Author's Notes: I've been looking through my back catalogue, and realized it had been over a year since I last updated this story! It can be hard to stay motivated when a story is a sequel of a sequel set in one of the less popular Transformers series. So, this chapter is more of a test to see if this fic still has enough momentum for me to keep working on it. I have a lot of stories, so I need to be more careful which ones get attention now. Anyway, hope you all enjoy this chapter, and thanks for reading this far :)
Chapter 14
It Is Now
It had been two orns, or nearly one earth month, and the Laser-Saw had encountered nothing. They had to find the wormhole that Optimus Primal and the false Megatron had used to escape their current places in time and space. Ravage was a patient mech when it came to his missions. What he wasn't patient about was their prisoner- eh, comrade.
Quillbit was getting stronger, and the glass holding her seemed to be getting weaker. Syphon had tried to befriend the psychotic porcupine, but Quillbit's moods were so unpredictable that Ravage felt it was unsafe for Syphon to continue to feed her and talk to her. Especially after last orn, when Quillbit had figured out how to shove her loose quills through the food slot and tried to prick Syphon with them.
It was also becoming harder to get Quillbit to take her antipsychotic pills. She would pick them out of her food, shove them into her subspace, and grin smugly at her captors- eh, team mates, whenever she managed to outsmart them again. Ravage hated this for more reasons than one. Not only was she getting closer to becoming a dangerous animal, but using a subspace was a gross drain on her energy. That was why most modern Cybertronians no longer had them.
Traveling with Syphon on the other servo was difficult for a different reason. Syphon was attentive to an almost uncomfortable degree despite not being healthy enough to do the chores she did around the ship. Ravage hated taking advantage of his brother's widow, but when he tried to get her to slow down she wouldn't hear of it. She loved Ravage and wanted him to be happy, so she would shamble and suffer through every indignity to make sure he was well fed, his berth was running at full power, and his ship was as clean as could be. It struck Ravage as especially odd since Syphon rarely cleaned her own home, yet was willing to put up with body aches and seizures to keep his ship spotless.
On this particular orn Syphon was making a meal for Quillbit, and Ravage was going to deliver it. It was orange slices and string cheese, which seemed to be a favorite of the cantankerous creature. Ravage wasn't actually sure though, as Quillbit would eat anything as long as she was sufficiently hungry. Her feelings on the food would range from wonderful to 'dog barf', but she would eat her rations regardless.
"Ra-vage?" Syphon spoke up as she held the plate of food, "Can I take dis food to Killdit? I wanna try again."
"But why?" Ravage asked skeptically, "That Maximal treats you like garbage, and she may even attempt to hurt you or escape."
"I'll dee fine," Syphon assured him, "I wanna dee useful. You do so nuch around here already. Let nee do sonesing fo' you."
Ravage sighed. He didn't want Syphon down there with the monster Maximal. Syphon wasn't even completing her training regimen like she promised Ravage. She was too busy doing chores and preparing food for everyone. Before Ravage could fully object however Syphon was already shuffling out of the room; likely heading for the brig where Quillbit was being held. Ravage considered going after her, but he was afraid he was babying her. Syphon would have to fight when they found Megatron, Optimus, and their followers. He knew he was doing Syphon a disservice by trying to go easy on her.
"Syphon!" Ravage called her, and she turned around attentively, "After you return we will begin your training. No excuses this time. You must prepare for the pursuit of our prey."
"Yes, Ra-vage," Syphon replied compliantly.
With these words ringing in her ears Syphon made her way to the glass cell. She knew Ravage only had her best interests at spark, so she would do her best to accommodate him. Still, she knew he worried too much about her. After all, she might not be as old as him but she was still pretty old. She knew what she was doing and knew how to spot trouble.
Syphon rode the elevator to the containment cell, and when she got there she saw that Quillbit was holding something small. At first Syphon thought it was Quillbit's pills. She hoped the porcupine was going to do something smart and take her medicine. However, the closer she got the more she saw that it was something made of gold, or possibly electrum. The object was round and had a thin golden chain attached to it.
"Hi, Killdit!" Syphon greeted her in a friendly manner, hoping to get off to a good start, "How are ya feeling today?"
"I'm suffocatin'," Quillbit replied matter-of-factly.
"Oh...sorry to hear dat," Syphon replied sympathetically, "What'cha got dare?"
"I needed to know what time it is," Quillbit replied; a pall cast over her words, "You wanna see somethin'?"
"Is it nore needles?" Syphon asked suspiciously.
"No, not this time," Quillbit replied, a ghost of a smirk gracing her features, "Come here. I'll slide it through the slot, but you have to give it back afterward, got it?"
"Got it," Syphon promised.
