Chapter 3

Destruction

The girls believed that they were running for their lives…

Freefall and Moonrise raced through the forest as fast as their legs could carry them; as not far behind them was Miko, who was quickly gaining on the two. Freefall did not need to look back in order to know this, she just tightened her grip on her little sisters hand and started sprinting all the faster… although it occurred to her that she could turn around and fight with the human trespasser and even though there was a decent chance that she could kill her, Freefall knew there was absolutely no way in hell she would be able to defeat the two giant robots that she had with her. It was extremely confusing to the young girl, since she was aware that her mother Songbird was a robotic gryphon… but in complete honesty she had never once expected to see anything even remotely similar to her. After all these years, a part of her had always wondered where Songbird had come from… a question that she had even asked a few times, only to receive the answer 'I was given life while falling from heaven.' Which had never really answered anything; it was one of the few times that Songbird had seemed eerie and cryptic to her adopted child.

Still, returning her attention to the current situation Freefall quickly figured out exactly what it was she had to do… and the first and foremost thing was to get back to their cave. Once inside, she and Moony could lose their pursuers amidst the various winding tunnels that honeycombed through and underneath the mountain. And once the intruders were lost and their mother returned home from her hunt… well… it pretty much went without saying how the rest of this plan would go. The fools would die in a blinding flash of blue lighting… Now at this point they were almost to the cave's main entrance, it only being a little further ahead. Perhaps they could simply lose them just by reaching the cave itself, after all the opening was difficult to find especially in recent years since the surrounding foliage had overgrown to the point of making it practically invisible. But no sooner had the two siblings reached the base of the mountain did they come to a screeching halt as Freefall found her plan suddenly going up in smoke.

For standing in front of the cave was none other than Starscream…

By following the energon's signal, Starscream and his squadron had managed to locate the concealed entrance to the cavern that Freefall, Moonrise and Songbird called their home and seeing is how the opening to the said cave was not large enough to give them easy enough access… Starscream had just ordered that the entire side of the mountain to be blown open! So before either of the girls could react, a thunderous explosion split through the sky and caused the ground to shake! Freefall quickly used her body to shield her sister but thankfully the explosion didn't send any of the debris that was large enough to threaten their lives at them… although the only reason for this was because of sheer dumb luck. From his position standing only a little ways away from Freefall and Moonrise, Starscream could not help but smirk triumphantly as he observed his handiwork. Now there was a proper entrance to the Decepticons newest energon mine. Something that he had found without any help from the snarling beast that dared to think itself his equal… Although his attention was distracted from this latest acquisition when Moonrise suddenly screamed at the sight of what had just occurred.

"The cave! It's all blown up! Freefall what if mama was in there?!" The five year old screeched in fear at her older sister who was also looking on in sheer horror since Starscream had just ruined most of the caves main chamber. Although she wanted to scream as well, Freefall forced herself to remain quiet in spite of her growing anger at the fact she had just watched her home get destroyed and couldn't do anything about it! But her attention became focused on Starscream when he suddenly grinned darkly down at them.

"Well, well, well what do we have here? Two tiny little humans undoubtedly trying to get in the way." He sneered as he then proceeded to loom over the two kids. "Hmmm, I haven't seen you before, did the Autobots get some new pets?" And with a quick swipe of his clawed hand Starscream grabbed up Freefall, although he had been intending to grab both of the children, Moonrise had somehow slipped from between his fingers. Imagine his surprise however to see Freefall not so much afraid as she was raging and snarling and squirming trying to fight her way out from his grasp. Conveniently it was right then that Miko along with Bulkhead and Wheeljack had managed to catch up, only to be greeted by the sight of Starscream holding the elder girl.

"Put the kid down Con!" Wheeljack warned as he quickly drew his swords and his face plate quickly clicked into place.

