Fanfiction part 8 a.k.a. Transformers Prime: Friendship is Magic

STOP!!! This isn't the beginning! This is!

SPOILER ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you haven't seen all of Transformers Prime and Predacons Rising, and read Transformers: Exodus, go no further! I refer to major plot developments that will give spoilers, and also half of this story won't make any sense if you don't read the novel. You really ought to play Fall of Cybertron and/ or read the Rage of the Dinobots and Beast Hunters comics as well. Everyone should, just because they are so awesome. 

Legal stuff: I don't own any of these characters or settings and this is just a fan work.

Last time, Starscream had started training the young Seekers to fly better. One of them, Solarflare, looked up to him a great deal. Starscream realized that Solarflare and the others did not know he was a Decepticon, and wondered if the Autobots were up to something by withholding the information. He confronts them about it and finally learns what happened to Optimus. They assured him they were really giving him a chance, and it kind of freaked him out, since he is not used to that kind of responsibility.

>>>Soon afterwards, Jetfire shows up from space. He lands at Kaon, since that’s where they put the space port, and calls the Autobots. They tell him to come to Iacon.<<<

*A note of Jetfire: I kept him big like he was in G1 (maybe not that big) and kept his fighting style the same. They don't really describe him in the books, and in the games he is normal size, but I like him being bigger than other Seekers, and having a combination of common sense, kindness, and being a bruiser. It was so cool in Exodus when he became a Wrecker! I have not yet read Retribution, since it comes out tomorrow - I know it tells about the Wreckers and if anything happens to Jetfire I'll cry! anyway, moving on...

“All right!” Wheeljack said, “another Wrecker’s back on the planet! Can’t wait till he flies into Iacon.”

“Oh yeah,” said Bulkhead. “I heard Jetfire joined the Wreckers.”

“Right when the Ark was leaving Cybertron, he joined up on the spot and went head to head with Trypticon!” Wheeljack smacked his fist into his palm. “I wonder what kind of trouble we can get into now that he’s back.”

Ultra Magnus almost smiled. “Now there’s a Wrecker I understood. Cybertron Air Command taught their bots military discipline. Some of them, anyway.”

He and Arcee looked at each other. She smiled.

“My thoughts exactly. Now that another Seeker is here, we don’t have to take Starscream’s static anymore.”

“Boring!” said Wheeljack. “You’re gonna make him babysit those fledglings?”

“It is the best arrangement,” said Ultra Magnus. “For everyone.”

Knockout made a skeptical sound. Everyone turned and looked at him, surprised. He held up a crate of carnauba wax and smiled.

“I deliver,” he said, passing the crate to Smokescreen, who took it, then sidled sheepishly out of the room. Knockout looked around.

“Look, I don’t want to do Starscream any favors, but has it occurred to any of you that he doesn’t like to have his toys taken away?”

“Meaning?” Ultra Magnus asked.

“Meaning he’s having a grand old time as Air Commander, but the whole being a role model and helping others thing is way outside his comfort zone. You can bet he thinks it’s too good to last. Do you really want to hand him an excuse to turn on you?”

The Autobots all looked at each other.

“Who says we give him the chance?” said Arcee. “We do have a perfectly good prison.”

Bulkhead shifted uneasily. “But, he hasn’t done anything – ” Everyone looked at him. “Well, lately. Is it fair to just throw him back in prison once we’re done with him?”

“Yes!” Knockout and Arcee said in unison.

“We should see what Jetfire wants to do,” said Wheeljack. “He might not even want his old pal’s job.”

“Old pal?” asked Knockout.

Arcee chuckled. “You just want to work on some weird science with Jetfire.”

Wheeljack shrugged. “Great minds…”

>>>Jetfire arrives and is surprised to learn that Starscream is loose and in charge of people, but he’s encouraged by it, since he hopes Starscream will change. He doesn’t want to command the seekers per se, but he’s willing to help. He meets them, and it’s tense between him and Starscream. Starscream refuses his help, and Jetfire mostly hangs out with Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus for a couple days.<<<

Jetfire looked up as a smaller jet approached, angling steeply toward the rooftop where he sat. He considered moving out of the way as it overshot its landing and transformed a little too late, but instead he held out his hand to steady the young Seeker. The bot – Jetfire thought his name was Solarflare - tripped and grabbed his outstretched arm, barely managing to stay on his feet.

