Transformers: Fractal Web (section: 10)
By Waspinatrix (waspinatrix@hotmail.com)
Legalese: Transformers, Autobots, Decepticons, Cybertron, Energon, Vector Sigma, the Matrix, Primus, Metroplex, Springer, Rodimus Prime, Arcee, Galvatron, Cyclonus, Unicron (or Unicrom), Perceptor, Sweeps, StarScream, ThunderCracker, Charr, Prowl, the Arialbots, Spike Witwicky are all property of HasKen and are used without permission for the express purpose of entertainment without profit.
Buster Witwicky, Mutants (Homo Sapient Superior), and the Mutant Registration Act are properties of Marvel Comics and are used without permission for the express purpose of entertainment without profit.
Mara Benedict, Sarai Benedict, Anthony Benedict, Marcus Benedict, Charles "Charlie" Reagan, Lourdes Maria Maza, FlameDancer, WhirlBlade and NightShade are copyrighted to me 1992-2000. This story is not to be redistributed in whole or part without my permission. Nor are my characters to be used without my permission. Reviews, questions and critiques are always welcome. Happy bidding, er.. reading. :D
(Part 31)
ThunderCracker relaxed for the first time in over four days. They were en route to Charr. Mara was unusually somber. The Sweep was concerned, but not knowing how to be nurturing, his mind turned towards avenging her. One of the Autobots must have done this to her. He would kill them.
~Easy ThunderCracker,~ Mara soothed, looking at him, and resting a hand on his shoulder. She had sensed where his dementia was going. ~No one did this to me, but myself.~ The Sweep didn't know what to make of her statement, she was too alien sometimes for his simplicity.
*
Home. Mara was the first off of the ship. Marcus was waiting for them.
"How'd it go?" he asked, as his eyes gravitated to Lourdes. Mara smiled, feeling a pang of envy. Young love. That was something that she didn't expect to experience.
"I'll let Lourdes tell you," she told him, excusing herself to follow the retreating form of ThunderCracker, her arms wrapped around her chest. Marcus worried about his cousin. He thought of calling to her, but she'd ignore him rather than divulge her pain.
"Why don't you go after her?" Lourdes asked.
"I can't," Marcus said, as he shivered. For a fleeting moment, he saw the death of a sun. The loss of love. And an end to a journey, one started long before he was born. The rare moment of clairvoyance left him drained, as he said, "she's going to die. Finally the circle will be broken..."
Lourdes gaped at Marcus, frightened by him. "What do you mean by that?" she demanded, her eyes narrowing.
"I don't know," he replied, shaking his head. The strange vision melted, leaving him drenched with emptiness, and futility. Whatever it was that gripped Mara wasn't finished just yet.
***
(Part 32)
Galvatron found Mara in the storage bay. She hadn't come to him all day. Other sources had told him of the treaty between the Charrnese and the Autobots, and he had wondered why she hadn't told him herself. The hellcat was curled in a corner. He held out his hand to her, for once he wanted her stand tall in his presence.
Their optics met, as she grasped his hand --
One instant, in a tidal wave of pandemonium, he understood, everything.
She was human, and he had killed her mother. He experienced Mara's death, and resurrection. How she had come to care for the Decepticons. To care for him. She had, in her own way, forgiven him for her mother's death. A battle was being waged on the field of her soul. The vicarious images faded before he could fathom them.
~Help me,~ she said, placing his hand over her heart, ~love me.~
They kissed, her lips parted willingly to his. Her finger tips traced lines of longing across his back. The desire to merge with her burned through him, as he lifted her by the waist, pinioning her with one arm to him. His other hand exploring her, inflaming her hunger, her desire.
Mara quivered. He knew her as no other man did. The passions, once dammed in him, flooded over. Sandwiched between him and the wall, she opened herself to him. They merged in a whirlwind of pleasure, verging on pain. Their desperation assuaged by the heat of the moment.
He held her to him, a momentary respite from the world. Stroking her hair, as it fell across his shoulder. She took his hand, lightly nipping the fingertips, and kissing the palm. 'He has given a live for a life,' Mara thought, grateful to him, as her hand touched her abdomen, 'he has made us all one.'
