14: Sparks Intertwined
It was foggy and the air was thick, and it was still night. Knight opened his eyes slowly, and then wished he hadn't. Right above him was a pair of fierce, crazy, green optics. They looked familiar.
"Hmm, what have we here?" the owner of the optics asked. He was a huge robot, with mandibles for a mouth and several legs attached to his back. The name Rampage came to Knight's mind. "A beast of some sort?" the big robot went on. "Oh yes, you are a wolf. I knew someone who could transform into a winged wolf…but he died. Your fate will be the same." He spoke calmly, almost soothingly, but with a mocking and violent nature behind it that would make anyone shudder. "Yes, that Silverbolt was lucky. He died quickly. You will not be so fortunate."
Knight wondered how he had survived the fall. He rolled over onto his side, and found that he almost rolled off a cliff. So, he thought, this was a ledge, and a very broad one at that. But he was lying perilously close to the edge, and Rampage was watching his every move.
Rampage's hand came down and lightly touched Knight's fur. He shuddered. "Aw, a little wolf pup, have we," said Rampage, "all alone in the world?" His fingers went dangerously near Knight's throat.
Snarling, Knight grabbed Rampage's hand between his teeth and shook it in his mouth. Rampage withdrew his hand quickly. "Bad dog," he said. "Is that any way to treat a guest?"
Knight realized for the first time why he couldn't move very much. Rampage was holding him down by his back legs.
"What," Rampage went on, "are you giving up? It's true you can't escape, but it's so dull when the quarry has no spirit. No terror, just hopelessness."
Hopelessness? No, Knight thought. Blackarachnia was alive. What was he doing down here when he could be with her? There was still a lot of fight left in him. "Sir," said Knight, his voice dripping with anger and disgust, "get your inferior hands away from me at once."
Rampage gasped. He was utterly shocked. That sounded just like Silverbolt! Knight used this moment of surprise to act. He squirmed around and savagely bit Rampage's foot which was holding him down. Rampage released him. Knight sprung backward, free.
"Ah, that's better!" Rampage said with amusement. "Lots of spirit, it makes the killing more fun!"
"I assure you," growled Knight, "that the only one dying will be you. And please you to know that I take no pleasure in the suffering of others. I certainly won't miss you, but neither will I enjoy your death."
"That's very reassuring," Rampage nodded. "I'm afraid I can't give you anything so comforting, but I can give you this." The crab-bot took out his cannon/blaster.
"No wait!" Knight warned him. "Use that thing and you'll make the ledge fall! It'll kill us both, Rampage!"
"My spark is invincible!" Rampage laughed.
Knight ran forward lightning fast, got his strength up, and leapt straight up into the air. His teeth locked around Rampage's blaster. Rampage was laughing again, and shaking his gun-arm wildly to loose the canine parasite which clung to him. Knight would not let go. Rampage shouted angrily, and hurled the gun, with Knight still clinging to it, off the ledge.
Knight released the blaster and held to the edge of the ledge. The gun fell down. Furious that the wolf was still alive, Rampage charged at him. Knight stood his ground, waiting. Here was his chance. Rampage charged to the edge, Knight darted swiftly between his legs, and pushed the crab-bot from behind. Rampage shrieked as he fell off the border of the ledge.
"There sure are a lot of people falling off cliffs around here," Knight commented. He began to look for a way off the ledge, promising himself that he WOULD get back to Blackarachnia.
Then suddenly—"Ugn!—"the horrible ache came back to his chest. Now that he knew he was a transformer, Knight realized that the pain was coming from his spark. It was horrible—the ache had never been this bad before, except that one time when he had passed out in front of Darkstar. But he had to keep fighting.
Something compelled him to transform. But I have endeavored to transform before, and it did not work. On the other hand, when I tried before I did not believe I was a transformer. Blackarachnia wanted me to change form. I can do it.
"Knight, maximize!" the wolf said. There was no change. Oh yes, he remembered, I have to say Silverbolt. "Ahem. Silverbolt, maximize!" This time he did change. What he looked like, he did know, but he guessed he looked similar, if not identical, to that Silverbolt person he had seen from the past.
