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“Some of them are calling you the ‘chosen one’,” Rodimus said. He had his arm propped up on the table with his face resting in his palm. He was sipping from an energon cube while gloomily watching the news feed.
Starscream groaned and dragged his hand down his face. “I wasn’t chosen for anything. I didn’t intend to activate the Enigma of Combination.”
“But you did, and now we have a disaster on our hands!” the Mistress of Flame snapped. She slammed her fist on the table, making the nearby plate of energon treats rattle.
“The Enigma could’ve chosen you, though,” Wheeljack said, meeting Starscream’s dirty look head on.
“We still don’t know if it’s sentient,” Starscream said, suppressing another groan. They’d already been over this a cycle ago, and he wasn’t keen for them to start arguing again about whether or not that metal cube could understand them.
Rodimus impatiently tapped his fingers on the table. “Perceptor’s and Brainstorm’s analysis of the Enigma would go faster if someone would agree to touch it again.”
“That thing knocked me unconscious! I still have a headache,” Starscream said.
“Once we know for sure that it’s safe, Starscream can make physical contact with it under observation,” Wheeljack said, prodding at the screen in front of him.
“I don’t want to touch it again,” Starscream muttered.
“You hardly have a choice,” the Mistress of Flame said icily. “We must learn more about the Enigma if we’re to have any hope of getting this situation under control.”
Starscream wasn’t going to say it out loud, but he grudgingly agreed with her. His self-preservation instincts were telling him to put as much distance between himself and the Enigma as possible, but this wasn’t just about him. He had Cybertron to think about, and, in the screen in front of him, Cybertron was burning.
The meeting dragged on for another cycle. Starscream grimaced, downed the rest of his energon, and quickly read the latest report from Sideswipe. Even with the help of Victorion, the council’s security team was having difficulty dealing with the last of the rogue combiners. He didn’t blame them, seeing as the average combiner was fragging gigantic.
Starscream flicked through the latest updates on casualty and damage reports. Thankfully, there hadn’t been any deaths, but there had been a number of casualties, which was putting a strain on Cybertron’s understaffed hospitals. The combiners had caused an extensive amount of damage, both from Cybertronians being combined when they’d been in the middle of a building, and from the combiners who had decided to use their newfound strength to go around wreaking havoc.
Starscream sighed. This was going to set the post-war rebuilding efforts back. The only good news from the reports was that the majority of fires had been extinguished. He sat back and looked at the other end of the table. The Mistress of Flame and Rodimus were in a discussion about the energon consumption of combiners. Wheeljack met his gaze when he looked in his direction.
“Hey, are you doing okay? The Enigma did a number on you,” Wheeljack said, a concerned look on his face.
“I’ll be fine,” Starscream said shortly. He’d lived through worse than a massive headache. His words didn’t seem to reassure Wheeljack, as his expression didn’t change.
“You should take a break. Go for a flight. We’ll manage without you,” Wheeljack said.
“I said I’m—” Starscream said, but stopped mid-sentence when Skywarp contacted him via commlink.
“Take a break. I’ll meet you above the council chambers in a klik,” Skywarp said.
Starscream shot a dagger-filled look at Wheeljack. Wheeljack looked back innocently.
“You two are conspiring against me,” Starscream grumbled.
“Conspiracy is the least worst thing I’ve been accused of,” Wheeljack said, shooting a grin at him.
Starscream grumbled some more and stood up, his pistons squeaking in protest after cycles of remaining in the same position. He knew that if he didn’t go outside, Wheeljack would oh so kindly escort him out of the room, with the assistance of Skywarp. Having friends was annoying. Starscream exited the chambers and, in a fluid motion, leapt into the air and transformed. He flew out of the window and up to where Skywarp was waiting.
In the current tense situation, it had been decided that all council members needed to be escorted by at least one member of the security team at all times. Naturally, the duty fell to Skywarp in Starscream’s case. Since he was just going for a quick flight, the other fliers on the security team didn’t need to accompany him. They remained on alert, though, ready to swoop in and assist if a combiner or some other threat fell out of the sky.
In unspoken agreement, Starscream and Skywarp flew above the planet’s war ruined landscape and into the clouds. Starscream automatically took point, relishing the feel of cool air streaming over his wings. It did feel nice to be soaring through the skies, Cybertron’s buildings and worries far below him.
“How’s Thundercracker?” Starscream said.
Skywarp was silent for a few moments before responding. “He’s fine. Said something about an organic creature called Buster.”
“A human?”
“No, it’s like…a pet? It’s smaller than a human, and walks around on four legs.”
Starscream stored this mildly incomprehensible information away. Learning about the local fauna of planets they were conquering hadn’t exactly been a priority for the Decepticons. He supposed he’d find out what Buster was when he had the time (and courage) to go pay Thundercracker a visit.
