Author's Notes: Initially this chapter was going to be longer, but something kind of big happened to me so I decided to post it now. For context, I live close to train tracks. Like, close enough that when the train passes I sometimes can't hear the TV. Well anyway, earlier this week (as of this update), the train derailed from the tracks, and about ten cars fell over. Thankfully due to the way the train fell no one was hurt, but if it had fallen the other way there would have been several casualties (myself included). Fortunately the train cars were empty, so no hazardous chemical fell and no one had to evacuate. Seeing news crews on my street was a new one though, given that nothing ever happens around here. It feels like a disaster in an old cartoon, where stuff gets destroyed but nobody really gets hurt. Oh well. I'm just happy to be alive and I'm celebrating in the nerdiest way I know how: by updating a fic in a timely manner :)


Chapter 17

Date With Destiny

Dinobot and Bitten had been on the move ever since they raided the Darksyde of the golden discs. Bitten had told Dinobot that she knew a good place to hide them, but when they got there his anticipation soon turned to shocked skepticism.

"This is where you want me to hide the discs?" Dinobot asked in disgust, "This is an ancient's corpse!"

Yes, lying in front of them, half transformed and partially buried in dirt, was the body of Bitten's former caretaker. This was where she brought Waspinator in their hour of distress, and now it was where she brought Dinobot.

"Her name was Tearjerker," Bitten said as if that explained everything, "She died saving a group of orphaned sparklings."

"Her name is not in the historical record," Dinobot pointed out.

"Some heroes are not remembered," Bitten replied solemnly, "You said you didn't want the Maximals to find the discs. Well, no other Maximals know of this place. Your secret will be taken to our graves."

Dinobot, assured enough by those words, ventured forth into the rusting corpse of the shuttle-former. Bitten followed him, full of trepidation despite this being her idea. It was still difficult to look at this place, but for Dinobot she knew she would do whatever it took to help him. This was no longer a debt. It was that sweet drunken chemical reaction most sentient beings called love.

As Dinobot explored the dark and dusty innards of the shuttle, he noted how almost everything was in chaos. The consoles were damaged, screens were broken, and even the safety chairs had been jolted out of place in the crash. There was one thing however that looked unnaturally intact…four bodies.

"Where should I hide the discs…?" Dinobot asked himself as much as Bitten, "Under this console seems like a good spot."

"Dinobot?" Bitten called out as he crouched under the navigation station, "Why do you want the discs? Are they important?"

"Are they important? Such a simple question, yet the answer itself is contradictory," Dinobot whispered, a weight crushing his spark, "To be, or not to be? That is the question, and the answers are on these discs. The future is recorded on these glistening devices of knowledge. Yet I ask myself, are these events what must be, or only what could be? For if the future is set in stone, unmovable and unchangeable, then I doubt I can go on living. For what use is my life if I am not the master of my own fate? And yet, if the future can be changed, then what we have taken from Megatron holds incredible power. Yet that power is limited, for if we did indeed change the future, then these discs would be rendered fiction forevermore."

Bitten listened intently as Dinobot waxed poetic, interspersing quotes from the great works of several planets as he spoke, but with a strange focus on earth's mid-history. All the while his own thoughts crept through. He was tortured by the discs, and yet had risked everything to obtain them. As Dinobot paced around the shuttle like a mech possessed, he suddenly noticed something about the bodies on the floor beneath him…

"This femme…the white one. This is you, isn't it?" Dinobot asked Bitten.

"Yes," Bitten replied.

"You looked like this when we found you," Dinobot noted, "These ancients are young, aren't they?"

"Yes," Bitten replied again, her large yellow optics unwavering, "They are myself, and my sisters. In a few million years, we will wake up."

"When I look at such innocence, these discs burn my hands like molten lead," Dinobot hissed, "It would not only be my past I would be rewriting, but yours. Would you even exist if the future can be altered?"

"What exactly are you trying to change?" Bitten inquired.

