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."
Starscream isn't altogether talking about his shrine.
"Second, where is Megatron? You at least make an attempt at comprehensible answers, unlike those others!" Starscream snarls. "There is no truce unless he's ordered it--giving the Autobots a respite now would be a fool's move. We've nearly got them driven off Cybertron!"
"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.
// Do you have a plan, by the way? // Blackstar comms Skyfire.
"A few... rather important years, actually," he sighs, shaking his head. "Megatron is gone."
In lieu of any other solution for the moment, Blackstar elects to stall.
// A bit late for argument now, and I'm bringing back-up. Blackstar, Starscream could ruin everything everyone--including HIM--has worked for if he runs loose while like this. I have an antidote--or rather, Rodimus does now. He's far less likely to be incapacitated by a single shot. //
A long silence while things happen at the other end, and then Skyfire comes through much clearer and louder.
// We're here. Blackstar... he came back to make sure the Decepticons had a future. He's told me he thinks this truce is the best chance they have for any future better than oppressed and hated subjects. //
// Understood. I'll try to keep him occupied as best I can. //
A thought occurs to him, not an ideal thought, but a backup plan, nonetheless. Seeker guns haven't changed much in millenia. An arm gun is an arm gun is an arm gun. Much like most Seekers, themselves. And if there's one thing he knows, inside and out as well as he knows the feel of her spark, it's an arm gun. Specifically, which collection of circuits and relays to fry or rip out to render them inert.
// If things really go south... I think I can totally disable his guns. I don't think - no, I'm pretty slagging sure I'm not powerful enough to take him, but... worst case scenario, maybe I can trip his reset or scrap a circuit or two and dump him in stasis or something. //
Blackstar doesn't sound 100% on that, mainly because he's not totally sure. He knows where certain components should be on a Tetrajet Seeker, but the Earth upgrades... He doesn't want to lay odds that he can find the right components without totally frying the Commander's CPU unless they have no other choice.
Plus, he's still not entirely certain that Starscream can't hurt him, and hurt him bad. After all, the Commander is a much more powerful entity than he is. And he... knows things. Not all of which was likely learned from the Allspark. Blackstar doesn't want to find out the hard way just how much hadn't come from the Allspark.
He'd learned a similarly painful lesson once before, and isn't certain his spark could take a repeat.
The fate of all Decepticons, ultimately? Scrap. No pressure.
Blackstar sighs and eyes Starscream, a thoughtful frown on his features.
"I'm not sure how many years yet. At least two. When do you think it is, Commander?"
Just keep him talking, keep him here, hopefully long enough for the others to arrive with that antidote.
Starscream's optics narrow. Ghost-jet is being rather evasive... and the Air Commander is really fed up with being jerked around by his nightmare. Mock him with his supposed invulnerability, will he? That could be corrected.
Starscream fires his right arm-gun in one long burst aimed at the floor--which scribes a neat circle around Blackstar*.
"You can stop being so evasive now," Starscream snaps. "Answer the question: what do you mean, Megatron is gone? If it helps you recollect the answer, it was 2002 last time I checked."
--- *Blackstar has just been temporarily trapped in a magic circle. It'll fade when Starscream is no longer in the area or cares to maintain it. Or until someone breaks it, of course.
Blackstar had been half expecting to be fired upon, and had been counting on his spectral nature to spare him any ill effects. Starscream is halfway through inscribing the circle when Blackstar sees the error of his assumption. He'd been right in his guess; enough of that knowledge hadn't come from the Allspark to seriously screw up any half-formed plans Blackstar had contrived. Before he can even put though to action in attempting to escape, the wall of containment - complete with roof and floor, unlike the bungled attempt to ward him out of Castle Destro - springs up around him, trapping him in place.
// Slag! Skyfire I- //
Optics widen as he feels his thoughts slam up against that wall, preventing him from even warning Skyfire and the others.
Unlike the last time he'd been trapped and imprisoned against his will, this little cell doesn't hurt him - yet. However, the memory of his helplessness is too fresh, and it takes him a second or two to swallow back the panic he can feel rising inside.
A second or two, which is what Starscream requires to ask his question, the question about Megatron, asked for the third time.
Blackstar freezes as he feels his own nature constraining around him like a vise, pressing the words out of him, will he, nil he. He will speak, and he will answer that question, regardless of his own desire to continue stalling. And if he doesn't shape the words himself, direct their flow, and soon, the words will shape themselves before leaping from him all unwilling, disgorging the truth.
Twice trapped, once by Art, and twice by his very manner of existence. He has no one but himself to blame for this lapse in judgment, but he cannot help but feel betrayed by his Commander. He is, even in death, however, a Decepticon warrior, a Seeker of the Decepticon Air Command.
Betrayal gives rise to hate, and hate... is his ally, his strength. Panic is subsumed under the baleful glare of the ghost, and he turns the stare defiantly at the living Starscream.
"You've come to 2007, Commander," he spits out, "and Megatron is dead here and now. Then again, so are you, and most of your Air Command."
