BETRAY ME?! BY PRIME?!" Megatron slammed Starscream's body against the wall. A groan of pain escaped Starscream's mouth.
“N-no.” Despite the statement, it wasn't enough for Megatron.
“DO YOU THINK THAT WILL BE ENOUGH TO CONVINCE ME?!” Starscream was thrown to the floor, he began to cough, barely catching his breath until he felt Megatron's presence upon him. “M-my lord. ”The seeker began. "I swear I didn't accept Prime's proposal to join his team, I had no intentions for that, I just wanted to know what Prime wanted and-"
"STOP MAKING EXCUSES AND SHOW ME YOUR LOYALTY TO ME." Starscream knew that he had to humble himself before the warlord to get out of this situation, he thought about the words he should say, which words were ideal in this situation and which were not. But a ping called his attention.
5% energon.
Starscream panicked. He used what little strength he had to beg Megatron for some energon.
"MY LORD, I SWEAR I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU. YOU ARE MY LEADER AND MY LORD. I WILL NEVER TRADE YOU FOR ANYONE."
4%...
“I AM YOUR SOLDIER AND YOU ARE MY LEADER, NO ONE IS ABOVE ME BUT YOU MY LORD, FOR I AM NOTHING.”
3%...
"I AM AN IDIOT FOR LISTENING TO PRIME, YOUR WORDS ARE LIES AND ONLY YOU ARE RIGHT."
2%....
“I ONLY EXIST FOR YOU AND YOUR CAUSE, BUT I BEG YOU FOR ENERGON, I AM AT MY LIMIT.” Starscream was already losing strength. “PLEASE MY LORD.”
Megatron pushed Starscream away from him, he walked out of the dungeon leaving him alone.
1%...
"N-no." This was the end of him. Starscream cried, he never thought he would die like this, so miserable and humiliated like this. He heard Megatron's pedfalls, looked up and saw that Megatron was carrying an energon cube.
“It's good to see that you still remember where your place is Starscream” He took the silver seeker's chin, put the energon cube on Starscream's lips, who was desperately drinking the energon. “You know your place is here, by my side.”
Starscream nodded without stopping drinking.
Megatron smiled, he liked this image.
Starscream, weak, fearful, crying and pleading for him. He took the bucket away from Starscream's lips, who looked confused at the warlord.
“Don't forget, you belong to me.”