All Beast Wars characters belong to Hasbro, but the plot is ALL MINE!!!! Unfortunately, I’m not making any profit off of it...

A COUPLE MONTHS AFTER X’S ESCAPE FROM THE LABS-

X walked down the beach casually, grinning to himself. He had just murdered the family that used to live in the house overlooking this beach, and he was in a good mood. Maybe he would stay here for a while, until someone investigated the family’s disappearance. The nearest neighbors were far enough down the coast that they hadn’t heard the gunfire or screams.

He could relax here for a while. Besides, if the neighbors got on his nerves somehow, or if he just got bored, he could just kill them, too.

X put his feet up on the expensive glass patio table and settled down for a nap. The sea was kind of calming once he had gotten used to it.

He stared out across the water sleepily.

And then he sat up suddenly, startled. The motion sent the table flying, shattering it.

There, at the edge of the water, was a sandcastle. X stomped over, and looked at it. It wasn’t very impressive. The vibrations from him coming over had collapsed one side of it, and the rest was covered with small handprints. The prints were probably from whoever had made it.

X pulled out a gun. Someone was here. Someone to hunt, to torture, to feed off of, to kill. Someone to fear him.

He prowled down the beach, following small footprints in the sand.

The footprints ended at a shallow hollow between two dunes.

X looked down into it, and then glanced around. The hollow was filled with little seashells, drawings in the sand, and some toys. No one was in sight who they might belong to.

He sat down, and put away the gun. Sadly, he reached out and grabbed one of the toys, a floppy animal doll of some kind. It obviously belonged to a child. X stared at it, and wondered what being a child was like.

He had never had a childhood. He had woken up to a series of laboratory tests. He had been born with the knowledge of a killer, and had put it to use. He had never played with anything besides his victims’ fear. He had never made any friends, either.

X had never had a chance to, and he wished he knew what it was like. He cradled the doll in his hands, and sighed.

"Hey! He’s mine!"

X started, whipping out his gun and whirling around to face the voice. He had to look down.

The blue-skinned girl-child glared up at him, "Gimme Jib back!"

He didn’t sense a bit of fear in her, despite the gun aimed at her. It was unusual enough that he didn’t go along with his first impulse to just shoot her.

"Jib?" he asked instead.

She angrily pointed at the doll he was still holding, "His name is Jib!"

X looked at the doll, bewildered. It was an inanimate object. Why did it have a name? Nothing in his experience since his escape from the labs could help him here.

The girl saw his expression, and unexpectedly changed moods. "Do you want to play with me?" she asked brightly, skipping past him into the hollow.

He stared at her, surprised again. She didn’t fear him, and now this?!

She smiled up at him, "My name’s Clara. What’s yours?"

"Why do you want to know?" he snapped automatically.

Clara shrugged, "Well, friends should always know who their friends are." She smiled innocently, "My mommy told me that before Daddy killed her."

X blinked. His instincts were telling him to destroy her. But a lonely part of him shoved to the fore. He had wanted a friend, and now maybe he had one.

Besides, he was curious. "My name is X. Why did your," the word sounded strange, "daddy kill your, er, mommy?"

Clara giggled. "That’s a funny name. I don’t know. Daddy didn’t tell me. But maybe when he wakes up tonight he’ll tell me." She patted the sand next to her, "Sit down."

He sank to the ground, putting away his gun. For some reason, he didn’t think he’d need it here. He noticed he was still holding the doll, and tossed it to her. "Here. Why would your, um, daddy tell you tonight?"

"Be careful!" Clara scolded him as she caught the floppy animal. "Jibs is pretty old," she told him solemnly. Then, with another lightening change of mood, "Because Daddy only killed her last night, and then he went into the bedroom with Hera."

X found that she had shoved another doll into his hands. "Who’s Hera?"

