Chapter 28

Starscream could still hear Silverblade's laughter as he and Megatron dashed down the hall. He cursed himself for being so stupid. Of course his creator wouldn't let Starscream decide his fate for him. That wasn't how he functioned. I have a feeling he planned this whole thing, just in case he couldn't kill me... But he didn't have time to worry about such a thing. He had to get out of there. But before he could do that he had to contact the others... just in case they didn't know what the noise meant.

"You should have just killed him like I told you to," he heard Megatron mutter.

The seeker didn't comment. How was he ever going to explain the reason to the other mecha? Megatron would never understand. He never understood anything about him. "Let's just get out of here," he said, changing the subject. Now wasn't the time to be getting a lecture anyway.

Besides, there was nothing he could do about it now.

"Run! Run! Run as fast as you can but you'll never make it out! Never! Hahahha!"

Back in the room Silverblade's laughter continued for a little longer then stopped completely as his optics dimmed then went out. His head fell against the floor as everything went black.

Silv had finished up with Skywarp's repairs and the two robots were racing down the hall, trying to catch up with the others, when the alarm went off and the building started shaking. "What's that?" Skywarp asked, trying to keep his balance.

For once Silv could give no answers. This was something new, and unexpected. "I don't know," she said honestly, though a horrible feeling began to wash over her. This couldn't be anything good.

Just then Thundercracker contacted them and that bad feeling turned to dread. "Silv! Skywarp! Come in!" they heard his voice over their comlinks. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," the femme said, putting her hand to the side of her head. "What is it?"

"Starscream just contacted me," he said. "It seems that crazy creator of his activated a time bomb that's set to go off in two minutes."

Silv's optics widened. A bomb? Her creator had planted a bomb?

"We have to get out of here," he said before she could reply.

"Yes," she agreed. "But there's no way me and Skywarp can out of of here from where we are." she noticed the seeker was grinning. "What?"

"Don't worry about it," Thundercracker told her. "If Skywarp's still with you it won't be hard at all."

"What do you-" before she could finished the sentence Skywarp had grabbed her around the waist and vanished in a flash of purple. A second later both robots were outside. She stared at him, surprised at what he'd done "How did you do that?"

He was still grinning. "That's a secret."

"But," she said, turning back to the lab. "We might have gotten out easily but what about the others?" she looked back at him, a request in her purple optics.

He knew what she wanted and shook his head. "Uh uh," he said, putting up his hands. "I can't do that."

"Why not?" she demanded.

"I just can't," he said. "I don't have enough power."

She didn't know what to say. Instead she turned her attention away from him and focused it once again on the lab. Then what are we going to do?

"Skywarp and Silv have made it out safely," Thundercracker said, through the comlink. "But I don't know how we're going to get out of here." he looked around himself. "We're surrounded by solid walls."

"Well think of something," Starscream's impatient voice shot back at him. "If you want to live that is."

Of course he wanted to live. He had no intention of dying in a psychopaths home because of what Starscream had been through. It was times like this that he wondered why Megatron even bothered letting the Air Commander live. Was it even worth it? "Well what do you want me to do?" he snapped.

"Anything, I don't care," Starscream shot back.

Thundercracker looked at Soundwave but the Communications Officer didn't have any answers either

Sam was getting impatient. They didn't stand around trying to figure out how to escape and Starscream wasn't much of a help either. Either they did it now or they died. "I have an idea," she said suddenly.

The blue and gray seeker looked down at her. "What?"

"I'm going to use something to get us out of here now," she said.

"What?" he asked, sounding like he didn't believe her.

She raised her arm, the cannon charging up. "This!"

Suddenly he was blinded by a bright flash of light that exploded loudly against the wall. He put up an arm as debrees rained down on him and when he lowered it he saw a huge hole had been blasted in the wall and the moons landscape could be seen through it. He stared down at the bounty hunter, his mouth hanging open.

"Don;t just stand there," she said, her voice cutting. "Move!"

Further down the hall Starscream and Megatron heard the explosion. "What was that?" Megatron demanded.

Starscream listened for a moment, his senses on alert. The building was still in one piece for now so it couldn't have been his creator's bombs. "I think," he said, starting to move again. "It's an escape."

Megatron's face filled with relief but he didn't say anything. He was just glad they were going to get out of there. If Starscream knew his feelings he would have agreed. He wanted the exact same thing for more reasons than one.

Pireces of the ceiling began to come lose as he ran. Shards of metal broke off and rained around him. He did his best to avoid the deadly rain but he couldn't avoid everything. Some of the shards pirces his frame but he didn't cry out. Not this time. He just hoped he'd get out of ere alive and not in pieces.