Galvatron would give her Cybertron. His thoughts were shattered under the avalanche of Unicrom's will. Cybertron belonged to Unicrom, and no one else. Galvatron's scream ended in a series of gurgling chokes. His hydraulics tearing themselves apart with intense convulsions. Mara held him down, pleading for Unicrom to stop.
Unicrom let the Decepticon leader slump, a rag doll, onto Mara's lap. Galvatron would live, barely. Mara wept with relief, and frustration. How could her people recapture their greatness with the sword of Unicrom's whim hung over their heads, suspended by a hair? In that moment of strange fate, Unicrom had made an enemy. The Dark God had over reached, and would lose a hand.
***
(Part 33)
Mara gazed at the bundle cradled protectively in her arms as she teleported. The abrupt flash of her arrival disrupted the serenity of the night. The breeze was the only thing that moved in the first moments after Mara's appearance. She and Sarai stood facing each other on Lookout Point, a strange twist of mirror and smoke, each the image of the other.
Sarai held Charlie's hand, not quite knowing what to think of her estranged daughter. A daughter who by her own choice was about to abandon her own daughter. Charlie privately marveled at the two women. They were like twins, about the same age through a deliberate act on his part. Both part machine, Sarai by necessity, Mara by chance. The two were also radically different, the opposite faces of the same coin. Sarai human looking with a light complexion, compared to Mara with her alloy skin of crimson and midnight.
~Thank you, ...Mother,~ Mara spoke first, through the portable radio that Charlie had brought along, her voice pensive, uneasy. The last time she had spoken with Sarai in any capacity was twenty years ago. She stepped forward, offering the child to Sarai.
Sarai hesitated. "Are you sure Mara? Do you really want to do this?" she asked her daughter, as she tried to read her face. Mara looked away, her azure optics flashed momentarily, as she steeled her resolve in the face of her mother's doubts, biting her tongue rather than ask Sarai the same stinging question. At least *her* daughter would be with parents who could love her, unlike Mara's childhood.
~Yes, Sarai,~ Mara said, ~and you are the only ones I can trust her to.~
Sarai felt the sting of the barrier Mara put between them. She accepted the child.
"What's her name?" Sarai asked, pulling the blanket aside to look at her granddaughter.
~I'm leaving that to you,~ Mara seemed to want to say more, but refrained. Sarai locked gazes with her.
"Mara -- " Sarai couldn't finish, what would she say? Mara had chosen her path. Sarai sighed, and said, "take care of yourself Mara. Come back to me, to us."
Mara looked away, her fists clenched, thinking of what lay ahead. Her mother would probably not understand. "I will," she lied. They both knew it was a lie, a veil to ease the pain of the inevitable. Mara looked up as she teleported away, and realized that, perhaps, Sarai understood more that Mara gave her mother credit for. The cycle was complete, the bonds broken.
Sarai and Charlie turned to walk down the path to return to Metroplex. A swirl of regrets, of "what ifs", if only she hadn't hurt Mara. Sarai couldn't sway Mara now any more than Mara could sway Sarai from making the same decision twenty years earlier. She looked at her grandchild, deciding she would do things right this time.
***
(Part 34)
Mara prepared herself. How much time did she need to complete her objective before Unicrom would retaliate? How much time did she actually have? There was no way to tell until it happened.
Leaning back against the wall, Mara cleared her mind of the doubts that plagued her. Reminding herself of her purpose for doing this. Her body glowed with the gold of fire, as her consciousness launched in to the Ethers. Focused sharp, a surgical knife.
*
Unicrom roared with anger. He had lost another Sweep! Two more! They were slipping from his control. The strings snapped, one by one, his fingers were being lobbed off. The astral pursuit began.
*
Mara's head rammed into the wall. She fought to avoid the pain and was losing. She wouldn't go down alone. Not yet. The Sweeps were free now, and Cyclonus would join their ranks.
*
Galvatron was startled by the collapse of his second. This was Unicrom's doing, and that puzzled Galvatron exceedingly. Cyclonus was the loyalist of Unicrom's minions. Mara's touch broke his thought. She was in his head, weakened and succumbing to Unicrom's power.
Mara was freeing him. Galvatron groped to help her, the weight of Unicrom's wrath pressing him down. The sudden buoyancy of his spirit, as the shackles of slavery fell away, elated him.
~NOOO!!!~ Unicrom's futile scream echoed and faded forever from his mind.
