hree long beeps on my internal communicator disrupted the otherwise quiet solitude of the cavernous room of which I was, currently, the only occupant. I was sitting in front of a computer terminal in the large section of Decepticon Headquarters that had been modified for processing energon. Creating the Stunticons had drained a huge percentage of our energon reserves, so now I needed to decide which systems could be temporarily shut down until more energy could be acquired. It was an important task, but it was far overshadowed by the news that the comm signal had conveyed to me.
So the wayward Second finally decides to return home and resume his duties, I thought disgustedly.
The comm signal that had interrupted my focused attention on the bleak data on the screen in front of me didn’t require a response; it had been meant simply to deliver a very specific message. Despite that, I decided to respond to the sender of the message anyway.
“Where?” I snapped.
“Bridge,” was Soundwave’s immediate and completely toneless reply.
I scowled as I considered the situation. It was true that Starscream had always been the sort to occasionally seek out quiet, lonely places to think or recharge or Primus only knew what else, but I’d never thought much about it. Starscream was a vast reservoir of strange behaviors and odd habits, and disappearing for a few days after we’d had a conflict was just another of those habits. Given that and the fact that he usually returned with a fresh perspective and an acute awareness of his position within our relationship, I was willing to let the behavior slide. Within reason, of course. However, of late Starscream had been becoming increasingly unreasonable in that regard. His little solitary jaunts to parts unknown were becoming both more lengthy and more frequent, too frequent to continue to simply ignore. Worse, upon his return from those trips, his attitude was often more combative and more insufferably cocky than when he had left.
And besides that, this time Starscream had chosen a very inopportune stretch of time to be AWOL. He had left just before an extremely important mission, a mission that had had incredible potential, but that had instead ended in complete disaster. I could feel my anger rise as I thought about Starscream’s insolence, his audacity in leaving precisely when I had needed him. I glared at the computer terminal in front of me, not seeing the dull figures and statistics that were scrolling across it at all. Instead, I saw Starscream’s face there, arrogantly sneering back at me.
The failure of this last mission was partly your fault, Starscream, I thought maliciously at the imaginary image on the screen, for not being there to lead your squadron in fighting the Aerialbots. You left without permission, knowing full well that you’d be needed for this latest undertaking.
The anger and resentment that had been building up for the past few weeks finally surfaced, channeling its energy through my arm and into my fist, which in turn ended up buried in the terminal in front of me. Sparks flew harmlessly around my arm as I dislodged it from the computer. Heedlessly, I stood and headed for the door, determined to make Starscream pay for this latest round of impudence. It was, I decided as I headed for the door, time to put an end to his rebellious and mutinous behavior once and for all.
It took only a few minutes to reach the bridge from the processing section. Any Decepticon walking down the hallways could plainly see that I was in no mood to be stopped for any reason. The few other Decepticons that I had encountered on the way took one look at my expression and prudently scurried out of sight down any convenient side corridor that they could find. So, minutes after I left the processing section, I was striding through the doors to the bridge as they swooshed open before me, taking quick survey of everyone present and their location as I entered.
Soundwave was there, of course, standing impassively, like a lifeless statue, right by the door. His face, as always, revealed nothing of his thoughts, but I knew that he was keenly watching everything that was going on the bridge…and that he would continue to do so. Skywarp, meanwhile, was leaning casually against a terminal, poking at a datapad that he held in one hand. He glanced up at me as I entered, and he must have instantly ascertained my mood and intentions, for he quickly averted his eyes, shifting his gaze instead toward the two figures across the room from him.
Thundercracker was sitting at a computer terminal, his back toward me. And then, of course, there was Starscream. He was bent over Thundercracker’s shoulder, presumably looking at the same information on the screen in front of them. As I stared at the two Seekers huddled together, talking softly to each other, I had a sudden urge to power up my fusion cannon and destroy both of them. Second only to Optimus Prime, those two individuals were currently at the top of my To Be Destroyed list, Thundercracker less so than Starscream, of course…but I could not deny that I experienced a certain satisfaction at the thought of eliminating both of them at the same time. I resisted the urge, however and consciously relaxed the arm that sported the powerful weapon. For now, I wanted a few answers from Starscream, but then… Oh, then it would be time to exact the appropriate punishment for his wayward behavior.
