ii

I closed the distance us and I pressed my mouth against his. I was too shocked to realize whether or not I blushed. The sensors in my mandibles detected heat erupting throughout Terrorsaur's face and, if I chose to reactivate my optical input, I knew I would see his face flushed. My wings went rigid and the kiss had little moment for a fleeting moment. Clicks later though, my spark fluttered and I melted right into him, leaning forward and opening my mandibles to run them over his perfectly formed lips.

Regardless to our current situation, I could still barely comprehend what was happening the more I thought about it. I was kissing Terrorsaur. Of all mechs, it was the one that seemed the least likely candidate to do what he was doing with me now. The gorgeous scarlet star actually sharing a moment with the hideous green pauper. I still was having difficulty believing it. I mean, I had always known there was something up with Terrorsaur - I knew that from the first moment I laid my optics on him and his on me - but I never thought it would lead to this. He was my friend, probably the only one I'd ever had that meant this much to me, but I doubted that there could ever be anything romantic between us.

…That was my mistake really. It was far too obvious that was what wanted to be broken when it came to our silence and withheld emotions.

Terrorsaur shivered slightly and leaned back, acting uncharacteristically submissive towards me. He seemed discomfited even with no one watching us - I had a nagging feeling someone was, though I ignored it - but it took me a moment to realize he was embarrassed over the fact he was too passive to do anything in response. I did not blame him right away, no, but then it dawned on me that there shouldn't be a reason for Terrorsaur to hold back. He was no coward in the slightest but it still threw me off guard that he was anxious of what we were doing. I imagined his optics were still barely online.

It hit me over the head that he was afraid I would reject him somehow. It was the only logical explanation that came to mind.

Realizing just how uneasy Terrorsaur was, I made the move to shift my hand up and down his right arm to attempt coaxing him out of his radiating overwrought state. It apparently worked, noting he shuddered. I pictured his optics deactivating fully when my hand traced over his arm's sensitive compacted wing. I was surprised he had faith in me enough to do this but I felt oddly flattered that he'd do that for me. To trust me enough to leave himself at my mercy while we sat on a high cliff.

He kissed me back.

I was so surprised that I ceased assaulting him with my mandibles altogether. He kissed me lightly and I parted my jaw further so he could get better access. He trailed his lips up and down the yellow and green plating and, gently, I began to kiss him back again when my confidence returned. We moved in sync, breathing only through our olfactory sensors and focusing on keeping up on our kiss until I finally felt we needed to address this… Whatever it was we were doing.

I really did not want to stop - I was sure the same went on for Terrorsaur - but the fact remained I had to tell him how I felt.

I kept my optics off and sorting through my thoughts in order to come up with what I wanted to say, I suddenly felt Terrorsaur's bloody scarlet gaze on me. My own optics onlined immediately and I locked my blue eyes with his own. The sun met the horizon while we were distracted and its crimson brilliance made the sky a deep orange scarlet mixed with purple. Feeling embarrassed about what we did - Primus, I actually kissed Terrorsaur - my face got hot and I blushed. I almost could not find it in myself to speak.

"…Um… That wazz…" I wanted to say I was in love with him, I really did, but the way his optics glowed in the sunset made my throat tighten around my vocalizer. I was rendered entirely silent.

He caught me by surprise and suddenly kissed me again. He leaned forward gracefully and let his lips graze the front of my mandibles before kissing me right on the front where they parted to reveal my jaw. It was in a fluidly executed movement and I felt myself blush again with it. The sun was almost entirely set off in the distance and the first stars were beginning to appear. I glanced at one out of the corner of my optic. When stars died they usually turned red. I suppose the star I was looking at was near its end seeing it was a light pink color.

I shut my azure optics down again but Terrorsaur broke off before I could kiss him back. I felt his optics on me and I onlined my own once more. There was an almost distant look on his face. It was as if he was deep in thought but, a moment later, I lost control and I leaned forward to kiss him once more. I turned my head to the side to graze my mandibles against his cheek. He shuddered slightly and forced himself to remain under control when I reached his audio. He was tense, maybe afraid of what I was going to say, but I was more afraid of his reaction. It was now or never.

"…Wazzpinator thinkzz he's in love with Terror-bot," I murmured lightly. My fuel pump sputtered in my chest when I spoke.

I felt surprise and relief radiate off Terrorsaur. I was not sure what it meant in regards to his reaction.

"…Really?" His voice was barely above a rasped whisper. I felt a wave of nervousness wash over me.

Did he feel for me too? Did he love me like I loved him?

Feeling overwhelmingly self conscious, I quickly continued on and forced myself to not stutter like a total fool. My hands and wings trembled slightly when I spoke. "Wazzpinator thought about it a lot today and Wazzpinator can't get over Terror-bot. When Bird-bot hurt Terror-bot… When…" I trailed off leaving the sentence unfinished. I did not want to remember his cries and his screaming. It was something I was sure would always be etched in my processors as a horrific nightmare.

I backed away from his audio and he looked over towards me, looking directly into my face. He smirked at me.

"I guess the feeling's mutual," he said with as much of his character as he could. "I love you too, you dummy. Now we're even."

I perked up right away, my spark leaping in my chest. "Terror-bot meanzz it!" Every bit of peppiness and my usual character returned and I wanted to yell out in a sort of victorious sense. Faintly, he smiled genuinely at me.

His optics were as bright as the stars. For the matter, maybe scarlet ones.

I leaned forward and kissed him lightly again with a slightly more playful vigor than before. I pulled back again and felt an abrupt mood swing after I kissed him. We locked gazes and we watched one another for sometime before he leaned forward and kissed me once more. Primus, I felt like I was walking on air every time the distance was closed between us. We ended up going back and forth that for another ten cycles.

We finally broke away after the sun completely set into the western horizon. We ended staying on the cliff edge for another megacycle or so watching the stars. I still could not help but notice the red ones while they blinked a pinkish scarlet against the black of the sky. It was dark out when Terrorsaur realized we were going to be late for curfew. He mentioned it to me and I checked my own internal clock. I came up with the same conclusion as Terrorsaur had. We both stood to leave, Terrorsaur a graceful figure compared to my clumsiness, and he had to help me up. He reached a hand down to mine much like the way he had after Dinobot made a boulder fall on me just a few weeks prior. He did not let go when I was up on my feet though. Even when I was standing again, he clasped my hand tightly in his. The gesture perhaps only lasted five clicks or so. Nonetheless, it was a caring gesture in a sweet moment in time. He gave my fist a reassuring squeeze - perhaps a thank you for what I'd done for him - and I returned it. We did not find ourselves in another kiss, although he pecked me on the cheek just before we took off back for base.

We did not make it back right on time. We were late by three cycles past the curfew. The both of us landed just outside the Darkside and attempted to sneak in, though my bad luck combined with Terrorsaur's inability to get away with anything rendered the attempt impossible.

I stood close to Terrorsaur when we walked in, hoping there wouldn't be a conflict. However, with Megatron, Scorponok, and Terrorsaur in the same room, it's usually unavoidable and more probable than questionable. Terrorsaur took to a hover pad to report back in and, before Scorponok could jeer at my companion, Terrorsaur beat him to it. When we wanted to avoid trouble, he had to go attempt to do the exact opposite did not he? I was tempted to slap Terrorsaur over the head. I did not, but I made up for it by keeping my own hover pad close to Terrorsaur in case his heckle towards Megatron's second brought the tyrant's wrath on us… On him.

Scorponok snapped back and Megatron had quickly intervened, growling at Terrorsaur to keep his beak shut. The red mech had obliged but not without a quick snort and mumbling something incredibly rude under his breath. My partner maneuvered his pad towards the control room exit so we could get to our quarters. I was expecting Megatron to comment, perhaps even lash out at Terrorsaur for turning his back on our leader, but he did not. I followed right behind Terrorsaur and cast a nervous look over my shoulder.

Megatron was watching me carefully, optics thoughtful. It was as if he were observing Terrorsaur and me very, very carefully. The look made me immediately take my optics away from Megatron's - I saw him avoid my gaze as well - and I prayed that he did not suspect anything.

By the time we were out of the room walking towards our quarters, I stopped him in the middle of the hallway and scolded him for baiting Megatron the way he had. He merely smiled.

"Concerned?"

"Yezz," I stated flatly, trying to keep my superstructure from melting under his touch when he reached a hand forward and cupped the right side of my face. His free hand found one of mine - though I still can't recall exactly which one - and I lost myself when his digits stroked against the green back of my palm lovingly. I leaned forward, quickly scanning the area for energy signatures other than mine and Terrorsaur's, and I kissed him fleetingly. He smirked, tapped the side of my face with his index finger, and he squeezed my hand again like he had back at the mountain's ledge.

"So…" He trailed off and shrugged. "Maybe we can head back to Tanna tomorrow?"

I readily agreed. He kissed me and we parted ways to our own quarters. I had an odd amount of trouble getting to sleep that night.

Several days passed and our little game kept on. We would both finish with our duties around the Darkside as early as we could manage - Terrorsaur with slightly more vigor than before I noted, though I was sure it was because he wanted to spend more time with me - and we would head off directly to Tanna-16 to watch the sunsets. There was one day when we could not go out however but, either way, it was another breaking point in our relationship. Though the wall that kept our once restrained feelings apart had been broken down, there were still things that continuously popped up. Physical contact between us seemed to increase gradually until the point where we could not have a conversation without brushing up against one another or lightly touching the other's body. Even then, the contact was also becoming more intimate. Our hands would linger on one another's form longer and would even occasionally caress if we were not paying attention to what our hands were doing. Breaking that point was what happened when it was raining out at Tanna-16 that day. Unable to go, we opted to remain at the base. Scorponok had needed help with repairing a blown fuse box in one of the hallways and, feeling like I owed him for helping repair Terrorsaur in the canyon, I volunteered to help. Despite the poor weather out at the mountain, Terrorsaur had tagged along because he still wanted be with me.

The fuse box sparked under my ministrations, zapping my fingers and making me flinch away. I hissed and narrowed my eyes at the fried wires. "Urgh. Wazzpinator hates electrical work."

"You could've opted to not do this," Terrorsaur murmured. He was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest loosely, and he glanced down at me. I could not see his eyes but I could still follow the dull shadow he cast when he moved. He tapped his forearms in an unconscious looking gesture and the resonating pang reverberated off the walls. "I know you mentioned that you thought you owed Scorponok, but-"

"Nothing," I razzed. "Wazzpinator probably owes Scorpion-bot more the way Wazzpinator feels about Terror-bot."

"I'm touched," he joked, but I could hear the way his voice faltered indistinctly. He had been somewhat moved by the thought that I cared about him that much.

We were silent. Though we usually were not unspoken with one another anymore, this was a more casual quiet. I fiddled around with the wires more and I broke the silence just as casually as we had created it. "Terror-bot is afraid of heights. Why?"

I had not meant to ask but, despite the consequences, the question managed to somehow slip out anyway. My mechanical brain tripped over itself when I heard Terrorsaur snap his head down to face me. I looked up to see his mouth slightly agape, looking like he wanted to say something back, but the gleam reflecting in his scarlet optics said he could not come up with anything plausible. We locked gazes and, for a moment, I wanted to kiss him again. I held the urge back and turned back to my work while breaking our stare. "After Bird-bot shot Terror-bot, Terror-bot kept rambling and asking that Wazzpinator not drop him. Terror-bot seemed nervous on Tanna cliff, too."

He said nothing again. He turned away, possibly embarrassed over the fact I knew his phobia, and I was afraid I had gone too far. We were silent again for sometime and I wanted to desperately break it. Before I could and when I had nearly finished with my work, Terrorsaur knelt beside me. I snapped my neck around to face him and we made optic contact once more. His scarlet eyes glowed in the darkness of the hall - the only thing lighting the hallway was from the single fluorescent light from up another hall - and he murmured. "Do… Do you think I'm a fool for being afraid of something that stupid?"

