I can't feel
The way I did before
Don't turn your back on me
I won't be ignored
Time won't heal
This damage anymore
Don't turn your back on me
I won't be ignored

“W – What did you say?”
“I believe in you.”
Megatron was totally caught off guard. Totally shocked. Starscream got off him and Megatron sat up, still staring at him, unable to process this. No one … no one …
Starscream sat, kneeling and watching him, his face blank but his optics curious and full of determination to make him see the light (as corny as that sounded, it wasn’t far from his desires), or the truth. He WANTED him to see …
“Megatron …”
And Megatron shook his head slowly, staring at him, unwilling to react, unwilling to let it all go and do what he desperately wanted to do. He wanted …
Starscream then reached out to him, touching his face, stroking his cheek, looking into his optics with nervous reassurance.
Megatron snapped.
Starscream was caught totally off guard as his ex-leader grabbed him, pulling him into a tight embrace as he felt Megatron burry himself into his neck and shoulder, wrapping one arm around his back and the other around his shoulders, pulling him closer than he had ever been to him before.
He’s … he’s warm …
As silly as it might sound, Starscream had never thought Megatron might be warm. He had never held him like this; never felt him like this before … he had only ever felt his cold blows to his body. But now … it was all different.
Starscream blinked a bit in shock, optics wide, before slowly bringing his own arms up to wrap around him, pulling him close. The ex leader of the Decepticons merely held him tighter, starting to tremble as he finally felt all the millions of years of pent up emotions start to take hold of him.
“Starscream …” He chocked out, shaking more violently. “I … I can’t …”
“You must,” The seeker whispered back, holding his head with one hand and his back with the other. “You know you must. You’ve got to let it go …”
“No!” The other managed to spit out, breathing erratic. “I can’t … against the leader’s code … never … not even … no…”
“You’re not a leader anymore …” Starscream murmured. “Its okay now … you can …”
Megatron tried to hold it back, all of his will power and mind power, but he could not. All of his bottled up emotions had finally been shaken up, and the cap was about to pop. He could no longer hold back the fizz; he could no longer deny this.
He buried his head further into Starscream’s shoulder and neck, as if to hide his face from the world as he finally let a drop of fluid escape his closed optics. His optics opened in shock, but now that he had started to let go he could no longer deny the rest. He shut off his optics again furiously, giving a small sob like sound as more tears made a constant stream down his face, and he held Starscream tighter than he had held anyone in his life.
The tetra jet did not move, feeling the liquid dampen his shoulder and neck and noting that Megatron refused to let any sounds escape him, apart from ragged breathing. He knew this would happen eventually, and he was caught slightly in awe to find that he was actually doing this.
He smacked himself mentally. He realised that Megatron was now no different from the rest of the other Transformers on the planet. Everybody, and he meant everybody, had to cry at least once in their life. Whether it was alone or with someone trusted they did, no matter how macho. But he knew Megatron had held himself back for millions and millions of years, and no matter what it had to happen. In a way, he was glad he got to share this with him, and he also knew that even in his immortal life he would never see this again.
Starscream held him as tightly as he could, one arm around his head and the other around his back. He did not know how long they stayed that way, but to him it felt like an eternity. A surreal eternity, in a way. Something alien to him yet entirely normal. It was awing, it was shocking, and yet, it was Megatron in his arms. Megatron, not Decepticon leader Megatron. Just plain old Megatron.
And so, when Megatron calmed down, they slowly drew apart. He gave a growl and wiped his face roughly, but Starscream caught his hand, making him stop, and the seeker gently wiped them away himself, smiling as he did. Megatron let him, but did not stop another growl from escaping …
Once that was done, Starscream merely watched him for a moment, waiting for him to speak. The ex-Decepticon leader slowly looked at him, watching back, before letting out a quivering sigh.
“Starscream?”
“Yes?” His tone was hesitant.
But then both gasped, and the world went black.

***

Darkness. It was all around him … there was no escaping it. There was nothing but a void …
Megatron blinked, and span around in all directions, hoping to see something other than nothing, but not succeeding. He wondered how he got here, and why.
“Hello?” He called out. “Starscream? Soundwave? Shockwave! ……. Anyone?”
A flash of light to his right.
He held up his hands, covering his optics, when it faded, and Starscream jumped down beside him.
“Megatron?” He peered up at him. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know …”
Silence rained again as the two looked around, seeing nothing changing, but also realising it wasn’t so silent. There were sounds … echoing sounds, small sounds, all around, that neither had noticed. The kind of sounds one would hear if they were alone or hallucinating, yet these were very real.
And then … softly, there came music. A flute playing a shapeless tune, but in a way it was a comfort as well as mysterious.
“What’s that sound?” Starscream whispered, voice husky with curiosity. His optics were wide, as he floated in the void, listening.
“It sounds like …” Megatron could not find the word. He watched as slowly, the darkness became colours … wisps of light and rainbow colours drifted past them, and slowly started to form two screen like objects in front of them. Both stoped to watch, fascinated almost.
“This … was never taught at the science academy …” Starscream muttered out of the blue, watching the lights mix and condense.
The music was still playing very gently in the background, as finally, the two screens formed. Silently, they began to play what seemed like a movie of their lives.
Both watched in fascination as they saw themselves being brought online for the first time … going out to play in the grounds with other mechs their age. While the young Starscream went off to the Science academy, the young Megatron got into the Gladiator pits, learning about combat as Starscream learned of science.
Soon, it showed Starscream with Skyfire, laughing and learning, while it showed Megatron with someone Starscream didn’t know, although Megatron looked happy as well. Just the same as Starscream did …
“Manovi ….” Megatron whispered.
Starscream looked over at him, then back at the screen.
As the two watched their own lives being played out on the two screens, they began to realise that they had lived totally different, yet totally identical lives. When Skyfire crashed on Earth, Megatron was seen holding his friend, who died in his arms. He was sad at the same time as Starscream was …
And that’s when their lives collided, when Starscream crashed in Decepticon territory when he arrived home. But the meaning was clear …
The screens faded, becoming wisps of colour once more, and then they were bathed in light …

