By: Omicron the IceQueen and Landray Depth Charge
Depth Charge gazed out over the ocean, enjoying one of his few moments alone. It was about noon, and the cool breeze chilled the air just enough to be pleasant when coupled with the hot sun beating down on his frame. The sea seemed to go on forever, never staying still for long. It was one of this world's most gentle and powerful forces. It took and gave life.
A strong gust of wind from the north blew some sand up to hit the ray on the side of his head. He didn't twitch. Sand didn't bother him much, so he shrugged it off and shut his optics, relaxing as best he could.
Up the beach a ways a form walked around a large bolder, shading its eyes from the sun as it looked around. Since his optics were deactivated, and the being gave off no signature, but he sure could smell it...
Depth Charge's head snapped up at the new scent.
The figure gave a muted curse as it stumbled then regained its balance. Looking around again it froze as it spotted the massive Maximal. For a moment the two of them just stared at one another, both in shock, the robot shocked at seeing one of THOSE on prehistoric Earth, and the being shocked because he was HUGE!
"Crap...first giant crabs now giant robots." The human didn't speak that loud, but Depth Charge could easily hear the words, it seemed, directly in his head. She started to back up slowly not taking her eyes off the Maximal.
"What...did you say?" A bass voice nearly whispered, but the breeze carried his words to the being.
"Eh? " The human paused and tilted her head to the side.
"You said something. 'Giant crabs'?" Depth Charge paused. "Who the slag are you human?"
"Yeah, a giant metal crab." She shifted into a hip shot stance. "The thing yanked me off the docks, I have no clue how I got here, I don't want to be here and why the slag should I tell you my name?"
"Because I asked it." Depth Charge stood up and approached her, the impact of his feet on the sand sending vibrations up her body. She tensed and didn't look as sure as herself as she was a moment ago. The hunter stopped two meters from her. "Answer the question."
"I'd LOVE to but you see, there's this little problem," she craned her neck back to look up at Depth Charge, "I got two names running around my head, each yelling they're my ‘true’ name."
"Give me both."
"Well, since you ASKED so nicely," The human glared "Kris and Omicron. Happy?"
Depth Charge's optics widened to ridiculous proportions. W-WHAT did she say…? "What…?"
"Ya' heard me. My name's is Kristy or Omicron." Sea blue eyes stared intently into red optics.
"Where did you get that name?" He stooped, grabbing her shirt between his fore finger and thumb and yanked her up to optic level. The size difference between the two sentients was phenomenal. "Where, girl! Where did you get that name?!"
Her eyes went wide in sudden fear as she stared at the crimson optics. At first she choked on what she was going to say for a moment, then she blurted out, "I don't know! Every one called me that; I mean I go by both all the time! Real life or the nightmares! I just...I mean I was called both names all the time!" The last word came out in a higher pitch as her voice cracked in fear.
Depth Charge could sense and smell the fear rolling off of her...he'd forgotten how easy terrains were to read. "Omicron, why do people call you that?"
"Gah!" He cried, frustrated at himself. He was making a big deal out of nothing. Her parents’ apparently named her after the word in the human dictionary, not his colony. What a fool I am. The Maximal manta leaned over and set her back down.
"Death." the girl whispered as she regained her balance.
Depth Charge's keen hearing picked it up. "Death?" He felt a chill in his spark.
Omicron's died bangs shadowed her eye as she looked down at the sand between her feet, "Lots of death, pain, fear...every night...again and again. It always the same." She looked to the ever-moving water as if it could sooth her.
Like mine...no. Coincidence. Depth Charge shook his head and turned his back to her, tail twitching. Something had happened to her when she was child that made her have nightmares, that was all it wasn't what he thought.
She turned and glared up at him, "There, you know the gist of it, happy?"
"No. I'm never happy," he replied absently, deep in thought. "The dreams...the death...anything specific?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you." Omicron gripped a metal dragon pendent that hung around here neck as if it were a kind of life line.
"Say it. I need to know." He was border lining to begging her. Something about the tone of his voice told the girl that he held that exact same pain.
She closed her eyes, trying to figure out how to put the hellish scenes into words "Every one's dieing, I was dieing from the inside out. There's...a...a..." Omicron paused, what was the right word? "A demon, tearing into to people, into me."
