And hello again everyone! Another late update, but at least now I've finished the pile of work I'd backed-up over the last few months.

nightmaster000; The Autobots or kids were never really something I'd planned to get into. Merely a brief interaction or a few conversations, but that was all. As for episodes, I hadn't planned for any of that either, though it was a possibility.

Scarlet Thorrn; Glad I could inspire you to write some more, and the fact I have brings me a great sense of accomplishment! Hopefully the ending is pleasing enough for you.

Had a little trouble with formatting for this chapter, so for easier reading convenience, large paragraphs in italics are memories/flashbacks. :)

Four Million Years Later:

Chapter Nine:

Understanding

Vos was burning.

The air thick with smoke, screams of pain and anguish. Death was rampant, everywhere and everything. Bodies lay mangled in the streets, limbs torn and thrown, wings crumpled, blasted apart. Bullet ridden, desecrated, the optics dim of those of whom had yet to succumb. Energon painted the once magnificent city, as the life of its citizens dripped down the cracks, down through the gutters beneath them. The cries of orphaned young filled his audials, mates with broken bonds, of those who were merely trying to survive. Everything was unravelling.

The beautiful, spiralling towers of Vos had fallen. The palace that once stood proud was in ruins. Chaos was all that remained. Starscream felt as if he would purge. His home was gone.

Another wave of roaring fire, and the screams died down. Audials ringing, he watched half in desperation as others of his kind took to the skies, trying to escape the broken plight below. They too were shot down, like all the others before them. Things slowed. Everything was gone. Vos was gone.

His trine had finally caught up to him, arms reaching out to grab whatever part of him they could, pulling him back from the wreckage. Amongst the fallen, he comforted them the best he could, soothed them before the oncoming battle he knew would come. Weary, he felt their pain and fear over the bond, their unspoken anger and rage. As trine leader, he drank everything in.

More bombs and he pushed them down, shielding his trinemates to the best of his ability. He felt the slick texture of energon against his side; an injury that would surely slow him down. Figures emerged from the smoke before them, all alike in appearance and size; drones, a horde of drones. Blasters ready, they fought, as fierce and deadly as they claimed the skies. They kept coming. They kept fighting. His injury stung like the fire that circled around them.

At last, the drones seemed to become weary, blasters lowering, steeping aside to make room for a higher authority. Starscream would never forget the intensity of those red optics or the grey silhouette of the mech that owned them. The glowing outline of the purple insignia would be forever burned into the back of his memories, dancing behind his optics whenever he closed them.

There was a blast from behind, and all were thrown off balance, his trine tumbling forward with him. More screams from far off, and the fire was burning him from the inside out. Violet still danced in his vision, grand and overcoming. The fire was burning purple with intensity. Thundercracker and Skywarp were no longer at his side. The fire, fire running deep to his core, all consuming and ever hating. The sky was burning, purple as the Decepticon cause. They were helping him up now, pulling him to his knees. Pure chaos and destruction surrounded them, and Starscream finally purged.

Primus, help them. The bombs fell again.

Starscream startled awake with a cry, bolting upright from his berth. A gentle hand eased him back down before he could even process his own thoughts.

"Easy there, Starscream," Skyfire. The shuttle rested a hand on his chassis, guiding him back down to lie against the berth. "It's alright. You've just had a negative flux, that's all. Everything's fine."

Finally his systems fully awoke from slumber, allowing him to comprehend his surroundings. In a sigh of relief, Starscream allowed the tension to leave his frame. Helm hitting against the berth, he waited for his engines to regain their normal rhythm. Hand still rested against his chassis, Starscream knew that the shuttle could feel the pounding of his spark underneath.

"I could hear you from the next room over." When Starscream, didn't respond Skyfire continued, his tone gentle, "What was it this time?"

Again, no response, and so Skyfire pressed further. "Was it the war?"

"Vos." Starscream croaked in agreement, turning over on his side. Over the last few months he'd told Skyfire bits and pieces of the war he'd missed, many events of which his partner still couldn't fully process. War was war, and Skyfire could understand that, but the fact still remained: Skyfire hadn't been around for it. He hadn't seen it, the horrors or the better times in between. The feeling wasn't there, it wasn't the same. Even then, there were many things Starscream had omitted, things that could never be said – only felt by experience, and Skyfire had not been a part of that. Starscream was glad the other aerial had been exempt from many things of the war, and there were still many things he didn't want to divulge.

Starscream was fully awake by this time, and he almost found himself groaning in annoyance. He wouldn't be able to fall into recharge anytime soon, not after all that. With a huff, Starscream turned away from the shuttle, the wall of the Harbinger now surprisingly more interesting.

