Chapter Text
-Inside Starscream’s hidden base-
Starscream frowned at the tools he had collected and splayed on his desk. It was so tedious to gather them all, he even had to kill his own clone to gain the last- and most important part: His T-Cog.
The purple and cyan glow of the electronics in his secret base illuminated his face as he recalled what had occurred.
M.E.C.H.! They had attacked him in the forest all at once, like a pack! Overwhelmed him with their inferior weapons! And then… they had rid him of the ability to fly while he was unconscious!
Starscream was growling and pacing back and forth in his base, his expression scrunched up.
“Argh! Those stinking, slagging, back-stabbing, puny, VILE humans! How DARE THEY? Next time I see them I am going to rip out THEIR insides! See how THEY like it! To even think that they operated on me with their disgusting little meat fingers…How repellent!” He shuddered a little.
Starscream dearly regretted ever teaming up with those little treacherous ants!
His pacing slowed down, coming to a stop, the tension on his face loosening as he glanced at his clone’s T-Cog that lay across the room.
Oh, he missed flying so much already. And it hadn’t even been that long since he lost it!
“I can already feel the desire to take off intensifying… It will surely take my sanity apart if I could never regain the gift of flight again… I am a Seeker! And not just any Seeker, I am the most elegant and most aerodynamic model to ever grace this universe- let alone this planet! I cannot be grounded for the rest of my life!” He whined.
At that thought his eyes widened in panic. No- he had to perform this surgery. There’s no way he will stay grounded forever!
Quickly disregarding the idea of staying grounded, he tried to calm down and went back to the operation tools lying on his desk, observing them once again.
“Everything I require to make myself whole.”
He looked up at the bright neon screens. The scanning and analyzing of his body was complete and the computer was showing him exactly where and how to perform the surgical intervention.
He lay down on the operation berth after snatching the drill from the desk beside it.
“A simple, painless procedure.”
Though, he kept turning the tool around with a shaky servo, as if he were inspecting it for the first time.
He activated the drill and a loud, shrill noise started coming from the tool as it began spinning in his claws. His hand began to shake even more.
He quickly glanced to the computer screen one last time and back to the drill.
“Nothing to it! Really. Provided… one possesses the nerve.” He spoke over the stressful drilling sound.
He lay back and lifted the tool, pointing it at the middle of his chest.
His entire frame was trembling now. But he kept inching the pointy tip of the drill closer and closer…
The tip now almost touching.
“BEEB BEEB BEEB BEEB BEEB” the computer suddenly came to life with an alarm.
“AAAAARGH!”
Startled by the sudden, loud noise a horrible, pained scream came from Starscream as he rammed the drill into his chest, not at all were he was supposed to drill.
Slag! This was bad!
Now he was panicking and screaming as the drill was stuck in his chest and just kept drilling deeper and deeper by itself as Starscream was hyperventilating.
“SCRAP! THE BUTTON, THE BUTTON! ARGH!”
He messily reached around the drill with his claws, quickly pressing the off-switch.
But it was already too late. In no time, the drill had cut through a thick, vital cable next to his spark holder.
Starscream let his head fall back and panted as that horrible sound from the tool was silenced. Then he looked at the mess on his chest. And the pain set in at the sight.
The pointy tool had snapped big metal splinters from his torso and created ugly cracks coming from the hole.
The drill had splattered energon on him and around the room with its fast circular motions.
A lot of energon began to leak from the hole.
“Hah… hah…” Starscream panted with a horrified expression on his face as he looked at the mess on his chest.
His first instinct was to grab the drill and pull it out.
Instinct bad. As soon as he touched it, a pain shot through him even worse than the constant pulsing coming from the wound. He quickly retracted his hand.
“ACK!! …This is bad… really bad! I need help…I could send out a distress signal! Then-”
Help… from whom? He was an outcast now. Everyone wanted him dead. Both the Autobots and Megatron. Even humans.
Asking for help was not an option.
Panic started rising in him again. With a heave he got up from the berth but the sudden movement caused him another great deal of pain and his vision sparked white for a moment.
He groaned but made a first step toward the hallway. He needed to find something to treat the wound with. But what would that even be? How does he treat the wound with the object still stuck in it?
