Chapter Text
Over the course of the next two months, Starscream began getting more used to his new life style and home - and his partner, Turbo the turbofox. Now that he had Professor Helix' lab to live in, as well as having somebody to live with, life became easier on him. As the days passed, Turbo and Starscream both recovered from their respective wounds, thanks to a daily diet of Energon and metal, as well as changing the bandages and patches on the wounds.
Every day, Starscream and Turbo went out to gather Energon. While they had plenty of cubes in the lab, Starscream was still bothered by that dream he kept having, and it didn't take long before he realized it would be a good idea to have more Energon as backup, just in case.
Starscream always brought three empty Energon cubes with him when going out. He would either go to the river in the osmium forest, the lake in the manganese forest, or other deposits he found in other areas on Cybertron. Considering the osmium forest had apparently been visited by other Cybertronians than himself lately, Starscream was concerned about running into them and decided it was best to go to different places.
After filling the three cubes with Energon, Starscream would go to some random spot, either in one of the abandoned cities, in the forests or mountains and make a small cache where the cubes could be hidden. In the cities he would hide them among rubble or in small rooms of still standing buildings; in forests he would dig holes in the ground and bury them; in the mountains or canyons he would find small caves or hollows to put them in and cover with rocks and boulders; and the rest would become part of the main stash in the lab.
Even so, the majority of the Energon gathered ended up in the smaller stashes. Each cache consisted of five to ten cubes, and each stash had to be at least one klik's distance apart from each other. Both factors were to make sure the stashes did not give off too strong energy signals so that other bots would find and steal them. But even if bots did manage to raid a stash, Starscream made sure to make plenty of them, so he had plenty of backup.
Starscream spent a lot of time every day gathering Energon and stashing them away. If he didn't have any empty cubes in the lab, he would go into the abandoned city ruins and look for intact cubes until he got three cubes. There were a lot of empty, intact cubes scattered across the ruins, though finding them took longer and longer time as the days passed and the caches grew larger and spread across the planet. Finding three cubes could take a few minutes to several hours. Starscream made a rule to gather at least thirty cubes every day, doing at least ten rounds of gathering Energon every day before he could do something else.
Other than gathering Energon, Starscream and Turbo also went hunting together on occasion. Since their prey varied in size, they didn't hunt every day or every other day, but at least once a week. Turbo hunted the small mechanimals like dexi-squirrel, lilleth, razor snake and even an erinacon once, while Starscream could somewhat handle medium-sized beasts like porcineacon, cyber-hawk, astroturkey and the like on his own. When it came to large mechanimals like titanium moosebot, singlehorn and even large predators like krystar iron-bear and nitrotiger, the two of them had to work together to take them down. They would share the large kills whilst only letting the other take one bite of their own kills. As such, both got metal to eat, and both worked to feed themselves and each other.
Starscream ended up convincing Turbo in the beginning that they should only hunt one of each kind of mechanimal, so Starscream could gather samples from as many species as possible to store away for the future. While Turbo did not seem pleased to be restricted at what she could and could not hunt, Starscream assured her it was just until he had gathered enough pieces of the mechanimals, so she went along with it.
Starscream and Turbo shared the edible metal across a few days, while the inedible metal was stored away for different purposes. Starscream had studied the organs of the dioptas-stag a bit closer with the help of the science books in the lab, to see if he could make any use of them. He found that once the organs were off Energon and the host was dead, they were pretty much useless and could only really be melted down for materials.
If Starscream had had more experience in the scientific field than the basic knowledge he had, perhaps he could have found a way to make use of them, but learning takes time, and the organs, along with the rest of the carcass, would not last more than three weeks before they would start to deteriorate. Starscream didn't know exactly how long it would take for mechanimal corpses to rust, but he assumed it was about the same amount of time as it was for bots, which, depending on the size, could take three to four weeks. A bot Starscream's size would probably take somewhere between twenty-three and twenty-eight days to start rusting, which was about the size of the dioptas-stag.
As such, Starscream would only keep the organs around for a few days before simply taking them to a smelting pool and melting them down. The harder parts of the inedible metal were more resistant to oxidation and thus Starscream could keep those around for longer to find a way to make use of them. The melted metal was put away in the closet Starscream had found Professor Helix in and since cleared for extra storage space.
Other than hunting mechanimals and gathering Energon, Starscream also began gathering more metalo-fruits and meshetables, as well as samples of other metalo-plants that were normally inedible to him. Leaves, bark, roots, stems and seeds of osmium-oaks, manganese-maples, boron-beeches, cobalt-pines and more were sampled and put into separate cubes to be stored away later. Whenever Starscream ate the edible plants, he also made sure to put the seeds and bits of the seedless meshetables into their own separate cubes. The two seeds Starscream had sowed in two pots had by now sprouted into tiny plants and were growing slowly. Since they had already been given all the Energon they would need to grow up and grow fruits, there wasn't much Starscream had to do, other than occasionally check if they were still healthy.
When not out hunting or gathering, Starscream spent time in the lab studying the books on science, both the basics and the more advanced ones. He wanted to find out if anything could be done about the pollution on Cybertron, especially what was apparently inside himself. He wanted to know how much time he had left to live in, if Helix' assumptions on life expectancy on those poisoned were correct, and if there was a way to remove the toxins inside his own body.
Because he had already studied basic science and had some interest in the field, Starscream didn't have too much trouble reading Helix' notes or understanding all the science in the lab, but he still needed to take a few steps at a time to really understand it all. It was still hard, and it still took time to learn, but he was certain he would eventually become an expert on his own.
At one point, Starscream took a sample of both his own and Turbo's Energon to compare their toxin levels. Turbo was not pleased with getting stung by a needle to have her Energon taken, but she forgave him later. Turbo's Energon was significantly less toxic than Starscream's own, unsurprisingly. She still sat at about thirty percent though, which seemed a bit high for a forest mechanimal like her. Professor Helix had said in his log that forest mechanimals tended to have toxin levels below twenty percent, because the pollution was less dense in the forests due to the metalo-plants absorbing the pollution and releasing it into the air, cleaner than before.
