Chapter 6

Setting Things in Motion

Predaking woke up to find the little human, Moonrise, sitting on his nose…

At first the dragon just stared at the little human child who currently sat cross-legged on the tip of his snout, her small turquoise eyes were shining vibrantly with curiosity and fascination and she was also smiling a broad smile that could easily be seen from a mile away. Not that any of that mattered to him at the moment… He was far more interested in how in the frag she had gotten into his room in the first place!

"Good morning Mr. Dragon!" She chirped happily when she saw his massive golden optics open and steadily coming to focus. "Did you sleep well? I hope so! No bad dreams right?" Predaking just stared blankly at Moonrise and for a moment whilst he inwardly wondered if he was still asleep and this was all part of a bad dream… Of course after a moment he realized that he simply wasn't that lucky and that the femme gryphon's little human pet was really sitting on his face. Seriously… why? Why did Primus hate him so much? "Are you okay? You're not saying anything." Moonrise asked frowning a little bit when the great creature didn't say anything. Of course had Predaking actually possessed the ability to speak in his beast form he would've told her to get off of his face and get the frag out of his room; but since he was unable to do that he tried a different approach and began to growl at the child hoping she would get the message. Of course true to his luck this didn't scare her off either… in fact it had the precise opposite reaction and after a moment or so the smile returned to Moonrise's face and it was possible it was even bigger than before…

"Awww! You're purring!" She squeaked, completely and utterly oblivious to the so-called warning.

Predaking's optic twitched…

Having finally had enough, he stood up fully expecting the child to slip of his blunt snout as his head suddenly moved. But once again he found that this was not the case, for no sooner had he begun to move did Moonrise quickly cling to him in a way that would prevent her from falling off. No doubt a habit she had picked up from years of living with her adoptive mother. So realizing that this situation would require a more direct approach, Predaking deliberately flicked his head which sent Moonrise straight up into the air and he quickly transformed and managed to catch the little girl in his palm before she could hit the floor. Although he wasn't doing this to be particularly nice, he just knew that Songbird would truly try to kill him if he let anything happen to one of her human brats… and after fighting with her some days before he realized that she might very well be strong enough to do so!

"Go away." He growled to the child as he brought the little one up to his optic level. "What are you even doing in my room in the first place?!"

"Wishing you a good morning sleepy head!" Moonrise explained as she stood up and looked him with innocence and curiosity clearly reflected in her young eyes. "Are you grumpy right now Mr. Dragon? 'Cause my sister sometimes gets like that in the mornings."

"I am not grumpy!" Predaking snapped. In his opinion it was simply far too early for a processor ache and right now the massive Predacon could already feel one beginning to form. "Shouldn't you be with your mother anyway?" He growled coldly. But he was careful to put emphasis on the word mother, since he was still in disbelief that a creature as mighty as a Predacon could call itself a parent to such a weak organic creature. But it quickly became clear that Moonrise failed to pick up on his disdain and just chuckled a little bit at his words, as though he had just said something funny.

"Mama is getting a tour of the ship from Steve and his friends." She explained. But just as Predaking was about to say something to this… he stopped and voiced a rather important and more immediate question.

"Who is Steve?"

"He is one of the Vehicons… um… that's what they're called right? Wait… yeah I think it is." She asked more to herself than to Predaking since she was momentarily unsure if she had used the right word to address them. Predaking however merely blinked in surprise.

"I was unaware that the Vehicons had designations."

"They don't have designations, they have names." Moonrise corrected him, earning herself an irritated glare that she failed to pick up on since she was unaware that the two words essentially meant the same thing. "Mama is with them, but Freefall and I were allowed to go exploring our own way with one of the other Vehicon-guys…"

"Then why aren't you with him now?" Predaking inquired as he quirked an eye ridge. Moony chuckled in a somewhat sheepish way as she rubbed the back of her head.

"Well, we were… for maybe ten minutes… but Freefall wanted to go find some spare parts to make a new spear since you kinda broke her other one and I wanted to find you! So we escaped when he wasn't looking."

