Chapter Text
"Sister, what is the meaning of this?" Kurt's tail swayed behind him, snapping through the air like a whip. It was late into the night, and they were in the middle of nowhere, a random location Anna Marie had specifically asked him to take them. Jean stood there awkwardly, her arms wrapped around herself. She knew what Anna Marie was there for, she didn't even have to look.
"Kurt. Look away, please." Anna Marie's tone left no room for argument. She didn't want Kurt to see this side of her, but she had no choice. Jean had been meddling. She took a step forward, fists clenched at her sides. Jean flinched as she screwed her eyes shut, turning away.
"Anna Marie, I… I didn't mean to, I swear," her words were the same brand of poison she'd been feeding them since the Gala.
"Quit your lyin', rat." Anna Marie grabbed Jean by the collar, lifting the shorter woman from the ground. The pain reflected in Jean's eyes mirrored her own. The intrusion, passing along one Cosmic Plague to the next.
"You know I can't control it! I can't change who it takes as the next host, I swear!" Jean was uselessly pleading her case. She looked to Kurt with fear in her eyes, silently begging him to intervene. He did not step in. Kurt looked away, his tail wrapping around his waist. The closest thing he'd have to comfort.
"Did you know? Tell me, Jean Grey, did you know? Were you just plannin' on passin' the stupid bird onto them?" Jean closed her eyes again, resigned to her fate. She knew Anna Marie would never listen to her words. "You plan on just passin' the Phoenix along, and watch as they're taken? From me? Haven't I lost enough, Jean?!"
"We're holding it back the best we can, I promise! I can only do so much when-"
"When the Phoenix is tellin' ya to go out there? Right now? Not like ya with Scott anyways. What's keepin' ya here? Guilt? Shouldn't ya feel worse because of THIS?!" Anna Marie cut her off, throwing Jean to the ground. She put too much force into her throw, Jean's back slammed into a tree before she slid to the ground. "I oughta make ya pay."
"The first time… I stayed for Scott. Now I stay for the X-Men. My- our family. You… you should know by now I'd never hurt a… a child." Anna Marie spat on the ground before she grabbed Jean by her hair, lifting her up once more.
"Not even to save your sorry ass? Must be nice, knowin' there's a viable host for the Phoenix Force right here, an' they can't even say no." One Anna Marie herself didn't know existed until the Mystery Woman got into her mind to fight off one of the Primordial Forces of Life. "You coulda told me."
"I… I thought you knew. His thoughts are so loud sometimes, I… he… he should have told you." Jean was trying to throw Erik under the bus, spin the blame away from herself. Maybe Anna Marie was blinded by the rage, as she reeled her arm back to punch Jean. Her knuckles split as her fist met a telekinetic barrier, the light blue shards falling to the grass before dissipating.
"I hate you." Anna Marie grabbed Jean's head, her thumbs beneath her eyes. Her bare skin touching Jean's, absorbing her abilities and memories through touch.
Jean had felt them, over a month prior. The tiniest shred of consciousness, barely reaching out to feel invasive telepaths that waited on the outside. The pull of magnetism awaiting mastery, the way the world shifted around them.
Anna Marie dropped Jean, letting her body fall to the ground. She could feel the Phoenix Force licking at her consciousness, trying to pass through her body to the new host before Jean pulled it back, shaking with the exertion.
"…Who else knows, Jean?" Jean slowly lifted her head, coughing into her hand, wiping away blood that dripped from her nose.
"Magnus… and Charles…" Jean hadn't told a soul. Erik found out on his own, he had experience. He could tell. Charles' mind bounced off theirs, and it didn't take long for information to be passed along.
"Is nothing mine anymore? Ain't I got a right to know? First?" Anna Marie had her doubts, her wishes, her worries. Who she wished to share her dreams with. "I didn't ask for this! I didn't want this! But it's mine, and none of ya- are makin' the choice for me!"
Did they think so little of her?
Did she take them for granted? Take him for granted?
Hold Erik in too high regard, despite Remy's approval?
No. It never felt right. None of it ever felt right.
Why?
oOo
Tony's mind was blanking as J.A.R.V.I.S. slowly repeated the report he had. There had been a momentary blackout on the floor holding the Tower's personal servers, and once rebooted, J.A.R.V.I.S. caught Ultron hanging from wires, body broken and dismembered.
