Soon silence surrounded them once more, but the longer it drew on the less Megatron's smile remained. Inferno and Waspinator should have been bringing her back with them by now, and there was no way he could use his communicator without causing issue with his younger self.
"Sounds like my grand-sparkling just handed your fliers their thoraxes," Rhinox chuckled a bit, which ended with a cough.
Focusing down at the Maximal with his one good optic, Megatron growled fiercely.
Depth Charge calmly dusted his hands off as he looked down at the two Predacon fliers, both twitching when a random surge went through their mangled forms. Rattrap was chuckling while he was kicking Inferno's gun away from his grasping hand.
"Ya remember de plan, Fish Face?"
"Are you going to remind me if I tell you no, Rodent?"
"Jus' get to de distraction already!"
"Whatever."
Depth Charge grunted a bit as he reached down, picked up Waspinator, who had parts falling randomly to the ground as he whimpered about his bad day, and pitched him towards the clearing before he and Rattrap followed. They would leave Inferno there, because the ant might actually cause trouble if he remembered anything from the upcoming fight.
At the sight of poor Waspinator's form entering the clearing from the other side, Ruby rushed in while the three in the center were focused on the handy distraction. Dinobot had actually heard her as soon as her feet touched the rocky ground, quickly charging at her before Megatron and Rhinox had even noticed his vicious growl. Ruby leapt up and flipped over his head as he leaned in to swipe his deadly claws at her midsection, landing on his other side.
Rattrap had revved into the clearing from where Waspinator had made his rough entrance, himself heading straight for Dinobot as well. Megatron growled in anger as he began to power up his weaponry, aiming at the tiny femme. So distracted by the two Maximals fighting his twisted trophy, he failed to realize the huge shadow that loomed up behind him.
Rhinox had been focused on Ruby and Rattrap's fight that he only became aware that Rampage standing behind Megatron when the towering Predacon laughed madly as he grabbed the tyrant by his weaponry before he began to slam him around, knocking down trees and shattering the ground in the process. Before they ended up heading his way, Rhinox found himself scooped up and being carried off. Looking up in his pain filled haze; he was rather surprised to find Depth Charge was the one running at full speed through the thick foliage. The fact that he was being rescued still felt more like a minute surge in his processor before he blacked out.
"I have so much pain that I must return to you, oooooh yeeeesss," Rampage laughed as he gripped Megatron's head with both hands and began to slowly squeeze them together.
Megatron put his hands on Rampage's to try to pull them off, having to drop his weapon to do so. The angry Predacon's laugh was being drown out by the squeal of protest as the tyrant felt his head slowly giving in to the pressure. But he still had a trump card at his disposal.
"Dinobot!"
Dinobot-2 swung his arm backwards as he stood upright, sending Ruby flying off and Rattrap, who had been on his back, to the ground. Turning to face where Rampage had Megatron down on his knees, the twisted Transmetal-2 sneered with pleasure as he opened up the spark compartment on his torso before he moved Rampage's spark core out slightly before he proceeded to squeeze it.
Rampage struggled to keep his hold on Megatron despite the pain that surged through his own form, but as Dinobot put more pressure on his spark core he had to let go. As the mad Predacon fell to his knees, screaming in pain as he grasped the armor plating that surrounded what remained within him, Megatron slowly crawled away.
With Dinobot-2 was distracted though, Rattrap leapt up and dove over Ruby, pressing the detonator in his hand. While he had been on the haunting visage of his friend the Maximal infiltrator had placed several explosive charges, which exploded a split nano-click after Rattrap hit the deck. Their audio sensors were still ringing as they watched the smoking form of Dinobot fall forward, landing on top of what was left of poor Waspinator.
Ruby didn't wait for Rattrap to move off of her, but scrambled along the rocky ground towards Megatron. "Get it done!" she shouted, pointing to the fallen target as she passed by with her left hand, pulling out Dinobot's sword from her subspace pocket with her right.
Rattrap rushed over and leapt onto Dinobot-2's back, pulling out the small device he had backed up Dinobot's memories onto and found the input ports to attach the device. The upload seemed to crawl since he knew that it was only a matter of time as he watched the glowing energy that covered the wound, mending the damage before his optics.
Megatron managed to catch the approaching femme just in time to grab her wrists as she brought the sword down with both hands to take off his head, using her own momentum to fling her away. Rampage grunted as he rushed to catch her before she hit the ground, the pair tumbling to a halt.
