CHAP 34

Sari touched down on the landing pad outside Zurg's palace. She stood still for a moment, studying the exterior of the castle. It was a large, black, intimidating building back lit by glowing red clouds. If she had been herself it might have discouraged her but, since she was being controlled by Nos-4-a2, the sight did nothing to hinder her desire to save her master. In fact; it only helped increase that want. "Don't worry, Master," she said, removing the jet pack and setting it on the pavement before walking toward the palace. "I'm coming to save you."

As she drew near the techno organic girl noticed the twin pair of hornets guarding the front entrance. They were tall black and yellow machines holding what looked like lances, their heads moved back and forth searching, searching. She paused and ducked behind a large statue of Zurg. She cautiously peeked around the statue at the robots. They were looking back and forth but didn't seem to be aware that she was nearby.

Good. That meant they wouldn't know what hit them.

She smiled an evil smile and opened her hands to create two energy orbs. Time to kick some robot butt.

Grasping orbs in both hands she jumped out from the statue and charged at the hornets. Alerted by her footsteps they looked at her. But it was too late for a reaction. She threw the orbs at them. The flying projectiles crashed into the robots, overloading their power cores and causing them to explode.

Sari then turned and ducked back behind the statue as a group of hornets, attracted by the sound, opened the door and stormed out. They stood still for a moment then moved to the right. She smiled. "Such dumb machines," she commented.

Sari quickly moved out of her hiding place and dashed toward the still open door. It closed behind her once she was inside the palace. "Now," she murmured, looking back and forth. "All I need to do is find Master without attracting any attention."

She heard footsteps coming toward her and quickly ducked behind one of the pillars. A few seconds later a purple robed being moved regally down the hall, followed by a blue skinned alien in a red and purple space suit. They were walking rather close together and seemed to be in the middle of an intense conversation.

"I am beginning to have reservations about that female vampire you brought back with you," the purple thing said to the blue alien.

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean," he shouted, suddenly losing his temper. "She's crazy! You know what she did to Nos-4-a2 during his torture session?"

The alien frowned, making it clear he did not want to get into that. He chose to humor the other being anyway. "What did she do?"

"She-" he suddenly stopped as if thinking twice about what he was going to say. "Oh never mind what she did. It wasn't very pleasant."

"I thought you wanted her to torture him. You know for revenge purposes and such."

"Not the way she's doing it!"

The blue alien cocked his head. "And how is she doing it?"

"Forget how she's doing it!" the purple one roared, clenching his fists at his sides. "It just shouldn't be done that way."

"Well you didn't have to let her do that to him, you know," his comrade pointed out as they walked past the spot where Sari was hiding. "You could have refused her offer."

"I only agreed to it because she said she had experience!" he made a face and touched his finger tips together. 'That little bimbo has experience all right, a little too much if you ask me." He slapped his palm against his face. "Too much experience in all the wrong areas. Once this is over, I want you to do something about her before she decides to make somebody else her toy...."

Their voices faded as they walked further down the hall. Sari waited until she could no longer hear either being before coming out of her hiding place and rushing down the hallway in the opposite direction the aliens had gone.

As she moved further into the palace the pull of her Master grew stronger and the urgent feeling in her chest grew greater. Nos-4-a2 was in trouble all right and needed her help. "Don't worry, Master," she said. "I won't fail you. I'll get you out of here, I promise."

She found a lift and took it to a lower level. Something told her he was being held far below the general area. Dungeons. A castle is never a castle without dungeons.

When the door opened she found herself surrounded by a legion of hornets. They all turned to her, aiming their guns. She moved fast, activating her blades and moving like lightning, dodging the plasma and slicing up the robots as she passed. When she reached the end all that was left of the hornets were smoking remains.

Turning her face away from the carnage she'd created she moved down the hall, taking out security cameras and whatever else she came across. Ten minutes later she reached the dungeons. Deactivating her blades she stepped inside and walked down the passage, her head turning to look inside each cell as she passed. Finally, as she neared the end, she found him.

Sari stopped in her tracks and stared at the figure lying on the cot, her eyes wide in horror. "Master!' she screamed, grabbing door and trying to yank it open.

It metal door did not budge so she shoved one of her blades inside and broke the lock.