"…Do you know who did it?" Tony was reviewing security footage, of when the entire floor went dark. Something had disabled J.A.R.V.I.S. during the time Tony was out, a little over an hour. No one was seen entering the floor from a different level, which meant however Ultron got there… he disabled J.A.R.V.I.S. before he went.
"No, sir. All Tower employees and the other Avengers have been accounted for." None of it made sense to Tony. Unless there was someone out there hacking his Tower that didn't get hired, or worse, had malicious intentions, he was left with a mystery.
"Cool, cool… and Ultron?" Tony almost didn't want to hear the answer. He'd seen the empty shell for himself, and had to think of a way to transport it before anyone else saw.
"The body is nothing more than an empty shell." J.A.R.V.I.S. sounded concerned, more than anything. Exasperated his systems were so easily shut down, that had come before. Now the A.I. was plagued with worry- whether for Tony's newest creation, or perhaps the world, Tony didn't know.
"We tell no one. Understood?" Tony didn't need a crisis on his hands. Tony didn't need the fate of the world potentially at his fingertips because he fucked around and found out.
"Of course, sir."
oOo
Tony waited until most of the Tower was empty, or the rest of the Avengers were doing their own things. Tony was known to disappear, hide in his workshop for extended periods of time, or get lost outside after a too few many drinks. They were used to Tony's strange antics, which meant getting out of the Tower in his Iron Man armor was a piece of cake. He looked suspicious as all hell flying through the sky carrying a lifeless robot, but who the hell was looking up during the tender hours of the night? A lot of people, but it wasn't like they could see through the smog to begin with.
Tony had a safe house roughly an hour outside of the city, which could be a pleasant enough flight with J.A.R.V.I.S. as his autopilot, and music blaring in his ears. Blissfully ignorant of someone tailing him, someone familiar. The soft whirring of small engines in the sky and metallic wings cutting through the air went unheard.
J.A.R.V.I.S. was in every vacation home Tony owned, and every safe house. So once he got to the front door, it unlocked for him, right on time as he dropped the lifeless drone by accident. He hastily opened the door, kicking the drone inside. Taking one look over his shoulder, Tony only saw large wings spread in the darkness, lit by a dim, flickering streetlamp further down the road.
Tony slammed the door shut after a shrill scream escaped him. That was enough excitement to last an entire week. He'd gotten clear of the Avengers, but apparently not terrifying bird monsters in the night. Ororo had mentioned one at the Hellfire Gala that fed off of self-hatred and grief… maybe it'd finally come for Tony too.
Regardless of what lurked outside, he needed to get the body to the basement.
"My thoughts make me sound like a serial killer… J.A.R.V.I.S., lights please. No, scrap that, I'd rather do this in the dark." At least the armor gave him strength enhancements, carrying a robot taller than he was couldn't be easy without it. As Tony navigated the dark house to the basement, he tried to not think of what was outside.
He dropped the drone to the floor, huffing. He'd take a closer inspection in the afternoon, Tony just wanted to go home. Ascending the stairs wasn't scary. Tony had thrown a nuke into space and died, some weird bird outside the door couldn't be that bad.
"Tony." He had opened the door, prepared to have J.A.R.V.I.S. lock it behind him. Rather, Tony had come face-to-face with a familiar mop of messy hair, the eyes of a neglected hamster, and a slightly concerned expression. He still screamed. "Shut it!"
Nikolaos covered Tony's mouth, with half a thought to slam the visor down on his face just to muffle his screams. Once he was assured Tony wouldn't scream again after over a minute of shushing him, Nikolaos slowly removed his hand from covering Tony's face, exuding sheer embarrassment that made the tension thick enough if one of them even blinked, it'd cut right through.
"Do you have any idea how genuinely terrifying you look in the dark?" Nikolaos tilted his head, almost innocently, gaze averting to the ground before darting back to Tony's eyes.
"No less terrifying than you. Also, I look cool. You're an eyesore." Nikolaos was close, almost unbearably so. Metal was ready to scrape against more metal, they were both armored up, even if Nikolaos was definitely a carry-on kind of passenger. The chest plate didn't cover his entire torso, and the power lines that ran through his armor were hidden. Sleek, deadly, with large metallic wings that twitched with uncertainty.
