Mystery Solved
By: Sapphire
Part Two
Writer's Note: I'm not aware of any technical explanation for the funny little little machine Optimus used on Cheetor to wake him up in "Other Voices: Part One." After Tarantulas had knocked him out, Optimus held a silver piece of metal over Cheetor's chest which let off soft ringing noises. Cheetor came to. I'm taking this concept and calling it a 'reviver', a sort of defibrillator for Transformers. This will apply later in the fic.
In the time it took Rampage to destroy his oppressor, Optimus called together all his Maximals. Second to enter the control room was Silverbolt, from sentry duty. The fuzor looked shaken.
"I heard a terrible scream," he answered Optimus's questioning look.
Myst groaned miserably and Rhinox, Rattrap, Optimus and Silverbolt all turned to look at her in unison.
"Is she meant to be doin' dat?" Rattrap asked no one in particular.
"What's going on?" Silverbolt asked worriedly.
At that moment, Depth Charge and Cheetor entered, followed shortly by Blackarachnia.
"I'm not entirely sure..." Optimus directed the sentence at Myst. The femme's eyes were tightly shut and she was breathing raggedly.
"Has there been an attack?" Blackarachnia questioned.
Rhinox was at the computers checking for any signs of Predacons, as Optimus had asked. He was frowning at a reading on the screen. "Not that we know of, though I'm picking up some strange vibrations from outside."
Optimus was beside him in a second. "How close?"
Rattrap came up to the trembling fuzor on the lab table and cautiously touched her shoulder. "Myst?"
She suddenly jerked and gasped, eyes wide. "Primus, no!"
The room feel silent and everyone turned to look at her.
"What the PIT is going on here?!" Depth Charge demanded.
"Tell us what's happenin'," Rattrap urged Myst, his frown replaced with a look of concern.
Myst blinked up at him, and several more faces appeared beside him. Optimus was looking stern and irritated. She owed him an explanation.
"I'm...I'm an empath, like Rampage," she stuttered.
Depth Charge let out a small gasp and took a step back, looking shocked and a little horrified.
"Something's wrong. It's Rampage...I can sense him and I think he's---ahh!" She sat straight up, staring blindly ahead. A pregnant silence followed and all could hear her whispered next few words.
"He-he's out... He's unconscious," she breathed. She looked at Optimus desperately. "Someone has to see what' going on out there."
Optimus nodded slowly and averted his gaze as he thought the situation through. It could be a trap, but then again, Myst did seem genuinely concerned. The look of terror on her face sent chills through him. It was if she was witnessing something terrible that she couldn't quite explain.
"I'll go," Depth Charge said adamantly, interrupting Optimus's thoughts.
"Depth Charge, wait. You don't know what you're going into," Optimus cautioned. He was still uneasy with the situation and not sure if he trusted Myst yet.
"That's the point of checking it out, isn't it?" the mantabot retorted and he drew his gun and prepped it.
"According to Myst and Rattrap, Megatron could possibly have a very powerful weap---"
"Megatron's dead," Myst cut Optimus off. Her voice was flat and monotonous.
There followed a shocked silence. Myst's statement seemed to thicken the air and even though the news should have made them all feel better, none of them did. The silence was uneasy and it was Cheetor who broke it with the question on everyone's mind. "H-How d'you know that?"
Myst swallowed hard and eased back down onto the table, eyes wide with fear. "Rampage," she said simply, and knew she didn't need to say anymore than that. It was obvious what that meant.
"Right, then there's no immediate threat," Depth Charge grunted and walked towards the exit.
"You don't know that. Depth Charge!" Optimus called after him.
The ray-bot ignored his leader and opened the blast doors. He was greeted by an eerie silence. He narrowed his optics and stared out at the rocks ahead, then up along the cliffs. While to most the surroundings would have seemed peaceful, to a trained soldier like Depth Charge, there was something definitely inauspicious. He could feel it. It was too quiet, and the air seemed charged with energy.
He transformed to flight mode and glided up steadily, intently alert to any noises. When he rose above the cliff-line, he got a nasty shock.