Suddenly Knight felt very weak. The pain was strong, and he had not had any energon nor been in an R Chamber for days. He lay down.
Knight heard someone breathing. He sat up again, and realized that Darkstar was standing above him. "Hey, Knight. You look like scrap."
"I feel like it too," Knight said, standing up. "Well, I'm glad you've come, Darkstar. I thought I'd tell you that I still want to be your friend, and Brent's as well; but my place is with the maximals. I'll make sure they don't hurt any of you on purpose. Darkstar, it—"
Suddenly Knight felt a blast of hot firepower hit him square in the face. The force of it made him fall down. He opened his eyes weakly. Knight's mouth dropped open. Darkstar was blowing out fire from his mouth!
"I'm a special breed of wolf," Darkstar smiled. "You might call it a…Transformer." Then Darkstar transformed. He was now a tall, slim, and strong-looking robot, obviously with the power equivalent of a Transmetal 2, but resembling an Original due to the dark fur covering most of his body. His face looked similar to Silverbolt's, only darker, with a very sharp chin, thick optic arches, and ice-cold blue eyes.
Knight could only stare. All this time, Darkstar had been one of them? The deceptive dark wolf did not wait a moment before taking out a pair of twin pistol-sized blasters in the shape of wolf heads. Laughing insolently, he fired both of them at Knight.
This was worse than the fire. Knight tottered backwards, struggled to keep his balance, and fell forward. He landed on his hands and knees, breathless. Darkstar kicked him to the ground.
"You—you're a transformer! All this time…I don't understand," Knight muttered.
"You never do understand anything, Silverbolt," Darkstar sighed. "Of course I am a transformer! How could I not be? How could my teeth rip through metal if I was an ordinary wolf, huh? And that night you fought the spider interloper, the shot that came out of nowhere, I fired it. And how did I get up that sheer cliff? Easy, I flew. Anyway, do me a favor and tell me how you got out of the vortex after I closed The Window!"
"I don't know," Knight groaned. "The same thing that causes my spark to hurt, that binds me to my noblese obligue, as you put it. But what that thing is…I don't know. I can't remember."
"Then you're of no use to me," said Darkstar. "Any last words?"
"W-why?" Knight asked.
"Why what?" asked Darkstar impatiently.
"Why are you against me, Darkstar?"
The wolf-bot groaned. "First of all, don't call me Darkstar anymore. My real name is Black-comet, and I'm a scientist of Omicron. Anyhow, why am I against you? Because you're useless to me. Anything else?"
"Yes," Knight grunted. "…Who am I?—Knight, or Silverbolt?"
"You're Silverbolt, of course," Darkstar (now called Black-comet) growled. "But you've had your memory tracks messed up. Perhaps you'd like to hear the story? Well, I control a vortex. I can go in and out of the vortex whenever I want, and I can pull other people into the vortex in areas of gravitational disorientation. I am a predacon; hence my goal is dominating others. I thought turning time for my own purposes would be a good way to do that, but…the vortex is unpredictable. Naturally, I could not put myself in that peril. I needed someone else to go for me."
"You coward," said Knight grimly.
Black-comet smiled. "You'll pay for that in due time." He cleared his throat and went on. "So, here I was on earth watching you maximals and predacons. My energy signature cannot be picked up when I am beast mode, so I follow maximals around sometimes, waiting an opportunity to hire a bot.
"I followed you and a spider one day. There was a rockslide which supposedly killed you. The sentimental maximals left your body in a little cave and went to their base. Your spark left your body. Then, I saw that your spark was not going wherever sparks go when they leave transformer bodies. Your spark began to follow the maximals to their base. I decided this was my opportunity and I grabbed your spark and put it back in your body. I made some changes to your beast mode—"
"You!" Knight exclaimed wrathfully. "You made me disfigured like this?"
Black-comet nodded. "Yes. I took off your wings, tail, and talons."
