Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Starscream: analysis correct.”

Soundwave’s harmonic words lingered in the air for a second, before Starscream smiled in confusion.

“Excuse me?”

Starscream had been planning to desert the Decepticons for a good while, and his plan was running airtight. The last time Megatron had beat him, it wasn’t even for a reason Starscream could rationalize. He understood the violence of the many times he had attempted to usurp Megatron’s power. But the last time was over a battle plan disagreement. Megatron had found Starscream’s plan to be inadequate, and Starscream nearly bled all his energon out attempting to crawl to the medbay. He had never seen Knockout truly concerned about one of his patients before, and when he had come to, he had come to an epiphany

The Decepticons were not what they once were. They were tired, and damaged. The cause had long since been forgotten, and there weren’t even enough cybertronians left to truly rule. Starscream had failed at taking over power in every way possible. And he was tired. The only way to truly survive this massacre of war was to leave, like the bots he had called cowardly early on in the war.

The final group he remembered being able to escape Cybertron during the war was a decently similar story. A portion of the remaining Autobots and Decepticons had split off, deciding to unite as one and set out on some quest to find the original generation of Cybertronians that had disappeared eons ago. Starscream had laughed at them, especially as one of Megatron’s aides, Cyclonus, had been one of the deserters. Of course, despite Cyclonus being the one to betray Megatron, his rage was aimed at his favorite punching jet. He had heard some pretty high-up autobots had joined the ship, too, with Optimus Prime’s second-in-command leading the ship.

He doubted Optimus Prime was angry that his second-in-command had betrayed him.

He knew that Optimus Prime had not taken it out on the bots around him when it happened.

But they had left, nonetheless. And Starscream had stayed. But now he knew they had made the correct decision. As delusional as he believed their quest to be, he now knew his own of toppling Megatron was too.

So it was time to leave.

But Soundwave had caught him in the final steps of his plan. He’d slipped up and left a data pad with some notes about escape routes in the ship (and the timing of when it would be possible to steal a scout craft during a guard change) on top of his desk in his office. The nosy cassette player just HAD to be doing his little check-ins at the wrong time. Soundwave had put two and two together, confronting Starscream. But it hadn’t gone as he had expected.

“Excuse me?” Starscream looked incredulously at Soundwave. “I have got to get my hearing processors checked because if I heard you right…?”

“Starscream’s analysis is sound. The Decepticons are no longer fighting for the cause they once were. Megatron has failed.” Soundwave’s voice sounded weaker than normal, like it did after a particularly gruesome battle. But Starscream couldn’t see a single trace of damage, and there hadn’t been a battle for at least 50 cycles, since their last defeat on the Terran moon.

“Soundwave- you sound… Are you sure this isn’t a ploy of some kind?” Starscream squinted, attempting to rationalize Soundwaves play here. Starscream’s plan did not account for Soundwave finding out, and he was unsure if this was a positive revelation.

“Soundwave. Not damaged.” The infuriatingly stoic bot said. But Starscream, for all his flaws, could read people. He didn’t need some fancy brainwave scanner like the cassette carrier to know when someone was lying.

“Soundwave, you’re lying. And it better not be about the part where my analysis is correct, because that would be a downright stupid thing to lie about.” Starscream pointed a claw at Soundwave’s face. “Spill it.”

Soundwave hesitated. He said nothing. But after a few seconds, a loud "klik" sounded out and a soft biolight emanated from his chest. His cassette chamber opened, and slowly, he reached inside, pulling out a cassette.

A broken cassette.

Starscream could tell by the color that it was far gone. He never much cared for Soundwave’s creatures but he knew to never. Ever. Mess with Soundwave’s cassettes. He knew they functioned similarly to how his trine worked, a minor spark bond for communication, and a social bond that was stronger than life itself.

“Shockwave… I… who did this?”

He didn’t have to ask to know. Soundwave was loyal to Megatron throughout anything. There was only one thing that could have made him conclude that Megatron no longer was worthy of leading.

“Which one was it, Soundwave?”

“Designation: Ratbat”

“Ah. The fly ring creature that isn’t a bird. Well. That is quite a shame.” Starscream said with a tch. He paused, taking a second. “And I am… er… sorry for your loss. Ratbat was a good asset.” Soundwave put the cassette back in his chassis. Starscream saw the other 4 also nestled inside, and bristled at the sheer macabre of the fact that the other cassettes had to share space with a corpse.

“Now Soundwave.” He said pressing a finger to his temple. “What was the point of telling me this? I know you found the datapad, but if you aren’t going to snitch to Megatron about my escape, what are you doing by telling me you know?”

“Soundwave must request permission to come with Starscream. Decepticon cause is no more. Soundwave must leave to ensure the safety of himself and cassettes.”

“Come again?”Starscream now DEFINITELY knew he had to clean his audial. The most loyal bot in the Decepticon ranks was now looking to desert.

“Soundwave is unsure of Starscream’s likely brash and unfinished plan, but cannot risk another outburst from Megatron” Soundwave tilted his head slightly. “Authorized?”

Starscream stood, still processing the request. Then slowly, a smile crossed his lips. A less malicious smile than usual, but no less cunning.

“Welcome to the crew, Soundwave”

Chapter Text

*Klang Klang*

The sound of knuckles against the medbay door rang hollow through the room.

“Come in!”

Starscream stepped into the medical bay of the decepticons, his feet making light tapping noises against the metal flooring. He stood near the entry, crossing his arms and cocked his head at the red mech in front of him. The decepticon’s vain medic was standing over a body on a medical berth, leaned over where Starscream couldn’t see what he was doing.

“Bad time?” Starscream asked, a sly tone to his voice. The medic looked up, and mirrored starscream’s smirk.

“On the contrary, dear S.I.C.” He stepped aside, revealing the soldier was grey and cut open, clearly no longer online.

“My my doctor, I never know what I’ll find in here. You being pompous and polishing that far too bright finish you wear, or standing over a corpse!” Starscream let out a humorless laugh, and walked over to knockout, staring down at the dead Decepticon soldier

“Do not touch anything. I’m attempting to remove the T-cog. It’s miraculously undamaged.” Knockout held his arm out in front of Starscream, who took a step back.

“Don’t worry, I’m not looking to get stale energon on myself.” Starscream shooed knockout’s arm away.

“Then what DO you want? Knockout set down the tool he was using, a strangely shaped and unwieldy pair of cutters.

“How do you know I want something, hm?” Starscream cooed. “I could just be checking in on my favorite medic.

“Starscream, don’t kid yourself OR me. I know you want something- you’re being tolerable to be around.” He turned around and sharply flicked Starscream’s shoulder. “Now tell me what’s got you basically BEGGING for my attention.”

“You got me, doctor. Let me spell it out for you.” Starscream began to proudly pace around the room. “You have no fancy quarters, no high grade energon, no high quality cosmetic tools or paints, and no… what was his name? Your… assistant.”

“You know his name” Knockout’s immediate cold tone was a stark contrast to how it had been before. His eyes narrowed in tandem. “Don’t be an aft.”

“Yes yes. No Breakdown.” Starscream’s pacing came to a stop and he leaned on a countertop containing a various amounts of raw scrap and blades. “Without any of that, it’s hard to see why someone as particular as you would stick around a place like this” Knockout shifted.

“If you’re about to accuse me of thoughts of desertion…” he started, but was swiftly cut off.

“Oh no no no, I would never” Starscream examined his claws, then looked up. “I’m offering it.” Knockout’s expression didn’t change, but Starscream noticed a slight increase in the brightness of his optics.

“Explain. Is this some joke?” Knockout’s tone was cautious, with a hint of curiosity.

“Do I have to explain myself? I, Starscream, am leaving this disgraceful place. I am offering you a way out with me.”

“So it IS a joke.” Knockout rolled his optics, setting his hands on his hips. “Where in primus do you think you’re going to go? Where are you going to get a ship? Starscream, how am I supposed to believe you won’t just leave me on some planet the first chance you get?”

“You think I’d abandon a perfectly good medic?” Starscream giggled. “And you know how much I appreciate your cosmetic talents. It’d be a shame to waste that.”

“Oh and- even if I gave you the time of day to hear you out, how are you going to get out without Soundwave noticing? That boombox hears everything. The second you step out of line he’ll snitch to Megatron.”

Starscream’s smirk widened, and he pressed his com button, sending a short message to someone. Knockout pursed his lips, then snapped his attention to the doorway as he heard someone enter the medical bay. To his shock, the Decepticon head of intelligence, Soundwave strolled in.

“Query: Has Knockout agreed to join us?” His vocoded voice purred.

“He’s wary of my escape talents” Starscream responded, mocking offense. “ME of all people.”

“Soundwave? You’re on board with Starscream? Is this a test or something?” Knockout looked between the two. Starscream sighed.

“Negative. Megatron has ceased to be a worthy carrier of the decepticon cause”

“Look. You can join us or not. I don’t really give a frag. I understand the fear of going against Megatron, but take a look around. The nemesis is calling apart. I’m leaving while I can, and I’m extending the offer to you. We could use someone like you on the team.”

“You sound genuine, which scares me” Knockout replied, stroking his chin. “But it is tempting. Is there anyone else you are looking to bring?” Starscream nodded his head.

“I wanted to bring my trine, but Skywarp still has immense amounts of trust in Megatron for some reason. Him and Thundercracker are inseparable, so I can’t afford risking them telling Megatron about my escape.” He planned a hand on his forehead and looked down. “I do hope they’ll forgive me for leaving but… I just can’t take Megatron’s abuse anymore. They never have it as bad as I do.”

“Is that all? You nodded, so there has to be someone else.” Knockout asked.

“You remember our most recent skirmish with the autobots?” Starscream said, shaking off his melancholia.

“How could I forget. Seem to remember you lost an arm to the prime himself.” Knockout pointed at Starscream’s arm, who snorted.

“The very one. Well, we picked up a prisoner from the battlefield before we retreated from the power station.”

“What? Megatron didn’t inform us of…”

“That’s because Megatron doesn’t know.”

“How is that possible?”

“Megatron is so singularly focused on the prime in every battle he fails to see anyone else. I’ve done my research on the autobots and had dirge and thrust incapable and capture their chief mechanic.”

“Where are you holding him?”

“Just in our prison block. Megatron has no reason to go down to that level, and there’s no one stationed near enough to hear anything because I told them it was a waste of resources.”

“Seems cruel.”

“It’s practical, Knockout. I’ll walk in, make him an offer of escape, help him out and return him to the prime, and maybe it can be our chance at getting some goodwill with the autobots.” Knockout blanched.

“So you kidnapped someone with the intent of pretending to be the one to rescue them and therefore… get good credit with the team you’ve been fighting and killing members of for years?” Knockout’s eyes were wide in disbelief.

“Knockout, please. We do not need both the Autobots and Megatron at our throats when we are out on our own. It may help to not be the most hated bots in the whole universe.”

“I guess I can’t argue with that.”

“Of course you can’t. It’s brilliant.”

“And you’re sure you can pull this off?”

“Knockout, please. There’s one thing in this fragging universe I’m truly fantastic at.”

“And what’s that?”

“Running away.”

Chapter Text

Wheeljack scraped his finger against the wall of his cell for the third time that day. He wished the wall was just a tad softer, so he could scrape the surface off and tally the days he’d been trapped here. The only indicator of time passing was the *klik* of his chronometer going off every time a new day dawned. But the display was broken, so he was stuck manually counting.

That wasn’t the only thing broken, unfortunately. Just about every surface of his body was covered in scratches, dents, burns, or cracks. And half of them had already been there before his capture. He sighed, regretting yet again that he didn’t stowed a few power tools into his hidden compartments before he had went onto the battlefield. Ratchet had claimed they were “a liability to any decent medic who would have needed to fix him up in case he got injured in the field.

Stupid Ratchet. Oh how he hated ratchet.

…and oh, how he missed him too.

The only company he ever got was that slagging Conehead who’d captured him. Every day he’d stroll in, make some snide remark, and drop some low grade energon just barely within Wheeljack’s reach. He’d already pulled a piston trying to reach yesterday’s.

So when the door slid open, he turned to it, ready to rebuke any idiocy that moronic Cone-headed jet was about to spew. But instead, a different person walked in. He would have been relieved… if that person had been anyone but Starscream.

“Oh. Lovely. The first new face I see around here in a week is your ugly mug, screamer.” Wheeljack shot, a dry humor in his words.

“I’d say you have no place to talk given your condition, but I will say, you pull off those scratches quite nicely.” Starscream retorted. Wheeljack knew it was sarcastic, but couldn’t help feel a slight confusion over the lack of harshness from the usually hostile seeker.

“What brings sir wonderfulness of the pretty prissy planes to my humble cell, hmm? Wheeljack said, standing from the cold wedge of a prison berth and moving towards the bars.

“You know Wheeljack, I just discovered you were down here.” Starscream said, raising an eyebrow.

“Excuse me?” Wheeljack said, his perky voice weak from the lack of quality energon. “The second in command of the decepticons doesn’t know about the only prisoner on board?”

“Unfortunately, megatron no longer seems to trust that my loyalties lie in him. So he sent Dirge to pick you up instead of me” Starscream continued. “He said directly to me- ‘Starscream, you absolute failure. Your mercy and kindness has grown too large to be useful the decepticon cause.”

If before, Wheeljack was skeptical about Starscream’s non-involvement with his kidnapping, now he was positive. But he decided to play along, just to see where this was going.

“For once I seem to be in agreement. You really are a genuine failure, screamer.” He chuckled. “But we both know it’s not for your sense of empathy. We all know what you did to Breakaway.”Starscream scoffed.

“Oh come on, it was brilliant to coax one of you autobot’s only fliers to the decepticons. It was a masterful play. Now I do regret what happened to him, however.”

You crushed his face and ripped his wings off, Starscream.” Wheeljack glared at him, but instead of venom, Wheeljack saw confusion pass over Starscream’s face.

“Excuse me? I did that? Who told you that?” Starscream was baffled. While he had taken many an Autobot spark, he was never so cruel with it. Well- never to a fellow flier.

“Eveyone knows what happened, man. Prowl said he saw it happen.” Wheeljack was now feeling nauseous. There’s no way prowl would lie about something like that, right?

“Primus Wheeljack, no. That was Megatron. I was attempting to train him to fit in with the seekers, but Megatron was unhappy with his progress and, well…” Wheeljack was stunned. He knew he could never trust Starscream, but something about the way he told the story made him seem genuinely somber. He noted that.

“Why are ya telling me this?” Wheeljack responded, attempting to reconcile with himself that the head of autobot intelligence may not be telling the full truth to the autobots.

“Well, it’s actually relevant to why I’ve come and visit you.” Starscream started, grabbing one of the bars. “Megatron has run his course leading the decepticons, and I am quite sick of enduring his abuse and mindless leadership decisions.”

“Are you going to ask me to overthrow him? Don’t you do that like, every time we invade your base?”

“Ha- if only. Unfortunately, I have come to the realization that I am not able to physically overpower Megatron. You see, he’s been different lately. More irrational, and stronger. I have a theory he’s been supplies dark energon.” As Starscream said this, a chill ran down wheeljack’s back. “I also doubt I could just dispose of him sneakily, as he always has the creep shockwave with him.

“But- Ratchet and I theorized that dark energon was physically impossible to exist? How does that make sense?” Wheeljack put a hand to his head, his eyes widening.

“I’m not sure. If I had to place my bets, I’d say shockwave is probably behind all this. I don’t like that one, he’s been closer to Megatron recently. But the most interesting part is that Megatron’s optics have shifted hue.”

“Wow, yeah, another theorized side effect of dark energon. All biolights will take the violet hue of the corrupted energon” Wheeljack continued rubbing his head, attempting to rationalize with the impossible.

“Exactly. It’s why I am sure it’s what is happening. Now. You have two options.” Starscream held out both hands, palm up. He raised one. “One, you stay here and rot in a basement until either they forget to bring you energon, or Megatron find out and…” Starscream runs a finger in an X over his spark. He then raises the other hand. “Two, we let you tag along with us. Soundwave, Knockout and I.”

“Tag along where? Some recon mission? You going to try and make me join you too?” Wheeljack crossed his arms.

“Quite the opposite. I have decided that the decepticon cause has grown far different than the one I joined for. Yadda yadda, this is like the third time I’ve done this speech. To make a long story short, we are leaving. I cannot rationalize staying, Soundwave is protective over his cassettes, one of which megatron smashed, and I’m pretty sure knockout would join even the insecticons if he thought they were the winning team.”

Wheeljack was speechless. Two of the highest ranking members of the decepticons were deserting, and taking the only medic he knew of with them. This would be a massive blow for the decepticons.

“What does this all get me?” He asked incredulously.

“Simple.” Starscream retorted. “You fix up any damages to our ship that may ensue from our departure, and we return you to the autobots. Fair deal”

“Oh please. When has a deal ever been FAIR to you. There has to be some catch. Either way, I ain’t doing it.”

“I think you’re acting as if the choice isn’t obvious. Even if I am up to something devious, it will sure beat wasting away here or dealing with Megatron.” Starscream procured from his subspace a small keycard, and placed it against the cell door. To Wheeljack’s surprise, the energy field dispersed, leaving him open to walk out. To escape.

But he know he couldn’t get past the seeker, especially in his current state. He had to make his decision, and fast. He looked back to the cell, and then to the most untrustworthy deception imaginable.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I guess I have to trust you.”

“Most excellent. I always did admire your common sense. Now come along, now that I’ve let you out our plan is in motion. Knockout has already filled an escape shuttle with energon and supplies to last us long enough to get to your autobot base.” Starscream opened the elevator to the main deck, and the pair stepped inside.

“Wait- we’re going now? Can I at least have something to defend myself in case we get spotted?” Wheeljack said, getting nervous

“Soundwave has got it taken care of. He’s disrupted the cameras with a high frequency pulse and will meet us when we exit the elevator. And of course we’re going now. How do you think Megatron would react if he saw an autobot waltzing around the shop with me?”

The elevator slowed to a halt, and then let out a ding. The pair loomed at each other, then nodded. The door slid open, and-

“Hello Starscream. What have you got there?”

Starscream’s entire frame went cold. Megaton’s towering frame was standing in front of them, shockwave behind him holding a data pad. His expression was cold and cruel, his optics a blazing violet. Wheeljack, shaking, looked at the seeker beside him.

“You were saying, Starscream?”

Chapter Text

“Starscream, I would say I’m dissapounted, but let’s be real with ourselves. This is exactly what I expected from you.”

Megatron’s voice was cruel and taunting, with a wavering edge that immediately told Starscream that the dictator was currently under dark everyone influence yet again.

“M-Megatron- if you’ll allow me to explain… I..” Starscream’s voice was hoarse and weak. He knew he could never fight his way out of the elevator, especially if Megatron was somehow using dark energon again.

“As much as I’d love to hear the story of why you have an autobot in your stead, I am thankfully saved from your mindless droning. Shockwave has already informed me of your betrayal.” Megatron took a step closer, now nearly inside the elevator. “A shame to lose such a valuable asset to our cause. Not you of course, but that someone actually useful has also betrayed me. Soundwave will be dearly missed around here. I cannot say the same for you.”

Starscream cowered, with Wheeljack next to him. Neither was able to speak, as Megatron’s towering frame glared at them. As Megatron was about to board the elevator, Starscream got a message on his comm channel.

Comm received~
Soundwave: Offline audio receivers immediately.

Starscream offlined his audio sensors as soon as he saw the message, knowing what was about to happen. He turned to Wheeljack to signal for him to do the same, only to find Wheeljack nodding his head. Soundwave must have gotten his comm link and sent him the same.

“What are you two-“ Megatron started to say- but as soon as he began to speak a massive force threw both him and shockwave to the left, as if they had been hit with an invisible train. Starscream watched them dissapear from the doorway, and. felt the vibration down to his spark chamber, as the elevator rattled.

Stunned for only a second, he wasted no time, seeing the opening. He grabbed Wheeljack’s arm and bolted out of the elevator, and ran to where the blast had come from.

He saw Soundwave standing there, doubled over in exertion. He’d only seen Soundwave exert this much force into a single blast a few times, and it usually winded him for a while.