The Predacons were there, but they weren't functional. Inferno lay battered in stasis lock, obviously having been on the receiving end of some heavy firepower. Not far from him lay a charred Waspinator. What Depth Charge saw next was what surprised him the most. Lying severely damaged and smouldering on the ground, was Rampage.
The ex-guardian swooped in to get a closer look and as he closed in, he spotted another body behind an obelisk. He drew in a sharp breath and fought the urge to retch. The body was a carcass, and it was the carcass of Megatron. The once strong, proud leader of the Predacons lay savaged on the ground with a wound that Depth Charge had witnessed too many times. He could tell by the gaping hole in his abdomen, and by the blood that had been trailed over the body from a ripped fluid pump, that this was the handiwork of Protoform X. It was obvious the crabbot has gotten hold of his core-spark from Megaton.
Only...Rampage was lying unconscious a few meters away. What could possibly have been powerful enough to stop him?
Depth Charge got his answer in the form of a shot of high-power laser fire soaring under him, a split second after he'd decided to climb altitude again.
"What the!" he uttered and veered left. Another blast just missed clipping his right wing and warnings blared from his internal computer. "You are in target lock. Warning! You are in target lock."
The first two shots had been fired line-of-sight, but the attacker had decided after two misses to rely on technology.
Depth Charge tore upwards, twisted in mid air and faced his enemy. He was shocked to see Quickstrike a quarter of a mile away, wielding a very large gun. The small bot was barely holding it up, which gave Depth Charge an advantage. He opened fire just as the gun shot a quick blast. His yellow power-disks collided with the blue flash and the resulting explosion sent the mantabot rolling awkwardly through the air and over the cliff. He was unable to regain steady flight, and ended up crashing into the clearing before the blast doors. He skidded and slammed against the left cliff wall.
"Hnrgh!"
He was still for a few moments, dazed and shaken. He'd suffered some painful backlash, and so a few things were probably rattling around inside of him, but ultimately his injuries were superficial. The point was, he was alive; his improvised plan had worked. His power-disks had intercepted what was an extremely strong shot of laser-fire.
With effort, Depth Charge transformed to robot mode. The blast doors opened behind him and Cheetor poked his head out cautiously.
"Uh, DC? Did you just...crash, into this clearing?"
Depth Charge lifted a wing tenderly and it sparked in protest. He glanced up at the cliffs nervously.
"Get back inside Cheetor."
"What's---"
"Get back in!"
Cheetor did as he was told and left the mantabot to scour the cliffs with his gaze. Depth Charge knew Quickstrike was a good distance away from the Ark at this present moment, and that the gun was too heavy for him to drag all the way here without taking a long time, but he was still wary nonetheless. He'd been greeted only by surprises since he'd stepped out here, and now he was prepared for anything.
He opened a comm. channel to the Ark. "Depth Charge to Optimus."
A pause, and then a frantic answer: "What just happened? The cams showed that you plummeted back here not half a cycle after you left!" Optimus exclaimed.
"I know. I was shot at by a very big weapon. And it wasn't Megatron firing it, either. That femme's right, he's dead, and Rampage is out cold. So are the rest of the Predacons, except for Quickstrike. He's the one who's got the weapon."
"Primus! Did he take them all down?"
Depth Charge shook his head and turned towards where he knew the cameras were monitoring him. He looked directly at one. "No. Rampage definitely killed Megatron."
There was a stifled exclamation on the other end, and a distant "what?!" from Rattrap.
"Listen Primal, we have two crises on our hands. One, Quickstrike has somehow gotten hold of one nasty piece of weaponry and two, Rampage has his spark back. No way he would have been able to kill Megatron otherwise."
Inside the base, the Maximals were all gathered around the monitors, watching and listening to Depth Charge giving his grim report. Optimus and Rhinox exchanged glances.
"How big is the weapon?" Optimus asked. It may have sounded a trivial question, but it wasn't, because Quickstrike was a very small bot.
"Nearly as big as Quickstrike. He's having problems manning it. He won't be able to drag it far. We need to stop him and destroy it before he thinks of something violent to do to us with it, or worse yet, one of the other Predacons - like Rampage - get to it."
"I don't wanna even think about what Rampage would do wid' dat gun," Rattrap commented unhappily.
"He doesn't need it," came a soft voice from behind them all. Rattrap and Optimus turned and looked at Myst.
