People seem into this concept, so I'm going to give the second chapter a try. Enjoy!
Chapter Two
Consciousness returned slowly to Airazor. The gentle thrum of regenerative nanites up and down her frame and all around her told her that she was in a CR tank of some kind. In her half-aware state she couldn't remember why she would need a CR tank, and the tank's anesthetics made her too tired to really care enough to try and remember. All she wanted to do was relax in this bath of regenerative liquid and let her processor drift away once more into peaceful oblivion.
Wait… Maximals didn't use CR tanks. They used CR chambers that offered their occupants more privacy and forewent the inefficient design of leaving their nanites exposed to airborne contaminates. Over the centuries CR tanks had become mostly a Predacon thing.
Full awareness returned to Airazor as if she'd just been zapped with a high-voltage taser. Bolting upright in the nanite bath, she broke the surface with a watery splash. Struggling to her feet, she scrambled for the edge of the tank. The waist-high liquid - a high density colloidal suspension of nanites and oxygenated saline - proved more difficult for her to slosh through than anticipated and left her drained by the time she finally reached the edge of the tank and half threw herself over its side. A large dose of sedatives still remained in her system. Panting for intakes, she quickly took in her surroundings. She ignored the chorus of startled shouts that sounded from different points around her.
She was in a monstrously large room - the command deck of a starship. Half of the deck's lower level was gone, devoured by an active lava flow running straight through the ship's port side. The bridge's interior was bathed a warm flickering orange by the magma, giving it an almost warm and friendly feel. But Airazor was feeling anything but warm or welcomed right now. She knew where this place was. She was in the middle of the Predacon warship, the Darksyde. Panic rose inside her, driving away the last lingering effects of the CR tank's sedatives. Frantically, she tried to hoist herself out of the bath and over the tank's side.
"Wait," a voice called from Airazor's left. "If you give me a minute I will raise the flooring for you."
Airazor turned to find herself staring at the Predacon mad scientist, Tarantulas. Above him on a different level of the ship, she spotted Inferno and Blackarachnia sitting at a pair of computer consoles. Her panic flared.
"Stay away from me!" she cried. Somehow, she managed to lift herself high enough to get one knee over the edge of the tank and hoist herself up over the side. Her knees crumpled beneath her when she hit the mesh decking below. Drops of nanite bath flew everywhere, forming a magenta puddle underneath her. Apparently, she could have used a little more time in the CR tank... Ignoring the weakness, the flier forced herself to her pedes and scrambled backwards from the startled scientist. Before she could take more than three steps, though, she collided against a solid metal structure. Airazor was sent crashing to her knees by the blow. At first she thought she had unwittingly ran backwards into a wall. But when she looked over her shoulder to see for sure, horror stole all form of cognitive function from her processor. There, towering above her, was none other than Megatron himself.
The Predacon leader stared down at her in startled surprise. His dark silver and blue transmetal superstructure gleamed in the dancing orange glow of the lava flow. "Are you alright?" he asked, reaching a hand down to her.
Airazor recoiled away from him. "Stay away from me! Get back!" Weakly, she tried to rise back to her feet, but her body refused to respond. Her frantic climb out of the CR tank and failed dash for freedom had drained her of what little strength her time in the regenerative bath had given her. She helplessly sagged to the floor, staring up at Megatron in fear. "Don't hurt me! I've done nothing!"
"Airazor!" a familiar voice rang out. "It's alright! He won't harm you!"
Airazor swung around and gasped with relief. "Tigatron!" She reached one hand out to him as he rushed to her side and knelt down beside her. He instantly seized her hand in his own and held onto it. Trembling, the bewildered flier glanced back at the transmetal warlord. "What's going on? How did we get here?" she shakily demanded, still trying to get her feet under her enough to try a second escape.
"They found us," Tigatron said. His grip on her hand was reassuring and strong. "They brought us back here for repairs."
"You were badly damaged," Megatron said. He eyed Airazor apprehensively as though afraid she would bolt from him if he tried to directly speak to her again. The only thing keeping Airazor from doing so was Tigatron's presence beside her. "Blackarachnia and Inferno detected your energy signatures on our ship's scanners. We found you on the bank of the river, your circuits water-clogged. After a brief search, we managed to find Tigatron about a mile upstream from your position. Both of you were unconscious - or nearly so - and would have faced assured stasis-lock if we hadn't found you and brought you back to base."
