Chapter Text
Starscream's systems rebooted slowly, multiple warnings and system failure notifications flashed before his optics, a dull ache creeped up onto his body, slowly turning into burning pain. As he turned back on, bit by bit, his sensors came online, he felt a cold flooring underneath him, making the pain worse. He didn't want to know where he was but he sensed where he might be. Taking his time, he slowed down the reboot process to take in all of the alarms blaring in his processor but with so many of them to look through, he decided to focus on turning his optics back online.
The room he found himself in was quite dark, and very familiar, dark metal walls surrounded him, the only source of light being the dim lights in the corners of the room. He was confused and disorientated, but as he gained his bearings he realised that he was in one of the Nemesis holding cells. Lying half unconscious on the floor he waited for all of his systems to turn online, which was taking longer than usual. He remembered fighting with some other previous Decepticon over a slither of energon in one of the old Cybertronian mines. But why was he on the Nemesis? The system errors were not helping with jogging his memory. He must have hit his helm quite badly if he couldn't remember such an important part of his current predicament.
Slowly he tried to get himself back up from the metal floor, failing as the pain in his nerves turned unbearable he laid defeated. The Nemesis was now under the Autobots control he remembered, growling quietly to himself. His vents were trying to expel any of the leftover dust from the mine that got in. He could feel the stale air of the cell coursing through his body with the work of his apertures. How long has he been in there, how long has he been offline for? Why was he here? He needed to find out more, but what could he do in this state, not being able to even get up from the ground without pain that feels as if his back strut was about to snap in half.
He tried to look around, slowly, moving his helm just enough so it wouldn't cause him any more harm. There wasn't much in his cell except for him.
“Is this how the Autobots treat their prisoners now?” he hissed, guessing they weren't interested in updating the cells from how the Decepticons left them. He wondered if anyone would come and check up on him, at the same time he didn't want anyone, especially those damned Autobots, to see him in such a state, lying on the floor in pain, not being able to get up and get the bedding that was left in the corner of the cell.
The pain continued to wear Starscream's patience thin, could he really not do anything? He blankly stared into the ceiling of the cell, trying to ignore his state. As he sulked in silence, steps could be heard. Turning his optics to the entrance of his cage looking for any sign of movement. He braced himself and forcefully pulled himself up, his joints and cables felt as if they were to pull apart, he clenched his dentas and managed to sit down with his backplate against the wall. The steps got louder and louder, stopping abruptly as they neared the door. A few clicks and beeps sounded out before the entrance opened with a slight screech.
A tall figure hunched slightly before entering the chamber, immediately straightening himself out as he laid eyes upon Starscream in the corner of the room.
“Starscream, the second in command to the now disbanded Decepticons. Do you know why you are here?” He said with a stern and rugged voice, looking the seeker up and down. It was Ultra Magnus, the new leader of the Autobots, after Optimus’s unlikely demise. Starscream could only give the towering over him bot a cocky sneer, trying to appear more intimidating or in control. However his demeanor and current state gave away a lot, Ultra Magnus could clearly see that he was in a dire state, the struggle of his vents and gears audible and echoing.
“Well, I was hoping you might enlighten me on that. How did I get here?” He replied after a bit with a raspy chuckle. Ultra Magnus took a while to think, clearly still assessing the state that Starscream was in. Maybe he thought the Seeker was playing with him but he realised that Starscream really didn't know how he ended up there.
“We got a report of rogue Decepticons in one of the abandoned mines. We found you there barely online. I assume, due to the Energon deficiency you suffered, you can't remember anything past that and how we brought you in here. As a co-conspirator with Megatron against the Cybertronian kind and a criminal, we immediately detained you, thus bringing you aboard.” He proclaimed loudly, his voice echoing through the empty room. Starscream rolled his optics as Ultra Magnus started to go on his high and mighty rant, currently not wanting to hear all of the crimes he has been convicted of. Seeing that, Magnus's expression furrowed, not appreciating the disrespectful behaviour of the seeker. Ultra Magnus took a deep intake of air into his vents before continuing.
“But for now, we will have our medic treat you; You’re in no state to be prosecuted currently. Against the judgement of some of my crew, we have decided to not execute you, at least not now, we will judge you by our rules. Something I wouldn’t expect you to understand.” Starscream looked at him with a hint of disbelief, if he were them he would not be online by now.
“Now. I will take my leave, we will send a medic here, to fully assess your damage and fix you up. Until then don't even think of going anywhere.” Ultra Magnus backed away into the doorway, not taking any chances even with the Seeker severely wounded.
