Chapter Text
'Something's wrong...' Todd slowly pulled the cruiser up against a dirt road lined with pine trees. It was quiet. Too quiet. No birds sang. No buzzing of flies. The sky was nearly pitch black, but they knew they were driving in the right direction. The officer's existed the cruiser, Ray holding the only torch they had. 'It should have crashed by now.' Yet the lack of a fireball or forest fire left an eeriness in the air.
Ray looked to the sky. He couldn't see the smoke they had been following for the last forty minutes anymore. It was too dark. Todd was right. Something was very wrong. He began to walk down the road.
'We'll have to go back,' Todd said, turning back to the cruiser. 'Bring the rest of the team and alert the hospital.'
'What if they managed to land safely?' Ray asked before stopping in the middle of the road and looking to the ground.
'We still need backup.' Todd went to climb back into the driver's seat but stopped herself when she saw Ray just standing there. 'Ray?'
'You might want to see this.'
Todd approached. 'What? What's wrong?' And there, in the middle of the dirt road was a large footprint. Ray looked up and went to the left. Another matching print. It was dragging something behind them, equally as big. The pair turned in the direction they were heading and saw the damaged pine trees, crushed bushes, and upturned earth. Neither said anything and began to follow, leaving the cruiser alone with its headbeams acting as a light in the dark.
Ray led with the torch. Todd drew her gun and held it against her thigh, ready to draw at anything suspicious. They marched through the forest, following the prints and mild destruction none of the local wildlife could have caused. Todd looked over her shoulder and couldn't see the road anymore. The pair quietly continued forward until the sound of crunching leaves and dried grass was replaced with metal. The tracks led them here.
At first, it looked like a cave, but they soon realised upon entering, when approaching a fan, slipping between the gaps, did it click for them.
'Oh my God,' Ray muttered. 'It's a ship. A ship in the mountains.'
'A ship for what?' Right on cue, distant voices echoed into their ears.
When Starscream woke, the first thing he noticed was the bed. He couldn't remember the last time he slept on a bed. Megatron wouldn't allow any on Nemesis. A small smile graced his lips before the same distant voices echoed into his audio receptors.
He slowly sat up and forced himself to his pedals, noticing all his injuries had been healed. The wings and wiring might as well be brand new. There wasn't even a scratch.
'...Comber.' A rich voice called, attracting Starscream into the corridor. 'Have your circuits completely fried?!' No surprise, they were angry. 'Do you know who that is?'
'Of course I do-'
'Then why did you bring him here?!'
A noise from a mute bot hummed. Quietly, Starscream approached the room and perked his head around the corner, and the memories came flooding back. He had no idea who the two bots bickering were, but the smaller yellow and black bot with no voice would be hard to forget. Bumblebee. Still mute. Still so fragile looking for frontline combat. Starscream was there the day Megatron crushed his voice box after a failed scouting mission for the Autobot. Barricade found him lurking in the remains of what was once a battlefield that had become Debris. Optimus came to the rescue, but not with these bots. Speaking of, their leader was noticeably absent. Starscream glanced to the left and saw, who he didn't know to be, Rachet sitting off to the side, aimlessly cleaning the medical equipment.
'What was I supposed to do? I couldn't just leave him.'
'Yes, you could.' The one arguing was tall with a lean build, red painting, and a viewfinder for an optic. An optic that shifted its attention to the seeker. 'Oh, he's awake.' Scrap. Too soon for Starscream to think of a plan. Awkwardly, he stepped into the doorway. He didn't know what to do with himself. No one was pointing a gun or rocket in his face, but this wasn't a warm welcome. 'Careful. You'll squash the humans.'
Humans?
Starscream looked down to the left. Todd and Ray looked up at him. The seeker audibly shuddered and skipped away from the pair towards the Autobots. He held his hands up, as if the gun Todd was holding would do any real damage. Plus, she wasn't even aiming at anything. Starscream didn't understand how something as small and squishy as humans could survive on a planet this big. Their flesh disgusted him.
'It's okay,' Beachcomber reassured. 'They won't hurt you.'
'Did you bring them here as well, Beach?' The same red Autobot asked in a sarcastic tone.
'No. I don't know how they found us.'
'Sorry,' Ray awkwardly interrupted. 'But who are you? And why are you in a mountain?'
The Autobots and single Decepticon shared a glance. No one wanted to say anything. They knew it was only a matter of time until someone noticed a group of giant robots walking around, but a part of them hoped no one noticed.
'We come from Cybertron,' Rachet spoke up. 'A world made entirely from metal, and trust us, we wouldn't be here if it wasn't for his lot.' He jerked his head towards Starscream, who shrugged in a look of genuine confusion.
'Excuse me?!' The seeker scoffed. 'I didn't start the war.'
'No, but your leader did.'
'Well, speaking of leaders, where's yours? Finally wised up and left?' Bumblebee was quick to get in Starscream's face to hum and whir about how much of a disgrace he was and that he had no right to talk about Optimus that way. Starscream just found it amusing. 'What was that? I can't understand you.'
'That's enough, Starscream,' the red Autobot stepped between the two, lightly pushing Bumblebee away. 'You should be thanking us.' The seeker ignored the unnamed bot and kept his attention solely on Bumblebee with a smirk and wicked optics.
'If you want me to understand you, perhaps Optimus should have been smarter and made sure you didn't go alone back then.' Bumblebee's whirring got louder and more aggressive.
'Starscream-'
'Was it really just you and Cliffjumper acting as his scouts? No wonder you all ran away like cowards.'
Chaos. Pure chaos erupted in the room. Yelling from all sides. Starscream was clearly taking delight in pressing his enemies' buttons. The red Autobot was holding Bee back, who was trying to take a swing at the Decepticon with his stingers that appeared atop of his wrists. Rachet's temper had reached its limit, now stepping in as Bee's translator, saying what he would say if the circumstances were different. Beachcomber looked like a lost puppy or a child seeing their parents fight.
By now, they had completely forgotten about Todd and Ray, who continued to awkwardly stand off to the side.
'Are you following any of this?' Ray asked Todd.
'Absolutely not.' Todd answered, followed by a small pause. 'Well, actually, look at the emblems on them.' She nodded towards the Autobots. 'Theirs aren't the same to his.'
'Different factions.'
'...We just saved your life,' Rachet yelled.
'Oh and where was that care before?' Starscream yelled back.
'Before? With you?'
'With Jetfire!'
Silence. Everyone stopped. The name bounced off the walls across the entire ship. Starscream's vocal wiring nearly ripped. His prideful, smug face turned twisted and angry. He pushed the red Autobot's hand away with a grunt, his breathing heavy. His optics reflected a small tint of sadness, but he tried not to show it.
'I know you could have saved him,' he snarled. 'But you didn't. So don't expect me to be grovelling at your pedals.' No one said anything, and no one could bring themselves to look Starscream in the eye, who scoffed at their display. 'And you all call me a coward.' More silence, until Todd held up her hand.
'Excuse me, but what's going on?'