Chapter Text
Starscream roused from recharge to fingers softly stroking his wing. On the other side of him, large arms held him steady. He blinked as his optics focused, the world slowly growing less fuzzy with each moment.
Nova Storm groaned from the other side of Skywarp. "He's up. Now we all have to get up."
Slowly, the group rose from the nest. Starscream made his way to the side of the room. He took his rollator and uncollapsed it, sitting in the seat as the others continued to stretch and complain.
"Bumblebee—alerted," Soundwave said. "Command, Bumblebee—will speak over morning fuel."
Nova Storm, popping up from a stretch, patted Jetfire on the elbow. "Alright. Let's go for a flight, buddy."
Soundwave tilted his head. "Nova Storm—member of command."
Nova Storm's wings fluttered. "I am?"
Skywarp smacked the back of Nova Storm's helm playfully, a smirk on her face. "Yeah! You're the wingmate of the air commander!"
"I never saw you in meetings," Nova Storm said.
Skywarp scoffed. "That's the old Decepticons! The new Decepticons are all about making the command table huge!"
[Not how I'd say it, but yeah,] Ravage sent. [We want as many mecha to have voices as possible.]
"Affirmative."
Skywarp slung an arm around Nova Storm's shoulders. "You don't have to go—"
"I want to!" She said. She turned back to Jetfire. "How about you go find Blitzwing? If he isn't in the mood for flying, I'm sure he'll want help walking Buster."
Jetfire nodded and left the room. Starscream waited until he was gone before standing.
"We have a mech to meet," Starscream said. "Let's go."
☆☆☆
The meeting started well. A corner of the main room was cleared out, and a table was shifted to fill it. Apparently, all of their previously empty rooms were now used for storage, and having the meeting in their quarters was improper. Starscream and the rest of command—Skywarp, Nova Storm, Soundwave, and Ravage—settled at the table.
Rumble and Frenzy, as usual, split off to join the never-ending game of towerfall. Soundwave had offered them a place at the table, but they were completely uninterested.
Starscream sipped his fuel as they waited for Bumblebee to arrive. He was lent a 'spare' room for the night (Dirge and Blitzwing had graciously agreed to share), so it wouldn't be long. Sure enough, Bumblebee emerged from the hallway. It took a moment for him to figure out how to work the fuel dispenser, but he eventually made his way to the table.
Before sitting, his optics landed on Starscream—more specifically, his rollator. But the mech was wise enough not to comment, and quietly took his seat.
"What is this utterly important message that you must deliver to us?" Starscream asked.
Bumblebee stared at him. Then, his gaze fell to the table.
"The humans want us gone."
"They've wanted that since we arrived," Starscream said.
"All of us," Bumblebee said. "As soon as possible."
Skywarp slammed her cube onto the table, splashing droplets of energeon onto its surface. "Where are we going to go? Cybertron is dead!"
"Do they have anything to back this up?" Nova Storm asked.
"They know how to deactivate us," Bumblebee said. "They were researching us—"
"Great!" Starscream hissed. "While you Autobots were getting all buddy-buddy with the humans, they were using you to figure out how to kill us all, weren't they?"
Sheer numbers was enough. It would have been enough for the Quintessons, even when the Cybertronian population was much larger. The only thing that had saved them was the creation of warframes. Now, with fewer than a thousand mecha between both sides and no resources to create more frames, they would surely be destroyed.
And the Autobots, the fools that they were, had unintentionally aided the enemy!
"We didn't know," Bumblebee said.
"You should have—"
"Starscream," Soundwave said. "Unproductive."
Starscream let out a frustrated hiss and sank back in his seat. "You're right. What's done is done. We need to focus on solutions."
And what solutions would there be? The Decepticons' ship was destroyed when the war came to Earth, and any chance of the Decepticons leaving the planet with it.
"We have no way of leaving the planet," Starscream said. "The flight warframes and some of the forged can leave the atmosphere on their own, but many of us cannot. Unless you have a stash of energeon we don't know about, the Ark won't leave the ground, either."
