Connection 

Part Five

By: Starath (starathbot@geekgrok.com)

PG 13 (Language)

Author’s Note:  Here we go with part 5, second to last in the series! I’m a bit sad that this is coming to a close, but all good things can’t last forever.   To warn you there’s some harsh language within this.  Mainframe Entertainment and Hasbro own the Beast Wars and its characters, not me.  Thanks LDC for helping, again!       

            “So where do you suppose he goes, anyway?”

Rhinox groaned softly, shaking his head as he continued typing away at the computer console.  This again.  Rattrap had brought it up only eight times today so far.  A record.  Beside him Black Arachnia rolled her crimson optics and threw up her claws, spinning in her seat to face the smaller Maximal, who was casually leaning on the center table.

            “Will you drop that already?  We have a few more important things to worry about, like the fact Megatron became a dragon the other day?”

            “I ain’t sayin’ dat’s somethin’ we shouldn’t worry about, legs.  I’m just wonderin’ where he goes off to all da time.”

            “Here’s a thought—maybe to hunt Rampage?  Ever think of that?”  

            “Well yeah, o’ course.  But dat doesn’t explain how he disappears off da radar so often.”

Black Arachnia took a slow breath to calm her temper before explaining, “Grape-face has jamming stations all over.  When Depth Charge goes hunting, he’s almost always in those areas.  One can assume that’s where Rampage is a lot, within Predacon territory.”

            “Nuh uh.  I disagree, sistah.”  Rattrap moved next to her and tapped a few key commands to bring up a map on the computer screen.  Dark purple circles appeared to show the places that were blocked off with radio jamming stations.  He pointed at a few spots on the map.

            “First o’ all, I’ve watched his energy sig disappear off da map here, here, and here.  Nowhere near the jammed areas.  And when someone goes inta one of dem places, dere sig gradually fades out.  But not his.  Just poof!  All gone.” 

            “I guess I see your point…” she admitted, turning to him, “If this is bothering you so much why don’t you just ask him?”

            “Wit’ da way he’s been actin’ lately?!  Two weeks ago he was swearin’ up an’ down while commitin’ murder ta sheet metal wit’ his bare hands, and den next thing ya know he’s a chummy goof!  Ya know he actually called me by name yesterday instead of somethin’ insultin’, like Rodent or Garbage-Breath?  He hasn’t even talked back to Pop Op in a week!  I’m telling ya, something ain’t right wit’ him!”

            “You’d rather have a rude insulting Depth Charge than a nice one?”

            “If dat’s what’s supposed to be normal, yes!”

            “…Whatever. Personally I don’t mind it.”

            “Nor do I.”  Rhinox spoke for the first time, although still focused on his work.  “I have asked, by the way.  I’ve noticed how his energy signature disappears too.  The nice-guy act vanished in a blink. He wouldn’t say anything at all, just that it’s something he ‘has to do.’  Don’t worry about it Rattrap.  Maybe someday he’ll tell us, but for now it isn’t our place to know.”

            “Yeah, but will we evah?”

            “Why should it matter?  If he’s happy because of something, let it be.  Happiness is very rare in his world.  It’s his business, not ours.”

            “Still…”

Black Arachnia sighed, pushing her seat away from the console before standing up.

“Well bots, I’m off to sentry duty.  Have fun.”

            “Yeah, not as much fun as you’ll have with da Bird-dog,” Rattrap smirked, then cringed and ducked a slap from her.  “I was just kiddin’!”

She tried again and swatted him on the head before stalking off.  “Sure you were.”

            “Heh heh, ya got dat right.”  Settling into the seat, he prepared to take a nap when alert alarms jolted him upright.  “What in da galaxy?!”

Rhinox pounded hard and fast on the keyboard.  The area map Rattrap brought up was replaced by an image from space.  A large glowing ball of white and blue light filled up the screen.

            “A comet?”

            “No.  Its trajectory is too controlled for that, and it isn’t made of rock and ice.”  Frowning at the readings he was receiving, Rhinox shook his head in disbelief and quickly compared data with some stored information he had saved on the computer.  Rattrap leaned over his shoulder.

            “Well, if it isn’t a comet, what is it?”

Rhinox felt his spark sink as his comparison gave the conclusion he dreaded.  He looked at the computer screen, unable to keep the grave tone out of his voice.