Then Starscream remembered that Turbo had not lived in the osmium forest all her life. She had been a nomad, because of the deforestation and increased population of Insecticons and Scraplets. She might even have travelled through a few cities during her journey, inhaling some of the toxins along the way. Maybe even some of it in the ruins of Vos and other cities while staying with Starscream? Starscream didn't know how it worked. Maybe Cybertron would never be free of pollution. Maybe Cybertronians would always get poisoned, no matter how short an amount of time they stay in polluted areas.
Speaking of Cybertronians, Starscream did occasionally meet other Cybertronians while out hunting or gathering, often with Turbo. Often it was the same group they met, but Starscream ended up counting at least three separate groups. They almost never made contact with them, however, instead hiding among trees or rocks to avoid detection. The few times they were spotted, they simply ran away rather than fighting them, as both of them knew other bots were dangerous. The bots they met never chased after them, so no Energon was spilled on either side. They didn't stick around to find out if they were Scavengers, Marauders, Autobots or Decepticons, either, though Starscream was fairly certain the two warmonging factions wouldn't wander around in these landscapes.
One night, after having gathered the usual thirty cubes, metalo-plants and having successfully hunted another alloygator from the lake in the manganese forest, Starscream decided to go out by himself while Turbo took a rest. He wanted to gather a bit more Energon, to keep the lab stash full as often as possible. Turbo no longer had a problem being left behind in the lab and allowed Starscream to lock her in as he went out alone.
Taking three empty cubes with him, having another five empty ones in the lab, Starscream took off into the star-filled night sky of Cybertron. It was as beautiful as ever, with the two moons giving extra light to the creatures of the night. Starscream took a moment to gaze around him, being all alone out here, with a cool breeze caressing his armor as he flew in jet mode.
"It's hard to think there's a war going on, with all this silence here," he said quietly to himself. He knew that, if he went a bit more north, he would probably be able to see lights flashing from Iacon City, unless the warmongers were also taking a night off to rest and enjoy the scenery. Or, at least rest. Starscream doubted they had the luxury of enjoying any good view these days. He was glad he had decided to abandon the war life while he could.
Eventually Starscream flew past the blue cobalt-pine forest he had been to on his first day of solitude. Out of curiosity, he descended and landed to see how things were there since last time he had been there. He switched to bot mode and took a look around. It was still as blue as it was before, though it was quiet. Very quiet.
Starscream wandered through the forest, trying to locate the pond he had found the first time, just to see if it was still there. If more Insecticons knew about this place, it might be gone. Even so, Starscream was surprised he didn't come across a single mechanimal during his walk through the woods, not even a single lilleth or insectoid.
Eventually Starscream spotted a blue glow and arrived at the pond. It was still there, but with less content than last time, now looking more like a big puddle than a pond.
But that was not all that there was. Starscream stiffened as he emerged from among the trees. He was not alone.
On the other side of the pond, only about four mechanometers away, sat three bots by the edge of the pond. They looked up at his arrival and stared at him, silencing whatever conversation they just had.
All four bots stared at each other, frozen and in silence. Starscream didn't move an inch. He knew that if he moved or even spoke, things could escalate quickly. As did the strangers, apparently. They also did not move at all nor spoke to each other. They just stared at him in uncertainty and fear. All three bots were lightweight, one of them seeming as if they turned into a beast and being purple and white in color; another as if they turned into a car, being orange and black. The third one was smaller, seemingly a two-wheeler, being teal and pink. All three were definitely grounders, no wings or rotors apparent on their bodies.
Somewhere in the back of Starscream's head, he recognized the bots as part of one of the three groups he and Turbo had occasionally run into during their outings. Remembering further, he was certain he had seen them with more bots, at least one or two heavier builds. Perhaps they had run into one of the other groups and ended up battling, losing a few members as a result?
Starscream didn't think long about it. He gulped and decided to be the first to make a move. He slowly moved a leg forward, causing the strangers to wince back a bit, huddling together, but not drawing any weapons. Starscream knelt down by the pond and, in a slow movement, opened his cockpit to take out the empty cubes, putting them on the ground beside him. The strangers watched him carefully, still without speaking.
Gaze fixed on the bots, Starscream took one cube and ran it through the pond to gather the Energon. Once full, he put it back in his still-open cockpit. He then took the second empty cube and did the same. The bots followed his actions carefully.
Starscream took the third cube and ran it through the Energon, allowing himself to relax slightly more, as the bots continued to do nothing. He filled the cube and carefully tucked it into his cockpit before closing it. He rose carefully back to both legs.
"Are you... alone?" the beast-bot suddenly uttered, catching Starscream's attention.
Starscream gazed at the three bots, still huddled together and not having drawn weapons yet. At least one of them did seem to have a handheld gun on his waist, so they weren't completely defenseless.
Starscream thought about the bot's words. He knew why he asked that. They were alone, afraid and probably homeless. They wanted to know if he had a group, or at the very least if he had a place to stay in. He imagined the bots staying with him and Turbo in the lab. Then he imagined them killing him in his sleep, or kicking him out, or baiting him into a larger group, lying in ambush. He frowned at the thought.
"...Yes," Starscream replied quietly. "And I intend to stay that way."
With that, Starscream initiated jet mode and shot upwards, not caring to look back at the lone bots' reactions. As he flew above the trees and back to Vos, he thought about his actions and felt his Spark racing a bit. He didn't know if they would intend to harm him or Turbo, but he also couldn't know if that was indeed their intention.
What he did know was that they were alone and homeless. One part of Starscream wanted to take them in and have them as company, and that part didn't care what kind of bots he might pick up. The other part of him reminded him, however, that it would be foolish to pick up random strangers whenever they appeared. There wasn't enough space in the lab, and the only one he could really trust was himself.
If things went bad, it could be him against an army, Turbo included. He'd rather have just Turbo turn on him than a group of bots that could easily end up killing him.