Another scream, audible, tore through Galvatron. He bolted to find Mara! She needed help!
*
Unicrom, raged beyond rational thought, struck at Mara, shredding through her vary existence. Mara found her voice, crying out as her spirit fled, escaping Unicrom's wrath. The Demon God had lost.
*
The death knell had drawn Decepticons and Charrnese from all quarters of the citadel. Silence reigned. Marcus clung to Lourdes. They watched Galvatron gently lift the body of their savior. Her hair fell across Galvatron's arm. She had never looked so at peace, until now.
***
(Part 35)
Sarai and Charlie sat with the rest of the Charrnese. Sarai was bouncing her granddaughter to keep her appeased. WhirlBlade, Springer and FlameDancer, the only Autobots present, stood in the back. WhirlBlade felt bad that he had misjudged the female Decepticon. Springer's optics shone brightly with grief.
Galvatron listened to the mournful eulogy than Marcus gave. The human had known her best. The Decepticon looked at Sarai, and the child she cradled in her arms. His child, her's now. It was how Mara wanted it. Let them have the girl, she would live without wont.
"Charr's sun will burn brighter, as remember her each day.." Marcus concluded, wiping his eyes, as the rocket launched, carrying Mara's remains to rest with the evening sun.
***
(Part 36)
"Mara," Prowl said, taking the spirit of his daughter into his embrace. She stirred, and looked up. Her face confused, as she tried to remember why this Autobot was so familiar to her.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Prowl laughed warmly, saying, "your guardian angel."
"No," she shook her head, "I know you. You were there, with Charlie, when I ran away -- and you were there for me when Unicrom changed me. Who are you? Why would you care so much?"
"How could I abandon you, Mara? You're my daughter."
Tears of recognition came to her optics. "Father?" she whispered.
"Yes," he affirmed, as he wiped away the moisture on her face.
"Did you come to take me home?"
"No. Not yet. You have a life to live. A life not carved out by destiny before you were born."
"No! Take me with you, please!" she cried.
"Shh," he soothed, "I'll be here when you are ready to cross over." He kissed her forehead tenderly. The only memory she would have of this encounter was one of finding her self whole. Never having to miss, or curse an unknown father again.
End--
By Waspinatrix (waspinatrix@hotmail.com)
Legalese: Transformers, Autobots, Decepticons, Cybertron, Energon, Vector Sigma, the Matrix, Primus, Metroplex, Springer, Rodimus Prime, Arcee, Galvatron, Cyclonus, Unicron (or Unicrom), Perceptor, Sweeps, StarScream, ThunderCracker, Charr, Prowl, the Arialbots, Spike Witwicky are all property of HasKen and are used without permission for the express purpose of entertainment without profit.
Buster Witwicky, Mutants (Homo Sapient Superior), and the Mutant Registration Act are properties of Marvel Comics and are used without permission for the express purpose of entertainment without profit.
Mara Benedict, Sarai Benedict, Anthony Benedict, Marcus Benedict, Charles "Charlie" Reagan, Lourdes Maria Maza, FlameDancer, WhirlBlade and NightShade are copyrighted to me 1992-2000. This story is not to be redistributed in whole or part without my permission. Nor are my characters to be used without my permission. Reviews, questions and critiques are always welcome. Happy bidding, er.. reading. :D
(Part 31)
ThunderCracker relaxed for the first time in over four days. They were en route to Charr. Mara was unusually somber. The Sweep was concerned, but not knowing how to be nurturing, his mind turned towards avenging her. One of the Autobots must have done this to her. He would kill them.
~Easy ThunderCracker,~ Mara soothed, looking at him, and resting a hand on his shoulder. She had sensed where his dementia was going. ~No one did this to me, but myself.~ The Sweep didn't know what to make of her statement, she was too alien sometimes for his simplicity.
*
Home. Mara was the first off of the ship. Marcus was waiting for them.
"How'd it go?" he asked, as his eyes gravitated to Lourdes. Mara smiled, feeling a pang of envy. Young love. That was something that she didn't expect to experience.
"I'll let Lourdes tell you," she told him, excusing herself to follow the retreating form of ThunderCracker, her arms wrapped around her chest. Marcus worried about his cousin. He thought of calling to her, but she'd ignore him rather than divulge her pain.
"Why don't you go after her?" Lourdes asked.
