PREDATORY (Megatron x Starscream)

Chapter 14

Starscream had seemingly overcome any sense of hesitation, fear, or discomfort in the short time Shockwave had been away. On her return to the laboratory, she wiped aside the condensation left over from her sanitation confidently, her chin set forward with intentionality, clearly guarding some forceful purpose. Shockwave regarded her with the same fascination he'd consider one of his Predacons. He hadn't even a moment to ask her what might have prompted this change when she snagged him dead in the optic and spoke, powerfully, to him:

"I want to let Megatronus out of this cage."

The scientist's contemplative aura was immediately speared. It shattered and fell around his pedes. Grown in its place was a gaseous air of confusion, tinging outrage, clinging to the leftover scraps of her words in the heavy air and pulling them into his processor, with the hope they might eventually make complete sense. "I..." he started, the plates around his optic widening their spread, the optic itself becoming much brighter. "...What?"

"Can you not hear? I said I want to let him out of here. I'm going to let him roam free around the moon base. What about that doesn't make sense?"

He ex-vented incredulously. "Frankly, all of it! You can't be serious, Starscream, and if you are, your processor has malfunctioned irreversibly!"

She rolled her optics.

"You might not really understand it, but this is their habitat. They are in here for their own safety, but even moreso, for ours. We just got done capturing the beast again. I would have gone as far as to have him restrained once more, but you've already intervened with that—and now you want to set him loose on the moon base?! Are you daft?!"

"Yes, Shockwave, I do remember your stupid plan. You aggravated all of the Predacons and got several of my Eradicons killed."

"Because it was necessary!"

"Let me finish! Your stupid plan, I have to repeat, was predicated on the belief that Megatronus was uncontrollably violent, and incapable of roaming the habitat on his own accord, correct?"

"That wasn't a belief. That was truth."

"Then why, may I ask, did you let the violent, untrustworthy, and downright dangerous creature, stay out there alone with me, without any sort of supervision, and barely even a warning!"

"Because you wanted me to!"

"I don't recall telling you to leave!"

"I've cared for these Predacons for their entire lives, Starscream. I know that you can tend to them safely on your own and avoid any sort of serious injury. Besides—he clearly wanted to be free."

"Did he not want to be free when he escaped?!"

"He spoke his intentions out loud and apologized for causing disarray. That's clear progress." She could hear the patience evaporating from the tone of his voice, and that alone was beginning to infuriate her. Seriously? HE was the one getting exasperated with HER?

"Fine! He did! But he spoke his intentions to me, too, and I've made the executive decision that he should be released."

"Starscream," Shockwave said, a clear warning in the word. "I know him much better than you do. I am the one that has the final say on his actions, because I've observed him for the duration of his life. The same goes for all of these predacons."

"Have you ever actually listened to them? Seen what they think?"

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I have. But I know them well enough to know there's a difference between what they want and what's best for them."