The Intergalactic Highway

"Is that a trick question?" The Vok-possessed tigress asked mockingly, snickering as she watched the spider fall for the oldest trick in the book. Nothing beat a good distraction, even for a self-proclaimed genius such as Tarantulas. For all his talk he sure was easily distracted given all the time he had been squashed, maimed, blasted, blown up, the list went on. He sure wasn't winning any prizes anytime soon.

Still, with the spider finally out of the way she saw an opportune time to slip away. Given her recent behavior and her growing inner turmoil, the last place the transmetal feline wanted to be was anywhere near her friends when a battle wasn't going on. To be honest, though she was unaware of it she agreed with Rattrap in not trusting herself to do something she would greatly regret. She had been fortunate to turn some of that growing fury on Tarantulas almost, but it had taken Optimus reaching out through their strange link to stop her from going too far. But what if he wasn't there next time? She couldn't keep hoping that something wouldn't happen, or relying on someone else having to stop her from nearly taking a life.

She couldn't stay.

But no sooner had she turned and taken a couple steps did Optimus' scathing tone make her stop in her tracks, the Vok whipping their head around to glare at him in anger, "You have no say in what happens from here on out Primal." They snarled towards him, wincing as Wintersong forced her hold once more, "Optimus let it go, please. I can't keep pretending this isn't getting worse, that I won't do something I'll soon regret." Wintersong told him, fully facing the Maximal commander with an apologetic look, "I'm sorry I haven't told you how much trouble I've had controlling the Vok possession, but its progressing faster than anyone can do anything about. And they can't leave. Right now, my best chance is being as far away from you guys as possible to avoid causing anyone harm, or going too far." Her optics shifted towards the retreating Predacons, emphasizing how quickly she had nearly done just that.

And it hadn't been the only time either. "You've given me more opportunities and more patience than anyone has ever offered me Optimus, that I can say thank you for." Wintersong thanked him genuinely, offering a faint smile, "But for now I'm leaving the Axalon crew. Maybe in the near future I can return with full confidence that I won't hurt someone. For now, this is good bye Optimus, I'll see you and the others around perhaps." With that, Wintersong turned away once more and took off deeper into the forest realizing the depth of the decision she was making. From now on, she would be alone once again until she figured out this Vok mess.

Cheetor gave a soft chuckle at that, "Trust me I know. I got stuck in his lair once when I rushed off to spy on the Predacons once, caught me by surprise and not an experience I want to relive again." The transmetal cheetah shuddered as he recalled that experience. Still gave him chills! "He's still one twisted, crazy spider. I still can't imagine how someone is a living, walking nightmare like that, and now Megatron has two of them." Of course, the feline was also referring to their other resident cannibal. He would never understand how Megatron managed such psychotic and/or sociopathic individuals on a daily basis.

Iron fist or not, even he couldn't keep control all the time.

"Looks like that dream is a reality today." Cheetor said with a fanged smile, unaware of the extent of Aurora's true torment. Maybe a part of him just wanted to hope she hadn't gone through a worse nightmare and hadn't been as lucky like when Rattrap had found him. "I can imagine." As he said that, the others had begun to gather at the pod, the young Maximal scanning the others and finding they were all there and accounted for, causing him to relax a little more, but still worried about the injuries they had suffered.

Once Tigerhawk landed at the pod with Airazor, the large fuzor eased her arm from his shoulders to allow the falcon femme to transform to beast mode with a pained wince to begin her own repairs. A strike to the shoulder had been one thing, but the one to her wing was another and would mean she was grounded for a while until her repairs kicked in or she was fully repaired at the Axalon. "Well, I can confirm Waspinator now packs a bigger punch than he use to, I may have to start rethinking my strategies." Airazor sighed, gingerly extending her injured wing, having been a little while since she had such extensive damage to it. Not since the Vok attack on the floating island that she could recall.

But naturally, the falcon moved closer towards the white tiger once Optimus had approached, allowing him to no longer to worry about the pod with them now all standing close to it.

"Hey!" Cheetor quickly sidestepped the excited rodent, careful to avoid moving Aurora around too much due to her injures. But, it wasn't helped when Rattrap immediately became a motherhen, nearly smothering Aurora with his worry and relief to see her. "Rattrap back up a little, give her some space. She's among friends now, she will just need some long repairs, long rest, and hopefully then we can talk about what happened. Now isn't the time." Cheetor growled towards the rodent, not trying to keep the two apart on purpose but trying to get his older friend to see this wasn't the time and place to be bombarding her with these questions.

With the others talking among themselves, Tigerhawk took a moment to examine his own major injury on his side, still feeling its sting but it had lessened over the course of the battle. His self-repairs would probably handle a majority of it along the way, all that he was concerned with was being capable of still flying but so far that hadn't been an apparent issue. He had a few other smaller injuries here and there, but mostly shallow and easily ignored. "All that's left is to carry the pod back." The large fuzor spoke towards the Maximal commander as he came over to see the unactivated pod, but noticed despite their large group, they seemed short one.

"We gain two, yet we lose one. Quite the vicious cycle we see ourselves caught up in." The older feline observed.

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Nemesis was right, the two had seen better days. Just from her observation, Spineback was amazed they could remotely move at all, especially the ant who seemed worse for wear. 'He's lucky to transform at all with the beating he just got, but less work I have to worry about the better.' Not that Spineback didn't know how to do her job, but she was quickly growing little patience with this band of Predacons who squabbled constantly with few who actually gave her some semblance of sanity.

Still, Spineback gave a small nod of acknowledgement when Inferno confirmed he could move on his own, "Very well, if it gets too much I can carry you no problem." She told him, more so a medic's order than anything before her attention shifted to Nemesis, watching her closely before being satisfied. "Thank Primus for that nanotech of yours, makes my job ten times easier." Though, that was Spineback assuming Nemesis meant her word. She herself still didn't know what to make of the little argument between her and Waspinator back in the med bay, but given Nemesis' more reliable track record she opted to believe her more than most in the present moment. Even if the femme had thrown into question her loyalties before.

But then again, she had been irritated already prior to this.

But with the final stragglers making their way over, the Decepticon-turned-Predacon did her usual routine in scanning their injuries, noting Rampage seemed to be recovering from a surge of some sort undoubtedly from Megatron disciplining him, Terrabite seemed to be suffering a recent injury, but due to his beast mode she couldn't properly see it, and Tarantulas was finally forced away from his own confrontation with the tigress and Optimus. Oddly enough, his wounds looked fresh and there seemed no signs of his previous injuries. Had he faked being shot? Seemed a little dramatic of a fall if he had. No, she was certain he had been injured, so why did he seem nearly healthy and unharmed? Optics narrowed slightly then, the medic couldn't help suspecting the spider was yet again up to something but for now made no move to call him out on it. Not yet. Rather, she turned her full attention to Megatron addressing the matter of Primal escaping Nemesis and Inferno, mentally prepping herself for the questions that would soon be turned towards her.

Deciding to settle on the ground nearby, wings folded at his side, Terrorsaur grumpily watched as the others gathered or were addressed. Well, at least the most issue he got today was trash talk and threats, which was probably a record for him at this point. But what more could he do to make it known how foolish some of the others' decisions were? It was apparent he wasn't the only one making them, and he couldn't stop himself from making it quite known. Well except for right now, he kept his beak shut given the latest threat he was given.

Megatron also looked sour-faced as it was, Nemesis was already irritable, so he weighed his options here in not opening his beak. A rare rational moment on his part. So, he quietly observed, glancing towards his usual partner-in-crime and surprised to see he came out of this fight mostly unscathed. At least that made one of them.

As for Rampage, the crab remained a little distance away from the group of Predacons, preferring to be more of an observer more than involved with their insignificant tasks and conflicts. Truthfully, he could careless for all this squabbling, much preferring to take the spoils of those left behind to fulfill the need of his hungry, mutant spark. If he was to live a miserable existence, he had hoped it would at least be far more enjoyable and more fulfilling than this.

But, he was lucky to get that.

Letting a bored huff, the king crab focused on his more twisted empathic capabilities, figuring while he waited for the two superiors to work out how Optimus had escaped he could draw on the emotions to fulfill that nagging hunger. Much to his delight, he felt a great deal of sorrow and mournful feelings, more specifically from that of the one that made his creation possible which only made this all the more sweeter. 'I wonder what could possibly have you so weighted down by these negative feelings, hm?' He thought to himself, also drawing on the usual anger, annoyance, and dissatisfaction among the Predacons all the while. It wasn't much, but it would do for the time being.

"Is that a trick question?"

While the spider had not bothered responding to the female tigress in his haste to make an exit before he got himself trapped in a situation even he would have trouble squirming his way out of, her question still lingered in the back of his head as he transformed to his motorcycle mode and sped away. And though he was certainly annoyed by her mocking tone, he didn't let it bother him overly much.

So they thought they'd won. They believed he had merely given up and was making his escape like a coward.

Let them believe it. Nothing could be further from the truth, after all. Indeed, this whole battle had been nothing but a waste of time and resources for the Predacons.. except the spider himself. If anyone had gotten exactly what he wanted out of this battle, it had been him. His little spy was safely deposited back with the Maximals and his ultimate prize, who was surely still alive, was still there..Vulnerable, impressionable.. And ripe for the taking.

The thought of getting his hands on the advanced technology within Zodiac made the scientist feel giddy inside. Yes, he hated the Vok with every circuit in his body, but their technology was alluring to him. Especially when someone had done the labor of combining such technology with a Cybertronian, which surely had taken much time and effort. Effort he could now put into perfecting it for his own uses.

Yes, Megatron held some weak control over another technological wonder that the Cybertronians had developed. The tyrant had even given the result the fitting name of Rampage, a name that fit so well due to the crab's murderous tendencies. But as far as Tarantulas was concerned, the technology behind this grand attempt at changing the outcome of this war had been flawed from the start. They had attempted to create an indestructible spark, yet they lacked possession of the only known Cybertronian to possess such a thing at the time. Rampage was powerful, yes, but he also had an unpredictable insanity about him that made him truly dangerous. Even to the one that possessed the other half of his spark. It was unlikely that Megatron would be able to keep up his control over the crab in the long run.

That's not to say the spider wouldn't take advantage and obtain the crab's technology for himself should the opportunity to do so present itself. But he was smart enough to stay off the crustacean's radar in the meanwhile, so to speak. In the meanwhile he had directed his attention elsewhere..

"Bah!"

Nemesis' optics had briefly narrowed into a glare towards the obnoxious ant, but she calmed down soon enough after reminding herself of the simplicity of the obedient Inferno's nature. The ant was incapable of seeing his own flaws, and as had been proven time upon time he would remain oblivious to these flaws even when reminded of them.

But she did not pursue the matter further since such an action would be futile, no doubt.

Although she was not really injured, she kept up the charade as not to provoke any retaliation attempts. Yes, she was aware that she could only use the electricity weakness so much before the others started questioning it, but for the time being it seemed as valid of an excuse as any. No doubt the already impatient Megatron would start demanding that she'd come up with something to counteract the effects of electricity on her systems, but until they could come up with something plausible that would help her, she at least had a valid reason as to why she'd been unable to keep Optimus preoccupied for long.

She heard the mandibles chatter behind her but paid it little heed since there wasn't much the ant could do against her. She was, after all, Megatron's second in command. And as such she was Inferno's superior officer and the ant had little choice but to treat her accordingly. Granted, convincing Megatron was going to be a little more tricky. The tyrant looked less than pleased as he made his way over to them.

"What happened? How did Primal manage to escape the both of you?"

Nemesis sighed, grasping her stomach region a little more tightly before answering.

"He came prepared this time.. Primal seemed to be fighting a losing battle and was taking quite the pounding before he managed to take Inferno out. I was in the process of intervening when he caught me off guard with an electric weapon he had concealed on his person," she grumbled with some annoyance. "I should have expected trickery like that, shouldn't have let my guard down.. " Her optics narrowed with seeming anger as she glanced in the direction Primal was now in.

"Thank Primus for that nanotech of yours, makes my job ten times easier."

The avian female shrugged her shoulders ever so slightly upon hearing that. "Not so sure about that. I seem to still be suffering some effects from that hit they made on me a couple of weeks ago with that experimental weapon of theirs. It seems to have left me more vulnerable than usual to attacks with electric weapons. When we return to base, I'll need to perform a full system reboot."

Oh how she hated those.. They were quite painful after all, and left her terribly vulnerable while her systems were starting up again. Obviously she couldn't do it here out in the open.

"I'd be happy to lend some assistance to ease your predicament, hehehe," Tarantulas' voice chimed in. Nemesis turned to glare at.. nobody.. when she caught sight of something small moving through the corner of her optics. One of the spider's drones had come close enough to be able to hear them, his curiosity no doubt getting the better of him even though the spider himself had already moved some distance away.

"A pity the Maximals didn't take you out," Nemesis mumbled back with an exasperated sigh. Indeed. The spider truly did have a way about him. And her already shaky feelings about the mad scientist hadn't exactly diminished after he had essentially forced her to give up her bargaining chip for Megatron.

"Oh don't fret. I'm just checking the status of my fellow crew members," the scientist's voice returned through the mindless drone, the glee apparent in his voice.

As tempting as it was to crush the drone right then and there, Nemesis refrained from doing so. If only to give her leader the satisfaction since it could ease his mood up a bit.

"You could have just returned with the rest of us to find out," the avian female replied, although truthfully she was glad the spider was miles away already.

A taunting cackle met her in return, prompting the already irritated avian to kick the drone so that it flipped over on its back and was forced to struggle to get back up. Why did the spider seem almost pleased with the outcome of this disaster anyway?

"Trust me I know. I got stuck in his lair once when I rushed off to spy on the Predacons once, caught me by surprise and not an experience I want to relive again."

Ah, yes, Aurora had heard the story before although it had happened before she came online. Of course the spider had changed his lair a few times since then, putting upgrades and what not in place to make sure such a fiasco would never happen again. Any unwelcome visitors foolish enough to set foot in his lair now was likely to get roasted by his weapon systems.

"Yeah.. We're both fortunate to have escaped such a horrible fate," the fuzor responded after a brief chuckle in return to acknowledge the cheetah's own adventure. Although she honestly couldn't care less what happened to any of the Maximals now, she never quite understood the scientist's taste for mech fluid. Fortunately she had escaped Tarantulas' dinner plans mostly unscathed.

"He's still one twisted, crazy spider. I still can't imagine how someone is a living, walking nightmare like that, and now Megatron has two of them."

The crab.. Of course. Even Tarantulas knew better than to get too close to him. At least until he'd come up with a way to control the crab's intentions.

"I don't envy Grapeface's predicament," she responded with a hint of humor behind her exhausted words. "But with any luck he'll be the guest of honor at a feast they arrange." No love lost for Megatron either.

"Aurora!"

Rattrap's engines roared as his bike mode came to a halt, almost crashing into Cheetor and his wounded cargo in the process. The fuzor wasn't worried though, well, maybe for a very brief moment she had some doubts but they quickly dissipated as soon as the rodent changed his form to his normal one and rushed over to her side. Forcing a weak smile, Aurora reached out a hand toward the rat.

"Aurora, are you alright?! I mean, you look like slag, and you wreak of Tarantulas, but yer alive! What did they do to you? Are you sure yer okay?"

Wreak.. wasn't exactly a word she'd use to describe her scent, but she quickly remembered how sensitive the rodent's nose was so she chose not to make too much out of it. Besides.. The rat was hardly one to talk about uncomfortable body odors. She did look like a wreck, though, and that was very much so on purpose so she could gain as much sympathy from the pathetic Maximals as possible. Leaning back into Cheetor's arms, looking to take some comfort in being safe, the little fuzor dared the faintest of smiles.

"Rattrap back up a little, give her some space. She's among friends now, she will just need some long repairs, long rest, and hopefully then we can talk about what happened. Now isn't the time."

"Cheetor.. It's okay, really. I'm just glad to see you all..," she told them softly, stretching her arms out as if ready for the pending hug. "I was.. I was starting to lose hope. It seemed so long the days almost started blurring into each other. Then.. he brought me here,"
she added, her voice so grateful for this unexpected turn of events.

She sounded so weak, pathetic, it was honestly a performance worthy of even Tarantulas' praise. The spider had left the area, though, so she couldn't rely on his support and guidance right now. But soon.. After the inevitable gushing was over and things were settling down back at the Axalon. Oh, she was going to make the spider proud. After glancing over at where Optimus was clearly finishing up, Aurora addressed the nearby Maximals again.

"Can .. Can we go home now?," she asked, hopefulness and a tad impatience present in her voice.

"I know it must be confusing. Perhaps even a bit contradicting."

Zodiac's apparent naivety and trusting disposition was only partially true. While he certainly hadn't questioned the engineer's honesty openly, he still registered every change in his tone and facial expression. He was ever watchful, ever studying the bulkier male's responses for any sign of deceit. There had been none so the renegade eventually started taking the second in command's words at face value.

"I'm sure I'll sort it all out eventually," the renegade responded. "Not overly worried about that."

It was true. In fact, now that some of his memories had started returning, they seemed to only confirm the events Rhinox had told him had taken place.

"Well, it's good to have you with us despite the circumstances. We get to see a part of your personality that I don't believe anyone else ever has. At least not to this extent. I think you've surprised all of us so far, Zodiac. Even if the others haven't shown it,"

Well, that was certainly reassuring to hear. Although Zodiac was on his best behavior, true, he was also holding back any parts of himself that might inadvertently cause him to come into conflict with the Maximals. It wouldn't be beneficial for him to put himself at a disadvantage after all.

"We're all capable of changing, I suppose. And from what you've told me thus far, my past behavior left a lot to be desired," the dragon started before going silent for a moment, the fingers on his hands lacing into each other as he folded them on his lap. "But I will certainly try my best to change that behavior in the future," he then added in a quieter voice. Although he was laying it on quite thick, his voice did sound genuine.

"They'll come around eventually, especially if you keep up your good behavior,""But try not to worry so much about their approval. Just work on your own improvements, and they'll follow. You've already been earning respect from Tigerhawk, myself and Optimus."

They will.. follow.. The only one the Maximals really followed was Optimus, but he hadn't been nearly as willing to open up and share the truth as Rhinox had been. Perhaps it was due to the fact the renegade had targeted Primal specifically, or if it was just in his nature to be more distrustful of others, Zodiac took the engineer's advice to spark. Clearly Optimus had decided on a more pacifist approach to these enemy soldiers who were also present on this planet, yet the dragon had been listening in on the crew's private discussions on the matter as well. And now that Rhinox had been kind enough to clarify what was truly going on, the crew's resentment towards these criminal entities were starting to make a lot more sense.

And Primal's acceptance towards them less so.

While their leader definitely didn't support their actions, his lack of counter measures against them seemed counterproductive at best.. And rather dangerous. Yet for the time being, Zodiac wasn't quite sure how to voice his opinions on this issue without getting himself in trouble.

A faint smile appeared on the renegade's face as he responded. "Perhaps some day I'll share this faith of yours. It'll take time, of course, as I'm still trying to figure out who.. and what.. I am."

"Zodiac...?"

His head slowly started clearing from the sudden influx of memories that completely incapacitated him for a moment, leaving Zodiac more than a little groggy for a moment as he tried to gather his thoughts again.

"I would imagine the technology that gives you your special skills," "And, yes, he's still a threat."

So.. they were dealing with an enemy team, much like their own, with both warriors and scientists in their crew. One such scientist having gone to the drastic step of injecting him with a virus, supposedly to try to harvest some unique technology from him.. There sure seemed to be a lot of interest involving this ability of his.. Too much so to justify the weapon modification ability Zodiac had seen thus far, but then again.. Rhinox had basically told him there was more to his powers than just that.

"Shouldn't we.. Wouldn't it be beneficial for all of us if we took these individuals out of the equation..?," Zodiac muttered to himself, but still loudly enough for Rhinox to hear him. He then suddenly seemed to realize what he'd said and turned his gaze on the other male, his optics widening a bit.