“Ah, bolts!” he muttered. “I’m never gonna get it.” He let go of Jetfire. “Um, thanks.”

“Landings are the hardest thing,” Jetfire said. “Even harder than night flying. What are you doing out here in the dark?”

“I was trying to land on each tower, and time how long it takes me to make it across the city and back.”

Jetfire looked him over. They were less than a quarter of the way from the edge of the city, and Solarflare already had paint scraped off of his knees and the armor along his forearms. He looked at the next tower, rubbing his arm where a lot of metal showed through his paint, and then sat down beside Jetfire.

“Why are you up here?” he asked.

Jetfire didn’t respond right away. “I was just admiring the stars. It’s so dark tonight.”

“It’s dark every night when the moons are down.”

“It’s strange - for centuries I saw the stars of other worlds, and learned alien constellations, but these stars still look like home after all this time. And yet, when I think of Cybertron this isn’t how I remember it. It’s so still and clear.”

Solarflare didn’t say anything for a while, but he was clearly curious. Finally he spoke.

“You mean not like during the war?”

Jetfire nodded. “During the war, you could barely tell night from day. The smoke and ash over most of the planet was so thick, we fought in a kind of twilight. And at night the laser fire and explosions reflecting off the haze lit the battles below. There must have been hundreds of years when no Cybertronian saw the stars, except those of us who were in space.”

Solarflare leaned closer in undisguised wonder. “You fought in space?”

“I didn’t fight there, though some did. I was a researcher on a space station with Starscream, before I defected. After that, fighting for the Autobots kept me planetside, supporting ground missions and doing R&D on alt-modes to scrape together some semblance of air power.”

“Wait,” said Solarflare, the concern that had appeared on his face at Jetfire’s mention of defecting now turning to confusion. “You defected… to the Autobots?”

Jetfire looked at him sadly. “It was a hard time to be a Seeker, when the entire Air Command declared for the Decepticons. Not everyone felt that way, but we tend to stick together. I’m glad that hasn’t changed, but it has its dangers.” He put his hand on the young bot’s shoulders, but Solarflare didn’t move or respond. Jetfire sighed. “I couldn’t do it though. I’d done the research and suspected what Dark Energon was, and I couldn’t be a part of it.”

Solarflare stood up. “I have to go.” Jetfire started to get up too, but Solarflare had already transformed mid-backflip and blasted away. The flashy takeoff seemed strangely familiar.

Starscream was in a foul mood as he stared out at the moonless night. He had gotten nowhere with finding out where Grimlock was or how to contact him. The Autobots were all for attacking Shockwave, they said, but they were reluctant to involve the Dinobots. They didn’t want to make it about revenge, which was ridiculous. That was the whole point. Grimlock deserved revenge, and he, Starscream, deserved revenge, and that made them allies. Grimlock would surely agree, if he could just ask him. He really wouldn’t even need to agree – all Starscream had to do was point him in Shockwave’s direction and let him go. That was even better. He would just as soon not help Grimlock with the actual combat, since Dinobots were far better suited to battling Predacons. And Insecticons. And the Forged. It was a perfect, simple plan, but the longer it took to find Grimlock, the more chances Shockwave would have to move. He looked around, an uneasy tingle creeping through his circuits. He never felt alone now, with the possibility that Soundwave was watching from the Shadowzone. He had had plenty of time to repair Laserbeak too. If there were only some way to draw one of them out…

The roar of a jet startled him, and it took effort to control the reflex to ready his Null Rays. The plating on his arms clicked back into place as Solarflare transformed over the balcony outside and dropped into a swift walk towards him.

“Nice landing,” he said as Solarflare came inside. The young bot looked surprised and glanced back at where he’d touched down, then shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Of course it matters,” Starscream said. “Your landing is your first impression. It should be imposing.”

Solarflare looked down, saying nothing for a long time, then, “How do you know Jetfire?”

Starscream considered. “We were colleagues. He did scientific research for me.”

“Were you friends?”

Starscream hesitated before answering. “Once. A long time ago.”

Solarflare’s voice was soft, almost a whisper, when he asked, “Why aren’t you friends now?”

“Because he…” Starscream began, then stopped. He didn’t like where the conversation was going.