Skyfire seemed to ignore the obvious gesture, his tone, however, hesitant. "Do you wish to speak of it?"

"What do you think?"

"It always helped in the past."

His processor still played the images of Vos in his mind. "That was a long time ago."

"That doesn't mean it's any less effective."

The exasperation was evident in the Seeker's reply. "Will you just drop it already?"

"The fluxes are becoming more frequent and violent, Starscream."

"Drop it." Another bomb fell in his mind, the fire licking at the corpses.

Starscream heard the shuttle sigh, and for a moment believed his partner would actually leave. It was a while before Skyfire spoke again. "Starscream, what happened after I crashed?"

A barren expanse of blizzard swirling across the horizon, going on as far and wide as he could possibly see. Frigid winds swept in from all sides, threatening to tear him apart. His vocalizer stung, raw from the excessive amount of screaming he'd already done. Where was he? He couldn't see anything –

"Star –?"

Starscream moaned, shifting on the berth. "I've already told you."

"I know you well enough to know when you're lying, or in this case, withholding information from me." When there was no response, Skyfire continued, "Please, Starscream, it will help."

Red optics flashed in the low lighting as the Seeker finally glanced over. "Will it? How would you know? You've been practically dead for four million years – you're inept not only in past events, but current ones as well."

He watched a minute tremble pass through the other aerial's wings and claimed victory. However, Skyfire wasn't so willing to back down. "Starscream, I'm going to find out eventually one way or another, and I'd rather hear the truth from you. It will be easier –"

"Easier? You don't understand, Skyfire!" Again, the red optics flashed, "I've bombed cities! I've helped to kill millions; thousands have fallen by my own hands! I've ripped mechs sparks out, relishing as I watched them die! You haven't changed Skyfire – you couldn't, you were stuck in stasis for Primus knows how long. But I wasn't given that option. I had to change." Suddenly everything was spilling out, and no matter how hard he tried to stop, the carefully placed barriers that he'd built up over the vorns had already been broken. "And there will always be more. Just when the list is finished, more will be found, more will be added. It doesn't end, it never will. When this stupid war ends, if we haven't all killed each other by that time, I'll either be tried and executed as a traitor or tried and executed for war crimes!"

There was pain in his friend's optics. "You don't know that."

"Yes! Yes I do!" Starscream shifted again, making an attempt to sit up. "I would've been better off staying with the Decepticons. At least then I would have had something to fall back on temporarily, even if Megatron scrapped me later. At least then I would have had the chance to stockpile and plan." Skyfire needed more fuel to function than he did, and the reserves he'd managed to gather all those months ago were almost dry. "Oh, what am I saying? I don't even know anymore."

There was a pregnant pause, but at last Skyfire spoke. "I'm sorry."

"See? See?! This is exactly what I didn't want. I don't want your stupid pity –!"

"I'm sorry I wasn't there. I'm sorry I couldn't be there. I wish…I wish I had been there."

"No you don't. Don't ever wish that." It felt as if all strength had suddenly left the Seeker's frame. "Even if you had been there, things would have still played out in a similar fashion. If it had been me to have crashed instead of you, the positions would only have reversed. You would have done the same."

"Then at least can we move on? The past is the past, Starscream. Be done with all this?"

"…You still don't get it."

"Then make me!" It was uncharacteristic for the shuttle to yell. "Make me understand!"

"I can't, Skyfire. All I can do is tell you. You weren't there, you didn't see it. You didn't feel it. You –! You weren't there."

"Then please, Starscream." Skyfire's hand bushed against his arm, giving a gentle squeeze. He'd always been tactile. "Please. I want to know. I need to know. The truth."

He couldn't see anything, an endless void of white. The pain in his spark was growing stronger, and another burst of lightning broke from somewhere above. Then he was falling, until the frost hit his faceplates, streaks of energon marring the ice around him. He screamed out again, calling in desperation, half broken as his vocalizer reduced to static.

"After you crashed I searched for you. I don't know for how long; I lost track of time. The blizzard threw me off course, the cold scrambled my systems. Either way it felt like an eternity. I scoured the planet twice over for any sign of you. There was too much snow, too much ice – I couldn't find a single trace of you."

Had to get back. Had to get home. Send for help. Get help. His processor was fuzzy, vivid hallucinations of colour springing to life before his optics. His energon levels were almost depleted. Had to get home. Skyfire. Send help. He barely had the strength to pull himself up and ignite his thrusters, the frost burning as it melted from his frame in the atmosphere.