"Now why would I do that?" The Seeker taunted cruelly, finding it quite amusing now that he had the upper hand. Since he knew that the Autobots would not dare attack him while he was holding the puny little organic. However, said puny little organic suddenly unsheathed one of her bone daggers and quickly stabbed it into the seam of one of his sharp fingers instantly cutting through some wires and drawing his energon. The Seeker yelped in surprise and nearly dropped Freefall, but with a hiss he shifted her into his other hand. Now being careful to hold her even tighter and in such a way that she couldn't stab him again. "Why you little-"

"You let my sister go right now!" Moonrise yelled up at Starscream, her small eyes blazing with anger. She could be quite fearless at times… or quite foolish. "Or else!"

"Or else?" Starscream repeated icily as he heavily considered crushing this tiny human under his heel. "Or else what you little worm?"

"Let my sister go or else our mama will make you sorry!" She in a serious tone… Now at this Starscream burst out laughing and unintentionally tightened his grip on Freefall making it all the more difficult for her to breathe.

"Oh I'm so scared! Do you really think that your pathetic Carrier can do anything against me?" He mocked coldly, finding it funny just how pathetic and naïve these little creatures could be.

"You haven't met our mother…" Freefall hissed wickedly from her position in Starscream's hand. "She could rip you apart with a single swipe of her claws! You're nothing compared to her you robotic high-heeled freak!" She snapped, successfully pissing Starscream off all the more and just as he was about to crush the girl for her insolence, something suddenly occurred to him… did she just say her mother had claws? Humans didn't have claws…

Ironically this thought not only registered with him but with Miko, Bulkhead, and Wheeljack at the exact same time. It was also at this very moment that Miko heard something strange… It sounded like a faint whistling that was gradually getting louder and louder and becoming less like a whistle and more like a screech. Right when it seemed that it couldn't get any louder Miko and the two Wreckers looked up…

Just in time to watch as Songbird barreled into Starscream full force…

At first the sheer force of the blow left the Seeker stunned senseless and not entirely sure what the frag had just happened. But as he quickly came around and felt a massive claw pinning him down, he looked up… it was as though his very worst nightmare come true! There was another Predacon! Another snarling, raging beast that looked like it was about ready to kill him! Consumed with fear he dropped his captive and brought both of his hands up to shield himself. It took Freefall a few long moments to regain her lost breath but afterwards she turned back to look at Starscream and smiled wickedly.

"Hehehe… Mr. Freak, meet our mother!" She snarled with incredible ferocity.

"M-M-Mother?!" Starscream indignantly squeaked as Songbird got right in his face and screeched loudly. As a reflex she brought one of her massive wings down to the ground thus allowing Freefall to climb up, and after a minute she was joined by her little sister as Moonrise raced over and also hopped onto her mother's back. Once her daughters were safely clinging to her, Songbird took a moment to observe the devastation of her home… not to mention the dozen or so completely petrified Eradicons and Vehicons!

"What… have… you… DONE?!" Songbird roared wrathfully at Starscream, successfully making him emit yet another terrified high-pitched squeal. She flexed and adjusted the claw that was currently pinning him down, digging her talons into his frame and carving open three deep wounds that immediately made him bleed energon. Fortunately for Starscream these wounds were by no means fatal, but they were probably the least of his worries at this particular moment. Especially since Songbird was now growling at him and lifting up her other claw and fanning out her three razor-sharp talons to undoubtedly strike a killing blow… But as luck would have it one of the Vehicons chose that particular moment to open fire on Songbird. And while this didn't actually harm her, it did stun her just long enough for Starscream to wiggle his way out from under her claws.

"All of you open fire! Attack! Attack! Blow it to The Pit!" He screamed before seizing this opportune moment to transform and take off, intent on putting as much distance between himself and this new Predacon menace as possible! All while inwardly wondering why Primus seemed to have it out for him?! Unfortunately this was a very bad move, since after a second or so Songbird loosed a blast of lightning at the fleeing Seeker and promptly shot him right out of the sky. She then turned her attention back to the Vehicons that were still firing their weapons at her, but it was right when one of the blasts only narrowly missed hitting little Moonrise that Songbird flew into a destructive rage and charged at her attackers.