I perked up, taken aback. "No! Wazzpinator was just confused why Terror-bot be afraid of heights!"

He stared at me a moment longer and, after a few clicks, he broke the contact. He turned around and slumped back against the wall, lazily bringing his right one knee up and draping his arm over it. He sighed heavily and blinked, letting his scarlet optics dull in the low light. "…I just have been. I did not do much flying as a kid on Cybertron, so I just… I was just introduced to it too late."

Infant Seekers on Cybertron - both Decepticon and Predacon - were known for being midair daredevils. They would learn to fly very early on in their lives as sparklings. Being introduced to the air so early on in their lives, ironically, the only phobia they would usually have would be the fear of enclosed spaces and being grounded. Ninety seven percent of all the Seekers ever created had claustrophobia and would drive themselves mad if they were denied the freedom to fly. The fact any Seeker would have a fear of heights was an alien concept.

He spoke up again, clenching and unclenching his fists at random intervals. He appeared to be nervous. "I can't stand enclosed spaces either, but heights was a weird hang up I've had since… I don't know. Since forever I guess. My mother wouldn't let me fly around when I was old enough to and I tried to hover down the staircase when she was not home. I fell and just about nearly broke my arm. I was afraid of falling ever since. I… I hope that dignifies it."

"It was alwayzz dignified," I answered back. "Wazzpinator not blame Terror-bot." I was not a Seeker back on Cybertron - I was a helicopter - but I still got antsy when I could not fly. Most other fliers like me were not nearly as bad of as the Seekers were, but I was still mildly claustrophobic. To an extent, I could relate since I had a major event take place early on in my life while I was an infant as well. Being as delicate as I could, I finished the rewiring and closed the metallic door to the fuse box.

I turned to look at Terrorsaur, and his optics locked with mine again. "Really?"

I nodded. "Yeah. Wazzpinator has weird hang ups too, remember?"

His face turned humorously grim. "And I thought your shiny object fetish was bad. The sugarcane addiction is definitely worse."

Ah. His reminder brought up images from events that I preferred to not remember. When we had scanned our respectful beast-modes, many of us had picked up on the traits of the animals we used as our alternate forms. Whereas Terrorsaur had the strangest craving for sunbathing, fish, and small birds that I had ever seen, I had beast-mode wrought addiction for sugary substances and anything that held a reflective glint. One warm day after the events that took place within Tanna-16, while Scorponok and Blackarachnia had tried to set up a jamming station just beyond our territory border with the Maximals, Terrorsaur and I had been standing guard to make sure the project was successful. It was not. Rattrap, Cheetor, Dinobot, and Tigertron had ambushed and engaged the two of us. Outnumbered, we had no choice but to flee. Terrorsaur had given me the order to do so, but then I saw a glint of light reflect off a grenade Rattrap had tossed up. Hopelessly engrossed by the sheen surface of the explosive, I had stared at it stupidly until gravity started to pull it back down. It exploded a click later. As a result, I was sent flying backwards before I crashed violently into the ground. Terrorsaur managed to retrieve me, though not without commenting mildly that I had some seriously dangerous and distracted tendencies.

Then there was the sugar binge incident. All I remember is wolfing down a few pounds of sugarcane and then waking up in my room with huge hangover. Terrorsaur had been waiting for me to wake up while he sat on the edge of my berth. Either way, I'm glad I can't recall anything else. I'm sure the events that took place during that frightening occasion gave even Tarantulus nightmares. Since then however, I had an addiction to sugar. Regardless to the fact Megatron had banned sugar from being even within a hundred meters of the Darkside - my apparent sugar hyped rampage had obviously humbled the tyrant enough to the point where he did not even want it near the base - Terrorsaur would occasionally slip me a gram or so once or twice a week. I praised him endlessly for it.

I buzzed, feeling my insides twitch from the thought of the contraband Megatron had prohibited. "Don't remind Wazzpinator."

I laughed, a dry and lowly rasped sound, before he leaned forward and smirked at me. Our optics met and I realized his smirk was not a smirk at all. It was a smile. "I have to run another patrol in that area tomorrow. Until I can get some for you, I won't."

Pecking me on the front of my mandibles, he kissed me lightly before he pulled away and pressed his forehead against mine. There was no one in the hallway to see our display - to my knowledge, there were thankfully were no security cameras either - so I found it appropriate to lean forward and catch his lips with my own mouth. He grabbed one of my shoulders and lightly pushed me back, straining to get onto his knees so he could properly face me, and he kissed with a fever that equally matched mine. He wrapped his arms around my neck and, just like the barrier that kept us silent and the second one that hid our affections for one another, a third was knocked down. The barrier regarding something more than our own personal space.

The kiss suddenly deepened, slowed without warning, and Terrorsaur abruptly reached up to grasp the sides of my face with his trembling hands. My insides suddenly heated and I felt a hot blush burn my face. I reached up to grasp the back of his head and I held him there.

To my silent horror, my lower regions heated and I felt lube develop in my port. And we were in a hallway.

I pulled away with a pant and I could barely find my voice to speak. "Not here, Terror-bot."

Terrorsaur mewled and I caught a glimpse of his usually pale features as he pulled back. His entire face was flushed - whether or not in embarrassment or aroused desire was beyond me - and his optics were somewhat glazed. He looked down at me, his scarlet eyes still brilliant with his abrupt arousal, and he nodded shakily a click later. "Y-yeah. Follow me."

When Optimus Primal had accidentally become a berserker - courteous of another one of Scorponok's lovely screw ups - he had ambushed me in the hallway by busting through a hollow passage in the wall. The wall had not been patched up for the sole purpose that we did not have the supplies needed to repair it, but it had a secure, private chamber towards the right of the gaping hole that could just barely accommodate two Transformers. The entrance to the passage was conveniently no more than ten paces from where we were working and we quickly slipped in without being noticed.

It was the first time we interfaced.

As soon as I walked ahead into the closed off section that would hopefully be out of sight of anyone if they walked past the hole in the wall, Terrorsaur was all over me. Before I could turn to face him, he launched himself for me and kissed desperately up my jaw and mandibles. My wings brushed up against the walls in the enclosed space we were confined to and I resisted the urge to groan in pain. I hastily reached down to try to get my port to click open - at the same time, Terrorsaur raked his teeth down my throat - but I suddenly found myself whipped around and on all fours before I could protest. I bumped my head into the wall and razzed in pain just as Terrorsaur cursed behind me in a soft, pitched voice. He pushed himself past my thorax and his hand fondled my skid plate with a roughness I did not think he intended. My aft port clicked, I heard another click resonate from behind me - Terrorsaur's own port no doubt - and then electricity surged through my frame when he married our bodies.

I grunted from the pain and balled my fists. Embarrassment made my face burn hot and pain made my body ache. For our first time - admittedly - it was not all that pleasurable. Things were far too rushed and awkward for me to be any bit enjoyable and, the way my partner grunted behind me, Terrorsaur seemed to be in a silent agreement. Our bodies moved in sync, back and forth, but our sparks did not. After sometime, Terrorsaur bent over slightly to rest his upper torso on my back while he thrust.

I reached my right hand behind me and I grabbed Terrorsaur's fist. His fingers interlocked with mine immediately and, honestly, it was probably the only thing that felt right about what we were doing. I slammed my other fist onto the floor and ducked my head down to rest my forehead on the ground. He groaned behind me suddenly and I felt his port burn and surge with an overload. He had never come close to any of my hotspots once, no, but I pretended to overload anyways. I pseudo moaned and arched my back to make my movements seem believable, but I was not all too sure if they would be.

His overload dwindled after a moment and we were still. Terrorsaur slowly pulled away from me and he closed my aft port with a much more gentle touch. I turned to look at him, sitting on my aft and drawing my knees up to my chest. His face was bright red from embarrassment and he seemed to be overly interested in the scuffed, black floor underneath us. We were both silent for sometime before I finally decided to break it again. I razzed. "Terror-bot okay?"

He nodded absently. "Yeah… you?"

I nodded, but I averted my own gaze from trying to find his. I pretended to take interest in the wall next to my head, studying the dull black shadows my body cast, but then I heard Terrorsaur get up and leave. I turned around to look for him… But he was gone. Silence ensured and I sat alone for sometime before I felt an uncomfortably hot lump form in my throat. I did not feel like I was going to cry but I was mortified at what we had still done. We had not even actually been dating, of all things, for no more than several days prior to this.

My spark suddenly pulsated painfully in my chest.

I felt my face contort with mild pain, though my spark did nothing more. I ran a quick diagnostics on it, but everything came back normal. I dismissed it for nothing and forced myself up. After It hurt to walk and I knew it would be agonizing to head all the way down to his workshop, so I radioed Scorponok instead to let him know the fuse box was repaired. When I got through to him, I told him it was patched up and that I was going back to my quarters. The mechanic thanked me on the other side of the line but, before I could cut the connection, Scorponok piped back up.

"Waspinator? Are you crying?"

As soon as he mentioned it, I realized I was when I could not control the weak sob that issued forth. I forced my vocalizer to remain quiet in tone when I next spoke back up. "N-no. Wazzpinator fine…"

The mechanic seemed hesitant to hang up - he kept the radio link open for a few extra clicks - but then he turned it off. I was left alone in silence and, without further ado, I cried. I leaned against the wall for support and brought my right hand up to cover my optics. Hot tears stained my palm and I balled my other fist, slamming it against the wall in my teary frustration. The hot lump in my throat lurched painfully. I shuddered and prayed no one was watching me.

After a good half megacycle, I attempted to return to my quarters for the night. While I struggled to get there with my rubbery legs, I had to pass Terrorsaur's quarters. The hallway was dark aside from the fluorescent light that was directly over his door and I stopped in my tracks to stare at it. I could not see a light underneath the door - this probably meant my scarlet companion was asleep for all I knew - but then I could not help reaching over and knocking on it lightly. I wanted him to hear it and not hear it at the same time, but I felt a hot lump form in the back of my throat again when something else came to mind in that one instant.

…Did Terrorsaur suddenly decide he did not want me?

I knew he did like me a lot - what went down at Tanna was an indication - but had there been… something about my body that he did not like? Was that it?

I was tempted to leave and just to back to my quarters with the thought. Fate, however, had other plans in store for me. The door to Terrorsaur's room hissed open and the Predacon flier stood leaning against the doorframe, his expression and body language telling me that he had perhaps just woken up from a light recharge. He rubbed his face - not seeing me yet - and he spoke tiredly. "What?"

I wanted to say something, walk away even, but my legs either refused to work or the universe that hated me somehow found a way to fuse my feet with the floor. I could not say or do anything, but another burning knob caught in my gullet.

Terrorsaur ran his hand down his face and his optics were unhindered from seeing me. He froze, scarlet eyes brightening upon realizing it was me. His crimson and ebony hand dropped away from his face and he immediately straightened out. He looked surprised but I could clearly see there was a bit of alarm that made his face drop. He stood straight and reached towards me. "Waspinator? Slag, what-?"

I knew I could not hold it in and it was out before I could stop myself. I buzzed dejectedly and felt the last of my resolve cave in completely. My shoulders shook, my wings went rigid, and I razzed miserably. "Wazzpinator… Zzory?"

Before I could get a grip on some form of reality, I dropped my head so I was looking down at the floor. My vision of the dark metal that kept me there like a magnet blurred and, before I had anymore say in the matter, I cried. I buzzed dismally and balled my hands turned to fists in a vain, last ditch effort to maintain myself. Of all things, I had to go and look weak in front of Terrorsaur. It was not as if I had not disappointed him already with whatever it was that was wrong with my body.

