Disclaimer: Beast Wars are still not mine.

Part nine

It's your fault…

It's your fault…

It's your fault…

He had thought so himself but now that she had said it, it hurt beyond measure. How could he mess up again? He was given a second chance and he blew it! Now they would take him away and probably kill him and there would be no one left with the knowledge of what could happen. Clearcut had hinted that they had acted on his idea to cut a piece of X's spark. Or at least they were considering it. But even so the killer might still find a way to escape. He had to be destroyed!

The Guardian's work wasn't finished. He would fail again.

The thought of failure was what brought him to his senses. It was time for desperate measures. He had to tell someone, in case he didn't survive.

Mind Game was at the door when Depth Charge caught her hand.

"Let me go!"

"I have to tell you something."

"Leave me alone, I don't want to hear!"

"Mind Game, please, listen to me!"

"NO! I want nothing to do with you!"

I have to make her listen…

"I think your daughter might still be alive!"

She froze.

Forgive me.

He hated himself for saying that. He had only said it to make the psychiatrist hear him out. It was a lie. Starlet was dead, if not from the operation then from her weak spark. But he forced himself to continue.

"Mind Game, these people who took you daughter… They might be lying. Its possible that they want you to think she's dead so you don't go looking for her."

She was staring up at him, eyes filled with tears but her look steady. She really had some strength, that one, and it took all of his not to look away. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have gotten you into this in the first place. But it felt so good not to be alone!

He should have known! There were rules when dealing with X. It had caused him dearly to learn them. How could he break them now? Allowing himself emotions other than anger and hatred, letting people get close to him… As if all his time as a hunter had taught him nothing!

But the mistakes were already made. He didn't want to use the femme like this but he had no choice now.

"Why would they need her?" she asked.

"I'm not sure. But I'm going down there tonight and if she's there I'll find her. But there's a chance I won't be back. And there's something I have to tell you but knowing it will put you in danger. So it's… It's your choice."

There was a pause during which she simply looked at him. Then…

"I'm listening." Came the soft reply.

Rampage could only guess at what Dr. Clearcut and Dr. Chillcold were up to now. The pain had returned while he was alone in his cell so he concluded they must be doing something to the part of his spark they had cut out.

It had been unbearable at first but now it had started to ease. Very slowly. For quite some time he was unable to focus on anything but the pain but when it finally reached a more manageable level he felt something else too.

The experience resembled something he had gone trough before and it brought back very unpleasant memories.

But it wasn't quite the same, mostly because it wasn't entirely unpleasant.

Like someone was holding his spark in their hands but without clutching. The presence was weak but it was drawing strength from him. He could feel the drain.

There were sounds in the corridor outside. The door of the cell next to his opened and closed but he was too distracted to pay attention for the moment.

Rampage's empathic sense was mostly attuned to anger, fear and pain. Out of these three he could only feel a dull constant pain in the unknown creature. But even that was gradually fading.

His own pain faded with it until he could only feel the wedges piercing his arms, legs and middle section to keep him immobile. He tried to ignore that. At least now he could say for sure that the creature was another robot. And…

That felt strange. What he sensed was… calmness. It was something he had never felt until he was forced to join the Predacons and even then they had rarely been calm around him. Never to that extent. The person was probably asleep.

He was curious by nature but it didn't occur to him to be curious when he was in such agony all the time. Now though he felt interested.

He reached for the emotion, cautiously at first. Then he let himself sink into it. The other spark was touching his and the feeling enveloped him.

Rampage closed his eyes with a sigh. It wasn't fear or pain but somehow he enjoyed it. It helped dull his own pain and… well… loneliness. After he had started thinking of Depth Charge only as his enemy he had finally had to face the fact that he was lonely. And, especially in this place, having company was a relief. Even if the company didn't know he was there.

Well, he better enjoy while he could. No one stayed that calm and innocent for long. Especially not around him.

"Colleagues, I think we've done a brilliant job!"

"Indeed. I believe we are getting as close to Primus as anyone could ever get."

"Dr. Chillcold, do we actually know how this is going to affect her?"

Oh. So it was a she.

"Oh, I have a pretty good idea. The stronger spark influences the weaker. Protoform X's spark is stronger. So after a time she will become another like him. A killer."

"Hmm… Is that good for us?"

"Oh, we will have to be careful. But she's not powerful enough to be a threat."

"She won't be immortal, will she?'

"Of course not! But the piece of an immortal spark she carries will heal her injuries to some extent. It already fixed her spark problem. It was the main reason for the experiment. If one day one of us needs fixing…"

"Do you think it's possible that Protoform X might… I don't know, get attached to her? If you say they will be so much like one another…"

"They will have some things in common, yes, but she's still a real robot while it is merely an experiment. Even if I believed the Protoform had feelings I wouldn't advise it to get attached. I'm certain she will hate it."

Laughter.

He felt a small stab in his spark that had nothing to do with the experiments performed on it. At least not the physical ones.

He was sure they always had these conversations in front of his cell on purpose. Though they would never admit he had a mind of his own they seemed to enjoy trying to upset him. Either by describing their plans for him in detail or leading loud dialogues such as this one, emphasizing that he was a thing no one would ever accept the way he was.

Suddenly he wanted to withdraw as far from the other spark as possible. Which wasn't much, considering their proximity. Great, he couldn't get away. He didn't usually mind sensing others' emotions but not having a choice was a different thing.

The feeling of calmness seeped away to be replaced by the all too familiar loathing. This new robot was just the nest torture device. Like TM2 Dinobot had been.

Except that the schizophrenic artificially created raptor had only had room for three or so emotions while this one was capable of much more as he discovered when she started to wake.