"Until now."

"Yes, until now. I expect something scrambled your locator beacon – I suspect that was their doing, probably before we left. I'm afraid I don't remember an over amount after that. At some point I decided to go back to Cybertron, assemble a search squad or team, something to get you back. Things get blurry at this point…I was so low on fuel I suppose I crashed right into the face of Cybertron upon my return. All I know is that when I woke up, I was being repaired in a jail cell with guards watching the exit. I demanded to speak with the Council – my first mistake. I should've gotten out of there, escaped, gotten as far away from them as I could have. Instead I played right into their hands."

"What is the meaning of this?" The Council stood towering before him, and there was a sudden emptiness in his tanks. What was going on? The guards were at his side now, despite the already placed stasis cuffs and binds around his wrists and wings.

"Starscream of Vos, after much debate and inquiry into your predicament, the Council had come to a decision."

"Oh, thank Primus! You don't know how worried I was. The quicker a rescue team is sent out, the more likely it will be –"

"There will be mo more exploration missions, nor retrieval or rescue flights."

"Wait, what?"

"As for your mission, it is from now on cancelled and void. All information and data collected during the journey will be immediately handed over to the senior Science Academy Council, and from now on –"

"What do you mean there will be no more flights?" The cuffs irritated both his plating and souring mood. "Skyfire is still out there! For Primus' sake, he may still be alive! All we need is one small team to help uncover him, I know exactly –!"

"That is enough, Seeker!" Another Council member spoke from the side, venom evident in his tone. "Do you have any idea how much energon would be needed to fuel a recovery team for one stupid shuttle? Besides, there are hundreds more where he came from, and we do not need any more of your kind. One casualty means nothing."

"They wouldn't listen to me, no matter how long I pleaded with them," Starscream continued, "They said it was Seeker nature to be violent, that I had merely "wormed my way into society", that I was the very definition of what was to come from my kind. Prejudice fraggers. They accused me of murdering you, Skyfire. Then again, in their eyes you weren't dead; you merely never existed in the first place. They wiped you out of existence, deleted you from every history record or file. They cleaned themselves of you and our mistake. Even to this day, Skyfire, you technically don't exist."

"…Starscream of Vos, you are hereby sentenced to jail for the murder of you partner, Skyfire. You will be condemned to solitary confinement for the rest of your life –"

The blow hit hard and broke his resolve. "No, please! You don't understand! He's still out there! Please, you can help –!"

"–You are to be stripped of all titles and ranks you have earned. Your degrees and accomplishments are now void, and all your previous and current research will be erased and destroyed. You are hereby expelled from the Science Academy, and all previous accreditations given are now forfeited. Your own negligence brought this upon you. This hearing is now concluded. Guards." The command was clear and simple, and he was seized by his arms.

"No! NO! Wait, you can't just –! You can't –!" He struggled against the tight hold, only succeeding in hurting himself further in the process. "Please!"

Again, it was another Councillor that spoke. "Get this filth out of our sight before we shoot it."

No! No! It wasn't right – they were wrong! It didn't make any sense. They'd been the ones to commission the voyage in the first place. They'd been the ones to send them out on that stupid mission! They'd –! Then it clicked, and the knowledge horrified him, almost sending him staggering to his knees.

"You did this." His voice was hoarse, but he knew they could hear him loud and clear. "You did this. You knew. You knew that planet was unstable. This was all planned. You knew."

"Get him out of here."

"You knew!"

Starscream sighed. "I got angry, probably said some things I shouldn't have said. Next thing I know I'm part of an inquiry – a one sided examination of our "work". There were things I couldn't remember, missing memory files after I crashed – too much of a coincidence, I realize now. They used it against me; convicted me of your murder, threw me in prison, and then tried to erase the both of us."

Skyfire looked sickened, almost to the point Starscream believed the other aerial would purge. "…And after?"

"After?" Starscream felt himself shrug. "Like I said, they threw me in jail. At some point or another my trinemates broke me out, and well, things just continued to spiral downwards into what we know now."

"Primus, Starscream that's –!"

"Insane? Inconceivable? I'm well aware. Of course, most of it seems surreal by now, even this."

"You mean to tell me they just turned on you? Without warning? But they had specifically –"

"They were corrupt, Skyfire." He could already tell his partner was blaming himself, despite what he had told him earlier; the expression on the shuttle's faceplates gave him away. "Neither of us would have known. Even if we hadn't gone on the expedition, they would have found another way to try and dispose of us, and by trying to dispose of us in the first place, they merely sealed their own downfalls." At his partner's questioning look, Starscream continued, "I told you there'd always be more. I may or may not have played a role in their deaths."