"Red and gold isn't an eyesore. I'm… I'm a frog." Tony couldn't maintain eye contact any longer than he already had. He looked away, only proving Nikolaos' case further.
"Poison dart frog? So I can call you a strawberry, then." Nikolaos rapped his knuckles over the arc reactor, sending the vibrations through Tony's entire body. Looks like he's going to need to buff his own physical defense.
"Look who's talking, Feathers. Did I get you all ruffled?" Nikolaos leaned down so Tony would have to look at him, seeing all those sun-kissed freckles up close. A cat too close to the camera. Complete with a disappointed expression, too. "…Nerd."
"Can I ask why you stole government property?" Straight to the chase. Tony had J.A.R.V.I.S. scan for anyone else in the area, but they were alone. Which meant Nikolaos had followed him, the thought going right over his head, entirely forgetting to send off warning signals.
"Oh, that Ultron Drone isn't government property, it's mine. I… I uh, I made it. I'm a robot dad again." Tony was fighting the urge to wring his hands together- it was difficult to do in the armor. It wasn't the same grounding feeling as it should have been.
"Right, which is why you hid it here, and not in the Tower. Real subtle, Stark." Tony was practically fighting the urge to diagnose his wannabe stalker.
"And you're in New York why?" Tony did the best he could to cross his arms, just as Nikolaos tapped the arc reactor a second time.
"Athena and I have been tracking Ultron Drones that have gone rogue. Considering the fact the Big House is in New York, there's quite a lot of drones in this city. They come and go, pick up after vigilantes and the Avengers, shrink down… and considering the one that attacked us in Madripoor was from the Big House, I've come to investigate." That meant Feathers- Nikolaos had been in the city for some time already, and Tony never noticed. He wasn't ashamed, not entirely.
"Oh, big potato stuff, as Nat says. Mind sharing some info, then?" Tony didn't know whether to invite Nikolaos inside, or bring him to the Tower. He decided on the latter after J.A.R.V.I.S. suggested it. "And, uh, you can come to the Tower."
"Oh, letting me into Avengers Tower? How… generous of you, Stark." Nikolaos flared his wings, the thrusters on his boots sputtering as silence stretched between them. Tony's sigh was ripped from his chest as his entire body sagged. Nikolaos slowly backed away, just as Tony lifted him from under his arms. "Don't you dare."
"Sorry, looks like your gear is busted. And the walk would take hours." Tony winked at him before the visor slammed down over his face, the two taking to the sky within seconds. Nikolaos didn't have time to protest as he tentatively clung to Tony- he wasn't exactly keen on going splat on the concrete. Again.
oOo
Lucia was sitting on the edge of the landing platform, looking down to the crowded streets below. Even after midnight, the streets were clogged with colorful vehicles, the sidewalks with pedestrians under various levels of intoxication. It was a Friday night, after all. While the world was out there partying, Lucia was watching Starscream do loops in the sky.
He'd told her it was a dance once. Lucia could see how, the intricate patterns, the twirling, diving. Starscream could do it in both his root mode and alt mode, but his movements were sluggish, his expression forlorn. When he landed on the platform, he shook himself free of dust. Like a dog out of water, his plating flared like fur.
"Why do you still do that, if it makes you so… sad?" Lucia was certainly one to talk. Most things she did, most people she interacted with on a daily basis left her with a sense of melancholy, of a normalcy that had been denied long ago.
"…They tell you to forget your past and move on, but what if you're the only one who remembers? There may still be Seekers out there, among the stars. But during the war, Vos' culture had been long lost. I am- was- nobility. I spent so long learning those dances, sharing them with my Trine during downtime that was available during the war. I like to imagine that they're still there." Starscream was looking to the stars, wings tilted downwards, as if his entire frame was sagging from the weight of his memories.
"Why don't you… look for them?" Lucia knew she was the only reason Starscream stayed on Earth, after his fallout with the Prime that had caused them to ignore each other for months. It was awkward enough just watching them, and Megatron's indifference to Starscream's behavior. "I'm sure there's someone who's been waiting for you out there."
