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Dec '08 PxJ challenge - Where there is hatred, let me sow love
For the December '08 Christmas Challenge on the PxJ comm.
Fic Spam! Yes. Reason: Folks coming in a few days to help me pack up and ship out. I'm done with Uni and am going home, and I reach home pretty near Christmas Eve, which is major no-free-time @w@ period. Not sure how much time I'll have to write or be on the 'net after they arrive, so... I'm getting this done while I still can. Bunnies have been most obligingly rabid. Oww~
Also, genius (ha) me took one look at the prompts, noted there were six, then accidentally clicked 'edit tags' rather than 'edit entry', whereupon I noted I had somehow managed to conveniently accumulate at least six 'verses. Cue more rabid bunny-ness.
I am my own worst enemy.
Title: Seeker and Shuttle
'Verse: G1 Transformers. Trine‘verse
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: TF Cussing.
Prompt: Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Prowl went over his reports, at the same time pondering the matter of their newly adopted Seekers. Even though the jet and his trine mates had left their former faction, and accepted Autobot protection and Prowl’s command over them, the three were still getting used to the new order of things. They hadn’t sworn in as Autobots, but he trusted them to keep to the Seeker code and not cause trouble for him now that they knew of his past.
Skywarp had an easy time of it, finding an eager co-pranker in Sideswipe. Prowl sighed, already despairing the likely consequences of that partnership. Thundercracker had always been the most mellow of the three, and if he had any difficulty in the transition, only his trinemates were likely to know. The tactician made a mental note to ask Jazz if he could try and find out, then he scrapped it. Better to ask personally, then send in the Porsche if he thought he was being shammed.
Starscream… Starscream was coping, for most part. He’d not been overly hostile to any of the Autobots, but he preferred to spend his time with his trinemates, or with the Datsuns. Not having to continually worry about his trine’s safety had allowed the flier’s irritability to ease, but there was one thing, or rather, one mech, that made Starscream go through the roof any time mention of him was made.
Skyfire.
Primus, there was a mess to sort out. The researcher was obligingly keeping out of the Seeker’s presence, and Starscream went out of his way to avoid the mech, but the Ark only had so much space, and the tension between them was palpable. It was even beginning to affect the other two Seekers, as well as base morale.
Prowl sighed again, staring at but not reading the datapad on his desk, troubled. Then his door opened and another mech sauntered in. Without looking up he murmured.
“Why do you never knock, Jazz?”
“So you always know it’s me.” He could hear the smirk in the other mech’s voice, and gave up protesting as futile.
“Jazz, why are you here?”
“Ah hah. Score one for me.”
“Yes, yes, get to the point already.” He’d learnt long ago that not overtly reacting made Jazz stop. Jazz had learnt to tell when Prowl was reciprocating by being overly nonchalant (the thought that Prowl knew how to be playful had caused the Porsche to almost crash the first time. Which made playing along for the Datsun even more satisfying). The Ops mech grinned, dropping into the seat in front of the SIC’s desk.
“You’re no fun, you know that, Prowler?”
The tactician raised an optic ridge. “I’m on duty. The point, Jazz?”
“Just wondering if you’d noticed the issue between ‘Fire and Screamer.”
“Fireflight has noticed the issue between Skyfire and Starscream.”
“Well, yeah, but are you planning on doing anything about it? They need to hash this out. ‘Warp and TC are starting to droop, ‘Fire was their friend too. And the rest of us would like to breathe easy once more.”
The black and white SIC frowned, mulling over the thought. “The problem lies in getting them both to stay in the same place long enough to have the discussion.”
“And ensuring they don’t kill each other.”
“That would be rather important, yes.”
Jazz snickered at Prowl’s dry tone. “So, we plot.”
“We plot.”
= = =
In the end, plotting consisted of just using extreme measures (a.k.a. Bluestreak) to get both mechs to sit down and talk, as well as extract a promise that they would talk about their issues with each other.
Both fliers were under watch, of course, by Skywarp, Thundercracker and all three Datsuns. Red Alert had not been happy with them commandeering his monitor room (Prowl was sure Jazz had his own methods of eavesdropping), but had grudgingly allowed it when the tactician restricted the group to the use of just two screens.
= = =
Skyfire watched the smaller mech pace about the room. Wheeljack had offered his lab as a neutral ground, and it being Wheeljack’s lab, it also served to restrain any urges to come to blows and weapons fire. He cleared his vocaliser.