"Everything," Dinobot growled, "Predacons have been dominated by Maximals for as long as we can remember. Maximals only rule Cybertron because the Autobots beat the Decepticons in the Third Cybertronian War. The only reason they won was because they had the assistance of a race of aliens known as humans."

"I have seen humans before," Bitten commented, "They are adorable."

"Adorable or not, they have greatly contributed to our society's history," Dinobot said with a sort of contempt, "If it weren't for humans then Predacons would rule Cybertron. Maybe even the known universe. That is why Megatron brought us here. We were seeking the planet earth, to wipe out the earliest recorded humans. I defected because I believed Megatron had led us to the wrong planet, but I was wrong. We are here, on earth, and now I have a choice to make. Do I go through with the plan or not?"

"Well…you have time," Bitten told him, a small smile gracing her features, "Just leave them here for now. When you want to see where history will take you, then come back. You can decide your destiny later."

"Such a contradiction," Dinobot snorted, "Decide your destiny. The very concept of destiny is that there are no decisions to be made."

"But there is a decision to be made," Bitten said, her voice lowering in pitch and volume, "You can choose to bond with me, or not. Your spark doesn't have to be alone anymore. The burden is no longer yours alone. All you have to do is take me. Unless…I have read your feelings wrong."

Bitten began to feel foolish, wondering if perhaps she had chosen the wrong moment, or perhaps Dinobot really didn't have those feelings for her. Sure, he said he did, but that could just be because he was lonely. He could have just been toying with her because she was there. Dating and bonding were two very different concepts, especially for mechs.

Dinobot's response wasn't verbal. He grabbed Bitten by either side of her chassis, his claws digging into her white fur. At first she feared she had angered him when he growled at her, but then she felt the probing claws search for the opening of her chassis armor. It was then she knew. He was saying yes. He was going to bond with her.

Bitten knew that under her people's customs there was a ceremony. It usually involved a close friend of the family or a unit commander officiating a speech between the two members of the happy couple. Then they would celebrate with all of their friends and family, before the mech and femme went off to be alone to merge their sparks.

This…apparently wasn't how Predacons operated. Dinobot was just going to merge with her right there, right then. No party, no speeches, no unnecessary talk. Bitten searched for a word to properly describe their situation, and the only word she could think of was elope. So, they were eloping. Eloping felt warm, and it kind of hurt. Apparently Dinobot wasn't very good at eloping.


The newly bonded couple spent surprisingly little time enamored in each other's arms. They knew things back at base were still in chaos without Optimus Primal, so they made their honeymoon quick and dashed back to the Axalon.

When they returned, the greeting was…less than expected. Rattrap was the only one on the bridge, unless the prone form of Rhinox could be counted. The scene was rather odd, with purple energy seeping out of Rhinox's frame and Rattrap running around like Unicron was toasting his aft.

"What is going on here? Sentinel is online," Dinobot growled at the annoying rodent.

"Chopperface!" Rattrap exclaimed, actually happy to see Dinobot.

Bitten raised an optic ridge, and Rattrap quickly recovered his macho I-don't-give-a-frag attitude.

"Where have you two been?" Rattrap snapped, "Off savin' the universe?"

"Possibly," Dinobot replied unironically.

Dinobot, realizing from context clues that something had gone wrong and Rattrap was in way over his helm, activated the hidden weapons storage area in the ceiling. Guns of every sort were displayed on a simple iron shelf. Bitten, now able to feel Dinobot's spark, knew that his face didn't portray even a fraction of the excitement he felt at getting to use these overloaded instruments of destruction.

"Now, what is the emergency?" Dinobot asked sourly as he searched for an appropriate gun.

"Oh, well well, nothin' much," Rattrap said sarcastically, "Rhinox is off chasin' comets with his mind, and Cheetor is bringin' a squadron of Predacons home to play. Oh, and if the Preds hit this place Big Green goes permanently offline."

