When We Seared The Sky

Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Higher

Starscream landed so hard that the ground shook as he transformed, slamming a fist deep into the earth as he landed in a cat-like crouch. Sideways landed notably more gracefully beside him, swiftly transforming into the smaller, purple-armoured and horned Decepticon trickster. He turned his violet optics to Starscream and sneered at him. “That was a fine escape,” he snarled, narrowing his eyes. “Had to stop and have a little chat to the girl, but did you get the girl?”

“She is not a necessary part of this!” Starscream hissed, brandishing the necklace. “The jewel is the key, not Alexis.”

Sideways raised a fist threateningly. “You fool! We must gain Thrust’s trust if we are to have any power over him. You had better act accordingly in the future or I may not support you – and trust me, Starscream, you need my support. More Decepticons are gathering that may be loyal to him, and only I can turn them around for you.”

Starscream scowled darkly at him but stood down. It was, appallingly, true.

Sideways had led him all the way to Mission City, and the two of them now stood in an abandoned power plant in the city’s centre. Although the city was always alive with human nightlife and traffic, the power plant was deserted and the darkness cloaked them quite adequately from the inferior eyesight of the natives.

Unwittingly, as he looked at the sky – obscured by cloud – Starscream recalled the adrenaline of flight once again, saw Raptors falling from the air like stunned insects, smoking and burning as they crashed. The day he murdered her father… he shuddered in spite of himself, the feeling of pure, undeniable shame taunting him and making his Spark smoulder.

Primus, he could not stop thinking about her, even as he followed Sideways towards the centre of the power plant. How must she have reacted when she woke and was reminded of his treachery, his decadence? What would she do when she was told that he had left her, just to try and claim the leadership that belonged to someone else? Would she be happy – praise whatever entity the humans had that he had left her alone at last? Would she be indifferent?

Being alone is the worst thing to be, her voice whispered to him from a memory.

… Would she cry?

Sideways suddenly stopped and swept himself into a low bow. “I live to serve you, Lord Thrust,” he promised, nudging Starscream. He stood up straight, and Starscream stiffly bowed too, feeling more humiliated than he ever had in his life. “I bring you the Decepticon Air Commander, Starscream, and the All Spark jewel.”

“You have the girl?” Thrust grinned, his eyes gleaming. “Excellent work. I was simply longing for a human to torture.”

Starscream felt absolutely revolted just looking at Thrust. Small and lithe with a cone-shaped head and small, piggy eyes, he had to be the most annoying-looking creature ever to come into existence. And his suggestion of daring to lay a finger on Alexis was making him want to murder the new leader – violently, and preferably with a great deal of screaming involved.

Grimacing, Sideways began to talk in a sweet, pleading tone, poisoned honey dripping from his words. “Oh, our deepestapologies, oh mighty one,” he repented, bowing again – Starscream began to think he was rather overdoing it – “But we were unable to take the girl. She was heavily guarded by the Autobots – but Starscream was able to take the necklace, with the gem.”

Thrust glared at them moodily, his fists tightening. “You two incompetent fools couldn’t snatch a human femme-brat from under the unsuspecting noses of the Autoscum? You disappoint me, Sideways – and as for you, Starscream, I would have thought that your ambition would have driven you to it.” He extended a hand irritably. “The gem, then.”