starscreamthefirst:

The witch howls when his spinal strut is suddenly pierced by so many sharp protrusions. He has no choice but to release his prey. He uncoils and slithers backwards away from Megatron, shrieking in fury. It’s then that he orders his minions to attack. The puppet named Confidence is the first to charge forward, preparing to drive its nails right into the warlord’s plating. The others follow suit. Unfortunately, when Megatron makes his charge forward, it’s Confidence that takes the brunt of the force. The poor puppet completely breaks apart while the rest are simply knocked back into the cage walls. They all hiss angrily along with their master, who turns his body upward to track his target’s movement. And then he realizes where Megatron is heading.

He shrieks again, becoming panicked as his opponent moves nearer and nearer to his center. The puppets all chase after him at once while the phantom arms above go into a frenzy. They move about erratically, as if in conflict about what they wish to do. Some try to block him, others move aside and spread themselves as if to invite him into the void. 

Merely the fact that the chase has become so frantic confirms the location of Starscream’s gem. Spinning and weaving to avoid the tangle of limbs spread above him, the warlord brushes against the chain holding the cage up. It sways and gives under his touch, something the bars of the cage hadn’t done. At this rate, the puppets would surely catch him, but not if they had something else to chase.

With a flourish of energy, Megatron transforms and swings at the chain, severing the metal strand and causing the monster in the cage to plummet. Kuketsu exerts some force of his own to keep his wielder aloft.

//I can’t keep this up much longer without harming you// warns the sword.

“Harm me if you must! But I will finish this, now!” Another burst of violet light propels Megatron upwards, to the center of the chaotic void. Sword drawn before him, the gladiator makes his final charge, into the heart of the black abyss, not knowing and not caring what to expect, so long as it puts an end to the nightmare below.

st3v3-the-eradicon:

starscreamthefirst:

The witch was so fixated on Megatron that he began to pay less and less attention to Steve. He didn’t hold the Vehicon so tightly and failed to notice when he lost his grip of him entirely, nor did he even see him jump into his cage. He focused solely on the warlord, tracking his movements and listening as he spoke to him. Megatron’s words only seemed to enrage him further. He screamed, hissed, and spat in his direction, waving his arms wildly between the bars to try and grab him.

It was one of his larger arms that finally manage to follow his will and tear at the grey mech’s plating. The witch cackled at the brief spurt of Dark Energon, pleased to see his leader hurt.

As he saw his target beginning to fly away, he suddenly felt something around his lower body. Finally tearing his attention away from Megatron, he peered down and found Steve clinging to his spinal strut. Ah yes. He nearly forgot about this one. Looking back to Megatron to give him a horrible grin, he closed a servo around the Eradicon’s entire frame.

He lifted Steve into the air, holding him before his grisly rib cage and, specifically, his exposed spark chamber. Its hinges seemed to spread apart, opening wide as some sort of hungry maw waiting to accept a new offering of food.

Steve yells as he’s snatched once more, this time by the rusted servos of the witch.  He struggles, kicking his legs out and then activating his cannon and pointing it at—….  

Steve stops, realizing what his aim rests on.  His chassis feels hollow….  almost like it’s trying to mirror the one in front of him.  The vehicon stares uncomprehending for a few minutes at the empty spark chamber, trying to come to grips with what he’s seeing.

No….

He’s gone.  Bitter cold slams him in the chassis as a static sob chokes the vehicon up.

Starscream is gone.

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It takes him a moment, tearing through another reaching servo of the monster’s, for the warlord to turn around in time to see Steve,  limp above Starscream’s open torso. 

“No!” //No!//

With the focus of the grasping servos relenting, Megatron risks turning sideways to try and fit through the bars. His chassis grinds against the unmoving columns as he struggles to get between them- but perhaps, he didn’t need to. 