"You- you saved us?" was Airazor's incredulous reply. She felt her processor beginning to overheat a little.
Megatron looked at her as though he half-suspected she was suffering from some lingering processor-damage from her trip downriver. "Of course. All sentient beings deserve the assistance of a helping hand - whether that being be Maximal, Predacon, enemy, friend or stranger."
Airazor was, by now, too disoriented and confused to know what to make of any of this, and glanced at Tigatron for explanation.
"Things are more different in this world than we were first led to believe," was his answer.
Airazor slowly looked back up at the Predacon leader in front of her. "It seems we have much to discuss," he said, and once more offered a helping hand down to her. The flier at first hesitated, but then timidly slid her hand into his. With a strong but surprisingly gentle tug he pulled her off the ground onto her pedes. "Forgive me if I startled you before," Megatron said. He gave her an embarrassed smile. "Upon first encounters, many believe me to be a gladiator rather than a simple explorer." His expression became serious. "But I suppose such a reaction is to be expected given where you are from and the welcome you received from Optimus Primal and his crew. You were lucky to have made it out of the Axalon alive."
"What's going on?" Airazor said, still trying to wrap her processor around everything that was happening. She desperately glanced at Tigatron as if he had the answers.
"You were more badly damaged from our escape down the river than I was. Because of that I came out of the CR tank first," Tigatron explained. "I was just telling our rescuers about our situation when you woke."
"And what a fascinating situation it is!" Tarantulas excitedly interjected. Bright yellow optics regarded the two scouts like a sparkling eagerly assessing a new puzzle for him to figure out. "A parallel dimension whose occupants possess completely different personalities than this one's. Who would have ever thought we would encounter such an enigma on this alien planet. While you were in the CR tanks I took the opportunity to do some preliminary scans on your systems because of traces of deep space radiation I detected on you. I discovered that although you possess the same energy signatures of the Airazor and Tigatron of this dimension, the actual makeup of your sparks is completely different. Here in this dimension our sparks are composed mainly of protons whereas yours are made of electrons."
"So everything that happened on the Axalon wasn't a dream?" Airazor weakly said. "It was all real?"
Tigatron's facial plates were solemn, his optics filled with the same hopeless yearning as Airazor's that they could still somehow wake up and escape from this hellish nightmare that had become their reality. "I'm afraid so," he softly intoned. He reached out to put a comforting arm around Airazor's back. "Until we find a way back to our own dimension we cannot go back to the Axalon or our former comrades. They will kill us on sight."
"I just don't understand," Airazor shook her head. "Why is Optimus acting like this? When did Maximals start acting like Predacons? How did everything get turned so upside down?"
"Perhaps it would be best if I gave you an overview of the current situation and where everyone stands in it," Megatron said. He gestured towards the upper level of the command bridge. "Come. Let's sit and discuss things. Perhaps then we can make an informed decision on what to do next."
Airazor shot an uncertain glance at Tigatron out of the corner of her optic which he answered with a small shrug. Swallowing her lingering apprehension and doubts about the Predacon leader and his intentions, the flier reluctantly fell into step behind Megatron and followed him onto a large hover-platform. Tigatron stepped onto it beside her. Together the three rose into the air as Megatron piloted it towards the bridge.
"I must apologize for our ship's appearance," Megatron said, moving his hand in a sweeping gesture around the lava filled command deck. "The Darksyde's navigation systems did not have much luck locating a suitable place to crash land when we first arrived on this planet." He tossed the scouts a lopsided smile. "Possibly the only good thing to come from landing in the middle of an active lava flow is the cheery mood lighting." Megatron gave a throaty chuckle at his own joke.
Airazor just stared. If she'd ever thought she'd one day meet Megatron like this and be treated as his houseguest, she would have immediately sought out the nearest CR chamber for a full neurological workup. She had the intense sensation of falling deeper and deeper into the rabbit hole with each passing minute.
"The lava flow also happens to be useful in converting the area's natural thermal energy into a useable power source for the Darksyde's remaining operational systems," Tarantulas called from a second hover-platform to their right. "Otherwise the ship's power core would have gone dark ages ago."