“That was truly impressive, thank you Soundwave.”

Starscream didn’t wait for a response, grabbing the winded Soundwave. The trio continued running down the hall, starscream almost dragging Soundwave. He onlined his audio again, and was immediately met with a scream of rage from back near the elevators, and Megatron’s heavy thudding of footsteps following close.

“Don’t look back, keep going, and pray to Primus we’re faster then him”

“Was this the plan all along?” Wheeljack spat as they rounded a corner. Starscream saw a sign pointing to cargo bay 4. An alarm began blaring in the hallways, as if mocking their failed attempt at secresy

“Not at all- but we have to make do.” He followed the sign, pulling Soundwave’s lagging frame faster. “We had better hope Knockout got the shuttle ready or we’re all toast”

“I should have stayed in the fragging cell” Wheeljack replied, still following close behind.

“Nearly there.” Soundwave spoke, weak but straining to stay on pace.

“Oh slag-“ Starscream said, as they rounded yet another corner to be met with several vehicons, guns raised. He let go of Wheeljack’s arm and drew his null rays. Wheeljack took cover behind the wall and pulled Soundwave behind with him.

Starscream charged at the vehicons, dodging blaster fire. He activated his leg thrusters and dove over top of them, using his wing to slice into three at the same time. He fired several shots into the fourth and fifth, but felt a sting as he felt another shot hit in the back of his shoulder. He looked behind him to see one final vehicon, still firing wildly at him.

He grabbed one of the dead vehicon frames, holding it in front of him as a shield. He ran toward the final one, feeling the blaster fire sink into his formerly-living cover. He threw it aside as grabbed the final vehicon by the neck, plunging a clawed hand into its abdomen. He closed his grip and pulled, taking a mess of wires out from inside. The vehicom fell, making a gargled static noise as it fell.

“Coast is clear. We need to move- Megatron can’t be too far behind us.” Starscream motioned, and Wheeljack and Soundwave continued behind him. As on a cue, he heard another wild yell from behind them, indicating Megatron closing the gap. Finally, after another minute of navigating the Nemisis’s winding hallways, they saw the large opening to the cargo bay. They entered, and Starscream looked around for the shuttle.

“Over there- I see it! There’s knockout!” Starscream raced towards the shuttle and towards Knockout, who was furiously beckoning them. They heard Megatron’s heavy footsteps enter the bay behind them followed by at least 20 vehicon soldiers, as they sprinted towards the shuttle.

Knockout disappeared inside as they approached it, and the three made their way, bridging the final gap between them and the shuttle. Starscream saw blaster fire coming from behind them, but thankfully as they ran none hit. They reached the shuttle, Soundwave and Wheeljack entering first Starscream glanced back towards the multiple vehicles firing on him and saw Megatron running towards them in the center. Shockwave was nowhere to be seen, but a few other decepticons seemed to have been alerted by the alarm and had joined the chase.

But something he saw made him freeze. Starscream saw them. His trine. They had clearly been alerted by the alarm, and as the lead seekers they had rushed to see the action. He could barely make out Thundercracker’s confused face among the approaching crowd, and barely even saw Skywarp’s frame as well. Time slowed as he paused for a second, wanting to call out to them. But he grit his teeth and shook it off. He needed to go if he wanted to survive, so he sprinted up the shuttle’s gangplank and hit the button to close the door.

He’d see them again one day, he knew it.

The engines blared to life as the gangplank retreated. Knockout manned the cockpit of the shuttle, having once flown it on an unsuccessful energon mine raid. It was rather large, being a former long distance cybertronian exploration vehicle, that was since reformatted into a cargo ship to transport stolen energon for the decepticons.

Starscream stayed at the door of the shuttle as it slowly rose into the air and a towards the large opening into space. He looked back out as the door began to close, firing a few final shots into the vehicon swarm. He saw Megatron standing there, furious, with Thundercracker and Skywarp by his side, looks of betrayal plastered on their faces. Nether moved or attempted to fire on the shuttle, which made the panging guilt in Starscream’s spark worse. He was terrified of what would happen to them in his absence, but couldn’t worry about that now. Primus, sometimes he hated himself for being selfish. His gaze shifted back to Megatron, panic taking place of the guilt as he watched Megatron raise his arm canon as the door finally slid shut

“EVERYONE BRACE- MEGATRON’S GOING TO FIRE ON US.” Starscream screeched, running towards the center of the shuttle and yelling down the hall toawards the cockpit. “KNOCKOUT! GET US THE FRAG OUT OF HERE”

Starscream heard Megatron’s fusion canon fire, and braced for impact. The shuttle shook slightly, but continued to move forward into open space.

“The shot grazed us- we’re still functional. I can sub-light jump in 20 seconds, everyone find something to grab onto!” Knockout yelled from the cockpit. Soundwave grabbed a safety handle protruding out from the wall, while Wheeljack and Starscream fumbled to find something to hold on to.

“Get on it before he can fire another shot!” Wheeljack bellowed back, finding a countertop to grab and holding it tight. They felt the ship rock again, slightly more this time.

“He hit the landing gear- next time we land it’s gonna be a bumpy ride!” Knockout yelled back.

“KNOCKOUT IF YOU DONT GET US OUT OF HERE RIGHT KNOW I SWEAR ILL SCRATCH EVERY LAST SURFACE OF YOUR PRECIOUS PAINTJOB” Starscream bellowed, still attempting to find something to grab.

“HITTING SUB-LIGHT JUMP NOW”

The 4 of them felt the entire ship around them speed up to impossible speeds as they jumped into sub-light travel. Starscream was thrown back, as the other two held on for dear life. The shuttle rattled and shook, clearly not having been used in a very long time. Starscream’s head was hit by something flying, and if he didn’t feel like he was about to be ripped apart by the sheer force of the shuttle’s jump, he would have tried to move away from any other incoming objects that weren’t secured.

As quickly as it started, the shuttle lurched again, exiting the sub-light jump, launching Starscream back onto the floor in a heap. The shuttle was silent. Wheeljack and Soundwave slowly released their grips on their holding spots, as Starscream rose from the floor shakily.

“Frag, my head is throbbing. Usually I’m more prepared for that.” Wheeljack said, breaking the silence. He looked around, but the inside of the shuttle was a bit of a mess. A few boxes and miscellaneous tools were strewn about, but most of the large supply crates were thankfully strapped down.

“Shuttle’s interior sub-light stabilization systems- offline.” Soundwave was looking at a panel on the wall, scrolling through various diagnostics and readings. “Shuttle: at 63% operating capacity.”

“So you’re saying it’s a piece of slag” Starscream retorted. “Thanks for the observation, Captain obvious.”

“Soundwave: Having regrets about joining the crew. Starscream: insufferable.” Starscream scoffed and crossed his arms as Soundwave opened his hatch. Rumble and frenzy jumped out, stretching.

“Are we good? That was a hell of a ride, Man!” Frenzy said, looking round. “Sweet digs, love the trash compactor vibe in here”

“Least it’s nicer than that gloomy base. This place is at least nicely lit.” Rumble responded. “Say, I see screamer, but where’s the other two of you flying dorks?” Starscream’s face twisted into a scowl, the guilt pang returning to his spark.

“They aren’t here you little brat. Were you not listening when I filled Soundwave in on the plan?” Starscream spat at the cassette, and began walking towards the cockpit. Rumble looked at Soundwave.

“Why did we come along? I’d rather deal with Megatron then be in close range with this crankhead for too long.” Soundwave looked down at the cassette.

“Decepticon mission compromised on nemesis. Cassette safety a priority.” Soundwave looked at rumble and frenzy, and kneeled, his tone becoming softer. “Destruction of another cassette: unacceptable.”

“Look at you being all caring. And I was beginning to think you’d gone all stoic on us.” Rumble elbowed Soundwave, then walked away and started wandering around the ship, Frenzy on his heels. “I’m gonna go explore this place, if there’s rooms I’ll find us the biggest one!”

“Not if I find it first!” The two laughed, pushing each other then disappearing down a corridor.

Soundwave watched them for a second, then made his way over down the hallway to the cockpit where Starscream and Wheeljack had already joined Knockout.

“Where are we, anyways?” Wheeljack said, looking at the map. The ship lazily hung over a large blue and green planet, a small grey moon peeking over the side of it. Then , his eyes widened in disbelief. “Hold on- this is Terra. You held up your end of the deal?”

Starscream smiled. “Well, Wheeljack, what kind of captain would I be if I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain and bring you to the Autobots?”

“I guess, but I haven’t even fixed the ship for you yet, or even assessed the damages!” Wheeljack put his hands on his hips. “Where’s the inevitable catch?”

“Don’t worry. Once we land, we can focus on getting this vessel in top shape. As captain, I require a fully functional vehicle for my crew.

“Wait, Starscream, who said anything about you being the captain?” Knockout replied, squinting up at the seeker.

“Every crew needs a good captain, and since I am the one who brought us all here, I think that’s quite a fair title for me to have.” Starscream leaned on Knockout’s chair, his voice prideful.

“I suppose that’s fine. But every captain needs a good second in command.” Knockout purred in response.

“I think that can be arranged. But all in good time.” Starscream stood up, turning to Wheeljack. “Alright, I promised to take you back to the Autobot base. Unfortunately, I am not privy to where that is.”

“Wait- you’re taking me directly there? Ain’t you worried they’ll take you in for killing, oh I don’t know, like a million autobots?” Wheeljack replied.

“You give me too much credit, my count is likely only in the thousands.” Starscream boasted, but spied Wheeljack’s glare and quickly changed the topic. “But uh… yes. I thought of that. Hopefully, me returning you and letting them know of my departure with the Decepticons will give me just enough grace to possibly forge some sort of peace treaty with them. Your prime is hopelessly in love with the thought that anyone can change, correct?” Wheeljack pondered for a moment.

“I guess, but why risk it? Why not just drop me off somewhere nearby? Then there’s no need to try and negotiate you being let off Scott free.”

“Risk chance: Low. Starscream is correct, Optimus Prime has shown a pattern of allowing chances to change.” Soundwave said, nodding his head slightly.

Starscream paused. He debated telling Wheeljack the true reason, as not to expose ulterior motives. But he saw no reason to hide it.

“I, truthfully, am hoping to speak with a certain member of your autobots,” Starscream said softly, looking out at the blue planet. “There is something I need to set straight.”

“Who, the prime?” Wheeljack asked.

Starscream’s mouth tightened, his gaze moving across the planet until it settled on a large white patch at the top of the sphere.

“Not exactly.”

Chapter Text

When Skyfire had awoken from the ice, the fist thing he had felt was the pain. It was one of only two things he remembered from those first few minutes of consciousness after millennia of nothingness.

The first thing he had felt was pain, yes

But the first thing he had seen was Starscream.

…

Skyfire’s hands still hurt. To be fair, every part of him still hurt. But his hands were the worst. They shook as he handled the delicate glassware, partially from the pain, and partially from the sheer effort it took to keep them steady and not spill the contents.

Ratchet had said this would happen if he overexerted himself, as he needed time to fully regain his dexterity after millions of years frozen in ice. But if he wasn’t constantly working, his mind would wander. To thoughts of iacon, the academy.

To Starscream.

He would take the stinging pain in his hands over the cloudy pain in his mind any day. So he kept going. He would work until his frame crumbed, or until the war finally came to an end. He wasn’t quite sure which outcome he dreaded more. He had to keep going. He had to-

*Tink Tink*

A small tapping noise from on his back startled him. He jumped, knocking one of the vials onto his hand. The corrosive liquid bubbled over his paint, immediately beginning to peel the white coating off.

“Oh Frag- I’m sorry I didn’t mean to-“ A voice stammered from behind Skyfire. He turned around to see a pink face staring at him in concern.

“Oh- it’s no worry arcee. It’s just paint.” Skyfire grabbed a small cloth and began to soak up what was left of the liquid. “It’s nothing more than a fancy acid to remove paint from wounds in order to not infect the internal energon. Looks like I’ve made it too strong, though.” Arcee smiled.

“Well it sure did its job. We can send you to ratchet to patch your hand paint up, though he may not have the exact hue. Skyfire looked at his hand.

“Ratchet doesn’t have white paint?”

“He does, just not your specific shade. Your paint is slightly tinted blue, and his tends to be a more pure, unaltered white.

“How did you-“

“I’m an informant, Sky.” Arcee tapped the bridge of her nose. “It’s my job to be observant.” The two shared a small laugh, and Skyfire finished wiping the rest of the acid off of his hand. The hand was stripped, the shiny chrome of an unfinished frame.

“I came to tell you that Optimus would like to speak with you.” Arcee said, putting a hand on her hip.

“What about?”

“A Decepticon cargo ship came out of sub-light travel about 10 minutes ago and is currently orbiting over Earth.” Arcee pulled a small data pad from her subspace and showed Skyfire, it was a picture of a small spacecraft taken from a distance.

“Earth?”

“Oh- sorry, orbiting over Terra. I’ve been communicating or.. uhh.. ‘hanging out’ with a few of the organic on the planet here. They call this planet Earth.” Arcee looked slightly embarrassed. “Anyways, cosmos snapped a picture and sent it to us while on watch duty.”

“Oh! I was unaware the Terrans had a different name for this planet.” Skyfire’s face turned more serious. “Wait, a Decepticon cargo ship? That’s strange, are we sure it’s not any sort of scout ship or war vessel?” Arcee shook her head.

“Nope. It’s an old model, with minimal weapons systems. Cosmos scanned for life forms, and it looks like there are only a few on board.” She swiped left, and it showed a fuzzy zoomed in picture of the ship, with a heat map overlayed. There were 4 larger hotspots near the cockpit, with two small ones off to the side.

“No offense, but why does Optimus want to speak to me about this?” Skyfire said, cocking an eyebrow.

“We asked him to move in closer and run a spark signature scan.” She swiped once more, revealing 8 sparkdata lists. “It’s hard to get accurate readings from a scanner that far, but it seems we are dealing with 2 grounder sparks, a carrier spark, 4 cassette sparks, and…” She intook air before saying the last. “There is a seeker frame aboard.”

Skyfire’s spark fell into his fuel tank. A seeker frame. There was no way.

“Can you take me to Optimus?” He said, rising from his chair with a pained groan. “Please.” Arcee nodded, an understanding expression on her face.

Skyfire towered over the other mech, being one of the final cybertronians shuttles still in operation. Arcee was in no way a short bot, but Skyfire could make even warframes look like minicons.

“Don’t hit your head on the doorway there” Arcee said, jabbing his hip with her finger.

“Har Har. Very funny. Well you better watch where you step, I don’t want to trip over you.” The two chuckled, as Skyfire ducked under the doorframe.

“Optimus said if they begin approach, they’ll have no choice but to shoot it down, since they can’t risk a direct attack on the base.” Arcee said as the two made their way down the orange hallway. “We aren’t sure what, or WHO is aboard, so we have to be cautious.” She tapped his arm lightly. “He said he hopes we can establish contact before they attempt to approach, if they do at all.”

“Do we have any way of contacting them?”

“If the radio doesn’t work, we’ll just send your big mug up to go say hi.” Arcee shrugged. “You’re a shuttle, right? Probably have a better chance than the rest of us.”

“Hey- not all shuttles know each other.” He said in fake offense.

“True. You’re also probably the least combative mech on base, so we probably shouldn’t send ya to go check on some random decepticons. Can’t have you getting wrecked over a crummy cargo ship.” She elbowed Skyfire’s arm lightly.

He smiled, feeling a small pang in his chest. It hadn’t been easy adjusting to life with the autobots, but they were kind. He had made a few friends here and there, but the only one he had felt a real connection to was Wheeljack. But ever since Wheeljack had gone MIA in the last scuffle with the decepticons, he had been burying himself in his work even harder. He just wished he could find himself exploring the stars again. Exploring it with…

———

“Starscream” Knockout chided from the cockpit. “Can you please stop touching buttons and levers? I am attempting to get us to the autobot base and you are making it quite difficult.”

“I am ATTEMPTING to keep this ship stabilized upon entry of Terra’s atmosphere, Knockout. You seem intent on burning us up in this atmosphere. Have you ever even flown a spacecraft before?” Starscream’s head flicked to a small alert on the control display and aptly flicked a switch next to it, causing the ship’s lights to flicker.

“Oh yes of course, it’s not like I’m a medic who hardly sees battle. That sounds like the perfect candidate to be the one to land a shuttle in enemy territory.” Knockout spat, feeling the craft shake and turning the wheel hard left.

“WHY DID YOU HOP IN THE PILOT’S CHAIR THEN???” Starscream screeched, holding onto his chair for dear life.

“YOU ALL WERE RUNNING SLOW AS SLAG AND DECIDED TO TRIP OFF EVERY ALARM KNOWN TO PRIMUS.” Knockout turned hard left, avoiding a small white cloud. The turn sent Starscream tumbling out of his seat and onto the floor. Wheeljack and Soundwave watched quietly, both strapped into their own seats at the back of the cockpit. Wheeljack stifled a small laugh.

“What was THAT??” Starscream yelped, grabbing back onto the search handle and scrambling back up into the chair”

“There was a collection of some sort of white mass in air, I wasn’t going to HIT it!” Knockout cranked the steering handle right again, sending the ship careening to avoid another.

“ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT THE FRAGGING CLOUD??” Starscream screamed, while sliding his own seatbelt on. “HAVE YOU NEVER BEEN TO A PLANET WITH CLOUDS, KNOCKOUT?? THEY ARE FULLY INTANGIBLE YOU COGHEAD?”

“Oh I’m sorry I was born into a cybertron tumbling into war and therefore never got your LUXURIOUS education about extraterrestrial ecosystems.” Knockout spat out, but stabilized the craft. He flinched as the shuttle slammed into another cloud, but as it sailed through effortlessly, he breathed a quick sigh of relief.

The shuttle flew through the shelf of cloud obscuring the land, the cockpit’s windows sheathed in grey and white. After a few seconds it tore out of the bottom of the layer, and Knockout looked at the ground below. It was a dense green forest, with small beams of light poking through cloudbreaks to illuminate small emerald patches. A few blueish grey streaks and blobs dotted the landscape, with massive grey and white cliffs in the distance covered with more of those ‘clouds’.

“Why Wheeljack, you never told me Terra was this beautiful.” Knockout’s eyes had a small sparkle in them. “I would love to tear up some road here instead of that miserable grey rock we usually circle around.”

“Yeah, unfortunately I’m not able to wax any poetry about the pretty sights when y’all are shooting at me or locking me up in a cage, huh.” Wheeljack retorted, but his tone was light. “Yaknow, I do love this place. Maybe yall could stick around for a while if you really are dead set on trying to flip a new leaf.”

“We’re approaching the base.” Knockout said, glancing at the geomap with the coordinates that Wheeljack had typed in.

“Be careful with the approach, knockout. Have you tried to comm them to let them know we aren’t here as enemies?”

“Nonsense, this thing has no weapons. There’s no way they’d fire on us.” Knockout waved Wheeljack off.

“Alright. Just be careful, I know our head of security is pretty trigger happy, so keep an eye out.” Wheeljack replied. He knew Prowl wouldn’t waste a second attempting to destroy any decepticons in the vicinity, regardless of what it seemed they weee going. Knockout brought the ship down farther, the autobot base coming into view.

“Looks like that’s it over there.” Knockout pointe. “Get ready to- AAH!!”

An explosion rocked the craft, sending it reeling through the sky. Knockout attempted to get it stabilized, but it was no used

“Something hit our left wing! We’re going down!” Knockout scrambled, trying anything to get the ship up.

“I TOLD you we should have waited!” Wheeljack yelled

“I’m not staying on a crashing ship! I have wings- I’m out!” Starscream unclipped his belt and sprinted down the hall.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Wheeljack yelled back at him, but Starscream didn’t stop. He entered the main bay, and stumbled as he felt the ship rock again. He ran to the door and hit the exit button. It slid open, and immediately the rush of wind nearly sucked him right out. He was about to jump when-

“What’s happening? Are we okay?” Starscream turned around, and was met with rumble and frenzy standing behind him, holding onto a box fastened to the floor.