He turned a corner and spotted the hole in the wall the others had gone through. That same instant a female computer voice began counting down the seconds to detonation. Grinding his teeth he started toward the hole in the wall, trying his best to ignore the counting voice and Megatron's weight which slowed him down. He lunged toward the hole, flying through it just as the voice reached one then said flatly. "Goodbye."

He and Megatron hit the moon's rocky surface as a wave of heat washed over them and the sound of the explosion muted out any other sound. A few seconds later, when he discovered he and Megatron were still functional, he lifted his head and saw the others, with his sister in the lead running toward them. He sighed and went limp as relief washed over him. He'd cheated again. He would live to fight another day.....

A few hours later.

Starscream stood on the crest of a hill, staring over the empty plain at the ruins of what used to be his creator's laboritory and his former home. Behind him Silv was sitting on the ground beside Megatron, repairing the damage he'd sustained from his fight with Silverblade. She'd already fixed her brothers damage which proved to be minimal aside from the broken null gun. Well it's all gone now. he thought. I guess that's it.

"Whatcha thinking about, Screamer?" asked a voice at his elbow.

Starscream didn't bother turning his head. He already knew who had spoken. Only one person called him Screamer. "None of your business, Skywarp," he said.

The black seeker wasn't going to give up that easily. "Come on," he persisted "You can tell me."

No, I can't. Anything I tell you you'll blab to everyone else and then the whole armada will know all about my problems and my past. It's none of their business. It's bad enough I had to tell all of it to Megatron with you within hearing range. At least he ordered you not to open your big mouth about it. "Don't you have anything better to do than to pester me?" he demanded.

"No," his wingmate replied, his gaze focused on some movement across the plain. "Thundercracker is busy at the moment and neither he or that bounty hunter want my help."

Starscream looked at him. "Thundercracker and the bounty hunter?"

"They're unearthing the hunter's ship," he explained. "If it's still in running order she offered us a lift back to the planet."

Starscream said nothing. He wasn't sure he ever wanted to go inside that ship again. The memories were still too fresh. "She doesn't need to do any such thing," he said. "We can go back there without her help."

"Maybe," Skywarp agreed. "But it was Megatron's idea."

"I'm surprised she agreed, after what he did to her."

"She agreed because he made a deal with her. He won't search her out and kill her in the future if she gave us a lift. Considering what she went through I can't blame her for agreeing, even if she wasn't happy about it." Skywarp smiled. "At least it gives me an excuse to spend more time with Silv."

Starscream turned his head to glare at the black seeker. "You stay away from my sister," he growled. "If you try anything so help me I'll-"

Skywarp grinned. "I never thought I'd hear such a threat coming from you, Screamer," he commented. "I thought you only cared about yourself."

Starscream turned to his wingmate, his optics burning like cold fire. "When it comes to my sister the rules change," he snapped. "It's completely different. Now I'm warning you. Stay away from Silv."

"What will you do if I don't?" Skywarp asked.

The expression on the Air Commander's face was answer enough. The black seeker took a step back then turned and walked away, feeling Starscream's optics burning into his back.

"I think that's about it," Thundercracker said, lifting the last piece of debree off Sam's ship. He set the twisted slab of metal aside and looked down at the ship. The paint was scratched in few areas but other than that it looked functional enough. For a moment he thought about the day he and Skywarp had discovered the bounty hunter's ship in the desert. It seemed so long ago. "It should still be in working order."

Sam set down the chunk of metal she'd taken off her ship and stared at the hull, her hands resting on her armored hips. "Of course," she said. "It's been though worse than this." she walked forward and rested her hand on the red painted ship, caressing it in a loving manner. "It will get us where we need to go."

Thundercacker looked down at her. He noticed her voice seemed to change when she was around her beloved ship. It made her seem different. More human. For a moment he forgot that was what she was."So where are you going after you take us back to Cybertron?" he asked.

She shrugged. "Wherever," she replied. "I'm a bounty hunter. I go where the work is." she sighed. "Maybe my next client will actually pay me."

Yeah that's right. Silverblade hadn't payed her. She'd spent so much time doing her job and her client had cheated her out of her hard earned cash. No wonder she'd wanted to kill him herself and was so angry when she found out he'd done the job himself. The seeker looked over at the ruins of what was once a lab. What kind of work had been done there? "Maybe you'll get something soon..." he said absently. He though he noticed some movement among the rubble...

Sam stepped away from the ship, clearing her throat to get the big blue jets attention. "We'd better get back to the others now," she said.

Silv had finished with Megatron's repairs. As she got to her feet she noticed Skywarp walking away from Starscream with a nervous look on his face. Hmmm...

