Epoch:

The Dance

Joshin Yasha (joshinyasha@yahoo.com)

Beast Wars and all related belong to Hasbro. The story, its original contents and ideas, and any original characters belong to the author and cannot be used or reprinted without the author's permission.

Disclaimer: No money, no rights, no life. I own all original characters unless otherwise specified.

Dedications: Like usual, the story is dedicated to the writers for their excellent work. It's also dedicated to all the voice actors, especially David Sobolov and Campbell Lane, for bringing these wonderful characters (especially my favorites) to life. As well as the writers of Beast Wars, it's also for the people I love in hopes that this will show that one day I can do something better.

Author's notes: Well, it's my original series, revamped for a fourth time, but now with a lot less stereotypes (I hope).

He gritted his teeth and held on to the straps. Primus, he hated flying. He hated more that everyone on the shuttle was now aware of his disposition.

Gunslight turned his head in regard to the ex-Autobot and forced himself not to smile. It was funny; but not one to poke at other’s afflictions (at least not off the battlefield), the Decepticon let it go. If Ultimatum had a problem with flying, then he would leave him be. For now, at least.

Zeppelin sat across from Gunslight, his visor now blank as he rested, and smiled to the larger Decepticon. As he spoke, he began to snarl, "Do you think we should make him power down for a rest or allow his nerves to continue to upset my functioning?"

"Now, brother, leave him be. Besides, we need to check on Misery and Nainsook up front, and you are the only one who can get in there besides the Autobot," the larger Decepticon adjusted himself before crossing his arms while said ex-Autobot closed his optics and whimpered at the sudden jerk.

"Meh," the smaller Decepticon huffed. "Leave them be. Besides, I like my seat right here just fine," the purple and black Decepticon's smile became wistful as he listened to Ultimatum whimper like a child at the turbulence.

"So do you really think you'll need all those guns that you brought from your flat?" Nainsook asked nonchalantly, a smile on his face. Flying was his element; space was even more. With the combination of both, along with his other element of speed, he was plain enjoying himself.

"Maybe I should introduce you to some Predacon traditions," she leaned back against the wall and slid lower to her left. Misery straightened herself and checked the weapon in her hands. "Predacons recognize weapons. Carry your weapons outside your body, carry lots, and they shall not attempt to harm you."

"Predacons?" he cocked his head to the side and stared across the shuttle to her. His gun was already instinctively in his lap from watching her draw her weapon. "Aren't you a Decepticon, though? What about your Decepticon habits?"

She narrowed an optic and watched him as he relaxed against his straps. "Decepticons are different from Predacons. We believe in only the strong. Predacons are thieves; we are soldiers. We Decepticons recognize war. We live for it. We are built for it."

Nainsook took a moment to contemplate her words, then he asked, "Were you in the Great War?"

"I did not stand against Prime, or walk alongside Megatron or Galvatron. I was stationed to an outpost after I was created," she allowed her optics to defocus for a moment. "That was where I first met Xyston."

"I take it he, like Ultimatum, used to be an Autobot, then?" Nainsook relaxed once he saw that Misery official meant him no harm. At least not while they were in a shuttle; being sucked out of a shuttle hurts when you're fighting someone.

"Xyston . . ." she bit her lower lip and looked to the floor, "Xyston was an Autobot, but he was unlike Ultimatum."

Nainsook unstrapped himself from the wall of the shuttle, mainly to be more comfortable, and secondly to be able to move if Misery decided to take a shot at him. "Not like Ultimatum how?"

Misery met his red optics, then. It was odd how a Decepticon would have blue optics while a Maximal would have red. She recognized the way that Nainsook was looking at her. It was the look that said he would press the subject until he knew. Until he knew everything about her, he would not leave her alone. Know your enemy; Misery's new acquaintance was smarter than he looked.

She took a deep breath and then explained her story to him. "Back then, when I was still half the size of Gunslight, I believed what every Decepticon believes: Autobots are worthless in battle. It was because of that belief, and what Xyston had done, that I began to change the way that I fought my wars. I no longer undercut my enemies, especially him.

"Xyston was created by Autobots to do war. He was ground based, but he was still able to single handedly take out most of my Decepticons and imprison them. When he came for me, I knew that I could not defeat him on my own, so I fled. I left the outpost to go back home. It was there that I found Gunslight.

"I asked of him what I never asked of another. I asked of his help to reclaim the Decepticon hold over the outpost and punish Xyston and his Autobots for doing such an act against the Decepticon forces. When he and I arrived back on the outpost, he went to work in his magnificent way. The Autobots never stood a chance.

"He slaughtered them one by one. One by one they fell, and I was more than delighted to crush their laser cores. Along with their laser cores, I crush their heads in -those that Gunslight did not keep for himself. He has quite the collection of heads, you see, and it grows almost everyday. Those Autobots were just a small addition to his collection.