Rattrap made the mistake of looking up at the mass of motion and only had a moment to react to Dinobot's body pitching up underneath him, sending him into the surrounding jungle with a shout. Dinobot-2 grabbed his head as the memories fought to secure their in their placement in his processor, the spark within his torso refusing to allow the invasion. He looked over as he heard Rampage screaming once more in pain, but his vision turned red as he saw the tiny femme in his arms showing him concern. With a scream matching fueled by the pain from the internal battle and the rage from what he saw, he charged.
Rampage barely had a moment to meet Dinobot-2 head on, but shoved Ruby into the jungle first. "Run, my toy, I'll find you and retrieve my payment you promised."
Ruby stumbled a bit and glanced back as she saw Dinobot-2 begin to actually to rip Rampage apart, making the huge Predacon resemble Waspinator after a normal day. It was Megatron ordering him to bring her back that ended the mindless rage. When Dinobot-2 focused on her, giving an animalistic scream before he started after her, Ruby began to run.
Optimus rushed out of the base, flanked by the other three that were at the base with him, when the base scanners had detected two incoming Maximal signatures. Primal was angry to find that Ruby and Rattrap had left the base, despite the orders he had given, making him have to change his plans in case it was an elaborate ruse by Megatron to unman the base. The group halted in surprise as the incoming Maximals came into view. The approaching pair was not who they were had expecting.
Depth Charge, in his flying mode with Rhinox on his back, quickly approached the base and hovered just in front of Optimus so he could take the injured engineer into the base before he lost any more Energon. The group reacted quickly to get their injured into the CR chamber.
"Depth Charge, take Cheetor and go back to aid Ruby and Rattrap," Primal ordered, not even waiting to hear the excuse as to why only two of them returned.
Despite being covered in mech fluid and liquid Energon, the manta ray nodded curtly, turned and rushed out of the base with the scout close behind. Turning back to the chamber, Optimus noted how concerned Black Arachnia and Silverbolt were over Rhinox's condition.
He was always the glue that held us together, wasn't he? Primal thought to himself, knowing that they all owed their lives to Rhinox several times over. With a firm nod, the Maximal commander headed for the entrance. He would back up Depth Charge and Cheetor, just in case this was someone's darker plan to take them out.
It was the angry snarl behind her kept her going. Luckily her smaller frame was making it easier for her to get through the thick brush. The snapping of tree trunks made her glance back over her shoulder a time to two, but she kept going. It brought back her training days, but she seriously doubted that slapping him on the snout and yelling 'tag' would stop the pursuit.
Ruby screamed in pain as she felt her left leg being shot out from under her, which sent her tumbling into a thick patch of downed trees. With a groan she pulled herself up with her arms, but stared in shock as some of the foliage pulled away, exposing a metallic object that had been buried in the crash. Dinobot-2's animalistic snarl right behind her made her twist around, her body suddenly glowing blue as she yanked the spark extractor out of subspace before he snapped his powerful beastial jaws around her midsection.
The rain of smoking drone parts around him was one of the first things he became aware of aside from the pain. Also, the source of the angry screech seemed to change position around him. As Rhinox focused up to see Megatron and Inferno battling the massive drone army that swarmed around them, the pair focused on blowing apart their attackers. There were other drones, ones that had not had a chance to become infected with their virus or had been cured of the previous batches they had let loose. They assumed that Megatron would have found a cure for the early version they had infected the first few drones with. It looked as if their cautious measures paid off.
"Get him out of here!"
The voice that broke through the screeching, female in nature and one that he never thought he would never hear again. He tried to look up, to find the phantom, but he felt someone grabbing a hold of him, lift him off the metallic ground, and pull him out of the citadel. Any drones that might have followed disappeared in a bright flash of white-gold light.
Dinobot, in his beast mode, marched back into the clearing, Ruby dangling limply in his mouth. She was groaning, the spark extractor device loosely bouncing in the grip of her right hand with every step, Energon dripping to the ground from the damage where his powerful jaws and sharp teeth tore into her armor like it was paper. Leaning over, Dinobot-2 let Ruby drop from his maw, leaving her groaning on the ground before he transformed into his robot mode.
Megatron marched over, Dinobot's sword spinning slowly in his hand as his single optic focused down at her. "Poor Ruby, but we both knew from the beginning of our little personal war that you wouldn't win, yeess. I will enjoy telling the Maximals as I rip them limb from limb that their only hope was one tiny, insignificant, femme."