The Vehicons didn't have a chance… Songbird tore through them as though they were made of paper! Songbird grabbed onto the first one and bit its head right off! She then immediately reared up onto her hind legs and used her talons to cut three more in half, just before she loosed a lightning blast at several of the others which in turn caused a massive explosion since that particular lot had been standing right in front of a cluster of energon crystals… But Songbird wasn't fazed at all. She then reared up once again, only this time she flared out her massive wings and somehow seemed to draw in the smoke and burning light that was coming from the energon-fueled fire and it made her appearance seem all the more hellish! She shrieked again, only this time the sound was so loud that it nearly caused Miko's eardrums to rupture! But it did the trick and sent all of the remaining Vehicons running for the hills; Songbird let them flee… as she began trying to calm her rage. But just as she started to feel some sort of a calm begin to settle over her, something suddenly registered within her processor and she set her blue optics upon the team of Wreckers who had been watching from nearby, having been to shocked to intervene… not that they would have anyway since this situation seemed to be reversed; the last time they checked the Predacons were supposed to be on the Decepticons side so why was this new Predacon ripping apart its own allies? Not only that, but why the frag were those two girls refering to it as their mother?!

Somewhere in the back of Songbirds processor an old, corrupted memory began to rise up to the surface. It was a memory of a particular energon scent… something that she at one point in her long forgotten past had been hunting… or had been told to hunt…

The memory suddenly hit her hard; bringing with it a vision of foggy shapes and shadows that somehow meant something and nothing at the same time. It made Songbird pause, her unblinking optics locked onto her targets while a storm of shattered memory files tried to reconstruct themselves within her processor. Since everything had gone so eerily still, Wheeljack saw an opportunity that he could not afford to pass up… He carefully nudged Bulkhead and made a slight motion with his head indicating for them to get the frag out of there before the Predacon decided to use them as its next chew toys. Bulkhead nodded and quickly picked up Miko and then they began backing away very… very… slowly…

Of course it was then that Songbird charged at them…

"Oh scrap!" All three of them exclaimed at the same time and what original had been a slow, quiet retreat quickly became a rather humorous fast-paced escape attempt that was made all the more terrifying due to the Predacon's enraged shrieks and the frequent lightning blasts. Since Songbird was far faster than either of the Wreckers and it did not take long before she had caught up to them and with a single fluid motion she slammed her head hard into Bulkhead and sent him flying right into Wheeljack! Fortunately the impact did not hurt Miko, but that was quickly becoming irrelevant since Songbird reared up and slammed her talons onto both bots pinning them to the ground, one under each claw… Songbird brought her face down to their level and they could feel the static energy that hummed in the very air that surrounded her.

"Leave!" She commanded, her voice dripping with venom and ire. "I will give you one chance and only one! You and yours will leave my land and never return! But if you do I swear on the Tapestry of Fate that I will tear you limb from limb!" And with that Songbird released her grip on them before turning around, spreading her wings and taking to the air. Leaving two very shocked Autobot's and Miko wondering just how the hell they were supposed to explain this mess to Optimus!

"Why did you let them go?!" Freefall muttered darkly as Songbird landed amongst the rubble that had once been the central chamber of their cave.

"Because we have bigger problems to deal with than them…" Songbird explained amidst probably the worst processor ache she ever had. This whole day had been a complete disaster and now as she looked at her decimated lair an overwhelming feeling of sorrow and resentment washed over her like a tidal wave. "We're going to have to find a new home; since it is safe to assume that most of the tunnels collapsed when they blew the main chamber open."

"Everything will be okay." Moonrise said softly as a small smile slowly spread its way across her young face, although her words got her somewhat confused looks from both her sister and mother figure. "We'll be alright as long as we're together; I just know it." Oh Moonrise, so full of innocence and childish naivety, although she was undoubtedly oblivious to the way the world really worked Songbird often found that her youngest child's faith was rarely misplaced… still just hearing her daughters words made Songbird smile warmly. A sentiment that was shared by Freefall who patted her little sisters' head; even if she was considerably wiser to the reality of things she found herself unable to dispute the younger girl's logic.