“Commander Starscream?” Solarflare said, finally meeting his gaze. “were you a Decepticon?”

Starscream was taken aback by the hurt in his voice, and he reacted the only way he knew how. He got angry.

“Did that traitor Jetfire tell you that?”

“No! I figured it out. He said something while he was reminiscing.”

“The war hero telling war stories, eh?” Starscream sneered. “What did he say?”

“Just that he knew you and he defected to the Autobots. Did all the Seekers join the Decepticons…because they followed you?” He fell silent, almost shaking as the enormity of the accusation sunk in. Starscream leaned close to him.

“It’s true. I was a Decepticon. Happy?”

Solarflare looked less happy than any bot he’d ever seen. He looked Spark-broken. All he said was, “Why?”

Starscream straightened up. “I had my reasons. I’m not giving you a history lesson.”

“No, I mean, why didn’t you tell us?”

“Ask the Autobots. It was their idea. Would you have wanted me to train you, had you known?”

Solarflare looked away. “I don’t know.”

“There, you see? Somehow Knockout’s good enough to shine you up after all your so-called landings -“ He jabbed the scuffed finish on Solarflare’s arm. “and Megatron gets to walk around like he owns the place. You’re content to race against what’s-their-names – those two Vehicons - but if I was a Decepticon, it’s a calamity!”

Solarflare covered his scratched paint with his other hand. “They’re not the Air Commander,” he said almost too softly to hear.

“Don’t mumble!” Starscream snapped.

“They didn’t lie about it!” Solarflare said, anger finally creeping into his voice.

“Nor did I! I never said I was an Autobot.”

“You said you killed Decepticons during the war.”

“And I did. Loads of them. My relationship with the Decepticons was…complicated. I don’t have to explain myself. I suppose you want Jetfire to train you now? Fine.” He stepped back. “Don’t follow me, Solarflare. I really don’t want to have to shoot you down.”

The words were barely out of his mouth before he transformed and blasted out of the room. A few moments later, Solarflare leapt from the balcony and alt-moded in midair.

Starscream cruised high over the most remote territory he could see, heading west, chasing the cover of darkness. Hanging around the Autobots had lasted about as long as it could have, and it was too bad he wouldn’t have Seekers to back him up, but now he could concentrate on his main plan. Finding Grimlock would mean revenge, and wherever the Dinobots were, that was also the most likely Predacon-free area.

He detected something flying behind him, and it filled him with dismay. Could Solarflare really have been stupid enough to follow him? Maybe he could scare him off – the young Seeker had never seen combat, and seemed to have a greater fear of falling than most. That might explain why he always transformed too close to the ground and overshot his landings. Why was he still thinking about that? It surprised him a little how much he didn’t want to kill Solarflare. A warning shot would likely send him hightailing back to Iacon. He slowed down a little.

As the thing caught up he saw that it wasn’t Solarflare – it was much bigger. He thought for a tense moment that it was another jet-equipped Predacon, maybe a small, defective one that hadn’t grown very large in Shockwave’s tank, but then it got closer. Jetfire! What was he doing coming after him? No matter. He was itching for a fight with anyone except Solarflare. He pulled up into a half loop and dove toward the traitor, waiting until he was close to fire his ion cannons. Jetfire easily rolled out of the way, not surprisingly. He was no slouch. Starscream would see what tricks he’d picked up over the last few thousand years.

He swooped around and shot again, and Jetfire turned into the attack, but did not return fire.

“Starscream, stop!” he said over comms, following Starscream through his next turn. “I don’t want to fight you.”

“Too bad!” Starscream was more maneuverable, and he was back on Jetfire’s tail in moments, unleashing a burst of ion bolts. They hit, barely, as Jetfire rolled again. Starscream stayed on his tail, his contrails etching a tight spiral inside the larger spiral from Jetfire’s maneuver.

"You asked for it!" Jetfire said as he accelerated and pulled up into a loop. "We both know I'm a match for you."

It was true. Throughout their long friendship Jetfire had been Starscream's favorite sparring partner, one of the only Seekers who could give him a challenge. 

"Not with turns like that," Starscream retorted, easily climbing inside Jetfire's loop and firing across his nose. Jetfire's engine shut off and he fell. Starscream didn't think he'd hit him.

