To Be Free
by Lady Dementia
"Is each of us a creature free
Or trapped at birth by destiny?
Pity those who believe the latter;
Without freedom, nothing matters."
(Dean Koontz, The Book of Counted Sorrows)
.
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The Transmetal tyrant in the throne was sound asleep, head slumping to one side and his mouth slack. His tail-gun apparently had slipped off of the armrest and was dangling beside the throne, but his other hand was resting on a table next to him, where a glowing blue sphere was captured in a box. The room was dark and empty except for dim red lights.
Then the door cracked open, letting in bright white light.
Megatron didn't stir as the huge crab forced the door open even further, until he could fit through. Rampage crept forward, eyes on his spark, but paused as soon as he was in the room. A suspicious, cunning look entered his optics, and he glanced between the sleeping saurian and the box on the small table. Nothing Megatron had done in the time Rampage had been forced to know him indicated that grabbing his spark back could be this easy.
It must be a trap; another opportunity for Megatron to teach him a 'lesson in respect.' The purple fool had an irritating and painful habit of doing that to him in an attempt to show that he was Rampage's master. It just forced Rampage to back down for another day and plot what he would do to Megatron when he was free.
Free.
In order to GET free, he needed his spark. And if he couldn't just walk over and snatch it, he'd have to improvise...
"Rampage, Terrorize!" he whispered under his breath, transforming. He reached into a subspace compartment and retrieved his missile launcher, then pointed it straight at Megatron's head. The plan he had in mind was risky, but he really didn't have any better ideas.
His finger started to squeeze the trigger.
The relaxed hand on the table lifted and slammed down on top of the spark-box. "Why, my dear murderous crab! How disloyal!" Megatron hissed the jovial words, clearly angry.
"AAAIIIEErrrgh!" Rampage crashed to his knees, the hand holding his weapon supporting his weight as his other hand clawed at his own chest. The pain of the tortured bit of spark in the box seared through the rest of his dissected spark still in his chest.
Megatron sneered. "Perhaps next time you'll think twice about raising a weapon against me--"
"There...won't BE a next time!" the crab shouted hoarsely, interrupting the tyrant, and his hand lifted from the floor, fingers convulsively closing around the missile launcher in a desperate bid for freedom.
An explosion with an undertone of a scream.
Fierce pain that spiked through his body, flinging him over onto his back.
Everything faded into darkness.
.
.
The first muddled thought that entered his mind was that his spark ached. The second was that it wasn't dark any more. A light blue glow was coming from just above and in front of him. In fact, he discovered when he made an effort to lift his head, the blue glow was hovering over his chest. For a long moment he stared at it without comprehending what it was.
Then he snapped his head to the side, remembering what had happened. From where he was laying on the floor he couldn't see much but Megatron's throne, but that was enough. Most of the table next to it was missing, and also most of that side of the throne. Megatron wasn't sitting in it anymore.
There was, however, a foot just visible around the side of the throne. It was attached to a leg that disappeared behind it, apparently to the rest of Megatron's body.
And his spark...there was a broken, empty box over in the corner.
Rampage looked at the softly glowing sphere hovering over his chest, trying to rejoin the rest of itself, and smiled. "It worked," he whispered, hardly able to believe it. He had gambled on the immortality of his spark being able to survive what Megatron couldn't, and he had won.
The stakes of the game, of course, had been his freedom.
"Finally," he sighed, relaxing and opening his spark casing. He closed his eyes and waited patiently as the lost part of his spark merged back into what was still in his chest, then silently savored the feeling of being WHOLE. It was a warm feeling, and he had missed it. But he couldn't stay here for long. He was vaguely surprised that Inferno or one of the other Predacons hadn't wandered by and seen the open door or heard the explosion, but he wasn't about to question his luck. They must be busy elsewhere.
Climbing to his feet, he strode to where Megatron had fallen and looked down with a smirk. "How the mighty have fallen," he chuckled. "I won, 'master', and there isn't anything you can do about it." A brief look of regret crossed his face. "I do wish that it hadn't been necessary to kill you so quickly, though," Rampage sighed. "I had so many plans on how to make you suffer for what you dared do to me." The crab studied the tyrant's room and considered. "But I CAN have some fun with your corpse...It's been a while since I expressed my, ah, 'artistic' side, and I believe it will be quite amusing to see Inferno's reaction to my finished work." A wry smile crossed his face as he bent to reach for the body at his feet--
--and he paused, hands just barely touching the robot and a look of startlement on his face. Rampage wasn't exactly an empath, but he could feel fear and pain in his victims enough to delight in them...and he could also sense the presence of a living spark, sometimes enough to even recognize individuals if he had been around them before. Because he hadn't been looking for it, he hadn't immediately felt what was beneath his fingertips...
