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Starscream Gets His End Away

There was light...

And then the floor shook. A fuel explosion shredded the environs of the Decepticon science complex, throwing the feet from under its personnel. From above, the impact could be seen as a long trench in the metal city, peppered with fire and punctuated by a slightly used slim off-purple jet.

The jet lay smoking and making gentle tick tick noises as the superheated fuselage cooled. It was the dribble dribble dribble noise that worried Starscream as he arrived on the scene. A quick scan foretold no precipitous explosions, though, and that gave him time to stand back and be annoyed. Typical, he thought, that this sort of thing would happen when the facility was under his supervision. Megatron would blame him, of course, when the repairs were not completed on time.

He kept a blaster lazily trained on the intruder as he approached. It didn't look like any sort of attack, but the early warning systems had been slipped under, so perhaps..

There was a Decepticon insignia on the jet's canopy. The damage was not nearly as bad as he had first thought, either. A lopsided smile crawled onto his face; this jet was built a lady jet, and she was a nice piece of astroengineering. He nudged it with his foot.

He was halfway though saying 'Identify yourself' when the lady executed a lightning transformation and kicked out low. Starscream hit the ground with the usual impressive clank and wondered why he was the first guy in every fight to fall down. The intruder had him by the legs. She had nice gams, but she looked awfully imposing from down here on the ground.

'Where am I?' she shouted.

Starscream sighed mentally and arched into a kick. His opponent was pushed off balance and she let go, stuggling to find footing and hunching around a wound in her side. He raised a blaster pointedly. 'I'd be careful if I were you. Identify yourself.'

During the pause, he looked her over. The wound didn't look fresh; it was probably the cause of her crash and not a symptom. Her Decepticon symbol was now emblazoned on her chest, between two very obvious peices of gender-specific modeling. Her face was a peice of art. So was her arse. Art art art. He was careful not to grin.

She glared at him. 'Razormoon. I said 'where am I.' And for fuck's sake put your gun down.' She displayed her wrists, where twin blasters were comfortably retracted.

Starscream nodded and lowered his arm slightly. 'This is a Decepticon base of operations. And you have just caused some considerable damage to it!'

Razormoon cast a glance around and grimaced. 'Yes.' She spent another moment just sort of looking akward. 'When am I?'

Starscream told her.

'Pants,' she said. 'I'm late.'

'For what?' Starscream was interested enough to lower most of his guard.

'The sendoff.'

'What?'

She held up a book that read 'How To Win Friends and Influence People Through Mucking About With the Timeline' and said, 'I'm here to make sure the Decepticons win this war.'

(note for confused people: this is a lie.)

* * *

Megatron wanted to see the lady for himself, so Razormoon and Starscream boarded a shuttle for the main Decepticon ops base.

Starscream was trying not to look at her, but she was a lure to his eyes, shapely armour and strong demeanour. She would catch him from time to time, and he would concentrate suddenly on his ops console.

Razormoon smiled, and looked at him. She kept looking until he tried to steal another glance. 'Are you alright, Starscream?' she asked, and winked at him. She was rewarded with a crooked smile.

'Charmed.' Starscream, posing in the pilot's seat, looked positively lustful.

She sauntered over to him, ran a finger up his throat and under his chin, lifting it. He was handsome, perhaps a bit pretty. She gazed into his half-open eyes, then kissed him full-on.

Their arms snaked round in a mutual embrace and they were going at it hammer-and-tongs in twelve seconds flat. Eventually they fell out of the chair.

* * *

Shockwave got an unusually subdued greeting from Starscream when the shuttle arrived. The newcomer, Razormoon, gave Shockwave a warm enough introduction, but seemed distracted. He felt uneasy, despite the thorough scan of the visitor.. Perhaps she was _too_ clean. She carried hardly any concealed weapons, and her subspace pocket contained only two particle cannons. Also, her technology did not seem to be superior, as surely it ought to be if she was indeed from the future? Her response was that things had gone badly for the Decepticons and they had not had the resources to develop and apply much new technology. All their efforts had now been dumped into the time shot. Logic found no problems with the scenario, but Occam's Razor loomed on the horizon.

