Chapter 7.
"You, you don't mean that," Cheetor began.
"I do!" Yume exclaimed, her voice betraying her true feelings. "I want to go home. I don't want to be here anymore."
The three Maximals looked at each other. They knew there was no longer any way for the girl to return home to her own time. The device that had brought her there was lost, sunk deep beneath the waters in the wreckage of the Axalon. There was no way to retrieve it from its watery grave, not even Depth Charge could have found it if he looked. Fate seemed to be working against the girl at every turn.
"Why don't we head back to the base?" Rattrap said then. "Once we get back we can try to work something out. Okay?"
Yume, tears streaming down her face, could only nod. For now was the only thing she could do.
Rattrap looked at Depth Charge, asking. "Mind giving us another ride?"
The taller Maximal merely nodded, choosing for once to not give the rat transformer a smart aleck answer. He went into flight mode and they all climbed on and flew back to the base. Yume said nothing the entire way, her head down and her hands balled into fists.
After dropping off Cheetor, Rattrap and the girl, Depth charge had flown off without a word. Rattrap watched the maximal's form disappear over the trees before turning to the others. "Ok, here's what we're going to do," he said to them. "We are not going to tell the others about Yume's little trip to the Predacon base."
"But what if Optimus asks us where we were?" Cheetor wanted to know.
"We just tell him we took a walk," the older Maximal replied. "Which is partly the truth. We did walk around looking for her."
"Well-"
"You understand me, dream girl?" Rattrap asked, turning to Yume.
The girl looked up at him and nodded, saying nothing.
"Good," he said. "Then let's get this over with."
The trio entered the cave just as optimus was leaving. When he spotted them he paused. 'Oh there, you are," he said. "I was about to go go looking for you. Where were you three?"
"Just takin' a walk," Rattrap replied. "The girl needed some air and we figured we'd go with her to make sure she was safe."
Optimus looked at the girl. "Now that you're here there was something I wanted to-"
The girl took one look at him then burst into tears and ran off. He watched her go, confused then looked at the other two. "What was that all about?"
"Eh nothing, Prime," Rattrap said. "she's just still feeling kinda down about the whole Dinobot thing."
"I see..."
"Well come on, kid," Rattrap said to Cheetor. "We'd better head out and make sure no Preds followed us or anything."
before Optimus could say anything the two Maximals rushed back outside. "Hey wait!" too late they were gone.
"Thin those two might be hiding something?" Rhinox asked,coming up behind the taller transformer.
"Sure looks like it," Optimus remarked, thoughtfully. "But what?"
"Maybe you should ask Yume?"
Primal shook his head. "Not now," he said. "I don't know what happened while they were out but I get the feeling now wouldn't be a good time to ask her about it."
"Maybe you're right," Rhinox agreed. "She did seem pretty upset when she ran past me."
Optimus could only shake his head. Poor kid. He really wished she'd open up to him like she used to and let him help her. That wasn't likely to happen though.
Not right now anyway.
Depth Charge had flown to the location where the Axalon had crashed when the Maximals had first landed on the planet. He transformed into standard mode and looked down into the water, zooming in on the large lake below where the ship had been dropped by Tarantulas' inventions. Zooming in on the spot he could just barely make out the wreck at the bottom.
Hopefully he would be able to find what he came for. Even though he hadn't had much success in the past he was willing to try again. Nobody said he wasn't stubborn.
Without a moment's hesitation he jumped over the edge transforming into beast mode as he fell. He hit the water silently, instantly swimming further down toward the wreck below. Time to get to work.
That decided the Maximal swam down to where the wreckage lay then went inside to look around. The place was about the same as it had been the last time he'd been there except for a few plant growths. It still gave off an eerie vibe but that didn't really bother him. What were there to be afraid of down there anyway?
He continued on, his destination the engine room. That had been the last place Yume had said the cube had been left. It her words were right it should be in or around there. Maybe it had fallen under the ship and was further down near the bottom of the lake. It didn't matter, he was going to find it, even if it took him a long time.
It wasn't like he had anything else to do anymore.
Searching the rest of the ship's wreckage and finding nothing he left it, moving deeper into the depth of the lake to see if maybe his second guess was right and it had fallen out. He hoped he'd find it, unless when the ship had crashed into the lake it had been destroyed. Hopefully that wouldn't be the case.
So he swam to the very bottom of the lake and had a look around. However even though he spent the better part of four hours looking and relooking in the same location over and over he found nothing that even resembled it. After doing one last sweep of the spot he was forced to admit that it wasn't there.
The true location of the item he had no idea but it wasn't in or around the axalon's wreckage. For all he knew it never had been and the girl had been mistaken the entire time. She might have lost it somewhere else and thought she'd lost it when the ship fell into the lake. It didn't matter now. It was gone.
"Looking for this?" a voice spoke up behind him.
Startled, the Maximal spun around to discover Rampage in beast moder standing a short distance away from him, holding something in one of his claws. From the description the girl had given it was the item he was looking for, her time travel device.
"X, give me that!"
"I don't think I will," the Precdacon state, waving the object at the Maximal. "I think I'll just hang onto it."
Depth Charge was in no mood to deal with the crab's little games. "I am not asking," he stated, going into robot mode and taking out his gun. "I am giving an order."
Rampage laughed at him. "Oh, how scary," he said. "But if you want it." he also went into robot mode. "You better come take it."
He didn't have any choice. He would just have to do what this sadistic freak wanted him to. He just hoped this wouldn't take long. "Fine, X," he said, his optics dimming dangerously."If that's the way you want it."
He rushed him.
Rampage was expecting this and when he saw Depth Charge coming toward him he took out his own weapon and blasted the Maximal square in the chest. The moment it impacted his chest he was knocked off his feet and sent flying backward, landing hard in a pile of rocks.