The way Terrorsaur reacted, I could tell he was immediately alarmed by my actions. He took a step forward and, before I could try tearing my feet away from the ground that had merged me there, he wrapped his arms around my shoulders and pulled me tightly against him. With my view of the floor obscured by the top of his chest when he brought our bodied together, I almost instinctively pressed my head against his shoulder. The scarlet flier's grip was firm and I felt oddly safe within the embrace he bestowed. Through my scrambled thoughts, I somehow got the impression that I would be fine even if someone threw a shiny grenade my way in that instant.

I felt safe.

Terrorsaur was shushing me and pressing my body to his, willing what had allied me to stop. He rocked on his heels and rubbed the back of my neck with the base of his right thumb. "Waspinator, what-?"

I sniveled and made a choking sound in the far back of my throat. "Terror-bot left and Wazzpinator alone. Doezz Terror-bot not want Wazzpinator anymore?"

He hugged me tighter, seemingly alarmed by what it was I said. Whereas any other Transformer would've been bothered by the amount of pressure his arms applied, I did not mind it in the slightest. It gave me the random thought that I would be safe even if someone decided to drop a nuke for all I cared. Terrorsaur kept me in his arms and, almost randomly, he turned his head and pressed his crested forehead against my temple. The movement might've been uncomfortable for his neck - I was worried some about the way I heard the gears creak over the sound of my sniveling - but he broke through my thoughts by speaking up gently. "Geez, Waspinator I'm sorry. I didn't mean for you to get this upset." I did not think it was possible but, nevertheless, his hold turned tighter.

I hiccupped and - despite the amount of near crushing pressure he had me under - I managed to take a shuddering breath. "Terror-bot still want Wazzpinator?"

"Waspinator, yes," he said with an exasperated tone. He kissed the side of my head lightly, letting his lips ghost over the armor there. When he spoke again, his breath tickled the spot he had kissed. "The reason I left has nothing to do with you. I just… I felt like I total fragger afterwards. Of all the places we had to do it, we had to interface inside the wall. You deserve better."

The last word seemed to slip Terrorsaur's mind because, seemingly surprised with himself, he stopped stroking the nape of my neck. I reached up and gripped either side of his arms, keeping him against me, and I buzzed. "Terror-bot means that?"

He nodded against me. "…C'mon. You want to spend the night with me?"

I wanted to say yes but my vocalizer still made me keep up with my sniveling. Regardless though, Terrorsaur lead me into his darkened room and pulled away from me to close the door. No longer feeling his arms tightly wrapped around my body, I shivered involuntarily and silently wished him to put me back in his embrace. Moonlight shone through the stretch of window that dominated the far back wall. Though my feet were no longer permanently planted to the floor, I still found it difficult to bring myself to move.

The sliding door hissed back closed and Terrorsaur wrapped his arms around me, tenderly kissing the up side of my neck. Without a word, he silently pushed me along towards the berth and helped me get in. Though it was somewhat larger than the standard size recharge ports, the bed was still too small for two mechs to share it sprawled out. I had to lie on it facing the furthest from the wall so Terrorsaur would still have room. If I did not lie on my side at the edge, my wings and ungodly huge wasp abdomen would keep him from getting on the recharge plate at all.

He clambered on from the foot of the bed and sat up against the wall when he reached the headrest of the berth. He thrummed his fingers against his thighs and I silently sat up with him. We both stayed like that, side by side against the black metal, but I made the motion to rest my head against his shoulder. He wrapped his left arm around my waist and kept me as close as possible. We stayed like that for a long time before he moved his right hand towards my own sitting tiredly against my thigh.

He grasped it and, without hesitation, I held his back. He stroked the backside of my emerald hand with his black colored thumb. We stayed like that for even longer.

Though the sky had been clear - the moonlight pouring in through the windows was an indication of this most definitely - I heard the too tall pitter patter of rain starting to fall against the Darkside. The rainstorm that had been at Tanna and the other northernmost Predacon sectors had finally moved south towards our base. I imagined what Tanna had to look underneath the shimmering moonlight and I was tempted to ask Terrorsaur if he wanted to go with me out there sometime at night. The idea would obviously never run by Megatron but I was sure we could find a way to sneak out. Before I could break our silence though, the light from the window was slightly blotted out. Clouds had passed over it and, moments later, the heavy pounding of rain against the Darkside hull resonated. It was an oddly relaxing sound that made me silence my question and listen. Thunder rumbled in a non-menacing, faraway manner outside.

Something inside my body randomly clicked.

My lower regions throbbed and I razzed feeling everything down there tighten to a coiled spring. Terrorsaur did not seem to notice at first but, after a few cycles, he somehow managed to see the discomfort on my face. He angled his head so he could allow himself to look down at me and the dulled moonlight that caught on his features made his pale synthetic flesh look ghostly. His optics were still scarlet stars though, and that was something that both unnerved and comforted me when I felt something in my port twitch. Of all times it had to happen, I had to get turned on for no apparent reason now?

I glanced up towards my partner's face completely and our optics met. His scarlet ones clashed with my blue set and, very carefully, he moved his hand away from mine and ran it up the length of my thigh. I stifled a low groan but, nevertheless, he brought it up to my inner thigh and caressed the spot hesitantly. Without much of a say in the matter, my body spread its legs slightly to allow my partner the room to do this. Terrorsaur's confidence wavered, probably wanting my permission before he went forward with anything. He pushed his luck not hearing me object and he let his fingers trail over my codpiece. He had to sit up slightly so he could accomplish this but I could not hold my light moan back even when I tried to. I let my head loll back so it bumped against the back wall. "Terror-bot…"

Reading my body language as a sign for him to continue, he gently rubbed my crotch with his whole hand. My spark thrummed in my chest and everything in my port was lubed immediately. Heat danced up my abs in spiraling columns of zapping pre-bliss and I trembled slightly from anticipation, angling my neck so I could met his optics again. He pushed down on my port cover and the retractable emerald seal hissed open. Heat radiated from between my legs and I could smell the unmistakable hot coppery scent that indicated my body's desire. Though not completely at my most venerable, I felt my face flush and I had to break our optic contact. I buried my head against his shoulder again with a buzzing whimper, nuzzling his neck as best I could.

He hesitated again. I mewled pathetically and, finding himself with no where else to go, Terrorsaur pressed himself onward. He dipped his trigger and middle digit into my port.

I had to resist bucking as much as I could, but I found I could not stop the initial jolt that made me jerk in place. I forced myself to not arch my hips into the delicious touch, yes, but my control was limited at most. I gasped and groaned like I was dying, buzzing my wings when he wormed those fingers down against my super sensitive circuitry. My face grew hot, flushed ever more, and I tried to bite back the loud moan that wanted to tear itself free from the confides of my body when he moved his fingers slightly. I balled my hands into fists and pressed them against my thighs. Without much aim as to what he could do with me, Terrorsaur settled for thrusting in an out of my body gently. Every now and again, he could try going in at a new angle to let electric pleasure spiral up and down my innards. The room was eerily silent despite my harshening air intakes and, briefly, it reminded me about the silence we had at the beginning of our partnership.

Then he stopped thrusting and he began stroking. It made my spark do flips in its casing.

He stopped his prior method and nearly pulled out when he used his thumb to trace around the outside of my interface dock. I gasped his name and groaned, knowing full well the knuckles on my hands would have been white if I was organic. He pushed his fingers back down inside me, but this time he resorted to stroking the cables rather than brushing up against them. It was a whole new sensation that made my already quickly beating fuel pump sputter inside my chest. I buried my face in his neck further and moaned, trying not to arch my hips into his hand. I still felt his gaze on me even though my optics were offline and unable to resister his watching scarlet eyes, but I felt far too embarrassed to even consider looking at him.

His talented fingers continued to stroke the wiring before his thumb and two digits dipped further down and found one of the larger cables in my port. Moaning like I was slowly dying and still loving every moment of it, I spread my legs further apart when his digits found it. I lost my voice when he started to pump against the cable though. He moved up and down against it, moving his entire hand with the motion, and the friction was too much for me to handle. Heat lanced up my abs and into my spark with a high enough temperature to melt soft metals.

For the first time under Terrorsaur's ministrations, I overloaded. Oh gods, I don't even think it's physically possible for me to forget what it felt like.

I gasped meekly, letting my mandibles fall open and my face burn hot with embarrassment. Blissful, uncontrolled pleasure zapped up my abdomen and through every limb attached to my torso. My spark thrummed in euphoria and turned into a small sun inside my spark chamber. Sparks zapped from between my legs and there was nothing I could do but moan and ride through it. I gave in finally, arched my hips weakly, and Terrorsaur merely kept jerking me off through all of it.

When my overload finally began to dwindle, he removed his fingers and rubbed my port to ease it back closed. I panted, keeping my face buried in his throat and trying to regain what little composure I had left. Terrorsaur's hand - the one he used to pleasure me - came up underneath my chin and I felt Terrorsaur pull away slightly. I tried to keep my face downcast but he tilted my face up so I was forced to look up at him. My optics seemed to go back online on their own accord and I had to force my mandibles closed. His expression was unreadable and his scarlet optics were aglow with concern. My face turned hot again and I mewled.

His voice was soft compared to the rain pounding outside. "Are you alright?"

I would've responded if I had the energy. As it was, I did not. I barely had the energy reserves to nod my let alone voice it. Terrorsaur seemed to understand my intended response would have been yes just by the look he had to have seen in my eyes. He bent his head forward slightly, hesitated for only the briefest of clicks, and then he closed the space between us to kiss me tenderly. The fingers on the hand that kept my head from falling forward from my lack of strength stroked the underneath of my chin plating while his other arm, still wrapped around me, squeezed gently on my lower shoulder. I shivered as my post-bliss began to dwindle into exhaustion and recharge began to sweep me away into nothingness. Before I finally gave in and fell offline, Terrorsaur pulled away after kissed the top of my forehead gently.

I dreamt that I saw two sparks floating together in the dark - one a beautiful red, the other a hideous green - before they fused together and turned a brilliant gold. The dream itself disturbed me greatly for several reasons. The most blunt of these reasons was that sparks fused together when Transformers bonded. Not that the thought of ever bonding with Terrorsaur scared me, absolutely not, but the rate at which our relationship was going did.

I woke up some few megacycles later - by Primus, I was ridiculously starved - still lying beside Terrorsaur. The heavy rain had stopped but I could clearly hear the soft thumps of a light drizzle outside. It was still dark out but a quick time check on my behalf indicated that it was five or so hours before sunrise. Terrorsaur had long since fallen asleep as well, his jaw slightly agar and his chin resting on his upper chest. I watched him with hazy recharge wrought confusion clouding my higher logic. It had not even been a week ago that we shared out first kiss and we had attempted to interface just the day prior… And then, even after that attempt, Terrorsaur pleasured me himself. My mind could not race with thoughts in my groggy state but I had enough common sense to know that the speed at which our partnership was turning into something else - something even I was afraid to grasp without knowing what would happen to us in the long run - was terrifying.

We had once been nothing more than partners in Megatron's scheme who were silent to one another with no sense of friendship between them. In a fluke, we became friends and, in another, we turned into something more than that. Remembering my dream made me wonder and fear what was next.

…Could he be a mate?

I blinked and watched Terrorsaur's face intently with a sense of qualm, trying my best to keep quit so I wouldn't disturb him. I realized, just as I watched Terrorsaur's neutral face while the red mech slept, how aesthetic and gorgeous he was. His features were entirely relaxed, making him look almost angelic, and then the doubt and fear stirring in my mind turned into a tornado of thoughts. We had not even been properly dating - at least I did not think so. Neither of us had referred to our relationship in that sense - and the thought of tying the knot with him frightened me. Unless it was meant to happen of course but, honestly, thought frightened me more. If there was a higher power like Primus out there, did that mean that maybe the rate we were molding ourselves into one another's life was planned? I was afraid to find out.