* * *

Ah, and here was Megatron. He greeted her with suspicion, betraying nothing. Starscream was already on her side, having had his brains fucked out. Eventually Megatron sent him away and began interrogation in earnest. She expertly turned the conversation to tactics, then war stories, then started to seduce him. She worked with the 'cons, using such information as the Matrix had given her to keep their trust up and their appetites whetted. During this time, her espionage skills earned her piles of information, some more useful than others. Most surprisingly, she learned that Starscream and Megatron were secretly having it off with each other. That seemed a little wierd to her. Must be one of those love/hate things.

She continued to have a little jet-on-jet action with Starscream at least once a day, and everyone started to comment on how he'd been better to get along with of late. Megatron's seduction took a long time, he wasn't nearly as easy as Starscream, but she saw the moments as they came, and was successful.

Megatron was great.

* * *

Megatron was alone in his quarters when Starscream showed up, hanging off the doorframe. 'Oh, mighty Megatron! Miss me?' It was delivered with a trademark lopsided smile.

Megatron looked over at him impatiently. 'Have I ever missed you, Starscream?'

Starscream walked round behind him and ground up close, sliding his fingers down the length of Megatron's big, black, shiny fusion cannon.

'Ooo Megatron,' he grinned, 'What a big gun you have!'

* * *

Razormoon was jolted out of her thoughts by a bloody great CLANG!. Starscream had fallen off the bunk. She laughed fit to hack up a lung, got up, and scooped him off the floor. He hung limp in her arms, acknowledging her with an arm over her shoulders, eye contact and a happy sound. 'Come on,' she said, 'If you keep staying in my quarters overnight, anyone who hasn't figured it out yet, will. And I have work to do tomorrow morning.'

'But I don't *want* to move,' Starscream whined quietly. He frowned. 'What work?'

'Megatron assigned me to the Hith reclamation project.'

'What?'

'The Constructicons and I are heading out early.'

Starscream looked angry, and tried to be righteous and get out of Razormoon's cradling arms at the same time. 'That's *my* project! How dare Megatron!'

Razormoon wanted to offer him the mission command. Instead, she said, 'It's my project now. Megatron must have something more important for you here.'

Starscream was already plotting. 'It's a test,' he concluded, 'of your loyalty. Ha! What a waste of time!'

Razormoon narrowed her mismatched eyes. 'How's it a waste?'

'Trying to determine the level of any Decepticon's loyalty is a futile gesture. Look at me! I'd just as soon kill him as look at him, and I've been part of 'his' army for millenia! ..What's so funny?'

She was trying very hard not to burst out laughing. OK, so he didn't suspect her. Of *anything.* 'You,' she said. 'You're a trip. Shall we go get tanked up for the evening?'

Starscream relented and they left for the Energon depot.

* * *

Hith was a cold world, and lonely. It was also very small. Ancient cities were built with the planet's curvature in mind, the towered horizon less than two miles away. She could taste the history in the air. It was radioactive.

Hook and Scrapper led the way over the gleaming streets, covered with rubble and trace organic dust. The seven Decepticons carved the first set of tracks ever laid in that dust. They entered a transit system below ground and simply followed their noses to the prize. It was very, very easy. Razormoon wondered if perhaps she really was on this mission just to help lift.

Even the Constructicons had to be impressed when they first saw their objective. It looked like a radio telescope. It wasn't.

'How in the fuck does Megatron expect us to get this thing home?'

Razormoon had her troops run enough energy into its control systems for diagnostic information. The sheer power of the thing became apparent with access to its stats. In Decepticon hands, it could ravage the universe. This was an awsome prospect. Perhaps Megatron really did trust her.. But she saw the way Long Haul made sure she wasn't doing anything questionable as she worked with the consoles, the battle-ready stance of the others. They discovered the system had never been shut down properly; it had simply lost power. They restored a few generators and ran the shutdown.

The weapon folded into itself , losing size, losing height, losing definition. Scavenger glared at her. 'You've destroyed it!'

Scrapper snarled, 'Megatron was right to suspect you. You're a saboteur. Or just incompetent.' They raised their weapons.

'Don't insult your own intelligence,' Hook cut in. 'Look at this place- the dish wasn't built here. It's mobile. And there it is.'

Indeed, there it was. Reduced to a medium-sized, tank-treaded transport mode. Mixmaster called for the others to lower their weapons, and apologised.

'Don't trouble yourself. I can hardly blame you for Megatron's mistrust. The disloyalty that surrounds him has made the old fool paranoid.'

Scrapper laughed. 'Mind he doesn't catch you fraternizing with the disloyal, then.'