She then threw the door open and dashed inside the cell, leaning over the heavily damage robot. "Master!" she explained, grabbing his shoulders and shaking him. "Wake up! Please wake up! I came to save you! Don't die on me!"

He did not respond. "Wake up!" she yelled, slapping him across the face.

Nos-4-a2 moaned and she saw his good optic flicker. It lit up to full brilliance and locked onto her own red gaze. "Don't.. strike your.. Master.." he managed to say.

"Master!" she exclaimed, pulling him into a hug. "I'm so glad you're alive!"

He weakly raised his arms and tried to pull her away from him. Being happy that he was alive was okay but he drew the line at physical contact. Unfortunately hands didn't want to listen to him and fell back onto the cot, thus preventing him from making that fact clear to her.

Sari pulled him back, her eyes taking in the full extend of the damage. "What have they done to you?"

"Sh-Shadowstar," he forced out before his head rolled back and he nearly blacked out again.

"Master!" the girl screamed, forcing him to focus. "Look at me!"

He did so, though he looked like he was having a hard time with it. She frowned, ritous anger written on her dark face. "Whoever did this to you is going to pay," she growled. "I'll make them pay."

She began to get up but he grabbed her arm preventing her from moving. She looked back at him. "Do not go against her, you little fool," he forced himself to growl. "I shall...take care of... her myself.."

Sari nodded, her mind going into full compliance to his order. She sat back down. "Well if I cannot teach her a lesson for daring to do such a thing to you, at least allow me to do something else." She pushed the hair that had fallen out of her pig tails away from her neck, exposing it. "At least let me give you some sustenance."

Nos-4-a2 eyed her neck longingly. It had been quite awhile since he'd fed on anything and most of the energy he had had been drained by Shadowstar as part of her sick form of fun. There was also the fact that the girl's power always made him act funny but right now he didn't care all that much. He would rather be drunk than dead.

The energy vampire weakly lifted his hand and grasped her shoulder. She moved toward him, putting her neck close enough to his mouth so he could latch onto it. He did so willingly and bit down into her soft, dark flesh.

Sari didn't even move or scream as he greedily sucked out her energy, his damage systems processing it. Unlike Shadowstar, he could not repair himself automatically by consuming energy but that didn't matter much. If he could get enough energy without losing it, he could repair himself.

Finally he stopped, removing his fangs from her neck and allowing himself to fall back onto the cot. Sari, drained but still conscious watched him, her hand covering the bleeding marks. She didn't comment, only watched him. Finally he sat back up, a small smile on his face. She smiled back. "Feeling better, master?"

"Smashingly," he replied. "Now I can begin my repairs."

Before he could though Sari stopped him. "Allow me," she said.

XR landed the ship twenty minutes after Sari had entered the palace and created a tornado of destruction as she made her way to her master. The robot space ranger touched down in an area of the planet where it would not be seen from the palace or tip anyone on the planet off that they were there. As a precaution he activated the cloak.

After he powered the ship down, but kept the cloaking mechanism online, he turned to Prowl. "Ready to get moving?"

The Autobot didn't even have to be asked. He stood. "Let's just get moving."

XR watched him head toward the door and jump out when it opened. He folded his arms in annoyance. "Well that's gratitude for you," he grumbled. "Not even a thank you from the sour faced mecha."

Prowl looked back into the ship. "Well?"

"I'm coming!" XR quickly wheeled after him.

Once he was out of the ship he looked up at the cyber ninja who had his attention focused on the palace in the distance. He seemed to be studying it, sizing the place up. XR waited. Finally Prowl tore his optics away from the castle and looked down at him. "They're here."

"Well of course they're here, if they weren't here I never would have come here and it was actually kind of obvious since Warp Darkmatter works for Zurg so-" Prowl started to walk away before the robot started rambling. "Hey! Don't walk away from me like that!" he shouted, wheeling after him. "How would you like it if I walked away from you in the middle of speaking!?"

"We don't have time to stand around talking," Prowl responded, not looking back at him. "There are more important things we should be doing right now."

Don't worry, Sari. I'm coming.

.Nos-4-a2 watched as Sari worked meticulously on the damage he'd sustained from Shadowstar's torture session. She started with his broken fingers, carefully opening up his arm so she could work on the damaged circuits inside the hand. She said not a word as she did this, only closing her eyes a few times as if doing so helped her become more familiar with the way it worked. After a few minutes had past, she was finished with the hand and reached out at if to touch his chest plate.

