15.April.06
Crawling
in the Dark
By: Sinead
Based
upon: Lady Venom’s Passion
Date
Transcribed: 30 January 2006
Date
Written: 27 February 2006
Date
Edited: 10 March 2006
Author’s
Note: Series is
called “From Destruction to Redemption.” I’ve always wanted to use this
song in one of the series, and I knew that it would have to be for a Predacon.
Thank God that Lady Venom agreed that it was a great album to use for the series
that I was going to write for her. Of course, it fits Rampage almost to the T .
. . aaah, but I hope I write this well, though I have no doubt that Lady V will
end up correcting the tiniest mistake . . . with brutal efficiency . . . which I
have to get used to . . . *winks to the Lady* However, this will end up being
quite a bit more dark than the other series I’ve written, so it’s rated at a
high PG-13. I don’t own Lady Venom (she’d kill me if I said I did). I
don’t own Beast Wars (Mainframe would hang me by my toenails). I don’t own
Hoobastank or “Crawling in the Dark (I’m sure that they’d torture me
somehow). And I don’t own Rampage (I don’t even want to know what he’d do
to me if I said that I held the “deed” to his person).
I
will dedicate
And
sacrifice my everything
Yawning,
stretching, Lady Venom rolled over, looking over her room with a pained eye. It
was a wreck, a total disaster zone. Work and life had been running her from dawn
’til midnight for several weeks, and she had barely enough time to grab
something to eat before she slept, never mind the clothing that she stripped out
and dropped upon the floor before getting into something that she could sleep
comfortably in.
Looking
at the clock on her cell phone, she smirked. It was nearly seven at night, on
her first day off in over a month. She had slept nearly nineteen hours, and
enjoyed every second of it. Sitting up a little, she flipped the switch upon her
bedside lamp, but blinked as it didn’t turn on. Flipping it up and down three
more times didn’t change the fact that it wasn’t working, but she did it
anyway. Standing, wrapping her blanket around her shoulders, Lady Venom looked
out the window, seeing how there weren’t any lights on anywhere in
sight.
Her
cell phone rang shrilly, startling her to cursing.
For
just a second’s worth
Of
how my story’s ending
He
roared, slamming his fists against the rock wall over and over again, feeling
the metal of his body bend, crack, bleed, heal, dent, slice open, bleed more . .
. over and over again. The pain was nothing. He knew pain. He was pain.
Snarling,
Rampage dragged his forearms over a sharp outcropping, feeling them slice open
with the contact, healing centimeters after they had been opened. Dropping to
the floor of the large cavern, he held his head in his hands, willing himself
not to show his emotions. It didn’t matter that he was alone . . .
He
was always alone, these days . . .
And
I wish I could know
If
the directions that I take
“Hello?”
“It’s
Sinead.”
“Jeez,
don’t scare me like that.”
“Having
a blackout?”
“.
. . how’d you know?”
“Look
at your mirror. Nurann’s already on the other side.”
Whirling,
Lady Venom looked at the mirror, dropping her phone at the sight. She scrambled
to pick it up again, stammering, “But . . . his was broken!”
“I’d
still keep faith, Lady V.”
And
all the choices that I make
Won’t
end up all for nothing
His
emotions won over, if only for a span of a few minutes. Steeling himself,
growling to himself about what uselessness it was to be sitting there, he went
back to trying to rip himself apart again.
Pain
followed pain . . .
His
broken Spark wouldn’t stop beating.
Show
me what it’s for
Make
me understand it
“I’m
going through.”
On
the other side, Lady Venom could hear Sinead smiling. “We’ll be patient to
hear from you. Take your time. Hog him for a while.”
“Oh,
I plan on it.”
“Don’t
forget your shell!”
Snatching
it up, she replied, “Ciao,” and hung up abruptly, reaching towards the
mirror and brushing fingers across it. She closed her eyes, not watching as she
felt herself dragged through.
I’ve
been crawling in the dark
Looking
for the answer
Coming
to on the other side, Lady Venom looked around herself, then down, seeing that
she stood upon a few shards of a mirror. She mapped out where the others were,
then slowly moved around the large room, setting the shell upon the desk and
picking up as many as she could, bringing them over to where the original shards
were. She didn’t know how long she was doing that for, nor did she care, as
she tried to figure out the pieces of the large puzzle.
Is
there something more
Than
what I’ve been handed?
Exhausted,
the Transmetal crab staggered back into the base, knowing full well the wary and
scared looks he was getting, the skittering around of the others. Only
Terrorsaur stayed where he was, watching the extremely-larger bot stop inches
from him. Rampage glared at him, bored. “Outta the way.”
“Don’t
storm into your room.”
“Oh?
Finally playing leader now?”
“There’s
a human in there trying to fix your mirror.”
“Joy.
How’d she get in? She’s yours, I assume?”
Terrorsaur
moved around Rampage, fiddling with a datapad. “Nope. That’s up to you to
figure out. She’s never left your room, after all.”
Help
me carry on
Assure
me it’s ok to
Watching
him just to make him squirm, but not getting the result he was looking for,
Rampage snorted and almost rampaged down the halls, had he not taken a second to
think. She hadn’t left his room? And she was trying to fix his mirror?
Creeping
down the hall, he opened the door a slit, watching. She moved fluidly, carefully
handling the sharp edges of the mirror, making two piles. As she paused for a
moment, he saw as she brushed her red hair back away from her face, a few cuts
upon her fingers from the edges.