"Which was prevented only by your brilliant idea," Megatron reminded him. "Without Tarantulas's knowledge and scientific skills I'm not sure what would have become of us after we landed here," he said to Airazor and Tigatron.
In total contradiction to everything Airazor had come to know about the Predacon scientist, Tarantulas humbly ducked his head at Megatron's praise. "It was nothing," he mumbled in embarrassment. "If I hadn't thought of it I'm sure someone else would have."
"I highly doubt that, my friend," Megatron said as the two hover platforms glided to a stop beside the ship's main command deck. Inferno and Blackarachnia politely stood from their places by the computer stations as Airazor and Tigatron stepped off the platforms after Megatron and Tarantulas. "Please," Megatron said, gesturing towards the two seats Inferno and Blackarachnia had just vacated. "I imagine you are tired. I doubt you had a sufficient amount of time in the CR tank to fully heal all of your injuries.
Reluctantly - still slightly overwhelmed by everything that was happening - Airazor sat in the proffered chair. She wasn't about to admit just how right Megatron was. She felt unusually drained of energy and stiff. One side of her superstructure from her shoulder and the way down to her hip throbbed with the dull, residual ache of being smashed into river rocks at high speeds. Tigatron took the seat beside her. Now seated and as comfortable as she could be under the circumstances, the flier tried to relax under the gaze of the four Predacons staring back at her from the loose semi-circle they'd formed around her. Surprisingly, she felt no ill-will, hatred or suspicion from them. Only an intense sense of curiosity.
"So you two are from a different dimension, huh?" Blackarachnia broke the silence. It was obvious she was trying hard not to stare too much at the two scouts, but innocent curiosity burned in the femme's yellow optics. "Don't hear about something like that happening everyday…"
Unlike the Blackarachnia Airazor knew from her dimension, this Blackarachnia did not seem to possess the same aura of self-assured smugness or molten undercurrent of unchecked sexuality as her counterpart. This Blackarachnia was different - more subdued and shy; just like the color scheme of her superstructure was different - a more feminine combination of black and magenta armor plating. Despite her better judgment considering just who she was talking to, Airazor felt a little of her anxiety melt away. "You can say that again," she tiredly murmured.
"We know of your origins, but perhaps it would be good to explain some of the things here in our dimension now," Megatron said. The other Predacons all immediately quieted and turned to give him their attention. Airazor was surprised by the amount of respect they showed him through the action. The feeling she'd always gotten from the Predacons of her dimension was that the only reason Megatron commanded so much control over his troops was because of the ever-present threat of violence he would unleash on them if they didn't obey. This Megatron, however, didn't seem to need to resort to such crass displays of authority. The authority he possessed was freely given to him by his crew through mutual respect.
Sitting back in the bridge's command chair Megatron regarded them now from an equal optic-level. Airazor wondered if he'd done this intentionally to put them on equal grounds as a polite show of respect. "Just as in your dimension, we are stranded on planet Earth several million years in the past. My original crew and I were sent by the Tri-Predacus Council to search for uninhabited planets rich in natural resources that could be harvested and converted into energon for our home planet's use. Unfortunately, just as we reached the outer ring of Cybertron's satellites, we received word that Optimus Primal, a rogue commander of the Maximal army, had stolen an artifact from the Great Archives. We were the only ship in the area close enough to intercept him and were sent to try and retrieve it. Unfortunately, during the ensuing battle he activated the Axalon's transwarp drive in an attempt to get away. The Darksyde was pulled into the transwarp tunnel after him. When we emerged on the other side both ships were heavily damaged and were sent into freefall towards the planet's surface."
Megatron paused, his facial plates darkening. "We did not know it when we first engaged Primal in battle, but over the last few stellar cycles he had begun secretly accumulating unactivated protoforms in order to eventually raise his own personal army. When it became obvious the ships were going to crash land, Optimus ejected the protoforms' stasis-pods into orbit around the planet. His philosophy was that if he couldn't use those protoforms than no one was going to. He was willing to sacrifice dozens of innocent lives to the vacuum of space for his own petty pride." The Predacon commander's voice simmered with indignant anger.