"No," Bumblebee said. "We were hoping you might."
Starscream sighed. "Then we're fresh out of luck."
An uneasy silence settled over the table. Starscream took a long sip of his cube.
"If the humans want us gone so bad," Skywarp said. "Then they should help us leave."
"Yes!" Starscream exclaimed. "Tell your humans that if they need us gone, they can provide us the energeon!"
Ravage mrrowled affirmatively.
Bumblebee's grip tightened on his cube. "Sure. I'll let them know."
"Even if they help," Nova Storm said. "Where are we going to go?"
Starscream tapped his fingers against his leg. The question, though asked, was evaded thus far. The answer was obvious: they had nowhere to go.
"We're… still discussing that," Bumblebee said, doorwings shifting downward.
The meeting dissolved fairly quickly after that. After assurance that their concerns would be heard and another meeting would be had—this time with the Prime himself—Skywarp returned Bumblebee to the Autobots.
Inexorable dread crept back into Starscream's spark. No matter how much they fought, or how hard they worked, something out of their control would come in and wreck everything. As he mulled the meeting over, a flash of white caught his optics.
Jetfire.
Earth was all Jetfire had known. How were they going to tell him?
☆☆☆
A meeting date was set. There was plenty of time to kill before it was reached, which left Starscream with the dilemma of breaking the news to Jetfire. The other Decepticons wouldn't like it, but they would expect it. Jetfire…
They decided to have a movie night. Starscream would spring the news after the movie ended, and if he was upset, they could offer to watch another. Jetfire had already been tasked with finding a small selection of movies, which he excitedly presented to the group.
"Which one do you think we should watch?" He asked, staring directly at Starscream.
Starscream put his hand on a random one. "This one."
Jetfire held it up to the rest of the group. On the front of it was some sort of dog-like creature on two legs. Then, he loaded the disc into the DVD player and pressed play.
It was a silly movie. That much was clear from the start. Starscream resigned himself to watching nonsense and contemplated how he would break the news to Jetfire.
'Sorry, Jetfire. You've spent your entire life here, and know nothing of Cybertron. You watch birds and tell me all about the tiny bugs you saw while walking Buster, and you love the world so much, but—'
The dog and man on the screen exploded. They were sewn back together as a single entity. In any other movie, the very concept would be horrific. In this one, it was completely brushed over.
'The humans want us gone, Jetfire. We're going to fly away in a ship with a bunch of mecha you don't know to somewhere we haven't decided yet. We might not have enough energeon to make the journey—'
As the movie continued, Starscream repeated himself. No, no—he couldn't say that! No, this was exactly the same as that—
The villain of the movie, a cat, cloned himself. He expected a fully formed adult, but received a child instead. Something about it was familiar. Starscream shoved that thought to the back of his processor and continued planning what to say to Jetfire.
'We're leaving, Jetfire. We're going onto the Autobots' ship and flying until we find somewhere to stay, because the humans don't want us here—'
Jetfire pulled Starscream closer, interrupting his thoughts. On the screen, the cat lectured his clone inside a closet. Something about his father leaving? The music indicated it was a sad moment, but Starscream had no context.
'We have to leave, Jetfire. We're going aboard the Ark and we're never coming back. I don't know where we're going or if we'll make it—'
The dog and the cat teamed up, fueled by a need to protect the clone from a third character. A wacky battle ensued involving living buildings that Starscream barely paid attention to. Skywarp and Nova Storm cackled loudly during it, so it must have been entertaining.
Then, the fight was won. Starscream assumed the movie would end at that point. It didn't.
The cat and his clone came home to an empty house. The cat's father—which the clone had found earlier in the movie—had taken everything. Starscream sighed.
'Jetfire, we are going to leave—'
The clone complained about the world. It was a dark, terrible place full of horrid things. Starscream could agree with that. Jetfire pulled Starscream even closer, squeezing him gently. For a moment, Starscream allowed himself to indulge in comfort and nestled into Jetfire's chest.