The entirety of the warlord’s right arm glows brightly, charged with the united rage of himself and his weapon. With what little torque he can muster from his tight space, the gladiator’s arm swings towards the creature’s helm, releasing the pent up energy with a violent shout. 

st3v3-the-eradicon:

starscreamthefirst:

The witch leaned closer towards the bars of his cage, growling softly at his prize. His proboscis flicked and wriggled in the direction of the Vehicon, and the digits of the servo holding him curled protectively around his frame which seemed so tiny to him now. The toothy mandibles that made up his bottom jaw were still curled in a sort of smile, so pleased was he at the sight of his prey so willingly offering himself.

Just as he was about to pull Steve inside, the other intruder flew towards them, interrupting everything. Before he could react, the witch’s cage was struck by the force of Megatron’s collision, sending it swinging wildly through the air. The witch tumbled all about, getting knocked against the bars as he was thrown back and forth. He shrieked madly, furious at Megatron for doing this. The servo gripping Steve held onto him tighter.

While his cage gradually became stable again, the environment around them began to shift. The towering buildings that surrounded them seemed to lean in closer towards Megatron while all of the large video screens finally flickered to life. All of them displayed Starscream’s different memories of his lord. The structure to move closest to the warlord was the one displaying the Seeker’s silhouette. One of its arms was suddenly grabbed by another arm of a much larger mech which appeared from one side of the window. From the other side came a long, sinuous cable which wrapped around its other arm, holding it in place. 

The building leaned even closer towards Megatron, as if the window was truly a giant eye peering at him, as a second cable snaked into view before quickly disappearing up between the Seeker’s legs. The slender frame shook, but whether it was from pleasure or pain was impossible to tell. Liquid fell between its thighs, followed by the shapes of internal components as the cable pulled back out.

With an enraged scream, the witch began again to try and grab the bothersome intruder, both with the limbs appearing from the black hole and with his own two arms, reaching his servos out desperately between the bars.

Everything is thrown into chaos the moment Megatron arrives.  The arm holding the vehicon tightens—gripping him like a vice and threatening to tear through his weaker abdominal components.  He is thrown back by the force of his leader’s impact and saved only by the clinging, crab-like claw holding him for support as the world spins around him.  For several sickening moments he dangles limp with no sense of direction.  

Dazed, Steve gags and blinks, trying to make clear what he’s seeing.  Stripes dance in front of his optics—black against silver.  A monstrous shape moves through the dim, cloaked in the black stripes of his cage bars.  Starscream.  But for one dizzy moment as the world swings and in front of his vision he sees an enormous striped cat, growling in gutteral tones and then screaming it’s fury.  It’s almost like deja vu…  he could swear he’s witnessed this same thing before.  And then after this comes...

Something snaps him back to the present.  Steve shakes his helm and starts struggling against the claw’s vicegrip, while Starscream uses his many appendages to slash at Megatron.  They’re floating back close to the cage, if he can just—

Something gives.  The claw loosens around his waist and he slips, nearly falling back to the city below.  Crying out in panic, Steve nonetheless manages to catch himself on the claw tip.  He dangles by a thread for several horrifying moments more before he realizes how close he is to the cage.  

Vent.  You can do this.  Just kick yourself out…

Steve swings his legs forward…  then backward….  forward…. backward….a little more…!!

He lets go—falling the extra breadths and smashing back against the bars of the cage.  The terrified drone finds a grip and pulls himself through a gap.  Starscream doesn’t seem to have noticed him.  He’s still screaming, reaching through the cage bars, trying to do whatever he can to slash at their leader.

“SIR STOP!  He’s here to help you!”

He throws himself at the seeker, wrapping his arms around the pillar of his exposed backstrut.  

“I want to help you but you HAVE TO LET ME!!!”

The bars fail to yield to his assault, so he slides against the swinging cage instead, flying past it to loop back around. The creature that was once Starscream howls incoherently and the whole world seems to contract towards him. Try as he might, the images are difficult to ignore, and if it were possible for magical swords to be ill, Kuketsu was sure he would be.

Megatron feels the power draining from him and fights the urge to let the dark energon go dormant as he reaches the cage again. Snap out of it, I need you to focus! 