            “Something I thought we’d never see again.”

            He should be hunting X.  Or setting up scanners somewhere.  Or hunting X.  Or destroying a jamming station.  Or hunting X.  Or maybe even helping around the Maximal base…. Or hunting X.  Depth Charge sighed, blowing human blonde hair out of his face.  It was such annoying stuff.  Why do humans need hair anyway?  All it does is get in the way, he thought, brushing it away from his blue eyes.  He had been in this human body numerous times by now but it still felt foreign to him, as if he simply didn’t fit.  Well, maybe because he was really supposed to be a ten-foot Maximal warrior and not a human to begin with had something to do with it.  His conscience kept telling him he should be back in the Beast Wars world hunting X but he resisted it and stayed put against the railing, looking down onto the gym floor where Christine’s class was playing a game called “Ultimate Frisbee.”  It made him restless though, doing nothing except watching and thinking.  His thoughts strayed too easily onto the burning desire to hunt and destroy Protoform X.  The creature still lived, and here he stood idle!  Yet… A new longing had slowly come into being in the past two weeks…the need to find some other meaning to his life other than justice.  No, it was vengeance, that’s what it really was.  And there was something there.  He still didn’t know what it was.  It simply existed, and it was itching at the back of his mind, prying at things buried in the past, before X changed his life. 

            “Did I even have a life before he changed it?”  Depth Charge wondered softly aloud.  Logic told him of course he did, but he couldn’t remember anything but the tiniest bits and pieces. He had a family, a beautiful little girl and a loving mate.  His daughter had the same huge red optics he did, but she had her mother’s smile… whose face he couldn’t remember.  No matter how hard he tried to remember his mate he couldn’t, and if he finally caught a glimpse of her in his memory or heard her voice, X’s horrible green optics and laughter filled his head. He found them shortly after the monster had killed them, sprawled out on the floor, a mother holding her child as if they were sleeping… in pools of their own mech fluid….

            “No!  Don’t think of that.” Depth Charge hissed through his teeth, shaking his head to banish the awful images.  X was there when he found them, and he laughed with such glee at the agony Depth Charge cried when he found his broken family.  That was only the beginning of the massacre…  Metal railing shrieked as he clenched it tight and twisted it, barely able to prevent himself from tearing it apart.  Humans can’t do that.  He was human right now, although he madly wanted to become his rightful form, go back to the Beast Wars, and beat the slag out of Protoform X.  But there is more to my life!  Think of something else, you fool!  Shaking hard, Depth Charge forced himself to let go of the railing and dug back into his memory.  What else was there that he couldn’t remember?  His friends?  School?  His job?  His job….  Before becoming head of security at Colony Omicron he had been a police officer.  Yeah, that was it.  Those were some of the best years of his life.  Faces of people he knew floated up from his memory and it pained him because he couldn’t remember their names.  Yet seeing their happy expressions made him happy too. 

            From the gym floor, Christine looked up to the young man leaning on the railing of the level above her.  After wiping sweat from her face she waved, trying to get Depth Charge’s attention. They needed another player on her team for the Ultimate Frisbee game; the competition was slaughtering them.  She remembered to call him by his human name, even though after the time he carried her into the weight room everyone knew she called him ‘Depth Charge’ too, for reasons they didn’t understand.

            “Daniel!” 

            He didn’t hear her, completely lost in content memories of the past.  As a police officer he had a spotless record.   He captured the most criminals and put them behind bars, even back then he was relentless at hunting down those who didn’t follow the law.  Yet he was gentle too, helping younger Transformers find their parents if they got lost or pulling a small boy out of a place he got stuck in and couldn’t get down by himself.  The look of gratitude the boy gave him… absolutely adoring and thankful… He could still remember the child saying, “Thank you sir” before Depth Charge set him down…

“Hey Daaaaniel!”

            The colony was safer because of him.  He kept order and protected the weak and innocent.  That was his primary function long ago, a calling he found when he attended Academy with his friends.  And it felt good.  People trusted him.  He always got the job done.  He never failed a single assignment, which earned him lots of recognition. 

            “Hey DANNY!”

            One day that recognition got him an unexpected promotion.  He became head of security for the entire Colony Omicron, where he had lived most of his life.  And then he got a new assignment, to contain the creature called Protoform X…

“Oh DC!”