They had to take care of themselves. Starscream could take care of himself no problem, so surely three bots together could handle themselves just fine. They weren't his problem and never would be.
He had other things to worry about.
The next day, after a good night's rest, Starscream and Turbo went out together to gather more Energon. First they searched around in the ruins of Vos for more empty cubes. After two months, they had gathered almost two thousand cubes, storing them away in close to four hundred stashes across Cybertron, every single one of them at least one klik away from the others, each of them containing five to ten cubes. And then there were the one hundred full cubes stored in the lab, which they mainly fueled on.
Furthermore, they had gathered samples of about a dozen different species of mechanimals, all from their occasional hunting trips. Metalo-plant samples were gathered of dozens of different species, and Starscream wondered if there were enough small cubes to contain each species. There were still a bunch of cubes left, but it was still uncertain if he could gather samples from them all.
Then again, the variety of mechanimals and metalo-plants on Cybertron wasn't big. From what he could tell from information in the books and on the Grid, there had been recorded about five thousand different species of mechanimals on Cybertron, including insectoids, which made up a large portion, but also including the Predacons, which had been extinct for a long time now. Metalo-plants had been record to only a little over a thousand different species, and metal-fungi only had about a hundred different species recorded. In all three cases, the total amount of species had been greatly reduced due to over-hunting, deforestation, construction of cities, industry and warfare among other factors. Starscream did not know how many species were left, but with his new job of gathering samples, he could make an estimation, at the very least.
After a few hours of searching, Starscream and Turbo eventually found three empty cubes scattered in the ruins. All three were intact and ready to be filled with Energon. Starscream tucked them in his cockpit and initiated jet mode, then set off to the sky with Turbo following below him.
It was a clear day with no clouds in the sky, not even in the distance. To the north, Iacon City was quiet. It seemed the warmongers were taking a break from fighting each other to the death. It was a beautiful day to take a relaxing fly, drive or walk, if it wasn't for the war going on.
After a few minutes, Starscream and Turbo arrived in the osmium forest and headed to the river. Starscream initiated bot-mode and walked after Turbo, who immediately went to the river to get a drink. Starscream looked around him as he walked. The forest was strangely quiet. Usually at this time, the lilleths would be singing and the dexi-squirrels would be chattering in the trees. But there was no song this time. No leaves rustling, no chirping or other indication that living beings resided here.
Starscream knelt down by the river and withdrew the empty cubes to fill them up. Next to him, Turbo was lapping up Energon more energetically than usual. Perhaps she was really thirsty.
Starscream ran one cube through the Energon until it was full. Then he paused. He gazed and squinted at the Energon in the cube. It seemed slightly... lavender.
"Strange..." Starscream commented and looked at Turbo, who was still drinking from the river. "Turbo, do-"
Starscream silenced as his gaze fell on Turbo's left eye. Normally red, it had suddenly turned violet. Starscream leaned forward to look at Turbo's face from the front. Her other eye had also turned purple. Her gaze was hard fixed on the Energon below, energetically lapping at it, almost biting at the surface.
Starscream settled back into his spot next to her and looked down at the Energon in the cube. "It can't be," he said in disbelief. "Is this..."
A low growl interrupted his thoughts, and he looked up. On the other side of the river stood a lone gridwolf and glared at Starscream with aggression and hatred. Its eyes were glowing purple, which was unusual for gridwolves, as they normally had yellow or red eyes like turbofoxes did. Turbo continued to lap the Energon in her, unaware of the danger approaching.
Starscream dropped the cube and quickly got onto his legs. As soon as he moved, so did the gridwolf; it jumped into the river and splashed through until it reached the other side. Starscream jumped back and drew his swords, preparing for battle, and Turbo finally noticed the gridwolf's arrival and quickly ran off to the side, both dodging the wolf's initial attack.
After reaching land, the gridwolf immediately turned to Turbo and snapped out at her, but she was quick and agile, easily leaping away to a safer spot. The gridwolf chased after her, but Starscream jumped forward and swung with his right sword. The gridwolf only just managed to stop in time to not get beheaded, and its attention went on Starscream now instead.
The gridwolf turned out to be much quicker than Starscream had expected. Before he could pull his sword back for another attack, the gridwolf had suddenly grabbed hold of his arm with its jaws and knocked him down flat on the ground, holding him down. It sank its sharp teeth into the arm, making a loud crunching sound, and Starscream shrieked in pain. If it put just a bit more force into the bite, the arm might just break off.
Turbo leapt onto the much bigger gridwolf and sank her own teeth into the beast's ear and scratched its face with her claws. The gridwolf immediately let go of Starscream and jumped around while shaking its head violently, trying to shake Turbo off. Starscream huffed as the wolf's weight was lifted from his body, and he put a hand on the wounded shoulder. But he didn't have time to rest yet. Turbo was in trouble, and she wouldn't be able to stall the gridwolf for much longer.
Starscream struggled to get back on his feet, using only his good arm, and watched Turbo equally struggling to stay on the gridwolf's back. Starscream took advantage of the gridwolf's distraction to look for his swords.
Eventually, Turbo couldn't hold on anymore and was flung into the trunk of a tree. As she lay by the roots, trying to recover, the gridwolf loomed over her, and the two sets of violet eyes made contact. Turbo gazed at the larger predator in fear for a moment as it opened its jaws wide. She closed her eyes, waiting for the inevitable.
Suddenly, the gridwolf seized, and it started howling in pain. Turbo opened her eyes again and looked up. Starscream had planted one of his swords through the gridwolf's neck, and now he was holding onto the beast with his good left arm, while the gridwolf twisted and jumped, screaming in pain.
Starscream groaned as he used his injured arm to get a better grip on the sword's handle. Energon leaked and sprayed from the wound as he put extra strength into the sword. With a swift, strong movement, he sliced through the gridwolf's throat, freeing the sword and inflicting fatal damage onto the beast.
