Chapter Text
In Clickbait's opinion, Junkion was one of the best planets in the universe. While the planet was entirely covered in old trash from all of Cybertron's eras, and had no star to warm Clickbait's plating. It was still by far one of the most accepting planets of Clickbait and its cassette, Remix.
The Junkions, who were the sole inhabitants of the planet, had a policy of open trade with anyone who came to the planet. Which meant that whenever Clickbait ran out of things to sell to its... lovely customers, it'd come to Junkion and scavenge the surface of the planet. Which was made even better by Clickbait's glitchy voice-box being able to communicate with the Junkions own odd speech pattern easier than most. Small blessings, it supposed.
Sifting through some of the scraps towards the middle of a particularly old looking spire of junk, the monotony of the action relaxed Clickbait. After a few kliks, it'd gathered together a somewhat sizable pile of everything from parts of Golden Age blasters, to an ancient Nova Prime propaganda poster. As it continued searching the trash, a message appeared on its commlink.
::We done here yet, boss?:: Clickbait immediately deducing that the message was from its cassette, it went to reply.
::We'll leave in a few, found a good haul, you should get over here.:: Clickbait sent back.
Looking past the prejudice that most cassette players and cassettes faced, Clickbait still could not deny the oddity of itself and Remix. For starters, the two did not have the typical bond that other cassette players had with their cassettes. They were business partners. Remix would find the customers, and Clickbait would sell them whatever it had. It was a symbiosis that had lasted the two Cybertronians for as long as either of them could remember. In fact, Clickbait could scarcely recall the time before Remix came along.
From across the junk filled landscape around them, Clickbait could hear Remix coming up behind it, the trash rustling with each step they took. Upon seeing the pile of items Clickbait had scavenged, Remix took it upon themself to examine it.
"Woah, this is some pretty good stuff!" Remix said while examining one of the less damaged blaster parts.
Clickbait grinned slightly, "toldja, J-Junkion's my favorite planet t-this side of Cybertron. And I thought y-you didn't wanna come here with me." It teased, static in its voice cutting through.
Remix rolled their optics, "hey! I didn't know that we'd find all this stuff here!"
The cassette then joined their cassette player in sifting through the spire of scrap, the two continued like this for some time finding only bits and pieces of sellable material. A panel for what might've been the exterior of a ship, what might've been a sparkling's toy, and even... a weird human paper datapad? Clickbait chose to ignore that one, human stuff barely ever went for much because of how impractical human stuff was to most and because it all was so mass produced on that planet.
After a few more kliks of not finding anything, Remix was close to tapping out for the solar cycle. "I'm gonna start hauling the stuff back to the ship, don't stay out here too long or I might leave without you." The cassette threatened without any seriousness behind it.
Clickbait responded with a simple nod that it wasn't even sure Remix saw, and with that Clickbait began hauling the blaster parts and other knickknacks back. The mech continued to sort through whatever else was in the pile, looking for... well it wasn't entirely sure. Though, stuff from the Golden Age always fetched a couple shanix at the least, and something in Clickbait's processor kept telling it to keep going.
Tiredness beginning to creep onto its shoulders, and besides, it wasn't like there was anything else in the pile of junk left for it to find. Just pieces of a fractured datapad, scrap metal that was more rust than metal, and a servo sticking up out of the bottom of the pile.
...wait.
Clickbait did a double take and looked back at the pile of junk, it had not just seen that, right? There was no way. Why in the name of Primus would there be an offline frame there of all places?! Junkion had miraculously managed to stay neutral in the Civil War, so why would there be an offline frame at the bottom of a pile of trash??
Though when Clickbait looked back, there the servo was. Though the sight made its tanks flip, it was when it looked closer that the mech noticed something very important; the servo wasn't grey.
Which meant that whoever was there, wasn't offline.
Acting in pure instinct, Clickbait shot up from where it sat at the base of the spire of junk. A thousand thoughts began flooding its processor, but the only clear one being 'how do I help them?'. Should it go get Remix or maybe some Junkions for help? How much time did they have? Should it attempt to move them by itself? Did it even have enough medical knowledge to help them??