“The ship got hit with something, and I’m not sticking around for the impact!” He spread his wings and turned back to jump out, but felt a tug on his leg.

“Take us with you!” he turned to see both of them hitched onto his leg.

“Yeah, I ain’t dying in some plane crash! Fly us outta here!” The two were firmly grasping onto his leg, and he attempted to shake them off. But they were too strong, so Starscream bent down to pry them off-

~ B O O O M ~

Another explosion rocked the ship, tearing a hole in the opposite side. Starscream lost his balance, and toppled out of the door, falling into the sky below. Rumble and frenzy fell too, losing their grip as the three tumbled into open air. Starscream immediately began to transform, plates shifting into jet form, his thrusters igniting and sending him soaring through the air. He watched as the ship careened downwards, beginning to fly after it to find where it landed. But his eyes drifted down to the shrinking figures of rumble and frenzy. He growled in frustration- why is he always put into these stupid ethical positions? He didn’t care about these stupid cassettes, all they did was get in the way! The crew would be better off without them.

So why was he flying down towards them?

Starscream transformed back into his regular form and shot downwards. The ground was rapidly approaching, so he strained his thrusters to try and reach the two before they hit the ground. He was nearly there- reaching out his hand to Rumble to snatch him from the fall. He grabbed him, and kept following Frenzy down. His internal flight alerts blared at him to stop spiraling downwards

‘Ground approaching. Pull up.’

Almost there.

‘Pull up.’

He can almost grab him.

‘PULL UP. PULL UP.’

At the last second he hooked frenzy’s arm and swooped upwards, carrying the two with him. He narrowly avoided the large green flora called ‘trees’ that seemed to fill this planet, and he grinned in pride. He eyed the falling ship above him and gunned his thrusters to try and catch up with it.

“Geez Screamer, that was a pretty sick catch!” Frenzy said from his grip. Starscream’s grin widened

He would be a hero to his crew. What a way to make them love him! Follow his command! He would be revered! Maybe even Soundwave would do what he told him to all because he saved some stupid cassettes!

“Uh- Starscream- thanks for catching us but, ain’t you supposed to be flying up?” Rumble shouted at him. Starscream broke from his daydream, and found that the little brat was correct. He was slowly descending in altitude as he shot across the tops of the trees, getting dangerously close to colliding with some of them.

“You two are past my weight limit in my default mode! I can’t go any higher without transforming!” He said, realizing the severity of the situation.

“Well don’t DROP us!!” Frenzy screamed, covering his eyes.

Starscream’s thrusters began to sputter, and he almost dropped the two cassettes as he kept flying and slowly losing altitude. And then the worst possible thing happened. His left foot thruster blew, overheating and sending him in a downwards spiral through the Terran trees.

“Hold on you two!” He said, trying to use his remaining thruster to avoid the larger trees and slow his fall, but it was no use. In the final second before he hit the ground, he looked at the two terrified cassettes he was holding. Without thinking, he wrapped them in his arms, and twisted his body to be face up so he hit the ground first. He took a breath and braced for impact.

And then there was nothing.

…

The first thing he felt was the Pain.

Pain. Everywhere. But he was used to pain.

Someone was yelling. Or maybe it was his audials ringing. Blurry shapes swam in and out of his vision. He couldn’t feel his legs. Or his wings. Or his face. His consciousness was slipping away. In his final few seconds, a blurry white shape filled what little vision he had.

“-et him to medbay soo-“

He knew that voice?

“-transport needed-“

He knew that voice.

“-got you. “

And as the world melted into nothing, the last thing he felt was the pain.

Chapter Text

The shuttle slammed into the ground, sending the crew inside sprawling. Wheeljack’s chair stayed strong, but Soundwave and Knockout’s had unbolted, the two flying into the back of the cockpit. Wheeljack’s optics stayed shut, holding onto his seat for dear life. The shuttle continued to slide forwards, the ear-piercing sounds of metal scraping over the ground filling the air. It continued to slide over the ground, until final it came to a stop.

“Everyone good?” Wheeljack said, ripping the belt off himself and slowly standing up from the chair. The cockpit was destroyed, the glass windows fully shattered, and the console smoking and shattered.

“Negative. Require help.” Soundwave’s voice was pained, even under the layers of vocal modulation. Wheeljack turned around, and saw him pinned to the back wall by a large metal rod, his left leg severly scraped and sparking from the damage. To his left, knockout lay, dazed but seemingly unharmed unharmed.

“Yikes, let me see what I can do” Wheeljack moved back towards soundwave and attempted to move the large piece of metal pinning him. It barely budged, and Wheeljack stepped back. “Never thought I’d see the day I’m helping one of the head decepticreeps out of a life or death situation. You all better be serious about turning a new leaf, don’t make me regret this.”

Wheeljack bent down, gripping the large metal rod, his fingers straining as they dug into the metal. With a heavy groan, he began to lift with all his strength. He heard soundwave make a small noise as it scraped against his lower chest, un-burrowing from his frame. Wheeljack kept pushing, and finally it gave, falling to the ground. Soundwave shakily stood, attempting to level himself out. But his leg was too tattered, and he began to fall. Wheeljack grabbed his arm and steadied him before he got too far.

“Ah, got you buddy. Careful, that leg of yours is shot.” He hooked soundwave’s arm around his neck, supporting him. “We have to get out of the ship, the central core could blow if it’s damaged.”

“Soundwave: Need to find Rumble and Frenzy. In back of shuttle.”

“We can get them later, we need to get out of here.” Wheeljack began helping Soundwave move to the door. He looked down at knockout, and gave him a swift kick. Knockout jolted out of his daze.

“AGH! Are we alive?? Am I dead??? Or worse- scratched?” Knockout sat up, looking over his frame and scoffing in disgust. “Ugh- I’ll need a whole new frame to fix these scuffs.” Wheeljack stared at him for a second.

“I really shouldn’t have to tell you that isn’t the priority. Get up and help me get Soundwave out of the shuttle.”

Knockout stood and the three began to make their way out of the shuttle. As they entered the main cargo bay, they saw the massive hole in the ship, filled with dirt and debris from the landing.

“Rumble and Frenzy whereabouts needed.” Soundwave started to try and move towards the back of the ship, but couldn’t find the strength to break away from the other two with his busted leg.

“Soundwave we need to get out of the ship. the Central core is most likely damaged. If we are around when it blows, we ALL are going down.” Wheeljack tried to move soundwave towards the large gash in the ship to get out, but Soundwave began growing agitated.

“Primary goal. Finding Rumble and Frenzy. Leaving irrelevant.” He broke out of Wheeljack and Knockout’s hands, taking a few steps. But his freedom lasted mere seconds, his leg buckling under him. Wheeljack jumped forwards to catch him yet again.

“I’m telling you, Soundwave. You can’t find them alone. They probably got sucked out through the hole with Starscream. If they’re out there and you die in here when this thing blows, this whole leaving the decepticons thing will have ended faster then it started.” Wheeljack continued to help Soundwave to the exit, who gradually stopped fighting. The only response was a burst of static from Soundwaves voice box. The three approached the ship’s gash and slowly stepped out onto the soft Terran dirt.

“Eugh, the ground here is sticky. There appears to be a high level of water in the terrain.” Knockout said, lifting a leg to examine the gunk.

“The humans call it mud. Looks like we landed in a swamp. Keep going.” Wheeljack continued to lead them away from the ship, which seemed to be next to a small pond of some sort. As they walked, the ground solidified, small green foliage popping up sparingly. Finally, Wheeljack deemed it a safe distance, and he slowly lowered Soundwave to rest against one of the Terran trees.

“Let’s wait here, the autobots are no doubt on their way to come looking for us.” Wheeljack said, fans running high from the strain of carrying Soundwave.

“If breakdown were here, this would’ve been a lot easier.” Knockout said, still examining his busted up frame.

“You can say that again. Dude would’ve carried all of us like nothing.” Wheeljack replied. Knockout paused, looking over at Wheeljack.

“Wait. How do you know Breakdown?”

“We served on the wreckers for a while together. Back before he left to go Frag around you bozos”

“Hah. Yeah.” Knockout looked up, thinking of Breakdown.

“I take it you two were close?” Wheeljack asked, looking towards the red medic.

“You could say that. Hard not to get close with the only other sane ‘con on board” Knockout said, smiling. “Well, Soundwave here was decently sane. Actually had some common sense among Starscream’s whining and Shockwave’s insanity. Still a weirdo though.”

“Compliment noted.” Soundwave weakly spoke up.

“Aw, not even a compliment appreciated, sounders?” Knockout cooed.

“Compliment appreciated” Soundwave corrected.

“Huh, didn’t know you had a sense of humor. Always thought of you as some emotionless weirdo” Wheeljack said, leaning back onto the tree.

“Soundwave: not emotionless. Designation belongs to shockwave”

“Sheesh yeah, forgot about that terrifying hunk of purple” Wheeljack replied.

The three sat there in silence. After a few minutes, Wheeljack heard the rumble of engines in the distance.

“Hey yall- I think the autobots are close. How do you wanna play this?” Wheeljack said, climbing to his feet.

“I’ll just convince them not to kill us using my incredible charm tactics,” Knockout said, making no attempt to rise himself.

“What? No they aren’t gonna kill you. I was more talking about myself and why I haven’t put you all in cuffs or anything.” Wheeljack began to pace as the engines grew louder. “You all sure you’re ready to prove your worth to them?”

“Soundwave: Refuses to Join autobots.”

“Yeah, I figured, and I’m not saying they’ll make you. Just act normal and don’t attack anyone, okay? Let me do the talking.” Wheeljack faced the direction of the engines. “OVER HERE!” He yelled into the distance.

“Sheesh, bossy bossy. And I thought we were rid of Starscream.” Knockout said coolly.

“You think he really ran off for good?”

“If there’s anything he’s good at, it’s running away. But he knows he can’t survive out there on his own. He’ll be back.”

3 sets of wheels appeared through the trees, barreling towards the trio. Wheeljack began waving his arms, and the three cars continued at them, each transforming as they arrived.

“Wheeljack? Oh man, we thought you were scrapped!” The one on the left said, pulling Wheeljack into a barrel hug.

“Jazz! Oh it’s good to see you!” They exited the hug, and Wheeljack looked at the two others.

“Hey Prowl! Oh good, you brought ratchet, too.” Wheeljack pointed over to soundwave, still propped up against the tree. “We need some help, he isn’t leaking energon but he’s not looking good.” Ratchet and prowl looked over, and both immediately made audible gasps. Prowl pulled his pistol immediately, poking it at Soundwave and Knockout. Knockout smiled sheepishly and slowly raised his hands up.

“Woah woah woah, prowl, take it easy” Wheeljack said.

“Excuse me? You’re telling me to take it easy when a member of the Deceoticon high command is just SITTING there in front of me?” Prowl looked quickly between the two Decepticons and Wheeljack. “I know you’ve always been a few energon cubes short a full tank, but this is crazy. Why are they here? Why are YOU with them? How did you get here?”

As soon as prowl finished, a large explosion detonated a few hundred meters from them. A shockwave shook the trees around them, and all of the bots flinched. Everyone was silent for a few seconds, looking off at the plume of smoke rising from the tree tops.

“And what the hell was THAT??” Prowl looked at Wheeljack in bewilderment.

“Well, that’s the answer to one of your questions.” Wheeljack shrugged. “That WAS how we got here.”

Prowl looked lost. His logic processors were working overtime. Wheeljack could hear the gears turning in his head. After a few seconds, Prowl just sighed and lowered his weapon.

“I have no idea how you keep outdoing yourself. What are you doing here with this scum?” Prowl spat the last word out, still perplexed and upset.

“Look, I’ll explain after we get back to base. Just- get everyone repaired up. Then we can figure out together what to do.” Wheeljack placed a hand on his chest. “All I know is I was captured by some Decepticon goons. For whatever reason, these two decided to desert from the cons and helped me get out too. I owe it to them that I’m even online.”

“No no. This is crazy. Jazz, get those two in cuffs.” Prowl began to walk towards the two Decepticons, but Wheeljack grabbed his arm, stopping him.

“No. I’m being serious. They aren’t here to cause trouble. At least I don’t think.” While Wheeljack was speaking, ratchet made his way over to soundwave, examining his leg.

“It’s gonna need some significant repairs. Wheeljack, you sure this is a good idea?” He looked warily at knockout, who just waved him off.

“Yeah. At least I trust these two. I’m not sure about the other one, but he’s MIA right now. So are soundwave’s cassettes. Unless they were… in the ship.” Wheeljack looked at Soundwave, who surprisingly shook his head.

“Rumble and Frenzy: lifesigns active. Still online.”

“Thank Primus.” Wheeljack sighed.

“I’m sorry did you just thank Primus that those little creeps are still alive?? What happened in the week you were gone?” Prowl said, flabbergasted. Wheeljack, yet again, shrugged.

“Less then you think, actually. I just know this guy will probably be more cooperative the more of his cassettes he knows are safe.” He gestured at Soundwave.

“Statement: true. Soundwave will cooperate for sake of lenience.” Prowl rolled his eyes, then looked at Wheeljack.

“Wait, you said there’s one more con you said was MIA here.” He looked around. “Where might they be?”

“Not sure. They jumped out of the shuttle after you sent the missile after us.” Wheeljack prodded Prowl. “Thanks for that, by the way.

“Hey- you know red alert, paranoid and trigger happy. You’re the one who decided to drive a Decepticon ship right up to our base.” Jazz said, twirling a small tree branch he picked up from the ground.

“Wait, the third con jumped out of the shuttle? Why?” Prowl asked.

“Oh, he’s a flight frame. Bailed as soon as it was clear we were going down.” Wheeljack grumbled.

“A flight frame?” Ratchet said, looking up from his examination. “Who?” Wheeljack grimaced.

“Well, you know how I said I don’t trust him at all?” Prowl slowly turned to Wheeljack, and Ratchet put a hand to his face, pinching his nose.

“Please don’t tell me…”

Prowl’s comm beeped.

‘Hey prowl- we found another person. We think it’s a seeker but it’s hard to tell, they’re pretty busted up. We need ratchet here ASAP’

Prowl groaned and pressed the comm button.

“I’ll send him over.”

“Oh, and prowl?”

“Yes?”

“You’d better let Skyfire know he’s here.”

Chapter Text

Starscream’s eyes felt heavier then they ever had before. It was a struggle to slowly open them, and even harder to keep them so as the harsh medical light filled his optics.

His vision slowly began to unblur, a small and slightly run down medical office faded into view. Someone was in the corner, fussing with an energon drip. Starscream began to panic. Where was he? What had just happened? How long had he been here. The bot in the corner whipped around as Starscream’s spark monitor began to beep faster.

“What the- how are you awake? Ratchet! I need you in here!”

Starscream started to try and move, but he couldn’t move his legs. They seemed to be tied down, and he started rattling them to break free. But pain shot through his lower half and he winced, growling in pain.

“Where… kaff… am I??” His vocalizer was weak and glitchy.

“RatchetRatchetRatchetineedyourightnowgetinhere!” The short bot in the corner was frantically tapping his arm comm. “He’s awake and I’m not sure what to do!”

“Let me OUT you wretched- kaff- slagger” Starscream strained against the restraints, but it was no use. His spark monitor was racing, and the pain became unbearable. His vision swam again, and he succumbed to the drowsiness once more.

“Doc- I think he’s going back under-“

…

Skyfire stood in the doorway of ratchet’s medical bay. It was a private room, separate from the main bay, usually used for captured enemy deceptions or truly gruesome injuries as to not panic anyone needing more minor repairs.

Starscream was here. In front of him. Skyfire’s brain was a mess of emotion. What did he want? Was he here on purpose? Or some Decepticon raid mission gone wrong. Either way, he wasn’t sure what to do. Sure, he missed Star, but he missed HIS Star. Not this twisted, war scrapped psychopath in Star’s body. He hated that he didn’t recognize his partner. And he hated that he felt like it was his fault.

If Skyfire just hadn’t been so stupid, maybe he could’ve been there for Starscream. Maybe things would’ve been different, and he could’ve saved him from the path he went down. Maybe they could’ve escaped, gone to travel the stars. Left this whole stupid war behind. Maybe…

“Are you gonna come in or leave? Your EM field is giving me a headache.” A small voice from inside the medbay called to him, stepping over from where he was hunched over. It was ratchet’s assistant, someone Skyfire had met only once or twice in passing. “Plus, there’s a draft and I want the door closed either way.”

“My apologies, First Aid. I am just conflicted over whether it would be beneficial for me to be here when he wakes, that’s all.” He hesitated, then stepped inside the bay, the door sliding shut.

“No worries. Ratchet told me you’d probably be stopping by. He’s keeping an eye on the others we found, since they seem to be doing alright.” First aid glanced over at Starscream. “We have no idea why this one and two of the cassettes were found so far away from the ship, or how in the allspark’s name the cassette’s came out with only minor scuffing.”

“I assume by cassettes you mean..?” Skyfire asked

“Yeah. THE cassttes. Soundwave’s own pride and joy.” First aid let out a long exvent. “And Primus knows they aren’t talking.“

“Yikes. I hope you all had the sense to reunite them with Soundwave”

“Not yet. They’re being too rowdy to let out of a cell. We told Soundwave we are having trouble finding them but we know where they are, so he doesn’t freak out.” First Aid giggled. “I have no idea how we haven’t won this war yet with the sheer amount of weirdos they have over on the decepticons.”

“You’ll have to enlighten me on that sometime, first aid. I didn’t know you were familliar with any decepticons.” Skyfire tilted his head. “You’re a relatively new recruit to the Autobots, like me, aren’t you?”

“Yeh, I am. In fact I was the last one to join before you did, so thanks for stealing my spot of being the newbie around here.” First Aid leaned on the counter. “But yeah, I’ve met my fair share of cons even before being picked up here.”

“Where? Weren’t you stationed on some far off outpost or something? I’m surprised you even heard of the war with how long you say you’d been there.” Skyfire smiled. “I was hoping you’d be in the same boat as me, not knowing anything that was happening.” First aid groaned slightly.

“Unfortunately my old boss was pretty keen on staying up to date with the war stuff. He sometimes would find injured decepticons and try and fix them up, but we could never save them. At least that’s what he said.” First aid shook his head.

“What do you mean that’s what he said?” Skyfire asked.

“Well, when Ratchet and Prowl discovered me on a scout mission, my boss went kinda crazy. I’m not sure exactly what happened but all I know is he tried to unleash some sort of crazy virus that backfired or whatever.” First aid explained. “Not sure if he has a psychotic break or if he was always that crazy and I didn’t see it, but man he flipped out. Ratchet had to cut his hands off and everything to stop him from escaping.”

“What.”

“Yeah yeah don’t give me that look. Listen, when he’s the only other bot around for millions of years, you kinda ignore the crazy cause you don’t wannna accept that you’re stuck with a psychopath.” First aid waved a hand at Skyfire, who laughed nervously.

“Yeah… I know a thing or two about that…”

“I don’t really miss him that much now, but we had some fun moments.” First aid said.

“Like killing patients.”

“Hey- I never killed any patients. They always died in his care, never in mine. I meant more like we had a poetry reading club.”

“I’m sorry? You had a poetry club with a derranged doctor?” Skyfire’s face was the mix between amusement and horror.”

“It was called the ‘Pharma and First Aid poetry appreciation society.’” First Aid raised his hands and shook them as he said the name. “I came up with that.”

“Hold on, your names were Pharma and First Aid, AND you were medics? Sometimes I forget how uncreative the functionalists were with naming.” Skyfire said.

“You assuming I didn’t choose my own name?” First Aid said, cocking his head. Skyfire’s fan kicked on in embarrassment.

“Oh shoot no I never mean- I- what I meant was-“ Skyfire stuttered, tripping over his words.” First aid laughed and put a hand on skyfire’s leg (the only place he could reach).

“I’m just messing with you, sky.” He gave Skyfire a reassuring nod. “I swear, with your soft spark I have no idea how you deal with this wacko. No offense.” Skyfire looked to Starscream, still peacefully asleep.

“You’d be surprised. He used to be… well still insufferable.” Skyfire kept staring at Starscream’s sleeping frame. “But we worked well together.”

