Ch. 1

Was this the end? He sure seemed to think so. Starscream wailed in agony as the two smaller Predacons finished tearing into him. Predaking watched, simply glaring at the energon pouring out of the small seeker.

"Please," Starscream begged, "I'll do anything-" he coughed roughly to expel the energon bubbling up in his throat, "I was a great servant to Lord Megatron..." he whimpered, "I can be a great one to you, too- Lord Predaking."

Predaking snarled, then laughed, "You think I need your service? Your pleas fall upon audials that know better than to listen, you pest!"

The Predacon stepped down hard on Starscream's chassis, eliciting a choked cry of pain, "Your treachery is legendary, your lies and deceit known to all! And even in the end, you only fight to save yourself!"

Predaking opened his wings wide and flapped once, showing off his strength to the seeker, "I need only those who know true loyalty, who understand the second chance they have been given!" he leaned in close, scoffing, "You have been given far too many of these chances. I will gladly end this pitiful cycle..."

Predaking raised his claws high and thrusted them into the seeker's mauled chassis, puncturing his spark chamber. Starscream's optics widened in pain and horror but he was unable to look away from the mech in front of him.

"Consider this a parting gift, Starscream," he growled, "Now, you will no longer torment anyone, least of all, yourself..."

The seeker exhaled a painful intake as the Predacon removed his claws. Above him, sparks of all colors and sizes were flying through the air, the combined energy whistling passed at high speeds. Something within Starscream warmed him as he watched them fly by and he was comforted that it would be the last thing he would see. But regret. It was all he could feel. The fairness of it all. It was unfair. But who had made it unfair? Optimus? Megatron? Autobots, Decepticons, Predacons, MECH? Himself? Perhaps Primus was to blame, for having made such a spark into existence.

Predaking smiled when he saw Starscream's optics flicker off. The final intake told him that he was dead. Darksteel and Skylynx awaited direction from their leader when a loud crack caught all their audials.

Predaking shifted and transformed in surprise, his maw snapping and growling as Starscream's chassis moved. From what the beast could smell, the seeker was dead. There was no way to bring him back, dead was dead. But the supposedly dead chassis moved slightly again, the chest plating revealing a light.

Predaking hopped back and roared as fire began to build within him. He did not know what was happening. He had seen mechs die before but never had something like this happened afterwards. The light under Starscream's chest plate began to burn through the metal at an alarming rate until finally a spark flew out and struggled to hover, free and anew in ways it did not know.

The Predacons growled. Was this Starscream? Was this STILL Starscream, yet in another form? Predaking did not want to take chances. He lunged and tried to swallow the spark but the ball of energy moved and darted behind the throne. It was sentient enough to know that it was being attacked. Darksteel and Skylynx followed their leader's direction and chased after the ball, swatting and biting and trying hard to grab at it.

Predaking was becoming frustrated. With a great exhale, fire burned forth to scorch the little spark but missed, the embers chasing the energy out onto the landing. The spark shuddered and seemed to glitch, parts of it disappearing in a hiccup and a crackle of electricity and static. The Predacons watched it warily as they stalked closer.

The spark felt the presence of other energies above it, new energies, energies like itself. It tried to hover higher to follow them, to do as they were doing. But it could not follow. Another glitching hiccup rattled the spark and pulled it near to the floor of Dark Mount's throne room.

Predaking took this chance to rush at it, his maw opened wide in another attempt to seize the spark. The spark shook and tried to hover again, desperate to join the leaving sparks above it, when it fell off the ledge.

The Predacons growled and snorted, but made no move to go after it. Without a chassis to go to, the spark would eventually extinguish on its own. They instead turned back to the dead seeker still on their perch. That was something they could get rid of easily...

And the little spark continued to fall, crackles of gold static and electricity running through it once in a while. It was still trying to hover, to fly away, but soon it felt another energy pulling at it. Tremors rattled through it. It did not know or like this energy. It was different from its own. And it was pulling it down.

A blue light engulfed the spark as it fell and suddenly the world around it was no longer Cybertron.

The spark thought it looked familiar.

'Like a ground bridge,' it thought as it continued to fall.

Or maybe now it was floating forward? It couldn't tell anymore. Static inside this strange, blue ground bridge created colored patches that glowed and crackled with energy. The spark felt emotion seep out from these patches. They filled it and colored it momentarily before it moved on. Some emotions and colors it liked and it would grow in size, swelling with energy and the white of its glow changing to match the color it passed. Other emotions and colors it didn't like. The spark would contract and try to shy away from it as the color consumed it, making it afraid or angry or upset.

But it would pass these and continue on, voices now becoming clear the further it journeyed.

"I need to know," a soft voice sobbed, "I don't care what you say, but I have to know if he'll live."