The gridwolf seized again and fell silent, then it collapsed onto the ground. Starscream fell with it and held onto his wounded arm again. He pushed against the gridwolf's body with his legs and struggled a bit to sit up on his knees. He grunted in pain and exhaustion as he looked down at the gridwolf, leaking out. But it wasn't blue Energon leaving its body... it was purple.
Starscream stiffened as the strange lavender Energon suddenly... started crawling over the gridwolf's corpse, slowly moving towards Starscream and Turbo. Starscream backed away slowly on his knees, but the strange Energon was too fast for him to avoid. Suddenly it was crawling up his frame, as if it was alive. Starscream yelped in distress, and a distance away, he could hear Turbo also whimpering in fear.
He followed the Energon's path, up his arm and heading for his wound. Suddenly he noticed the Energon leaking from his wound and staining his fingers was not only blue, but also laced with violet. The lavender Energon from the gridwolf's bite had mixed with his own Energon. And Turbo had just been drinking from the lavender river. Was the violet Energon perhaps... attracted to the lavender Energon in Starscream and Turbo's bodies?
Within seconds, the purple Energon had infiltrated Starscream's wound, causing a tickling, itchy feeling in his arm. The pain became more intense, and Starscream gasped, coughed and moaned with the pain's increase in power. He crouched together and trembled as his entire body started to itch, and the pain spread to his whole body.
This went on for several seconds until suddenly... the pain stopped. It stopped so suddenly, as if someone had just flipped a switch. The itch was replaced with energy, and the pain was replaced with pleasure. Every negative thought, memory and emotion disappeared. Starscream let out a long sigh, finding himself in a strange state of bliss.
Bliss was not the only thing he was feeling. He also felt powerful. Confident. Invincible. He felt like he could take on anyone in a fight and win. He smiled widely at the thought, feeling a burst of excitement.
Starscream sat up on his knees again and looked over at Turbo. She had gotten back on her feet again and was staring at the ground, her mind seemingly elsewhere. In a brief moment, he felt the urge to run over and beat the scrap out of her.
As soon as the thought crossed his mind, Starscream's smile disappeared, and he shook his head, covering his face with one hand. How could he ever think of hurting Turbo? How could the thought ever cross his mind?
Starscream's gaze went from Turbo to the river, filled with lavender Energon that seemed slightly more purple than earlier. The memory of the red-eyed Megatron walking into the Dark Energon chamber and out again, crackling with energy and his eyes glowing purple, popped up in Starscream's mind.
"It can't be anything else," Starscream muttered, feeling the pain in his arm starting to return. "Dark Energon..."
After resting for a short moment, Starscream had put the three cubes - two of them still empty - in his cockpit, taken a spike from the gridwolf's mane and deposited it in his cockpit as well, and then looked the gridwolf over. It had been completely drained of Energon after it died, all of it going into Starscream and Turbo. As such, Starscream could not use the corpse to figure out if his assumption was true.
Instead, he and Turbo returned to the lab in Vos, Starscream in bot mode, as his arm was barely hanging on and made up the base of his wing in jet mode. With his arm this terrible, his jet wing would be very frail and dangerous to fly with.
Turbo once again made it back to the lab before Starscream, as the Seeker was still burdened by his wounded arm, and the turbofox seemed to also be full of energy now. After unlocking the lab and making it inside, Starscream started with the most important thing, which was to wrap up his wounded arm in bandages. Afterwards, he opened his cockpit and unloaded the two empty cubes, then the third cube, filled with presumably Dark Energon.
As soon as the cube was placed on the table, Turbo leapt onto the table and pounced on the cube, knocking down the empty cubes nearby. Starscream flinched at the action.
"Turbo, no!" Starscream shouted and pushed her away from the purple cube. "What are you doing?"
The push caused Turbo to snarl and pounce onto Starscream, knocking him back. Her jaws snapped out for his face, and Starscream yelped, trying his best to not get bitten.
"Turbo, what's gotten into you?" Starscream exclaimed. "Calm down! Stop!"
Turbo chased Starscream backwards around the lab until he slipped and fell back on the floor. She leapt onto him and swiped out at him. Starscream managed to place a hand on her chest to keep her claws and teeth out of range, but she simply twisted and tried to bite his arm.
Getting frustrated, Starscream instinctively punched Turbo to the side, managing to throw her into the wall. Starscream quickly got back onto his legs and ran over to Turbo and grabbed hold of the back of her neck before she could counter. With another arm holding around her lower body, Starscream lifted Turbo up, keeping a tight hold on her and pushing her head forward to prevent her from twisting around and biting him. She yelped and snarled and flailed around aimlessly with her legs, trying to get free.
Starscream looked around frantically in the lab for a solution. His gaze set on the Energon storage room and he ran over to it, used his elbow to open the door, and then he threw Turbo into the room. He quickly grabbed the door handle as she got up, and shut the door immediately. Turbo rammed against the door and swiped against the small window at the top, glaring at Starscream on the other side.
Starscream sighed and used his ring to lock the door, preventing Turbo from getting out. It was definitely Dark Energon. All the signs were there. The purple eyes, the aggression, the power, and the substance's apparent ability to crawl from a dead host to a living one. That was one of the traits the Seekers had learned about it through their thousand years of research on the element.
"Dark Energon dominates and destroys everything it touches," Starscream muttered while gazing at the crazed Turbo. "Both physically and mentally. We found out the hard way. Just a small stash of the stuff destroyed almost a quarter of Trypticon Station. Anyone foolish enough to touch it went into a craze and destroyed themselves... and those around them."
Starscream turned away from the door and gazed at the purple cube on the table. He slowly walked over, his gaze fixed on the substance. The memory of Megatron emerging from the chamber, stronger than before, again planted itself in Starscream's mind.
Drink it, a voice said in his head.
"It's dangerous," Starscream said quietly. "No one has survived direct contact with it..."
None until Megatron, the voice said. The Dark Energon made him stronger. And he still lives.