“Well, speaking of, I better go help ratchet with the rest.” He walked over to Starscream and tapped his spark monitor. “This guy’s stable, and last time he woke up he kinda freaked out, so I have to ask you to keep an eye on him. You might be one of the only bots that he wouldn’t freak out waking up to.”

“Either that or he’ll freak out MORE because it’s me.”

“Either way, I need to go help Ratchet. I just got a message and apparently the deception’s medic Knockout is causing some problems over the invasiveness of the damage inspection.” First aid began to make his way to the door, and Skyfire looked between him and Starscream, worried.

“What do I do if he wakes up?” Skyfire asked.

“Easy. Dont take his restraints off.” First aid said, opening the door and exiting into the hallway.

Skyfire stood in the silent medical bay, his audials picking up the faint buzzing of the lights and whirring of fans, with intermittent beeps emanating from the spark monitor. He grabbed a chair from the desk and moved it over beside Starscream’s medical berth. The chair was slightly too small, and creaked under his frame. He grimaced, looking at the amount of welds and scraped paint streaking across Starscream’s frame. He was almost purely grey and white, stripped to his protoform colors. Skyfire slowly reached for Starscream’s hand, almost out of habit. He grasped the hand slowly, it fitting perfectly in his. And for a second, everything seemed like it might be okay.

Then, Starscream woke up.

Skyfire immediately felt a jolt run through Starscream. He felt Starscream’s hand tighten around his, and watched his eyes shoot open. They weren’t the blue of the starscream he’d known millennia ago. They also weren’t the red of the starscream he’d met a few months ago, either. They were a dark yellow, a strange color seen in relatively few bots anymore after the war. It was the color of civilians, of neutrals.

“Skyfire?” Starscream’s voice was weak, a swirl of emotions. His EM field was also a mess of different emotions, changing and fluctuating in wild confusion. Skyfire turned to Starscream, squeezing his hand.

“Hey it’s okay- you’re okay. Just relax” Skyfire said in a calming tone, trying to avoid Starscream panicking. Starscream’s fans were in high gear, exventing hard over and over.

“Get AWAY from me!” Starscream tried to rip his hand away from Skyfire, but the restraints. “You traitorous COWARD. You try coming here to what- make me feel better?”

“Hey, take it easy. We’re both here and safe, can we just… talk?” Skyfire said.

“Fine. I’d love to hear your excuse for why you turned traitor. Why you abandoned us.” His optic narrowed. “Why you abandoned me.” Skyfire’s lips were pressed into a thin line.

“You changed Starscream. In my mind, millennia passed in the blink of an eye. And you were different. Cold” Skyfire let go of Starscream’s hand, slightly shaking. “

“It’s almost as if I’ve been in a war for millions of years. That changes people. Do you know how hard it is to stay ‘nice’? You’re so naive.” Starscream spat, still struggling to get out of his restraints.

“You don’t have to fully change though- look at Wheeljack! Perceptor! They haven’t become so warped and twisted as you say they have!” As Skyfire spoke, Starscream’s mouth continued to warp into an angry frown.

“Haven’t they?” Starscream said.

“What?”

“Do you know the amount of lives Wheeljack has taken?”

“He said-“

“Maybe not indirectly. But the amount of bombs he creates. What do you think he does with those? What do you think the autobots do with those.” Starscream said, his steely tone matching his glare.

“At least he doesn’t derive joy from killing. I saw in your optics how eager you were to fire on anyone in your way.” Skyfire looked at Starscream, direct eye contact between the two. “You shot me after one short moment of me not doing exactly what you wanted.”

“You were betraying me, Skyfire! You were going to-”

“I was NOT.” Skyfire slammed the table, hard, interrupting Starscream. Skyfire stood, angrily staring at Starscream.

“I thought you coming here meant you had a scrap of reason. Maybe you’d come to apologize, do ANYTHING of value. I left the decepticons, not because of Megatron, not because the Autobots were ‘right’, but because of you.” Skyfire was getting slowly louder as he talked, emotions intensifying. “At every step since I woke up, you didn’t care about me. You wanted to control me. You thought I would play your fragging power game.”

“I-“

“The autobots ask me how I’m doing, Starscream. They care about my well being. They take care of me now that I’m like THIS.” He gestured to his shaking body, struggling to stand under his stress. “You didn’t even do a medical check up to see if I was okay. You didn’t touch me. You stood back, as if I was an ASSET to be USED.” Skyfire screamed the last word, coolant streaking his face. The room went silent. Even the spark monitor seemed to have gone quiet. Skyfire stood, shaking.

“…”

“Well?” Skyfire said. “You going to ignore me?” Starscream’s lips tightened, but slowly he looked at Skyfire.

“They blamed your death on me, you know.” He said, an uncomfortably soft voice rising into the tense air.

“I know. I went through the archives.” Skyfire replied shakily. “It wasn’t a fair trial”

“What were they supposed to think? Two experienced explorers leave, one comes back.” Starscream scoffed. “The blame would go on the academy if it was just a freak accident.”

“…”

“I never stopped looking for you.” Starscream said, looking away.

“I know.” Skyfire said, sitting back down.

“I just…” Skyfire brushed one of the streaks of coolant off his face, then turned to Starscream.

“I just wish you’d found me before you’d lost yourself.”

Chapter Text

Skyfire held the cube up to the energon dispenser, filling it around halfway. He set the cube down, and picked another up, repeating the process. He grabbed both cubes, and began to walk towards the exit of the cafeteria.

“Hey Sky, how you holding up?” He looked up to see Arcee sitting at a table with a few other bots, all chatting.

“Hey Arcee. I’m alright, just grabbing some energon for myself and Star.” Skyfire rolled his eyes. “He requested energon that wasn’t ‘cheap medical swill’ or whatever.”

“Sounds like he’s doing alright.” Arcee took a sip of her own energon. “Heard anything about the others?”

“Prime allowed the decepticon medic to come take a look at Starscream to finish up repairs. Then a few of them are going to decide what to do with everyone.” Sky put a hand to his neck. “I wasn’t invited since I’m close to one of them so my opinion will be biased, or whatever.”

“What, they find your secret love notes or something?”Arcee said, amused.

“How did- no. No there aren’t any.” Skyfire’s cheeks slightly tinged blue. Just… apparently my feelings on one of them is outdated, which, yeah makes sense.”

“Wonder which one.” Arcee said smiling. She turned back to the others at the table, and waved him off. “Good luck with cranky!”

“Thanks.” Skyfire turned and continued out of the medical bay, retracing his steps to Starscream’s medical room. He elbowed the door open button, his hands still full with the cubes. It slid open, and to his surprise, there were two other bots in the room with Starscream. One was ratchet, who seemed to be in a small argument with the other, a bright red mech who Skyfire didn’t recognize.

“Oh come on, doctor. I can’t go using your limited color schemes to paint such a prestigious bot.” The red one was holding a dented box of something, which Ratchet seemed to be eyeing in distaste.

“I can’t trust that that paint is approved for long term use on mech parts. I have a duty to make sure everyone is patched up appropriately, and I can’t have some black market paint that’s going to rust ruining my work!” Ratchet gestured to the box. Skyfire entered the room quietly, placing the small cubes on the counter.

“Doctor I assure you, I am a medical professional. These paints are all tested and of the highest quality. I was a cosmetic surgeon before the war you know.” The red mech took a glass jar of reflective red paint out of the box, and placed it against his chest. “See? I mostly use it on myself. It’s actually quite high praise that I’m offering it to Screamer here.”

“Fine. But if he gets any sort of Nanite poisoning it’s on you, not me.” Ratchet walked over to Skyfire, and grabbed one of the energon cubes.

“Wait that’s for-“ before Skyfire could finish ratchet began to drink, chugging the entire thing in one gulp.

“I know who it was for. But he’s on a strict medical grade diet, no matter how much he complains.” Ratchet walked towards the door, looking back. “I’ll check in on you after you’ve painted him. Skyfire, keep him in check.” He slid out the door, and knockout and Skyfire stood, awkwardly staring at each other.

“The autobots seem to think I’m some sort of babysitter, and that you all need to be baysat it seems.” Skyfire said, breaking the ice.

“Good thing neither of us wants that.” Knockout turned to Starscream, who was lying asleep on the berth. “How long have you two been conjuxed?”

“What? We weren’t conjuxed“

“Huh. The way he talked about you, it sure seems like you were.” Knockout began rifling through the bin of paints, taking various shades of red out and examining them.

“He told you about me?” Skyfire asked.

“Yeah. I mean, I’m assuming you’re Skyfire. No other bot around here would willingly visit this guy.” Knockout paused rifling around and stuck out his hand. “Pleased to meet you. I’m Knockout.”

“Pleased to meet you too. I can’t say I’ve heard anything about you, but If I’ve ever come across you in the few battles I’ve participated in, I do hope I didnt harm you.” Skyfire said awkwardly.

“Trust me, I didn’t see very many battles. Too important to heal others. Looks like you didn’t either. There’s very little scratching and dirt on your frame, but some signs of water damage. Probably from the ice.” Knockout traced a finger along Skyfire’s cockpit, where there was a small amount of greying.

“Huh! You’re observant. I’m surprised he told you about me at all to be honest, especially the whole ice thing.”

“Yeah. You were the only one he ever spoke fondly of. I mean usually it would be about how annoying you were, but once in a while he’d have something positive to say about your work ethic or loyalty.” Knockout crossed his arms. “High praise, honestly.”

“Yeah. I’m honored.” Skyfire said sarcastically.

“Anyways, how’d an ugly fragger like him pulled such a pretty bot like you, big guy? Knockout purred, going back to the bin, now pulling out various shades of blue.

“I told you, we aren’t…”

“Yeah, yeah. Pipe down. I give it 20 cycles before you two are back to being all over each other. I bet soundwave 30 shanix on it.”

“You BET?”

“Well, he didn’t respond, but I took it as a silent yes.” Knockout put every paint away save for three, a bright red with a pinkish tinge, a soft bright blue, and a chrome silver. “What do you think of these? Wanted to give him a less harsh color scheme. Trying to manifest him being less of an aft if we’re gonna be working together.”

“I like it. He used to be closer to these colors back when we were scientists. I hope he likes them too.”

“Oh he’s gonna say he hates it, but I know what I’m doing. He’ll love how bright and colorful he is. He didn’t have much of a chance to show off in the base, being fragged by Megatron all the time.” Knockout winced. “Im glad we left. It was getting annoying reattaching his wings so often.”

“Reattaching his wings? Primus, that’s horrible!” Skyfire said, looking horrified over at Starscream.

“He was so whiny about it, so hopefully now he’ll be a little less of a complainer. If we’re able to keep him intact.”

“I haven’t asked, what were you all doing here? Starscream told me you all were deserting the decepticons, but demanded good energon before he told me anything else.” Skyfire gestured to the empty energon cube. “Don’t think im getting that out of him any time soon”

“Honestly? I’m not sure there is a comprehensive plan. Yeah, we did leave the decepticons, but we were planning on just… running. Like so many did before us. We only came around to drop Wheeljack off and try and convince you lot to not kill us if you find us out in the wild.” Knockout began hooking a spray gun up to one of the jars of paint. “Hopefully you got it out of your system when you shot a missile at our ship.”

“Hey, I had nothing to do with that.” Skyfire said defensively.

“I know. It’s just more fun to blame whoever is in the room.” Knockout grabbed a buffer, extending it to Skyfire. “You wanna help me get him in top shape?”

“I would, but I’m a scientist, not a cosmetologist.” Skyfire responded.

“Hey- You probably know this frame almost as well as I do. You’ll be fine.”

“What do you mean by that?” Skyfire asked, reluctantly taking the buffer.

“Nothing.” Knockout smirked. “You know, I don’t usually go for flight frames, but…”

“I’m not sure I need the rest of that sentence, thanks.”

“Tsk. It’s just instinct to flirt with my medical assistant. Don’t take it personally.” Knockout pointed to Starscream’s left shoulder, where a small amount of paint and scratching still remained. “Let’s start there”

The two worked, knockout instructing skyfire on where to buff, and the two slowly began to chat about more. It began with Skyfire, asking various stories on Starscream’s time at the decepticons. Knockout would respond with small snippets, but as the day progressed, he opened up more to the shuttle.

“Did you two ever actually get along at points?” Skyfire asked after a particularly detailed section, stretching his arm in exhaustion and transferring the buffer to his other hand.

“Once or twice. When Megatron was on a mission once, we took a small amount of his dark energon to experiment on some corpses. It didn’t end well, but we had a good laugh. After he tried to pin the blame entirely on me, of course.”

“I’m sorry, Dark Energon?” Skyfire asked.

“Yes yes, I forget you autobots don’t know anything about the stuff.” He eyed Skyfire, cutting him off as he opened his mouth. “And yes, I we informed your prime of all we knew about it. He came in to question us after ratchet patched up soundwave’s leg.”

“Well. That story sounds pretty classic Starscream. Once he pinned one of my clumsy mess ups on our classmate.“

“Did you come clean? You seem the sort to do so.”

“Nah. The guy was an aft, he deserved it. He always carried this briefcase around, it was totally strange. Had it locked to his wrist and everything.” Skyfire pursed his lips. “I wonder where he is now, kinda hope he’s doing awful.”

“He’s probably long dead like most of us, so at least you don’t have to worry about him coming back to get you”

“That’s grim” Skyfire said, and knockout snapped his fingers.

“Hey. Focus, I want to get this done before he wakes up from that sedative ratchet gave him.”

“I was wondering why he’s been recharging for so long.”

The two continued to work, and as they began to finish his last panel, Skyfire felt him stir slightly.

“Slag, so close.” Knockout sprayed a small amount more, but a good sized hole in the paint still remained. “Good morning sunshine, how was your recharge?”

Starscream woke up, significantly less violently then the previous times. He groaned, his vocalizer staticy.

“Eugh, Knockout, what are you doing here?” Starscream said groggily, rubbing his optic as he sat up from the birth. He saw Skyfire and immediately the sleepy look in his eyes was gone. “Ah, Skyfire. Did you bring me that energon like I requested?”

“Well, I did, but Ratchet took it from me and said you weren’t allowed to have any.” Skyfire said sheepishly. “Sorry.”

“Ugh- that fragger. Well I do appreciate the effort, next time I expect you to blast him before he can take it.” Starscream said in a huff. Knockout grinned.

“Why Starscream, usually a failure like that gets you all worked up! I’m surprised you’re being so easy on him.” He spoke knowingly, with a smug look on his face.

“That is NOT relevant. I have decided to try and be more… merciful. It’s quite the pain but, so is the pain I carry for being a good leader.” Starscream spoke proudly for a mech with zero power or influence in the autobot base.

“I predict in 3 cycles you’ll have already killed someone.” Knockout said back.

“At least give me 5 cycles, doctor.”

“How about 4?”

“I suppose that is fine.” Starscream looked down, and jumped. “WHAT ON CYBERTRON ARE THESE COLORS? KNOCKOUT- DID YOU PICK THESE HORRIBLE SHADES?? WHERE IS THE GOLD? THE CRIMSON??”

“Skyfire thought they’d look good on you. The darker red and light blues looked royal, he said” Knockout said, shooting a look at Skyfire.

“Wait. But you’re the- OH! Uh… yes! Yes I did. I picked out the colors. Not knockout.” Skyfire caught the look from Knockout and changed course immediately. Starscream’s frown worsened slightly, but then nearly disappeared as he looked at his frame.

“Royal? Hm, I suppose I could lose some of the more warm tones. But I haven’t worn blue since before the war” Starscream seemed to grapple with his internal logic processors for a minute, before exventing out and looking at Skyfire. “I admit, it is a pleasant combination. It will do, even if I look more like a common flier now.”

“Isn’t it nice you get to be a common flier now, though?” Skyfire said. “No more high command stuff. You can do what you want, now!” Surprisingly, Starscream seemed to truly ponder this.

“I guess it is. I would really like if others did what I wanted, but that will come in time.” Starscream continued examining his body, as Skyfire undid some of the restraints. He stretched, noticing the lack of weaponry attached to himself. “Looks like the autobots stripped me.”

“They did all of us. Even took my medical saw.” Knockout said with distaste.

“You have used it for a significant amount more damage than repair.” Starscream replied, fingers glossing over where his null rays used to be.

“Yes, but it SOMETIMES was used for medical reasons.” Knockout sat back, admiring his work. “You know Starscream, these colors fit you. I told Skyfire that I don’t usually go for flight frames, but-“

“Thank you knockout. That’s good.” Skyfire said, hastily putting a hand on his shoulder. “I think you can head back to your medbay, I’ll call Arcee to escort you.”

“Tsk, so soon? Alright, I’ll leave you two alone. No need for an escort.” Knockout stood, grabbing the box of paints and heading towards the door.

“No wait, you’re gonna want an escort!” Skyfire tried to say, but knockout had already exited the room.

“Come on sky, he’s harmless.” Starscream said. “He’s too proud to get into any fights here.”

“It’s not him, I just… listen.” The pair went silent, and after a few seconds a large yelp and crash from the distance echoed through the hallways. They heard a small scuffle, and knockout exclaim some explicitives.

“What just happened?? Did they kill him?” Starscream exclaimed, panicking.

“What?? No definitely not, the autobots just aren’t used to decepticons roaming about. He probably got tackled by cliff. It’s why we have to send you all out with a chaperone when walking around.” Skyfire laughed nervously at his statement. “They likely saw his optics and acted before thinking”

“That’s barbaric. Just because a mech has red eyes doesn’t mean we’re EVIL.” Starscream said, placing a hand on his chest melodramatically.

“Uh… about that.” Skyfire grimaced, locking eyes with Starscream.

“About what?” He said, tilting his head. Skyfire stretched and reached towards the counter, grabbing a small reflective mirror. He held it up to Starscream’s face.

“We had to replace your optics and the Autobots don’t really carry red…”

Starscream’s face dropped. He examined his disgusted look in the mirror, fingers exploring the new scars, but more importantly, the warm yellow glow emanating from his optics. He had never worn yellow. He’d had blue, a long time ago, but had gotten used to the red after millennia of war. But yellow felt wrong. It made sense considering his newly liberated status, but for some reason it infuriated him. All that work in the decepticons. All the lies and the scheming. And now he sported the colors of a civilian. He sat on a berth, in the bowls of enemy territory, next to a mech that left him for a bunch of strangers.

The fighting.

The killing.

The betrayals.

It had all been for nothing.

Chapter Text

Starscream and Skyfire walked down the hall of the autobot base, catching stray looks from the bots passing by. Most of the looks were glares, but some were more inquisitive. Starscream noticed a particular short yellow bot giving him almost what seemed like a smile. He wasn’t sure what that was about. The two walked in silence, the tapping of their feet against the cold floor. They approached a large door, and Skyfire pulled a small card out of his subspace.

“Really? Security badges?” Starscream said snarkilly.

“Optimus only wants authorized bots in the holding quarters.” Skyfire said. “You lot haven’t got a lot of friends around here, you want what happened to knockout to happen to you all constantly?”

“You autobots are so uncivilized.” Starscream scoffed.

“Oh yeah? Then why are you riddled with old welds?” The words slipped out of Skyfire’s mouth before he had time to think. Starscream crinkled his nose, his eyes immediately shrouded with fury.

“Excuse me?” He said darkly. Skyfire flailed his hands in front of him in a defusing manner.

“No no I’m so sorry, I wasn’t thinking!” He replied apologetically.

“Oh really? Maybe you should try thinking for once you brainless oaf.” Statscream swiped the keycard from Skyfire, and slammed it into the keycard reader. The door didn’t open, and he frustratingly pushed it against the door again. He looked at Skyfire, annoyed. “Well?”

“You have to place it into the slit” Skyfire said, sheepishly. Starscream looked down and rolled his optics. He jammed it into the card hole, and the door slid open.

The community medbay was decently busy. Starscream looked inside, seeing the other members of the ex decepticons inside. There was another, short bot inside, alongside ratchet who was speaking to-

“Prime” Starscream said, optics widening. The blue and red autobot leader turned his head at Starscream’s voice, and tilted his head.

