Chapter Ten: In to Unknown Territory
All was quiet in the Axalon's med-bay. The only sounds to break the oppressive silence was the faint hum of air cycling through the ship's ventilation ducts and the rhythmic drip of energon through a medical intra-circulatory line. The majority of the med-bay was bathed in darkness and patches of pitch black shadows. On the far side of the room a single bank of low-intensity florescent lights had been lit above the med-bay's only occupied berth, creating a small island of muted white light in the stagnant sea of gloom.
Rattrap sat slouched forward in a chair beside the berth, his superstructure stiff with residual tension as he stared at its unconscious occupant. Dinobot lay stretch out on her back, a thin thermal blanket draped over her. A thick tube ran from a suspended pack of filtered medical-grade energon hanging on a hook above her berth down to her right arm where the line disappeared into the soft substructure between her forearm and bicep plates. The muffled drip of it echoed through the otherwise empty room. The only reassurance Rattrap had that the warrioress was not actually permanently offline was the shallow rise and fall of her chest plate beneath the thermal blanket and the occasional internal click of her self-repair functions resetting themselves.
Rattrap woodenly stared at the recharging femme, unconsciously counting the seconds between each new intake the raptor took. Despite having rescued Dinobot more than half a stellar cycle ago, Rattrap still couldn't quite shake the insistent, niggling churn of disquiet at the bottom of his fuel tank. He supposed part of it was because the warrioress lay there so silent and still, not even twitching a cable. Never had he seen Dinobot so quiet before. At least when they'd rescued her from Megatron she'd still been online and marginally responsive to outside influences. But right now she barely even seemed functional.
When Rattrap had returned to the ship from their rescue mission, he'd been dismayed to learn that the CR chambers were useless against Tarantulas's neural serum. They were just going to have to let the drug run its course. And so it'd been decided that they move Dinobot to med-bay where she could rest and recover in peace.
Rattrap had automatically volunteered to watch over Dinobot until she came back online, but his offer had been almost immediately shot down by Rhinox who had ordered him into the nearest CR chamber for repairs. If his spark chamber hadn't been throbbing so painfully from his encounter with Megatron, and he didn't feel like he was being repeatedly stabbed in the back by a series of giant electrified blades, he might have put up more of a protest. But as it was he really wouldn't have been in any condition to protest if Rhinox decided to physically force him to follow advice.
The only reason he'd ultimately relented was because Airazor promised she'd stay with Dinobot until he came out of the CR chamber. He'd relieved her several hours ago. Airazor had left med-bay with the promise of coming back to check on Dinobot again later that day, but not before throwing Rattrap a small, somehow knowing grin he didn't quite feel comfortable trying to interpret. Not that he had dwelled on it for very long, in any case. After Airazor left, silence had descended upon the room and Rattrap had found himself finally blissfully alone with his unconscious teammate, rival, and friend. Ever since, his optics had not strayed far from Dinobot's direction. There was a certain comfort in being able to sit so close to her without anyone there watching or trying to analyze his thoughts or actions. Nor could he deny the nervous churn of his fuel tank was soothed a little with each one of Dinobot's soft intakes - proving over and over to him through sight, sound and physical presence that they'd been able to save the warrioress from Megatron. He probably wouldn't believe Dinobot was truly back until she came back online and shot him one of her infamous snarls.
Rattrap's lips unconsciously curled upwards at the thought. He couldn't wait for that. He'd become used to Dinobot's sneers and generally abrasive personality. And Primus help him if he hadn't come to enjoy their almost daily exchange of insults. Dinobot made things interesting on the Axalon. It'd just taken her being kidnapped, drugged and almost forced into an unwanted sparkbond for him to realize how much he'd come to appreciate her presence and (dare he say it?) like her.
The smile slowly slid from Rattrap's facial plates as a much more somber and troubled expression rose to replace it. There was that thought again. The one he'd been consciously pushing from his processor again and again over the last few stellar cycles so he wouldn't have to acknowledge what it could mean for him and his scaly companion. But there was no more denying it. Too much had happened for him to go on pretending these random surges of thoughts or emotions whenever the ex-Predacon warrioress was in question meant nothing. Here, in the quiet of med-bay with no one else there except Dinobot herself, he could finally admit to himself what he'd been trying so hard to ignore for longer than he could really remember:
He liked Dinobot.