"Megatron is a monster," Starscream argued. "He's no normal bot. He's..."
His henchmen were soaked in it. They still live, too. They did not seem much different from yourself.
Starscream silenced. Before he realized it, he had made it all the way to the table and looked down at the Dark Energon, leaning on his hands flat on the table. He tried to ignore the memory of Megatron, but all he got was a feeling of... sadness. Frustration, anger and anxiety. The pain in his arm became more apparent, and he felt empty inside. The sadness tinged in his abdomen, and he felt like he was breaking down. He felt weaker, much weaker than before the attack, as if something was sapping his strength. Something was missing. He could not think any happy thoughts, he felt no joy at the moment.
The Dark Energon seemed to glow inviting. Starscream stared at the substance.
"I wonder... what it tastes like..." Starscream said quietly.
It will make you feel better, the voice encouraged. The pain will go away. Just like it did before. It will make you stronger. You can control it. You will not die.
Starscream put his hands on the sides of the cube. "Perhaps... one sip won't hurt..." he muttered.
Starscream lifted the cube up and placed the edge to his lips. He took a small sip. And then immediately put the cube back onto the table.
He gasped as itchy pain coursed through his body for a second before getting replaced with euphoria. The pain disappeared, and only pleasure remained, like when scratching an itch. Only, the bliss was much greater, removing every negative thought and emotion from his mind. The sadness disappeared, and instead power and excitement filled the void in his body. He relished in the feeling of bliss and sighed deeply into the high.
"So sweet..." he whispered. "And this power I feel... it's like nothing I've ever felt before..."
Starting to feel a small tinge of anxiety, Starscream immediately picked up the cube again and guzzled down the rest of its contents within ten seconds. He let the cube fall onto the floor, now empty. Starscream crouched together and groaned as a strong surge of energy coursed through his body, filling him with temporary pain, then pleasure, power and excitement. He threw his arms to the side and shrieked in excitement.
"This power!" Starscream exclaimed. "I can take on anyone! No one can stand against me like this!"
Once again, Starscream briefly looked over at the door to the Energon storage room, where Turbo was currently locked in. He quickly shook his head.
"No, not Turbo," he hissed at himself. "I have to get out of here. I can't hurt Turbo."
With that, Starscream left the lab and practically ran up the stairs, impatiently waiting for the hatch to open and let him outside. He quickly shut the entrance before blasting off into the sky with his jet boosters, then transforming to jet mode, stretching the bandages on his arm as they flattened to make the wings longer. He spun around in the open sky, looping and putting as much force into his thrusters as possible to go as fast as possible.
Starscream laughed as he let loose the energy gained from the Dark Energon. "The power of Dark Energon... it's incredible! I have to test this out!"
Ascending further into the sky, Starscream decided to check out the various deposits visible from space. He spotted the purple river in the osmium forest, now even darker than when they left. Flying over the manganese forest, he saw the golden apple tree surrounded by a purple lake. Every place he passed by with an Energon deposit had turned purple.
"Every deposit has been infected by Dark Energon," Starscream observed as he went beyond the forested areas, heading out to the Sea of Rust. "I wonder what it looks like at the Well?"
Within minutes, he arrived at the big hole in the ground that led to the Well of All Sparks. Starscream felt a rush in his tanks and stopped for a moment, just hovering in the air. The walls aligning the Well, leading to the bottom where the AllSpark used to reside, were usually bright cyan like the Energon in the wild deposits, unlike the deposits found around cities. It was the purest, cleanest Energon on the planet, fueling the very AllSpark itself, keeping the Core alive as well, as it was the Spark of Primus himself.
This time, however, the Energon in the Well was deep, dark purple, much darker than the deposits Starscream had just seen. The Dark Energon was most concentrated here. The very sight filled Starscream with dread.
"The Core itself has been infected," Starscream gasped. "But how? Such a thing shouldn't be possible. The Geosynchronus Energon Bridge only converts a deposit of Energon into Dark Energon. How did the entire planet suddenly become infected? Not even Megatron should be able to do this..."
Starscream started slowly circling the Well, trying to think of how this could have happened. After about a minute of speculation, a thought crossed his mind.
"The Code Keys," he said. "It is said if you find the Key of Power and the Key of Justice, you have the power to change the Core. But that should only be a myth. Did Megatron find the Keys? Did he convert the entire planet's Energon into Dark Energon, to never run out of it again?"
Soon, his thoughts were occupied by other things than the Core's corruption.
"I need to find out more about this new Dark Energon," Starscream said to himself. "I drank the whole cube I had. I need to find out what its true powers are. Is it really as deadly as I thought it was? Can something be done about its presence here? And... what happens if I continue to consume it?"
Instead of asking more questions, Starscream simply turned and flew off in a random direction, to find an abandoned city he could search for empty cubes in. He eventually found one and searched for almost half an hour before finding an intact cube. He immediately stored it in his cockpit and took off into the sky, heading for a forest with Energon in it.
He settled for a boron-beech forest that had a small lake in it. He reverted to bot mode and went to the shore. He knelt down and stared hungrily at the purple Energon. He shook his head and withdrew the empty cube from his cockpit. He opened the lid and ran the cube through the surface, filling it to the brim. After closing it, he put the now full cube back into his cockpit. He gazed down at the lake again and smiled.
"Business before pleasure," Starscream said and almost dove into the Dark Energon, guzzling the liquid in him, feeling the power and bliss returning to him as he consumed more of it. The taste was even stronger than in the lab. The Dark Energon was becoming more concentrated, and with it, greater power and greater satisfaction. The lavender Energon had just been a taste of its power. This was the right stuff.
A growl made Starscream sit up in attention. He looked around him. Several mechanimals had arrived at the lake too, smaller ones hissing at each other as they tried to sip from the surface, the bigger ones growling and snarling at each other. A few of them were glaring and growling at Starscream himself. Every single one of the mechanimals had purple eyes, and every single one of them emitted aggression and Energon lust.