Starscream didn’t like to think about how he and Skywarp had parted from Thundercracker. It had been messy, and painful. But their conflict didn’t matter anymore. The war was over. There were no more Autobots and Decepticons. Leaving this particular burnt bridge to rot wouldn’t be a good decision, and Starscream was making an honest attempt at leaving bad decisions behind. Or, in the very least, minimising them.
Skywarp did a lazy barrel roll around him. “I’ll tell him you said hi,” he said.
“I’ll tell him myself,” Starscream said. Going by how Skywarp sidled close to him and brushed his wing against his, he was pleased by his words.
Starscream was woken by an emergency alert. When his eyes flickered on, he was met with the sight of a tense looking Skywarp standing next to his berth.
“What happened?” Starscream said, lurching off the berth.
“Menasor and Computron bridged to Caminus,” Skywarp said.
“Primus,” Starscream breathed. With haste, he and Skywarp exited the room, transformed, and were airborne within seconds. Starscream’s combat systems were already online, and he had to dismiss an alert telling him of his low energon levels. He’d survive not being properly refueled. Being the Decepticon’s second-in-command meant there’d been many a time when he’d experienced this.
“They were fighting near the space bridge, and somehow the bridge controls were activated. Victorion has already gone through the bridge to stop them,” Skywarp quickly said.
Starscream changed his flight path from the council chambers to the spacebridge, Skywarp adjusting his own path to match him a moment later. “We’re going to Caminus,” he said.
“What? What the frag are we gonna be able to do to two combiners?” Skywarp yelled.
“As much as we possibly can,” Starscream said shortly. He didn’t respond to Skywarp’s further protests, instead concentrating on the ragged hole in the side of the space bridge building that was steadily growing larger in his vision.
Starscream flew through the hole and, without hesitation, went through the active space bridge. A bright white light was all his vision could register for a few moments. The light abruptly disappeared, and he was met with utter chaos.
Computron was lying motionless on the ground, and Menasor and Victorion were engaged in hand-to-hand combat. The sound of metal hitting metal reverberated through the area. As for the surrounding area, the buildings near the bridge had been completely demolished. There was widespread fire, and Starscream could see unmoving bodies on the ground. Immediately below him, grounders on the security team were concentrating their fire on Menasor.
He and Skywarp joined the security team’s fliers, along with a few Camien fliers he didn’t recognise. Menasor growled as their combined fire hit an area on his neck, making it smoke and spark. Victorion charged at Menasor, slamming into him with enough force to make him stagger and fall. The ground shuddered, small shocks spreading through the area from such a large mass falling down. Victorion punched him squarely in the face, once, twice, three times. Menasor’s head lolled to the side, the light in his eyes going out.
Victorion went over to Computron’s still body. Starscream knew what had happened when she looked to the sky and wailed. He looked away. He’d had more than enough of his share of death on the battlefield.
He and Skywarp landed. Starscream took in the scene of utter destruction, and bowed his head. One of the Camien fliers marched up to him, her companion at her heels. “You! You’re Starscream!” she said.
“Windblade—” her companion said, grabbing her arm.
“No, Maxima!” Windblade said, shaking off her hand. “My friends are dead! My home is burning! This is all because of you!” she screamed at Starscream.
“I…I’m sorry,” Starscream said. There wasn’t anything else he could say.
“I don’t want to use the Enigma to turn the combiners back to normal,” Starscream said into the table.
Wheeljack nodded, continuing to fiddle with whatever contraption he was building. “So, what are you going to do?” he said.
Starscream turned his head to look at him. He’d definitely had too much high grade, but at the moment he didn’t care. “I don’t know,” he said irritably. “But I’m not doing it. Rodimus and the Mistress of Flame can go frag themselves.”
Wheeljack chuckled. Starscream made a mournful sound. “I wanted to be the leader of the Decepticons. Now, I’m wishing Unicron would take me.”
“You knew this wasn’t going to be easy when you accepted the place on the council,” Wheeljack said, sparks leaping from the machinery in his hand.
Starscream made a sound like metal being torn. The combiners wanted to stay combined. Who was he to take that away from them?
It was…soothing, being united with the Enigma.
In this space, all of Starscream’s worries fell away. He was floating in the void, a serene warmth enveloping him. He was aware that there was something greater than him in this space. That something could put all the knowledge of the universe at his fingertips, but he had no desire to reach and take it. His Decepticon days were over.
He wasn’t going to use the Enigma to rob the combiners of a new state of being. The Enigma had wanted this to happen. It had wanted to usher in a new age for Cybertron.
Once, Starscream had wanted to be the leader of the Decepticons. Now, he was one of the leaders of Cybertron, and he was the chosen one. He would use the power he had been granted for the good of Cybertron, no matter how much opposition he faced.