"The Trine bond was broken. I… remember Skywarp's death. I don't know about Thundercracker. If there's nothing between us… no pull to my spark at all, then… They're gone." The only thing waiting for Starscream was a planet-eating monster, so he was content with enjoying life as long as possible until his leash was pulled tight.
"Oh… I'm… I'm sorry, Star." Lucia's gaze drifted back to the city below, a familiar ache lingering in her chest. She was oblivious to the sound of repulsors coming for the platform at high-speed, shouting in alarm as Starscream grabbed her to move her out of the way.
Tony crashed, sending the person he was carrying rolling a few feet forward. Large metallic wings flexed with sharp, jittery movements. Lucia recognized the armor- Nikolaos.
"Why is it every time you apologize to me, something bad happens?" Starscream had a half-baked thought to kick the two men off of the platform. They could fly, they'd be fine.
"Is that a…" Nikolaos' wings twitched again, like a cat's ears on high alert. He scrambled to stand, kicking Tony a few times for good measure as the wet rat of a billionaire pushed himself to stand, groaning as he felt his joints screaming in protest.
"Niko, meet Star. Star, meet Niko." Tony gestured to each individual with his left hand, while his right favored pressed against his ribs. He'd hit the platform, hard, and unlike Nikolaos, he was genuinely just some guy.
"Oh, it's the nerd that's in your phone's wallpaper rotation." Nikolaos sputtered right as he lifted his mask, face as red as Starscream's paint. He shot Tony an indecipherable glare, whether it was full of malice or hope, Tony didn't know, since he wasn't looking.
"Well, that's nice to know." Nikolaos began to rotate his shoulders to ease the stiffness that plagued him. He wasn't going to let Tony's inadequate ability to communicate get to him.
"Uh… so, we're not interrupting anything, are we?" Tony had straightened, wincing in pain as he did so. He pointed to Starscream, who cradled Lucia in his servos and shielded her with wings that twitched with thinly veiled aggression. Lucia had to fight her way out, squeezing between his fingers until her upper body was free.
"I should ask you two the same thing! Looks you two were having a moment." Lucia didn't look upset, as far as Tony could tell. She was more smug than anything, a single brow raised, her voice taunting them. Adding salt to the wound, the duo turned to each other, grimaced, then refocused. "Oh, you totally were." Tony coughed into his fist, trying to cover up his own awkwardness with classic charm that always failed on Lucia.
"We're here on official business." Tony wasn't impressing nor convincing anyone, as the armor peeled off his body to reveal his lackluster, work-from-home outfit. As J.A.R.V.I.S. sorted out the Iron Man armor and got it ready for repairs, Tony watched the microscopic crowd with disinterest. "It should involve you too, Luc. It's about the Ultron Drones gone crazy."
Lucia sneered as she patted Starscream to set her down. She couldn't get a damn break no matter how hard she tried. Once her feet hit the ground, she took one slipper off and chucked it straight at Tony, hitting him square in the jaw. He flinched, eyes closing momentarily much to Nikolaos' concern.
"First you ruin my vacation, then you poorly perform surgery, and now you're asking me for help?" If Lucia was nothing more than a rabid, caged animal, her hackles would have been raised. Ditching Earth and traveling the galaxy with Starscream was suddenly starting to sound appealing. "Sure, Stark, let's see what you two have. Let's all go to the lab, discuss who did what, connect the dots like we're playing Connect 4, and save the planet again because someone was careless or feeling a bit too vindictive against one Tony Stark again."
"Thanks, I appreciate how high regard you hold me to the point you think I'd cause every man-made natural disaster, but I don't go around creating technorganic viruses that potentially could kill my friends." Tony spread his fingers as he waved his hands through the air, mocking Lucia as he spoke. "Right, sounds a like a great idea, and, to top it off- he can't even fit in the fucking building!" Tony ended his vaguely short rant with pointing at Starscream, half-torn between accusation and fear. Starscream did like to bite things.
"I have a holoform, I'm not like those plebeians who hang out in your garage." Starscream placed a servo over his chest in disgust. "I'm better than those bums. Just let me find a safe spot and I'll meet you in your workshop."
Lucia, Tony, and Nikolaos' minds went completely blank at Starscream's words, confusion cycling between them like an old friend.