“So…”
Starscream glared at him and he sighed. “Bluestreak is right, we have to settle this thing between us. It’s affecting everyone else.”
More glaring.
“And… It’s affecting you and me. Starscream, avoiding each other isn’t doing anything.”
Even more glaring.
“What do you want me to do? Would it help if I apologised?”
“Depends. Would you mean it?”
The cold words hit the researcher hard. “What? Starscream-”
The jet snarled, stalking over to jab a finger at Skyfire’s chest plates. “I trusted you. I vouched for you. You were my friend and you turned your back on me!”
The shuttle stood, temper rising. “You were my friend too! You knew me, knew how I felt, how I thought, and you expected me to just discard all that? To go from finding and exploring new worlds and cataloguing new life forms to destroying them?! That wasn’t the mech I’d known!”
“Exploring worlds caused me to lose you!” The Seeker turned away. “So I’d changed. So did everyone else. A little thing called war happened.”
“Starscream… I missed all that. I woke from the ice the same as when I fell in.”
“Frag. You think I didn’t realise that? You were always so slagging good natured. I didn’t want you to change like I did.” The jet shook slightly. “I was trying to protect you, aft-head! I was Megatron’s Second! Under my watch you’d never have to see combat! You’d be safe! Instead, you’re flying into all sorts of slag, hauling Autobots out of trouble! And every time the Decepticons mustered for battle I had to wonder if today would be the day I saw you shot down and killed!”
A pair of hands rested on the Seeker’s shoulders. “I’d have found out about the Decepticon’s true motives eventually.”
“I know that. I also knew you’d leave once you did.”
Skyfire’s grip tightened on Starscream’s shoulders, and the jet continued. “You wouldn’t have done anything else. Didn’t make it hurt any less, but I can’t be mad at you for that, and it drives me crazy.”
“You still shot me.”
“You lived. Megatron would have killed you. Frag it ‘Fire. Did I lose your trust that easily?”
“I’m sorry.” The jet didn’t respond verbally to the shuttle’s apology, just leant back into the larger mech’s chassis.
“I thought you’d follow.”
Starscream made a startled noise, and Skyfire sighed.
“I’d hoped if I left, you’d leave as well. Megatron was horrible to you.”
“I had my trine to think of. They always come first, and he treated them well enough.”
“I know, and I understand. But the Autobots-”
“Were the enemy. And we were theirs.”
They fell quiet, and once again, Skyfire was the one to break the silence.
“Well. You’re here now.”
“Brilliant observation.” The jet could feel the shuttle’s laughter vibrate through his chassis.
“Can we start over, Star’?”
“No.” Starscream met Skyfire’s suddenly apprehensive gaze. “I want to pick up where we left off.”
A stunned look answered him, before a smile slowly spread across the shuttle’s faceplates.
“Yeah. Okay.”
= = =
Not two days later, upon seeing Starscream and Skyfire walk into the room calmly discussing some research the shuttle was interested in, Skywarp tackled the pair in a hug, overcome with glee that they’d worked things out between them. Thundercracker had snickered at his trine leader, trapped between Skyfire and the enthusiastically babbling Skywarp, shrugged, and joined in the bumblepuppy pile, knocking all of them to the ground.
Skyfire retaliated by hugging back, preventing them from escaping (it must be noted that Skywarp didn’t bother, even though he could) before Sideswipe walked into the room. The image captures were still circulating the Ark, and Starscream, for all he sulked abut it, had been spotted stuffing one of the copies into subspace.
= = =
The Air Commander confronted Prowl as the mech was refuelling a few more days later. “Well. You’ll be glad to know that your little plot worked out. We’re on talking terms again.”
The tactician glanced up from his datapad. “Indeed. Plan B would have been very troublesome to have to put into action.”
“Just out of curiosity, what was Plan B?”
“Get both of you just overcharged enough to be uninhibited, strip your weapons, and lock you in a small room with each other. Repeat until the desired overcharged confession and conversation takes place. Repeat if one or both of you went into denial.”
Starscream stared at the SIC. “That… sounds like how Sideswipe told me Ironhide and his femme got together.”
Prowl took a sip from his cube of energon, a tiny smirk vanishing from sight almost immediately. “Well, Bluestreak hadn’t joined us at that point in time.”
