Acid Rain

Author's Note- Hello this is my first fic of this dark a nature so I would ask that you read the warnings carefully before reading and no flamers please. It's AU so you can imagine it however you want.

This story was partially inspired by Kami Count D's 'Crime and Punishment' fic and I would recommend you all to read it if you have not already (also if you like Starscream/Ironhide as a pairing 'Crime and Punishment's' companion fic 'The Enemy You Know' is also a very enjoyable read). Both are on fanfiction.net.

Unbetaed.

Disclaimer- I do not own Transformers or its characters.

Warnings- Rated MA. Non-con/graphic rape, violence, perhaps some slight gore and mutilation near/at the beginning, there may be consensual slash in later chapters, Transformer swearing, angst, depression, death, trauma, mentions of masturbation.

Warnings for this chapter- Transformer swearing, violence, mind-games/humiliation, depression, trauma, hints at past rape (not described).

Units of Time:-

Astrosecond- 1 second

Klik- 1 minute

Cycle- 1 hour

Orn- 1 day

Decacycle- 1 week

Meta-cycle- 1 month

Solar cycle- 1 year

Vorn- 1 million years

Italics- Flashbacks/thoughts/memories/link speak.

Bold- Comm speak.

Recognisable lines are borrowed/paraphrased from the 2007-2011 movies, accompanying games and other Transformers media.

I hope you enjoy the chapter and please review.

---

Chapter Five- Embers

Knock Out smirked, tins of specialist paint safely stored in his subspace as he walked down the near deserted corridors, most mechs hiding in their berthrooms for fear of being kidnapped and drained of their life-oil as severe rationing loomed.

The storm seemed to be picking up pace rather than settling down, the wind appearing determined to rip the base from its foundations as rain tried to sear through the walls.

Still, that didn't mean that paintjobs had to be neglected, and Starscream's frame had been begging for attention for meta-cycles. Not through any fault of his own of course but it would be nice to see his old friend, one of the few mechs he had any affection for, look a bit more like himself.

As the strawberry red mech strode fearlessly towards the Seeker's quarters, knowing no one would be foolish enough yet to attack one of the very few medics on base, his grin faltered slightly. He realised, leaning against the wall opposite the SIC's door, that he wasn't quite sure how he was going to address Starscream.

The old brand of casual flirting seemed out even though the Air Commander had seemed fairly relaxed around his 'doctor' during the brief time they had spent together; and Knock Out would be the first mech Starscream spent any time properly alone with apart from…

Megatron.

Not for the first time the medic found himself sincerely worried about the sanity of his leader as he knew the CMO did quite often, causing genuine fear in both mechs as to the future of them all.

He remembered vividly another time he had visited Starscream with paint and medical supplies, the last time he'd entered the flier's quarters. On entering he had found the Seeker, faceplates down, trembling on his berth as energon pooled beneath him and stained the coverlet a royal shade of purple. Knock Out had settled beside Starscream and taken out a rag, quickly realising that he may not be able to complete the task alone and calling for Breakdown in their link.

As they had waited together, the medic mopping up his patient as best he could on his own, the vain mech had tentatively asked why their Lord had caused such damage.

Without a hint of a lie in his tone nor posture, the blank-opticked mech had answered that Megatron had offered him a cube of energon to wash the taste of the gunk on the tyrant's pedes out of his mouth and, when the SIC had tried to thank him, the Warlord had struck him across the faceplates for speaking without permission. While the smaller mech had been disorientated from the blow, Megatron had lashed him to a chair then taken the armour off his back and wings with an electro-whip.

Apparently, afterwards, the Decepticon Commander had shown some genuine gentleness towards his second, only serving to confuse Starscream even further. He'd lifted the flier up, by the waste not the Seeker's wings and without digging his claws in, and held the flier on his feet until Starscream's legs had stopped shivering enough to allow him to stand on his own without falling over.

It was a processor-game naturally.

Knock Out had been through more than his fair share of those with their Commander to know how easily Megatron could worm his way inside your mind and spark, and the untold damage he could do while there. Hook though, to his credit, shielded his subordinates from it as much as he was able.

Shaking himself, the medic leaned forward and pressed the intercom button, smiling when it beeped in reply to his digit to say his entry request had gone through. They had lost some of the medical equipment down in the med-bay as the back-up power generator kept faltering and the electricity cut out sporadically leaving some apparatus all but unusable.

He waited for a few kliks but no one answered, not even to acknowledge him, and so he tried again. This time Knock Out waited ten kliks before using his medical override to force the door open. Slipping slowly inside, he glanced cautiously around noticing with a flicker of anxiety through his spark that Starscream was not in his living area or in his berthroom.