"A what?" Lucia didn't have time for this, time for thinking about what the disgraced scientist meant. It took Starscream several seconds to realize the humans wouldn't know what he was talking about either. As embarrassment settled heavily into his frame, he clasped his servos together and avoided their gaze.
"It was tech lost to the war, um… An alternate body, often used when the main one is undergoing repairs. Transfer your consciousness into the other body, and… yeah. Well, I built one that looks like a human. Don't have to deal with all of your… unfortunate and disgusting bodily functions though." Starscream tried to sound smug, his words slurring into a mess that eventually drifted to quiet mumbles.
"Cool. See you soon, then." Tony waved as he strode past, leaving the three in his metaphorical dust. None of them followed, Nikolaos stunned into silence with his mouth agape. Lucia clicked her tongue in annoyance, crossing her arms.
"What crawled up his a-"
"Do not finish that sentence, Cattaneo!"
oOo
Tony was the first to the workshop, even after taking a small break to take a quick shower, get dressed, and find himself fresh blueberries in one of the many refrigerators. After rinsing them in the sink, he sat on a stool in the workshop, awaiting the arrival of the other mechanically-inclined heathens.
He hoped Nikolaos wouldn't be the second to show up. Tony didn't want to be alone with him. Their awkward tension would kill the vibe before it even started. So Tony not-so-politely asked J.A.R.V.I.S. to turn on his favorite playlist, relaxing as his scattered thoughts were drowned out by old rock and roll.
At least Tony didn't have to wait long, since someone entered the workshop with an excessive amount of dramatic flair. He didn't recognize the guy at all, from the shaggy dark brown hair, to a lab coat over what was clearly an expensive suit. Hey, wait…
"Is that one of my suits?" Tony hesitated taking another swig of whiskey directly from the bottle, not when someone was openly staring at him. The tall, lanky man easily crossed the distance between them with lazy strides, and Tony couldn't but help stare at his ankles. Yup, that was definitely Tony's suit, from how cropped it looked on the other man.
"I doubt you'd have appreciated if I walked in here naked." Starscream adjusted the collar of the maroon-colored suit, grinning to show off his inhuman fangs.
"…Do you keep your…" Tony had already forgotten the word, finally looking back up after raking his eyes over Starscream's human body several times. Nice thighs, but not much else to look at aside from a pretty face.
"Holoform."
"Holoform, in my closet or something? Why did you have immediate access to my clothes?"
"Why, of course not, I'm the strange naked man hiding under your bed. Speaking of, you need to clean your room, it's atrocious." Starscream wiped invisible dust from his shoulders before shoving his hands into the pockets of the lab coat. Honestly, Tony for once, felt like the fashion disaster, because why did Starscream make a lab coat over a tuxedo look so damn good? Unfair.
They were about to continue their back and forth of vicious mockery and half-hearted defense attempts as Nikolaos and Lucia entered, each holding a coffee mug in hand, steam rising from the mugs as they both stared at the other two in disappointment.
"Yeah, Tony, clean your room. Do it yourself, not have Steve do it for you." Lucia might have had a point, Steve did spoil Tony a bit too much… which was something Nikolaos could agree with.
"Okay, let's not gang up on Stark. His room, his problem. That's not what we're here for." Nikolaos offered Tony a small smile, which he returned gratefully. Debt to Nikolaos, score.
"Right, we're here about the Ultron Drones. Niko, Lucia, you've both encountered and fought them before. Niko has the most experience, since he's been taking them out in the city for a few months now." Tony's little slip up had Nikolaos' attention immediately, even if Tony was only recounting what he was told roughly an hour prior. Niko. He hadn't heard that abbreviation of his name from anyone except Athena for… years.
"Corrupted Drones, under the Ultron Virus' influence, right? What I had." Lucia crossed her arms as she sat on one of the workbenches, ignoring any tools that might have been on the surface. Tony cringed as Lucia planted her ass right on his favorite cordless drill.
