Chapter Text
Seven years from now, in CyberLite’s Research and Development Center.
Sometimes you observed him on the video feed, and sure, he knew he was being watched at all times so probably some of what he did was performative, but…maybe a little of it was the real him. Scowling, pacing, restless, hands clenching briefly into fists.
Other times, you liked to approach the shockglass, tablet in hand so you could glance down to take notes if that infernal red stare became too much. Or the smirk. Always with the tight little smirk, like he knew something you didn’t. Well, he probably did, sure, because he was centuries old – millions, if you could believe him, which you really didn’t. Not only that, but he was dangerous even in a smaller size, owing to a damaged transformation cog.
“So, today, I want to ask you a few questions about…” You paused. As a roboticist, honestly, you were pretty curious about how Cybertronian reproductive systems worked, but the fact that you had to ask him…it was bound to be awkward. He was going to make it awkward.
“Yes?”
You steeled yourself and took a deep breath. “How you reproduce?”
His lips curled slightly. “Me, personally, or my kind?”
“Cybertronians in general. I’ve no interest in your personal reproductive habits, Starscream.”
He huffed out a laugh, picking idly at something on the bench, then flicked those red optics up to meet your eyes. “Is that so? Somehow, I don’t believe you.”
“Regardless, are you going to answer the question?”
He slowly stood and approached the shockglass, hips swaying a little. “Would you like a demonstration?”
“No.”
“Well, good, because you should know that pleasures of the metal kind are separate from the reproductive process, doctor. So, you can keep fantasizing about me without worrying about potential crossbreeds.”
You grit your teeth and spat out a reply. “Listen here, you little shit-” You stopped short as he threw back his head and laughed while you fought to corral your composure. Slow inhale. Slow exhale. “Will you kindly explain it?” You forced a polite smile that didn’t reach your eyes.
“And what do I get for telling you, hmm? Another two drops of Energon ration? Pffah.” He waved a hand dismissively.
“Well…what do you want that’s actually feasible?”
“You.” His eyes held yours and your entire body froze up. “In here, with me. You, like the rest of your kind, look very…soft. I want to know just how squishy you are.”
And there it was. “So, you want to kill me.”
“Not at all. You’re the best part of my stay here, by far. No, no, I just want to press a digit to your flesh and see how far it takes to give. Oh, I’ll be very careful, doctor.” Why he insisted on calling you doctor, you didn’t know – you had a PhD, not an MD, but perhaps because you worked in robotics, it was close enough to medicine for his kind.
“Excuse me?”
He leaned close to the electrified window, so close that a few energy tendrils drifted out to make contact with him, shock him if he got any closer. His voice was low, perhaps too quiet for the security team to hear. “You heard me.”
You scowled at him. “This conversation is over.” With that, you spun on your heel and headed towards the door.
His lips curled into a gleeful grin. “Just one finger on your shoulder, that’s it, and I’ll tell you what you want to know.”
You hurried out of the room, angry at yourself for letting him get to you. No way would you let him lay a hand on you (even if it sounded…interesting in a way you didn’t care to examine). Goddamn little shit is what he was. Liked to push buttons and you knew that. Manipulative, horrible, probably committed unspeakable war crimes.
Unfortunately, the choice wasn’t up to you.
“This feels like some kind of prostitution, and not that there’s anything wrong with that, but don’t I get a say here?” You glared, arms folded, at your direct superior, Dr. Chadsworth.
“It’s a small request for a large payout.”
You scoffed. “And what about when he asks for more, next time? What then, hmm?”
Dr. Chadsworth sighed. “Listen, we’ll have guards stationed in the room with you, all we have to do is open a small window in the shockglass and that’s it.”
“How do you know he won’t inject me with something? Maybe…maybe that IS how they reproduce, like from the Aliens movies-”
“Now you’re just being silly. He knows we can quite literally shock him to death if he gets handsy or…injecty. You aren’t going inside like he wanted. Just do it, it’ll be over lickety split.”
