Title: Gladiator

Timeline: Before the war starts.

Main characters: Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp

Summary: Starscream and his Trine are very low on credits, and it will not be long before they will end up in the streets. As the Trineleader, Starscream choose to abandon his dream in order to protect his Trinemates.

Klik – Second

Breem – Minute

Joor – Hour

Orn – Day

Cycle - Week

Orbital cycle – Month

Vorn – Year

Rebooting systems.

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Rebooting partially success.

Mobility systems – 79% failure.

Sensory net offline.

Energon levels – 58%.

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Inducing onlining sequence.

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A groan left me as my systems slowly came back online. Muffled sounds reached my audios and I couldn't make them out. I opened my optics but quickly shut them again because of the harsh light.

'Where am I?' I slowly opened my optics this time and soon enough I was able to see without the light blinding me. The first thing I saw was a gray ceiling. I blinked and was about to move my head to the side when Kling's face came into view.

'I'm in the medbay?' She gave me a relieved smile and I saw her lips move but I couldn't quite hear what she said. I frowned and her smile dropped a bit. She looked to the side and she said something else before she turned back towards me and she had an annoyed look on her face. I felt a pinch in my neck and suddenly sounds flooded me.

"-gin' Brother. He knows that if he just clamp it there, all sound will be blocked." Kling muttered before she looked at me.

"Can ya hear me, 'Screamer?" she asked and I nodded. She looked satisfied.

"Good. Now, how's ya feelin'?" she then asked and I heard that she pushed a button. I felt the medberth I was laying on, move my upper part of the body and soon I was sitting up. I turned my head to look around. It was not a medbay I recognize and I didn't see anyone beside Kling. Though I heard someone move behind my point of view.

"Rebooting partially success. My sensory net are offline and I apparently only have 21% mobility. My energon levels are at 58%." I said automatically before I turned towards the medic.

"What happened, Kling?" I asked and she frowned.

"Ya don't remember?" she asked and I shook my head.

"A'right, seems like Ah need to reboot ya again. To explain shortly, ya were in a match an' got slashed in the neck. Severed the motion cable an' energon lines. Luckily, not the largest one. It's a clean cut so it don't need to be replaced. Repaired some of it, though it's detailed work so Ah haven't gotten that far. Migh' take a few joors to fix it completely." Kling said easily and I nodded.

"That explains why I can't move my body except from my head. Can you fix it a bit more so I can at least move something else than my head?" I asked and Kling rolled her optics.

"Ah'll fix what Ah can for the time being, Ripcode wants to talk to ya an' she ain't far away." she said and I tensed a little before I nodded.

"Just put me under and fix whatever you can." I said and she nodded. She stretched out her arm and servo to the side and did something and soon blackness started to claim me once again.

…

Rebooting systems.

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Rebooting mostly successful.

Mobility systems – 50% failure.

Sensory net online.

Energon levels – 50%.

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Inducing onlining sequence.

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I blinked as my optics started to function again. I soon got adjusted to the light. I stared up into it as I remembered what happened during the match.

"Finally awake I see." I heard Ripcode say beside me. I tensed before I turned my head towards her. She was sitting in a chair beside the berth I was laying on. She leaned forward and did something outside my view. I heard a click and then my berth started to move me up into a sitting position. She leaned backwards again with a big grin.

"Ripcode." I said coldly.

"Good match you did out there."

"Don't make small talk, Ripcode. Just get it over with." I hissed between gritted dentas. She chuckled at me and I glared heatedly at her.

"Can't I praise my best gladiator, Starscream? You did a great match out there. Fantastic, actually. One of you best. Didn't expect the gun though. It was a nice surprise, too bad it wasn't functioning. My weapon expert will take a look at it, if we find it again, and make it function. I'm not sure what store you bought it from, but it's apparent that those were useless rustbags. You will here by, only get the best. I can't let my best gladiator loose his skill." Ripcode said as she crossed her arms. The smug smile on her lips just made me more furious.

"You are not touching that gun, Ripcode. If you touch it, I'll fragging shoot your head off!" I growled and successfully curled my servos into fists. I saw how Ripcode's optics fell down to my fists before she looked up and locked optics with me. Her whole posture became serious and businesslike.