She smirked, an expression she'd picked up from Starscream. 'Hey, who I bonk in my spare time is none of your business!'

'We could change that,' Mixmaster leered. Scrapper broke out his equipment right there. Razormoon's eyes snapped down. 'Damn! Blacksmith Tony's getting better. Come on, let's get this thing home. Bonecrusher, Long Haul..' she trails off. 'Does anybody hear that?'

And wouldn't you know it, there raced five jets right over the horizon. 'Aerialbots!' shouted Long Haul. 'Fire!' Razormoon shouted too.

(They have a big fight. If anyone would like to write a nice big Constructicon/Aerialbot battle, plese feel free. I'm way too lazy.)

Mixmaster saw her in trouble and watched with curiosity.

Silverbolt looked down the barrel of his blaster at Razormoon. With one of her trademark lighting transformations, she shot upwards, dropping a few presents. Silverbolt was caught in a massive explosion that sent him spinning, and he crashed headlong amongst the slightly more ruinous ruins. She looked sadly after the flaming wreckage, then turned and called out, 'Decepticons! To Cybertron!'

* * *

Shockwave was surprised to see the team coming back with its original number of warriors. He felt eyes of authority on him and turned. 'Razormoon returns, Megatron.'

'With the weapon, Shockwave?'

'She reports success.'

'Good.' he smiled. 'Good. Arrange a test.'

'Another one, Megatron?'

'A test of the *weapon,* Shockwave.'

'Oh.'

Megatron wandered off to find Starscream.

* * *

Razormoon looked out over the test field and frowned. 'Shockwave,' she said carefully, 'I think you're aiming a bit low. The scale of this thing is systemic. As in several planets in one go.'

He didn't move to face her. 'What information is that prediction based on?'

'The power output and field of the dish. Its effective range is measured in lightyears. I mean, come on!' The sound of the dish powering up was making her very nervous indeed. The fact that is was not pointed into the sky was making her outright scared.

'This is only a test. Full power is not required. A much smaller scale has been used.' He gestured to the junked cruiser out on the field that was meant to be destroyed.

She frowned some more. 'I'm not sure what kind of precision it's capable of. I think executing this test will be an awful lot like performing optical surgery with a chainsaw.'

On the other side of the weapon, someone was having the same discussion with Megatron.

'I've been monitoring the power going into this, it's too much!'

'We can afford it.'

'That's not the point! Something is wrong!'

He just leered. 'Oh, are you scared, Starscream?'

Starscream's optics flashed bright red. 'Alright, yes! Yes I'm scared! Because Shockwave is incompetent and *this thing is going to kill us all!*' He lunged for the control deck.

The shooting attracted the other Decepticons' attention, and they were somewhere between amused and disgusted to see Megatron forcibly restraining Starscream from reaching the weapon. 'Shut it off,' Starscream shouted, even as he swore he felt his throat being crushed.

No one moved. Then Soundwave stepped forward to examine the console. Megatron demanded to know what he was doing.

'Weapon operating at unprecedented level of effeciency. Blast will be considerably stronger than planned,' he reported. 'Reccomend powering down.' Pause. 'Insufficient system response. Discharge will occur in eighty-two seconds.'

Razormoon bounded to the console and pushed a set of carefully adjusted levers all the way up. Soundwave looked at her questioningly. She was too busy praying to notice.

Megatron released Starscream, finally worried as the sound of a new system rose into harmony with the others and then overpowered them. He looked up at the machine in awe, then rounded on Razormoon. He spun her around and picked her up by the neck, appreciating somewhere the terror she expressed. Starscream looked on, horrified.

'I'm sure you'll understand my feelings on your initiative, Razormoon.' He dropped her to the ground. 'Soundwave, should we evacuate the area?'

'Negative,' he answered shortly. 'Result of action: the weapon's trajectory is being altered.'

And it was. Slowly, so slowly, it was tilting upwards. Forty seconds passed before it ground to a halt and fired.

Megatron just watched. The beam, though focussed through a dish the size of a major military spacebridge, was not exactly memorable. There was a considerable amount of noise, but no fanfare. A few seconds later, the beam cut off again.

Everyone was quiet, waiting for something to happen.

Megatron broke the silence. 'Report.'

Soundwave tappity tapped on the console again. 'Weapon fired as planned. No explanation for high power usage.'

