The Good, the Bad and Starscream

Chapter 6: Orion Pax

Starscream was still walking five hours later. He was exhausted. At least it was night, or it would have been so hot he would have melted away.

It was at that moment that he started speculating what he was supposed to do now. Before he left, he may have been locked up, but at least he had a roof over his head and fuel brought to him. Out here, there was no shelter, and he doubted there was any Energon nearby.

"What have I done?" he said to himself, but didn't turn back where he came from. He couldn't face the Autobots like this. It would be awkward to have gone through all that to escape, only to return in front of the entrance and say 'Hey, I changed my mind, please take me back?'.

He shook his head. He wasn't going to return. He would find a way to get his other servo free from the stasis cuff. Hopefully something that didn't involve tearing it off too. He would be totally hopeless if he lost both servos.

He continued walking for as long as he could stay awake. He estimated he had been walking for eight hours before he finally decided to lay down and take a break. He had not had recharge for about thirty-five hours, spending most of his time ramming himself against the wall, then tearing off his servo and walk for like four hundred miles. Hopefully he could find a place to get Energon in the morning.

He closed his optics and fell into recharge.

-----

Ratchet studied the servo on the floor. It was a horrible scene indeed.

"What do you think?" Arcee asked concerned. "Megatron didn't do this, did he?"

"He was with us the entire time," Bulkhead reminded her. "There's no way he could have done this."

"Maybe he did it to himself," Bumblebee suggested.

"He wouldn't hurt himself like that," Arcee protested. "He's too self-absorbed and cowardly to do that."

"I think Bumblebee is right," Ratchet said as he picked up the servo with a pincer. "These are bite marks. I think he bit it off."

Arcee and Bulkhead shared glances. "But why? He said he was tired of being beaten up by Megatron and betrayed by the other Decepticons all the time. We didn't do that to him, did we?"

"No," Ratchet replied, in deep thoughts. "But perhaps...that didn't matter anymore."

He nodded into the room. They first really began to notice just how small and isolated it was, as well as empty. They then remembered what Megatron said about keeping a Seeker locked up. Flight frames tended to have claustrophobia due to being used to fly in the vast sky. They hadn't thought that would happen with Starscream, who, despite of his cowardly nature always seemed confident and level-headed in dire situations. It was weird imagining him freaking out from a mere phobia.

They wanted to turn the wayward Seeker into an Autobot, get a flight frame on their side, give hope for the rest of the Decepticons. And what did they do? They had restrained him, locked him behind bars like he was a mere criminal never to be released again. They now understood what Megatron had meant, that they had made a poor decision in their attempt to make him trust them.

There was no way he was going to trust them after this.

"What have we done?" Ratchet said silently. "I should have known better than to place him in a confined space with limited activity."

"It's not your fault, doc," Bulkhead said. "Starscream's the one who-"

"Do we even have time to discuss this?" Arcee interrupted. "He might still be in the base. Let's split up and search for him."