"The Ultron Drones were originally designed by Tony Stark and Hank Pym to act as a security force for specific international prisons, one held here in New York. The Big House is one of them. They're meant be non-lethal enforcement. Limited to the prisons they guard, and yet they're popping up globally, rogue Drones going out of their way to circle different cities, small towns, planting bugs and tracking mutants with squeaky clean criminal records." Nikolaos voice was powerful, yet quiet. He demanded their attention, which even had Starscream stop halfway through picking at his nails. Nikolaos spoke to them as if they were allies, and perhaps at this moment, they were.
"They're turning violent after a certain duration, correct?" Lucia tilted her head, hand supporting her chin as her eyes drifted to Starscream's unfortunate choice of footwear. Crocs. Nice. "Do you know how long the Drone in Madripoor was tracking Megatron and I?"
"Athena had Alfred collect the scrap heap after the Avengers left Madripoor with the delinquent Hank Pym in tow. We went through the logs left in it's processor for any information that hadn't already been scrubbed from the virus' fail-safe. It wasn't targeting Megatron at all, it was after you." Nikolaos looked to Lucia, his expression only portraying honesty. Worse, he tapped his left gauntlet, a small, orange holoscreen popping up with the data pulled from the Drone's processor. He brought the proof with him.
"…Why was it after me?"
"You were flagged as a potential threat. It seems the infected Ultron Drones saw you as a mutant even before it was… confirmed. Once you were infected, you weren't seen as a potential threat by the system any longer." Nikolaos was chewing on the information the same way he gnawed on his bottom lip, rolling the coincidences over in his mind.
"Let's take a step back, and talk about… the '90s. Remember the Sentinels?" Starscream waved one hand idly, as if the whole debacle was only a minor inconvenience to him. "Sounds a bit like this Ultron Virus is specifically going after mutants."
Silence followed Starscream's words, as the three thought too long, too hard. Tony felt like a fool for not bothering to look. He also felt a bit like a Villain, since the Drones originally had a similar purpose to the Sentinels. But Tony and Hank's morals made the Ultron Drones nothing more than peacekeepers, even if the production line had once originated from a Master Mold factory.
"…Did your processors malfunction? What's wrong?" For Starscream, the floor was his. His words rattled them, as Nikolaos began furiously typing on the pop-up keyboard hovering over his gauntlet, the translucent keys registering his fingertips with very little decay.
"Hank and I made sure the Ultron Drones could never be used like the Sentinels," Tony spat out the word with such disgust, clenching his fists at his side. His blueberries were long forgotten, shining with condensation. "They… they never had the coding. They're only there to protect. To upkeep the prisons. They're not even inherently dangerous. They don't have the weaponry, only tranquilizers, and-"
"Tony, stop." Nikolaos ignored messaging Athena in favor of grabbing Tony's hands, just so he'd stop scratching himself. Tony finally met his eyes, disoriented, his mind far away. "It's not your fault. I promise. You didn't do this." Nikolaos' palm pressed to his cheek helped bring Tony back to reality, even if it was only temporary.
"Not this time. But I helped make them. I helped make… him." Nikolaos would know who Tony meant. What was missing, what could have been a solution to many of the world's problems if handled correctly, and as always for them, something had gone wrong. They would never know peace, so long as there still was someone out there scorned by Anthony Stark. "I should have never…"
"You didn't mean for this to happen. You're not the one who made the virus, or even implemented it. Stop blaming yourself, Tones. This isn't you." Tony inhaled sharply through his nose, closing his eyes. He didn't want to look at Nikolaos any longer- someone who never stopped believing in him, after everything he'd done.
"But I have to stop it." Tony was resigned to his fate. Being an Avenger was one of the ways he'd tried to make up for every horror he had unleashed. This was him cleaning up one of his own messes, one more time. Dragging them all down with him.
"We will stop it. This won't be another Sentinel crisis. That's what we do. We protect the innocent. We strive for mutant equal rights. You're… you're not alone." Nikolaos glanced at Lucia over his shoulder, who nodded in agreement.
"He's right, Tony. No one could have seen this coming. The Ultron Drones are a closed system, which meant someone on the inside had access and infected them. It's not your fault." Lucia had moved, closing the distance between them to wrap an arm around Tony's shoulders. He leaned into her, just as Nikolaos' hands dropped from his face. Nikolaos took a seat at his other side, pressing their shoulders together. Tony always did like weighted blankets.