Things went well for a few months until all hell broke loose.  Protoform X escaped.  On his watch.  No!  What went wrong?  How could he have escaped?! Reliving that moment when he was told of the escape, Depth Charge held on tight to the railing again, shaking his head in disbelief, ignoring the scruffy blonde hair when it fell into his face.  X had to be captured!  Before… before…

“Depth Chaaaarge!  Yo, fishface!”

Too late.  Reports were already coming in.  Mysterious deaths and disappearances.  Not too many at first, but then they came in by the dozens.  X was destroying the colony and killing its people!  He had to stop him! Their first encounter… somehow X knew his name and said he’d been watching him…. And they were going to start to play a game…Depth Charge didn’t quite understand and refused to “play”, until he found his mate and daughter dead… That started it all…

“Hey DORKBOT!”

And soon…. Soon the final battle will come.  He could feel it.  There would come a time where he will stare that monster in the optics and end his life.  It didn’t matter if Depth Charge went too.  If that’s what it took, then so be it.  Far too many souls had been destroyed by that monster’s hand; one more wouldn’t matter if it ended the reign of terror forever.  And it was all because he failed in the first place.  He failed to keep those people safe.  They trusted him!  And they paid with their lives.  It was only fair that he died to join them.  There was nothing else in his life but hunting X.  Through Christine’s mind he’d seen glimpses of his end whether or not she meant to show him.  But what about her?  I am her support, her inspiration, for whatever twisted reasons we’ve been brought together.  I should start to distance myself from her so the departure won’t be so harsh…  In truth he didn’t really want to die though, because the thought that kept nagging him about there being something else in his life wouldn’t go away.  Yet no matter what he thought of, his mind always made the same loop back to X.  The death, the destruction, the relentless eternal hunt… being covered in the blood of victims so many times over… the anger, the burning fury that now kept him alive…. All because of his failure and Protoform X….

Christine reached out to Depth Charge and gently nudged him with the broomstick while one of her classmates watched.  He didn’t respond to the first poke, so she prodded him again a little harder.  With a vicious snarl Depth Charge spun around, grabbed the broomstick and effortlessly snapped it in half between his hands.  Startled, she pulled away what was left of the broom and handed it to her classmate.

“That’s why I didn’t want to poke him myself.  I like having my arm in one piece.”

“Yeah, I see…” With wide eyes he turned to go down the stairs to put the broom away.  When they were alone Depth Charge demanded,

“What do you want, girl?!”

            “I’ve been calling to you for the past five minutes.  Didn’t you hear me?”  Carefully she approached him, giving a wide berth just in case.  He watched her warily, visibly shaking in contained anger.  “No, I didn’t.”

            “Oh, alright….”

With a huff he turned back to lean on the railing, staring at the ground without really seeing anything at all.

            “What’s the matter, Depth Charge?”

            “Nothing.”

            “You look too angry and worked up for it to be ‘nothing’.  And you’ve been metal sculpting with your bare hands.”  She nodded at the bent and twisted railing.

            “Oops.”

Christine sighed and sat down on a bench.  “C’mon Depth Charge, you can tell me.  I’m always willing to listen.  Cut the tough guy thing.  I can be just as sarcastic as you.”

            “I doubt that.”

            “C’mon grumpy gills.  Park yer butt here and talk.”  She patted the bench.

            “I don’t want to.”  Instead he started pacing.

            “Oh no, don’t do that. You’ll get more worked up if you pace.”  Jumping up she gently grabbed onto his black shirt and pulled him to the bench.  He resisted, growling, but after a moment he sat down grudgingly, making a point to sit far away from her.  After a moment of tense silence she said:

            “So?”

            “So what?”

            “Talk, buddy bot.  I don’t care what it is, just talk.  You obviously need to.”

            “Fine.  I think Primal is an idiot, the rat stinks and Black Arachnia has a hotter-than-hell skidplate since she became a Transmetal.  There, done.”  He started to get up.

            “Oh no you’re not!”  Christine yanked on his shirt to get him to sit again.  “That’s not exactly what I meant.”

            “You said you didn’t care!”

            “There’s more to it than that, isn’t there?  Is it about Rampage again?”

Depth Charge growled, swiping at his annoying blonde hair to get it out of his face.  “It’s always about him!  And his name is X, not Rampage.  He doesn’t deserve a proper name.”

