Chapter Text
The moments before were a blur. Starscream remembered seeing that arachnamech crawl over to his opened cell. He remembered the small spider-like mech jumping at him and latching onto him, then everything else after was a blur. Hazy, almost.
Now where was he? It seemed like an empty void almost, but it didn’t feel empty. It felt like something was looming all around him, like he was being watching every movement he made.
He heard a voice echoing from somewhere. He followed the noise, hearing it growing closer. Suddenly, someone was behind him and then he was pushed to the ground. Starscream paused before propping himself up on whatever solid ground this void seemed to provide.
Starscream turned his head to see who had pushed him, but no one was there. Or so he thought. He heard the voice again, this time closer and easier to understand. “Ah, the great Starscream, held at my whims.”
Starscream stood back up, looking around frantically now. He didn’t recognize that voice. It was new to him. Although he remembered Hashtag telling him about a voice like this, before all those things happened.
“Who are you?!” Starscream's voice came out too panicked. Too scared. The person would take advantage of that, Starscream knew that much.
“Is that panic I hear?” The voice scoffed before continuing. “Honestly, I’d thought you’d be more frustrated. After all, you should recognize me. Your little Terran friend talked about me a lot.”
That sentence made Starscream stop dead, body rigid. “How do you…” The voice finally showed itself, a digital avatar forming from the shadows.
“How do I know? I’m in your head, Starscream. I know everything.”
Starscream just stood there, now beginning to tremble, remembering the conversation he had with Hashtag last year. How she mentioned about someone named Mandroid hacking her systems. Starscream finally realized who this was.
His voice lowered with anger and partially fear. “You.”
Mandroid just smirked as Starscream realized who he was. “I’m shocked it took you this long to figure it out.” Mandroid turned, having been facing away from Starscream. “And I’m also shocked that you’re still scared.”
Starscream just stood there, limbs feeling weak, but still keeping him up. Mandroid circled him, almost taunting him, smirking the whole time. “What’s in your head that you’re so desperate for me to not see?”
Starscream looked away from Mandroid, trying not to show panic. There were things he didn’t want him to see. But knowing Mandroid, he’d already seen them.
He’d use them against Starscream the moment the opportunity was given to him.
Then, everything shifted. Starscream’s vision spun, as he began realizing that something had happened. Mandroid seemed to recognize it as well, the digital avatar showing a look of anger.
Suddenly, Starscream’s vision snapped back to him, but he wasn’t in that void anymore. He was free. Or so he thought.
The moment he could truly process his surroundings, Mandroid was attempting to reassert control. Starscream fell onto the ground wherever he was, not being able to see his surroundings properly.
Starscream spoke something. A desperate ask for help. His own words never fully reached him. He hated being vulnerable, especially now, knowing that it could be used against him. But Starscream’s vision spun again, and suddenly fixed on a specific location somewhere before he was back in his own mind, trapped.
Starscream was shaking now, hugging himself tightly. Mandroid went back to circling him. “Now, you never answered my question. What’s in your head that you don’t want me to see?”
Starscream stared directly at Mandroid, optics glinting with a fear unexplainable. He knew that Mandroid could already see his memories.
He knew everything.
Starscream spoke, voice trembling slightly. “I’m not telling you anything.”
Mandroid paused his circling right in front of Starscream and stared him down, as if willing Starscream to go on further. He knew that Starscream wanted to say more. This was him trying to do something, Starscream had a gut feeling.
Starscream continued speaking, voice shaking more audible now. “And if you really think that I’m that stupid to not know that you already know about what I don’t want you seeing, then you’d be mistaken.”
Mandroid smiled before cackling evilly. “You’re right. What’s the point of trying to hide that I know?”
Mandroid glanced away from Starscream, an almost pensive expression on his face. He stopped staring away, and looked back at Starscream. “So that’s what happened?” Mandroid scoffed, but a smirk remained on his face.
“Pathetic.”
Starscream clenched his hands into fists, anger rising. “Say that again.”
Mandroid looked down at Starscream’s balled up fists before getting close to him and speaking again. “Pathetic.”
Starscream threw a punch, but the digital avatar disappeared and reformed some ways away.
Then it started.
The vivid memories of the past. A past he’d rather leave buried. A past that Mandroid seemed to want to torment Starscream with.
It went on for hours. The flashbacks, the moments of peace interrupted by Mandroid’s voice and overall presence, until nightfall. Starscream had enough.
His vision spun violently, but he persevered through it. A few moments later, his vision returned to normal. He stopped himself before shooting his arm cannon.
But those fleeting moments ended, Mandroid attempting to reassert control. But Starscream wasn’t giving up this time.
He wasn’t letting Mandroid win again.
Starscream curled up into a ball to the best of his ability while in the air, hands over his ears. But he still heard Megatron’s voice saying that he would ‘liberate’ him. Starscream didn’t buy it for a second, but he had no other choice in that moment.
Starscream’s words didn’t catch up with him as he said them, speaking frantically and trying his best to stay in control. His vision spun again, and then he was back in his head.
The words he said finally processed. He had asked Megatron for help.
Starscream just stood there in his own head for a moment, knowing that the person who had caused him pain in the past was the one person he knew would end this pain. Whether by death or not, Starscream didn’t know. All he knew was that in that moment, his words hadn’t asked his permission to say what he did. He was in control of that moment, but he didn’t feel like he was.
Minutes pass, maybe hours. Then, everything goes black.
Starscream wakes up, back in his cell. At first he thought that it was a dream, but then he glanced up and saw Megatron near his cell. A conversation happens that Starscream knows, but chooses not to remember some moments.
When Megatron left, saying how he looked forward to never seeing Starscream again, Starscream muttered to himself.
“I look forward to never seeing you again as well, Megatron.”