Chapter 20: "Absence"

Caitlin didn't know what to make of the Dark Syde, but if there was one thing noticeably more here than in the Axalon: it was the heat. It was almost unbearable: the stifling and suffocating heat wrapped around the place like a very heavy coat. She shifted uncomfortably, but then was tossed to the side. Grunting, she pushed herself off the floor and patted the dust off her. She glared the tyranno tyrant, watching as Megatron was given some data from Terrorsaur, courtesy of Scorponok. She saw the image of Dinobot and Rattrap helping each other as they built the array. She snorted in amusement. The sight of those two working cooperatively together was always and amusing sight… and the thought of how long it'd lasted before they fell into an argument.

And, knowing them: not that very long.

The she-spider focused on the construction, pondering the possibilities. "Is it a weapon?"

Caitlin cast her eyes upon the black-and-gold humanoid femme, and frowned. She hadn't come within close quarters with the female spider. Now, seeing the curves of the lone female Predacon, she cocked her brow. She couldn't help but think that if her twin sister were here she'd literally kill the spider for her figure. Blackarachnia had the body of a very fit and curvaceous woman. Some part, buried deep down in the darkness and with her femininity: made her feel very… unfeminine. Not many people could do that. That thought, coupled with what her twin would have said: sent her into a fit of giggles, but somehow: she managed to keep up her blank façade whenever one of the Preds turned to look at her.

Though, it wasn't easy.

Then, a sarcastic voice chimed in: "Maybe it's a freeze-ray!" Vincent looked entirely bored with the whole situation, even yawning without even attempting to mask it.

Tarantulas, however, was a scientist. And this included mechanical devices! "It looks more like a long-ranged signal array!"

"Ye-esss!" Megatron agreed with the he-spider. "But why would Optimus risk building it inside our perimeter?"

"Maybe we should ask the kittens," Blackarachnia suggested, turning meaningfully towards Tigatron and Cheetor, who groaned as they woke up.

"You better not be calling me a kitten, Gold-rack," Caitlin growled under her breath. "If you are, I'm trying my best at dissecting!"
"An excellent idea!" Megatron said at the same time, masking her words.

'What's going on here?' she thought, feeling insulted. 'They're bloody ignoring me? What am I? Pig fodder?!'
'Fodder is quite essential to farming, I think…'
'I didn't ask for your opinion. If I had wanted it, I would've asked for it!'
'No need to get snappy… just trying to help…'
'And you're the reason we get into trouble so much!''

"Woah!" Cheetor exclaimed as Megatron pointed his purple dinosaur hand-head at Cheetor's cage. "Talk about nightmares…"

"Your nightmare is just beginning, Maximal," Megatron chuckled. "Unless you tell me about this array that Optimus is building…"

"Why don't you ask him yourself, Mega-dumb!" Cheetor retorted defiantly.

Ah, kids… gotta love 'em!

The leader of the Predacons, however was not pleased by that response. In fact, he was rather irritated. He slammed against the bars with a harsh resounding thud, "Don't try my patience, feline!" He stared with a threat shining in his merciless optics, until an erratic beeping caught his attention. "What's that?"

It was Tarantulas who replied, sitting in front of a large computer screen. "The space scanner! It's picking up some sort of craft. It will be over the planet in ten cycles."

"The probe!" Cheetor exclaimed, leaning forward—and forgetting where he was.

Caitlin groaned and face-palmed her forehead, peering at him from underneath her lashes, "We're gonna hafta hava little talk, you and me, Cheetor: 'bout you keeping your mouth shut!"

Cheetor had peaked Megatron's curiosity. "Probe?" And that gleam in his optics spelt trouble. "Prepare for full-scale assault! The array must be destroyed immediately! Tarantulas! Bring the transformation-lock lens! Blackarachnia! Take Caitlin with you. She's too dangerous to be left alone with these idiots!"

Caitlin blinked and then touched her heart, as if touched by his comment. "Is that… a compliment I hear from the purple dino?" she quipped dryly. "The bane of my existence… no, I wouldn't go that far." At Megatron's glare, she smiled and quickly stood to her feet. She held a submissive pose, acting like a down-trodden and scared prisoner of war. It took only a moment, but Megatron seemed pleased enough by her performance. She flipped him the bird behind his back and stuck out her tongue for added measure.

