...Hold on
Hold on to yourself
For this is gonna hurt like hell...
--Sarah MacLachlan
The Decepticon Royal Promenade was deserted at this hour; not that
it was ever very crowded, but in the wee small hours of the chronometer,
Razorsharp knew she would not be disturbed. Still, she kept to the shadows,
and a rueful smile tugged at one corner of her electric-blue titanium lips.
_Still following what he taught me, after all this time,_ she thought, her
slight smile fading as she approached the dais at the other end of the promenade.
Towering statues of ancient Decepticon generals and leaders flanked
the dais on either side, their golden coats of electrum dulled a little with
Cybernetic grime and the passage of vorns, and eternal energon flames crackled
in the bases of some of the more illustrious. Razorsharp, clutching a small
metal case, paid no heed to any of these--indeed, the one she meant to pay
her respects to would never be immortalized in shining metal, or have an
eternal flame dance at his feet. His name was anathema, and to speak it
meant to face a swift and terrible punishment. Razorsharp, however,
was unafraid, and she spoke his name aloud even now, stopping at the bottom
of the steps to kneel in reverence.
"Starscream...."
Laying the box in front of her, Razorsharp crossed her slender wrists
over her chestplate and bowed very low, until her forehead nearly
tapped the tarmac. She straightened after a few moments, then slowly rose
to her feet and gathered the case in trembling hands. She took the steps
with great reverence, as if she were afraid the dull metallic footfalls would
wake the dead, and stopped when she reached the top of the steps. There
she knelt again, determined to do him the honor that had been denied these
many years.
Razorsharp fixed her ruby gaze on the platform itself, searching in the darkness for the blast marks she knew would still be there. The place still reeked of his death, the scorched trails of his essence still lingering in the thin atmosphere. She placed her hands flat on the edge of the dais, reaching out with a sense that was beyond mere diagnostics....and felt echoes of anger, of pain, of blind rage and endless despair ringing beneath her sensitive fingertips.
"----is that you?!"
Gasping, Razorsharp scrambled to her feet, blade in hand. "Show yourself!" she hissed, searching the plaza for the owner of the voice, but there was only silence from the mute statues.
_It burns! The light, it burns---!_
Her blade falling from numb fingers, Razorsharp clutched her hands
to her head and screamed, a tandem wail of agony that echoed through every
fiber of her being. She stumbled and sprawled on her back, the steps of
the platform jarring her as she slid backwards a few meters, and to her surprise,
the pain was gone--as if it had never existed. _What in the name of Primus
is going on here?_ she wondered, slowly rising to retrieve her blade with
shaking hands.
A snarl of challenge came from behind her as she stepped onto the
dais. "--This is bad comedy!!"
Whirling with a strangled cry of fury, Razorsharp prepared to launch
every defense she could muster at the one playing games with her in the shadows--but
again, there was no one.
Bright pain flashed along every nerve of Razorsharp's body, seizing
her in its clawed and fanged grip so tightly, she screamed aloud again.
Light filled her world, light so bright it seared her plating, blistering
the paint where it raked against her, making every move agony. She felt herself
burning away into ashes, crumbling into the dust of ages even as the solar
wind swept her molecules away. _NO! I have a destiny, I will not let it
end this way!_ The words cut through the pain like a blade--and it was a
few microseconds before Razorsharp realized that the thoughts were not her
own.
"AAAAAAAAAIIIIEEEEE!" Razorsharp couldn't help the undulating cry
that poured into the crystal black sky, feeling herself split apart and reform
in a span of tortured microseconds. Then the pain was again gone, and she
felt herself being borne high above the surface of Cybertron--but instead
of fear, she felt a great hope propel her upwards. _The wings of love,_
a voice inside of her mused, and she smiled as she found herself in a shining
not-space somewhere far beyond the cold metallic reality of her home planet.
"Skydancer?"
Razorsharp's metal brow creased in a frown, shading her optics from
the radiance of the not-space. "Who are you? Where did you hear that name?"
she demanded.
A familiar chuckle, like a file on steel. "I should know; I named you. Come, Sky, don't you recognize your old teacher?"
The light began to recede, and Razorsharp was utterly flabbergasted
to see Starscream, whole and smiling before her. He opened his arms wide,
his wings glistening as if they were new, and Razorsharp felt herself running
toward him. "Primus, I can't believe it!" she exclaimed, every synapse singing
with joy as she felt his arms enfold her in a tight embrace. "I thought
you were dead, lost to me forever." She buried her noseplate in the shining
metal of his chestplate, and he gripped her so tight her joints creaked.
