Warnings: Mild mention of violence.
Spoilers: Season 3
Obligatory Disclaimer: I own no part of Beast Wars or any of its characters. Please do not sue Chao-chan!
Walking on Air
"Of all the thirty-six alternatives, running is best."
-Chinese Proverb
He had always been a flier.
Not of want or need or any sort of recommendation handed to him by others, but that he had simply always been. Flying allowed one a faster way to escape.
Flight capabilities on Cybertron had meant a faster, more efficient way of traveling throughout the bustling, crowded pedestrians that plagued the metallic planet.
On Mecha, he had needed flight to transport the colony imports from the landing base back to the colony itself. Without the energy sources needed to fuel such a vast pioneering operation, the entire population of Cybertronians would have died almost immediately on the planet's energy-deprived surface. Would have, anyway, if Depth Charge hadn't been there.
On Omicron, flight had given him a birds-eye view of the utter desecration, death, and ruin of the colony. Shocked, horrified, and terrified as he had been, it too had given him the advantage of his seemingly indestructible planetary companion.
The only other transformer left alive that day.
And on Starbase Rugby, flight had been the final advantage that had allowed him to finally capture Protoform X and bring him in for justice.
All of that had been taken away.
"When are you going to stop running?"
Depth Charge sped up, his engines roaring to life abruptly, blue fire flaring behind him. He could not lose his focus. Distraction in the hunt for Rampage would mean death to the hunter who followed. The hunt demanded absolute focus, power, courage, and fierce prowess. And nothing less.
Passing over a lake, Depth Charge dodged as water kicked up behind his tail, nearly extinguishing his jet engine. A quiet curse answered the mistake. Carelessness, too, was a killer.
He had seen far too many retreat into carelessness.
"When are you going to stop running?"
One of his fins grazed a tree, snapping it in half; he didn't bother to watch it fall, knowing full well that he had destroyed it. Once something was dead and gone, there was no reason to return and attempt to resurrect. The past was the past.
It did not matter to him, either, that the falling tree struck a defenseless animal in its terrible fall. Had not mattered as it lie suffering, neck broken, its cries muffled by the blood rising in its throat. Nothing really mattered to Depth Charge. Except the hunt.
But he did not see it suffering. He did not watch it slowly fade away into death. That was yet another benefit of flying. He had passed right over the scene, over the fallen, broken body, so that he would not have to face it. Just like on Omicron, where he had kept his eyes on the skies ahead, and not the twisted, ravaged corpses of the former colonists.
"When are you going to stop running?"
Depth Charge swerved, avoiding an overhanging boulder, body shuddering. When he was going to stop running...That was a pile of slag some head doctor had queried him about on Cybertron. He had been forced to see a couple of them after he had demanded the right of the Maximal Council to hunt down Rampage. They had claimed the therapeutic sessions might ease the pain of what had happened on Omicron and help him face the memories.
What a pile of slag. There was nothing that could erase what he had seen or heal the scars he bore. And he wasn't running. There was nothing to run from. Depth Charge was a hunter. Protoform X was the hunted. There was no alternative...
"When are you going to stop running?"
A transmitter hidden beneath his armor went off suddenly in alarm as it sensed X. Depth Charge narrowed his optics and increased his engines to maximum output. He had learned long ago that X's spark left a particular energy behind wherever he went. And when he had finally gotten to the point where he had the monster down, when he'd been ripping into the armor, reaching down and ripping out some of that essence and making it his own...
Who was the monster now?
He spotted X as he turned the corner of a sharp canyon, standing on the edge of the cliff, the wind whipping around him. The tempest fury in calm waters. Sharp jade eyes turned to bore through him.
And as they did, as it inevitably always was, he saw himself again. Not on serene Earth, but amidst the bodies and ruins of Omicron and Starbase Rugby. Lost in the chaos and fear of the moment. Flying and running as fast as he could, walking on air, tearing away from the images that stalked and plagued him deep into the long, bloody night, away from the monster that left him alive to live for the hunt, the creature that he had become...
"When are you going to stop running?"
Depth Charge transformed in mid air and slammed into Rampage, sending them both skidding them across the rocks.
Never. I'll never stop running.
He began clawing towards his spark...
But why?
Green eyes bore through him as he ripped and tore at armor, hungry for blood.
Because then he'll catch me.