"Or are we making progress with the diplomatic approach?"


It was a genuine concern, after all. One that he shared with several of the Maximals.

"That's a possibility. But judging by your anguish and head aches, I'm a bit concerned of its progression in your system and how deep it's rooted itself."

And then there was the virus factor as well.. What could eventually happen if it was allowed to continue roaming freely inside of him? And if Rhinox was incapable of isolating it and extracting it from him, who could possibly manage to do it? Perhaps he needed to have a little chat with the scientist who had infected him in the first place..

"I feel as if I would be able to purge it.. if I knew how to isolate the virus within my systems," Zodiac assured Rhinox as best he could. He was being truthful, but as things were this virus that was supposedly causing his amnesia remained invisible to his own systems. Surely it had been designed that way, but it was most frustrating nevertheless.

"I would highly discourage that notion."

Oh Rhinox, ever so serious.. As much as he had grown to respect the engineer, he sure must be a drag at parties. Zodiac almost corrected him on his overly stiff outlook on what had been intended as an attempt at humor on an otherwise serious topic, but something made him reconsider. Although it would certainly be funny if they truly did go to the other base and knocked on their door..

"Patience is a virtue, as they say. And I agree, I think it'll all work out eventually."

Oh it would. It had to. Because if necessary, Zodiac would take things into his own hands to speed the process along. Like Rhinox had already pointed out, his own safety depended on his actions. But while the engineer was using the argument to dissuade him from venturing outside and exposing himself to the world out there, the shape shifter wanted to use a more direct and offensive approach.

"I have no idea if that is a virtue I possess.. I feel as if it might be, but if not I will try my best to learn the lesson," he promised.

"Yes. And that would be wise,"

Wise? Not necessarily. But he wasn't about to argue the point with the rhinoceros who clearly held so much influence over Primal. So he merely nodded politely.

"I understand. Just don't be ashamed or embarrassed to ask for help. We're all suffering in this war and fighting our own personal battles to a degree. No one comes out of it unscathed, but it helps to have someone to lean on or listen."

A war he couldn't remember.. But which apparently he had very much so been involved in since the other side had taken an interest in him. For all he knew he had once been on their side, but if that was the case something had clearly happened to change that.

"Pardon me asking but.. is your missing team member part of this suffering you spoke of?," he asked, obviously referring to Aurora, a name he had picked up on among the Maximal's whispers. "And don't worry, I will ask for help when I need it."

Their conversation was temporarily disrupted by the appearance of the male equine, another face Zodiac didn't recognize so he watched him closely with some weariness present in his optics.

“Sorry for startling you two, guess I should have commed someone ahead of time.”

Zodiac merely moved away a little bit, clearly suspicious of the newly arrived male, but Rhinox' calmness seemed to help soothe him a bit as well so he halted his movement when Onyx entered the room. The shape shifter remained silent as the two of them started talking a bit, catching each other up on the latest events.

“Something tells those special skills are still around then huh. Practically second nature no doubt.”

Again with these abilities of his.. Clearly there was a lot more to them than an uncanny ability to manipulate metallic objects to form new ones. And it was something Zodiac vowed to explore more closely when he had a free moment without anyone watching his every move.

"Apparently I can alter weapons by merely touching them," Zodiac acknowledged, eyeing the other male a bit suspiciously, especially when he reached out his arm to place his hand on the dragon's shoulder. But he didn't pull away and didn't act in a threatening manner in any way. And he seemed to ease up a fair amount from just seeing how calm and collected Rhinox remained around this other male.. Yet part of Zodiac did wonder why he was reacting the way he was towards those he didn't know.. It almost seemed plausible that he had undergone some traumatic event that left him weary of those he didn't yet know.

“Eh, not really kid. Been caught in the crossfire and all that jazz, nothing I wouldn’t expect so don’t sweat it. Been down that revenge road to some extent so can’t exactly judge.”

That revenge road.. So clearly this newcomer.. Or Onyx as Rhinox has called him.. was familiar with Zodiac's past. Almost looking a bit ashamed for a moment, Zodiac's gaze drifted to the floor where it remained a few moments.

"Yeah.. Well.. Apparently I tried to kill everyone, so chew on that for a moment. But it's..," he started, his optics drifting over to Rhinox for a moment for some reassurance, "It's good to have you back with us. I may not remember anything, but I'm certain it'll come back to me sometime."


His optics then drifted to the hand on his shoulder, but he made no attempts at moving it away or even budge. So far this Onyx seemed friendly enough, even if he did confess to having taken the revenge route himself at some point. But if Rhinox was any indication, it wasn't anything the Maximals seemed to harbor a grudge over.

“But take it from me Zodiac, you truly want to change who you are, memories or none, you won’t find any better place than the Axalon crew.”

As things were, the Axalon crew was all Zodiac knew of right now. Sure, there was always that enemy team, but considering it was one of their scientists who had infected him with this virus it didn't really seem like a good idea to seek them out to join them. Also, strangely enough, he couldn't help but care a bit about these Maximals. Yes, many of them were dismissive of him, but he felt a certain gratitude towards them for taking him in despite his past wrong doings.

And for the first time since Onyx had arrived, Zodiac smiled ever so slightly and placed his own hand atop of the other male's to squeeze it ever so slightly. "I know," he told him in earnest. "It's tough being in this situation, but I've found some of the Maximals to be most helpful. Rhinox here for instance.." His smile grew a bit more, and he looked genuinely grateful as his gaze shifted to the bulkier engineer who was fetching something.

His smile faded, however, when he saw what Rhinox was returning with. In fact Zodiac looked a bit troubled for a moment, almost like a youth who had just been sent to the corner for misbehaving.

"Put these back on, Zodiac,"

So much for building trust.. The disappointment was quite evident on the renegade's face since he knew perfectly well that these bracelets would disrupt his plans of sneaking around on his own for more answers. Although the fact he was thinking along those lines should have been a pretty significant clue that the rhinoceros' concerns were valid, the shape shifter didn't see it that way.

Begrudgingly, he took the bracelets from the engineer and placed them around his own wrists. He was careful, however, to leave a little wiggle room on each one, not enough for it to be obvious to either of the others present in the room, but just enough that he'd be able to slip a couple of fingers in between each of the bracelets. After he was finished, he held up his arms in front of himself to show Rhinox he had obeyed.

"Do you mind terribly if I grab something to eat before I retire to my quarters?," he asked the rhinoceros since between the two of them he clearly held the higher rank. Upon getting permission to do so, he gave each of them a respectful nod and left the room. And just as he had said, he headed straight for the kitchen area to gather the ingredients needed for a snack. Including some food grade energy oil often used as a dressing. Afterwards he disappeared back to his quarters, making sure his doors had shut behind him before he went to work.

The bracelets were a bit of a nuisance, honestly. Not only did they track his whereabouts at any given time, but they also prevented him from accessing any of the restricted computers. And since they had no doubt been equipped with fail safe detectors that would alert the Maximals if the bracelets were damaged in any way, that left him with little choice but to remove them intact. So to do so, he promptly started to lube up his wrists as best he could with the oily substance so that he could attempt to wiggle the already loose bracelets off.

Folding his thumb down as much as he could while prying on the bracelets, it didn't take too much effort to pull them off his hands. Once they were off, Zodiac rubbed his wrists for a moment before proceeding to clean them off to get the goopy evidence off himself.

(( Oops, I forgot that small detail, sorry guys!))

Onyx could only imagine the amount of time and effort it had taken to bring him tot he point of just being able to awaken. It really hadn’t occurred to him if there was any lasting damage, much less how long he had been out for. But, it had been long enough he had missed quite a bit from what he was hearing.

Reality was still settling in perhaps. “Still, thanks for all the work you did Rhinox, I’m glad just to be up and moving about at all. I can always test the extent of any damage still left later when things settle.” He assured the engineer since the equine figured he might have to go through such things anyhow. He felt alright and sore, but he was also still mentally catching up with everything. And that was just from the last pod they had gone after. “That is true, but the ones you can recover are better than none at all.” Onyx tried to be reassuring towards the rhinoceros, but it wasn’t exactly his forte.

He came from a background showing such emotions was considered a weakness, and felt awkward at times trying to be kind as it were. But, it was always the thought that counted right? But Onyx took note of Zodiac’s suspicious look and wary behavior, figuring it had to do with seeing a new face he had not yet seen. Onyx didn’t think much of it at first since he had missed the conversation between the young dragon and Rhinox, “Not just your abilities I was talking about, Zodiac. Talking about the skills you learn in your lifetime, ones that are practically second nature. Memory may be gone, but doesn’t mean you forget other things by instinct.” Onyx clarified towards the younger male.

He raised a brow slightly at Zodiac’s remark, letting his hand fall back at this side, “So what?” He moved to lean against the round table in the bridge, grimacing as he felt the inner workings of his right hip and down stretch and tighten somewhat painfully, “You’re just going to let that drag you down from now on? A couple of us on this crew were attacking and harming Maximals well before you were probably a new spark in a protoform kid. There’s no denying what you did, I’ll give you that one, but you have a chance to change your life like I said, so don’t wallow in the past too much, it won’t get you anywhere.” The equine was blunt and open about the matter, perhaps more so considering he had once not been opposed to murder and chaos to get a point across.

And soon there was a smile. Despite everything, Zodiac did seem to truly appreciate the opportunity he had and the help he could get, causing Onyx to nod and smile, “That’s a start for sure then.”

When attention turned to Onyx’s observation of the bracelets, the mood seemed to change however. The bracelets had a purpose then. Onyx could see the disappointment in Zodiac’s expression, only able to offer a look that told him to keep his chin up, watching him leave before turning towards Rhinox, “I can only imagine what my faction put him through before all this, he barely seems older than Cheetor and Aurora.” Onyx commented as he pushed himself up from where he was leaning, taking a deep intake as his right hip gave an uncomfortable twinge of pain but he forced himself to limp over to a chair near Rhinox, plopping himself down to help if he needed it.

With all the Maximals regrouping at the pod, Dinobot felt himself relax more occasionally glancing towards the direction of his former comrades. Well, what remained of the original crew anyway. These days it felt like they were hardly that, many of them being hardly recognizable except for Megatron and Waspinator the most. The raptor's gut instinct told him however things were only going to get worse from there, making him somewhat eager to return to the Axalon just as the ermine was. Although, her impatience seemed a little out of character for her, "Smother her anymore rodent, she'll suffocate from your concern before we're halfway back to the ship." Dinobot remarked snidely albeit a hint of teasing in his voice.

But a quick survey of their band indeed told him that their numbers seemed in a constant flux as Tigerhawk pointed out shortly after landing, making him growl softly, "Yes, we always seem to be fighting a two-front war. If not the Predacons, its the Vok in some manner or other. You learn to get use to it fuzor, we won't be seeing the last of either any time soon." Dinobot commented as he moved closer to the pod where the large fuzor and Optimus stood, peering through the glass at the still functioning protoform. "We should awaken our new comrade as soon as able. The more hands we have, the better our chances against Megatron." Dinobot once again was thinking about the increasing threat Megatron was becoming, feeling their larger numbers could yet play in their favor.

That, or playing fire against fire. Far as Dinobot felt anyway.

Tigatron chuckled softly as Rattrap rejoined them alongside Frilla, watching with some mild amusement as the rodent naturally rushed to see her the moment he could. The two had been close, so it didn't come as much of a surprise when the transmetal rat obviously wished to see the young fuzor, "Ease up Little Cat, he's just extremely excited to see our young friend, it would be no different from any of us missing." Besides, he could use the boost in his mood, Tigatron kept the last part to himself, recalling Rattrap's depressive state as of late since Aurora's disappearance. Perhaps her presence there might yet change that.

But, the green and white warrior turned his attention towards Optimus once again who had rejoined them, relieving Tigatron of his current guard duty and immediately moving to his beloved's side, "He got you good this time, but we will do as we always have, adapt." Tigatron assured her, kneeling to one knee as he gingerly examined the wound, being mindful not to agitate the area too much or cause too much discomfort for the falcon. The feathers still gave off a burning smell this close and it was evident even with some basic medical care she wouldn't be flying at the present, "I'll do what I can Airazor, just until we get back home." He told her, tone affectionate and tender as he gently began to repair some of the area to lessen the pain.

"You have no idea. Ironically, I can't tell you the number of other critters I ran into during my few month trip examining the Vok sites and a few ink shots kept them at bay for a while." Frilla mused, recalling a few of said rodents had funnily enough been rats. Surprisingly curious creatures that were...not so like Rattrap in the least. But, they were tricky.

Once they were arriving to the pod, Frilla could properly assess what was happening ahead of them without thick foliage smacking her in the face each time and was surprised to find Aurora among their numbers. Tarantulas had given up his hostage that easily? Once they rejoined the others, the frilled lizard unmagnetized herself from Rattrap and carefully moved off his back, hissing under her breath as the pain came in waves once the adrenaline of their fight with Terrabite began to subside. While the rodent was otherwise preoccupied with Aurora, who she was happy to see but found it strange that the spider would have given up so easily, she tended to examining her own wound that ran horizontal along her abdomen. In retrospect, she was lucky that Rampage seemed to enjoy toying with his food before eating it otherwise a single powerful clamp could easily have left her disabled alone.

Using both pincers...well, Frilla tried not to think of such a gruesome thought

"Think I bit off more than I could chew with Rampage." She sighed, glancing over towards some of her teammates and resting on all fours again. "Guess you guys weren't kidding about his habits either." She added as she curiously joined them at the pod, rolling her optics at hearing Dinobot, "Pretty sure no one is in a rush to thrust someone else into this Primus-forsaken war Dinobot."

---------------------

Waspinator could remember a time he hadn't always taken enjoyment in seeing others in pain or at the brunt end of someone else's wrath, mostly for the fact he kind of needed the support given his own unfortunate track record in combat. But with the progression of the Beast Wars, the wasp found his humor becoming more twisted and dark over time and found himself taking some enjoyment in seeing some of the others having worse injuries or being scolded for their failures, most specifically the avain female he had held in high regard until recently. That respect had greatly diminished when he had seen her exchange with Primal, still certain she wasn't nearly as loyal as she made herself out to be, much less willingly throwing him under the proverbial bus.

Maybe in time he could let the situation go, but that would take quite sometime before then. So, Waspinator watched with some smugness to see Nemesis having to face Megatron's wrath for a change as he settled near Terrorsaur who looked in far worse shape than him, "Waspinator came out of battle in better shape than Terrorsaur? Maybe Waspinator becoming the better fighter." He teased one of the only Predacons he considered a real friend at all. If one could call Terrosaur that. The two just happened to work decently together had been through quite a bit as once being the only fliers at the start and then some.

Though not exactly much solace, at least the wasp would sooner work with the transmetal pterodactyl than any other.

As for Terrabite, the crocodile had to clench his teeth slightly as he still felt the sting of the acidic ink wearing off, slowly and painfully.

Oh how he wanted to turn around and just clamp down on one of those small Maximals to make them pay! It was rather humiliating to know he had lost to two smaller Cybertronians than himself, but his pride was damaged more than anything at the present. The pain was enough he couldn't bring himself to stand in one place, the burning feeling too much and uncomfortable if he did and resorted to walking back and forth as he listened to the conversations around him. His gaze curiously went towards the drone, wondering why Tarantulas would bother sending it in his place. From the bits and pieces here and there, Terrabite had gotten the notion that there wasn't much camaraderie among the crew to begin with, so perhaps this was another show of it. Especially in how Nemesis kick it over in annoyance.

((Skipping Quickstrike this round since I don't have really anything to write for him at the present.))

(( OOC: No worries, Wildfire! A minor detail, no big deal. Like I said, it helped remind me about them. XD ))

"I'm sure I'll sort it all out eventually," "Not overly worried about that."

Well, that was good to know. I think, Rhinox held a little bit of uncertainty about it. But if Zodiac honestly felt that way, then that was a positive thing.

"We're all capable of changing, I suppose. And from what you've told me thus far, my past behavior left a lot to be desired," "But I will certainly try my best to change that behavior in the future," "Perhaps some day I'll share this faith of yours. It'll take time, of course, as I'm still trying to figure out who.. and what.. I am."

Of course, it was difficult to change what one couldn't remember. "One day at a time," the engineer said warmly.

"Shouldn't we.. Wouldn't it be beneficial for all of us if we took these individuals out of the equation..?," "Or are we making progress with the diplomatic approach?"

Seeming to ignore Rhinox's concern for his health, the Maximal couldn't help but lift his brows at such inquiries from someone who wouldn't quite understand the situation they were in. However, it did sort of confirm that the shape shifter still lacked remorse or the wrongness of taking lives. The way he casually suggested such a tactic was a little troubling. "A similar topic has come up among the crew due to recent events, but for now, Optimus is still guiding us with diplomacy. After all, once we go down the 'easy' road by simply killing our enemy, there's no way to rectify our actions, we'd have to live with it for the rest of our lives, and then we're no better than they are. Which is not what we're about, Zodiac. We have the means to be creative and to find non-lethal solutions. We've been in this war for a long time now, and while lives have been lost on both sides, we're still surviving by maintaining our moral code and fighting for the preservation of life, even if the opposing faction would just as soon as get rid of us like the way you just suggested. We've obviously made it difficult for them to do so since we're still here." So there had to be a method to their diplomatic approach or madness. They were doing something right under Primal's leadership. Why fix what wasn't broken?

"I feel as if I would be able to purge it.. if I knew how to isolate the virus within my systems,"

Rhinox gave that a thought for a moment, stroking his chin in the process. It may have given him an idea, but it would have to wait. Perhaps they would be able to work together on it so Zodiac could be rid of the virus.

"Pardon me asking but.. is your missing team member part of this suffering you spoke of?,"

So, Zodiac was aware of Aurora's absence. It was interesting that he brought her up. "To an extent. I like to think that it'll only be temporary because we'll find her and bring her back home soon. Everyone handles certain situations differently." Some were more optimistic, and others were the opposite.

"It's good to have you back with us. I may not remember anything, but I'm certain it'll come back to me sometime."

As Zodiac and Onyx went on with their own conversation, Rhinox caught the slightly uncertain glance from the dragon through his dreadlocks and gave him a nod in response that he had said the right words before he returned to his focus to the monitor in front of him.

"I know," "It's tough being in this situation, but I've found some of the Maximals to be most helpful. Rhinox here for instance.."

Again, he paused on his work and looked over at the two, offering a thumbs-up to Zodiac with one of his large hands. "Well, without trying to overwhelm you," he said lightheartedly. Unfortunately, all of that appreciation that he had recently shown Rhinox appeared to have suddenly went down the drain when the Maximal requested him to put the bracelets back on. He almost frowned at this, but he kept his emotions in check so that Zodiac would know that he couldn't be influenced to retract the notion when it was merely a precaution and a safety measure for both Zodiac as their "guest" and the Axalon crew. Again, it wasn't meant to be a punishment, but the renegade seemed to view it that way.

"Do you mind terribly if I grab something to eat before I retire to my quarters?,"

The disappointment about the tracking/restriction devices was just as evident on his face as it was in his voice, but Rhinox had to overlook it. "Of course not," he answered, "Go right ahead. I hope you're able to get some rest." Watching him exit the command center, the rhinoceros sighed and looked at Onyx.

“Still, thanks for all the work you did Rhinox, I’m glad just to be up and moving about at all. I can always test the extent of any damage still left later when things settle.”

The chief medical officer nodded and said, "So am I. And that would probably be a good idea." He had a feeling that Onyx might need more minor repairs or time to rest, but he waited to see if he'd report any aches and pains on his own before starting a mandatory physical exam with him.

“That is true, but the ones you can recover are better than none at all.”

"Absolutely," Rhinox agreed with the ebony equine while appreciating his thoughtfulness and compassion on the subject.

“I can only imagine what my faction put him through before all this, he barely seems older than Cheetor and Aurora.”