And a lot if the painful constriction of his fuel lines when Dinobot was captured or when he'd seen what state she'd been in when they'd rescued her were any indication...
Everybody else saw it even when Rattrap had tried so hard to hide it. Even Megatron had seen through his weak façade of indifference towards the warrioress. Slag, that new mech Silverbolt had thought they were actually sparkmates!
Rattrap heaved a heavy sigh, reaching up to massage the narrow pinch of space between his optics. Oh, who was he kidding? He liked the scaly lizard more than he cared to admit. He thought he was going to be physically sick to his coolant tank when Terrorsaur knocked Dinobot out and flown off with her. And not that he'd actually admit it to anyone out loud, but he'd been more than a little thrilled when she had let only him near her while she'd been in the midst of a semi-lucid panic attack.
It was just a shame Dinobot never would have let him that close to her if she hadn't been drugged to the vents. If he'd ever tried to touch Dinobot like that when she was fully functional Rattrap more than likely would have been parted with several limbs and a good chuck of internal wiring and circuitry. As much as he secretly wished he could have responded to Silverbolt with an affirmative nod, the ghostly echo of Megatron's words rose in the back of his processor to remind him why such a thing could never be.
Dinobot was a warrior - strong, ambitious, intelligent. What would she ever want with mech like him? He'd practically gotten his aft pummeled into the ground by Megatron. Why would she ever want to be with a 'bot that could barely defend himself? No doubt she'd want a mate at least as strong as her if not more so. Someone who could stand side by side with her on the battlefield, or at least meet her optics without her having to look down…
Rattrap felt an overwhelming sense of hopelessness wash over him. What Megatron had said before was right: Dinobot would never return his feelings or accept him as anything more than an annoying comrade. That much he was certain of.
The Maximal spy tried to comfort himself with reassurances that that was probably for the best. That she was a smelly, bad-tempered, ex-Predacon saurian traitor who couldn't be trusted any farther than he could throw her. Yet while all that might be true, why did he still feel like he'd just had his spark chamber run through a trash compactor?
Heaving a helpless sigh, Rattrap glanced at the offline femme beside him. Of all the 'bots in the universe, why did he have to fall for the living embodiment of everything he loathed and hated? Why couldn't he have found a nice respectable 'bot he could spend more than thirty minutes with without getting into a fight? Someone who wasn't so brash and confrontational? Someone who didn't snarl and bite or walk around with the constant threat of causing unspeakable bodily harm hanging over her? Someone who wasn't a former member of the enemy-faction and newest obsession of said enemy-faction's leader?
Because then she wouldn't be as interesting, a voice somewhere in the back of Rattrap's processor answered before he could even finish pondering his sad and sorry state of affairs. Because Dinobot intrigued him. She was a Predacon turncoat who had more honor and self-discipline in one servo than Rattrap could ever hope to have in his entire superstructure. She was a brave and fearless warrior who would rush into battle without a second thought for her own safety. She was a femme who had refused to accept her "place" in Cybertronian society and had sacrificed almost everything she had to prove herself despite innumerable odds. If that didn't deserve respect and admiration then nothing did. Nor could he forget her bravery, determination and refusal to back down from anyone - including himself.
Rattrap supposed that was what he liked most about her: her attitude and snark. Never had he met anyone who was willing to stand up to him in a verbal sparring match like Dinobot. She was smart and inventive, and could give back just as good as she got. If that wasn't a recipe for infatuation than he supposed nothing was. There was just something undeniably alluring in knowing the raptor was there for him to goad into a fight or to do something to infuriate her to the point that her optics flashed a beautiful fiery red as she stared down at him with bared teeth...