"Come on, human!" Blackarachnia hissed, gripping her arm with her pincers and dragging her along and Caitlin winked at the two cats, mouthing, 'Meet you there!' before she disappeared.

As soon as they were all gone, Cheetor sighed heavily and shook his head, "Me and my big mouth!"

Tigatron stood upright and turned to the little cat. "They would have attacked the array anyway. But at least they left us unguarded," he added and started swinging his cage back and forth.

Curious, Cheetor watched the big cat with wide eyes. "What are you doing?"

"You always say what a swinging cat you are," Tigatron gently teased while explaining. "So, start swinging. And maybe we can free ourselves from these cages."

Cheetor grinned at the plan; and the two of them swung. Though it involved a bit more effort on Cheetor's part, but he was a swinging cat.

Dinobot threw down a piece of equipment with an air of finality. "There! Done! All it needs now is the transwarp module. Assuming… Rhinox can get it here on time."

Rattrap scoffed, "Aye-don't worry, he will! Heh… not that you give a nanobite."

Walking past the rat, Optimus whacked him over the back of his head. "Rattrap!"

"Mehh! To the Inferno with both of you!" Dinobot growled with a huff, walking off. But, his attempt was thwarted—when he was shot in the back by a certain, annoying scorpion.

The Second-In-Command, ever the obedient one, declared: "Megatron has ordered this tower demolished!" and open fired.

"Interceptors! FIRE!" Optimus yelled, firing his own missiles and stopped Scorponok from hitting the array.

Rattrap stood in a battle stance, aiming down at the scorpion with a smirk. "I don't think so!"

From behind him, Dinobot stood to his feet. "And I really don't think so!" the raptor growled. He fired his laser beams and shot the annoying Pred in the chest—a few metres away.

The rat and the raptor gave each other a thumbs-up. Needless to say, if Caitlin had been there to witness such an event she'd have scrambled like a lunatic trying to find her phone to take a picture of it, but since she wasn't there, SNAP! Whistling loudly to himself, Optimus hid the camera in an extra compartment in his arm. A mischievous grin spread across his usually calm and stern face. He would be giving it to Caitlin as soon as possible. Blinking, he shook his head when he realised what he'd done

Seemed she was influencing him more than he thought…. One would've thought it'd be the other way around.

Approaching the array-site, Caitlin didn't bother dragging her feet to slow down the Predacon femme. For one, it hadn't worked when she'd tried stalling the she-spider from jumping over the lava pits. So instead, she kept up with her, which she was pleased to learn annoyed the she-spider even more. She cocked a brow and frowned thoughtfully. She wondered what Blackarachnia would've turned out like, if the Maximals had gotten to her in time—without the Preds having used the Maximal Decoder to track their every movement. That thought was too broad, however. There were too many what-if's floating in and around it. So, she didn't feel like getting a headache for her troubles from thinking too much on it. She sighed inaudibly. It would have been nice though, to have another female (femme) on the team. Being the only female of six males (mech's) was kind of tiring. Even if she did prefer male company to females, at the best of times… there were just some things Caitlin couldn't talk about with males.

Hissing, Blackarachnia whipped about and glared at her. "What's your malfunction?"

'Maybe I should have tried for a bit of whining and complaining?' she thought wryly.
'Nah… this is far more amusing.'
'For once, I agree with you…'

Blinking at the hostile femme, she wondered why her silence had caused such a reaction. She cocked her head in curiosity, acting dumb and vague. "Are you talking figuratively, literally or rhetorically?" she asked and thought about it; and then added: "Do you want your answer chronologically or alphabetically?"

Blackarachnia rolled her eyes. "Be silent, Maximal!"

She snorted at the switch. "You did ask me a question, Pred-aaaaa-con… I was just wondering what you meant by "my malfunction?" There's a lot to be malfunctioning about, ya know. You may want your answer in a list, or you might just want a general overview… I have a lo-ong list." She grinned like a devil and leant forward a bit, tucking her hands behind her back and her grin turned into a sadistic smirk when Blackarachnia leant back a little, "You should think about these things before asking a question. Or you'll lose your patience and get annoyed very easily… and it'll be your own fault."

The she-spider groaned and ran her pincers across her face. "I don't know whether you're an idiot… or whether you're actually smart."

