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Up couldn't move. He couldn't think. All he could do was stand there, paralysed with fear as the two rotating buzz saws whined and drilled their way towards him. His head swam, and he was catapulted back to two and a half years earlier, to the standoff on Qo'onos, to Optimus Prime's chest opening up, to the excruciating pain of being sliced in two, the exact sensation so easily remembered when triggered…

His legs were shaking, his arms, leaning against one of the control panels, were bound to give out any minute. He struggled to regain control of his thoughts, force himself through the fear barrier and fight back, don't think of the buzz saws, think of Taz….but he was swaying on the spot now, blackness gathering at the corners of his eyes, he was going to pass out and he could do nothing to stop it….

Up felt the slam of the metal floor against his back, the sharp sensation of fingernails digging into his chest. The blood returning to his head, he opened his eyes to see Taz pinning him there, having knocked him out the way.

'Taz…' he murmured, still shuddering, still trying to will his muscles to move and free themselves from the shock. He felt a firm grip on his arm, his zapper being shoved into his hand.

'Get up!' Taz shouted. The whirring of the buzz saw was still coming closer, somewhere above their heads. 'Now!' she screamed, and the word hit a nerve somewhere inside the Commander. The two leapt in opposite directions as the saw on Space-Claw's right wrist came slamming down, splintering through one of the control panels. A strange, metallic growl escaped the robot leader's throat as he twisted his arm to free the saw, sending large chunks of metal flying in all directions. Up staggered to his feet as a piece of piping flew in his direction, dodging to the side and loading his zapper in a swift motion. He fired off a shot at Space-Claw, who deflected it with a swipe of his other saw-hand and sent it zinging into the chest of one of his robot drones.

'Kill the others,' Space-Claw instructed, and the hands of the robots immediately dropped from their salutes, 'I will deal with Commander Up myself.'

None of them had time to plan anything out- the robots were firing again, even more mercilessly than before, fully intending to carry out Space-Claw's orders and annihilate the four other rangers. Henry stumbled on a piece of rubble as a tin can reached out to grab him. His zapper clattered to the floor and he frantically cast about for it, his fingers closing instead around a long piece of metal, which he clubbed desperately at the robot's legs with.

Taz was shooting like a machine gun, pew after pew after pew issuing from the end of her zapper, her eyes darting between her attackers and Up. Space-Claw's right hand was still embedded in the panel. He twisted and flailed it, finally wrenching his arm free with a loud snap. Something silvery sailed over all their heads, spinning so fast it was a blur and crashing into one of the robots, immediately slicing it to pieces. Space-Claw looked down at the stump of his right wrist, then over at the mangled pieces of the robot and the corner of the room, where the saw had landed and was still spinning like a top. He gave a roar, lashing at the Commander with his left arm with even more vigour.

'This has gone far enough!' Space-Claw shouted as he swung, Up dodging and firing a pointless shot, 'Unit 889! Activate the doomsday device! These humans have kept this pathetic little fight going for too long!'

The droid who was currently engaged in choking the life out of Kelly dropped the cadet to the ground, swivelling around and approaching the controls for the device. It pulled a lever slowly and deliberately, glancing out the window as the large needle-like point of the weapon shifted into place, pointing, no doubt, in the direction of the earth.

'No!' Taz shrieked, scrambling to her feet, but another robot knocked her to the floor, holding her down as she struggled and moving the tip of its gun to her temple.

Up's head whipped around toward the controls but Space-Claw stood in his way, his one remaining buzz saw raised and pointed in the Commander's direction.

Unit 889 balled its metal hand into a fist and raised it above the detonate button…

And then, from the dark corner of the room something stirred. A small figure slipped with ease through the legs of the droid cornering it, sliding across the floor in a smooth, swift movement. The boy lunged, snatching Taz's knife up from the ground, and then scrambled to his feet, shooting the robot at the controls through the face with three well-aimed shots. The robot crumpled to its knees, its hand landing just a few inches away from the detonate button. Everyone had stopped their current little battles as the situation occurred, the other robots dropping their victims and clomping towards the control panel as Space-Claw shouted 'kill him! Kill him!'