Megs looked to his troops. 'You can color me unimpressed, Shockwave. Schedule another test, and don't invite everyone until you know how to operate this machine properly. And you two,' Megatron sneered at the still panicky pair of jets, 'Learn to control yourselves. Meanwhile-'

There was a blinding flash as the light reached them. When it died down, they could see the afterimage of a vaporized world, curling, superheated, out into the void above them.

Swindle tilted his head and said, 'I think Cybertron looks great with just the two moons.'

* * *

Megatron's praise for the actions that had destroyed an entire moon of Autobot-occupied territory and saved half of Cybertron from vapourization was unbounded. 'Good work, Razormoon,' he said.

And then he invited her to dinner.

By carbon-combustion light , they sampled the best of what Cybertron had to offer. Of course, it wasn't as good as it used to be. Nothing ever was. The art of energy preparation suffered greatly in times of war, when no-one had the time to savor its nuances. When you're hungry, it's all just fuel.

Though it was the best she'd ever had, Razormoon's meal was unsatisfying. She could taste the conquest, and it spoiled the meat.

Megatron was called away for a few minutes to speak with Soundwave, and she took the time to wonder what she was going to do about the weapon. She still felt there was something wrong in the way it was being used. Impressive as the destruction it caused was, she knew that wasn't at all what it was *for.* She had to get closer. Not a weapon, she thought. Much more than a weapon.

They went back to Megatron's place for dessert.

***

Ah, closed doors. Behind closed doors there was much moving up and down and going of the word 'ooh.' Unfortunately Starscream didn't know that. So when he came round later, in search of a little hot oil with his favorite megalomaniac, the sight that met his eyes did his emotional state absolutely no good at all.

Without stopping, Starscream turned around and walked back out of the room. In the corridor outside, he put his hands to his head in an expression of anguish. He swore a bunch of times.

'That was Starscream,' Razormoon said.

'I know.'

Of course, Starscream knew perfectly well that Megatron had his pick of the litter. But Razormoon.. He'd thought Razormoon was *his.* He cursed a bunch more times.

'Don't you think we should do something?' She asked.

'Such as?'

'I dunno. Invite him to join in?'

Megatron laughed.

'Well, he is damed good, after all. Surely we can both appreciate that!'

Megatron stopped. 'What?'

Razormoon looked up to find she was fixed in a cold stare, his arm round her shoulders gone stiff. Ohhhhhh shit, she thought, he didn't know. He didn't know. And he looks *pissed.*

She felt clamps lock down on the interface, and stifled a scream. Her mind became a cussword percolator as she downgraded her damage monitors to notification-only status. 'If I come back from this with a busted interface,' she thought, 'I won't be able to look my sisters in the face ever again. Plus also this could be very unpleasant. Options? Options? Options? Options?' She threw back her head and hollered, 'STARSCREAAAM!'

Starscream heard her call. He hesitated for a moment, charged his weapons system, and ran back inside.

Megatron snapped his gaze to him, and Starscream was taken aback. He was impressively angry. 'You don't mind if I borrow your pet Autobot, do you, Starscream?' he snarled.

Starscream raised his arms, light glinting off the chromed blasters. 'Let her go.'

Megatron responded by glancing at his fusion cannon, which was now pressed against the side of Razormoon's jaw. Starscream let his aim fall.

'I think she likes me,' Megatron said. 'Look how cooperative she is.' He looked down at Razormoon. 'Kiss me!'

She didn't move. Megatron pushed her head back with his cannon. She leaned forward and kissed him.

Starscream wasn't just angry anymore. This transcended angry. He couldn't move. He was frozen with cold, cold rage.

Razormoon was getting really worried. Megatron was getting into this. His kiss was passionate like never before, and she was getting stress damage reports from systems that were going to be hard to bang dents out of. She had one of those premonitions. Something bad was going to happen.

Megatron ripped her tongue out.

Okay, yeah, that was probably it. He released her shoulders and she fell back, snapping the last few cables, trailing broken machinery and energon.

That broke Starscream's silence. With an incoherent scream, he attacked.

As Megatron raised his arms to protect himself, Razormoon saw this was going to be her only moment. Her wrist blasters popped open and she fired on the interface.