Though somehow through the cacophony of its thoughts, Clickbait managed to message Remix through its commlink. ::Remix get the med stuff now. It's an emergency.::
Less than a nano-klik later the cassette sent back, ::What's going on??? Do I gotta fight someone??? Medbay is ready and so are my blasters.::
Upon reading the message, Clickbait began to remove the buried Cybertronian from where they lay, which posed a problem.
They were a part of the structure of the spire itself, and if it removed them then the entire spire might just come down on top of the both of them.
However, the black and red plated mech had already made up its mind. Grasping the Cybertronian's servo as tightly as Clickbait could, it pulled them from the pile of Golden Age junk. By some miracle, likely from Solus Prime herself, did not fall onto Clickbait or the Cybertronian, who turns out was actually a fair bit larger than it expected.
Clickbait gave a quick look over their frame, and while their paint was chipped and nonexistent in some places, and their plating was littered with dents and wounds that were almost certainly infected with rust, they were in fact still online. In stasis lock, yes, but still online.
Pulling from the last remaining strength it had, Clickbait lifted them into its arms, finding that the dead weight of their frame was a lot more intense than it'd first expected. Though still Clickbait moved forward, putting one pede in front of the other, all the while trying it's best to support their helm the best it could.
"Come o-on, work with m-me here." Clickbait grumbled at the frame in its servos, static in it's voice-box jumbling the words.
It's good optic landed on their faceplate. Their optics were closed and hidden behind a golden visor, and the rest of their faceplate was covered by a battle mask the same hue as the luminous white quartz it'd seen in pictures of pre-war Crystal City on Cybertron. They had antennae much like Clickbait itself, though theirs were bent all out of shape and the one on the left was practically hanging on by a wire.
A few kliks later -after almost dropping them a couple times- Clickbait made it back to its ship. To say it was a fixer-upper would be being kind, but then again, what in Clickbait's life wasn't a fixer-upper? Remix stood on the stern ramp of the ship, and immediately upon seeing Clickbait struggling with the deadweight of the Cybertronian, rushed over to help.
The cassette move to support their pedes which had been close to being dragged across the ground. "Boss! Who in the pits is this?!" Remix questioned, their tone more like a demand.
"Don't k-know myself, found 'em buried in the junk. They're o-online though, I'm sure of that." While answer didn't make Remix any less confused than they were, the cassette chose to go along with it.
With Remix's help, the Cybertronian was moved into their ship's medbay -which was really just an old meeting room they'd filled with some medical supplies and a berth-and set upon the med-berth. Just like the cassette had said, all the supplies that Clickbait would need were set on a side table, and it was then that it could see their entire frame and extent of their wounds.
Dried energon stained their white and yellow plating, dents littered their frame whether or not those came from all of the junk on top of them was hard to say. Though most odd of all, there were three perfectly aligned blaster wounds on the right side of their chassis.
Clickbait began to work on them to the best of its ability; patching visible energon lines, cutting away any plating that was overrun with rust, applying a patch to their antenna, and welding together their major injuries. Though, in the back of its processor the red and black plated mech knew that they weren't enough. Clickbait wasn't a medic, and the only knowledge it had was from learning how to do its and Remix's repairs over the stellar cycles.
But still, Clickbait was the best that they had, as Primus knows how long they'd been without fresh energon or with the blaster damage on their chassis. Speaking of energon, Clickbait reached for the cube of medical-grade and began to dribble some into the emergency energon line on their wrist.
With that, the cassette-player took a step back and looked over its work, everything that Clickbait could see was fixed. Though, the Cybertronian remained in stasis, and Clickbait had no clue what to do about it.
Turning to the cassette who had been standing off to the side, "what n-next, 'Mix? How are we gonna g-get 'em online?"
Remix looked towards the Cybertronian, and back towards Clickbait. "I'unno, couldn't we just... jumpstart them.?"
"What?" The cassette-player asked.
They continued, "like how humans do with their vehicles, ya'know? They jolt ‘em with electricity, and that gets them going- what if we did that with their spark?"
It went to argue against Remix's idea, though there wasn't any other idea that it could try. Besides, if it worked for the humans, then there was a chance it could work on a Cybertronian.
Clickbait nodded, "..sure, let's t-try it. Get one of the g-good batteries."