“Starscream!” I yelled as I stomped across the deck and stood right behind him.
Incredibly, Starscream didn’t even bother to glance at me over his shoulder, much less to turn around to face me. Instead, he simply screeched, “I’m busy!”
I noticed Thundercracker visibly cringe at Starscream’s loud and impulsive response, but ignoring him for the moment, I grabbed Starscream’s arm and forced him to turn around and face me. There was something decidedly peculiar about the defiant expression on his face as he regarded me. No, it was more than just the look on his face. I felt something different emanating from Starscream’s body. It was almost…tangible, as if something was pushing on my own spark. It was a troubling feeling, but for the moment it was not worrisome enough to distract me from what I had come to the bridge to do.
“You left the base without my permission!” I growled, loudly enough that everyone on the bridge could hear but not so loudly as to seem out of control with anger.
“So what!?” was Starscream’s only response. He met my glare with his own equally angry one, and then he had the audacity to turn his back to me. He returned his attention to studying the reports he’d been studying when I’d arrived on the bridge, as if he’d entirely forgotten my presence—or as if he’d decided that my presence was inconsequential. That, combined with the fact that that troubling pushing feeling was there again, ignited into an inferno the rage that had been smoldering within me since I’d received the signal from Soundwave that had announced Starscream’s return. It took something as simple as a few words from Thundercracker to unleash it.
“Starscream,” Thundercracker said to Starscream in an urgent whisper that was not quite soft enough to prevent me from overhearing, “try not to make the situation worse—”
“Silence!” I bellowed, enraged by Thundercracker’s intrusion. Using all the strength I could muster in my left arm, I swung my fist into Thundercracker’s shoulder and sent him flying off the chair. He landed hard and, to my immense satisfaction, I heard a groan of pain escape him as he tried to support himself on his now crumpled shoulder. I glanced over at Skywarp to gauge his reaction and was surprised to see him glaring laser beams at Thundercracker. Perhaps he wasn’t as corrupted as I’d thought…
But there was no time for me to contemplate that possibility at the moment. I knew that I needed to focus my attention upon Starscream, who had turned around again and was gaping at Thundercracker; it always threw him off when I released my anger on someone other than him. Starscream recovered quickly, though, and aimed a venomous glare at me. I raised my hand and pointed an accusing finger directly in his face.
“You are no longer allowed to leave the base without my explicit permission, Starscream,” I growled threateningly, fully expecting him to be cowed by the obvious rage in my voice and by what had happened to Thundercracker, who had still not managed to pull himself up off the floor yet. So I was thrown off-guard for a moment when, without flinching in the least, Starscream casually pushed my hand out of the way and stood up straight.
“Hah!” he snorted contemptuously, his arms folded defiantly over his chest. “As if it would matter, anyway, Megatron. You seem perfectly capable of completely screwing up missions whether I’m here or not.”
I was shocked by the reply, not so much by the words—they weren’t entirely dissimilar from words that Starscream had flung at me before—as by the internal sensations that I was experiencing while he was spouting off his venomous words. Starscream was being uncharacteristically fearless, confidently so; he wasn’t hysterically screaming nonsense about irrelevant issues. And, instead of timidly waiting for me to reply to his baiting words, he boldly continued to launch more of them at me instead.
“This latest fiasco with the key to Vector Sigma is a perfect example,” he spat disgustedly, pointing to the terminal he and Thundercracker had been studying prior to my arrival on the bridge. “You found Alpha Trion and took the key, but why didn’t you kill him, Megatron? Didn’t it ever occur to you that Optimus Prime would try to create some new Transformers of his own and would therefore need to access Vector Sigma himself?”
I opened my mouth to answer, but he continued on, his voice gaining momentum, volume, and confidence as he spoke.
“And what about these things, these Stunticons of yours?” he spat contemptuously. “You used an enormous amount of energon that we really couldn’t spare in the first place in order to create…what? A bunch of rowdy, undisciplined mercenaries no better than the Insecticons! What a waste of effort and energy!”
