Predacon's Companion

The next morning, the Predacon and Miya simply went to repeat he events of the day before. They played, and tried to get a better understanding of each other. On the upper hull where no one would bother them, they were left in peace to do as they pleased. The Predacon had already cleared out what was left of the cow carcass from his den by throwing it overboard where it would undoubtedly fall onto the world below. He planned to leave the warship in order to get a fresh one later, but for now was happy to simply play with Miya. His new-found companionship with her allowed him to relax more in her presence, and he was much more patient of his own inability to communicate with others because Miya was always trying to guess what it was he meant. He could only thank the girl silently for her inability to quit.

However, their moment of peace was soon interrupted. The Predacon had had Miya pinned to the floor carefully beneath his claw, when the doors to the deck had suddenly opened. Immediately alert, the Predacon had snapped his gaze upwards, taking his claw off of Miya so that the girl could scramble up as she quickly hid behind one of his legs.

Starscream strutted onto the deck, and the Predacon did his best to repress a growl as he saw the near-constant superior sneer on the Seeker's face. The second in command didn't even seem to notice the Predacon until he came into the light, wings drooping and scowl festering on his face as the Mech took in the sight of the beast.

"Away with you, creature," Starscream waved him away dismissively, as if he expected the Predacon to simply trot away at his command. "Go back to your kennel where you can't take up the entire flight deck."

The Predacon narrowed his optics as a mandible lifted to reveal his teeth as he growled loudly. He would not be dismissed like a worthless droid. And the Seeker would not presume to command him! The Predacon ignored the way Miya seemed a little uneasy, and purposefully sat his haunches on the deck, glaring at Starscream as he did so. Starscream's optics narrowed in anger.

"Did you not hear me, deaf brute?!" He yelled indignantly as he stormed closer. The Predacon lifted his head regally as he continued to glare at the Seeker. "I command you to leave!"

The Predacon did not move.

"You miserable beast," Starscream growled to himself as he marched around to the side of the Predacon, bringing out a small rod that he held in his servo. "I am your commanding officer, and I order you to crawl into your kennel now!" The seeker stamped his foot with a loud 'clunk' as he pointed towards the doors leading back into the ship.

The Predacon narrowed his optics at Starscream, before turning his head away with a stubborn huff.

"I said go, already!" Screamer shrieked furiously.

The Predacon suddenly felt a jolt in his elbow, a hard course of electricity that tried to burn his energon in his cabals. It was slightly painful, but the Predacon didn't flinch, and all it did was make him angry as he snapped his head back around with a snarl, fire dancing at the back of his throat.

"You shouldn't do that!" Came a sudden squeak that had both the Predacon and Starscream pausing before they looked down to the little presence they had forgotten was there. Miya stood with her hand on the Predacon's forelimb, keeping herself close, but her expression angry as she glared up at Starscream. "It's wrong to treat someone like that!"

The Predacon was astonished at the girl's nerve, though couldn't help but find her scalding tone amusing. Starscream, however, didn't find the spectacle amusing.

"Keep your nosy scent-receptor out of this, pest," Starscream curled his lip with a glare. "The creature is a mindless beast, it can only be controlled with a show of force."

As if for emphasis, he activated the rod, allowing sparks of electricity to fly off of the end in preparation. The Predacon felt anger at the Seeker, and was about to attack, when Miya's voice stopped him yet again.

"No!" She shouted furiously. "He'd not a mindless beast! He deserves more respect than this! My mom says you should always treat animals like Kings. Is this how you would treat a King?!"

At first, the Predacon didn't know how to feel at her words. He felt angry because Miya categorised him with lowly animals, as if he were the mindless creature that Starscream claimed. But then she said for him to be treated like a king… and he suddenly felt his shock take over. Starscream too looked a little taken-back by her words.

"I will not be lectured by some filthy fleshling!" Starscream yelled furiously, before swinging his sharp servo for Miya.

Before the Seeker could get within six feet of her, the Predacon moved his foreleg into Starscream's path, where his servos scrapped horridly against his metal. The sound was worse than the actual damage, and again, all it did was make the Predacon angry – if he wasn't already furious that Starscream had attempted to harm Miya. Starscream looked up in horror as the Predacon pulled his jaws apart and unleashed the fire within him. The Seeker barely hit the deck in time to avoid the flames that flew over him.