Remix left the room to find a battery while the cassette-player stayed behind. After a few kliks, they returned with one of the batteries the two had traded with the Junkion's for. As carefully as it could, Clickbait attached the two jumper cables onto the Cybertronian's digits- one on either side of their frame.
With derma pursed together, Clickbait opened both of the clamps on the cables, and in one quick move, put them on the terminals.
The two waited for a klik, but as each nano-klik passed, they watched on as nothing happened. The Cybertronian still laid there on the berth, unmoving. Their optics were still closed, and hidden behind their golden visor.
"Huh.." Remix started with their voice slightly quiet, "I thought that'd work..."
Clickbait looked down towards them, "well, w-we tried, let's start up the ship, hopefully we h-have enough time to get 'em to a d-doctor." It attempted to comfort them.
Remix ex-vented mumbling a vague agreement, and they started leaving the room, presumably to fire up the engines to get off Junkion.
When suddenly, a wordless scream ripped through the room.
Clickbait jumped back, facing the source of the horrific scream; a mech who was missing most of their paint, with yellow antennas, a golden visor, and a welded together chassis.
The room went silent after that, and the cassette and the cassette player watched as the Cybertronian pushed themself further up on the berth, away from the two. They then aimed one of the twin built-in blasters towards Clickbait.
Through sharp in-vents and ex-vents, the Cybertronian said only one thing, "Are we outside of lacon?"
Even though it should've been afraid, on account of the blaster pointed towards it. Clickbait's own confusion beat out the fear, "what k-kind of question is that?" It asked, to which Remix hit its side.
"Answer me!" They pushed, voice clear and harsh. "Are. We. Outside. Of. lacon." For a nano-klik, it wondered why they were so adamant about knowing if they were outside of lacon, so much so that they'd be willing to intimidate the first mech they saw with blasters that absolutely didn't work.
"We're not even on Cyb-Cybertron if that makes you feel b-better- we're on Junkion." Clickbait answered, to which they answered by slightly lowering their blaster.
Optics trained on the cassette-player, their tone shifted. "Junkion..? The..the waste planet? What in the name of Unicron am I doing here?"
It shrugged, "dunno' I found y-you in stasis h-half buried in a pile of ju-junk."
They went quiet for a klik, before Remix pipped up, moving towards the berth where the sat. "I think we got off on the wrong pede. Hiya, I'm Remix," they gestured toward Clickbait, "this is my boss, Clickbait. What's your name?"
The Cybertronian tilted their helm, "my designation is S-4-" they stopped themself before saying anymore, "Starstruck. My designation is Starstruck."
Clickbait gave a slight smile, silently thanking Remix acting as the more approachable cassette that their customers knew all too well.
"Okay then, Starstruck, do you remember anything 'bout why you could be out here on Junkion?"
Starstruck spoke softly to herself, trying to recollect everything that she could remember. "Last thing I remember... hmm. I was running- and..Could..? Could they have been in such a rush to get rid of me that they dumped me here?"
While the white plated mech had kept her voice low, Clickbait had managed to hear her, and by Soluswas it confused.
"Wait, wait, w-wait. Were you a victim of the..." It trailed off for a nano-klik and looked around like there was someone listening, "the DJD?"
Starstruck looked at Clickbait oddly, "the who?"
Clickbait's optics went wide, how in the world did she not know who the DJD was?! Everyone knew them; the butchers of Autobots and Deceptions alike- almost as bad as Shockwave himself!
"You're kidding, you gotta be kidding." Remix reasoned in pure disbelief, "the Decepticon Justice Division- complete fanatics of the bucket-head slag-maker himself!"
The white plated mech continued to stare at Clickbait and Remix, "what's a...Decepticon...?"
If Clickbait had made a top ten list of everything that it'd thought Starstruck was about to say, what she'd just said would've been at least in the bottom thousand spots. What in the name of sweet Solus Prime did she mean by that?! How did she not know about the Deceptions? Even if she was neutral, it was pretty common knowledge of the two factions that split Cybertron apart. So how did Starstruck not know what a Decepticon was...?
It worked the problem out over and over again in its processor, until Clickbait had an idea. "Starstruck, can y-you tell me what stellar c-cycle it is?"
"What? Are you not going to tell me what a Decepticon is?" She asked incredulously.
Clickbait nodded, "I'm gonna t-tell you, I just n-need to check something first."