//You caused all of this.//

The shining mech transforms and clings to the edge of the cage, trying still to evade the barrage of claws. It isn’t his weapon that he answers, but Starscream. "I cannot change the past. I can only look to the future, and ensure that good will come of my actions now! Everything will be for naught if it is all destroyed! Your seekers, your city, gone for nothing because you would rather kill us all instead! Ah-!”

A wild servo barely misses grabbing him, its claws dragging gouges into his back. The violet energon solidifies at the wounds, preventing him from bleeding but restricting his motion slightly. Megatron wheels around to slash at the oncoming servos, not letting the central monstrosity out of the corner of his vision.

“Steve, get away from him! He’s not himself, he won’t think twice about killing us!”

st3v3-the-eradicon:

starscreamthefirst:

Even though he focused so much attention on Steve, the witch was never blind to Megatron’s presence. Other parts of him sought to catch the powerful mech by any means necessary. He tried catching him with his own hands, but his magical sword tore them apart as if they were nothing. The witch shrieked with each limb lost, but there was always a new one ready to replace it. He sent his puppets after him, and Ego and Jealousy attacked the warlord with tremendous ferocity. Still, they were no match either. Megatron managed to break Ego apart, forcing him to focus some effort into repairing the puppet while his target continued to evade him.

Throughout all this, however, the witch continued to center its focus on Steve. He listened to the Vehicon’s plea to be let into the cage, and his broken mouth curled into another horrifying grin. Why yes, he would be delighted to have some company in this cramped little cage. 

As he was pulling Steve closer, he suddenly howled in pain again as another of his hands was impaled. He turned around and spotted Megatron running towards them along one of his arms. He screamed at hissed wildly at him.

He attempted to throw or smack the offender off of his limb before he had a chance to steal away his prey.

Steve sees the warlord coming and shouts at him.  Yes!  He’s here.  He’s going to do something about this.  

But at the same time Starscream is so close…  Is it really right to leave him at their leader’s mercy once more?  Would Lord Megatron really help him?  Steve can’t shake the doubt.  According to his mate their leader was single-handedly responsible for the destruction of Vos… the deaths of the seekers…  Would Starscream really lie about something like that?  Was the warlord really so cruel and manipulative?  

These thoughts dominate his mind as he reaches out to his deformed mate.  

“Please…  let me in…  We’ll fix this together.  I…  I promised I wouldn’t leave you again.

I promise I won’t abandon you.”

The arm acting as his ramp became unstable as the wrist twisted, throwing the warlord into the air. His T-cog burned with the speed of his transformation, jets roaring to life as soon as they were able. Kuketsu fought to keep up with the demanding pace his wielder was setting, thrown out of sync by the realities of war. 

Megatron growled threateningly, though it wasn’t clear whether it was aimed at Starscream or his suddenly lessened power. Either way, the dark energon stiffened, steeling his armor like a shield as he rockets towards the cage, turning his frame to avoid clipping the vehicon clinging to the side.

"Starscream! Stop this!” he commanded, colliding into the bars at high speed.

st3v3-the-eradicon:

starscreamthefirst:

The strange lust that had overcome the witch and caused him to behave so obscenely suddenly disappears. He releases himself from the bar of his cage to peer closely at Steve as he becomes more and more upset.

When he sees the coolant leaking from Steve’s optics, he suddenly recoils, backing away until he’s nearly against the other side of the cage. He shrieks and hisses some more.

Off to the side can be seen the silhouette of the dancing Seeker. If Steve is watching, he can see a new pair of hulking arms suddenly reach in from each side of the window to grab the Seeker’s wings and break them off before disappearing. Though the Seeker reacts painfully to the assault, it immediately resumes its dance, though now it is struggling to move so smoothly as it did before.

Steve fails to see the horrible silhouette.  His optics are glued to his mate.  The vehicon struggles to free an arm, trying to reach out to the broken seeker in the cage.  ”S-sir…”  

He wants inside.  He needs to be there with the commander.  