"Well put Moonrise… I don't think I could've phrased it better myself. Still, let us salvage what we can fro-" But no sooner had she extended her wing to let her children slide off of her back was there a sudden rush of wind and a echoing roar as Predaking swiftly landed nearby. His sudden appearance totally stunned Moonrise and Freefall… and caused Songbirds hypothetical hackles to raise in utter rage.

"D-Dragon?!" Freefall stuttered, some part of her not believing what she was seeing! What the hell was with this day?! It quite literally kept getting worse every second! Although a lot of Freefall was beginning to have a bit of a mental breakdown; Moonrise was following an entirely different trail of thought altogether…

"…can I pet him?" She whispered hopefully; and thankfully no one heard that… Still the hulking dragon approached before quickly transforming and looking around at the obvious devastation to what had once been the femme Predacon's home.

"This is a… most unfortunate turn of events." Predaking muttered under his breath; even though he would not dare admit it out loud… he was rather glad her home was now thoroughly leveled. For once in his miserable life Starscream had been useful. For now Songbird would have no choice but to accompany him back to The Nemesis. Although the murderous look she was giving him was a bit worrying…

"Unfortunate turn of events?! Your little friends blew up my cave! How dare you even show your face to me again!" Songbird snapped. Forget murderous, her look was so terrifying it would've sent Unicron himself running away in terror!

"This is hardly my fault." Predaking retorted coldly.

"Tough! I'm holding you personally responsible for this entire mess you glitch head!" She snarled hatefully. "I should take your hide as recompense for my home!"

"Go ahead and try." Predaking growled, his golden eyes blazing with mounting agitation.

"With pleasure!" And with that she lunged for him; Predaking easily dodged out of the way of her claws but failed to avoid her long scythe-like tail and thus ended up receiving a deep slash across his broad chest. The pain thankfully wasn't to bad and Predaking inwardly decided that he would fight this battle without using his beast form… as a way of showing his superiority. He readied himself as Songbird roared at him and charged once more, but this time he was ready for her and punched her right in the face! The incredible strength of the blow momentarily dazed Songbird which gave Predaking ample time to unleash a barrage of vicious attacks. Punching and clawing at her, every blow dealing a great deal of damage. Finally he grabbed her by the neck, planning to slam her head to the ground and knock her unconscious; however there was one thing he had not planned on and that was Freefall… He had been so focused on fighting Songbird that he had not even noticed the two human children on her back! He was finally forced to take notice when Freefall had managed to climb away up onto Songbirds head whilst hefting the spear that had been on her back, the girls eyes burned with malice and using all of her strength, she hurled her spear straight into Predaking's optic!

The pain was so excruciating that Predaking accidentally released his grip on Songbird and began trying to pull the girls spear from his optic. Thankfully for him it would not lead to any permanent damage but it felt just like having a splinter in the eye… But by releasing Songbird he set himself up for some nasty payback, for in mere seconds the gryphon Predacon reared up and pinned him down and began slashing him over and over again with her claws! Finally she stood over him and began summoning a powerful blast of lightning in order to end this confrontation once and for all!

"No mama!" Moonrise exclaimed quickly jumping off of Songbird's back and landing right on Predaking's chest. "Please don't kill him!" It took all of Songbirds self-control and strength to redirect the lightning she had been creating into the sky. A truly frightening display of power that could be seen for miles in any direction. Once this was done she looked down at her youngest daughter and narrowed her sapphire optics.

"Get out of the way Moonrise." She commanded, but the little girl shook her head defiantly.

"No… he's really a good dragon, I can tell." The child explained innocently.

"Are you insane Moony?! Did you not see him attack our mother? Get off and let him fry!" Freefall hissed and just as she was about to go down there and forcefully pull Moonrise off of him, her sister looked up at Songbird and innocently suggested something.

"What do the cards say?" She asked making a quick gesture to Songbirds satchel where she kept her tarot cards. "You always say that the cards have never led you wrong and that you trust whatever feelings you get when you read them. So… why not look at the cars to decide what to do with him?"

"Why would you choose to speak on his behalf? This beast that you have never met nor seen before?" Songbird asked with a distinctive darkness in her tone; while not necessarily angry at Moonrise she could not fathom what had possessed the little girl to make her act like this.