Reilly ducked under the arm of a ferocious tin can, thrusting his hand, still clutching Taz's knife, into the mess of wires. A horrific buzzing noise filled the enclosed space. Sparks flew, the control panel crackled with electricity, and then the entire panel exploded, sending a shower of bits of metal, broken levers and Reilly flying across the room.

The colour was returning to February's face. Bug was now pacing the confined area of the crashed drop pod, his gun held high in case a robot chose this moment to intrude.

'C'mon, February,' he pleaded, his sticklike limbs shaking from anticipation, 'we have to go, now! Who knows how bad it is out there? Without us, the rangers are down two, and we didn't have that many to start off with!'

'I just wanna clean off my shirt a little,' February whined, holding the sleeve of her overall under the tap and trying in vain to rinse off the bloodstains.

'February, I-'

'Hey!' The third voice caused both of them to start. Bug whirled around, zapper armed and ready, to see Roach's bulbous eyes beaming back at him.

'Bug! What's the buzz?' the small pink and purple insect flitted through the hatch and into the pod, followed by the other familiar face of a large snail, who was hiccupping loudly and unashamedly.

Bug's pincers dropped wide open. 'You're…you're here!'

'Heeyyyy, and it's your lady-friend!' Roach was saying, buzzing around February and tickling her face with his feelers. 'Have you torn off his head yet?' he whispered to the schience officer.

Bug was too excited to notice the tease. 'Roach, wh-what are you doing here? I thought the Overqueen said she didn't wanna have anything to do with this war?'

'Bug…are you speaking in bug?' February asked from the corner.

'Why, I'm the Overqueen now, didn't you know?' the drunk snail said, pushing his way closer to February, who shuffled away a little, intimidated both by the speech she couldn't understand and the obvious drunkenness of the enormous invertebrate.

Both Bug and Roach ignored them. 'Well, the Overqueen changed her mind,' Roach explained, 'she decided in the best interests of protecting the hive that we'd better put out talents to a productive use and come rid our world of these intruders.'

Bug was astounded. 'She did?'

'Well, she needed some persuasion, so I gave her a little…'

'That's great!' Bug interrupted, before his best bug friend started to go into things he'd rather not know about. 'So where is everyone?'

'In a spaceship…in space!' the drunk snail shouted.

'Pay no attention to him… he's drunk,' Roach patted Bug on the head, 'they're just outside, come on!'

And they zipped out of the drop pod to check out the action, paying no attention to the snail's protests of 'no, I'm drunk!'

The scene was fantastic. No longer were a few starship rangers cowering, trying their utmost to hold off death for a little while longer. An array of bright colours met their eyes- it seemed the entire hive had turned out to help. The sky was filled with the fluttering of wings as insects flew overhead, dropping their slime and saliva all over the robots, encasing them in goop and allowing them no escape. On the ground the mammal wranglers were herding the creatures in their care, encouraging them to converge on the metal men and knock them down, while an assortment of large bees, butterflies and other bugs were doing their best to break the robots into pieces. Bug watched in amazement as two egg planters grabbed hold of a droid's arms, dragging it to the ground and allowing Krayonder to step up and shoot it in the chest.

It was what he had always dreamed- the bugs and the humans working side by side. His two families united for the greater good.

No longer did the outlook appear hopeless. It seemed like the battle had turned around.

They might be able to win this after all.

Bug looked up at the robot ship, at the robots' device, which now seemed so much less threatening, and his thoughts went instantly to Taz and Up, in there somewhere battling it out themselves, trying to save the universe and unaware of what was going on outside. He looked around- the rangers and the bugs definitely had gained the upper hand- the presence or absence of one fighter would no longer make much difference, backup was not an issue. He was going to go in there and get Up and Taz out, bring them here to watch the robots meet their end.