            “Yet he deserves every waking moment of your time loathing and stewing over him and what he did.”               

“Yes!  You can’t begin to understand what he’s done to so many innocent lives, and mine as well!”

“I can imagine.”

“No, you can’t.  He took everything from me.  My family, my friends, my home, my entire life.  Because… because I failed.”

“What?  No, you didn’t fail—“

“Yes I did!  If I hadn’t, he wouldn’t have gotten away!  He was my responsibility!  I had to keep the colony safe!  That was my job!”

“It isn’t all your fault, Depth Charge.  Maybe a lock malfunctioned?  Maybe he figured out how to get loose?  Ramp… erm, X is very smart.  Maybe he bribed the guard dog?  Who knows?  But the blame doesn’t fall entirely on you.”

“Yes it does.  I could have… could have… could have done something!  By the time we found the two guards that watched him they were already dead.  Torn apart.  Their sparks consumed.  On the wall, a message written in their mech fluid: ‘Catch me if you can’.  Even then he treated this like a game.  And I was to become his opponent.  But why me?  All I wanted was to be happy with my family, but he took them away too…” Depth Charge felt his face become wet, and he rubbed at tears of fury rolling down his cheeks.  “… Oh great, I’m leaking.”

“No silly, you’re crying.”  Christine laughed softly, digging in her pocket to find a tissue.  She handed it to him.  “You’ve been carrying those emotions for a long time without any outlet but fighting and raw anger.  Humans have a few more ways of expressing sorrow.”

“Oh.  Yeah, it’s been a long time alright… well over one hundred stellarcycles.”

“Really?”

“Yes.  I’ve never stopped hunting X, and I never will even after two more hundred stellarcycles.  However long it takes to catch him.” 

“Wow.  That’s devotion.”

“Heh, well, it’s not like I have much else to do.  I was trying to remember what my life was like before X, that’s why I got so worked up earlier.  Everything kept coming back to him.”

“Oh?  What did you remember?  I’m honestly very curious about what you used to do.”

He wiped the last of his tears away.  “I can’t remember very much.  Just my family.  And my old job.  And I think… Yeah… I went to Academy school, to train to become a police officer when I was young.  Those were fun times…” He chuckled as a few dusty memories played out in his mind.

            “Why is that?  C’mon, I wanna know!”  Christine curled her knees to her chest, bracing her feet on the edge of the bench, looking at him expectantly. 

            “Heh heh… well, there was this one time… in one class we were jokers all the time.  The police Chief—our teacher—had a locker in the classroom he always put his stuff in before starting the class.  One day… Heh heh… Our smallest member of the class, a little femmebot… climbed into his locker just before he came in… to scare him, you know… We kept quiet as he walked in, bright well-behaved students awaiting their teacher…. He opened the locker, put his stuff on the shelf, said hello to the girl and closed it and went on with the class like everything was normal… By the Pit… it was hilarious.”

She laughed along with Depth Charge as he continued on, “And we used to pass stuff around the room.  Just for the heck of it.  Well, to confuse everyone, especially the Chief.  A pair of handcuffs.  The stapler.  Once we managed to get a body bag partway down the row before he took it away from us.  And the time I made a stink bomb that accidentally went off in the middle of class.  That was great!”

            “Hahaha… So you were quite the joker, huh?”

            “Oh yes.  I miss the old Chief.  He was a tough bot but liked having fun too.”

            “When you go back to Cybertron you should see him again.”

Depth Charge’s laughter abruptly cut off and his face hardened into a scowl.  “No.”   

“… Why?”

“Because X killed him.”

“Oh… I’m sorry…”

“Along with everyone else on Colony Omicron.  Except me.  I’m to be his eternal opponent in his sick game until I end it.  Forever.  That’s the way it always is.  Everything comes back to him, down to he and I.  Soon enough we’ll both be judged.  So long as he goes straight to the Pit I don’t care.”                            

            “No!  Depth Charge, there’s more to your life than that!”

            “There isn’t.  Everything in the past is ruined because of him.”

            “Then stop looking behind you and start something new!”

At that he turned to face her.  “I don’t know how.”

            “Then learn!  Have you figured out what that ‘something’ is that you told me about two weeks ago?   You said it gave you something else in your life!”

