Closed Log: Murder

[crackofthunder]

WHO: Starscream, Thundercracker, Blackarachnia and Murder
WHERE: StarWave Tower
WHEN: Murder Time
WARNINGS: Murder
SUMMARY: Murder
FORMAT: Murder

Comments

[crackofthunder]

There was a song Thundercracker heard once in prison. Somebody was singing it while he was delivering laundry to people in solitary confinement. It was a song about a man who had spent his life turning away from conflict, avoiding fights whenever he could out of a sense of obligation to his miscreant father. Until a line was crossed. A woman was savaged. And he slaughtered the three men responsible.

Nine million years of crawlin' was bottled up inside him. He wasn't holdin' nothin' back. He let 'em have it all.

In the beating that follows, the surreal silence of Starscream refusing to fight back and Thundercracker not caring, only the sounds of impact are heard.

As much as he hates Starscream, he can't deny that there are times when he's seeing Megatron's face in front of him to be pummeled - always his greatest fear.

Finally, he lets out a loud, wordless shout of exertion, flinging Starscream across the room at Blackarachnia's feet.

There's blood on his hands as he pants, his body shaking at this raw moment of truth for him. Eyes blaring with a fiery red fury.

A fury that truly befits a Decepticon warrior.

[borrowyourpower]

Blackarachnia watches, slightly horrified by the savagery in which Thundercracker beats Starscream. However she does her best to not let that show.

When Starscream's body lands at her feet she can't stop herself from taking a step back. She looks from Thundercracker then back down.

She's beginning to regret this. Just another thing to add to her ever growing list.

She kneels next to the downed seeker, quickly snagging a handful of his hair. She jerks his head up so that she's nearly face to face with him. A slow grin forms on her lips.

"Would you like your pain to stop?" her voice comes out surprisingly sweet.

[loltraitorlol]

There's something almost comforting about this. Familiar. Being beaten savegly for his mistakes is something he inherently understands, even if the source is one unexpected and without authority.

He hates himself for almost feeling reassured. For feeling like some kind of status quo has been restored in his life. He has erred. He is punished. Hasn't he been trying to escape this?

He is bleeding and bruised and broken when he lands at Blackarachnia's feet. He doesn't resist when she pulls him up by his hair.

"Please," he says, his voice a harsh whisper. "Please?"

[crackofthunder]

Thundercracker's hair is covering his face as he leans down, looking at his bloodied hands. A snort of self-contempt at his idea that this would be a clean hit, in and out, leaving nothing for the police to find, now that the office is a bloody mess.

There's a wave of revulsion within himself - some unsettling nostalgia for a life he's loathed for so long, some entirely inexplicable moment of fraternal remorse, perhaps. Remembering Liadrin's words about compassion, which are quickly drowned out by the angering image of her swallowing Koltira's tongue.

He straightens up, collecting himself as he flicks some of that blood off his fingers. Taking a deep, steadying breath in order to watch the woman he'd loved, the woman Starscream had killed, do as she will with the bastard's helpless form.

This should be good. It's not something that they've ever explored, but he'd always suspected that when it came to being downright evil, she would completely outclass him with what she was capable of.

[borrowyourpower]

The femme shakes her head. Somewhat disappointed.

"How easy it'd be to beat you further. To leave you here bleeding. Dying painfully slow. Or I could just poison you. Sure it would be relatively painless but you'd be conscious long enough to feel your heart stop and your lungs collapse. You'd slowly suffocate." she explains, raising her free hand to gently touch his face.

"Oh, such a tough decision." she sighs while tightening her grip in his hair, pulling his head back and then throwing him toward the floor with as much force as she can manage.

"Perhaps I should crush your skull. Or run you through the heart."

She stands, leering down at him. She's disgusted with herself for the words coming from her mouth. For her very thoughts. She snarls and kicks him hard in the ribs and then again in the gut.

"There's just so much I could do and so little time."

oh look an IC reason to use this icon

[loltraitorlol]

He cried out at last, a hoarse, pained sound as he spit up blood. His ribs were already cracked - she had simply broken them.

Soon you won't even have to worry...

"Well, frag, woman," he managed, laying, unable to move. "Make up your glitching processor already."

[crackofthunder]

Thundercracker watches carefully. Noting that he still thinks he knows her well enough to sense that disgust. Or perhaps he just identifies with it readily. For all the talk about how neither of them like the Decepticon way... this is how Decepticons solve their problems.

Or maybe this is just how you solve a problem with a Decepticon.

It's necessary, he reminds himself. They have to prove themselves as mechs who will not be subjugated.

[borrowyourpower]

"I do have a problem with that, don't I? Oh well." she replies, grinning down at Starscream.

That's it. A cry of pain, that's what she wanted to hear.

