A lone cheetah paced back and forth in the pouring rain, seeming not to care about the lightning that split open the sky, or the thunder that boomed from the heavens. The cheetah’s thoughts went back a few cycles, to the betrayal of his only brother, Pantor.

I’ll kill him, Cheetor thinks darkly, for what he did, Cheetor looked at Dinobot, who lay curled up in stasis lock a huge slash on his chest, and toward the Axalon, which had a newly-painted Predacon symbol on its front, and for what he said…

“That is the main reason I betrayed the Maximals, I can’t stand you! You’re completely useless and so annoying!”

Cheetor stopped his pacing and settled in the shadows, a murderous look on his face, tail thumping agitatedly.

Optimus Primal looked worriedly at Cheetor. The young Maximal had become the son he never had, so naturally he felt he had to do something to comfort him. He walked over to were Cheetor was laying, eyes on the Axalon.

“Cheetor? Can I talk with you?” Optimus asked gently.

“Yes,” Cheetor’s reply was short and curt, and he did not take his optics of the Axalon.

“I want you to know, if there’s anything I can do, to help, let me know,” Optimus felt somewhat off-put by Cheetor’s unenthusiastic behavior.

“… I’m going to attack the Axalon tomorrow,” Optimus’s eyes widened, but Cheetor plowed on, still looking toward the ship, “you can help me take the Axalon back.”

“No, Cheetor, it’s too dangerous, we have a wounded Dinobot, and a we don’t have the firepower to get the ship back. We all have sustained minor injuries from the attack… it will have to wait.”

“That will make it harder to defeat them! They won’t expect an attack from us right now!” Cheetor’s gaze snapped to Optimus, frowning with stubborn determination. “If we wait, they’ll be expecting us to attack! Big-Bot, this is as good as ever chance!”

“No, Cheetor, it’s too dangerous.” Optimus repeated, with a firm tone (which he often used when breaking up a fight between a certain rat and dinosaur).

“But, Big-Bot-”

“Cheetor, that’s an order!”

“I don’t care what you think anymore!” Cheetor shouted back, and Ratrap and Rhinox turned to watch. “You never listen to me and look where it got us! Were stuck in the middle of jungle! Dinobot’s a goner unless we get him to a CR chamber, and, oh yeah, my own brother betrayed us and took over our base!” Cheetor stood, panting slightly, then turned and sprinted into the jungle.

“Cheetor…”

“Wow, Boss-Monkey, you sure know ‘ow ta get up in ‘is gears,” Ratrap commented.

“Shut up, Ratrap.”

***

Pantor was bored. Megatron had shown his gratitude by putting him in command of Scorponok, Waspinator, and the Axalon, but Pantor was still bored. He had tried talking to Scorponok, who just brushed him off, and Waspinator, who bothered the slag out of him with his speech problems.

Plus, he had overhead whispered conversations between the two, discussing plans to have Pantor demoted, and then they would take control of the Axalon.

It did not help that since Pantor spent much of his time alone, he had to think. He was split in two halves, one saying “Go for the Glory!” and the other saying, “Why did you betray your own brother?!?” His inner battle threatened to drive him insane, and he remained uncertain whether he had made the right choice in joining the Preds. Memories crashed over him, from the beginning of the whole scandal…

Tarantulas ignored Pantor’s gun and answered “It is because you know you were meant for more that trying and failing to achieve galactic peace. You were meant for domination of the galaxies.”

Pantor was waiting for Tarantulas, when he heard soft thump of a footstep behind him. It was Cheetor. He knew. Pantor pretended not to notice his brother, who fled into the night. Tarantulas arrived shortly after.

“Pantor this is Megatron. Deactivate Sentinel now!” Pantor looked up. Optimus was trying to calm Cheetor down.

Pantor wanted, no, needed someone to talk to.

“I almost wish…” Pantor began quietly, then stopped as the door to his room slid open.

“A Maximal is approaching the ship, sir,” Scorponok reported, with a rigid sense of formality.

“Which one?” Pantor asked.