“Ah. Welcome, Starscream. How has your stay been?” Optimus Prime’s voice was powerful. There was an electricity to every word, a confidence rarely seen in common soldiers. His body was incredibly scraped, covered in a myriad of welds, paint scratches, and even burn marks. But he stood tall, important. The red and blue of his paint, while scuffed, were the brightest shades he’d ever seen on a Transformer.

“I ah…” Starscream struggled to find the words. “It has been surprisingly adequate, no thanks to your silly babysitters.” He gestured to Skyfire, who rolled his eyes.

“I like to think of them more as bodyguards, it’s more dignified.” Optimus said, letting out a small chuckle.

Starscream scanned the medbay. Soundwave was lying on a berth, recharging. He couldn’t help but smirk, Soundwave really could recharge through anything. There was visible scratching and scorching near Soundwave’s bed, but he seemed to be calm for the moment. Knockout was on a berth opposite of him, with Wheeljack next to him. The two were talking, but had stopped to listen to the prime. Ratchet and the small one also seemed to have stopped their milling as soon as Optimus spoke. It was strange, as if the world had paused.

“I guess.” Starscream muttered. “So what now? You fixed us all up, you going to let us all go now?” Optimus shook his head.

“We still can’t be sure you aren’t going to run right back to the decepticons. We need to know exactly what you were trying to do.” He said, walking towards Starscream. He towered over the seeker, nearly matching Skyfire’s height.

“I tried to tell him we didn’t really know, but he wanted to hear it from you.” Knockout said. Starscream began to think. What were they doing? He hadn’t thought too far past just escaping. Maybe they could form their own civilization somewhere else. Or possibly…

“It’s simple, prime.” Starscream said, a faint sense of smugness outlining his confident words. “We have a common enemy now.”

“And that is?” Optimus said.

“We want Megatron gone” Starscream said this, and for the first time, he saw a small amount of emotion quickly flash across Optimus’s prime’s optics. But it lasted no more then a klick before he was back to his unreadable self.

“Ah. Do you mind explaining this change of heart?”

“Not particularly. Do you not agree he is not a fit leader of the Decepticons, lest the leader of anything?” Starscream asked.

“It just seems sudden.” Optimus said. “Well then, if you are being honest, what do you propose you do?” Optimus replied.

“We understand that energon has been short for both factions. You give us a ship, since you so kindly destroyed ours, and in return we will scout worlds with energon deposits and report any findings to you.” Starscream said, slowly making up the plan as he went. It would be highly beneficial to strike a truce with the autobots, no matter how annoying they were. “You won’t have to deal with us save for the occasional report, and we won’t have to follow your horrible code of ethics.” Optimus squinted, and seemed to ponder this.

Interestingly, every time the conversation took a pause, Starscream noted the pure silence that the room was in. But it was different from the silence when Megatron spoke. No one wanted to speak when Megatron was around out of fear. But rather, no one wanted to speak when Optimus was around out of respect.

Starscream wondered which might feel worse if it were him.

“There would be a lot of details to work out in a scenario such as that. We can’t give you supplies and just let you roam free.” Optimus said after a minute of thinking. Starscream pondered.

“What if it were a joint venture?” Starscream said.

“How so?” Optimus replied

“We could have some of your autobots join us on our travels.”

“That’s risky. I doubt I’d have many volunteers in that scenario.”

“You could force some of them?” Starscream suggested.

“Starscream. Do you honestly expect me to do that.”The Prime spoke uncharacteristically bemused. Or maybe this WAS characteristic. Starscream realized he really only knew the legends of Optimus, and him on the battlefield. He really didn’t know much about the Prime himself.

“It was just an idea. Don’t get your smokestacks in a twist.” Starscream flopped on the bed. “We could take your mechanic, he was already with us on one flight?”

“I have a name, you know.” Wheeljack said. “And I’m not a mechanic, I’m an engineering specialist and scientific developer.”

“Whatever. You build and fix things.” Starscream scoffed. “You could babysit us or whatever.” Optimus shook his head.

“While I am not at liberty to tell Wheeljack what to do, I cannot advise him to be the only volunteer. There are 3 of you and only one of him.” Optimus looked at Wheeljack. “It’s highly unsafe.”

“Eh... I’d actually like to go see somewhere outside of his junk heap.” Wheeljack sat up. “Don’t get me wrong, the organics here are interesting, but they evolve and change so slowly, it’s hard to get any good observations after a while.”

“I’m sorry, I have to step in” Ratchet said, stepping over towards them. “Wheeljack, please tell me you aren’t seriously thinking of joining the least trustworthy group of people in the galaxy.”

“It’s not like we have swindle aboard” Knockout said, making Starscream snicker.

“My point still stands, Decepticon.” Ratchet said. Knockout winked at him, the autobot medic’s face scrunching up in disgust.

“I mean, if you can get at least one other autobot to join so you can’t all gang up on me and throw me out the airlock or whatever” Wheeljack said, looking at Skyfire.

“Me?” Skyfire said, cocking his head. “Absolutely not. That’s crazy.”

“Why not?” Wheeljack asked. “As far as I know your pacifist self gets a free ride away from the war, and you get to spend time with your little pre-war fling! Win win”

“He’s not my-“

“You filthy little-“ Starscream and Skyfire both sputtered out sentences before giving up. They looked at each other, then quickly away.

“I’ll think about it.” Skyfire said. He immediately turned around and rushed out the door. Starscream got up and tried to follow, but he held out his hand. “Alone.” The door slid shut, and Starscream stared at the closed metal. He didn’t care about that stupid oversized fragger. Sure, it would be nice to spend time with him cruising the stars, exploring together like he had always dreamed…

Frag. He needed to stop. Stupid dreams belonged in the stupid corner of his mind. Not anywhere near the front.

“Well then. Let’s hope he decides to not be stupid” Starscream said, turning back towards Wheeljack.

“This has been a long day. I trust you all will be okay here for the remainder of it?” Optimus said.

“I could do with a more comfortable berth, but it’s fine for the moment.” Knockout replied, examining his claws.

“I’ll see what I can do.” Optimus said. “Now excuse me, I have to meet with prowl and Jazz on the matter. Wheeljack, would you please join me?”

“Yessir!” Wheeljack jumped up from the berth and followed in Optimus’s stead. “You three behave yourselves, kapiche?

“…Who is Kapiche?” Starscream said

“It’s the organic’s way of saying understood. Some of the ones who we’ve been conversing with use it.” Wheeljack replied as he exited. “Just be good!”

The door slid shut. The three Ex decepticons were left in the medbay, and Starscream strutted back over to a berth, sitting down. Knockout began to mess with his box of paints, trying to organize it after it had been so rudely knocked from his hands during Cliffjumper’s assault in the hallway.

“You think he’ll actually join up with us?” Starscream asked.

“Doubt it. He probably is just getting our hopes up so we don’t try and break out.” Knockout replied.

“Even I’m not stupid enough to try and escape from here with the prime nearby.” Starscream said. The conversation died, and the room was quiet save for the rattling of an air duct above them, and the buzzing of the lights. Finally, surprisingly it was Soundwave who stirred. The quiet bot slowly sat up, staring at Starscream. He stood up from the bed, and slowly walked towards Starscream, whose wings lowered in fear.

“I- I hope this isn’t about me abandoning the ship!” He cowered. “You see I was planning on coming back and…” Soundwave placed a hand on Starscream’s shoulder, who winced, expecting a blow. But it never came. He opened his eyes and saw Soundwave staring at Him, motionless. “I uh… meant to come back you know?”

“Starscream has Soundwave’s gratitude.” Soundwave’s vocoded voice was soft, almost gentile. He placed his other hand on his torso, every single cassette nestled inside. “I thank you.”

“Slag Starscream, you got him to speak first person.” Knockout said.

“You’re welcome?” Starscream replied. Soundwave took his hand off Starscream’s shoulder and began to walk back towards the berth. Starscream exvented in relief.

“Soundwave will follow Starscream’s leadership.” His head turned back to Starscream ever so slightly, his visor just barely catching Starscream’s eye.

“For now”

———

“Lord Megatron- you wanted to see me?”

Arachnid walked into the dark and empty command bridge of the nemisis. It was strangely empty, which sent her alarm bells ringing.

“Ah yes, Arachnid. Come in.” Megatron’s voice was stable, and Arachnid thanked Primus she wasn’t talking to the dark energon laced version of the Decepticon leader.

“What can I do for you, my lord?” She replied formally. She picked up a noise coming from behind her, and turned her head ever so slightly to catch a glimpse of Shockwave entering the bridge behind her. That wasn’t good- the scientist was rarely out of his quarters.

“Arachnid. You’ve been with the deceptions a very long time. But I feel as if your service has been lacking over the last few deca-cycles. Would you care to explain why?” He began slowly walking towards her, heavy footsteps clanking on the metal floor.

“My lord- I don’t quite understand?” She said nervously. Her fans kicked on ever so imperceptibly in fear.

“Your logs shown you’ve taken scouting missions to various planets across the system throughout the last deca-cycle.” Megatron pulled a Holoboard up, displaying various ship logs. “You’ve been highly prolific in finding caches of supplies for our cause.”

“Yes?”

“Unfortunately, it seems you’ve been dishonest”

Frag. He knew. Arachnid began surveying the room for escape routes. But out of the shadows emerged several figures. Constructions blocked every exit, each one more smug then the last. But that was perfect. The exact bots she needed here, now.

“Would you mind telling me why you’ve been deceiving me on the location of your travels?” Megatron snarled.

“I haven’t- promise my lord!”

“YOU HAVE” Megatron bellowed, his stance wavering as he took a violent step towards arachnid. “Shockwave has been tracking your ship. You have made 23 visits to the planet Terra. WHAT are you doing there?”

“Nothing- I have been spying on the autobots!”

“ANOTHER LIE. Why would you not have informed me of the visits? ANSWER ME.” His voice bellowed through the bridge, echoing in the proceeding silence.

Arachnid was still. Every single ounce of her brain module’s power went towards finding an escape route. She had the distraction, the constructions being here was perfect. But she needed to figure out the best way to-

~BBZZZRRRTTTR~

“AAAGH!!” An electrical shock tore its way through arachnid’s body. She crumpled to the ground, letting out a cry in pain. Shockwave stood behind her, a large electrical extractor in his hand.

“Shockwave. Remove “Arachnid’s” cloaking device. Shockwave put the electrical extractor to the back of Arachnid’s head, where a small black circle with a faint light rested.

“Of course, lord Megatron.” Arachnid braced as Shockwave fired the gun, sending bolts of lightning through the device, frying it, and nearly sending Arachnid into a comatose state. The device flickered, and then shut off. Slowly, arachnid’s form began to flicker and change as the device’s illusion faded. Her spindly extra legs, disappeared, her body fading to a harsh coral, the color of spilled energon. And her head lost its spider like sharpness, widening and becoming battle hardened. She raised her head slowly, and her newly blue optics met Megatron.

“Ah. Elita-1.” Megatron said, smiling ferociously. “It is so wonderful to meet you.”

Chapter Text

Elita looked up at Megatron, who was baring his teeth in a manner he probably thought was threatening. He really just looked deranged, she thought.

“Took you long enough to realize. I thought you’d have caught me in less than a deca-cycle. But here we are.” She tried to keep a confident tone, but she still felt weak from the electrocution. She just had to stall long enough to find an opportunity to run.

“Shockwave has been keeping an eye out on you for a while, actually. In fact, he has been tracking your ship to the autobot base.” Megatron said, shockwave walking to stand next to him.

“So why didn’t you do anything about it?”

“Unfortunately, I have been preoccupied in the departure of some of my more capable servants.” He paused, then grumbled and rolled his eyes. “And Starscream as well.”

“What’d you do, kick his ass one too many times?”

“He was weak. A coward. He poisoned my most loyal companion against me. And for that he WILL be punished.” Megatron turned his back, walking towards a computer module against the wall.

Elita glanced around. He just needed to take one more step forward and she would have enough time to bolt out the exit. But she needed to know exactly where one of the constructions was. She scanned the room. Hook and Long haul at the center door. Mixmaster and Bonecrusher at the left. Scavenger next to shockwave. And perfectly in place, Scrapper stood guard at the left door. She hoped that Shockwave’s electrocution hadn’t fried the activator, and that after a decacycle of non-use, it still functioned.

“Megatron?” Elita said, slowly reaching her hand into her subspace, just out of sight of shockwave behind her.

“What is it?” His back stayed turned, typing something into the wall computer. He seemed to be pulling up security footage of Elita, disguised, scrounging around Starscream’s old lab.

“I was wondering if there was anything you’d like me to relay to Optimus next time I see him.” She pulled out the tiny activator, praying to Primus it worked. Megatron turned around to her, and let out a cruel laugh.

“Trust me, Autobot. The next time you see that overgrown red and blue fool, you’ll both have long been one with the Allspark. Starting with you.” He raised his fusion canon and snarled. “In fact, I think I’ll send him your head. So he knows what he has to look forward to.”

It was now or never. She looked to the left at scrapper, and pushed the activator button. It let out a small *klick*, but nothing happened.

“Lord Megatron- careful! She has some sort of device!” Shockwave said, taking a step towards Elita.

“What are you doing- seize it!” Megatron said, taking a step back in caution. Elita whipped around, ready to try and dodge another electric attack. That’s when a large groan erupted from the left side of the room.

“Uhh- boss- I don’t feel so- HRTZZ- good…” Scrapper stood by the door, suddenly a doubling over in pain. Horrific sounds of scraping metal sounds came from within him, and the seams of his plating began to emit a sickly pink and blue glow. “Someone KZZRT- help- HRGGZ- ME…” The Glow brightened, emitting from even his mouth and eyes. He began to contort in pain, and he let out an energon curdling scream.

-KABOOOOM-

His screams ended abruptly as his frame detonated, a shockwave sending the room into a smoky, dust-filled chaos. Elita had rigged Scrapper with a small device near his spark while he had been in recharge. She knew Scrapper was the head of the constructicons, therefore was the one usually not paired up on guard duty. The constructicons nearly never got medical scans, being way too impatient for anything other than basic medical care. The device worked brilliantly, being something she found in Starscream’s lab. His logs had shown that it was supposed to jumpstart a dying mech’s heart. But it worked too potently, and sent too much energy into the spark, causing it to rapidly expand and explode. The original designs were older than the war itself, but it seemed Starscream had pulled them from a long time ago to work on. She wasn’t even sure if it was originally his design.

Elita shielded her face from the blast, and took of running towards the door. As she ran, emerald shrapnel rained from the ceiling, as the shrieks of horror and grief of the other Concstructicons almost covered up Megatron’s enraged bellows. Elita raced through the halls as the sirens blared. The ship had been mostly asleep for the night, which was perfect for her escape plan.

She’d gone over her escape plan many times, but her spark still raced. She had little time to get to the ship, and wasted no time sprinting through the winding dark corridors. As she approached the docking bay, she prepared to find resistance inside. They’d know she was likely going to use a ship as escape, and would man the docking bay as heavily as possible. She just had to get there faster than anyone else.

She rounded the corner into the bay, looking around for the ship. Her original escape vehicle had been taken by the annoying as frag Starscream, so she’d chosen a significantly smaller but slightly faster reconnaissance ship that was long out of commission. She pulled a small energy pistol from her subspace, and took off towards the ship.

But her spark sank into her feet as she heard the telltale signs of seeker engines behind her. She kept running, but in less than a few seconds they had caught up to her. Two brightly colored framed barreled into her path, landing heavily in between her and the ship. A pair of seekers, a purple and a blue one now stood between her and freedom. She held up her pistol and prepared for a fight, but surprisingly, the blue one’s hands shot up in a surrendering gesture.

“Wait!” He said, a surprisingly deep voice for a seeker emerging from his voice box. “We just want to talk.”

“Yeah- save the killing for every other Con on this ship” the purple one said, their hands also raising up.

“You have 30 seconds before every single Decepticon on this ship is after me, and I won’t hesitate to go through you first. Spill it.” Elita’s voice was harsh and slightly strained, winded from the long sprint.

“Ok ok. Please tell us, are you trying to get back to the autobot base?” The purple one asked.

“Why do you need to know?” She asked back, swinging her gun to them.

“My name is Thundercracker.” The blue one spoke. “This is my trine mate Skywarp.” He referenced to the purple one. “We have reason to believe our third is currently with the autobots, and we need to see him.”

“What?” Elita said, bewildered. Skywarp sighed.

“What my overly eloquent brother is trying to say, is we want to come with you.”

“Is this some sort of prank?” She said, slightly lowering her gun.

“Look, man. They’ll be here any second. We need you to navigate us to the base, all we know is it’s on terra.” Thundercracker said. “Please. We need to make sure he’s alright”

Elita shook her head. “There’s no way. You two are just trying to get me to drop my weapon and surrender.” Skywarp, clearly panicked, looked to the ship and back to Thundercracker.

“We don’t need her. Come on, we can escape now, we’ll find him.” The seeker was slowly becoming agitated. “Just leave her!”

“This is your last chance, Autobot. You can come with us, or face Megatron by yourself.” Thundercracker said. Elita grimaced, and shook her head, and looked between the Two.

“Don’t make me regret this.” The two seekers smiled, nodding, and the trio filed into the tiny ship without even introducing themselves to each other, launching it in no time, and flying out into the dark, star filled void. The entire nemesis could hear Megatron’s screams of rage as the second group of escapees fled the warship and towards the distant planet of Terra.

———Nine Days Prior———

“What a selfish, no good, stupid, selfish, scrap headed FRAGGER!” Skywarp kicked an empty energon cube hard, it ricocheting off the wall and into a cabinet, shattering and dissipating into light.

“You said selfish twice.” Thundercracker said, reading a data pad slowly.

“Yeah well, he deserves it. I can’t believe he just LEFT us here to DIE!” Skywarp then kicked a box, sending it careening into the wall, the contents spilling out.

“Okay, one. You have to calm down. I’m not clearing up after your tantrum. Two, we aren’t going to DIE without him, you’re being dramatic.” Thundercracker stated, swiping through various files now.

“Im being overdramatic? He’s our trine mate and he abandoned us!” Skywarp sat down, their optics furious. They put their hands on their face and flopped onto one of the three berths in the small quarters. “He’s no better than those traitors who left cybertron at the beginning of the war.”

“Can you really blame him?” Thundercracker said, still scanning through files. “Remember the last time he got beat up by our oh-so-honorable leader?”

“Yeah, Megatron said he attempted to kill him again or something. Seems pretty fair to me.” Skywarp kicked their feet in the air.

“Yeah well, that’s what Megatron said. I convinced Soundwave to let me access the security tapes, and all it looks like is Starscream made some sort of off comment about missing Vos.” Thundercracker looked over at Skywarp. “Megs flew off the handle calling him ungrateful or whatever.”

“What? Why would he lie about what happened?” Skywarp asked, sitting up and looking at Thundercracker.

“Cause he’s gone fragging INSANE, Skywarp, and he doesn’t want the troops to know that.” Thundercracker threw his hands into the air, still clutching the datapads. “You really mean to tell me you can’t see that he’s no longer the same gladiator we followed for a better cause?”

“Careful, TC, you’re starting to sound like screamer,” Skywarp said, a small smirk on their lips.

“Is that really such a bad thing?”

“Well…”

“Yeah, you’re right. USUALLY that question is a resounding yes.” Thundercracker smiled, but Skywarp’s faded. They looked down, sullen.

“I just don’t understand how he didn’t take us with him. Or at least tell us where to find him.” Skywarp sulked. “I just feel abandoned, ya know?”

“Hey. Catch.” Thundercracker tossed a small object to Skywarp, who fumbled slightly before grabbing the small object out of the air. “He actually did tell us.”

“What? What do you mean, what is this?” They turned the photocube around, and immediately invented in surprise. “Is this him and..?”

“Yup. It was the only thing he left behind. Thought he forgot it, but look at the bottom.” Thundercracker twirled his finger in a turning motion, signaling Skywarp to flip it over. Skywarp noticed a small inscription.

‘Star and Sky. Terra.’ The date was crossed out, but a small circle was around the word Terra.

“Thats the planet where Skyfire went missing. That was their last photo before it happened. I think Starscream had it made, but hid it out of guilt and anger.” Thundercracker explained. “It’s why we’re never seen it before, I think.”