Rampage threw back his head and laughed until the room echoed. "Well, well, well! Sometimes wishes do come true!"
Cruel anticipation filled him as he looked down at his oppressor over the days since his statis pod had landed, and in his mind he rearranged plans. Quickstrike and Waspinator were pathetic, but Inferno had the possibility of berserker strength and rage. But the ant's terror and grief on the account of his unfortunate 'Queen' might also be quite amusing. Rampage would just have to keep him alive to see the fate of the one he misplaced his loyalty onto. Or maybe the other way around? Perhaps seeing his faithful soldier die before him would break Megatron's spirit...
Lost in his musings, Rampage absently went through Megatron's belongings, confident that the size and severity of the tyrant's wounds would keep him offline for some time yet. When he found a coil of energon cording, he used it to tie Megatron's wrist to his tailgun, and his elbows and ankles together. He snickered and made sure the bindings were painfully tight. That would cut off the flow of energon to Megatron's hands and feet, but by the time the problem became troublesome that would be the least of the tyrant's concerns.
The crab stepped back and looked at his handiwork smugly, but then scowled as he thought of what the purple robot had done to HIM. His smirk returned with an idea: he hauled Megatron's unconscious form into a kneeling position and secured him that way using only enough cording from ankles to elbows to keep the position a breath away from painful. As an afterthought, he snapped the tip of Megatron's tail-gun off. No use keeping THIS prisoner armed.
"I think that's about it...for now. No, one more thing." He glanced around the room, looking for what he needed, and his optics settled on the discarded end of Megatron's tail-gun. "Perfect!" he laughed as he jammed it into the tyrant's mouth as a gag. "Can't have ant-boy finding you, now can I?" His mirth welled up in him as he shoved the unconscious form under some shelves so he couldn't be seen. "I'll come back to you later."
A skittering sound came from above him, and Rampage reflexively grabbed upwards without looking. The spider-flashlight in his hand squirmed, and the crab chuckled. Another instance of Megatron's stupidity! How had he NOT realized that Tarantulas was using these little mechanisms to spy on him?
With that in mind, he turned the tiny robot around to point to where Megatron was hidden. "Don't worry, Tarantulas," he said in his grating voice, "I won't be coming for you until I'm done with him, and I intend to take my time." He turned the spider-flashlight back to point at himself. "With all of you," he added, just before he crushed it.
.
The screen filled with static.
Tarantulas stared at it for a long moment, and his hands shook uncontrollably when he reached out to touch the control panel. The spider had intended to spy on what Megatron had been doing, only to find the fool's quarters trashed and Rampage tying him up. For a while Tarantulas had chuckled at the thought of Megatron's unpleasant demise at the hands of the immortal crab, but that last bit...
It shook him to find that the crab knew what his spider-lights were. And he realized the implication behind his final words: Rampage wasn't going to stop at Megatron. Tarantulas should have known that, really. The Protoform was obviously blood-thirsty, and he had a taste for pain.
But his hands were shaking for another reason, though. If Rampage knew what the spider-lights were...did he also know where Tarantulas's lab was? The spider carefully didn't think of what the crab had done to him the last time they had met.
It wasn't a pleasant thought.
Not pleasant at all.
.
.
Quickstrike had his feet up on the console while he played card games with the computer. It won most of the time, but he was actually winning a game against it when the screen went dark. In fact, the entire room went dark except for the red light from the lava below.
"Hey, what in tarnation's goin' on here?" he grumbled. "Slaggit all, why's it always gotta happen when Ah'm winnin'?" This wasn't something that he was used to, but it wasn't exactly unusual, either. He activated his commlink, not bothering to take his feet off the console. Most of the time Megatron could tell him how to fix it without him needing to. "Hey, Boss-bot! The slaggin' compu--er, Boss-bot?" The line was completely dead. Quickstrike frowned. "Boss-bot?" he tried again.
"Megatron won't be answering you," a voice rumbled, so low that the fuzor almost couldn't hear it. "He's...taking a nap right now." A deep chuckle followed that statement. "I don't expect him to wake up any time soon.
Quickstrike whirled around in his chair, falling from his seat because his feet had still been up on the console. He scrambled back upright and strained his optics in the darkness. Unlike Tarantulas, he didn't have heat-sensitive vision. He had no idea where the voice had come from. The room was dark red with black shadows that moved and twisted with the motion of the lava below. So dark... "Who's there?!" he shouted.
