Chapter Nine: Out Of It
The trip back to the rendezvous point where the two rescue teams had separated seemed to take twice as long as the first time it'd taken to travel. Rattrap wasn't sure if that sense of time discrepancy was because of his aching superstructure or because he was anxious to see the one he'd just taken the beating of his life for at the hands of Megatron to rescue. Every step sent jolts of pain radiating through his dented stomach and sides. His back strut which had been cracked by Megatron throwing him into a jagged rock face felt as though someone was stabbing him repeatedly with a red hot blade. His head pulsed to the beat of his coolant pump. No doubt thanks to the Predacon leader choking off his energon lines and almost off-lining him…
Despite the throbbing pain of his injuries, however, Rattrap kept up a steady pace. Optimus and Cheetor had to actually hurry to keep up with him. Rhinox had said they'd gotten Dinobot back, but he wasn't going to actually believe it until he saw the warrioress for himself and knew she was safe. Some of the things Megatron had alluded to still weighed heavily on Rattrap's processor. They might have managed to get Dinobot back before Megatron had had a chance to force a sparkbond on her, but what else could he have done..?
The possibilities were endless and terrifying in their uncertainty. Some of them made Rattrap physically queasy to his coolant tank. His pace unconsciously quickened, pain flaring through his fractured back strut. He had to see her and make sure she was safe himself. He wouldn't be able to rest until he did.
After several more frustratingly long klicks, Rattrap finally saw the rendezvous point appear in the distance. A small group of 'bots were already there, standing in a loose circle around another figure kneeling in the center of the group. Rattrap instantly recognized the distinctive blue and gold superstructure and felt a small thrill shoot through his actuator. It was Dinobot. They really had found her.
Putting on an extra burst of speed, Rattrap jogged the last few meters separating himself and his fellow Maximals. As he neared, he noticed the unexpected additions to the rescue team: namely the Predacon femme, Blackarachnia, and an unfamiliar mech with a strange transmetal superstructure. He briefly wondered what they were doing there with the others, but almost immediately shoved that question and several others aside for a later time. Right now, his only concern was the femme kneeling in the middle of the group of Maximals.
An overwhelming sense of relief surged through Rattrap's systems at the sight of the raptor as he ran straight up to Dinobot and dropped to one knee beside her. Airazor was already stationed on the warrioress's other side, one hand resting on the raptor's shoulder plate in an almost protective gesture.
"Dang'it, Choppa'face, d'ya have any idea wha' slag we just went through because 'a you?" Rattrap said. Despite his words, his voice was almost giddy with relief. A wide grin twisted his facial plates. "I almost got beaten inta da ground by ol' Megs. You owe us big fer comin' after yer sorry aft. I always knew ya were more trouble den yeh were worth."
But instead of a sharp retort or even a muffled snarl, Dinobot did not respond to Rattrap's greeting. Head bowed and body slouched as if too tired to sit up straight, the warrioress did not even lift her head off her chest to look in Rattrap's direction.
Taken aback by the raptor's silence, the spy's grin faltered and slowly slid from his face. Rattrap hesitantly leaned closer. "Hey… Lizard Lips? Yeh okay?" he called, a note of worry seeping into his vocals. A cold feeling of dread washed over him as he once again received no kind of response. In fact, as he knelt there stunned by Dinobot's uncharacteristic lack of reaction to his goading, Rattrap noticed that not all was well with the female raptor.
Dinobot knelt hunched forward, bracing herself againt the ground with both arms between her knees. A faint tremor ran through the warrioress's back, arms and shoulders as if her internal regulator had gone on the fritz and her superstructure was trying to generate heat. Condensation beaded across her helm and trickled down the sides of her face in tiny rivulets. Her vents cycled for air in shallow, labored spurts. But more troubling than that or the raptor's continued lack of response to his or anyone else's presence were her optics. Dull and almost lifeless in their vacancy, they stared at some undefined point on the ground as if Dinobot were really looking at something a million light years away.
Becoming increasingly alarmed, Rattrap reached out and touched the side of Dinobot's shoulder. She didn't even blink in response. "Hey. Hey, Dinobot, wha's wrong?" he called, his vocals cracking at the end with mounting urgency. "Com'on, answer me."
"She can't," Airazor said from Dinobot's other side. The female flier moved her hand to the other femme's back and rubbed a short series of circles against her exo-armor as if trying to comfort her with physical touch. It disturbed Rattrap to think that barely even a solar cycle before Dinobot never would have allowed such close physical contact unless she were in the midst of disassembling someone with her bare hands. "Megatron injected her with something."