"Very well then, Starscream. As you wish. When you get out here, you will write the contract. Don't try to escape, you know I will be able to track you. And if you do try to escape, one of your wingmates will join you in the ring." she warned and I gave a sharp nod.

"What are the terms?" I asked, trying to calm myself.

"Not that much different from usual. Except that you will not become free until you have payed the whole debt back. Considering how much you bring in, it should take about five vorns. That, if you don't take any credits for yourself." she said as she pulled out a datapad from her subspace and held it out for me. I raised a shaky servo and grabbed the datapad before the servo fell down onto my lap. I frowned and took a deep breath before I lifted my servo again. It was still shaky, but not as much and this time it didn't fall down again.

"I see that Kling repaired at least some of your motion control." Ripcode noted and I threw her a glance before I started to read through the datapad.

"I suspect that you want some credits, so we split it 50/50. That means, it will take you about ten vorns to pay off the debt. That's if you are able to fight as a gladiator during that time. It might take longer if you need to change your line of... Work." she said and I absently nodded. I put down the datapad and looked up at her.

"Fine. Terms accepted. I will earn you credits and you don't touch my stuff as long as I don't say so. You set me up for matches with whoever you want and leave my private life just that - private." I said with a nod. Ripcode nodded and relaxed a little and gave me a genuine smile.

"I'm glad you survived, Starscream." she said in a low voice before she rose up and left the room without another word. I looked after her and sat there in the silence for a while before I sighed and leaned back. I closed my optics in order to rest and calm down a bit.

Before I could fully fall into recharge, I heard someone knock on the door. I sighed and opened my optics.

"Yes?" I said as I tried to look at the door. I tensed as Megatronus walked through it.. He smiled gently at me before walking over.

"Starscream." he said with a tip of his head. I nodded in greetings too.

"Megatronus. Didn't think you would visit me." I said and tried my best to be polite. His presence only reminded me of my lost, and my debt to Ripcode.

"I rarely do, Starscream. But you have certainly have won my respect. I wanted to see if you were alright." he said and pulled a chair to the left side of my berth. I studied him as he sat down.

"I'm doing quite fine, thank you. My medics have been able to give me back some of my movement." I said and raised my hand in demonstration. Megatronus nodded.

"I'm happy to hear that. It wasn't my intention to cripple you."

"Maybe not, but it was a fight either way. Neither of us would have stopped until the other would have yielded or died. Or had been unable to fight." I said and Megatronus nodded.

"I hope my actions won't give you trouble flying." he said and I slightly tensed before I relaxed.

"Kling are going to repair this just fine. For the calibration, I will simply go to a seeker medic." I said and he smiled in relief.

"That's good to hear." he said and leaned back in his chair and relaxed a little.

"Is there any other reason you have come here, Megatronus?" I asked after both of us had been silent for a while. Megatronus smiled at me.

"Ah, yes. I wanted to give you back these." he said and pulled out my swords and my stun gun out of his subspace. My optics went wide and I immediately reached out for my weapons. He gave me to them without a word and I put them in my lap. I quickly picked up my stun gun and started to examine it. I could feel Megatronus' gaze upon me, but I ignored him as my servos traveled over the gun knowingly. After some time, I let my servos rest in my lap with the gun still in them.

"I see." I mumbled and looked at the gun with a soft gaze.

"May I ask what was wrong with it?" Megatronus asked and I looked up at him. I lifted up my gun and showed him the magnet on it.

"In order to fasten it, usually every gun and pistol has a magnet to keep it in place." I begun and Megatronus nodded.

"Yes, so the bearer wouldn't need anything else that might prevent movement and waste time to pick something out of the subspace." he said as he inspected the gun.

"Correct. Usually those magnets doesn't disturb any of the parts, but I have modified this one myself, making it stronger and more effective. I sadly didn't have time to properly test it before the battle, which was my mistake. As you noticed, this is a stun gun. Apparently, when I made the pulse stronger, I also made the electromagnetism stronger. The electromagnetism mixed with the magnet made the gun jam. The charged pulses it held dissolved because of the interruption from the combination. It's a simple fix, but it's hard to spot sometimes. I guess I missed it." I explained and I could see how Megatronus' optics widened a little in understanding.