"Someone needs to go after Quickstrike, I agree, but I think it's just as important that someone gets the other half of Rampage's spark while he is still unconscious. When he finishes self-repairing, you know what he'll do," she said.
Depth Charge had just managed to catch Myst's voice in the background. "She's right. I'll do it."
Myst shook her head immediately. "No way. It's far too risky. I'll do it. Rampage...I still believe Rampage won't hurt me. If he wakes while I'm taking it from him, he'll think twice before he lays a hand on me, but if he catches anyone else..." Myst trailed deliberately. Her words had their intended effect as Rattrap muttered uncomfortably and Blackarachnia and Silverbolt both shifted.
Optimus knew he didn't have time to debate this, and so he asked Myst just once for confirmation. "Are you sure you can handle it? You're very weak at the moment, and the mission is extremely dangerous," he informed her unnecessarily.
"You're not serious, Primal!" came Depth Charge's inevitable protest, but Rhinox cut the connection irritably. All focus was on the neutral femme getting up slowly, painfully, from the lab table.
"I can just about manage it," she assured. "Please, let me do this. I've spent a fair amount of time with Rampage and I promise you, he will not take kindly to anyone taking back his spark. As for me, I've got nothing to lose."
The Maximal leader nodded solemnly, then turned to Silverbolt and Cheetor.
"We need all our flyers. We'll launch an aerial attack on Quickstrike and overwhelm him. We hit him hard and fast. I don't want you to make any effort to spare the weapon. While it may be useful, it's far more a threat than an asset. Is that clear?"
Silverbolt saluted and Cheetor nodded adamantly. Optimus transformed to flight mode and soared out of the base, followed closely by Silverbolt and Cheetor.
"Be careful!" Blackarachnia called out after them. She watched the doors close with an ominous clang. Rhinox turned to face the remaining bots in the control room.
"Rattrap, do you mind giving Myst a lift to Rampage's position? I don't think she can fly or climb at the moment," he said.
Rattrap just stared at Rhinox for a few uneasy seconds, looking more serious than Rhinox had ever seen him, before he nodded softly. "Okay."
He turned to Myst and helped her off the table. She stood on unstable legs and leaned against him for support. "You just have to drive me to within a few meters of him. After that, you don't have to come any closer," she told him. Rattrap snorted. "Trust me, I won't!"
Tarantulas was more than a little surprised to see how events had unfolded. There had been no great battle between the Maximals and Predacons; no grand final showdown. What had occurred was however, in Tarantulas's opinion, for more entertaining. The sheer brutality of Rampage's execution of Megatron had made him feel the slightest bit uneasy, but it was nothing Tarantulas hadn't done himself, except he'd done it far slower and under controlled conditions.
Tarantulas had been riveted to the screen. From Rampage's attack to Depth Charge's forced retreat, the spider had been slowly polishing the same part. When a respite finally came after Depth Charge's disappearance over the cliffs, he snapped out of his trance and looked, with mild surprise, at a now very shiny thrusters chip.
He put the part aside and took another one from his crate. He started fixing some loose bits but his attention was not wholly on the job. He kept glancing at the screen, waiting to see what the Maximals did next.
"No doubt they'll attack that stupid fuzor, destroy my work of art and start panicking about what to do with Rampage," he muttered.
It occurred to him that if they did that, Myst would be doomed. Because unbeknownst to anyone except Megatron and himself...in fact, just himself, her power converter was what made that weapon work. What sweet irony it would be if Myst's saviours destroyed the very thing needed to keep her alive.
Tarantulas knew that Myst was with the Maximals. He had arachnoids watching things all over the place and he had seen Rampage hand the femme over to the enemy. It was a last-ditch effort to keep his plaything alive. Tarantulas found it mildly intriguing that Rampage seemed so bent on preserving Myst. The femmebot must have struck a chord with the psychopath that made him feel differently towards her than he did towards everyone else. Although, Tarantulas still suspected he toyed with her, just not physically. Myst would not have stayed with him this long if the crab had been upfront with her and told her all about who he was and what he'd done. Even if she didn't care for the lives he'd taken, she wouldn't have hung around for fear for her own life.
