Your Memory Lives On

Boundaries

Woo hoo, Starscream angst 🙌

*****

Seconds ticked by and slowly turned into minutes, which then turned into hours. Starscream had propped himself up against the rock wall to aid his ventilation systems, but still struggled to cool himself down as he slipped in and out of unconsciousness. As expected, Megatron had left him.

He could very well be on his deathbed, and Megatron had left him.

Starscream wasn't sure how much time had passed. Based on the amount of energon pooling at his feet, he knew it had to have been a while. He had tried to move, to get up and find his way out of the hellhole Megatron had left him in, but to not avail. The energon loss made him feel weak, and without any sunlight or wind currents to guide his way, Starscream was completely lost.

His breath hitched in his throat as a he let out a dry sob and sagged back against the ground. His coolant reserves were long depleted, but the image of Megatron violating him in such a sick way played over and over in his head. No matter how many times he shouted the gladiator's name or cursed him to the pits of Kaon and back, Starscream couldn't free himself from the memory of Megatron ripping him open in the confines of the abandoned mine.

Eventually, Starscream stopped fighting. He allowed his optics to close and curled up tightly, desperate to conserve the little bit of energy he had left. As he lay there, hoping that Primus would finally put him out of his misery, the only comfort Starscream had was the warmth of the energon pooling beneath him and the creeping darkness that pulled him into recharge. Maybe, if he were lucky, Skyfire's memory would come to visit him one last time.

*****

Everything was dark. As Starscream became aware of himself, everything stayed dark. Starscream couldn't feel the chill seeping into his frame, but he also didn't feel the familiar sensation that accompanied his visions of Skyfire. He allowed himself to float in the darkness, void of any sensations, until a voice began calling his name.

"Star?"

Starscream tried to open his optics, which were apparently closed, but nothing happened. He could still hear someone calling for him, their voice sounding more frantic by the minute, but no matter how hard he tried, Starscream's optics remained closed. Now that he thought about it, Starscream wasn't sure he could move at all.

"Starscream?" The voice shouted, and this time, Starscream's optics cracked open.

"Hnnng," he heard himself say. "S... ssskyy?"

The blurry form hovering above him slowly became clear, and Starscream immediately realized that he was in another memory. Skyfire's faceplates lifted in a tentative smile, and his entire frame visibly sagged with relief.

"Oh, Starscream," he whispered, hesitantly reaching out to cup Starscream's helm in his servo. "Are you okay? Wait, what am saying? Of course you're not okay! Um... how many digits am I holding up? Should I take you to see the medical team?"

It was a logical solution, Starscream thought, but his past self apparently disagreed. He struggled to his feet, swatting away the servo Skyfire held out for him, and stumbled over to the nearest desk. As Starscream studied the room through his past self's optics, he took in the sight of shattered glass and the strangely fresh soot marks spread across the laboratory.

An experiment gone wrong, Starscream thought. Primus, he should have known.

"I'm fine," his past self snarled as he rummaged through the desk's drawers. Once he had found a cloth that wasn't completely singed, he began wiping the ash from his frame. "We're not going to the medical bay for something as silly as a chemical fire."