-Look at chapter 8 for disclaimer.

Chapter 10: Deep Metal

Click. Click. Pan out. Inspect. Launch diagnostic.

"I never knew you had experience in computers"

Ignore, my eyes squinted as they studied the display for any faulty codes and/or viruses. My attention was on my assignment.

"Giving me the silent treatment huh?"

And not on our newest addition, although I had no issues with Blackarachnia -heck, I was happy that we had another tech savvy team member who just so happened to be one of my favorite beast warriors- sometimes I found being in her company was (how would one put it?) tricky. Particularly since she had joined our ranks two weeks prior to our little assignment together, in which we hadn't really interacted much in that time. I suppose it would be childish to ignore her, "My apologies, it's difficult for me to talk and work at the same time. It's nothing personal" well said…really hoping she doesn't poison me in my sleep

Dark voids broadened. Only by a little "Ah, so you're not anti-social. You just can't multitask" whether she intended for it to be insulting or not…the truth hurt. I sighed bitterly, but smirked.

"I suppose…was that intended to be a double whammy or what?"

"To tell the truth; no"

"I'm going to refocus on the task at hand now"

She simply shrugged. We then went about mapping out any faults that we detected.

I stared at the wall thoughtfully. Thankful that I was able to cooperate with BA quickly and efficiently, the repairs being done in well under two hours…thus leaving me in my current state: Boredom. But it was the kind of boredom that initiated deep thought, which I didn't mind at all. So what was after the Axalon being lost… I rubbed my temples it's amazing how I can still remember so much from the show even when so much time passes between 'episodes'.It must have been the suspense that made my head hurt, likely because I had a hunch on what episode I was drawing near…or already in. I swung my legs over my bed, if I remember correctly DC's coming soon! My hands grasped my head, oh the suspense! and my fingers twitched with the eagerness to do something. Rhinox is working, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia are on guard duty, Rattrap and Dinobot are probably arguing somewhere, Primus knows what Trailblazer's doing, Optimus is…doing Optimus things, and so who does that leave? Maybe I can-

A rapid knocking at my door made me sit up "Hey Cass you in there?"

Cheetor's probably just as bored as me, huh "Yeah, you can come in if you want" the room door opened, revealing Cheetor in beast mode. He was clearly ready for something.

"I was going to go on patrol with Trailblazer but I can't find him anywhere…so…you wanna come with?"

Yay! Outside! "I most certainly will. Have you told Optimus about the change in plan?" because self-assigning behind Optimus' back was a big no-no, mainly because everyone needed to do their part and follow orders. Why you ask? Because we had long since moved into Mount St. Hilary, and so 'eff-ups' were not tolerated.

"I was going to head to the command center once you said 'yes'"

Cheeky kid, I rolled my eyes and walked out into the hallway "Alrighty then" and made my way to our 'new' or rather 'same' command center, which was the good portion of the Axalon that hadn't sunk to the bottom of the sea. Apparently in their time of salvaging the Axalon, my absence had slowed their progress slightly as Optimus would also send search parties which consisted mainly of Trailblazer along with another beast warrior. Except for later that next day when Trailblazer had stuck around, whereas everyone else was hands-on deck for retrieving the rest of the Axalon. I, supposedly, had missed them by a half-hour. At least good ol' Blazer stayed, I smirked at the thought of my loyal friend as I quickened my pace to a light jog whilst I reminded myself that I needed to triple my exercise. The exercise quickly becoming a race as Cheetor challenged me 'subtly'. And by subtly: "Race ya!" I meant outright wagging his tail in my face.

"Anything to get your chrome fly swatter out of my face!" I entered a dead sprint.

As we entered the command center, we were both in disbelief to see we had tied. Oh well, no problem with that, the feeling Cheetor had was a little more optimistic "Nice! Guess I'm not the only cheetah around!" as he entered bot form, he held out his palm "High five!"

And so we high-five'd.