"At such an impressionable age too," he commented while he watched the various cameras around the corridors and rooms that Zodiac traveled through, stopping at the mess hall and then proceeding to his quarters like he said he would. "Hopefully we can do better for him." Everything with the way the shape shifter was acting seemed to be normal judging by the footage so Rhinox didn't suspect anything out of the ordinary before he turned his attention to Onyx who seemed to be struggling through some pain until he sat down. "What's wrong?" he asked him so that he could no longer hide it and was forced to address his ailment.

-----

"You have no idea. Ironically, I can't tell you the number of other critters I ran into during my few month trip examining the Vok sites and a few ink shots kept them at bay for a while."

Rattrap had cringed a little toward Frilla's explanation about her aim. "I hope you didn't actually hit any of 'em. Dose little guys are my friends too. I got a connection with 'em, ya know," he seemed proud to confess. While those two cheetahs that Cheetor had rushed in to engage in the beginning of this war had dashed off by being frightened by him speaking to them, Rattrap managed to find a kinship with any rat he came across, both benefiting from each other's co-existence in one way or another. Rats were very intelligent and compassionate animals, although part of Rattrap's personality might have been slightly more selfish than those who shared his beast mode as their only mode.

"You have no say in what happens from here on out Primal."

Despite how eerie it was to hear their voice come out of Wintersong, their words made Optimus growl angrily as he had stood there facing her in his robot mode. He balled hands into fists and narrowed his orange optics.

"Optimus let it go, please. I can't keep pretending this isn't getting worse, that I won't do something I'll soon regret."

It wasn't until the tigress' voice returned and pleaded with him to back off did his body relax a little and his face softened. He didn't want to provoke the Vok if that meant harming her. What a predicament they found themselves in. But the Maximal leader was not expecting what she was about to say next.

"I'm sorry I haven't told you how much trouble I've had controlling the Vok possession, but its progressing faster than anyone can do anything about. And they can't leave. Right now, my best chance is being as far away from you guys as possible to avoid causing anyone harm, or going too far."

Predictably, Primal shook his head in disagreement. "Just give Rhinox a little more time. There must be something we can do." For a second, he grew thoughtful before he inquired, "What do you mean they can't leave?" They were trapped inside of her? Tied to her being some how? Or tied to the planet through her? He didn't understand.

"You've given me more opportunities and more patience than anyone has ever offered me Optimus, that I can say thank you for."

Judging by her sudden gratitude, her faint smile and her voice, Primal was already assuming what Wintersong was going to say, but he didn't want to accept it.

"But for now I'm leaving the Axalon crew.

"No..." he said softly and shook his head again. "Wintersong, please..."

Maybe in the near future I can return with full confidence that I won't hurt someone. For now, this is good bye Optimus, I'll see you and the others around perhaps."

"Wintersong, wait!" he desperately called after her when she turned away from him and headed deeper into the rain forest. Sadness appeared on his scarred face. Optimus wanted to chase after her and force her to stay, to make her realize that this was the wrong decision, but he couldn't bring himself to make her do something against her will. If she really thought this was the best course of action for her and everyone else, then who was he to stand in her way? However, he couldn't help but fear for her life. They didn't know what they were dealing with, but Wintersong would know better than anyone considering she was the victim here. The Vok were invading her mind or spark and taking control of her, not anyone else, or at least not to the same extent. If he could still communicate with her via their link, then at least they would have something to remain in contact with each other. But it didn't make it any easier to watch her walk away. As far as he was concerned, Wintersong was very much a part of his crew as any of the others were despite how she had started out with them. Once alone in the beginning now she was exiling herself again. If there's anything we can do, please reach out to us, he offered her solemnly through their unique communication. He waited until she was out of his sight before he had moved on to the stasis pod while Rattrap was crowding Aurora.

"Hey!" "Rattrap back up a little, give her some space. She's among friends now, she will just need some long repairs, long rest, and hopefully then we can talk about what happened. Now isn't the time."

The rodent merely spared an apologetic glance at Cheetor before returning to his visual examination of his long lost friend.

"Ease up Little Cat, he's just extremely excited to see our young friend, it would be no different from any of us missing."

Actually, Rattrap agreed with Cheetor this time and thought it was better for him to not practically crush his smaller friend by engaging her so forwardly and vocally with questions. She was clearly severely wounded like Frilla was and very exhausted.

"Cheetor.. It's okay, really. I'm just glad to see you all..," "I was.. I was starting to lose hope. It seemed so long the days almost started blurring into each other. Then.. he brought me here,"

"We looked everywhere for ya," Rattrap told Aurora as he fell into her outstretched arms for the inevitable embrace although he was careful not to hurt her due to her extensive injuries. "I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep...," he admitted to her, but then he realized just how minuscule his trials seemed compared to the horrors she had probably been put through, so he turned the focus away from his selfish suffering and whimpering and instead tried to show more selflessness by worrying about her condition. Well, the best he could, anyway. "I'm just glad yer alive. I almost thought we lost ya."

"Smother her anymore rodent, she'll suffocate from your concern before we're halfway back to the ship."

An actual dig from Dinoboob. It didn't surprise Rattrap that the former Predacon didn't bother to rush to Aurora's side to see how she was doing, but he didn't bother pointing that out just to insult him and ruin the moment between him and the young Fuzor. Considering the raptor's own injuries that he had sustained against Spineback, the rodent was secretly glad that he was okay too. But all he offered to show it was a quiet glance over his shoulder toward him during his hug with their Chief Biologist.

"Can .. Can we go home now?,"

Slowly unwrapping his arms around her, Rattrap nodded at Aurora without even giving a second thought to any misleading intentions she had for the rush to get back to the Axalon. "'Course we can," he assured her before he turned his attention to their fearless leader by the inactive pod.

"All that's left is to carry the pod back."

Carefully lifting the small lid to the pod's control panel, Optimus pressed a few buttons in a certain order to check its status without looking at Tigerhawk who was now standing beside him. The readings appeared to be normal and everything was in tact, so at least there was that, but it was a blank protoform with no spark.

"We gain two, yet we lose one. Quite the vicious cycle we see ourselves caught up in."

"Yes, we always seem to be fighting a two-front war. If not the Predacons, its the Vok in some manner or other. You learn to get use to it fuzor, we won't be seeing the last of either any time soon.

Primal's sigh was almost silent as he seemed frozen for a moment as Dinobot joined him and Tigerhawk, lost in his own thoughts and obviously concerned about Wintersong. His shoulder, arm and abdomen were still sore, but his Maximals were far more wounded than he was, so it was time for them to find some rest and repairs back at their base.

"Think I bit off more than I could chew with Rampage." "Guess you guys weren't kidding about his habits either."

The Maximal Commander frowned a little at Frilla and her critical wounds. "It was foolish of you and Rattrap to confront him on your own," he began sternly, but then quickly eased up on his disciplinary tone. "That being said, the both of you did keep him distracted and off of everyone else's backs. At least until he began firing off his rockets," he noted since that hadn't exactly been the best outcome when that ammunition could have seriously hurt the other Maximals. "I'd say you were lucky to escape his wrath, but I know when you two work together, you're capable of handling the most difficult tasks and succeeding."

"We should awaken our new comrade as soon as able. The more hands we have, the better our chances against Megatron."

"Pretty sure no one is in a rush to thrust someone else into this Primus-forsaken war Dinobot."

"Yeah, big banana. You gonna crack it open, er what?" Rattrap asked the ape who appeared to be oddly looming over the stasis pod.

"It's a blank, Rattrap," he said while addressing Dinobot and Frilla as well.

"Oh. Well, what good does that do us? Unless you plan on blowin' yerself up again," he managed a smirk with his poor sense of humor as he recalled the time they came stumbled across a blank protoform with Rhinox who had used it to house their leader's spark once he had acquired it from the other side of the Matrix. Or so he had said. Rattrap still didn't quite understand how he managed to bring the monkey back from the dead. In fact, no one did. It was one of those wonders-of-the-world kind of mysteries. The expressions on everyone else's faces toward his somewhat tasteless joke, including Primal's who gave a raised brow, made him rethink his words and cower a little. "I know, I know... 'Shut up, Rattrap'," he presumed to quote all of them before he cleared his throat and shrugged a little uncomfortably almost expecting a smack or an elbow jab from Cheetor as well.

Paying it no further mind since he was used to Rattrap's crude sense of humor, Optimus typed in a command on the control panel and the stasis pod elevated off of the ground by a foot or so and hovered there in mid-air with a low hum. Then he closed the panel's lid to keep the controls protected and avoid any accidental tampering and turned to face his Maximals. "Rattrap, you, Frilla, Dinobot, Tigatron and Airazor will bring the pod with you back to base." It was too heavy and awkward for any flier to carry it, even Tigerhawk who might have been suffering from some wounds, and it didn't have enough power left to use its boosters for thrust, but the ground units could easily pull it and steer it along. "Use whatever means necessary to hook it up to your vehicle mode," he gestured from the Spy to the vines dangling nearby as an idea or his tail. "The rest of you are with me, if you're able to fly. I'll take Aurora, Cheetor." Primal reverted to his beast mode and walked over to them, activating his hover board, and held out his arms for Cheetor to hand her over to him while he hovered there as Rattrap stepped out of his way despite how difficult it was for him to leave Aurora's side after having just gotten her back. It would have been easier for the ape to carry her small and currently frail body instead of her riding on someone's back.

"What, uh, what about Wintersong?" Rattrap asked when he noticed that she was missing, her scent slowly fading away in the humidity and being overwhelmed by other smells.

"She's made the decision to leave on her own accord," Optimus answered with some sadness in his voice.

"What?! You just let 'er go?" he said somewhat insensitively.

"She's doing what she thinks is best for the safety of the crew and herself, Rattrap. With the Vok forcing their control over her very being, she fears that she's going to take things too far," he tried explaining.

"Couldn't you convince her otherwise? You've got enough experience dealin' with these jerks ta salvage what's left of her, don't you?"

"It's not that simple. This goes deeper than the very little knowledge we have about them. And it's too dangerous to continue defying them when they seem to have absolute control over her."

"So we just bend to their will an' give up?" the Spy argued on Wintersong's behalf.

"Rattrap, please try to understand!" Primal raised his voice as he grew a little intolerant of the rat's rebuttals. He knew he meant well, but letting Wintersong go was obviously affecting him as much as it did Rattrap and the others who cared about her. It wasn't like he wanted her to go! Quite the opposite. He wanted to help her as much as any of them, but this was out of their hands; even the one who had dealt with most of their abductions, invasive scans, and weapons. Taking a breath to calm down, Optimus added, "We have to trust her. And if she reaches out to us, then we'll need to be ready to help her. That's all we can do for now." Plus, he still had his inexplicable link with her that the others didn't seem to know about, but he decided to continue that secrecy between him and Wintersong so he wouldn't be bothered by it from the others who may ask him to check in with her too frequently. ...Assuming the Vok couldn't interrupt that way of communication.

Once Optimus was cradling his youngest crew member in his arms, he slowly began lifting straight upward through a tiny clearing in the canopy above them and carefully kept any branches from touching Aurora to avoid subjecting her to any more scratches and anguish. She had obviously been through enough as it was while being held prisoner among the Predacons or just Tarantulas.

Rattrap frowned and glanced at everyone else to see how they felt about the TransMetal tigress abandoning them. He couldn't have been the only one, but judging by Primal's tone on the matter, he wasn't willing to continue discussing it. At least not at that very moment when everyone needed to head back to the base, and he had to drag the pod along with him.

"How are you doing, Aurora?" the blue and silver gorilla asked her as they departed the rain forest and flew smoothly through the air in the direction of the Axalon. He glanced down at her in his arms with caring eyes before he returned his gaze to their surroundings ahead of them on the horizon. Up here in the sky it was quiet for her, and hopefully a little more relaxing. His youngest Maximal looked so tired and weak, not like herself at all. Whatever Tarantulas had put her through the past several days, it must have been exhausting and terrible. As much as he needed to know what had happened to her, he decided not to grill her with a ton of questions at that time. Right now she was safe and as comfortable as he could make the ride for her.

-----

"He came prepared this time..

Megatron immediately narrowed his pink eyes at Nemesis while he took in her body language suggesting his intolerance toward her inability to predict one of the most predictable Maximals they've ever faced. Did he now? he thought sourly.

Primal seemed to be fighting a losing battle and was taking quite the pounding before he managed to take Inferno out. I was in the process of intervening when he caught me off guard with an electric weapon he had concealed on his person," "I should have expected trickery like that, shouldn't have let my guard down.. "

"Yes, you shouldn't have," he added insult to injury with an irritated tone in his deep voice. "Perhaps you have learned from this inexcusable mistake so that it will not happen again," he hinted toward her as a warning, unwilling to accept or tolerate a repeat of an incident like that.

"Thank Primus for that nanotech of yours, makes my job ten times easier."

"Not so sure about that. I seem to still be suffering some effects from that hit they made on me a couple of weeks ago with that experimental weapon of theirs. It seems to have left me more vulnerable than usual to attacks with electric weapons. When we return to base, I'll need to perform a full system reboot."

Sure, she sounded convincing enough, so Nemesis just might act her way out of a punishment this time, but Megatron's own injuries were also on her side.

"I'd be happy to lend some assistance to ease your predicament, hehehe,"

The TransMetal t-rex's upper lip curled a little upon hearing Tarantulas's voice.

"A pity the Maximals didn't take you out,"

"Oh don't fret. I'm just checking the status of my fellow crew members,"

"You could have just returned with the rest of us to find out,"

Megatron couldn't help but make an audible scoff at the spider. "An interesting choice of words considering your noticeable absence among the crew for the past two weeks," he pointed out. "Would you care to inform the rest of us about your whereabouts and your intentions with the Maximal? Or does your concern for this group of Predacons only matter when its beneficial to your own agenda?" A classic tale of the pot calling the kettle black, but how far would Tarantulas defy the Predacon warlord? And would he be able to keep his giddy secrets to himself, or was Tarantulas the type to boast about his accomplishments just to show his intelligence was greater than that of Megatron's? A battle of the egos, as it were.

"Very well, if it gets too much I can carry you no problem."

"I don't need to be carried, doctor," Inferno assured Spineback. However, when he went to take a few steps to search for his missing gun, a couple of his legs detached and fell off in a comedic fashion. The ant suddenly found himself laying on the ground and basically immobilized. He sighed loudly with a great deal of annoyance and embarrassment, especially in front of the Royalty. The pyro didn't say anything as he simply waited for their medic to help him.

Drawn to Inferno's body nearly falling apart, Megatron had a few questions for him as well when it came to Primal overthrowing him, but he also wanted his take on Nemesis's behavior, so he decided to wait for a more private opportunity for such a discussion with his most loyal subject. The same went for Spineback taking the initiative for calling a retreat and overriding the leader's higher ranking position when he was still conscious. He would discuss that with her later along with her TransMetal upgrade.

"Waspinator came out of battle in better shape than Terrorsaur? Maybe Waspinator becoming the better fighter."

"Facing the lesser of powerful Maximals hardly designates you as an improved soldier, Waspinator," Megatron belittled his personal accomplishment while also noting that he had been keeping tabs on some of them when they probably hadn't expected that considering how busy he was with trying to obtain the stasis pod. "After all, being a TransMetal ought to automatically give you superior speed, endurance and weaponry." The comment was also meant to be a dig on Terrorsaur's part who had fumbled horribly taking Airazor down.

Then his gaze drifted to their newest addition who was gradually hobbling his way over to the group. "Care to explain your pathetic defeat against the very Maximal infiltrator I had warned you about, Terrabite?" The acid burns on his legs suggested that Frilla had been involved as well. Yes, he recognized that toxic saliva, and it still bothered him how she had betrayed him to join the ranks of his nemesis. She one of those loose ends that needed to be tied up.

"And, you," he glared at the crab, "Your failures, even when driven by your own hunger, even when I hand you potential entrees on a silver platter, continue to underestimate the Maximals and disappoint! How the smallest and most insignificant of them remain elusive to your giant pincers and heavy artillery truly boggles the mind. For all of the insubordinate chattering and wasteful threats you find so entertaining at my expense, your allegedly monstrous reputation has yet to proceed you! Perhaps if you spent more time obeying my orders instead of defiling them, you might be more successful in your feasts and fear-mongering, and I may just lessen your pain."

Despite Optimus’ pleading and trying to convince her to give Rhinox more time, the transmetal tigress has her mind made up.

With a heavy spark she could only ignore the Maximal Commander and continue on her way, her form gradually disappearing among the thick foliage. It pained Wintersong’s spark to turn away from the team she had considered to be family, the only place she had truly come to consider home. Back on Cybertron, she had had no such luck or connections. She was a street brat, hardened once from her time on the streets and being left to her own devices like many youths. Undisciplined, against authority, a troublemaker, Wintersong has never expected to be anything but.

Fast forward to now, she had never felt so fortunate to have a prank gone wrong. ‘I’ll keep in touch as often as I can Optimus, I have a feeling we will cross paths again eventually.’ Wintersong answered him one final time over their shared link, glancing over her shoulder of where she had just left. “Let go of your past Cybertronian, there are more important matters to concern yourself with.” Came the now all too familiar alien voice. It only infuriated her more at the lack of emotion and sensitivity the Vok had, a low growl coming from her chest.

“I’m leaving my friends behind because of you! I’ve left everything behind!” She snarled in response.

“You’ll get use to it. The will of the One is all that matters.’

“That’s all you guys seem to care about.”

Letting a deep sigh, Wintersong could argue no more on the matter. Their decision was made, and the metal feline could only allow them to guide her form where they needed to.

Cheetor smiles back in response towards Aurora, glad to see through her horrific experience with Tarantulas she still managed a slight bit of humor. “Guess there are just some things Tarantulas can’t take.” The transmetal cheetah felt no reason tos suspect anything amiss with the young ermine. Far as he could see she seemed rather normal given the circumstances, exhausted and in need of extensive repair time, but otherwise seemed herself. What more could they have possibly have asked for?

Perhaps by now, he should have learned to be far more cautious than he was being.

When Rattrap did join them however, the young cheetah couldn’t help growling in annoyance at how much the rodent hovered. If he didn’t have Aurora in his arms he likely would have nudged the rodent away to give them some space at least. But between Tigatron pointing out what Cheetor already knew and Aurora herself assuring him it was fine, the younger feline sighed and forced himself to relax. He knew they were right, but he also didn’t want to see Aurora lose her good nature with being bombarded about what had happened so suddenly. She had been suffering more than enough as it was, and add Tarantulas’ torture no doubt wasn’t much help, “Sorry.” He muttered towards Rattrap, focusing on what the others were saying around them instead.

The falcon gaze the slightest flinch as Tigatron tended to her wound the best he could, giving a small nod when he mentioned how the wound appeared. It still amazed Airazor how quickly things had changed shortly after many had gone through the transmetal upgrade, much less how quick some of their weakest enemies had become more of a challenge than ever. “No one does it better than us.” The falcon remarked, feeling her body gradually relax as the pain ebbed somewhat thanks to Tigatron’s work.

Tigerhawk turned towards Dinobot as he spoke, remarking about their vicious cycle he had mentioned. “Well, aren’t you just a ray of sunshine lately.” The large fuzor remarked dryly, shaking his head slightly, “I’m more than use to it Dinobot, but it doesn’t make this situation any less easier.” Tigerhawk clarified, wondering how long their war would last and what lasting effects it would have on all of them.

As it stood, the Axalon crew had already suffered quite a few losses before he joined them during the event of the Metal Hunter. And now things seemed to continue to become more complicated, more dangerous, and more spark breaking the further along the war went. They might as well have been their ancestors at this point.