Rattrap had to force himself away from following that line of code any farther. As much as he enjoyed seeing that look of utter fury on the warrioress's face, now was not the time to be thinking such things. Especially when said warrioress was currently in no condition to engage in any kind of battle - verbal or otherwise. And when Dinobot was not truly his to taunt…
Trying to ignore the lingering sensation of melancholy in the pit of his coolant tank, Rattrap turned his attention back to the unconscious raptor. No matter how hopeless his situation, however, he wasn't about to leave Dinobot's side until she woke and was back on her own two pedes or she sent him away with threats of bodily harm. Either way, he'd resigned himself to the fact that he had no chance of ever being anything more to the bad-tempered femme than he already was. This was probably the closest he was ever going to get to Dinobot without her trying to bring him to an early termination by means of her own claws. He was going to enjoy this time while it lasted; being able to just sit there and listen to the soft whistle of Dinobot's intakes without the need for insults or offensive jokes as an excuse to get close to her.
If only as an excuse to momentarily close the gap between himself and the warrioress, Rattrap leaned forward to adjust the edge of the thermal blanket Rhinox had draped over her when they'd moved her to med-bay. It seemed Tarantulas's drug had not only mucked up Dinobot's neural circuits so they could barely string two lines of code together, but also messed up several of Dinobot's other internal functions: one of them being her core temperature regulator. She's stopped shaking sometime during Rattrap's stay in the CR chamber while Airazor had been watching over her. But that didn't mean she didn't still need it to help her maintain a comfortable core temperature.
Smoothing out the nonexistent crease he'd convinced himself was there, Rattrap leaned back in his chair again. Without even thinking, Rattrap glanced at the warrioress's face, expecting to find it slack and its harsh edges smoothed with sleep.
-only to find Dinobot staring up at him with dim, half onlined optics.
Rattrap instantly froze, as if he'd just been caught doing something he shouldn't.
Dinobot groggily flickered her optics, staring at Rattrap for a long moment of silence. "…rodent?" she murmured, her voice thick and rough as if she was trying to speak past a lump of half-congealed sludge in her vocal box. She sluggishly swung her optics away from Rattrap in a large arc to take in the room. "Where am I?"
Rattrap scrambled to regain his composure. Before any normal 'bot would have noticed something was amiss, he schooled his face plate into a carefully neutral expression.
"Hey,Choppa'face! Welcome back ta da land of da livin,'" he said with a cheeky grin. Despite himself he couldn't completely keep the relief out of his voice.
"Where am I?" Dinobot asked again, this time with a bit more strength behind it.
"In da med-bay of da Axalon," Rattrap replied. "It took us one heck of 'a time tryin' ta get ya back from ol' Mega-dip."
Dinobot groggily flickered her optics several times, as though trying to drive back static from her visual readout. She still had yet to move or make any attempt to sit up, which was the closest thing to Dinobot saying she wasn't feeling well. Rattrap's spark gave a painful twinge at the thought. Dinobot did not seem like the type of 'bot to remain in such a vulnerable position while someone else stood (or sat) at a higher optic level than herself. It felt wrong to actually be looking down at Dinobot for once. There was just something inherently wrong with the idea.
"You Maximals came after me?" she murmured.
"Well, let's just say it wasn't any choice of mine ta save yer scaly hide, but… yeah. We came after ya," Rattrap replied with an indifferent shrug.
"Why?" Dinobot demanded.
Rattrap gave another offhanded shrug. "Wha' can I say? No matter how ugly or smelly yeh are, yer one of us now. We were obligated to."
Dinobot snorted. "Such misplaced sympathies are why this war has yet to be won. Optimus was a fool to approve such an expenditure of resources and troops to rescue only one 'bot. You should have left me."
"I'll remember dat da next time Megs or any of his goons kidnap you," Rattrap replied.
One corner of Dinobot's lips curled up in a disgusted sneer. "Mark my words, vermin: I have no intention of ever being taken alive like that again. If Megatron or any of his subordinates try to capture me again, I will be sure to take as many of them down with me as I can before finally surrendering myself to the Well of Allsparks. As a warrior, that is the only death by which I could acceptingly leave this mortal coil."