Terrorsaur stirred, the corner of his mouth twitched, and his optics brightened. He inclined his head to look at me and we stared at one another for a very long time. Another one of our unannounced staring contests. My eyes locked with his scarlet ones and I had to break the contact when I thought having him as a mate. I looked down, staring at the wall past his face, and he reached a hand up to stroke my abs. "You okay?"

"Wazzpinator just tired," I replied. I nuzzled the side of my head against his scarlet helm and listened to the sound of falling rain. "Wazzpinator just has a lot to think about."

Terrorsaur did not respond, but I felt his gaze on me for a long time. I did not have to look up at him to see the conflict stirring in his eyes to know he was doubting too.

It had been another week or so later - with no more attempts at proper interface or any alternatives due to our embarrassment on the subject - and we got even closer. We went out to Tanna nearly everyday when we had the immediate chance and then we started to share quarters often, though we were in his more than mine. After we habitually returned from curfew, we would typically retire to Terrorsaur's room. His berth could not accommodate two mechs unless they were on their sides - front to back - and unusually close. It honestly did not matter to us. For the most part, he usually held me from behind when we slept.

His arms would snake around my torso lovingly and he'd rest his head in the crook of my shoulder. His breath would condensate on the back of my neck in hot spurts that would slow when he entered recharge. I would listen to him for a good portion of the night before I would finally fall offline myself. Then there were other times where I would hold him. His pterodactyl beast-mode's head was a hassle to get around - I could imagine he felt familiar about my wings unless I folded them against my back - but it felt dreamlike nonetheless. Terrorsaur was taller than I was by a few inches, but he felt and looked so small when I held him. My scarlet star had a tendency to curl into a ball often, never really looking comfortable with his legs extended all the way out from him body like I did, and it made him seem to much more fragile then he really was. He would occasionally fall asleep before me and it would leave me to think about what was happening to us while I was temporarily alone in the dark.

Unfortunately for the both of us, I did not have time to come up with an answer as to what we were going to do. One day, we were both nearly killed. Mainly yours truly of course, but it was a day that changed the both of our lives forever.

Terrorsaur and I had been sent out on a recon mission to the north where the physical aspect of our pairing first began to come into play. The both of us did not have very much to do other than freeze our tails off but finding Tigertron at least gave us something to do. The white tiger mech was at a radio tower he had set up to keep communications with the Maximals while so far away from the Axalon. For my partner and I, it felt only appropriate that we take him out. Terrorsaur and I swooped in for a kill and dodged the shots the older of the Maxi cats shot our way. I was not hit though, which made me slightly paranoid. Usually when I was not shot down right off, it meant the universe that hated me had something else far bigger in store. Regardless, my wingmate and I managed to knock the communications tower right on Tigertron's hide. The machine was destroyed, though Tigertron lived.

Terrorsaur dive bombed him, letting one of his shoulder cannons reveal themselves from his shoulders. I mentally sniggered at the warhead that revealed itself Painted like a sort of shark with hotrod flames, its printed eyes glared out at its intended Maximal target. If there was one thing that Terrorsaur was good at other than piloting, it was digital designing. I had first seen Terrorsaur working on the printed warhead during one of the nights we had extra duties and were not able to go out to Tanna. I had entered the code to his quarters - after he so graciously gave it to me several nights prior - and had seen him rewiring a missile to be a custom fit for his cannons.

He merely shrugged it off when I asked him if it was something that was going to explode in my face. "I don't even think it's going to work," he started nonchalantly. "I just wanted an excuse to design something."

"Digital art?" I razzed and sat down on the berth to watch him work. Terrorsaur sat hunched over his workbench while he wired the projectile in the light of his desk lamp. "Wazzpinator did not know Terror-bot did that."

He shrugged again. "I went to school be a graphics designer back on Cybertron," he muttered. He finished up with the missile's essential parts and got to work with sealing on the already printed design. I wondered how he had made it to begin with - I did not see a printer attached to his computer - so I was planned on asking him later. It was completely unnecessary when it came to getting the weapon to work, but it was nice to have anyways. He spoke up again after sometime. "I couldn't come up with the money to support my education in college though, so I had to drop out. Piloting was my only choice for a career since most of the others had Predacon bans. I did not need much training either, so it worked out okay."

"But Terror-bot was not happy with it," I mused. I crossed my legs and my wings twitched out of reflex behind me.

Terrorsaur shrugged. "Dinobot found me through my flying career. He was the one that hired me to be part of Megatron's crew. I wouldn't have met you if I didn't take the job." He was right I thought, and we fell into a silence again before he broke it. "You?"

"Hrm?"

"What about you? Did you have any plans before you got dragged into stealing the Darkside with me?"

I had to suppress the cluster vile memories that made their way into my processor. My mother had been planning to support me with a college education before my father took his and her life in the fire that destroyed my only home. I was not willing to confess to him that I had to frequently prostitute to make money. There had been times as a sparkling that I had taken interest in the sky, however. Even at the age of three by human standards, I was able to name more constellations and galaxies than anyone else I knew. I could point them out too if you let me sit by a window long enough. "Wazzpinator thought about being astronomer."

Terrorsaur had seemed really into his work but, as soon as I said what I had, he stopped and looked over at me. He had already started to apply the print to the missile's sheen surface before he turned away. Now completely exposed to my eyes, I saw the missile sat halfway completed. His face was dark in front of the lamp he was using on his desk and his features were silhouetted in the artificial light. His voice was just as surprised as it was curious. "Astronomy? Really? How many stars are in the Quinesson cluster?"

I told him.

He whistled, slapped a hand against his thigh, and flashed a wide grin. "Wow. You didn't even hesitate."

I shrugged, apathetic with myself. "Wazzpinator had that memorized since he was sparkling."

Terrorsaur shrugged back. "It's still impressive. What about on this planet? Do you recognize any constellations?"

I shook my head no.

He shrugged again. "Aw well. It doesn't matter I guess." He turned away to go back to work before he stopped. He inclined his head back towards me slightly, his face still blotted out from the light behind him, and he softly spoke up. "What stopped you from being an-?"

I razzed and cut him off. I was not going to admit to him that my parents were dead. "Same situation Terrorsaur got into."

This, of course, was seemingly the end of it. Terrorsaur had gone back to pasting the print on his rocket for awhile before he stopped to look over his work. His face twisted with whatever was going through his head at the time and I strode up to him on an impulse I could not figure out. Terrorsaur had looked up at me, contemplating my face, before I gingerly bent down and kissed him. Before I could figure out what we were doing, I was kissing down his chest and positioning myself over his codpiece. He dug his heels into the ground to keep his roller chair from moving when he bucked and his grip on the desk with his right hand was strong enough to cause mild indentations. His left hand switched back and forth from his armrest to the back of my head and his moans, though not enough to cause an overload of my own, were art for my audios.

Back at present though, the missile Terrorsaur had worked hard to make was fired and shot past his shoulder with increasing speed. My scarlet star pulled away at the last click, pivoting upwards and nearly shooting straight into me when I passed to circle around the Maximal below us. Tigertron had to leap out of the way to avoid getting hit by the midair torpedo. The missile collided with the snow covered ground and Terrorsaur looked disappointed when the warhead only sputtered meekly instead of exploding. My wingmate was a far better artist than an engineer apparently. That claim was even more evident when one fin on the missile's aft fell off the flank of the weapon.

Tigerton lifted his head and I put my stinger blaster on automatic without even thinking.

I aimed for Tigertron at first, seeing a chance to get him in his distraction, but then I saw the missile embedded in the snow and aimed for that instead. One of my stingers collided with the rocket and it went off with a bang, exploding and sending Tigertron flying towards the edge of a cliff face. The ground suddenly started to fissure and fracture with loud groans and resonating cracks. I was not all too sure whether or not it was from the explosion or the earthquakes that frequently rocked the area, but Tigertron barely had enough time to get off the splintering face before it broke away. He got to his feet and staggered for the side of the cliff that was still stable and, as the piece that broke away fell, he leapt and grabbed the side of the cliff to keep from falling to his death. The attempt at self-preservation went in vain however. Tigertron lost his grip and fell straight through a dark cloud passing underneath the mountainside.

I had already flown around to get to Terrorsaur's side - he flashed me a grin, congratulating me for my last cycle save - and I whopped happily when Tigertron vanished from sight. The tiger's scream faded and he was gone. "Success! Maximal destroyed!"

Terrorsaur had suggested we retrieve his parts to prove to Megatron that we managed to kill Tigertron. I whopped again in response, claiming I got dibs on his head. High off our victory, I buzzed past him and Terrorsaur called back that the cat's head was going to be his. "Hey! Its mine, bug face!"

I razzed over my shoulder at him and transformed to my beast-mode. Diving after me, he followed suit by switching to his own beast-mode and we scanned the ground for the tiger. As fate had it, he was nowhere in sight. Aggravated, I asked where the tiger's parts could've possibly been. He fell right in this area - I saw him fall myself - but none of his parts littered the ground. There was not even an indication that he had crashed.

Beside me, Terrorsaur looked upwards towards the dark cloud looming overhead. His eyes were observant when he muttered quietly to himself. "We saw him fall into that cloud…" My partner watched the deep gray mass a second longer before he flapped his wings hard and regained altitude, flying up towards the now obviously out of place cloud. I noticed the flying puff of moist, freezing air was far too low in altitude to be normal. I told him to wait up and I flew after him.

There was an ominous air around it. I did not like it in the slightest. I voiced my opinions when we entered the dark form. The icy bitterness of frozen condensation that stung my wings made my voice tremble slightly. "Wazzpinator does not like this. Something wrong."

Terrorsaur said nothing. Whether or not he felt the same way was beyond me because there was a sudden brightness.

The misty fog parted and there was a massive floating island. Trees swayed in some sort of imaginary wind and a large tower sat in the dead center of the isle. A pristine lake that reminded me greatly of Tanna's sat in the vast island by the tall obelisk that rested within the center. I flew out ahead, Terrorsaur slowing behind me in awe while I stared in amazement. The last time we'd ever had an encounter with the aliens involved the standing stones, but this was something new altogether. I had to presume this was the aliens' work anyways. An entire island ecosystem, hidden from outsiders' views, sitting within a massive dark cloud had to be the work of an outside force. There was no way in the Pitt the isle could have formed naturally.

Terrorsaur gasped. "Waspinator…"

I could not come up with anything to say in return. I flew upwards and ahead, cautious and awed at the same time by the stunning view, but then that view was compromised when a pulse blast suddenly shot out at me. It hit me square in the shoulder and sent flying backwards with a razzing screech. Regardless, I knew who it fired the shot before Terrorsaur could ever move into position to cover me. I shook the blow off and transformed, swooping in to attack Tigertron. With all due respect, the striped cat ran and dove behind the nearest rock he could find. He had positioned himself at the furthermost edge of the floating isle closest to us and, despite the fact he had cover, he was still outnumbered two to one. My training kicked in and I swooped down with Terrorsaur audibly shifting to robot-mode behind me. Terrorsaur fired his shoulder cannons, Tigertron fired, and I countered the cat to back up Terrorsaur. We went back and forth like this for no more then ten clicks before it all went to the Pitt.

I looked up and saw something glowing gold in the island's distance. I stopped firing my gun and, after giving the light a critical look, I spoke up. "Uh, Terror-bot?"

He stopped shooting as well and he inclined his head to look towards me. Tigertron had stopped shooting from behind his cover two clicks earlier, leading the both of us to believe his weapon was suffering through a quasar jam, and my scarlet wingmate seemed incredibly inpatient. "We can't stop now! If we do, he might get another change to fight back!"

"Look!" I insisted. He did, and this time I could see the glow emitting from the obelisk being unmistakable now. I was sure he saw it too - judging by the way he gasped, I was sure he had seen it - but then it shot out at us.

