A/N: Confinement due to the pandemic is giving me time to write now, and here is a new story just for you all. Been a while since I've had a new idea for TF, so I'm glad to share this one-shot, short as it is. ^_^

Italicized dialogue comes from IDW Transformers #16 (The Change in Your Nature, Part Four), A Bold New Era story arc.

"you are the cause by which I die" ― Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales

As Starscream turned away after giving his parting shot to Megatron, the smirk he wore grew wider on his face.

"Are you saying that what's happening is to do with Bumblebee? That Orion Pax is behind it? He would not do that. Even now, he would not betray me like that."

"No? I wonder if you know him as well as you once did, or if spectacular misjudgement is contagious."

That had been truly satisfying to say to the senator, Starscream thought with an unpleasant chuckle.

And far past time, too, as far as the Seeker was concerned.

The moment Sentinel Prime had come to power as First Senator following the death of Nominus Prime, it had been obvious that he wouldn't give up a single crumb of power. Even when it became clear that the edict his predecessor had laid out in the hopes of preserving the peace following the War of the Threefold Spark had long outlived its usefulness, Sentinel Prime was unwilling to make any changes to the edict. He'd even beaten down the original leader of the Ascenticon cause, Termagax, when she tried to call for change on Cybertron. calling her a fool and refusing to listen to anything she said.

Looking back now, Starscream couldn't believe he'd been willing to try and bring her back into the fold, hoping she'd push Megatron into what needed to be done. Peace was all well and good, but peace was what brought them to this stagnant point in the first place.

Of course, when he'd tried to approach Termagax, she kept refusing to speak with him and once had gone so far as to explode something next to his head. He'd stopped going after that; as far as he was concerned, she'd proven herself a coward.

But the experience had taught him to play more carefully. To that end, he had managed to get Soundwave removed from Intelligence, becoming Head of Intelligence himself. For all the mech was good at gathering information, he had a disappointing tendency to not consider all possibilities when it came to said information. For instance, in spite of his initial reluctance, due to Bumblebee's past history in Security Operations and having Autobot connections, he'd allowed the mech to join the Ascenticon Guard.

Starscream smirked. For all Orion Pax seemed to believe it wasn't common knowledge, there had been plenty of speculation over the cycles in Security that Bumblebee was a pet spy of his. He might have been expelled, but Orion had managed to shield him from the consequences that followed said expulsion. Not to mention Orion was a friend of Bumblebee's, a fact that had been known to Soundwave even before he'd been removed.

And according to Refraktor, the timing of Bumblebee's enlistment had been just following that "attempted assassination" following Brainstorm's death that Megatron had set up to make it look as though it was more than just Autobots being the target of murderers.

His mentee's murder that same night he'd approached Soundwave would have made Bumblebee more likely to be a wild card, not less, Starscream thought with a snort. Not to mention he'd be putting his all into finding his charge's killer. No mentor would forgive such an action towards those they'd been assigned to. But no, Megatron and Soundwave decided his joining could be an excellent symbol, not even bothering to look any deeper.

And of course, Soundwave had been fool enough to raise Bumblebee's suspicions with his handling of the whole Barricade business. Bringing him to the Titan right before it blew (and Starscream was in no doubt who had caused it) had most likely solidified any suspicions the yellow mech had, judging by what he'd overheard Heretech say to Megatron.

That wasn't to say that Megatron wasn't without some blame himself. After all, he'd brought Shockwave back to Cybertron, even though it was well-known what the mech had done during the War of the Threefold Spark. He would have had a grudge against the Council and wouldn't have cared about Megatron's own goals, taking revenge at the earliest opportunity.

He truly is a fool, if he believes he can control both The Rise and the Ascenticons, Starscream mused, as he finally reached the outside and transformed.

In any case, matters had finally reached a head, and Sentinel (in spite of his spectacular misjudgments) had finally decided to take some action. Action, the Seeker was sure, that would finally blow the lid off Nominus' peace once and for all.

Still, Starscream hadn't lived through a war without learning a few things. One of those things had to been to observe. He watched, he gathered his information, and he made his decisions accordingly.

He was a survivor, and intended to remain one.

Starscream was no fool, either. He knew what others said about him, that he was widely disliked for his "games"; but as much as he disliked Sentinel and believed the First Senator needed to be removed, he cared little for how it was achieved, whether by fair methods or foul.

What mattered to him in the end was surviving and doing what it took to reach his goals.

Cybertron was moving towards war once more. Starscream knew it was inevitable.

And in light of that inevitability, he had decided there was no harm in parting with one of his gathered pieces of information. How it was handled would determine where he placed his loyalties, such as they were.

As he flew through Iacon, Starscream chuckled darkly.

I've given you a test now, Megatron.

Let's see if you pass.

A/N2: For the past year now, I've been following the reboot of IDW Transformers. So far, I have found myself impressed with how the writers are handling the evolution of the Decepticons. While I haven't liked every issue, finding a couple of them to be somewhat extraneous to the arc as a whole, most have shown a pretty believable has been an interesting character throughout the run so far, presenting himself as a Senator who fights for peaceful change through a political group called the Ascenticons for a Cybertron which has seemingly become stagnant through a previous leader. But at the same time, he's playing a dangerous double game involving what seems to be extremists who've broken away from the Ascenticons and form a group called The Rise (no points for guessing where that's going), and are more violent than the Ascenticons, having killed a known scientist at the start of the series and do worse as the storyline goes on.

However, the double game has begun unraveling, thanks to the actions of two of his subordinates (not Starscream as yet, who's really only been a very minor character for most of the run), and Megatron has started becoming desperate, with recent decisions of his beginning to mirror more the Rise's beliefs than the peaceful views he espoused at the start.

The revelation made by Starscream in issue #16 are what begin to fully accelerate Megatron's slide from peaceful champion of change to violent warlord, the moment where he finally realizes that the control he believed he regained is still slipping from his grasp.

The moment where the Ascenticons begin turning into the Decepticons.

At this time, Starscream's motives for the revelation of the spy's identity in the Ascenticons (sent by Orion Pax after a poorly done assassination attempt on Megatron) are unknown, though he refers to it as hedging his bets. But whatever the motive, his words do seem to be what began the final push.