Did he have to deliver such bleak news? Couldn't they stay here, in this moment, forever?
The movie ended. Starscream stayed tucked at Jetfire's side until the screen was turned off. Then, he pushed himself away slowly, spark buzzing in his chest.
"Jetfire," Starscream said quietly.
Jetfire pulled him into a hug. Again, Starscream wished the moment would never end.
"You're awesome," Jetfire whispered. "I love you."
Starscream wanted to ask him what prompted this, but words could scarcely exit his vocalizer.
"Jetfire," Starscream said again, voice breaking. "We—we need to tell you something important—"
"This is about the Autobot, right?" Jetfire asked, releasing Starscream.
"Y—yes," Starscream said. "It's about the Autobot…"
Jetfire stared down at him, lips pulled into a frown and brow furrowed in concern.
"The locals of this planet want us to leave," Starscream said carefully. "And they won't take no for an answer. Bumblebee was informing us of this."
Jetfire's optics widened. "Where are we going to go?"
Starscream cast glances at the rest of the group. None of them stepped forward.
"We're still figuring that out," Starscream said.
"Oh," Jetfire said quietly.
Starscream braced himself for the worst. Jetfire had only known Earth. He was as native to the planet as the humans that were chasing them away.
"Are we taking Buster with us?"
Starscream… hadn't even thought about Buster. If they took him, how would they feed him? Would they just have to hope wherever they went had organic species the dog could consume? They could only take so much dog food, and it could only last so long…
But could they really abandon the only thing Thundercracker left them?
"We're taking him."
Popshot's voice was quiet, but his optics held a fierce determination.
"Everyone is coming, then," Jetfire said, a small smile forming on his face. "That's good."
Starscream didn't know what he expected, but it wasn't this. Jetfire was so… quiet. Resigned.
"We're not leaving anyone behind," Starscream said.
Not again. Not ever again.
The room fell quiet. Starscream flexed his fingers. Despite the silence, the conversation was incomplete—
"Wherever we go, we'll build a new home," Nova Storm said. "One even better than this."
"Affirmative," Soundwave said.
Skywarp shifted her wings high. "The Decepticons have always adapted. We aren't gonna give up now!"
[Yes!] Ravage sent, punctuating the statement with a confident growl. [We will persist!]
The world had tried to kill them many times, and abused them when it failed. Still, they carried on, bearing the marks of their rebellion for all to see. To lose hope was to give up the battle, and Decepticons never stopped fighting.
Starscream remembered his own words from before the Decepticons were freed from the humans, sent over commline with a determined fury as he fled from Megatron.
"As long as we live," he muttered to himself.
☆☆☆
As the moment of the meeting grew closer, a tingling, painful energy rose within Starscream. It started at his spark and traveled to the tips of his fingers. He paced the edges of the room, unable to rid himself of the restlessness. This meeting held the key to the future of all Cybertronians on Earth.
That wasn't what he was worried about.
Starscream nearly jumped as Skywarp materialized beside him with a whoosh of air. She stared at him, expression falling. Then, she reached for the rollator in the corner and unfolded it.
"Hey," she said. "You ready to go yet? Everybody else is waiting."
Starscream hadn't fueled, but how could he? The idea made his plating crawl. And the rollator…
"I don't need to take this," Starscream said weakly.
Skywarp tilted her head, her wings flicking. "You don't? Because I think we're gonna be walking quite a bit—"
"I'll be fine!" Starscream said. "Just…"
His wings drooped. He would need it. Even though his neurocircuits were nearly repaired and his strength had returned, it wasn't the same as before. Some days, he could move relatively well without it, but he would still stumble and stagger. Others…
Today was one of the other days.
"I don't want to take it."
"But do you need it?" Skywarp said.
Starscream turned his gaze to the wall. He flexed his fingers.
"Yes," he hissed. "I need it."
"Then we'll take it," Skywarp said, pushing the rollator closer to Starscream.