(Somewhere on the Nemesis there is a Vehicon running around madly screaming 'Oh I'm slagged! I'm slagged! I'm slagged! I only looked away for two seconds! How could I have lost them in two seconds?!')

(…And Soundwave is staring blankly at this Vehicon…)

"Well then let's go find him and give you back to him." Predaking grumbled as he walked out of his private quarters and started searching for the Vehicon in question. Although after a minute he cast the child a half interested glance. "Why were you seeking me out anyway?" At these words Moonrise's expression suddenly became very mischievous and her eyes glittered with what Predaking could only guess was childish scheming.

"I wanna help you become friends with my mama!" She declared, successfully stopping the dragon transformer dead in his tracks and he stared wide-eyed at the little girl in his hand.

"Come again?" He asked, some part of him praying to Primus that he misheard the child. Surly his situation was not so bad that a human child saw the need to help him speak with the only other living member of his race… No this wasn't Primus, this had to be Unicron's doing! The demon lord of the Pit must be getting quite a laugh at the dragon Predacons expense.

"You do want to be her friend don't you?" The ever innocent Moonrise continued. "It makes sense, 'cause you're so lonely."

"And just how would you know that child?" He growled, finding that his patience was growing thinner and thinner with this young one. Not because she was wrong, it was because she was speaking the truth… Were his emotions really so obvious?

"I know 'cause I can see it in your big eyes. You're really lonely… mommy gets the exact same look every once in a while." Moony's words made Predaking pause for a minute, as this little tidbit of information was actually rather surprising to hear. From the few facts he had been able to gather concerning Songbird, he had certainly not believed her to be lonely at all… Something that he was sorely jealous of although he would never bring himself to admit it out loud.

"She… does?"

Moonrise nodded solemnly. "Not very often, but every now and again she gets that look. Even though mama loves me and Freefall, sometimes I think that she would like someone else to talk too… I mean there is Yue but she doesn't visit very often."

"Yue? Who is this Yue that you speak of?" Predaking asked since as he was gradually becoming more interested in what this little girl was saying. "I was under the impression that your mother disliked intruders in her territory."

"Mama doesn't like humans in our land, but she does like Yue… of course I don't know if Yue really is human. I mean she kinda looks like one but… I don't really know. I've only met her twice but it was back when I was really little so I don't remember her so well." It was then that Moony suddenly shook her head when she realized that she was getting off topic. "But yeah, I figured that you would be a great friend for my mama so I want to help you!"

Predaking snorted loudly as he thought back on all of the interactions he had previously had with the gryphon femme and how they had been so very far from pleasant. "She would have to start showing me more respect! I am the king of all Predacon's and I will not tolerate her aggression towards me any longer." Now at these words Moony tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"Mama was just acting that way because you weren't being nice to her. Our home just got destroyed and she was upset! We all were! And from what mama told us about when you first crashed into her, you were also being a bit mean then too..."

"I was not." Predaking defended. "I was merely-"

"Maybe you didn't mean to be, but you were…" Moony interrupted and her tone changed, it became almost… scolding?! "There is a saying: 'If you want a friend, be a friend.' You can't just be bossy and mean and expect mama or anyone else to like or listen to you… But if you are nice, you won't have any problems."

"…I can't believe I am getting behavior instructions from a human child." Predaking grumbled as he rubbed his temples as that processor ache suddenly smacked into him full force.

"I'm a gryphon." Moonrise corrected.

"…at this point I really don't give a frag…"

"Uh oh, you said a bad word; now you owe a pebble to the swear jar."

Predaking's optic twitched again…

"Say Mr. Dragon did you know that gryphons love to fly?" Moonrise giggled.

"Really? I couldn't have guessed…" Predaking grunted, now trying very hard to ignore whatever this child was going to say. She was barely more than a sparkling and judging by the way she was currently speaking she had run out of anything important let alone intelligent to say.

"No, no, I mean that you should ask my mama to go flying with you sometime. She won't turn you down! Especially if it's when the lights are painting the sky."

Alright… maybe he was mistaken. "What do you mean by lights?"

"The Northern lights; they paint the night sky and nothing makes mama happier then when she flies under them. Ask her to tell you more about them… it'll break the ice."