"Hard to say," a deeper voice sighed, "I've never seen anything like this-"

A crash interrupted the voice and a new one yelled loudly, "Don't say that, don't fragging say that! If you can't give us an answer, bring us someone who can! For Primus' sake, no one will tell us anything, let alone if he'll even survive this!"

The voices started to fade, but the spark heard another soft sigh, "I don't know what I can say..."

The voices were from long ago, that much the spark knew. And this place thought it was important that it hear what those voices were arguing about. But who was the message for? The spark tried to remember its name, its form, anything, but it was all so new that it only remembered...

'Nothing,' the spark thought.

It needed time...

The spark was starting to move faster now when its glitch brought it to a sudden and jolting stop. It crackled as static wracked its energy field and a sharp, loud crack slammed the spark hard into a color patch. The color was an overwhelmingly dark purple, a smudge on the strange ground bridge-like structure. The spark felt the color seep into it and it shuddered in what could only be described as pain. It was unpleasant, it was unnatural. But when the spark thought it would subside, the color patch lurched forward and started to pull it in, grappling with it as the glowing blue structure around it began to collapse.

All the spark knew was that it wasn't supposed to let the dark purple overtake it. It wasn't supposed to let it pull it through. But the spark wasn't strong enough. It didn't know how to break free.

Decided.

It was a word that rippled through the spark as it was pulled through and suddenly it remembered. It remembered everything. It remembered the day of its creation, where it went to school, its first flight, arguments, battles, terror, carnage, torment, anguish; it didn't want this!

A sharp intake made the spark jump as he felt constricted. He hurt, all over. He heard a voice. He felt the light of a bright star, a sun, above him. And he felt the grit of dirt and sand below him. The air was hot and dry. Everything was bright. Even his nasal sensory nodes picked up the distant smell of broken metal.

What was broken? Was he broken? Was he alive? But how alive was he? And did he even want to be?

By Primus, if he was then the Predacons wouldn't be too far behind him. How did he get away? ... DID he get away?

'Too many questions,' he thought, 'especially for an out of chassis experience.'

He stayed still, the voice he heard becoming more apparent and though it was deep and demanding, he was still too light headed to heed what it said.

'No,' he thought, 'just be still and it will go away-'

"Starscream!" he heard; and it was eerily familiar, "Stand down!"

Starscream? Stand down?

It was at this moment that he realized he was standing. And he was Starscream.

'But of course, who else?' he thought, 'But why do I need to stand down...?'

Starscream slowly onlined his optics. His arm was aimed out in front of him, missile ready to launch. But his arm was scratched and broken up. His gaze was still hazy, but the seeker looked ahead and nearly choked.

Optimus Prime. And not alone. Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Ratchet were there, ready as back up.

This was familiar. Terrifyingly familiar.

Starscream put down his arm in horror and felt around his chassis carefully, the metal covered in healing scrapes, bruises, tears, rips, everything imaginable. The leavings of a beating that Megatron had given to him back on Earth.

The seeker shook and let out a strangled whimper as he felt for what he remembered he had stabbed into his spark chamber, the dark energon shard. It was still there and he pulled it out with a shaking servo, dropping it to the ground.

The Autobots watched in confusion as Starscream turned to look behind him, back at Skyquake's grave. It was glowing. It was there. He was there.

Starscream could feel his legs giving way as the dirt began to shake softly, no doubt Skyquake finally moving underneath, "Th-this isn't happening," he panted, "Th-this isn't real!"

The seeker looked back at the Autobots, Optimus the only one having transformed his blasters back into servos, "Th-this... That's not..." he pointed at the Autobot leader accusingly, "This isn't how it happened-!"

Optimus saw the fear, the confusion, on the seeker's face, "Starscream, I have told you before-"

"Shut up!" Starscream shrieked, backing away, "This isn't possible! This isn't happening! This isn't how it happened!"

The seeker backed himself into the canyon wall behind Skyquake's grave, optical lubricant filling his optics. He was terrified. This wasn't how his memory went. Optimus should have shot his arm off by now, but the Prime's blasters had been put away after Starscream lowered his weapon. The rest of the Autobots were watching, waiting. They weren't going after him as they had in his memory.

The seeker gripped his helm tightly, sparks rippling through his chest plate as his spark seemed to lurch inside him in fear. The Autobots took a step back, Optimus the only one to stand his ground.

"What are you waiting for, Bulk?!" came a tiny voice some distance away, "Pound his metal face in!"

It was Miko, Starscream knew that much. And he remembered how all this played out. He did remember everything. He remembered dates, times, locations, Autobots, Decepticons, all of it.

"Oh by Primus," he wailed, "I'm in the PAST."