            “No… I don’t know what it is yet.  I doubt I ever will.”

            “Don’t talk like that!  You can change your fate!  Only you!  It isn’t fixed!  You can go down in flames with X or you can emerge from them, stronger than you ever were before!  Don’t just give up!  That isn’t you!”

            “How do you know me?” 

            “If you can have the same determination and devotion to hunting X you can have it for anything else in your life! You’d never give up on catching him.  Never.  So NEVER give up living your wonderful life!”

            “Wonderful?  HA!  My life is anything but ‘wonderful’.  All because of him.”

            “JUST because of him?  What about your decisions to make your OWN life hell, allowing your anger and need for revenge to consume you?  Rampage may have been the start of that but only you control its path and its end!”

…She’s right, he realized, and absentmindedly tore apart the tissue he’d been holding into small shreds.  Christine scooted closer to him, lowering her voice.

            “There’s always hope, you know?  When it rains those big storm clouds pour, but there’s always a silver lining to them somewhere.  Someday they’ll break up and you’ll see the sun again.  Nobody is doomed to any fate other than what they give themselves.  And you have the privilege to live much longer than I or any other human ever will.  Yes, you’ve seen some horrible things but you’ve seen some beautiful things too.  There are many more of those things if you’ll just open your eyes to see them, rather than just focusing on the bad stuff.”

            “I am not meant to be saved, Christine.”

            “Yes you are! Haven’t you been listening to me?  Are you listening to yourself?  Don’t accept what those demons are saying!  Fight them!  Banish them!  They are wrong!”

Why should I? He asked himself, and then a stronger voice answered, also his own:  Because there is more than this.  I protect the weak and innocent.  I help people.  I am NOT an eternal hunter!  You KNOW she’s right.  Stop being so stubborn.  Look, she’s crying because of you.  You’re her hero now, and you’re killing her faith in you! …She is? I am…?

            Depth Charge blinked, looking up from staring at the floor and the little pieces of white tissue in a pile at his feet.  Christine was curled up in a tight ball, leaning against the railing and the wall beside her, trying very hard not to make a sound as she cried.  Her gaze was locked on something, yet nothing in front of her, refusing to look at him.  Guilt set in and the anger he always felt drained away.

            “Aw kid, don’t cry…”

            “I… I don’t understand how one can be so lost…” She managed to say, “But there’s always hope, ALWAYS!  For you for me for everybody.  You can’t die.  You CAN’T!  You’re too strong for that!”  She finally looked at him with wet pleading eyes.  “You helped me, but why can’t you help yourself?  It’s never too late to live!”

            “…That’s very true.  I can try, at least.”

            “No!  It’s do or die!”           

He had nothing to say to that.  True reality had been pushed in front of him for the first time.  There was more than hunting X.  It was his choice to find what it was.  His fate wasn’t completely tied to X’s.  He was the one who would be deciding it in the end.  Sighing, Depth Charge shook his head, blowing hair out of his face.  He listened to Christine’s crying a moment more before sliding next to her on the bench.

            “You’re right, okay?  I know that.  Getting it through my thick head is another matter.  Stop crying, please?  And if you curl up any tighter you’re going to become a ball, literally.  I’ll have to roll you to wherever you want to go.”

She giggled, then sniffled.

            “I’d give you a tissue or something, but…” He held up the tattered remains of the one she’d given him.  “I don’t think this would be very useful to you.”

Uncurling herself, she gave him a small smile.  “It’s okay.  I have more.”

            “Oh, okay.  Good. I wasn’t going to let you use my shirt as a snot rag.”

Laughing she stood up and dug in her pocket for another tissue.  She glanced down to the gym floor where her class still ran around playing Ultimate Frisbee. 

            “Hey, I came up here to begin with to ask you if you wanted to play.  We need another team member.  If we keep sitting here we’ll just make ourselves more depressed.  Some activity will do us some good.  Want to join in?”

            “Yeah, sure.  The whole point is to get the frisbee into the other team’s end zone, right?”

            “By catching it, yes.  And I’m good at catching.  We can be a pair and you throw it.  They’ll never know what hit ‘em!  Just don’t run anybody over, okay?”

            “If they get in my way it’s their own slagging fault.”