"No, little one, I am never truly dead. Galvatron--" he paused, as
if the word pained him--"may have destroyed my body, but what makes me who
I am, that remains." Starscream held her at arm's length, looking into her
bright red optics. "And that is all that is important." He grinned, his
shadowy faceplate creasing in a rare moment of pleasure. "I never thought
to see you again, that's for sure. I was told you were destroyed by Megatron
in a duel."
The part of her that was Razorsharp snapped awake, and Skydancer frowned
slightly. "That's true; I was destroyed." It was on the tip of her harmonizer
to add, _and I was rebuilt into Razorsharp,_ but for the moment, she pushed
the thought back. She looked up at him, wondering if he would find fault
with her like he had done so many years ago. "Are you angry with me?"
To her delight, Starscream merely drew her into his arms again. "No, you little minx, I'm not angry. I'm proud of you for sticking up for yourself. I taught you well, although I'm sorry that it brought about your demise at such a young age." He pulled away, but still kept her hands in his. "If you only knew how lonely I've been without your smile to cheer me. I would have thought our sparks would find each other; the bond of student to teacher is a strong one."
She bit her lip, finally seeing her reflection in his ruby optics.
Somehow, she was in her old form again, the sky-blue plating and clean,
angular lines of her juvenile self in keeping with the one Starscream knew
as his student. "There is something I must tell you," she began, stiffening
as his old scowl returned.
"What?"
"I--I am not dead."
The expression on his face was one of pure shock, and he dropped her
hands. "How can this be? I see you before me." He grabbed her shoulders,
bringing her closer. "I can touch you." The strong fingers dug into her
plating, making her wince, and a satisfied smirk lifted one corner of his
mouth. "I can even hurt you." Then he stopped, and the smirk dissolved
as he released her. "Yes, I can hurt you...then what you say is true. How
can this be?"
Skydancer shook her head, feeling the siphon for her methanol tank engage and bring moisture to the corners of her optics. "I don't know, I don't know! Does it matter?" She flung herself at him, gripping his waist tightly, as if she would never let go. "I'm here with you now. I don't ever want to go back! I don't ever want us to be parted again!"
Starscream looked down at the curving helmet that only came to his
mid-chest, and faltered for a moment before he gently disengaged the distraught
femme from his body. He put a hand under her delicate chin and tilted her
face up to his, wiping away the methanol droplets that tracked their way
down her cheeks. "I can't let that happen. You are worth much more to the
Armada alive than dead. Here, I can do nothing but wait. You, however,
can help me by staying functional."
Skydancer looked up at him, puzzled. "What is it you wish me to do?"
He sank to his haunches, his wings sheltering both of them as he dropped
to just below her eye level. "You must avenge me, little one. Rally my
brothers, Skywarp and Thundercracker, and strike down Galvatron, as he did
me!" His ruby optics were burning with fury now, and she reeled a little
from the pressure of his hands on hers. "It is only then that I may rest
in peace." The words cracked a little, and he turned his face away from
her. "Please, Skydancer. If you ever loved me, please do this for me."
"That would make me a traitor, and I would be as dead as you are."
She tried to reason with him, but he refused to face her. "You said it
yourself, what good am I dead?"
Suddenly, he was on his feet again, tall and terrible above her. "*I*
gave my life for my goals. *I* paid the price for my vision. *I* took the
blame for following my own destiny. How DARE you cheapen that with your
disobedience!" The light of the not-space began to glow an angry red, and
Skydancer began to back away.
_It's always the same, he's always the same! So much anger inside
of him, nothing wipes it away, not even the peace of this place._ "Forgive
me, I only meant--"
"I KNOW WHAT YOU MEANT! GET OUT OF HERE!"
In the wake of his rage, Razorsharp suddenly flared to life, wiping every trace of Skydancer away forever. She felt her plating ripple and change, and felt the reassuring presence of her blade leap to her hand. "You don't scare me with your petty threats, traitor."
The rage turned to confusion, and from confusion to shock as he watched
Skydancer's familiar features morph into those of Razorsharp. "Who--who ARE
you?"