"You know who I am, Quickstrike." The voice was gentle, mocking.
Now that he thought about it... "Rampage? Whaddya think you're doin'? The Boss-bot's gonna crunch yur spark fer this!" But he backed up against the console as he said it, staring hard at the shadows. Something about how the crab had said Megatron 'taking a nap' did NOT sound right...
"Oh, I don't think so."
The voice was closer, louder. And very amused. There was constant movement in the dim redness of the room, but there was no huge form obvious among the darkness.
"What...whaddya mean?" Quickstrike kept glancing around nervously, becoming more frightened by the moment. The door was across the room. He'd have to step away from the console in order to get to it. Taking another look around the red darkness, he edged forward. He gasped as a large shadow shifted from red to black, but when the red light came back it was revealed as only part of the computer.
"Do you know why the Maximals," the word was snarled, "forced me into a statis pod to abandon it on some Primus-forsaken planet?"
"N-no..." The fuzor risked a look over his shoulder only to see red shadows. He quickly turned forward again--
--and saw the black form silhouetted against the lighted doorway.
"Because," Rampage explained softly, "I liked to kill people. I did it a lot, and I enjoyed it." He took a step forward and chuckled a little at Quickstrike's automatic step back. The crab could see the fuzor's wide-eyed expression in the light coming through the door, and it matched the waves of fear coming from him. "Just like I'm going to enjoy killing you, Quickstrike," he whispered quietly, savoring the terror.
Quickstrike shook his head in silent denial, then harder as if to clear his mind of the frightened thoughts clouding it. His snake-hand raised into a firing position almost involuntarily, but steadied as he realized he could fight back. "Ah ain't dead yet," he said grimly.
Rampage laughed out loud, taking his own weapons out. "Yes, fight!" he urged his victim. "Build your fear higher as I crush you! This," he added, "will be most satisfying."
.
Elsewhere in the Predacon base, Waspinator looked up from hauling scrap metal from the lower decks. Above him he could hear what sounded like weapons-fire and explosions, and...screaming? Was that Quickstrike?
"Megatron catch Two-Head playing gamezz on computer again?" the wasp wondered. He listened for more fighting, but only the screams went on, dulled by the distance. "Two-Head never learn," Waspinator grumbled, "and now Wazzpinator probably have to cover Two-Head'zz patrolzz."
With that, he thought nothing more of it and turned back to cleaning out the lower decks.
.
Quickstrike was screaming, screaming, screaming...it seemed like his body was one burning pain, or at least what was left of it. His snake-hand had been severed from the rest of his body to vanish into the red-tinted dark while his other arm hung useless at his side; both of his legs had been blow apart. His left optic was a sluggishly bleeding hole, and even as he inhaled to scream again Rampage's fist cracked his remaining optic.
The smell of mech-fluid would have been oppressive and sickening to any other 'bot, but to Rampage it was perfume. His left hand was holding the fuzor off the floor, over the puddle of fluid his struggles had bled out of him, and his right hand reached out to tenderly touch the exposed wiring in the empty shoulder socket. His fingers clenched, Quickstrike's shrieks spiraled higher in renewed agony, and he tore a fistful of circuitry out of his victim. He threw them to the ground to vanish with the arm that they had once been connected to, then stroked his liquid-covered hand down the side of Quickstrike's face.
Utter terror and pain made the fuzor squirm.
"Such delicious feelings..." Rampage crooned to his victim, and his hand tightened around the fuzor's neck. A whimper was all that could get past, but the crab's laughter made up for it. "Yes...let yourself FEEL the pain, and know that I could make it go on for as long as I like--" here his hand loosened slightly, letting Quickstrike whimper and moan pathetically, "--or end it now." His hand tightened again and shook the torn figure suspended by it.
A rain of mech-fluid spattered the floor, the computer, the crab. Quickstrike was bleeding out quickly from his missing legs, Rampage knew, and he really should do something about it if he wanted the game to last much longer. But the fuzor was just a piece in the game; sacrifices had to be made to make the finish more fun!
"Lucky you," Rampage laughed as he slammed the mangled form down onto the computer console. Sparks flew with the impact, but Quickstrike could only gurgle since the grip on his throat stopped any other sound. Rampage bent close to his audios, gloating over the waves of agony coming from the fuzor, and whispered, "I'm in a hurry, but I'll try to make sure you don't miss any of the sport."