"This is truly becoming an odd conversation." Predaking mumbled to himself… and just what did he mean by 'becoming?' This conversation had gotten extremely strange the second that Moonrise had declared that he was going to help him befriend her mother. But what was truly bizarre about this situation was the fact that Predaking found himself actually contemplating taking the humans advice! But then again… as odd as this entire situation truly was, this little one was only trying to help him… she was so innocent and naïve; even being as skeptical as he was about Songbirds choice in protecting this child and her elder sibling there was something… oddly endearing about this little girl. Although it was then that Predaking took notice that the chatty species-confused girl had suddenly become as silent as a church mouse. Considering how talkative she seemed to be, for a moment he thought that she might have fallen asleep. But when he glanced down he saw that she had not, in fact she was staring up at him and judging by the look she was giving him she was in deep thought about something… Before he got the chance to inquire about whatever it was that she was thinking about Moonrise stood up and then began to quickly climb up his arm.

"What are you doing-?" She stopped when she reached his shoulder and sat down comfortably on it. Then she looked at him and giggled a little.

"This way you don't have to carry me." She explained innocently. "And as long as you're going to look for that Vehicon or my mama, how about you show me around? Please Mr. Predaking?"And she gave him the biggest puppy-dog eyes ever.

Alright, he'd admit it…

Perhaps she was somewhat cute…

Shame he didn't realize that befriending Songbird was only the beginning of what Moonrise was really planning for Predaking…

Megatron happened across a most bizarre sight…

It was when the tyrant warlord had just entered the Nemesis's main storage room, it was in here that most of the warships energon was stored along with a vast arsenal of weapons and even some spare parts should one of the Vehicons (Or Starscream for that matter) find themselves in need of a new limb or two. Unsurprisingly Megatron was in a bad mood, only this time it was worse than usual and he'd decided to go and get some energon and try to resist the urge to brutally murder any individual that was unfortunate enough to cross his path. But no sooner had he picked up a cube from the stockpile did he notice that he wasn't alone; for sitting on top of a pile of various scraps and other junk was the older of the femme Predacon's humans, the one he believed was named Freefall. While she had undoubtedly heard him enter the room, she was far too involved in whatever it was that she was doing to pay him even the slightest bit of attention. Although he couldn't be certain, it looked like the girl was attempting to sharpen a random piece of metal with one of her bone daggers. Megatron growled in annoyance, one of the last things he wanted was for his warship to become infested with organics… It was bad enough that there were still two Predacon's on the ship for Primus's sake! Hearing him growl in her general direction did cause Freefall to give him a half interested sideways glance…

"What? I was just using a few pieces of this junk. It's not like I was using anything important…" She hissed coldly. Her snarky tone and obvious disrespect made Megatron wonder if this human truly had a death wish! No one dared talk to him like that, no one!

"You should learn to hold your tongue human. Speaking to me in such a manner will get you killed." Megatron explained with barely controled rage evident his voice. Freefall then turned to face him completely, her expression annoyed.

"I don't care if you sprang fully formed from the head of Zeus! The only person I respect is my mother, everyone else I fully intend to avoid like the plague until we leave this place!" She said icily turning her attention away from the leader of the Decepticon's and focusing once again on what she held in her hands. Quickly sheathing her bone dagger Freefall examined the piece of metal that she had sharpened to a lethal point; apparently content with it she hefted a heavy piece of pipe and proceeded to jam the sharpened point into one end of the said pipe. Then attached it as best she could with a thin piece of wire. Seemingly content with this Freefall quickly twirled her new spear in her hand.

Only the spearhead was not secured properly and it promptly came loose and flew off…

Landing right in the very cube of energon that Megatron was holding…

"Whoops… hmm; well I guess I'm going to have to find something else to hold it in place with." The twelve year old muttered, not seeming to care one iota that if looks could kill she would have been ripped in half and then thrown into the ships incinerator. Oh, Megatron wanted nothing more than to pick her up and crush her right then and there but he was unwilling to risk enraging Songbird… that was the only reason that Freefall continued to live.

