Starscream's gaze flattens. He assumes neutrality means something different here, what with the war being over, but admittedly he wasn't expecting...that response. He feels a little called out, frankly. No good liar -- and he does consider himself one, if maybe not in those exact words -- really likes being called out as such, but that's still a more vicious take than he was expecting.

"Well, maybe if you hadn't rolled over and let the Autobots walk all over you," he says bitingly, more than happy to assume that that's how that went down, because he'd like very much to blame this universe's Starscream's neutrality on Megatron, but it still doesn't...sit quite right with him, and it shows. He won't deny he wants power, to an extent, but mostly what that's meant for him is getting to do more exciting science, take more credit, and find a way to kick Strika out of Megatron's good graces so he can be second-in-command instead. But it sounds so bad when Megatron says it. And those are definitely not his main talents.