His right fist drew back, and when it came back down it punched through the metal of Quickstrike's midsection. Rampage's hand clenched inside the fuzor's body; clenched...and withdrew. Delicate circuits shattered. Internal systems were dragged out into the air. Rampage's left hand loosened as he reveled in the pain he was causing.
Quickstrike howled as he was gutted. Even when his voice-box over-heated and gave out he kept screaming in basic, animal agony. All that could come out was a rasping screech of tortured metal. Pain and terror pulsed through him, feeding the monster destroying him, and he kept screaming.
Rampage smiled at the hoarse, metallic rasp; music to his ears.
.
.
Waspinator checked the time. "End of zzhift. Wazzpinator go do patrol and hope Two-Head can do patrol next zzhift. Wazzpinator not want to do two patrolzz in a row again." The wasp buzzed through the Predacon base's corridors, heading upwards. Quickstrike had been on monitor duty this shift. Waspinator thought that he might as well check and see if Megatron had left enough of the fuzor to do a patrol.
He noticed the broken fuse box and the dark room immediately and sighed. "Megatron muzzt have been REALLY mad thizz time," he mumbled as he reconnected broken wires. The room's lights went back on, but the wasp was busy putting the fuse-box's door back on. "Wazzpinator wish Megatron didn't zzmash things when Megatron izz angry," he complained as he turned to walk into the room. "Wazzpinator alwayzz have to fix--EEEEEEK!!!!"
His shrill scream echoed around the room and came back to haunt him as he stood trembling just inside the room. His hands lifted to press against his mouth as if to stop any more shrieks from coming out, or maybe to prevent himself from breathing in the sickening scent filling the air. His optics were locked on the horrifying sight in front of him.
What remained of Quickstrike was piled on the computer console with his own internal systems like some sort of sick sacrifice to some vicious god. His legs were across the room, along with his snake-hand and masses of wiring apparently ripped out of his body. Waspinator twitched and made a sick noise when he realized that he was standing in the edge of a gigantic pool of mech-fluid. And then something worse happened: the body's head turned towards him, empty holes that used to be optics staring through him and a strained sound that could barely be recognized as the wasp's name coming from the fuzor's throat.
Quickstrike was still ALIVE.
Waspinator fell to his knees, fists still pressed to his mouth and a faint squeal of panic coming out despite them. "...T-Two-Head?" he whimpered. He didn't know what to do. He didn't know what to do!! "Wazzpinator not know what to do," he repeated out loud helplessly as the fuzor managed to make a rasping sound of pleading.
A dark form came up behind the shattered victim on the computer console, and Waspinator looked up in shocked terror at the rumbling laugh. "You can run, little prey," Rampage said through his laughter at the wonderful FEAR coming from the tiny wasp. "Run!" He threw back his head and let himself roar with ecstatic laughter. "I'LL take care of Quickstrike!!"
And poor Waspinator, horrified and bewildered, scrambled backwards as the crab leaned forward towards him. He lost his balance trying to get to his feet and sprawled in Quickstrike's mech-fluid, crying out in frightened confusion. Rampage almost collapsed with helpless chuckling at the sight of Waspinator's fleeing shape covered in his comrade's liquids.
His amusement subsided back into a more manageable form, and he silently listened to the clang of the wasp's feet. A faint moan returned his attention to the pitiful bits of Quickstrike. "Well, game piece, time for my next move," he said cheerfully. "Inferno's still out mindlessly doing some patrol, so it's just me and you." A smirk crossed his face. "It's been nice knowing you!"
The guns skittered across the floor as Waspinator entered the last combination in the lock and flung the armory locker open. His shaking hands lost their ability to keep their hold on the weapons he reached for, and more weapons dropped to the floor. Ammunition scattered as he attempted to load one of the heavy-duty rifles he hauled out of the back of the locker with his unsteady hands.
"Why univerzze hate Wazzpinator?" the wasp whispered. "Inzzane Crab-bot going to kill Wazzpinator; what did Wazzpinator ever do to Crab-bot?" He clutched the heavy rifle to his chest and whimpered as he thought he heard something. Was that a footstep? How far away was it? Did Rampage know where he was?
He looked down at the ground and whimpered again. Tracks of mech-fluid led from where he was standing to the door, and probably all the way back to the room where Quickstrike was...was...
"Wazzpinator not want to end up like Two-Head..." The wasp took a deep breath that did absolutely nothing to control his shaking and hefted the rifle. He tip-toed to the door and looked out. The Predacon base's dim lighting didn't reassure him as he crept out into the corridor.
