"Little one, I ran a full diagnostic on your chassis before Starscream even stepped foot in this lab."
Scalpel leaned in, his optics glowing with a self-assured yellow light. "I found no hidden trackers, no remote-detonation packets, and zero sub-routines planted by the Air Commander. You can cease your internal frequency-jittering."
"No sabotage?"
Nathan's optical shutters flared in genuine surprise. He felt a sudden, heavy wave of relief wash through his struts. The idea of being a puppet on a string—especially a string held by a narcissist like Starscream—had been a constant drain on his logic processors.
"The Chief Medical Officer's word is absolute," Scalpel rasped, his metallic limbs clicking. "I may not match Starscream in raw kilotons of firepower, but when it comes to the intricacies of Cybertronian anatomy... he is an amateur poking at a spark-chamber with a soldering iron."
"I see. Thank you, Doctor Scalpel." Nathan lowered his head. Since he had decided to play the "Awakened" unit, he leaned into the role.
Scalpel's eyes narrowed, flickering with a strange curiosity. "You are an odd one, T-22. Most Decepticons don't possess the protocol for gratitude. You say 'thank you' like you actually mean it."
Nathan's internal cooling fans spiked for a fraction of a second. Too human, he chided himself. Gratitude is a sign of weakness in this faction. Emulation error. He quickly shifted his tone to something colder.
"A strategic acknowledgment of your assistance, Doctor. Nothing more. But... if I am safe from Starscream, I still don't understand your motives. Why sabotage the logic chips in the first place?"
Scalpel looked Nathan over, his expression unreadable. "Do you know why Starscream is truly on this planet?"
"To find Lord Megatron?" Nathan ventured, sticking to the "official" version.
"Yes... and no."
Nathan tilted his helm, his processors simulating a frown. Both the movie lore and Starscream's own ramblings pointed to the search for Megatron's signal as the primary objective.
"The truth goes back over a century," Scalpel began, turning his chassis away and scuttling toward a console. "After the AllSpark was lost and the Great War ground to a stalemate, Megatron departed Cybertron to track its signature. One hundred years ago, his signal went dark. That was when Shockwave and the others realized the High Protector had encountered a catastrophic error."
Nathan listened, cross-referencing Scalpel's words with his own "future" knowledge. He knew exactly why Megatron was dark—he was a frozen relic beneath the Hoover Dam, neutralized by the Earth's magnetic poles and a primitive human expedition.
He also knew the secret Scalpel didn't mention: the betrayal of Sentinel Prime. He recalled how Sentinel, the former Autobot leader and Optimus's mentor, had tried to flee Cybertron with the AllSpark on the Ark, only to be shot down and crash-landed on the Moon. The AllSpark had drifted toward Earth's gravity, followed by Megatron, and eventually, the rest of the war.
"Little one, pay attention!" Scalpel snapped, noticing Nathan's brief neural lag.
"My apologies, Doctor. I was processing the scale of the timeline."
Scalpel huffed. "In the years of Megatron's silence, Starscream didn't just play the part of a grieving lieutenant. He convinced himself he was the Leader. Back on Cybertron, he attempted to formalize his ascension. He tried to claim the throne while the High Protector's seat was still warm."
Scalpel's laugh was a harsh, digital rattle. "But Starscream's treachery is as transparent as a cracked lens. He's a Commander-class warrior who dreams of being a King, yet he forgets he isn't the only general in the army."
"Shockwave and Soundwave didn't agree?" Nathan asked.
"Hardly. After decades of internal friction, the spymaster and the scientist forced his hand. They bullied him into coming to this sector. They told him that if he wanted to be Leader, he had to bring back the old one first—or prove he was dead. Starscream came here because he had no choice. He was exiled under the guise of a mission."
Scalpel turned back to Nathan, a malicious grin forming on his faceplates. "As for why I am here, and why I gave you your freedom... look at this."
The medic tapped a sequence into his chest-plate. A brilliant blue beam erupted, projecting a detailed 3D hologram in the center of the lab. It was a rotating sphere of azure and green, marbled with white clouds.
Earth.
"This planet," Scalpel whispered, the yellow light of the hologram reflecting in his eyes. "It holds more than just a frozen tyrant. It holds the key to the future of our race. And I intend to have it."
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