"That's it?" he said, but an instant later he had to dodge a barrage of ion bolts, followed by Jetfire himself, who had steered his fall so he ended up on top of Starscream. Starscream swooped away and Jetfire fired his engine and followed him through his next two turns, shooting at him, but missing. Both jets sped up, circling madly to get on each other's tail, and Starscream soon gained the advantage. 

Jetfire was above him, turning wider than Starscream, who had a clear shot at his flank. He took it, and Jetfire rolled to get out of the way, but sparks still sprayed from his side. He wobbled but kept flying, turning tighter into Starscream's attack, but still too wide to return fire. He'd always been tough. 

Starscream aimed again, at Jetfire's underside. He could finish the fight right here. Except Jetfire suddenly flung himself into a flat spin, firing wildly in all directions as he lost altitude. Ion bolts stung Starscream's wing and nose as he tried to climb away from the insane maneuver. 

"It'll take more than that to take down a Wrecker!" Jetfire said as he swooped out of the spin and onto Starscream's tail.

"Why do Wreckers always make that speech?" Starscream growled as he turned around. "As if your betrayal wasn't bad enough, you went and joined the most irritating of all Autobot units?"

He fired, and Jetfire fired straight back without bothering to dodge.

"Betrayal, Starscream?" Jetfire asked as both Seekers took hits. "Was I supposed to stay by your side while you sold out our entire planet?" He adjusted the direction of his head to head charge and rolled upside down, slamming his tail across Starscream's back and causing him to tumble. His unusually large size may have put him at a disadvantage using normal dogfighting tactics, but he had found ways to make it work for him.

Starscream regained his balance but Jetfire had already turned and dove onto his tail, firing relentlessly. There wasn't time to turn, so Starscream transformed, cartwheeling into his proto-form and losing a tiny bit of speed, then transformed again, this time facing Jetfire. He opened up his engine and guns at the same instant. The sudden change of direction was painful, but not as painful as the shower of sparks and shrapnel that blew off of Jetfire's wing and through his tail.

"Nice one," Jetfire said, his voice strained, "but you forget, Starscream, I can transform, too!"

“Can you?” Starscream scoffed, as Jetfire only transformed partway. “Did I hit your T-cog or something?”
Jetfire’s arms unfolded from the bottom of his jet mode, and an instant later he tackled Starscream out of the air. He aimed at the ground and sped up.

“I should have knocked some sense into you back when you were hatching your plans for Sentinel Prime, and using Trypticon station as a bargaining chip.”

Starscream tried to shoot his way free, but his cannons weren’t pointed at Jetfire, and he was held too tightly to transform and use his Null Rays.

“I used the station to keep Dark Energon out of Megatron’s hands!” The ground was getting alarmingly close. Jetfire leveled off slightly, but not enough to avoid a crash.

“How’d that work out?” He let go of Starscream an instant before they both hit the ground. Jetfire finished transforming and landed hard, and Starscream slammed into the ground, proto-forming on the second bounce, and finally sliding to a stop at the end of a long furrow of loose metal plating.

He lay stunned for a moment, then his systems came back online and he clattered to his feet.

“You weren’t there!” he yelled, his voice harsh with anger and static as non-vital systems like talking came back online slowly.  He wiped a trickle of Energon from his mouth. “If you hadn’t left, we could have held Trypticon!”

“Not likely,” Jetfire said as he walked down the crash trail toward Starscream. “You of all people should know by now how hard it is beat Megatron.”

Enraged, Starscream rushed him, landing several punches before Jetfire countered with a powerful left hook that knocked him sideways. The smaller Seeker slipped inside Jetfire’s next swing and delivered a combo of spinning kicks that put him behind his opponent. He transformed and blasted off against Jetfire’s back, sending him sprawling, then looped up for a strafing run.

A huge chunk of Cybertron’s surface came at him, and he rolled out of the way just as Jetfire threw another metal plate. This one knocked him into a spin, too low to maneuver out of, so he transformed. His feet touched the ground and Jetfire was on him. They traded a flurry of blows, as fast and tricky on the ground as they were in the air, too fast for any bot who wasn’t a Seeker to follow. Jetfire landed a powerful kick and Starscream leapt backwards to absorb the force of it.

“You see?” he said, almost smiling. “That’s what I mean! You and I are pretty impressive.”