Starscream's hands refused to close around the handles. He needed to take it, but he couldn't. If he did, the Autobots would see it, and they'd all know he was an invalid—
"What's your issue?"
Starscream fought a flinch and bared his teeth.
"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Skywarp said, wings shifting low. "You haven't been so reluctant to take it before. What's different?"
"The Autobots," Starscream said. "We're heading straight into enemy territory."
Skywarp shrugged. "Bumblebee didn't seem to care."
Starscream had known Bumblebee, though only briefly. Of course he wouldn't say anything. The other Autobots were not guaranteed to react the same. And…
Starscream leaned more weight on the rollator as he tapped a pede.
"It's not just Bumblebee," Starscream muttered.
Skywarp hummed. "Well, if anyone tries—or says—anything, all of us will be there to make them regret it."
It should've been reassuring, but the energy refused to leave.
☆☆☆
Megatron would be there. The thought invaded his mind as they arrived at the Ark. Megatron would be there, and Megatron would see him with the rollator. The brute already thought so little of him. What would he think now?
They were greeted by Bumblebee. Soundwave and Skywarp took control of the conversation. Starscream stared down at his pedes. Any moment now, Megatron would be here. His spark hummed painfully.
The conversation continued. Something about someone being late? Starscream took the opportunity to sneak away. He was far from stealthy, but a sufficiently distracted mech could ignore many things. After a couple of turns, he found a small storage room and slid inside.
He sat on the seat of the rollator, fiddling with his arm guards. His fans clicked on, invading the space with noise. Plating aching with how closely it snapped to his body, Starscream knew one thing: he couldn't go to the meeting like this.
What could he do? He needed to calm down—immediately.
He knew what would do it. But he hadn't done it, not since Jetfire—
No, no. He wouldn't. He—
He pulled the arm guard off and gave in. Paint scraped beneath his dentae, exposed plating stinging. But the effect was immediate—his plating relaxed, and the overwhelming buzz faded to the background.
Pedesteps echoed down the hall. Starscream pulled his arm guard on as the door slid open.
Yellow optics peered through the doorway. Skywarp.
"What'cha doing in here?" Skywarp asked.
Starscream flexed his fingers. "I… needed a moment."
"Well, they're all here now," Skywarp said. "So we should probably get back there. If you're ready."
Starscream nodded, pushing himself up from his seat. The buzzing had receded, but a crushing guilt rose to replace it. Why had he done that? Why couldn't he have just… he didn't know! But why that?
And now he was lying to Skywarp. Well, it wasn't a lie—but it felt like one! If she knew what he had just done, she would be furious.
"I'm ready," Starscream said.
Another lie. There was no such thing as being ready to face Megatron.
When they entered the meeting room, the brute stared—first, straight into his optics, secondly, at the rollator. His lips twitched, but he didn't speak. Beside him, Optimus raised a brow. Megatron huffed and looked away.
"Are we ready to begin?" Optimus asked.
"Affirmative," Soundwave said.
The meeting was mostly unproductive. It was spent going back and forth on possible destinations. No, not that one, it has no energeon caches. Not that one either, it has deadly acid storms. And that other one? Metal-eating bacteria. Didn't they read the notes before they picked them?
Starscream spent the entire meeting ensuring that his vocalizer remained functional, and every other moment thinking about… the thing he had done. And when he got too distracted with that, Megatron was eager to draw attention to his silence. After the fifth time Megatron loudly commented on it, Starscream slammed his fists on the table and howled.
"Well, if we can't find a suitable planet, why not just go back to Cybertron? If we're all going to die a slow, painful death, we might as well do it at home!"
The table went silent.
"You know I'm right," Starscream said. "This is pointless because we have nowhere to go. Why drag it on?"
The other occupants of the table exchanged glances. Skywarp grimaced. Soundwave tilted his head away. Optimus glanced at Megatron, who sighed before staring right into Starscream's optics.
"You're correct."