"A demon?" This was starting to sound hauntingly familiar.
Omicron nodded, eyes still closed as if it would stop the images from playing out. "Yeah...a demon, a big one and dark, he was killing me over and over..." a shiver went through her body.
"Red? Green eyes?"
"Crimson and emerald fire."
The similarities were too many. It couldn't be a coincidence. "Did anyone...survive?"
She shook her head, "I wake up screaming every night, I don't know...maybe..."
"Think! I need you to tell me if anyone survived," the normally silent ray urged the girl named Omicron.
"Maybe one..." was the meek reply.
"One," Depth Charge repeated, suddenly losing his balance and stumbling backwards. "Holy Primus..."
The girl scrambled to the side staring at the ray in confusion, why would he want to know about her nightmares anyways? After regaining himself, Depth Charge turned a suddenly burning, but baffled, crimson gaze towards the human. "Do you know what you are...?"
"A teenage human...?"
"You're a colony reborn."
Omicron took a few steps back away from the Maximal, giving him a strange look, "I think you've been in the sun too long, man."
Depth Charge paused, suddenly realizing how positively ridiculous that sounded. He was nuts, he was wrong! Omicron was dead, and could not be brought back in any way shape or form. "...Perhaps you're right, human." The massive Maximal turned and walked towards the sea.
The girl watched him start to leave, something snapped and clicked into place. "Depth Charge wait! Don't go..." she took a step, and then stopped making a face, how did she know what to call him?? She puzzled that thought for a moment.
He halted dead in his tracks. Turning his head, he peered between his fins at the teenager. "How do you know my name?"
The girl had a 'deer-in-the-high-beams' look as she tried to figure that out herself. "I...I...I don't know...Good guess...?"
"I can show you," he blurted suddenly, turning to face her. “I can show you your dream!"
Omicron straitened up, she didn't have dreams, she had nightmares from the Pit.
Or...were they...
Depth Charge approached again, kneeling to be closer to her level, removing from subspace what looked remarkably like a human laptop. After a second he turned it around, the words in bold print across the screen: IMAGES OF DESTRUCTION: Ten thousand Maximal lives lost in the Colony Omicron Massacre, a photo log. These were pictures of the aftermath.
The reaction was immediate, staring in horror at what was, but couldn't be, her nightmares. Omicron fell back and scooted back some more, "That's impossible!"
"I was right!"
Omicron looked from the 'laptop' to the Maximal, he was right about what? And how was what he was showing her possible?! It couldn't be!
Depth Charge shut the computer's lid and stared at her, optics narrowed with a grim purpose. Her name was Omicron. She dreamt of the disaster and didn't know why. It all made sense in a completely insane way. "The monster who kills you in your dreams...he does it over and over?"
She stared at him and slowly nodded. "Every night..." her voice almost cracked in half.
"And…one may have survived?"
Again she nodded.
He decided to just up and say it. "I'm the survivor."
"..." If Omicron hadn't been on the ground already she would have fallen back on her rear end.
Depth Charge saw the confused disbelief on her face and turned the computer towards her again, bringing up an article that was a news account of the massacre. "Read this, Omicron."
Carefully, as if she expected it to bite her, she leaned forward to read. Her eyes widened more as she read on then she shook her head. "No." she looked to the ray then back, "No, no, no. This isn't...it can't be real."
"But it is, isn't it?"
Omicron could only nod, her mind in overdrive.
"You're Omicron..." Depth Charge whispered lowly, his own cybernetic brain trying so hard to comprehend this.
Omicron sat up, stiff as a board as a horrifying thought hit her in full force, "That...that demon's real isn't it?"
This brought the manta from his thoughts. "He's real, and he's here. He's that giant crab you saw."
The girl looked like she was about to faint, but stayed up right by what seemed like sheer will power alone. Depth Charge studied her carefully, optics boring into her eyes. In a sudden flash, he saw it -- he saw EVERYONE...that was all he needed to see. Omicron had been given back to him. "By the Matrix."
Omicron closed her eyes then, trying to calm now frazzled nerves. It was almost too much...but it fit, her nightmares, the article, how she knew the Depth Charge's name...even why he seamed familiar.
"You're...everyone I've lost. By the Matrix I can't believe this..."