"I take it you are ready?" Optimus smiled softly.

"I sure am Big-Bot! But…I couldn't find Trailblazer. Is it okay if I bring Cassie instead?"

I heard some crashing followed by cursing. Trailblazer lumbered in clumsily with his arms full of scrap metal, a sure sign he was either reassigned because he was a whiner or…

"Trailblazer's convinced he can make our blast doors more resilient" Rhinox explained.

"Ah" requested he do a task too valuable for Optimus to pass up and then was reassigned.

"Or he's just afraid of water-" Cheetor mumbled.

"I'll skin you and use your hide to reinforce these doors!" the transmetal horse's yell echoed from the hall that led to the blast doors, which startled Cheetor and made me cackle like a witch.

That same moment replayed in my head hours later as me and Cheetor reached the sector we were to survey. I suppressed chuckles as we neared the ocean "Hey the water looks nice wanna go for a swim?"

"Oh haha"

Hehehe he's as salty as the ocean after being singled out by Trailblazer "You're not angry are you? After all, you were in such a good mood this morning…"

"Yeah I'm okay…it's just, does Trailblazer hate me or something? He's been acting weird" and there he was again, concerned about another's well being. Primus I adored that kid.

He has been acting a little off since the Axalon had sunk…but I don't think he'd take out his anger on a single person, I recalled that moment when he found me by the bluff. He was very relieved…and something else. There was no doubt something had happened between him and our team during my absence. His bitterness grew slightly when we had returned that night -it was also a long journey from the bluff to the Maximal's new base, and Optimus had assigned me a room right away. Not that our fearless leader knew, but the room I was given was nowhere near Trailblazers' new room, and that may have upset my 'big brother'. "…he's…he'll get better. Just needs some time to readjust after all the stressful nonsense he's been through" I reassured the young cat.

"Huh, that's right…he thought you died"

Oh my I shook my head before I had the chance to recollect that frightening ordeal, no need for that, focus on the task at hand- "Whoa!" but I didn't focus fast enough as I failed to notice Cheetors' brake maneuver. I clutched whatever I could to avoid flying off and then set my panicked eyes on a…meteor? No, not a meteor, but something more exciting. Depth Charge's ship!

"Cheetor to Optimus do you copy?"

FishBoy is coming! Yay!

:"Optimus here, what is it Cheetor?":

"We're in grid Alpha 7, something's coming out of the sky…something hot"

"It's a ship, try not to get us flattened" I warned Cheetor, the cat gave a half-assed grin.

:"Follow it you two! And stay in touch, I'm on my way!":

We continued to gaze at the ship as it burned from entry…and as it got closer and closer, Cheetor finally saw that I was right.

"Hey you're right it's a…a StarHopper?! No!"

I thanked Primus that it was angled so it would have landed in the water, "…come on, whoever's in there might need our help"

"Yes ma'am…but first" the transmetal feline flew over and landed gracefully on the top of the nearest cliff. Without a single word of protest, I hopped off, even when I knew it was that area of the cliff.

"Careful. Something might jump out and bite you" I grinned as Cheetor shot a 'shut up' glance and flew away. But my grin melted away into a frown as I watched the waves claim the StarHopper, damn…it really is a cool little ship I sat and my legs dangled over the cliff. Not a care in the world -well, that was until I soon heard the sound of a tank in the distance, oh shit- I slung myself over the edge of the cliff and hung there. While hidden, I heard Rampage roll up and whisper something, and then laugh maniacally. I didn't need to peek over my cover to know what he was going to do next. Nope! I pulled out my (new) walkie-talkie and pressed the button in one quick motion, "Cheetor incoming!" a pair of red/orange optics snapped in my direction, but not on the missile that scored a direct hit. I stayed down in the off-chance that the crab had heard me but wasn't sure where I was-

A massive claw tightened around me.

Which he knew, ugh. I wriggled as he hummed and scuttled down a soft slope, stopping inches from the tide. He set me right down.

