Starscream's Ghost

Octane, last seen hoarding oil in the Middle East, is getting himself some goods on the planet Junk while Galvatron wants him dead for no apparent reason, and sends a Skuxxoid over there to do the job for him. Placing a time bomb in the junk piling into his ship, Octane takes off oblivious to this certain doom, and sets about...

Well, man has needs.
 

The bomb explodes seconds later, totalling his ship but sending him spiralling unharmed through space, until another ship passes by and drops a rope to him, pulling him in and revealing a motley bunch offering unspeakable edibles. After asking for simply finding a safe place to stay, he's dropped off on Earth and tells his tale to Sandstorm, believing he's still being followed during the discussion, but his Autobot buddy just thinks he's a bit nutty.
 

Since Sandstorm blames Octane's paranoid activity on him being an older model, the Decepticon gets mildly pissed and proposes a race, taking to the sky while the Combaticons wait until their race is over before striking, firing only at Octane. Using Sandstorm's flaw to their advantage, the Autobot enters helicopter form and lets Octane board him, using his vapour trails to slow down the Combaticons so they can escape with relative ease.

Arriving at a space restaurant, the Skuxxoid from earlier offers them free entry in and they set about eating odd-looking energon and discussing Galvatron's attempts at silencing the traitor, when the Skuxxoid is hiding behind a pillar and aiming a tiny gun at Octane's back! This is meant to be shocking.
 

Before the Skuxxoid can fire, an alien bumps into him and sends his shot ricocheting all over the place, causing everyone to bump into everything and ends up with another alien eating his gun. Resorting to a more blatant attack form, the Skuxxoid unpins a grenade and attempts to throw it, but a departing party (who talk a load of space garbage on their way out) keep getting in his way until he's knocked down and sends the grenade rolling out and exploding in the shuttle park.

With his weapons destroyed, the Skuxxoid just resorts to hopping on Octane's shoulder and battering him with his fists, the Decepticon finally noticing the little guy, though with a gentle squeeze he reveals that he was hired by Galvatron to take the job. With this knowledge, Sandstorm and Octane decide Cybertron to be the safest place to hide.

However, Cyclonus and Scourge somehow know of this and use the foggy exhaust of an entering shuttle to enter undetected and fire upon Octane, beginning an airborne chase through the city.

It doesn't last long before he's cornered against a drainage grate, which is helpfully blasted open for Octane to escape through. Failing at softening his fall, he finds himself in a crypt of fallen Decepticon Seekers and apparently feels the need to ask these statues for help, especially after causing the Starscream statue's leg to fall off. After hearing a noise, he attempts to make a break for it but is too panic stricken to do so, because...

It's Starscream!

The ghost of his former comrade helps straighten out his wacky transformations, and offers him a deal: He will help Starscream get even with Galvatron, and the fallen Decepticon will get him out of the whole betrayal mess; Scourge and the Sweeps, meanwhile, bicker about who'll be entering the crypt first, and begin searching for their traitor.

Cyclonus eventually finds him cowering behind a statue, but Starscream intervenes by possessing Cyclonus' body before Octane can be blasted, and the Decepticons set off for Chaar to give him to Galvatron. Along the way, however, Sandstorm attempts to save his buddy, only to get shot down in a single blast.
 

The Aerialbots are dispatched while the Decepticons explode a building to create an ideal battlefield, with Ultra Magnus, Kup and Rodimus Prime joining the fight. Starscream blames Octane for the mess they're currently in, but after reversing the blame a couple of times Rodimus Prime steps in and demands Octane be let go, but is shocked to hear the voice of Starscream come from Cyclonus' mouth. The thought-to-be-deceased Decepticon claims Octane is free to go, and the Decepticons make an exit, leaving the Autobots rather confused as to what the hell happened.
 

Galvatron claims he wanted Octane destroyed, but Cyclonus states that he would leave that task to the emperor of destruction himself, receiving an agreement to this plan and a great line.

After a fake interrogation session with Starscream, Octane squeals about the Autobots and the three of them land on a barren planet where Rodimus is busy staring at giant structures. Galvatron begins duelling in melee combat with Rodimus, but after being socked a few times decides to cheat and enter cannon mode, but still gets his ass kicked. "Down, but not out," he claims...

But of course, a Decepticon isn't the only one who can cheat.

Starscream and Octane make an exit, where the deceased Seeker sits upon the throne and believes Galvatron to be finished, only for the big guy to come stumbling in and want some answers to his minion's antics. Starscream puts on his real voice and reunites with his reborn master, to which Galvatron really overreacts. After the usual argument, Galvatron prepares to blast his minion to oblivion once again...

Only for Starscream to leave his body and have Cyclonus be the one suffering with the gaping wound. Hoping this is the last he sees of his less obedient minion, Galvatron demands Cyclonus be repaired and walks off, oblivious to the fact Starscream having taken Scourge as his new body.

So, how exactly would throwing a rope to someone in space work? Aren't tractor beams meant to fulfil that task?

Octane is the receiver of scorn when he swipes Trypticon in Thief in the Night, but is forgiven when it turns out he made a better form of energon that's made him stronger. You could say that Galvatron went back to hating him after Trypticon was thrown into the ocean again, but it's really because this was written for Blitzwing, who was banished by the last part of The Five Faces of Darkness, and was changed to feature a newer toy, along with Sandstorm filling a role that Springer was once in. I just enjoy trying to explain absurdities. :]

This episode provides a rare insight to Cyclonus' biology!

Yikes.

There's a ridiculous amount of lips drawn on the characters in this episode. I mention this because Cyclonus looks like an ugly fashion-sense-lacking vampire when he has them.