Letting Go

Authoress' Note: This short story takes place just before the events of Code of Hero. The opening scene is a memory of one of the characters being told to another character.

She giggled as she flopped onto the bed. She crawled under the bed covers and snuggled up into a ball, giggling still. She could hear him calling her, his voice and footsteps nearing until he was in the room.

"Now where could she be?" he asked sarcastically.

She tried to hush up, but she knew he'd already spotted her - a lump under the covers was obvious, she knew that, but she wanted him to find her.

She heard him approaching and then he stopped. There was an expectant silence when suddenly he ripped the covers off her with a triumphant cry and she shrieked with laughter.
Before she could scramble off the bed, he was on top of her, tickling her crazily. She laughed, trying to escape as best she could, but he was too strong.

"No! Let me go!" she cried happily.

She was on her back, her knees pulled up to her stomach and he was on top, tickling her neck and sides.

He stopped eventually and stared into her eyes, a big grin on his face. She giggled for a bit until she too fell into silence and returned his gaze. She let her knees down with a smile.

"Annaxor," he said softly and kissed her cheek.

She put her arms around him and pulled him closer, enjoying his warmth and tender touch.

He kissed her continuously, reaching her neck. He rolled onto his side, as did she, and they held hands, gazing at each other.

"I have something to tell you," she said gently.

He stroked her lips.

"Can it wait?"

She looked at him suspiciously.

"Wait until what?"

He caressed her shoulders, his hands slipping to her spark panel above her right breast. He put his palm against it.

"I can feel it pulsate. You have a strong spark," he told her, avoiding her question.

She chuckled.

"Well, after all the trouble you gave it I should think it's toughened up over the months!"

He frowned.

"What trouble?"

"That's what-"

She stopped short, her gaze changing from him to the roof, her body tensing.

"What is it?" he asked, really uninterested.

She didn't answer.

He became bored of her silence and started to kiss her again, but she pushed him away gently and said: "Shhh!"

He listened with her.

There were footsteps coming from upstairs. He could make out voices - distressed voices.

She turned to him, alarmed.

"Ajax..?"

He slowly got out of bed, his hand slipping from hers and his attention on the noises.

"Stay here," he ordered, his tone serious.

She watched him leave the room, realizing how much faster and stronger her spark was pulsating.

----

Ajax walked cautiously down the corridor. He lived in an apartment block and a shabby one at that. Still, there was something in the air that was different. It was ominous.

He approached the steps that would take him to the level above, and was about to travel up them when he heard a yell and a shot ring out. Every part of him froze in horror, and it only intensified when he heard hard, running footsteps approaching the staircase. He heard another scream, a feminine one belonging to Skia.

That did it.

He turned and ran back to his apartment. He sprinted inside, causing Annaxor to jump.

"What was that?!" she cried.

He walked brusquely past her and started to unlock the glass doors which lead onto an outside balcony. The balcony had an emergency staircase attached to the side with a gate. He had the keys for both.

"There's trouble. Come!" he hissed. She came up beside him. He was nervous of the sound of loud, harsh voices outside his room.

He finished unlocking the doors and they flew open, the cold night air rushing in to greet them.

He turned to Annaxor.

"We've gotta go, now!" he cried.

The two rushed onto the balcony and he was just about to unlock the gate when there was a piercing shot, followed by a guttural scream.

Annaxor fell to the floor, a hole the size of a plate through her stomach ending at her back. He could see the metal flooring through her body.

He yelled out in horror and turned to see the attackers.

Four large Predacon males were in his room and had fired at her from inside. Before he had any time to react, a shot pounded into his shoulder, knocking him over the railings and sending him falling fifteen meters to the ground below.

The darkness, the sounds, the smells, the pain, the anger, the fear, the grief - he experienced it all before hitting the ground.

Hard.

He felt every joint crack, his insides rattled in protest and his vision blurred (and would stay that way for the next hour). He lay, paralyzed for what felt like eternity. Still online, but unable to do more than hurt.