A massive gold beam from the obelisk's pyramid top blasted at us. It made a wailing, alien sound as it whooshed through the air straight at my partner and I. Off guard and taken aback by the beam zooming towards us, neither Terrorsaur nor I could bring ourselves to react. The screaming of the beam spiked as it got closer and, nearly a whole click after it shot at us, I could see it plainly headed for Terrorsaur. Fear lanced throughout my systems but it was far too late to react.

The blast hit Terrorsaur square in the chest. My scarlet star screamed in agony.

My partner was knocked back, having completely lost his equilibrium, and I looked back towards his falling form. Horror erupted through my systems and I would have screamed for him if a second wailing shriek had not pierced the air. It was from the weapon again, this time firing for me. I had no time to dodge it by the time it was mere nanoclicks from hitting me. I was also hit in the chest and all my systems failed at once. My radio blew a fuse, my balance center was severely damaged, and the blast itself burned.

I was sent sprawling backwards with a screech. I tumbled through the air and was back inside the cold clouds before I could judge exactly where I was. I would have called out for Terrorsaur, both to call for help and make sure he was alright at the same time, but I could not find my voice to do it. Making any sort of sound impossible, my throat seemed to swell around my vocalizer and I tumbled through the freezing air like a comet bound to smash into the earth below. Such an impact would kill me for sure but I could not access my flight gear to stop my uncontrolled descent.

I was going to die.

The thought made my spark lurch inside its casing painfully and the first thing to come to my mind was Terrorsaur. How would he react when he saw my smashed remains? I knew damn well there was no chance he would get killed from this but I knew there was I chance that I could and more than likely would. After all, he was still Terrorsaur while I was still the universe's favorite punching bag. He'd have to pick up my pieces with the thought I'd never wake up again even if he put the parts in the CR.

Grief pulsed through my systems. Then my spark flared painfully in my chest, though this time actually resonating from physical pain despite the fact my spark did not seem to have suffered damages. It caught me off guard but I did not have the time to dwell on it. I heard a familiar, squawking screech somewhere around me. "WASPINATOR!"

"TERRORSAUR!" I could not tell up from down or left from right, but I saw a flash or scarlet and then I could tell which direction I was falling. Terrorsaur swooped underneath me and had caught me, yes, but only one of his two internal antigravs was working. He could not stop our fall because I had been plummeting too fast and he could not properly fly. From what I could immediately see of his face while he slowed out fall, it was scuffed and burned black in several places. The sight of his pale features being marred by the alien weapon made my spark pulsate with pain again - this time being emotional - but his scarlet star eyes glowed as though they had remained untouched.

Then I realized, for the first time since I had known him, I had called him by his actual name.

The ground zoomed closer and the both of us were helpless to avoid the crash that followed. We landed in the snow, still mildly soft from the blizzard that had passed sometime earlier, but all the wind was knocked right out of me. I landed hard on my side and Terrorsaur had to let go of me. I cried out, hitting my head hard against a firmer patch of snow and bouncing slightly, but what bothered me most was that I did not hear Terrorsaur cry out when we impacted the ground. I rolled to my right twice before I landed on my chest. The burns there flared brilliantly but I did not have the breath to cry out. I had no idea where Terrorsaur was now.

I sat up slowly two or three cycles later, my optics blurry from tears. I was not crying, but both my optics had somehow sustained heavy enough damage to make them water. Either way, it was evident that I had spoiled my eyesight. A round in the CR would be able to fix it I supposed, but then there was the matter of being able to get to a CR chamber first.

I spotted a patch of red against the snow lying several feet away. Icy wind blew across the snow, making some of it blow over Terrorsaur's still form. He was not moving.

I watched his prone body with rising terror before I struggled to get to my feet. The burn on my chest pulsed in agony. I cried out and fell over into the freezing snow again. My chest stung from the pain making my whole body ache painfully and I struggled to get up. "Terror-bot!" My voice cracked and I half crawled, half staggered when I had the resolve to pull myself up on my legs. For the most part, I dragged myself towards my wingmate.

Because he was so aesthetic, the burns that marred his body looked even worse on him than on me. It was my own personal opinion, though I was sure anyone sane would have agreed with me. His arms were sprawled out ahead of him and he was laying face first. Despite the fact he had been hit by the beam on his chest, the superheated air from the blast managed to burn his whole back either a sooty shade of ebony. It even burned right through the leather patches of his hide in places. Circuitry was revealed on his sides and back in about ten different spots but, on top of all the damage, he still did not move. I was too afraid to reach forward to shake him at first.

"…Terror-bot?"

When he still did not respond, I tossed all caution into the wind. I reached forward unsteadily and took him by his shoulder, giving him a firm shake. His body lolled somewhat, but he still did not move when I stopped shaking him.

My spark sank.

I gave him another firm shake. "T-Terror-bot, please wake up…" I squeezed his shoulder again, desperate for some kind of response, but I got nothing. Panic bubbling underneath my already thin grip on reality, I shook him with all my force. "Terrorsaur!"

And there I had gone saying his full name again. I wouldn't have realized I had called him by his real name if my voice had not sounded so terrified.

Something twitched underneath my hand and, mere moments later, I felt Terrorsaur move slightly. I thought it was me at first but then I stopped and saw he was trying to sit up. Quickly, I turned him over onto his side and he rolled the rest of the way onto his back. His face was burnt somewhat but it was also far paler than usual. He coughed and sputtered, taking in a wheezed breath, and he broke off into a loud hacking fit. His chest rose and fell drastically and I suddenly realized he was having immense difficulty breathing. Without preamble, I moved forward and repositioned myself so I was on my knees before reaching underneath his back with one of my arms. With the rest of my strength, I sat him up and held him there so he could regulate his own intakes. I took my other arm and wrapped it around his shoulders, hugging him loosely to my own battered body. Terrorsaur's breathing had gotten better a few cycles later, but he shuddered in a constantly violent manner from the cold.

He coughed and his voice trembled when he finally had enough breath to speak. "I fell…"

The way his voice rose an octave with his last word, instinct made me gently squeeze him closer to my body. I tried to not put any more stress on his superstructure then there already was but I could tell he was too shaken to care. He shuddered from both the bitter cold and icy fear he had to endure. I buzzed comfortingly to him. "Terror-bot is okay. Terror-bot is fine…" I said things like that to him for about half a cycle before he seemed to calm down. His breath still came out in wheezes and it would occasionally turn into a gasp - he had probably hurt his oxygen intake valves either when he was shot or when we crashed into the snow - but some color did seem to return to his features. I knew he was terrified of heights, specifically falling, but he took it like a real trooper.

Then, at the same time while falling and living one of his worst nightmares, he had saved me. That took courage and, whilst he had owed me his life from the incident involving Airrazor, I now owed him mine.

He strained to look at me, his optics bright and his voice still slightly shaken. "Are you okay?"

I nodded, feeling myself shudder when a cold wind brushed over my badly damaged chassis. "Wazzpinator not be if Terrorsaur had not saved him."

For the third time, again, I had called him by his full name. I was not sure if he had noticed the occurrences before, but he picked up on them now. He looked at me with a surprised look and he blinked. That was when I noticed that, while the rest of my scarlet star's face was burnt and scraped, his crimson ones were undamaged. "You… You called me Terrorsaur."

I blinked, feeling the moisture built up in my optics go nowhere. My vision was still blurry and it irked me just as much as it stung. I nodded shakily when another cold gale caressed my body with a harsh hand. "Wazzpinator knows." I tried to smirk at him as much as I could, though the fact my mandibles made the motion impossible and that I hurt too much kept me from doing so. Instead, I let my voice take on a slightly more joking tone. "Maybe voice glitch going away?"

I knew damn well that was not the case and I was sure Terrorsaur thought the same thing. Before I could divulge further into those thoughts however, Terrorsaur shifted slightly and suddenly arched in pain. He had somehow shifted his right leg and something beneath the armor made a loud pop. It sounded like his knee, maybe even his foreleg for all I knew, but it was obviously very painful. He threw his head back, gnashing his teeth, and the shriek he had stifled turned into a high pitched whine. A click later, the all too recognizable blue electricity from an energon surge danced around his body. I had one another click after that as well. I set my mandibles to keep from crying out but, regardless, I could not stop the loud razz of pain that came from my vocalizer.

When the surge temporarily stopped, I found my voice and spoke up. "We'zz has to get to Darkside to warn other Predacons. Megatron will want to know about cloud and flying island. If we'zz don't…" I did not want to voice the fact that, even though we survived the fall and initial attack from the obelisk, the reality that we could freeze to death was very real. A quick diagnostic proved this point. Warning lights flashed in the corner of my vision that my mech fluids were crystallizing rapidly. The fact we were in robot-mode on a rich in raw energon planet made things worse. I looked my partner over, trying my best to ignore he horrible wounds, and I razzed again to get his attention. "Convert to beast-mode so we'zz can fly back."

Terrorsaur whimpered. His head was still thrown back and his jaw trembled slightly. "I can't move my leg…"

"Try," I begged. The burns covering my body made my whole frame blaze in pain and I knew that either one of us turning to our respectful animal forms would be agonizing. It was absolutely Primus damn awful and I felt as though someone had dumped a few gallons of acid over my frame.

Terrorsaur grit his teeth hard, gnashing them enough so that it looked like he was putting his dentals under a good hundred pounds pressure, while he strained to get into a sitting position. His chest was dark with the third degree burns there - he had been hit directly in that spot - and it was a miracle that he had such tough armoring. Had he not, I doubted he'd be able to talk or let alone move. Terrorsaur sat up, looking like he was in a great deal of pain, before he squeaked in pain and nearly fell back again. I held my hand out behind him to keep him upright.

My scarlet star squawked low - a long, rumbling sound - before hissing. "Terrorsaur, terror-ARGH!"

His body twisted around to form his beast-mode and he fell forwards, trembling in pain when he took on his alternate form. Gods, his injuries were still horrific to look at. His beast-mode's face was stained black from soot and a large, gaping hole ran up over the left hand side of stomach and up his pterodactyl chest. It was his wings that were worse off though. They were so badly scorched that they were scalded white in places. Some of the scarlet leather skin missing towards the wingtips and it tore at my spark to see him as hurt as he was.

He looked at me, eyes narrowed with pain, and he made another low squawk that resonated from the deep back of his throat. "Your turn."

I mentally braced myself, though I was not too sure about myself in regards to physical. "Wazzpinator terrorize!"

I could not even bring myself to voice my pain as it ripped up my abs and throbbed inside my chest before lashing back outwards into my limbs. I fell forwards into beast-mode and lost my footing, sprawling out against the snow in my alternate form. A pounding headache ripped through my head from the burns there and my wasp abdomen stung with pain. All six of my legs refused to move. Terrorsaur ducked down next to me and nudged me with his beak. "Waspinator? Waspy-"

"Wazzpinator fine," I managed to groan. I inclined my neck to look up at my partner but had to turn my head away to avoid looking at his injuries. Instead, I glanced behind me towards my thorax and I saw that the black stripes on my abdomen had been completely burned off. The air that became superheated when the obelisk fired its beam at us had burned the color right out of the bright paint from my body's waist down, turning the bright yellow a sickly shade of the same color and leaving dark black burns where the ebony stripes should have been. I still saw myself as being far better off than Terrorsaur was though.

Terrorsaur suddenly shoved his beak underneath my wasp form's chest and tried to lift me up, attempting to get me onto my six feet. "C'mon, we need to get back and run a round in the CR chambers. Can you fly?"

"Can Terror-bot?" I asked in a disbelieving tone. Knowing the horrid shape his wings were in and knowing one of his antigravs was busted, I honestly doubted that he could even manage to lift himself into the air. Through his aching and pain, he managed to weakly smirk at me.

