Ruby stood before the pile of stone that had marked the grave of a friend, though purely animal Snow Stalker had become dear to her spark. The white tiger that had been the base form Tigatron's stasis pod had scanned and his companion as he had searched for what he truly was, in turn had come to accept Ruby and Airazor as they had patrolled and spent time with the Maximal scout. The flying squirrel based fighter knelt beside the grave before placing the clay tiger on top of the pile of stones. It was painted exactly like the friend that it marked, the pose a watchful, yet calmly sitting feline as it overlooked the valley below. She knew of the loss from stories that Cheetor had told her, but that loss was still painful and it made the futuristic fighter question herself in her mission.
Can I really just knowingly let my friends go to their graves? she thought as she focused on the statuette, which was catching the last gleaming light of the sunset behind her. The Maximals need to win the Beast Wars, does it matter how that comes about in the end? Would you try to save them, Grand-sparker? Even knowing their fate, would you be asking yourself these same questions?
A cold chill passed through the air around her, but Ruby just sighed. "I know you're there."Metal claws scraping across stone came closer to her as she stood up and calmly turned around.
Megatron simply sneered down at the tiny Maximal as he stopped a few dozen feet away. "Preparing your grave, Maximal?"
"Mourning the loss of a friend," she answered simply.
Chuckling, the tarnished dragon turned his attention to the grave behind her. "That is what makes you Maximals weak, yeeesss. Sentiment and useless bonds of friendship have no place in a war."
"That's where you're wrong, Meggsie." Ruby knew using the nickname was an open taunt, but she kept an eye open for any serious reactions from her foe. "It's our caring nature that binds us together into a force that you were never able to defeat." Seeing his anger begin to peak, Ruby tilted her head to the side. "Just remember this, you called for the cease fire in the case of the Vok. Any attack you make on any Maximal during this time will only complicate things for your past counterpart. So, check."
As he jerked forward to snap the tiny fem in his jaws Ruby actually ran backwards, back flipping over the edge of the cliff face, and transformed in mid-air to glide away. Megatron was fuming as he watched her disappear into the dark sky. With nothing else to truly focus on he turned back towards Snow Stalker's grave and swatted the statuette off of it, sending it into the rock face to shatter before he began his slow climb back down the mountain.
The last thing he wished to admit was that the troublesome Maximal was right; Megatron could do nothing while the cease fire was in place. The Maximal fools were crucial against the Vok attack, especially Optimus Primal's sacrifice to destroy the weapon. The only choice he had was to sit back in the protection of some cavern and wait. Or was it?
Megatron glared at her retreating form, rethinking all of his options. The Maximals did not need to use their weapons to defeat the Predacons during his little cease fire. If they were able to get away with crippling his forces in that manner, then he could do so as well. As his mind focused on the one target that needed to be destroyed before he caused any more trouble, the dragon started his way down the mountainside. He would eliminate Dinobot before his former second-in-command stole the golden disks, and then he would make sure Ruby suffered dearly for her insolence.
Ruby had returned to the Axalon with just enough time to grab a quick refreshing of Energon before she took over for Cheetor on the monitor duty. With her beast form's nocturnal nature, and the tendency for the others to be resting, it gave her plenty of time to think. She knew that Optimus had left earlier in the evening to search out the alien energy anomaly Tigatron had reported in on. From what Primal had told her during her training, Megatron had called for a truce because of Vok. Stressful times were ahead for the Maximals as they had to first figure out the alien agenda for themselves and figure out how to counter it. Ruby was just hoping that she would be right in guessing that her foe would not interfere during this time because he needed all figures to remain in play, but she wouldn't let that keep her from slacking on her watch for the tarnished dictator.
It was mid morning, well after Rhinox had relieved her of her overnight monitor duty, when Primal had returned with the strange news. Having remained on the bridge to overlook the data the Maximal engineer scanned over from the ship's diagnostics that ran every night, Ruby settled herself towards the back as they awaited the others to join them on the bridge.
Seeing everyone that stayed on the ship was present, Primal took a deep breath as he paused in his pacing before he began to speak. "Megatron has requested a truce and I've agreed."
"A truce?!" Rattrap blurted out, "aw, for bootin' up cold."
Dinobot snarled with anger, for once on the vermin's side, "I cannot believe you agreed to this."
"What could I do?" Optimus lifted his hands helplessly as he turned around to the others. "He was right. I'm a Maximal, I have to give peace a chance. No matter how unlikely it seems."
Rhinox, who had remained thoughtful as the others talked around him, spoke his opinion. "Do you think this has something to do with that alien energy anomaly?"
"It's got to," Primal agreed. As he walked off towards the side to look out of the windows the lifted view screens provided, he continued. "Megatron's found out something, something that's got him so worried he doesn't even want to think about us."
"Eh, I'm insulted," the spy quipped.
Unable to hold back his worry, Cheetor was quick to say what was on everyone else's minds. "In that case we better find out what it is."
Using the scout's words as if they were his own, Primal turned and gave a smirk towards his best hope in gaining that information. Rattrap, having noticed just who Primal was looking at, took the defensive.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" the rodent said as he held his hands up and backed away from the gorilla leader. "You mean I gotta infiltrate that Pred base again?"
"That might be a truce violation," Rhinox reminded his friend.
"Not if he's unarmed," Cheetor offered.
Having his one hope gain more holes in it that a slice of Swiss cheese, Rattrap turned a non-too friendly glare at the youngest one among them. "Thanks a slaggin' skid-plate full, pussycat."