"And what exactly pray tell are you trying to do?" He asked as calmly as he could manage, trying to find some sort of outlet for his burning anger other than murder.

"Trying to make a new spear." Freefall said without turning her attention away from the project at hand. "I put my last spear in the dragon's optic and since I now need a new one, I figured that I'd fashion one out of metal since it would be stronger than my old one which was made out of Moose bones."

No sooner did these words leave her mouth did Megatron stare blankly down at Freefall. "You put a spear through-? Tell me do you just wish to die?"

"He was attacking my mother at the time!" The girl retorted angrily, as she was starting to get annoyed by the tyrant's presence. "What was I supposed to do?! Nothing? My only regret is that I didn't blind him in that eye!" At this Megatron laughed coldly.

"You're lucky he didn't kill you! Do you really think that you could do anything to harm a creature like him? Even if you possess a better weapon you'll never be able to severely damage him. The only dumber thing I can think of would be if you tried to pick a fight with me."

"First of all, I don't care if I couldn't win, I just wanted to help my mom in whatever way I could… and second you're not the one our mother told us to watch out for. She's more worried about the Cyclops." Freefall explained. "He's the one that she foresaw problems with not you. Although that doesn't mean that we trust you either."

"The 'Cyclops' as you call him, is named Shockwave. That aside what did you mean by she foresaw problems?" He asked suddenly the slightest bit curious. One would think that since Shockwave had created both Songbird and Predaking she might hold some sort of respect for him like her dragon counterpart did. But if he went off of what this human child was saying that was far from the case.

"I mean she literally foresaw that he would cause us problems." Freefall stopped as though she suddenly registered something and she turned to look at Megatron her expression curious. "Oh yeah, you don't know… My mom can see the future." And with that she returned to making her spear.

Well… that shut Megatron right up…

"What you mean she can see the future?" He demanded not believing his audios. There was simply no way that he had heard that right. No one could see the future, no one!

"Exactly what it sounded like Buckethead. She can see the future, and she told us to be wary of the Cyclops… or Shockwave, whatever you want to call him. I'm not exactly the right person to ask since I don't think I can explain it right. If you want to know more then you'll have to go talk to my mother yourself."

"I may very well do that…" Megatron grunted but quirked an eye ridge as he watched Freefall once again attempt to fasten a newly sharpened blade onto her spear, only this time she lost her grip and accidentally sliced through not only the bindings on her right palm, but made a deep and bloody gash all the way down her arm. And surprisingly she did not react in the way that Megatron expected…

Freefall looked down at her arm that was currently bleeding a river and her expression was surprisingly indifferent, if not somewhat annoyed. She then sighed loudly. "It's times like this that I am grateful for my damaged nerves." But the second that she noticed the questioning look old Buckethead was giving her she decided to elaborate on this statement. "Years ago, ironically on the very same night that my sister and I were found by Songbird, I suffered from a bad case of frostbite and it damaged my nerves. Thankfully not too severely but my sense of feel has never been right ever since. In other words I have a very high tolerance to pain. A blessing in disguise one might even say. However it's a real shame that I can't put it to any good use." Freefall then proceeded to get a very faraway look in her eyes as she began to daydream about something or other. "I was born in the wrong century you know… I should've been born in the time of the gladiators, since I would be perfectly happy swinging an axe into someone's face."

Megatron burst out laughing at this...

And it was not just an evil chuckle, no it was full out roaring laughter! Hell he even doubled over and clutched his side with his free servo since his other still held the cube of energon that contained Freefall's previous spear blade.

"What's so fragging funny?!" The girl demanded, suddenly pissed off that he would start laughing her when she mentioned her desire to fight as a gladiator.

"I was just imagining humans as gladiators! I never thought there was nothing that could be more pathetic than Starscream!" He snickered as he began regaining his usual composure. "And the thought of a creature as weak as you being a gladiator alone is hilarious! I know this since I was a gladiator back in the Pits of Kaon!"