"Mental breakdowns and self-loathing aside, I would say this has been productive. While you two, uh… pull Stark together, I'm going to give Megatron and the Prime a heads up. I made them holoforms as well, and it's more than a suggestion to put our Cybertronian bodies into stasis for the duration of… this whole… thing." Starscream, ever the eloquent master of interruption, crossed his arms over his chest as two of the three glared at him. Tony just nodded while sniffling, which was disgusting in Starscream's mind.
He wasn't going to wait for their approval, or their acknowledgement. He had two Warlords to convince.
oOo
"You want us to what?" Optimus turned to the Seeker, who stood before him in… a human body. Arms spread wide, grandiose as he presented himself. For a twink, he was very sure of himself.
"We're facing a crisis, Prime. And this is one where we can't be walking around in our… mechanical bodies. If they're put into stasis and disconnected, they'll be safe. Don't want your precious Conjux to overtaken by a technorganic virus that makes him a senseless killer? Er, more than he already is. Or was." Without a doubt, that was Starscream's voice coming from the human's mouth. His absolutely atrocious outfit was the icing on the Energon cake.
"You're getting nowhere near my processor, Starscream." Megatron didn't bother to lean down like Optimus had. He wasn't going to give Starscream the same dignity of being closer to optic-level. And neither was that little flying rat getting in his head.
"Aw, you believe me Megs? Still so full of hate despite your depression, it seems. I won't force you, I'm not… uh… Whoever your original boss was in the arena. Regardless," Starscream had begun pacing, his hands in the lab coat's front pockets. The clean maroon suit that clung to his body underneath was a disgrace to the optics. "It's safer this way."
"Starscream. There's not a safe thing about you." Megatron's words cut deep, but Starscream didn't falter. He was still pacing, only at a leisurely pace now.
"Are you positive this is the only option, Starscream?" Optimus didn't want to be the voice of reason, tuning out Megatron's unfounded complaints, focused entirely on Starscream. His holoform stopped pacing, turning to the Prime with a wicked grin.
"Unless you'd rather spend another undetermined amount of time in stasis without living again. How are those thoughts lately?" Starscream tapped a finger to his temple. Optimus knew what the little bastard meant.
"…"
"Well?"
"I'll do it." Optimus ignored Megatron's protests, letting the glyphs fall on deaf audials. He'd rather be safe than sorry, and if it meant he could still spend time with them, then…
"I suggest finding a place to stay. Alt-mode, preferably, takes up less space." Starscream got to be the one dishing out orders, and they weren't even Seekers! It was a form of primal satisfaction, wrapped up in a deceptive- ha- bow of helping them. Also Starscream just really wanted to put Megatron in his place.
The former Warlord clicked his glossa in annoyance, as Optimus parked himself in the garage. So that was the plan, then? Split their consciousness from their bodies? Were their own firewalls not good enough against a Terran technorganic virus? According to Starscream, it was for their own good. What a load of slag.
"Fine." Megatron relented, immediately regretting it once Starscream clapped excitably.
oOo
He was falling, he was warm, he was ice cold. He was many things, confused and aggravated one of them. The disconnect from his own frame, to a feeling of… weightlessness, compaction. Fitting bots like them in bodies so small was no small feat of impressive engineering. There was no spark in his chest, but something like Stark's arc reactor, powering the body. The skin was fake, thankfully.
Megatron wanted to look at himself in a mirror. He hoped he didn't look as awful as Starscream did, like another copy of Lucia, but a male, and what humans would call a twink. To his surprise, Starscream for once- didn't disappoint him. The holoform of his was tall, muscular, with hair that met his shoulders, strands tightly wound into locks.
Forget how awful Starscream looked, Megatron was gorgeous by human standards, even running his palm along his cheeks- squishy, unnatural- and feeling the unshaven texture. Everything was new, but everything was dull. He could still see lenses cycling in his optics- eyes, but subtle now. Gone were the familiar hexagons, replaced by boring circles. It was… acceptable.
"Your welcome for making you a hottie, by the way." Starscream. Voice ever unpleasant, echoing in his ears. Megatron slowly turned, showing off those sharp teeth Starscream had so kindly gifted him. Maybe he could rip out some wires if he went for Starscream's throat…
"How generous of you."