Back to the wall, he moved in the direction of the closest exit from the base. His optics constantly moved, checking ahead and behind with every step. He crouched down and peeked his head out for a quick look down an intersection of corridors, then quickly scurried on. He held the heavy rifle ready the whole time.
Because he was so ready to fight Rampage, what he first saw on the floor made no sense at all. He stopped and looked at it for a long moment, unable at first to recognize it. Edging a little closer, he began to realize what it was, and the rifle fell to the floor as his hands spasmed.
Quickstrike's legs had been carelessly piled in the middle of the hall.
Waspinator whipped around to check behind himself, but there was nothing there. He turned back around slowly, so he saw it this time: on the wall of the corridor, written in fluid that dripped downward slowly, the words 'I'M HUNTING YOU'.
His breath caught in his throat and came out in a muffled scream. He reached down and snatched up the rifle, turned, and sprinted back down the corridor. There was another exit on this level. All he had to do was find the right hallway and he'd be able to make it in one clear run, straight down the hall. There were no rooms or intersections on it he'd have to watch for if he could just reach it in time...
He came to the intersection he'd crossed earlier and started down the left side--only to stumble to a stop and swallow hard. Quickstrike's snake-hand stared up at him from a nest made of its own wiring. It hadn't been here before. And on the wall: 'I'M GETTING CLOSER'.
There was a large enough hole for him to fit through a level up in the ship. He could reach it if he went up the access ladder down the opposite way. Waspinator turned and RAN.
The access ladder's shaft was empty, and he climbed up as fast as he could while still holding the rifle. At the next level he banged on the grating until it tumbled outward--
--and he slammed back against the shaft's wall, as far away from the hole as he could get while the rifle tumbled from nerveless fingers and caught in the ladder rungs a level down. Quickstrike's empty, dead eyes stared at him from the head on the floor, and in front of it were the words 'EVEN CLOSER'.
Waspinator slid back down the ladder and leaped back out of the access shaft, not even stopping to grab the rifle. Panicked and shaking, he glanced around wildly and moaned at what was on the floor in front of him. It hadn't been there a moment ago.
The rest of Quickstrike's mangled body, a large hole where his spark casing had been, lay in a pool of mech-fluid that extended to one of the corridor's walls. Waspinator's optics followed the trail to the wall, then, slowly, up the wall until it reached the words written there: 'I'M HERE'.
Rampage landed on him from above, bearing him to the floor with a crack of metal breaking and a merry laugh at the wasp's scream of pain. One foot landed on the fat yellow and black wasp abdomen behind Waspinator's robot mode, popping it with a sickening crunch. Tubes and wiring burst outward, and Rampage absorbed the agonizing pain and terror he had caused. The high-pitched shrieks quickly got on his nerves, though, and he kicked the wasp over onto his back, then calmly tore his voice-box out with his bare hand.
Waspinator writhed in agony, hands helplessly fluttering from throat to back in hopeless attempts at easing the pain. He clawed at the floor as Rampage smiled down at him, trying to haul himself away, back towards the access shaft.
"I thought about how I would end your miserable life," the crab mused out loud, walking away from the mangled form inching back towards the access shaft, "and I came up with so many good ideas that I had to choose between them. The hunt was fun, don't you think? Oh, wait." Amusement glittered in emerald eyes as he seized one of the ceiling supports and separated it from the wall. "You can't answer me anymore. Sorry, my bad. But your voice IS quite annoying." He tested the end of the long shard of metal he had just torn from the support and nodded in approval at its sharpness. He walked back towards the wasp, who was trying to get through the access shaft's door. "I may come to regret doing that, though. I would have liked to hear your reaction to...this."
With that, he slashed down at Waspinator with the metal shard, splitting his entire middle open. Internal systems spilled onto the floor while the wasp's mouth gaped in silent screams followed by trickles of mech-fluid. Rampage listened to the gurgles that were all the wasp could produce and laughed as Waspinator tried to stuff his internal parts back into himself. Insectile optics stared up at him in pained horror, watching him absorb the emotions.
Rampage blinked as the mix of emotion coming from his victim changed. A strange thread of...what was that? Determination?...was subtly blending in. "Now what could be so important down there?" he asked half-curiously as the wasp gave up clutching his innards and hauled himself part-way through the door into the access shaft. The crab walked over to look down it, and he laughed when he saw what Waspinator's hand was reaching for. "A rifle! How droll! Do you really think you can hurt me, insect?!"
Waspinator grasped the end of the weapon's barrel and dragged it towards him with failing strength. When it wedged itself even further in the ladder rungs, he heard a chuckle from the monster above him.