"I'm...it wasn't just nightmares," she looked at him stunned. "I was killed?" good lords that didn't sound right, but..."Oh god."
Depth Charge just stared at her, this was WAY too much to comprehend! He watched her eyes unfocused, and then it hit him. If this was unbelievable to him...Depth Charge couldn't think of what this would be like for the girl.
"Come," the ray voiced firmly, picking her up. "Let's get you back to base. You'll be safe there."
Omicron blinked, the size difference between the two sinking in yet again, but the ray was surprisingly gentle as he picked her up. The sound of jets filled the human's ears, and suddenly she found herself rapidly gaining altitude in the Maximal's arms. Fascinated Omicron watched the land pass under them for a few minutes then she turned her head away, for it was hard to breath with the wind trying to steal it away.
The minutes passed slowly, and Depth Charge felt something different in him, something old. Old duties were being reactivated deep in his spark's core, and the hunter felt the urge to protect welling back up again. Everything connected, made sense, this girl HAD to be Omicron, and he's damned if he let history repeat itself. This time…this time, they would remain safe in his care.
It seemed like this flight was doing some good, Omicron turned again to watch the trees and the random lake pass by. Her fascination was understandable, this was most likely the first time she'd ever flown, excluding planes of course.
"Do you know how something like this would happen? Somehow, human, every spark who died on Omicron have merged into one soul: yours."
Omicron twisted so she could look up at the hunter and shook her head, "No, I'm sorry, I don't."
Depth Charge said no more. The unlikely pair flew around a massive mountain, landing at the base. The ray decided to take the ‘back door’ -- he needed to speak to this human in private before Primal or the others got a hold of her.
"Whoa." Omicron tried to get a good look at the Autobot shuttle as they passed it, but the ray didn't stop. Taking a sharp right turn, he dropped when he cut his jets and stalked into his quarters. The door slid and locked behind him, shrouding the human in darkness. Omicron felt herself lower to the ground and barely managed to gain her balance before Depth Charge's presence left her. He simply seemed to disappear in the absolute blackness.
Omicron tensed "Umm..." she turned her head left and right. "I admit I can get around in low light, but I'm not a bat. Where'd you go?"
The room flooded with light, dim light like had a sea-green hue. The source of the light was a wall-mounted circular lamp sconce, set directly above the ray's desk, where the behemoth robot was standing.
Guess that answers that question, Omicron thought and walked over to Depth Charge "Am I really a..." she stopped, lords this sounded to weird "A colony?" she razed an eyebrow.
"Apparently you are. I don't know how, but I saw it in your eyes."
Omicron blinked then frowned in thought "Windows to the soul." she muttered.
The hunter lifted his head. "What"
"It's something we humans say," Omicron explained, "'the eyes are the windows to the soul.'"
Nodding thoughtfully, Depth Charge added, "Or, in your case, souls."
He got a sheepish look from the girl as she found interest in the floor between her feet. Omicron took a deep breath, looking back up at the hunter and ask a vary good question "What now?"
"I have no idea."
She couldn't help herself, Omicron laughed shaking her head "That makes two of us without a clue!"
Depth Charge remained silent, staring at her with pupil-less optics that glowed in the dim lighting. He just didn't know what to do, or say, to this human. He watched her suddenly fight back a yawn, putting up a good fight too by looking at her jaws. The ray motioned to her to some over to him; she did after a moment, a little shy it seemed but not entirely sure.
“You need rest.” His words were more like an order then a statement and he new it.
Omicron gave a sad smile as she tucked a stray bang behind her ear, “That’s something I can’t really have you know.”
“Why not?” twin crimson orbs flashed in the darkness.
“Nightmares, remember? If I’m not comatose then I’m screaming.” She looked away towards the closet, seeking something to look at that didn’t seem to see right into her.
Omicron jumped as the strong arms of the hunter carefully encircled her in a protective grasp, “I’ll keep them away.” Depth Charge’s deep voice rumbled softly.
“…What?”
“I’m your Guardian, Omicron,” Depth Charge made sure that she was looking at him before continuing, “I’ll protect you, I swear. I wont lose you again.” For what seemed like a long time the two just stared at one another, then slowly Omicron leaned into the hunter's arms relaxing and after awhile she feel asleep, trusting his promise.
Trusting him.