Razorsharp sheathed her blade, knowing there was no need for it in this not- space. "My name is Razorsharp. I was rebuilt from the one you knew as Skydancer, after Megatron destroyed her." She continued as Starscream continued to gape wordlessly. "I owe a debt of honor to him for this, though I resisted his command for many years and existed alone in the ruins of Iacon. Straxus commands the Decepticons now, though, and he has convinced me to serve the Grand Armada." She smiled as she thought of her position as bheancoran, or warrior woman to Straxus, who was the governor of Darkmount, and hoped Starscream would be pleased.
Speaking for the first time since Razorsharp revealed herself, Starscream
scowled. "Straxus. That blowhard, he's almost as bad as Megatron sometimes."
He looked at her skeptically from under his crested helm. "But...you are
in a position of power?"
"In a manner of speaking. I am His Excellency's personal bodyguard
and queen of war." She stepped closer, smiling. "I am also his mate."
"His mate?" Starscream began to laugh, the file-on-steel rasp echoing in the not-space. "This is incredible. My prize pupil, my avenger, turns out to be the whore of Darkmount!" He lunged at her, but she dodged him easily. "Do you not know I trained you to be the finest warrior in the whole of the Decepticon Grand Armada?"
"I AM the finest warrior in the Armada!" Razorsharp blurted in rage. "You taught me everything I know!"
"And again, you cheapen it by being his pleasurebot!"
Narrowing her optics, Razorsharp made her decision. "I will listen
to no more of this. I came to honor you, but you will not listen to me."
She turned, only to find the blank whiteness in her way, refusing to budge.
Pushing against it only made the force stronger, she realized, and she was
panting with exertion when she turned back to face the Seeker. "Release
me at once!"
His chuckle filled her with fear now, and he stepped toward her.
"No. You are trapped with me here forever. If you will not avenge me,
I will extract the price of my peace from within your soul."
She was aghast. "You---you cannot do this!" Looking down, she saw
her own inert body laying sprawled on the steps of the dais, her optics dark.
"NO! You cannot, you cannot!" She beat her fists against his chestplate,
but he only kept laughing.
"Razorsharp!"
Both entities caught in the not-space stopped at the sound of a new voice below, and Razorsharp's regulator contracted in relief as she saw Razorclaw, Straxus' gunner's mate and close friend, enter the plaza. "RC, RC! I'm here, I'm here!" She fought against the not-space, batting away the Seeker's hands as he tried to pull her back.
Razorclaw saw his boss's mate sprawled lifeless on the dais and began
to run toward the inert femme. "Primus, what's happened here?" He keyed
the mental sequence that opened an emergency channel to Decepticon HQ. "Razorclaw
to Straxus! Code X!"
Razorsharp's tears were flowing freely now, and her old teacher's
pained expression was more than she could bear as he tried in vain to pull
her with him. "Please, let me go! They need me, can't you see that?"
"No! I need you, too, Sky--Razorsharp. Please, stay here with me!"
His wings quivered with emotion, but she slipped out of his grip and tumbled
from the not-space.
The femme felt herself falling in slow motion, as if through a thick, viscous fluid that muffled sound and light. Vaguely, her inner self reverberated with Starscream's howl of despair, but the ground was coming up too fast for her to think about anything else. She crashed back into reality with a noise like shattering glass, and suddenly she found herself staring up into Razorclaw's worried face.
"RC....," she managed weakly. Oh Primus, she hurt!
"Razorsharp?" The huge feline-like Decepticon leaned closer as the
femme's optics flickered on, and he gripped her hand fervently. "Are you
functional?"
She nodded, wincing when it uncovered a new set of pains in her neck.
"I--think so. Primus, I must have slipped and knocked myself down the stairs."
RC helped her to sit, running a hand over the back of her helmet.
"There's a dent in here the size of Unicron's eye," he quipped, but seriousness
edged his words. "I warned you not to come here by yourself. This place
is haunted. Who knows what could have happened to you? many millennia would
you have lain here if I hadn't had the presence of mind to come find you?"
Shuddering, Razorsharp pushed back the swiftly fading memory of Starscream
and the not-space. "I am more grateful than you know, Razorclaw." She stood
gingerly, testing her gyros and setting her internal repair systems to righting
her injuries. "Come, let's go before Straxus arrives."
"Wait." RC turned back and retrieved the metal casket she had brought,
and her blade. "You left these."
Razorsharp took the blade and sheathed it, but took the casket and
laid it back on the dais where it was. She lifted the lid and removed a
sky-blue piece of armor--one of the few she had remaining after her rebuild--and
lay it in the midst of Starscream's ashes. "Rest in peace, my teacher,"
she said softly, then turned and left, knowing she would never return to
this place.
*THE END*
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