29.April.06

The Beginning

By: Sinead  

~< Part Eight >~

“Gimme you’re best shot!”

“If I did, I’d kill you!”

“Oh, yeah?”

“So, you want death, eh?”

“No, I just want to be challenged, is all!”

“Hah! If fighting me isn’t already a challenge!”

“You’re sure right, it isn’t!”

Such were the words of Awn’néad and Steele, delivering and parrying blows that could kill another instantly if they had not been extremely careful. Altaire shouted encouragement from the sidelines, but didn’t engage in the action. It had been seven months since Awn’néad’s shoulder had been injured and Electra was excommunicated. The first hindrance, Awn’néad’s shoulder, had healed correctly, and actually, quite quickly. However, she was only now just getting back into training with her armor on. Her chain-mail had been repaired under Steele’s firm yet merciful eye, and her shoulder-plate looked as if nothing had happened to it in years.

“Will the warriors Awn’néad, Altaire, and Steele please report to the CR chamber room, immediately.”

“Slag,” Steele snarled, and took off his helmet. He had been enjoying this session quite a bit.

Awn’néad did the same and sheathed her sword in the new scabbard that had been presented to her on the eleventh anniversary of the Protoform ‘X’ incident. They walked into the CR chamber room, and saw bots lounging around in R pools, and one walking unsteadily out of a CR chamber, holding onto a comrade’s arms as he tried to regain his balance.

“Awn!” a vaguely familiar voice called.

Awn’néad turned, and saw Raynah standing in the doorway with her mother and a brown-haired lady with a light-brown-haired boy around their age standing slightly behind her.

“Woah. Seriously nice armor.”

“Ray! What ’re you doing here?” Awn’néad replied, walking over to her friend, smiling from ear to ear. Kristine embraced the girl firmly, ruffling the hair that fell in wisps around her face. She nodded to the new woman in respect, who smiled, and nodded back.

“I was in the neighborhood, so I decided to drop in. Who’s- oops! I didn’t recognize Steele and Altaire in their battle armor. I thought that you had got a couple new Guardians.”

“Don’t worry about it, everyone does that. Do you have a place to stay?”

“Naw, I’m just here for the day, and then I’m off to visit my and Mom’s Guardians’ families on the other side of Cybertron. Can we watch you fight?”

Awn’néad laughed, directed Raynah to the audience stands, and walked back with Steele and Altaire into their arena. Awn’néad donned her helmet, and pointed over her shoulder. Altaire walked over to her, and said into her ear, “Lucky guess, huh?”

Steele walked over to the edge, and then yelled for the fight to begin.

Altaire instantly became a greenish blur, flipping over Awn’néad’s head. Awn’néad expected this, and leaped in the opposite direction, and whirled, facing Altaire. The two circled, and then Awn’néad surprised Altaire, circling in close and thrusting with her shield, instead of with her sword, as one would expect.

Altaire struck Awn’néad’s shield, scrapping it. And so was her own. Awn’néad’s whole idea was to take Altaire’s shield out. And apparently it worked, for Altaire threw her shield down, and thrust her sword predictably at Awn’néad. The human child dodged it, and struck out at Altaire. Altaire had barely enough tine to react, and raised her sword to parry the blow with a blood-chilling cry.

Awn’néad leapt back, then the two started circling again. This time, Altaire was the one who broke the circle. She rushed at Awn’néad, and managed to strike a blow at Awn’néad’s right arm. Her arm went slightly numb, but Awn’néad covered it with a sweeping movement with her sword, catching Altaire on her left arm.

Altaire immediately reciprocated with a blow that almost knocked Awn’néad senseless, had she let it come in contact with her head.

“Armistice!” Altaire called, and took off her helmet

“Agreed,” Awn’néad replied, and bowed to Altaire, their eyes locked, in case either one would try something, as some combatants would do  in order to try to steal victory.