"I can't," Marcus said, as he shivered. For a fleeting moment, he saw the death of a sun. The loss of love. And an end to a journey, one started long before he was born. The rare moment of clairvoyance left him drained, as he said, "she's going to die. Finally the circle will be broken..."
Lourdes gaped at Marcus, frightened by him. "What do you mean by that?" she demanded, her eyes narrowing.
"I don't know," he replied, shaking his head. The strange vision melted, leaving him drenched with emptiness, and futility. Whatever it was that gripped Mara wasn't finished just yet.
***
(Part 32)
Galvatron found Mara in the storage bay. She hadn't come to him all day. Other sources had told him of the treaty between the Charrnese and the Autobots, and he had wondered why she hadn't told him herself. The hellcat was curled in a corner. He held out his hand to her, for once he wanted her stand tall in his presence.
Their optics met, as she grasped his hand --
One instant, in a tidal wave of pandemonium, he understood, everything.
She was human, and he had killed her mother. He experienced Mara's death, and resurrection. How she had come to care for the Decepticons. To care for him. She had, in her own way, forgiven him for her mother's death. A battle was being waged on the field of her soul. The vicarious images faded before he could fathom them.
~Help me,~ she said, placing his hand over her heart, ~love me.~
They kissed, her lips parted willingly to his. Her finger tips traced lines of longing across his back. The desire to merge with her burned through him, as he lifted her by the waist, pinioning her with one arm to him. His other hand exploring her, inflaming her hunger, her desire.
Mara quivered. He knew her as no other man did. The passions, once dammed in him, flooded over. Sandwiched between him and the wall, she opened herself to him. They merged in a whirlwind of pleasure, verging on pain. Their desperation assuaged by the heat of the moment.
He held her to him, a momentary respite from the world. Stroking her hair, as it fell across his shoulder. She took his hand, lightly nipping the fingertips, and kissing the palm. 'He has given a live for a life,' Mara thought, grateful to him, as her hand touched her abdomen, 'he has made us all one.'
Galvatron would give her Cybertron. His thoughts were shattered under the avalanche of Unicrom's will. Cybertron belonged to Unicrom, and no one else. Galvatron's scream ended in a series of gurgling chokes. His hydraulics tearing themselves apart with intense convulsions. Mara held him down, pleading for Unicrom to stop.
Unicrom let the Decepticon leader slump, a rag doll, onto Mara's lap. Galvatron would live, barely. Mara wept with relief, and frustration. How could her people recapture their greatness with the sword of Unicrom's whim hung over their heads, suspended by a hair? In that moment of strange fate, Unicrom had made an enemy. The Dark God had over reached, and would lose a hand.
***
(Part 33)
Mara gazed at the bundle cradled protectively in her arms as she teleported. The abrupt flash of her arrival disrupted the serenity of the night. The breeze was the only thing that moved in the first moments after Mara's appearance. She and Sarai stood facing each other on Lookout Point, a strange twist of mirror and smoke, each the image of the other.
Sarai held Charlie's hand, not quite knowing what to think of her estranged daughter. A daughter who by her own choice was about to abandon her own daughter. Charlie privately marveled at the two women. They were like twins, about the same age through a deliberate act on his part. Both part machine, Sarai by necessity, Mara by chance. The two were also radically different, the opposite faces of the same coin. Sarai human looking with a light complexion, compared to Mara with her alloy skin of crimson and midnight.
~Thank you, ...Mother,~ Mara spoke first, through the portable radio that Charlie had brought along, her voice pensive, uneasy. The last time she had spoken with Sarai in any capacity was twenty years ago. She stepped forward, offering the child to Sarai.
Sarai hesitated. "Are you sure Mara? Do you really want to do this?" she asked her daughter, as she tried to read her face. Mara looked away, her azure optics flashed momentarily, as she steeled her resolve in the face of her mother's doubts, biting her tongue rather than ask Sarai the same stinging question. At least *her* daughter would be with parents who could love her, unlike Mara's childhood.
~Yes, Sarai,~ Mara said, ~and you are the only ones I can trust her to.~
Sarai felt the sting of the barrier Mara put between them. She accepted the child.
"What's her name?" Sarai asked, pulling the blanket aside to look at her granddaughter.
~I'm leaving that to you,~ Mara seemed to want to say more, but refrained. Sarai locked gazes with her.
