Starscream turns down the short hall leading away from the rotunda. He passes Thundercracker's future shrine--though oddly, there's an offering bowl at that one--and Dirge's, with its delightfully antique statue, unrecognizable to anyone who hadn't known him about three upgrades ago. He frowns at feel of rubble crunching underfoot. Doesn't someone take care of these shrines?
His own shrine, with the elegant classical sculpture commissioned from Cybertron's finest court sculptor shortly before the Nemesis' ill-fated flight, should be just about... here.
Starscream freezes in shock. His image, his beautiful statue, is gone. Only two shattered legs remain, one upright, one knocked over. The rest of it is rubble and scrap, tumbled behind the plinth still bearing his name. His name is curiously unmarred, as if whoever destroyed Starscream's image wanted everyone to know just who had been broken here.
Starscream's cry reverberates down the empty corridors and hallways of the Crypt, disturbing the turborats, sending them scurrying for cover. It also disturbs... something else.
"Commander?"
As if by magic, a black and silver tetrajet Seeker materializes, his approach totally unheard and unseen before he'd spoken.
Blackstar peers at Starscream with something akin to shock, head cocked to one side and confusion written in his widened crimson optics. Something is seriously... wrong here, and it's got nothing to do with Starscream's shattered sculpture.
The unmistakable burn of the Air Commander's living spark is as obvious as a solar flare to the ghost.
Starscream turns quickly, confronting the black and silver Seeker. His guns are already charging, and there's something wild in his ruby optics.
"Soldier, identify yourself! What are you doing down here sneaking up on me, and who is your superior?"
There was something not quite right about how the newcomer had just... appeared when Starscream's back was turned. He should have heard him coming--but this was a nightmare. Perhaps his senses were useless as well.
Blackstar doesn't look too concerned about the charging guns, doesn't give them the least glance, in fact.
"I'm... Blackstar," he replies slowly, with the careful, confused air of someone explaining something that should be obvious. "And... You are. Or, at least you were. Still are, I suppose, but..."
Blackstar shakes his head in confusion. Starscream is Starscream is Starscream, right? Except... this isn't even the other Starscream that had come to his aid at Auspex's temple. That much is very obviously clear to the ghost.
Other Starscream... Hmmm. On a hunch, he calls for his Commander across that other comm band.
// Starscream? //
After all, this wouldn't be the first time a mech has popped into this universe all unawares from another. The Nexus could sure screw up reality, even when it wasn't trying.
Alas, no one answers Blackstar's hail on that other comm band. His Air Commander is right in front of him--he's just a bit behind himself today. Five years behind.
"So now I've got amnesia about my own troops," Starscream says bitterly. "I suppose you'll tell me you didn't sneak up on me, that it's my own audials and optics that are failing! Maybe I should let Skyfire catch up to me and shoot me--it would end this damned nightmare!"
Blackstar isn't in the habit of trying to contact Starscream for utterly frivolous matters, and Starscream has never simply ignored a call before. Even when the Commander and he had been in different timelines, different universes, Starscream had heard and answered. Blackstar is surprised enough that his concentration slips and he flickers for an instant before returning to seeming solidity.
"Your audials and optics are fine, Commander," Blackstar replies after a moment of confused study. "You... think this is some sort of... dream?"
Starscream watches the dark tetrajet flicker even as he blandly assures Starscream that his audials and optics are fine. Of course. It's a nightmare. The other figments of his imagination don't see anything wrong as he's falling apart and disappearing into irrelevancy.
"The alternative is that I've gone insane, so I'll stick with 'nightmare' as an explanation," Starscream says sarcastically. "Of course, that makes you another figment of my sadistic imagination, which seems bent on punishing me for some reason
( ... )
"Or you could have popped in from another reality," Blackstar counters reasonably. "There's more universes than this one, after all, Commander."
Blackstar cocks his head the other direction, eying Starscream speculatively, a little shadow of irritation and anger in his optics.
"I'm not a figment, you know," he explains with deceptive mildness. "Not that what I am will do much to convince you otherwise. But I'm not just some wild bit of bad energon in your system, no glitch in your processor."
No spirit appreciates being forgotten or relegated to the ranks of "overactive imagination" or "bad fuel". Not when they aren't actually trying to be irritatingly spectral and frightening. He crosses his arms over his chest, staring evenly at the living counterpart of his Commander.
"You live. Technically, that makes you no longer my Commander, so I really don't have to answer your questions. Out of deference to who you are and who you will one day be, though, I'll make an exception. Consider yourself lucky; I used to tell old Shocky to kiss
( ... )
Starscream glares balefully at the ghost. He's pissed off now, and up to a screaming match with Megatron, if it came to it.
"You actually make more sense than anything else I've run into! I suppose my guns don't work on you any better than they do anything else," he snaps, turning and firing both arm-guns at the pathetic remnants of his shrine.
To his considerable surprise, the top of the plinth explodes where the full-strength laser bolts hammer it, the last bit of statue melting and the ceramic base cracking and shattering under the heat.
"What the-- NOW my guns work!" Starscream stares at each smoking gun barrel in turn. "What does it mean?"
