Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

“Careful you klutzes!”

Starscream yelled out in annoyance, watching as the twin cassette bots bumped into a generator, sparks flying from the dented machinery. Those two idiots were practically bouncing off the empty factory walls, knocking into Starscream multiple times as he worked to fill up the cubes. Grumbling to himself, he siphoned electricity from the generators while Soundwave created more empty blocks to fill.

The energy plant had been a recent find, located just on the outskirts of the city. Ravage, Lazerbeak, and the other Seekers had been assigned to gather materials for Megatron’s most recent “ingenious plan”. Meanwhile, Starscream, Soundwave, and the other cassetticons were sent to harvest energon to power whatever new superweapon Megatron intended to use to finally destroy the Autobots. Once they had arrived at the factory, Starscream and Soundwave easily took care of the human workers that had been scattered throughout the place, sending them all running out like flies.

Ignoring Starscream’s warning, Rumble turned to Frenzy, his visor glinting with a hint of mischief.

“I bet I could stack these faster than you!”

“Oh you’re so on,” Frenzy said, grabbing the energon cubes on the ground next to Starscream and haphazardly shoving them into a messy pile.

As the two cassetticons darted around, Starscream began to pace. The sound of playful banter faded into the distance as he strolled through the factory. It hadn’t been much longer than an hour since they arrived, but any more time stuck with those two dolts and he might just-

Starscream paused. He heard a muffled voice from behind an array of pipes, walking closer to investigate.

“-yes, they're stealing our power! We need the Autobots, quick-”

The worker froze, eyes locking with the optics of the Decepticon looming over him.

“Well, what do we have here,” Starscream said, scowling at the human before him. He picked up the worker, tossing him aside like a bug. The man tumbled to the ground and scrambled backwards, color draining from his face as Starscream aimed his null ray at him. Starscream cackled.

“Puny humans,” he sneered, “You aren’t even worth shooting at.”

Allowing the worker to run away, he turned back to Soundwave, who was fixing the cube piles into neat grids.

“Soundwave! Are you done? Those Autobrats will be here any minute!”

Soundwave stopped in his work, wordlessly nodding before addressing the twins still running around the building.

“Rumble, Frenzy. Cease.”

“Yes boss!” they shouted in unison. Soundwave ran to a pile and started scooping cubes into his arms. Rumble and Frenzy followed suit, while Starscream shoved as much energon as he could carry into his cockpit. With a running start, Starscream leapt into the air, transforming and zooming into the sky. The others lagged far behind him, held back by their haul.

“Starscream, slow down.“ Soundwave stated through his communication link.

Starscream dismissed the message, letting out a hearty laugh as he soared through the clouds. He pushed the limits of his engines as he went into a vertical climb, slowing down when he broke through the cloud barrier. His frame glistened under the sun, sharp winds becoming a light breeze as he floated above the horizon.

Maybe this planet isn’t so bad.

Suddenly, a fleet of vehicles came into view, cutting him out of his trance.

“Autobots!!!”

Starscream returned to Soundwave and his cassette bots, watching as the Autobots trailed behind them. The sound of engines grew louder, not long before a barrage of blasts scorched the air around him.

“Frenzy, Rumble,” Soundwave started, giving the twins his share of energon cubes, “Return to base.”

“You got it!”

“Roger that!”

Rumble and Frenzy split off, leaving Starscream and Soundwave to deal with the Autobots on the ground. Soundwave began his attack, sending piercing sonic blasts down below. Optimus Prime returned fire while the rest of the Autobots split into groups, still chasing after the airborne Decepticons.

As Soundwave dealt with the self-righteous Prime, Starscream zipped through the air, weaving through blasts of plasma that whizzed past him. He laughed at the futile effort, barely registering the Autobots yelling at him as he cut through the clouds.

“You Auto-bums don’t know who you’re dealing with!!”

Starscream banked hard, flying back towards the factory to attack from the rear. He locked onto one of the minibots, Bumblebee, preparing to fire his missile. Just as he got a tone on his radar, a stray blast clipped him in the wing, sending him into a downward spiral.

He yelled out as he spun uncontrollably through the air, the searing hole in his wing leaving a trail of smoke above him. His voice warning system went off, blaring “pull up” and “altitude” alerts in his head. He descended rapidly, entering a flat spin as he attempted to correct himself.

His engines were overheating, thrusters sputtering as his inner fans kicked on to keep him from burning. Starscream panicked, watching as the ground quickly approached him below. In a last minute effort to save himself, he decided to transform.

A grating sound filled the air as Starscream's frame creaked, painfully shifting back to root mode. His cockpit glass cracked from the pressure as he plummeted towards the factory. Hoping to slow his descent, he directed all his power to his thrusters, burning his legs as he crashed through the roof. Starscream landed against the ground with a heavy crack, shattering his cockpit and spilling the energon cubes he had stored out onto the broken floor.

Instead of a scream, all that came out of his vocalizer was a garbled mess of words. Starscream felt like his entire frame was on fire, his fans having shut down from the impact. His left optic flickered before completely switching off, rendering him half blind. His other optic wasn’t faring too well either, and his view remained partially covered by warnings that flashed across his HUD. In the corner of his vision he could see a puddle of energon on the ground. His energon.