Knight grimaced. "You're disgusting."
Black-comet swept a quick bow. "Thank you, sir. Anyway, I made sure your memory circuits were overwritten, and that you would feel very little pain when you awakened. Unfortunately, this did not work so well. You have those unexplained spark-aches. And despite the fact that your memory was overwritten, you still hold to your code of honor. I can't understand it. It makes no logical sense. It is equally nonsensical that you are able to transform, since the operations I preformed to prevent it were successful. All in all, there are some unexplained questions, but the fact is: you have to die. I don't need you; I've got a new assistant now."
"Oh no, you don't!" Depth Charge shouted. He had flown up from below. "After I heard that bunch of slag about turning time for your own purposes just now, do you think I'll be stupid enough to work for you? You underestimate me. You told me you would go back and change what happened on Omicron—you lying wuss!" Depth Charge aimed his blaster at the wolf-bot.
Black-comet turned a somersault to evade the ray's torpedoes, then, rising to his feet, shot at the manta-ray's jets.
Depth Charge fell downward, but grasped the edge of the ledge. Chuckling, Black-comet walked over to him. He stomped ferociously on Depth Charge's hands. Depth Charge shouted and let go. The wolf-bot laughed. "There goes another. Is falling off cliffs the latest trend around here?"
"You should know," said Knight; "you're the one who pushes them off."
"Oh yes," Black-comet sighed irritably. "Now I've got to deal with YOU. You've heard all this, so even if my new employee quit, you still have to die." Black-comet turned to face Knight, and shot again.
"Hey, wolf-brains!" a voice shouted.
Black-comet turned to see Blackarachnia, hanging off the cliff face a few yards above. "Nobody does that to my love!" She shot a round of sticky webbing around the wolf-bot. Then Blackarachnia dropped off the wall and landed beside Knight.
Black-comet struggled, and managed to rip one hand free of the webbing. He pulled an energon sword out from a scabbard which hung on his back, and cut himself free with it. "Spider-femme!" he shouted. "I have this special recipe…for decapitated arachnids!" He slashed at her.
Blackarachnia dropped down on her knees to avoid the swipe, them swung her legs around, kicking the wolf-bot' shins and making him fall. She lunged for the sword, but he saw her coming and slashed again. Blackarachnia leapt upward and evaded the slice.
Knight struggled to his feet, almost blinded by the pain Black-comet had inflicted. The pain in Knight's spark, however, had ceased as soon as Blackarachnia came. The warrior wolf stumbled over to save his lady.
"So, you're the one behind all this, aren't'cha, big guy?" Blackarachnia asked mockingly, struggling for control of the sword-hilt. "I thought you would be a little tougher. Bots these days: boring. No competition."
"How's this for competition?!" Black-comet roared, and shoved her off the sword. He now had complete control of it.
The wolf-bot sliced a downward stroke, which Blackarachnia easily dodged. The blade still on the ground, Blackarachnia stomped on it hard, breaking it into two shards. As Blackarachnia leaned over to grab her half the sword, Black-comet took his half and thrust directly at her.
"No!" Knight shouted, jumping between them.
"Silverbolt!" Blackarachnia screamed. When she looked up, he was standing in front of Darkstar with the energon sword sticking through him. She turned to Black-comet, eyes flaming. "You—"
She was cut off as Black-comet pulled the sword out of Knight with a jerk. Face twisted in pain, Knight grunted, moaned, and fell to the ground face first. Blackarachnia stood…speechless.
Black-comet turned Silverbolt over so they were face to face. "Again, any last words?" he smiled.
Knight struggled to say something. "Blackarachnia…I…figured it out. The connector…the root …that kept me going…"
"That's very nice," said Black-comet; "now goodbye." He thrust his sword downward, and stabbed right through Knight's spark. Knight's eyes went dark. UNIT SILVERBOLT OFFLINE. SPARK DETERIORATING.
Blackarachnia screamed. Silverbolt was gone, this time for good.
