The Truth
By: Niteflite
Niteflite sat in her room, thinking about what has been happening since she had left her home. Her parents should know that she was gone by now. For that matter, so should their owners! Oh, Primus, what have I done? Suddenly, she regretted leaving without her parents. The aliens would surely punish Tigatron and Airrazor for the insubordination that their offspring had shown.
At that moment, Optimus walked into her quarters unannnounced. "I hope that I'm not interrupting anything, Niteflite, but I need you to go scout the terrain. I need to know if there is any more unstable energon."
"Fine. I was hoping to see more of your natural world, anyway. I have been feeling almost claustrophobic!"
Optimus was very confused. "Natural world? Could you please tell me more about the aliens?"
"Uh, not now. You wanted me to check for energon?" She cursed herself silently for letting anything slip about the alien home world.
"Oh, yes." Remembering something else, he called to her as she walked out the door, "And since you don't know the sectors around us, I'm sending Cheetor with you."
I'm really sorry that I had to distract Optimus like that, but I don't want to tell them of all the "tests" that we were subjected to. Then she paused and asked something else on her mind. "Why Cheetor?"
"Everyone else is busy, and I think that your presence can show him that it's not his fault that he didn't get to your parents on time." Smiling, he added, "Aren't you ever going to go? Or do I have the right to ask some questions of my own?"
Niteflite gave a little jump and ran out. Otimus shook his head as she sped through the ship. If only she'd tell us what they'd experianced with the aliens.
"Okay, the first coordinates are just up ahead, can you see it?"
"Huh? Oh yeah, I can just make it out. You do fly much faster than I with those jets."
Cheetor laughed, loud enough for Niteflite to hear over the rushing wind. "Alright, let's test these jets! How aboout a race to the first coordinates? Any way you want against me flying!"
"You're on!" Before Cheetor could push his speed any further that he already was soaring, she dove straight towards the flat ground. For one heart-stopping second, it seemed as if her gears would be scattered all over the ground. In the next second, she was running directly below Cheetor, using her leathery wings to propel herself.
Cheetor yelled down, "Hey, not bad, but watch out for the canyon!" Niteflite simply smiled up at him.
Niteflite folded her wings flat against her back and sprinted with uncommon speed just enough to land on their destination a nano before Cheetor.
She looked around. This place was a spectacular sight to behold. Directly behind them loomed the enormous canyon, apparently cut into the rock by the trickling river at the base. On either side of the canyon was prairie land, stretching as far as her optics could detect, and mountains framing that. As she turned around, taking in the vista, she noticed Cheetor staring at her, slack-jawed. "What is it?" she asked.
He replied, "It's probably nothin', but no one's been able to beat me in any race, ever. I just want to know how you managed that."
"Well, I just did that sort of thing to keep our owners happy, and if we didn't do unexpected things every time, they got bored." She giggled. "I suppose my escape will leave them excited for a while longer!"
Cheetor continued to staring at his friend. I wish I really knew what she means.
"Tigatron, what do we do? Nietflite is gone. What will 'owners' say?"
"Do not worry, Airazor. 'Friend' helped her to escape. Let us only hope that she returned to the Beast Wars. If not, Primus help her, let us not even think such things."
"But there are so many things that can harm our daughter! Will 'owners' find her? Will she be scrapped by the Preds? Oh, Tigatron, I'm so scared."
"Me too, my dear. Me too."
Meanwhile…Where did the offspring go, our offspring? It is the most important element of our tests. We must know how it became two organisms instead of simply one.
"Friend" squirmed under its parents' bright pools of light. It missed Niteflite, no matter how much it was glad that she was safe. At least you definitely knew where you were looking when you looked at the solid "pets"!
She might have gotten lost, when I took them to the Hub. "Friend" hoped that its parents wouldn't see the purple tinge to its light that proved that tension had shown up.
Well then, she must be found, no matter what!
Of course, at once.
"Nothin' here, let's head on."
"Yeah, only two more to go. The sooner the better, right?" Both cats sprang to the air. Niteflite looked at the Transmetal in front of her.
She yelled over the roaring wind, "Hey, Cheetor!"
"What?"
"What"
"What?"
"Never mind!"
"What?"
"NEVER MIND!!!!!!!"
"WHAT?"
"I'LL TELL YOU WHEN WEW LAND!!!!!!!!!"
"I CAN'T HEAR YOU!! YOU'LL HAVE TO TELL ME WHEN WE GET THERE!!"
Niteflite laugher into the rushing air. Hearing peals of laughter ringing forth behind him, Cheetor began to chuckle. Soon, the cats were laughing so hard that they had to land and laugh 'till they couldn't laugh anymore. Cheetor looked up at the fuzor as the mirth passed.
"What was that all about?"
"I was trying to ask you if anything survived the shock that the aliens caused to Earth. I wish I could see paradises that my father talked about so often. Do you think that they were all destroyed?"
"Well, your parents would know better than anyone now around, but I think they said that they couldn't find any plant life anywhere. I think they started to worry about the fate of the animals here."
"Oh no! That's terrible! That kind of thing can't go on, I must see a plant, any plant! Cheetor, do you know what it's like to hear about something wonderful your entire life, and when you finally get a chance to see it, it is wiped off the face of the planet?"
Cheetor looked at the face of the panter-bat. Her eyes were wider than normal, and she expressed genuine, no, regret wasn't the word, the emotion was too strong for that. All this over weeds What is so special about something that grows out of the ground? Okay, yeah, she is Tigatron's daughter. But... "Okay, no. I don't. I'm sorry."
Niteflite's eyes widened is suprise. "I'm sorry too, but for a different reason. I didn't know that I could explode like that. It was unexpected by me too."