No, you weren’t giving him what he said he wanted but you were certainly giving him more than enough for your comfort level. (You hoped these things didn’t…masturbate or whatever, because you didn’t want the experience to be in this guy’s spank bank.)
Thus, not long after, you stood in front of the shockglass as the technician set up a window small enough for him to stick a hand through. Obviously, he was using this as a test to see how easily he could manipulate the corporation into doing what he wanted. He didn’t have any real interest in you. Obviously. Right? Right.
“I feel like I’ve entered into an alternate Silence of the Lambs,” you muttered as the shockglass opened a small portal about shoulder-height. Adrenaline rushed through your veins, spiking as he rose and slowly approached.
“I actually know what you’re referencing, doctor, but I assure you, I don’t eat meat of any kind.” His grin was lop-sided.
“And how in the hell do you know about that movie?”
His shoulders lifted in a shrug. “I was bored and one of your late-night technicians set me up with his WatchFlix account on that screen over there. My, I’ve certainly learned a lot about human customs.” His quasi-teeth shown slightly in a grin. Were those fangs?
You made a mental note to reprimand the technician…although on second thought, if some enrichment in Starscream’s enclosure made him more agreeable, maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.
“Let’s just get this over with.” You moved forward, shoulder first.
“Oh no,” he waggled his finger, “Pull the clothing aside. I said I wanted to touch your skin.”
You were going to kill Chadsworth in about a thousand different ways. Angrily, you yanked back your collar and waited to be strangled or stabbed or whatever the psycho robot had in store for you. “This is humiliating,” you muttered.
“I don’t intend it to be. I’m simply curious.” And with that, he eased a couple of fingers through the hole, careful to avoid the perimeter lest he get shocked; fortunately, if he grabbed you and yanked forward, you’d be fine, since the shockglass only worked in one direction. The back of one clawed digit caressed ever-so-lightly to the right of your collarbone. Ticklish. You avoided looking at him.
“Hmm.”
“What,” you growled: a demand, not a question.
“Very soft,” he said quietly as though deep in thought. The digit-claw unfurled a bit more and he pressed the point to your skin, metal indenting your flesh.
At last, you flinched, and he quickly retracted the claw. “I see. Malleable to an extent but also very delicate. Noted.”
“Noted for what?” you groused as you pulled your collar back in place. He hadn’t pierced the skin, but only just barely.
Starscream tossed you an unreadable look, then stepped back to his bench and sat down. “As you performed your part of this deal, so shall I.”
The technician punched a few buttons and closed the shockglass portal (you refused to call it a hole), then gave you a nod and exited the room.
“Go on.”
He leaned back and began to explain the concept of sparks, of cold-constructed and forged bodies, of protoforms and Primus. It all seemed like magic to you, but you knew logically it was technology at a scale you couldn’t yet comprehend. You were fascinated, transfixed by his telling.
At last, he finished his tale and kicked out his legs, leaning against the wall.
You shook your head in astonishment, words picking up speed in your excitement. “Amazing. If what you say is true, then…wow. A lot to unpack there. I knew if we ever met aliens, they’d be different from us in form and function, but I couldn’t guess like this.” You gestured to his chassis.
He tilted his head and observed you. His lips quirked into a small smile. Genuine, perhaps? Hard to tell.
“Well, thanks,” you continued. “I have more questions, but I need to think about this for a while.”
“Mm, not going to ask me about pleasures of the metal kind?” His smile turned cheeky.
You held up a hand. “Don’t start.” You hastily exited the room while he laughed. Would he ever tire of baiting you? Probably not.
* * *
Definitely not.
He stared down at you, standing as close to the shockglass as he dared. “Interfacing is purely for enjoyment and data transfer. I don’t think many use it to transfer data these days, now that I think about it,” he paused to tap his chin, “since there are other ways. It’s quite intimate, you see.”