It all happened very fast. In one instant an electrical explosion of titanic proportions had taken place. Taz ducked and covered her head as large pieces of the doomsday device's control panel blasted everywhere, narrowly avoiding a large, smoking piece of piping that whipped past her ear. Sparks showered the control room, small fires flaring up on the floor and on various other control panels, sending the rest of the ship's circuits haywire. The lights flickered on and off. Two sirens started bleating at once. A sharp piece of metal hit Space-Claw's decapitated buzz saw so hard it went straight through it. Reilly slumped to the floor, shaking and foaming at the mouth, his hands blistered, burns running right up his arms.

Kelly and Henry were at his side in seconds, frantically trying to revive him, telling him to hold on. The cadet Taz had hated not an hour ago was spasming, his eyelids opening and shutting at a terrific pace. His chances didn't look good, Taz thought with bitter regret. She eased herself to her feet, stepping over the corpses of two robots and starting towards the recruits when Space-Claw's roar of fury stopped them all in their tracks.

The earth-destroying device had drooped, no longer pointing at the sky. They had done it.

'Dere's no point any more, Space-Claw!' Taz shouted triumphantly. 'Jou can't touch de earth any more- jour device is dead, and soon de rest of de starship rangers will be here, and dere will be not'ing jou can do. It's over!'

'You assume so, Lieutenant?' Space-Claw said. 'All this goes to show is that once again, you lot have stood between me and total domination of the universe. The device can easily be rebuilt- nothing can stop the might of Doctor Space-Claw! Your starship rangers are locked inside their own Headquarters- I saw to it personally. There's no-one coming to stop my army, and all I have to do is wait til my squadron have killed the last of your little friends down there before we can start work on another one. You haven't won. You've just prolonged my victory- but your Commander's death will ensure it is never prolonged again!'

The robots were at them again, Taz having to work overtime to shield the recruits from the oncoming blasts as they struggled to revive Reilly. There were only three left in the room, but their combined strength was making them extremely difficult to take down, especially when the energy of the starship rangers was rapidly dwindling, leaving them firing much less accurate shots and dodging with less agility than normal.

Taz took to alternating shots, left robot, right robot, left robot, right robot, all the time keeping one eye on Up, on how he was battling Space-Claw with all his might. Kelly was still supporting Reilly's head, Henry had gotten to his feet and had joined her.

Left robot, right robot…where was the third one?

And then she heard the yelp- the location of the third robot was revealed as it knocked Up's zapper out of his hand and grabbed him by the ankle, hoisting him in the air. Up flailed at the robot's arm, trying to free himself to no avail, and a scream wrenched itself from Taz's mouth as Space-Claw stepped forward, raising his remaining buzz-saw hand.

'Perhaps this time, Commander, we'll cut you all the way in half…'

Taz's muscles worked without her, her entire being spurred on by a maddening rush of adrenaline. She had no plan, no idea what in the hell she was doing, but her body had triggered a flight or fight response- either shut down and hide her face away while Up got sawn in half for the second time, or act. And she was damn well going to act. Words weren't even forming in her head as she flung herself past the two robots in her way, she was pushed on only by some sensation that she had to prevent Space-Claw from cutting up the man she loved, by whatever means she could…

Everything occurred in the blink of an eye. Her eyes fell on the broken buzz saw on the ground, still spinning away, a slight clunk sounding every time the metal pipe embedded in the middle of it hit the wall. She made a grab for it, hands grasping the pipe tightly, trying to hold the rotating blades as far from her face as possible. Up closed his eyes as Space-Claw's saw hand came excruciatingly close to his face. Taz gave a mighty battle cry and charged across the room, raising her makeshift weapon high above her head. With a cry of exertion she brought it down hard on Space-Claw's left arm, driving it remorselessly into the metal and pushing down. Space-Claw shouted something unintelligible as his arm came clean off, dropping to the ground with a dull thud and taking off the foot of the robot holding Up as it did so.

The robot teetered, dangling the Commander dangerously close to the two still-moving saws, and Taz took aim and made a careful shot, hitting its chest just so and allowing it to crash right on top of the sharp blades and send Up careening a few feet. He sat up, wrenching his ankle free from the dead robot's grasp and, picking up his zapper from where it lay, shakily got to his feet.