But the gain of the stasis pod soon brought out other matters. Rattrap’s poorly timed joke had Cheetor elbowing the rodent as expected, giving him a “Really?” look as he turned towards Optimus, gently moving Aurora into their leader’s arms. “All set.” The young feline assured them as he stepped back to allow Optimus room to take off, but not before Rattrap brought up another glaring matter. Indeed, Wintersong has not joined them, and the news being broke to them came as a shock after everything that had happened recently. “But Big Bot, the Vok...After what they showed us they can do with one of their own, should we really risk leaving her out there? Megatron could target her and use her like Tarantulas did with Aurora today.” Cheetor chimed in, trying to support Rattrap in having Optimus see reason.

But, to no avail.

The transmetal ape quickly shot down any idea of going after their friend or that they could change the decision. Sighing, Cheetor watched him take off, before exchanging a worried glance with any of the others, “Do not lose hope you two, we will find a way to help her, and figure out the rest of our problems.” Airazor told them gently, trying to offer a calming and reassuring presence towards the two, feeling powerless to do much else. “Let us get the pod home.” She told them, moving over grab some vines for those who could haul it along.

Cheetor still looked skeptical about the whole thing, and merely nodded before he and Tigerhawk transformed to their beast modes to take flight, “Take care, we’ll see you back at the ship.” Tigerhawk wished them luck before taking flight with Cheetor, at the present unable to say much since he wasn’t exactly close to the tigress himself.

++++++++++++++++

Terrorsaur scoffed at Waspinator’s words, “Hardly bug boy. You’ll end up squashed under a rock again eventually in no time. You just got lucky for once.” Though the transmetal flier also noted to himself that he had allows himself to get a little too cocky. Aurazor was still unfortunately faster in terms of flight and more maneuverable, something he had to keep in mind in future battles if he hoped to avoid ending up at the brunt end of everyone’s jokes and wrath.

But, as usual, Megatron spares no expense of ensuring how inadequate Terrorsaur had fought, causing his previous caution to go out the window. “Are you kidding me?! You’re still keeping tabs on most of our activities but leave aside the elephant in the room. Typical of you, Lord Megatron.” Terrorsaur probably should have kept his beak shut from there but once the words started flowing he couldn’t stop, “You want to bite anyone’s head off why don’t you talk to your oh so loyal medic who called the retreat today?” He growled furiously.

Spineback raised a brow slightly at Nemesis, wondering if the effects were indeed lingering. It was a possibility, but why hadn’t she stated this sooner or checked to be sure? “That you do then. Perhaps next time be certain the effects are completely gone Nemesis, or get your head on straight.” The older femme told her, now having a bit more skepticism about her condition or if she was just allowing everything to get to her. “Push past the petty squabble you had with Waspinator already, we need your focus here, not in the past.”

With that said, the medic once more had to address Inferno, who proved her point when he went searching for something. She had to stop the faintest hints of amusement to see the fire ant quite literally fall apart, finding it exceptionally comedic in a morbid way. But, she managed to refrain from it. Now wasn’t the time to be chuckling or cackling when everyone was already tense. “A little stubborn for your own good ant.” She remarked as she made her way over to Inferno, crouching to her front clawed hands and using her tail to scoop him up, placing him gently near Quickstrike before grabbing his legs that had fallen from his body. She could easily attach them by hand.

Once she was certain he was secure, she turned her attention to sniffing around for a moment, following his scent to his flamethrower nearby, gingerly picking it up with her jaws and tossing it beside the ant. Least they could avoid him losing his weapon for later.

Terrosaur’s words however had her turning to glare at the flier, a low rumble of a growl forming deep in her chest, “Perhaps you should learn to think before you speak flier. I made a call based on observation of the situation, nothing more.” She addressed coldly as she returned to join the group, optics narrowed to icy daggers, “I will take whatever punishment necessary, but if you spent as much time complaining about everyone else’s flaws and focused on your own maybe it wouldn’t be a problem for you.” She spoke dismissively, before turning her attention to Megatron addressing Tarantulas. She too was curious to hear what he had to say considering he shouldn’t be moving as well as he was before.

There was more to this situation than he was willing for them to know.

Rampage merely cackled at Megatron’s words, less than moved by his attempts as Terrorsaur had been. “Has it occurred to you I’m hardly trying my hardest all the time, tyrant? Maybe it also hasn’t occurred to you when I fall into a feeding frenzy, guess who else might just be on the menu.” Rampage wasn’t as intimidated by the tyrant as the rest of his underlings, willing to throw back rebuttal without a second thought. Megatron could blast him all he wanted with his cannons or the like, but the crab knew he would recover swiftly enough to just get back on his feet.

He snapped his pincers then, cackle becoming a hauntingly maniacal laugh, “Besides where’s the fun in allowing the enemy to know what to expect. Primal knows my habits well enough, I prefer to keep my prey guessing and maybe you just might find one day you’re not as in control as you think.” He spoke in the most condenscending way he could, making it evident that Megatron may one day find the crab far too much to handle than he bargained for, especially when he had been behaving at his own accord.

"One day at a time,"

Indeed. And that was exactly what Zodiac was doing even though part of him was quite eager to regain full control over his own abilities, memories and actions. Of course he had to be rather subtle about his approach so that the Maximals didn't place additional restrictions on him.

Of course, the medical professional in the rhinoceros wasn't quite ready to dismiss these health issues the renegade was having. But Zodiac didn't really wish to discuss them in greater detail, since in truth it seemed that most of them stemmed from his own memories fighting to emerge despite the virus that still operated within him. So ridding himself of the pesky thing before it had a chance to worsen his condition was definitely high on his priority list. Yet Rhinox had made it clear he wouldn't be able to help with that issue as things were, so Zodiac was already plotting alternative means of doing so.

The warmth in Rhinox' tone quickly dissipated when the younger male approached the subject of how to deal with the ongoing conflict with this group of criminal Cybertronians that Rhinox had told him about, prompting the dragon to incline his head while twirling his thumbs together while Rhinox attempted to explain the truth behind the situation to him. Or lecturing him, as the case might be.

"A similar topic has come up among the crew due to recent events, but for now, Optimus is still guiding us with diplomacy.

Yes but shouldn't there be a limit to how far this diplomatic approach should go? Clearly they weren't making much progress with it since the other team wasn't only still out there, but even thriving in a sense. And given the Maximals' reluctance to respond in kind to the growing conflict, it was really starting to seem they were at a disadvantage. And Zodiac as well by affiliation.

After all, once we go down the 'easy' road by simply killing our enemy, there's no way to rectify our actions, we'd have to live with it for the rest of our lives, and then we're no better than they are. Which is not what we're about, Zodiac.

The renegade may have wanted to speak up and argue his point, but he waited with as much patience as he could muster. After all he did feel a sense of gratitude towards the rhinoceros, Optimus, and several of the other Maximals. Clearly something terrible had happened which had allowed the other team to get their hands on him and inject him with this virus. It wasn't just the engineer's words of warning that resonated with him, but his own instincts were telling him the exact same thing.. That he owed his life to these Maximals even though he clearly hadn't been their friend in the past. How peculiar they were now the closest he got to an ally. And while he certainly didn't agree with these restrictions they had placed upon him, he valued his freedom too much for that, he did understand their motives.. to an extent.

We have the means to be creative and to find non-lethal solutions. We've been in this war for a long time now, and while lives have been lost on both sides, we're still surviving by maintaining our moral code and fighting for the preservation of life, even if the opposing faction would just as soon as get rid of us like the way you just suggested. We've obviously made it difficult for them to do so since we're still here."

Having respectfully waited for Rhinox to finish his explanation, Zodiac took another moment to consider the situation before responding. But when he did, he looked like the epitome of a contrite youth. "My apologies. You're absolutely right and it was a stupid thought I shouldn't have entertained for even a nanoclick."

Pretending came easily to him, indeed.

"I mistakenly thought it was a subject that had been debated since I've overheard some of the other Maximals say similar things. But I do realize there's a big difference between common chatter and actually wanting to go to such an extreme step. We'll find a better solution."


He paused again after letting out an apologetic sigh. "Just.. don't tell Optimus, okay? I.. sort of.. messed up a bit earlier. Nothing too severe, mind you, but Optimus was less than happy. And I still need to apologize to Rattrap when he returns."


Of course, he really had no intention of apologizing to the rodent. Or at least not in any genuine sense. Although he held no resentment towards the rat anymore, not exactly anyway, his attitude towards what he considered to be trivial stuff was rapidly returning to him now that he felt more like himself again. Memories or not. And now he was getting more determined than ever to fix all those little mishaps in his life.

"To an extent. I like to think that it'll only be temporary because we'll find her and bring her back home soon. Everyone handles certain situations differently."

The renegade watched for any reaction on the engineer's face as he brought up what was surely a touchy subject for most of the Maximals. Oddly enough Rhinox managed to keep his rather stoic appearance. Poker with him must be rather.. interesting. And dull. A part of the renegade reveled in the challenge of unveiling the truth, yet another part anticipated it to be a grueling experience. Granted, the renegade didn't really know the missing fuzor on a personal level, but he had been paying close enough attention to the other Maximals to know her loss to the team had been felt. For some more than others.

"Isn't that rather risky?," the amnesiac dragon wondered out loud. "Surely no individual can survive such an experience without repercussions.." His voice faded a bit towards the end, however, since he quickly realized this wasn't going to be a discussion he would stand a chance of winning. After all, the Maximals seemed to care a great deal about their own kin. Nevertheless, his concerns were genuine. Even if the missing fuzor was still alive, she likely would return a very changed.. and damaged.. individual. Kind of like.. himself.

"Well, without trying to overwhelm you,"

Zodiac shrugged his shoulders ever so slightly. "I will admit that this has all been a bit.. overwhelming.. It's just a lot to process. But I'll persevere. "

With the arrival of Onyx, their conversation soon drifted off to a different topic. Specifically one that Zodiac didn't appreciate, namely being reminded of the Maximals' lack of trust towards him. Discipline was still not a consequence the renegade was entirely willing to face. Especially since he detached himself so much from his past actions, however heinous they were. But he still humored Rhinox' order, or at least pretended to, if only to grant himself the freedom he so desired later.

“Not just your abilities I was talking about, Zodiac. Talking about the skills you learn in your lifetime, ones that are practically second nature. Memory may be gone, but doesn’t mean you forget other things by instinct.”

Skills he possessed.. Well, he'd quickly come to realize a few of them. He seemed quite adept with the computer systems, also appeared to be skilled with long range shooting.. At least in the simulator he was, since there was no way the Maximals would let him handle a real weapon. And it was becoming apparent that he had an uncanny ability to try to lure information out of someone by manipulating them and bending the truth. Although that likely wasn't what the dark equine was referring to.. In all likelihood the other male was referencing more basic skills like the ability to walk, talk, and learn.. But even a new sparkling possessed those.

"I suppose. I haven't really been able to make much sense of that either to be blunt." Well, that statement was mostly accurate since the renegade had gathered he must have received extensive training in his past. And even within just the last few hours more and more of those missing pieces in his memories had started falling into place. At any rate, he wasn't planning on discussing it further with anyone, his thoughts and feelings were his own after all. And much like how the Maximals clearly didn't trust him, he also worried that he would lose what freedom he had if they knew.

“So what?”

Zodiac peered back at Onyx through the dreadlocks draping across his face and shielding much of it from view. Normally Zodiac wouldn't look so unkempt, but he'd not really taken his appearance into consideration much lately. In a combat situation he would normally wear his battle armor, which had his weapons on full display, but as things were he had no access to his arsenal of weapons or heavier combat armor. What remained left little doubt that Zodiac was hardly the experienced mech he liked to pretend to be.

“You’re just going to let that drag you down from now on? A couple of us on this crew were attacking and harming Maximals well before you were probably a new spark in a protoform kid. There’s no denying what you did, I’ll give you that one, but you have a chance to change your life like I said, so don’t wallow in the past too much, it won’t get you anywhere.”

No denying what he did.. It was a true statement, for sure, but what really boggled the renegade's mind was the fact he didn't actually feel nearly as guilty about his past actions as he came across as. Sure, he wasn't exactly proud of what he'd done, but he did play the role of the repentant sinner to perfection to improve himself in the optics of the Maximals.

While it was interesting to learn that Onyx, too, came from a different background than the Maximals, he was hardly the only one. The Axalon crew seemed to be filled with them, oddly enough, so either Optimus possessed some impressive power of persuasion, or these other new recruits had been lost much the same way he was.

"You were one of them?," the teen inquired, clearly referring to the group the Maximals had been sent after. It wasn't meant to be an insolent question, he merely found the topic rather intriguing. Especially since he still hadn't gotten a clear answer on his own affiliation with this rival team. If anything, Zodiac didn't seem to entirely belong to either faction. His sense of morality clearly differed from that of the Maximals, but he was also keenly aware that a scientist from the enemy group had attempted to experiment on him by injecting him with this virus.

"But we weren't comrades in arms, were we?," he asked for clarification. "At any rate, you're probably right. It's just been a lot and I have a hard time processing it. A little time to rest might do wonders for me."


He'd have other opportunities to milk answers out of the equine, but with Rhinox there to supervise he'd have to tread very carefully. So another time, in private, would be better.

“That’s a start for sure then.”

Zodiac's smile widened a bit, looking quite genuine as he prepared to take his leave. He briefly brushed the dreadlocks away from his face and stood a little straighter to keep them away.

"Of course not," he answered, "Go right ahead. I hope you're able to get some rest."

The renegade gave a rather polite nod to the two more senior members of the crew before he left towards the dining hall and then his quarters. Once there in private he wasted no time before removing the bothersome wrist bands and tossing them aside, unharmed so they would still continue to transmit his whereabouts as being his room.

Finally alone, Zodiac then went over to a sink so he could wash up a bit.. And study his reflection in the mirror. Now by himself, he was free to try to figure out some of the bigger questions his flashes of memories had left him with. After washing his face a bit, he leaned forward and stared directly at his reflection. "You're the only one who can tell me the answers I seek..," he mumbled, a bit annoyed, at himself.

Remember..

But unlike before, when all those memories had flooded his mind all at once, staring at his own appearance wasn't triggering any at all. With a sigh the dragon turned his head to look at the two wrist bands Rhinox had made him put back on, his optics narrowing a bit at the mere sight of the restrictive devices.

"Put these back on, Zodiac," , the renegade said a bit mockingly, mimicking the engineer's words as well as his voice in the privacy of his own quarters. Surprised by how accurate his voice was able to adapt to Rhinox' tone and pitch, Zodiac suddenly looked back at his reflection in the mirror. It was simply bizarre to hear the bulkier engineer's voice coming out of his own mouth, but he gave it another try to make sure it hadn't been a mere fluke.

"I've completed the repairs per your specifications."

Whoa.. Again his voice sounded exactly like the rhinoceros, a fact that brought a brewing grin to the renegade's face. So this was why he had some vague memories of speaking in other individuals' voices.. He had genuinely thought it had to have been a false memory. But here he was, with a voice module capable of replicating other individuals down to the finest of details.

So what else could he do then, Zodiac wondered as he looked down at his hands. Much like how Onyx had just spoken to him about traits becoming second nature, the renegade's abilities didn't take much prompting before his arms started changing shape, texture, and color to match that of Rhinox himself. Completely fascinated by this revelation, the shape shifter stared at his arms with a sense of disbelief while the changes seemed to manifest themselves further up and down his armor as well. Upon looking in the mirror again, Zodiac almost had to take a step backwards when he realized it was someone completely different that was staring back at him. His reflection was now an exact duplicate of the chief medical officer, prompting the renegade to gasp in surprise. The amount of detail he had replicated was astounding to him, leaving him staring at the face in the mirror for longer than he probably should.

So this was the secret the Maximals had been withholding from him.. Although it cleared up quite a bit, he still was struggling with the issue of the virus restricting his access to his memories. So clearly something would have to be done there..

Which is when it hit him. Surely the Axalon computer had scans of his body systems from a time before the virus had infected him. If he could access those scans, he'd be able to isolate the virus within himself and use his internal repair system to rid himself of the nuisance. Yeah, that could work! Of course, he couldn't simply stroll around the Axalon looking like Rhinox while the engineer was surely watching the cameras.. And since most of the others were out in the field right now, he'd also stick out like a sore thumb if he chose to copy any of their appearances. So his best option would probably be to use his own appearance, only with the slight alterations of including something resembling the hated wrist bands. Which shouldn't be an issue, at least not as long as whoever might see him didn't look too closely due to the fact these replacement wrist bands would obviously have to be attached to his wrist armor somewhere.. Unlike the real ones which were meant to be tight but still had some slight give to them.

Zodiac watched with a bit of a mischevious grin as his appearance in the mirror changed again, his large wings bursting out of his backside and his overall frame size shrinking so a familiar slimmer, slightly taller bot could take its place. The shape shifter then glanced down at his wrists as a new pair of wrist bands seemed to grow out of each of them. However this technology worked, all he seemed to have to do was think about whoever he wanted to be and it just automatically happened. What a delightful development indeed, he thought as he exited his quarters and made his way to the medical bay.

“Guess there are just some things Tarantulas can’t take.”

Perhaps.. But that hadn't been the case this time. Tarantulas had taken everything from the fuzor as she knew it, aside from her life of course. He had tortured, manipulated and reprogrammed her. And she didn't care at all.

"We'll get him back.. in time," she whispered softly, without meaning a single word of it.

"We looked everywhere for ya,"

The fuzor smiled, a weak and exhausted smile but one nevertheless, wrapping her arms around the rodent for the inevitable hug as best she could. "I know.. He took me to one of his lairs, not sure where..," she whispered in return to acknowledge the rodent's efforts before wincing a bit when the stretching movement inflicted pain in her wounds. "Oww.."

"I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep...,"

The fuzor chuckled a bit in response as soon as she had maneuvered back to a more comfortable position. "Now that's hard to believe.. I've seen you dig through piles of garbage during dinner time.. And then pass out drunk under the table," came her response, intended to diminish any doubts they may have had about her authenticity.

"I'm just glad yer alive. I almost thought we lost ya."

"I'm alive..," she reassured him, "Maybe not quite fit for duty yet, but I will be." She closed her optics for a moment and drew in some air in a pained sigh before asking the others if they could go home now. After all, she still had a mission to complete. And the sooner she could get away from these overly sentimental fools the better.

"'Course we can,"

"Smother her anymore rodent, she'll suffocate from your concern before we're halfway back to the ship."

Aurora heard the raptor's snide remark, but didn't say anything further on the subject. Yes, Rattrap's outburst of affection for her was a bit uncomfortable given her new circumstances, but she did still very much so remember her past. Tarantulas had made sure to leave her memory intact, having planned for this outcome since before he even arranged for her capture. If anything, one could say what the spider had done was expand her mind. Although she wasn't entirely sure how he did it, his tinkering had left her loyal only to him and with an entirely new outlook on life and the Maximals in particular. But with her memories still there, she was confident she wouldn't have any problems fitting in until she had recovered her true objective..

So even though she found the raptor's snarling remark amusing, she refrained from showing it since it didn't seem like something the old, pathetic, version of herself would have done. Fortunately the traitor Dinobot soon turned his attention to what else was at stake here.. namely a Maximal who had decided to run off and recovering the new protoform. Neither of which Aurora cared particularly about. The way she saw it, Wintersong's disappearance meant one less Maximal she'd have to worry about and the protoform..well.. if it was even functional, protoforms could easily be manipulated after first coming online.

Still, it didn't seem like the Maximal Aurora would simply not care when one of their own went missing, so the fuzor's expression changed to one of concern as she looked in the direction the white tigress had gone off in. "Wait.. We can't just leave Wintersong.."

Her fake concern for the white tigress as well as the others genuine worry was soon put at ease by Optimus' voice of reason.

"She's doing what she thinks is best for the safety of the crew and herself, Rattrap. With the Vok forcing their control over her very being, she fears that she's going to take things too far,"

So the Vok was involved yet again.. Aurora, of course, was aware of how Wintersong had gone missing for quite a while. And she had taken note of the changes of the other female when she made her return, yet she hadn't been aware of just how much influence those horrible aliens had on the tigress. Granted her view was somewhat jaded now given the spider's own influence on her. And it was a poorly kept secret that Tarantulas loathed the Vok..