***

For a moment Megatron didn’t open his optics. For a moment he thought he was still back in the void … whatever it was. But he was lying down, and, when feeling with his hands, he realised someone else was lying with him too.
Scratch that, on top of him.
He opened his optics.
He was greeted with the sight of his quarters. Starscream was curled up on his chest, optics also open but unmoving. Their legs were tangled, and their arms were wrapped around the other, except Starscream’s left arm, which was resting on his chest. He blinked, wondering how the hell they had got like that.
“Starscream?” Megatron questioned.
The seeker gave a jolt, snapping his head up to look at him with wide optics. “Megatron? How … how did …”
“I have no idea …” He murmured, then untangling his arms to lean on them, pushing himself up with a groan, Starscream pushing off himself but still sitting in his lap. “Whatever it was …”
“I … I think we may have needed to see that … for some reason …”
Megatron stared at him. “WHY would we need to see that?”
“Because …” Starscream looked down, getting out of his lap to sit beside him. “Didn’t it show you something Megatron? About us?”
The ex-leader shook his head. “Only that I’m insane.”
“No. It showed us that we’re the same person … in a way …” Starscream looked up at the roof. “We were destined to meet. Maybe destined to somehow die together too …. No matter what we said, we’re drawn to each other …”
Megatron looked down at his feet, thinking. After a moment of silence, he muttered, “I needed you to prove that I was strong. To show them I was strong ….”
“And I was drawn to you by power. And the need to be close to someone again … like I was with Skyfire …”
Megatron’s head shot up, staring, and the seeker looked right back. He was not ashamed anymore to admit what he had wanted. “You were …”
Starscream nodded. “I wanted to be close to you, once upon a time as humans would say … yet after a few bashings I realised that wasn’t going to happen … and I saw nothing in me worth giving anyway … I became cold inside … dead.” He placed a hand over his spark area, optics dim. “Yet I could never leave. I was drawn to you … needed your scant praise to live on it seemed … but soon I cracked. I … somehow figured out that I could never get what I wanted from you, so I ran …”
As the seeker spoke, a wave of some foreign emotion washed over the ex-leader. He wondered what it was, before he then recognised it.
Guilt. Pure guilt.
He tried to shake it away. He was Megatron! He would not feel guilt over a trivial soldier …
But, it was then he realised that Starscream was no longer a trivial soldier. It had never fully sunk in before now, but Starscream was his friend. And he had wanted to be during the war, but he had been so absorbed in battle plans and everything else that he had practically destroyed his chance of a real battle partner. A real relationship with his second in command that could have made everything so much easier … had the seeker been smart enough to stop accepting his torture of a life.
But he didn’t … for a long time he didn’t. But when he did it had led to a continuing flow of events that now finished at where he was currently. And now he had the chance to really fix everything he had done. And hey? Who was a better person to start out with than Starscream?
“I … am glad you told me this, Starscream.” He finally managed, after a brief pause.
The seeker gave him a small smile, and nodded. “I am glad to get it off my chest.” And then he waited. It was Megatron’s turn …
“I ….” He looked down. “I guess I was … to wrapped up in the war to really know what I was doing to you … what I was probably doing to others as well … I can see now why you always rebelled against me … always wanted to take leadership. I am ……………………..”
A long pause followed, before he finally spat it out.
“I’m sorry, Starscream.”
Starscream looked taken aback for a moment, before he then smiled and nodded. “Apology accepted, Megatron.” He looked away for a moment, before giving him a light punch on the shoulder.
“I’m sorry too …”
Megatron smirked, looking back down at his hands, and then giving a smile of his own. “I … think I’m ready to leave here now Starscream but-“
He was broken off as Starscream gave a loud whoop, punching the air and jumping up, face brighter than the sun.
“About time!!! You have no idea how long I’ve waited to hear that!” Suddenly, in a fit of high spirits, he tacked Megatron to the bed, giving him a hug before he had time to register what had happened, then sitting up again, like nothing had occurred in the last 30 seconds.
Megatron blinked a few times, before regaining his composure and asking, “But … where will I GO, Starscream?”
“Why, come back with me!” He grinned. “I have plenty of room at my place. You can stay there until you get your own spot. Sound good?”
Megatron gave a sigh, ‘That DOES sound good … when the Tournament opens and all of that … then I’ll finally be able to settle down and live normally … yes …. I think I will go for it …’ Out loud, he smiled. “Sure, sounds great Starscream … and thankyou … for everything.”
“Think nothing of it, Megatron.”

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Song -
Linkin Park - Faint