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kristenskI will do a general update and Christmas wrap-up. But, first, I realized I'd never posted this oneshot here.
So, childhood favorite, Transformers (via the 1980's cartoon), dragged me back in with the "Transformers One" movie. Then, the fanfics sold me on the fanon version of these three as brothers. I'm a sucker for brothers even if their care for one another only exists (tenuously) in the comics. And, only between Thundercracker and Skywarp. Anyways...
Title: The Wind is Full of a Thousand Voices
Author: Kristen Sharpe
Date: October 31, 2025
Rating: PG for robot violence.
Author's Note: As usual, my first entry in a fandom I've never written for before is some weird semi-AU nonsense. Set roughly in the G1 cartoon universe, referencing the movie, but scrambling events.
This came about after reading the fanfic Immortal Threat where the author played with the idea of Starscream's immortal spark more as him resurrecting shortly after being killed. Repeatedly and publicly. My friend, MintySageSK, and I started tossing some jokes about our own take on that back and forth before it evolved into a semi-coherent story of its own. This is a spin-off from all of that but hopefully can stand alone. The title is taken from the lyrics to Loreena McKennitt's "All Souls Night".
---------------------------------------------
How had it come to this, Thundercracker thought, as he used the last gasp of his remaining thruster to push himself toward Skywarp’s death-gray frame. He grabbed onto a wing with his free hand, Starscream limp under his other arm. The three of them tumbled gently in space.
They’d gotten careless. It was obvious now, but it had happened so gradually.
At first, they’d been keenly aware that Starscream was immortal, but he and Skywarp weren’t. And, at first, they’d been shielded by Megatron’s shock over Starscream’s repeated resurrections and their carefully constructed façade of dislike for one another.
They’d kept that façade up so long it almost became real. Could anyone blame them for dropping it as soon as they defected?
Thundercracker blamed himself. He was supposed to be the cautious one.
Sparks trailed away from what was left of his right leg. Coolant and energon were venting steadily from the hole in his chest.
He glanced down at Starscream, who fit in his hold all too well with both of his wings ripped away. But, he was gray and still. Thundercracker wasn’t sure if it would be worse for his wingleader to come back in time to watch him deactivate or to wake up tangled in his brothers’ lifeless frames.
Either way, it would be what Megatron had wanted.
They’d forgotten when they finally defected and flew off where the wind took them. In the heady haze of freedom, they forgot the depths of Megatron’s spite and cruelty. Forgot death wasn’t the cruelest punishment.
As he was being reminded twice over.
Because there was something coming. Something that had been steadily closing in on them for a while now. Something huge and hungry. Something that scratched along the edges of his consciousness with the sound of endless screams.
Whatever it was, it touched that weird little place in his spark that had woken early in the war when he’d crouched beside a dying fellow Seeker and tried to comfort him while a particularly stubborn field medic did what he could. The Seeker had lived. Said Thundercracker’s voice reached him halfway to the Pit, and he followed it back. He had been the first but not the last to make that claim.
Thundercracker tried to search the distant stars, but his vision had become a riot of warnings and error codes. The spin wasn’t helping either as his gyros were offline, leaving him disoriented.
But, he could tell a light was moving closer.
It wasn’t a sun. That would have been merciful. And, whatever was approaching had no mercy or pity. Or life. There was warmth, but it wasn’t the searing life heat of a sun. It was the boiling heat of death.
The screams intensified.
His vision cut out in a flicker of static.
And, what he saw without optics was worse than he’d imagined.
It was hunger embodied. And, it was the size of a small planet. A planet with a gaping mouth and grasping tendrils. A planet writhing with the consumed, tormented dead, begging for release.
He gripped his brothers tighter.
A voice reverberated through him.
“You seem to be in quite a state. I would make you an offer.”
Warmth gusted over Thundercracker’s slowly freezing frame.
His optics onlined again, and he saw a mass of metal where the nightmare planet had been. It glittered with countless lights, like the Cybertron of his memory. A living metal world. It was almost welcoming.
But, the screams clawed at his spark.
Whatever this was, it wasn’t something to be bargained with. Nor, he knew, would it allow him to refuse.
“I can give you—” the voice continued.
He let his optics flicker out again, let the deep, vibrating voice flow over him and, instead, looked at the being’s true form. He looked at the twisted, tortured forms of beings similar to Cybertronians and beings that might have been organic. Once. All trapped, crying for release.
He hadn’t ever brought anyone back from the dead. He knew that. He didn’t have that kind of power. He didn’t even have Starscream’s level of ability.
He had… sometimes… guided the dying back. But, more often, he could only ease them on to a place he could sense but not reach.
And, that he might be able to do again. It would take everything he had and more, but there were things worse than death.
He brought his optics back online and looked toward his brothers. Already failing fans stuttered.
Through the warnings and the static he could see a light finally burning in Starscream’s gaping spark chamber, but it was Skywarp that he was focused on. The gray wing in his hand had darkened back to its familiar living black.