"Ease up Little Cat, he's just extremely excited to see our young friend, it would be no different from any of us missing."

Well, as it turned out Dinobot wasn't the only one on edge right now.. Cheetor had also taken on a much more protective role than he used to, especially now that he was cradling the fuzor on his arms.. For a few moments longer.

"The rest of you are with me, if you're able to fly. I'll take Aurora, Cheetor."

Aurora offered no objections, instead she merely gave the cheetah a grateful smile before gently stroking her hand across the rodent's face as he pulled away to tend to his other duties. Ugh.. How did these Maximals stand all this affection they had for one another. It was sickening.. And more surprisingly was the fact that those like Dinobot actually thrived among them despite his Predacon core programming. But with any luck this would be a quick mission so she wouldn't have to stick around these saps for too long.

"I'll be okay," she assured Cheetor and Rattrap alike as the cat gently handed her off to Optimus' waiting arms. Oh Optimus.. Possibly the biggest sap of them all despite his tough guy exterior. Remembering all the hugs she'd shared with the ape in the past, she quickly leaned in for one as soon as he was the one cradling her in his arms. It wasn't nearly as long as her usual ones since her body still ached, but she had to stay in character to persuade them her changes were only physical in nature.

"How are you doing, Aurora?"

For someone as muscular as Primal, his movements were sure gentle in nature. Something the fuzor appreciated right now. Yes, she had her orders from Tarantulas, but the physical wounds on her still hurt even if she would have chosen to ignore them had the spider been around. The ape cradled her in his arms as he took to the skies, doing his best to keep the trip as smooth as he could.

"I'm..," she started, pausing to think for a nanoclick before continuing. "I'm just glad to be with my family again. I missed you all so insanely much."

Yeah, that sounded authentic enough. Indeed, the spider had told her to tread carefully given his own reputation.

The newly transmetalized medic was keeping a keen optic on everyone present, but Nemesis remained calm and vigilant. Was that a hint of suspicion in the other femme's voice? It was hard to tell for sure..

“That you do then. Perhaps next time be certain the effects are completely gone Nemesis, or get your head on straight.”

Even if she did suspect something, there wasn't any way they could prove Nemesis' statement had been a lie. They understood the technology behind her nanomachines even less than she did.. And even the avian second in command herself wasn't entirely sure how it worked, only that it did. Although it was a little bittersweet for her to know Zodiac got to take complete advantage of this strange technology whereas she had very little control over it.

Well, at least Megatron had been in a better mood after Zodiac's supposed demise.. Truthfully Nemesis couldn't be sure if he had lived or died, since he looked to be in a terrible state when the Maximals had brought him in. Of course, they hadn't allowed her to see what happened next..

"Perhaps in due time you'd be able to construct a form of conduit for me that would prevent electricity from ever being an issue?," the avian suggested, lacking the skills to create such a device herself. But it would definitely be a benefit if her weakness was no longer so infuriatingly obvious. "But I will certainly follow your expertise advice in the future," she then added to address the medic's concerns.

“Push past the petty squabble you had with Waspinator already, we need your focus here, not in the past.”

Waspinator..? Truthfully the annoying insect didn't cross Nemesis' mind very often. Yes, she had thrown him under the proverbial bus, but it had been necessary since he had decided to use her misfortune for his own gain. Even Terrorsaur had better common sense than that. Granted, she had actually saved Terrorsaur from Megatron's wrath on a couple of occasions..

"Trust me.. Waspinator is not very high on my priority list," Nemesis muttered, not really caring who heard her at that time. The wasp had gone out of his way to try to stir up trouble, and she wasn't having it anymore.

Of course, at that time another opportunist decided to make his opinion heard. Terrorsaur had decided to join them, and as usual he was quick to deflect blame for their failures onto someone else. Suppressing the grown threatening to emerge from the bottom of her throat, Nemesis held up a single hand as a gesture for the red pterodactyl to stop before he really got started.

"Let's not jump to conclusions. I'm sure Spineback had a valid reason for calling for a retreat," she told the pteradactyl before things escalated further. Truthfully Nemesis was rather glad the other female had taken charge enough to do so, since frankly it wasn't a battle they were going to win. And with no sign of the protoform up and about, it seemed likely it had been just another blank one. Indeed, their recruitment material had somewhat diminished as of late now that most of the pods were either lost, destroyed, or already recovered.

“I will take whatever punishment necessary, but if you spent as much time complaining about everyone else’s flaws and focused on your own maybe it wouldn’t be a problem for you.”

There was a harsh truth in the medic's words, although Nemesis doubted the pteradactyl was capable.. or willing.. to listen. It was a permanent flaw in his character to always blame everyone else, no matter how absurd it seemed. As for Spineback's punishment, Nemesis didn't think her actions warranted any. But given her own situation with Megatron as of late, she wasn't about to make her opinion known. No, as leader this was Megatron's department and privilege.

"Yes, you shouldn't have,"

Not surprisingly Megatron's voice was harsh, unforgiving. In some ways he shared a similar trait to Terrorsaur in that he was quick to blame others, but Megatron also held the intellect and power to back up his ego. Neither of which Terrorsaur possessed in similar quantities. Nemesis respectfully inclined her gaze, not one to argue a point she would surely lose with the tyrant. With any luck he'd just let this go as well, giving her another chance to impress him later. Much like she had when she lead the charge on the Axalon or when she dragged his nearly unconscious form to a functional cryo chamber after Zodiac's sneak attack. Her loyalty to him wasn't really in question, but her changing sense of morality was.

Whereas Megatron showed no weakness, no forgiveness, no remorse. Ever. Whereas Nemesis was capable of being brutal, she did share a sense of compassion with Primal. She didn't view the world in absolutes the same way Megatron did.. but instead recognized the need for a more benevolent approach at times. Of course if she felt her own life was threatened, all bets were off.

"Perhaps you have learned from this inexcusable mistake so that it will not happen again,"

"Oh I have," she replied with confidence with narrowed, determined optics. Weakness wasn't an excuse Megatron was willing to accept, and grovelling rarely did much other than mildly amuse the tyrant for a short time. "The Maximals will pay for this travesty."

"An interesting choice of words considering your noticeable absence among the crew for the past two weeks," he pointed out. "Would you care to inform the rest of us about your whereabouts and your intentions with the Maximal? Or does your concern for this group of Predacons only matter when its beneficial to your own agenda?"

A low cackle could be heard from the knocked over drone, growing a tad louder as Megatron kept questioning the spider's motives. Then it slowly died down. "I'm surprised you even noticed my absence. But it's good to know my genius was missed, hehehe."

Nemesis couldn't help but roll her optics at the amount of narcissism at play here. Not that anyone in their right mind would ever doubt Megatron and Tarantulas' intellect, but the world was usually a safer place when there was some physical distance between the two egomaniacs.

"But rest assured, all shall be revealed.. when I feel like informing you," the spider continued with the cackle abruptly starting up again no sooner than when he finished his sentence.

"For someone who just lost his new assistant and nearly got blasted to pieces, the spider sure is in a good mood," Nemesis pointed out to nobody in particular, not caring in the least that the arachnid was still listening via his drone.

Onyx quietly regarded Zodiac for a moment, guessing he was bitter about the necessary precautions. Given the past, he could see why they were needed. The Maximals probably had suspected to some extent for the act to be fake as seemed to be Zodiac’s MO, or they hadn’t wanted the mech to be overwhelmed as he seemed to be now. Whatever the case, the black equine couldn’t quite blame him for being as such.

Though he quizzically glanced towards Rhinox in regards to the young dragon’s question. They hadn’t told him about the Predacons? Why not? “Uhhh, yea, I use to be. You could say their leader is more than a little insane for my tastes. It’s one thing to want proper representation for your faction, another to have plans completely off the rails, we’ll just say that.” Onyx confirmed, but shook his head. “Yes and no. We never interacted much until this point, but given time maybe we can be proper comrades.” The black and gray mech told him, hoping to offer a little better idea that Zodiac’s time there didn’t have to be miserable.

Really, it was partially up to him what he made of the experience.

But for now, the warrior could only watch Zodiac leave before he had made his way towards the chair. Now that his mind and body had caught up, the soreness was more prominent than ever, but especially along his right him. He recalled then that most of his lower back and down had taken the brunt of the rockslide, mentally flinching at recalling it. It only made it worse not knowing what the whole outcome had been to the situation, except for the fact they had lost their youngest teammate and Zodiac was now with them. But he merely smiled as it seemed he was at least making progress in being thoughtful, “If I know anything else to be true about this crew, it’s tougher than most. If anyone survived all this time, I’m sure we’ll find a way to help them.” Onyx added having a feeling it was likely any of the crew who hadn’t awakened may eventually find their way.

“Makes you wonder where they got him.” Onyx sighed, shaking his head, “I’m sure one or two of us could have some influence Rhinox, it will just take a little time and patience.” But, Rhinox was ever the vigilant observer...”Just some tightening in my hip joint, don’t worry about it Rhinox, I’m sure it’ll pass.” He tried to dismiss.

Frilla chuckled softly and shook her head, “No, none of them were hit or hurt Rattrap, I wouldn’t be that cruel. Just enough to startle them, and just in case the places were still active.” Once again the frilled lizard couldn’t help thinking back to her brief talk with Nemesis, about how kind and naive she was to be a Predacon. Unlike Dinobot, that kindness was already part of her programming but maybe it could just prove Predacons weren’t all naturally programmed for chaos.

But the battle now over, Frilla was all for taking a moment to regain her bearings once again and feeling exhausting having begun to set in. Despite her on uncertainty about Aurora’s sudden impromptu rescue, she too was ready to just go home at this point.

Dino it was rarely one to rush into celebrations after a battle, and instead was all for getting down to business again. Nevertheless, for all his snark the raptor met the rodent’s gaze that was sent his way giving the faintest of smiles towards his (now undeniable) best friend to express his relief. Although, the raptor would be lying he said he wasn’t the slightest bit suspicious that Aurora had been let go. No one left Tarantulas’ clutches that easily, not without permanent damage of some kind either physically, mentally, or emotionally, all three even. And she was surprisingly handling this well.

Either the ermine has pushed herself to steel her nerves after everything else she had endured, or there was something more.

Still, without proof, Dinobot for the time being held his tongue before turning towards the others at the pod, of which Frilla also joined them. “Foolish fuzor, war is not meant to be easy. There will be casualties, sparks will be broken, friends will be lost, but the universe keeps moving, the war keeps going.” Dinobot growled, his brief cheeriness towards the rodent all but gone. “If Maximals would spend less time mopping over the losses and focus on the now, we could accomplish much more and take necessary risks to win and prevent more loss.” Dinobot also targeted this statement towards their smallest member who had questioned thrusting the new protoform into this war so soon.

But from Primal’s response it appeared that wouldn’t happen anyway. “There’s taking risks, then there is just plain stupidity Dinobot. Maybe your core programming hasn’t softened enough to realize that.” Frilla grumbled causing the raptor to glare at her, no doubt mentally questioning the same thing Nemesis and the other Predacons had over the war.

But the frilled lizard regarded Primal with some embarrassment in regards to Rampage, “I thought my electro-scrambler could do the trick, given how Nemesis once was afflicted by it.” There was no hiding Frilla’s faint horror, never forgetting the sight of Nemesis’ misshapen form, something truly out of a horror movie that made her visibly shudder. “But, I guess the power was too low for someone like Rampage. And his mood swings are worse than Megatron’s.” She spoke, shaking her head and acknowledging that Rampage could be a problem in the long run. What was Megatron thinking taking such an individual into his ranks?

Tigatron gave a brief smile towards the three as Cheetor did relax enough Rattrap and Aurora could interact, no doubt needing the long awaited reunion. No doubt they could properly catch up once everyone has rested and been repaired.

As it were, the white tiger was doing his best for Airazor, nodding slightly as she spoke, “Of course. We’re the best.” He agreed with a purr of affection, knowing despite not being upgraded themselves they had still given the Predacons a challenge. No different from someone like Inferno who was already extremely difficult to combat without being a transmetal. The thought of him being one...well, that wasn’t exactly something the white tiger wanted to think about. But, the warrior finally scooted back, examining his handiwork, “Its not perfect Airazor, but hopefully that can speed up the process until we get back.” He told her, doing what he could for her damaged wing joint before he stood.

By then, the matters of the pod had come up and Rattrap’s poorly timed joke has him, Dinobot, and Frilla giving the rodent a glance. Certainly not the best timing...Shaking his head, Tigatron listened to the back and forth about the Vok possession, wondering how one species could be so powerful as to force influence on another, more so than it appears the Predacons were capable of. “I have to agree with Optimus on this one Rattrap. We make our decisions based on what we think is best. It is one thing to convince someone like me to see war is a necessary evil, another to convince someone possessed by a force we know so little about.” The white tiger pointed out, recalling his own time of once leaving the Maximals when he had held no desire to continue fighting after the loss of Snowstalker.

“It is still a stupid decision.” Dinobot retorted, moving over to grab some vines along with Airazor and Frilla, securing some to the pod before tying them around his beast mode to help haul it back.

Frills quietly regarded the whole situation, merely helping to get some of the vines secured to the pod and those hauling it, “Whatever the outcome, the decision was made, we can’t change it. Let’s just get the pod back and out of this forest, right now we need to focus on ourselves.” She pointed out before moving to the side of the pod, “Me and Airazor can help guide it from back here.” She told them, as Dinobot and Tigatron, now in beast mode, prepared to get it to the Axalon.

——————————————

Waspinator scoffed slightly at Terrorsaur’s words, “Least Waspinator not getting knocked out of the sky every battle anymore.” He huffed, throwing Terrosaur’s string of failures back in his face as quickly as he was to do the same to him. Waspinator could just as easily list the many failures Terrorsaur had had against his own, especially his attempts to take over the Predacons before and since they got to prehistoric Earth. At least the metal wasp could say he was loyal and wasn’t trying to overthrow their leader at every golden opportunity.

Unfortunately, Megatron had heard his words and turned his anger towards him as quickly as he had anyone else, causing the wasp to flinch and cower away slightly. “Waspinator understand.” He gulped, being far more fearful of the transmetal Rex than he was of Nemesis. Though the avian had far greater skills and abilities than he did, he didn’t exactly find her frightening at the present, nothing to the same level as the tyrant.

Terrabite was quick to stop his pacing when Megatron did his round with everyone, finding himself yet again on the receiving end of Megatron’s irritation. It really had been a while since he had been under such a short tempered commander, so it took some will power not to express some irritation of his own. The t-rex was quick to point out everyone’s failures but did not seem to want to accept his own, that much the crocodile mech could figure out.

“One of their fliers came to the rescue Lord Megatron. I am not familiar with all the Maximals here nor their abilities, so an oversight I will rectify in the coming future.” Terrabite answered as he pushed through the discomfort of the acidic ink. But, his words weren’t untrue. He had been there but for a couple weeks, a lot of his focus being put towards keeping the Darksyde in better shape than it had been. So, he hadn’t really had a chance to check up on the information the Predacon database might have had on their enemies that day. “And I got...overzealous today being back on the battlefield again. It has been far too long and I allowed that to get in the way.” That was both true and stretching it. In actuality, he had been distracted by Megatron’s second order, being very well aware defying it might have gotten him in trouble regardless.

Truth be told, he just knew better than to blatantly point that out when the tyrant was both in a sour mood and could easily just rip out his spark. Unlike Terrorsaur who blabbered without a second thought.

But he turned towards the cackling drone, wondering how many would try Megatron’s patience that day.

While everyone else was having their issues, Quickstrike had been focusing on slowly getting his body to cooperate with him. Little by little, different parts of his form had begun to twitch and move, his paralysis steadily disappearing but still leaving him feeling sluggish and slow. He was even more easier to move rather than getting stuck by the pyromaniac Spineback had placed beside him. “No way am ah gettin’ stuck with crazy pyro breath over here.” He grumbled to himself, finally feeling himself capable of moving enough to push himself up with a soft grunt.

“Bout time.” He muttered, rolling off Spineback’s folded out sail and landing somewhat clumsily on his feet, snatching the sail for support with his claw-hand. He knew he’d get an earful too eventually, but right now he gladly focused on just being able to move, converting to beast mode for better stability and get his self-repairs moving.

"My apologies. You're absolutely right and it was a stupid thought I shouldn't have entertained for even a nanoclick." "I mistakenly thought it was a subject that had been debated since I've overheard some of the other Maximals say similar things. But I do realize there's a big difference between common chatter and actually wanting to go to such an extreme step. We'll find a better solution."

"Easy, Zodiac. Don't be so hard on yourself," Rhinox told him as his hands made a "calm down" motion. "Like I said, the idea has been entertained but hardly discussed enough to make a decision." He felt as thought the renegade was too quick to correct himself, especially given his past and what he had been trained to do and feel. It just didn't sound as genuine as his previous statements, but the large Maximal didn't give too much thought to it at that time.

"Just.. don't tell Optimus, okay? I.. sort of.. messed up a bit earlier. Nothing too severe, mind you, but Optimus was less than happy. And I still need to apologize to Rattrap when he returns."

He lifted his brows at the confession. "Oh?" he wondered curiously. "Best to sort that out first before we dive into anything else, alright?" he had suggested.

"Isn't that rather risky?," "Surely no individual can survive such an experience without repercussions.."

"It comes with the territory, I'm afraid. Not all repercussions are bad, though. I've survived my own," albeit having a change deep down that he never knew he had inside until he had been reprogrammed as a Predacon, "and Optimus has had his fair share, but he's survived. We've all been traumatized by something or someone, but we're making due with what we have and the friendships we can rely on for support." None of them were the same since they landed on Earth, mentally and/or physically. Wintersong probably had it the worst right now, though.

"I will admit that this has all been a bit.. overwhelming.. It's just a lot to process. But I'll persevere. "

"I don't doubt that for a second, Zodiac. You're a survivor, after all," he meant as a compliment of sorts.

"You were one of them?,"

“Uhhh, yea, I use to be. You could say their leader is more than a little insane for my tastes. It’s one thing to want proper representation for your faction, another to have plans completely off the rails, we’ll just say that.”

Rhinox glanced away from his work toward Onyx and Zodiac for a second because of the shape shifter's emphasis that suggested disbelief. He almost smirked since even the likes of Zodiac was taken aback by the accomplishments Optimus had made thus far by welcoming Predacons into his ranks and leading them against their former warlord.

"But we weren't comrades in arms, were we?,"

“Yes and no. We never interacted much until this point, but given time maybe we can be proper comrades.”

The engineer merely listened while he tended to the readings displayed on the monitor from the Maximal leader's spark and comparing them to the information they had on the Vok and Wintersong's physical attributes that were being affected by the aliens' possession of her.

“If I know anything else to be true about this crew, it’s tougher than most. If anyone survived all this time, I’m sure we’ll find a way to help them.”

Rhinox sent the black equine a soft smile of gratitude for his honesty. This crew of Maximal explorers was probably the toughest out there, for sure. Not that they were trying to reach an award for it; they were simply trying not to die every day!

"At any rate, you're probably right. It's just been a lot and I have a hard time processing it. A little time to rest might do wonders for me."

Nodding to Zodiac as he strolled out, the rhinoceros in his robot mode turned his attention back to Onyx sitting in the chair next to him.

“Makes you wonder where they got him.”

Optimus knew more about his past than anyone, but even he didn't know all of it. Nexus Prime might have... but he was gone, and answers or secrets he may have had about Zodiac had died with him unless he had recorded them on his journal that was finally in the right hands.

“I’m sure one or two of us could have some influence Rhinox, it will just take a little time and patience.”

"I hope so," he sighed in agreement.

”Just some tightening in my hip joint, don’t worry about it Rhinox, I’m sure it’ll pass.”