From behind her battle mask, Starstruck ex-vented. "It's... the 20th of Orbital Cycle 9, 789. The Cube tournament finale happened not too long ago, I believe. The Kaon Crystals went up against the laconian Wreckers. Do you happen to know who won?"
Once again, Starstruck had said something that sounded so casual but had such crazy implications. As if she was being serious, then that would've meant that she was from... the golden age- over fifteen million stellar cycles ago.
Judging on the look in Remix's optics, they'd also figured out what Clickbait had already realized. Though, ever the skeptic Remix asked another question.
"Starstruck, who's the Prime?"
Growing more and more exasperated, Starstruck curtly answered, "Nova, Nova Prime! Dear Primus, anything else you want to ask me?"
Silence hung over the room, and slowly the white plated mech started to eye the two warily. Clickbait looked towards Remix, in a silent conversation, the two decided who was going to tell her. Ultimately, the responsibility was put onto the mech that dug her out of the junk.
With a steadying in-vent, the cassette-player went to tell Starstruck everything, but immediately upon trying, it found that it couldn't make anything come out of its intake.
No matter how hard it tried to come up with a way to phrase it all together so that she wouldn't completely freak out- well more than it was expecting her to- and sum up everything from the assassination of Nova Prime, to the end of the Civil War.
"I... I..." Clickbait started, before turning to Remix. "I'm gonna g-get a holofilm t-that'll explain everything. Mix, w-would you mind s-staying here?"
The cassette hummed in agreement, leaving it free to walk out of the medbay and dart down the hallway into one of the ship's storage rooms.
While the ship -that Remix vehemently insisted should be called 'Sanity's Edge'-was originally intended as a cargo ship to house a much larger crew, the only two mechs who'd ever been on it was Clickbait and Remix. Which meant that most of the other crew spaces were converted into extra storage, one such room stored away the duo's collection of holofilms.
"Where is th-the slagging f-film, oh wh-where is t-the slagging film, w-where could it b-be!" Clickbait sang to itself as it sifted through a tub full of holofilms. Until finally its optics landed on the one Remix had so graciously labeled, 'Gov. film we're never gonna use'. It chuckled to itself at the irony, and Remix had wanted to toss the film- take that Mix!
Clickbait put the box of holofilms back where it lived on the floor, and with the film in servo, it returned back to the medbay. Clickbait dimmed the lights and set the holofilm on a table across from where Starstruck sat in the berth. It activated the holofilm, and watched as the image of Optimus Prime and the Lord High Protector, slagging bucket-helm himself, became clearer.
"Huh.? Who are these two..?" Starstruck asked quietly to which she was promptly answered by the Prime.
"Greetings to all viewing this message, I am Optimus Prime, and this is my Lord High Protector, Megatron of Kaon. We send this message out to any and all Cybertronians among the stars, we are here to tell you that Autobots and Deceptions have laid down arms against one another. The Civil War has reached its end, and the reconstruction of Cybertron has begun."
Starstruck watched the film with rapt attention, optics lingering on the frames of the Prime and Megatron and every image from the war that was shown. After a few kliks, the holofilm clicked off, leaving the room in silence.
"So," Remix began, after turning the lights back on, "you got any questions..?"
The white plated mech was quiet for a moment. "What happened to Nova Prime?"
Clickbait was first to answer her, "he was assassinated, a-at a senate meeting-g, actually. No one k-knows who did it-t still."
Before Clickbait could even continue with explaining some of the other events that the holofilm hadn't mentioned. A loud cheer came from Starstruck, "YEAAH! LET'S GO!! FINALLY!!”
She exclaimed, startling both Clickbait and Remix so badly that the cassette had physically jumped back and almost tripped over themself.
The white plated mech's celebration continued for a klik, until she finally to reign her joy back in. "Terribly sorry about that. I hate that disgrace of a Prime with every circuit in my frame. Never did think I'd be online long enough to see the solar cycle he deactivated."
It gave a small laugh, choosing not to focus on that last bit of what she'd said. "Y-You're….really taking this n-news a lot better-r than I thought y-you would."
Starstruck optics landed on Clickbait's own with a sharpness of a blade, "oh trust me, I am not. I'm choosing to focus on something else than the fact I missed the last ten million stellar cycles."