“Not like I can go anywhere, even if I wanted to, Commander.” Starscream scoffed, servo clenching his chassis and giving the leaving autobot a smirk. He could see Ultra Magnus frown more before he closed the door to the cell. As soon as he was gone Starscream's smirk twisted into a painful grimace, letting out a hiss as he slowly slid back down onto the ground with a thud. He couldn't keep this up much longer, the pain in his whole body becoming more and more unbearable. Maybe getting fixed up wasn't that bad of a plan, but after that he needed to get out of here, after all, he still valued his spark, and even if his demise was for now postponed he knew it wouldn't take long for the autobots to snuff him out. He propped himself up a bit and slowly pulled himself towards the bedding he saw earlier, picking it up and laying down on it, at least the floor wasn't so cold anymore. He looked around the cell once more, the walls of it were full of scratches and dents from the previous occupants of this cell most likely trying to escape, and some of the lights were shattered, leaving only small holes behind.
It felt like an eternity before he heard someone coming back, the sound of heavy metal pedes stomping on the ground with a slight screech of metal rubbing metal. Ratchet sure took his time, guess he didn't care to fix Starscream up again after this time, after all he didn't have any valuable intel or excuse this time. Starscream chuckled a bit. But that was short lived, as the steps came closer and closer a sense of dread came over him. Those were not Ratchets, in fact they were very familiar to him. The realisation dawned on him, grinding his gears, as he heard the tapping of the buttons outside of his cell.
“Well, well, well, who do we have here? What do I owe the pleasure to, Commander Starscream?” The red bot stood in the doorway leaning on it, with a smirk on his face, not daring to come in any further. Knock Out was now the Autobots medic on Cybertron. Starscream did not look at Knock Out, turning his optics to the complete opposite way as a wave of emotions rushed through his processors: pain, anger, but most prominently, betrayal.
“Woah, It's not like you to keep quiet like that, freaky. No snarky comeback?” Even if he wasn't looking at him directly, Starscream knew that Knock Out's grin grew wider. Starscream just clenched his denta harder and kept quiet. He had no intention of speaking to him. The room fell silent as Knock Out examined him, assessing the damage Starscream suffered and why he wasn't responding.
“Did your vocal processor get fried in battle? Wouldn't be surprised with how you look.” Knock Out tried to get something out of Starscream. It was not like his former Commander to not say anything. He exhaled in what Starscream assumed was defeat. Knock Out let out a small cough before continuing.
“Anyway. You look bad, Starscream. I will need to bring you to the medical bay so don't make this harder. Can you get up-” Knock Out said, dropping the snarky voice, slowly walking further into the cell. Upon hearing that Starscream bolted up ignoring the pain and shot a glare at the red bot. To his surprise, instead of the cocky grin he pictured plastered across Knock Out’s face, he was greeted with a look of… pity? It made Starscream's anger boil over.
“Are you trying to mock me Knock Out?” Starscream spat out aggressively, making Knock Out take a few steps back at his sudden reaction. Starscream slowly got back up from his sitting position, first to a crouch and then stood on his shaking and unsteady legs. The burning pain turned into agony but the anger and hurt he felt emotionally outweighed it, allowing him to move more than previously. Slouched over he took slow steps towards the red Autobot.
“Starscream stop! I'm not mocking you, you can't walk in this state let me help-” Knock Out quickly said. Every word coming out of Knock Out's vocaliser just fueled Starscream's anger more. He forced himself to straighten out no matter how much it hurt, towering over Knock Out, staring down at him, his faceplate contorted into a mix of anger and excruciating pain. His optics shooting daggers into Knock Out's.
“Help me? You want to help me?! Just like you did before? Stabbing me in the back and leaving me To the Autobots so you can become one yourself, Doctor?!” He lashed out. Knock Out tried to back away as much as he could without leaving the cell.
“Stop this Starscream, we can talk this over after I fix you.” Knock Out tried to calm Starscream down but to no avail. Every sentence, every word just grinded Starscream's gears even more. As Starscream got closer and closer to Knock Out, his processors practically screaming, warnings and alarms blaring in his processor louder and louder. The seeker tried flaring his wings out, to intimidate Knock Out but to no avail. They were all but completely gone, shattered at the base leaving sharp and jagged wounds behind, but Starscream didn't pay attention to that or any of the alarms.
“I'm not going anywhere with YOU! I'd rather rust away in this fragging cell than let you do anything with me again, you would probably just use it as an opportunity to backstab me again wouldn't you, Knock Out!” Knock Out looked up at his previous Commander, barely standing up, barely being held together, yet still using up all of his leftover energy to scold the Medic, a look of sadness creeped up on Knock Out's face along with a hint of fear. Starscream was about to start yelling again but his systems started to give out quickly, before he could let any sound out of his vocaliser his joints locked up, all of the pain catching up to him, practically choking him, pain knocking the air out of his vents. He let out a pained grunt before collapsing. Knock Out caught him before he was able to hit the ground, servos gently grabbing the Seekers frame. The medic was saying something but Starscream could only hear the alarms going off in his processor before going offline once again.