Fic Spam! Yes. Reason: Folks coming in a few days to help me pack up and ship out. I'm done with Uni and am going home, and I reach home pretty near Christmas Eve, which is major no-free-time @w@ period. Not sure how much time I'll have to write or be on the 'net after they arrive, so... I'm getting this done while I still can. Bunnies have been most obligingly rabid. Oww~
Also, genius (ha) me took one look at the prompts, noted there were six, then accidentally clicked 'edit tags' rather than 'edit entry', whereupon I noted I had somehow managed to conveniently accumulate at least six 'verses. Cue more rabid bunny-ness.
I am my own worst enemy.
Title: Seeker and Shuttle
'Verse: G1 Transformers. Trine‘verse
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: TF Cussing.
Prompt: Where there is hatred, let me sow love
Prowl went over his reports, at the same time pondering the matter of their newly adopted Seekers. Even though the jet and his trine mates had left their former faction, and accepted Autobot protection and Prowl’s command over them, the three were still getting used to the new order of things. They hadn’t sworn in as Autobots, but he trusted them to keep to the Seeker code and not cause trouble for him now that they knew of his past.
Skywarp had an easy time of it, finding an eager co-pranker in Sideswipe. Prowl sighed, already despairing the likely consequences of that partnership. Thundercracker had always been the most mellow of the three, and if he had any difficulty in the transition, only his trinemates were likely to know. The tactician made a mental note to ask Jazz if he could try and find out, then he scrapped it. Better to ask personally, then send in the Porsche if he thought he was being shammed.
Starscream… Starscream was coping, for most part. He’d not been overly hostile to any of the Autobots, but he preferred to spend his time with his trinemates, or with the Datsuns. Not having to continually worry about his trine’s safety had allowed the flier’s irritability to ease, but there was one thing, or rather, one mech, that made Starscream go through the roof any time mention of him was made.
Skyfire.
Primus, there was a mess to sort out. The researcher was obligingly keeping out of the Seeker’s presence, and Starscream went out of his way to avoid the mech, but the Ark only had so much space, and the tension between them was palpable. It was even beginning to affect the other two Seekers, as well as base morale.
Prowl sighed again, staring at but not reading the datapad on his desk, troubled. Then his door opened and another mech sauntered in. Without looking up he murmured.
“Why do you never knock, Jazz?”
“So you always know it’s me.” He could hear the smirk in the other mech’s voice, and gave up protesting as futile.
“Jazz, why are you here?”
“Ah hah. Score one for me.”
“Yes, yes, get to the point already.” He’d learnt long ago that not overtly reacting made Jazz stop. Jazz had learnt to tell when Prowl was reciprocating by being overly nonchalant (the thought that Prowl knew how to be playful had caused the Porsche to almost crash the first time. Which made playing along for the Datsun even more satisfying). The Ops mech grinned, dropping into the seat in front of the SIC’s desk.
“You’re no fun, you know that, Prowler?”
The tactician raised an optic ridge. “I’m on duty. The point, Jazz?”
“Just wondering if you’d noticed the issue between ‘Fire and Screamer.”
“Fireflight has noticed the issue between Skyfire and Starscream.”
“Well, yeah, but are you planning on doing anything about it? They need to hash this out. ‘Warp and TC are starting to droop, ‘Fire was their friend too. And the rest of us would like to breathe easy once more.”
The black and white SIC frowned, mulling over the thought. “The problem lies in getting them both to stay in the same place long enough to have the discussion.”
“And ensuring they don’t kill each other.”
“That would be rather important, yes.”
Jazz snickered at Prowl’s dry tone. “So, we plot.”
“We plot.”
= = =
In the end, plotting consisted of just using extreme measures (a.k.a. Bluestreak) to get both mechs to sit down and talk, as well as extract a promise that they would talk about their issues with each other.
Both fliers were under watch, of course, by Skywarp, Thundercracker and all three Datsuns. Red Alert had not been happy with them commandeering his monitor room (Prowl was sure Jazz had his own methods of eavesdropping), but had grudgingly allowed it when the tactician restricted the group to the use of just two screens.
= = =
Skyfire watched the smaller mech pace about the room. Wheeljack had offered his lab as a neutral ground, and it being Wheeljack’s lab, it also served to restrain any urges to come to blows and weapons fire. He cleared his vocaliser.