"How very complicated this has all become," the spider sighed happily. He was enjoying the pandemonium Rampage had caused. It was one of the few things the crab was good for.
"They needn't worry, though. When the Nemesis is up and running, I shall make things much simpler for them," he said and chuckled.
Unless Rampage pulls an Omicron on them, and then what? If he was only a land-based bot, it wouldn't even be an issue. But the crab's an aquabot...
Tarantulas failed to suppress a shudder at the thought. If no one got to Rampage before he self-repaired, then he'd be free to do as he pleased. As it stood, Tarantulas was very high on Rampage's list of future victims. He had more than ticked the killer off.
He instinctively glanced about himself nervously. He knew the crab was nowhere near, but the insecurity was there nonetheless.
"I have to keep a very, very close watch on him," the spider mumbled. He turned back to the screens and let loose a little exclamation.
Rampage was nearly fully-repaired already!
The gun was far heavier than Quickstrike imagined. It looked too big for him to carry, but he had tried to anyway. He hadn't gone far with it though, before his arms grew too weak to support it anymore and he had to drop it for a little rest. That short moment of relaxing his limbs cost him dearly.
*
Optimus paused in his flight to talk to Depth Charge. "We're going to flank Quickstrike's position from the air, and we could use your help."
"You can do it without me. I need to get to Rampage before---"
"Not now, Depth Charge. Just stop and think about it. Rampage is self-repairing as we speak with his full spark, and you're damaged. If you approach him and he wakes up, he will not hesitate to kill you this time, especially if you're after the thing that means the most to him."
"It's a risk I'm willing to take!"
"It's an unnecessary risk! Myst is going to do it. It's obvious Rampage has some sort of friendship with her, so her chances of getting hurt in all this are far less. And while I don't like to sound a pessimist, she's right; she really doesn't have a lot to lose. Now we don't have time to argue about this, so are you going to help us fight a currently more dangerous foe or not?"
Depth Charge was ready to protest further, but he managed to keep his cool for a change. He heard the blast doors opening again and Rattrap sped past him in vehicle mode, Myst on his back. He watched with a deep frown as the pair disappeared behind the labyrinth of rocks.
"Fine," he grudgingly conceded. He transformed back to flight mode and followed the trio of flyers out.
Quickstrike was uncomfortably aware that his time was limited. He'd battled to use the weapon on Rampage because it was so heavy, and firing at a target in the air was considerably more difficult. So when he saw four Maximal flyers breaking out into an attack formation, he knew that, despite the power he possessed at that moment, he was at a strategic disadvantage. He simply couldn't take them all on.
The alternative was to run with his hands up, and he didn't like the image of that in the slightest. He should at least try to hold his ground...
Quickstrike decided that if he made a move towards picking the gun up now, all four of them would open fire and blow him to pieces. He was a fast shooter normally, but this was no ordinary gun.
"Well I ain't gonna give them the pleasure of using this beauty!" he declared as the Maximals honed in on his position. He quickly unclipped his ammunitions belt and dropped it over the gun. After that, he turned away from it and ran as fast as he could.
The move puzzled the Maximals, because Quickstrike was not one to retreat from a fight so readily.
"He's moving away! What do we do?" Cheetor asked Optimus over his comm.
"Don't pursue him. I think he's realized he's in no position to fight us all."
"He dropped something over the gun," Depth Charge voiced his observation.
"Shall I take a look?" Silverbolt offered.
"No, I don't think it's---" Optimus began, but a flash of green distracted him. He stared down at the weapon and saw that, from a considerable distance away, Quickstrike was firing at it. A second later, the ammunitions belt exploded.
"WHOA!" Cheetor exclaimed and pulled up. The blast cloud quickly caught up with him and knocked him back.
Optimus was the next closest to the explosion but he managed to bear the brunt of it better.
Fortunately Depth Charge and Silverbolt were high enough not to be affected by it. Silverbolt dove towards Cheetor to help him regain some kind of momentum, as he was rolling through the air.
"Primus above! That freak just took out the weapon himself!" Depth Charge yelled.
"Not quite," Optimus grunted, feeling sore and hot from the blast. He zoomed his vision in on the sight of the explosion. The cloud had cleared enough for him to make out what was left. The weapon was certainly damaged, but it was still intact.