“Is that where the autobot base is?” Skywarp asked, then grit their teeth in realization “Oh Primus, he’s defected. He freed that Autobot in the prison block too!”

“I don’t know, remember, he’s the one that captured that Autobot too. And he hates those Autobots almost as much as he hates Megatron, I don’t know if he’d join up with them just to get in Megatron’s face.” Thundercracker thought for a second. “Of course, this is Starscream. He’d probably do anything out of spite.”

“God, why does he always make everything so difficult!” Skywarp gripped the cube in their hands, but relaxed after a second. They looked at TC. “What are we going to do?” Thundercracker tapped a file on the datapad, pulling up a small map of the nemesis.

“That depends on if you feel the same way I do.” Thundercracker began to zoom in on a part of the ship.

“And that way is?” Skywarp asked with suspicion.

“I’m tired, Skywarp. I can’t raid another empty energon mine for scraps. I can’t exploit organics and kill them for rightfully trying to defend their worlds. I can’t stand by and watch my trinemate be brutalized by a dictator who still thinks he’s fighting against something he doesn’t realize he’s become!” Thundercracker’s voice glitched slightly as he slowly became more upset. He stared at Skywarp with a sharp gaze, and then disengaged his yellow visor, showing Skywarp his eyes, which were moist with coolant to keep them from overheating from his anger.

“I see.” Skywarp said. “It’s just hard to abandon what I’ve been fighting for all these years.”

“But you aren’t fighting for the decepticons anymore. We were supposed to be against deception and hate. But now we’re just a hungry, rusty band of terrorists.” Thundercracker groaned, leaning back in their chair. “I don’t want to leave you too. But I don’t know how much longer I can stand for this.” Skywarp didn’t say anything. Their logic processor was working so loud they could almost hear it.

Was it really treason if the decepticons had slowly turned into something else? It was like that story Thundercracker had told them when he had stolen a bunch of Terran stories, about a ship that had been slowly replaced over years, until none of the original parts remained. Starscream was adamant that it wasn’t the same ship, calling the story absurd and for sparklings. Skywarp had thought it was the same ship, as it still had the same name and was technically still in the same shape. They had agreed with Starscream that it was a useless story, though, but now they understood the meaning a little more. The decepticon’s morals and message had been slowly chipped away over the years, and replaced with something far more sinister and unfocused. Was it still the same faction as it once had been? They were surprised Terran organics were able to come up with such theoretical topics.

They grappled with this for a few minutes, but finally looked towards Thundercracker with resolve. Thundercracker was back to scanning the datapad, and it seemed he had pulled up a map of the docking bay, with all of the ships marked in different spaces. There were only a few left after so many years, but he seemed to be interested in one of the smaller ones, and was taking notes on its capacity and speed.

“So.” Skywarp said, rising from the berth, taking the photocube of Starscream and Skyfire with them. They set it on the desk, turning it on its side so the inscription of Terra faced the pair. “What’s the plan?” Thundercracker smiled brightly at Skywarp, sliding his visor back down. He pointed at the schematics of the ship on the datapad.

“Wait for a distraction.”

Chapter Text

Sitting amicably at a table with multiple Autobots he had attempted to offline was NOT a spot Starscream ever thought he would be in. Optimus had called a meeting with some of the highest-ranking Autobots to determine what to do with the ex-Decepticons and mull over Starscream’s proposition. On his left and right sat Soundwave and Knockout, with Wheeljack farther down. He was told Skyfire would be attending, but it seemed the white shuttle had skipped out on the conversations entirely, which made Starscream’s tanks churn with distaste.

Across from them sat the Prime himself, flanked by the two officers that had picked him up, Jazz and Prowl, with Arcee further down, as well as Ratchet and a beat-up Red Autobot Starscream only recognized from battle. The prime had started the negotiations by letting Starscream talk about his plan to scout for Energon sources, which was met with relatively mixed reviews. It didn’t help he began to prattle on about his expertise and greatness before Knockout quickly turned the conversation back to the point. Prowl and Arcee seemed convinced the whole thing was a bad idea, and Ratchet had said that “if it were literally any other group of cons, he’d have considered it.”

Starscream usually didn’t feel intimidated, as working with Megatron usually quelled any fear of inferior bots. But he was sitting opposite from the Blue and Red prime, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of unease. For one, being a jet, he was taller than most of the grounders that made up the Autobots' ranks, and yet Optimus nearly rivaled Megatron’s height. And the humming- it’d been awfully annoying the entire time. He knew it was the matrix making that horrid humming noise, and kept glaring at the prime’s chassis. He wasn’t sure if anyone else could hear it, or if it was just his overly sensitive hearing nodes, but it was unnerving.

“Starscream, you know how much of a risk this plan is to us, as you now have some idea of the functionality and layout of our base.” The Prime spoke, quieting down some of the murmuring happening between individual parties. “If you’re lying about any part of your plan and plan to return to your old faction, this would be an incredible breach of data to the Decepticons.”

“And we all know how hung-go you are about lying,” Jazz said, cocking his head.

“The human phrase is ‘gung-ho’, actually” Prowl murmured, before looking at Starscream. “I’ll admit, I am interested to see how a scouting ship might help us out in the long run, but it’s hard to just give you the resources that you want and expect you to do what’s right.”

“We’ve given you as much information as possible, I’m not sure what else you ask of us,” Knockout said, tapping his sharp fingers across the table rhythmically.

“Plus, the Decepticons already kind of know what the floor plan of this base is. We had a double agent here for a while before he mouthed off to Megatron in a check-in and he was cut off.” Starscream shook his head. “We aren’t sure what happened to him after that, but anything we see down here isn’t giving them any more advantage than they already have.”

“I’m sorry what? A double agent??? Who??” Prowl seemed immediately agitated and stressed. “You will give me their name right now!”

“Why would I do that? You still haven’t promised to allow us to use one of your spacecraft.” Starscream smirked. “You only get so much information for free, you know.”

“You will tell me right now before I stuff my chair RIGHT UP YOUR-“ prowl was cut off by a firm hand on his shoulder from Jazz, who gripped it firmly. Prowl grumbled and glared at Starscream, but didn’t continue.

“Starscream, with all due respect, it is hard to trust anything that comes out of your mouth,” Arcee spoke up. “From what we know, you’re kind of known as a liar within the Decepticon ranks as well.”

“Now that’s true,” Knockout said under his breath.

“For your information, I tend to not be so deceptive when there’s this much on the line” Starscream replied defensively.

“Autobots: Raise good points,” Soundwave spoke up. “As a show of honesty: The three of us will remove Decepticon insignias.” The room went still. Insignias, on either side, were a sacred thing. Removing yours was a true act of renouncal, and very few cons, even those who had deserted, had ever removed theirs out of fear.

“Well then. That's something, and would certainly help your case. But you must understand, you would have to truly join our ranks to earn the Autobot insignia afterward.” Optimus said.

“You expect us to join the Autobots? Don’t make me laugh- oh wait! You just did! HAHAHAHA” Starscream launched into a severely fake laugh, ending it abruptly, then glaring at the Prime again. “Don’t get me wrong, Prime. This is a truce- NOT a surrender. We have no intention of becoming Autobots or attempting to assimilate.”

“How in Primus’s name do you expect us to listen to a word your broken voice box spews when you say this slag?” Prowl stood from the table, slamming his fist into it. “I have to listen to you babble on about this dragging ego of yours and you still haven’t given a good reason as to why we should help you. Even the stupid Boombox over there said 10 words and was more convincing than you’ve been the entire meeting!” Starscream stood as well, face flushed blue in frustration.

“I don’t think you understand how badly you need us! Our sources say you’ll be out of Energon in less than a deca-cycle because you soft sparks don’t have the tank to actually use this planet to its potential!” Starscream threw his hands over his head, his wings moving up and down in frustration. “How have we not beaten you into a pulp yet with your silly little empathetic endeavors?”

“Disorganized leadership and corruption within Decepticon ranks” Soundwave spoke up, his calm, vocoded voice a welcome break to everyone’s audials over Starscream and Prowl’s screeching.

“Oh thank you Sir Logic. What will I ever do without you?” Starscream’s face was fully blue with anger, turning towards Soundwave.

“Logic: Shockwave’s department. Superiority: Soundwave’s department.” Starscream swore he could hear a smile under the layers of synthesized vocals.

“Just shut up and back me up!” Starscream turned back to prowl. “Look. We have a common enemy. Megatron is a far bigger threat to Cybertronian civilization than any of you, and especially me. While I, and likely the rest of my crew would be willing to denounce the Decepticon cause, we do not want anything to do with the Autobot symbol either.” His voice toned down for the first time. “I want to get one thing straight. I’ve killed many, many of your kind. But you have taken just as many of mine. You Autobots aren’t innocent, and you need to understand while we don’t believe in Megatron anymore, some of us still believe in what we originally started fighting for.” He motioned at Soundwave, who gave a short nod in agreement.

“Decepticon original cause- still vital,” Soundwave said. Starscream and Soundwave were, for once, in agreement. Knockout sat to the side examining his chassis for scratches, clearly tuned out of the conversation at this point.

“I understand. I do.” Optimus Prime said as both Prowl and Starscream lowered back into their seats. Optimus rubbed the bridge of his nose slowly, then looked up. “I just don’t know if we can trust you to set you free. It’s been millennia, Starscream. It’s hard to believe your loyalty has shifted so drastically now, of all times.”

“Trust me, Prime. My loyalties have not been with Megatron for many, many Decacycles. I’ve tried to kill him more times than you have.

“Starscream Assassination Attempts: 338. Battles between Optimus Prime and Megatron: 124. Starscream is correct.” Soundwave said, still unmoving.

“But does that not just highlight how selfish you are? How untrustworthy?” Jazz spoke up, backing up Prowl.

“Skyfire seems to trust him,” Arcee said, putting her hand on her chin and grimacing.

“Oh great, the most Naive bot on base who makes sparkling eyes at everyone whenever they talk about this busted-up seeker trusts him. What a shining endorsement from a processor lacking popsicle.” Prowl said, clearly distasteful of Skyfire’s approval. Starscream began to get upset again.

“One- he is not a popsicle, whatever the frag that is. Two- you speak carefully when you talk about him. He’s a better mech than any single one of us at this table, and if you don’t know that you’re delusional and scrap-brained. Three- can you tell that thing in your chest to stop making that ear-piercing NOISE!” Starscream slammed the table hard, cracking it under his hands and pointing at Optimus Prime’s chest, where the matrix lies. The room went silent, and Knockout finally seemed to be paying attention again.

“…What noise?” He said, scrunching his face at Starscream in confusion. Everyone looked at Starscream, who began to look around for someone else who could back him up.

“None of you hear that awful ringing, or humming… or whatever the frag that is?” Starscream said, slightly untethered and gripping the table.

“Do you mean the Matrix, Starscream?” Optimus said, tone serious and inquisitive.

“What else could it be? It’s coming from your damn chest!” Starscream said, leaning closer to see the matrix nestled into grey plating behind the glass window. Optimus Prime looked genuinely shocked. It almost seemed like fear and utter bewilderment plastered over the usually composed bot, but the beat passed and the leader of the Autobots reeled in his rare display of feelings. He shot a quick glance at Ratchet, who seemed to be the only other one who was on edge as Optimus. The two seemed to exchange a glance, and possibly a comm message, but it lasted a brief moment before Optimus turned back to Starscream. The next words out of his mouth sucked the air out of the room completely.

“Starscream, Soundwave, Knockout. Your request for a ship and supplies will be honored in full. You are to find planets, asteroids, any solar mass that contains energon, and report to us. You will be unmonitored and will have free range to do what you want. You must bring two or more of our crew of Autobots along with you to make sure you stay on task, and they must agree to go with you. We will begin preparation immediately, and there will be no further discussion.

The room was fully silent. Prowl, Jazz, Arcee, Knockout, Wheeljack, the quiet red Autobot, and Starscream had looks of shock plastered onto their faces. It would have made a rather amusing statue, in fact, seeing some of the most important Autobots and Decepticons sitting around a table, looking lost and completely dumbfounded at the immediate and seemingly insane approval of the plan by the Prime. The only two who had any other expression were Soundwave, who physically couldn’t show what he was feeling, and Ratchet, who seemed to know something that only Optimus did as well. After a few seconds, the Autobot side of the room erupted into chaos.

“Excuse me?” The scarred red mech yelled in an accent Starscream recognized as Polyhexian, rare for an Autobot.

“You can’t be serious!” Yelled Prowl, twitching from baffled rage.

“Everyone please- the decision is comprehensive and final. Return to your stations. I will begin talking to some Autobots who may be interested in joining the scouting party, but for now, I want everyone on their best behavior.” Starscream recognized Optimus’s voice as his ‘motivational’ voice, having heard one too many sappy speeches and self-righteous victory calls from the battlefield. But for once, Starscream was the one victorious alongside him. The rest of the Autobots began to leave the room, side-eying or even outright glaring at Starscream. He watched as Jazz borderline shoved Prowl out of the room, the ladder staring daggers at Starscream.

“The rest of you can return to your temporary medbay quarters. We will confide with you when we find at least two willing Autobots to join you, but for now, we need you to stay cooperative.” The prime was back to his regular speaking voice, and yet somehow still it radiated leadership. “Please, for my sake, don’t cause any trouble.” Soundwave nodded, and Knowcoout gave a short “sure”, and the three Decepticons began to make their way out.

“Starscream? Hold on a second” Optimus said, and Starscream’s spark dropped to his tank.

“Yeah?” The door slid shut, Soundwave and Knockout not bothering to make sure the seeker had followed them. Being alone in a room with the prime was so much worse than with others. Hell, he’d even take Prowl back to have someone else to focus on.

“What is it saying to you?” Optimus said, placing a hand on his chest.

“What is- oh, the humming.” Starscream had his back against the door, hand near the open button. “Nothing- there’s just noise.”

“Are you sure that’s all you’re hearing?” Optimus asked. Starscream wanted to say yes and just leave, but there was something about the noise he couldn’t place. “It sounds like… singing. Or screaming. Something between those two.” Starscream wasn’t sure why he was telling the truth. Something about the Prime’s question seemed genuine, compulsory.

“Hm.” The Prime stared at him for another few seconds, then sat down. “Thank you, Starscream. That’s all.” Starscream exvented quickly, then hit the door open button and slipped out of the room. He felt himself relax as he entered the hallway, the door sliding shut behind him again. But as soon as he was out, he looked down to find a short yellow mech in front of him. It was the same one who had smiled at him when he was first introduced to the base.

“You can hear it too?” It said, crossing its arms.

“Hear what? Were you eavesdropping?” Starscream said with disgust.

“Yes. I wasn’t invited to the meeting but I wanted to know what they were talking to you about.” He said. “You can hear the matrix too?”

“Yes? Why is that such a big deal? I have sensitive audials.” Starscream snorted down.

“Yeah well, the thing is that it doesn’t make any noise. At all. No audio detectors pick it up. We’ve tried everything to figure it out.”

“Okay. And why shouldn’t I ignore you until I can get out of this scrap-ridden excuse of a base?”

“Because you’re one of three people that can hear it.” The yellow mech poked him in the leg.

“And who are the other two.”

“I can hear it fine. The name’s Bumblebee, by the way. Thanks for asking.” He sarcastically smiled and reached up a hand, which was promptly ignored.

“Okay. And? The third?”

“Well, it was one of Optimus’s close friends and allies. He went off on some fancy ship on a quest for greatness or whatever. At least that’s what we were told. Optimus was pretty messed up about it.”

“Oh, that one. Yes, I’ve heard the stories. We lost a few of our own troops to that deluded hothead.” Starscream said, remembering Megatron’s fits over the matter.

“Well, I’m just trying to figure out why the heck the matrix chose you. Anyways, I’ll see ya around. I have to update Cliff on everything now. See ya, scream queen!” Bumblebee bounded off, disappearing as fast as he had shown up. Starscream stood in bafflement.

“…Scream Queen?” He repeated to himself.

Chapter Text

“Alright, you lot. We don’t have any good long-range vehicles to give you for your scouting missions or whatever, so we are going to have to try and fix up the one you came in on” Arcee and Wheeljack led the three Ex-cons down to hallway to the Arc’s hangar, which had partially collapsed when it crashed into earth the first time.

“Isn’t it, you know, completely torn apart and completely blown up?” Knockout asked, bringing up the rear of the group.

“Well yes, but we don’t have too many options,” Wheeljack responded, then paused. “Actually? We have zero other options. Hopefully, you all have some experience in spacecraft maintenance.” The crew entered the bay and in front of them lay a giant scrap heap of parts, with only an almost collapsed ship frame standing.

“I’m sorry, spacecraft maintenance?? We are basically building this junk from scratch!” Starscream exclaimed, looking at the singed rubble, now recovered from the forest.

“Yeah well, thank Sunstreaker and Sideswipe for recovering as much as they did. We could have just made you all go out there and get it.” Arcee sideyed Starscream, then dropped the box she was carrying. It was full of wielders, buffers, saws, and anything necessary to get a busted frame back in working condition. Wheeljack, also having been carrying a box, set his down too.

“You should have most of the stuff necessary to help rebuild and repair. It seems a lot of the electronics are broken, but fixable, as they were in the interiors of the reinforced walls.” Arcee continued, pointing at some of the burned scraps. When Starscream took a closer look, it seemed, while charred, a lot of the larger paneling was intact, and there was more still secured on the ship than it looked. A lot of the side rooms were still decently intact, but the cockpit and main hull were pretty stripped. The engine would be the hardest thing to repair. “Good thing you all still had maximum shields up even after you crash landed, it kept the blast decently contained.”

“I’ll stay to help you all out, and first aid will stop by later to give us an extra set of hands,” Wheeljack said, picking up a clunky-looking sander from his own box of materials. “It’s going to take at least a few cycles just to get everything back together, and who knows how long it will take to get it functional.”

“So that’s it? We have to fix up the mess YOU made by shooting us out of the sky?” Starscream spat.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Next time when an enemy ship arrives at our base, we will invite them in for a midday energon treat.” Wheeljack rolled his optics, then thrust a buffer into Starscream’s hand. “Now go start getting rid of scorch marks and scratches off of the side panels.”

The Decepticons and Wheeljack walked over to the pile of metal and began to get to work, but before Starscream could join them, Arcee pulled him aside.

“What do you want?” He jeered. She squinted at him, then held a small data pad up, with a short code on it. “What is that?” Arcee looked to see if anyone was watching.

“Skyfire’s comm code. I know you two have a lot of catching up to do.” She let him take the pad. “Don’t make me regret this.”

“Did he authorize you to give me this?” Starscream asked. He had been under the assumption that Skyfire hadn’t much wanted to talk to him, but maybe…

“No. But I have a feeling you might need it.” Her face softened, looking almost sympathetic. “He doesn’t really fit in around here. He doesn’t belong in a military base, and he seems incomplete. That is, until you showed up. I swear, even his optics are brighter.”

“Oh.” Starscream couldn’t even think of a retort. “So you think he should come with us?”

“I don’t want him to, I really like his company around here.” She looked down. “But I care about him, and he seems to care about you. So maybe it would be good for him. Maybe you too.” She looked back up, meeting Starscream’s gaze. Despite her shorter stature, and being a grounder, her piercing eyes were slightly intimidating. “So make good use of that. Don’t go and be your signature brand of awful. He doesn’t deserve it.”

With that, she walked away, leaving Starscream with the pad. He looked down at the code, scanning the numbers. He input them into his memory bank and pulled up a text comm on his HUD.

*Hello*

He mentally winced at the sheer awkwardness, but he wasn’t sure what else to say. He kept the comm open and sat down on the ground.

“HEY! What do you think you’re doing? Get off your aft!” Wheeljack through a wrench at Starscream, bounding off his head, leaving a small dent.

“FRAG- HEY! I'm taking CARE of something! Don’t you Autobots know patience?”

“Stop being lazy, Screamer,” Knockout said, handing another wrench to Wheeljack. Starscream raised his arms, closing the comm screen on his HUD.