A cold sensation crept over Rattrap at the warrioress's proclamation. Despite his misgivings for such a fatalistic goal, he knew no other termination would appease the taciturn femme. Pushing those uneasy feelings aside, however, Rattrap tried to make light of the comment by spinning it into a sarcastic jab. "Well, then let's hope Megatron doesn't have anymore of dat stuff he drugged you up wit' last time. 'Cause da way I remember it, you were in no condition ta be takin' anyone down in a fight when we found ya."
Her face pulled into an angry grimace, Dinobot turned her head away from Rattrap. "Yes… I vaguely remember Megatron injecting me with something after I came back online in the Darksyde. But everything afterwards is nothing more than a blur to me. I remember almost nothing."
"Yea. You were in pretty bad shape when we found ya," Rattrap said. "I don't think I've ever seen ya so out of it. Yeh barely recognized anyone. Yeh almost took out Airazor and Rhinox 'cause ya thought they were tryin' ta hurt ya. Lucky fer us though ya finally went offline so we could haul ya back ta base."
Dinobot looked back at him and glared. "I assure you, rodent, I will endeavor not to be placed in such a state again."
Rattrap grinned, pleased to see some of Dinobot's feistiness returning. But then growing somber once again, the spy's grin slowly slid from his face. There were still many unanswered questions concerning Dinobot's captivity that weighed heavily on his processor. Ones he didn't know if he really wanted the answers to but knew he wouldn't be able to rest until he did.
Steeling his resolve for the task he knew he had to complete, Rattrap nervously shifted in his seat. "So yeh said ya don't… uh, remember anythin,' do ya, Dino-breath?"
"Very little," the warrioress affirmed.
"D'ya remember if Megatron said what he wanted ya for?"
Dinobot searched her memory banks for a moment before finally replying with a disgusted sneer, "He wanted me to rejoin the Predacons and become his Second in Command. But with the assumption that I would become his… consort." Dinobot practically spat the last word out, contempt dripping off each syllable like toxic grease.
"What did you say?" Rattrap prodded, undeniably curious despite himself.
Dinobot shot him a withering glare. "What do you think I said, vermin? I told him 'no' and asserted my stance on the matter by trying to detach Megatron's spark from the rest of his superstructure with my own two servos for assuming I would ever sell myself to another for position or power." The warrioress quieted and lay still for a long moment of silence, staring up at the ceiling, before finally resuming her speech in a much softer tone. "Unfortunately, Megatron knows what things to say to make me temporarily disregard logic in the heat of battle and recklessly attack. I did not realize what danger he was luring me into until he had me subdued and unable to prevent him from injecting me with that chemical…"
"He said he was plannin' ta force ya inta a Sparkbond," Rattrap hesitantly confessed. "If we hadn' of attacked when we did we might'a been too late ta stop him…"
Dinobot's optics instantly snapped away from the point on the ceiling she'd been staring at and locked onto Rattrap, her usually impassive features betraying an unmistakable look of horrified alarm. Rattrap sat tense in his seat, momentarily stunned speechless by the naked fear shining in the battle-toughened femme's optics. He felt his spark involuntarily clench at the sight. It was a look he never thought he's see on Dinobot's face, nor one he ever wanted to see again.
"What?" she demanded in a harsh whisper, as if unable to believe what the smaller Maximal had just said.
"That's what he was plannin' ta do," Rattrap said with a reluctant nod. "He pretty much told us straight out that was what he was gonna do right after he finished fightin' us." When Dinobot did not respond and continued to stare at him with a horror-struck expression, Rattrap forced down the unpleasant churn in his coolant tanks and found his vocals to continue despite his intense desire not to. But he had to know for sure…
It took great effort for him to find the right words to voice his question. "Megatron… he didn't… do anythin' ta ya, did he? Ya know, when yeh weren't able ta fight back…?"
Dinobot released a shuddery intake, finally breaking eye contact to turn her head away from him towards the other side of the room. Her entire body seemed to sag in on itself. It took Rattrap half a horrified nano-klik to realize the gesture was one of relief and not something worse. "No," she softly murmured. "If he'd completed a Bond, or… taken any other kind of liberties while I was incapacitated I'm sure I would have sensed it by now. I am almost certain I am uncompromised."