Blackstar bristles as the last of Starscream's shrine shudders under the assault. New found concern and helpfulness since his death, aside, defiling the shrines of the dead, even if it is... sort of your own? is not something a ghost generally stands for.
"Well, you're half right," he growls. "They won't work on me. I'm already dead. And my guess is, since you're obviously not the Starscream from this universe, if your weapons didn't work before, it's probably because you just came from the Nexus. Most parts of the Nexus are covered by an Anti-Violence Field," Blackstar explains, that nasty little belligerent part of him perversely amused to see Starscream riled.
Is it any wonder he'd ended up booted out to Gallen sector after all?
// Commander? Can you hear me? // he tries again, seeking his Starscream's presence, somewhere, anywhere. Somehow, he's oddly not surprised to not get an answer again. There's definitely something very odd going on.
And he's seen the Nexus. His whole value of "odd" has altered significantly since then
( ... )
Starscream put his hands on his hips and continued to glare at Blackstar. "I'd almost believe that, except that the last person to tell me that was a red unicorn speaking with Perceptor's voice."
Starscream scowls; admitting to his weak side that it had gotten to him, made him feel that everything was useless and futile was out of the question. He had to get his own mind under control. The first thing--show it he didn't care what it threw at him, he could take it and give back as good as he got.
"First, this particular shrine is mine and I happen to feel it needs remodelling!" he snaps, and follows up with a rapid barrage that reduces it to fine-grained rubble. "I don't know why or how it was desecrated, but it's time to clear away what's old and broken and replace it with something better. I meant to have a decent sculptor update that image to my current form anyway
( ... )
"Megatron? He's- Slag. You're from before," Blackstar replies, shaking his head. Strata would have smacked him. That should have been obvious, given the state of living that Starscream is currently occupying. He heaves a sigh.
"You aren't going to like this..."
Blackstar is interrupted from trying to figure out just how much to tell this Starscream when he actually gets an unexpected answer to his call.
// Skyfire? Thank the Allspark, // Blackstar replies, reaching for that faint response. // Is Starscream with you? He's got an alternate of his here at the Crypt raising smelt. An alt from before the slag hit the rotors in his history, who thinks he's having a dream. Commander isn't answering me, for some reason. //
//Blackstar, don't lose him. I'm trying to find the portal he took to get there. That is our Starscream; he got hit with a Nexus LOL that reset him chronologically to some years before... before Galvatron. From what the others have told me, he's a bit confused and thinks this is all a nightmare. Admittedly, the Nexus does closely resemble something from a bad hallucination.//
// This is- The slag you say? ...scrap. Got it. //
After a moment, Blackstar adds, his tone very dubious, // Umm... I'm not so sure you should show up here, Skyfire. He's... Well, I can explain some of what he's asking me now, but, like you said. He thinks this is a nightmare. I wouldn't lay odds that he won't take a shot at you. He already scrapped his shrine here. Anyone with an Autobrand is likely to get a fistful of laser stuffed in their face. If they're lucky. //
"You're a few years out of date, Commander," Blackstar replies slowly, thinking through everything he knows and trying to decide how much he should explain.
Starscream is relatively contained here and now, and there's no Autobots here to draw fire - yet. Blackstar is half afraid that if he explains too much about what's going/gone on in the time frame of Starscream's missing memories, much of which likely will sound somewhat... more inexplicable to the Air Commander, that Starscream will bolt to disprove it for himself.
His own shrine, with the elegant classical sculpture commissioned from Cybertron's finest court sculptor shortly before the Nemesis' ill-fated flight, should be just about... here.
Starscream freezes in shock. His image, his beautiful statue, is gone. Only two shattered legs remain, one upright, one knocked over. The rest of it is rubble and scrap, tumbled behind the plinth still bearing his name. His name is curiously unmarred, as if whoever destroyed Starscream's image wanted everyone to know just who had been broken here.
Even here, the nightmare won't let him go.
"WHY??"
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"Commander?"
As if by magic, a black and silver tetrajet Seeker materializes, his approach totally unheard and unseen before he'd spoken.
Blackstar peers at Starscream with something akin to shock, head cocked to one side and confusion written in his widened crimson optics. Something is seriously... wrong here, and it's got nothing to do with Starscream's shattered sculpture.
The unmistakable burn of the Air Commander's living spark is as obvious as a solar flare to the ghost.
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"Soldier, identify yourself! What are you doing down here sneaking up on me, and who is your superior?"
There was something not quite right about how the newcomer had just... appeared when Starscream's back was turned. He should have heard him coming--but this was a nightmare. Perhaps his senses were useless as well.
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"I'm... Blackstar," he replies slowly, with the careful, confused air of someone explaining something that should be obvious. "And... You are. Or, at least you were. Still are, I suppose, but..."
Blackstar shakes his head in confusion. Starscream is Starscream is Starscream, right? Except... this isn't even the other Starscream that had come to his aid at Auspex's temple. That much is very obviously clear to the ghost.
Other Starscream... Hmmm. On a hunch, he calls for his Commander across that other comm band.