"Maybe some other time my dear" and headed right into the ocean. Really, he had to drag me all the way down here? I swear the jerk just likes to make things more difficult for me… I groaned at the thought of running uphill, and with a sigh, I hurried back over to where my post was.

I sat on my butt for maybe a good ten minutes or less before I saw a transmetal manta ray shoot out of the water and swivel his wings to become a mini StarHopper. I eagerly watched the new Maximal as he flew toward the nearest (but smallest) outcropping that jut out of the water. FishyFish! My eyes widened as I saw another figure as they were deposited on the rock, poor Cheetor. I watched in awe as the flying manta ray shifted into bipedal mode and revealed a male Cybertronian. A very familiar Fish-Faced Cybertronian. I felt like a creeper, but I just couldn't stop staring at the two as they exchanged some words. I was about to pull out my walkie-talkie and request an introduction (and a chance to fix up poor Cheetor because I had a repair kit), only to be too late to do so as the manta-Maximal jumped up into flight form and went…wherever. Damn it, I pulled out my walkie-talkie anyway.

"Yo Cheetor!"

:"Cassie?! You okay? I'm so sorry I almostforgotaboutyou!":

"Breathe Cheetor. I'm okay…it's actually you I'm worried about"

:"…oh…uh, I'll be fine. Just got blindsided by a rocket that's all…by the way, who did fire that rocket?":

"Rampage"

:"Oh that –Ugh I shoulda known he'd pull that cheap move!":

"Sorry, I tried to warn you…"

:"It's okay, my fault for being a slow-poke":

"Hey, did you catch the new guys' name?"

:"Yeah, he goes by 'Depth Charge'":

I suppressed a squeal "Where did he go?!" to go fight Rampage, or in his case 'X'…

:"He said something about Protoform X and not wanting to disappoint him":

I face-palmed, and with the need to correct him "Cheetor, Protoform X is Rampage" I corrected him.

:"Uh oh, you think he'll be okay?!":

Uh oh is right, I sighed "I'm sure he will, he looked like a big guy…"

:"…yeah I guess…":

"Now we wait" I placed my walkie-talkie back on my belt, and I waited. I didn't need to wait too long before two bots burst out of the ocean. One being Depth Charge in flight mode, the other being Rampage clinging onto him as they both soared across the sky and toward some other shore. I lost sight of them, but only because I saw someone massive approach me…I signaled Optimus as he carried a damaged Cheetor in my direction. As he closed in, he gestured with his hand "Hop on!"

"Sir yes sir!"

It took us a while to find them, or rather the little yellow speck watching them. I gasped as I saw Quickstrike (the little bastard) gun down a damaged Depth Charge "Optimus-"

"Already on it" the ape-jet fired off two rockets. Both of which weren't detected by the fuzor until they were too close to dodge and successfully sent the snake-scorpion flying. As we hovered over the ground, me and Cheetor jumped off and allowed Optimus to maximize. "It's him…" he said at just above a whisper "Let's get him back to base"

"But what about-?" we gasped to see that Rampage was absent, man I'll never get used to how quiet and quick he is! I shuddered as my eyes panned the area. There was no trace of the crab.

"I think he's had enough…for now"

After he was carefully loaded onto Optimus' flight form (with assistance by Optimus, and Cheetor doing most of the lifting) we took Depth Charge back to our heavily fortified base. The CR chamber was our first priority as we made a beeline for it once we got through the blast doors. From there, a group of us (consisting of everyone who had waited in the show plus me and Trailblazer) hung around the CR chamber with high hopes FishBoy recovered nicely. In the meantime, we chatted and joked and played some more of Trailblazers' convoluted card game…which he and Rattrap seemed to do just fine and gave me hard-time when I sheepishly quit. Yeah, it was fun. And what was interesting was that Trailblazer seemed to be getting along with the rat again. I figured Rattrap was one of our team members that didn't upset Trailblazer the day I disappeared. I honestly wondered who. I didn't get to think too much before Cheetor poked me.

