OOC note: These characters are on hiatus for the indefinite future. See my LJ for details

"I think," Starscream told Skyfire, "the twins will be all right. I've taught Strata and Photon everything I know--the rest is practice, and I taught them how to that, too. Photon has overcome that little bit of hesitation, and Strata isn't playing over-protective leader to Photon anymore--she's letting her sister carry her share of the combat."

"Leaving that responsibility behind was worrying you," Skyfire observed as he packed scientific instruments away in a cargo crate.

"Of course! Especially if the Quintessons are poking around Earth. Rodimus will just have to handle the Quint threat on his own; I understand he's done it before," Starscream said drily. "Back to Deneb, then?"

"Beyond Deneb," Skyfire replied. "Gvurrdon Sector."

"Fewer human pirates."

"More Vargr corsairs."

Starscream chuckled. "It'll keep me occupied, covering your aft."

"What else are partners for?" Skyfire replied with a smile.

"Ask me that after we've cleared the Solar system and have a little privacy, and I'll demonstrate."

Deep under the sea, the Decepticon underwater base, Terradessa-1, waits quietly for whoever may arrive. Decades ago, it bustled with a full complement of Decepticons, preparing the way for Megatron's conquest of Cybertron and Earth and anything else in reach. Now it's almost empty; only a few inhabitants linger on--those in charge of the mothballed base, and those refugees who've slipped through the cracks of time and duty--or are just plain AWOL--but refuse to dwell in any Autobot base, truce or no truce. Those who dwell here, living or dead, are all Decepticons.

It's not totally quiet; the place is two decades old, and the resting place of mechs far, far older than that. The hull creaks and groans at the shifting tides above subtly change pressures, or distant seaquakes shiver the foundations. Elusive scurrying and scuttling noises sometimes sound just behind the walls. Somehow, in spite of seals and doors, the sea's humidity gets in, and the chill of the ocean depths condenses it into beaded drops on the portholes, or a fine mist in the air at times. Cybertronian alloys don't rust, but in the everpresent dim lighting and moisture, things grow in the cracks and corners.

There's a portal from the Nexus that opens into an empty length of corridor, not too many levels from what was once the Constructicons' lab and repair hangar. An empty wall shimmers and twists as the portal opens...

Skyfire steps carefully through the Nexus portal and finds himself on the short path to the Temple of Primus on that other Cybertron. He's exactly where he planned to be, which can be a matter of luck with Nexus portals. Now, is he when he planned to be?

He walks down the path to the simple gray building that is the sanctuary of Auspex, Priestess of Primus. Skyfire stops to read the inscription on the lintel.

"And so I enter," he says, and steps within, looking for Auspex.

(( cf. here. Starscream is still LOL'd. ))

Starscream dives through the yawning archway, not caring where it leads, except OUT of this nightmare! Skyfire hasn't caught him yet, and now, won't, if Starscream has managed to shake him.

A flash of darkness, and Starscream pulls up abruptly in his headlong flight, just short of plowing face-first into a metal wall. Fortunately that he had transformed before hitting that archway--his F-15 form would have been a half-mile through the far side of that wall--or rather, plastered across it in tiny bits--before he could have reacted. Riveted metal plates, scaly with oxidation--very Cybertronian, Starscream thinks as he looks at them from about six feet away.

He backs away and settles to the floor with a clang that startles him. It's silent here--or was until the Air Commander intruded. Where is he? Some sort of tunnel... underneath Cybertron. The gravity feels right, and there's that subtle buzz of energy in the air, all the electrical fields and myriad communications chatter going on in the background that's so familiar. Starscream is home.

The red and blue Seeker looks around; there's some dim lighting up ahead. A row of plinth lines each side of the tunnel. Starscream ignores them and heads toward the light.

The tunnel leads to an intersection of tunnels, a rotunda well lit by flickering energon crystals. Motionless figures of metal and ceramic loom over Starscream; suddenly, he knows where he is.

This is the Decepticon Crypt, the place of rest and propitiation for those dead so respected or feared that the living still walked carefully around even their memories. Starscream represses a shudder; he's the Air Commander of the Decepticons, second only to Megatron himself--and that not for much longer! What does he fear of the corroded, forgotten dead?

Still, he finds his steps drawn toward that one certain niche--the one with his own shrine so carefully prepared. Not that he'll need it for a few million years, but it still exerts a certain irresistible fascination.

(( cf. here ))

Starscream accepts the offer of another room in the temple sanctuary, and some energon without a word beyond simple thanks. No sarcasm or face-saving remarks--he's simply too weary in mind and spirit. He holds himself still until Auspex leaves the room.