“Uh…right.” You wished your cheeks hadn’t warmed so obviously and could he see that? Scan it somehow? He was actually being moderately professional…even clinical for once.
“The spike transforms, since different generations of Cybertronians possess different port styles. Would you like me to show you my default configuration?” Aaaaand there it was.
He expected you to react a certain way, he enjoyed it when he rattled your metaphorical cage, and you weren’t going to give him the satisfaction. Not today. You locked eyes with him. “Tell me more about data transfer, please.”
Was that an eyebrow raise? Did he even have eyebrows, technically? “We each have a port and a spike and found, over time, that repeatedly interrupting the transfer process was…pleasurable. It is not dissimilar to the sexual movements favored by far less advanced creatures.” The corner of his lips twitched.
A port AND a…oh. Oh. Right. Well that made sense. Like a USB flash drive and a USB port.
Here, his voice lowered, almost inaudible and he walked right up to the shockglass. “You seem quite interested in Cybertronian recreation, doctor.”
“I’m a scientist.”
“Is that truly the reason?” He tilted his head, observing you; his eyes were solid red so you couldn’t tell exactly where he was looking.
“Of course it is. But I think that’s all for today. I’ll have questions for you tomorrow.”
His grin was almost shark-like in its intensity. “Then I’ll expect a reward for my good behavior. I would touch you again.”
You hesitated; your first instinct was to say no, but Chadsworth would certainly offer you up like some kind of buffet. “Where?”
“Here,” he pointed to his own cheek. “And don’t worry, I won’t poke you this time.”
“Fine. Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow, then.”
And so, it became a habit – his weekly “touch the doctor because I’m a creepy robot who likes to explore human bodies” game. He kept his explorations to areas at your shoulders or above, however, and seemed particularly fascinated with your ears.
“Why do they allow for bending if you have no muscles to move them? Cartilage is ridiculous.”
He also found your hair interesting, and you gave him a brush to brush it one day. His movements were awkward but gentle, as though he was tending to a skittish farm animal.
“It serves no purpose!”
“It did at one point in our evolution, now it’s less functional than decorative.”
“Truly bizarre,” he shook his head, bewildered. “Though some Cybertronians had been known to paint their chassis in bright colors and attach non-transforming rectangles, as was the fashion a million years ago.”
And later still:
“Agh, don’t stick that up my nose!” you giggled, grabbing his hand and pulling it away from your face. It was the first time you’d touched him with your hands (as opposed to being touched on a random part of your skin), and you were surprised by the metal’s warmth. Fascinated, you turned it over in your hand to look. He curled his digits slightly and extended them in show. You touched the points of each finger, then inspected the palm. It was smooth to the touch and just as your fingers traced along the ridge at the base of his thumb, his fingers closed around your hand. Gently.
You flinched, staring at your hands. After a few moments, you raised your gaze to his, feeling rattled in a way you couldn’t articulate. It was a manipulation, had to be; all the intel the company received indicated Starscream was a master of the craft. You found yourself wanting to touch his face.
He simply watched you. At last, you pulled your hand away. “I’ll be giving a report about you to the CEO, CTO and CFO tomorrow.”
“Oh? And what will you tell them about me?” He walked back to the bench and sat, arms folded.
“That you’re a wealth of information but also conniving and disarming.”
“Sounds about right.”
“You like pushing buttons to see what we’ll do, how we’ll react.”
“Wrong.”
“Oh?”
He leaned back, smug smirk plastered over his features. “I like pushing your buttons. I like to see how you will react.”
“Clearly. And…you’re unknowable. A mystery.”
Starscream stood and approached the shockglass, eyes remaining on you as he walked. The sway of his hips was enticing. “On the contrary, I think you know me quite well.”
You shook your head. “I don’t know why you…behave towards me the way you do. I’m not going to let you out. Ever. You know that. So, with that in mind, I don’t know what you want.”
He smiled slightly and lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Maybe I don’t know what I want from you.”
“I don’t believe you.” You cast him a withering glare.