Bitten was confused by the strange slang Rattrap used, but fortunately Dinobot was already running scenarios of the situation through his processor. He chose a gun that was almost as long as he was, and tossed a smaller yet still powerful pistol to Rattrap.

"Then we need to take the fight to them," Dinobot declared.

"What about Rhinox?" Bitten asked.

"Well you're a pretty lousy fighter," Rattrap remarked, "You can bunker down here and keep our resident sleepin' beauty company."

Bitten could feel Dinobot's umbrage on her behalf over the bond, but she wasn't about to argue when time was so precious. The Predacons would be there any moment, and the Maximals had already lost one commanding officer. They couldn't afford to lose Rhinox as well.

With the agreement settled, Rattrap and Dinobot left to meet their enemies on the battlefield. Meanwhile, Bitten tried to figure out what Rhinox was doing. She checked Sentinel's status report, and it said Rhinox's spark was extended beyond the reaches of known space. That…didn't make sense at all. Had Maximal technology come so far that even normal mechs could send their sparks off into the cosmos like an immortal spark with no body? What had the Maximals done to achieve such amazing technology?


Out on the battlefield, the situation had gone from bad to worse. Cheetor had managed to meet up with Dinobot and Rattrap, so at least they had three instead of two. The problem was that the Predacons' ranks had been increased as well.

Two new Predacons, forged from what should have been Maximal sparks, stood by Megatron's side. They weren't just any new soldiers however. Their forms were…twisted. Combined. Mutated. They had fused two different animal forms together to become what they were now. It was hideous and beautiful at the same time.

The atmosphere was tense, everyone priming their weapons yet no one willing to make the first move. The Predacons outnumbered the Maximals two to one, yet the meager team knew they had to keep the Preds at bay if they were going to save Rhinox.

Megatron took out an old-fashioned handheld chronometer, a luxury among the Predacons, and watched as the holographic planets drew closer to alignment. Inferno's optics focused with his mission, Waspinator fluttered nervously, Tarantulas and the scorpion/snake fuzor looked ready to get lost in their bloodlust, while Megatron and the wolf/eagle fuzor kept their faces unreadable.

Before long, the chronometer changed, and while no one knew what Megatron had been waiting for, this moment was apparently it. He gave the command to fire, and the Predacons pumped laser and lead into the Maximals for all they were worth!

The Maximals hid in a ditch before they all became Pred chow, and Dinobot fired his weapon in the air hoping against all hope that he would hit something. It took several moments, but the noise eventually died down. Both sides went back to what they were doing before. Waiting.

"We've gotta get back out there," Cheetor insisted, "I can fly overhead and cause a distraction."

"Good plan," Rattrap said, though his voice indicated otherwise, "Just one problem."

Rattrap then threw a rock out of the ditch, and before it could hit the ground it had been shot by a hundred laser pellets and beams. When it hit the ground, it was nothing more than a pebble. All three mechs' optics went wide when they saw just how brutally their decoy had been attacked.

"Oh, man! It's times like this I really miss the boss monkey!" Rattrap whined.

"We don't have time for this. Fire!" Dinobot ordered.

With those words the trio leapt from their hiding place and began shooting again in earnest. At this the Predacons continued their assault, until both sides were shooting. With this exercise getting them nowhere, the Maximals dove back for cover in an attempt to regroup.

Megatron smiled an evil smile. He knew he had them dead to rights, and his troops would slaughter them in their hole.

"Now, my Predacons, finish them!" Megatron ordered gleefully.

"But, sir…we outnumber them two to one," Silverbolt noted.

"Yess…" Megatron said, though what he really meant was 'So?'

"We have twice their firepower!" The wolf fuzor continued.

"Yess…" Megatron indulged.

"Well…we should give them a chance to surrender," Silverbolt suggested.

"Um…no," Megatron deadpanned.

Megatron them used his tail-arm to smack the stupid out of Silverbolt.