'Jou got not'ing on us, Space-Claw,' Taz growled, utter hatred for him grinding out of the words, 'and jou're forgetting somet'ing- jou can't kill Up so long as he has me.' She reloaded her zapper in such a quick, fluid movement it was barely noticeable. 'Now jou are gonna die, and get out of our way for good.'

She took a step closer to the now defenceless Space-Claw, pushing the butt of her gun up against his chest. 'Jou got no weapons now, jour empire is going to end- right now.'

'My robots will destroy you if you kill me,' Space-Claw said.

'Your robots are all dead!' came a cry from the doorway. Bug stood, pincers clicking, a gun looking extremely out of place in his insect arms. 'You underestimated us bugs- all willing to give our lives for the hive, and there were more than enough of us. Your robots are gone.'

Taz was so surprised she forgot momentarily to be fierce. 'Gone?'

Kelly and Henry, who had been busy tearing off the heads of the last two robots, dropped their own weapons and got to their feet. 'They are?'

Bug nodded vigorously. 'We did it!'

Taz lowered her gun, walking slowly over to her blackened, mutilated knife and tentatively picked it up. No electric shock- that was good. Still keeping her slow, controlled pace she strode back over to Space-Claw, turning the dagger around in her palms.

'Jou two,' she tossed a glance over at Henry and Kelly, 'jou don' wanna see dis. Get Reilly outta here- take him down to de others and try to get him medical help before ees too late.' They took one look at the glint in her eyes and hastened to obey her, hoisting Reilly's arms over their shoulders and half-carrying, half-dragging him out the control room. They'd all killed robots before, they'd all seen robots be killed before, but Taz felt that this was different somehow. She was about to end the robot wars for good, and she knew exactly how she wanted to do it. And it wasn't exactly pretty.

'Jour war is over, Space-Claw,' she spat. 'And it's about time I repaid jou for los inconvenientes jou've caused us.' She raised her knife slowly.

'Dis is for de reconstructions.' She jammed the blade into Space-Claw's shoulder, twisting and rattling it til his other arm fell to the ground with a crash. She tugged the blade out again, feeling only a slight twinge of remorse. Had this been a human, she never would have been this harsh, despite what she threatened her fellow rangers with. But this wasn't a human, this was a robot- a killer robot- the very killer robot responsible for the torment the human race had suffered for the last hundred years or so.

'Dis is for ruling de earth for a hundred years wid a fist of iron, and for all de people who died in de robot wars!' she rammed the knife through the visor of his helmet, not withdrawing it until she heard the sound of circuits dying. No-one tried to stop her, tried to deny her the chance to avenge all humans everywhere.

'And dis is for Optimus Prime!' she shouted dramatically, plunging her knife into the robot leader's chest. The sizzling of circuits could be heard even more clearly now. A weird, white foamy substance started to pour from the knife wound, and the Hispanic girl jumped back for fear it was corrosive. With the loud noise of a computer being drained of its power, the robot once known as Astroboy, commonly known as Space-Claw and who intended to have been known as the tyrranical ruler of the galaxy fell to the ground, the mechanical limbs ceasing to move.

Taz stood very still for a moment, her heart pounding, her mind on overdrive, hardly able to believe her own actions. She had actually done it. She had defeated the very killing machine that had brought about the robot wars. They had been going on since before she was born, she had been fighting the tin cans for nearly all her life, and now she had ended their threat for good. Forever. Her teeth chattered and she forced herself to get a grip. She slowly raised her head.

Her eyes met Up's.

And in an instant he had closed the gap between them and swept her up into his arms before she had time to say a word.

Up held on tight to Taz for as long as he could, revelling in the feeling of holding her, washed over with the euphoria of the fact that the killer robots were gone forever, that she had just saved his life, for what wouldn't be the first time but was certainly a significant one, that this could have been the end and yet here they were, together again with an unhindered future ahead of them. He buried his face into her neck and she didn't try to stop him; he felt the flutter of lashes against his ear as her eyes shut. It was all too much, the rush of feelings that assaulted him all at once- the joy that at last the human race were safe from robots, the wonder at the fact that it was Taz who had saved them in the end, the too-good-to-be-true happiness that Taz was his girl, and that he had another chance with her.