“Wise.” Something about the way he was looking at you made your skin prickle uncomfortably.
You broke the stand-off first, averting your gaze. “Well, I…have to go finish making a Powerpoint. Good night, Starscream.” You mentally slapped yourself for the courtesy.
“And you, doctor.”
* * *
“…and that is all the information I have gathered. Thank you for your time. Questions?”
The Chief Security Officer raised a hand. She was always polite, though cold, which was fine. “Yes, is that all the information he’s willing to give us? Can we draw out more?”
“Lately, he’s been very forthcoming with information, so I expect more, yes.”
“And why is that? What changed?” The Chief Technology Officer drawled, tapping on his datapad. You suspected he was playing a game.
You hesitated, not wanting them to know the exact reason; neither your technicians nor Dr. Chadsworth had revealed what you’d been asked to do, so there was no reason to out yourself. “He’s been enjoying more conversation and some human entertainment via the in-room TV. I think that’s made him warm up to us.” You smiled pleasantly. The warring factions of Autobots and Decepticons had mostly kept away from humans, with the exception of a couple large-scale battles. Neither side was willing to offer up insight as to their cultural or inner machineries.
The CTO didn’t look entirely convinced but opted not to press the issue. Whatever you were doing was working. “All right, then, how long until you could use what you’d learned to make a true, functional artificial intelligence? You know, something we can stick in a robot. Not these goddamn dime-a-dozen LLMs the baby entrepreneurs bounce around.”
“I’m a roboticist, not an A.I. expert but the Cybertronians aren’t an artificial intelligence. They’re natural. As natural as you or I, but in a different way, a different construct. A true alien intelligence.”
“Nah,” the CTO said. “I don’t buy it. C’mon, you can do better.”
You bristled. “I assure you, I’ve been working diligently to-”
He flicked his gaze up to you from his datapad, eyes glinting, no more the jovial, charismatic CTO you’d seen on videos for investors. “You wanted this project, and you got it, based on Jes and Izza’s recommendations. So do your job. Make us money.”
The Chief Financial Officer coughed nervously. “What…ahhh, what Ricky’s saying is…you’ve done a great job! We’re proud of your momentum but we’d like to see a bit more push, you know what I mean? If we’ve gotten all the information out of him then maybe it’s time to ...you know.”
“Strip him for parts.”
“No! No, come on, Ricky, don’t be like that. No, maybe we just need to see what the tech looks like from the inside instead of the outside.”
“That would be a waste,” you said. “He can tell us so much more about the galaxy, the universe. Would you be so short-sighted?”
“Then bring us something we can use, doc. Something we can make and sell.” The CTO’s lip curled in a slight sneer that reminded you of Starscream when he first arrived. “You have three months. All right, people!” He stood suddenly, clapping. “Drinks are on Jes, let’s head out!”
Fuck.
Various people shuffled by you, offering congratulations on a job well done. Sure didn’t feel like it.
You did the only thing you could, went the only place available.
“Starscream.”
He tapped a claw on the remote and turned off the TV, standing and approaching the shockglass. “Well. Were they impressed with me?”
“Listen, it didn’t go…it didn’t go great. We’re not a government institution, you know that, we’re contracted by the government because we have better tech. They want me to make them money…from you. From your knowledge.” You put a hand on the shockglass, feeling its subtle thrum under your fingertips.
“I see.” He paused, thinking. “They want you to tear me apart.”
“No,” you shook your head. “I talked them out of that, but you have to give me something… anything. Space travel, how to make tiny versions of yourself, anything I can plan to build or hand off to someone else.”
He raised his hand, not touching the shockglass, but instead mimicking your hand placement. “Do you really think such a primitive species can handle intergalactic travel? The first creatures you met would devour you. You have no idea what’s out there.”
“Okay, okay, then what do you suggest? I need something!” Your voice was frantic, and you knew you should tamp that down, but you couldn’t. Not this time.
His brow ridges rose. “Weapons?”