"So, the more you shot with it, the more the electromagnetism got charged and the risk of it jamming became bigger?" he said as he looked up at me. I nodded and chuckled a little in disbelief.

"I lost because of a simple mistake." I said as my gaze once again turned soft.

"Technically, you didn't lose. It technically became a draw." Megatronus said and I focused my optics on him.

"I didn't kill you, and I refused to do it. And since I refused to do it, I basically yielded. But since I was still standing, they called out me as the winner." he explained and leaned back in his chair once more. I snorted.

"Are you trying to cheer me up?" I asked and he grinned at me. I couldn't help but to chuckle.

"I succeeded, didn't I?" he said smugly and I couldn't help but to laugh. When I calmed down I snorted.

"I can't deny that." I said with a grin and he chuckled a little. Then we once again fell into silence, but this time it was quite comfortable. I closed my optics and let the calmness around me exist. It was few cybertronians I felt this relaxed around with.

"Starscream. There is one thing I'm wondering." Megatronus said and I hummed to let him know that I was listening.

"You didn't fight for credits or glory." he stated and I opened my optics to look at him. He held a serious expression on his face. I frowned slightly at the statement.

"You didn't want to die out there. Yet you fought like you had nothing to lose. You weren't afraid to die, if you were you would never had been able to fight like that." he said seriously and I gave a low chuckle.

"Quite the contrary, Megatronus. I had everything to gain, and I had everything to lose." I said and looked away from him, looking into the wall. Megatronus was silent for a little bit before he spoke again.

"This was your battle of freedom. You lost, and therefore you are now owned. Very much like a slave."

I tensed at his words. If my wings would have been able to move, they would have been shaking.

"But that doesn't explain your reason for not wanting to die. If you were a slave, death would seem like an easy way out. But yet, you refused to let death win. Either you are too proud to die, or someone would inherit your debt. Someone close to you would be taken as a slave instead." he said and my whole frame shivered. I glared at him.

"And what do you want to say with that?" I hissed and I tried to move my wings in a threatening manner, but all they did was one small shake. Megatronus' gaze became slightly softer.

"Starscream. I have a propose for you." he said and I shook my head.

"No. If I run away, they will track down us and take all of us!" I plainly refused.

"I'm not asking you to run away." he said with a steady voice that made me pause. I looked at him carefully. His face was fully serious.

"I'm going into the politics. This caste system we have, it makes too many suffer. The closing of mines, workplaces, the high rise in price for energon. It only benefits the rich, the high caste. We, in the lower caste, are the ones who are paying the price from the high castes benefits. From what I have learned about you, I know that you are a brilliant mind. Not only in the arena, but outside of it too. You were in training to become a scientist. You were being built to become a space explorer. When I begin to work in the politics, they might ask me how to get more energon. You know how to gather energon from different environments. You know how machines works. Starscream, would you like to join me in my quest of changing Cybertron, as my scientist?"

I stared at Megatronus with big optics. I opened my mouth to speak, but closed it again. I could only stare at him.

"I-" I began, but got interrupted by the familiar sound of warping. I quickly looked the right and saw the purple static before it disappeared and revealed three mechs. Two I immediately recognized.

"Thundercracker! Skywarp!" I said and then both were over me.

"Starscream!" they exclaimed at the same time and hugged me closely. I didn't hesitate for even a klik before I hugged them. I hugged them just as closely and I felt Skywarp's frame shake against mine. My servos found Thundercracker's and Skywarp's wings and started to stroke them, first the top and then the sides, in comfort. I opened my bond that had remained closed the whole time and I was flooded with emotions from them. They didn't speak, and neither did I.

"Soundwave?" I heard Megatronus say and that made me look up. Megatronus had risen up and walked over to the lean white and blue mech, he had strange spots of colors here and there, that had followed in with Skywarp and Thundercracker. He wore a visor over his optics, but I could clearly see through them. The confusion was obvious on his faceplate.

"Megatronus?" the new mech said before looking around.

"Query: Where are we?" he continued slowly and looked back to Megatronus. Megatronus glanced over to me and my trine before he looked back at the white and blue mech.