The black seeker walked by her without a word. She ignored him, not bothering to ask him about it and headed over to join her brother. "It's over now," she said, standing beside him.

He kept his gaze focused on the ruins in the distance as he said. "Yes it is."

"I guess you can stop now," she said.

"Stop what?" he sounded like he didn't know what she was talking about.

"Trying to prove something," she replied. " I mean, Silverblade is gone. You don't have to prove anything to him anymore."

"It's not that simple," he said.

She didn't understand. "Why not?"

"It doesn't matter if he'd dead," he explained. "It's too late to change anything."

"Why?" she asked. "You could change now. Silverblade is gone. You don't have to prove you're anything anymore."

"It's not that simple," he said again, gestering at the ruin. "Even if he is gone I can't just give up on my goal. It still means something. I am sick of being second in everything. I want to prove to myself and him, even if he's gone that I can become something important." he clenched a fist. "That I can be the best at something and..." he glanced briefly back at Megatron. "I don't want to be treated like slag anymore."

Silv looked back at Megatron but said nothing. She didn't exactly understand the relationship between her brother and his commanding officer but she didn't have to. The look he'd given the gray mech was answer enough. "You never liked authority," she commented, stating simple fact. "Even when you lived at home."

"That's not it," he cut in. "The fact is I don't like people who look down on me and tell me I can't become anything and.." he lowered his optics. "I don't like being called stupid. I'm not stupid."

"......Maybe now things will be different," she said, sounding more certain than she felt.

"I doubt it," he said, his voice sarcastic. "Megatron would rather be infected with cosmic rust than give me any kind of respect."

"Maybe you're not giving him enough of a chance," she said quietly. "I don't think he's really as bad as that."

He turned his head as if to challenge that remark but stopped when she stared at him with those serious purple optics of hers. "He's not as bad as you think." she said, sounding insistent.

He laughed scornfully at that remark. What did she know? She didn't have to live with that slag sucker. She didn't even have a fraction and she wasn't told she was incompitent every day. "If only you knew."

She didn't challenge him. She knew better than that. She turned her gaze away and walked back to the others without another word.

Starscream watched her go then looked back toward the ruins. She is right about one thing. It is over. I'll never be able to throw my accomplishments in his face. he clenched a fist, feeling more disappointed than angry. He never let me do what I want, even in death! He calmed down. But that doesn't change anything. I'll still become something I will become the leader of the Decepticons no matter the cost!

"Starscream," Megatron's voice interrupted his thoughts.

The seeker jumped, startled and turned around to face his leader. "M-Megatron!" he exclaimed. "I didn't hear ypu."

The gray mech's gaze wandered to the ruins in the distance for a moment then he looked back at Starscream's face "We are leaving now," he told him. "We are going back to Cybertron and we're not going to discuss this further. Based on everything you and your sister told me about your creator and this place, I believe it is best if we all put this behind us and pretend it never happened. Don't you think it better if you pretend you never had a past at all? That you always were a Decepticon that did what he was told?" Megatron wasn't really asking a question. He was making a command with a question. "All you need to care about is obeying my orders and not trying to prove something to some ghost. He is not important and nothing about him is worth remembering, understood?"

Starscream knew how to answer and he didn't feel like challenging the gray mecha for once. He was too tired. "Yes," he said, though he had no intention of following the order. He would never forget anything that happened. It was just how he was. He needed his past.

"Good," Megatron said, nodding with satisfaction. "Then we are leaving. There's nothing here for us."

Starscream began to follow but stopped long enough to give the ruin one last glance. How could I forget anyway? He died with knowledge about me that I won't ever find out. He shrugged it off. It's probably not anything important anyway........ He turned away from the ruin and followed the others to the bounty hunter's ship that would take them back to the planet.

As Sam's ship took off a small protocol droid worked meticulously away in the ruins, unearthing something buried under all the rubble. Something of tarnished silver in color. A few seconds later it cleared away enough debree to reveal a badly damaged head and upper chest plate. Satisfied at its find the little droid let out a gleeful squeal and proceeded to dig up the rest of the body. When it was finished this task, it returned to the chest and repaired the damage to the head and chest, wires from its hands coiling around a faintly pulsing spark. The electricity from the wires flashed briefly and the faint light grew stronger as the spark started pulsating rapidly.

The dimmed optics on the damaged face brightened gradually until they reached their full brilliance.

The End?

A/N

And the beat goes on.... XD

Yes, this is the end of the story. I always enjoy writing my stories and by the time I reach the end I feel disappointed that it's over. I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I liked writing it and thanks for all the reviews I was given as well as the help. I am very grateful for the help. I guess that's about it.