Maybe it was wishful thinking. Maybe it was his glitching vision.
But, it sent a surge of relief and hope through Thundercracker’s fading spark. A surge he pushed out in a sudden burst of desperate intent. Calling without words, “This way!” he reached for the screams.
And, with a roar, they came.
He couldn’t pull them back to life, but he could give them just enough direction and just enough strength to pull free.
The deep voice still trying to speak to him cut out in a growling wheeze. There was a sound like the world coming apart. He felt it echo in his frame and in his spark. Then, light.
Thundercracker let it carry him away and hoped only that his brothers would be safe.
He came online to Starscream swearing inventively in at least twelve languages.
“Hey, Screamer.”
There was another voice now. Skywarp.
Skywarp was—!
Several more curses were screeched as Thundercracker struggled to bring his optics online. His systems were still a mess of flashing warning lights.
“Screamer! It’s TC! Look!”
Silence.
“Well, it’s about time,” Starscream snapped at last, but the words had lost their usual sneer. Relief rolled under the sarcasm.
Thundercracker finally got his optics back on and found Starscream and Skywarp looking down at him. Skywarp was grinning, and Starscream was clearly trying not to do the same. Behind them stretched an endless sea of twisted metal debris.
“What?” he managed, realizing they too were drifting on a larger piece of debris.
“We should be asking you that,” said Starscream. “I was barely back online when an explosion nearly offlined me again.” He looked around. “Given the debris field, whatever was destroyed must have been the size of a planetoid. At least. We shouldn’t be even as intact as we are.”
“I told you,” said Skywarp, “TC’s ghosts just kinda wrapped around us. Said it was thanks.”
That was right. Skywarp had claimed to see ghosts before. And, often laughed at nothing then waved it off.
They had never been normal. All three of them, bound in life by a connection to death.
Starscream must have seen something in his face.
“Later,” he said when Thundercracker started his vocalizer again to even try to explain. “I’m faintly picking up a ship over long range comms. It must have been attracted by the explosion. Seems to be Autobots, so they’ll likely agree to collect us as charity cases.” The last was punctuated with a disgusted huff from his vents, but then his expression went distant as he sent a message.
Thundercracker just lay where he was. They were together, and they were alive. That was all he could ask.
---------------------------------------------
Notes: Did TC just blow up actual Unicron, the eldritch abomination planet-eater? Eh, maybe. Or maybe it was only an offshoot of Unicron. Now, did TC just do something out of a Dresden Files novel? Yes.
So, childhood favorite, Transformers (via the 1980's cartoon), dragged me back in with the "Transformers One" movie. Then, the fanfics sold me on the fanon version of these three as brothers. I'm a sucker for brothers even if their care for one another only exists (tenuously) in the comics. And, only between Thundercracker and Skywarp. Anyways...
Title: The Wind is Full of a Thousand Voices
Author: Kristen Sharpe
Date: October 31, 2025
Rating: PG for robot violence.
Author's Note: As usual, my first entry in a fandom I've never written for before is some weird semi-AU nonsense. Set roughly in the G1 cartoon universe, referencing the movie, but scrambling events.
This came about after reading the fanfic Immortal Threat where the author played with the idea of Starscream's immortal spark more as him resurrecting shortly after being killed. Repeatedly and publicly. My friend, MintySageSK, and I started tossing some jokes about our own take on that back and forth before it evolved into a semi-coherent story of its own. This is a spin-off from all of that but hopefully can stand alone. The title is taken from the lyrics to Loreena McKennitt's "All Souls Night".
---------------------------------------------
How had it come to this, Thundercracker thought, as he used the last gasp of his remaining thruster to push himself toward Skywarp’s death-gray frame. He grabbed onto a wing with his free hand, Starscream limp under his other arm. The three of them tumbled gently in space.
They’d gotten careless. It was obvious now, but it had happened so gradually.
At first, they’d been keenly aware that Starscream was immortal, but he and Skywarp weren’t. And, at first, they’d been shielded by Megatron’s shock over Starscream’s repeated resurrections and their carefully constructed façade of dislike for one another.
They’d kept that façade up so long it almost became real. Could anyone blame them for dropping it as soon as they defected?
Thundercracker blamed himself. He was supposed to be the cautious one.
Sparks trailed away from what was left of his right leg. Coolant and energon were venting steadily from the hole in his chest.
He glanced down at Starscream, who fit in his hold all too well with both of his wings ripped away. But, he was gray and still. Thundercracker wasn’t sure if it would be worse for his wingleader to come back in time to watch him deactivate or to wake up tangled in his brothers’ lifeless frames.
Either way, it would be what Megatron had wanted.
They’d forgotten when they finally defected and flew off where the wind took them. In the heady haze of freedom, they forgot the depths of Megatron’s spite and cruelty. Forgot death wasn’t the cruelest punishment.
As he was being reminded twice over.