"You are in one of the medbays in the arena. What in the name of Primus did you do to get here?" he asked. I glanced down at Skywarp and nudged him a little. He simply shook his head.

"I'm... I'm not sure. I was going to meet you when I saw two seekers arguing with the guards. They weren't letting them in. They wanted to see Starscream desperately and I decided to help them out by telling the guards that I would be responsible for them... The guards refused to let me in even with the pass I had, even though it stated I was free to roam the backstage. Then the blue seeker started to panic and when I grabbed him in order calm him down, purple filled my vision and now I'm here." Soundwave said rapidly, a huge different from when he first spoke. Megatronus put a servo on the smaller cybertronian's shoulder.

"Soundwave. Calm down." he said and I could see how the white and blue frame shook a little before relaxing.

"Apologies." Soundwave said with a light bow to his head. I chuckled a little.

"I hope you don't feel sick or dizzy. That's a common effect from Skywarp's warping when you travel with him for the first time." I said and the new mech looked at me. He shook his head.

"Used to use groundbridges. Thank you for your concern." he said and smiled a little. I smiled a small smile before I nudged Skywarp again. Protesting noises instantly rose from him.

"Come on, Warp. You need to apologize for kidnapping another bot." I said and that made both Skywarp and Thundercracker look up. Thundercracker groaned and put his head down in my armor again, efficiently hiding his face. His wings twitched in embarrassment. I chuckled at him, which earned me a glare from his place.

Skywarp slowly rose up from his place and a bit awkwardly walked over to Soundwave and Megatronus.

"Sorry... Didn't mean to take you with us." he said and his wings moved up and down.

"Apology accepted. You are able to teleport?" Soundwave said and Skywarp nodded. What happened next surprised me.

Soundwave's spots of colors exploded and transformed into five symbiotes. That made Skywarp yelp in surprise and teleport back to me, to the other side of the berth.

"Oh! So cooool! He teleported! Did you see that?!" a yellow symbiote exclaimed and the five of them fell into the symbiote language. The noise made Thundercracker look up from his place and Megatronus chuckled. I stared at them in surprise before I looked over to the now smaller mech.

"You are a Carrier!" I said and Soundwave smiled.

"Yes. Apologies if they scared you." he said and looked at Skywarp. I looked at him too and saw how he relaxed. He slowly became more curious and then he walked around the berth towards the symbiotes before sitting down. They started to examine each other and soon Thundercracker joined them too. I chuckled at the sight and smiled fondly. I looked up as Megatronus and Soundwave walked towards me.

"Starscream, let me to introduce a good friend of mine, Soundwave. He is helping me to understand the politics. He is also my information gatherer." he said with a big smile. Soundwave stretched out his servo and I took it. We shook them before letting go.

"I'm Starscream, the newly recruited scientist." I said with a smirk that only grew when I saw Megatronus' expression.

"That's great to hear. Welcome aboard, Starscream." Soundwave said with a smile, oblivious to Megatronus' expression. That made Megatronus burst out laughing.

"Let's celebrate these good news over a drink when you have healed up enough, Starscream! I know of a good place." he said with a big grin.

"I would like that very much, Megatronus." I said with an equal big grin. Losing this match wasn't as bad as I thought.

...

End of Gladiator

AN: Oh... My... Primus. I finally did it. I finally finished writing Gladiator. Sorry for the long wait, but it's finally here! The last chapter of Gladiator!

I hope you have enjoyed following Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp on this journey as much as I have. It was a lot of fun to get to know them and to write about them.

Now, following up a little about last chapter's update on my writing pace. As stated before, now I will focus my attention on another story. I want to finish that one because I love it so much. But when that one is done, I'm going to focus on Medic. Then I will write either on Frame Change or Prime. Autumn soon will have enden and my life will have calmed down. I have ended my school because I wasn't interested in studying and because I didn't want to study to become a nurse. So I'm going back to my old work. Hopefully that will mean I will have energy to write more than when I studied. Let's hope I won't be gone for long from Before Earth. But during this time, I might write "lost chapters" to Gladiator that will give the story more depth. If you were missing something from the story, give me suggestions!

I hope you had fun while reading Gladiator. Thank you for staying with me and this story. I hope to see you in Medic!