With a flick of his wrist, Megatron turned the sword upside down, aiming for the red orb on her torso armor. "Check-mate."
As soon as Rattrap had come to he started heading back towards base. Ruby had, in terms that he usually used on any bot he saw as a threat to his family, promised a painful reprimand if he did not follow her orders to upload the memories and get his wheeled hide out of there before everything got crazy. The only way he agreed to it was her assurance that things were going to be fine as soon as she got Dinobot's spark into the clone's body. He just wondered how it was all going to work with Rampage's spark core already sitting pretty in the frame.
Skidding to a halt, the wheeled rodent looked back at the direction he had come from with a nagging feeling was keeping him from going back to base. He couldn't leave. The last time one of their own faced impossible odds … he never came home. They got Rhinox out of there, hopefully just in time before they had just lost another.
The sudden surge in his spark had him turning around. Dinobot went off alone, fought alone, and nearly died alone. Knowing that Chopper-face had a fancy for some depressing reading materials where the hero always seemed to die to prove his point, the one that came to mind right now was where the hero's lady joined him. If Dinobot was that selfish, Rattrap would never forgive him.
The sound of a jet engine coming up behind him made the wheeled rodent stop and turn around as Cheetor, Depth Charge, and Optimus came through the foliage. Primal transformed into his robotic mode as he landed, shaking the ground as Depth Charge transformed as well.
"What's going on, Rattrap?" Primal asked quickly. Before Rattrap had a chance to report, a scream cut through the air which sent the animals scattering. "Let's move!"
Megatron put every ounce of his power and anger into the driving blow that he delivered into the torso of the femme placed before him, only to have her form flicker violently before it and Dinobot's image vanished before his eye.
"What?" he ground out, struggling to pull the sword free from the rock he had managed to embed it into, the spinning blades painfully grinding to a stop. The stomping sound of Dinobot-2 stepping out of the thick foliage in his robot mode, holographic projector in hand, made Megatron begin to fume. His anger quickly turned to shock at the blue glow that started to pour out between the plating on Dinobot's form.
"You are a fool, Megatron," Dinobot informed the Predacon with a powerful snarl, a snap of his wrist closing the projector before he tucked it away. "You failed in your first time to accomplish your goal; you're a fool to believe that you would succeed a second time."
"I will be victorious! You won't stop me again!" Megatron vowed. "I will slay the Maximals and use their heads to decorate my throne chamber. Victory will be-"
The tyrant's monologue ended with a powerful scream as he felt a massive pair of claws grab a hold of the beastial head that covered his torso armor. Looking down he saw the device forcing the plating apart enough for another set to extract from the device to dig further into his armor, ripping apart the protective plating he had in place before something gripped his spark in a powerful hold. Dinobot stabbed his curved claws into the tyrant's shoulders to keep him in place as Megatron struggled to pull free from the device digging into him.
Ruby had come in under Dinobot's form and slammed the spark extractor into Megatron, holding onto the device as Megatron fell to his knees, writhing in pain. As the device grabbed a hold of his spark she watched the tyrant's form flash in and out of existence, and with an anger filled shout she ripped his spark from his torso. The light in his remaining optic died before the frame fell backwards, sliding off of Dinobot's claws with a shrill scrape.
The spark in the device continued to struggle; however, until it shook the spark extractor free from her weakened grip to crash to the ground. As it began to flee the area Ruby watched Dinobot's sword fly through the air from a powerful throw, piercing the spark before it embedded itself into a tree. As the spark faded out of existence the body before them did as well.
Ruby sank to her knees, blinking her optics in disbelief. It was over. The timeline was no longer in danger. She looked behind her to the bot that had helped her end the threat, only to find him smiling down at her with a predatory look. Dinobot wasn't glowing anymore, meaning that Rampage's spark had successfully taken the form back.
"No!" she cried out, realizing that she had wasted the chance to bring Dinobot back. When Dinobot-2 had bitten down on her Dinobot's spark forcefully left her form to take over the new body before she could extract the spark core. The momentary control he had gained must have utilized the last bit of his power.
Rampage had managed to pull himself back together, and was now looming up beside Dinobot, he too giving her that chilling predatory smile. "Time to play, my sweet. Oh, I promise we will have so much fun."