We both had difficulty getting off the ground at first - I had fallen when I tried to take off the first time - but we managed to get up into the air not too long afterward. The wind bit at our hides like a merciless animal with no kindness towards the badly damaged, but we struggled onward regardless. Energon surges were no longer a major threat to our health but, because of the open circuit injuries my wingmate and I had, it was still possible for us to suffer from energon radiation even while we remained in beast-mode. That was something that worried me, but it turned out that exposure to energon was the least of our problems. The exhaustion that began to wear us down became an even more serious issue.

Terrorsaur's flight capabilities had begun to lag and, eventually, I could see he was having immense difficulty staying in the air without dropping right out of the sky. No more than ten cycles since I had noticed Terrorsaur's flying become tired, my own started to get bad. He was worse off I suppose, seeing as very little remained of his wings. On another note altogether however, neither of us could fly straight. I kept dropping altitude and speed, flying erratically because my wings and my own antigravs sputtered and nearly failed on several occasions. Terrorsaur on the other hand was too worn to even keep his equilibrium evened out.

Whereas it should have taken us thirty cycles to get back to base if we were undamaged, it took us two full, agonizingly long megacycles. Our flying was at its worst then and our energy levels were in the single digits. If he had arrived any later, one of us would have dropped right out of the sky. Chances were that neither of us could survive another crash landing.

Terrorsaur spoke up next to me, his voice somewhat slurred. "Finally. I… I feel like my energy center is going to crash."

"Hang in there," I urged with a voice that was equally strained. "We'zz almost back."

We were there two cycles later. The both of us glided into the Darkside's lower hanger and we both crashed into the ground as soon as we made contact with the floor. It was a minor crash, nothing compared to slamming into the ground when the island weapon's beam hit us so we lost our ability to maintain flight, but I thought I was going to drop into unconsciousness when I finally rolled to a stop on my side. A great deal of nudging was needed on Terrorsaur's part to get me moving again. It took another three cycles for us to limp into the blissfully warm control center.

When we entered, I could tell that Megatron was trying to hide a horrified expression. The way his face visibly knotted and the fashion his jaw was set gave this away easily. I knew that he had to have seen us approaching the base in our condition from the security cameras, but even I had to give him the benefit of the doubt now that he was seeing us in person. Our injuries looked far worse in the flesh than they did on a monitor screen I supposed.

I limped heavily in my beast-mode with all six legswhile Terrorsaur staggered forward. When we managed to make it to stand before Megatron, a quick glance around the room revealed that only Scorponok and Blackarachnia were present. Tarantulus was no where in sight and the newest potential recruit, Inferno, was still running a round in the CR chamber. Before I could contemplate further, Megatron asked in a demanding tone if Tigertron had done this to us. The tyrant was aware that the Maximal was the only one in the far northern region but I did not blame him for doubting a usually peaceful mech could inflict such horrendous damage.

Megatron seemed to be addressing Terrorsaur and, to keep my partner from being put underneath the spotlight in an already stressful situation, I intervened immediately. "No-no! Not just Tigertron!"

Terrorsaur cut in to back me up, seemingly afraid to leave me alone underneath Megatron's aggravated attention. "I-It-It was um… A monument!"

I cut back in as well. I looked back up at Megatron and nodded my head quickly, making my head spin somewhat when I made the movement. "Yeah! Monument!"

He demanded that we explain ourselves. His face was hard and his optics unwavering, but Terrorsaur was the one who jetted back in and took over. I was surprised by this seeing how Terrorsaur hated being put on the spot around the tyrannosaur, but then I presumed Terrorsaur knew how exhausted I was. I appreciated the fact he took over on my behalf greatly, so I contributed by nodding occasionally as Terrorsaur went into the long tirade on how we were gunned down the obelisk onboard the flying island. Throughout his explanation though, I could clearly see he was beginning to sway on his feet more. No one else seemed to notice except for myself and, surprisingly enough, Megatron. The fact the mauve and ebony Predacon leader was paying such close attention to my wingmate worried me some, but it did not worry me nearly as much as watching Terrorsaur's energy completely hit rock bottom.

By the time my scarlet partner was finished his explanation, Terrorsaur was incredibly unsteady. As soon as he mentioned that he and I barely made it back, he had completely lost all his strength. He squawked weakly, rolled his head back for a moment, and then he swayed too far to his left. I broke he fall thankfully, but he had turned into complete dead weight. Without the strength left to support him myself, I made a high pitched buzz and I collapsed on my stomach when he landed on my back.

Megatron had turned away to mull over the information given to him, but I found myself too distracted to care about what he was saying to himself. Above me, Terrorsaur whimpered meekly and wheezed. "I can't move…"

There was a hint of fear underlining his voice which, again, was something that greatly worried me. I felt him shiver by a hair's breadth and I buzzed my wings in an endeavor to console him. "Terror-bot be fine. Wazzpinator here, 'member?"

And that simple statement seemed to alleviate his fear tremendously. He squawked tiredly and seemed to go even more lax on top of me, almost leading me to believe that he had fallen into recharge. His harsh breathing indicated otherwise, so I kept cooing back to him comfortingly like I had after Airrazor just about murdered him. Despite his weight weighing down on me, I found myself genuinely comfortable the more I thought about it. Although my injures were very much painful to endure, having Terrorsaur's reassuring form against mine made it so much more worth to withstand.

Megatron abruptly turned back to us. Terrorsaur noticed first and he lifted his head off mine so he could look at our tyrant leader. I razzed just barely, a sound that probably evaded everyone's audios but Terrorsaur's, and Megatron told us to get to the CR chamber. His face was knotted again like he was trying to hide something, but I knew he was trying to conceal the surprise he felt while seeing the position my partner and I were in. It came to mind that the sight was probably very intimate looking the way Terrorsaur and I were making physical contact. Without a word, as soon as Megatron had finished speaking to us, Terrorsaur lost his strength once more and collapsed on me again.

I buzzed from surprise once more, but I managed to speak up quietly a moment afterward. "We'zz has to get into CR. Can Terror-bot still not move?"

His voice was a quiet tenor. "I'll try."

While Megatron turned to Blackarachnia and Scorponok, all the while giving them orders to investigate the dark cloud that supposedly held our mysterious flying mountain, Terrorsaur and I had picked ourselves up. We never went to robot-mode due to the obvious that it would have been excruciating to do so. The nearest CR was not that far away thankfully enough, but we had to fly to get onto the lift which, all things being considered, was near impossible with our energy charges being so low. Hauling ourselves up with some difficulty, Terrorsaur collapsed on the platform as soon as he and I were on it. I hit the switch to lower us in with a burnt claw and the lift groaned with the additional weight of two mechs instead of the standard one. Either way, the platform began to descend into the tank when I finally sprawled out next to Terrorsaur. With an almost sort of instinct backing up my next movement, I wrapped a protective, twisted beast-mode leg around his shoulders while casting a burnt wing over him as well. Terrorsaur responded by turning his head and shoving his beak under my beast-mode's head. He mewled quietly when he did so, signaling that he was comfortable with the position.

In a matter of moments, we were in the healing solution of the tub. The sedatives immediately took over and my systems started to shut down for repairs. Terrorsaur sagged beside me and he was in deep recharge even before I was. Moments prior to my own systems going offline for repairs, I managed to groggily glance down at his face. The liquid of the tank prevented me from seeing him all that clearly, but his features were relaxed so much so that it made invisible claws tear at my spark within its own casing. His injuries - even while already starting to heal - made him look horrendously gruesome. The fact his beast-mode was probably one of the least attractive things in the Beast Wars beside my own alternate body did not make his appearance any better.

Anyone could have looked at him and called him the most hideous thing in the universe, but I suddenly found I loved him so much more than I could handle. I abruptly realized did not care what Megatron or anyone else thought.

I loved him.

…Oh gods, I loved him.

I was unconscious moments later, and I dreamt that Terrorsaur and I made love first on the mountain face of Tanna-16 and then inside of his quarters. The lighting in both places was a brilliant scarlet and it outlined his form perfectly. Being caught in the crimson rays, I looked scarlet too. He nuzzled and cooed to me in a reassuring, comforting tenor while he rocked against me. I cried out with every sway, begging him not to stop, but he never did. He called me by oddly fantastical pet nicknames every so often, referring to me as "love" and breathing the word against my audios in hot breaths, but I did not mind the addresses at all. In fact, I absolutely adored them. My pleas for him to continue gratifying me never fell on deaf audios and, the whole while, he held me in his arms. His grip never faltered and he never let go.

Just as the dream neared its end, I felt my chest plate open and the glow of my green spark clashed with the red lighting. The combination of luminescence made the room turn a bright gold and Terrorsaur gazed down at my spark while continuing with his gentle ministrations. His face was flawless, his jaw set and with almost no sweat clinging to his features - on the other hand, I was covered in condensation from both the session on Tanna and in his room - but I thought I saw a shroud of bleach white feathers wrap around me. It's still strange to me, but I swear to this very day that he had a pair of angel's wings protruding from his back. In the integration of human and Cybertronian culture, the concept of angels had migrated over as well.

Terrorsaur might have been my scarlet star, but he was also my guardian angel too. One that I would never ever be willing to replace.

Wrapping his wings around me like a protective shell, he slipped his strong arms around my shoulders and hugged my lax body to his own. His eyes locked with mine and, keeping me in his embrace, I heard the hiss of mechanisms moving and I saw his chest plate parting out of the bottom corner of my bliss hazed vision. The dream ended before he could reveal his spark.

The dream ended too soon for my liking, but the thought of wanting the fantasy to continue disturbed just as much as it caught me off guard. Revealing one's spark to another was just as intimate as interfacing - possibly even more so - and Transformers usually only exposed sparks to each other when they were preparing to forge a bond. I briefly remembered the other dream I had - the one where I saw the green and red spark combine to make a single gold one - and the memory made my mechanical brain jolt in its casing.

…Were the dreams a prelude of what was to possibly come? I was too afraid to even try guessing the answer.

My systems whirred to life and, upon waking up completely, I was greeted by Terrorsaur. My scarlet star was nudging me with his fist as the tank lift rose up from the fluids to reintroduce us to the rest of the world. As my vision cleared and readjusted, I saw him smirking down at me with his scarlet eyes sparkling. "Hey, rise and shine Waspy! Megatron is sending us back to the island."

And indeed he was. As soon as we were out of the restoration chamber, he ordered us to head back to the flying mass so we could back up Blackarachnia and Scorponok. We took off from the base while flying closer together than we normally did. I had not realized our close proximity it until we were nearly out of range of the Darkside, but Terrorsaur said nothing in regards to the closeness. I razzed and looked over at him in an attempt to break the silence. "Could Terror-bot and Wazzpinator try not to get blown up this time?"

"I think that would be a good idea," my partner mused in an offhand tone. He scanned the air and ground below us when we gained higher altitude. "You alright?"

"Good as new," I beamed. I buzzed and did a front flip in midair while we kept flying, but I momentarily surprised myself when I did not loose altitude or speed. I astounded myself tremendously but I realized it had to have been Terrorsaur's presence that kept myself from looking like a total fool. Even subconsciously, I wanted to impress him and live up to what he was. He was a scarlet star after all, and I was still the grounded land dweller he shined over. Still, deep down, I wanted to strive for him and reach up as high as I could. Not to outshine him, absolutely not, but so that I could be closer to him than I already was. It sounds foolish now, but Primus, I loved him. I loved him more then anything and I knew I would do anything for him if he asked me to. What we had was good, true, but I wanted something more than that. I… I wanted…

With the sun shining down on our backs and the wind pushing us up higher into the air, I decided right then and there that I wanted him as a bondmate. Without preamble, without hesitation, without regret the more I pondered over my decision. Perhaps the dreams were a prelude, but then there was the chance that it was my fantasy and not his. There was a very real chance he did not want me like that. The depressing thought made my spark pulsate painfully.