It was then the cherry red mech realised that what he had mistaken for the perpetual rainfall was actually the cleanser running, the door ajar and a weak light shone through the gap leaving a thin line of soft yellow on the grey metallic floor.

Stepping into it, Knock Out froze at the small figure cowering in the back of the wash-racks, shaking violently.

Crossing the room, allowing the cleanser to freely flow over his metal, the automobile crouched in front of the Seeker and reached out a servo to place it, barely there, on Starscream's shoulder armour. The flier's helm shot up, optics alight with fear, before he settled on seeing who it was.

The Air Commander curled into the crimson mech's touch and gave a stuttering sigh, engines juddering like they were forcing themselves not to stall.

The medic's optics darkened for a moment but the angered look was gone a blink later.

Coaxing Starscream to his pedes and reaching past the flier to turn the biting cold cleanser off and walk the flier, step by step, to his berth.

Lowering the winged mech down gently, Knock Out dropped into a chair nearby and took out his tins, placing them with a short clink on Starscream's berthside table. The flier sighed softly and sat up, accompanied by an encouraging grin from the automobile.

Nervously the Seeker watched as the other mech gently lifted his arm and the painter set to work inspecting the metal, caressing it as he refamiliarised himself with the flow of it for when he began with Starscream's whole frame later.

It took mere moments.

'So… you want your old colours back? Or, perhaps, to try something new?' Knock Out opened each can so the Seeker could see the contents of each one clearly.

The Seeker shrugged, optics lowered. He trusted the medic more than most but he didn't relish the idea of anymech laying their servos on him at that astrosecond.

Forced smile falling from his faceplates, the ruby mech closed them up again, and moved to sit on the berth beside the flier leaning into him and resting his helm on Starscream's shoulder; the Seeker tensed at the touch for a klik but then settled, realising that Knock Out was only offering comfort and reassurance the best and possibly only way he knew how.

Like his wingbrothers, the medic had never and, Starscream trusted, would never hurt him.

For a while they sat in silence before the SIC stirred a little, laying his faceplate tentatively on the smaller mech's helm.

Knock Out could feel every word vibrating along his frame as Starscream began to speak, sounding only solar cycles old, 'it'll happen… often now won't it? Like-like my wings?'

The medic's lip components parted to promise it wouldn't then, realising what a foolish statement it would be, kept silent, metallic body drooping.

The Seeker shivered, a dry sob painfully scratching out of his new vocaliser, and slowly slid down Knock Out's side until his helm leaned comfortably on the ruby mech's leg, frame tucked into a tight ball on his berth.

Starscream eventually slipped into recharge with his friend's servo protectively cradling the side and back of his helm.

It was quite possibly, in a cruelly ironic way considering the medic's intentions, Knock Out's presence that triggered Starscream's bad memory flux.

One of the worst orns of his life brought back into reality by his near-perfect memory banks.

---

For a long time Starscream had realised that he was used by the others as a convenient being to vent their frustrations on and, as such, even genuine concerns he voiced in meetings were used as an excuse to unload poisonous and vile comments on him. So rather than risk their scorn and a possible beating from his volatile and unfair leader, he remembered what he thought could cause issues and dealt with them accordingly on the field itself.

For a number of missions that method had worked well and, as no one yelled at him for doing so and the faction had been consistently successful, he saw no reason to alter his strategy.

But Starscream hadn't been able to make use of it for that orn as he had done.

Megatron outlined the plan as normal and as he spoke the SIC was pleased to see that there weren't many discernible errors in it, and those that existed he could easily remedy when the time came and so were not, he believed, worth mentioning; until the tyrant insisted that all of their forces be focussed on the advance which would leave them all completely unprotected from behind if any Autobot reinforcements turned up.

Starscream raised his servo tentatively having not truly contributed anything to the officer's discussions for several decacycles and began to speak.

The tyrant grabbed the smaller appendage and snapped it back, snarling at his second to be silent.

They reached the designated battlefield, still an innocuous meadow a mile outside the Autobot base, several cycles later and waited for their enemies to come to them.

A few kliks after they arrived the Aerialbots swarmed down from their faction's tower to engage the Seekers moments before the ground army raced out of their front entrance, wrought iron gate slamming shut behind them to face Megatron and the Decepticons standing with him.