Megatron jerked back, dropping her tongue. All his transformation joints went slack, and he spent a moment as a heap, just taking fire from Starscream. Poor bastard must have had the gain set to full. Razormoon spun from him and ran for the door. She pulled away her ruined interface machinery and belted it at him before leaving at most high speed; he was starting to pull himself together. Testament to her aim, it smacked him upside the head.

Starscream let off a few more volleys and followed her.

* * *

This would be, she thought, a damned good time to end my mission. She wasn't ready to execute her escape plan though, first she had to do something about that weapon. That meant dealing with Shockwave. And for primussakes she'd have to be fast. Cause she did not want to see Megatron again.

Someone was following her. She risked a look back. It was Starscream. She let him catch up, looked over at him. 'Thank you,' she said.

'Megatron's going to kill you,' he answered.

'And you.'

'You beat him to it.'

The corridor ended and the sky began. Razormoon turned her eyes on Starscream. 'I'm sorry,' she said, and transformed. He stared after her for a moment, resolved himself, and took off in pursuit.

It didn't take long to find her; she was back at the test site talking to Shockwave.

'..you don't understand- look at this. These conduits are meant to take fifteen times the power they're getting now, but those are overloading on running lights. It can't be right.'

Shockwave pondered, unconciously posing. 'Perhaps. There is also the matter of the energy conversion. The power loss is still unexplained. There may be a function I am not aware of.'

Razormoon looked past him to see Starscream coming in to land and winced at his expression. He looked back nervously. 'Razor.. I think you should employ a great deal more speed in your exit stage left.'

'This is important, Starscream. This machine is being abused to its limits. If it goes up, it may take Cybertron with it. Now I don't know about you two but I don't believe our planet deserves that.' She turned back to Shockwave.

Shockwave nodded slowly, sharing her feelings. In Megatron's absence, he'd ruled half of Cybertron for four millennia; it'd be a shame to have it vaporized just because they forgot to put the batteries for their new toy in the right way round.

* * *

On his way to Megatron's quarters, Soundwave saw the floor of the hall smeared with energon and hydraulic fluid. Alarmed, he followed the trail, sending Laserbeak ahead.

Laserbeak returned, reporting that Megatron was very angry.

Megatron had been angry before, but never for such compelling reasons. Damned if he was going to call for assistance, either. It took a good fifteen minutes just to reroute enough systems to walk with. He limped down the corridor, imagining all the things he was going to do to Starscream. A particularly good one brought a broad smile to the surface. So when Soundwave caught up, he saw Megatron bearing the marks of a number of photon shells, trailing bits of machinery from joints that woudn't lock and armor plates that wouldn't close, energon spattered across his face and chest, grinning from ear to ear.

'Oh $&#*,' thought Soundwave, and sighed.

'Soundwave,' Megatron said quietly, 'Do you know what we are going to do right now?'

Soundwave took a half-step backwards.

Megatron raised his fusion cannon. 'We are going to kill Starscream and EAT him.'

* * *

Setting the machine to rights was proving deceptively easy. The decryption of the control panel had helped a lot. They'd found the missing energy. It had been converted and stored deep in the machine in a new form, which according to the meter was called r-tron. The systems that were supposed to be using it weren't even switched on; it was just piling up and up, waiting to ignite or whatever it did.

The part they'd been using as a weapons system was in fact a confinement beam for the stuff that the r-tron systems were supposed to shoot. Without anything inside the beam, it had fed back massively and then collapsed along its entire length. The same amount of power that had vaporized Cybertron's third moon had also been directed at the machine. It had managed to absorb all of the energy safely but the resulting damage was looking worse the more they learned.

At least it was running properly now, even if they had no idea what it was going to actually do. Razormoon was getting big fat waves of relief as she prepared to clear off home, secure in the knowledge that the damaged machine wouldn't be accomplishing much. She walked over to Starscream, who was watching the perimiter nervously for signs of the inevitable vengeful leader. 'I want you to know,' she began. Starscream looked at her and she felt his eyes cutting in.

'Are you really an Autobot?' he said at length.

She cursed Megatron. Of all the things to say in front of poor Screamer.. 'No,' she said with confidence, 'I'm not.' Silence. She went on tentatively. 'I didn't mean to hurt you. You've been a great friend, and I only wish I didn't have to leave now.' She tried to take his hands, but he snatched them away and replied with a savage backhander. She stood and stared in open shock.