"What do you mean "injected her with something?"" Rattrap demanded, sqiveling his optics around the assembled group with blossoming outrage. "What was it?"
"A chemical formula created by Tarantulas," Blackarachnia spoke up from where she stood slightly back from the other Maximals. "It makes the victim completely unable to fight back. That dimwit Megatron injected her with it when they first brought Dinobot in but then thought it would be a good idea to re-dose her before he left to fight Primal, and ended up overdosing her. Now she can't stand or even tell you what her own name is."
"Blackarachnia defected and snuck Dinobot out a back way from the Darksyde," Tigatron explained to Optimus, Cheetor and Rattrap. "She managed to get her halfway here before Dinobot collapsed. Our new comrade, Silverbolt, and I practically had to carry her the rest of the way to the rendezvous point."
"I see," Optimus nodded, facial plates a grim mask. He turned towards Rhinox. "What's the status of her condition?"
Rhinox shook his head. "It's uncertain at this point. I've never seen a chemical like this before. There's no way for us to assess its full effects or any lasting damage until we get her back to base and into a CR chamber."
"How are we going to get Dinobot back?" Cheetor asked. He stared at Dinobot with a shell-shocked expression of dismay. "You said she can't walk anymore…"
"We'll have to fly her back. That's our best option at the moment," Optimus murmured. "Dinobot needs medical treatment as soon as possible, and there's no saying when the Predacons will regroup and come after us."
Throughout the entire discussion Dinobot had not reacted once to the repeated mention of her name, and continued to kneel there like a deactivated droid. They might as well have been talking about her as if she wasn't even there. Disturbed beyond words by Dinobot's catatonic state, Rattrap felt as if his coolant tank had just been ripped out from under him.
Primus… What did he do to you? he helplessly wondered as he stared into the warrioress's lifeless optics.
"Blackarachnia," Airazor hesitantly took the opportunity to speak up, "you were there after Megatron drugged Dinobot. He didn't… force himself on her while she was like this, did he?"
An abrupt hush fell over the group of Maximals. All of them turned to stare at the Predacon defector, sickened looks of horror spreading across their faces.
Blackarachnia visibly hesitated. "I don't think so," she finally said after a pause. "But I'm not a hundred percent sure. I wasn't there every minute Megatron was parading her around…"
A sickening feeling twisted Rattrap's fuel lines at the black widow's answer, his mech fluid running cold. He'd already considered such a thing happening - for them to recover Dinobot and find out she'd become the victim of an act only slightly less vile than a forced sparkbond. For as atrocious an act it was, it was not unheard of for enemy captors especially during times of war to take certain… liberties with prisoners. Especially prisoners of the fairer programming or those who were unable to defend themselves.
He'd already considered the possibility. Had tried to mentally prepare himself for the worst. But to actually hear it asked and there be no clear answer somehow made it worse than if Blackarachnia had simply answered with a yes.
An unspeakable knot of fury formed in the back of Rattrap's spark chamber as he stared into Dinobot's lifeless optics. Optics that should be bright with calculating intelligence. Not dead and empty as if the warrioress was already lost to them.
That despicable lizard… That slimy, twisted slagger. If he found out Megatron had touched Dinobot - that he'd forced himself on her in any way, shape or form-
"I'll kill him…" Rattrap hissed under his intakes. His hands unconscious balled into two shaking fists. It wasn't until he noticed the others staring at him with startled looks that he realized he'd just said the last part of what he'd been thinking out loud. He didn't care though. He wanted them to know what he was going to do to that sorry excuse for a 'bot. "If Megatron's touched her… if he's done anything to her, I swear ta Primus I'm gonna march straight back ta dat ship 'n shove another bomb right up his-"
"Calm down, Rattrap," Optimus cut him off. "Now is not the time for thoughts of revenge. We got Dinobot back and right now making sure she gets safely back to base is our primary concern." He paused and took a deep intake as though trying to calm his own emotions. "But I promise you, if we do find out Megatron did something to Dinobot, he will not have only you to answer to for it," he added in a low rumble.
This assurance did little to quell the spy's fury, however, and in fact made him only angrier. Unable to do anything more at the moment than kneel by Dinobot's side and shake with anger, Rattrap listened with only half an audio to his crewmates formulate a plan to move the unresponsive warrioress.
"Who will take Dinobot?" Rhinox said with a glance towards Optimus.
"I will," he replied. "I can carry her easier than Airazor could, and I'll start running scans on her as soon as I get her in a CR chamber."
"I'll come with you as air support in case any Preds decide to try and come after us," Airazor volunteered. By her protective stance over Dinobot it didn't look like she was going to be willingly separated from the other femme until they got the warrioress safely back into Maximal territory.