Clara pretended that her doll was walking towards his doll. "She’s the woman Daddy always had over when Mommy wasn’t home. Mommy found out last night, ‘cause she came home early. Then they yelled. Then Daddy killed Mommy." Clara took the doll from X’s hand, "Like this." She had one doll hit the other, and it fell down.

X watched her, puzzled. "Aren’t you worried?"

"Not much. Mommy said someday she’d die, and I’d have to live in the real world with my, um, my," she frowned, concentrating. "What did she call it? Something like metal hands-in-caps."

"Mental handicap?" That would explain some things about her.

"Oh, yeah. That’s it. So anyway, Hera did say something about getting rid of," Clara imitated a nasal voice, " ‘the excess baggage tomorrow’." She looked up at him, brows furrowed. "But I don’t think we have any luggage but that stuff in the attic, and Daddy always says we need more for all his clothes. Do you know what she was talking about?"

X wasn’t sure he understood either. His experience in the real world so far was more limited towards brute strength, not subtly. "Er, no."

She shrugged, "It doesn’t matter. I’ll walk back home tonight after playing, and then Daddy can tell me." Clara dropped the dolls and jumped up, clapping her hands. "Oh! Can we go swimming?" she asked excitedly, looking up at him hopefully.

"Why?" X didn’t know why she would want to. He never had.

" ‘Cause it’s fun, and Mommy always said that I could go swimming if there was an adult watching me." She grabbed his hand and tugged, "C’mon!"

X laughed as Clara dove under the waves and tried to push his legs out from under him. She rose to the surface, gulped in air, and went under to try again. He didn’t budge.

In the last 3 hours, he had learned just how much fun acting like a kid was. He liked doing things with her more than anything he had ever done. Clara had an innocence around her that relaxed him, and her strange comments and actions intrigued him. She baited him into her little games with the dolls, and was still determinedly trying to topple him over into the water.

"It’s not fair," she complained, finally giving up and wading onto shore, "You’re bigger than I am." She scooped up Jib from the beach.

X glanced down at himself, amused. "Am I? I hadn’t noticed," he said a bit sarcastically. From the way she good-naturedly pushed him around, he hadn’t thought she had noticed at all.

Clara dried her blue face off on Jib. Her voice was muffled, "Well, you should have." She peered up at him when another laugh escaped him, "What?" Then her eyes looked beyond him, and she gasped. "Oh, it’s so pretty!" she whispered, pointing behind him.

"Hmm?" X turned around. The setting sun blazed across the ocean, little clouds showing gold against the reds, oranges, and purples. "Oh." It was kind of pretty, but he found Clara’s face more interesting as she gazed at it.

Her eyes were opened wide, and she was smiling softly. Her blue skin almost glowed. X sat down beside her as she plopped to the ground, and they both watched the sun slowly sink.

"Did you know that if you sing nicely enough to a sunset, and you make a wish, the wish might come true at sunrise? Mommy told me that."

Clara’s eyes were shining when X looked at her. The idea made no sense to him, but what did he know? Maybe it was true.

She sniffed, and held Jib close. "Me and Mommy always sang every evening." She looked up at him, and he saw a tear trail down her cheek. "Do you think if I sing good enough I can see Mommy again?"

He shrugged awkwardly, "It’s worth a try, I suppose."

She nodded, then fumbled with Jib. The floppy animal doll’s back pulled apart, revealing some circuitry, and she held it up towards him. "Do you know how to work this? Mommy made it for me. She said that I should record really important stuff on it, but I don’t know how to turn it on."

He took it from her, and studied it. It was fairly simple. "Yeah, I can turn it on. You want me to turn it on now?"

"Yes, please."

X flicked the switch, and almost dropped the doll when Clara started singing. He had never heard anything like it. It flowed around him, hopeful, wistful, longing. He just sat there, stunned, while she made her wish. He didn’t understand a word she said, but he could almost feel the power of her wish inside of himself. X usually craved for other people’s pain, but the hunger in him that fed on other’s fear simply drank in her love, and was silent.