But so did Starscream. Rather than cower at the sight of the many hostile beasts, including a pack of gridwolves, he stood up, drew his swords... and grinned.
"You want a fight?" Starscream hissed. "I'll give you a fight! This Energon is mine!"
Starscream let out a battle scream and charged at the gridwolves, which dispersed. One of them didn't get out of the way in time and was immediately cut down by the Seeker's blade. He turned and swung with his swords to each side as two more gridwolves went for the attack from opposite directions, and he slit both of their throats at the same time.
Starscream cackled at the thrill of the fight and the immense energy and power that kept increasing in his body.
"You cannot harm me while Dark Energon flows through my veins!" Starscream bellowed as his eyes locked onto the last couple of gridwolves, growling at him. He charged at them. "I - am - invincible!"
Within seconds, the two last gridwolves, despite their best efforts to dodge, got decapitated wholly or partially, getting instantly killed. Starscream stood for a moment and gasped for ventilation, feeling more power and energy coursing through his body. No matter how much he fought and killed, he didn't get tired.
As he looked down, he realized why. None of the gridwolves' corpses were leaking. They were all dry. He looked down at himself and saw purple liquid disappearing into the seams of his body.
"Ah, I see," Starscream said to himself and smiled. "When a host of Dark Energon dies, the substance leaves the body and searches for a nearby living host that also contains Dark Energon. And by doing that, the new host gets even more powerful. This is no normal Energon."
Starscream trembled at the feel of the power, pleasure and excitement the Dark Energon gave him.
"It's more powerful than I ever imagined!" he shouted and spread out his arms, then proceeded to laugh merrily.
The laughter soon died down, and Starscream looked around. He blinked in surprise. Every mechanimal that had previously been alive and threatening was now suddenly dead on the ground. Sliced in half. Decapitated. Throats slit. Every one of them had wounds caused by a blade. Dexi-squirrels, cyber-ducks, gridwolves, dioptas-deer, and even a single turbofox were among the dead. The sight caused Starscream's smile to fade.
"Did... I do all this?" he asked quietly in disbelief. "It can't be... I was only fighting the gridwolves... How would I not notice killing anything else...?"
Upon further inspection of the many corpses, they were all dry, just like the gridwolves. Without knowing, Starscream had killed every living, moving thing in his vicinity, blinded by his craze. The Dark Energon had taken control of him.
Starscream put his swords back on his back. "They were all controlled by Dark Energon," he said to himself. "They were going to kill each other anyway. There is no clean Energon on Cybertron anymore. Only Dark."
Starscream looked down at his hands, then up at the sky, which had by now turned dark and filled with stars.
"I must end their suffering," Starscream said and put on another smile. "And in return, the power shall be mine."
Starscream did not return to the lab that day, nor the next day, or the day after that. Obsessed with the power of Dark Energon and a false sense of justice, he patrolled the entire boron-beech forest, killing off every mechanimal he found with purple eyes and a display of aggression. By every kill, the Dark Energon left the dead mechanimals and was absorbed by the power-hungry Seeker.
Once he could not find any more mechanimals in the forest that were possessed by Dark Energon, the addiction urged him to leave and search for a different area with Darkened creatures. He went to the manganese-maple forest and slayed all the alloygators in the Dark Energon lake, as well as the porcineacons, titanium moosebots and various small mechanimals that also lived there.
The next sunrise, after not finding any more living beings in the forest, he took off and went to a nickel-ash forest, where he slayed robotoppossums, technoskunks and singlehorns among others. Afterwards he went to a bismuth-willow forest, where chelonoids, hydro-weasels, robo-badgers and cyber-cranes lost their lives to the frenzied Seeker.
The next day, Starscream went to an aluminium-elm forest and ended the lives of lilleths, petro-rabbits, krystar iron-bears, armodrillos and robo-raccoons, even those that did not display signs of Dark Energon. The same day, he invaded a rhenium-rowan forest and slaughtered nitrotigers, nosorons, hyenabots and tungsten-turkeys along with various annoying insectoids.
The following night, he went to the osmium-oak forest and murdered every erinacon, every retrorat, every little or big mechanimal he had seen for himself and some he had never seen in the forest before. By now, he had slaughtered all wildlife in over half of Cybertron's remaining forests. The increased power and energy the Dark Energon absorbed by his victims prevented him from seeing or thinking clearly. All he thought about after wiping out one forest was where he could get more of this power.
During the in-between breaks when he would fly through the sky in search of another forest, he often questioned if what he was doing was wrong and if he was taking it too far. Every time, he denied the wrongness, thinking he could not stop now that he had started. None of the lives he had taken would come back, and even if they could, there was nothing for them on Cybertron anymore. Only a slow, painful death, either by starvation due to the lack of clean Energon, or by getting killed by crazed beasts looking for Dark Energon.
"I'm doing this out of mercy," Starscream kept arguing with himself, not having slept for five days now, having too much energy to be able to recharge. "I'm doing the right thing. I have to be doing the right thing. It's for the best of Cybertron's future. It has to be..."
As soon as he found a new forest to exorcise, one consisting of vanadium-birches, he wiped out the entire mechanimal population within half a day. He then went to a zinc-hazel forest and decimated everything with little resistance. By now, Starscream had absorbed so much Dark Energon, no living thing could stand against him. At least, that's how he felt like. None of the mechanimals could do anything to save their own lives. They couldn't even run, as he would quickly catch up to them with his thrusters and just slice them in half.
Another day passed, and Starscream, restless as ever, continued his genocide in a molybdenum-magnolia forest, where the wildlife tried its best to hide or run from him, no one daring to stand against him in a fight. Despite this, Starscream still found them and made short work of them all. Not even youngsters that had survived since the disappearance of the AllSpark were spared. By now, Starscream felt barely any pleasure in the killing. His only motivation was to finish what he started, with the belief that he was doing what was best for the life on Cybertron.