You let out a slow breath. “Anything non-lethal?”
“Afraid not, no. We’re quite a lethal species.”
You dropped your hand from the shockglass and turned away. “Okay, what if…let me think here, what if-”
The lights flickered once. “Huh.”
They flickered again, and a moment later a crackling boom ricocheted through the area, rattling equipment…and you. “The hell?!”
Another. And another. And another, like a barrage of missiles, until at last the room went dark and the emergency floor lights winked on. All it took was that moment, that millisecond before the backup generator to kick in for the shockglass to disappear in a shimmer. You stared at Starscream as his lips curled into a wicked grin.
Your scream caught in your throat as another explosion – much closer this time – caused debris to rain down from the ceiling. Your ears rang. Cinderblock and support beams crumpled, and you finally shrieked as a giant hunk of ceiling careened down towards you.
The last thing you saw before you fell unconscious was a pair of blood-red eyes looming above you.
* * *
You jolted awake as though struck…but nothing was near you. Light filtered in from an opening – a door? No. An entrance, though. You took a slow, deep breath and sat up, the damp scent of earth tickling your nostrils.
A cave.
Your hands met something soft beneath you – a coat, but not yours. A welt had formed on the back of your head, presumably where some ceiling debris hit you and…and…
“Ah, you’ve recovered.”
Starscream.
You turned a little too fast, thankful you weren’t standing as the room spun. Definitely had at least a mild concussion.
The red eyes stood out in the darkness of the far wall of the cave. He slowly rose to his pedes but remained where he was, not approaching.
“Where…where are we?”
“About five miles from your company. Since I still lack a transformation cog, that’s as far as I could go. And as for what happened, well…” He paused for a few moments, then continued. “The Decepticons found out I was hiding there. A few months ago, I tried to kill our leader, Megatron, you see. They didn’t much care for that.”
Your lips formed the word “what,” but no sound came out. Finally: “Hiding? We captured you!” You couldn’t help but feel a bit indignant.
“Capture? ME?” He burst into laughter that damn near shook the ground. “I let you! Every day I was fed Energon, more than I needed, really, and provided with entertainment in the form of human culture though, to be fair, much of it was quite awful. I could have left at any time. Do you really think I don’t know how to circumvent your precious shockglass? Pfffah.” He waved a hand dismissively.
“No,” you shook your head. “No way.”
He stalked towards you, pedes thumping on the dirt, then leaned down, right in your face. “Oh yes. At any time, I might have reached through and throttled you.”
Your eyes widened and you tensed to flee, even knowing it would be futile.
He stood straight and smirked at you, folding his arms. “But I wouldn’t. Not you, at least. Maybe some of the others, though Technician Tim was tolerable. I appreciated his password generosity, ‘H0ts3xyd00dz’ is certainly memorable.”
“Are…are um…you going to kill me?”
“Kill you? No, I need someone to install a transformation cog if – when - we find one.”
“Then what? Then you…you throw me over a cliff? Smash me?”
“Is that what you’re into?”
“What?! No! God, what is wrong with you?”
He threw his head back and laughed again. “Ahh, that’s one of the things I like about you, doctor, you’re so easy to annoy.”
You managed to toss him a weak glare, if only by habit. “What happened to the building?”
“Oh, it’s gone.”
“What do you mean gone? Rubble?” A sob crept its way up your throat; you’d seen videos of such battles but had never been in one.
“Flattened. They were quite thorough. It was a little impressive, actually, they must really want me dead.”
“People died! Why are you so…so flippant?”
You couldn’t be sure, but you thought his expression softened, just for a brief moment. “Some of your people escaped. A few followed me into the tunnel.”
“Wait. There’s…wait. A tunnel under the building?”
“It would seem so, probably used for transporting illegal materials at one time. Why don’t you ask your superiors? They seem to like information so very much.” His grin looked even more sinister in the low light. “Regardless, the collapsing building revealed them. I doubt the Decepticons were aware, but they probably are now as they set about searching for my corpse.”