"Then we arrived at the Autobot barracks, and Gunslight wounded Xyston without problem. Before he could finish his job, I asked Gunslight a second favor . . ." she paused and realized that Nainsook was now seated beside her. He did not need to ask for her to continue. "I asked Gunslight not to kill Xyston. I was greedy, and I wanted to kill him for what he did to me and my ilk.

"Gunslight made sure to inform me of my debt to him, and I asked again for him to spare Xyston's life. He finally agreed and then left, allowing me the chance to kill an already wounded Autobot. When we were alone . . ."

"You couldn't bring yourself to kill him," Nainsook finished for her. She nodded, "Why?"

It was most certainly the only thing Misery had never been uncertain on. She could not kill Xyston because, in her optics, he had been the only Autobot capable of understanding the Decepticons. He was capable of understanding the Decepticon need to conquer.

Misery flexed her hand around her gun and aimed it towards the wall. Her optics defocused a second time as she picture Xyston, in his old form, on the other end of her gun. To her mind, he looked like he did the same day she and Gunslight had reclaimed Decepticon honor: beaten, but not broken.

Nainsook wrapped his hand around hers and steadied her aim. "To shoot, or not to shoot, eh?" He gently unlaced her fingers from the gun and sat the weapon to the side. The Maximal played with her fingers while he awaited for her to continue.

She found his touch to be quite soothing as the image of Xyston approached her. Her optics shook and came back into focus. Then she looked around, found herself in the barracks of the Autobots, and facing down the Autobot Xyston. His green, searching optics were narrowed as he stalked around her. "You came back for revenge," he smiled and picked his triple barrel cannon from the floor. "You came back to finish me off."

Misery had her own guns aimed at him as he paced about, trying to find the weak spots in her armor. She picked up her feet and began walking closer to him, targeting her guns to his shoulder joints. If she could get close enough to him and blow his arms off, he would not be as functional and capable of harming her.

"Now, now, ma fierté, I've been nice to you so far," he stopped his pacing and held his weapon at his side. Misery was now maybe only a meter from him, and she still had her weapons trained on him. "I left you alive because I take pity in the last one."

The Decepticon femme rolled her guns around her fingers and then holstered them at her sides. She approached the Autobot and pressed her palms to his face. "It might have been noble to you, but leaving me alive was a mistake."

"And what do you call leaving me alive? Is that your mistake?" he dropped his cannon back to the floor and wrapped his arms around her, lowered his face, and nuzzled his mouth to her cheek. "You left me to be the only one. We are interestingly alike, ma fierté."

Misery smiled nothing friendly and tilted her face until his bridge rubbed hers. "We are part of a story, ma modestie," she closed her red optics and embraced him. "You and I preordained our destiny that we might cross paths in war. To be enemies and keep the other in check in this war. You and I have vowed our life to the other in courtesy and consideration and plan to always balance the other."

"Very spiritual for a Decepticon, ma fierté, too bad I must cut sweet syllables from leaving your precious lips ever again," Xyston snarled as he backed her against the wall.

"Very cruel for an Autobot, ma modestie, too bad you would never join my side and live a life of power and war," she narrowed her red optics and watched him as intently as a spider would watch its food.

"Define your life, ma fierté, I do not understand. Is it the freedom to consume your passions without desire, without want? Is it the freedom to take a life and hold it in your grasp, feel it slip and die while you smile? Is your life holding such richness and flavor that you can taste every life you take? Is that your life of power and war?"

She shook her head, and as she did her face brushed his, the metal of their helms sparking. It was nothing of love, but a passion to kill that made them interested in the other. They could long for one another on or off the battlefield; find the other as a partner, as a conversationalist, or as an enemy. "My life is led to serve the master, Galvatron. I serve the lord because without war I am lost. My freedom is in killing my enemies."

Xyston closed his optics and pressed his mouth against her cheek just below her optic, "And I am your enemy, ma fierté? Am I the one who will kill you, or shall you be the one to kill me? Ma fierté, I do not wish to kill you; I wish you as mine. Part of me, part of my being. You, the other half of me that must stay with me."

"I am not a possession, Xyston," she was through with being sweet to him.

"Now you understand why I call you my pride, ma fierté," he hovered his mouth over hers before whispering. "You are a piece of my being that needs me as much as I need you. You tempt my being with your presence."

"Monsters in love with monsters, Xyston? You should know better than that," she shook her head with as much room as he had given her. Her red optics searched his being, finding in him what he found in her. "But, we are but humble monsters. You and I . . . to what harm could a monster do upon a monster?"

"Ahhh," Xyston drew a deep breath and smiled a noble smile. "A point you prove, ma fierté. 'To what harm could a monster do upon a monster? / To scratch one does but scratch the other / In all fair and want they shall consecrate the other / Unmarked by others, but marked monster by monster.' Such sweet words have escaped your lips before I could silence them."