The power and authority behind Starscream’s words were affecting me in strange ways. I suddenly felt as though I was shrinking and Starscream was growing with every word that he said. His confidence seemed to be unshakeable—and disturbingly genuine this time—and he was purposely using the bond between us to make every word deliver a potently contemptuous punch. In all the eons that I had known Starscream, I had never encountered this aspect of him before, which made it clear that this newfound power that he was exhibiting was a very recent development, a development that needed to be crushed immediately. He may have been succeeding in some small way in intimidating me, but I had to remind myself that I was not only the smarter of the two of us, but also the stronger.
By far.
“Starscream…” I growled threateningly, warning him to stop while he still had a chance. I knew that he wouldn’t stop, though. In a way, I was counting on it.
“You are a pathetic, worthless excuse for a Decepticon leader,” Starscream yelled in my face in response to my warning. “And I don’t have to listen to you anymore!”
And with those words, Starscream had crossed the line. In my mind, after uttering those words, he deserved whatever he would get…and I fully intended to give him everything that he deserved.
“Wrong!” I said icily,
And then, before Starscream could say another word, the back of my hand made contact with the side of his head. He spun around and landed on his hands and knees. He looked up at me, now a little shaken, but not completely so. The defiant expression was still there. I walked over to him and stood over him. As I stood there, glaring down at him in abject hatred and all-consuming rage that I knew that he could sense, I could feel his defiance, his confidence beginning to falter, beginning to be replaced by fear. As he watched silently and unmovingly, as if he was frozen in place, I lifted my foot and placed it with deceptive gentleness on top of Starscream’s head. And then, ever so slowly, I began to press down until he was lying facedown on the deck, his head wedged between the floor and my foot. He offered no resistance. As his confidence died, mine grew stronger.
“Starscream, as usual you have pushed me too far.” I pressed down on his head until he cried out, his hands futilely grasping my leg. “And, as usual, you will pay for it.”
“Wait, Megatron!” came his muffled but pleading voice from the floor. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!”
Ahhhh, there they were! He’d said the words that I’d always expected him to say. Starscream could occasionally summon the confidence to stand up to me, but he’d never found the courage to keep up the bravado for more than a few rounds of words between us. So now he was spouting the same desperate words that he always spouted when he found that his ambition was outmatched by his cowardice, and the words were just as empty and meaningless as ever. Despite his frantic claims to the contrary, he’d meant every word that he’d said; the problem was that he had not the courage to back them up. It was, in a word, disgusting, and I said so, scathingly, as I released him.
As I watched Starscream sit up slowly and rub at the side of his head, I began to think about what had just transpired. I doubted that Starscream had it within him to face me so boldly on his own, that he would never have attempted to do so without some significant…encouragement. I glanced over at Soundwave as an idea formed in my head. But before I could discuss my germ of a plan with Soundwave, I needed to be rid of Starscream…for the moment.
“Stand up, Starscream,” I commanded calmly, and he immediately complied. “I have some important business to conduct with Soundwave. You, in the mean time, will confine yourself to your quarters until I arrive there. And then we shall…discuss this recent development in your behavior.”
A look of absolute horror crossed Starscream’s face for a fleeting moment before he quickly looked away from me, as if he thought that then I wouldn’t know he was afraid of me. But of course I knew that he was afraid of me. I had always given him every reason to obey me, after all, and fear of me was one of the strongest of those inducements.
“Yes, Megatron,” was all that Starscream said, mumbling the words, still avoiding my gaze.
I studied Starscream for a moment. That he was hiding something was suddenly so obvious to me that I couldn’t believe that I had never noticed it before. But I was confident that whatever the secret was, it would soon be revealed to me. One way or another.
“Go!” I shouted at Starscream when he seemed to be hesitating instead of immediately obeying my order, and he scurried out the door without saying another word to me or to anyone else.
For some reason, I looked over to where Thundercracker had been sitting. He was back in his chair again, and he was hunched over the terminal, his hand wearily cupping his forehead. Skywarp had moved to stand right next to him. He was still poking studiously at his datapad, but now he was standing so close to Thundercracker that his left wing created a protective wall, shielding Thundercracker’s back.
I chuckled to myself in deep satisfaction as I exited the bridge, Soundwave at my side. As the doors swooshed closed behind me, I reflected that, if nothing else, the whole production had been a good object lesson for all those who had been present on the bridge.
And as for Starscream…Well, for me the best part was yet to come, indeed…