Freefall did stare at him when these words left his mouth. For a moment her eyes filled with curiosity and even a little awe, but that quickly died and was replaced with irritation. She utterly refused to become impressed with someone like this jerk. "Then you have apparently forgotten about what it means to be a real warrior… from the looks of things you're too busy stepping on anybody weaker than you to have half a shred of honor left in your body. Being strong is one thing but it's not nearly as important as what you do with it."

Megatron's laughter stopped dead at these words. They were too familiar… Far too familiar to a discussion he'd had a long time ago with someone who was long gone. Against his wishes a distant memory began to surface in the back of his processor and although he desperately tried to suppress it there was nothing he could do as this memory began to play out before his very optics…

'The measure of a mech's worth is not by how strong they are or by the power they command… It's what they choose to do with their strength and power that determines who they really are.'

'Don't be so sentimental Orion.'

'It's just how I am Megatronus, would you have me any other way?'

'No…'

This distant echo from a past long dead and buried finished with the memory of what had originally ended that discussion. Which was when Laserbeak, who was a mere sparkling at the time and only just beginning to fly bumped into one of the Iacon libraries bookshelves and caused a chain reaction where bookshelf after bookshelf fell over like dominoes until the entire Hall of Records was completely trashed.

Gladiators were simply never meant to be in libraries, as was evident when Orion Pax started to cry as he had only just finished the immense task organizing everything not even fifteen minutes prior…

…the memory hurt worse than being repeatedly stabbed in the spark with a white hot blade…

"Um… are you okay?" Freefall's voice brought the warlord out of his memories. His spark suddenly filled with rage and he crushed the cube of energon he was still holding in his hand causing it to shatter and its contents spilled to the floor. That was it, Megatron fully intended right then and there to kill the little brat outright! But fate had other plans, for just before he could do anything that may endanger Freefall, Songbird along with four Vehicons suddenly entered the store room. Songbird blinked once in surprise at seeing her eldest daughter with Megatron and not the Vehicon who had offered to watch both of her children.

"Freefall? What is going on?" Songbird suddenly paused as she took notice of the blood coming from her child's arm. "What happened?!"

"I cut myself while I was making a new spear." Freefall answered simply picking up the pieces that were still yet to make a completed weapon. "It's not really as bad as it looks." With a loud sigh, Songbird reached into her satchel and pulled out several long strips of dried animal hide for her daughter to use his bandages. Freefall took them and wordlessly started wrapping up her arm.

"Now why did you leave-" Songbird never got to finish this question as the sound of a Vehicon running at an incredibly fast pace and screaming in a high-pitched sort of way became noticeable and then said Vehicon raced into the room, only to trip and fall face first onto the ground in a humorous sort of way…

"Hello Mark." Freefall said simply as this Vehicon slowly looked up only to see one of the human children he had been frantically searching for all over The Nemesis. Of course then he became aware that not only was Megatron in the room but so was Songbird… And at this particular time he was far more afraid of Songbird that he was of Megatron. Since it wasn't the warlord's sparkling's he'd just lost after all.

"Mark…" Songbird stated as calmly as she could although she was clearly holding back a bit of irritation. "Where exactly is my other daughter?"

"She is right here." Predaking said as he also entered the storage room after having noticed it was where Songbird currently was.

"Hello mama!" Moonrise chirped from her position on Predaking's shoulder. "P.K. was just showing me around." At these words Predaking looked at the small girl questioningly. Did she just call him P.K.? Really?

"If that's the case, then thank you… P.K." Songbird said politely as she brought up one of her wings in order for Moony to quickly jump on and slide down onto her back, while she brought her other wing down and let Freefall climb up as well. Everything seemed to work out all right with this, but the Vehicon known as Mark stood up and moved to the corner where he proceeded to try to calm down after having a full-blown anxiety attack... But before anyone could say or do anything else Megatron spoke out, after all even though Freefall had brought up some unpleasant memories for him and less than two minutes ago he fully intended to kill the human she had brought up something he wanted to have fully explained him before anything else occurred.

"I have a question for you Songbird." He addressed her, although he was also inwardly wondering why she was being led around by a bunch of his cannon fodder. "Your… daughter… mentioned that you have a most curious ability. What is this about being able to see the future?"