Up felt her sigh heavily and exhaled himself, for what felt like the first proper time in several days, gently setting her down and breaking apart from their embrace.

'Uh, guys?'

That caused him to jump- he'd forgotten about Bug being there. A slight embarrassment immediately coloured his cheeks.

'Oh, Bug! My oldest friend!' Up babbled.

The insect-ranger merely shook his head. 'You wanna come down and see everyone?'

They joined hands as they walked back down through the ship after Bug, fingers tightly intertwined- so tightly that Up was pretty sure he was losing circulation, but he couldn't bring himself to care.

The sight that greeted them was a strange one. Bugs and starship rangers alike were clustered about the place, chatting and assisting with each other's injuries. The corpses of hundreds of robots were strewn all about the place, many covered in a rather strange looking layer of gunk. In the distance, two pink and purple shapes stood apart from the group- the smaller shape recognisable as Roach, buzzing happily in front of the Overqueen as she quietly and respectfully ate the small number of insects that had lost their lives for the hive.

'There they are!' came a familiar voice, and Commander Crawford hobbled over to them, a large gash on his leg causing him to limp. 'About time, too!'

'Ees done,' Taz informed him, 'de device is broken, and Space-Claw's dead…'

'Space-Claw?' Crawford's brow furrowed, and Taz realised no-one down here would be aware of the goings-on up in the control room of the robot ship, of the truths Space-Claw had revealed. That was a long story to be told to them all, but not just now. Neither Taz nor Up felt up to that right now.

'De kids- did jou see de kids?' Taz pressed Crawford urgently. 'Are dey…is Reilly…'

'Reilly's gonna be fine, Lieutenant,' Crawford replied. 'Looked pretty bad- we thought he was a goner for a minute- the bugs gave him somethin' weird, dunno what it was but his colour's come back. And I just got a call from Holden- his fleet are gonna be here in another hour or so, and they've got medics with them who can give him the proper attention…'

Taz breathed a sigh of relief and Up chuckled. 'And ter think you once punched that kid in the gut…'

The Lieutenant elbowed him. 'Shut up,' she muttered, 'jou weren't dere.'

'Well then,' Crawford said, the Overqueen's holding some kinda celebration slash debriefing thing- you wanna come join us?'

Both Up and Taz looked unsure of this.

'Uh, yeah, sure, in a minute,' Up said uneasily, 'I just wanna have a word with Taz here first.'

Crawford shrugged and departed, leaving the two rangers on their own. Both of them shuffled their feet a little, each tormented with the thoughts they wanted to say aloud, neither of them daring to go first.

Taz let go of his hand and turned to face him full on, and Up couldn't keep it in any longer, grabbing hold of her once more.

'Oh, Taz, I'm just so sorry about before, about our fight, I know I said so on the phone but it just ain't the same…I never meant what I said and I ain't never gonna let you go again…' he crooned, pressing urgent kisses to the top of her head, her forehead, her mouth.

Taz raised one finger and pressed it lightly to his lips. 'Up, stop. Dat's done. Over. Terminado. We'll forget abou' dat, ese?' Now it was her turn to look down, to avoid his eye in awkward uncertainty.

'Actually, Up…dere was somet'ing I wanted to tell jou.' A little voice at the back of her mind screamed not to do it but she knew after everything they'd been through, she wanted to give him something to prove once and for all that she trusted him, that she loved him, that she was his and only his.

She'd tried to keep it from him when they met. She'd tried to tell him down on Farm Planet but the opportunity had slipped away. But now seemed like as good a time as ever.

Up looked down at her, beginning to get a little concerned by her silence as she thought it through. 'Taz?'

She raised her eyes slowly to look at him. 'Esperanza, Up,' she said quietly.

He frowned at her. 'I've picked up loads o' Spanish from ya, Taz, but I dunno that one, what's it mean?'

She laughed then, in spite of herself. 'Who cares what it means?'