            A day later Depth Charge visited Christine again briefly in the morning just before her first class started.  He told her he wouldn’t be around for a while because things were heating up in the Beast Wars.  Megatron and the other Predacons had lost their base so it was important he helped to find them.  He attempted to sound assured and positive, but he couldn’t keep a looming thought out of his mind.  He didn’t know how or when it would happen, but his final battle was coming.  Christine, ever hopeful, said that everything would be fine.  As far as she knew the Maximals would win the War and he would go home soon.  His fate wouldn’t be dying with Rampage if he took control of it.  Depth Charge wanted to believe her, and although he didn’t he pretended to so she wouldn’t get worried about him. 

            “Just don’t forget to come say goodbye before you go home, okay?”  She asked him, and he felt his spark sink into a pit.  That’s exactly what he intended to do today—say goodbye—but he couldn’t directly or she’d panic and start another speech.  At the moment he had plenty already weighing on his mind, including guilt.  He didn’t want to leave her forever without a proper goodbye.  And saying it would hurt him more than he cared to admit, not to mention how much it would hurt her.  He couldn’t bear the thought.  She had become more than just an annoyance, more than just a small child he had to baby-sit and teach how to be strong.  She was his friend, and for that he would be ever grateful.  Yet, such a golden heart shouldn’t have to worry about a marked soul like his. Christine stood on her toes to become taller and looked up at him, trying to see his blue eyes underneath messy blonde hair.

            “Okay, Depth Charge?”

            “Huh? …Oh.  Yeah kid, I’ll come say goodbye.”  He drew in a ragged breath, “But for now, I want you to know that… that you’ve helped me as much, if not more, as I’ve helped you.”

            “Aw, no problem!” she squeaked, and then dropped her backpack for a moment to give him a quick surprise hug.  “Anytime!  It’s what friends do!”

            “—Ooof!  Heh… yeah.”  He felt tears welling up in his eyes but he blinked them back, squeezing gently in a return hug before she let go.  Reluctantly he took a step back.  This was it.  Time to leave her in peace.  “I’d better go now before Optimal and his bozos wonder where I disappeared to.” 

            “They don’t already?”

            “I’m not around often anyway, although I have been asked.  But I didn’t tell.”  He sighed, turning to walk down the hall, giving a short wave.  “Well, see ya around.”

            “Alright!  Good luck Depth Charge!”

            “…Yeah.”  I’m going to need it.  As he faded back into the Beast Wars world he took one last glance at her. It was nice knowing you kid.  Goodbye.

            But she didn’t hear him.

            The day went rather well, Christine decided on her way home from school when her father drove her home.  A plastic bag crinkled in her hands and giggling she opened it to look at two new CDs and a brand new portable CD player, a replacement for the old one that recently died.  She hadn’t bought anything for herself since Christmas so she was happy about getting the new things.  As soon as she got home she raced into her room to open her new toys.  I have to make Depth Charge listen to some of my music one of these days, she thought, tearing the wrapping off of a CD, Who knows?  Maybe he’ll like heavy metal… hee… no pun intended.  His solemn face from their meeting this morning appeared in her mind and she slumped, staring out the bedroom window.  I hope he’s okay… He said Megs lost his base, so soon… No, don’t think of that.  It won’t happen that way.  He’ll change it.  Our future is what we make of it, not what we are simply given.  He knows that.  He has the will to do something about it… I hope…  Since the winter days were becoming longer the sun still shined through her window, its light gradually disappearing as it fell in the west.  To ward off the coming darkness she clicked on the bedroom light, put her new CD in her CD player and pulled out her homework.    

            Deeply involved with writing a summary on an article she had to read, Christine didn’t pay any attention to the new music blasting from her CD player and barely noticed when her father came to tell her he and her mother and brother were going out for supper.  She elected to stay home since she had so much schoolwork to do.  Outside the world darkened as night set in and silence settled into the house after her family left, except for the music.  Frowning she flipped through a book to find the source of a quote when a wave of panic swept in and hit her hard.  Shaking her head in shock she tried to catch her breath.  That panic wasn’t hers.  She was fine a moment ago--- Her mind shot forwards into another world.  Depth Charge stood on the ocean floor with a looming mass before him. She heard thoughts that weren’t her own.

There it is, the Nemesis.  And I’m the one who has to stop it…

            “Depth Charge to Optimus.  You called it right.  I’m going in.”