"Never question my orders again, or I will tear you limb from mismatched limb!" Megatron yelled furiously at Silverbolt, "Understood?"

"Yes…sir," Silverbolt reluctantly replied.

"Good, now let's give these Maximals a quick and painful end," Megatron commanded.

"Wait!" The other fuzor, Quickstrike, suddenly intervened.

"What is it now?" Megatron sighed.

"Does it have to be quick?" Quickstrike asked, "Cause when I gots my enemies where I want 'em, I like to have a little fun first."

"I like the way you think, Quickstrike," Megatron smirked, "But business before pleasure. Now, flank their position and fire!"

The Predacons were quick to obey, especially given their leader's current ill-temper. If they didn't fire on the Maximals, then Megatron would start firing on them. It made Silverbolt question why he had joined this guy in the first place.

The Maximals meanwhile knew they didn't have much of a chance for survival if they kept this up for very long, but they were hoping it wouldn't be much longer. Rhinox just had to come back online, and then it wouldn't matter if the Preds got too close. Just a little longer…

"These Maximals are fools!" Silverbolt shouted as the battle continued, "We flank their position and yet they do not retreat. It is a hopeless cause and yet they fight."

"The Maximals are many things, but fools they are not," Megatron told his new recruit, "Hm, why are they being so reckless…?"

That was when Megatron saw it. The purple streaks of dusty matter streaming from their ship. Something was happening on the Axalon, something that might give the Maximals an edge in the war.

"They're trying to keep us from getting to their base!" Megatron roared, "Waspinator, Silverbolt, fly to their base and find out what they're trying to hide from us. I will not allow the Maximals to have an advantage over us. Waspinator, you're in charge of the assault. Go! Now!"

With these orders the pair of fliers took to the skies. If Silverbolt didn't know any better, he would say Waspinator looked…what was the word? Smug.


While the battle raged in the distance, Bitten had to do something to keep herself occupied. She had tried cleaning the base, but there really wasn't much that needed doing. Rhinox certainly wasn't ready for conversation, though frankly neither was Bitten. Her bond told her that Dinobot was frightened, but also excited due to the heat of battle. Hopefully his 'eloping' was a fluke, because she knew he would come back in quite the mood. For some reason battle made mechs lustful.

With nothing better to do, Bitten decided she wanted to search for some more information. There were many exciting historical records from before the Beast Era. She had read about the original Megatron's end, and a good chunk of Galvatron's reign. But there was so much more to know. How did the Autobots fare? How many Primes were there before the practice was abolished? Most importantly however, what about her family?

Honey Venom's and Quantum Boom's fates were already written in gold, to use the discs as a metaphor, but Bitten had one sister left: Phobia. Phobia was the youngest Sigma Sister, and since no one knew about Terrabyte's fate that meant Phobia was officially the last Sigma left alive. Did she make it to adulthood? Did she stay with the Autobots? Did she become a hero? Bitten had to know.

She typed the name Phobia into Sentinel's historical database, but got surprisingly little. As far as news stories written about Phobia, there was only one.

MASSACRE AT KLORYLL COLONY

Bitten already didn't like the looks of this. If Phobia's designation was mentioned in this context, then she was either a casualty, a hero, or a perpetrator. Any one of these options could have happened, given the vorn it was written. By this time Phobia would have received her adult upgrade. Terrabyte didn't get to know Phobia as an adult.

::The Decepticons, led by their leader Skorponok, have attacked a foundling home on Kloryll. 6 sparklings were killed, as well as the founder of the facility, Inferno. The heroic Autobot held off the Headmaster forces alone, allowing several caretakers to escape the planet with the beast-former sparklings.::

Inferno. Bitten had spent so long thinking of Inferno as a Predacon soldier that she had forgotten about his namesake, the Autobot Inferno. That posthumous picture of the dashing fire truck transformer graced a corner of the news article, his smile both daring and comforting. He was a dear friend of Phobia's adoptive sire; Red Alert. Inferno was practically an uncle to Phobia. She was likely on the planet because of him.