“…Your brother.”

“Is Sentinel back online?”

“No.”

“Excellent, I will take care of him myself,” Pantor leap gracefully to his feet, then swept out of the room to meet his brother.

***

Cheetor knew that it was a suicidal mission, but in his mind, he only had one thought: kill Pantor. He fired his quasar gun again and again at the ship. He knew that his gun wouldn’t do a lot of damage, but at least he didn’t have to go through Sentinel’s shields first.

He stopped his fire when the hatch slid down, carrying Pantor, Scorponok, and Waspinator.

Pantor grinned maliciously, “Why it is so nice to see you little brother.” Then he turned to his Predacons, “He’s mine. Don’t fire, unless I say so, but make sure he doesn’t escape.”

The two robots kept their weapons trained on the lone Maximal, but as ordered didn’t fire.

Pantor transformed into his sleek, powerful robot mode. Cheetor looked at him with distaste, then suddenly charged at his brother. Pantor side-stepped, and brought his gun down on Cheetor’s back, sending him sprawling. Cheetor could taste Mech-fluid in his mouth. He spat then got up, aiming his gun at Pantor, who stood, impassively at him.

“I hate you,” Cheetor hissed, and shot at the Predacon. Pantor leap to the right and fired back. The blast sent Cheetor flying.

“You’re so predictable. No tricks? No special moves? How typical of you,” sneered Pantor.

Cheetor got to his feet again and yelled, “How about this one?” Cheetor transformed into his beast mode and ran at Pantor, who was slow to dodge this time. Cheetor raked his claws against Pantor’s chest plate, then jumped in the air, transforming into a robot again and firing his gun at Pantor. It was Pantor’s turn to fly.

Waspinator cocked his gun, aiming at Pantor, but Pantor shrieked, “NO!” When Waspinator looked somewhat taken aback and Scorponok, suspicious, Pantor added, “He is mine, remember?”

Cheetor growled and waited for Pantor to get to his feet, before firing at him again. Pantor dodged the quasar charges, returned fire with a smaller gun than before. Cheetor felt himself fall, his limbs not responding to his brain.

“Stun gun,” Pantor smirked. “You should get one little brother, if you survive…” Pantor raised his real gun.

A missile hit Pantor in the middle of his chest, knocking him backward.

“Not this time, Pantor!”

Cheetor turned his head and smiled in relief, “Big-Bot!”

Optimus nodded at Cheetor then blasted Waspinator from his hovering position with a loud, “ZOI!”

Dinobot, still bleeding profusely and still leaning on Ratrap, fired his optic lasers at Scorponok. Ratrap whipped out his gun and the two blew Scorponok to pieces.

Pantor snarled angrily at the change of favor in the battle and spoke into his commlink, “Pantor to Megatron. I need backup now! The Maximals are trying to take back their base!”

“I will be there shortly,” was Megatron’s reply.

Pantor muttered, “Beast mode,” then scrambled onto the Axalon’s hatch, and ascended into the safety of the ship.

“We did it!” Cheetor cheered, regaining his optimistic personality (which Optimus was extremely grateful).

“Yup, so know all we’s have ta do is get ol’ Blackie out,” Ratrap boasted, while Dinobot rolled his optics.

“That will be quite impossible for you, yesss!”

“Megatron!” Optimus cried, pivoting around in air.

Megatron, Tarantulas, and Terrorsaur were speeding toward the Maximals.

Rhinox and Optimus shot at Terrorsaur who was laughing wildly, “You’re marksmanship needs improving, Optimus Primal!” he laughed again as he weaved in and out of the missiles and bullets launched at him.

“Oo, hoo, hoo!” Tarantulas cackled. “It seems you haven’t recovered from our last encounter, Dinobot.” Tarantulas gestured at Dinobot’s wound. Dinobot snarled and shot at Tarantulas, who scuttled behind some rock formations.

“Don’t worry, Chopperface, you’re safe wid me,” Ratrap reassured, sensing Dinobot’s anger, and knowing that Dinobot would probably do something that would damage him even further.