"Very well," Optimus nodded. "Rhinox, I'm putting you in charge of leading everyone else back to base. When you arrive I want a full report of what happened." He shot a quick look at Silverbolt and Blackarachnia. "I'd also like the opportunity to properly welcome our new recruits to the Maximals."
Blackarachnia did not respond except to shoot a bored, almost indifferent glance at the transmetal gorilla; but Silverbolt dipped his head to Optimus in a respectful bow.
"Thank you, sir," he said with utter sincerity and the faintest hint of subdued relief.
Over the course of this brief exchange, attention was momentarily shifted away from Dinobot, and no one - including Rattrap - noticed the weak points of actual awareness that flickered to life in the depths of the warrioress's optics.
Optimus returned Silverbolt's bow with a quick nod. "Beast-mode!" he called, and in a flurry of shifting plates and limbs transformed into his jet-mode form. Balanced on his jet board, he hovered half a dozen inches above the ground. "Rhinox, can you lift Dinobot for me?" he asked.
Unseen by anyone else, the faint glow of light in Dinobot's optics brightened, like weak beams of sunlight breaking through a heavy bank of clouds.
Rhinox stepped up to Rattrap and Airazor and stooped down beside the raptor. "Come on, Dinobot. Let's get you home," he said as he reached out to take the drugged femme into his arms. But before his fingers could even make contact with Dinobot, something unexpected happened…
Like mist dissipating in the heat of the morning sun, the foggy haze choking Dinobot's neural circuits seemed to momentarily lift. Stray fragments of code sluggishly drifted together to form the first coherent line of thought the raptor had had in over a solar cycle. Instinctively grabbing hold of this half materialized offer of self-awareness, the warrioress struggled to break past the haze of drugs that seemed to clog her processor like viscous black motor oil. Sluggishly, she flickered her optics, driving the blurry ring of haze back towards the edges of her visual readout.
As the raptor's senses cleared a little more, she became distantly aware of a presence close beside her. She could not muster the energy to lift her head to see who it was, but whoever it was felt non-threatening and warm, almost… safe. Tired of the murky darkness of her disjointed thoughts, Dinobot wanted nothing more than to be closer to that tiny sanctuary of safety. To be warm and anchor herself in some semblance of conscious reality.
But before she could muster the energy to move closer or discover the unknown presence's identity, a pair of thick pedes stepped into her line of view. Another presence - this one larger, bulkier, and undoubtedly stronger than the first one - came to stand over her. Dwarfed by the sheer mass of the other being, its shadow engulfed her like the inky veil of a solar eclipse. A giant set of hands reached out for her from the corner of her peripheral vision.
The memory of another set of hands flashed through Dinobot's memory drives. Hands that constantly reached out to touch her. To grab her. To caress her arms and shoulders in long slow passes. Hands that clutched her with the unspoken promise of never letting her go. Hands that were possessive and frightening in their relentless pursuit of her. Hands that wouldn't let her go or leave her alone. Hands she wanted nothing more than to escape from and never let touch her again…
Rhinox slowly reached down to slid his arms under Dinobot's legs and back to lift her off the ground.
"…no," Dinobot murmured, weakly shaking her helm. Barely louder than an intake, no one heard the warrioress's slurred plea. She watchd as the hands moved ever closer, their fingers outstretched and grasping. "No," she said, desperation giving more strength to her feeble voice. The hands were getting closer. One had disappeared from her line of vision to slip around her back. The other was stretching out in front of her towards her legs. "NO!"
The weak cry exploded like gunfire from the warrioress. With alarming speed considering her drugged state, she blindly lashed out at Rhinox - her talons just barely missing the engineer's arm - before she viciously twisted away from the larger mech. Frantically kicking against the ground, Dinobot scrambled backwards. Too weak to stand or even coordinate her limbs to move properly, she managed to crawl only half a dozen feet before her strength gave out and she sagged to the ground. Trembling and cycling air in great gasping heaves, Dinobot uselessly pushed against the ground to stand or at least get her feet up under her. But all her efforts proved in vain as she heavily collapsed down onto one hip, and sat there shaking and utterly exhausted. She swayed slightly from side to side where she sat, as if she was actually still standing and rapidly losing control of basic motor functions. Condensation rolled down the sides of her helm in thick rivulets. She stared only in Rhinox and other Maximals' general direction, unable to properly focus on any particular point.
