The Good, the Bad and Starscream

Chapter 2: T.M.I.

Over the course of the following week, the Autobots decided to interrogate Starscream every second day, starting the day after his arrival at Autobot Outpost Omega One. Ratchet was in charge of his interrogation, but as an attempt to loosen him up a little to Team Prime, he gave him a single Energon cube at every interrogation. The Seeker had then eagerly told him the location of several of Megatron's Energon mines, of which the Autobots had then proceeded to raid, as their Energon stockings were getting low.

During the second interrogation, Ratchet wanted Starscream to tell him about Megatron's plans, but upon realizing saying too much would mean the end of his usefulness sooner than he'd like, the Seeker only told the medic that the warlord was seeking more Dark Energon. Despite Ratchet's dissatisfaction by the lack of information, he let the Seeker have his Energon cube and left him, waiting for a time where he would be more talkative.

He had hoped the free Energon would make the Decepticon let his guard down and slip like he always did when he was allowed to talk as much as he wanted. But that was apparently only a first-time's luck, he figured disappointed.

"Do not give up yet, old friend," Optimus said and laid a hand on the medic's shoulder. "He will speak up sooner or later. We have to be patient."

"Easier said than done," Ratchet replied gloomily. "It's not that easy being patient with this particular bot. Brags about himself more than he says anything useful." He glanced at Prime and back on the monitor screen. "But, er...I'll work it out."

"Just make sure you don't let your guard down, Ratch," Arcee said. "He may not be very threatening, but that 'Con's got a silver tongue. I wouldn't trust him at all."

"Still better than Airachnid, right?" Bumblebee bleeped. Arcee shrugged.

"Yeah, no one's worse than her. Screamer's a real do-gooder compared to her."

"Hey, if he tries any funny stuff, we'll just have to discipline him," Bulkhead said and slammed his fists together. Optimus gestured him to calm down.

"Bulkhead, we have been over this. We should not induce violence upon him unless there is no other option. If he should decide to rebel, use an Energon prod to put him in stasis until he calms down."

They all nodded in agreement, followed by silence as they returned to their work. After about a cycle, Bulkhead broke the silence.

"So when do we tell the kids?"

More silence. The kids had not been present when the Autobots returned to base with Starscream, cuffed and clamped and shoved into a small, empty cell with only a recharging table for him to sleep on. The following days when the kids had been there, they avoided mentioning Starscream's name, merely referring to him as "business to attend to", when going to interrogate him, otherwise calling him "you-know-who" in a low voice. But they knew they couldn't keep him a secret from them forever.

The question was: when was the right time? And how would the kids react to their new "roomie"?

-----

Starscream wasn't sure what to think of the Autobots.

Despite him assuring them of his wish to be an Autobot, they placed him in the smallest, emptiest room with nothing but a recharging table for him to sleep on. He was constantly bored, and sleeping 24/7 didn't exactly cut it. Even the Energon cube he received every second day didn't satisfy him enough to forget about the claustrophobic feeling he gained whenever he woke up and bored himself so much, that he became uncomfortably aware of just how small and confined the room was. The Autobots could have at least given him a ball to throw at the wall, just to have something to do.