"It's been over fifteen actually." Remix corrected without missing a beat.
"You're not helping!" Clickbait chided Remix.
The room then settled into an awkward silence, as Clickbait started to realize the gravity of the situation. Starstruck had missed... well everything. When she got to Cybertron, would she even recognize it? Most cities had been razed by both sides; Kaon had burned; the Crystal City was shattered; the grand towers of Vos had been annihilated; lacon was a rebuilt but not without scars. While the reconstruction efforts had been going on for the last few hundred stellar cycles, some parts of Cybertron was still a skeleton of debris.
Clickbait didn't even want to begin to think of if Starstruck had any family.
Remix was the first to break the silence that they had created. "So, Starstruck, do you wanna get dropped off on Cybertron? We can land pretty much anywhere I think, any preference? Polyhex? Altihex? Somewhere that doesn't end in 'hex'?"
A look at fear flashed across Starstruck's optics, as she laid a servo over the top of the barrel of her built in blasters. "I'm not going to Cybertron." She replied as firm as she could.
The cassette player offered her a smile, "that's c-cool, where do-o you wanna go t-then?"
"There's a planet I must get to. It's called- oh... oh Primus, I don't remember! It was blue- I think- a blue and green planet? Mostly blue though, it's organic too. Maybe? Ah- I swore I'd remember its name- dear Primus!" Starstruck sputtered, visibly distressed.
Clickbait thought for a klik, a green and blue organic planet? There were plenty of organic planets but blue and... wait.
"Are you ta-talking about Earth?" It offered.
Barely a nano-klik later, Starstruck nodded so fast that it was surprised that she hadn't pulled something. "YES- uh, I mean yes. I have to get to Earth."
Remix then pipped up, "how do you know about Earth..? The Cybertronian Empire didn't reach that far back then."
She was quiet for a moment, before ex-venting from behind her battle mask. "If I told you, you'd think me crazy. I might've been left in stasis for over fifteen million stellar cycles, but I didn't lose my processor." Starstruck answered with an air of amusement.
Out of pure curiosity, Clickbait urged her on. "T-Try us."
The white plated mech laughed slightly, "fine." Starstruck was quiet for a klik. "I... I had a conversation with Primus."
Well...that wasn't what Clickbait had been expecting.
"He- she- they- it..? Told me that I had a sibling there, and I must get there no matter what." Starstruck continued.
Remix's optics were wide and had a look of disbelief that Clickbait wasn't entirely sure if they were attempting to hold back a laugh. Though, the cassette player took Starstruck's words to spark.
Even though there was a battle mask covering her derma, it could tell that Starstruck was giving a sort of sad smile. "Just as I thought, you think me crazy, don't-"
"We'll get you to earth." Clickbait said before she could finish.
Remix looked at their boss with a pure look of surprise and confusion that the cassette had seldom used. As despite Clickbait being the more spontaneous of the two, it'd never gone this far.
"WE WILL???" They questioned.
"You will??" Starstruck asked a nano-klik later, with the same kind of confusion and surprise as Remix.
The black and red plated mech nodded resolutely, while making optic contact with its cassette, "Y-yeah, we'll g-get you to-o earth, Starstruck-k."
Despite static cutting in and out of Clickbait's voice, it was still firm with its promise. A fact which made it's cassette even more confused.
::Meet me on the bridge.:: Remix messaged it over their commlink, while shooting it a look at could've stopped the spark of anyone who didn't know the cassette.
Without another word, Remix left the medbay. Leaving Starstruck and Clickbait in an actually relatively peaceful quiet. The cassette-player's good optic rested on her frame, where Clickbait came to the realization that she reminded it of the statues of Prima Prime -which by the way, was a horrible name- that it'd seen back on Caminus. Made of marble and glittering gold, with the mythical Star Saber at his side.
Subconsciously, Clickbait wondered if her coloration was on purpose, whether by her own choice, her creators, or pure coincidence.
"Thank you, Clickbait of..." the cassette-player tuned back into the apparent conversation that they were having. "My apologies- how should I refer to you?"
Clickbait tilted its helm, "huh? You can just ca-c-call me Clickbait-t."
Starstruck looked almost offended, "what..? You're both the captain of the ship and my host. I should refer to you in a respectful manner as...you're my superior, shouldn't I?"