Starscream's face was expressionless. 'You're a traitor. Just like Skyfire. You're not a Decepticon warrior, just an Autobot spy!' He punctuated himself with a frustrated volley into the empty sky. Razormoon counted herself lucky; Skyfire had been shot through the chest for less.

'Starscream, I.. I'm just fighting for my cause, I can't help the way it turns out-'

'Shut up! Get out of my sight!' He brought up his blasters, his face dark with betrayal, and started shooting. Razormoon took a few glancing shots but the blasters were running low; she wasn't badly hurt. She staggered backwards nonetheless before transforming and leaving at high speed. He screamed at her, unleashing volley after volley of fire at her receding form, not taking one step in pursuit. Eventually he ran out of photon charges and let his arms fall. The sound of her thrusters echoed long after the gunfire had faded away. He scowled over Cybertron for a moment more before turning to head back to base.

And walking directly into Megatron.

Megatron looked down at him. 'What a brilliant strategy.' He leaned forward and picked Starscream up by the neck, held him close. Starscream could see the mech fluid still wet on his face as he growled, 'Couldn't stand to see her hurt, Starscream? Couldn't stand to see her die? That's not like you, Starscream, not like you at all. You must have grown very close. Not that that is any excuse for what you've done!' He threw Starscream down, Raised his fusion cannon and fired.

Starscream curled, terrified, around his missing shoulder and broken wing. Megatron usually missed vitals by a lot more than that when he reprimanded his troops. 'Megatron, please,' he cried, keeping enough wits about him to shunt the remains of his arm into subspace, 'I was misled! I didn't mean-'

'Run, Starscream.'

Starscream ran.

Megatron waited, taking his time to aim. He shot Starscream squarely in the back and watched him fall. He beckoned to Soundwave, who came forward, dignified and loyal. 'Is the weapon ready for another test?'

Soundwave conferred with himself. 'Shockwave reports yes. He also reports-'

'I don't care what he has to say. Bring that.' he made a vague gesture towards Starscream. 'We're going to contribute to the heat death of the universe.'

***

Starscream looked out over the testing field, the size of the focussing dish impressing him greatly. He shifted his weight a little, trying to take the pressure off his wing joints where they were bound. The spire he was tied to chafed the wound in his back cruelly, and he wished again that Megatron had not fused his damage monitors. He could hear the weapon charging up.

Well. This is not turning out at all well. Shit. Sod. Bugger.

He didn't even have anyone to complain to; they were all watching from a safe distance.

Heh. Megatron will have something set up so he can see my face when I die. He's like that. Well, I'll give him something to look at, certainly! Starscream raised an inapropriate digit of his remaining hand in the machine's direction. He swore he could hear Megatron cussing him out. Ha ha ha... Victorious to the last, that's me.

The weapon hummed louder, reaching toward crescendo. And then he heard something else. Jet engines. Razormoon rocketed into view over the skyline, transforming and clinging to the spire. She fired on Starscream's restraints.

'No, they won't break! Untie them, or cut the beam! Hurry!" He looked to the dish, now crackling ominously with energy. They were sending no-one after Razormoon. Which meant the weapon was about to fire.

And then he was free. He pushed away from the spire and into the open air- then discovered his thrusters were offline. Razormoon's first instinct was to try to catch him. The weapon fired. Razormoon caught his hand, realized he'd be much better off falling away from the beam, which hit her full-on and engulfed her in light and heat. Starscream went on falling, screaming as he saw the top half of the spire was now following him down, its end molten hot. He managed to glide out of its way, landed hard and with architecture coming down around his ears. He realized he was holding on to something. It was Razormoon's arm. It was sheared off with mathematical precision just below the shoulder, the raw end already cooled from a molten state. Starscream stared blankly. He stared some more. He dropped the arm and screamed. He stared some more. He picked it up and hugged it.

An interesting collection of sounds caught his attention. He turned in time to see the dish crackle and warp with escaping energy and explode in a pretty green blossom of flame. A small explosion, but it left very little to recognise of the weapon. He grinned. Ha. Victorious to the last.

Sod.

* * *

A chill settled into Optimus Prime. Seeing the change, Jazz looked away from the tournament exercise they were watching. 'Prime?'

He recognised the feeling. Someone who had once held the Matrix was gone.

Ironhide put a hand on his shoulder. 'What is it?'