Then he heard the distant wails of police sirens and the fear began to fade. He could hear the Predacons blasting the gate, come running down the stairs heavily, ending up on the pavement near him and then sprinting away with heavy footsteps. Silence interrupted only by the mournful song of the approaching police cars, filled his ears.

He could hear his spark pulsating, and thought only of Annaxor, who lay dead on the balcony above him.

He began to whimper, then cry...then sob...and eventually pass out.

"That's why I hate the Predacons."

Cheetor stared in astonishment at his friend who used to be known as Ajax.

After a long and dreadful pause, Cheetor summoned up the courage to speak.

"But they're not all like that, Rattrap."

He laughed bitterly.

"No, no they're not. But most of them...they're just violent, stinkin', prejudiced, narrow-mined jerks."

Cheetor somehow felt angry at that statement. He'd asked Rattrap why he was so bitter at the Predacons after the rat had come back from a short skirmish with them when trying to get some energon, which the Maximals had won. The others had gone off to their quarters, leaving Rattrap and Cheetor alone in the control room. Rattrap sure gave him a long answer.

"Well, Dinobot's not like that..." Cheetor tried.

"Sure he is! He's violent, he stinks, he wants ta slag me every time he sees me before I've even done anythin' an' he cannot see beyond his twisted ideas of what's honorable."

Cheetor had no idea why, but he felt he had to protect Dinobot right then and there. The ex-Predacon had treated him well, if a bit coldly he'll admit, but he still fought hard for their side! Yes, he'd given the Golden Disk back to Megatron, and for a while he was angry at him. But Dinobot was, for all his conflicted emotions and flaws, a good person at heart.

"Yeah, well, he has his weak points. As do you, and as do others, Maximal or Predacon! My point is, they're not all like those four nasties, and if we think that all of them are, then we'll be narrow-minded and prejudiced!"

Rattrap, who had been sitting in a chair supposedly doing monitor duty while he talked, suddenly rose up in a fit of anger.

"I neva used ta think like dat! Fer Primus sake, Annaxor was Predacon!"

Cheetor's jaw dropped.

Rattrap's voice trembled and softened.

"She was a slagging Predacon, but dey didn't even give her a chance ta prove it. Didn't even give her a chance...dey were Predacon rebels, Cheetor. Dey were my generation. Sure, dey may not be as prominent now as dey were, but dey are still out there."

The silence that followed was heavy and full of emotion. Cheetor was horrified, stunned and lost for words. Rattrap sunk back down into his chair.

"But hey," he finally said, "why da Pit am I tellin' you dat? You can make up your own mind, when you get back to Cybertron...and lose one of your loved ones to murder."

Cheetor sighed very quietly and lowered his head. He may not be that wise and mature, but he knew when someone was being overly-cynical. He felt for Rattrap, and he understood his anger...but part of moving on is to let go of your past and build new, better memories.

Before he could tell Rattrap this, Dinobot appeared at the entrance of the control room. Rattrap has his back to him.

"Vermin?"

Cheetor knew this was a recipe for disaster. Dinobot looked ready to bite someone and Rattrap was in his worst anti-Predacon mood yet. He decided, then, to leave his words for later, and he slipped out of the control room as quickly as possible.

Rattrap looked up.

"Yeah? What do you want?"

Dinobot, in beast mode, stalked in. He approached Rattrap somewhat cautiously.

Dinobot looked solemn and grave.

"I just wanted to say...I'm leaving...for a while. I need some air."

He turned and walked towards the lift, and Rattrap noticed a weapon in his hand.

"You need a gun ta breath?" Rattrap called to him sarcastically.

Dinobot opened the elevator door and got inside.

He ignored Rattrap's taunt and said something very unexpected.

"You cannot change the past, Ratt-- Ajax, but you can do some things in the present to improve the future."

With that, Dinobot disappeared and left Rattrap wondering.

The former Predacon died a few hours later, after being slain by others like, yet so unlike him.