Jetfire wiped away some Energon that was leaking over his eye. “Maybe our combined strength could have kept the station. But you just would have followed the same path as Megatron.”

“Megatron was a fool!” Starscream spat. “My plan – “

“Would have played right into Unicron’s will. Dark Energon twists bots towards it own goal. That’s what I learned, studying on Trypticon all those centuries.”

“Which is why I never allowed any of the researchers to show it to me.”

Jetfire shook his head. “You wouldn’t have become curious, sitting on something that powerful?”

Starscream shrugged. “Who can say? What’s done is done.”

“Don’t take it so lightly,” Jetfire said, advancing. “I went into Cybertron’s Core when it was corrupted by Dark Energon. I saw what it did. I don’t know if I can ever forgive you for that.”

Starscream waved his concern away. “Megatron turned the Plasma Energy Chamber around. I planned to – “

Jetfire’s punch nearly knocked him off his feet. “Your plan! You had what? Dozens? Hundreds of plans? None of them worked!”

He hit him again before Starscream countered, and they began another round, this time with Starscream on the defensive against Jetfire’s fury.

“You have no conviction. Maybe you’re as smart as you think you are, but that doesn’t matter if you hold back. If you’re always looking for a better advantage, you lose out on the advantage you have.”

Starscream got in a series of punches that forced Jetfire back. “If you wanted my plans to work out so badly, you had a funny way of showing it. Traitor.”

“I wanted you to take a stand!” Jetfire backed off, watching for the next attack. “Against Megatron. I didn’t care if you weren’t an Autobot. The Seekers were with you. But you waited and schemed for so long you let him take everything!”

“Shut up!” Starscream shrieked. He attacked in a blind rage, carving four gashes into Jetfire’s side with his claws, and staggering him with an uppercut. That left him completely open, and Jetfire’s body blow stopped him in his tracks, and an elbow between the wings knocked him on his face.

Before he could even get his feet under him, Jetfire sat on him, pressing him flat against the ground.

“You need to hear this,” Jetfire said. “When I’m done you can fly wherever you want.”

Starscream struggled until he was exhausted. He tried to shut out what Jetfire was saying. Megatron had taken everything from him, and there was nothing he could have done! Jetfire kept talking, finally cutting through Starscream’s ability to ignore him.

“…Vos was the first blow to their confidence in you. That demanded swift retaliation, not more plotting. And now the Seekers are scattered and flying is practically synonymous with Decepticons. It’s a disgrace. You had a chance to redeem the Air Command with those young Seekers, and now this? You may think you’re flying off to position yourself for greater advantage, but all you’re doing is burning another bridge.”

Jetfire finally shut up but Starscream said nothing until he was sure he was finished. He tried to look up at him but he couldn’t turn his head far enough. All he could see were his feet.

“Go back then,” Starscream said at last. “You train them. They don’t want a Decepticon anyway.”

Jetfire stood up and reached his hand down.

“I’m not the Air Commander.”

Starscream looked up at him, astonished. After a moment he grabbed his hand. Jetfire pulled him up.

“Did you think it was just luck that I knew where to find you? Solarflare didn’t know what to do when you left, so he found me. He asked me to bring you back. No, they don’t want a Decepticon. But they want you.”

>>>Then they go eat some energon…. The next morning, they both show up for flying practice. The young Seekers and Bumblebee are there, and no one was sure if there would even be practice or who would be teaching. It’s surprisingly unawkward, even though Starscream tries to play it off like nothing happened. Really, Solarflare was the only one who was super shocked that Starscream had been a Decepticon, not that that means much to any of them - they know several bots who were. Solarflare was really disappointed since he looked up to Starscream. He still does, mostly. In the evening they go get shined up by Knockout. Jetfire goes first.<<<  

“Starscream really did a number on you,” Knockout said, putting a sanding wheel on his rotary buffer.

“You should see him,” Jetfire said.

“Oh, I will!” Knockout smiled as he began to grind the scratch marks off Jetfire’s arm. “Too bad I’ll have to fix him up though.” After a moment he turned the buffer off. “Sorry. I know you two were friends.”

“Don’t worry about it.”

“I gotta ask - how did that even work?”

Jetfire shrugged. “It wasn’t always easy. He can be pretty abrasive.”