"I have an IQ of a hundred and fifty," she supplied helpfully. "Though if I actually wanted to, I could probably get near 165…"

"Just shut it" the irritated spider hissed, stamping her foot in her annoyance. "If you don't shut up, I will shoot you!" she punctuated this with a jab of her blaster, pointed right at her.

Caitlin looked the femme up and down with a disinterested glance. "Sorry, death threats only work on those who're afraid of you…. And afraid of you, I am not." Blackarachnia screeched in fury and fired a missile. With a smile (and very used to an explosive-tempered former-Predacon), Caitlin simply stepped to the side. She cast a disappointed look at the hole in the tree—that could have been in her chest—and cocked a brow. She put a finger slowly to her lips. "Shh!" she hissed with mock sincere seriousness. She even looked around quickly from left to right as if to check the coast was clear, "You're not supposed to alert your enemy that you're coming!"

Blackarachnia took deep drags of air in (did robots even need air?) to calm herself. "And here I thought Waspinator and Terrorsaur were bad!" she hissed.

Immediately, Caitlin recoiled with a genuine wince and pouted as if someone had kicked her puppy after it had been run over. That was a low blow, even for a Predacon! "That's hitting below the belt, ain't it?"

"Enough!" Megatron growled, whirling on the two females, fed up with their constant chatter. "I cannot have Optimus knowing where we are attacking… and I cannot and will not let him send a message to that probe!"

"Oh dear," she cooed, holding her hands together under her chin and made a face. "Does the big and bad Predacon need a hug?" Megatron, in reply, sent her a chilling glare that caused a tingle to run down her spine. Not missing a beat, she smiled brightly and gave him a thumbs-up! "Nope! The Big and Bad Predacon needs some quiet and alone time—GOTCHA!"

"Scorponok's attack was meant only to soften us up!" Dinobot told his two comrades as they all stood ready for battle. "Megatron will be coming in force."

"Well maybe Rhinox will get here before 'em!" Rattrap said with a race case of optimism. But, as soon as he said: a familiar screeching told them otherwise. "Or… maybe not."

Terrorsaur as the flashy fighter he was: started firing in an almost random pattern while the three Maximals defended their array. They fought for a few moments, until for some reason… the red bird flew off. "Hey!" Rattrap exclaimed, almost disappointed. "Where's leather-puss going?!"

"He always was a coward," Dinobot snorted with a satisfied smirk.

"Granted," a deep, familiar voice agreed. "But he makes an excellent diversion!"

"Only cos he's red and has the voice of a man who's been hit one too many times below the belt," Caitlin drawled and the three Maximals frowned when the say her step out from behind Megatron's leg. She was between Tarantulas and the T-rex. Her expression said she was not there of her own accord. She looked frankly too pissed off to be there eagerly. And, Blackarachnia had put shackles on her wrist to punish Caitlin for annoying her. She had to give it the she-spider. She was one sadistic bitch!

"You don't know what you're doing, Megatron!" Optimus yelled.

The blasted bastard looked smug. "Oohh, on the contrary… I know all about the probe from Cybertron. And I need to see you don't contact it. Predacons… ATTACK!"

"Geez," she muttered, rolling her eyes at the display of violence, in an extremely depressed mood where she wanted to maim, destroy and fuck with people's minds. Predacons were the perfect target to annoy. "See this, you kill. See that, you kill. Whatever do you idiots do when you see your own reflection?" she asked and scoffed. They probably shot their reflections… Oh, she hoped they did. Seven years bad luck would be handy!

With her hands still bound, and before the Predacons could so much as try to grab her, she leapt backwards as far as she could, and zigzagged away from the battle. She didn't want to endanger the panther cub in her backpack. She'd taken enough from him already. Instead, she watched the battle, trying to stay out of sight as much as possible. The three Predacons fired at the Maximals—causing an explosion to erupt behind them. It sent Dinobot into a front-flip… only for him to land smoothly on his feet. "Dextrous bastard!" Caitlin cursed him. "The way he moves about—you'd think he'd be more flexible in his er… his err. Oh damn! I've got nothing! And I had thought of something really cool… and now it's gone." She saw something out of the corner of her eye that made her wince. "But do I have one thing to say to that: YEE-OUCH!"