Cheers broke out, and the two beings looked up  and smiled. Not only was Raynah and her family there, but most of the combatants and all of Awn’néad’s remaining Guardians, too. Awn’néad and Altaire raised their swords in a warrior’s tribute  and bowed, amazed that she and Altaire were seen, and not have noticed it.

“Great moves!” Cyclone said later, after Awn’néad had cleaned up, and was back at the stilted house.

Awn’néad laughed, and replied, “It took me two weeks to figure out how to get someone to call Armistice. Go for the unexpected, is really my goal.”

“And unexpected it certainly was,” Steele said. “I have never seen another move like that one. Thrusting with the bottom-most edge of the shield . . . it’s not usually what someone would expect. You’d usually get the shield full-on, or just the top, or even just the sides.”

“And,” Awn’néad said, grinning. “It’s legal, too.”

“Are you serious?”

“Dead serious.”

Steele sat back in his chair, and shook his head in amazement. Awn’néad looked at Altaire, who said, “Just because you invented a decent move, that doesn’t get you out from your test tomorrow.”

“Aww,” Awn’néad said, sniffing as if she would break into tears any moment.

“Stop it.”

Awn’néad sniffed again.

“Please stop.”

Again, the emerald-eyed young warrior sniffed teasingly.

“Awn’néad,” Stormblend called into the room. “Are you coming down with a cold again?”

Altaire, Awn’néad, and Cyclone laughed, while Steele allowed a rare half-smile slip out.

Later that night as Steele returned to his apartment for a weekend off, he saw Depth Charge there before him. The older once-Guardian was about to knock on the door when he had seen Steele step off of the elevator. Before either could say anything, Rogueslash opened the door in a flash and wrapped her arms around Depth Charge’s waist, having to leap up to do so. His optics smiled down at her, and he picked her up before calling down to Steele on their usual private frequency, “How did training go?”

“She’s getting much better,” Steele replied as Korona ran out to wrap her arms around her brother’s waist, laughing and smiling. The older Predacon said, “She beat Altaire today.”

“That so?” the Maximal asked, entering the apartment and setting Rogueslash back at the table, where she had obviously been doing homework. “How’s your job coming along?”

Korona insisted upon wrestling with Steele, who simply caught her in a hold while he replied, “Barely faring. Primus knows that I’m just barely juggling things lately.”

“Bro, let Kor up. She’s suffocating.”

Steele looked down, then released his sister, only to be tackled and sat upon. “Primus knows why I let you live anymore, Steele! You’re never home!”

“Because I’m earning most of the money that’s giving you lessons in my father’s style, and sending Rogueslash to a better school!” Steele replied, standing up easily.

Depth Charge laughed, and said, “You two are genuinely spoiled. Oh, and by the way, would you know if Awn’néad has met Bladestar yet?”

“Three times, actually. He’s been bragging about it. And of those three duels, she’s beaten him twice.”

“Slaggit, but her trainer has taught her better than Titan taught me!” the landlord said, walking past the door. He peeked in. “Good to see you, Depth Charge.”

Depth Charge nodded at the other Maximal, and the door closed. Steele indicated a second set of research materials, and Korona sighed, then set into her homework, while the two bots sat and talked on a secure private frequency. “I heard about Electra.”

“Commonplace treachery. I hate it,” Steele growled. “Primus, I might change my faction, if slag like this continues. Matrix knows . . .”

“Someone might point fingers at the Predacon Sub-Guardian for all this misfortune,” Depth Charge agreed.

“What the slag do these Maximals think; that the daughter of two of the greatest humans of our time will be easy to protect? I don’t slagging think so. Awn’néad is a treasure, and everyone knows that,” Steele snarled, sinking lower into his seat, glaring at his father’s friend . . . who was also his own friend, now.

Depth Charge sighed, and shook his head. “I don’t know what they think, nowadays. Awn’néad really is a treasure . . . a gem that has yet to be finished being shaped. Sometimes the public want to shape her the way they want to see her. And that’s another Sinead, to be married to another Ian, only this time, they survive.”