When the Predacon finally stopped the rush of deadly flames a second or so later, Starscream blinked as he slowly climbed to his feet, trembling. There was a slight hiss in the air, one that made Starscream confused until he looked up and realised that the spike on his head was smouldering. He shrieked and began to panic as he tried to smother the blackened spike, as if in fear that it would spontaneous explode. He looked at his soot-covered servos before quickly retreating back into the interior of the ship.

"I swear by the metal of Cybertron, I'll have your heads for this!" He hissed. The Predacon sent another bout of flame in his direction, and Starscream ran all the faster.

The Predacon snorted firmly as he disappeared. Coward, he thought.

But when he turned back towards his human, he noticed that she seemed a little out of sorts. Her face was pinched in concentration, with one finger fiddling with a strand of her auburn hair. After a moment of thought, she looked up to see the Predacon watching her expectantly. She bit her lip and the Predacon wondered what on earth she could be thinking, before she spoke.

"If I'm gonna stick up for you, I need to know more about you." She told him, shuffling her feet slightly as if a little unsure. "That one said something about Cybertron… is that where you're from? You're aliens?"

The Predacon knew that he couldn't answer her questions, so that only made his frustration apparent from the start. But when she asked him about Cybertron, he found himself a little stuck on the answer he knew he couldn't voice. For he knew of the home-world of all mechanical life, but he had no specific memories of it. He could faintly remember being somewhere void of anything organic when he had been awoken from the tank before being brought here. Had that been Cybertron? Why did he have only that small little fragment of memory, and why did he not have more experience from his own home world?

"Okay then," Miya said at his brooding silence. "How about how old you are? Or a name?"

These questions were the ones that not only stumped him, but for some strange reason they hurt. When he thought about it, really thought about it, the Predacon knew that he had only ever had this body and the thoughts of an adult. He knew that he had a creator, but for some reason it disturbed him that he had no memories of a past beyond this life, of the time when he was a sparkling, or learning to fly, or anything. He knew that he had been created, and he knew that this information he needed had been uploaded into his hard-drives, so that he knew them without experiencing them. But for some reason… that felt wrong. He wanted memories of a life, not this existence, and it became apparent that he didn't even know how old he was, let alone what his purpose was with this time.

And then came her question of a name. He didn't have a designation. The other decepticons either referred to him as 'predacon' or 'beast', even he himself thought of himself as a predacon, and not any set designation. He tried to remember if anyone had ever called him anything resembling a name, but his spark felt a little bereft to realise that there had never been a time. He was nameless, and without a history and therefore his purpose felt hollow. It felt like all he could do was follow the orders of the decepticons he had been born with because he didn't know any better, and he did not have a better purpose.

Why had no one named him? Why did he not know who he was?

His head drooped with the weight of these thoughts, and he didn't even realise he was making a soft keening sound, until he felt the gentlest touch against his metal plates. He blinked his optics as he focused, realising Miya was standing beside his head, her hands reaching to stroke his cheek softly. Her expression was one he had never seen on her before: upturned eyebrows and eyes that looked almost… guilty?

"Sorry," She murmured. "I didn't mean to make you sad. But don't worry, none of that stuff matters now,"

The Predacon blinked. None of it mattered? Of course it did! He had no name! He had no memory! He didn't know who he was! It was most distressing and of the utmost importance! He was about to huff at her scoldingly for brushing such matters aside, when she gave him that tiny smile, and slowly leaned forward until her forehead was touching the plates beneath his optic. The Predacon was stunned for a moment as the human displayed such an intimate gesture of trust and reassurance in that one motion, and his spark felt oddly touched by it. Her hand gently rubbed smooth circles along his metal skin, and he leaned into her touch with a soft rumble.

"Don't worry," She murmured softly as she turned her head in order to look up into his optic. "We'll figure it out."

