The doors slide open, Starscream standing on other side. Hands are planted on hips, scowl in place and red optics flashed with warning. “I’ve told you to stop teleporting unless absolutely necessary.” He hissed. “Unless you want to undo all the hard work I’ve put into stabilizing your dumb aft!”
He turned on his heel, not waiting for an answer and gesturing Skywarp deeper into the lab. He should know the procedure by now. “Examination table and open.” Same as always.
Skywarp scowled. Yes, Starscream had told him that. Skywarp had told him to shove it up his afterburners. Starscream didn’t get it - his sigma, his spark gift, was so integral a part of him, he seldom thought about using it before he did. The time he had spent unable to access it had been quite possibly the worst he had ever experienced - and given the life he had lead and was leading, that was saying something.
He supposed there was no way Starscream could understand. His spark wasn’t like that.
He also knew that Starscream wouldn’t care to understand even if he could. Arrogant slagger.Â
For a moment he almost leaned into the place where Thundercracker had been, before, to draw on his far calmer trinemate’s presence for stability. He stopped himself just in time before he caused another wave of agony and phantom pain from the backlash he would get trying to access that empty, torn apart link.
His mood only darkened further and he stalked inside, deliberately bumping into Starscream’s wing as he made his way past him to hop onto the table and open up his chassis. Glass and metal parted and folded away, revealing his spark crystal. Then that parted, too, revealing his spark.
It was dimmer than it had been once, and had shifted several shades toward indigo from its former pink hue. The flickering rhythm of its pulse was off, just barely enough to be noticeable, but every now and then, a beat would come too slow or too fast.Â
Skywarp didn’t look at it, instead keeping wary red optics on Starscream and flexing his claws carefully. They were both Decepticons after all, and no longer really trine. Baring one’s core to the other was far from comfortable, now.