Disclaimer: Beast Wars don't belong to me. You're surprised, aren't you?

A/N: Well, I was asked to use quotation marks so there you go. But if you look in books, they often use apostrophes instead. Thanks for the reviews!

Part three

How suitable. How very suitable. The cold foggy night, the heavy damp air, the mud under is feet. Right out of a human horror movie. And it was the best possible time for Protoform X to arrive.

Depth Charge was standing with a few of his men at the back entrance of the research facility, waiting. A spaceship had just landed on the planet in the dead of night. According to the crew, it was delayed due to "technical difficulties". On his part, he was sure their timing was carefully chosen. It was a secret project after all; they had to keep it hidden. And dark things were best hidden in the dark.

He shifted nervously and moved his hand to rest on his gun. Though he kept reminding himself that the thing he feared wouldn't happen tonight, he seemed unable to relax. Even his people had noticed how edgy their chief had been the last few days and they had been trying to stay out of his way. That was fine with him since he was avoiding everyone too. Especially bots he was more familiar with. He didn't like the little voice at the back of his mind constantly telling him the person in front of him was dead and providing images to illustrate it…

Suddenly a sharp beep pierced the air. Depth Charged jumped in panic along with his companions before realizing it had come from his own computer.

"Protoform X detected!"

"What! This isn't possible!" he scanned his surroundings frantically.

"Chief? Everything all right? What was that?"

Depth Charge stared at the bot in shock for a moment then shook his head.

"Everything is all right." he managed, quickly silencing the special radar he hadn't realized he still had.

By Primus! How? This vortex… time-hole… thing… he had fallen into had changed his body back to its original structure. But it obviously hadn't removed some of the improvements.

Good. This was good. But he was vaguely aware of his men staring at him, which wasn't good. He took several deep breaths to calm himself.

"It's just a radar that's malfunctioning. It startled me, that's all."

But it wasn't malfunctioning, was it?

Something in the distance caught his attention. He squinted to see trough the thick fog. For several moments there were only shadows. Then when they came closer they turned out to be a large group of about thirty bots. Ten scientists and twenty special security officers as far as he remembered. The ones at the back were dragging some kind of metal container on wheels. It looked relatively large but Depth Charge knew it was just big enough for the robot inside. He felt a chill run trough his spine. There he was. X. And the question popped in his mind again.

Does he really know too?

That question had been tormenting him all week and there was only one way to answer it.

But not now, he reminded himself. He would have to be very careful not to get in trouble. Because if he did, there would be no one to stop X.

He tore his gaze from the container when one of the bots stepped forward.

"I assume you're Depth Charge. I am Stunner, the Chief of the Special Security. And this is doctor Chillcold and doctor Clearcut. They lead the scientific team."

He indicated a thin purple transformer and a small femme in crimson and gold. Depth Charge remembered he had found her attractive the previous time he had… well… met her for the first time… but that was about all he had noticed about her. He hadn't paid much attention to any of the others either. But now his senses were painfully sharp and he noticed some rather unnerving details.

Stunner had a very unpleasant smile. It was somehow… obscene. On second look all of the special security officers wore similar expressions. Then he realized that what he was really seeing was X's smile on every face he looked at.

Everything seemed creepy tonight.

Dr. Chillcold's piercing blue optics seemed too indifferent. As if they didn't see but always observed.

And Dr. Clearcut's beautiful golden ones were studying him with mild interest, as if he was some curious artifact.

It was all paranoia. He would have never seen these things if it weren't for that sense of foreboding.

He suddenly realized he had been checking the new arrivals' documents without being aware of it. It was pointless anyway. He knew there was nothing wrong with the documents, which didn't change his desire to personally stuff the bots back in their ship along with the monster they had brought with them and send them to the other end of the Universe.

He let them in instead. He had no choice. He watched as they dragged the metal container inside and barely restrained himself from opening fire on it.

Why did it have to happen on his colony?

A/N: OK, you know the deal, guys. Please be kind and review. I wanna know what you think.