"… don' touch me… leav'me 'lone…" she gasped, her words nothing more than whisper-thin strings of syllables. She groggily swung her optics around as if trying to assess her surroundings. Rattrap couldn't say for sure if she actually saw anything she was looking at. "Wh'er'm I…?" she slurred, her voice cracking with mounting panic - something Rattrap never thought he'd ever hear in the warrioress's voice. It sent a cold spike of dread through his spark.
For a moment everyone stood frozen in place, too startled to react except to dumbly stare at the trembling raptor. Airazor was the first to regain her composure.
"It's alright, Dinobot," she said, slowly stepping towards the other femme. She spoke in an exaggeratedly slow and reassuring tone. "You're back with your comrades. We're not going to hurt you. We're going to take you back home. We-"
But the flier didn't get a chance to finish as the raptor swiped her claws at her before Airazor could cover the last few feet separating them. Despite the jerky, uncoordinated motion of the swing, Dinobot's aim was frighteningly accurate considering her current state. Airazor managed to leap backwards only nano-klicks before Dinobot's claws slashed the air she'd been occupying mere seconds before.
"…leav'me 'lone," the warrioress growled, although any truly intimidating effect was loss behind the garbled slur of her words. "don' touch me…"
As if caught in the middle of a tense standoff, no one else moved forward to calm the disoriented femme. Whether that was out of fear or lingering shock of Dinobot sudden lucidity, Rattrap couldn't say for sure. But as the nano-klicks ticked by and it became apparent no one else was going to risk approaching Dinobot in her half-aware state, Rattrap could no longer stand the sight of the ex-Predacon warrioress kneeling there alone and shaking from chemically induced tremors anymore.
Focusing his attention on no one else but Dinobot, Rattrap slowly got to his pedes and took a tentative step towards the trembling raptor, hands held out to his sides in a defenseless posture. "Hey, com'on now, Lizard Lips, don' be like dat. We'r tryin' ta help ya. We'r not gonna hurt ya, so just calm down 'n listen ta me." As if actually listening, Dinobot's optics sluggishly swiveled up towards him. When she didn't react badly to his continued approach, Rattrap cautiously crept closer - ready to jump backwards at a moment's notice if he had to. But Dinobot didn't seemed threatened by the tiny Maximal and merely watched him approach with dull, flickering optics.
"I know ye'r not feelin' well right now, but I swear ta Primus if yeh try ta turn me inta swiss cheese I'll turn ya inta a leather couch faster den ya can blink yer optics."
Dinobot, however, made no move to deactivate Rattrap, and stared at him with glazed optics as he slowly sank to his knees in front of her. She looked like she was mere seconds away from slipping into stasis mode.
"Yer safe now," he continued in a steady stream of reassuring words. "Ol' Megs can't getcha anymore. I know ya hate accepting help from anyone, but we'll take care of ya until yer better. I'm not gonna let anyone hurt ya anymore…"
Dinobot stared at Rattrap for a long moment of silence like a wounded, frightened animal - her body hunched and shaking. Her optics sluggishly flickered off and on several times as if she were having trouble focusing on the tiny Maximal. She drunkenly swayed on her knees from side to side. Then, with no warning, as if unable to hold herself upright anymore Dinobot suddenly slumped forward, her entire body going limp.
Rattrap's arms instinctively shot out to catch her. Grabbing the warrioress by the shoulders, he pulled her towards him to keep her from colliding with the harsh ground. Dinobot heavily leaned against his side, her helm cradled in the hollow between his neck and shoulder plate. Rattrap sagged under the warrioress's heavier weight but refused to relinquish his hold on the taller femme. If anything he clutched her closer, relishing the weight of her superstructure in his arms and the warm puff of her intakes against his neck. It reaffirmed the fact they'd manage to get her back alive and in one piece.
If only he could hold the surly raptor like this when she wasn't half-offlined and so drugged up he could almost hear her neural circuits sloshing around…
Shifting Dinobot into a slightly more comfortable position, Rattrap settled back onto his haunches. "Hate ta break dis to ya, Choppa'face, but you should consider goin' on 'a diet. Even without all dat mech armor ya still weigh half 'a ton."
Dinobot groggily blinked her optics in response, as if too far gone to register anything being said or done around her. "…smells…" she murmured in a drunken whisper against his throat. The corner of her upper lip curled up in a weak sneer of disgust. Despite the unflattering comment Dinobot seemed to press herself closer to Rattrap's battle-dented body, as if unconsciously seeking warmth and safety.
Rattrap couldn't help but chuckle at the warrioress's observation. "Aw, yer such'a sweet-talker, Dino-breath. But it's not like I haven' heard dat one before. And not ta start throwin' insults around or anythin', but yeh don't exactly smell like a bed of roses yerself right now."