"Hey Cass?"

"I didn't do it!" I dramatically straightened, which earned a laugh or two. As that was my intention.

"On a serious note" Cheetor tried to contain his chuckle "I wanted to ask how you survived Rampage"

"Now that you bring that up" Trailblazer looked up from his cards "I kinda want to know too"

"Yeah Cass-an-dra, what'd CrabLegs do to ya?" Rattrap put emphasis on the last two syllables of my name, prepped to give me a hard time. I smiled.

"Why he took me to a nice little cave and offered tea and crumpets and told me he wanted to be my friend"

Rhinox snorted somewhere in the room. Cheetor tilted his head.

"Hey…wait a sec-"

"I was being facetious Cheetor, don't hurt yourself"

Trailblazer sniggered. "Cute…but what really happened?"

"Yeah, all I saw was you disappearing underwater you know!" Cheetors' voice strained a little. I decided not to stress him out any further.

"That was Rampage. I can't say where he carried me, I was unconscious. All I can tell you is that he just dumped me in the middle of some forest and from there I walked back to where the Axalon sunk" I lied. Something I strangely had gotten better at.

"So nothin'? No torture? No taunts?" Rattrap gave me his best doubtful look.

I just shrugged and watched as him and Trailblazer resumed their game.

Much later on, when the repair cycle was almost complete, we all gathered around DC.

"So uh…who is this herring anyway?" Rattrap asked as DC was still in the process of recovering. Canon being set back on course.

"Depth Charge was in charge of security for colony Omicron. Protoform X escaped there…and leveled the colony"

I rubbed my arms, anyone else in the room thankfully not paying any attention to it. They probably just thought I was cold, which I was a tad bit.

"Only Depth Charge survived" Rhinox added grimly.

"From then on Depth Charge hunted Protoform X. After four stellar-cycles he brought him back to Cybertron and asked the High Council for a way to destroy his spark"

Raw shard of energon…I'm gonna have to find a way to stop that I recollected Rampages' words 'because I consider you a friend' it amazed me how much determination I felt then and there.

"They turned him over to us instead…Depth Charge wasn't too happy with the decision"

Hmmmm… my eyes wondered over to the CR display. It was at ninety-eight percent. Almost done…

"eehhhh so he's got a lot of angst. The question is…how'd he get here?"

:Repair Cycle Complete:

"Now's our chance to ask"

I walked over toward Rhinox just as the CR hatch opened. DC's red slits scanned the ceiling for a brief moment before they landed on Optimus. His reaction was (in my case) predictable.

"The Pit are you"

"I suppose I have changed last time we met…" Optimus mused.

"Primal?"

"The one and only" I added my two cents, figuring it was as good a time as ever to make myself known. Slanted red optics shot over to me and got much (much) wider.

"A human?!"

I rolled my eyes and performed 'jazz hands' "Tada". Optimus chuckled at my behavior, considering it seemed to lighten up the tense atmosphere in the room.

"Yes…she's with us, has been for quite some time. Some kind of anomaly brought her…" the giant transmetal ape cocked his head "…which brings me to the question: why are you here?"

"And how" I helpfully pointed. Depth Charge glanced at me, and then settled with a scowl…toward Optimus.

"Don't know, some kind of 'anomaly' trashed my ship…" red slants narrowed "I was searching the galaxy-" as he pointed an accusatory finger "for your mistake". The big monkey frowned. And now we're back to square one…awkward!

"Just wait a damn second FlounderBoy!" I had waited for such a moment, even when I once thought it wasn't possible…but hey, it was. And I would not tolerate someone chastising Optimus, even if the big monkey had done regrettable things in his past. He was my leader and the closest thing I had to an uncle figure in the Beast Wars universe. And because of my bold move, 'FlounderBoy' stared me down. Here goes nothin'! "You trying to tell me you oh-so-kindly carried a grudge across the galaxy?!"