Rattrap's actuator gave an almost painful skip at Dinobot's reply, relief flooding his system. He suddenly felt weightless and free. It was rather startling how much tension he'd been holding inside without even realizing it until the burden suddenly disappeared. It was alright. His worst fears for Dinobot's integrity had been unnecessary. Rattrap wasn't sure how Dinobot would have taken it if the worst really had happened. He wasn't sure how he would have taken it if the worst had happened and he'd had to see that look of devastated realization settle over the raptor's face… Just the thought of what could and almost had happened were almost too much for the spy's processor to bear. He didn't want to even think about it. He could only thank Primus Fate had decided to briefly shine on the ex-Predacon warrioress and save her from an unspeakable future.
Dinobot, however, did not seem to share Rattrap's view of what a precious gift the fickle hand of Luck had bestowed upon her. If anything, she looked downright irate - her facial plates screwed into a fearsome expression of anger and optics bright with suppressed fury.
"Wha's wrong, Lizard Lips?" Rattrap asked, stunned by the warrioress's unexplainable rage. After all she'd survived, shouldn't she be happy?
Her dentals bared in a ricktus of outrage, Dinobot glared into the distance. She silently seethed for several klicks before finally seeming to pull herself together enough to look in Rattrap's direction and grind out between gritted dentals, "I should have been stronger…"
Rattrap blankly stared at her, still not comprehending what the problem was.
"I should have never allowed myself to be backed into such a situation where my integrity and very life were put into jeopardy," she explained with a frustrated growl. It took Rattrap a moment to realize the warrioress was not mad at him or anyone else so much as she was upset with herself and her own perceived weakness. "I should have been able to defend myself better. Not only did Megatron almost take away every essence of my freedom, but my plight also put the lives of my comrades in danger…" She angrily turned her head to stare up at the ceiling, as if wanting nothing more than to activate her optic lazars and blast a hole straight up through the Axalon's outer hull. "A true warrior would have never allowed herself to be captured or taken alive. I am a disgrace to my caste."
Weakly lifting her arm, Dinobot reached across her body with the other hand and gripped the head of the energon line where it disappeared between the seams of her armor into her substructure - ready to tear it out with a vicious tug.
"Whoa!" Rattrap yelled, diving forward across her to grab the warrioress's wrist before she could do so. "Wha' da heck do ya think yer doin?"
"I do not wish to stay here like some helpless invalid," Dinobot snarled as she attempted to shake his hand from her and push herself up off the berth.
Rattrap, however, pushed her back down with alarming ease. For all her strength, the warrioress might as well have been a day old sparkling for all the good her struggling did against the smaller spy. Dinobot feebly strained and thrashed for several moments before finally relenting and lying back against the berth with a defeated growl. She openly glared up at Rattrap as he leaned away from her and sat back in his chair beside the berth.
"Don't give me dat look, Scalebelly," he snorted. He'd long ago built up an immunity to the raptor's death-glares. "Yer in no condition ta be gettin' up just yet. Da CR chambers can't do anythin' ta help clear da rest of dat drug outta yer system, so until it's completely gone yer just gonna have ta stay here in med-bay."
The warrioress gnashed her teeth. "And just who plans to keep me here, rodent? You?"
"If need be," Rattrap replied with a careless shrug. "After all, after dat lil' display just now I don't think yeh'd really give me much trouble."
Dinobot visibly seethed under her circuits, but made no move to try and sit up again. She continued to glare at him for several klicks before finally turning away to stare at the ceiling again.
Rattrap skeptically relaxed back into his chair, still not ready to believe Dinobot had consented defeat just yet. It wasn't in the femme's nature to give up so easily.
"Just lie back and rest, Choppa'face," he said as he tried to make himself comfortable. He took the opportunity to fold his arms across his chest. "It's not like I'm plannin' ta go anywhere so yeh can try an' sneek out while no one's lookin.'"
