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“I’m surprised that you actually showed up.” There was something in Starscream’s voice—an playful undercurrent of amusement maybe. There was no bite to it, it wasn’t an accusation like most of the words he spat at Skyfire previously. It’s progress if anything. A step in the right direction no matter how miniscule.
Me too, Skyfire thought, but he didn’t voice that thought. He didn’t want to give Starscream the satisfaction of knowing that he had made him falter, blindsided him even by inviting him to meet up again and so soon too.
“I had to.”
It wasn’t exactly a lie. Skyfire wouldn’t have been able to stop thinking about it if he had declined the offer to see Starscream again. Those thoughts would have distracted him from his work and distractions were dangerous when you had as much at stake as the Autobots did. And if he tried hard enough, he could convince himself that this was a strategic move. What if Starscream wanted to negotiate an information trade? Or if he was really hopeful… What if he wanted to defect?
Though, Starscream’s stand-offish posture and the smug smirk told him right away that this was going to be far from a business meeting.
Skyfire tried to ignore the sense of comfort and ease settling into his frame as he stared at the familiar face. He couldn’t afford to be comfortable, couldn’t afford to let his guard down. This wasn’t the same Starscream he knew all those years ago.
“Did you now…?” Starscream’s grin didn’t falter. He’d never been one to fall for such flimsy excuses. As always, it seemed he could see right through him and all of his pretenses.
Starscream turned his back on Skyfire, walking slowly, deliberately to the edge of the small outcropping of rock that he had chosen as their meeting place. From what Skyfire could gather, they were a few miles away from the nearest town, leaving them far away from any prying human eyes. (Or Cybertronian optics too for that matter. He still hadn’t gotten quite used to being so instinctively distrustful of his own kind yet like all of the other Autobots had. Though, he supposed the current circumstances called for it to survive.)
The sound of the waves crashing on the shore below was the only thing to break up the tense silence. This lonely little alcove several miles away from the main beach and surrounding town was so divorced from all of the other ongoings of the world that it would be the perfect place for an ambush if Starscream wished to do so. None of the Autobots knew where he was, and they certainly wouldn’t approve of his actions if they did. He could be captured or killed and no one would know until it was too late.
Those thoughts didn’t scare Skyfire as much as they should have, though he couldn’t place why. He had no reason to trust Starscream. It didn’t matter what had transpired between them four million years ago. That was then, and this was now. Starscream had already tried to kill him once, and turned his blaster on him as soon as Megatron had given the order to. What assurance did he have that he wouldn’t try to finish the job now?
“Starscream…?”
“Let’s see if you still remember anything about what it means to be Cybertronian,” Starscream took another step towards the edge of the cliff. Skyfire felt strangely pulled towards him, seconds away from bridging the gap between them and pulling him back. “Or if your time with the Autobots has made you forget everything about who you are.”
Before Skyfire could ask what he meant, Starscream stepped forward calmly off of the bluff, hurtling downwards towards the foaming water below. He didn’t think before running after him, feeling weightless as he leapt off of the cliff and plummeted alongside him. Starscream spared a passing glance as Skyfire, a smile that seemed far too genuine for him at the fact that Skyfire had risen to his challenge playing on his lips. The air roared around them as the ocean rapidly approached.
Skyfire had been the one to lose nerve first, transforming a safe distance away from plunging into the temperate water and rocketing back upwards into the sky. Starscream, always eager to show off especially when it came to his flying prowess, waited mere seconds before what would have been a total wipeout for anyone else before surging back up in the air just in time. Seafoam erupted around him, sending massive ripples through the water.
“Hah! Were you worried for me? You should know better than that by now,” Starscream circled in a loose formation, unfocused and simply flying for the sake of it.
If there was one thing Starscream could appreciate about the detestable planet that was Earth, it was its aerodynamics. The gravity on Earth was far different than the gravity he was used to on Cybertron. It allowed for far less drag on his engines.
“Showoff,” Skyfire teased him. Somehow, Starscream had gotten even better at flying than he had been on Cybertron, a feat that he didn’t think possible.
“You’ve let yourself get rusty. I can’t say I’m surprised given your… friends. But at least you haven’t forgotten everything.”
It was no secret how few fliers there were in the Autobot ranks. The Decepticons had always had the aerial advantage, giving them the upper hand that they desperately needed to push back against the Autobots.
“You wish. If I did, who would be there to challenge you?”
A warm feeling swelled through him, suffusing his processor. Flying felt right. It felt natural, like second nature even more so flying with Starscream. The humid night air stuck to their metal, water and foam rolling off them in rivulets.
“What would your friends think if they knew the kind of company you keep in your free time?”
“What I do in my free time… isn’t their concern.” It was an awful excuse, Skyfire knew that much, but he couldn’t think of anything better. Really, he shouldn't have been out there. It was already difficult enough for him to gain any semblance of trust from the Autobots given that he was a Decepticon defector. By coming here, meeting up with the enemy willingly and for fun of all things? He would never be able to rebuild that trust if they found out.
Starscream gave an unimpressed snort. “I’ve ruined several of your friends’ lives. I’ve killed some of them.”
“I know, but… there’s nothing we can do about that now.”
Desperate to somehow change the subject, he dropped lower, speeding forward and leaving a gust of warm air behind him. Rising to the bait, Starscream followed close behind, dipping even further until the tip of his wing was just barely skimming the surface, spraying Skyfire with the salt. Skyfire kept formation, not backing out early this time as they flew dangerously close to the water’s edge.
A 15 foot wall of water rose in front of them, curling into a wave that threatened to descend upon the both of them. Taking the lead, Starscream shot forward to keep ahead of the swell and follow its curl. Skyfire followed as the wave created a pipe around them. Thrilled and excited, Skyfire spun in the air, tracing the edges of the water with his wing tip. There was nothing that could compare to this on Cybertron that was for sure.