You wiped away some tears and looked up at him. A couple more tears slid down.
He kneeled down beside you and reached over, clawed digit an inch from your face. “May I?”
You stared up at him, surprised. “Yes?” You hadn’t meant it to sound like a question but that was all the permission he needed.
He gently brushed one digit under your tear, trapping it, and brought it to his optics. “Fascinating,” he murmured. “I saw this on the television but didn’t think it was real. Why do your optics leak when emotional?”
“I don’t know.”
He turned his digit this way and that, then finally lowered his hand. “I’m not going to hurt you, if that’s what you think.”
You glanced aside, then looked back up at him. “I should thank you for saving me, even if it was for your own ends.”
He smirked down at you. “Oh, my dear doctor, why would you start being appreciative now?”
You ignored the weird flutter in your abdomen. “I’ll need food and water, you know. Every day.”
He huffed out an annoyed ex-vent. “Yes, I’m well aware humans are fragile and needy. I’ll need Energon eventually, too. We’re about two miles from a small settlement where you can pick up supplies. Of course, I cannot go with you in this form, but I can send a holoform. To keep you from running off, you see.”
You remembered him mentioning those, though he never deigned to provide an example. Condensed light able to be projected over short distances and capable of lifting small objects. “Yeah…yeah, okay.”
“But not today.”
As if on cue, your stomach rumbled. “Why not? Oh…Decepticons in the area. But how did they miss this cave entrance?”
“I am using my internal holoform generator to project an image of solid rock outside the entrance.”
“That’s…actually quite clever.”
He shifted, perhaps pleased at your compliment.
“Wait, I...” you patted down your pockets. “No money.” Everything was back in your desk, which was probably flattened. No phone, either, and you really should call some people to let them know you’d lived.
“I found this.” He produced a wallet – not yours – from somewhere in his chest cavity. He handed it to you, and you looked it over.
Dark, dried blood dotted the exterior. You swallowed hard before opening it – not a name you recognized, but hoped the owner got out in time. “Not much cash…” you flipped over the credit cards, but all had photos of some guy who looked nothing like you. “Definitely don’t look the part. But it might work, depending on what kind of check-out situation the store has.”
“You need rest,” he interrupted. “And we cannot move until I can be certain they aren’t circling the area. I still see one in the distance every now and then.”
You sighed and nodded. If it was a concussion, you should head to a doctor, but figured he wouldn’t allow for that. You also needed to come up with an escape plan.
Starscream rested, too, in the rear of the cave, his back supported by the wall. His optics powered down and after a while, you were certain he was asleep. Somewhere in the distance, a creature let out a screech and was promptly silenced. You slowly, carefully, rose to your feet, wincing at every minor sound, and made your way to the cave entrance.
The stars were gloriously visible away from the bright lights of the city. Magnificent. You cast one last glance back, then stepped outside. There was a drop below you, but it wasn’t terribly sheer; still, your shoes were flats, not hiking boots. Grimacing, you tried to work out how exactly to climb down when one arm circled your waist and yanked you back in.
“Nice try.”
You let out a shriek and he clamped a servo over your mouth. “None of that, now.”
Kicking and squirming, you clawed at his arm and tried to pull it away, to no avail. He carried you back to the make-shift coat bed and laid down, keeping you trapped in his arms.
Slowly, he pulled his hand away from your face. “You aren’t nearly as quiet as you think.”
You glared at him over your shoulder. There was no way he’d let you walk to the town alone now. He met your gaze with a tight little smirk and began to stroke your hair.
“Stop that.”
His hand fell to the side, but the other arm was still wrapped around you. “I suggest you get your rest now, doctor. Tomorrow, we’ll be on the move.”
He was all angles and edges, so it wasn’t easy to find a way to curl against him, but you somehow managed. The cave’s dampness added to the cool temperature, but Starscream was surprisingly warm.
You fought sleep as hard as you could but at last it took hold.