::Along with deaths and injuries, one Autobot civilian was abducted by the Decepticons. A young hearse-former named Phobia was subdued and captured following an attempt to escape the Decepticons with two sparklings. The sparklings were recovered safely, however no word has been reported on the whereabouts of Phobia. When questioned, Fortress Maximus assured the press that the Autobot Headmasters would do everything in their power to retrieve the femme in distress. The foundling home is currently under a state of emergency.::

Bitten expected a follow-up story on Phobia's abduction, but apparently there wasn't one. Bitten felt her stoic statuesque faceplate change into a look of glaring anger. They forgot about her! The Autobots just abandoned Phobia in her joor of need! How could they do that to a femme that gave so much to them?

The next few files weren't articles, but rather images. Oddly enough they were taken from the Tripredacus archives.

One was of a mech named Skorponok, the leader of the Decepticons at that point, sitting on a throne. Standing by his side was a short dull colored femme that could only be Phobia. There was no mistaking the featureless faceplate with no mouth in sight, the smooth helm, the narrow red optics, and the way she held her hands…

In the photo, the femme held her hands with the palms hidden from view. It looked dignified, but having known Phobia her entire life Bitten could tell that she was hiding the energon suckers attached to those hands. Phobia was an energon leech, a being that commanded superstition and hatred for most Cybertronians. Phobia always hated that part about herself. In fact, she had hated her body and face in general.

She looked miserable. The caption on the photo merely read: Skorponok and mate, year 3587 in the age of the Headmasters.

The second photo was a lot more grisly. It showed Skorponok in the act of ripping away one of Phobia's arms! The purple energon burst from the wound, and Phobia's optics looked shocked and were bright with pain. Bitten didn't understand why Skorponok would do this to his supposed bondmate, or who would be sick enough to photograph such a mutilation. The caption read: Skorponok was a ruthless tyrant. No one was safe from his wrath. Apparently this photo had been retrieved from a biographical data file.

There was one more photo, but Bitten was almost afraid to see it. The mental puzzle, however, was quickly falling into place. Phobia was no bride to Skorponok. She was his captured slave, take from her home and family with the Autobots and forced to become a Decepticon tool. Bitten had once loved the Decepticons, but Skorponok did not represent the cause her parents had served.

Curiosity overriding disgust, Bitten clicked on the final photo. This one was another glamor shot of a Decepticon sitting on a throne. This time however it wasn't Skorponok. It was a new mech, one with a slender body and tentacles snaking from his back. The light blue visor gave away nothing, but was a strange color to see on a Decepticon. He also had a tape deck on his chassis. So, this one was a carrier, made further evident by Phobia lovingly holding a pair of bird cassettes on each arm.

The caption read: System Error and mate, year 304 in the age of Beasts.

System Error? Who was that? Had Phobia managed to escape and find a new mate, or had she simply been given to another Decepticon that abused her? Her face looked happier in this photo, but perhaps she had simply become better at hiding her misery. Bitten had to know more about System Error.

::System Error. Born Video Error. The fourth and final long-term ruler of the Decepticons. He rose to power after killing his predecessor Skorponok in a fit of rage. System Error had defective processing circuits that caused five different sides of his personality to vie for dominance. This made him unpredictable and terrifying to friends and enemies alike. He kept his mechs on his side with a combination of noble Decepticon lineage, reward incentives, and threats of execution and/or torture. His first major victory was during the battle of Cha-::

Before Bitten could read further, there was a loud crash and something was thrown through the window!

She saw that there was a mech rising from the crash, but she…couldn't quite identify what animal he was supposed to be. To be fair, her specialty was earth animals and this mech might have chosen his alt mode off-world. As he looked down at her with those perplexed yellow optics only one question was on Bitten's processor…

Was this a Maximal, or a Predacon?