“So…”
Starscream glared at him and he sighed. “Bluestreak is right, we have to settle this thing between us. It’s affecting everyone else.”
More glaring.
“And… It’s affecting you and me. Starscream, avoiding each other isn’t doing anything.”
Even more glaring.
“What do you want me to do? Would it help if I apologised?”
“Depends. Would you mean it?”
The cold words hit the researcher hard. “What? Starscream-”
The jet snarled, stalking over to jab a finger at Skyfire’s chest plates. “I trusted you. I vouched for you. You were my friend and you turned your back on me!”
The shuttle stood, temper rising. “You were my friend too! You knew me, knew how I felt, how I thought, and you expected me to just discard all that? To go from finding and exploring new worlds and cataloguing new life forms to destroying them?! That wasn’t the mech I’d known!”
“Exploring worlds caused me to lose you!” The Seeker turned away. “So I’d changed. So did everyone else. A little thing called war happened.”
“Starscream… I missed all that. I woke from the ice the same as when I fell in.”
“Frag. You think I didn’t realise that? You were always so slagging good natured. I didn’t want you to change like I did.” The jet shook slightly. “I was trying to protect you, aft-head! I was Megatron’s Second! Under my watch you’d never have to see combat! You’d be safe! Instead, you’re flying into all sorts of slag, hauling Autobots out of trouble! And every time the Decepticons mustered for battle I had to wonder if today would be the day I saw you shot down and killed!”
A pair of hands rested on the Seeker’s shoulders. “I’d have found out about the Decepticon’s true motives eventually.”
“I know that. I also knew you’d leave once you did.”
Skyfire’s grip tightened on Starscream’s shoulders, and the jet continued. “You wouldn’t have done anything else. Didn’t make it hurt any less, but I can’t be mad at you for that, and it drives me crazy.”
“You still shot me.”
“You lived. Megatron would have killed you. Frag it ‘Fire. Did I lose your trust that easily?”
“I’m sorry.” The jet didn’t respond verbally to the shuttle’s apology, just leant back into the larger mech’s chassis.
“I thought you’d follow.”
Starscream made a startled noise, and Skyfire sighed.
“I’d hoped if I left, you’d leave as well. Megatron was horrible to you.”
“I had my trine to think of. They always come first, and he treated them well enough.”
“I know, and I understand. But the Autobots-”
“Were the enemy. And we were theirs.”
They fell quiet, and once again, Skyfire was the one to break the silence.
“Well. You’re here now.”
“Brilliant observation.” The jet could feel the shuttle’s laughter vibrate through his chassis.
“Can we start over, Star’?”
“No.” Starscream met Skyfire’s suddenly apprehensive gaze. “I want to pick up where we left off.”
A stunned look answered him, before a smile slowly spread across the shuttle’s faceplates.
“Yeah. Okay.”
= = =
Not two days later, upon seeing Starscream and Skyfire walk into the room calmly discussing some research the shuttle was interested in, Skywarp tackled the pair in a hug, overcome with glee that they’d worked things out between them. Thundercracker had snickered at his trine leader, trapped between Skyfire and the enthusiastically babbling Skywarp, shrugged, and joined in the bumblepuppy pile, knocking all of them to the ground.
Skyfire retaliated by hugging back, preventing them from escaping (it must be noted that Skywarp didn’t bother, even though he could) before Sideswipe walked into the room. The image captures were still circulating the Ark, and Starscream, for all he sulked abut it, had been spotted stuffing one of the copies into subspace.
= = =
The Air Commander confronted Prowl as the mech was refuelling a few more days later. “Well. You’ll be glad to know that your little plot worked out. We’re on talking terms again.”
The tactician glanced up from his datapad. “Indeed. Plan B would have been very troublesome to have to put into action.”
“Just out of curiosity, what was Plan B?”
“Get both of you just overcharged enough to be uninhibited, strip your weapons, and lock you in a small room with each other. Repeat until the desired overcharged confession and conversation takes place. Repeat if one or both of you went into denial.”
Starscream stared at the SIC. “That… sounds like how Sideswipe told me Ironhide and his femme got together.”
Prowl took a sip from his cube of energon, a tiny smirk vanishing from sight almost immediately. “Well, Bluestreak hadn’t joined us at that point in time.”