The scream of an angry feline echoed powerfully through the jungle, making the Predacons look up moments before the Maximals burst into the clearing. Depth Charge crashed into Rampage as Cheetor headed straight for Dinobot. Rattrap screeched to a halt beside her, quickly transforming before he knelt down beside the femme. She was leaking Energon from several deep punctures that most likely matched Dinobot-2's jaws, but was focused blankly forward.
"Ruby! Hey, Ruby!" the infiltrator yelled, shaking her a bit out of her shock. She turned her head to look up at her fellow rodent fighter, but the look on her face made his spark feel like it would shatter.
"He's gone," she got out weakly. "He's gone."
Rattrap's jaw dropped as he looked up in time to see Dinobot-2 and Rampage fleeing. Waspinator, who somehow managed to survive the whole ordeal, was slowly pulling himself across the ground with his one good hand.
"What were you two thinking?" Primal demanded with his fists on his hips. "I expect better out of both of you. Instead you both blatantly disobeyed orders."
"I had to try," Ruby snapped, stumbling to her feet and staring up at the towering Maximal, "especially with Rhinox's life at stake I couldn't stand by and do nothing."
Optimus sighed softly, relaxing his stance as he closed his optics. She has proven time and time again that she would give everything, including her own life, for their survival. Opening his optics again he reached down to scoop her and Rattrap up. "Let's get back to base, check on Rhinox, and get you two repaired."
Rhinox groaned as he started to come to, the dreams of a strange, yet familiar, femme in vibrant fiery orange and gold colors slowly fading, but closed his optics, holding up his now repaired hand, because of the bright light that greeted him as he heard the hiss of the CR chamber door opening. He heard Optimus and Rattrap right outside the chamber, apparently waiting on him to step out. Slowly, because he still felt a few twinges of pain, the engineer stepped out of the chamber and into the cavern.
"How are you feeling?" Primal asked quietly, having knelt down.
"Better than earlier," he mumbled, glancing towards Rattrap. His best friend looked guilty, not quite meeting his optics, nor tossing out a witty remark or two. "What happened?"
"Ruby led a small team to rescue you. Depth Charge got you back to base just in time."
The way Primal went silent told Rhinox that there was a lot more. "Is she alright?"
"Chopper-face's clone tried ta take a bite out of 'er," Rattrap finally spoke up, shifting his feet a bit. "She lost de other spark."
Rhinox's jaw dropped at the news. The heartache had to be terrible for her if the spark had been either option that had come to mind when he first discovered it. "Where is she now?"
"She's been in her quarters since she got out of the repair chamber and found out that you were going to survive," Optimus replied. "No one's had the heart to go interrupt her mourning, but seeing that you're better might cheer her up some."
Nodding, Rhinox quickly excused himself, leaving Rattrap and Optimus to head back to the command center and back to their scanning posts. Her Megatron was there, but maybe in the battle Rattrap and Depth Charge had not noticed the difference. Quickly heading up to the small anti-chamber that over looked the Ark, he knocked on the metal crate she had near the doorway.
"Ruby?" he called out. When silence continued to be his reply he walked into her chamber.
There had been a half hearted attempt to repack Dinobot's belongings, creates still open and half filled as they were scattered around the room. The optic that had sat on the shelf above her desk was missing now. Frowning, he gave the room a once over before he went to search the rest of the base. She had to be somewhere, but after a thorough search he found himself back at the command center.
Optimus and Rattrap turned their curiosity his way as he began to run the internal scanners. "What's wrong, Rhinox?"
Looking back up at his commander, Rhinox gave a grave sigh. "Ruby's missing."
Her foe might be gone, but she still had work to do. There was only one way to prevent an issue like this from happening again. From everything she had learned from her family, replaying every story they had told her while she was growing up, she knew that she had to do to put the game in her favor. The Maximals were going to win the Beast Wars again; she just needed to hedge her bets.
As the weak sunlight managed to filter its way through the thick canopy of the jungle, Ruby retraced her steps to the group of fallen trees. It took all the effort she could get out of her tiny frame, but she smiled in satisfaction as she managed to clear away the metallic object that had been buried there. A quick check of the computer systems confirmed two things: it was a blank and the locator beacon had been damaged.
As she ran a hand over the top, Ruby nodded to herself. She'd only have one chance to pull her plan off.
Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.
Alright! I think I got this out how it had pretty much been in my head. Love it? Hate it? Let me know.