“Dammit, I have no idea what to do! I am not a fragging mechanic!”
He would have started to hyperventilate again if he was not beginning to feel dizzy from the lack of energon. He managed to make a few more steps toward the hallway, energon dripping on the floor. Then his legs gave out and he fell forward, not even having the strength to dampen the impact with his arms.
He needed help. He just wanted someone to help him. That was all he thought before his vision began to turn darker and darker.
-At that moment in the Autobot Base-
Beeb beeb beeb
Ratchet looked at the screen as it picked up a signal several hundred miles away from their base.
“What is it, Ratchet?” Arcee jumped up from the bench across the room when she heard the beeping.
“I don’t know. It’s neither the sign of Decepticon activity nor a message from Fowler. It seems to be… a distress signal!”
“By whom?” Optimus asked as he walked up next to Ratchet and looked at the screen.
Ratchet analyzed the SOS signal and a picture of the stiletto wearing Decepticon came into view.
“It’s Starscream!” Ratchet gasped.
Everyone was standing around the computer screen now.
Bulkhead groaned. “What does he want this time?”
“I don’t know. But last time he needed something from us, he had send a high frequency signal, not an SOS. Let me see if there’s a message attached.” Ratchet answered and typed to see if there was something to decipher about the unusual frequency.
Indeed a message window opened up and Ratchet read aloud: “Help”
A short silence.
Arcee cocked an eyebrow at that. “No demands? No deal he wants to strike? It just says “help”? That’s… even more suspicious. A trap.”
“Obviously.” Bulkhead joined in.
Ratched agreed “I wouldn’t expect anything else from him”. He crossed his arms and looked up at Optimus, who stood next to him in the half-circle.
Optimus noticed the look from Ratchet and spoke up “I would not be surprised if this is part of a scheme of his to trick us. The possibility that we would get ambushed if we fall for it is very high. But it is unusual of him to send us his current location. If we ground bridge to his coordinates, he would be faced with us instantly. If he is still alone, that would be a foolish ambush plan.”
“You’re saying Starscream isn’t a fool?” Arcee had to smile a little at that joke.
“Either that, or he really is in urgent need of our help. So we should waste no time and ground bridge to him right away.”
“What!?” Everyone shouted in unison.
“Optimus, are you sure? Even if he does need help, why should we give it to him?” Arcee spat and crossed her arms in disapproval.
“Yeah, what’s he ever done for us? I mean ASIDE from the trouble he’s always caused. He wouldn’t even thank us for this!” Bulkead complained and Bumblebee beeped in agreement.
Optimus sighed. “Probably. But we will not judge him prematurely and take away any possible opportunities to ally with him against Megatron. No matter how small the chances are for that. Ratchet, you will come with us in case Starscream needs medical assistance. The children are not here today since they are taking an important physics exam, so we need someone to stay behind to operate the ground bridge.”
“I can do that.” Bulkhead spoke up. “I was having a good day until now, so I’m not in the mood to see that back-stabbing coward.”
“Neither are we…” Bumblebee grumpily beeped to himself.
Optimus ignored everyone’s annoyed faces and complaints. “Very well. Activate the ground bridge and have it prepared to open at our location at any time.”
Ratchet synched the portal with the coordinates of Starscream’s distress signal and opened it. The group gathered in front of the portal with Optimus standing ahead of them, staring forward.
As Ratchet, Arcee, and Bumblebee looked at Optimus’ back, Ratchet quietly spoke to them. “You probably noticed that his reasoning wasn’t very… strong. But it’s no use arguing. I’ve known Optimus for so long, I know he could never deny helping those in need, not even the enemy. His moral compass and his kindness is just as strong as him and it could get us into big trouble someday. But I admit that this is exactly what separates us from the Decepticons.”
“Exactly, Ratchet.” Oh. Optimus had heard him.
Optimus looked back at his team one more time. “The Decepticons would never show such mercy and honor, that’s why we should.”
Everyone nodded in understanding now.
He looked forward again and began to walk farther into the portal, his teammates following close behind. “Have your weapons ready and prepared, in case it is a trap after all. Now, let’s go.”
And they disappeared into the light, unprepared for what they would see next.