Starscream hovered in the clouds as the others, with a roar of their engines, shot through the air to begin combatting the enemy in their trines. He, as ordered, kept his optics carefully on the aerial battlefield looking for the perfect opening. He had to get inside if only for a few kliks to implant a virus into the Autobot's computer network; if it worked it would send the Decepticons the contents of it and, according to Shockwave, was completely untraceable.

Unless someone saw Starscream downloading it into the systems and the information they received was invalidated as the enemy faction enforced their security protocols.

The virus would only survive for a few orns in its original form before mutating then destroying everything it had passed through and throwing the Autobots into disarray, but even if it failed to get to the second stage it would still give the Decepticons a terrific advantage over their adversaries.

If only he could get inside while they were distracted…

Seeing an opening, the Seeker's optics avidly following the flow of air and the other mechs in the skies with him, he began to cut through the air like a blade through a spark. Midway through, however, moments before he would have slipped undetected past the Aerialbots and Seekers, he caught sight of Ironhide creeping up behind the Decepticon Lord, a number of other Autobots just yards behind the red mech.

Changing course he arched in the air, heading back towards Megatron and cursing the others for not noticing such an obvious flaw in their plans. In focussing all their attention on their front they had failed to protect their flank, leaving the grounders wide open to attack.

As he had seen so very clearly would happen as they had all stood over Megatron's map.

Specks appeared in Starscream's optics as he flew and his processor began to spin as his orns without recharge caught up with him. Blinking frantically, he tore past Megatron and barrelled Optimus's weapons specialist to the ground, landing briefly as the stronger mech pulled him down with him before breaking Ironhide's grip and taking off back into the grey-speckled clouds, opening fire on his enemies as he fled to try and complete his mission.

He didn't think that his own leader would shoot him down and so didn't see the blast coming until it was already burning through his side. Falling, rolling over and over again, Starscream struck the ground, dirt forced into the air by the sudden impact to collide softly with the Seeker's frame, streaking as it combined with his energon and the two substances slid down the SIC's metal.

Staring hopelessly at his enraged Lord, Starscream closed his optics tight and whimpered.

A massive pede came crashing down on his helpless wing and the world went black in a burst of agony.

---

Starscream jumped up, wide-awake for only a moment before becoming drowsy, as the images continued to play in the back of his processor. Spark racing it took him a moment to register Knock Out's servo gently caressing his wing and, purely out of primal instinct, the Seeker began to purr softly before falling back into recharge, and back into the memory which hadn't been given time to dissipate in his brief time awake.

---

When Starscream's optics flickered back online he was in his leader's arms being carried through the air, land whirling by below him in a blur, and no sound of other's engines reaching his audios. Closing his optics to stop himself from purging he burrowed into Megatron's metal, wincing at the sharp growl the action provoked.

They landed ungracefully hard on the Decepticon Lord's balcony and Megatron tore open his office door to throw his Air Commander into the living area of his quarters. Starscream hit the ground with a soft gasp of pain, shuddering.

Ramming Starscream into the ground and placing a pede on his second's back, Megatron began to snarl and bellow like an enraged bull. 'I thought that denying you a voice would serve to teach you your place. Did you think that no one had noticed? Your ill-advised alterations to my plans without my consent? Why should you be listened to when you've made no effort before, when you should have done? I thought that forcing your silence would be enough for you to understand when you should and should not speak, when you should or should not act.'

Leaning down to hiss in Starscream's audio, the tyrant's chilling tone sent a shiver down the Seeker's back strut. 'But you will learn now I'll make sure of it. One way or another.'

Curling his servo around the flier's helm, claws painfully gripping the Air Commander's faceplate, Megatron pushed it roughly down to his filth covered pede, 'lick them both clean.'

Grimacing as the vile scent reached his nasal passages, Starscream whimpered, submissively stroking the offered appendage with his in comparison tiny servo, 'please Master… please don't make me do this…'

The tyrant took a firm grip on Starscream left wing in answer and the fragile metal began to strain to stay connected to the SIC's back.

'Choose!'

Megatron's grasp only relaxed when the Seeker lowered himself the required few centimetres and began to give his Lord's metal small hopeless brushes with his glossa.

He had sometimes asked his servants, back in his luxurious Palace in Vos, to wash his pedes.

But never, ever, like this.

For a Seeker, their pedes were second only to their wings and spark where intimate acts were concerned and so for Starscream to ask another mech, always a mech, to do this for him it was an offering of closeness of a kind. He did it not to humiliate them but so he could shamelessly admire their beauty and for them to bask in his attention. They were always fully aware of what their Air Commander was doing and enjoyed having their Winglord all to themselves, relishing that he found them truly and honestly attractive.