In his silent mind, while searching for lives to take, he wondered if he should stop. Even if he felt nothing now, he couldn't stop himself. It had become a routine: fly, search, kill, absorb, repeat. It almost felt like he was being controlled by someone else now. As if the feeling of power and might had only been bait, lulling him into thinking he was in control and that he wanted this. Now, he was not so sure anymore.
Eventually the molybdenum forest had been wiped out as well, so Starscream took off and circled the globe. He had been to ten of the twelve forested areas left on Cybertron and wiped out the mechanimal populations there. He eventually found a forest he had not been to yet and descended. It was not a typical forest, consisting of mainly one or two types of trees. It was a jungle, mainly consisting of silver-palm trees, but having a bunch of other sorts of trees in it as well, including various metalo-fruit trees. It was a big jungle, and there were many sounds here, indicating a wide diversity of wildlife.
Starscream stood for a moment and just listened to the sounds. Several of the sounds were sounds he had not heard before. Had he even been to this jungle before? Perhaps once, to seal away a stash of Energon, but apparently not staying long enough to notice his surroundings. The sounds of the jungle, the blissful feeling of the Dark Energon and the lack of rest made him just stand there for several minutes, zoning out.
What am I doing here? he thought silently. Killing the residents of this jungle? This place is so tranquil... so peaceful... Why do I have to ruin the beauty of this place?
Starscream closed his eyes for a moment, taking in the surrounding sounds, and took a deep breath.
What is the purpose of these killings? There is no clean Energon on Cybertron anymore. There is no indication that the Dark Energon will disappear anytime soon. Megatron will not allow that. Dark Energon dominates and destroys everything it touches. It's doing that to me too. Slowly, yet swiftly.
Starscream slowly opened his eyes again and looked down at the ground.
I have not slept for six days. I have not consumed metal or clean Energon all this time. I have only absorbed Dark Energon from these creatures' dead bodies. I feel the energy slipping from me faster and faster. The pain returns within shorter and shorter amount of time. I... will not survive this much longer if I keep this up.
Starscream felt no excitement this time. Sadness and sorrow was all that filled his body now. He frowned and clenched his fists.
I can't let the Dark Energon win. I can't let it control my every action and thought. But... at the moment, it is my only chance at saving the others from this suffering. I have to use the Blood of Unicron a little longer. Just a bit more. Then I'll stop. There is still one more forest after this one. I can handle this.
Exhaling and relaxing his fists, he grabbed the swords behind his back... and walked off into the jungle.
At nightfall, the noisy jungle was silenced for good.
There was only one forest left.
Starscream took off, trying not to think about the lives he had just taken from the jungle, and headed for the final forest. The cobalt-pine that he had first arrived in as a rogue. He landed among the blue crystalline trees and searched. And searched.
Starscream ended up searching all night, til the break of dawn and throughout the day, but he found no signs of life in the forest. Not a single mechanimal, corrupted or pure. Not even a single buzzfly. Every mechanimal he came across was already dead. Almost all of them had died from stab or slice wounds. Starscream stared around him.
"Have I... already been here?" Starscream questioned, feeling strangely disappointed at the forest's death. "Have I already wiped out this forest without realizing it?"
Starscream looked down at his hands, still clutching his swords. He felt as if he was forgetting something. He didn't remember how many of Cybertron's forests he had been to this last week. He didn't remember the last time he slept or ate. He didn't remember the last time he had been in the lab or seen Turbo.
"Turbo..." he said quietly. "She's still in the lab, all alone... She must be so scared... At least she has the Energon in the storage room..."
Sadness and pain started prodding Starscream from the inside. He shook his head and moved on. There was no living thing left in this forest, but there was still Dark Energon in the pond that existed here. He could get what he needed from there...
He entered a glade and paused. In front of him, on the ground, lay three bots, all dead. Starscream went over to inspect them. Suddenly he recognized them. It was the same three bots he had previously encountered in this same forest, just a week ago. One of them, the two-wheeler, was held on the throat by the beast-bot, which had a small knife stabbed through his chest. The two-wheeler had a gun pointed at his own chest, and a hole caused by a blast had infiltrated his Spark chamber. The car-bot also had a hole in his chest from being shot. Beneath all three were pools of Dark Energon.
Starscream stared at the scene in silent shock. "They were all three possessed by Dark Energon," he concluded. "And they ended up killing each other in their craze. They were close friends, allies, yet they so easily turned on each other when Dark Energon was the only thing left to live off on. How sad..."
Starscream blinked and looked around him. Several dead mechanimals lay spread around, all with either shot or blade wounds adorning their frames. Some had been killed by Starscream, but it seems other bots possessed by the Blood of Unicron had also taken the liberty of deciding death upon those unfortunate Sparks that crossed their paths.
Starscream sighed and shook his head. He placed the swords back on his back. There was no reason to have them out anymore. His mission was complete. Yet he felt no better about it than before starting this self-imposed mission.
A surge of pain coursed through his head and abdomen, and he groaned while holding on those areas.
"I need... Dark Energon..." he hissed. "I have to... find the pond..."
Still gripping his abdomen, he limped his way through the forest until he arrived at the small pond. It was purple, just like every deposit on Cybertron now. He sighed of relief. The pain would go away soon.
"Dark... Energon..." he whispered and fell on his hands and knees, still feeling the pain in his tanks and head. He laid down flat on his front to decrease the pain slightly, and lowered his mouth into the Energon, starting to drink. He hummed at the sweetness of the Dark Energon, and he felt the excitement of the power and energy that returned to him. Slowly but steadily, the pain decreased and then disappeared.
About thirty seconds after he started to drink, the Energon suddenly disappeared from his face. Starscream opened his eyes in confusion and found the surface having lowered a bit.
"What the..." he said and looked up. "What's happening?"
Starscream focused at the surface from a profile view and realized the pond was... shrinking.
"The Energon... it's sinking," Starscream gasped. "It's disappearing. No. No!"