Optimus turned his attention to Quickstrike, who was picking himself up off the ground. The little fuzor looked up and saw that his enemies were still active and decided now was a good time to beat a hasty retreat. He broke into a sprint and headed in the direction of the Predacon base.
"Do we go after him?" Depth Charge asked.
"No, he's no threat to us now," Optimus replied. He opened a comm. channel to all units.
"Cheetor, are you all right?"
"Yeah, Silverbolt helped me find which way was up. I think I've taken some bad external damage though." Optimus could hear the pain in Cheetor's voice.
"Return to base. Silverbolt, you accompany him."
"Yes sir!"
Optimus changed his flight course from Quickstrike to the weapon and took aim. "Depth Charge, on my mark."
"Wait," the mantabot said.
Optimus slowed down to a halt and hovered while Depth Charge caught up with him. "What is it?"
"I think we should wait to see what happens with Myst and Rampage. I know you say this thing's a threat, but it might be our best chance of defending ourselves if Rampage wakes before Myst gets his spark," Depth Charge explained. He was itching to go down and do the job himself, but he knew Optimus wouldn't allow it and loath as he was to admit it, Myst did stand a better chance of getting it.
"You're right," Optimus agreed. "I say we fly down there, position ourselves out of sight but within firing range and keep watch on the situation. At least we might be able to hold him off and give Myst a chance to escape if that does happen."
Depth Charge conceded to that decision and both flyers made their way to land, a fair distance away from the assumedly unconscious psychopath. Rattrap and Myst were already closing in on his position.
Rattrap stopped only ten meters away from the huge transformer ahead of him. He dared not get any closer. Rampage didn't look half as damaged as Rattrap had hoped he was, which meant that he was self-repairing at a very rapid rate.
"This is your stop, missy," Rattrap told his passenger. Myst slid off his back and landed with a soft thud on her feet. She leaned on him for a moment, composing herself, and then took a few shaky steps forward. Rattrap watched as she made her way over to the crabbot slowly and cautiously. He rolled back on his wheels, quietly edging away. He'd seen Rampage at full power before. He'd been one of the bots desperately trying to hold him back from tearing the heads off of the scientists as he was taken to the liquefying room, where he was to be turned to a protoform and sealed in a pod. It was a memory Rattrap had forced to the back of his mind for many reasons.
Myst's legs gave way just as she reached Rampage's right side. She wasn't sure which side he'd have put the spark, but right was her first guess. She fell on her knees and muffled a pained exclamation. Just being off the life-support for five cycles was already taking its toll on her. Her entire body was aching. Her hands were trembling and her movements were jerky.
Her own spark was pulsing rapidly as the fear rose up inside. She had not feared Rampage like she did now. Before it was mainly wariness, and he'd sometimes made her feel uneasy in the way he'd looked at her. But now....
Now she knew the truth. Now she knew what Rampage could do. She had forced herself not to look properly at the butchered corpse just a few meters to her right. She didn't want to see what he had done to Megatron.
Steeling herself against the fear, she trailed her fingers along his right side, feeling for a compartment. He had pocketed it somewhere, but not in sub-space, as that would have been too easy for Megatron to snatch back during the struggle. He must have a secret storage compartment. It was a problem, because only he could open it. In-built compartments were controlled by a bot's internal computer and opened on command. Rattrap had provided her with a little drill that she was to use to burrow into the compartment. Right now she was feeling for any irregularities in his metal; a crack to indicate a small door.
She started from just under his arm and moved her fingers down slowly and carefully towards his hip. She was trying to be calm and steady, but the painful waves of energy threatened to make her jerk her hand. She stared down at him, looking at a bot she had once trusted, liked even. Myst wondered, if none of this had happened and she had remained his ally for a few weeks longer, if she would have even developed feelings for him. She had already felt safer with him than she had with anyone in a long time. She paused in her task and her optics dimmed as she wrestled with the surge of emotion inside her. Primus, she felt hurt! She felt betrayed! She felt sick and stupid for not seeing the signs earlier! How could she have allowed herself to become so attached to someone she didn't even know, so fast?
