Transformers Prime: A New Beginning

Chapter 25: Screaming to the Stars

Normal Perspective:

It had been about two days since Starscream had been brought to the base. Within those two days, Starscream's trial had been put into place. The Autobots had decided to start interrogations at the start of next week, so then everyone would be able to adapt to the changes that had occurred before pushing things further, of which they had a few more days before the interrogations would begin.

When the trial was over, however, was undecided.

The kids hadn't been at the base when the seeker had been brought in, cuffed and wing-clamped, as he was put into his room, as Jack had double shifts at his part-time job, Vince had gotten grounded by his dad for a few days for breaking curfew, Miko had been grounded by her host parents for two days for getting yet another detention, and Raf was trying to catch up on schoolwork. Jessica had come back to the base the day after the seeker had been brought there, as she lived there, but none of the Autobots, nor Michael, had informed her of the events that had transpired in her absence.

Whenever the kids were at the base in the days that followed Starscream's arrival, Michael and the others did their best to act as normal as possible, usually referring to him as 'you-know-who' in a low voice whenever the kids were near as none of them were ready to tell them about the seeker yet.

They knew that they had to tell them eventually, but the question was: when do they tell them?

Next week soon came, and as the week passed, the Autobots interrogated him about any Energon mines he knew the locations of every other day, as well as bringing an Energon cube to his room for him in an attempt to loosen him up. Ratchet had been put in charge of this, with Michael volunteering to do so every so often.

The seeker was eager to tell them about many of the mine locations he knew of, if only to prove himself as a useful ally to them, and the 'Bots would go out to raid the mines as their Energon supply was running low.

To everyone's surprise, Michael had asked for the seeker to be taken with them on the raids, saying that if he was going to prove himself as an ally, then he needed to participate in missions with them. The Autobots didn't want to do so at first, thinking that the seeker would just try to escape or attack them at the first chance he got, but Michael had assured them that with six of them and one of him, and with the cuffs and clamp still on him, any chance he had at escaping was slim, especially since Michael was capable of flight.

To Starscream's credit, and the Autobot's surprise, the seeker did not try to escape whenever he joined them in the mine raids, and instead proved to be helpful in the raids by using his claws, the cuffs and his wing clamp as weapons, allowing the Autobots to restock on their Energon supply.

However, the Decepticons had prepared for this in the time Starscream had been with the Autobots, and had either taken some of the mines for themselves in preparation for such raids, or sped up the mining operations.

Additionally, the mines that Starscream had given them the coordinates to were also many of the larger mines that were already taken over by the Decepticons. Megatron was at these mines to oversee the operations, and he and the Vehicons would always take as much Energon as they could before blowing up the rest of it to prevent the Autobots from taking whatever was left behind.

These problems prevented the Autobots from restocking their supply of Energon more than they would've liked.

And the latter issue did not endear Starscream to the Autobots, or help them gain his trust.

Despite Starscream's eagerness to be an ally to the Autobots, he kept a few of the smaller mine locations, as well as Megatron's plans that he knew of, to himself. He realized that once he told them everything he knew, there would be nothing left for him to give, even if he was useful on the battlefield, thus making his usefulness to them end sooner than he wanted it to, even if Michael and Optimus were giving him the benefit of the doubt.