This was not the same.

Feeling like his spark was dimming in its chamber, Starscream carried on with his tentative licks, throat convulsing as he held back sobs.

Yet something else the Seeker treasured defiled.

'Starscream,' Megatron's voice made his spark flicker but… not how it used to. 'We shall be here all night cycle if we keep going at this pace.' It was marginally gentler than his tone of kliks before but…

It wasn't enough.

Nothing could ever make the void growing inside the flier better. It wasn't just the humiliation or the brief memory of the Autobots sniggering at his fear as they witnessed how he was really treated by his Lord for the first time…

It was the embers of his affection, the love he had thought himself to be in for vorns, finally sputtering out.

Even as Megatron's servos began to gently stroke his wings, after threatening their removal and possible destruction mere moments ago, in silent praise as he forced himself to work faster, giving him the attention he had been aching for, for so long, the emptiness still grew until it overshadowed his very sense of self.

Aggrievedly, he closed his optics and kept going until a servo left his wing to rest on his blackened shoulder armour.

'That's enough Starscream, now the other one.' Megatron purred, engines humming in audible satisfaction.

Lifting himself without opening his optics, the unnaturally grey flier began again.

He had realised some meta-cycles ago that his Master loathed him; perhaps he always had done but just hadn't shown it before. But a small part of him had hoped that Megatron had respected him if only a little, otherwise why would he have the Seeker as his second-in-command?

It didn't make any sense…

Still, now he was damned in the knowledge that, not only did his once-beloved leader revile him, but he was given no value, no worth, by the former gladiator either.

It left little doubt in Starscream's processor that his deactivation would one orn come at Megatron's servo or, if an Autobot got lucky on some nameless battlefield, that the last thing he would hear would be his Commander's mocking laughter.

Eventually, Megatron allowed the flier to sit back, still on his knees. Reaching into his ebony drawers, the tyrant withdrew a sparkling sealed cube of high grade and offered it to a startled Starscream who, after at first flinching away from it, reached up hesitatingly with one trembling servo to take it from his leader's far larger appendage.

'Th-thank-' The punch caught him off-guard sending his helm smacking into the older mech's desk, leaving a few spots of energon where his protective metal had cracked.

'No Starscream! For frag's sake you never learn do you?' Snatching the cube out of Starscream's violently shaking servos and slamming it into the side of his desk with a deafening smash, he forced the slighter mech off the floor and, dragging him to the other side of the room, Megatron bound his second in a kneeling position by his arms and legs onto a hard iron chair, the bonds digging harshly into the flier's delicate metal. 'I wanted to avoid doing this Starscream, truly I did.'

The SIC bit back whimpers of fright when Megatron took out his electro-whip from his subspace…

Fifteen kliks later, Starscream was sobbing openly into his arm as the tyrant's insults which accompanied every lash branded their way into his spark.

Useless.

Feeble.

Weak.

Vile.

Cretin.

Glitch.

Worthless.

Don't you ever shut up?

You disgust me!

The verbal assault cut even deeper than the physical one as it burned and scorched its way through his armour and protoform. Eventually, an unknown amount of time later, the blows tapered off, becoming less severe before ceasing altogether.

Starscream couldn't move, his spark breaking into two pieces which he could hear rolling around, clanking, in its chamber, and simply sobbed.

Megatron came up behind him and deftly undid the reinforced titanium ropes, similar to but stronger and more resilient than chains; and eased Starscream slowly to his pedes, holding the smaller mech lightly as the flier shivered as if encased in ice, waiting patiently for the traumatised Seeker to regain some control of himself.

Once the flier's trembles had weakened sufficiently for him to be reasonably sturdy on his pedes, Megatron let him go with the simple order of going to get some recharge.

Don't turn around, don't bow, just go clean yourself up and calm yourself down.

Starscream wandered aimlessly out of Megatron's quarters, almost falling down the flight of stairs at the end of the corridor before finally creeping down the barren halls to his dark lonely quarters, swaying into walls as waves of dizziness attacked his sense of balance.

Stumbling haphazardly into his living area, frame shuddering in a keen, the Seeker cried himself sorrowfully into a restless recharge on his berth.

---

Starscream's optics fluttered open, halfway into the night cycle, to find with a cringe of embarrassment that his optic fluid was trailing down Knock Out's pristine paintwork.

Just this once though, the medic didn't seem to mind his colours streaking.

In the silence Starscream wondered briefly why Megatron had started to despise him. When had been the tyrant's moment of realisation?

The thought slipped away as easily as it had come and the Seeker's mind slowly went blank, numbing itself.