"This doesn't concern-"

"Oh ho but it does Fins! And everyone else in the room!" I walked up and started poking the hell out of his knee "because we don't need some stubborn water-logged hard-ass dumping all his personal feelings on us!"

Rattrap, Cheetor, and Trailblazer tried their absolute best to suppress their laughter. Depth Charge kneeled so he could be eye-level with me, and it was terrifying. "I hate to disappoint you, but we're currently in a war and Optimus is our leader! And I'll tell you now, he has done a superb job at keeping all of us alive" I leaned forward "we have plenty of problems here, and if you came just to add more trouble-" I jabbed a thumb in the direction of the blast doors "Front door is that way pal!".

I didn't realize it, but my legs shook slightly. And I seemed…out of breath? Oh well, it felt good anyway. DC continued to glare at me, but something unexpected happened. He 'smiled'.

"Wow…little spitfire you got here Primal" the manta stood back to full height "Said something about a war? Huh, sounds like another screw-up of yours"

The blood in my body seemed to rush to my face. Ah hell nah! I started to march forward with the intention to inflict some pain. Fortunately, Rhinox seized me (gently) and held me in place-

"Maybe" and Optimus could defend himself perfectly fine "But I've been fighting the Beast Wars for some time now and as Cassandra has said, I have had a fair deal of hardships to deal with" green optics darkened "Even to this day, our problems grow. Rampage for example-"

DC winced.

"He's been with the Predacons and has made himself a complete and total nuisance time and time again" the transmetal ape sighed "You came here for X? That's just Prime, however, I'd appreciate it if you cooperated with us in the meantime. Once we take down Megatron, we can deal with Rampage" he held out his massive orange/red servo "What do you say?".

In a moment of feigned deep thought, DC sneered "I say…you really blew it. Now, where's the way out?"

"Well I did point it out for you NumbNuts" I jeered and left in a hurry. Sure I like him…but damn he's such a hard-ass during his introduction I blinked, and mentally corrected myself …or the duration of the series.

On my way toward my room, a large hand stopped me. I looked over my shoulder and right into cobalt optics, "Oh hey Bud, hope you don't mind me going to bed earlier than usual…new guy kinda gave me a migraine"

"Hey, you made a smart move…he was a complete jerk up until the point where he left"

I raised both my eyebrows "How so?" and asked sarcastically.

"He completely blew everybody off, but you probably already knew that" Trailblazers' blue optics dimmed "he even smacked poor Cheetor, the kid only wanted to thank him for rescuing him"

I sighed "I was there too, DC seemed friendly enough"

"That guy is strange"

"Aren't we all" I opened my room door; Trailblazer patted my shoulder and said 'good night' before he ambled away. And so I was all alone with my thoughts, my feet shuffled toward my bed.

DC's surely going to find out my ties to Rampage, if there are any. By the matrix I wonder why he considers me a friend…could it be that Transmutate likes me? Perhaps…- I yawned as my eyelids grew heavy, my thoughts shifted over to other concerns.

I wonder how Transmutate is doing in that cave. Rampage better be taking good care of her –oh who am I kidding, of course he is! Say, I hope him and DC don't cancel each other out before the Beast Wars are over…I don't want them to die, although one of them is a mass-murderer. That mass-murderer seems to 'like' me…in his own little way- I rolled onto my side I won't let anyone die, I seem to be doing a good job at it, I saved Dinobot and Transmutate…so what's two more Beast Warriors? Though I didn't get to save Airazor and Tigatron...I'm sure I can find some way to change up the endgame…and when this is all over? What will happen when we get back on Cybertron? Cybertron- and so my thoughts transitioned into ANOTHER worry –We'll have a whole set of different problems once we get back to Cybertron…uuuggghhhh. My eyes shut, and stayed shut.

I fell asleep.