He flinched when she did this and grabbed her wrist. "No," he hissed.

She stopped, her face growing confused. "What is wrong, Master?" the girl questioned.

A brief image flashed into his mind. A horrible image of an invading power. "I don't want you touching me there."

"But you have damage in there," she persisted. "If you don't get it repaired-"

"I will do it myself," he cut her off.

Sari did not push the issue. She merely nodded compliantly and turned her attention on his broken monocle. "I think I know where I can find something to repair that."

"Huh?"

Sari stood up. "Can you get up, Master?" she asked.

When he tried he found he could not. It seems my wings are not in perfect working order. The only served to further irritate him. Stupid harpy!

"What's wrong Master?" Sari asked, cocking her head and eying him worriedly.

"Well..."

"That's okay," Sari replied when he told her. "I'll carry you."

"Carry me?!" he looked horrified at the idea. "I don't need to be carried like an infant!"

Sari had other ideas. Against the energy vampires protests she lifted him easily off the cot as if he weighed nothing. Then as he was yelling at her to put him down, she carried him out of the dungeon and down the hall to the labs. "I am sorry, Master," she said to him. "But it's for your own good."

He continued to resist. "Whose the Master here anyway?" he shouted, resting his hands on her chest and shoving her away. "Me or you?! I command you to obey my order and put me down!"

She tightened her grip on his body. "If I do that you will fall onto the floor and get hurt," she replied matter-of-factly. "Do you want to get hurt?"

Of course he didn't but he didn't want to be carried around like some kind of invalid either.

"Don't worry, Master," she said, smiling. "Once you're fully repaired you won't need to worry about it anymore."

"Fine," he consented. "But could you at least bring my cape? I feel positively naked without it."

She smiled and headed back into the cell to retrieve the article.

Prowl and XR arrived at the palace entrance without incident. To Prowl it felt a little too easy, as if this Zurg being was letting them get this close. "Okay," XR said. "Here's what we're going to do. Since it would be an unwise choice to go in the front door we'll have to find a alternate way in and I know just the place." he started to wheel away. "Follow me, comrade."

The Autobot followed, his senses on full alert in case they ran into trouble. This was the planet of an evil emperor after all so they couldn't afford to get careless. But then there was the fact that XR didn't seem to be tense at all about it, as if this was all routine for him. Wasn't he worried about them getting caught?

"You seem relaxed," Prowl commented, as they made their way around to the back of the palace. "Why is that?"

"Why shouldn't I be?"

"Well we are about to sneak inside the palace of an evil emperor," the cyber ninja pointed out. "I mean it just seems strange that you're not more on edge."

"Oh, I'm on edge," XR replied, looking over his shoulder at him. "But I try not to show it that much. I know at any moment we could run into trouble and Zurg is the biggest problem in the galaxy."

"Then why aren't you worried about getting caught or seen?"

He shrugged. "I guess I'm just used to it."

He was used to it? "You're strange."

"I'm not strange," he said. "I am just familiar with Zurg's routine. That's why I know that there's an unguarded entrance at the back of the palace. Zurg doesn't really change his habits much though by now he should have learned how to. I mean Buzz and the rest of us have infiltrated his palace enough times that he should be wise to the way we work." he smiled. "But if I know him, he's forgotten about it again."

And at that very moment the two robots walked into a gathering of hornets. They all turned to face the two, raising their arms. Prowl looked down at him, raising an eye ridge. '"Predictable?"

"Eh so maybe I was wrong." he said, looking sheepish. "Don't worry I got a plan."

Before Prowl could ask him what that was the smaller robot rolled toward the hornets and activated every gun in his arsenal. "All right, you poor excuses for robots, back off or I will blow you all to living slag!"

The hornets, in response to his threat, fired their weapons, knocking away every gun. They fell to the pavement, just out of reach. The Autobot frowned. "Got a plan B?"

XR turned to him, looking guilty. "Funny you should mention that." He grabbed Prowl's arm. "RUN!" he wheeled away, dragging the Autobot with him.

The hornets gave chase, shooting off green bolts of plasma energy.

"Are you telling me you want me to take her out for you?" Warp Darkmatter asked, looking at Zurg with a horror stricken face.

