For Father
By Master Solo
Summary: Dinobot has a female 'clone' whom he never knew anything about and like Dinobot, this clone is faced with some hard choices.
Note: I accept the rejected episode about Rattrap downloading DB's memories into the TM2 as canon.
All for Cybertron and Cybertron for Predacons!
That was the unquestioned, grounding principle by which Katan lived and fought until recently. It was the number one code amongst the TriPredaGuards, an elite group of bodyguards who accompanied Predacon politicians.
The small and yet thickly built femme glanced around, pretending to smile as she scanned the guests at the ceremony. She passed over Rattrap, Botanica, and Cheetor, but stopped when she saw Silverbolt, Blackarachnia, and the wolf that was created from their basic designs. Those three were the parents and sister of her worst enemy, and yet they were her father's comrades. Thousands of anguished thoughts threatened to rise up and swallow Katan when she thought of Silverbolt and Blackarachnia's legendary bonding ceremony, but she brushed aside the memory. She wondered whose idea it was to invite a bunch of Beast Warriors to the occasion. A feeling of disgust rose within Katan as she caught herself recognizing her enemy's sister as a close sister rather than an ally, but, fortunately, the anger subsided when Katan's optics fell upon her loyal TriPredaGuards, who followed her in her defection from the TriPredacus Council.
However, the relief was only momentary, for Katan was soon forced to gaze at the handsome and yet disgusting face before her, the one of her soon-to-be sparkmate. Of all the possible places, he chose to imprint that Maximal badge on his cheek. To make matters worse, recent events had led her to kneel before a Maximal, a traditional enemy of the Predacons, and since they were bonding, that dratted Maximal had to get on his knees before her. If only that was nothing but a duel in a gym and she was on her knees because she had been knocked off her feet. However, Katan could not possibly duel because her trident, her only weapon, was locked away for the time being.
Katan tore her gaze away from the handsome face that, in her opinion, the Maximal badge ruined, and decided that she had enough of the torture. Just how did a bot work from being her prisoner to her sparkmate anyways? Sure, he was good-looking, but he was a coward who turned tail and tried to assassinate the very one whom he was assigned to protect.
Just as the femme was about to cancel the bonding, a taunting voice in her head reminded her that her soon-to-be sparkmate was trying to eliminate her enemy and that she herself had betrayed her bosses. Was the ceremony supposed to be a union of darkness and dishonor because both parties were traitors to their respective causes? All of a sudden, Katan began to feel as if she was attending a friend's funeral. But he was the one who had talked her into leaving the mainstream Predacons, the first step of the process that brought her to her present situation.
Katan could hear her mechfluid rushing through her audio receptors. Why did she keep silent when she could have redeemed herself by simply recanting her agreement to bond with Starfire and bow before the TriPredacus Council with the lieutenants she took with her? For a few nanoseconds, the femme reverted to a somewhat childlike state and wished that her 'father' would come and help her, even though she knew that Dinobot never learned of her existence. Even if he did, he probably would not acknowledged her because she had no alternate form and was only half his size and he would not have cared the slightest about the bonding.
Still, Katan wondered if Dinobot could give advice as the square board dangled between her and Starfire, rotating as it displayed the Maximal symbol on one face and the Predacon emblem on the other. In the reflection on Starfire's silver face, she saw one of Dinobot's swords, which the famed Beast Warriors had preserved and carried with them up to that day.
Then the stunned Katan saw her 'father's' return to Megatron and all the rest of his memories until the point where he backed his data onto the Axalon's computer. Impossibly, her foolish wish for wisdom had been granted; Dinobot, through his memories, was telling her that being a good Predacon meant sticking to the values, not following certain leaders.
Remind me to thank Rattrap for showing me those files, even though he's called me fifteen different names. Katan told her internal computer, but cancelled the request when she remembered that allowing the rat through the doors was her way of thanking him after he mercilessly teased both Katan and Starfire. The advice meant that she had to evaluate those Councilors and the Maximal, Rebel organizers.
"Don't tell me yer thinking of going back to those corrupt…" Rattrap began, but Katan never caught the remainder of the comment, nor did she need to. TriPredaGuards defended the world of politics from corruption, so, if the Council was truly as Rattrap had described, then she had no choice but to battle against the Empire that they had established on Cybertron. Even if… Katan blinked the thought away, for there was no if when it came to the three who not only aligned themselves with the oppressive, selfish, wolf, but considered themselves his equal and organized the coup d'état that she never approved of; those four Emperors were to be removed, plain and simple.
Katan's false smile became a real one on her gray, metallic face. Oh well, it was not like she was actually betraying the Predacon cause, for in her act, she was remaining Predacon and defending Cybertron according to the Code, which never specified loyalty to the Council. It was just 'all for Cybertron and Cybertron for Maximals and her Predacons, the real members of the faction'. Besides, giving her life to a trusted friend was nothing compared to her parent's feat; it was merely the final step of the process that Dinobot started when he became a Maximal. Most of all, it was her Predacon friends who cheered the loudest upon hearing the news of her bonding.
"Commander Starfire, my spark will bind with yours. Viva Pax Cybertronia." With those historical words, Katan sealed the alliance between the Maximals and her Predacons, who considered themselves to be the true Predacons.