My computer abruptly beeped, breaking my thoughts. "Attention: Units Optimus Primal and Rattrap in sector. Proceed with extreme caution."

Terrorsaur heard the monotone femme and seemed to snap back to reality, almost as if he had been zooming out in a similar manner I was. He squawked and shifted to robot-mode. "If we fly higher, we can avoid them. I doubt they could possibly be headed were we are. There's no way Tigertron could contact the Maximals through that cloud cover."

I razzed. "Cloud cover?"

He looked over at me and raised an optical ridge. Shaking his head a few clicks after, he pivoted upwards and I squeaked when I suddenly found that I had transform and pivot with him in order to keep up. We dove upwards into the air and went about a hundred or so feet higher than the norm. It was colder up there, but I supposed it would be best if we wanted to avoid Optimus and Rattrap. Either way, Terrorsaur continued. "You know how our communication links won't work through high amounts of energon radiation? The high radiation acts like a thick barrier. The thicker the barrier, the less likely you can get a signal through it. It works the same way as heavy cloud cover or… I don't know. Maybe heavy rock or something. If you were in a cave deep enough, you might have a tough time trying to get a communiqué out."

"Like in rubble?" I asked outloud randomly. It seemed like a safe enough question to ask, namely because I knew there would be a chance I would get caught in one someday. As lucky as I was, I was bound to probably end up being buried under rocks at some point or another. There was already the one occasion with me being pinned under that boulder but Terrorsaur luckily managed to get me out without a problem. If I was caught in a landslide per say, he might not be able to help or even find my sorry aft. It was discerning that I would possibly have problems trying to get help if I could not contact anyone via my radio.

He nodded. "Like rubble."

The subject on rubble seemed to end there but, in reality, it was only going to be a matter of another megacycle or so before we would brush up with death again. This time the brush would be so much closer to deactivation, catching both my scarlet star and I pinned under twenty thousand tons of flying island debris.

Terrorsaur was musing again. "…Optimus is flying in the same direction we are. He's not changing course."

"He knows about island?" I looked over at my partner with an expression that was confused and surprised. "How? If cloud cover would keep radio signals from going through, how could Optimus know?"

Terrorsaur abruptly looked over at me, optics ablaze. The look that flared in his scarlet eyes gave the answer right away and, despite myself, I snarled. In unison, we both hissed Airrazor's name like it was the most foul thing on the face of the universe.

"How did she know?" I said loudly in a razzing, exasperated tone.

"She probably saw us flying into the Darkside's perimeter," Terrorsaur responded, a good amount of hate literally dipping off his voice. He made a frustrated sound. "She probably saw us coming from the north and known that Tigertron was there."

"And Bird-bot saw how hurt we wazz," I cut in. "Bird-bot know Tigertron not up for totally slagging botzz."

"So she reported back to the Axalon knowing something else got to us. Now Primal is going to investigate and the Maximals will find the flying island!" Terrorsaur cut back in with a hiss. He sneered and screwed his face angrily. "Dammit, I should've been able to detect her!"

"We wazz hurt," I tried to reason with him. "Wazzpinator would've had better chance of picking her up on scanners anyways. Wazzpinator was not as bad off as Terror-bot! And even is we'zz did detect her, Wazzpinator and Terror-bot would be too hurt to stop her!"

Terrorsaur made a squawking caw. "It doesn't matter. We need to cut off Optimus and make sure he encounters some… Turbulence." Terrorsaur looked down towards the ground, seemingly scanning the earth below aimlessly, before he spoke again. I could see him trembling just barely though. It was not too obvious - you really had to scrutinize him greatly in order to see his miniscule shudders - but it was apparent he was upset. I did not blame him being angered over the fact Airrazor had ratted us out concerning what we ran into, but there was something else about his anger that made me do a double take.

My scarlet star suddenly screeched in pain.

Terrorsaur's optics suddenly went wide and his hands flew up to grasp at and cover his chest. He hit the brakes on his anti-gravs and I zoomed past him unintentionally. I slammed my mental foot down onto my own brakes and I skidded to a halt midair.

"Terror-bot!" I whipped around and flew over to him, stopping before just as I came up to him. I hovered in front of my scarlet star and felt my spark pulsate fearfully.

He was hunched over, optics squeezed shut, and his chest heaved with a great amount of effort. It was almost as if he could not breathe and I panicked over the thought that there might be something obstructing his airway. His teeth were gnashed hard enough that I could hear the metal of his jaw groaning under the stress. Just as easily as it began though, it seemed to stop. His chest stopped heaving with the effort of trying to take a breath and he blew out air through his nose loudly.

I went to prodding him verbally, still taken aback by his sudden expression of pain and afraid to touch him in fear that I would hurt him. "Terror-bot? Terror-bot!"

He made a gasping noise. "I-I'm fine. I'm…" Terrorsaur sputtered and his chest heaved one more time. He returned back to reality a moment later. My scarlet star opened his optics, brightened them, and then looked up at me with a hazy look. His breaths came out as heavy pants. "I'm… I'm fine."

I shook my head, not buying what he was saying to me. "Slag no. Wazzpinator take Terror-bot back to base. Something wrong-"

"I'm fine," he insisted. He straightened out slightly and looked himself over. He did not look at me square in the eye when he glanced back up in my direction though. That was something that worried me some. My scarlet star continued. "It just felt like a little spark surge. Nothing serious…"

In hindsight, a spark surge was similar to a human's minor heart attack. Whilst a spark could be put under more stress than an ordinary human heart, this meant minor 'heart attacks' were very much harmless to Transformers. Surges would happen only when energy inside the spark chamber is built up and has nowhere else to go, leading it to gradually build and erupt from the casing and lash a surge throughout the body. They were painful, true, but otherwise common with Transformers.

Except Terrorsaur seemed like he was in more pain than he should have been. While smaller spark surges were harmless, larger ones could be deemed life threatening. By the way Terrorsaur reacted, his surge had been larger than normal.

I pressed on. "Terror-bot-"

"Look, I said I'm okay," he said much more reassuringly now. The way he emphasized on saying the words gave me the momentarily expression that he was maybe trying to convince himself he was fine, but he did not linger on the subject long enough to let me evaluate his way of saying it. He looked up at me before looking back down at himself as if to evaluate his appearance. "See. No damage."

"Terror-bot sure?"

He gave me a playful slap over the head. Anyone else, had they been watching, would have deemed the gesture perhaps violent or ill minded. The metal of his hands clanked against my head and I razzed outloud, but it was a friendly gesture all the same. His hand lingered for a split click longer than it should have, leaving the contact intimate in my eyes. His optics glowed before he switched back into beast-mode. I followed suit when he spoke again. "Yeah. Positive. Now, c'mon! Let's go get us some Maxis!"

We were not the ones who necessarily got them though. From my perspective at least, they got us. We engaged Optimus Primal with Rattrap riding him, my scarlet star swooping in first from Optimus' right while I stayed out of sight for a moment longer. Terrorsaur flew up into the air, looking about ready to go into a midair flip, but he switched to robot-mode and fired on the ape just a click later. Two shots pulsed from Terrorsaur's shoulder cannons but they missed Primal completely. As the Maximal leader attempted to fly away - and further north I noted - I came up behind him. I transformed quickly, doing a front flip when I shifted from beast to robot, and I quickly increased my speed to keep up with Optimus. Terrorsaur, shooting his larger sniper now instead of his shoulder weapons, dove in and flanked my left.

We stopped shooting for a moment when Terrorsaur's weapon needed to recharge. Though Optimus knew we were still in pursuit, he stopped trying to evade us. Knowing Optimus was distracted, my partner gave up on his sniper and holstered it into his back subspace. His cannons withdrew from their holsters and he shot. His aim was dead accurate.

Optimus fell and Rattrap lost his grip on his commander's back, plummeting straight at the ground. Terrorsaur went after him immediately, cackling the whole time while I continued to engage Optimus. I could not keep track of my partner during the time he left my side due to my occupation with the gorilla, but it did not matter. Optimus shot at me several times and I had to quickly evade with what agility I had. Zooming around the blasts exploding midair kept me from getting scrapped right off, but then I made the mistake of attempting to fly straight away. If I could get him to follow, there would be the chance Terrorsaur would have the time to kill Rattrap and get one Maximal off our worry list. I had misjudged the fact that laser blasts had a tendency to move through the air silently, and I was hit in the back with laser fire a moment later.

Loosing control of my equilibrium, I screeched and spiraled towards the ground. When I regained my balance - thankfully well before hitting the earth below - I looked up to see Rattrap actually riding Terrorsaur while my scarlet star was in beast-mode. The rat's gun was holstered against my crimson companion's head. Rage bubbled up inside me immediately, but it was followed by a waterfall of reason. Though he was taken hostage, Rattrap wouldn't bother to shot at Terrorsaur even if my partner tried anything. Rattrap would surely fall too, so I occupied myself by silently following them instead.

Upon entering the northern region, the mass of black looming clouds was passing in between two mountains. Optimus flew into it, Rattrap and Terrorsaur trailing behind after him, so I followed suit. My nerves were wracked with nervousness - after all, the obelisk in the center of the island's plain had nearly killed me and my scarlet star - but the looming tower did not fire at us when the fog finally parted. I continued to keep pace behind, but I watched intently as Optimus began to descend down to the ground. I recognized Tigertron and Airrazor standing in wait immediately and a momentary burst of anger made me razz. Airrazor looked hurt though, so it partially eased my aggravation.

Terrorsaur swooped down underneath a tree branch and knocked Rattrap right off his back. My partner gave a cackling squawk in a victorious fashion and my anger left me completely, replaced by relief that my partner was alright. Terrorsaur flew some ways away and I followed after him while keeping out of scanner range of the Maximals. I spotted his red form touching down under the cover of a thin forest and descended downward after him. The beginning of an energon surge began to tickle my insides and I quickly shifted to beast-mode before it could hurt.

Light from the strangely illuminated sky peeked through the trees and cast shadows over Terrorsaur when he turned to me. He sounded somewhat breathless. "Are you alright? What happened?"

"Wazzpinator got shot down. Wazzpinator had to follow behind. You?"

"I'd rather not even go there," he groaned. Oddly enough, I was sure I could have smelled the too tall aroma of garbage resonating off him. It was humorous at the time and I giggled compulsively when he screwed his face from the smell he was obviously uncomfortable with. "I smell like slag."

"Slag never smellezz that bad," I joked. He cast me a glare but, without much else to stop me, I burst out laughing. I fell onto my side, curling into a ball and rolling on my back while holding my sides with all six legs.

He squawked, throwing his wings out in an exasperated gesture that radiated frustration. "That's not funny! I was taken hostage!"

I did not think the hostage part was funny either, so I stopped cackling and shook my head. "Now what? We'zz go find Spider-bot and Scorpion-bot?"

"Looks like it," my partner murmured quietly. He looked upwards, almost as if he was trying to look past the trees, and I recognized what he was looking at when I followed his gaze. Just barely peeking through the leaves of a nearby tree was the purple pyramid top of the tower that had nearly killed us some few megacycles earlier. Terrorsaur grumbled somewhere behind where my gaze was locked. "That thing attacked us as soon as we came here the first time. Why doesn't it do anything now?"

"Maybe we'zz set it off last time," I offered. "Somehow anyways."

"I don't like it," he grumbled in a low voice. He spoke up louder a moment afterward. "Alright, we'd better go look for the arachnids. Scorponok has his useless tendencies and Blackarachnia is a glitch, but they're smart enough to figure these things out on their own. They'll know something we don't about that thing. Hopefully speaking at least…"

We moved quickly, taking back off into the air and flying upward so we could attempt to see them. Terrorsaur squawked, pointing out two moving figures on the ground below the base of the tower, and a quick scan showed that they had two Predacon energy signatures. We flew off in their general direction but, not even a moment after we started to go after them, Terrorsaur spoke up again.