"Luckily, in the time since arriving here a number of the stasis-pods have been knocked out of orbit and sent to the planet's surface. My crew and I are on constant watch for them. When a stasis-pod falls out of orbit we try to retrieve it before Primal can. When Optimus was still amassing protoforms as the foundation for his personal army, he had each protoform installed with a new set of codes that override all inherent programming and basically turn the protoforms into mindless battle-drones when they are brought online. My crew and I try our best to retrieve each stasis-pod so that the protoforms inside can be stripped of Primal's battle programming and brought online as a free-thinking 'bots, but we are not always successful. The Airazor and Tigatron of this dimension are perfect examples of that…"
Airazor was unable to completely stop herself from shuddering at the implications of Megatron's story.
Megatron, meanwhile, seemed to withdraw into himself and a cloud of unpleasant memories. "Despite our best attempts to free as many new protoforms from Primal's control as we can and recruit them to the Predacon resistance, we have suffered just as many losses as wins starting with my own second-in-command absconding to the Maximals shortly after crash landing."
"You mean Dinobot," Tigatron inferred.
Megatron stiffly nodded.
"How'd that happen?" Airazor asked. "In our dimension Dinobot switched sides because he disagreed with our dimension's Megatron and felt he could lead the Predacons better than him."
Megatron frowned, his optics staring emptily past the two Maximals into space. "For reasons not nearly so noble as that," was his quiet reply.
"Dinobot was a complete coward," Tarantulas angrily interjected.
"A traitor," Inferno agreed.
"He was captured by Primal's crew during our first battle after landing here," Megatron explained in an empty voice. "He was given the choice by Optimus to either renounce his Predacon ties and join Primal's crew or be deactivated. He chose the former. Although I do not necessarily fault him for choosing life over immediate death, he has made no attempt in the ensuing time to escape, and in fact willingly joins Primal in his campaigns against us."
The pain Airazor heard in the Predacon commander's voice was startling. "He was your friend," she said in dawning realization.
Megatron nodded. "Yes. My best friend and closest companion. Although he never possessed the strongest character and was easily swayed by others' opinions, he was like a brother to me. In all our years together I never once thought him capable of being party to such cruelty and reckless hate like Primal stands for. I still have yet to fully come to terms with the pain of his betrayal."
"I'm sorry," Airazor murmured.
Megatron shook his head. "He has chosen his path... There is nothing more I can do to bring Dinobot back to our side that I haven't already tried." As though deciding he'd had his fill of talk concerning his former friend, he swiftly changed topics. "Although we've managed to prevent Blackarachnia and Inferno from falling into Optimus's control, several months ago we lost our friends, Terrorsaur and Scorponok, in the alien quantum surge. We have been struggling to keep Primal from overrunning us and completely stripping the planet of its natural energon deposits since. In addition, we've lost all contact with Waspinator after he went out on patrol two days ago. We have not heard anything from him since."
Airazor and Tigatron shared agonized glances. The look did not go unnoticed by Megatron and the other Predacons.
"Have you seen Waspinator?" Inferno demanded, his antennas perking slightly. "Do you know what's happened to him?" His expression was a mixture of anxiety, worry and tentative hope. The same emotions were mirrored in the faces of all the others.
Airazor could not bear the look of hopeful desperation on their faces and hastily dropped her gaze to the floor. Her intake line constricted at the rush of images that invaded her memory banks of the green flier's last few minutes of function.
"I am sorry, but… he was killed by Optimus just before we escaped the Axalon," Tigatron sorrowfully announced.
"They tortured him to death," Airazor said, her vocal processor hitching slightly with the lingering horrors of that day. "They wanted to know about some kind of plans, but Waspinator kept saying he didn't know anything. Optimus finally got frustrated and deactivated him…"
Although none of the assembled Predacons seemed particularly surprised by this, the deflated hope and quiet agony on their facial plates made Airazor's spark constrict with guilt. "If we had known that Optimus was planning to kill him… If there had been anything we could have done to save him-" but she could not find the strength to finish her thoughts. Anything she would have said would have only sounded like empty excuses for what she'd allowed happen right in front of her.
Megatron sorrowfully turned away and hung his head. Blackarachnia expression crumpled, which she tried to hide behind her pinchers. His own facial plates twisted with grief, Inferno reached out and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder plate. Tarantulas seemed too consumed by quiet sorrow to do anything more than emptily stare at the ground in front of him, his shoulders slumped.