He knew all of them. Most of them were good friends. 'I'd hoped Cliffjumper would do better in the tournament,' he said. Out on the field, Slag had pinned Cliffjumper down and was whaling on him fiercely. With Ironhide and Jazz distracted, Prime allowed himself a shiver. He could guess who had fallen. The young ones get so cocky once they feel the power of the Matrix..

Jazz looked up. 'Is that a Seeker?'

Hearing the same thing, Prime stood. 'All right everybody, end of training! We've got company!' His warriors regained their composure and looked to the sky, except Slag, who kept hitting Cliffjumper. 'Slag! I said end of training!'

Slag kept going. Grimlock roared at him. 'Prime say cut it out!'

By this time, they could see it was Skywarp. He transformed and called out, 'Hold your fire! I'm here to deliver a message!'

Cliffjumper, just coming to his senses, shouted, 'A Decepticon!' and raised his weapon, only to remember it was bent in half.

Prime held out an arm, staying any attack. 'What do you have to say?'

Skywarp landed, quietly observing the number of guns pointed at him. 'Megatron wishes to inform you of the death of your spy, Razormoon.'

Mirage and Sideswipe gaped a little and Jazz took a few steps backwards. Prime's expression was unreadable, as always. Grimlock said, 'Who that?'

Skywarp went on. 'We are disappointed with your tactics, Optimus Prime. We thought you fought a clean war.'

'No such animal,' said Wheeljack.

'Who Razormoon?' said Grimlock.

'Jet Autobots sleep with,' said Snarl. Sunstreaker hit him in the head. Snarl snapped jaws in his direction.

'Ohhhh,' said Grimlock, nodding.

'Megatron wants you to know that before her termination, Razormoon rose above your Autobot corruption. She had joined the Decepticon cause, and died saving my brother's life.'

There was a general murmur of disbelief amongst the gathered Autobots.

'Me remember. Jet chased me, Grimlock all over the place.'

'She will be honored forever as a Decepticon warrior in the Hall of the Dead on Cybertron.' Skywarp moved forward, produced a statuette and gave it to Prime. 'Do not disgrace her name by remembering her as an Autobot spy!'

That said, the Seeker took off and transformed, disappearing into a cheerful blue sky.

'Stupid jet not understand- me, Grimlock not kisser, me king!'

Ironhide rounded on Grimlock. 'Shut up, you dumb dinosaur, don't you understand she's dead?'

All the energy had gone from the gathered friends. They traded sad glances. Prime let Jazz hold the miniature statue; it was Razormoon, Decepticon insignia blazing across her chest and wings, standing on a funerary pedastal with a short Decepticon eulogy engraved. 'Death was a blessing I gave freely.'

Mirage felt his optics burning. He looked to Optimus. 'She didn't really die a Decepticon, did she?'

The leader shook his head. 'I don't think so. I don't think the Decepticons learned who she was. Skywarp said she joined the Decepticons, not rejoined. They wouldn't fail to gloat over that.'

'So her sisters..?'

'Megatron doesn't know about them. They're still safe with Elita One.'

Grimlock sulked. '*Lots* of people dead. Don't see big deal.'

Jazz stared at the statue in his hands. 'Primus help me, I'm going to miss her.'

He looked up to see Optimus standing in front of him. 'We're all going to miss her. Some more than others.' He closed his hands around Jazz's. 'I know how you feel, Jazz. If it's any help, I'll be in my quarters later.'

Jazz smiled bravely. 'Thanks, Optimus.'

(note for the confused: The stuff Prime believes about Razormoon and her sisters is not true. The poor fool.)

* * *

A dark and wounded shape drifted silently through a world of color and chaos that ripped and clawed at it with elemental fury. Awareness had departed. Death was coming.

An island of calmness moved through the waters. The dying thing ran into it.

A little life was shocked into her by the impact. She clung to it desperately, not feeling it under her fingers.

Something passed. She guessed it was time. She felt her island disappear.

She woke up in a room. It wasn't searing or freezing. It smelled.. peaceful. She let out a gentle sigh while she waited for her optics to come online.

She could see someone in front of her. 'How odd,' she thought.

'Hello,' the someone said, 'Lucky you ran into me. There's not a lot out there.'

'Hnnnn,' she said.

'You look a bit mistreated, but I think you'll be fine. I used to be quite the cyberneticist myself, you know. Have you got a name?'

'R. Re. Re. Razormoon.'

'Razormoon? Pleased to meet you. I'm the Doctor.'

* * *

END