“I feel so much better, knowing that a rat is going to protect me,” Dinobot stated sarcastically, putting a hand to cover is painful injury.

Ratrap glared at Dinobot and scowled, “Hey, hey, hey, Lizard-Lips, if it weren’t for me, ya’d have been scrap by now.”

“I doubt it,” Dinobot returned.

“Yeah, ya would, dying in yer own lubricants!”

“At least I would not have to endure your insufferable presence!” a pause. “But then I would be joined by your spark before long…” Dinobot gave a nasty smile.

“Are you sayin’ dat wid out you, I’d die?!?” Ratrap scoffed.

A blast of cyber-venom stopped Dinobot from answering. Ratrap was crushed, by the sudden weight of the unconscious warrior, “Saggit, Chopperface, you need to lose a few pounds!”

“Tee, hee, hee!” Tarantulas gripped his smaller laser cutter in one claw, and approached menacingly towards the trapped Ratrap.

Cheetor watched the Predacons coming, Optimus and Rhinox engage Terrorsaur, Ratrap and Dinobot fight Tarantulas, and Pantor coming down out of the Axalon. Cheetor bounded forward to fight his brother again, but he forgot about one ‘tiny, little’ detail…

Megatron used his Tyrannosaurus Rex head to grab Cheetor around his own head, “I can’t have you scrap my best lieutenant, nooo.”

Cheetor heard the cannon inside the tyrant’s dinosaur head charge, humming hungrily. He shut his optics tight, waiting for the blast that would free his Spark into the Matrix.

It never came. Instead, Megatron’s grip slackened and Cheetor was dropped heavily onto the ground. Cheetor raised his head, and saw Pantor, his gun still smoking, pointing at Megatron.

“You missed me,” Cheetor snarled.

Pantor hesitated then said quietly, “I couldn’t let you get killed.”

Cheetor let a slightly mad laugh escape from him, “That’s funny! You didn’t seem to care two nano-cycles ago!”

Pantor lowered his optics, “Little br- Cheetor, when I was with the Preds, I realized something. You were right. The Preds are backstabbing and treacherous. I missed the trust, the friendship…” Pantor looked Cheetor in the optics, “and the family. You may be an annoying little brother at times, but you’re my annoying little brother. So, little brother, am I forgiven?”

Cheetor smiled at his brother, “I forgive you.”

“Well, admirable sentiments, I’m sure, but they mean one thing to me: treachery!” Megatron got up. Aiming his laser at Pantor.

“Killing me won’t hurt me,” Pantor said bravely, standing his ground.

“Oh, my stupid ex-Predacon, it would, but…” Megatron paused nastily before continuing, “it would hurt a lot more if I killed your brother!” Megatron shifted his aim toward Cheetor, switching from laser to missile.

“NO!” Pantor cried. Megatron fired a huge missile straight at Cheetor, who froze.

Pantor leap in front of Cheetor, taking the blast. Pantor was slammed into Cheetor, and together they flew into a boulder. Cheetor leap up almost immediately, to fire at Megatron, but saw that Optimus had taken over and was shooting at Megatron. After one good shot from Optimus, Megatron cried, “This is not over! Nooo! Predacons, fall back!”

Cheetor looked around for his brother, who would always be his partner, and together the two would help the Maximals win the Beast Wars. Then Cheetor spotted Pantor. With a gasp he ran to his brother’s side.

Pantor’s breathing was slow, his eyes were glazed, and worst of all, through a hole in his chest plate, Cheetor could see his spark. The spark looked dim and dying.

“Cheetor…” Pantor breathed.

“I am here,” Cheetor wasn’t even aware he was speaking.

A faint smile crossed Pantor’s handsome face, “I love you, little bro… Goodbye.”

Pantor’s optics faded into darkness, like the depths of the Abyss, his chest stopped moving, and his head went limp.

Hot tears welled up in Cheetor’s optics. They poured down his cheeks and Cheetor watched as Pantor’s spark soared away to join the Matrix.

“I love you too, big brother.”

End of Series