"Not take her out exactly," Zurg replied, resting his fingertips together. "Just do something drastic and make it look like an accident."

"Where did this come from all of a sudden?" the blue alien pressed. "You seemed fine with her before."

"As I said I never really intended for her to leave the planet," the evil emperor replied, putting his hands behind his back and pacing. "I can't chance her being incarcerated. She has seen too much and I don't want her blabbing to star command about my many secrets."

"Like your love for breaded shrimp?"

Zurg stared at him with wide eyes. "How do you know about that?!" he demanded.

"Zurg, everybody knows about that," Warp replied, smirking.

"Well anyway," he went on. "I still can't chance it. Lately she's been acting suspiciously."
"Besides what you said about her "intimate" torture session with Nos-4-a2?" Warp questioned.

"Yes, besides!" Zurg frowned as the horrible images from the recorded disc flashed through his mind. He shuddered. "Ew.. let us not mention that again."

"Fine but you brought it up. So how do you intend me to dispose of her and make it look like an accident?"

"I don't know," Zurg said. "But you'll think of something."

"Mind if I ask why you want this all of a sudden?"

Zurg did not reply, but only because he was remembering the look on Shadowstar's face when she was touching his throne. The memory only served to make his desire to have her removed greater. Nobody, but nobody, is going to take my power away from me again!

Sari was moving so fast that when she entered one of the labs she tripped over her own feet and nearly lost her grip on Nos-4-a2. He, not wanting to go flying across the room, grabbed onto her, his fingers digging tightly into her shoulders. "Watch what you're doing!" he ordered.

"I'm sorry, Master," the girl said after regaining her balance. "I didn't mean to nearly drop you."

"Just take your time," he ordered, through clenched teeth.

"Yes, Master."

She carried him over to a table and set him down on it.

He tensed, the memory of what had happened in a room like this surging back into his mind. Sari saw his expression change and noticed he clenched his hands into tight fists that began to shake. "Master?"

"I don't like it in here," he said in a trembling voice. "Take me out."

"But I haven't even repaired you-"

"I don't care!" he shouted. The energy vampire pointed into her face. "Take me out right now!"

The girl looked at him in confusion but did what he said. She lifted him off the table and carried him back into the hall. Once she was there she set him down on the floor and headed back inside. "Where are you going?" he demanded.

"If you won't let me repair you in there," she replied, looking down at him. "Then I'll get what I need and repair you out here."

"Why are we running?" Prowl demanded.

"Because we're moving very fast," XR answered. "and if we don't run those hornets will turn us into spare parts!"

"Nobody is going to turn me into spare parts." Prowl dug his heels into the pavement, forcing the smaller robot to stop. "We shouldn't be running," he stated. "We should be dealing with those hornets. Fleeing won't get us any closer to saving Sari or taking care of those energy vampires."

"No, but it will keep us functioning."

Prowl roughly yanked his arm free of XR's grip. "I won't run away this time," he said a determined look on his face.

"What are you-"

Prowl was no longer paying attention. He pulled out two throwing stars and rushed the hornets. XR watched him for a moment then, realizing he couldn't let Prowl fight them on his own, grudgingly moved to help. It did not take them long to scrap every single hornet. The space rangers never had a hard time scrapping them anyway. When the last one crumbled to the pavement in a jumble of spare parts Prowl turned to XR. "Let's go. The way should be open now."

XR followed him, feeling nervous. Not about getting inside but about the Autobot in general. While Prowl was fighting those hornets he seemed to have changed somehow. His fighting style seemed a little... cruel.

"Clean up your mess, he says. Do what you're told he says," Shadowdtar grumbled as she cleared out the mess of deactivated hornets which she'd left lying in Zurg's throne room. "Who does he think he's talking to here? I'm not one of his subordinates! He should-"

Suddenly Shadowstar stiffened. She sensed a certain very familiar energy signature moving around close by. "Prowl," she stated as an evil smile slowly lit up her dark face. "It seems my favorite plaything decided to show himself after all."

The femme transformed into vehicle mode and, with a roar of her thrusters, shot out of the room, leaving the robot parts lying in a heap on the floor, totally forgotten. She had something more important to take care of right now. I'm sure he'll give me more entertainment than that wannabe did.