Starscream did not expect that his nightmare would tell him very good news. It was, after all, a nightmare. But, by the melting shells of the condemned, he was taking control of this nightmare! He would not be beaten down by this, he would not give up, he would come out on top and he would rule!
"I suppose you'll tell me Megatron finally blasted me for trying to take over and then fell dead of grief at what he'd done," Starscream says sarcastically. He frowns at the last bit. "What happened to my Air Command?"
For a moment, Blackstar considers making Starscream fight for every answer he tries to drag out of him, but only a moment. Firstly, Starscream has already shown that he can entrap the spirit, and Blackstar isn't real sure he wants to find out how far he can push this living Starscream before the Air Commander starts getting more... painfully insistant. Secondly, he doesn't want to give Starscream any excuse to exert any more control over him than necessary.
"Megatron didn't blast you," he replies in a low, furious growl. Though constrained and contained, he is not cowed, let Starscream make no mistake about that.
"Megatron's remains were reformatted into Galvatron by Unicron, and it was Galvatron who blasted you into ash. As for your Air Command, Unicron flattened Darkmount and most of the Air Command with it when he came after Cybertron."
Sometimes the truth was even more outlandish than any lie one could think up. Hopefully it wasn't so outlandish that Starscream would bolt to go see for himself before Skyfire and the others arrived.
Starscream just stares at Blackstar in disbelief. What the slag is a Unicron? This... does not belong in his nightmare; it's nothing he's ever heard of. Or is it?
"Were you one of them?" he asks, still mulling over the mystery of Unicron. This Blackstar is a ghost, called him 'Commander', and acted like he knew him, though he didn't quite remember him.
He's still letting himself get distracted from the main point. The ghost in his nightmare seems to be some sort of oracle; ominous, but that's to be expected of spirits in the Crypt. They never warned you of good tidings.
"Answer that or not. Tell me this: how do I break out of this nightmare?" Starscream asks.
Blackstar stares hard at Starscream, curbing the impulse to rant at him that this isn't a dream. His stare turns thoughtful, though, as yet another half formed plan percolates in his processor. Starscream still thinks this is nothing more than a vision? Some bit of random code in his offline recharge? Some portent of doom or reaction to bad fuel?
Fine. Blackstar can work with that, and, hopefully, so can the others.
He ignores the first question; no need to clutter his plan with extraneous fluff, and... Skyfire had said Rodimus was with him. Blackstar doesn't want to stir up Starscream's curiosity where anyone else might come along and overhear.
"You want out of this nightmare? Then maybe it's time to listen to Skyfire and do what he says."
Blackstar pauses for a moment, considering. Lying isn't one of his better talents, but maybe he can come up with something suitably vague and convincing here. Aw hell. All in for the "mysterious dream oracle", what the slag.
"You've dreamed of him before, whether you remember it or not. And you never listen," he growls, scolding. "Maybe you should try just listening for a change, maybe do what he says just this once, and see what the slag happens. Obviously what you've tried so far isn't working, because you're still stuck in this dream."
Starscream considers the ghost Seeker thoughtfully. Silver and black tetrajet, shadowy and transparent... the ghost could almost be a dark shadow of his past self--was that what he represented? He spoke of Skyfire--
And Skyfire belonged to a long-dead past. Why did that failure keep coming back to haunt him? He'd tried to set things right, he'd dug Skyfire out of the ice and, against all hope, revived him. It was Skyfire's fault for leaving him--
Skyfire always was too soft. He'd never have survived as a Decepticon.
"He betrayed me! He deserted the Decepticons and ran to the Autobots!" Starscream snarls. Ruby optics narrow in fury. "Why should I listen to him? So he can betray me again? I should kill him like the wretched traitor he is!"
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."
Starscream isn't altogether talking about his shrine.
"Second, where is Megatron? You at least make an attempt at comprehensible answers, unlike those others!" Starscream snarls. "There is no truce unless he's ordered it--giving the Autobots a respite now would be a fool's move. We've nearly got them driven off Cybertron!"
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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? // Blackstar comms Skyfire.
"A few... rather important years, actually," he sighs, shaking his head. "Megatron is gone."
In lieu of any other solution for the moment, Blackstar elects to stall.
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A long silence while things happen at the other end, and then Skyfire comes through much clearer and louder.
// We're here. Blackstar... he came back to make sure the Decepticons had a future. He's told me he thinks this truce is the best chance they have for any future better than oppressed and hated subjects. //
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"Gone? What do you mean, gone??" Starscream demands. "How many years?"
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A thought occurs to him, not an ideal thought, but a backup plan, nonetheless. Seeker guns haven't changed much in millenia. An arm gun is an arm gun is an arm gun. Much like most Seekers, themselves. And if there's one thing he knows, inside and out as well as he knows the feel of her spark, it's an arm gun. Specifically, which collection of circuits and relays to fry or rip out to render them inert.
// If things really go south... I think I can totally disable his guns. I don't think - no, I'm pretty slagging sure I'm not powerful enough to take him, but... worst case scenario, maybe I can trip his reset or scrap a circuit or two and dump him in stasis or something. //
Blackstar doesn't sound 100% on that, mainly because he's not totally sure. He knows where certain components should be on a Tetrajet Seeker, but the Earth upgrades... He doesn't want to lay odds that he can find the right components without totally frying the Commander's CPU unless they have no other choice.