"That's find. I know that Tigatron and Airazor have been all over the place, and they probably know that planet better than anybody, but I can't believe that everything is dead."
"Thanks. I hope you're right. Let's keep going."
Cheetor watched her spring into the air and spread her thin wings. Strong enough to carry the whole Maximal team through, but fragile enough to snap at the smallest thing, just like her wings. Who! Where'd that come from? Dude, Cheetor, don't go all wise on me now. I've got a carefree rep to keep. "Hey, wait for me!"
Meanwhile, at the Predacon base
"Megatron, something weird is going on with the Maximals. They have a new one in the ranks. They say that there was no pod, but how else could she show up?"
"Hmm. Yess. How else could anyone show up indeed? You assume too much, Blackarachnia. There are other ways than by pod that one can arrive. A ship, for example." Megatron smiled. "Or perhaps some othe mode of transportation. Yess. This new Maximal may have nothing at all to do with a pod."
Blackarachnia stood before Megatron, bored. Sometimes she just had to snap him out of talking to himself.
"Yeah, that's just fine, and all, but what's the big deal? The main point is that there is a new Maximal to deal with."
Megatron simply rolled his optics. "It is not just a new Maximal that we must deal with. There is always something more that my inferiors (that would be everyone except for me) cannot see."
"Yeah, sure."
"Niteflite, uhh..., I hate to ask, but I'm dying to know..., uhh, you said that Tigatron was your father, right?"
She turned from the view at the next post. "Yes. And Airazor is my mother. Why? They were still alive when I left them, but I wouldn't know how they are now. It took eighteen years in the alien world to match two weeks here, I think."
"Wow, really?"
"How do you think I got so grown-up in so little time?"
"Umm.... Well, what else is different about the alien world?"
"Niteflite sqirmed. I knew this would happen. I knew someone would ask me about this. Well, I don't have to tell him too much, right? Right. "Well, no energon here, I'll tell you at the next spot." Niteflite transformed and jumped into othe air.
"Huh? Wait! Why won't you answer the question?" Cheetor transformed and zoomed after her. Flying up beside the other cat, he asked, "Are you OK?"
"Yeah, but I don't know how my parents are."
She landed, and Cheetor followed suit. "I mean, what if 'owners' decide that they need to perform new tests? I have no idea how long I've been gone from my home world. It could have been a couple weeks, or a decade. Time moves differently there."
Cheetor was amazed. Big Cat could be dead? No. I won't even think it., At least I'm getting Niteflite to tell me about the aliens. "Nite? Uhh... What do the aliens, umm, look like? But please don't fly off."
"That I have no trouble answering. The aliens have no names. We called some 'owners', their child was 'friend', and the entity that we were taken to was 'leader'."
"How did they figure out who's who?"
"That's what I'd like to know, too. But I guess they could tell by the way they looked. They looked almost like sparks, but with less substance. One thing that had amazed them about Mom and Dad was that they could stay in solid form for most of their lives."
"Whoa. But please tell me, were Big Cat and Airazor undamaged when you left?"
"They were find, Little Cat. I hope that my escape bought then time to relax from any test that may have hurt them."
"Know what? I don't think I would be 'Little Cat' anymore. I think I've grown enough to be 'Big Cat'."
"That's fine. I'll be 'Little Cat'. It does fit me better."
The two cats sprung into the air, heading toward the final coordinates they had to check. As she flapped agaist the roaring wind, Niteflite thoughy, Cheetor reallly seemed to care about what I said. He is so considerate. A little dense, but sweet.
Wow, Cheetor thought. She went through all that? She's braver than I thought. No wonder she's Tigatron and Airazor's daughter. I can definately see how she got to be so beautiful. "Hey, look, there's the last coordinates. Wow. They're almost as beautiful as Ni- umm... the last place we were."
"Hey, Big Cat. I'm going to transform and scan the place, all right?"
Cheetor chickled. "Sure Little Cat." She sure caught on fast.
Niteflite turned a full circle, allowing her sensors to pick up the information they needed. This place was just as pictureque asthe other places, but like them, devoid of any life. Her readouts arrived, stating what she'd expected, that any energon here is stable, but there was something else in the readings which she'd never seen before.
"Cheetor, there's only stable energon here. I'm going to check out something else that is turning up on my scanners." Niteflite began following the direction of her sensors. She didn't have to go far before her sensor began to flash like a strobe light. Oh no. I don't know what this is a sensor for. Maybe it detects Preds! She peeked cautiously around the corner.
"Cheetor! Come see! What is it? It's so beautiful."
Cheetor cane skidding over. "Whoa. I guess you got your wish. That's a flower."
Niteflite was amazed. "Wow." Cheetor saw the delight in her eyes. He though, If she likes is so much, I'll pick it for her. Cheetor moved to pluck the plant.
Niteflite stopped him. "No. Let's leave it there for others to grow."
Cheetor smiled. "Okay." Suddenly feeling a burts of courage, Cheetor moved to kiss her cheek. Niteflite turned to say something. Lips met lips.
Stunned, Niteflite smiled around the kiss. She had a slight idea about what a kiss means, from watching her parents. Strange, but it felt right, as if it should have happened long ago. Almost too soon, they pulled apart.
Cheetor grinned sheepishly. What do you say after you kiss someone? Well, I don't have anything to say, but I know she will understand.
"Umm, Cheetor?"
"Yeah?"
"What happens now?"
"I dunno. What would the aliens do?"
"I don't know what they did afterwards, but I do know what my parents did."
"And?"
"They got on with their lives. We probably will as well, but with one exception."
"What's that, Nite?"
She slipped her hand into that cat's jaw that served for Cheetor's hand. "We won't be alone."