She meant something else, but for the Predacon, her words meant a lot to him in a soothing way. He rumbled to her happily, before he decided to move. No matter how much he liked this little trust between them, he didn't want to be showered in pity. So he pinched his teeth onto her hood and lifted her into the air as he walked them towards the doors. Just before they could step inside, he laid himself down under the overhang so that they were out of the sun and the worst of the wind. He deposited Miya in between his forelegs before laying his head down and curling up. Nothing to take away the stress of the day then a quick re-charge nap. Miya settled herself beside his warm chest, seemingly happy to either lie there with him or take a nap as well. The Predacon didn't care which as long as she stayed put, and closed his optics.

He was almost fully asleep, when he suddenly heard a loud 'clomp' as someone stopped their metal foot into the floor close by. The Predacon blinked his optics open blearily, confused at first as his processor dredged itself out of the peaceful re-charge it had been settled into. He looked up in confusion at seeing a large Mech in bright silver armour with glowing-blue bio-lights. It took the Predacon a moment to see the head of the Mech and realise that it was Starscream inside some sort of suit of armour.

"Okay…" Starscream smirked, before pointing a now huge servo into the open doors. "Now in you go!"

The Predacon reared, shrieking in outrage as he stared down at the obvious challenge before him. He subtly nudged Miya out of the way, and she hastily scrambled to the side of the room. But Starscream didn't seem at all phased by the Predacon's furious display, and his smirk grew wider.

"Do your worst." He taunted as he knocked a proud fist against his chest. "The Apex Armour is virtually –"

The Seeker didn't get another word out as the Predacon clamped his jaws onto the armour's wrist, almost engulfing the arm, and lifted him into the air. Starscream wanted to challenge the Predacon?! Well, challenge excepted! The Predacon vowed to prove to the Seeker that no amount of armour could protect him.

"ARGH! NO! RELEASE ME!" Starscream screamed like a frightened child.

The Predacon tossed him from side to side, hissing and shrieking furiously to match Starscream's cries of terror. He could feel the second in command being tossed about inside the armour as he was swung through the air, practically helpless as he dangled from the beast's jaws. With but a flick of his head, the Predacon threw the armour through the air, where Starscream shrieked before colliding with the ceiling, denting it, before he fell to the floor.

A sound was then heard, a high pitched rhythmic chirping that was extremely unexpected. The Predacon turned his head to see Miya standing at the side of the room, clutching her sides as she made more of the strange sounds. Her mouth was gaping open, her eyes squeezed shut, her teeth bared and her lips turned upwards. Alarmed by this sudden and abnormal behaviour, the Predacon thought that something was wrong with his human, before the uploaded information in his processor on humans told him that this was called laughing: something humans did when they were greatly amused. Watching Miya's expression and listening to the sound, the Predacon was fascinated, until he understood that Miya found his treatment of Starscream funny. He had made her laugh. For some reason, this made the Predacon's spark feel happy, and he felt his mandibles pull wide in his own beastly-version of a grin as he realised that this was the first time he had heard Miya laugh properly. And he liked the sound. He made a memo for himself to remind him to make her laugh more often.

"Starscream." Came a voice through Starscream's comm. link, loud enough for the Predacon's audio receptors to pick up, and recognise it as Lord Megatron. "Are you with the Beast?"

"Y-Yes, Master!" Starscream spluttered quickly as he attempted to pick himself up off of the floor. "We've been reviewing attack manoeuvres… He's doing quite well…" The Seeker growled as he scowled at the Predacon.

"One of the excavation teams has failed to report in." Megatron said.

"I shall assemble my seeker armada immediately and –"

"I would prefer that you would lead our newly returned asset on this mission…" The grin in Megatron's voice could easily be heard. "So that we may see if our predacon is as adept a fetching bones as it is hunting Autobots."

The link went dead, and Starscream looked up at the Predacon with a truly aggravated scowl.

"Well?" He snapped. "You heard Lord Megatron! We leave at once!"