“Sir please…  let me in…  Let me help you…”  He doesn’t know what he can do but there must be something.  There’s something about the way that it looks at him that betrays more at work behind those hollow optics than a mindless monster.  

An arm descended to grasp at the warlord, but with a burst of energy from his sword, the servo shatters. Alting into jet mode, Megatron dodges a few more, spinning to sever their digits. Racing through the maze of Vosnian towers, the talons, the broken corpses of seekers falling all around him and shrieking… It’s considerably more unnerving than Soundwave’s labyrinth had been.

//It’s true, isn’t it? You needed the air power…// 

"We would have lost within the orn without Vos. They were one of the last neutral states, refusing to join either side. We needed their technology, and the aerial superiority-!” An effigy screams and writhes before reaching towards the radiant mech.

//Sacrifices made in war..// Megatron flies through the figure, breaking it apart with a pained cry. He returns to root mode, skidding along the ground to stop. The limbs chasing him are drawing back to the center. Squinting through the fog, there’s something on top of Starscream’s cage… something that the claws are returning to. Steve.

With a leap amplified by his own dark magic, Megatron stabs a retreating monstrous servo, using the leverage to heave himself onto it. He runs along the arm, using an oddly silent, Kuketsu to send a comparatively weak wave of energy at the bottom of the cage.

st3v3-the-eradicon:

starscreamthefirst:

Within the witch’s barrier was a nightmare version of Vos. Tall buildings stood in twisted, unnatural angles. Some stood together in clusters to resemble the fearsome talons of a servo reaching for the star-filled sky above. The stars provided the main source of light in the entire labyrinth, and they were constantly being sucked into the black hole hanging above the tallest spiraling structure in the whole city before they were immediately replaced. From the ground, one could hardly see any sign of the witch aside from the seemingly endless length of its many arms stretching across the sky. Atop the more distance buildings, one could possibly spot the silhouettes of Seekers diving off the ledges.

All of the taller buildings had giant video screens hanging from them that were currently dark, but one contained a large window. The only thing that could be seen through it was a light that was always changing colors and the shape of another Seeker performing an alluring dance. The only thing piercing through the silence was the distant sound of the witch’s calling. All of its arms continued stretching farther and farther out, searching for anyone it could pull in and use to grow stronger.

Steve gasps as he steps through the barrier and enters the witch’s domain.  Cold hits him in the chassis like a wall, along with inexplicable nausea.  The vehicon’s intake clenches and he bends forward, gagging as his leader files in beside him.  Swaying, dizzy, the soldier straightens himself up after several nanos.  When the lights swimming in front of his optics start to clear away he sees Vos.  But not the same Vos.  An eerie miasma of darkness plagues the city.  Steve feels as though he’s stepped inside of a nightmare.  Enormous, crooked arms severed from their frames float through the sky above like grotesque clouds.  The stars shift above, being dragged across the sky by an unseen force.  Steve follows their progress to the source.  Obscured somewhere beyond the buildings he makes out the outline of it—the giant cage.  The one he saw before…  

Has it gotten larger?

It’s too dark to really make out, but Steve lets himself imagine he can see the shape moving within…  and then it’s gone—cut off from his vision by another enormous arm.  The vehicon’s chassis rattles.

“…M’lord…   W-we’re here…  what should I…?”

The atmosperic change is expected. Megatron is not as affected by the chilling fear meant to infect visitors in the witch’s lair, either because Kuketsu offers him resistance, or past experience has taught him how to ignore it and soldier on.

Steve is, however, visibly affected. This would be far more perilous for the vehicon, but without him the warlord would be facing the full brunt of Starscream’s new power alone. The blade in his arm glows with a reassuring light as he steps past Steve, turning to face him. The air is stirring as the former seeker becomes aware of their presence.

“Remain close to the perimeter. He should be drawn to anything inside. I will circle around and fly up to the center. Keep him distracted, but if he is too much for you, drive away. We do not need any more casualties.”