"He… he has kind eyes, like yours mama." Was the child's only response before she looked up at her mother and gave her the sweetest 'puppy dog pout' she could muster… "Please Mama." Silence fell over all of the individuals in the group like a death shroud. Songbird herself remained motionless for a few long minutes before eventually sighing and removing her claws from Predaking, allowing him to stand up once Moonrise climbed off of him…

"Fine then… but only because you asked me my sweetspark. We will see what the cards have to say about this… dragon." She muttered coldly before reaching her claw into her satchel and searching for a tarot card to draw at random.

"Huh?" That was the only response Predaking could find to accurately portray his thoughts as he wondered just the frag was going on… Although he did use this momentary lapse of aggression to finally pull the bone spear out of his optic before quickly breaking it into a million pieces.

"Our mother is reading your fate." Freefall growled at him. "She'll be blowing you to hell immediately afterwards…" That was the only thing that would make any sense in her eyes. This creature was a threat, he meant their family harm and as far as she was concerned for that he deserved to die… Ignoring Freefall's comment, Songbird finally settled her claws on a random card and pulled it out… Although her thoughts initially mirrored Freefall's, surely this creature deserved to die for all the trouble he had caused. But as her luck would have it that was not in the cards. For the card she had drawn was The Chariot and no sooner had she laid her optics upon the cards image did a single very distinct thought enter her mind…

Listen and go with him, for this creature shall lead you to where you are needed and ultimately to your fate…

…frag…

Songbird growled angrily at this unforeseen turn of events and although she would have loved nothing more than to completely ignore what she had just foreseen Moonrise's words had rung very true. Never before had her skill with Divination lead her wrong… So maybe, just maybe there was something to this ornery dragon that she was overlooking…

"What is it that you really want?" She said icily and ignored the horrified look that she received from Freefall and she used her wing to quickly scoop up Moonrise from her position on the ground. This rather abrupt change in her demeanor from merely looking at a card was beyond surprising to Predaking and he couldn't help but stare for moment before regaining his lost senses…

"Contrary to what you may believe, I truly mean you no harm…" He explained as calmly as he could manage since he was still raging about her daring to attack him as well as the utter disrespect she had shown him as well. "I apologize for the destruction that has befallen your home and although it cannot be undone perhaps at the very least I can offer you a place to stay; once I bring the situation to Lord Megatron's attention he will happily accept you and your-" He trailed off a little bit as he looked at the two girls still on the gryphon's back.

"Sparklings." Songbird decided to fill in the blank for him.

"Your… sparklings..." Predaking could barely believe she was using that word to describe humans of all things! Still he would find a way to address the situation later. "Into his ranks. I'm sure that you will find it to be a satisfying arrangement."

"I will be the judge of that." Songbird retorted. "But… I will go with you to see this Megatron. After all he is partially responsible for causing me all this trouble isn't he?"

"I have got a bad feeling about this mom." Freefall whispered into Songbirds audios. She looked over at her eldest whispered quietly to her.

"You don't need to worry, if this does not work out we will figure out something else to do. I promised you that I would never let anything happen to you… and don't I always keep my promises?" While she was clearly still unhappy with the situation, Freefall accepted this and thus became quiet.

Songbird then turned her attention back to Predaking and made a motion with one of her claws. "Lead the way then… Predaking." When she said his name there was clearly a lot of animosity in her voice. Still he had gotten what he wanted… in a very loose sense… So Predaking quickly transformed and took to the air and after a moment he paused in his flight to look back at Songbird who had remained stationary on the ground and he gave a slight roar and jerked his head indicating for her to follow him into the sky.

And although it broke her spark, Songbird wordlessly followed him away from the territory she and her daughters had dwelt in for the last five years…

First off I'm sorry for the slight delay with this chapter and I will try to prevent that from happening again; but there is something that I should've stated a bit earlier… in all honesty I personally don't know how to read Tarot cards and all the information that I'm putting into this story is based on research I've done into the subject… So I'm just going to apologize to anyone who actually knows how to really read tarot and it turns out I'm writing this all wrong. Either way I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and please remember to Read and Review!