“Literally,” Knockout said. “These scratches are pretty deep.”

“When he really got going I would just tune out half of what he said, though I can be hot headed myself. There was a lot of give and take, and arguing. It’s different when you’re around mostly Seekers. A lot of us have… intense personalities.” Jetfire smiled. “There was an old joke about why they had Vos built on the opposite side of the planet from Iacon – to be as far as possible from an entire city of Seekers.”

Knockout could see that, but he thought it was a joke you should only laugh at if you were a Seeker, especially considering what happened to Vos. He only said, “How did you become friends? Was he ever…nice?”

“We rose through the ranks together, and we were sparring partners. I also saw him as a kindred spirit. We were both curious and ambitious, and students of history besides our shared scientific background. We dreamed about space, and I know it frustrated Starscream that the Cybertron we were born into was no longer interested in reaching beyond our orbit. He never was good about having his ambitions thwarted.”

“You can say that again.”

Jetfire shook his head. “I hope, now that the space bridges are restored, there’s a way to start over.”

“Why are you still bothering with him after everything he’s done?”

Jetfire said nothing for a long time, and Knockout began to think he wasn’t going to. It had probably been a rude question, but Jetfire finally said, “It’s been a long war, fighting alongside friends to defend Cybertron, until there was nothing left to defend, only to take the war with us across the stars. Most of them didn’t make it home.”

“I know how that goes,” Knockout  said quietly.

“Some of them deserved it more than me, but since I’m the one who made it back to Cybertron, I want to fight for every friend I have left. Even if it means literally fighting in order to knock some sense into him.” He smiled a little, but he looked tired. “And fighting with myself to find a way to forgive him.”

Knockout shook his head in amazement. “You Autobots really are something else.”

“Well, I hear you’re an Autobot now, for something of the same reasons I am.”

“I suppose that’s true,” Knockout said, moving to Jetfire’s back to buff off the scorch marks between his wings. “Hmm, a way to start over...”

 …

Jetfire passed Starscream on the way out, giving a warning look that meant he was to behave himself. Starscream rolled his eyes and went in.

 “I’m sorry, Knockout,” he said, bursting into the workshop. Knockout turned and looked at him in surprise. Those were three words he never thought he would hear from Starcscream. “Jetfire ruined all the hard work you did when you fixed me up before. Just look at all this!”

Never mind. Still, it was an acknowledgement of sorts, and it was true. Starscream had certainly come off worse from their battle. Knockout walked all around the disgruntled Seeker.

“What happened?” he asked. “It looks as though he dragged you across the ground and sat on you?”

Starscream scoffed. “He did not drag me!” He watched Knockout pry a piece of Cybertron’s crust out of a gouge in his shoulder armor. “He threw me, and I’d rather not talk about it.”

Knockout shrugged and waved Starscream over to a bench while he gathered his tools. He began working in silence, which went unbroken by either bot for the many cycles it took Knockout to sand down all the abrasions on Starscream’s paint. At times one or the other started to say something, but both held back. Ordinarily, Starscream was able to relax and enjoy getting his finish touched up, but he sat tensely hunched, not meeting Knockout’s eye as he painted. By the time Knockout was ready to apply polish, all the things unsaid hung between them in a cloud of oppressive awkwardness.

Finally, Knockout turned to put his containers of paint away, leaving Starscream to look at his finish. He ran his fingers along the smooth paint on his arms, and the Decepticon brand on his chest. Knockout had even remembered to paint it red instead of purple. Still…

“Knockout!” he said after looking down at it for a moment, “You missed a spot.”

Knockout whirled around and glared at him. “I don’t miss spots, Starscream!”

Starscream picked at his Decepticon emblem and said quietly. “There’s… a rough edge right here that needs to be ground down.”

Knockout leaned close and examined it. It was flawless. “It’s perfectly polished. I really don’t see where… oh. Well, now that you mention it…” He straightened up. “Starscream, I – “

“Get on with it.” He said it almost gently, and one corner of his mouth slid into a smile.

Knockout just nodded as he snapped on an abrasive wheel attachment in place of his saw. He sanded Starscream’s chest to a uniform silver finish, then buffed it the soft sheen he preferred.

>>>I don't really know how to actually wrap this scene up.... but yeah... That's my fanfiction so far.<<<