"Why do you care what I do?" Dinobot wearily shot back as if her brief struggle had drained her of all extra energy. She was pointedly not looking in his direction - her optics remaining firmly riveted on the ceiling above the berth. Rattrap's spark sank slightly at the snub. What he wouldn't give for her to look at him just once without anger or contempt. "You said it yourself you did not care one way or another if I was rescued or not. So why should you care now if I wish to recover in the privacy of my own quarters and not here under your mocking scrutiny? I'm sure you must find seeing me in such a weak and pitiful state amusing."
Rattrap's spark sank even further at Dinobot's assumptions as to his motives. Why did everything have to be so slaggin' difficult with her? He was once again forced to wonder why out of all the 'bots in the universe he'd had to fall for possibly the deadliest, most stubborn and socially inept one of them all.
"I don't think you're pitiful or weak," he said with a sigh. "I just don't wanna see yeh hurt yerself by tryin' ta prove ta everybody how strong ya are. We already know ya are."
"Don't give me that Maximal spew about respect and acceptance as though it's some kind of universal right," Dinobot spat. "Respect is earned on the battlefield through strength and ability. Acceptance is only given when one has proven herself worthy of it."
"An' ya don't think yeh've earned our respect?" Rattrap asked.
Dinobot refused to meet his optics and instead stared off to the side. "If I had any of your respect before I don't deserve it now for what I allowed to happen…" she angrily muttered at the far wall.
Rattrap sighed heavily, disheartened by the conviction behind the warrioress's warped views of the world. "It wasn' yer fault what happened. How could'ja ever blame yerself fer what dat big purple lizard tried ta do ta you?"
"Because I should have been strong enough to defend myself, or at least put up more of a fight against Tarantulas' neural serum," she shot back, self-disgust radiating off her in almost tangible waves. "Anyone unable to do such a minor task deserves no respect…"
"Slaggit, Dino-brains!" the spy cried in utter exasperation. "I swear sometimes yer da stupiest 'bot I've ever had da misfortune of meetin.'" Dinobot turned her helm back towards him and met his optics as if mildly intrigued to hear what he had to say. "Do ya really believe even a word of dat self-righteous slag yer spoutin' or is it just ta try an' save face? Yer not some third-class grunt Optimus decided ta let on his crew just because he felt sorry fer ya. Ya've earned yer place here. I just don' understand why yeh can't accept dat…"
At some point during his frustrated rant, Rattrap had leaned forward in his seat so that he was now leaning well over the edge of Dinobot's berth towards her. Regaining some small measure of composure over himself he went on in a more subdued tone, "…I know yer probably not gonna believe me, but I wasn't really bein' a hundred percent truthful when I said I didn' care if we got ya back or not. I've… kinda gotten used ta yer stench an' would've missed not havin' yeh around ta harass anymore…"
Dinobot stared at him, her optic ridges scrunched together as if unsure whether to believe him or suspect this to be the lead-up to the punch line of some twisted joke. As though choosing to air on the side of caution, she seemed to decide on the latter and snarled up at him, "And why should I believe such poignant words coming from the mouth of a garbage eating rodent? What would you know of honor or respect? What would you know of what I've earned or not? Weren't you yourself present to see my disgrace when I had to be rescued from Megatron's clutches because I no longer had any control over my own neural functions? Why should you care where I stand amongst this crew when I am nothing to you but a lying, ex-Predacon femme who must rely on the pity of her adopted faction to save her?"
The warrioress's words were cutting and cruel - full of scorn and hatred. But not towards the tiny Maximal spy; towards herself. The self-contempt and frustration in Dinobot's vocals cut Rattrap straight to the core. Somehow listening to such a strong and capable 'bot talk about herself with so much self-doubt and disgust felt like a sin to Rattrap - like a back-handed slap in the face of what she was and what she strived so hard to be. It was physically painful for him to hear such slanderous words coming from the one he'd come to respect and secretly admire so much.
No longer thinking, no longer even worried about the ramifications of what he said or did anymore, Rattrap swooped down over the prostrate femme and sealed his lips over the warrioress's mouth with a muffled clang of metal - if for nothing more than to make Dinobot stop her self-hating tirade.