“Okay okay STOP! “ he screeched, waving his arms. “I’ll get started.” He missed having some sort of authority, it at least kept unruly behavior like this at a minimum. But here, he was nothing.

“The whole point of my leaving the Decepticons was to AVOID head injuries, Wheeljack.* he made his way over to the scrap where the rest of the crew was working, and took a large piece. It looked like a door, but the handle and keypad were scraped off, and there was a large hole at the top corner.

He began to sand down the sharper edges with a rickety sander he found in the box. There was very little chatter among the 4, everyone seemed to just be working as fast as possible. Starscream didn’t have a problem with that, the sooner he could get out of the Autobot base the happier he would be. Around 7 human hours in, most of the scrap had been cleaned and assessed for damage. Wheeljack brought it a decently sized crate of extra scrap metal the Autobots had collected, and they began to use it to patch up the various pieces of the ship. Starscream and Knockout had practically no experience with manual labor, shaking Wheeljack explained basic tool functions to them. Knockout picked up some of them quicker than Starscream, his medical knowledge applying in some areas.

“I’ll say, heavy-duty welds are much harder than medical welds. So much larger and harder to get accurate.” Knockout commented after repairing a hole in the side of a vent shaft he was working on.

“Are you kidding? Ratchet tried to show me how to medical weld and I ended up sending myself to the medbay three times just practicing!” Wheeljack exclaimed. “I hate how gentile you have to be, it’s infuriating!”

“Huh. Guess it just takes someone who’s experienced with their hands.” Knockout grinned, catching a sideye from Starscream.

“Don’t,” Starscream murmured. Knockout’s smile widened ever further.

“You know Wheeljack, we could use someone of your talents on the scouting ship with us,” Knockout said, setting down his welder. “Why, none of us are very experienced in large-scale machinery, and you actually are decently tolerable to be around a rare commodity.”

“Soundwave: Good at repairing machinery” The blue mech chimed in. Knockout rolled his eyes, before regaining his composure.

“Well, aren’t you also a scientist? That could come in handy, someone to give a second opinion on all of Starscream’s brainless testing.”

“I dunno, y'all. I kind of specialize in brainless testing. You should ask Skyfire. He’s better at reeling in Screamer, or so I’ve heard” Wheeljack gestured at Starscream, who pouted further.

“I am trying to make his acquaintance, again, alright? He’s being cold… for lack of a better word.” He stumbled over the word cold, making knockout and Wheeljack stifle a laugh.

“Can’t you just flirt your way back to his good side?” Knockout said. “That usually works for me, and you aren’t too much worse-looking than I am.”

“That isn’t how real people do things, Knockout.” Starscream groused.

“Is it not? Let me show you” he turned to Wheeljack, who squinted his optics and leaned away.

“Uh, knockout, it doesn’t usually work when you announce it before you do it.” Wheeljack sputtered hesitantly.

“Hm. But what if it is masked in genuine interest?” Knockout slid closer to Wheeljack slightly, who continued to lean away. “Say, it would be nice to have someone worth perusing aboard the ship, no?”

“Excuse me?” Wheeljack flushed slightly blue in the face.

“You heard me.” Knockout cooed. “It’s a wonder a mech as talented as you isn’t conjuxed yet. Say- how’s this for a good plan? I’ll teach you how to do medical welds, and you teach me to do industrial welds.”

“Listen, Knockout, I-“

“Sh. Just take a breath.” Knockout cupped Wheeljack’s hand, nearly imperceptibly letting out a snort when he didn’t pull away. This was faster than usual. “I’ll guide your hands. It’s easy. Just a steady line.” He leaned his head closer. “You just have to be careful not to set the heat too high. Don’t wanna burn them.”

“Are you quite done” Starscream gagged in his mouth. How did anyone fall for this slag?

“Yes- Yes, I think we are.” Knockout let go, and scooched back over away from Wheeljack, leaving his face a telling energon-flushed-cerulean. “Just think about it, Wheeljack. It’d be a fun change of pace from the boringness of this pointless war.

“Uh. Yeah. Okay. Um- I’m gonna go- yeahI’mjustgonnagotalktoarceeaboutsomething” Wheeljack jumped up and swiftly walked out of the cargo bay, as the three watched in silence.

“What on Cybertron was that?” Starscream sputtered.

“He and the Autobot medic were In a pretty big fight a few cycles before you captured him. Looks like they called whatever they had going quits. He’s lonely.” Knockout stated matter-of-factly. “He’s an easy target for catcalling right now.”

“You’re unbearable. And how did you even figure that out?”

“The little yellow Autobot traded me that info for some about you and Skyfire. It’s easy to gossip with the younger ones, they will spill so much more than you give.” Knockout started back up on welding, joining Soundwave in being productive.

“What is with everyone here being so obsessed with my nonexistent relationship with him??” Starscream asked.

“Like I said. Gossip is gossip. Now- are you going to learn something from what I just did and get him to join us? Cause The prime said we needed two, and I’m not sure anyone else here would give us a chance.” Knockout continued working, only barely glancing up at Starscream.

“Don’t tell me to fraternize to recruit! And don’t you dare go poking around him, either? If I end up WANTING to recruit him, I’ll do it in my own way.” Starscream shot back. “Besides, it’s been Millions of years since I’ve attempted to court anyone. Megatron is far too against fraternization between officers.”

“Didn’t stop me and Breakdown” Knockout replied smugly.

“You two weren’t in high command.”

“Also didn’t stop Soundwave and Shockwave.”

“What?” Starscream whipped his head over to Soundwave, who sat in silence. “Please tell me you two weren’t actually involved”

“Shockwave: Good company” Soundwave clarified.

“Unbelievable.” Starscream sighed.

“Look- all I’m saying is it could help to treat Skyfire with some warmth. You don’t have to woo him, just be polite.” Starscream opened his mouth to think, but Knockout held his hand up and cut him off. “Think it over. Stop doing your best to push him away. It may actually happen.”

Starscream glared at him in silence, but something in him knew Knockout was correct. The three continued to work in silence, only interrupted by Soundwave releasing Lazerbeak to stretch her wings by flying around the cargo bay.

After a few more hours, they heard footsteps, and Arcee came back into the room, letting them know it was Earth’s nightfall and they had to go back to their makeshift quarters in the medical bay. Starscream put his tools in the box, and followed Arcee back down the halls, reaching the medical quarters and flopping onto his berth as he heard the door lock behind him. He conversed with Knockout for a few minutes about some minor battle they both remembered near the beginning of the war before he heard the telltale buzz of Knockout entering recharge.

Starscream lay in silence, before pulling up the text comm he had sent to Skyfire that morning. No response, but the green dot at the bottom of the message let him know it’d been read.

*frag* he thought to himself. He was done waiting. He began to type in a new comm

“You will meet me in the far left corner of the cargo bay at sunset, or else.”

He read it over, but Knockout’s words came back to him. Maybe being a bit more warm would help his case. Skyfire had a soft spark, after all. He frowned, then typed again.

“You will meet me in the far left corner of the cargo bay at sunset, or else. :)”

Who said he couldn’t be polite?

Chapter Text

“That has got to be the worst “I miss you text” I’ve ever seen,” Arcee remarked, looking at Skyfire in bafflement.

“I can’t tell if he’s threatening me or if he’s just REALLY bad at communication,” Skyfire replied.

“I think it’s a combination of both.” Arcee shook her head. “You should probably go anyways, he can’t really do anything that bad since he’s stuck here. Plus you’re probably the only person on this base he hasn’t tried to kill yet. It’s a right of passage for the Autobots.”

“Yeah, I know they removed most of his weapons and Red Alert would be freaking out if he saw them anywhere near the armories.”

“Well, if he tries anything, just sound the alarm. We like you alive.” Arcee smiled. Skyfire returned a small grin.

“I do too.”

——————

Starscream tapped his foot against the cold cargo bay door. He had endured a second day of manual labor and Wheeljack’s grating personality, but at least the transport ship was starting to look drivable again. It would take at least 5-6 more Terran cycles to get it fully functional, but having progress helped the agony of being stuck in the Autobot base. He had told Knockout and Soundwave he wanted to stay and work a little bit after nightfall, so he had the cargo bay to himself.

“Starscream?” A soft voice called out from behind him. He turned and his spark jumped, seeing Skyfire enter into the bay.

“Oh. Um- hi, Skyfire.” Starscream composed himself, bringing up his mask of indifference to hide his slight nervousness

“So. You bring me here to kill me or something?” Skyfire’s tone is light, he’s clearly trying to keep the mood pleasant.

“HAH. Hah. No. Why would I risk my chance of escape just to inflict a little pain?” Starscream dismissively flicked his hand forward. “You take me for reckless. I’m no fool, Skyfire.”

“Hm. Forgive me for not particularly trusting you.” Skyfire was wary. What game was the seeker playing?

“All is forgiven. Now Skyfire, I know you have been mulling over whether or not to join us in our glorious journey for Energon!”

“I don’t know, Starscream. I’m finally starting to find my place here, and it seems kind of risky to just give up the security of living here. Especially being… well, especially with how few cybertronians are left in the universe.” Skyfire hesitated at the last line, concealing the true meaning. But for all his flaws, Starscream knew how to read people, Skyfire more than most.

“You’re worried because you think you’re the last shuttle left, huh?” He let his voice be soft. Almost kind. He wasn’t sure why, but he needed Skyfire to join them, and he knew that one wrong phrase would scare him off.

“Well, that’s part of it,” Skyfire answered.

“You do know the Decepticons have a shuttle too, right?”

“Really?”

“Yeah, his name is Astrotrain. I considered trying to bring him along, but he’s not the brightest bulb on the Nemesis. And he’s REALLY loyal. Like- possibly tell Megatron about my plan and get my wings ripped off again level loyal.” Starscream shuttered at the thought. He looked up at Skyfire, whose face was plastered with concerned horror.

“He would do what?” Skyfire reached a hand out but hesitated.

“Oh. So you’re surprised a murderous dictator mistreats his soldiers. The depths of your nativity never cease to amaze me.”

“Hush up and come here.” Skyfire was stern, grabbing Starscream and spinning him around, the seeker emitting a yelp. He looked down the Starscream’s wings, the most sensitive and sacred part of a seeker. It was riddled with deep grooves and welds of varying quality and lengths.

“What are you doing?” Starscream said, trying to turn around, but Skyfire’s hand kept him in place.

“These were all Megatron?” Skyfire said, somberly. “Why?”

“Some of them I had coming. See the large X near the tip of my left wing? That was when I attempted to seal him in the airlock.” He laughed dryly. “If only Shockwave hadn’t let him out, I would have been rid of him for sure. Unfortunately, I had to deal with a few hours of pain and about a decacycle of recovery. It was worth it to see the panic on his face, though.”

…

“Starscream, that’s horrible.” Skyfire placed a hand over the wing, tracing his finger along the scar.

“hNN-“ Starscream made a slight noise, his wing swinging backward, smacking Skyfire in the side. He immediately slapped a hand over his mouth, then swung around, his face a neon blue.

“Don’t. Ever do that.” He growled, wings back and raised.

“I’m sorry- I forgot how sensitive your wings are.” He stammered, looking down. “I’m just… maybe we could help fix some of the more rudimentary welds? Ratchet is-“

“Ratchet isn’t touching me.” Starscream was firm.

“Don’t be like that. I’m just trying to help.”

“I don’t care what you are trying to do. You’re being a nuisance.”

“Is that all you brought me out here for? To yell at me?”

“No, you’re just being a sentimental aft!” Starscream stared at the pair of sky-blue optics, unwavering in their relentless concern. He sighed. “Look. I’m leaving soon. Whether your Autobots allow it or not, you and I both know they can’t keep all three of us here. I just don’t want to leave this on the wrong foot, okay?”

“Well first, you need to stop getting mad at me every time I speak.” Skyfire retorted.

“We maybe if YOU- no no. I’m going to be civil.” Starscream grit his dentae. “I think you should come with us.

“I told you I would think about it.”

“I know.” Starscream paused, his brain and his spark in a battle for his pride. “I can’t be alone, again, Skyfire.”

“You won’t be alone. You’ll have Knockout and Soundwave, and by the looks of it, if you decide to be nice, you’ll have Wheeljack too.”

“You know that’s not what I mean, Sky.”

“What DO you mean, Star?” Ugh. He was really going to make Starscream say it. This was the worst possible outcome.

“It would be nice to have my old lab partner back.” Starscream managed to choke out. “I think it would be beneficial for both of us if you would um- please- join us. Join me.”

“It won’t be like it was before, Star.” Ouch. He knew that was coming. “You’ve done things, said things to me that I really shouldn’t forgive. I don’t know if I have.”

“You shouldn’t have left me, Skyfire.”

“You shouldn’t have changed, Starscream.”

The silence was horrible. The next one to speak would have to follow that. Starscream decided to do what he always did, run from his problems and not say a word.

“You have to say something.” Skyfire broke the silence finally.

“I didn’t want to change. I had to. It was war.” Starscream replied.

“Everyone has a choice. You’re upset with me because I made mine, and I respect that.”

“Do you?”

“I do. It was as painful for me as it was for you. I need you to understand it wasn’t because of who you became.” Skyfire’s hand came up to Starscream’s cheek, who stirred, but again didn’t move away.

“Star. Say you understand. I’ll come with you.”

…

“Star please” He tilted Starscream’s head up.

“I’m trying,” Starscream said. “Isn’t that enough?” Skyfire pursed his lips, refusing to break eye contact. There was a pause before he replied.

“Only if you keep trying”

That was the last thing said. But the air had shifted. Somehow, the first of many walls built up over time had broken between the pair. They stood, looking at each other, with just the faintest sense of understanding.

Finally, Skyfire nodded, and walked back out of the bay, leaving Starscream alone.

But he was just a slight bit less alone than he had been for years, and that was more than enough for him to be satisfied.

Chapter Text

48 earth cycles. It had been 48 earth cycles they were trapped in the Autobot base, and Starscream was completely and utterly tired of it. He was tired of the little red Autobot glaring at him and “accidentally” bumping into him in the hall. He was sick of Wheeljack constantly getting frustrated with him for not being such a perfect mechanic when fixing the ship. He hated the constant Autobot optimism reflected back on his outbursts and the way some of them kept trying to make him open up. It was horrible.

He actually quite preferred when Autobots like Prowl treated him as a prisoner of war, which is what he REALLY was. He may not be a Decepticon anymore, but he sure wasn’t staying here out of desire.

Knockout, on the other hand, seemed to be thriving. He reveled in the attention handed to him by the smaller Autobots and loved telling them stories from the deception’s point of view of the war, albeit with some exaggeration of his duties. Starscream knew that he hadn’t really brought a spark back from extinction, but his exhaustion overcame his need to embarrass the red mech.

Knockout had even managed to convince the Autobots to let him move into a private habsuite, where Soundwave and Starscream were still stuck in a makeshift corner of the medbay. Starscream had the unfortunate experience of walking into Knockout’s suite without prompting, leading to him finding Knockout and one of the Autobots, a blue one, sharing a berth. He thanked Primus both seemed to be asleep, but was careful to knock every time after that.

The only thing keeping Starscream going was the passing glance at or chat with Skyfire. Soundwave was as unreadable as ever, so he didn’t make the best company. But once in a while, Skyfire would join Starscream, Wheeljack, and the other Decepticons in the cargo bay, helping them repair the ship. Sometimes the small talk amongst all of them nearly felt pre-war in nature, but would eventually result in a statement thrown against one faction or the other, ending in silence.

Today’s conversation wasn’t bad, though. Skyfire had been reminiscing on his and Starscream’s time at the academy, telling stories of their experiments. His current ramble was on a time the two had been caught in one of the research and development labs after curfew, and their daring escape. It was only Starscream, Soundwave, Wheeljack, and Soundwave, Knockout had weaseled his way out of this one somehow, Starscream was sure it had something to do with the blue Autobot he’d been fooling around with.

“It’s wild- Starscream actually had the idea to make a makeshift firebomb with some of the flammable chemicals to distract the security bot!” Skyfire chuckled. “I still am not sure how you can tell the explosiveness of a compound with just one look.”

“I just wish you had let me do it. It would have been much easier than your silly little “sneak out when he isn’t looking” plan.” Starscream scoffed. He sat up from the plate he had been attempting to wrench into place. “I will say we were lucky the lab was white, otherwise both of us would have stuck out like a sore digit.”

“Wait- how did you blend in with the supposedly WHITE lab so well?” Wheeljack asked. “I mean, I get you Sky, you practically look like an earth blizzard covered you. Which… uh… I guess it did. Sorry.” Skyfire chuckled and gave him a dismissive wave.

“Yes? I fail to see your point.” Starscream replied.

“Well look at you. You’re constantly a smash of half the rainbow’s worth of colors.” Wheeljack gestured to Starscream’s frame.

“I wasn’t always this bright, you dimspark.” Starscream scoffed. “High caliber mechs such as myself change color schemes at least once a deca-cycle. Back then I was mostly white, like Skyfire.”

“You did have a little more red than I did,” Skyfire said, pulling out a datapad, and then slowly scrolling through.

“True. Thank goodness you didn’t take my advice about going black and purple- while you would have been able to look slightly intimidating for once we would have been caught immediately!” Starscream looked over and pitted at Skyfire. “What are you doing? I’m talking- put your pad away.”

“I’m just trying to find something. Hold on- you’re so impatient” Skyfire rolled his optics and kept scrolling.

“Soundwave- before the war. Still blue.” Soundwave chimed in.

“Huh. Like the same shade and everything?” Wheeljack asked.

“Negative. Lighter. Similar to earth sky.” Soundwave tilted his head. “Soundwave believes darker blue is more tactical. But… the previous color was a calming palette.” Soundwave went back to polishing the cockpit's nearly intact side window, a faint tune emitting from his helmet. The rest of the crew just watched him in silence for a second, but he ignored them.

“Is he playing music?” Wheeljack whispered to Starscream “Does he have audio players in that helm of his?”

“No. He hums to himself. Also, you don’t have to whisper. He’ll hear you no matter what volume you are at.” Starscream looked at Soundwave, who gave a thumbs up, still not turning his head towards them. “It’s kind of in his name…? Sound. Wave.” He snorted. “You should learn some common sense, wheelie.”

“Wheelie?” Wheeljack turned his face into a disgusted scowl. “Who the hell told you to call me that” Starscream’s face, in contrast, smirked annoyingly.

“That bumblebee fellow isn’t half bad. He’s not the worst of you Autobots to talk with.” Starscream shrugs. “He tells me things, and I tell him about the Decepticons. All things I have already discussed with your prime, but I embellish to get what I want out of him.”

“Oh, Primus. What’s he fed you.” Wheeljack asked skeptically.

“Your commanding officers are in a romantic relationship, the music-obsessed one and the one who is actually treating me like a responsible captor.” Starscream smiled. “You all should treat me as more of a threat, you know”

“Fat chance. Without your wings and gun, you’re barely a coughing sparkling.”

“Well. This SPARKLING has millennia of combat experience so you know.”

“Don’t we all.” Wheeljack gestured around y everyone in the room. “Also everyone knows about Jazz and Prowl, they’re conjuxed.”

“I don’t have that much experience,” Skyfire said quietly

“Wait, your prime allows you to conjux?” Starscream asked, pausing.

“Yeah, did Megatron not?” Wheeljack questioned.

“No- it’s a liability to form attachments during a war. Does your prime have no concept of strategy?”

“On the contrary, he thinks it’s good for morale and gives us something to fight for.”

“Hm. Sounds risky, but you all do seem happier here. I clocked it to your inferior intelligence but perhaps you’re just coddled.” Starscream snorted.

“Have you always been this bitter?” Wheeljack asked

“Yes,” Soundwave piped in.

“No,” Skyfire said simultaneously.

“That answered that, I guess.” Wheeljack sighed. “Well- either way. Are there any pictures of you pre-war?”

“I don’t have any” Starscream responded gruffly.

“I do.” Skyfire held up the datapad, showing a slightly blurry picture of him and another mech.

“Primus- is that you screamer?” Wheeljack scurried over to the datapad to take a look. “Damn- you look good! You seem actually happy for once.”

“As shockwave says- illogical,” Soundwave said, making a small noise afterward that nearly seemed like laughter.