Allowing herself to experience the suppressed feelings of pain and guilt was the worst possible thing Myst could have done. It was the sudden intensity of emotion around him, and not her touch, that had woken Rampage.
Myst's optics relit dully and she started to feel along his side again. Her fingers ran over a groove and she paused. She looked at the area closely and sure enough, there was the barely-visible frame of a compartment door. With a trembling sigh of relief, Myst reached for the drill attached to her side with her left hand. As she brought it up again, Rampage's hand shot up in one swift movement and grabbed her wrist tightly. She let out a startled gasp and froze. His eyes were open and bright and he was staring at her intently. His grip on her fragile wrist was hard and menacing, but just loose enough not to be painful.
For a moment that seemed to last an eternity, Myst and Rampage stared at one another. For Myst, her fear mixed with anger and surprise. She didn't know what to do.
"What are you doing?" Rampage asked calmly, but the menace was there in his tone.
Myst swallowed hard and tried to steady herself. "I'm looking for your spark. I'm going to keep it for you until you find Tarantulas."
"Don't lie to me," he warned with controlled aggression.
"I'm not. I won't give it to the Maximals," she said as confidently as she could. Myst wasn't sure what would happen when she returned to base. More than likely, Optimus would demand he have the spark cage, and she was powerless to stop him. She was aware of that, and she knew Rampage was too. She was lying to him, and she was pushing luck she wasn't certain she had anymore.
"He told you, didn't he?" Rampage asked. He didn't have to say who "he" was.
Myst's tense posture relaxed a little. The pain and tension were too much for her body to handle, and she was on the brink of fainting. She needed to relax, or she'd pass out.
"Yes, Rampage. He did."
Another long stare. Myst felt Rampage slowly increase the pressure around her wrist. "Rampage, don't," she pleaded, voice wavering.
Rampage stopped the action, stared at her a little longer, and released his grip entirely. Myst pulled back her hand slowly.
"Get back inside, Myst," he commanded quietly. "Get away from me."
Myst's face crumpled up into one of fury. "You slagging BRUTE!" she snapped suddenly. She punched him hard on the shoulder. "You slagging lied to me! You lied over and over and over and over--"
Rampage sat up and Myst toppled backwards. She landed on her rear and stared at him, aghast. The look of hatred and hurt returned to her face soon after.
"We both lied!" he snarled. "You lied to me just a moment ago. Do you think I believe for one second that you'd really keep my spark safe for me?"
"How COULD you, Rampage?!" Myst nearly shrieked. "How could you--how could.... How could you kill all those bots so mercilessly?" her voice ended trembling.
Rampage didn't answer the question. He just looked at her and stayed still. After waiting for some response from him for a tense few moments, Myst finally gave up. She hefted herself up and stood on weak legs. She shot him one last look and made sure she expressed all the pain she felt at his betrayal on her face, before she turned and stumbled away. Rampage watched Rattrap emerge from behind a rock twenty feet away and cautiously approach her. She got onto his back and he drove off and out of sight.
Rampage stayed still for a few cycles, not thinking or feeling anything. He simply refused to. Instead, he went numb and waited for his spark to finish the last few repairs. When he felt all his strength had been restored, he got to his feet and turned around to face a few large boulders several hundred meters away.
"All right Depth Charge. Come out and do your worst! I dare you."
Optimus grabbed Depth Charge's arm roughly and pulled him back.
"Wait!"
Depth Charge wheeled on the Maximal leader and glared at him. "What's your problem, Primal?! He's awake and active! We've got to stop him now. We can't let him get that weapon!"
"I get that, but rushing in headstrong isn't going to help. That's obviously what he wants you to do," Optimus said in a hushed voice.
"Then what's your suggestion?" Depth Charge sneered.
"I can see the weapon from here. I've got a clear shot. I'll destroy it before he can get to it."
"But we might need it!"
"I'm not willing to take the risk of going for it, being stopped somehow and then he gets it! Rampage is strong enough by himself as it is, but with that weapon he could take us ALL out," Optimus argued.
"Can you hold him off, Optimus? When he comes for us, can we hold our own against him?" Depth Charge pressed, his voice icy and frightening. "I SAW him take out an entire colony! Whole squads of security, gone in seconds flat! You don't know him like I do. It took me four stellar cycles to catch him, and then I had the best weaponry and tracking equipment on my side. Here, we've got nothing - no means of bringing him to his knees."