The Predacon was tempted to throw the Seeker in his armour over the side of the ship because of his disrespectful tone, just out of spite because he refused to take any orders from him. But he knew that he couldn't disobey a direct order from Lord Megatron. As far as hierarchy of the pack on this vessel went, Megatron was the alpha, and all obeyed him. The Predacon didn't know exactly where he fit into this chain, perhaps he was outside of this rule altogether seeing as he was an alpha predator as well. But he would still obey Megatron. In that case, he had no choice but to leave.

But he would still defy Starscream slightly. So he turned and quickly picked up Miya in his jaws before he marched his way down towards his den, careful not to jostle the girl he carried too much. Once they were back in their room, the Predacon put Miya down near the back wall. When she looked up at him in confusion he made a very clear gesture with his head for her to stay put. He turned to leave, but saw Miya's eyes widen as she quickly got up and made to follow.

"Wait? You're leaving?!" Her voice asked fearfully.

The Predacon turned back and with a growl of frustration picked her back up and placed her back where he had left her, firmly snorting in her face to tell her to stay put. He would not be swayed by any means. His human was to stay here out of danger until he returned and he would not have any negotiations on the matter. But Miya seemed to have other ideas as she desperately shook her head, her eyes wide as she pushed herself back up to her feet and almost reached her arms out to him.

"No! Please!" She begged. "Please don't go! Don't leave me here!"

His spark was moved by her fearful pleas as she desperately tried to stay with him. Under other circumstances he would have wanted nothing else but to stay with her. But he now had a duty and so gave her a gentle reassuring rumble as he pushed her back down with a mandible. Before she could say another word, he quickly then turned and left the room, hitting the control pad with his tail, causing the doors to slide shut with a loud 'bang' before locking.

Turning to march back up towards the flight deck, he was only stopped along the way by Starscream still in his armour, and two vehicons, obviously come down to fetch him. He cast all three of them irritable growls before marching ahead, nearly trampling them as he shoved his way past them. He was not concerned by them at this point in time. He had much bigger concerns then Starscream.

He blasted out of the rubble with a furious roar. Stupid, idiotic Autobots! Setting off an explosion like that underground in an unstable environment?! What were they thinking?! The Predacon hissed as he shook his head, quickly surveying the cavern for his enemies, but couldn't find the bodies beneath the rubble. They were either offlined or stuck beneath the fallen rocks, either way he didn't care.

The Predacon had been brought to this excavation site by Starscream and the vehicons, and the journey had not been pleasant to say the least. Then they'd arrived to find evidence that the autobots were here, and the Predacon had had no need for orders before he launched himself into the mine and chased his prey through the tunnels that had only gotten narrower as they went on. Eventually he'd cornered them in this chamber and he had fought them. Two were the prey he had attempted to hunt previously, and the third was an older and much more formal commander. He'd bested two and cornered one, when it had launched one of those little explosion-canisters at him. He'd flicked it away from his face with his tail, but the thing had then exploded and caused a cave in. The Predacon and the autobots had been buried beneath the falling rubble though naturally the Predacon had been the one to break free first. And now that he was free and the autobots were taken care of, he could look for –

A slight glimmer amongst the rocks caught his optic, and the Predacon slowly moved towards it. nudging aside the rocks, he found a rusted fossilised optic laying in the dust. Tentatively, he reached towards it –

A static of left-over code jumped from the optic and into the Predacon, making him shiver as something snapped inside his processor. It was as if a key had unlocked a door, and he suddenly knew everything. He saw predacons of different shapes and sizes overlooking a massive battlefield, their wings spread proudly, their heads raised to roar their mighty triumph to the sky. They dominated the land they stood on, an army the likes of which could never be conquered as they cast they fiery gazes onto –

And just like that, it vanished. The door closed and became locked again, and the Predacon blinked his optics as the vision faded to his memory banks. He could remember what he saw, but couldn't see any more or understand it in the slightest. Feeling confused and frustrated, he looked at the optic, touching it again, hoping for another fragment of code to make itself known. But nothing. Growling in frustration, he knew that there was nothing left for him here, and so carefully picked up the optic between his teeth before he gingerly made his way through the collapsed chamber and into the tunnels.