Use
my heart and not my eyes
To
navigate the darkness
He
entered silently just as she inadvertently knocked four piles of shards over,
the noise masking the two steps he took. She was cursing fluently, using words
he didn’t know, but could learn to appreciate.
She
was, in her own way, perfect. There was a darkness in her soul that matched his
own, one that cried out to be brought into light, just as his own was. She had
lost someone she was related to, he felt, just as he had. Her movements were
swift, graceful, but looked to be as if upon the slightest inclination, they
could become deadly.
He
waited until she saw him.
Will
the ending be
Ever
coming suddenly?
Blinking,
reaching behind her for a large shard, Lady Venom turned partially, then
shrieked, jumping up to stand. As soon as both feet were upon the ground, she
yelled, “How the hell did you get in here?!”
Rampage
wasn’t expecting the pitch and volume of her voice, and held his hand up as
his audios reset themselves. “I can almost bet that they heard you at the
Maximal’s base . . . Primus . . .”
“But
how did you get in here?!”
“Through
the door. And that should be my question.”
Will
I ever get to see
The
ending to my story?
She
looked up at his emerald optics, pain-ridden, and whispered, “Through your
broken mirror.”
Rampage
frowned, and moved deeper into the room, careful not to step upon any of the
slivers of glass. Before he could say anything else, his optics alighted upon a
small shell. Picking it up from his desk, he sat upon the recharge berth
heavily, rereading the words he had put there all those months ago.
Show
me what it’s for
Make
me understand it
He
looked up at her. “You’re Lady Venom.”
“You
are Rampage.”
“You’re
smaller than I thought you’d be. I expected someone six feet, at least, and so
built with muscles to be almost male in appearance, from how that girl respected
you.”
She
almost hit him for that, but saw the look in his face, the one that said that he
wanted to push her away. Hah. She was smarter than that. Just to
spite him, she blew a kiss, then went back to trying to piece together the
mirror.
I’ve
been crawling in the dark
Looking
for the answer
He
blinked at her in complete shock. “The Pit, human . . .”
“I’m
not gonna give you what you want unless it benefits me,” she replied, not entirely meaning
it. She was silent for many moments more, then asked, “Why did you send me the
shell?”
He
took his time in answering, not wanting to fill the dead air with empty words.
“Because I thought that I had wanted someone.”
Is
there something more
Than
what I’ve been handed?
“And
what about now?”
“Hmph.”
“From
what Hacker’s been telling me, Depth Charge misses you. And he’s being
rather patient at waiting to hear from you.”
He
nearly jumped clear out of his skin, his Spark thudding hard enough that he was
shocked that the human didn’t hear it, when he heard her mention the
once-manta ray. “He lives . . .”
“And
he’s doing well. Still adjusting, but is getting used to things around him,
thanks to Hacker helping him. She’s enjoying every moment of it.”
So
when and how will I know?
How
much farther do I have to go?
How
much longer until I finally know?
“Everything
confuses me, Lady. How you are here, with me, even though my mirror’s broken.
How you know how Depth Charge is, how his woman is . . .”
“Everyone
wants to meet you.”
His
snarl came out sounding bubbly, a burbling testament to a simmering personality.
“Which confuses me more.”
“Why
not come and ask them for yourself?”
Because
I’m looking and I just can’t see
What’s
in front of me
In
front of me!
“Hmph.
I think not.” He couldn’t help but think that they were both
overlooking something. Something big. Or was it just him that was overlooking
something? Something that has to do with this girl? Or was she a girl? Was she a
woman? How the Pit should he know these things about humans anyway?!
Standing,
towering over her, he picked her up, sliding his hand around her stomach and
setting her back upon the berth with ease and a gentle motion that shocked them
both. Blinking in slight embarrassment, he turned away, careful not to brain her
with one of the legs hanging off of his back, muttering, “I’d get it done
faster, anyway.”
Show
me what it’s for
Make
me understand it
It
was many hours later that he finished getting it together. Not pausing, he
started to glue it back together, up against the frame that had held it before,
starting from the bottom up. He kept going, carefully placing the glass around
where missing pieces were, until he was done. Stepping back, he looked to where
the human had been sitting up, finding that at some point, she had moved from
his bed to where he had a pile of skins in a corner.
Carefully
moving closer, not wanting to awaken her, he saw her breathing deeply,
peacefully. Reaching around the furs, he picked her up within them, carrying her
to the mirror . . . and pausing. Swallowing his unease . . . not fear, he
didn’t fear . . . he was fear . . . he walked towards the mirror
carefully, resting his elbow against the glass . . .
It
went through, and he was pulled to the other side.
I’ve
been crawling in the dark
Looking
for the answer
Smaller
now, just over seven feet, he took in the bearings around him. There was her
bureau, that’s obviously a desk, so that must be her bed. He looked over his
shoulder at the mirror, seeing pictures of people he didn’t know taped to the
edges, stickers with strange sayings on them . . . but he smirked inwardly at
the one saying, “You’ve been a bad boy, now go to my room.”
As
he set her down upon her bed, furs still around her, one of her arms slipped
free, the sleeve catching upon a fur or something, drawing it up to her elbow.
Blinking sadly, he brushed his fingertips over her forearm, feeling the raised
scars. Looking at her, he sat upon the floor by her head, tucking her arm under
the skins again. His gaze dropped to his own arms, where he had done the same
thing to himself earlier in the day.
Is
there something more
Than
what I’ve been handed?
Maybe . . . the darkness . . . wasn’t . . . to be so dark after all. Maybe she would understand.