Optimus looked Depth Charge straight in the eyes. "I'm three times his size and I've got good weaponry. With your help, that'll be enough until we figure out a more permanent way of dealing with him. But for Primus's sake, Depth Charge, don't give him the chance to---"
"Come on, Fins! What's taking you? Are you really that frightened of me now? Megatron was weak, you know. You're a much better fighter."
Rampage's taunt lit a fire in Depth Charge's eyes and he pulled free of Optimus's grip.
"Improvise," he growled, and stepped out and into view. He was several hundred meters away from Rampage, but both could see each other clearly.
Optimus cursed in annoyance. Depth Charge was such a hot head! And he was deliberately blocking his view of the weapon.
Depth Charge stood rigid, arms at his side, ready to draw his twin guns. He stared hatefully at the bot across from him. Rampage took a few cautious steps forward, but got no reaction from the mantabot. Depth Charge was not afraid; he was furious.
"Back to the drawing board, hey old friend?" Rampage jeered. "Once again I'm whole-of-spark and on the loose, able to wreak havoc and kill the ones you care about. Four stellar cycles of hunting me and it's been for nothing."
"I'm going to bring you down for good, X!" Depth Charge shouted across to him.
Rampage sniggered and raised his arms in an open gesture. "Come and get me then! What are you waiting for?"
Depth Charge shifted slightly on his feet, shooting a very brief glance at Optimus. He didn't want to move, because he knew Optimus would fire at the weapon. While Depth Charge felt capable of hunting Rampage without it, he knew that he didn't have four stellar cycles to bring him down this time. In the time it'd take to (possibly) apprehend him, Rampage could quite easily have massacred every living bot on this planet. He knew that the weapon, if repaired, was his best chance. It had taken Rampage out once, and it could do it again. Why couldn't Optimus see that? Was he that cowardly as to not risk trying to obtain it for himself?
"Why didn't you kill her, X?" Depth Charge asked, buying himself some time to think of a plan. He was also very curious to know the answer to his question. It still puzzled him that Rampage had left Myst alive for so long, and even tried to save her. There had to be some sick, underlying reason for it.
Rampage's arrogant stance wavered slightly. The question shouldn't have been surprising, but it did catch him off-guard. He couldn't afford to pause for too long though - that would break the atmosphere he was trying to create.
"She's going to die anyway," he said a little less harshly. Emotions were prickling at the core of him, but he refused to indulge in them. There was a degree of pain he still had to deal with in losing Myst.
"So you're going to let her suffer, then? Or are you seriously going to get back her power converter for her? What's this all about, Rampage?" Depth Charge used his enemy's name for once. He knew it would further unnerve him. Depth Charge was not blind to subtle changes in his adversary's behaviour when Myst was mentioned. There was something there that unsettled him, and he wanted to know what it was.
Rampage, meanwhile, was pondering. When Depth Charge had mentioned the power converter, something had clicked in his mind. His eyes wandered over to the discarded weapon a few yards away.
Myst had been attacked by Tarantulas the night Megatron was up late working on something. Then the following day, when he had returned to base for the meeting, he'd seen Tarantulas leaving with a crate of parts. It was then blatantly obvious they'd been working on the weapon together. Why else would Tarantulas have been around? The weapon was finished hours after Myst was raped of her power converter. Putting two and two together, Rampage finally realized what had happened.
The power converter was in the weapon. It was its battery.
"Slag," he muttered under his breath. Depth Charge noticed the mouthed word.
"What was that? Speak, creep!" Depth Charge snarled.
Rampage turned back to looking at his archenemy. He regarded him thoughtfully. Should he voice his discovery and leave it to Depth Charge to take the weapon back to base and return Myst her converter? Could he trust him with that?
It was then Rampage had to decide what Myst really meant to him. She had given him an uneasy friendship when she had thought him to be someone he was not. Up until now, it had been impossible to judge how deep their relationship went for one another, because it had been based on a lie. Her reaction to the truth, however, had been surprising. Yes, he'd expected she'd be angry...but she was also hurt. While Rampage was not an expert on the complexities of emotions, he did know that to feel hurt at someone's betrayal meant that you had to have felt something for the betrayer.