When the pipe of water began to collapse around them, they gave one final push on their thrusters, rocketing forward just in time to avoid being smacked down into the ocean. The wave crashed into the water, pounding into the surf furiously.
Banking to the left back towards the beach, Starscream flew upwards before transforming and letting himself hit the sand in bipedal form. His feet sunk into the hot sand and he knew he’d be picking grains of the stuff out of his landing gears for weeks after this.
Skyfire soon followed, sitting on the shore and watching the waves continuing to slam into the cove. Without realizing it, he had started smiling. It was the stupidest thing but he was grinning ear to ear, stunned and wordless.
“That was…” There were no words that could adequately describe what he was feeling, but he settled for “Amazing.”
“Hmm, it was alright,” Starscream shrugged, but the smirk on his faceplate gave him away. “You haven’t changed a bit. How about another go?”
Starscream took a step forward before his entire frame went rigid and his optics glazed over with thinly veiled pain. He clutched at his side, a strained whirring sound reverberating through him. He tried to transform, but his plates only shifted halfway before snapping back into place and he crumpled into the sand.
“Starscream!” Skyfire was at his side nearly before he hit the ground, trying to turn him over so that he could check him for any signs of injury. Those sorts of malfunctions didn’t happen for no reason. “Are you alright? What happened?”
Starscream swatted at him, sending him a harsh glare. Looking drained of nearly everything he had in him, he still had the overwhelming will to fight. “I’m fine! Get off. I’m fine!”
Skyfire dropped his hands to his side, but he didn’t back away as Starscream struggled back into a sitting position. “Are you injured?”
“I told you I’m fine!” Starscream practically hissed, still holding his side with his hands.
“Did… Megatron do this?”
Starscream didn’t answer, lowering his helm and averting his optics. “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t want your pity.”
“It’s not-”
“I told you I'm not a victim!” Starscream lashed out, scratching Skyfire’s chestplate and shoving him back. Fury burned through his spark so hot that it was making his frame start to heat up. The genuine concern, the care in Skyfire’s optics only made it worse.
If there was any doubt in Skyfire’s mind that this was Megatron’s doing, it was gone now based on that reaction.
Skyfire took a step back, not out of fear, but out of wanting to give Starscream a bit of much needed space. His concern was only growing with each passing second as he started to form an idea of what could have happened. If Starscream had been injured and then put even more strain on himself by flying (and flying so recklessly at that), he might have all sorts of unseen internal injuries.
Was that why Starscream had called him out there in the first place? As an escape of sorts? Or a distraction?
“Why did you invite me here tonight?” Skyfire asked, keeping his tone carefully neutral.
“Why did you show up?” Starscream shot back, dentia gritted in pain, “That doesn’t seem very Autobot of you.”
“Starscream… You’ve done… things that I cannot bring myself to agree with, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re hurting.”
“What’s your point? Is this some new tactic to guilt me into defecting? Trust me, they’ve already tried that for years.”
“It’s not about that!” Skyfire’s voice rose without intending for it to. “I just want you to care about yourself. How long are you going to let this go on?”
“I’m not ‘letting’ anything ‘go on’! I’ve made my own choices.”
“Don’t you regret any of it?”
“No,” the answer came remarkably quick, like he was trying to convince himself of that fact as well as Skyfire. “If you’ve come up with some sob story in your processor about how I’m some poor withering victim under Megatron’s thumb, then you’ll be disappointed.”
“Even firing on me?”
Starscream hesitated, struggling to climb to his feet like he might try to transform again and fly off. “You betrayed us. You betrayed me. I hated you.”
Hated.
“...Past tense?”
“I intended to kill you back then,” Starscream settled on saying, though they both knew that wasn’t an answer. “Doesn’t that bother you?”
Not as much as it should.
“We can’t do anything about that now.”
“Is that your answer to everything? To push it to the side and ignore it?”
A split second decision was made in Skyfire’s processor. He took a step forward, grabbing both of Starscream’s hands and taking them into his own. Their optics met, a clash of red and blue light. “Let’s abandon all factions. Forget about the war. Forget Autobots, Decepticons, everything. We can leave.”
For the first time Skyfire could ever recall, Starscream was left speechless. “Are you out of your mind? We can’t just-”
“Why not?”
“Because-! The Decepticons would track me down. They would never let me leave so easily.”
“Neither faction has the resources to hunt us down for very long.”
It was a reasonable enough argument. With the war going on and the constant need to find new energon to survive, tracking down defectors was hardly their highest priority especially if they weren’t an immediate threat.
“Enough!” Starscream yanked himself away from Skyfire’s grip, “This… This is madness. You’ve truly lost it, trying to convince yourself that I’m not the bot I’ve proven myself to be countless times. Coming here was a mistake.”
“Starscream, wait. Are you sure you should be flying right now?”
“Don’t think me so weak. This has happened before. It never lasts.”
After so long of chasing after him, Skyfire wasn’t about to let his opportunity slip through his fingers so easily. He was singlemindedly determined to break down all of the walls that Starscream had built around himself in his four million year absence and prepared to meet plenty of resistance every step of the way.
“So unless you intend on taking me captive—and you’re more than welcome to try it—I’m leaving.”
“That’s okay. Just promise me that you’ll meet with me again soon.”
“Somehow, I always underestimate your sickening sense of sentimentality. Surely, you could easily find better company.”
“Promise?”
With a noise of disgust, Starscream turned, preparing to transform and fly off into the night. For a brief moment, Skyfire wondered if he would leave without another word.
“I promise.”