"Alright," Rhinox looked at him with some concern and skepticism. "Let me know if it gets worse, or if you have any sharp pains." He swore that some of these bots tried to play the tough guy or gal far too often when it inevitably made things worse in the long run and could have been avoided had they just dealt with the repairs. "Until then, we might have some work ahead of us. Zodiac began the diagnostics on Sentinel and the auto-guns. Check the status on them, if you don't mind," he asked for Onyx's assistance and to help keep him busy.

-----

‘I’ll keep in touch as often as I can Optimus, I have a feeling we will cross paths again eventually.’

Upon hearing Wintersong's response through their connection, Primal was both relieved and sad. Following her voice was an empty void that felt like their link had been silenced or stopped. Hopefully it was only temporary. Perhaps it was the distance between them regarding how quickly she might have been traveling now. Whatever the case, he would have be patient and be ready for her return or whenever she may need their help. Be safe, Wintersong..., he thought to himself somberly.

“Sorry.”

The rodent shrugged at Cheetor since he didn't really think his apology was necessary.

"I know.. He took me to one of his lairs, not sure where..,"

Rattrap merely frowned, disappointed with himself for not having found said lair and rescuing her, as well as feeling horrible for whatever the spider had put her through which she had still been pretty silent about. Then again, she was in bad shape, so he couldn't press her on the matter with a ton of questions, like Cheetor said.

"Oww.."

"Sorry, heh," he apologized sheepishly when she groaned audibly with the pain.

"Now that's hard to believe.. I've seen you dig through piles of garbage during dinner time.. And then pass out drunk under the table,"

The Spy's face lit up brighter with her quip that was much more like herself. Thank Primus there was still a part of her left inside. He wouldn't know what to do if she had lost her sense of humor and jokes at his expense. Probably spend more time harassing Dinobot instead, he supposed.

"I'm alive..," "Maybe not quite fit for duty yet, but I will be."

"Ain't no one gonna rush you back into that," Rattrap assured her as he looked over her wounds once more and shook his head.

“All set.”

The hovering gorilla nodded to Cheetor as he handed their smallest comrade to him.

“But Big Bot, the Vok...After what they showed us they can do with one of their own, should we really risk leaving her out there? Megatron could target her and use her like Tarantulas did with Aurora today.”

I know! he thought in frustration. The Maximal leader searched Cheetor's optics for a quiet moment while he considered his words. However, Tigerhawk and Dinobot's conversation diverted his attention.

“Well, aren’t you just a ray of sunshine lately.” “I’m more than use to it Dinobot, but it doesn’t make this situation any less easier.

“Foolish fuzor, war is not meant to be easy. There will be casualties, sparks will be broken, friends will be lost, but the universe keeps moving, the war keeps going.”

Dinobot had a point, but all things considered, Optimus was at the front of this war with his Maximals, and he was doing the best he could to ensure their survival against all odds. It was not easy, and there had been causalities, some of which were friends, but they persevered because they were still alive and they still had a duty to stop Megatron. At times it was very difficult, but unlike most of them who could falter or weep in the moment, Primal was often forced to reserve his sorrows for a later time and in the privacy of his quarters in order to uphold the appearance of strength and endurance to motivate and inspire his crew to keep going no matter what. He had been hardened by this war, that was true, but he was still capable of showing compassion and mourning for the lives that been taken. In other words, he wasn't cold or strictly objective like some leaders were. Being warm wasn't a weakness, nor was holding onto fond memories a waste of time. In many ways, their emotions and sentiments bonded this group of Maximals mixed with Predacons closer together than any other tragic event could have.

“If Maximals would spend less time moping over the losses and focus on the now, we could accomplish much more and take necessary risks to win and prevent more loss.”

Which was basically what Spineback had said to Optimus, so Dinobot's words stung a little bit, although the Maximal leader attempted to hide it.

“There’s taking risks, then there is just plain stupidity Dinobot. Maybe your core programming hasn’t softened enough to realize that.”

“It is still a stupid decision.”

“Whatever the outcome, the decision was made, we can’t change it. Let’s just get the pod back and out of this forest, right now we need to focus on ourselves.”

"Like you implied, Dinobot, it's time to move out," Primal finally commented while returning to his own matter at hand. The only thing holding them back from moving forward was the raptor's bantering with Frilla.

"Wait.. We can't just leave Wintersong.."

Optimus had frowned at Aurora's protest but said nothing more about it beyond what he had already told Rattrap. Her immediate hug once he took her from Cheetor and into his arms almost caught him off guard. There was a slight hesitation at first since he didn't want to put her in any more agony with her severe wounds, not to mention the promise he had broken a couple weeks ago that he never had the chance to address with her before she had been abducted, but he eventually wrapped his long arms around her small body very gently, easy on her wings, holding her like a child clinging to their parent with her arms around his neck until she let go and settled in with him carefully cradling her.

"I'll be okay,"

The rodent nodded but was still reluctant to leave her side even if she was being passed on to the most capable and protective Maximal on their team; their fearless leader. He forced himself to nod at her and move out of Primal's way. Once they took to the air, Rattrap sighed and returned to his beast mode while joining the rest of the group.

“Me and Airazor can help guide it from back here.”

Rattrap nodded and took point as he started leading them in the Axalon's direction ever vigilant of their surroundings just in case, using his senses of smell, hearing and sight. "If it gets ta be too much, lemme know, Frillz. You oughta be resting, not steerin' a stasis pod," he said over his shoulder to her.

"I'm..," "I'm just glad to be with my family again. I missed you all so insanely much."

Optimus raised a curious brow at Aurora's answer while his blue face looked back down at her in his arms again and smiled lightly. "That's very touching, Aurora," he said lightheartedly, "but when it comes to your current physical and mental state, I would prefer to know those specifics so I can gauge your repairs." After a pause, he added, "We missed you, too."

"Optimus to Base," he called over his comm. link to the Axalon in hopes that everything was alright there after having left Rhinox alone with Zodiac. "We've recovered the pod as well as Aurora, and we're on our way back. Do you copy?"

"Loud and clear, Optimus," Rhinox immediately answered even though there was a little static but it was better than receiving nothing at all. His friend must have been closer to the base already in order for his transmission to be virtually uninterrupted. That was good news. It was about time they heard something from the team out in the field. And Rhinox was ecstatic to hear how successful they had been! Aurora and the pod?! Hopefully this mission was a boost to their confidence and overall moral considering their last defeats from the Predacons. "Are there injuries?" He sent a secret code to Primal to assure him that it was indeed him and not Zodiac who could have been pretending to be Rhinox. It was a precaution Primal insisted upon now that the shape shifter had been residing with them at the Axalon.

Receiving the code, Optimus was relieved. So, Zodiac was behaving, as far as he was aware. There was no hostility detected in his friend's voice to alert him that anything was wrong, like if the renegade was holding him hostage and forcing him to answer his call for instance. For a moment, he wondered how Aurora would handle all of this... To find out that Zodiac was there... roaming the base freely, basically. He was certain she wouldn't be pleased, and since she was already in bad shape, he didn't want to add more stress on top of it, so he decided to keep it quiet for now. "Several. Some more so than others. They'll require some time in the CR's. What's the status there?" He purposely didn't mentioning Wintersong yet.

"We'll have them prepped and ready for their arrival," Rhinox assured their commanding officer as he glanced over at Onyx. "Everything's quiet here. Our 'guest' has retreated to his quarters for rest," he was careful to say in case there was anyone near Optimus who shouldn't know about Zodiac's survival. "And Onyx is finally up and about."

"Glad to hear it," Primal replied. "We'll be there shortly. Optimus out," he ended the transmission. It was really good news regarding Onyx's recovery. He wasn't sure how much longer he would have been out considering the damage he had endured. So this was a huge day for the Maximals so far. It almost made him wonder what was going to go wrong later on... Almost. Ever the optimist, those thoughts didn't particularly last long in his mind.

"Cheetor," he called to the flying cat and waited for him to pull up beside him and Aurora before continuing. "You did well today. You kept your cool and delayed Megatron long enough for reinforcements to arrive." Optimus hadn't bothered explaining his own absence yet to anyone. Not that it was required since he was the leader, but it hadn't been terribly important knowledge to share either since everyone was alright and the battle was over. "I recognized the tear on his shoulder matched that of the spike on your tail. Not an easy target, but it was advantageous," he commended him. The wound was what inevitably took Megatron down once Optimus capitalized on it. He hoped Cheetor recognized that they didn't need to be overly brutal or lethal in their tactics in order to make the Predacons fold. Primal still didn't see the need to be as ruthless as their enemy was even though some of his Maximals disagreed.

"Onyx, get the two CR chambers ready here and take over the communications and scanners. I'm gonna prep the CR in the hangar," Rhinox then instructed him after Primal had reported in as he got up from his seat and immediately headed out of the command center and down the corridor toward the stern of the ship.

-----

"Oh I have," "The Maximals will pay for this travesty."

"Quite," came Megatron's only reaction to Nemesis's threat toward their enemy. Her emotions and body language appeared to be authentic, but he couldn't quite ignore his instinct of skepticism. Nevertheless, lately she had done nothing to further provoke his suspicions, or so he thought, so he had backed off of breathing down her neck about it for now. Perhaps Inferno could offer him more insight on their failed attempt to keeping Primal out of his way. Fortunately for her and the ant, there were more matters to discuss that seemed to take precedence.

“Hardly bug boy. You’ll end up squashed under a rock again eventually in no time. You just got lucky for once.”

“Least Waspinator not getting knocked out of the sky every battle anymore.”

The purple and copper tyrannosaurus shook his head at Terrorsaur and Waspinator squabbling as usual.

“Waspinator understand.”

Good. Despite the wasp's limited vocabulary and intellect, at least he knew when to shut up and obey his commanding officer. And he had proven to be far more loyal to the tyrant than Terrorsaur ever did. In that regard, Megatron decided not to verbally punish Waspinator any more than he already had. All things considered from the battle, he actually did fair against the Maximals pretty well, but he needed to maintain his dictatorship and ego over his more simple-minded minions.

“Are you kidding me?! You’re still keeping tabs on most of our activities but leave aside the elephant in the room. Typical of you, Lord Megatron.” “You want to bite anyone’s head off why don’t you talk to your oh so loyal medic who called the retreat today?”

"Let's not jump to conclusions. I'm sure Spineback had a valid reason for calling for a retreat,"

“Perhaps you should learn to think before you speak flier. I made a call based on observation of the situation, nothing more.” “I will take whatever punishment necessary, but if you spent as much time complaining about everyone else’s flaws and focused on your own maybe it wouldn’t be a problem for you.”

Oddly enough, Megatron seemed to take a back seat for a moment while he quietly watched his troops bicker and missing the most obvious point. "Miraculously, all of you appear to be suffering from some kind of acute memory loss simultaneously," he sarcastically declared loud enough to gain all of their attention. "For you see, none of you answer to Terrorsaur. You answer to me," he snapped with his TransMetal jaws to add emphasis. "And when I want your petty excuses, then I shall ask for them when and where I see fit!"

“A little stubborn for your own good ant.”

Truth be told, Inferno didn't want to look so weak and pathetic in front of their Queen. Everyone knew that he frowned upon failure and those who fell apart at the seams. He didn't want to become the next Waspinator. He would just have to do better next time, and that meant bringing Primal's head to Megatron in order to rectify this embarrassment.

“No way am ah gettin’ stuck with crazy pyro breath over here.”

"It seems having two heads doesn't exactly grant you more brain power, so mind your words, Fuzor. I still outrank you," Inferno reminded Quickstrike.

“One of their fliers came to the rescue Lord Megatron. I am not familiar with all the Maximals here nor their abilities, so an oversight I will rectify in the coming future.”

"Be sure that you do, Terrabite," he warned him but didn't bother to go into further detail or verbal lacerations. Even though their newest addition disappointed him in their most recent battle, he was still quite useful to their team and was gradually earning his keep as well as Megatron's trust.

“And I got...overzealous today being back on the battlefield again. It has been far too long and I allowed that to get in the way.”

"Yes, well, so long as we learn from our mistakes, hm?" He gave Terrabite a dismissive wave with his little arm as a gesture for silence. The over-sized, ancient crocodile had explained himself well enough, and he didn't wish to hear any more since he was quick to recognize his poor decisions. "Have Spineback tend to those acid burns so that she doesn't have to carry you as well," he said after shaking his head at Quickstrike and Inferno.

“Has it occurred to you I’m hardly trying my hardest all the time, tyrant? Maybe it also hasn’t occurred to you when I fall into a feeding frenzy, guess who else might just be on the menu.”

"My point exactly," Megatron said to Rampage. "Try a little harder and you might not look like a fool in front of the Maximals every time you encounter them." His voice wasn't as harsh, but it was still cold and condescending. "And did it ever occur to you that you aren't the only one here with a carnivorous appetite?" the t-rex asked the crab rhetorically, mocking his own statement, while narrowing his pink eyes and sliding his tongue along the outside of his sharp, silver teeth housed in his steel-like, purple jaws. If he was driven to it, he would take a bite out of the crab and strip off his armor while strangling him with the other half of his spark and feed the rest of his mangled carcass to Spineback, Terrabite and Terrorsaur. Let us see him regenerate from such a fate, he pondered fondly.

“Besides where’s the fun in allowing the enemy to know what to expect. Primal knows my habits well enough, I prefer to keep my prey guessing and maybe you just might find one day you’re not as in control as you think.”

About to dispute his insubordination and put him in his place, the tyrant's mouth opened as though he was going to speak, but then his jaws closed slowly and a small grin appeared instead. Yesss, Primal knows his habits. Primal knows his secrets behind the creation of his spark. Optimus Primal knows everything there is to know about Protoform X. His small grin grew wider and toothier with his thoughts before he cleared his throat and turned his attention back to Tarantulas.

"I'm surprised you even noticed my absence. But it's good to know my genius was missed, hehehe."

How could anyone not notice that horrid arachnid's absence when they no longer heard that infernal cackling? thought Megatron as his face soured. His 'genius'? He almost shuddered. "Hardly," he commented with a roll of his beast mode's pupil-less eyes. "Merely the obnoxious convulsions that you might call chortling," he insulted the spider.

"But rest assured, all shall be revealed.. when I feel like informing you,"

"Still spinning your own webs, I see," Megatron grumbled under his breath, not that he was the least bit surprised. Cheetor had been right about that after all to an extent. But whether it would harm Megatron's own agendas was yet to be seen.

"For someone who just lost his new assistant and nearly got blasted to pieces, the spider sure is in a good mood,"

The TransMetal t-Rex found her statement intriguing. "An astute observation, Nemesis," he announced. "Clearly he wanted Aurora captured and returned to their ranks," he bluntly surmised without caring whether or not the spider had wanted to keep that part a secret. "But after the attacks that he endured, Tarantulas appears to be fully functional, does he not?" he added rhetorically and deliberately speaking as if the mad scientist wasn't presently standing right there with them. He wasn't hinting that Nemesis knew why, he was simply making a verbal observation that should have the others asking them the same question: How was Tarantulas already repaired after the injuries he had sustained? "Perhaps he can enlighten us during our journey back to the base," he hinted heavily while he began walking again in the direction of the Darksyde.

((Will add more to Wintersong’s part a little later in the thread. ))

Airazor carefully spread her injured wing, feeling mostly a sore ache now compared to before. Indeed, it wasn’t completely healed enough to grant her flight, but it would make moving it much easier, “It will suffice Tigatron, thank you.” She told him gratefully knowing her self-repairs would handle the rest until they returned to the Axalon.

Returning to robot mode, the falcon femme moved over to take some vines alongside Frilla and Dinobot before returning to the pod and securing some around it tightly enough it wouldn’t come loose. She gave the vines a few test tugs to be certain before she moved to the others hauling the pod from the front and doing the same. “There.” Satisfied everything was set, the falcon returned towards the side of the pod across from the transmetal lizard, reverting back to beast mode to allow her repairs to continue. “If it becomes too much, I’ll try guiding it in robot mode from above. Long as we have some movement it shouldn’t be too difficult.” Airazor volunteered as she followed after the others, carefully nudging the pod along to avoid trees and other obstacles along the way.

Hopefully, they could arrive back to the Axalon without further incident along the way.

Tigerhawk couldn’t believe the words coming out of Dinobot’s mouth just now, letting out a deep growl of his own, “Maybe you should be a little more sensitive to your words reptile, you might find yourself on the receiving end of those same casualties.” The fuzor retorted, wondering if Dinobot thought before he spoke at times. It rarely seemed the case. But as Optimus also said, they should be going, leaving the conversation to end on that note.

With a final glance at the raptor, Tigerhawk took flight after the transmetal ape, Aurora, and Cheetor and heading for the direction of the ship. Once they were clear of the forest and in their path back, his thoughts for now left Dinobot and the battle and returned to his promise with Zodiac. He wasn’t sure how much information he could offer the amnesiac shapeshifter or if anyone had overheard the promise he had made, knowing sooner or later the young dragon would have to have any information he gave elaborated upon anyhow. Whether or not he could offer any insight, Tigerhawk could at least do his best to not overwhelm the younger mech, but perhaps at the cost of getting an earful from Primal if he ever knew. Unknowing that Rhinox himself had already overheard said promise and took it upon himself to disclose some of that information already. Oh well, maybe he could make dow its what little he could offer, and help Zodiac by other means.

He could do that much.

Though Tigerhawk was pulled from his thoughts as he overheard Optimus speak, his left ear swiveling in the ape’s direction as he spoke with Aurora then Rhinox. Everything sounded like they were finally looking up for them, making the large fuzor have some relief. Perhaps they were finally having some much needed good luck on their side.

With the adrenaline of battle beginning to wane as he flew, Cheetor began to feel his own aches and pains. Although, they weren’t nearly as bad as the previous bad surprisingly, there was no mistaking the helmache he was starting to get after being thrown into a tree earlier on in the battle. He would definitely be feeling that for a few hours...

Nevertheless, the metal cheetah gave another glance towards Optimus and Aurora, smiling to himself as he felt his actions certainly had been worth it. Though the pod was blank, that didn’t mean it couldn’t be used for something and they had Aurora back. All in all, the day had gone far better already than two weeks prior. But the transmetal feline perked up when Optimus called him over, curiously steering himself closer to the older mech to hear what he had to say and couldn’t help being a little surprised at the praise. Given that he had gone after Megatron without really thinking, he had expected a lecture again more than anything, so it came as a not-so-unpleasant surprise to hear Optimus thought otherwise.

“Well, there was a lot at stake today.” Cheetor responded, gaze briefly going to Aurora then back to his mentor, “My sneak attack didn’t exactly go as planned, so Mega-butt didn’t exactly leave me much choice, not with Aurora at Tarantulas’ mercy and the pod at risk.” Cheetor paused for a moment, seeming to consider his next words carefully, “I suppose I take back some of what I said before Big Bot, you weren’t wrong that diplomacy may be more useful. But...I also don’t think it’s the only thing we should be using.” The young Maximal was calmer in his approach on the subject, realizing how much of a jerk he had been two weeks ago when the subject was brought up. “I haven’t forgotten what you taught me, for once Megatron was right about that. But I also think this war has taught me something else: we do need to push the boundaries a bit more, diplomacy will only get us so far. Today it allowed us to exploit Megatron’s weakness for monologuing and his paranoia, so maybe a more mixed method wouldn’t hurt.”

It was a long shot, but the cheetah felt more than ever they did have to adapt as always. Maybe their on-going conflict was just shaping his view of how that could be achieved.

++++++++++++++

With Inferno settled at last, Spineback fully turned her attention to the seemingly injured avian second-in-command, making no effort to hide skepticism of Nemsis’ wounds now. Given the knowledge that she may yet still be suffering the effects of this mysterious weapon and yet had done nothing about it until now, it was hard for the medic not to question her judgement more than ever. Especially in regards to the transmetal wasp no longer being an issue. Then what had the avian slipping up more than usual?