So she cares about you. Big deal.
It shouldn't matter to him that she cared, but somehow it did. And Rampage knew that because it mattered, he cared too. He cared about their friendship, he cared about being alone. Quite simply, he cared.
But he couldn't let the ray know that. Even though Depth Charge would find it difficult to believe in the first place. He had to play this game wisely. He had the beginnings of a plan and his distant gaze refocused on the angry bot in front of him.
"I don't need to get her anything," Rampage finally answered. "It's right here. The weapon you seek is powered by her missing part. So you have a choice now. Either you attempt to take the weapon, repair it and try to use it against me while Myst lies dying in your base which, I'd like to point out, wouldn't be very Maximal of you," he spat the word acidly. "Or you retrieve the weapon, wrench out the converter, repair it and re-install it inside her, thus saving her from a very painful death."
Depth Charge absorbed the words and his frown deepened. There was a trick here. Rampage was just about to reveal his joker card.
"The interesting part is this," Rampage continued, to Depth Charge's immediate dread. "I, for obvious reasons, don't want you to go around using that weapon against me. It's a powerful piece of artillery, even for me. I do not, on the other hand, have any objections to you using the power converter therein to save her. It'd mean you couldn't use the weapon anymore, which is good for me. So to put it simply, if you pick option one, Myst and I both die. You pick option two, we live. Interesting dilemma, especially for you, Fins."
Game set. Depth Charge held back on cursing something colourful. Rampage had once again manipulated him. He had presented him with something of a Sophie's Choice. One was challenging his morals as a Maximal, the other challenging his greatest desire; the desire for justice.
Depth Charge also noted that Rampage had deliberately avoided referring to Myst in any emotional way. She was a bargaining chip in all this, and that in Depth Charge's mind revealed the crab's true colours: whatever the reason he'd kept her alive this long, it was obvious to him that Rampage didn't give a damn about her. This was for his own self-preservation. Rampage was incapable of love and friendship. Depth Charge almost laughed out loud at the fact that he had even considered if it were possible for Rampage to feel.
Meanwhile, Optimus had been listening in on the conversation. He was going to interject earlier, but he had decided against it. He'd found Rampage's subtle taunting interesting to listen to. Until now, he hadn't really understood the relationship between Rampage and Depth Charge. For the first time, Optimus recognised Rampage not as a dangerous experiment on the loose, but as a bot of great intelligence with a knack for manipulation. And he was especially good at manipulating Depth Charge. So, he couldn't leave it up to the ex-guardian decide what to do by himself. Depth Charge was too unstable a person to make that kind of choice.
It was that moment that Optimus chose to intervene....
Rattrap entered the Ark in silence. Myst was clinging tightly to his back and had been trembling the whole journey. He hadn't spoken to her about it; he figured it was a mix of fear and pain.
Rhinox, Silverbolt and Blackarachnia looked at them, eyes wide and expectant. Cheetor was in the CR chamber repairing, Rattrap could tell by the gentle hum coming from the machine in the far right corner.
He sighed and shook his head. There was a soft groan from Rhinox and a sigh from Blackarachnia.
Rattrap stopped two meters away from the lab table and waited for Myst to get off. When she didn't, he jolted himself slightly. "Oi, you can get off now."
It was then he realized she'd been still for a time. She wasn't trembling so much, but at his request she'd stirred. Gradually, she slipped off his back and onto her knees and hands. Rattrap was now free to transform to robot mode, which he did.
He looked down at the weak femme at his feet. Myst stood up slowly and looked at him. "You---" she began, when suddenly her optics dimmed, her legs gave way and she collapsed to the floor.
"Uh oh!" Rhinox uttered and ran forward. He gathered her up in his arms and placed her on the lab table.
"Rattrap, switch back on the life support. Blackarachnia, fetch me the reviver."
"What's happened to her?" Rattrap asked as he headed for the life-support control panel.
"I think she's gone into stasis, but it might be worse," Rhinox muttered as he took a life-scanner from a side table. He waved it over her body once and got no readings.
"Slag it!" he exclaimed. "She's gone offline!"