"An Autobot would know a poem such as that? Oh, but were you a Decepticon --"

"Were I a Decepticon, my longing for you would but be quenched," he drew another breath and stroked her cheek with his. "Ma fierté, say you'd but be mine and I shall be free with you."

"As I said before, ma modestie, I am not a possession," she smiled at him and pressed her mouth to his for but a moment. "Affections must be won in right."

Xyston threw his head back and laughed, and in a moment he was across the barracks to the now thrown open doorway. He turned back to her, his hand on the frame of the door. "Away with me, I have business for you to attend. Fear not, for our paths shall cross again. Thus it is written between us. Until we meet again," he turned, transformed, and took to the roads without looking back.

"Misery," she turned her head and the giant Decepticon approaching her shifted until she saw Nainsook seated beside her on the shuttle. "Misery, we're almost there," the Maximal stood and offered his hand to her. "You went into recharge mode. You've been out for a few megacycles, now."

She stared at his hand for a moment and then unstrapped herself from the harness. The Decepticon femme rose by herself and sat her aft against the wall, still bent over. "Why do Maximals and Autobots continually offer their hand to a Decepticon?" She straightened herself, back level with the wall, and used the magneticus to call her gun to her.

He shrugged, "Just a thing of courtesy. We do things to makes those around us and ourselves feel good."

"You are just trying to balance your karma for hitting a femme," she took off toward the cockpit and pressed the buttons to open the door. She entered and realized that Zeppelin was already in there awaiting her with the pilot.

"Dreaming of him, Misery? Or dreaming of conquest?" the Decepticon held his head forward and awaited her response. When she did not answer him, he tried a different question. "Or are you dreaming of the Maximal back there?"

The charge of her weapon was enough of a response, but when she pressed the tip of her gun to temple he understood the rest of what she meant. "Do not make assumptions about me."

"Of course," he nodded, a smile playing over his lips. "But, of course, we are almost home, Misery. You better check the Autobot to make sure he hasn't wet energon all over the floor."

She turned and went back through the first cabinet, passed Nainsook (currently strapping as many weapons to his body as he could fit), and then through the door into the second cabinet. She found Gunslight against the wall, watching Ultimatum with as much interest as a cat would show a mouse. She turned her head to Ultimatum and shook her head. "Better get up, Autobot, we shall be home soon."

Gunslight raised his head and watched her from across the cargo hold. "You know we're going to have to do something about the Autobot and Maximal," he whispered once she was close enough to him. Ultimatum could not hear them, and if he could, he was certainly preoccupied with his fear of flying to care.

"You are taking me to his lordship directly. Do they still not allow those not invited by word passed the antechamber?" Misery pressed herself to the wall and steadied herself as the shuttle began to descend to the docking bay.

"No, they've changed it now," he crossed his arms and began manipulating his own gravity field. Misery was close enough that she could also feel the effects of his mass. She clung to his body like a child, holding on to him so that she would not go rolling across the bay.

Misery finally let go of him when she felt the locks take hold of the shuttle. They were home, and despite the saying of old, their sparks could stand to be some place else at the moment.

Ultimatum opened one optic and glanced about, then he opened the other, scanned the chamber again, and let out a sigh of relief. He ripped the straps off and threw himself to the floor, kissing it madly. "ThankyouPrimus! ThankyouPrimus!"

Gunslight shook his head, "You have no idea how hard it was for me to not crack a single smile this entire ride."

Misery raised an optic arch and began walking back towards the first chamber when Nainsook and Zeppelin entered the room. Nainsook took one look at Ultimatum and cracked the smile -and the remark- everyone had wanted to make. "Slag yourself much?"

Ultimatum stared at his partner and blinked, "Do what, now?"

"Nothing," Nainsook continued smiling.

Gunslight turned to face the Maximal and noticed all his weapons he now carried in sight. "I see you informed the Maximal of the show of arms."

Misery nodded. "Yes."

Gunslight rose to his feet and instructed everyone on their business. The shuttle opened, then, and they exited down to the hanger floor. They were greeted there by no less than twenty armed guards. "State your business," a Predacon ordered as he focused his weapon on Gunslight.

"I am Gunslight. My business is my own," he drew his gun and began charging it. The barrel was twice the size of the Predacon, and he knew to back down. Just the mention of the Juggernaut's name sent chills through more than half the guards.

Zeppelin smiled and stepped forward, Misery at his back along with Nainsook and Ultimatum. "Let us be on our way," he furrowed and then spread his cape wide, falling in step before the others.

The long corridors were quiet; echoes bounced from one end, back and forth, and then back again, constantly repeating for what seemed forever. Their footsteps did not help, either, and sounds were worse about repeating.