“Confirmed.  And Depth Charge… good luck.”

“…Yeah.”  

I’m going to need a lot more than luck to—  

“Think you can save the universe, fish boy? Don’t make me laugh!” 

 X! No, you’re NOT going to take me down now!

            Christine swallowed hard, dropping her book, squeezing her eyes shut as her head pounded from the sound of a sudden huge explosion. His nervousness immediately shifted to disgust.  She heard angry yells from Depth Charge and Rampage as they traded kicks and punches.  No!  Depth Charge, don’t do this!  She screamed to him in her mind, but he didn’t hear her. The connection she had with him had reversed itself—in the beginning he heard her thoughts and saw her world, but now she heard and saw his.  And she could do nothing but listen.

            “I have no time for you, X!”

None at all!  I must stop the Nemesis and Megatron!  The future of the universe is at stake!  That’s more important than fighting you right now! 

            “Like you had no time for Starbase Rugby?  You had FRIENDS there!  As I recall, tasty ones, too!”

            The disgust quickly became burning hatred, searing glaringly across her mind. 

You FREAK!  You ate them all!  I haven’t forgotten that! The Nemesis can wait! You must PAY for taking those innocent lives!  Energon… This will kill you!  GAH!  Let GO!

            “Pathetic!”  Rampage snarled.

            “SHUT UP!”  

            Her body stung, sharing his pain when he hit the ocean floor hard after Rampage threw him back. 

            “Face it fins, you can’t win!”

We’ll see about that, monster!

            Rampage’s cry of outrage filled her head after a crash of energon striking metal.  Depth Charge’s haunting laugh followed.

So this is it.  It comes down to he and I, just like I knew it would.  I have to wait no longer. Soon the hunt will be done for both of us.  Let’s get it over with X. The game has gone on long enough. It’s about time to finish this… And I’ve been looking forward to it!

            Excited…?  He was excited?  Why?  Christine couldn’t understand.  Through their connection she felt no fear from him at all, just excitement and anticipation, even a bit of giddiness.  And also… he was frighteningly calm. CALM? How can you be CALM?!    

            “You stupid fish!  You think you’re going to die and you’re HAPPY about it?!”  She shrieked aloud, “What about the other things in your life? Don’t you care?  I DO!  Please, don’t die!  You need to fight him, yes!  But don’t give up your life too! What about taking control of your fate?!”

Reaching over to her CD player she cranked up the music in an effort to drown out his thoughts.  She didn’t want to hear them anymore, and fell into a corner of her room, crying uncontrollably. 

            “Please Depth Charge…. Don’t die…”

Still his thoughts came.

I have to do this.  I must end his life.  Only me.  I was meant to from the beginning.  Nothing else matters but destroying him so there will be no more victims, no more pain, no more terror.  – SLAG, energon!

            Christine heard Depth Charge plow through it and land heavily on his feet, bubbles and water swirling around him. 

You’re going to have to do better than that, X!

            “Depth Charge, please!”  She cried over the music and his thoughts, shaking with sobs.  But of course he couldn’t hear her.  A loud hum vibrated the water around Depth Charge as the Nemesis awoke under Megatron’s command.  Energon crackled and hissed fiercely as he barely kept Rampage’s energon shard from piercing his armor.  

--ARGH!  Slagging crab! Get off me!  The Nemesis!  I was supposed to stop it! I still have a chance if I can just…slaggit, he’s too… strong---

            “I was your assignment and you FAILED!”  Rampage sneered.

            The strength of fury surged through Depth Charge. 

NO!  I won’t make the mistake of doing so AGAIN! GET OFF!  I won’t fail!  I won’t!  I will destroy you, MONSTER!  Nothing matters but destroying you!  Not even my life!  There is no hope for either of us!  It ends NOW!

“RAW energon, right through your twisted SPARK! Take it straight to the Pit, you sickening piece of SLAG!”

She saw Depth Charge’s face as he paused.

…Hope?  Is that what it is?  Is that what she was trying to show me…?

Mad laughter from his mortal enemy echoed in her mind. 

Yes. But it’s too late for that…  First I must finish this, then I can finally rest…  

            He forced the energon blade down into Rampage’s chest.  A blinding flash, a thunderous explosion…

            Silence. 

The hero…

Gone.

END PART FIVE