With a groan, Starscream pushed himself up, wincing as he tested his comm system.

“Star- eam to S-Soundwave.”

Static.

“- repeat, S-Starscream to S-wave.”

More static.

Despair quickly turned into anger. Starscream couldn’t- no. He refused to be taken down by those smug Autobots who couldn’t even fly. He could already see the disappointment in Megatron’s eyes. Practically hear the lecture he was in for. Virtually feel the grip around his neck as Megatron tossed him aside.

Why was he always the one who had to take the brunt of Megatron’s fury?

Starscream sighed shakily, running an internal scan of his systems, although he already knew the results wouldn’t be reassuring.

Cutting off the diagnosis, he slumped against the rubble. Something dripped into his optic socket and he weakly held a hand up, wiping the energon leaking from his cracked faceplates. His head turned to the side, and he noticed something bright up ahead.

“I n-need to ge- out– here.”

Trembling, Starscream began putting pressure on his leg, attempting to find his footing. A sharp pain ran through his leg, and he cursed inwardly, gritting his teeth. After a moment he tried again, biting down on his glossa to hold back a scream. His right leg offered less resistance, and he managed to get himself standing.

"Tho- Au- obots will– for what they d-did to me."

Finally upright, he began to limp towards the source of the light. He mumbled to himself as he staggered unsteadily, his left leg scraping against the ground. A trail of energon formed behind him, leaking from multiple fractures throughout his frame.

Starscream’s spark sank as he discovered not an exit, but instead a pile of energon cubes that had been left behind in their haste to leave. He stared blankly at the cubes as his leg gave out underneath him and he fell to his knees.

What had he done to deserve all this?

Continuing past the pile, Starscream dragged himself to one of the machines left behind by the humans. A row of generators obscured him from view, and he slouched against the equipment, too tired to move any further. Alerts flashed on his HUD when Starscream tried his communication link again. He only received static feedback in return.

Stifling a whine, he shut his optics to rest just as a shockwave hit the factory, knocking over the stack of energon. A few of the cubes landed next to him while fragments fell from the ceiling, raining down shrapnel that became wedged into the crevices of his chassis. Starscream yelped out, grasping at the sharp metal piercing his frame. The walls creaked with strain while machinery sparked dangerously from the aftershock.

As the crossfire outside died down, the building stilled, signaling Soundwave’s retreat. Starscream’s solitude was short-lived however, as the voices of Autobots began to grow closer. Their footsteps echoed as they strolled in, oblivious to Starscream’s presence.

“-and I’m telling you Prime, I shot him down!”, Cliffjumper said, kicking at the debris on the ground. “He’s gotta be in here.”

Starscream’s visual feed glitched out as he shook with rage. So that puny red minibot was the one that caused all this? Seething, he sent out another ping to Soundwave, but all he got back was an error message.

Standing at the entrance, Optimus Prime glanced around the factory before looking up at the broken roof, shielding his optics from the sun rays pouring into the unstable building. The lights inside flickered, pieces of concrete crumbling off the walls.

“Autobots, be on the lookout. Starscream may be injured, but he’s still dangerous.”

The Autobots split up, scanning the building in groups of two. Jazz and Hound went to check near a room filled with pipes while Bumblebee and Prowl searched the back of the plant. Optimus and Cliffjumper began heading towards the west side of the factory when something caught Cliffjumper’s eye.

“Optimus, look. Could that be…?”

Optimus followed his gaze, staring down at the trail of energon leading to a row of generators. They followed the trail, stopping just before the row of smoking generators. Blaster in hand, Optimus cautiously turned the corner.

“Starsc-” he cut himself off, the sight of the injured Seeker immediately stopping him in his tracks. Cliffjumper joined Optimus’s side, training his gun on Starscream.

“A-Aut- bums! Get a-ay!” Starscream sputtered out, aiming his weapon at the enemies standing before him.

The commotion alerted the rest of the Autobots, who quickly abandoned their investigations to regroup. Jazz and Hound returned carrying a stack of energon cubes in their arms. The Autobots looked at each other warily, raising their weapons in response.

Optimus turned to face his comrades, who were all focused on eliminating the threat in their sights. “Autobots, stand down. He's in no position to fight.”

With a sigh, Cliffjumper lowered his weapon, the remaining Autobots following suit. They watched in confusion as Optimus walked towards Starscream, who audibly powered up his blaster.

“Optimus! This building is on the verge of collapse and he's damaged! Let's go!” Prowl exclaimed, urging the Autobot leader to move. The rest of the Autobots backed away to the entrance as more debris fell from above.

“C'mon Prime!”

Optimus remained in place, undeterred by Starscream’s display of hostility. “Starscream,” he started, reaching a hand towards the seeker.

A million thoughts raced through Starscream’s head as the plating on his arm warmed up. His optics widened for a split second as the mechanism in his arm jammed, causing the missile on it to explode. His hearing went out before his vision fazed out completely, systems fully shutting off.

The energy from the blast hit the energon cubes beside him, triggering a chain reaction that blew up the generators. The shockwave sent the Autobots flying, landing harshly on the pavement outside.

They hopelessly watched as the factory went down in flames, caving in and burying Optimus Prime and Starscream in rubble.