“Give me that. I want to see.” Starscream pushed Wheeljack out of the way to see the image. It was the two of them, laughing at some crude joke in the courtyard. Starscream’s white paint matched Skyfire’s far more, but his eyes were closed, hiding their blue tone. Near the bottom, he could see their hands curled up, grasping each other tenderly.

“Put that away.” He looked up at Skyfire.

“What? I thought you all wanted to “

“PUT IT AWAY.” Starscream smacked the datapad out of Skyfire’s hands and it clattered to the floor unceremoniously. Skyfire stared at it, then looked back at Starscream.

“What the frag is your problem? I thought we agreed to be civil!” He exclaimed, irritation shining through.

“You shouldn’t show such personal things to others. They don’t deserve to be a part of that past.” Starscream glared back up at the large Autobot.

“Star. It’s okay. Just take it down a notch. I doubt they care at all.” Skyfire took a breath, walking over to the pad. It was thankfully unbroken, but a small crack ran through the middle. “Slag, I’ll have to take this to get it repaired.”

Starscream stood where he was, fans running high. It wasn’t fair. He was never allowed to hold on to the past, why should Skyfire be allowed to? Why should he get to have fond memories? Here he stands, on the right side of history, with his memories, his conscience, his wings, everything Starscream didn’t.

Primus, he missed his wings.

As he stood there, his fans working overtime to try and cool the rapidly rising temperature in his frame, he found himself finally looking over towards Skyfire. He hated him. He hated who he could be. He wanted nothing to do with him, with anyone here. He deserved to be miserable with the Decepticons, to be alone, anywhere but here. He wanted to run and put as much distance between himself and Skyfire as possible.

But he couldn’t. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t do anything as he watched Skyfire’s face soften. He couldn’t do anything as he watched the only one who even tried to understand him walk towards him. And he couldn’t do anything about the arms that wrapped around his frame, or the coolant slowly sliding down his cheek. He just stood there, as the weight of the millions of years of suffering and fighting and horror crushed him from the inside, and Skyfire’s embrace crushed him from the outside.

He was a black hole, a dead, collapsed star. Anything good would be sucked in and devoured, crushed under the immense pressure he contained. And yet, under the suffocating arms of the shuttle, even for a moment, he felt lighter. Like there was something possibly at the end of the tunnel after all.

“Let me go.” He said shakily. And to his surprise, Skyfire loosened his grip.

“Are you ok?” Skyfire asked. “Well, I know the answer, but it’s customary to ask.” Starscream wiped his cheek and cleared his throat. Back to the facade of control.

“Yes, I’m sure you know the answer.” He smiled slightly, getting a small grin back from the shuttle.

“You two done yet? I’m about to test the engine.” Wheeljack yelled. The pair looked back, and Wheeljack and Soundwave peered out of the ship’s newly reconstructed cockpit.

“Go ahead- let’s see her purr!” Skyfire yelled back. Wheeljack nodded at Soundwave, who pressed a few buttons in a sequence, and then gave a small thumbs up. Wheeljack pulled a few things out of sight, and a rumbling sound came from the interiors of the ship.

“You two may want to step back,” Wheeljack called. Starscream and Skyfire looked at the engine, almost directly pointing at the two. The interiors began to glow blue, and at the last second, they dove out of the way. As soon as they moved, the engine fully fired, a beam of cerulean fire blasting out of the vents. As it stabilized, the ship slowly began to hover, and for the first time since its crash landing, it was airborne.

“YES!” A holler came from the cockpit, and Wheeljack pumped his fist in the air. The ship slowly sank, and Soundwave shut the main engine off. “We’ll take her for a spin once we’ve sealed off all of the entrances and replaced the glass, but she’s running smoother than a seeker!

“A seeker with WINGS” Starscream shot back, but even he was caught up in the excitement. The ship worked, he was almost out of here! Now all he had to do was convince Skyfire to come with him.

He looked back up at Skyfire, but the shuttle was already looking down at him. No- not at him, but lower. He looked down and he flinched. His hand was gripping Skyfire’s, nearly identically to the picture. He yanked his arm back, stumbling, and then ran towards the exit. He heard Skyfire call after him, but he was running too fast to make it out. He ran until he found a storage closet, and ducked inside.

He sat on a crate of cleaning apparatus and pressed his hand to his temple. What did it mean? He thought he was immune to any pre-war attachments, but clearly, his frame disagreed with his mind.

Oh well. It’s not like he could be punished for it ever again.

Chapter Text

He was chosen by the Matrix. That's what Bumblebee had said. He still thought about that, but with the prime in front of him, yet again, all he could think about was the grating humming that still pulsed from the prime’s chest.

Much to his displeasure, Starscream was sitting in the blasted meeting room, AGAIN. At least this time, Skyfire had managed to show up. And Prowl’s harsh presence was yet again reminding him of the fact that he was still, for the next cycle or two, a prisoner.

“It has come to my attention that the necessary repairs to your transport have been completed.” Optimus Prime stated, cocking his head and folding his hands in front of him. “Have you been able to find two Autobots willing to accompany your journey?”

“It’s been just me so far,” Wheeljack piped up from near the end of the table.

“Really?” Optimus squinted, then glanced between Skyfire and Starscream. “I am surprised you have not volunteered yet, Skyfire. “

“I don't know if he’s agreed to it yet, Optimus,” Wheeljack said, cutting him off. “There’s been some tension.”

“Ah,” Optimus said, nodding. “I understand. But I do require 2. Unless you think you can take care of yourself, Wheeljack. I want to make sure you’re safe.”

“What, don’t trust us yet, Prime?” Starscream purred, leaning forward.

“Are you really surprised?” The prime said, and then chuckled. Starscream’s cheeks pigmented in embarrassment, and he sat back. Did the prime just… make fun of him? This was no way to treat a guest, even a respected prisoner like himself. But he calmed himself; this was the last place to throw a tantrum. He straightened out and gave a slight cough to reset his thoughts.

“Can’t say I am.” There. Saved it.

“So what, it’s just Wheeljack?” Knockout asked, sitting to the left of Starscream. “What about that one with the cloaking patterns, Mirage?”

“How do YOU know mirage?” Jazz asked, crossing his arms. Knockout smiled slyly.

“Our paths have crossed.” His eyes narrowed. “So. Did he offer?”

“No, actually, and I’m not sure what you mean by your ‘paths crossed’ either. Care to enlighten us?” Prowl asked.

“No thanks, seems like it led nowhere,” Knockout huffed, leaning back in his chair.

“What about you?” Starscream pointed at Bumblebee. “You seem relatively competent and okay with our existence here.” The yellow bot scrunched up his face.

“Me? Are you kidding? I just wanted to get to know you. It’s not every day I get to learn what Decepticons are like.” He shrugged. “Just cause I was nice to you doesn’t mean I like you, ya know.” Starscream snarled and inhaled, ready to bite back, but the Prime held his hand up.

“Bumblebee, that’s more than enough.” Listen. This is more than a risk, just letting you all go. But none of you have exhibited violent behaviors, and your tracking chips have not shown you doing any harm or going into places you shouldn't.

“Wait. You put tracking chips in us?” Knockout asked, leaning back forward. “When did you do that??”

“Not in you, ON you,” Prowl said. “For someone who checks their appearance so often, we actually thought you would find yours. Guess we overestimated your abilities.” He smiled slightly, giving Jazz a glance, who nodded in approval.

“Is that why you haven’t kept us in cells?” Starscream asked.

“Soundwave’s Chip: On back of helm,” Soundwave said.

“You knew they were putting it on you?” Knockout looked over at Soundwave.

“Soundwave: Has nothing to hide. No reason to resist.”

“Sheesh, this is why you and Megatron get along so well, lapdog,” Starscream muttered.

“A-HEM,” Optimus cleared his voice box. “Enough side chatter. Without Skyfire or Mirage, I don’t think I can approve this arrangement.” Starscream groaned. He looked toward Skyfire pleadingly, but the white Autobot avoided eye contact. It was finally time to pull out the final thing he had up his sleeve- honesty.

“Prime. Listen to me. I know energy in this base is running thin. I can see the wear and fading on half of your troops. You need someone to find an external source of energon if you continue to refuse to harness it from the wildlife on this planet.” He stood up, gesturing to even the bots in the room.

“Look. Even your high command is weak. You need this. I need this. If I can’t help you kill Megatron, at least let me help you outlast him. The true Decepticon ideals cannot live on if everyone who believes in them is dead, and you aren’t helping your cause by letting your followers starve.”

“You make a good point. It’s just illogical to-“

“Illogical to what? Let us go? You clearly don’t have any intention of hurting us, and we’ve told you any useful information we could offer. At this point, you have to either kill us or let us go. At least this way you have the chance to let us help you.”

Optimus went quiet, as did the rest of the room. For once, the narcissist was right. If there was even the chance he was telling the truth, it could turn the tide of the war. Optimus looked at Jazz, who nearly imperceptibly nodded. Prowl, while still pretty obviously unconvinced, tilted his in response.

“Alright. You three have a deal. Wheeljack will go with you, but I want a mandatory report from him every 2 days. Do I make myself clear?” Starscream breathed a heavy sigh.

“Yes, yes, prime, nothing will happen to your precious mechanic.” Starscream leaned back in his chair. Optimus gave a quick look at Prowl, then narrowed his optics and leaned in.

“Let me make something very clear, Starscream. I am giving you this opportunity to prove you are more than the culmination of your previous decisions.” His voice was low, much more carefully spoken than his usual kind tone. A small chill ran down Starscream’s frame, but he maintained optic contact. “If I find out Wheeljack has been harmed in any capacity, or you’ve wasted the resources we have provided in any way, you will have a much, much bigger problem than just Megatron’s wrath. Do I make myself clear?”

Primus. That’s why he was in charge. Starscream nodded, watching the energy in the room dip. The matrix was buzzing louder than usual, not that anyone else could hear it.

“Good. I’m glad we could come to an agreement.” Optimus and the rest of the Autobots stood and began to file out of the room. Optimus paused, looking over his shoulder. “Wheeljack, please begin preparations for your departure. Thank you for your volunteering. I do hope you can find what you are looking for.”

“Wait, what? What are you looking for on this voyage?” Starscream asked Wheeljack, who made his way to the door.

“Don’t worry about it, Screamer. Let’s just say the only reason I’m entertaining this is for a reason way more important than whatever you think you’re planning on doing.” Wheeljack said pointedly.

“I’m just trying to help you all. That’s it.” Starscream responded.

“Oh, I’m sure.” Wheeljack shot as he turned back to leave the room. “Just make sure you remember that you still have at least Optimus on your side. I’d hate to have both him and Megatron against you.” Wheeljack closed the door, leaving only Knockout, Soundwave, and Starscream in the conference room.

Yikes. Not a thought he wanted to dwell on.

Chapter Text

“You ready to go, Screamer?” Knockout bent down, hoisting the final box onto his shoulder, and turning to look at the ship. “Why do you keep looking around like that?”

“Quick blathering and put the rest of the supplies on the ship, Knockout.” Starscream looked around the hangar. His optics lingered on the corner where he’d had his conversation with Skyfire. It seemed like, for a moment, when they were there, everything might be okay. He forced a smile- he had everything going for him! He was free from Megatron, the Autobots were letting him go, and he finally had the chance to prove himself as the captain of his own vessel.

So what was missing?

It was… illogical, as shockwave would put it. There was still something missing. And it wasn’t the fact that he would be forced to spend time with a vain grounder, a creepy informant, and an Autobot. He was used to spending time with incompetent scrappers. His spiral of thought was interrupted when Knockout peeked his head out of the ship door.

“Alright there, processor in the clouds. It’s time to go. Everyone inside is waiting.” Knockout tapped the side of the ship.

“I'm ready… just surprised no one is here to see us off.” Starscream looked around and tapped his foot. “This has to be the most exciting thing that happened around here… right?”

“It’s not like we are in an active war against most of them. I’m pretty sure a good… oh, you know… 100% of the ship is happy to see us go.”

“Yeah, well, what about Wheeljack?”

“He already had his going-away party,” Knockout scoffed, rolling his eyes.

“What?? When was that??” Starscream spun around, staring at him.

“Doesn’t matter. You weren’t invited,” Knockout purred.

“And you were??”

“I was a plus one.”

“To WHO??”

“It doesn’t matter anymore, plus I don’t remember their name.” Knockout tapped his foot impatiently. “Now, are you going to get on or what? I’m perfectly fine leaving you.”

“I uh… alright, alright. I’m coming.”

“Starscream!” A voice rang out from the end of the hangar, a smaller yellow bot emerged, followed by a larger blue and red one.

“Looks like you got your exit party.” Knockout chuffed. “You have 5 kliks before we start the engine.” The cherry red mech disappeared into the ship’s hull, metallic footsteps fading. Starscream watched as Bumblebee and, surprisingly, the Prime approached him.

“Hey, Starscream! I was gonna come say bye to say farewell earlier, but Cliff hid my comm adjuster, and I went to find it and then- ”

“Yes, hello Bumblebee.” Starscream grimaced. He wanted to dislike the yellow bot. He really did. But for some reason, the insufferable dandelion minibot had grown on him. “I’ll admit, in contrast to everyone else on this scrap heap, you have been surprisingly adequate. It’s a shame you won’t be joining me.”

“You’re just saying that cause you want people to boss around” Bumblebee chuckled.

“Perhaps. But I think it would be wise to have a second in command as helpful as you.” He caught himself before he could be too nice. “Despite your nosiness”

“That means a lot coming from a professional second in command such as yourself. But no offense- I have a pretty good gig here. So don’t be a stranger, screamer. Unless you decide to start killing Autobots again.” Bumblebee gave a weak punch to Starscream’s hand, who, in retaliation, flicked Bumblebee’s helm.

“Watch it, squirt. I’m still a seeker.” Starscream scowled, but it lacked his usual venom. Bumblebee shrugged, then stepped back, letting Optimus approach Starscream.

“Well. You have everything you need?” Optimus said. Infuriatingly caring till the end, Starscream noted

“It is way past time we get out of here. You could use a good cleaning bot around here.” Starscream waved his hand.

“Starscream.” The prime said softly. “I am sorry, I really did try to get him to go with you.” Starscream stared at him, then looked down.

“I’m not quite sure I know who you are talking about.” He was thankful that lies still came easily to him; he’d gotten soft enough lazing around here.

“I just hope that maybe some day, all of this can finally be over.” Optimus put a hand on Starscream’s shoulder. “Every time I lose hope of that, Primus sends me a reminder of what can be.”

“What, like a postcard?” Starscream frowned.

“You, Starscream. I know what Megatron can do to people. I know what he’s probably done to you. It can’t have been easy to abandon the cause you’ve fought for.”

Optimus’s mask retracted with a mechanical *sshhkk*. Starscream could see the bottom of his face now, jagged metal scoring across his cheek and mouth, scarred from something- rather, someone. Starscream knew that cruelty all too well.

“You standing here, despite everything, is why I fight. And I will forever be grateful reminder.” Optimus released his hand from Starscream’s shoulder and held it out for a shake. Starscream paused for a second, letting the Prime’s words wash over him. It was a rare feeling for him. Appreciation. He took the prime’s hand and gave it a shake. He nodded silently and began to make his way back to the ship. He gave the two a brief wave as he stepped into the craft. He could see the two returning the wave as he pressed the door close button, and watched as they disappeared behind the grey metal.

“Finally,” Knockout grunted as he stood up from a box. “I will say that Prime has a way with words. Haven’t heard words that genuine since Breakdown.” He motioned. “Let’s go. Soundwave and Wheeljack are in the cockpit.”

The pair made their way down the hall into the cockpit, where they were met with Wheeljack pulling various levers and buttons, while Soundwave monitored a datapad implanted into the wall.

“We fixed this baby up nice. I’ve barely started the engine and she’s purring like a Vosnian,” Wheeljack said. “No offense, screamer.”

“Wheeljack: Ship is ready for flight,” Soundwave said. He hit a switch, and the ship shook slightly, engines lifting it off the ground.

“Alright- let’s have some fun.” Wheeljack grabbed the steering apparatus and accelerated, the entire Cockpit jostling as they were thrown back into their seats, the ship flying into the atmosphere.

“Finally, some kick!” Knockout exclaimed. Starscream peered out the window, watching the Autobot base turn from an orange dot into nothing as Terra sank beneath them. Knockout picked invisible dirt from his joints. “Good riddance to that dust-ridden dirtball.”

The cockpit was quiet for a few kliks, the sky around them growing darker as the atmosphere thinned. As the stars began to show up, dotting the horizon, the silence was interrupted by a frantic beeping from the side monitor.

“What is that?” Starscream asked, scowling at the annoying noise.

“It’s a foreign object tracker; something is approaching the craft.” Wheeljack pressed a button, and a radar view appeared, showing something barreling towards the ship.

“What is that?” Knockout said, pushing Starscream’s frame aside to see it. “Watch it!” Starscream spat.

“Unknown object: likely an autobot defense system.” Soundwave pointed. “Recommend deploying anti-weapon defenses.”

“You think they’re firing on us? Why would they do that?” Starscream screeched.

“I don’t know- it’s not like we are three of the most high-profile war criminals to grace the Decepticons’ ranks!!” Knockout yelled.

“Impossible: Wheeljack aboard. Autobots do not fire on allies.” Soundwave pointed out.

“True. That’s a con tactic.” Wheeljack said. “Can you get me a visual, Soundwave?”

“Affirmative.” Soundwave dialed a few numbers into the pad, and a rear view of the ship glitched into view. The engine’s heat distortion made it difficult to see, but there was clearly something growing closer towards them. Wheeljack rammed the steering wheel to the left, nearly throwing Starscream and Knockout out of their chairs. The object seemed to be undisturbed, still zeroing in on the ship. Starscream looked at the screen, trying to make out what the object was that was gaining on them. Through the heat lines, he could see a flash of white as it grew bigger. His heart dropped- then lurched as he violently jumped from his chair. It couldn’t be.

“Wait. WAIT. WHEELJACK. SLOW DOWN!” Starscream shrieked, his voice frantic.

“Are you kidding? We have no idea what that is!” Wheeljack snapped.

“JUST DO IT.” Starscream smacked the back of Wheeljack’s head.

“OW!- don’t touch me!” Wheeljack retorted, but he slowly pulled back the accelerator. “I hope to Primus you know what you’re talking about.”

“Whatever. Just stay steady.” Starscream bolted out of the cockpit and down the hall, past the boxes. He saw rumble and frenzy keeled over, reeling from the tossing and turning of the ship. He reached the back hatch and, with a strain, wrenched the emergency lever down. As soon as he did, the roar of the engines became deafening as the hatch opened and the pressure inside the ship released. The few unsecured boxes inside were immediately sucked out, and Starscream gripped the handle next to the hatch so he wouldn’t fly out. The unidentified object was nearly to the ship at this point, and Starscream grinned ear to ear as it quickly approached the slowed ship. And kept approaching… and kept approaching way too fast. Starscream’s grin turned into a panicked look as the white figure beelined into the ship, colliding with Starscream and sending them both tumbling into the cargo hold. With no one to hold it open, the hatch slammed shut, and the roar of the engines and the whistling of the wind immediately ceased, the only sound left being the hum of the lights. Starscream’s vision swam in and out, but slowly the sight of a silver face came into view.

“Star? Are you okay?” The blue-eyed mech asked. Starscream’s heart jumped again at the voice, and he smiled giddily.

“You’re late, Sky.”

And then he felt his fist collide with Skyfire’s chest. Skyfire toppled back off Starscream, unhurt but stunned.

“Hey! The slag was that for?” Skyfire yelled. “Some greeting!”

“That’s for tackling me.” Starscream huffed, standing up from his knees. He walked over to Skyfire and offered his hand. Skyfire glared at him, but took it. Starscream helped him stand and then pulled Skyfire close to him. He reached up, grabbing the back of Skyfire’s neck, pulling his head down and Sky’s lips onto his. He felt Skyfire tense, then soften into a kiss. He pulled away just enough to see Skyfire’s sapphire eyes, both of them grinning wildly.

“And that’s for coming back.”