"Oh, don't mind me," Rampage said to the struggling wasp. "I'll just wait and see what happens. It's not like you're strong enough to lift that thing, anyway. Don't you feel the pain sapping away at you? Doesn't the fear slow you down, gradually paralyze you?" He could see his words having an affect, and the strange new emotion was almost lost in the new flood of terror and agony. "Yes," he whispered, "oh, yes. Let it consume you!"
The rifle was stuck in an angle pointing almost directly at him. NOT at Rampage! Why did the universe have to hate him so much? Had Waspinator offended everyone in some way? His arms shook as he attempted to pry it loose once more.
"Give up, little prey. Give your spark to me...I'll take it anyway!"
The monster's laughter echoed down the corridor and up the access shaft, making Waspinator whimper silently in complete terror. It seemed like the pain in his throat, mid-section, and back was alive, eating away at his mind until it would take him over and...and...Rampage would destroy his spark. Maybe he, a Predacon, wouldn't go to the Matrix, but at least he might still exist...if he could save his spark. His one chance out of this was his doom.
The rifle was still pointing straight at him. Waspinator bent his head until it was in line with the barrel, terrified and in pain, but determined.
Something penetrated the amusement he was feeling at his victim's pain and fear. "What the slag are you--?!" But Rampage had felt the shift in emotions too late.
The sharp retort of the rifle filled the area, and Waspinator's head exploded.
The crab flinched at the loud sound, then looked down at the limp body. "Well," he said with his optics wide with surprise, "I hadn't expected THAT." He knelt and plunged his hand through the corpse's back, seeking the sensation of life that meant a spark was still there. There was none. Waspinator's spark was safe from any physical menace, now.
Rampage stood back up and looked at his dripping hand reflectively. "I never knew he had it in him," he said thoughtfully, turning to walk back down the corridor. It was time for the next part of the game to be played despite Waspinator's wild card. "It's kind of nice to be surprised..."
.
Inferno couldn't remember how he had gotten...wherever he was right now. The last thing he knew was that he had been walking into the Predacon base, then suddenly his head hurt and he was staring at a wall. It wasn't a particularly special wall with any sort of identification he could use, like 'You are in the enemy of the Colony's base' or some such useful mark, so he looked away. It hurt to move his head, so he assumed he had been hit there with something. That explained why he couldn't remember how he'd gotten here...
He recognized his Queen's quarters almost immediately. He also recognized that someone had been going through the Royalty's belongings. His instincts told him to find that someone and kill them, and that's when he discovered that he was tied up, because he couldn't move from where he was sitting.
Sitting?
The Royalty's throne was in the center of the room, and he didn't recall any other chairs in the room. So what was he sitting on?
Inferno looked down to find out and gasped. "My Queen!"
Megatron stared up at him from the floor and shook his head violently.
"My Queen, I--I apologize!" Inferno tried desperately to get himself off of his ruler and failed again. "I can't move, Royalty!" He noticed the facts that Megatron was gagged and tied, and felt his righteous anger at these facts surge even higher as he saw that he was actually sitting on what appeared to be blast wounds on his ruler's side and shoulder. This was obviously painful, and the soldier gulped in mortification that he was causing the Colony's ruler pain. "I'm sorry, my Queen!" he wailed.
Throughout all this, Megatron had been shaking his head in frantic denial at Inferno's words and movements, and his eyes showed despair as a voice came from behind the ant.
"It appears that you're now awake, ant. Good. As I've been telling this idiotic saurian since I brought you here, that's all we've been waiting for. Of course, that's not all I've been telling him, but I might as well skip the preview for you since you'll be experiencing it first hand." A hand clamped down on the ant's shoulder and jerked, throwing him backwards onto the floor along with slamming Megatron's injuries against the ground. Inferno shouted in fury and a muffled yell of pain came from the tyrant. Rampage smiled down at them both.
"Traitor to the Colony!" Inferno shouted. "You'll burn for this!"
"Yeah, right," the crab snorted, reaching down to untie the ropes holding the ant to Megatron. "And just how are you going to do that?"
"I'll kill you!" the ant screamed insanely.
Rampage shook a reproving finger in his face. "Tsk, tsk. You didn't answer my question!" He drew his hand back and backhanded the 'bot across the room to slam into the opposite wall. Something cracked, and Rampage found out it had been one of Inferno's bulging red optics when he leisurely strolled over to pick up the tied ant. He gave a sigh of disgust while Inferno blinked dazedly. "Now, are you going to answer my question?"