"Hey, Waspy?"

"Hm?"

"When Rattrap was falling, I let myself freefall too. Did you see that?"

I had not, but I was greatly surprised regardless. I looked over at Terrorsaur, making the gears in my neck squeal when I did so, and I regarded him with an astonished expression. "Terror-bot did what?"

"I let myself freefall," he said, this time louder. "And, I mean, I didn't freak out over it. I don't know why, but it just didn't bother me. When you were falling earlier today, after I caught you, I didn't mind falling then either."

"Terror-bot looked all freaked out though."

"Because I was," he admitted. "But it was over the fact I didn't mind falling. That's never happened to me before. I'm not afraid to do it right now either." Terrorsaur suddenly dropped some altitude next to me. I razzed in surprise, nearly jumping out of my own casing when he did it, but he regained his regular flight position beside me. I squeaked in surprise and he cackled in a victorious sort of manner. "See! I could do that all day and not be bothered by it!"

I smiled at him as best I could in beast-mode. "Great job Terror-bot."

He grinned back. "Couldn't do it without you, love."

My fuel pump sputtered and my spark fluttered. I remembered my dream immediately. "Eh?"

In all truth though, I had not caught what he'd said exactly. He had said it so quietly and near discreetly that I could not catch it with my audios, but Terrorsaur expression went black when I asked. He looked lost. "Huh?"

"What did Terror-bot say?"

He looked lost still and, a moment after some mental deliberation with himself, he said he could not remember. I knew this was bull but I let it pass. I still had no idea what it was that he said to me until I decided for myself sometime after the island incident. I stuck to the address "love" ever since. I did not mind it in the slightest. It gave me a ray of hope that my scarlet star cared for me just as much as my subconscious image of him had.

Our radios blared to life. "The fliers will try to take our triumph for their own. They must be stopped. I will blow them from the sky!"

We came to a screeching halt just as we were in a hundred or so feet of the tower and fifty or so feet above its tipped point. Below, Blackarachnia stood with her gun aimed at us while Scorponok stood erect behind her - he looked surprised on my half, so I presumed he had nothing to do with Blackarachnia's sudden boast of treachery - just as Terrorsaur and I looked at each other. I thought it was too much of a coincidence that Blackarachnia accidentally left her radio on for us to hear, but Terrorsaur did not seem to have the same idea. He stuttered, taken aback, and he sneered in rage. "Backstabbing bug! I'll vape you first! Terrorize!"

With a mighty caw, Terrorsaur swooped down fifty or so feet, putting himself in level with the mauve pyramid on top of the obelisk and twenty or so feet closer to it than before. He drew his pistol and fired once with a cackle, but Blackarachnia suddenly jumped out of the way. Scorponok was thrown aside from the explosion - I flew down to Terrorsaur at this point to join my partner - but my unease turned to dread when I saw the top of the tower turn from its original shade of violet to a dark gold. A whirring, gradually building and erratic beeping sort of noise followed before the air was hissing again.

A beam shot out of the tower and a scenario played in my mind immediately. Blackarachnia and Scorponok were trying to get into the obelisk, but they discovered that our very own energy weapons were the culprit for setting off its destructive tendencies. They also knew having it fire before they could blast their way into the base would give them the chance to get in without being shot at themselves. If it went off before they blasted their way inside, the monument wouldn't have enough time to recharge before they used their own weapons to break in. Being as treacherous as she was, Blackarachnia decided to use my partner and me as bait for the alien construct.

Terrorsaur probably would have blinked if he had the time to but, for the most part, he stared ahead in disbelief. He then cranked his neck to look up at me while I hovered beside him in beast-mode. I turned my head to face him as well, my own expression blank with horror.

Terrorsaur squeaked, his face far paler than usual. "Oops."

The searing agony of the beam hitting us the second time was not nearly as bad as the first - we were not blown backward like when we were originally attacked - but it was just as painful all the same. The both of us screeched from the agonizing heat before our antigravs and equilibrium failed. I was momentarily glad that Terrorsaur was not afraid of falling anymore, but I still had the ability to yell at him for getting us into this situation again. "Pterodactyl idiot!"

Luckily for us, the island's lake was positioned beneath where we were falling. I had only a moment to look down and see the crystal clear water rushing up to meet me before I slammed into it headfirst. I blacked out, though not before having the air knocked right out of me and feeling water invade my mechanical lungs. I was lost in the darkness of unconsciousness before Terrorsaur's voice pulled me free from its grip sometime later.

"…Waspinator! Waspinator, come on, snap out of it!"

He gave me a light slap on the side of the face and I coughed hard from the access water in my systems. Light splashed across my vision and my sight slowly returned. Evidently, feeling the hard ground underneath me, I realized Terrorsaur had dragged my body from the water while I was unconscious. I felt my partner roll me onto my stomach and he thumped hard on my back trying to help clear my airways. Once my breathing returned to normal, I blearily looked up at him and razzed. "Wazzpinator feels like he went through disk washing machine…"

"Save it. We have bigger problems," Terrorsaur said grimly. "My gravs are busted and the self repair is taking forever. Then…" He looked up.

That was when I started to pay attention to my surroundings more. The sky was aglow with a brilliant orange and the hissing of the tower resonated from overhead. I looked up and gaped in horror at the sight of the golden beam streaming above in a brilliant display. Light from the tower jetted out in all directions and aimed upwards slowly, moving to the epicenter of the sky just above the pyramid's point. The beams suddenly vanished and a single blast of white light shot up in a pulse. It disappeared in the island's misty shield and the clouds abruptly disintegrated. The inky blackness of the uncovered night that cast across the island made the alien device look menacing. It was silent for a few moments and everything was still.

I would have asked Terrorsaur what the frag was happening, but I found myself distracted. In the corner of my vision, pasted on the black canvas that was the sky, I saw a scarlet star. Its hue sidetracked my thoughts for a brief moment. I was torn back to reality when the obelisk top hissed again, this time before going dim and shooting huge pulse blasts. The night was lit with lights of the explosions the blasts made they hit the ground.

Terrorsaur grabbed me by my scruff and gave me a good tug before letting go. "Get up and RUN!"

I did not need to be told twice. I tried to scramble to my feet but I dismally found that I could not fly. Running in my beast-mode was pretty much impossible due to the way my legs were positioned - my alternate form was more orientated for crawling rather than bolting - and I cried out when Terrorsaur got up and jogged a few feet from me. "Terror-bot!"

I was momentarily afraid that he wouldn't hear me but, regardless, he did. He turned and, seeing I was still down, he cursed loudly before the ground exploded just a few feet behind him. With a screech, he was flipped forward and he fell heavily onto his chest. Afraid he was hurt, I cried out seeing him fall. He pulled himself back up either way though, scrambling onto his feet and running the rest of the distance back over to me. He fell to his knees, slipped his arms underneath my body, and he grunted when forcing himself to stand. He held me in his arms and his grip never faltered. "Hold on!"

I did and he turned on his heel, running like a bat would fly out of hell. The explosions behind us sent dirt and gravel flying up in every which direction and Terrorsaur narrowly made it a hundred or so meters from the obelisk before he tripped on the lone root of a bush. With a squawking scream, he fell and dropped me. I rolled twice, stopped myself before I could roll a third time, and I looked up to see Terrorsaur trying to get onto his feet. He squeaked and gnashed his teeth.

"Fraggit, my ankle! SLAGGIT!" He tried sitting up and squawked with pain when he tried to. Thankfully for us, the explosions from the obelisk's assaults did not seem to be too focused on the area we had stopped at. Behind where Terrorsaur had fallen, the tower began to rise up higher on its base and wind buffeted my flank. The trees swayed with the movement and, with a start, I realized that the island was turning around and changing course. Where it was going however, I found that I honestly did not care.

I crawled over to Terrorsaur, twitching my antennas and looking down at his ankle with concern. "Terror-bot?"

"It's busted," he hissed through his teeth. He strained to get onto his aft and I could clearly see that his foot was twisted around at an angle that I knew should have otherwise been impossible. He took in a ragged, unsteady intake that was just as breathless as it was shaken. "Oh Primus, it… It's completely busted. I-I can't walk."

"Is okay. We… Wazzpinator and Terror-bot find some other way to get somewhere safe," I tried to comfort in an otherwise vain attempt to keep him from panicking. The pulse blasts stopped shooting at the area we were in directly, shooting overhead us and about fifty yards away. I presumed it was going to shoot in our direction sooner or later so, while I did not want Terrorsaur to panic, I knew damn well he had a good reason for doing so. We were going to get hit if we stayed out in the open. "Its okay, Terror-"

There was an explosion somewhere behind us, louder and with a different noise than the blasts making the ground erupt around my partner and me. A loud hissing noise not like the sound of the hot beam hitting the air resonated from the obelisk. I looked past Terrorsaur and he cranked his head back to look at the tower suddenly be engulfed with bright yellow electricity not that much unlike the static that danced around our own frames during an energon surge. I saw the figures of the Maximals fleeing - Airrazor picked up Rattrap by his shoulders while the femme was in beast-mode just as Optimus made a grab for Tigertron - and then the wind changed again. This time stronger the gale was stronger.

Terrorsaur trembled. "Wha-?"

I suddenly noticed the tower stopped shooting clicks before the wind changed and I felt the ground wobble underneath me. It was almost like an earthquake, but the ground still seemed undamaged aside from the smoldering craters that were cast across the landscape. That and the fact there were no tectonic plates anywhere underneath the island made earthquake theory obsolete right away, though the term still seemed to fit all the same. I was jerked to the side and I cried out, but Terrorsaur reached out and snatched my beast-mode's right front forearm before I could roll away. His other hand made a grab for the bush connected to the root that tripped him. He held on tightly and we both cried out when the ground jerked up beneath us.

"Waspinator, hang on!" Terrorsaur tightened his grip on my arm and I stared up at him with horrified optics.

The ground stopped wavering, yes, but then it started to tremble as though we were living through a seismic quake. A branch on the shrub Terrorsaur was gripping snapped and I saw him scramble to grab another one. Abruptly, the ground began to tilt onto its side. Terrorsaur slipped down the ground because of this and he blindly tightened his grip on the bush tenfold. The shrub's branches held under his vice hold just barely - I heard the twigs snapping over the abrupt roar of rushing wind around us and, with horror, I felt air rush past my face at a rate of speed I was in no way comfortable with.

I shrieked. "Island is falling!"

The incline of the ground changed again suddenly, pivoting to the left at an angle that made the both of us cry out, and I thought I heard more branches snap on the hedge plant Terrorsaur gripped to. There was another sudden tremor - honestly, it felt like we hit a bump - that nearly caused me to let go of Terrorsaur's forearm. While my grip was momentarily lessened, Terrorsaur's tightened to keep me from slipping away from him. I looked back to him with fear ridden optics and his flashed both protectively and fearfully.

A loud groaning resonated from all around us and then the ground began to tilt dangerously. I heard dirt being unearthed and roots snapping from the bush Terrorsaur had and I felt gravity start to pull back on me. Terrorsaur's face turned paler than usual and I dared to look behind me.

The ground was barely off angle from being completely vertical and I saw the ground below the island come into view. Air began to rush past my face in a powerful windstorm and the ground below started to rush up towards us. The rate of speed increased and the island was falling. The whoosh of air rushing past us turned into a loud, menacing roar that made my audios ring painfully and I screamed. Terrorsaur did to, but he kept his death hold on the small shrub for dear life. He was not afraid of falling in general anymore, but this was something new altogether. If we crashed, we would most definitely be killed.

"WASPINATOR! HANG-!"

The island crashed.