Black-comet turned to her, wearing the same leering smile. "Your turn, femme!" he growled, and lunged forward with the sword.
Blackarachnia backed up a little, but tripped and fell. Black-comet stood over her, and touched her throat with the tip of the energon sword. "Say goodbye to your competition," the wolf-bot laughed.
"Alright: goodbye!" came a familiar voice. An explosion lit up behind Black-comet, and he fell backwards. Somebody had defeated him. Blackarachnia lay where she was, trying to make out who her rescuer was. Whoever it was, he lifted Black-comet by the neck, and said, "You will not lay a finger on my love."
The strange rescuer threw Black-comet to the ground, where he tried uselessly to swing his sword at his overpowering enemy. The rescuer grabbed the sword and stabbed the Omicron professor. In a few seconds, he was dead.
So, somebody had saved Blackarachnia and killed Black-comet. But who? Blackarachnia didn't care. It didn't matter now. Without Silverbolt, nothing mattered. Silently, Blackarachnia remembered the words her lost love had spoken just before he was impaled.
"The connector…the root …that kept me going…"
What could that possibly be, Blackarachnia wondered? Silverbolt said that one connector held up the universe, and what Blackarachnia and Silverbolt felt for each other was a tiny fragment of that power. The name for that power, she had forgotten. And she didn't care.
Despite the spider's carelessness and dumbstruck despair, she wondered who the stranger was—the stranger who had rescued her from Black-comet just now. She began slowly to look up.
As she brought her head up, she remembered something. Silverbolt's voice said: I know this feeling well—it's the feeling that binds all hearts and holds all memory—but I've forgotten its name. Blackarachnia heard her own voice reply, Its name is love.
The connector! Blackarachnia realized. Its name is love. She looked up, and could scarcely believe what she saw. Tears came to her eyes, for about the millionth time in these past few days. But these were not tears of grief. This was joy.
"S—S—Silverbolt!" she exclaimed, all her heart in that one shout.
It was true. The stranger who had just saved her, completely healed with wings in place and shining armor polished to perfection, was Silverbolt. Blackarachnia blessed those heaven-sent wings.
Blackarachnia ran to him, her feet finding a strength she didn't know she had. Silverbolt was waiting for her, with outstretched arms. She fell into those arms, and they closed about her. At last, she was where she wanted to be most! She laid her head against his warm chest and put her arms around him.
Home at last.
Silverbolt, the fuzore thought. Yes, that is my name. His memory was back. He remembered everything now. Blackarachnia smiled; this was her heaven on earth. Now, she thought, if he would just say that one corny line…
"Blackarachnia," Silverbolt whispered fervently, "oh, dark poison of my heart!"
Blackarachnia laughed. Or maybe she was crying, she couldn't tell.
"But…Silverbolt," Blackarachnia asked, "how?"
"It all makes sense now," said Silverbolt; "why my spark didn't go to the Matrix after the rockslide. My spark was following you. Don't you see?—our sparks are bound together. My spark was not extinguished when Black-comet stabbed it a moment ago, because it had to be with your spark. That connector bound our sparks, and it completely healed me. Even though my memory circuits were overwritten, our sparks hold all our memories forever. Intertwined sparks…that is why we have both been in pain; our sparks are in pain when they are not together."
It all seemed so impossible! So complex, and yet so simple. That was love.
"Well," Blackarachnia sighed, "guess that means I'm stuck with ya, Rover." She reached up and ran her hand along his face. "You'll never know how much I missed you."
"Yes I will," said Silverbolt. "Because I felt it too." He bent his head down and kissed her.
"You're hopelessly sappy, Silverbolt," Blackarachnia smiled.
Silverbolt laughed: a sound which made all the troubles of the world vanish before Blackarachnia's eyes. There is great strength in inter-bound sparks, she remembered Cheetor telling her. More comfortable than she had ever been in her life, Blackarachnia relaxed in Silverbolt's arms. Pure, strong, and fast, she thought; with the heart of a true wolf.
Silverbolt threw back his head and howled the victory cry of a wolf.
THE END