It took a few minutes for him to realize she was done. "That was...beautiful, Clara," he whispered.

"I have to go home now," she said softly. "Daddy will be looking for me."

She held out her hands for Jib, and kissed the doll. Then she held the floppy animal back out to him, "Can you please put Jib back in my hollow, X? Daddy doesn’t like him in the house, so I keep him out here."

He nodded, "Yeah." X watched her turn and walked down the beach.

She hesitated, and looked back. "X? I had fun today. Will you be here tomorrow?"

"Definitely."

She smiled, "Then I’ll come back in the morning. Maybe Mommy will be with me." And she skipped away.

X looked up at the sun worriedly. It was past noon, and Clara wasn’t here. He shifted uncomfortably, not used to waiting for anything.

Finally he decided to go look for her. On his way down the beach he scooped up Jib and put the doll in one of his empty subspace compartments.

X gazed up at the house, impressed. Whatever Clara’s parents did for a living must have good pay. The house sat on the top of a small cliff overlooking the ocean. A steep, narrow path wound up to it along the cliff face. Something lay at the bottom of it. Something blue.

"Clara!" he screamed, running forward. X skidded to a stop next to her. She didn’t move. "Clara?"

He had killed enough people to know when someone was dead, but he didn’t want to accept that. X lifted her into his arms, and desperately searched for any sign of life in her.

There was none, but from the cuts and bruises all over her he figured out that she must have fallen from the path. Her body was cold and stiff. The accident must have happened last night. Maybe her wish had come true, and she had seen her mommy with the sunrise.

Accident. Excess baggage. Clara’s voice telling him about her mommy’s murder. Something clicked behind X’s eyes, the final piece of a puzzle falling into place.

X gently set Clara’s body down, and looked up the path murderously.

It was done. Their deaths had been quick, but X had been too angry to take his time.

X looked down at Clara’s hollow between the dunes. It didn’t look the same as he had found it anymore. He had disturbed the ground too much when he had dug her grave. He placed her toys carefully around the churned earth, but it still didn’t look right for the carefree child.

A sad smile crossed his face, and he knelt down. Scooping the sand together in a pile, he went to work.

X walked away from the grave.

A clumsy sandcastle stood in the hollow, a silent mark of his one afternoon of a childhood and friendship. Clara’s only tombstone.

THE BEAST WARS-

Rampage silently looked at the forgotten object he had pulled from a subspace compartment. The floppy animal doll stared back.

He sat on the sand of a beach, and watched the sun setting. Remembering something, he flipped the doll over and examined the small piece of equipment set in the back of it. He hit a button.

A child’s voice sang into the still air.

Rampage’s hands trembled as he held Jib the Doll. The memories were bittersweet in his mind, and a single tear slid out of his eye as the song ended. He knew it wasn’t true that it would work like Clara had told him, but he made a wish anyway. All Rampage wanted was the chance to say goodbye to his friend.

Depth Charge burst out of the water in front of him, yelling, "X!" The Maximal launched a grenade disk that hit Rampage’s hands, sending Jib flying. He didn’t see where the doll landed.

Rampage was immediately ready to fight, but when the rest of the Maximals arrived he was forced to retreat. He took his anger at losing Jib out on them, causing as much damage as possible before going.

Depth Charge picked up the singed doll gingerly. Rampage had been holding it, so it probably had a bomb or something in it. He couldn’t imagine why that cold-blooded killer would want with a floppy animal toy otherwise.

His finger brushed a hidden button in the doll’s back, and a pretty song filled the air. Depth Charge stared at the toy in surprise.

When the singing was finished, he shrugged and shoved it in a subspace compartment. Later he forgot about it.

Rampage stood on another beach, watching the sun rise. He had gone back and searched the battlesite, but he hadn’t found Jib. His only momento of his only friend was gone.

He thought of his wish as he looked at the sun. With a sad sigh, he whispered, "Goodbye, Clara."

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