Dinobot had charged at the Predacons—only to be fired by the transformation-lock lens ('Gah, let's call it: The TLL!' she thought)—and karate-kicked in the face by Blackarachnia. Caitlin winced. Maybe, perhaps she probably shouldn't have annoyed the she-spider that much. Poor Dinobot. He received a few more blows to the face like a stunned mullet before he dropped like a frog that had been hit over the head with a bat.

Cocking her hip, the she-spider was all smug as she grinned. "Impressive little toy, isn't it?"

Caitlin snorted. Oh, that just was just asking for it! "I've seen better!" she called out, patting Shadow. She felt so much like Dr. Evil, except she had a panther, not a white ball of fluff that lost its fur after being cryogenically frozen. At the thought, she leant forward with an eager smirk, "Got one in another colour that locks onto Predacon signatures? But no," she added as she cocked her head, "It mustn't just lock you in beast form, oh no: it freezes all your mobility but leaves your pain receptors… heightened. Oh… the things I could do to you all…" She almost moaned at the thought in sadistic pleasure.

Blackarachnia could only blink her optics, not having seen this side of the human: but before she could react the she-spider was shot. She turned to face who had shot her, to find Rattrap standing there. He looked pretty badass, even. Not something one would expect from a rat who often said in the face of danger: 'we're all gonna die!'

"Nobody does that to my team, sister!" he scoffed and prowled towards the femme, firing as he went. Each of his hits forced her back. Caitlin chuckled, maybe a bit too evilly, when she saw that Rattrap was edging the spider to the cliff. She waited eagerly for the last shot—just as Blackarachnia realised her situation—and the rat shot her, sending her down, down, down… and down.

Concerned about Dinobot, she hurried towards them. He wasn't going to enjoy being locked in his Beast Form. Rattrap knelt down beside the raptor's head, concerned (though he'd vehemently deny it). "Dinobot, Maximise," the raptor growled out. The sound of the transformation was like a rotating leg of a toy that refused to budge. "Maximise. MAXIMISE!"

"Hey, you okay Chopperface?" Rattrap asked, staring down at him.

"I… I can't transform," Dinobot replied with an underlying emotion that surprised even Rattrap. A touch of fear.

Caitlin thought it would be best to explain it. "It's Tarantulas' new gizmo, it…" she blinked as a flash went past her eyes. "Locks you… in Beast Form," she finished with a gesture as she and the raptor watched the rat transform into… a rat. And stay that way.

"Oh no," Rattrap uttered with the tone of: 'this shit has gone – skipped the fan and shot straight to hell!'

"Oh yes!" Megatron grinned and fired.

She didn't think. Caitlin just pushed both Maximals out of the way with a blast of wind. However, she realised with a stab of pang behind her eyes, she's gone a bit overboard. She ended up knocking them out a few metres away. Groaning, she fell to her knees at Megatron's feet. Distantly, she felt Shadow leap out of her backpack and rub his cheek against hers as she fought against the looming blackness, shrouding her vision. Not again!

Tarantulas approached Optimus and grabbed him by the beck with his pincers, and declared: "Your time has come, Optimus!"

"Guess again!" Optimus said, revealing his sword to strike. But, Tarantulas grabbed it. So, the ape fired the spider in the gut.

"OH NO!" and once again… the arachnid was thrown back a few feet.

A buzz went through the ape's systems, and he realised with dread, "NO!" that he'd been hit by the TLL.

"Your dreams of returning to Cybertron are over, Optimus," Megatron said, and fired. Lucky for Optimus, Optimus was very resourceful, and as such, Caitlin was granted an amusing sight: a gorilla picking up a metal road. Optimus used it as an over-sized cricket bat and batted the missile away from the array. She cheered in her mind since her body refused to move and pushed harder as Megatron pushed his foot down on Optimus, causing him to scream in pain. "Very resourceful," the t-rex said, "but in the end, the result is the same, yes!"

Caitlin laughed when Rhinox appeared, tapping Megatron on the shoulder. "Don't count on it, Motorhead!" he growled, and punched Megatron square in the face.

As she smirked, her vision began to darken further… until she finally fell unconscious and knew no more.