He was what? What kind of trickery was this? Megatron had never—
"There is nowhere for us to go," Megatron said. "Except home."
Starscream's spark stopped spinning. Megatron agreed with him.
The rest of the meeting faded away, muffled voices barely reaching his audials. Megatron's burning optics stared from beneath a furrowed brow. Spark humming, Starscream fiddled with his arm guards, trying not to think of the many things he was avoiding.
His name broke the surface of the conversation.
"Have any suggestions, Starscream?"
Megatron again. What were they speaking about? Starscream scoured the memory files his processor had just created, but they were junk. He glanced at Skywarp, silently begging for aid.
[Getting the Ark off the ground,] Skywarp sent. [It died of energeon depletion at some point after we landed here. They've been running it without a spark.]
Like all mecha, Cybertronian titan shuttles could run many commands without a living spark, if supplied with the correct amount of fuel. But self-repair would never engage, and nothing could be automated, which ensured that the upkeep of any dead titan shuttle was a monumental task. With so few resources on Earth, there was no way the Ark could become flight-ready without self-repair.
When the Nemesis was torn in three upon landing, she was abandoned. There was no point in repairing a titan shuttle so damaged. Her plating was scavenged for medical repairs, and the energeon was drained from her lines after her spark dissipated.
Starscream assumed the Autobots were lucky on landing and had kept the Ark alive. How long had they been maintaining a lifeless frame?
The quickest way to solve the situation would be to bring life back to the dead ship. This would cut the time it took to complete repairs significantly. Besides, living titan shuttles were much easier to pilot than dead ones.
How could they manage that? The answer came to him immediately.
"The Emberstone," he muttered.
Skywarp leaned closer. "Are you sure? Didn't you make a big deal about how we couldn't tell anyone about it? It nearly killed you."
"Forged mecha—withstand spark splitting," Soundwave said. "Minimal complications."
Nova Storm leaned around Skywarp. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but… There aren't a lot of forged mecha left. And a titan spark is very large."
It was true. Not a single mech at the table was forged. Megatron was a warframe. The drones outnumbered him six to one. Only Starscream had a chance of surviving spark splitting, and that was only because he was an anomaly.
The Decepticons had been short on forged mecha from the beginning. That was the nature of rebellion.
Seekers? All drones. Soundwave? Security drone. Dirge and his few surviving cone-headed ilk? Warframes. The only forged Decepticon he could recall off the top of his processor was Shockwave, who was long dead. Except…
Was Blitzwing forged or a warframe? He would have to come back to that.
The Autobots fared slightly better, but not by much. Even if the majority of them weren't still making their way over from the other bases, most of the forged mecha on the Autobots' side were medics. Though complications were supposedly minimal, they couldn't risk anything happening to them.
"Can you explain?" Optimus asked gently. "I believe we're missing some context."
[We found a spark splitting focus medium,] Ravage sent with a quiet meow. [Starscream named it the Emberstone. It has already been tested.]
Megatron scowled. "How?"
"Irrelevant," Soundwave said. "Private information."
"It's not irrelevant!" Megatron said. "I demand to know how this testing was done."
After a glare from Optimus, he added, "Please."
Optimus sighed.
Starscream wrapped his fingers around his injured arm, sinking his claws into the guard. "I tested it. You've already met the results."
Megatron's optics widened. "Y-you? It made that mech?"
"Yes, so if we can get back on track—"
"That still doesn't answer my question," Megatron said.
Ravage hissed, silencing the table. Skywarp flicked her wings. With a quiet pop of air, she appeared behind Megatron, leaning close to his audials.
"You're gonna drop this, or we'll make you. Leave Screamer alone. It's not relevant."
She warped back to her seat. Megatron gritted his dentae, but remained silent.
"However concerned we may be," Optimus said quietly. "We'll respect your wishes for privacy. The Emberstone sounds like our best solution so far. I believe we should search our factions for volunteers and meet again."
"Satisfactory," Soundwave said.