Starscream knew the price, when he opened himself up to the Allspark, and called his Air Command to Blackstar's aid. He knew the price--but he still had to pay it, and is still paying it. The ache is in his spark--the terrible anguish of separation, of loneliness, of being shut out of that glorious company once again. In his spark, yes, but so intense that it pervades his body as physical pain and weariness.

"Sky..." he says, and his wings begin to shake uncontrollably.

Skyfire gathers him up in his arms and holds him....

Skyfire was on the final approach to Autobot City, on his way back from the Decepticon Underwater Base, when Starcream called him.

// Sky--unless you have something just critically important to get back to, abort that approach and meet me upstairs. //

// Starscream? Y-yes, of course, // Skyfire replied, startled by the unexpected message. 'Meet me upstairs'... That meant something, a long time ago. It meant 'I'm done planet-side, head for orbit and let me board'.

Skyfire sent a hurried abort message to Autobot City Flight Control and pulled up, heading for the sky.

As he flew over the ocean, Skyfire contemplated the little 'errand' Starscream had asked him to undertake. One, Starscream had talked him out of Autobot City while Starscream stayed behind--after a lengthy conversation with the Autobot Security Chief. Ulterior motive, or happenstance? Either one was possible. Red Alert had never quite trusted Skyfire because of his connection to Starscream, and the former Decepticon Air Commander was certainly at the top of Red Alert's long list of "People NOT to be Trusted Anytime, Anywhere".

So why did Starscream want Skyfire out of the way? Hmmm. Starscream was much too cheerful for a 'conversation' with a (former) enemy security honcho, too. Hmmmmmm. How many pieces was Skyfire going to have to pick up when he got back?

Second, Skyfire thought as he circled over the coordinates he'd been given, Starscream had asked him to meet surreptiously someone who 'wasn't supposed to be there' at the Decepticon Base. And given him full access to Starscream's old facilities, possessions and records. Very hmmmmm.

Skyfire hoped he wasn't going to have to have words with Starscream again.

// Decepticon Base, this is Skyfire, awaiting permission and entrance. //

A sense of time running out nags at Starscream; "To the Pit with it!" he snarls to himself, and ignites his afterburners. He arrives considerably ahead of his original ETA.

Touching down at Autobot City, Starscream is still amused at just being 'waved in' by Metroplex, though the irony is less bitter now. I'm not even doing this for the sake of my fellow Decepticons or Rodimus Prime anymore; they went and got themselves fixed. I'm doing this because Skyfire and Ratchet asked me to. To help Autobots who were either my enemies or I don't even know. And yet... I don't mind. I rather like the challenge.

What's happened to me?

Starscream finds his way to MedBay--the route is getting quite familiar, and lets himself in. Sorry, Ratchet, you're not good enough to keep your codes from me, and you didn't change them each time. Much to his surprise, the Medbay is virtually deserted.

He finally notices Skyfire quietly keeping watch in Jetstorm's IsoWard, holding the recharging jet and Auspex. Gentle blue optics look serenely into Starscream's.

// Shhh, don't disturb them. Jetstorm was in a bad way, and Auspex is way overdue for recharge. I think I badgered her into it as a way to comfort Jetstorm, // radios Skyfire.

Starscream smiles. If Auspex were awake, she might sense his triumphant satisfaction, and a certain calm acceptance underneath--if she could sense it past the deep, fierce love for Skyfire.

// Rest yourself, Sky. I'll keep watch; I've got it figured out now, it was in my old files in the lab, and I'll be working here. Recharge; you've been busy. // As he heads for his console and starts re-arranging the panels to suit him, he glances at Skyfire again.

// I'm glad you didn't stay with the Decepticons for my sake. //

The highest point of Autobot City is the communications tower; outside that tower, there's a catwalk for maintenance access to the antenna. Skyfire lands on that catwalk; from here, he can see the stars clearly, without the city lights interfering. The night is crisp and clear; the polar storm has passed away, leaving the stars as bright as diamonds.

He can also see all that passes below, on balconies and heliports and rooftops. Skyfire watches, his own lights dark, his outline indistinct against the larger tower as Starscream stalks out onto a rooftop below, his feet ringing metallically against the armored surface. At the edge of the rooftop, Starscream waits, looking up at the stars, turning his head from time to time to glance at the entrance he used.

Though it's Skyfire who has the coordinates, it's Starscream who finds the battle site first. Every ridge that he struggled over, every river that he stumbled across on frozen ice is engraved in his mind. He knows where reality came apart and two beings that could not die struggled to the death.