Mostly satisfied she kneels down again, grabbing him roughly by his hair and lifting him. She smiles at him as she brings her free hand up. Her fingertips gently glide over his cheek, down his neck, before stopping at his collar. Her smile fades, a cold expression taking it's place, as she grabs his collar and tears it away from his neck.

She looks him in the eyes before quickly dipping her head down. Sharp teeth pierce the skin and she pumps him full of her poison. Every last drop is pushed into his system.

It'd work just fast enough. First everything would go numb, as if his whole body had fallen asleep. Leaving him awake and aware but unable to move or speak. And then slowly his body would shut down. The heart and lungs would stop at about the same time. And then he'd slip into darkness. Not a lot of pain, but plenty of fear.

Once she's done she releases him, letting his limp body fall to the floor. She wipes a hand across her mouth and stands. Her expression remains hard and cold as she glaces over at Thundercracker.

[loltraitorlol]

It's not like he's in any shape to resist. He cries out one last time as those fangs bite into his neck, and then...

At first it's almost blissful. The burning pain, the aches, the fever, all of it is gone, seeming far, far away. He doesn't even feel the impact as he hits the floor, his eyes rolling back in his head.

It's when his lungs and heart stop that he feels the fear.

It's like being in the black again. That cold, dark emptiness of space, where he felt nothing, saw nothing, was nothing but his own thoughts. Cold. Alone. Even pain was preferable to that.

Some part of him still idly wonders, Is this what it was like for Skyfire? Under the ice, his systems shutting down, one by one?

No. At least he knew someone was trying to find him.

Primus, please, just let it -

And then, silence.

[crackofthunder]

Death for a death. It's fair.

It's fair, isn't it? Isn't this justice?

The cold look in Blackarachnia's eyes chills him for a moment. As if they've crossed a line together they can't return from and -

No. No. This is right. He deserved this! If this didn't happen, he would run roughshod over them at every turn and constantly force his will onto them whenever he wished.

He walks over to Starscream, watching his eyes struggle against the poison, having never actually seen her venom in action... and there's another chill through his spine - how often did she tell him she had to struggle against the urge to bite him and do this to him, even when they were at the height of their happiness? How close was he to suffering this same fate every night of their life together?

He pushes that aside for now, crouching next to Starscream's body.

"I know your spark is immortal. I hope you can still hear my words right now. When you find your way back, remember this. This is the price you pay for imposing yourself on our lives. We are not your pawns and we never will be. We're not Autobots either, so don't think we're defectors you need to deal with. The fighting is over for us. Consider us casualties of war. Consider us gone."

His fingers start to glow in their orange heat.

"Please don't ever cross us again."

Thundercracker's hand covers Starscream's face, and intense flame erupts from it, starting a funeral pyre for his fallen brother.

Standing up, he observes it for a moment, before turning to face Blackarachnia. Reaching a hand out to take hers and, if she allows it, pull her into an embrace.

[borrowyourpower]

She'd dealt the final blow. It was over and now she could leave.

She watches the blaze for a moment before looking back to Thundercracker. Conflicting emotions show on her face as she stops herself from reaching to take his hand. She closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.

"We should go." she says, turning away from him.

[loltraitorlol]

He hears it, certainly. The words don't register - he's still dazed from dying (he'll never get used to it) - but he'll remember later.

What he thinks of it? That will remain to be seen.

As it stands, he stays, for a time, inside his own corpse, not feeling a thing, just laying stunned. It's only after the fire begins to consume what's left that he slowly sinks through the floor and into the cool darkness between rooms, eventually finding enough presence of mind to zip into a ventilation shaft.

Down he goes to a secret place, one he's told no one of. He's gone. The body is just that, a body.

[crackofthunder]

Her refusal to approach him stings perhaps worse than anything, and his hand drops to his side again.

He'd been keeping her at arm's length since her resurrection, uncertain about the depth of what they'd had after having evidence of possibly conflicting loyalties. Her memories were damaged and twisted, and he wasn't sure he could trust that she was honest and not manipulating him. Despite her tears at the site of their dream's death. Despite the yearnings he's had to try and reclaim what Starscream destroyed.

Now that Starscream had been dealt with... he was feeling as though maybe there was a chance to start over. But this ugliness... this brutality... it might have been too much.

Maybe someday in the future. Another time, another place. But for now, it's one final moment of heartbreak to end this ordeal for the both of them.

"Go," he finally whispers, his head nodding towards the window, knowing she can just vanish with Vector Prime's stolen abilities.

"I..."

Nothing he can say can change anything. There's only the echoes of love in his eyes.

"I'll see you around."

[borrowyourpower]

Him keeping her at arm's length is the reason she refuses. She can't stand anymore of it. It's why she's leaving. Giving him the space he seems to want.

She gives a slight nod but doesn't look back at him. Unable to see his expression.

"Doubtful." she says quietly to his last words as she summons Vector Prime's sword. A quick slash at the air and then she's gone. Leaving the man she was now certain she'd loved behind.