Then something touched his spark with only the strength of a pin-prick but he managed to latch onto it for a moment and a hurried mostly monosyllabic conversation took place before the connection was lost completely to the distance.

Starscream's lip components twitched in the closest approximation of a smile he could make.

His trine was coming.

As soon as the rain let up, Skywarp and Thundercracker were coming back.

---

Megatron sat with Soundwave reading his report on their energon levels, contemplating one particular recommendation.

It was a last resort of course but it was Decepticon policy that when severe rationing came into effect for any reason, non-essential personnel, specifically the weakest mechs on base, would be drained of their life-oil so it could be supplied to others.

Killing his own mechs gave Megatron no joy, but the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few.

Besides, for the moment it wouldn't be necessary, but the TIC was asking for his permission should it become so.

Nodding his consent, Megatron knowing it would begin to happen anyway should things become desperate and wishing for there to be at least an element of control to it. That way none would be lost that the Warlord couldn't afford to be without.

Starscream may have to have an escort…

While in the state the SIC was in, he was ridiculously vulnerable.

It shouldn't be too hard; Hook wants to keep an optic on him anyway.

Starscream not being fully functional posed its own set of problems.

The Seekers, though they had been given their orders, had no consistent leader. And Megatron was, with Shockwave's temporary confinement, two senior officers down.

Soundwave finished his report and seemed to relax back into his chair but his optics remained averted and, if the Decepticon Lord didn't know any better, he would say his third was uncharacteristically squirming in his seat.

'Lord Megatron: permission to speak requested.' The telepath murmured, barely audible over the pounding rain.

The tyrant gestured with his servo for the TIC to continue, curiosity mounting.

'Soundwave's initial assessment of Starscream: incorrect. Probability that praise would have been more beneficial: 79.6%. Apologies:… offered. Punishment: willingly accepted.' The TIC finished, helm bowing in shame of his miscalculation.

Megatron placed the pad on metallic surface, stood and rounded the table to squeeze his subordinate's shoulder. 'You advised me to discipline him in moderation but I was not controlled enough. The error was not yours old friend.' Bending over he placed a kiss to the top of Soundwave's helm, 'I do believe I'm going to require your help in remedying the situation however.'

The telepath nodded, sighing quietly in relief through his vents. 'Service: forever Megatron's.'

The Warlord smiled as he pulled away but his expression darkened as he turned and went back to his seat. 'Those who advised you… it is even more vital than before that Starscream never find out. He trusts them and he'll need them now more than ever.'

Soundwave nodded and began to recite a summary of Hook's report of their injured, beginning with the official list of deactivations.

---

Knock Out stirred as the CMO pinged his comm line, responding that he would be back in a couple of kliks. Cradling Starscream's helm in his metallic palm, he lowered it gently to the berth as he stood. Red speckled orange optics stared up at him and the medic smiled reassuringly.

'It'll be alright mein commandant,' the ruby medic stroked the Seeker's faceplate gently before a strange thought came to him. Starscream, he was sure, had never been kissed.

Certainly not by Megatron he would wager or anyone else, not properly at least. But… it was still something that the tyrant could tear away from him at any given moment.

Knock Out, looking at the desolate figure on the berth, made a split second decision. He wanted the Seeker to have something that he would never have to fear losing.

Kneeling beside the berth, and cupping the flier's faceplate, he hovered above Starscream for a moment before sweetly brushing their lip components together. Withdrawing from the chaste kiss he whispered warmly into the flier's audio, 'no one, not even the old rust-bucket, can take that away from you.'

Starscream stared up at him wide-opticked before he nodded slowly, orbs dimming to a soothed cerise, and curled up into his normal ball to go back into recharge.

The medic laid a blanket over him and left, careful not to disturb the slumbering Seeker.

---

Megatron watched the exchange, though Knock Out spoke so softly to Starscream he couldn't hear what had been said.

A lonely wind whistled passed his door as a moment of aching jealousy washed through his spark.

But he couldn't begrudge the flier something which had so clearly comforted him. He wasn't foolish enough to believe that that would be an end to it; that Starscream would be magically better now, but like everything else thus far it was a beginning.

But only that, Optimus whispered and Megatron's helm sank into his servo, only a beginning.

The cruel voice preceded an increase of the even less merciful rainfall.

---

The virus bit was inspired by the Transformers: Prime episode 'Triage'.

A poll has been added to my fanfiction.net profile about what fics you guys want me to update most often. All will be updated gradually but it would be nice to see what you all would most like to see.

Thanks for reading and please review.