Because there was something coming. Something that had been steadily closing in on them for a while now. Something huge and hungry. Something that scratched along the edges of his consciousness with the sound of endless screams.
Whatever it was, it touched that weird little place in his spark that had woken early in the war when he’d crouched beside a dying fellow Seeker and tried to comfort him while a particularly stubborn field medic did what he could. The Seeker had lived. Said Thundercracker’s voice reached him halfway to the Pit, and he followed it back. He had been the first but not the last to make that claim.
Thundercracker tried to search the distant stars, but his vision had become a riot of warnings and error codes. The spin wasn’t helping either as his gyros were offline, leaving him disoriented.
But, he could tell a light was moving closer.
It wasn’t a sun. That would have been merciful. And, whatever was approaching had no mercy or pity. Or life. There was warmth, but it wasn’t the searing life heat of a sun. It was the boiling heat of death.
The screams intensified.
His vision cut out in a flicker of static.
And, what he saw without optics was worse than he’d imagined.
It was hunger embodied. And, it was the size of a small planet. A planet with a gaping mouth and grasping tendrils. A planet writhing with the consumed, tormented dead, begging for release.
He gripped his brothers tighter.
A voice reverberated through him.
“You seem to be in quite a state. I would make you an offer.”
Warmth gusted over Thundercracker’s slowly freezing frame.
His optics onlined again, and he saw a mass of metal where the nightmare planet had been. It glittered with countless lights, like the Cybertron of his memory. A living metal world. It was almost welcoming.
But, the screams clawed at his spark.
Whatever this was, it wasn’t something to be bargained with. Nor, he knew, would it allow him to refuse.
“I can give you—” the voice continued.
He let his optics flicker out again, let the deep, vibrating voice flow over him and, instead, looked at the being’s true form. He looked at the twisted, tortured forms of beings similar to Cybertronians and beings that might have been organic. Once. All trapped, crying for release.
He hadn’t ever brought anyone back from the dead. He knew that. He didn’t have that kind of power. He didn’t even have Starscream’s level of ability.
He had… sometimes… guided the dying back. But, more often, he could only ease them on to a place he could sense but not reach.
And, that he might be able to do again. It would take everything he had and more, but there were things worse than death.
He brought his optics back online and looked toward his brothers. Already failing fans stuttered.
Through the warnings and the static he could see a light finally burning in Starscream’s gaping spark chamber, but it was Skywarp that he was focused on. The gray wing in his hand had darkened back to its familiar living black.
Maybe it was wishful thinking. Maybe it was his glitching vision.
But, it sent a surge of relief and hope through Thundercracker’s fading spark. A surge he pushed out in a sudden burst of desperate intent. Calling without words, “This way!” he reached for the screams.
And, with a roar, they came.
He couldn’t pull them back to life, but he could give them just enough direction and just enough strength to pull free.
The deep voice still trying to speak to him cut out in a growling wheeze. There was a sound like the world coming apart. He felt it echo in his frame and in his spark. Then, light.
Thundercracker let it carry him away and hoped only that his brothers would be safe.
He came online to Starscream swearing inventively in at least twelve languages.
“Hey, Screamer.”
There was another voice now. Skywarp.
Skywarp was—!
Several more curses were screeched as Thundercracker struggled to bring his optics online. His systems were still a mess of flashing warning lights.
“Screamer! It’s TC! Look!”
Silence.
“Well, it’s about time,” Starscream snapped at last, but the words had lost their usual sneer. Relief rolled under the sarcasm.
Thundercracker finally got his optics back on and found Starscream and Skywarp looking down at him. Skywarp was grinning, and Starscream was clearly trying not to do the same. Behind them stretched an endless sea of twisted metal debris.
“What?” he managed, realizing they too were drifting on a larger piece of debris.
“We should be asking you that,” said Starscream. “I was barely back online when an explosion nearly offlined me again.” He looked around. “Given the debris field, whatever was destroyed must have been the size of a planetoid. At least. We shouldn’t be even as intact as we are.”
“I told you,” said Skywarp, “TC’s ghosts just kinda wrapped around us. Said it was thanks.”
That was right. Skywarp had claimed to see ghosts before. And, often laughed at nothing then waved it off.
They had never been normal. All three of them, bound in life by a connection to death.
Starscream must have seen something in his face.
“Later,” he said when Thundercracker started his vocalizer again to even try to explain. “I’m faintly picking up a ship over long range comms. It must have been attracted by the explosion. Seems to be Autobots, so they’ll likely agree to collect us as charity cases.” The last was punctuated with a disgusted huff from his vents, but then his expression went distant as he sent a message.
Thundercracker just lay where he was. They were together, and they were alive. That was all he could ask.
---------------------------------------------
Notes: Did TC just blow up actual Unicron, the eldritch abomination planet-eater? Eh, maybe. Or maybe it was only an offshoot of Unicron. Now, did TC just do something out of a Dresden Files novel? Yes.