The raptor instantly fell silent, her entire body going stiff. Dinobot's lips were motionless and slightly cold against his own. They remained frozen like that for a long moment of silence, neither of them making a sound. Rattrap slowly disengaged his mouth from Dinobot and leaned back just far enough to meet her optics. His lips tingled slightly at the loss of contact. The warrioress, meanwhile, remained completely motionless where she lay, staring up at him with startled, questioning optics. Rattrap wondered if he'd just unintentionally made Dinobot's CPU crash. Not that he was complaining, but he was almost certain that if Dinobot had been in top fighting form - her shock not withstanding - this would have been the moment she launched herself at him and tried to rip him limb from limb for his suicidal act.
But instead the warrioress lay there silent and still, offering no insight to her own inner thoughts except for an almost comical look of shock on her facial plates.
Throwing caution to the wind (after all, he'd already crossed the point of no return so why should he try to hide or deny anything now?) Rattrap met Dinobot's startled gaze and held it steadily with his own.
"I don't pity ya…" he murmured softly. His voice sounded uncomfortably loud in the tense silence that had descended on the empty med-bay and thickened the air around them like a physical presence. "I never have. An' I do care 'bout where yeh stand amongst da crew. 'Cause ya already earned my respect a long time ago. Wha' happened with Megatron hasn' changed anythin.' If anythin,' I respect ya even more now den I did before because of all da slag ya went through an' still somehow managed ta come out alive…"
For several unbearably long klicks of unbroken silence Dinobot did nothing more than blankly stare up at Rattrap. Unease shot through Rattrap's systems as the seconds ticked by and the warrioress still did not offer any sort of reaction to his impromptu confession. Rattrap's neural processes immediately jumped into overdrive. What was she thinking? Had he impressed her with his speech? Or had he unintentionally said something to sour the femme with his inarticulate verbal spew of emotions? Over time he'd become adept at reading the stoic warrioress's subtle body language and unspoken thoughts. But all his experience thus far left him painfully unable to decipher what Dinobot's continued lack of response meant - whether for the positive or negative. Had his words somehow struck a cord with the taciturn femme, or had he unknowingly just put himself in danger of an early termination?
So it was a complete surprise when Dinobot seemed to finally shake her neural circuits back into working order and with no warning leaned off the berth to capture his mouth once again in a hungry, almost predatory kiss.
Rattrap didn't think. Didn't even pause to wonder what drove the warrioress's actions as he eagerly leaned down to meet Dinobot's mouth with his own. He was not about to question the motives behind his partner's actions when he'd been secretly fantasizing about such a thing happening for longer than he felt comfortable admitting.
Dinobot pushed herself off the berth to press her lips harder against Rattrap's, as though desperate to close the tiny gap separating her from the smaller spy. Before either 'bot could fully contemplate what was happening the two were locked in a passionate, almost desperate embrace, faces mashed so close together that someone observing them would have been hard pressed to say where one ended and the other began.
Rattrap didn't even attempt to contemplate what he was doing as he hungrily leaned down to meet Dinobot's questing mouth with his own. Servos reached to wrap behind shoulder plates to draw them closer together. Fingers clawed at the back of necks and back struts. Rattrap was dragged down almost flat against Dinobot as the warrioress in turn leaned up off the berth to press herself against the smaller Maximal's chest plates. Derma plates glided against each other, pulling and persistent in their search. Dinobot's teeth nipped at the bottom of Rattrap's lips, almost gnawing at the tender strips of metal as Rattrap tentatively stretched his glossa out between their intimate connection to glide against Dinobot's own.
An involuntarily growl rumbled the warrioress's chest as she reciprocated and tilted her head back to allow Rattrap deeper access to her oral cavity. Rattrap wasn't sure when it happened exactly but his optics slid shut to better experience the unexpected assault of stimuli to his mouth and body. Dinobot's claws raked up and down his back in slow dragging passes, as though trying to physically meld the smaller Maximal's superstructure with her own.
