Discontinued: Remade version on account.

Bitter Reality

I stare forward at him through the remains of my destroyed visor. That snivelling, cowardly backstabber! Oh, what a chance I've gotten here.

I slowly stand up, although I have to stay somewhat crouched due to the low ceiling, and approach Starscream.

He's curled up on the opposite wall, he's trapped because of his right arm. The arm is crushed and trapped in the rocky wall. Part of me feels sorry for him, but not nearly enough of me does.

I open my mouth to speak but don't get a chance as Starscream raises his left arm, blaster mode, with a missile ready on top of it.

"Not one more step!" He yells out, "Or I'll-"

"Or you'll what?" I interrupt. "You'll kill me? How do you see that playing out? Do you think Megatron won't still want you dead? Or do you think the Autobots would be happy with that?"

It becomes hushed. The only sound is the humming of his blaster and his quiet snarling.

"Why'd you do it?" I ask.

"Why'd I do what?"

"Attack me"

"O-oh, that"

"Yeah, that. So go then, answer me. Why'd you do it?"

"I-I panicked! It was a, umm, knee-jerk reaction!"

"Your knee-jerk reaction was to attack the person defending you from the person who, quite literally, had just told you that they were going to kill you?"

Starscream grumbles quietly to himself, "I panicked"

"Right," I answered quietly. I imagine that's true, but it still doesn't change anything, it doesn't change how his first instinct was to attack me.

"Look" He starts to speak clearer, the way he does whenever he's confident. "I wasn't thinking clearly, but now I am! And you should as well"

"What?" I ask in utter bewilderment, I've not been thinking clearly.

"Megatron was near us, he'll have survived the cave-in as well, and we'll need to work together to get him! So start thinking clearly and help me escape from here"

Hmm, he's right about Megatron, and equally right about needing him. I can't beat Megatron in an enclosed fight, I'd need Starscream's aid.

"Ok, shift the blaster out and I'll see what I can"

"No," He mutters.

"E-excuse me?" I stammer out, genuinely caught off guard.

"Prove that you're willing to free me then I'll trust you" I can't believe this. Did he forget our entire conversation up until now?

"Prove you can be trusted and lower your blaster" I issue an offer back to him.

"See what you said, about me not being able to kill you? That's very true, but for as bad as the cards I'm holding are, they're still better than the no cards you have" He chuckles, "Now get me out of here" he adds on with a threatening growl.

I grit my teeth and clench my fists before approaching him and crouching by his arm. I attempt to get a look at Starscream's right arm while his left is pointed straight at my helm.

His right arm is trapped under the rock, and it doesn't look good for him. I doubt I could pull it free, and even if I could, the sudden shift could bring the cave down on top of us all over again.

I'll have to break his arm off at the elbow, won't be easy, won't be fun.

"I won't be able to get your arm out" I state matter of factly, "I'll need to remove it"

He lets out a quiet sigh, before muttering "Fine"

"I don't have any tools so I'll need to break it off, which I'll need your good hand for"

His face has a suspicious look as if trying to figure out if I'm being truthful, "I don't have the strength for it, we'll use your good hand and my right to pull on the upper arm, and I'll use my left to push on the lower, alright?"

"Ok, ok, but I'll keep my missile ready to fire" He threatens, "So be it" I utter as his blaster shifts back into a hand.

He moves his left arm onto his right, I follow suit and place one on his upper arm and one on his lower, ready to pull his arm apart. However, I shift an optic over to his missile, and I see it's loose.

I was there when Starscream got his missiles retrofitted, and I know that the back grasper for it is just that, a grasper, the front one contains the connection that gives him the ability to launch it. I don't trust him, I'm sure he'll kill me the second I've outlived my usefulness.

I hold back a smile as an idea enters my mind.

I gently move my right arm, moving it up just a small amount so that it'll look like I'm just readjusting it, and then I strike.

With a quick swipe, I knock the missile free of its support, removing Starscream's leverage.

Starscream yells out as this happens, he jolts his arm away but it's too late. He's more than aware of how his weapons work and so he swaps back into blaster mode.

He fires, and a blaster of energon flies right past my optics, mere inches away. I draw a tentacle out of my chest and send it forward as his blaster lights up for a second blast.

We're both moving quickly and without planning, his blaster moves up just a little faster than prepared for and I don't get to slow my tentacle down.

His blast was in front of his chest and my tentacle was aimed slightly upwards, with no slowing down it kept moving, right through his throat.

His blaster light fades and swaps back into a clawed, twitching hand, claws twitch. The only sound being the struggling gargles escaping Starscream as the blue energon leaks down his throat.

Apart from the shaking, I'm still until the gargles cease and his arm falls. I slowly retract the tentacle back, it's slicked with energon.

I slowly step back from the body, in shock at what I've done.

I've killed him.