"The vermin is right," Dinobot attempted to bring an important detail to light. "Megatron will surely anticipate this move."
"So?" Optimus said non-chalantly, having focused out the window again, "let him." As the others passed around puzzled looks, Ruby simply smiled. It was from this one bot alone that she had learned the most about her enemy, and for good reason. They listened carefully as Primal began to tell them of his plan.
As the others prepared, Optimus had requested that Ruby stay on hand as Rattrap and Airazor left. The Maximal leader was asking her opinion on a few things, making the flying squirrel raise an eye ridge more than once at him. Much like when they had played chess during his recovery Primal was trying to gain information from her, his excuse this time was that he noticed she would observe more than speak about what was happening around her and that gave her a unique view. Carefully dancing around the more dangerous subjects, Ruby offered her suggestions about security measures around the ship and the surrounding areas.
The pair finally settled on a holographic image of the Darkside when their infiltration team returned. Airazor dropped Rattrap through the hatch, both transforming before their feet hit the floor, and began to give Optimus their bad news.
"So you didn't get in?" Primal asked, calmly looking up at Airazor over the holographic image.
"Not even close," she answered.
Rattrap gave a short laugh of disbelief as he pulled out a datapad from under his torso plating, "I'm tellin' ya, I'd hate ta sell encyclopedias in that neighborhood." Tossing the datapad to the side, he watched as Ruby caught it and looked it over with a smile while Airazor continued their report as Primal walked over to them.
"Megatron just calmly shut down the defenses and tossed us out."
"So you failed?" Primal asked calmly.
"Absolutely!" the spy answered quite cheerfully.
"Completely," the peregrine falcon affirmed. Slowly they all turned pleased smiles to one another, knowing that they had managed to fool Megatron into thinking that their one attempt had been ruined and that allowed for Tigatron to infiltrate the Predacon ship. Now began the slow wait for Tigatron's report.
With a snarl, Dinobot looked down at the tiny rodent beside him. The fact that she was reacting so calmly to everything that had been going on since Primal broke the news about the truce gave him a sense of peace about the ordeal. She either knew that this was all turning out how it was suppose to or she hid her trepidation well. Glad she was at least speaking to him again since the day Rhinox had been injected with the Energon discharge virus, the former Predacon did his best not to ask her of this day's outcome. He honestly doubted she would answer him truthfully anyway.
Looking from her back down to the ship he had once called his home, Dinobot waited with the others for Tigatron's signal. Rattrap was the official lookout, but Optimus had planned for Tigatron's possible discovery and had outlined a detailed escape plan.
Ruby's head jerked to the side, making her face away from the Darkside as her internal scanners detected something strange. Silently wishing that she was wrong, she used the excuse to Dinobot that she felt she needed to be up higher to gain a better view of the area. Knowing that it was possibly her true mission calling her into action the saurian turned away from her and focused on his part of the plan.
It didn't take her long to find a cliff high enough to be able to overlook the whole area. Turning her internal sensors to their highest settings, Ruby slowly scanned the area around her. Megatron was nearby, but his signal was weak. The storm that had been building up around them for most of the day could be a factor to the readout, but she couldn't shake the feeling that he was right there.
As Tigatron's signal lit the sky, she watched the others handle the Predacons giving chase to the white tiger. Focusing down on Dinobot as he stood by calmly as bait to the trap he had laid out for Tarantulas and Black Arachnia , she saw the tarnished dragon slowly making his way across the rocky ground on the other side of the ridge that separated him from his prey. She couldn't shoot at him because that would violate the truce, nor could she give Dinobot a warning because that could bring a paradox. Stepping closer to the edge, Ruby had to brace herself as a few of the rocks gave way under her. A quick search to the rocks beside her gave her her answer.
Leaping from her perch Ruby began to hop on the pile of boulders that were waiting just perfectly to tumble down the mountain side, squeaking each time she landed. A few of the smaller ones rained down on Megatron below, making him stop to look up at her before the whole massive pile gave way. He only had time to cover his head with his wings before becoming buried in the tons of rocks that rained down on him.
Ruby had leapt free of the avalanche as it gave way and soared her way over to where the pile now rested. Landing swiftly, she listened carefully to hear where the groans were coming from and pounced on that part of the pile a couple more times for good measure. "Now stay down!" she ordered firmly before she made her way over to where Optimus and Dinobot were watching the others handle the rest of the Predacons. She reached their sides in time to watch Rattrap and Rhinox prank Terrorsaur.
"Peaceful," she heard Dinobot tell Optimus over her.
"Very peaceful," their commander replied, quite pleased with his crew's resourceful thinking. Both Maximal males looked down at Ruby as she was shaking, trying to hold in her laughter when Rhinox sat down on Terrorsaur.
In the sanctuary of her room, Ruby stood beside her window as she watched the powerful storm raving havoc on the world outside of the ship. They had returned to the Axalon shortly before the storm clouds broke, angrily pouring their bounty over the landscape. It seemed that the world shared in the Maximal's worry over the imminent return of the alien race that left behind the odd ruins that they had discovered.
Optimus and Rhinox were focusing on the plans the Maximals would need to hopefully survive what was to come, the others helped prepare the Axalon for whatever might come their way. Ruby helped where she could, but it was hard not to come out right and tell them all about the Vok and what they were planning on doing.
"Please don't let me screw this up," she whispered to her reflection.
Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.