"Starscream."

"Alright, fine. I played a vital role in getting past Iacon's defences, and then when the coast was clear; I helped to personally slaughter the lot of them."

"No! Wait! You can't do this!" The Councillor scrambled back, fear in his wide optics. "You can't! You're a scientist!"

He felt himself give a dry hollow laugh, the Councillor's fear only adding to the addicting feeling of power he felt coursing through him. He snarled, "Scientist, my dear Councillor? I'm afraid that thanks to you, I no longer hold that position."

The Councillor's final pleas died out as he ripped away and severed any fuel lines he could find, fresh energon adding to the dry already covering his frame. None of it was his. He could feel the mech's spark chamber under his claws, watching as the Councillor's optics began to flicker with static and pain. He savoured all of it. "I am Starscream, Second in Command to Megatron and aerial commander of the Decepticon army! And now, dear Councillor, it is you that is merely nothing more than a casualty of war."

With a hard tug and a slice of his talons, the mech's spark pulled free and extinguished.

Starscream grimaced. "I guess you could say that I erased them better than they ever did us. Either way, the vorns I'd spent in jail had unbalanced me. I can't use that as an excuse however; I knew what I was doing. I always have."

He could tell Skyfire was still processing what he'd been told. "And now? Do you know what you're doing now?"

Starscream hesitated before answering. "No."

There was another lengthy pause, but this time Skyfire would give no response, choosing to avert his gaze and remain silent instead. It worried the Seeker. "I know it's a lot to take in."

Again, nothing. "And I wouldn't be surprised if you decided to leave."

Nothing. "I wouldn't stop you. You'd be better off with the Autobots anyhow. At least with them you wouldn't have to worry –"

"No."

"…What?"

"No. Never. I'm not leaving. Never again."

"…Worried I can't function without you? I'm not a sparkling, Skyfire."

"I'm more worried you'll get yourself killed without me. I couldn't bear to go through that."

"You're an imbecile. A sentimental idiot."

"We'll speak more of this later." Skyfire seemed to steel his resolve. "Move over."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Your processor's still racing, and after all that, I'm assuming the negative fluxes will simply return with greater force. We both need recharge. My presence has always helped to deter them in the past."

"The past is the past."

"Some things never change, Starscream."

"…Extortionist." Reluctantly, Starscream shuffled over, allowing the shuttle to slip in next to him. The other aerial took up most of the berth, and he felt Skyfire shift to give him more room.

"Now, recharge." Skyfire voice was soft in his audials. "We'll finish this in the morning."

Even so, Starscream's processor still turned through his earlier words. He could've said things better, forced the words on his glossa out into the open air. Yet they'd refused, staying stagnant and unspoken, like they always had. It was difficult. Skyfire always made the words jumble up in his vocalizer, leaving him with un-worded thoughts. Still, he'd gotten the response he could have only hoped for, one he'd been willing to beg for; Skyfire would stay, despite everything.

His mind now began to spit out new ideas. Perhaps they could bring the Harbinger to a semi-functional state once again, and wipe both their locations off the map forever. They'd be free to do as they pleased. Gather up enough energon and return to the stars, doing what they'd always done best.

Too ambitious, Starscream told himself immediately, slow down. Survival comes first.

His processor still fully awake, Starscream looked over his friend, who had already fallen back into recharge again as quick as his helm had touched the berth. Survival, yes. He had someone else to look out for again. He would not fail this time.

Letting out a silent huff, Starscream positioned himself comfortably within the small amount of space still left on the berth, welcoming the unusual warmth next to him. He sighed aloud, true relief flooding his systems for once in a millennia. For once, things felt right.

Skyfire shifted, half still in slumber. "Go to recharge. You need to. Now."

Starscream complied, allowing his systems to shut down one by one. For once, he wasn't lonely.

Not anymore.

END

...And that's all folks. Done. Finished. Took almost a year (dear lord I am a slow writer!), and I'm fairly proud of the results. :)

I'd never really planned for any more than this, and I didn't really want to drag it out further than I could. Better to end on a high note than a low one. I've got a few ideas still lingering around in the realms of my mind, but for now, I'll leave this as it is. It may yet still spawn something else further down along the road. You never know.

Thanks to all those who have given their support and endless encouragement over the long journey. You don't know how much it's helped. You really don't.

And thanks to all those who are still reviewing, favoriting, and following even after this thing's finished! I appreciate all of it beyond what words can say.

And with that, I bid you all adieu, for now. Hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have.