Deciding not to question things further for the time being, Spineback dropped the subject in favor of considering the more practical concern of Nemesis’ increasingly growing problem with electricity. A now all but glaring weakness. “Hmm, yes, it is becoming a frequent problem as of late.” The older former Decepticon tapped her underjaw in thought, “Perhaps a non-conductive coating would be far more practical in your case Nemesis. At least something to lessen the effects it could have on your nanomachines. I’ll take a look through my old notes, maybe I can find something.” Spineback told her.

Of course, Terrorsaur had to go opening his big beak again, earning some well-deserved backlash in the process despite what Megatron felt towards the rest of them. It was best in her opinion to say nothing further on the matter, giving a dismissive snarl towards the flier before focusing on the rest of the problems.

Though, her attention was drawn towards her first passenger, eyeing Quickstrike as he was able to maneuver himself off her back causing her to shake her head, “Say it a little louder why don’t you Quickstrike, we didn’t hear you all the way over hear.” She remarked towards the fuzor before turning to where Terrabite was being addressed, regarding his acid burns that would require some time in the CR tanks. But the conversation soon shifting towards Tarantulas soon after.

“Yes, I would very much like to know myself considering I saw you blasted off your feet with my own optics Tarantulas.” Spineback prompted as she began to follow Megatron and the others back to base, leaning forward to keep level. “Unless you’re a better actor than we give you credit for, then by all means I think you missed your calling working in the theater.”

Terrorsaur rolled his optics at Waspinator, “You won a couple battles, hardly makes you any stronger than you have been bug. You’ve just been lucky.” Hs grumbled with annoyance, finding Waspinator’s giddiness more annoying than anything, which was ironic considering how easily exciteable he got when it came to going after the Maximals himself. Or maybe that was his sour mood talking. Either way, he rolled his optics once more when Waspinator’s bravado crumpled the moment Megatron told him off, and no sooner had he did he also tell of Terrorsaur, triggering his own tirade that earned the very opposite and expected reaction from the target of his ire, the avian, and the tyrant.

If Terrorsaur didn’t think he’d be torn apart right away for doing so, he would have transformed then and there to put the medic in her place for her words. Just like Megatron, she had no problems pointing out his own problems, yet she was a rare case that few seemed to want to find blame for. It was infuriating, even more so when even Nemesis stepped in, causing him to glare at the avian, “Of course you’d defend her, always the suck up as usual.” Pot calling the kettle black there, but the transmetal pterodactyl wasn’t about to let this subject go right away. Well, until Megatron was fit to reassert his domiance once again in the situation.

Gritting his teeth, the transmetal flier finally decided to go silent again. At the present he was getting no where and could only grumble in his anger, flapping his wings to take flight and follow from the air.

“Oooh, is that so?” Rampage continued with his condenscending tone, pincers clamping shut once again, “Perhaps we should test that little threat one day shall we? You would be doing me a favor.” The king crab cackled, making it no secret that didn’t exactly fear death by any means. In fact, he seemed to almost welcome the sweet nothingness, an end to a miserable existence that may have once been a productive, peaceful one. But, no longer. Rampage may have been a seething ball of rage and terror, but he would gladly accept a death most fitting to end his so called immortal life. Yet, he also did not think Megatron would take such a loss to his ranks. For all the threats and discipline, he was one of the tyrant’s strongest assets, even more so than Inferno when it came down to it.

“But you also need my power, so I suppose we’re at an impasse.” Hs sneered, lazily following the others with little interest in Megatron’a continued complaints of his performance in battle. Because quite frankly, he didn’t really care.

"Quite,"

Megatron's rage over today's outcome was barely concealed by a thin layer of self-control. Nemesis knew it, as did all the other Predacons present. So she tried as best she could to avoid provoking that anger further, letting Megatron set the pace and decide on which topics deserved his attention. It seemed like a wise enough survival strategy.

"For you see, none of you answer to Terrorsaur. You answer to me,"

And most of the saner Predacons decided to heed the tyrant's words. Yet skidplate licking was more something Inferno would do, not something Nemesis really saw the need for. So she simply nodded in agreement to let the tyrant know his words were valid and understood.

Of course, the likes of Terrorsaur and Rampage didn't exactly help matters any. The crab was barely keeping himself restrained from unleashing his hunger on them all, as he likely would have done already had Megatron not held half of his spark in his possession.


Tarantulas remained in his motorcycle like form as he sped towards his lair, merely using the drone he had left behind as a convenient way to keep tabs on the other Predacons.. as well as tease them a bit. After all, he was the only one among them who could brag about getting what he wanted today. His test of the nanogel had been successful indeed, and his little spy who was going to secure him his more highly desired prize was on her way back to the Axalon to do just that. Oh, it was marvelous!

"Hardly," "Merely the obnoxious convulsions that you might call chortling,"

But the icing on the cake would have to be the hint of annoyance in Megatron's voice, the tyrant not having obtained the victories he sought this day while the spider had. And the scientist reveled in it!

"Hehe, throw insults all you like but it won't change anything," the spider replied via the now struggling upside down drone. The drone's legs were still moving as if it was trying to right itself without having much luck in doing so.

"Still spinning your own webs, I see,"

"Well I am a spider in case you forgot," the scientist mocked right back. Not that he hadn't been spinning the proverbial webs long before he ever took on the form of an arachnid. It wasn't as if this game he and the tyrant kept playing around each other was going to change any time soon. Or ever.

Meanwhile Nemesis was getting rather annoyed with the chatter. Tarantulas was always off playing his own mind games, and somehow Megatron still allowed him to return whenever the spider felt like making an appearance. Keep your enemies close, was it? Truthfully she had normally simply tried to stay out of the spider's way, finding him to be most unreliable and willing to stab just about anyone in the back should it suit him. And she was quickly growing to despise those mind games of his..

More so now than ever.. After all, the spider had made her a target and had basically forced her to give up the nanogel. So the further away the spider was, the better as far as the avian female was concerned.

"An astute observation, Nemesis,"

A hint of a smile maneuvered itself onto the female's face. It felt.. nice.. to have Megatron recognize her for something positive, even something as small as this, after all the shade he'd thrown her way lately. But she didn't comment on it since she didn't want to come across as desperate.

"Clearly he wanted Aurora captured and returned to their ranks,"

And for a moment the spider's chuckle faded as he listened in to the other Predacons catching up on his ploy. Not that it changed anything in the least.

"Perhaps.. Of course I could be doing it out of compassion for my poor, lost assistant," he then responded via the drone before laughing quite loudly, and inappropriately, at his own joke. The spider really didn't have compassion for anyone other than himself. Was he even capable of feeling any? Nemesis wasn't sure..

"But after the attacks that he endured, Tarantulas appears to be fully functional, does he not?"

That observation was an accurate one. Nemesis hadn't really been paying attention to what Tarantulas was doing during the battle, but she had managed to piece it together from what the others had commented. And why wouldn't the spider take advantage of the nanogel he now had in his possession thanks to her more than generous contribution? And he had access to the fuzor for the last couple of weeks as well.

Tarantulas' laughter had faded to something of a low chuckle when Megatron made his observation known. Of course the spider didn't care much that the others would no doubt question his newfound abilities. If needed he wouldn't hesitate to turn in the avian female for her part in it, but then he wouldn't really get anything out of her. And he did enjoy being able to hold this over her head. Not that the others had any reason to doubt it was Aurora herself who had assisted him in creating the healing factor.

"Or maybe you have been underestimating my stamina?," the crazy scientist offered as way of explanation. Not that he really cared one way or the other if they figured it out.

"Perhaps he can enlighten us during our journey back to the base,"

Surely they weren't going to bring that nasty drone back with them? The thing was almost as creepy as the spider himself.

"A favor for a favor, Megatron," the drone replied in Tarantulas' voice. "Surely you don't expect me to give up my secrets for free?"

Now that sounded like a terrible idea.. And not like they could trust the spider. Besides, Nemesis would rather he just shut his mouth by now since she was both growing weary of listening to him and also didn't trust him not to reveal her part in any of it just to make her life even more like the Pit.

“Of course you’d defend her, always the suck up as usual.”

The avian female shot her fellow transmetal flyer a glare so intense it would likely have set him on fire if she possessed laser optics. Yes, Terrorsaur was problematic at best, but she had really done more to keep him alive than most of them. And for what - to be insulted like this?

"Perhaps you would prefer it if this suck up merely let you meet your untimely demise the next time you open that big mouth of yours too widely," the avian reminded the pterodactyl. She didn't really want to go into details, especially since Terrorsaur didn't have a shred of humility in his programming. There just wasn't any point.

“Hmm, yes, it is becoming a frequent problem as of late.”“Perhaps a non-conductive coating would be far more practical in your case Nemesis. At least something to lessen the effects it could have on your nanomachines. I’ll take a look through my old notes, maybe I can find something.”

Well that idea sounded quite terrific actually. A coating that would decrease Nemesis' weakness towards energy based weapons was likely the best solution now that her nanomachines' vulnerability had become more or less common knowledge.. much to the avian's dismay.

"I will trust your judgement on such ideas," Nemesis started "After all, you're the medical expect on the team. I do know it would greatly benefit me if you could do it though."

Her attention was then ripped to the drone, which had remained quiet for a short time while Tarantulas entered his hideout and made himself comfortable again. Now all he had to do was play the waiting game.. And keep the others off his back. Well, soon enough at any rate.

“Yes, I would very much like to know myself considering I saw you blasted off your feet with my own optics Tarantulas.” “Unless you’re a better actor than we give you credit for, then by all means I think you missed your calling working in the theater.”

"Oh, I have my ways..," the spider replied mysteriously, enjoying the fact he knew perfectly well how much Megatron and the others hated his secrecy.. And how much Nemesis dreaded the thought of him revealing their little connection. "My asset, as it were, was most helpful in accommodating my needs hehe."


Ugh.. Once the other Predacons started heading out, Nemesis couldn't resist the urge to give the drone another well placed kick, sending it spinning for a few feet before landing in the dirt. Still upside down. "I presume we're pretty much done here?," she asked, actually eager to return to the Darksyde for a change. The Maximals had already departed so there really was no reason to linger here any longer.

As Cheetor gently handed the fuzor over to Optimus, Aurora seemed to relax a bit more. Not that Cheetor had been hurting her in any way, but the reality of the situation was that she needed to fool the monkey in order to be able to complete the mission Tarantulas had given her. And the soft and gentle touch as he scooped her up was evidence that he didn't suspect anything.

Of course she wished the spider was still here to help guide and supervise her, but as he had explained to her it would be too risky to the operation if the two of them kept in touch. So she was on her own.. surrounded by these Maximals she knew so well, that used to mean the world to her, yet now she felt nothing at all for any of them. That, of course, didn't prevent her from pretending that she did. Her instructions were to act exactly as she would have if nothing had ever changed. Even though everything had.

“Well, there was a lot at stake today.”

That's for sure.. The shape shifting renegade could have succumbed to his injuries despite the spider's conviction he would have been able to survive the torture inflicted upon him by the enraged tyrant. Aurora held no such unbreakable convictions, other than an infinite trust in Tarantulas' genius so at least that was something. But if the spider was wrong and the renegade had indeed departed this world, it would certainly complicate her mission. She'd hate having to disappoint her master so..

Another possibility was that the Maximals were keeping Zodiac under supervised lock and key, which would also make her mission a little more tricky to complete. She hadn't exactly planned out how to break the renegade out of solitary confinement, but somehow that seemed like a more unlikely scenario. After all the Maximals were foolishly sentimental creatures who would take pity on just about anyone, even the likes of Zodiac, should certain conditions be met. And since she was aware the renegade had been inflicted with Tarantulas' virus, chances were he was still recovering from losing his memories.

Turning her head to face Cheetor, smiling quite softly at him upon hearing his words of endearment, Aurora responded with; "It'll be okay.. We pulled through."

“My sneak attack didn’t exactly go as planned, so Mega-butt didn’t exactly leave me much choice, not with Aurora at Tarantulas’ mercy and the pod at risk.”

Cheetor had turned his attention back to Optimus, which honestly was fine. The fuzor held no strong desire to hold down lengthy conversations with any of them right now. Not when it could distract her from her mission.

"I'll be fine, really," she whispered as way of reassurance, just in case either of them needed to hear it again. Now if only they could all hurry up and return to the Axalon so she could finally find out what she needed to do to complete her mission and return to her master.

The rodent hovered nearby like an overly protective family member, even after she had taken a secure spot in Primal's arms. Not that she was surprised in the least. After all, the rodent was rather fond of the fuzor even if the emotion was pretty much one sided at this point. The little female had no idea what she could possibly have seen as appealing in any of them, really. Maximals were so.. emotionally attached to each other, so sentimental and foolish and blech.. The only reason she was returning to that revolting base of theirs was because she had a mission to complete. Why the likes of Dinobot and other former Predacons such as Frilla actually stayed there willingly was beyond her.

"Ain't no one gonna rush you back into that,"

She offered a smile to the rodent as well, seemingly grateful for his kind words.

"I sure would appreciate a few days of relaxation. How did you guys hold up without me? Did the base burn down to the ground while I was gone?," she asked with a teasing grimace, secretly hoping to gain a little bit of information about the condition of her primary target.

"That's very touching, Aurora," "but when it comes to your current physical and mental state, I would prefer to know those specifics so I can gauge your repairs."

The fuzor's green optics peered back over at Primal's, studying him for a moment. Well, of course the monkey would want to know everything about her, state of mind and all. But that didn't mean she was going to be honest about it. Fortunately there wasn't anything physical that could indicate where her allegiance truly was right now and since she still had her memories it was no big feat for her to continue acting like she normally would have.

"Of course," she agreed softly. "I'm sure Rhinox will be most thorough in his check-up as usual." It wasn't a lie. No doubt the rhinoceros would have her checked for injuries and any obvious tampering, but even he could only do so much.. Fortunately Tarantulas had already anticipated this reaction to the fuzor's unexpected return.

"We missed you, too."

Her face seemed to light up from hearing that and it stayed that way throughout the monkey's conversation with Rhinox and Cheetor. Although on the inside she was starting to get fed up with all these delays.. Always so many delays!

"Easy, Zodiac. Don't be so hard on yourself," Rhinox told him as his hands made a "calm down" motion. "Like I said, the idea has been entertained but hardly discussed enough to make a decision."

Well.. That was easier said than done. Although part of the reason Zodiac appeared so guilt-ridden was the fact that he thought it would help ease up the Maximal's suspicions of him. They were incapable of turning down someone in need, it seemed. Although he most certainly was exaggerating his own distress over the events that had taken place, he was by no means proud of his actions in the past either.

Zodiac nodded his understanding to the other mech. "You're right.. You're always right, but perhaps especially.. Okay, I'm babbling on so I'm just going to drop this topic," he added with a grimace, hopeful he had managed to de-escalate any suspicions the engineer might have been harboring.

“Uhhh, yea, I use to be. You could say their leader is more than a little insane for my tastes. It’s one thing to want proper representation for your faction, another to have plans completely off the rails, we’ll just say that.” Onyx confirmed, but shook his head. “Yes and no. We never interacted much until this point, but given time maybe we can be proper comrades.”

The other male's admission was strange to the renegade.. He didn't seem like someone who'd be out to rage war on anyone, or a war criminal or any of the other stuff Rhinox had said to describe the other team. Well, perhaps that's exactly the reason Onyx had left them.. It was the likely possibility after all.

Seems the war criminal leader of the other faction was a bit of a rogue in his own ways.. Zodiac felt the two of them might have bumped heads on occasion, not necessarily due to the tyrant's methods but more so because he really didn't sound like someone the renegade would like.

"I wouldn't mind comparing war strategies over a mug of cybertronian ale," Zodiac smiled. "Honestly.. I can use all the allies here I can get, since a few of the Maximals haven't exactly been greeting me with open arms. Not that I blame them or anything."

He really couldn't, now could he? Not after he did the things he now knew he had done. The very fact they were letting him roam around relatively freely was amazing to him, and he wanted to keep it that way as well.

"Best to sort that out first before we dive into anything else, alright?"

"Oh I intend to.. When Rattrap returns. I'm just still trying to figure out the how part in my head. He's already suspicious of me, so I don't want him to think I am hiding anything," the renegade was quick to add.

"It comes with the territory, I'm afraid. Not all repercussions are bad, though. I've survived my own," "and Optimus has had his fair share, but he's survived. We've all been traumatized by something or someone, but we're making due with what we have and the friendships we can rely on for support."

Something about the very word repercussions held something of a negative tone to it.. Zodiac couldn't really imagine anything positive coming from such events and he most certainly would prefer to try to avoid having to pay for his misdeeds if he could. But he said nothing, not wanting to provoke the rhinoceros.

“If I know anything else to be true about this crew, it’s tougher than most. If anyone survived all this time, I’m sure we’ll find a way to help them.”

Tougher? Possible. A bit gullible too, perhaps, but Zodiac wouldn't fault them for that. For some reason lying seemed to come easily to him, or.. bending the truth.. as the case may be. Surely he'd been trained in that field by whoever he was working for in the past. The ones who ultimately turned him against Primal and his group. Or did he do that on his own? Hopefully he'd get his memories back soon so he could piece together the missing pieces of his memories.

"That does seem to be the specialty of this crew," Zodiac concurred as he started preparing to depart. His agenda differed somewhat from the impression he had given the two males, but he didn't rush anything or say anything that would arouse their suspicions.

"I don't doubt that for a second, Zodiac. You're a survivor, after all,"

A survivor.. With a lot of skeletons in his closet, it seems. But Zodiac took the complement at face value, even offering a grateful smile in return. "That means a lot to me," he assured the other male. And it did. Even though he couldn't really know how close he'd come to actually dying. He made his exit from the room, leaving the two males to discuss among themselves.

After the stop to his quarters which allowed him to investigate what he had already suspected, that his powers ran much deeper than merely altering weapons by the touch of his hands, Zodiac felt strangely invigorated. It had come as a shock to see his own reflection change in the mirror as well as hear his voice change, but as intrigued as he was by these revelations they still seemed like second nature to him. He mastered his newfound abilities quite quickly, even if he chose to remain in his normal form with a few alterations to his wrists to conceal the truth of what happened to the bracelets from Rhinox and the others.

So shortly after he found himself in the medical bay, alone, looking at the equipment that seemed both foreign and familiar to him. He made sure to temporarily short out any cameras that might have been watching, simply causing a temporary short circuit in the wiring so that he could have some privacy for a short time. He really didn't need long, and it required barely any effort to trick the computer system into thinking he was Rhinox wanting a copy of Zodiac's own medical scans from a time before he had contracted this virus. He saved a copy of the information on a disc so he could review it in private in his own quarters. Then he made sure to uncross the wires to the camera so that it would resume its normal operations when he left. After that he headed straight back to his own quarters where he could finish the task at hand in peace.

“We won’t know until we try right? Kid just will need time getting use to it, so will the others. Not like most of us from the Predacons had to deal with adjustment when we joined.” Onyx tried to sound as encouraging as he could be about the situation. It surely wasn’t easy for both sides, especially the young shapeshifter who probably was feeling overwhelmed as it was then from the sounds of it Rhinox was dealing with his own concerns. “One day at a time Rhinox.”

That was the only words Onyx could offer.

Just form this short interaction, the black equine could imagine there was still much to work through for everyone, some more than others. But as the matter shifted towards his tight hip joint, Onyx tried to offer a quick smile of assurance, “Cross my spark, I’ll tell you if it gets worse. Think it’s just tight from lack of use. Just will have to find time to give it a few tests.” Although, he wasn’t sure how convinced the engineer would be. Rhinox has a keen optic for medical concerns, and Onyx himself didn’t know how extensive the damage had truly been. He may not even know how bad it was until he truly started doing anything especially strenuous. Thankfully, the rhinoceros mech decides to let it go for now, returning to another task he had been doing when the equine had been speaking with Zodiac.