Starscream plunged himself into the pond, which continued to shrink with every second that passed. Starscream threw the Dark Energon into his mouth with his hands, he guzzled as much of it as he could while he still could, but within barely a minute, the pond had gone completely dry. The remaining Energon seeped into cracks and crevices in the ground, too small for Starscream to see or dig through.
"No..." Starscream said in disbelief. "The Energon... it's gone. It can't be... This can't be true."
Refusing to believe what he had just witnessed, Starscream leapt into the air and reverted to jet mode, taking off into the sky. He circled the planet and studied the other forests from the air. He went over the Manganese Mountains and found the manganese-maple forest, spotting the single golden apple tree in its yellow shine. He desceneded but found the lake completely empty and dry. Dead alloygators and robo-minnow lay around the dry lake bottom, some cut down, others having starved to death.
Starscream shook his head in disbelief and went to the golden tree. The apples were still hanging onto the tree itself. Starscream hovered up to the branches to pluck one of them. He took a bite from it. The inside of the apple was glowing slightly purple.
"Even the metalo-plants have absorbed the Dark Energon," Starscream hummed as he swallowed the very sweet apple bit. He ate the rest of the apple and spat out the seeds, though kept them in his hand rather than throwing them away. He stared at them for a moment.
"I wonder what the Dark Energon has done to the seeds?" he speculated.
Starscream looked around him. The Energon was gone. The planet had drained itself of its life-blood. Nothing like this had ever happened before in Cybertron's history. The closest thing that had happened had been The Great Cataclysm which wiped out the ferocious Predacons whilst sparing the rest of Cybertron's life. But even back then, supposedly the Energon had not completely disappeared.
"My dream..." Starscream said in realization. "The Energon retreating... the surroundings filling with an evil gas... it's... come true. It was Dark Energon. All this time, it had been Dark Energon. And now... there is no Energon at all left on Cybertron..."
Starscream clenched his fist around the seeds and shook his head. He leapt into the sky and flew off in bot mode, needing to check the other forests to confirm his fears. The boron-beech forest, the vanadium-birch forest, every single forest he checked had been dried out. He finally arrived in the osmium-oak forest.
The river was gone. Professor Helix' grave now lay next to a dry ditch rather than a glowing river. The sight saddened Starscream more than anything.
"What's happening?" Starscream whispered. "How could this happen? Nothing should cause Cybertron itself to withdraw all its Energon... unless... Did someone stop the production of Dark Energon? But why did that cause the Energon to disappear and not just be cleansed...? I don't understand..."
He felt no pain yet, but he had no excitement or bliss left in him. Only sadness and sorrow. The only Energon left on Cybertron now to be consumed would be his countless stashes. He knew the routine would be good in the long run, but he had no idea that this was the reason why he felt it so urgent to gather as much clean Energon as he possibly could.
Suddenly, he remembered the one cube filled with Dark Energon in his cockpit. The urge to drink it filled his mind. He shook his head.
"It's the only Dark Energon left other than in the metalo-plants," he hissed to himself. "I have to figure out its properties and what it's been doing to my body. I can't waste it by drinking it. It will kill me. It has been killing me slowly all this time. I have to stop. There is nothing left. I have to stop, or it will kill me."
Starscream sighed and set off into the sky again. He hovered above the forest for a while and looked around. For some reason, he felt clueless as to what to do now.
"The lab," he remembered. "I have to get back to the lab. Back to Turbo. I have to study this Dark Energon, not drink it. But... I can't help myself now. I... I have to do something. I can't..."
Starscream shook his head again and took off. After about ten minutes of flying, he finally arrived back in the ruins of Vos and found the entrance to the lab. Despite having been gone so long, he still remembered the code to unlocking the hatch. He went inside and walked quietly through the hallway until he reached the door to the lab. He entered and let the automatic lights turn on.
The lab was just as he left it. The two palladium-papaya sprouts seemed to have grown slightly taller since he left. The empty cubes were still lying messily on the floor from Turbo's fit.
Remembering the scene with Turbo, Starscream quickly went over to the door to the Energon storage room and looked through the window. Turbo was curled up on the floor and sleeping. In the next second, however, her eyes opened, bright red as they used to be. Starscream sighed in relief.
Turbo's head rose up and she hopped onto her legs, yapping distressed at Starscream. She had been locked in this tiny room for a week without means to escape. Starscream looked to the side in the room. Several cubes were open and empty, some tipped on their sides. There was no Energon currently spilled on the floor, having all been consumed by the turbofox.
Starscream looked back at Turbo for a moment. She didn't seem angry anymore, only happy to see Starscream again, as well as seemingly worried. Starscream put on a small smile.
Starscream backed away from the door and went to the cabinets. He took out the small cube containing golden apple seeds and deposited the ones in his hand. He put the cube back in its place in the cabinet and closed the doors. He then opened his cockpit and took out the purple cube. He placed it on the table and trembled at the sight of it.
"Don't drink it," Starscream told himself. "It's for research, not for consumption."
Starscream's hand hovered over the cube, wanting just one more taste. He grabbed his own wrist and forced himself to step back.
"No," Starscream hissed at himself. "I can't do this. Not now. I have to get clean. I can't be in this room now."
Starscream grunted as the sadness and pain started to spread. Just one more sip would rid him of the pain, and then he could go clean.
"I can't," Starscream said. "If I take one sip, I'll end up drinking the whole thing. I'll end up like those three bots... I don't want to end up like that..."
Starscream gazed over at the door to the Energon storage room. An idea popped into his mind.
Starscream forced himself to not look at the Dark Energon cube, instead walking over to the door. He placed the ring on the lock, and the door was unlocked. Turbo stopped yapping, instead standing still and waiting.
Starscream opened the door, and Turbo's tail wagged energetically, along with her faint whimpering and slight bouncing in excitement. She was definitely happy to see Starscream again, and thrilled to get outside again...
Starscream went inside the room and closed the door again. Turbo silenced, and her tail slumped. Starscream looked at her with his glowing purple optics and weary face. He smiled down at her.
"Mind some company here?" Starscream asked quietly, before collapsing on the floor.