Inferno shook his head to clear it and snapped his head to the side to bite into one of the hands holding him up by the shoulders.
"AARGH!" Rampage dropped the stubborn soldier and held his injured hand up before him. "Slag, your teeth are sharp!" He smiled a bit and displayed the hand to Inferno, who was lying on the floor again glaring up at him. "And look what good that did you."
Inferno opened his mouth and closed it again. He stared. Rampage's hand was unblemished by any bitemark.
"A side effect of immortality," the crab chuckled. "It slowed down a bit when a certain fool," Megatron flinched, "split my spark, but it's back up to speed now. Which reminds me..." His gaze shifted from the ant, and Megatron flinched again.
Inferno writhed against his bonds. "I don't care! I'll burn yo--"
Rampage kicked him in the throat to interrupt his tirade. "Oh, see, you made me angry with that little bite of yours, Inferno," he said softly as the ant gagged. "I think that now I'll just have to start with someone else..." He walked slowly towards the 'bot laying on his side against the opposite wall, breathing in the terror and hatred coming off the helpless form. Stopping and looking down at Megatron's strained features, he chuckled a bit just to enjoy the surge of fear it caused.
Inferno took in the scene with his remaining optic, something penetrating his righteous anger. "What...what are you going to do, traitor?" he asked hesitantly, not liking the way Rampage was looking down at the Queen.
"I'm going to torture and kill you both," the crab said quite pleasantly. "I'm just trying to decide which one of you I'll start on first. I think that I'll start on Megatron because of what you just did." He turned slightly to smirk at the horrified ant, feeling Megatron's fear and anger "What do you think of that?"
"N--no, you...you CAN'T!" Inferno couldn't comprehend turning on his ruler, and he shook his head in bewildered fear at the thought. "The Colony--"
"--is mostly dead now. At least, Waspinator and Quickstrike are." Rampage let his two victims digest that; then he shrugged. "I've already told Megatron of how they died. He didn't seem to appreciate my talent," he added with mock sadness. Megatron shuddered, drawing his attention again. "But maybe it's something that has to be experienced, eh?" He reached down slowly, amused by the mounting fear from the ant behind him and the terrified look of helplessness on the bound tyrant's face.
His hands grabbed Megatron's neck, and Inferno broke.
"No! Kill me, not the Queen!" he screamed, and Rampage turned to look at him with a quizzical look. "Traitor, do whatever you want to me, just let the Queen go," the ant begged. "My life is nothing!"
"It certainly is," Rampage agreed. "What's your point?"
"Just...let the Royalty go..."
Emerald optics looked at him, glittering with humor. "You're in a weak bargaining position, insect," the crab said merrily. "In fact, you have two things against you: #1. I'm going to kill you both; and #2. There's nothing you can do to stop me. Like I said, I'm only deciding who goes first."
Inferno barely considered for a nano-click. "Me. Kill me first, traitor."
"Is that a last request?" The ant gave a short nod. "Too bad. I don't grant them. But!" He held up a hand to stop Inferno's protest. "But, I might consider it." The desperate surge of hope from both of his victims made him almost giddy. It was so much fun to push them high enough to come crashing down! "Of course, you'll have to convince me..."
"What do you want me to do, traitor?" the ant asked quietly.
"For one thing, my name is Rampage." He grinned and asked mockingly, "Can you say 'Rampage', Inferno?"
Inferno looked away from where his Queen lay at the feet of the traitor. "Rampage."
"Good!" he said in a pleased voice. "Now, can you say one thing about Megatron that you find completely disgusting?"
His remaining optic looked at the crab in horror. "I...I..."
"I'm waiting," Rampage said in an amused voice that was somehow menacing. He reached over and snagged something that had been leaning against the wall, studying it intently. It was a long metal shard with dark stains on part of it.
Inferno shook his head despairingly. "No, I can't."
"Aww, that's too bad," Rampage said with mocking sympathy as he stabbed behind himself with the metal shard. Megatron's scream was muffled by the gag but still audible, and the ant saw that one of the Queen's feet was pierced through to the floor.
"Stop! No! DON'T!!" Tugging futilely at the bonds, Inferno flopped on the ground and felt helpless fury and fear well up inside him. The Queen was shuddering, eyes wide with pain, and the traitor only smiled mildly and gave the shard a twist to make him shriek again. "Rampage, STOP!!" Inferno screamed wildly.