Though he was glad to have something to keep himself occupied, lacing his fingers together and stretching them out to crack his joints, “That I can do.” Typing upon the console, Onyx brought up the information for Sentinel and the auto-guns to check their progress only pausing for a brief moment as he heard Optimus’ voice come through the ship’s communications.

Somehow, they had gotten Aurora back in all the chaos of also getting the pod. To say the least, Onyx was surprised as he glanced over at Rhinox just as the large Maximal glanced his way, “They’ve been busy.” He remarked, but his tone was positive and saw this as a good thing. They really needed more good days lately. Not that Megatron or the other Predacons would allow them to have such moments for long periods of time. Every time something seemed to be going great, there was always something horrible to follow. But, Onyx tried not to think about such things as the transmission soon ended, pushing himself slowly from his seat with a soft pained grunt from his stretched hip and leg, “On it.”

As Rhinox went to prep the CR chamber in the hanger, Onyx set to work prepping the CR chambers within the bridge that way they were ready to use the moment those injured arrived to base before turning his attention to handling communications and other matters.

——————————————

Quickfix let out a deep sigh as he found himself perched on a rock jutting out of the barren ground, having followed faint scents on the wind of the only vaguely familiar Predacon scents here and there. His arrival had been...eventful to say the least and had not gone how he imagined. His skills in combat were nothing in comparison to the group he had met, having found himself in combat one moment and waking up from being knocked out several hours later the next but alone. Maximal and Predacon scent alike had been mixed in the area, making it difficult to decipher where they had all gone.

So, two weeks had been met with little success to say the least.

Almost certain this location was no better, the utahraptor about turned to head elsewhere until movement in the distance caught his optic. Curious, he squinted as his optic sensors zoomed in on the movement ahead, straining them slightly but met with a promising sight. He recognized some of those forms right off the bat! It had to be the Predacons! Unless there were also other weirdly metallic creature on this planet, this was his best lead thus far over the past several days and the young medic didn’t have much else to do beyond follow.

“Just wait for the right time to approach them properly Quick, you can do this.” He told himself as he leapt from the rock to jog after the group. Trailing behind just enough to watch for the right opportunity.

((I’ll try to post tonight if I can guys. With the coronavirus scare having to work some things out the past few days, especially with my son. If not tonight, post will be up by tomorrow morning.))

One the pod was secure, the ground unit could finally begin their track back to base.

Like Airazor, Frilla steadily kept the pod from getting stuck or bumping into the trees as they moved along out of the rain forest. The trek was a bit rough for her form, flinching once in a while due to some strain here and there, but forcing herself to manage. Upon hearing Rattrap then Airazor, she merely shook her head, “Don’t worry about it you two, I’ll manage until we get back to the base.” She assured them. Though she mostly just didn’t want to slow down their progress as it was. Her form wasn’t exactly meant for direct attacks like she had taken against Rampage, but neither did she expect him to react so quickly.

For the time being however, the frilled lizard made due with pushing past the pain. She would have plenty of time to rest and get repaired once they had the pod secured at the Axalon and knew for certain no further surprises would pop up all of a sudden along the way.

Tigatron smiled then, “You’re welcome.” With that, the white tiger backed off to allow Airazor to help with the pod as Tigatron transformed to beast mode, moving to help haul the pod back to base. He allowed the others to tie some of the vines to his form once the pod itself was secured and allowed them to move out at last. “Hopefully this trek shouldn’t take too long or be too difficult. Once we leave this forest it should go far more smoothly.” Tigatron spoke as he stepped over roots and pushed aside bushes or low branches.

Unlike his comrades, Dinobot paid little mind to the chatter around him. In fact, he was surprisingly quiet thus far as his mind became more focused on strategies and tactics over concern for his adoptive faction. He still heavily stood by what he had said before and been saying since he first joined the Maximals, yet it still seemed like no one else truly shared that sentiment which made this all the more frustrating. If only they did she a bit more aggression, maybe they could pull more victories! Far as he thought at least.

But, the raptor had long since come to accept this would be highly unlikely, no one else’s spark was wired like his was.

Grumbling to himself, Dinobot shoved a branch aside as he walked through the forest with the others, telling himself he’d have to handle the Predacons his own way. Perhaps starting with that mysterious black case he had gotten from Spineback and whatever contents it contained within.

————————————

Terrabite nodded in understanding, “Noted sir.” Well, that lashing wasn’t nearly as bad as the mechanical engineer had expected. Given the bite to Megatron’s words towards the others he had expected far worse, especially with being the new guy around the base, but seemed he had jumped to some conclusions. And it gave him more emphasis to better understand the Maximals they would be facing often in the coming future seeming as this wasn’t your typical army trained Maximals he was facing.

Mentally pushing such a matter to the top of his priority list, Terrabite could figure he could speak with the others about the Maximals later once they had all recovered and once he had his shield project taken care of. Besides, it sounded like several of the Predacons could use time to cool down with all the tensions currently causing tempers to flare and watching several of them bicker.

Definitely not the closest unit he had been a part of.

But when it was all said and done, the tensions eventually ebbed and they could begin their trek back to base. Though Terrabite snorted slightly as he listened to Tarantulas’ explanations, much less his blatant cowardice in the crocodile’s optics. “You are nothing but a coward with an ego spider. You can’t even face your accusations in person, slinking off to the dark like the yellow-bellied treacherous wrench you are.” Terrabite growled with disgust. “Its bots like you that make me sick.” Even after Nemesis had kicked the little drone over, the large reptile promptly finished the annoying drone off, grabbing it with his front teeth to toss it up before snapping his jaws down on the metallic arachnidroid with an audibly satisfying crunch. To him at least, before spitting out the contents of what remained of the drone.

“That should shut him up for a while.” He remarked before turning to follow the others back to base.

Much to his relief, Megatron decided not to berate him further causing Waspinator to relax. He wasn’t exactly a stranger to those verbal lashings for many reasons, and sometimes Megatron didn’t bother scolding him aside from an ice cold glare. The metal wasp was all too aware of how pathetic he could be, but he was trying to improve, even if his intelligence would likely never allow for such a thing to happen. But, he tried to be useful where he could, even the menial tasks which still had to be done. No one else was going to do them after all...

Sighing with relief, the wasp was all too eager to leave the rain forest. So, the moment they began to move out he took to the skies while leaving his usual partner-in-crime to his own wallowing, flying above the canopy for a fine until they had left the forest.

However, as they moved closer and closer to base, movement from the corner of his optic caused Waspinator to turn his head slightly. Were they being tailed? Had one of the Maximals circled around to follow? His optic sensors would only make out so much from a distance as he zoomed in as much as he could, only noting a metallic sheen in the distance. “Waspinator see someone in the distance.” The transmetal flier reported towards the others.

Quickstrike scoffed at Inferno, “Ah also ain’t the one fallin’ apart now am ah? Guess dat thick armor of yers doesn’t protect what little brain power ye got left.” The fuzor retorted with a cackle, knowing the fire ant could do little to retaliate on his own right now. Not when he was in pieces. He for one didn’t respect nor care for Inferno’s so called position. Fact of the matter was, he still was just cannon fodder as much as he was far as Quickstrike was concerned. But, the fuzor didn’t press the matter too far being so close to the now upgraded Spineback.

He really didn’t want to be quite literally squashed under the medic’s new size causing him to back off somewhat before he followed the others. But him and Terrabite both perked up at the news that they were being followed.

"You're right.. You're always right, but perhaps especially.. Okay, I'm babbling on so I'm just going to drop this topic,"

Not always, thought Rhinox, but he appreciated the shape shifter's confidence in his decisions and judgments.

"Oh I intend to.. When Rattrap returns. I'm just still trying to figure out the how part in my head. He's already suspicious of me, so I don't want him to think I am hiding anything,"

"It wouldn't surprise me if he already knows what you did, and he's just waiting for you to confess," the rhinoceros mused, but he didn't actually know. Despite the rodent's hoarding and messy quarters, he kept count of his items, and he had a nose to sniff out scents that shouldn't have been where he might have found them. It wasn't easy to pull a fast one on Rattrap. He was, after all, a rat.

"That means a lot to me,"

He was only being truthful, and maybe it would help Zodiac remember more about himself; the good and the bad.

-----

“We won’t know until we try right? Kid just will need time getting use to it, so will the others. Not like most of us from the Predacons had to deal with adjustment when we joined.”

Rhinox wanted to believe that it was possible. Very much so. As did Optimus and Tigerhawk. But could that hope be blinding them to that fact that some bots were incapable of change? At least change that ran too deep in their roots to stick. He agreed with Onyx that they had to try, and with that he nodded to him.

“One day at a time Rhinox.”

"That's all we can do," he shrugged lightly since none of them had control over what tomorrow or even the rest of that day would bring. Still, the equine's thoughts assured the engineer that they were on the same page and that they shared the same compassion and optimism.

“Cross my spark, I’ll tell you if it gets worse.

Rhinox sent him a look of skepticism albeit with a lighthearted tone behind it. "I've heard that one before," he warned Onyx with a raised brow and small smile as though he wasn't convinced since many of them had often promised that but fell short and then paid for it later.

Think it’s just tight from lack of use. Just will have to find time to give it a few tests.”

"Alright," he finally dropped it and moved on with his duties.

“That I can do.”

This the Chief Medic's smile a bit larger toward Onyx and he left him to his work without bothering him more on his recovery. Soon after, Primal's call came in over the Axalon's radio, and he suddenly grew serious.

“They’ve been busy.”

Both of them appeared to be taken aback by the news of rescuing Aurora and the stasis pod. But it was good news, nonetheless! "Very busy," he commented.

“On it.”

Trusting Onyx to get the job done since he was more than capable of handling these things at Maximal HQ now, the rhinoceros exited the large, round room quickly and made his way to the hangar where he began preparing their third CR chamber.

-----

"Of course," "I'm sure Rhinox will be most thorough in his check-up as usual."

Optimus spared a puzzled glance down at Aurora in his arms. He couldn't tell if she was deliberately trying to avoid answering the question or if he hadn't been clear enough as to what he was asking. Instead of bothering her again about it, his internal scanners performed their own general diagnosis on her body's status. Multiple injuries and very low energon readings were all it could tell him. Scans from the CR or other equipment would obviously share greater details. Regardless, he frowned a little since he couldn't help but think about the horrors his youngest Maximal had endured the past two weeks. Wintersong probably still blamed herself for not keeping a closer eye on her. Perhaps that combined with the Vok possessing her was the real reason she wanted to distance herself from them. Primal sighed to himself and still wished he could have done more for the tigress.

“Well, there was a lot at stake today.”

The blue and silver gorilla nodded in agreement with Cheetor. There certainly was.

“My sneak attack didn’t exactly go as planned, so Mega-butt didn’t exactly leave me much choice, not with Aurora at Tarantulas’ mercy and the pod at risk.”

"We should always be mindful of improvisational tactics," the Maximal leader softly reminded the flying cheetah. After all, the Predacons always kept them on their toes and were known to be very unpredictable with their own tactics and scheming.

“I suppose I take back some of what I said before Big Bot, you weren’t wrong that diplomacy may be more useful. But...I also don’t think it’s the only thing we should be using.”

Optimus looked over at Cheetor with a raised brow. He knew where he was going with this, and he appreciated his calmer demeanor to his approach on the subject this time.

“I haven’t forgotten what you taught me, for once Megatron was right about that. But I also think this war has taught me something else: we do need to push the boundaries a bit more, diplomacy will only get us so far. Today it allowed us to exploit Megatron’s weakness for monologuing and his paranoia, so maybe a more mixed method wouldn’t hurt.”

A small smile appeared on Primal's face in accordance to the younger Maximal's compromising attitude. "I think that's an idea that I can get behind," he said, but added just as a precautionary reservation, "My fear is that if we start pushing the Predacons too hard, then they might retaliate with even harsher actions more frequently, and we already know that most of them are willing to take lives." He paused for a thoughtful moment. "I would still prefer a stronger offense to be a last resort, but maybe we can try a different approach next time. Planned, precise, and as a group." In case anything went wrong, they should have one another to watch each other's backs. "Letting the Predacons continue to underestimate us isn't always a bad thing, though," he reminded Cheetor with a slightly devious and playful smile across his blue face.

He began lowering his altitude as the flock of fliers came in proximity of the Maximal base. Optimus chose to enter through the command center, so he while he descended and was close enough to the ground, he deactivated his hover board which disconnected into two halves and folded up on the back of his short, TransMetal gorilla legs and allowed his feet to touch the ground as gently as he could while still cradling the Fuzor in his arms. The shields were not active to save power since there were no threats, and everything appeared to be quiet and peaceful. As the lift automatically lowered for him and Aurora in his arms, he stepped onto it, and it elevated them upward directly into the bridge. He found the awakened equine there and greeted him with a nod. "It's good to see you functioning again, Onyx. Where's Rhinox?" he asked as he carried Aurora to one of the empty repair chambers and gently placed her inside of it but hesitated to close the door and start its repair cycle.

-----

“Don’t worry about it you two, I’ll manage until we get back to the base.”

Rattrap hoped so, because by the look of it, those stress fractures on her armor were no doubt painful and draining. But he didn't comment further on it despite how much he seemed to care about Frilla. A fact that even surprised him. Like Dinobot. Speaking of the over-grown iguana, he was awfully quiet now that the battle was over. The rodent looked at him while he wheeled along over roots and ferns. "What's eatin' ya, Chopper Face?" he asked inquisitively as the rest of the group followed them not too far behind.

-----

“Noted sir.”

As the warlord expected from their newest addition. But he had better make good on his word. It was simply and accessible and beneficial knowledge that every Predacon should obtain to ensure victory over the pitiful Maximals.

“Ah also ain’t the one fallin’ apart now am ah? Guess dat thick armor of yers doesn’t protect what little brain power ye got left.”

"Keep that mouth running, Fuzor, and you'll be on the receiving end of my flame thrower soon enough," Inferno taunted him even though his current physical state would suggest otherwise. Usually, the arsonist didn't mind Quickstrike. They had a lot in common and normally got along well enough, so it was probably safe to say that their bantering was all bark and no bite.

“Hmm, yes, it is becoming a frequent problem as of late.”

Indeed, thought Megatron with the slightest bit of skepticism. It was almost too easy of an an excuse to explain away any dealings and mishaps with Primal involved. And he didn't recall his Maximal counterpart wielding or using any kind of taser during his confrontation with him. Of course, that didn't mean he didn't have it on him and simply didn't bother to use it against Megatron since any minor electrocution like that wouldn't stop him as easily as it would for someone with nanotech. Megatron's TransMetal armor was tougher than that. Considering the lack of evidence but the possibility of this happening, the tyrant decided not to question it further for the time being. Their priority now was returning to base for repairs.

“Yes, I would very much like to know myself considering I saw you blasted off your feet with my own optics Tarantulas.” “Unless you’re a better actor than we give you credit for, then by all means I think you missed your calling working in the theater.”

An almost unnoticeable smirk managed to escape the t-rex as some of the other Predacons admitted to what they had witnessed as well, but it hardly made any impression on the sneaky spider. Tarantulas didn't have nanotechnology. Or did he? Not unless he had acquired it from someone else because none of them had the resources or knowledge to achieve such an intricate and powerful feat. Zodiac had expired, so the only other option would have been Nemesis. Nemesis, and Optimus Primal whom he had seen first hand heal injuries to an isolated area around his shoulder and arm with some kind of amateur healing gel. Was it possible that the Maximals had discovered a way to use the nanotech to their advantage like that? It would seem so. But it also appeared to be extremely limited. None of the others had shown any kind of similar healing processes during previous battles. Who could have even mastered such a development? His first guest would have been their miracle-working engineer, the rhinoceros, but... Tarantulas hadn't kidnapped him and suddenly acquired such an advantageous and useful asset. Nooo. He had kidnapped Aurora. And then released her back into their fold. That blasted, selfish spider! His surmising on the subject seemed to be correct upon the next reply that came through the drone.

"Oh, I have my ways..," "My asset, as it were, was most helpful in accommodating my needs hehe."

Only an irritable grumble formed in Megatron's throat, but it would have been inaudible to Tarantulas.

"Hehe, throw insults all you like but it won't change anything,"

Tarantulas was right in more ways than one about that. Still, it felt good for Megatron to belittle him.

"Well I am a spider in case you forgot,"

Annoyed, the powerful dinosaur rolled his eyes and shook his head. He could just step on that driveling drone, crushing it to tiny pieces, and end this nonsense since the arachnid was too coward to do it in person.

"Perhaps.. Of course I could be doing it out of compassion for my poor, lost assistant,"

The only Predacons practicing any kind of compassion were the fools who abandoned him and joined the Maximals. And they would pay for their betrayal eventually. At the very least, they'll lose their Maximal companions once Megatron was through with his endgame. Then they'll come crawling back to him, groveling at his feet and begging to rejoin his ranks! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!

"Or maybe you have been underestimating my stamina?,"

Oh, please, Megatron almost scoffed out loud at the awful suggestion that was clearly meant to dissuade them from taking it more seriously.

"A favor for a favor, Megatron," "Surely you don't expect me to give up my secrets for free?"

Was he actually trying to outwit the great Megatron? The Predacon leader gave the arachnoid a toothy and over-confident grin that he hoped video was streaming directly back to Tarantulas. The mad scientist may have his agendas, but so did Megatron. And once everything was going to be put into motion, he would be unstoppable.

“You are nothing but a coward with an ego spider. You can’t even face your accusations in person, slinking off to the dark like the yellow-bellied treacherous wrench you are.” “Its bots like you that make me sick.”

Their commanding officer managed to chuckle at Terrabite's words, admitting to himself that he was glad he hadn't scolded the reptile more just moments earlier. Despite the few mistakes he had made since his arrival, he was beginning to grow on Megatron, especially since he shared the same distaste for Tarantulas as he did, and he had proven quite useful with improving their base's crumbling and outdated offenses and defenses. In general, he seemed to be as Predacon as they came.

“That should shut him up for a while.”

"You would be surprised," he commented toward Terrabite after he watched him chomp on the arachnoid and spit out the shredded pieces with gratification. "But at least it will keep him delayed and incapable of eavesdropping any further." And aggravating the rest of them.

Rampage's eerie voice pulled his attention away from Terrabite and the tiny pile of carnage he just laid to rest.

“Oooh, is that so?” “Perhaps we should test that little threat one day shall we? You would be doing me a favor.”

Another smirk was all Megatron replied with toward the crab. He wasn't going to give him the satisfaction of anything more than that.

“But you also need my power, so I suppose we’re at an impasse.”

"Do I?" he repeated as though he really didn't. And he didn't. Not really. "I merely didn't want you falling back into the hands of the Maximals. Such power shouldn't be wasted in dormancy, nor in the their hands. But, my dear Rampage, I have come this far in this war long before you were even accidentally reactivated. Your regeneration and ammunition are simply an advantage to us. Nothing more." Surely the crustacean slave could agree on that whether he would admit it or not. What else was Rampage going to do with his time anyway if he was free? Slaughter them all and rule this pathetic planet? Rule over what? Well, aside from their ancestors currently residing there as well, but Rampage didn't know those details. At least Megatron was giving him something to occupy his mind with. Had the crab landed back with the Maximals, he would have been returned to stasis lock and left in a coma-like state for who knows how long and then deserted who-knows-where or returned to Cybertron. How ungrateful he was toward Megatron giving him this purpose. Rampage ought to count his blessings.

"I presume we're pretty much done here?,"

Megatron didn't bother responding while he began his trek back to the Darksyde and expected the rest to follow. Not long into their journey, the TransMetal wasp had taken off and reported something interesting.

“Waspinator see someone in the distance.”

"Maximal?" Megatron inquired to the bug over his comm. link although sounded more like an outward thought since he didn't even let him answer before he ordered to the wasp, "You and Terrorsaur are on reconnaissance. Report immediately once you have identified the wanderer." He didn't bother stopping, however. Most of his troops needed repairs, and one lonely, lost individual wasn't going to get in their way. Not for long, anyway.