"Is she alright?" Airazor whispered, cautiously moving closer to the pair. She made sure to maintain a safe distance from Dinobot however just in case she had another semi-lucid panic attack. Concern shined brightly in the flier's optics as she surveyed Dinobot's trembling form.
The other Maximals tentatively followed Airazor's lead and came to stand in a loose circle around the two.
"I don' think so," Rattrap shook his helm. His lips were pulled down in a grim frown. "We need ta get her back ta base."
"Man, she is out of it," Cheetor said as he leaned closer to stare at Dinobot in morbid fascination.
"You'd be too if Megatron shot you full of drugs, Spots, so shut yer trap," Rattrap snapped - perhaps a bit too harshly he realized a few seconds after the fact. His arms unconsciously tightened around Dinobot, as if physically trying to shield her from unwelcome scrutiny.
Dinobot had begun to shake harder, her entire body trembling against his chassis. She was now fully slumped against Rattrap. She was no longer even trying to sit up on her own power. Her optics were barely online. Only the faintest hint of light shined in them now.
"Let's move," Optimus urgently cut in. "Dinobot can't wait any longer. Rhinox, can you try lifting her again?"
The engineer eyed the raptor distrustfully, but obediently stepped forward. "Okay, let's try this again," he rumbled as he stooped down beside the warrioress. "But hopefully without a repeat performance of last time."
Dinobot didn't even look in his direction as he reached out and cautiously slipped his arms under her knees and back. As Rhinox's grip tightened and he began to gently pull Dinobot away from Rattrap, however, the warrioress seemed to partially come out of her drugged stupor and leaned forward against the larger mech's pull. One hand blindly shot out towards Rattrap as if scrambling for something to hold onto in order to keep her place near the spy. She weakly struggled for a moment before finally - unwillingly - surrendering to Rhinox and letting herself fall backwards into the engineer's burly arms.
Rattrap could do nothing more than hollowly stare after her as Rhinox pulled Dinobot to him and stood with the warrioress cradled close against his chest. His arms felt strangely empty now with Dinobot no longer there to occupy them.
The warrioress did not fight or even struggle as the engineer turned and gently passed her over into Optimus's outstretched arms. As Optimus settled her against his chasssis, Rattrap saw that the dim points of light in Dinobot's optics had disappeared along with any other conscious functions. At some point in between being taken from Rattrap and transferred over into their commander's arms, the raptor had drifted offline. Dinobot's head, arms and legs dangled over the transmetal ape's elbows and lifelessly swayed back and forth in the air to the rhythm of his movements as if she were really dead and nothing more than an empty, sparkless shell.
An unexplainably cold feeling shot through Rattrap's spark at the thought - the jolt frightening and almost painful in its intensity.
"We'll meet you all back at base," Optimus said as he revved his jet board for takeoff and Airazor converted to beast mode. Without another word, the two fliers kicked off the ground and took to the air. The other Maximals watched in silence as the two banked due east in the direction of the Axalon and sped away, Dinobot securely held in Optimus's arms.
Rattrap continued to stare after Optimus and Airazor and their unconscious charge long after they disappeared over the horizon. Standing there, lost in thought, a hollow feeling similar to loneliness and loss spread through Rattrap's chassis.
Strange, Rattrap mused with an overdeveloped sense of irony. He had thought saving Dinobot would have released him from this confusing mess of emotions. But instead, rescuing the raptor seemed to have only intensified them to all new heights.
"Don't worry," the newest Predacon defector - Silverbolt was it? - said with a reassuring nod to Rattrap as he stepped forward to stand beside the smaller mech. "I'm sure your sparkmate will be alright. The commander will no doubt take care of her until you are able to rejoin her."
Startled by the new mech's comment, Rattrap looked up at him and numbly shook his head. "She's not my sparkmate…"
The fuzor stared at Rattrap in open surprise. "Oh," he murmured, taken aback. "Please forgive me if I've offended you. It's just that by how you and she interacted, I only assumed…"
"Don't worry about it," Rattrap said, suddenly too tired to try and explain his and Dinobot's relationship to this naïve newcomer. Even if he did, what would he have said? That they were comrades who could barely stand each other half the time and constantly bickered the other half? Or that despite all that, Dinobot was the only 'bot Rattrap would willing risk his safety and well-being for in order to save?
Yeah. That made a ton of sense…
Too impatient, tired and confused to see if his fellow Maximals followed suit, Rattrap converted to beast mode in a flurry of shifting parts, transformed his legs into wheels and - not waiting for anyone else - took off in a fine cloud of dust in the direction Optimus had disappeared with his unconscious charge.
To be continued…
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