Songbird cast a glance at her eldest who smiled as innocently as she could, since that glance silently indicated that she had done something she was not supposed to. "She mentioned that did she? Well I'm sorry to say that it's really not as impressive as it sounds… but to put it simply, I am a fortuneteller. I can see things in my tarot cards that may, or may not come to pass."

"Then I would like to see a demonstration of your abilities… fortuneteller…" Songbird could hear that Megatron's tone was condescending. Clearly the second that she had uttered the words tarot cards and fortuneteller he believed her to be either delusional or a fool. Although she personally didn't care what he thought, she was currently working for him... and he didn't want a demonstration. So she begrudgingly reached into her satchel and selected a single card from the deck.

The card she drew was Death…

"That can't be good." Steve muttered as he looked at the card.

"Contrary to what most people believe, the Death card does not always mean death. More often than not it tends to mean a dramatic change, an end of a cycle so to speak. But now I would say that it means-" right in the middle of speaking Songbird suddenly went silent and for a moment her optics went out of focus…

"Well?" Megatron inquired, completely unimpressed with Songbird's little act. Immediately the gryphon seemed to snap back to herself and once again glanced at the card in her claws.

"It would appear that something is coming…"

Her ship crashed onto the Earth's moon…

It was a nothing short of a miracle that she was still in one piece, this the young femme knew immediately. In some ways she should have seen this coming, since the ship that she was using was already in bad condition when she had first come across it some years ago. Although the fact that it was even capable of flight alone made it a gift from Primus since she had been stranded alone on that planet for quite some time. Even in its ill repair, the ship still managed to function and with it she had traveled to various planets where she had observed and studied the various creatures that lived there. She had even taken a few pets from some of these worlds. Since she always traveled alone and things could get incredibly lonely. But now as she looked at the smoldering debris of what was once the closest thing she ever had to a home it felt as if her whole world had crashed with her ship. But to make matters worse a sudden pain surged through her spark when she heard loud screeching sounds of agony and panic that undoubtedly came from some of her pets. She frantically tried to get to them, to save them! But the sounds of their screams fell silent long before she was able to reach them.

"What… now?" She whispered sadly as she looked around the barren and seemingly lifeless moon that she had just crash landed on. "I'm trapped here. Is this where it ends? If that's the case I should have just stayed where I was and off-lined. At least the landscape was pretty there." She could feel tears forming in her optics with every word but she quickly wiped them away as she continued to wander around the wreckage of her ship. Knowing her luck the crash had destroyed everything, even her collection of Predacon bones. Well, all except for one which hung on a string around her neck. It was a single Predacon fang which she had more than once used as a knife in dire situations. It was her good luck charm… although judging from her current situation it wasn't a very good one.

Still, just as the femme was about to break down and let loose all of the tears she was desperately trying to hold in; a single thought occurred to her and she raced over to one section of her ship as fast as she could; praying to whatever deity could hear that the item was still intact and would still work. When she reached this certain section, she used her razor sharp servos to tear through parts from the ruined ship and nearly cried out for joy at what she saw. There was a single escape pod, the only one that had been on the ship when she found it. By all accounts she believed it to be operational, although it would be unable to travel any great distance. But it should have just enough energy to make it to the planet that this moon orbited. Even then she really didn't know what she was going to do, but to stay on this barren rock meant certain death for sure. It was the only hope she had and she clung to it.

It was a shame that this femme did not notice that this moon was not as lifeless as she had thought. For a single figure stood silently behind her, its large glowing purple eyes locked on to the small frame. "So you are the one who has crashed onto my domain. Who might you be little one?" The voice was as cold as a winter's night but was as soft as velvet. Surprised the femme turned around to see who it was that had just spoken to her.

And she screamed in pure terror…

Yes, I am very sorry about how long this chapter took to post, but to be fair it is the holidays and I have been nothing short of insanely busy although I did try to make this chapter longer to make up for the delay. Still the next chapter will be up faster much, this I promise. Also I want to thank everyone who is reviewed and faved this story so far, it really makes me happy that others are enjoying this little fic as much as I enjoy writing it. As always please remember to Read and Review! ^_^