Rattrap cycled heavily as he and his partner simultaneously - almost instinctively - tilted their heads in opposite directions of each other, allowing for deeper access. As if some alien presence were controlling his actions, Rattrap's one hand reached down and curled around the back of Dinobot's neck, drawing her face closer to his. Dinobot reciprocated with a sharp nip to his bottom lip. The faint taste of mech-fluid spread through his mouth before it was quickly lapped away by Dinobot's dominant, invading glossa. His other hand had already slipped under Dinobot's back to pull the upper portion of her body towards him up off the berth. The warrioress, meanwhile, had craned one arm up to wrap around the back of his neck and looped the other around his waist to draw him down over her like some kind of living blanket.
Glossa slid against each other in slow, languid passes while lips kneaded and rolled against each and teeth hungrily nipped at soft derma plating.
Lost in a sea of unexpected sensations, Rattrap didn't even bother to think about what he was doing or what this meant for his relationship with the raptor. All he cared about was somehow closing the almost nonexistent gap between himself and the battle-hardened warrioress. Lost in the sensation of Dinobot's glossa curling up to run along the top of his mouth cavity, Rattrap's one servo blindly groped along the warrioress's front plating as if with a processor of its own to cup one mound of exoskin in his palm and squeeze it firmly between his fingers. Dinobot involuntarily arched into his hand, a low growl of carnal hunger rumbling deep inside her chest.
A jolt of unadulterated lust shot through Rattrap's systems to the very core of his spark. He'd never even in his wildest dreams imagined being caught in such a pleasurable position, let alone with the one he'd merely fantasized about from afar for almost as long as he could remember. And to have her pressing, arching, straining against him as though desperate for his physical presence and touch was almost too much for the Maximal spy to comprehend. All he wanted was to press himself tighter against her, to somehow merge their bodies together into one harmonious being. To actually feel her spark pulse alongside his own and know that is was because she wanted him. Only him. Only his presence as he pressed the proud and noble warrioress down against the berth and-
*Chirp* Rattrap, come in. This is Optimus. I need you to come to the bridge ASAP for an emergency system check of Sentinal. I know you're watching over Dinobot, but you're one of the only ones cleared for this kind of diagnostic. I don't want to take any chances in case Megatron decides to try and retaliate for our little attack on the Darksyde. I'll have Airazor come and take your place in med-bay until you can return. It shouldn't take long.
Rattrap and Dinobot sprang apart at the chirp of Rattrap's comm link as though they'd been electrocuted. The two stared at each other, cycling hard for air as if they'd just finished running a parsec-long race.
"Um… yeah. Yeah, I'll be right der…" Rattrap shakily said into the link.
Good, Optimus's voice crackled over the external comm. See you soon.
Rattrap and Dinobot continued to stare at each other with wide unreadable optics, neither saying a word.
"Um… so I, ah… hafta go," Rattrap finally found the voice to stammer, blindly stumbling to his pedes and backing away from Dinobot's berth, suddenly desperate to escape. "I'll, ah… I'll see yeh later, I guess…" His one knee accidentally smacked against the corner of his chair as he scrambled backwards. It toppled to the floor with a loud, metallic clang. "I-I'll get dat later," he babbled, not even stopping to set it upright again as he shakily continued to back away from the warrioress.
Then, not even giving Dinobot time to respond, the spy turned tail and ran from the room as though Unicron himself was following close on his heels. He didn't even look back over his shoulder as he darted from the room, his lips still tingling with the raptor's lingering taste and his spark pulsing wildly against the insides of his rib struts…
To Be Continued…
So next chapter will be the last of "Masters of Their Fate." It may or may not be posted under a revised M rating. I so badly want to try my hand at an in-depth love scene, but I'm still toying around with the idea. Any thoughts?
In any case, the next update will be awhile in coming. I'm heading to Thailand for Christmas holiday next week and don't plan on doing anything more productive than barbequing myself in the sun. Any thoughts, comments or suggestions for what you'd like to see in the next and final chapter are always welcome and encouraged.
P.S. Links for new illustrations of "Masters of Their Fate" are available for your viewing pleasure on my profile page. Enjoy. Oh, and don't forget:
PLEASE REVIEW! They motivate me so much, after all…