"Mara -- " Sarai couldn't finish, what would she say? Mara had chosen her path. Sarai sighed, and said, "take care of yourself Mara. Come back to me, to us."
Mara looked away, her fists clenched, thinking of what lay ahead. Her mother would probably not understand. "I will," she lied. They both knew it was a lie, a veil to ease the pain of the inevitable. Mara looked up as she teleported away, and realized that, perhaps, Sarai understood more that Mara gave her mother credit for. The cycle was complete, the bonds broken.
Sarai and Charlie turned to walk down the path to return to Metroplex. A swirl of regrets, of "what ifs", if only she hadn't hurt Mara. Sarai couldn't sway Mara now any more than Mara could sway Sarai from making the same decision twenty years earlier. She looked at her grandchild, deciding she would do things right this time.
***
(Part 34)
Mara prepared herself. How much time did she need to complete her objective before Unicrom would retaliate? How much time did she actually have? There was no way to tell until it happened.
Leaning back against the wall, Mara cleared her mind of the doubts that plagued her. Reminding herself of her purpose for doing this. Her body glowed with the gold of fire, as her consciousness launched in to the Ethers. Focused sharp, a surgical knife.
*
Unicrom roared with anger. He had lost another Sweep! Two more! They were slipping from his control. The strings snapped, one by one, his fingers were being lobbed off. The astral pursuit began.
*
Mara's head rammed into the wall. She fought to avoid the pain and was losing. She wouldn't go down alone. Not yet. The Sweeps were free now, and Cyclonus would join their ranks.
*
Galvatron was startled by the collapse of his second. This was Unicrom's doing, and that puzzled Galvatron exceedingly. Cyclonus was the loyalist of Unicrom's minions. Mara's touch broke his thought. She was in his head, weakened and succumbing to Unicrom's power.
Mara was freeing him. Galvatron groped to help her, the weight of Unicrom's wrath pressing him down. The sudden buoyancy of his spirit, as the shackles of slavery fell away, elated him.
~NOOO!!!~ Unicrom's futile scream echoed and faded forever from his mind.
Another scream, audible, tore through Galvatron. He bolted to find Mara! She needed help!
*
Unicrom, raged beyond rational thought, struck at Mara, shredding through her vary existence. Mara found her voice, crying out as her spirit fled, escaping Unicrom's wrath. The Demon God had lost.
*
The death knell had drawn Decepticons and Charrnese from all quarters of the citadel. Silence reigned. Marcus clung to Lourdes. They watched Galvatron gently lift the body of their savior. Her hair fell across Galvatron's arm. She had never looked so at peace, until now.
***
(Part 35)
Sarai and Charlie sat with the rest of the Charrnese. Sarai was bouncing her granddaughter to keep her appeased. WhirlBlade, Springer and FlameDancer, the only Autobots present, stood in the back. WhirlBlade felt bad that he had misjudged the female Decepticon. Springer's optics shone brightly with grief.
Galvatron listened to the mournful eulogy than Marcus gave. The human had known her best. The Decepticon looked at Sarai, and the child she cradled in her arms. His child, her's now. It was how Mara wanted it. Let them have the girl, she would live without wont.
"Charr's sun will burn brighter, as remember her each day.." Marcus concluded, wiping his eyes, as the rocket launched, carrying Mara's remains to rest with the evening sun.
***
(Part 36)
"Mara," Prowl said, taking the spirit of his daughter into his embrace. She stirred, and looked up. Her face confused, as she tried to remember why this Autobot was so familiar to her.
"Who are you?" she asked.
Prowl laughed warmly, saying, "your guardian angel."
"No," she shook her head, "I know you. You were there, with Charlie, when I ran away -- and you were there for me when Unicrom changed me. Who are you? Why would you care so much?"
"How could I abandon you, Mara? You're my daughter."
Tears of recognition came to her optics. "Father?" she whispered.
"Yes," he affirmed, as he wiped away the moisture on her face.
"Did you come to take me home?"
"No. Not yet. You have a life to live. A life not carved out by destiny before you were born."
"No! Take me with you, please!" she cried.
"Shh," he soothed, "I'll be here when you are ready to cross over." He kissed her forehead tenderly. The only memory she would have of this encounter was one of finding her self whole. Never having to miss, or curse an unknown father again.
End--