The scent surrounding her was unfamiliar. The atmosphere was too warm for the Axalon. The ship she'd come to call home was a comfortable temperature where she didn't need to warm herself up. But this place smelt of ash and fire. Grumbling, Caitlin slowly was brought back to awareness by an excited buzzing hanging near her head. Sounded like a bloody mosquito! Frowning, she realised that she didn't feel as if she was at home. A tad concerned (okay, a lot!), she pushed herself up to assess her surroundings. A headache bloomed behind her eyes, so she was wincing when she came eye-to-eyes with… Waspinator.

Well that told her where she was and where the annoying buzzing was coming from!

The Predacon wasp was almost ecstatic to see her finally awake. He peered into her cage, and Caitlin got the distinct impression that if she were a zoo animal: he'd be ooh-ing and aww-ing whilst trying to put a stick through the bars. Staring at him, wide-eyed, she decided to ignore her train of though and took a proper look at her surroundings. She was obviously in the Dark Syde. No way around that. But… she wasn't in the same place as she'd been before. Frowning, she sat up and settled in a cross-legged position. A rising, and primal, panic rose at the pit of her stomach. Unbidden, her heartbeat accelerated and her breathing became shallow. Panic attack alert! Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she held it: and released it slowly. She was not going to panic. Panicking would only land her with a smug Predacon leader and she'd rather not have that.

Decided, she felt her panic dwindle to a rush of adrenalin, rather than mounting hysteria. She could think clearer now. She turned slowly to face the green, curious face of the wasp. She blinked—'So many damned eyes!'—and remembered his question. "I am… conscious, I suppose. Such a shame that the first sight I see is your face though.., but lemme take a guess about that… Megatron captured me?"

"Yeeesssss," a smooth voice replied for the wasp. Jumping a little, sge flicked her eyes to her right, where the purple dinosaur appeared. "Caitlin… it's such a pleasure to see you."

In response, she yawned widely, "I'm sure. You obviously have too much time on your hands, if you entertain this lot without going insane." She blinked after she said that as if she had a sudden realisation. She gasped and pointed at him, making sure to over exaggerate her surprise, "Wait: you ARE insane."

Megatron smiled tightly, "You flatter me." He pressed closer to her prison as that smile turned into a full-blown smirk of an evil overlord who'd just received his sharks with freaking laser beams attach to their heads… "And now," he laughed deeply, "YOU are my prisoner."

"And here I was thinking these bars were all for show," she drawled sarcastically. She smirked as Megatron twitched. How does one put a tyrant off guard? Why, you show disinterest and boredom, of course. There's nothing more annoying for an evil villain then yawning in the middle of his monologue… Or, that was her belief anyway.

Megatron frowned and stared at her for a heartbeat. Then, he slammed into her bars. "Why are you not panicking? Humans panic when they are in danger!" He stared harder at her and shook her bars as if that would make her scream for him. It was almost funny how much he wanted to hear her scream. "I would have thought you'd scream or beg for freedom."

Having managed to hold onto the rail behind her while Megatron tried to provoke her fear, she righted herself. She looked at her fingernails and peered at him from beneath her eyelashes. "Most humans aren't me, Megatron." She looked around her, noting that Shadow wasn't with her. She hoped he was safe. Not seeing him, she turned her hazel eyes to the Predacon Leader and cocked her brow. "I, for one, am very stubborn. And two," she added with a smirk, "I love to scare other people. This makes me able to be calm in most situations."

And it was true; she'd hide in a shadowy corner until her siblings stepped around it and scared the living daylights out of them. Once, the idiots had watched paranormal activity. Oh, the fund she'd had with that. All she had to do was stare at them, move objects they had put down and make noises in the night – and they started screaming and crying. The again, she had been subjected to the punishment of having them sleep in her bed to get them to sleep. Mum's were a champion buzzkill!

Megatron shook his head and laughed. "No matter! By the time I'm done with you—You will be begging for mercy! Ohhh, yeess!" and chuckled off into the distance.

Left alone, she folded her arms and closed her eyes as a shudder ran down her spine and she held a hand over her racing heart.

'I've got a bad feeling about this,' she thought, her inner self hugging her knees to her chest.

Another part of her was pacing madly in agitation. This was the part of her that often succumbed to panic. Fear, paranoia and hysteria was her area of management. And she did not often manage it well. 'We don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't like this at all. I hate not knowing what's going to happen!'