Plus, he's still not entirely certain that Starscream can't hurt him, and hurt him bad. After all, the Commander is a much more powerful entity than he is. And he... knows things. Not all of which was likely learned from the Allspark. Blackstar doesn't want to find out the hard way just how much hadn't come from the Allspark.
He'd learned a similarly painful lesson once before, and isn't certain his spark could take a repeat.
The fate of all Decepticons, ultimately? Scrap. No pressure.
Blackstar sighs and eyes Starscream, a thoughtful frown on his features.
"I'm not sure how many years yet. At least two. When do you think it is, Commander?"
Just keep him talking, keep him here, hopefully long enough for the others to arrive with that antidote.
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Starscream fires his right arm-gun in one long burst aimed at the floor--which scribes a neat circle around Blackstar*.
"You can stop being so evasive now," Starscream snaps. "Answer the question: what do you mean, Megatron is gone? If it helps you recollect the answer, it was 2002 last time I checked."
---
*Blackstar has just been temporarily trapped in a magic circle. It'll fade when Starscream is no longer in the area or cares to maintain it. Or until someone breaks it, of course.
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// Slag! Skyfire I- //
Optics widen as he feels his thoughts slam up against that wall, preventing him from even warning Skyfire and the others.
Unlike the last time he'd been trapped and imprisoned against his will, this little cell doesn't hurt him - yet. However, the memory of his helplessness is too fresh, and it takes him a second or two to swallow back the panic he can feel rising inside.
A second or two, which is what Starscream requires to ask his question, the question about Megatron, asked for the third time.
Blackstar freezes as he feels his own nature constraining around him like a vise, pressing the words out of him, will he, nil he. He will speak, and he will answer that question, regardless of his own desire to continue stalling. And if he doesn't shape the words himself, direct their flow, and soon, the words will shape themselves before leaping from him all unwilling, disgorging the truth.
Twice trapped, once by Art, and twice by his very manner of existence. He has no one but himself to blame for this lapse in judgment, but he cannot help but feel betrayed by his Commander. He is, even in death, however, a Decepticon warrior, a Seeker of the Decepticon Air Command.
Betrayal gives rise to hate, and hate... is his ally, his strength. Panic is subsumed under the baleful glare of the ghost, and he turns the stare defiantly at the living Starscream.
"You've come to 2007, Commander," he spits out, "and Megatron is dead here and now. Then again, so are you, and most of your Air Command."
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"I suppose you'll tell me Megatron finally blasted me for trying to take over and then fell dead of grief at what he'd done," Starscream says sarcastically. He frowns at the last bit. "What happened to my Air Command?"
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"Megatron didn't blast you," he replies in a low, furious growl. Though constrained and contained, he is not cowed, let Starscream make no mistake about that.
"Megatron's remains were reformatted into Galvatron by Unicron, and it was Galvatron who blasted you into ash. As for your Air Command, Unicron flattened Darkmount and most of the Air Command with it when he came after Cybertron."
Sometimes the truth was even more outlandish than any lie one could think up. Hopefully it wasn't so outlandish that Starscream would bolt to go see for himself before Skyfire and the others arrived.
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"Were you one of them?" he asks, still mulling over the mystery of Unicron. This Blackstar is a ghost, called him 'Commander', and acted like he knew him, though he didn't quite remember him.
He's still letting himself get distracted from the main point. The ghost in his nightmare seems to be some sort of oracle; ominous, but that's to be expected of spirits in the Crypt. They never warned you of good tidings.
"Answer that or not. Tell me this: how do I break out of this nightmare?" Starscream asks.
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Fine. Blackstar can work with that, and, hopefully, so can the others.
He ignores the first question; no need to clutter his plan with extraneous fluff, and... Skyfire had said Rodimus was with him. Blackstar doesn't want to stir up Starscream's curiosity where anyone else might come along and overhear.
"You want out of this nightmare? Then maybe it's time to listen to Skyfire and do what he says."
Blackstar pauses for a moment, considering. Lying isn't one of his better talents, but maybe he can come up with something suitably vague and convincing here. Aw hell. All in for the "mysterious dream oracle", what the slag.
"You've dreamed of him before, whether you remember it or not. And you never listen," he growls, scolding. "Maybe you should try just listening for a change, maybe do what he says just this once, and see what the slag happens. Obviously what you've tried so far isn't working, because you're still stuck in this dream."
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And Skyfire belonged to a long-dead past. Why did that failure keep coming back to haunt him? He'd tried to set things right, he'd dug Skyfire out of the ice and, against all hope, revived him. It was Skyfire's fault for leaving him--
Skyfire always was too soft. He'd never have survived as a Decepticon.
"He betrayed me! He deserted the Decepticons and ran to the Autobots!" Starscream snarls. Ruby optics narrow in fury. "Why should I listen to him? So he can betray me again? I should kill him like the wretched traitor he is!"
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