"Eh, I'm barely a c-captain if I-I'm honest-t. You d-don't gotta do that-t." It reassured her, "and I'm n-not your superior, I'm just-t trying to do the right-t thing."
She looked at Clickbait for a while, a look of pure confusion persisted in her optics. For a klik, it wondered why, but then had a realization that made it feel kind of dumb. Starstruck was from the golden age. Language had changed a lot since then; she was going by the conversation customs she knew.
"Oh..." she said softly, looking towards the floor. "Well in that case, thank you, Clickbait. You are far kinder than anyone I've ever known." Starstruck admitted.
Something about the way that Starstruck had said that made its spark hurt. She'd known it for barely a joor, and somehow Clickbait was the kindest mech she's met...huh. Kind was not a word that Clickbait would use to describe itself, but apparently a word that Starstruck would use for Clickbait.
Though before it could ruminate on whatever that meant, Clickbait remembered that Remix was still waiting in the bridge for it. "Hey, Starstruck-k, I'm real sorry-y but 'Mix needs me i-in the bridge. I'll be back in a k-klik" It explained.
She nodded and without another word, Clickbait left the medbay and made its way through the halls of the ship towards the bow. The doors slid open revealing the bridge, and in the captain's chair sat a very unamused cassette.
Remix forcefully ex-vented, "so, we have something to talk about, don’t we?"
"Yeah, g-guess we do." Clickbait admitted.
Remix looked at it pointedly, "you can't seriously be trusting her, right?"
"I absolutely a-am." Clickbait's derma slopped into a frown, "and I d-don't know w-why you d-don't."
The cassette's optics sharpened, "we don't know anything about her; where she's from; why she was buried in junk; if she's telling the truth about anything she's said." Remix hummed, "and she also pointed a blaster at you!"
"D-do you seriously think t-that she's a setup or s-something??" It argued back. "That-t she's been waiting i-in a pile of trash o-on Junkion for... what-t? Us? Y-you saw her i-injuries. Why in the n-na-name of Solus would anyone-ne do that to themself-f?"
Remix was quiet as they thought Clickbait's words over. "Okay, fine. Let's say that she's telling the truth and has somehow been in stasis for the last couple million stellar cycles. And somehow had a conversation with Primus. How are we gonna get her all the way to earth?"
Clickbait gave a sort of noncommittal shrug. "We space br-bridge her over to e-earth, in our ship..? Kinda-a simple plan."
"Boss, we can't get to earth. It'd be way too much strain on the ship- this thing wasn't made for space bridges!" The cassette retorted.
It thought for a klik. "If we c-can't get to earth t-through a space bridge-e, then why can't w-we just fly there-e-re without one?"
Remix went to argue, but stopped themself as Clickbait wasn't actually wrong. If they avoided space bridges, then they could-in theory- get to earth that way.
"You're not completely wrong, but going all the way to earth and back would cut into business. And what if we run out of shanix? There's so much that could go wrong." They reasoned with Clickbait.
Between the two of them, it was no secret that the cassette had the common sense. In fact, if Clickbait remembered it right, Remix was the one who first came up with their scheme during the war. It was genius looking back on it; stealing shanix away from Autobots and Deceptions alike, and protecting Caminus at the same time. Though an unintended effect of this plan had been Clickbait becoming a sort of local legend.
It wondered sometimes if it could get 'The Siren of Caminus' on a sticker or something?
“You're right. But, Mix, try t-to ease up a b-bit. What if you-u thought of it l-like a vacation?" It offered.
They looked at Clickbait with a fair bit of skepticism, but their optics also held a curious twinge in them. "A vacation?"
It smiled, "yeah!" T-Think about it! We could-d go around the ga-a-galaxy doing whatever we w-want, and end the trip at e-earth and drop off Star-r? We could even sell to-o new clients o-on planets we've never b-been to! Think of the im-i-improved c-circulation!" Clickbait enticed, though they still needed more convincing.
The cassette player made direct optic contact with its cassette. "I promise we c-can go to one o-of your lobbing-g tournaments."
"DEAL!"
Clickbait laughed, it was lucky it knew the best way to bribe them. There wasn't much that Remix loved more than lobbing. While it never really understood the appeal of sports as a whole, it was always glad to hear Remix go on and on about crazy matches that make zero sense.