Rampage laughed in surprise. "You called me by my name! Even while I'm doing this," he twisted at the shard again and soaked in Megatron's pain and Inferno's fear, "you remembered that. Well," he tugged out the shard, "maybe I'll start on you, after all. Memories like that deserved an, uh, 'reward'. YOU, however," he grabbed Megatron by the arm and jerked him upright on his knees, "are going to watch."
Inferno stared at his Queen from across the room and felt anger at what had been done. The Royalty was humbled; the Colony's last soldier was about to die for loyalty. He felt fear for what would happen to the Queen after he was dead.
Then he looked up at the crab standing over him and felt fear for his own sake. He didn't particularly like pain, even for the sake of the Royalty. Rampage hefted the metal shard and selected a target, taking his time so that the ant could figure out on his own where the first blow would fall. Inferno's fear could only grow.
Which was the point, after all.
The shard stabbed into the middle of his lower leg, and Rampage used it to pry the front of his shin off while Inferno tried not to give him the satisfaction of screaming. He lost control of that when the crab stomped a foot down onto the raw metal and used the leverage to slit the inside of his leg all the way down to the tip of his foot, getting a couple of the cords tying him on the way. Inferno immediately kicked his legs out and shrieked when something inside his leg grated against something else that wasn't supposed to be grating against anything. Rampage laughed, soaking in his pain, and pinned his uninjured foot to the floor with the metal shard.
Megatron turned his face away, sickened and angry and above all terrified by what was happening. He could block the sight, but he couldn't stop the sound; Inferno's pained screams and whimpers tormented him and made his fear rise higher. He shifted as much as he could against the bonds and tensed at the pain in his foot.
Footsteps crossed the room. "Oh, Megatron," Rampage said softly. "Look at me, Megatron."
He glanced up at the crab, feeling hatred for a moment until he couldn't help but see the moaning 'bot behind him, and then fear shot through him to overwhelm the hatred.
"Watch what I'm doing, Megatron," Rampage told him softly, dangerously. The tyrant shook his head in denial. "You don't want to make me do anything beyond what I have planned, now do you?" Megatron shook his head again, the fear spiking higher at the thought. "Then watch." And he turned back to walk towards Inferno. The ant saw him coming with his remaining optic and whined deep in his throat, making the crab chuckle.
Megatron looked away again, but slowly, reluctantly, he looked back.
.
.
By the time Rampage was almost finished, all that was left of Inferno was a shivering, delimbed body and head. His propellers had been ripped off and stuffed, one by one, down the ant's mouth and throat, cutting into them deeply and causing runnels of mech-fluid to clog his air filters. Moaning coughs emerged instead of screams now as the crab peeled off the last of his beast mode's face from his chest along with much of the circuitry underneath. A tiny tear in his spark casing allowed light to escape, and Rampage studied it.
He turned to look at where Megatron was forced to kneel. Loving the tormented look on his former oppressor's face, he took a moment to tweak a wire inside Inferno's chest and listen to another cough/moan before stepping towards the tyrant.. He gently took the gag from his mouth. "So, what do you think of my handiwork?" he asked brightly.
Megatron silently worked his mouth for a moment, optics locked on the grotesque sight that had once been his most trusted Predacon. Finally, he managed to look up at the monster who had done this. "Kill him," he said hoarsely. "Please, kill him."
"An odd request," Rampage replied, clearly amused by it.
"For mercy's sake, just let him die!" Megatron pleaded.
"Mercy," the crab mused, "is not something I'm very good at. In fact, I don't think I've ever tried it. Why should I?"
Anger broke through the horror. "You slagging crab, I should have taken your entire spark and fed it to an incinerator!" the tyrant raged, then choked as a large hand clamped onto his throat and lifted him from the ground. The terror returned as he stared straight into Rampage's optics, which were narrowed with fury.
"That," the crab said softly, "was not a wise thing to say to me." His hand started to close, but a coughed moan from what was left of the ant checked his anger. He had plans for Megatron; he couldn't kill him right now.
Megatron gasped with pain as Rampage abruptly opened his hand and let him fall to the ground, landing on his injured foot. His vision swam for a moment as the crab turned away, and so he didn't understand immediately the crunch of metal. When his vision steadied again, he saw Inferno's open chest cavity and blinked, looking up at the 'bot standing over the corpse, blue sphere in one hand.
"No!" Megatron wheezed, understanding finally, but Rampage only smirked.
"You wanted me to kill him," he said smugly as he clenched his hand into a fist, popping the spark like a bubble and eliminating Inferno forever. The immortal killer looked at the shock and dread etched on the tyrant's face and knew it was good to be free.
And the game was far from over...
.
End Part One