Rampage laughed while he started walking toward Depth Charge who was quickly getting back up, even though he had a pretty bad dent in his chest plate now. "I never expected you to be doing favors for anyone," the Predacon said. "Especially something so weak and helpless like that human girl. Tell me, what makes her so special? Does she remind you of your human buddies from the space station perhaps?"
Depth Charge looked at him with utter hatred. "I don't have to explain myself to you, creep!" he snarled.
"So, you do still know how to care about people," Rampage remarked, noticing how the maximal reacted. "Interesting. Looks like you're not as frosty as I first thought."
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"Oh nothing, just you usually only care about yourself or killing me. Seems that girl has gotten to you." he grinned at him. "just remember what happened to the last person who became attached to her. He's dead."
"Just like you're about to be, creep!" Depth Charge fired at Rampage, his shots hitting his target and knocked him off his feet.
Rampage roared and got up quickly. he rushed at depth charge, laughing insanely as he did so. The Maximal fire at him but he kept on coming, ignoring all the blows, throwing himself forward and tackling him to the ground.
"Get off me!" he snarled at him.
"You going to make me?" Rampage taunted.
Depth charge did just that. He managed to pull his gun free and aim shooting the Predacon point plank in the face.
Rampage was not expecting that and got knocked onto the ground, yelling in pain and anger. Depth Charge got up and walked over to him, aiming the gun at his face. "Time's up, X," he snapped at him. "Now hand over the device."
Rampage looked up and him and cackled. The maximal heard something cracking and looked at rampage's hand. Before he could do anything about it Rampage had crushed the cube in his hand and then let the small pieces fall to the ground.
"No!" he exclaimed.
"Looks like your mission has failed, old friend," Rampage mocked him, getting up and running off laughing madly.
Depth charge fired after him as he ran away, laughing then when he was gone he lowered the weapon and turned his attention to the broken cube. He knelt down and picked up the pieces, lifting his hand and looking at the pieces.
"No..."he muttered to himself. "Oh no..."
What was he going to tell Yume when he got back? The truth. It was the only thing he could do.
Closing his hand around the pieces he changed into beast mode and headed for the surface.
Optimus as outside the base when he saw Depth Charge flying in. He paused to watch the maximal land before him and then transform. he instantly noticed the damage to the other transformer's frame.
"What happened to you?" he asked him.
But Depth Charge didn't answer him. He walked past him with a low grunt and headed inside the cave without a single word. Optimus watched him enter, confused by how he was acting. He followed him inside, curious.
He entered just in time to see depth change hand something to Rhinox and say. "I'm sorry. I tried. Rampage got to it before I did. If you think you can, you could try to fix it anyway."
Rhinox looked down at the broken pieces in hand. "I can try." he said.
The other Maximal walked off without another word.
"What was that about?" Optimus asked, walking toward his friend.
Rhinox showed him the pieces. "It seems Depth Charge went looking for Yume's time travel device," he told him. "But Rampage destroyed it."
Optimus looked down at the shards. "So that's what he was doing," he said. "Do you think you can fix it?"
Rhinox gave him the same answer he'd given Depth Charge. "I can try, that's about all I can do."
Depth Charge stood outside of Yume's room, trying to figure out how to word his explanation about her time travel device but he was drawing a blank. no matter what he said he knew she wouldn't be happy with the outcome.
"Yume?"
The girl's voice spoke through the door. "I don't want to talk to anyone right now, go away."
He was tempted to do just that but he stayed put, knowing that the longer he waited the harder it would be to say what he had to say. "I know you don't want to talk to anybody," he said. "But this is important and it can't wait."
There was silence for a moment then the door slid open and she looked up at him. "What is it?" she asked him.
So he began to relate the story to her, explaining why he'd gone to the wreckage and what transpired once he had. Yume listened to him, saying nothing as he told her everything. When he finished he said. "I failed and I'm sorry. I know how much you wanted to return home but now you can't. I don't think Rhinox will be able to repair it but he promised he'd try."
Yume let what he'd said sink in a moment before she said. "Depth Charge, I'm glad you tried to do that for me," she said. "You didn't have to but you did anyway and for that I am grateful, but you shouldn't blame yourself for what Rampage did. If you hadn't done what you did he would have destroyed it anyway or used it as bait to lure me away where he could hurt me." She reached out a hand then let it drop, deciding not to touch him as he probably wouldn't like that. "Thank you for trying. I really appreciate it."
He looked away from her unsure what to say. Finally he nodded. Yume gave him a small smile. 'Maybe you should repair yourself now. that damage looks pretty bad."
He'd completely forgotten about it until she'd mentioned it. he looked down at the sparking hole in his chest plate then at the girl. He nodded to her once more and walked off to head to the CR chamber.
Yume watched him leave then turned away and let the door close behind her. She went to her cot and lay down, letting her mind wonder. She had a lot to think about and at that moment it had to do with Depth Charge and what he'd tried to do for her. It had been so selfless and he hadn't had to do it at all. Until then he hadn't really done much for her except when he'd talked to her previously.
Maybe I was wrong about him all along. Maybe he, like Dinobot, does care but has a hard time showing it. She couldn't blame him, after all he'd gone through. Maybe she should do something for him, to show him how thankful she was.
Why not? It was better than just laying there, crying. She'd done plenty of that already. Maybe it was time to start moving on a little.
She sat back up and reached into her backpack, pulling out her drawing pad and pencil. She knew what she could do. She just hoped he liked it. Putting the pad down on her lap she pressed the pencil against the paper and got to work.
A/N
This fic actually is kind of almost over. I'm not really sure what else to do with it. It's a lot longer than I thought it would wind up.