Though after a klik of elation, Remix's excitement ebbed. "While I don't really trust her...l'm willing to take a gamble, I think. Though if she tries to steal my snacks she's going out the airlock." They tacked on at the end, adding the playfulness that Remix
"Wouldn't e-expect anything less from-m you, 'Mix." Clickbait smiled lightly. "Now, could'ja d-do me a favor a-a-and set the autopilot-t to Velocitron?"
Remix swiveled around in their chair to the ship's controls. "Huh? Why Velocitron?"
Clickbait watched as its cassette fiddled with the controls. "I might've p-patched her up, but S-S-Starstruck needs a real m-medic. And I h-happen to know-w one on Velocitron w-who's a friend of mine-e."
Remix shrugged, "whatever you say, boss."
A klik later, the ship's engines flicked on and began lifting off the surface of Junkion. The planet's scarlet atmosphere darkened, and dissipated into the blackness of space. Stars glistened in the far off distance, illuminating an otherwise desolate view. No matter how much Clickbait would look out into space, it never got boring, as the mere idea of the endless expanse of planets and life made it feel less alone. It was comforting in a way, it supposed.
Though, as Clickbait watched the scene through the windshield, it began to feel like it had forgotten something...
Wait.
"Oh f-frag! I gotta g-go check on S-Starstruck!" The cassette player realized.
It left the bridge as fast as it could, and ran through the oddly off-blue halls that'd been repaired countless times over the stellar cycles.
Clickbait reached the medbay, not knowing what it was going to find. Hopefully Starstruck would be calm, and know that the shaking of the ship was completely fine and that they were just taking off. Though, it was also preparing itself for something else.
Though, when the door to the medbay slid to the side, the cassette player's spark stopped whenever it found that Starstruck wasn't there.
Once more, the top ten list of things of things Clickbait had been expecting had reached a new lowest level.
Panic began creep in, as where in the pits could Starstruck be?? She was a large mech, it shouldn't be too hard to find her, right?
As fast as it could, Clickbait searched the ship for the white plated mech. It quickly went through the common room, the kitchen, even both of the storage though still, there was no sign of her.
Though, just before the cassette player was going to message Remix to come help it look for Starstruck, Clickbait looked into the observation deck. It was a room that was mostly unused, and because of this, the room was barely decorated. It had an old couch that they'd picked up at least a few hundred stellar cycles ago. The walls were a darker shade of blue than the rest of the ship, and lacked the typical dents and visible signs of repair that the rest of the ship was adorned with. Though the real focus of the observation deck was the floor to ceiling windows that looked out into space.
But the only thing in the room that Clickbait cared about was the white plated mech who was standing at the window with one servo on the glass.
Starstruck stood there, transfixed by the view outside. In the distance, the warm pinks of an emission nebula painted space in warm hues. Light from newborn and dying stars alike shone through the layers of gases that illuminated the otherwise blackness of space in gentle light.
However, Starstruck wasn't just looking at the stars.
In the reflection of the window, she was staring back at herself. Clickbait could see the way that her optics moved up and down her frame. They caught on the ugliness of Clickbait's somewhat botched repair job. Her chassis had a place where the bright yellow paint had chipped away and replaced by the uneven welding marks. Her left antenna was being held together with a energon patch wrapped around itself. Parts of her plating had been cut away, and placed back together with a patch covering it up.
Despite all of this, Starstruck somehow looked...happy.
"I'm really out, aren't I?" She asked quietly, and Clickbait realized that for some reason it could hear her so much clearer now.
The cassette player moved closer to her, when it figured out why her voice was so much clearer than previously. Starstruck's battle mask had transformed away.
Clickbait looked up at her, an odd feeling spread through its spark. "Yeah, y-yeah you are."
She looked down at it, and in the pink glow of the nebula in the far distance, it saw her faceplate. Her faceplate was white, and had pieces missing from either side, revealing the gray hues of the protoform underneath. Starstruck's optics sparkled in the starlight, its luminescence caught by the small trails of washer fluid that trailed from her optics.
The red plated mech watched as the corners of her derma turn up in a smile. Quietly she muttered only two words, and somehow with only two words Clickbait's spark burned brighter.
"Thank you."