Gunslight was way out in front, Misery behind him some distance, then Ultimatum and Nainsook, and, finally, Zeppelin brought up the rear. The purple and black Decepticon held his arms wide, tapping into entire base as he walked.

His visor lit, and he watched everyone in black and white detail. Centuries ago, he had sacrificed his real optics to be able to work in the same league as the monitor Shockwave. Some times, he regretted his choice; others, he very much enjoyed being able to see a bot's spark. To see the beat it made, to see the rushing of a beat of nervousness.

Nainsook glanced at Ultimatum through the corner of his optics and then quickened his pace until he was next to Misery. She turned her head and acknowledged his presence, but it was he who spoke first. He whispered to her, "You went into recharge before you finished the story. Why couldn't you kill Xyston?"

Misery closed her optics and shrugged as she walked. "Xyston switched sides for me. He would slip us information occasionally, but anytime he and I met on the battlefield, we would almost rip the other open."

Nainsook blinked and widened his optics, "An Autobot switched sides, gave you information, and yet you two tried to kill each other?"

She nodded. "He and I may be friends, but that does not stop us from trying to see who is the better. We will fight between ourselves, but if another were to interrupt, we would join forces and kill them."

"You two . . . have an odd relationship," he finally looked at her head on and smiled. "But somehow it seems like something I would expect from you."

"Oh?" she looked at him, face devoid of emotion.

"Yeah, I could definitely see you beating the slag outta your boyfriend and then having a makeup session. Matter of fact, I could see you beating the slag outta him during the makeup session," he smiled and faced forward. They were almost to the meeting chambers, and no doubt, the Tripredacus Council was there awaiting them.

"I do not seem to recall when the topic of my love life became the subject of everyone's conversation," she muttered, clicking her hand against her gun.

"Chill, chickypoo, didn't mean nothin' by it," he shrugged. "So, I was half right in the detention center. Xyston was working for you."

" 'Was' is the past tense. Xyston helped me during the Great War. Your slotting Maximal High Council reprogrammed him into a scientist because he was too lethal to be given amnesty and live a 'normal' life," there was much anger in her voice as her optics narrowed and fists clenched.

Nainsook was shocked by her accusation. "The High Council would not reprogram anyone! Maximals do not do that!"

"The slot they would not!" Misery roared as she slammed him against the wall.

Ultimatum stopped, readied himself to help Nainsook, but Zeppelin's hand on his shoulder prevented him from doing anything. "Just continue walking. Allow them to settle their argument."

"But, Nainsook --"

"Will be fine. Keep walking, Autobot," Zeppelin commanded and forced the other to move passed the two fighting bots.

The Maximal stared down at her and breathed more heavily, trying to calm himself and prevent himself from hurting her. Misery, on the other hand, picked him up by his throat and spun him around into the other wall. Nainsook was shocked, to say the least, at the power she was drawing from the magneticus program.

"Your precious Council reprogrammed Xyston when he went to downgrade. There is a slotting blocking chip in his processor that was put there BY the Council. All my attempts to remove said chip have thus failed. And when I find him, I will rip that chip from his mind so that he will never be this defenseless again," she snarled.

Nainsook had had enough. He pushed away from the wall and slammed Misery into the opposite one. "Now you listen to me. I don't believe this slag about the Council, and I really doubt that you're telling the truth about this Xyston being a traitor to the Autobots. I doubt he even was an Autobot.

"To get right down to it, I seriously doubt that this is nothing more than a show. You shot a guy in public and now you gotta pay the price for your actions. I bet your flat was shot up cause the Preds found out about you sooner than you thought so they tried to nix you before the High Council could find out about you.

"Your kind cannot support another war, you don't have the rotators nor the lugnuts for it. So don't try to convince me of something that isn't true, Deceptiglitch," he was equally enraged, but for one of the few times in his life, he channeled the rage into something that wouldn't blow a hole in the wall.

"Are you finished?" she asked, face going placid.

"Yeah, for now," Nainsook said as he dropped her to the floor.

The floor, however, gave way and Misery screamed the entire way down. The nanites on her body burned, crawled, and dripped away as she struggled to break loose from the chains holding her body. She threw her head back one last time and screamed.

"Misery!" Nainsook yelled, trying to shake her free of her dreaming. "Slag, Misery, don't pull tricks on me!" He cupped her face in his hands and forced her to look at him. "Primus, you're burning."

She finally came to her senses, checked the corridor, the floor -everything she could see. The Decepticon finally shook her head and looked at him. "They . . . they killed him."

"What?" Nainsook narrowed an optic and held his mouth open in disbelief. "Say that again?"

"They killed Xyston." Misery blinked and stepped to her feet, back against the wall as Nainsook followed her up.

"How?" he asked.

She would not care to elaborate, but the one word that she mutter made Nainsook shake his head and feel sick. She said that they had dropped him in acid.