Another part of her slammed her fist down on a teacher's desk that appeared. She peered over shapely glasses that suited her small square face. Her expression was grim and serious. This was not a part of her that excused defeat. 'We need to stay calm! We cannot panic! We start panicking… we've lost!'

One part of her piqued up and grinned, just a little crazily. This part of her craved danger and a challenge. Sanity held no meaning for this part of her. Destruction was her forte and games of all kinds were her playground. This was not a part of her that played nice or even. 'Are we going to play it like a game?'

She cocked her 'brow' at that part of her. 'It is one we have equal chances of winning as we do losing…'

The panicking part of her declared with an air of control: 'We cannot lose!'

'Agreed!' was the instantaneous accord.

Opening her eyes, she leapt up and headed for the door.

She tried to fiddle with it, but one) she didn't have a pick, and two) she wasn't Rattrap.

"This is just… great. Just great!" she growled and kicked the cage door in frustration. She was literally locked in hell until someone freed her. And if it was one of the Predacons… they wouldn't unlock her to free her, no. Never that. Megatron had her now. What he intended to do with her, she didn't know. Vincent was here because the Vok's enemies had picked him to be here. Why him? Who knows? It could have been as random as the Vok picking her—of all people—to save the world. She still didn't know why... But she had read about what could happen to prisoners of war. And she was an AVID reader… and she'd skipped through most of those segments because she hadn't wanted to really think about it later on in her dreams.

Sighing, she fell back and stared up at the ceiling. 'I wonder what the others are doing… Are they okay?'

"Why can't we go after her now?!" Cheetor demanded for the umpteenth time that afternoon. He was pacing the entire circle of the Command Centre, unable to sit still. Or remain quiet. He was a bot of action, and sitting still did not appeal to him. Especially when the human he called sister; had been captured by the Predacons. With a glaring glance at Rhinox, he remembered when the rhino had come back and declared the mission a failure, which hadn't been the worst new. No! The worst news was when the large green mech informed everyone that Caitlin had been captured by Megatron when everyone had been hit by the TLL. They were in the Axalon now, still discussing what to do about the situation—while Caitlin was in enemy's arms! It just wasn't right! "We have to save her!" Cheetor exclaimed, fear and concern making his voice crack.

Dinobot had finally had enough. He growled in fury and slammed his fists onto the console. One look at the former-Predacon made the cat wince. The raptor's optics were literally a click away from firing a laser beam—straight at his head. "Because we do not have the means to do so, furball!" he snarled; and it was obvious he was on the edge of what little patience he had left.

Rattrap, during the mission, said not a word. He hadn't even quipped or remarked on the way back. Optimus, having noticed that everyone wasn't thinking clearly, told them all to retire to their rooms. They needed to be able to make a plan to save Caitlin, without being too emotional. This… the ape realised with a sigh: was going to be hard. They couldn't jeopardise Caitlin's life in any way, shape or form. She'd wormed her way into their lives and had become a member of this dysfunctional family. If anything happened to her… didn't bear being thought of.

Once the meeting was over, Rattrap disappeared to his room and refused to come out. Rhinox hadn't said anything else, having been flooded with guilt. He'd been the one who'd been there when Caitlin had gotten captured. But, he hadn't been able to do anything about it. He hadn't noticed the TLL until it was too late; and he could do nothing while Megatron took Caitlin away.

And so, in the following days that followed Caitlin's absence… the Maximals felt a large hole where something, or someone, was missing.

Dinobot had less patience and was far more elusive. He did his duty, but otherwise: remained in a constant state of bite and growl.

Cheetor's usual spirit had dwindled. He couldn't sleep properly and often kept asking Caitlin for her opinion, only to remember where she was, which made his mood worse.

Tigatron hardly visited as much as he usually did, but when he did visit: he often enquired about Caitlin's whereabouts.

Rhinox was easily irritated and couldn't concentrate on anything. He was full of guilt for allowing her to be captured, no matter what anyone said.

Rattrap had become hostile to anyone who dared asked him how he was; and kept to himself far more than normal.

And Optimus was at his wits end. He didn't realise until she was gone; how much Caitlin eased his concerns with her more laid-back and intuitive perspectives.

They all missed Caitlin, and in their absence, she truly felt alone. Something she had not experienced for a long, long time.