With that Syphon shoved the food tray through the slot, and after Quillbit took the food she slid her hidden treasure through the same opening. Syphon looked at the little gold object, engraved in fancy Cybertronian script with the initials QB. It was round and slightly weighted in Syphon's servo. That was when she realized what it was.
"Dis is a tocket watch!" Syphon exclaimed in surprise, "Dut we has chrononeters! We don't need dis."
"I do," Quillbit stated, "A chronometer only gives you raw data. I need to know more than that. My sparkmate understood that, so he gave me that pocket watch on our 200th anniversary to keep me grounded. Open it."
Syphon did as instructed, but she wasn't greeted with numbers on a clock face or the digital glow of an exterior chronometer. Instead the inside of the watch housed a sheet of black marble, and inside was engraved in white mother of pearl letters 'You Are Here. It Is Now'.
"Our 200th anniversary was a rough one for me," Quillbit went on, "My sparkmate understood that, so he went to earth and had that made for me. The sad part is I only got him a gift card for his favorite video game store. Yeah, he was such a nerd he went out and physically bought video games! Sometimes we'd travel halfway across the galaxy just because he found out some backwards moon had discovered cartridge technology or somethin'."
Quillbit was laughing now, but not the crazed laughter that meant she was about to lose it. Instead her face seemed to grow more relaxed by the klik. She wasn't looking at Syphon, instead staring off at the far wall and remembering her sparkmate. There was a dreariness to her optics that made her current living arrangements seem sadder somehow.
"Where is ya starknate?" Syphon asked curiously.
Quillbit raised an eyebrow, not sure what Syphon had said at first. Then her processor seemed to catch up to what was going on.
"Oh, yeah, right. He's dead," Quillbit said it with casual abandon; as if changing the subject so quickly didn't allow her mind to register the emotions.
"Nine too," Syphon nodded in understanding, "Doth of dem. I had two starknates. One was a terridle nech. He hurt nee...a lot. He rit ny arns off once."
"Rit?" Quillbit asked for clarification.
"Rit," Syphon repeated, though it didn't clear anything up, "He tore dem off ny shouldahs."
"Oh, ripped!" Quillbit exclaimed in understanding, "He ripped your arms off your...shoulders. Oh." Quillbit grew quiet then, finally registering the new information.
"Ny second starknate was nice to nee," Syphon continued, "I loved hin nore than anyone. He was crazy, dut not in a dad way."
"You mean in a bad way?" Quillbit asked.
"Yeah, sorry. I wish I could talk detter," Syphon lamented.
"I don't mind," Quillbit replied, "Nobody understands me neither, and my mouth ain't hangin' open like an empty sack."
Syphon didn't know what to say then. It was strange, being pitied by a crazed Maximal with an immortal spark and a death wish. Quillbit wasn't exactly a nice person, but Syphon was used to dealing with those who were unkind yet still had a spark under the bitterness. Ravage was like that, as were many Cybertronians she had met. She knew then that she couldn't give up on Quillbit. There was something in that Maximal worth knowing.
Bitten hadn't been able to recharge since losing both Optimus Primal and the animals in her makeshift veterinary clinic. The Predacons had taken so much in such a small amount of time. It was like the Third Cybertronian War all over again. Millions of years and so many upgrades, yet Cybertronians didn't seem to have really changed at all. Power destroyed, and innocence suffered.
Part of Bitten wanted Dinobot to comfort her, but the more logical side of her knew he wasn't equipped for that. To him battle was natural and good. He wouldn't understand her feelings of anguish and reservation. He would want her to be strong, and frankly it would be easier to gather strength on her own. She decided to not bother him with her problems, especially given how every Maximal was suffering at the moment.
The power vacuum had been temporarily filled by Rhinox, though he seemed preoccupied most of the time. Bitten understood that. Optimus Primal had been a good friend to most of the Maximals, as well as a leader that managed to take a ragtag team of scientists and turn them into a fighting force. Even Dinobot, though being born a Predacon, held a certain respect for Primal.
There was no time to complain however, and no time to mourn. Most of the Maximals prepared for the next Predacon attack. Bitten meanwhile prepared to rebuild.
The animal sanctuary was the only thing of note Bitten could offer this primitive world she found herself in. Those animals were her purpose in life, and she wasn't ready to give that up to become a soldier. Her birth parents were soldiers, and it had cost them their lives. Sunstreaker was a soldier, and it cost him his soul. Bitten wasn't yet ready to pay such a price.
She spent most of the day gathering twigs and branches off the ground to rebuild the fences and pens. She wanted to chop down trees for stronger wood, but with only one servo it was nearly impossible for her to do so. She would have to practice so she could do this later.