"How many more lives must be lost before this war is finally over?" Megatron finally found his voice. His hands balled into two shaking fists on his chair's armrests. Although the question was rhetorical, Airazor felt the agonized, angry confusion in the mech's deep voice. "How many more?"
Surging to his pedes if for no other reason than to alleviate some of his restless grief, Megatron paced back and forth across the command deck for several moments before finally turning back towards Tigatron and Airazor. "Did Waspinator tell the Maximals anything?"
Airazor shook her head. "No," she murmured. "He kept saying he didn't know anything. I think they continued to torture him just out of spite after they realized he didn't have any useful information to give them."
"But he did," Megatron solemnly corrected. "Waspinator was an integral component of a strike I had planned against the Axalon in the near future. He went out on patrol the day he was captured to gather detailed scans of the topography around the Maximals' ship. He knew everything Primal wanted to know, but kept that information secret despite everything he was forced to suffer. I cannot even begin to imagine what kind of torture he endured under that Maximal interrogations officer, Rattrap's, hands before he was finally granted release into the Matrix…"
"He remained as strong in death as he was in life," Inferno reverently murmured.
Megatron nodded. "He was one of the noblest bots I've ever had the privilege to know."
Blackarachnia gently shook Inferno's hand off her, her bearing once again strong and collected despite the sorrow still etched into her facial plates. "It was horrible how Waspinator died, but maybe his death wasn't a complete tragedy. He hasn't been the same ever since that quantum surge. You all know how depressed he was after Terrorsaur died. I think in a way this was probably an escape for him. At least now he and Terrorsaur are together in the Matrix."
The other three Predacons all solemnly digested this idea. For several minutes complete silence reigned over the command deck.
"I do not want to pry considering the impact Waspinator's death has had on you, but what was your plan?" Tigatron finally mustered the courage to break the silence.
Megatron's reply was subdued, his entire demeanor tainted with grief. "We had planned to make a preemptive strike against the Axalon sometime next week. Over the last month we have detected an increased amount of repairs being done on the ship. We suspect Primal is trying to somehow repair the Axalon and make it space-worthy again. We cannot let that happen. If Primal were able to leave planet Earth and return to Cybertron with the stockpile of energon he's managed to amass over the course of the Beast Wars, he would finally have the resources he needs to start a second Great War. He would lead the Maximals in a coup and topple the government. He would unleash chaos, death and destruction onto Cybertron on an unthinkable scale, destroying everything and everyone that stands in his way. Even if it means dying or destroying our own chances of ever returning to our home planet we cannot let Primal leave Earth."
Megatron heavily sat back down in the command chair, massaging one side of his helm with his fingertips as though fighting to stave off the renewed hopelessness of their situation. "But now, with Waspinator gone, we are outnumbered and out-gunned. There's no way we can take on the Maximals and hope to actually win. Sentinel is too powerful for only four bots to take on, let alone without any detailed intelligence on the ship's defense systems."
Airazor glanced at Tigatron, their optics meeting in silent agreement.
"What if we helped you?" Airazor tentatively said.
All four Predacons stared at her.
"You would help us?" Inferno said. His optics narrowed suspiciously. "Why? You are Maximals."
"Because the Maximals of this dimension are not the same as the Maximals of ours," Airazor replied. "The Optimus we know would never torture or kill an enemy prisoner. The Optimus we know would never seek to destroy our home planet. But this Optimus must be stopped. I won't let the names of factions get in the way of what I know is right and wrong. Even though I carry a Maximal symbol on my superstructure I won't let that stop me from doing what I know is right." Tigatron nodded in agreement.
Megatron pushed himself to his pedes and strode up to where they sat. Leaning down over them, he placed a hand on each of their shoulders and smiled in grateful relief. "Then let me be the first to formally welcome you to the Predacons, my new friends. Perhaps with your help we can finally put an end to the Beast Wars and Optimus Primal's tyranny once and for all."
to be continued…
Thoughts, comments, questions? It was actually a bit more difficult to switch around established characters' personalities than I was expecting. Feedback, as always, is encouraged and appreciated.
Signing out
-LAXgirl