// Here, Sky. // Starscream hovers and points at an ice-covered shard of wing sticking up out of the snow.

Skyfire turns his thrusters on the ice and snow; the heat of them quickly turns the area into a boggy, blackened waste covered with scorched parts of Starscream. Of the beast, there is no trace.

Starscream finally touches down and begins to gather up the shreds of his former body. He works in silence until the last of it is packed away in that box in Skyfire's hold.

"Where now?" Skyfire finally asks.

"Denali."

Satisfied now that all his guns work, Starscream quits the firing range in the back of Wheeljack's former lab and moves quickly through Autobot City's halls to the outside. Once again, he can't help but reflect on the irony of now moving freely through the very place they'd once fought so bitterly to take, one brutal meter at a time.

I wonder if humans have the same sense of irony? What does an American veteran think when he tours the beaches of Normandy?

He smirks in amusement at the double-takes from the occasional Bot or human in the halls. His audials can just pick up the occasional exclamation: "Hey, was that--? Nah, couldn't be!" Oh yes, the irony is rich indeed.

Outside, and he transforms for the first time in his new form. Cockpit and nose unfold from his torso, wings reverse, legs become engines and tail--and a red, silver and blue F-22 idles on the landing pad, compressors turning over slowly. He sets brakes and starts with the static engine tests.

After ruining the eardrums of any flesh creature within two hundred yards, he's ready to fly. Lifters, check. Engines, check. Flight controls and avionics, check. Lifters engaged, he rises into the air--and opens the throttle.

Starscream flies again!

By the time everyone gets rounded up, equipped and ready to go, Skyfire has a destination on the coast of British Columbia. Further north, snow and cold in winter is expected, and not a catastrophe, though the raging winds keep everyone inside. But north of Vancouver, the ice and snow and chill aren't usual for this time of year. Not this much, anyway.

Skyfire sits on the landing pad in shuttle mode, waiting for everyone to come aboard.

// Strata, Jetstorm: save your fuel for when you'll need it later. Come aboard. //

Again, he's turned loose from Ratchet's MedBay--why is that place starting to feel as much a prison as the old Undersea Base? Speaking of which, he really ought to go over there and see what needs setting to rights.

Air Commander is in my soul. I can't seem to let it go. Starscream transforms and flies north. Not for him the fire and ice of Crater Lake--nor, this time, the canyons. Now is a moment for the high places.

( Off to Denali )

High above Autobot City, Skyfire and Starscream stand, looking out at the countryside. Or rather, Skyfire does; Starscream is looking inward at something only he can see. They're taking a break from the reconstruction of "The Machine".

The red and silver Seeker looks out at the far horizon, but it's not the mountains he's seeing. Skyfire stands close to him, a very large white and blue, winged, mech.
( Onward for the angsting... )

Starscream looked around at the tarmac of what passed for a starport on Zyra.

"Skyfire, this place is a dump! Cybertron looked better than this during the Great Shutdown! Are you sure they have any kind of long-range commo? Do they even have energon here?" The smaller jet waved his hands at the ramshackle sheet-metal buildings and weather-stained concrete control tower.

The immense white spaceship transformer named Skyfire looked down at the red and silver Decepticon. "Looks can be deceiving," Skyfire noted mildly. "You didn't travel much while you were Megatron's Air Commander, did you?"

Starscream looked away at the hazy blue sky. "No."

"Zyra doesn't have much worth exporting, so their port doesn't get much attention. It's modern enough for our purposes--it has energon, though not high-grade, and the usual hyperwave facilities." Skyfire pointed one big white hand at the control tower.

Starsceam frowned. "Fine, fine. Now I just need to figure out who to call to get a straight answer from. And what to ask them." He walked toward the control tower; Skyfire followed.

Skyfire looked at Starscream with a fondly exasperated expression. "I still don't know just what you're going on about. All you've told me is that you think Galvatron is dead, but you won't go into details."

"I don't have the details," Starscream said, looking pensive. "He was angry at someone threatening an ally of his, and he was dead. I don't know anything more than that. Who does Galvatron count as an ally? Galvatron doesn't have allies; he has cringing followers!"

Skyfire hesitated as Starscream opened the door. "The Autobots might know something--especially if they had something to do with Galvatron's death."

Starscream looked up sharply at the bigger mech. "Not that I could ask them. But..."

"...I could." Skyfire smiled. "I think a few people at Autobot City still know who I am."

(( Continued somewhere else. Maybe ))