Nexus: Near the Sign: Encounters with Starscreams

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

Skywarp is trudging back through the Nexus, taking the scenic route just to accommodate some brooding time. Blackout was still unconscious when he dropped in to check her condition, and until that changes, he knows he can't be expected to do anything.

On the other hand, it will change soon, and he has enough food for thought to feed a race of psychovores for a couple of centuries at least. So he detours through a quieter patch of Nexus, and tries to think.

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[random_xtras]

In another reality a broken scrap of a spark jerks awake with a gasp, and then flashes out of existence, leaving her startled spark-mate to sit up and call after her in a panic.

In her confusion the spark returns to the last place that she lived, slipping into the nearest shell to hide.

Skywarp is that shell.

The next thing he knows his circuits are staticking, and something is broadcasting fear and confusion and pain.

-No... no,- whispers a voice like a whisper of a memory. -Master... must wait for my master....-

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

What? Who-?

Skywarp jerks and shouts, turning around as he tries to find where the effect is coming from. "What is this?" he snarls.

[random_xtras]

-What...? Where...? The fear and confusion increases, accompanied by a slight feel of something moving across his circuits.

YOU'RE NOT ALONE IN THERE, SKYWARP.

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

He shudders and grabs at himself instinctively, running every diagnostic in the book. Who the Pit are you? Get out!

He's getting too used to this 'mess with Skywarp's processors' game...

[random_xtras]

Blind terror flashes back at him as the unseen intruder cowers and radiates apology and supplication. And then an image of a grey mech with hard crimson optics rips across his awareness, and the terror increases.

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

What? he asks again, trying to resist the urge to turn blindly on the outside, though he's floundering within. Who is that? Something about the image feels familiar...

[random_xtras]

-Megatron!!- the faint voice wails. -No! Please! I tried so hard, I didn't mean to fail! Aiieeeee!-

She's still caught in the dream, and in that dream she's being pounded to insensibility.

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

Stop ranting! he demands, as loudly as he can. There is no Megatron - you're in my shell. Identify yourself, now!

[random_xtras]

Startlement, and then a sudden gasp of awareness as the dream fades, only to be replaced by fear directed toward him and mixed with pain, despair and knowledge of failure. It feels like someone's ripped the wires out of his spark core and wrenched away his chestplate.

-I... don't know....-

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

He shudders violently and backs away until he feels a wall against his back. He needs to be out of the way while he curls up around his chest. Part of him is thinking of his PINpoint. But he can't focus on where he wants to go, and worse, what if he has to be here to get this thing out?

What's your name, you- gah! Stop that!

[random_xtras]

-I... don't know. I don't know....- The discord in his circuits increases with the intruder's fear confusion.

-Lost.... Must wait....-

Images of a puddle of energon and coolant laying in the very spot where he's huddling; the memory of a gravelly voice ordering her to stay alive; and another image of that grey mech, his face twisted with anger after she took a shot that was meant for him.

And her senses short out with sheer panic.

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

It's a ghost.

Slag. Oh slag, slag, slagging...

Skywarp throws himself into the air, trying to stumble haphazardly away from the death site.

Get out!

[random_xtras]

The static in his circuits increases with her fear, the very thought of leaving the shelter of her shell threatening to cause him to overload.

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

He keeps up the demand until he's on the brink of going offline. Then he backs down out of exhaustion as much as sense, and changes tactics.

All right, just calm down!

[random_xtras]

Terror blasts back at him, though it too is muted by weariness.

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

He growls at the presence. I want to know who you are. And why you're trying to take my shell!

[random_xtras]

Wordless denial. Not trying to take... only to hide.

Then she brushes against his spark and he sees the image of a slender Seeker form, frail and faint, and dominated by the gaping hole through her chest. Frightened red optics seem to stare into his, and then are shuttered as the tattered spark shudders and causes more static.

But she knows she's dead. That hole shouldn't be there.

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

What...? He jerks and shudders violently at the touch of another spark. You can't hide here! This is mine!

[random_xtras]

-Please.... I'm sorry-

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

What the slag are you hiding from? You're already dead!

[random_xtras]

He sees the world through her optics suddenly; huge and so empty that it hurts.

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

He's totally unaware of the way his body is shuddering. It can't hurt you now, idiot!

[random_xtras]

Being called names makes her fritz out again, and she inadvertently shows him just exactly how being on her own feels. And it....

Really really slagging hurts. And it feels so all alone that it seems like she could never touch anyone and that being anything other than empty and drifting was only a far away dream.

[agent-skywarp.livejournal.com]

Dependant. No wonder this one stayed as a ghost, he thinks, scorning her emotions as he tries to get a grip on what's his and what isn't. I can't help you. Leave me alone!

[random_xtras]

And here's another memory. Nearly succeeding with a coup, only to be betrayed by her own brother... Skywarp. And then Megatron again and pain and horror as he roots through her processor and changes the very core of her being, destroying her and tearing her apart without giving her something else to be other than blindly loyal to him.

And Skywarp gets to feel the whole thing.