// Starscream? //
After all, this wouldn't be the first time a mech has popped into this universe all unawares from another. The Nexus could sure screw up reality, even when it wasn't trying.
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"So now I've got amnesia about my own troops," Starscream says bitterly. "I suppose you'll tell me you didn't sneak up on me, that it's my own audials and optics that are failing! Maybe I should let Skyfire catch up to me and shoot me--it would end this damned nightmare!"
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"Your audials and optics are fine, Commander," Blackstar replies after a moment of confused study. "You... think this is some sort of... dream?"
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"The alternative is that I've gone insane, so I'll stick with 'nightmare' as an explanation," Starscream says sarcastically. "Of course, that makes you another figment of my sadistic imagination, which seems bent on punishing me for some reason ( ... )
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Blackstar cocks his head the other direction, eying Starscream speculatively, a little shadow of irritation and anger in his optics.
"I'm not a figment, you know," he explains with deceptive mildness. "Not that what I am will do much to convince you otherwise. But I'm not just some wild bit of bad energon in your system, no glitch in your processor."
No spirit appreciates being forgotten or relegated to the ranks of "overactive imagination" or "bad fuel". Not when they aren't actually trying to be irritatingly spectral and frightening. He crosses his arms over his chest, staring evenly at the living counterpart of his Commander.
"You live. Technically, that makes you no longer my Commander, so I really don't have to answer your questions. Out of deference to who you are and who you will one day be, though, I'll make an exception. Consider yourself lucky; I used to tell old Shocky to kiss ( ... )
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"You actually make more sense than anything else I've run into! I suppose my guns don't work on you any better than they do anything else," he snaps, turning and firing both arm-guns at the pathetic remnants of his shrine.
To his considerable surprise, the top of the plinth explodes where the full-strength laser bolts hammer it, the last bit of statue melting and the ceramic base cracking and shattering under the heat.
"What the-- NOW my guns work!" Starscream stares at each smoking gun barrel in turn. "What does it mean?"
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"Well, you're half right," he growls. "They won't work on me. I'm already dead. And my guess is, since you're obviously not the Starscream from this universe, if your weapons didn't work before, it's probably because you just came from the Nexus. Most parts of the Nexus are covered by an Anti-Violence Field," Blackstar explains, that nasty little belligerent part of him perversely amused to see Starscream riled.
Is it any wonder he'd ended up booted out to Gallen sector after all?
// Commander? Can you hear me? // he tries again, seeking his Starscream's presence, somewhere, anywhere. Somehow, he's oddly not surprised to not get an answer again. There's definitely something very odd going on.
And he's seen the Nexus. His whole value of "odd" has altered significantly since then ( ... )
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Starscream scowls; admitting to his weak side that it had gotten to him, made him feel that everything was useless and futile was out of the question. He had to get his own mind under control. The first thing--show it he didn't care what it threw at him, he could take it and give back as good as he got.
"First, this particular shrine is mine and I happen to feel it needs remodelling!" he snaps, and follows up with a rapid barrage that reduces it to fine-grained rubble. "I don't know why or how it was desecrated, but it's time to clear away what's old and broken and replace it with something better. I meant to have a decent sculptor update that image to my current form anyway ( ... )
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"Megatron? He's- Slag. You're from before," Blackstar replies, shaking his head. Strata would have smacked him. That should have been obvious, given the state of living that Starscream is currently occupying. He heaves a sigh.
"You aren't going to like this..."
Blackstar is interrupted from trying to figure out just how much to tell this Starscream when he actually gets an unexpected answer to his call.
// Skyfire? Thank the Allspark, // Blackstar replies, reaching for that faint response. // Is Starscream with you? He's got an alternate of his here at the Crypt raising smelt. An alt from before the slag hit the rotors in his history, who thinks he's having a dream. Commander isn't answering me, for some reason. //
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//Blackstar, don't lose him. I'm trying to find the portal he took to get there. That is our Starscream; he got hit with a Nexus LOL that reset him chronologically to some years before... before Galvatron. From what the others have told me, he's a bit confused and thinks this is all a nightmare. Admittedly, the Nexus does closely resemble something from a bad hallucination.//
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"So far, I haven't seen anything I do like," he snarls, his voice cold and icy. "What about Megatron??"
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After a moment, Blackstar adds, his tone very dubious, // Umm... I'm not so sure you should show up here, Skyfire. He's... Well, I can explain some of what he's asking me now, but, like you said. He thinks this is a nightmare. I wouldn't lay odds that he won't take a shot at you. He already scrapped his shrine here. Anyone with an Autobrand is likely to get a fistful of laser stuffed in their face. If they're lucky. //
"You're a few years out of date, Commander," Blackstar replies slowly, thinking through everything he knows and trying to decide how much he should explain.
Starscream is relatively contained here and now, and there's no Autobots here to draw fire - yet. Blackstar is half afraid that if he explains too much about what's going/gone on in the time frame of Starscream's missing memories, much of which likely will sound somewhat... more inexplicable to the Air Commander, that Starscream will bolt to disprove it for himself.
// Do you have a plan, by the way? // ( ... )
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