That evening she had planned to set the poles into the ground and tie them together, but by the time evening came she was tired and couldn't puzzle out how she was going to do this single handedly, so she decided to swallow her pride and search for a Maximal inside the ship that could aid her in her project.
When she went down the hall to the living quarters she saw Rattrap leaving his room with a box full of stuff in his arms. He walked toward Optimus Primal's old quarters and pressed the button, ready to go inside with his load.
"What are you doing?" Bitten asked curiously.
"Ah! Slag, sister! You scared the scrap outta me!" Rattrap griped, "Yeesh, maybe you should wear a bell or somethin'. You're really quiet."
Bitten just looked at him, not having received an answer to her question.
"So, uh, you need somethin'?" Rattrap asked awkwardly, still not used to scrutiny.
"You are moving into Optimus Primal's quarters," Bitten observed, "He has only been dead for one day."
"Yeah, and he ain't gettin' no deader," Rattrap shrugged, "Rhinox can be in charge, but I get Boss Monkey's quarters. That was the deal."
"You are very opportunistic and cold," Bitten stated matter-of-factly, "You remind me of a sparkling from a foundling home."
"Yeah, well that ain't surprisin'" Rattrap spat, "Optimus and I, we both came from a foundlin' home. We lived on a planet called Kloryll, which is where a lot of unwanted Maximal sparklings ended up. We shared a room with 6 other kids, and we promised each other we'd have our own space someday. He and I, we've been best friends for as long as I can remember. I protected him when he was small, and he protected me when he got bigger. Between my fast talkin' and his willingness to help others, we managed to make friends and survive."
"Do you miss him?" Bitten asked.
"Of course I miss him!" Rattrap snapped, "What kind of a scrap-brained question is that? Look, just because I move on quickly don't mean I don't care. I just can't do nothin' about it!"
"I understand," Bitten replied stoically, "Do you need help moving?"
"Yeah, I suppose so," Rattrap reluctantly accepted, "The Beast Wars go on, I guess."
"Just as the Third Cybertronian War went on," Bitten noted, "Be prepared. The last war our species fought lasted for millions of years."
"Oh yeah, I tend to forget with how young you look that you're basically a fossil," Rattrap smirked, "What was it like back in the day? You ever meet the real Optimus Prime?"
"Briefly," Bitten replied, "He seemed nice."
"Hah, you see history from a front row seat and that's the best commentary you got?" Rattrap laughed, "You know, I always had to assume that Primal's parents must have loved him before they abandoned his unhatched spark casing. I mean, they named him after one of our history's greatest military leaders. I never understood how he and I ended up in the same place. Rat-formers? They're everywhere, in both factions. Primal though, he was special. We always told ourselves his folks must've died. I mean, what other explanation could there be?"
Bitten knew what likely happened, but she didn't tell him. She had told Dinobot about Honey Venom because she trusted him and knew as a Predacon he wouldn't care. She told Waspinator the story of his origins because he was Q-Boom's firstborn. Most Maximals however would hate the truth of how they came to be. They believed themselves to be the righteous next generation of the Autobots. If they knew their creator had been an opportunistic turncoat it might change how they viewed themselves. It might even cause resentment from those that refused to believe what she said. So, she said nothing.
"So, you ever meet Arcee?" Rattrap asked, "She was my favorite historical character. When Optimus and I would imagine who our folks could be, I always imagined she was in my family somehow. The story of how she sacrificed her own body so a little earth boy could walk...that's some saint stuff right there. I couldn't do that."
"I don't know who that is," Bitten replied apologetically, "I spent most of my time with my tutors, Smokescreen and Prowl. I also spent a lot of time with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe."
"You met all those guys?" Rattrap asked in amazement, "Wow, that is so cool! I'm sure Boss Monkey woulda loved to hear some of those stories. So, you think you can help me hang posters in my new room? I got one of Mink straddlin' a pillar that reminds me of why I wanna get back to Cybertron ASAP."
"Who is Mink?" Bitten asked.
"My favorite singer," Rattrap explained, "Oh man, she is hot! You got a favorite singer?"
"Zetabyte," Bitten replied.
"Huh, never heard of her. Must've been before my time. Heh," Rattrap laughed easily, "I know you and I don't talk much, but I'd love to hear some of your stories from ancient Cybertron. I mean, how often do we get this kinda chance anymore? Mechs and femmes don't live as long as they used to."
Bitten and Rattrap continued to move items from Rattrap's old quarters to his new room, all the while Rattrap wanted to talk about the past. He seemed happy enough in the moment, and Bitten decided to indulge him this once. Normally she didn't like to speak too much, but she knew Rattrap was hurting because of the loss of his best friend. She would ask him about helping with her enclosures later. Hopefully the surly rat wouldn't leave her to fend for herself.