When he finally came into the open fresh air, he couldn't help but open his wings with a sigh of relief. It always felt better to have the room to move about freely in. He sprang into the air, his processor contemplating in frustration what had happened to him. He'd had something then, he'd known who he was, it was right there in the back of his processor, he could feel it. But now it was gone, and he was left with nothing but the puzzle of it.

He meant to go straight back to the Nemesis and ignore Starscream still on the ground inspecting the autobot ship, when something caught his optic. Even from this height, his optics gave him perfect vision as he looked down onto the ground below to see Starscream out of his armour and facing off against someone else in it… someone who looked familiar. All he could see was a human adolescent face and dark-ish hair, and his mind immediately jumped to one conclusion: Miya. He was so surprised to not only see his human here but facing off against Starscream that he dropped the fossil.

The fossil hit the Apex Armour before rolling to the floor, but he barely noticed. He swooped down and landed on the back of the Autobot ship, growling at Starscream to back away from his human before casting said human a glare.

But the Apex Armour was already running away from him, and the Predacon blinked with surprise. Why would Miya run from him? Either way, it didn't matter. She had disobeyed him and he planned to discipline her for not doing as she was told. He would drill this lesson into her that he was the alpha and she would do as told and suffer the consequences if she did not. He leapt onto her, pinning her to the floor beneath his claws and turning her over so that she would see –

And he was met with a face that was definitely not Miya's. The Predacon reared his head back in disgust as he realised that it was not Miay at all, but the human female that the Autobots kept with them. He remembered this one as being the one with the autobots when he had hunted them on that first night, and he glared down at the human with anger. He was angry that he had mistaken this girl for Miya, angry at the deception, and angry for facing this enemy again. He would kill this human for that.

Rearing back he struck at the Armour with his claws, attempting to slice it open as he smashed into it repeatedly. He heard the human girl scream and attempt to get away, tossed inside the armour much like Starscream had been. But he was relentless and unforgiving as he continued to try and shell the fleshling out of the armour that was hindering him in his attempts to squash her.

"Go ahead!" He heard Starscream yell with a grin in his voice, though the Predacon ignored him. "Make a wreck of her! As you no doubt did the Wreckers! Perhaps this will teach you how to actually kill a human..."

"Starscream! Status report!" The Predacon heard Megatron's voice come through the comm. link as he grabbed the armour in his jaws and began to shake it around like a ragdoll, the girl screaming along with it.

"Master," He heard Starscream say. "We have secured the bone and our predacon is dealing with the autobot's pet human as we speak. On my command of course…"

"I will not risk losing a precious commodity to your arrogance." Megatron growled.

The Predacon slammed his prey into the ground, and although the girl looked battered from being thrown around, she seemed unharmed – much to his frustration. The girl even had the audacity to glare up at him defiantly.

"I'll tear you apart!" She spat.

The Predacon answered her by roaring furiously as he summoned the hottest flames he could muster. He unleashed them onto the Apex Armour, wanting to melt it and cook the human alive inside of it. He flapped his wing as he hovered in the air as he continued to breathe the inferno onto the human in the cybertronian armour.

"Have the beast return with my prize," He barely heard Megatron over the roar of the flames. "You can stay behind and finish the autobots."

"Yes Master…" The Predacon heard Starscream murmur as he shut off the flames and turned to stare down at Starscream holding the fossil in his servo. "Assuming I can coerce the brainless brute into –"

Starscream didn't get out another word as the Predacon smashed him into the ground. He'd had enough. Roaring in Starscream's face, he wanted the Seeker to know exactly where they stood: that he would no longer be taking this disrespect and that the Seeker was now rolling the dice with his own life. If Megatron didn't seem to value the useless second for whatever reason, the Predacon would have terminated him in that instant. But he had orders, and so picked up the bone between his teeth before launching himself into the sky and soaring away.

"What?!" He heard Starscream shriek indignantly. "You never obey my commands!"

The Predacon ignored him, and continued to fly. He needed to get back to the warship and give his master the bone, then he could get back to Miya. As he flew, he couldn't stop his processor from drifting back to that vision he'd had, unable to shake it from his thoughts…

Author's Note: I apologise for any and all mistakes, but I wanted to get this chapter out for you guys and I'm exhausted -_-

Please review!