'I don't get…'

'Ees my name, Up,' she clarified, watching his face as he digested this. 'My name is Esperanza.'

She smiled as a look of amazement crossed his face, as it sank in just exactly what had been given to him. She watched his lips move as he mouthed it, trying it out experimentally on his tongue, looking at her as though trying to fit the name to the picture of her in his mind. And then he grinned.

'Well, hey there, Esperanza,' he said, taking her hand and shaking it as if he'd never met her before.

Taz rolled her eyes. 'Idiota! I'm still de same person I always was!'

Up was still smiling. 'But you…trust me? I mean…enough for that….'

Taz smacked her forehead with the palm of her hand. 'As if I would ever not trust jou! If I'd known it really meant dat much to jou to know mi nombre, jou could have just asked.'

They were both laughing now, unable to keep the stupid grins from their faces.

'Es…' Up began, but Taz held up one hand to cut him off.

'De name 'Taz' was de first t'ing jou ever gave me. I wanna keep it if…if jou don't…'

'Mind?' he finished for her. 'Heck, no, I don't mind, Taz. I don't care whatever the hell your name is- I love you, dammit!'

He pulled her into yet another tight embrace and Taz laughed again. 'Eso es bueno, 'cause it's a hell of a lot easier to pronounce.'

Up pulled back, chuckling and shaking his head. He ran his hand through Taz's hair, a sudden idea flashing through his brain.

Taz moved up to unite their lips but Up put a hand on her shoulder to stop her, gripped by this idea he'd had, this no-notice, crazy, stupid…wonderful thought.

'You know,' Up said, trying to sound casual, although his heart had taken off at the thought of what he was about to say, 'I think Tootsie and Megagirl had the right idea.'

Taz gave him a weird look. 'What, being an idiota and a robot?'

Up's genuine chuckle soon became forced and over-the-top as his nervousness overtook him once again. Taz stared at him like he'd gone insane.

'No,' he clarified, trying to ignore the fact that he'd turned completely to jelly, 'I meant, well…getting' married on th' spur of the moment.'

His very jaw was shaking as he choked the idea out, his face flushing a shade of red something akin to a lobster in a cooking pot. He didn't know where this had come from, it just…had- perhaps it was the victory, perhaps it was the fact that he had faced both his and Taz's death several times up in that room with Space-Claw…all he knew was that he would never want anyone else, all he wanted was to have Taz by his side forever and there was no point in preparations or waiting til after an 'appropriate' amount of dating.

Taz's jaw dropped, her chin practically touching her collarbone. She stared at him in disbelief. 'Are jou asking me…'

Up smiled nervously. 'Um…yeah.'

The girl was stunned, the blood draining from her face as she processed this.

'Dat…has got to be….' She said slowly, 'de worst t'ing I have ever heard! Jou call dat a proposal! Mierda, Up, jou're hopeless!'

The smile on Up's face began to dwindle- but Taz's grew as she dropped the tough façade. 'But yes!'

Up's grin spread to a new, almost painful width. He grabbed her in his arms and kissed her in jubilation.

'Hey! Crawford!' he yelled. 'Get over here now!'

Some distance away, Crawford's head turned. 'What?'

'Jou mean now?' Taz hissed, grabbing hold of his arms. Up just shot her a wicked grin and nodded.

'Crawford, get over here!' he called again. 'We need a Commander over here before Taz changes her mind!'

Taz couldn't help smirking. All of a sudden a host of rangers were upon them, Commander Crawford waiting expectantly for Up's request, Krayonder and Criss very loudly discussing the possibilities of what might be about to occur and passing money back and forth.

Up smiled at Taz. 'Last chance to back out,' he teased.

She hit him.

Well that was unexpected...anyway, there is going to be one more chapter after this one, to tie everything up, with a healthy dose of fluff, I should imagine. I know Taz's revelation and Up's decision may have seemed a bit...quick, but that was sort of the point :3

I FOUND (like a Hufflepuff) the name 'Esperanza' in a namebook...it means 'hope' in Spanish. I thought it fairly appropriate.