“Depth Charge, you . . . Primus, you know that she won’t allow that to happen. She can only be who she wants to be, and Prime’s doing a fair job of ensuring that’s what’s going to happen. Slag, she might be young, and she might be the Daughter of Sinead and Ian, but that doesn’t mean that she has to walk directly in her parent’s shoes. Primus knows that I’m not going to walk in my own parents’ shoes.”

The Maximal took a moment to think, then said, “You’re already walking in your father’s shoes, almost. Except . . . you have a slightly different pace.” He changed the subject. “Are you going to tell Korona that you’re full siblings with her? And who Rogueslash’s father is?”

“No. I can’t, yet. They need to be hidden for a while more. They also need to stay ignorant of a few things until they’re older.”

“Korona’s voice, though, is going to be almost like your mother’s, with a hint from her father. But we’re not mentioning that you and she have the same optics, inherited from your father,” Depth Charge let out a sardonic chuckle. “Maybe she’ll have a better attitude than you and Titan. You never know. Miracles happen.”

Steele snorted and made a face, causing the two sisters to look at him blandly, then go back to studying. They were used to their brother having private conversations with their benefactor. Depth Charge watched Steele, then said, “You’re planning to go ahead with that plan of yours.”

“I can’t keep the girls with me. Watching over Awn’néad is getting more and more hazardous, and I don’t want them hurt. I would . . . by the Pit, I would die if something happened to either of them or Awn’néad.”

“I’ll place them at my house as soon as they want to move. They’ll be safe there, I promise.”

Steele nodded, and the matter was settled.

Depth Charge was off on a serious errand for the Elders yet again. Steele was with Awn’néad, doing a late-night training session since she had been tested in her studies all day by Stormblend. Korona and Rogueslash were resting at Depth Charge’s house, which seemed much too large for him alone. But when they asked him, he merely said that he lived here for the memories that he had made here over all the years he had spent in the house.

Korona was in the large, open room that Depth Charge had cleared for them to use for practicing, while Rogueslash was sneaking into a room that she knew she should have left alone. She opened the door, and let the light filter in. Turning a light in the room on, she saw a chamber that looked like it belonged to a human. Pictures and posters from a generation before hers lined the walls, as well as framed pictures of a flame-haired girl . . . with blue eyes. She picked one up, of a girl younger than Awn’néad, sitting in an openly smiling Depth Charge’s arms. Rogueslash wondered what accident had hurt their large benefactor so badly that he had to breathe purified air. She placed the picture back down carefully, and looked at the others. Sinead was older in these ones, and Rogueslash noticed that around the age of twelve, roughly, a Japanese boy stopped appearing in the pictures. Something moved out of the corner of her eye, and her head snapped to look at the door, where Depth Charge was watching her.

Swallowing, she awaited the lecture as he entered the room and looked over her shoulder at the picture of three kids: Sinead, Ian, and the Japanese boy. Depth Charge sighed, and said, “Toshihiro was his name. Not many people remember him, but my wife . . . was his Guardian. Phoenix tried raising him well, but he was older than Sinead and Ian, and clung to his past with a death-grip.”

“Was this her . . . Sinead’s room?”

“Yes.”

Rogueslash didn’t know what to say. Depth Charge sighed, and rested his hand upon her shoulder, then reached under a bed, and pulled out a dusty album. “Here. Go through this.” He chuckled at her shocked look, then said, “It’ll help you understand both Sinead and her daughter a bit.”

“But–”

Depth Charge just looked at the Predacon girl, who blinked at him. “Why don’t you visit Awn’néad as much as you visited us? And now you’re letting us live with you.”

The Maximal sat upon the bed, glad that he had reinforced it all those years before, just so that whenever Sinead had woken up from a nightmare he’d be able to sit next to her while she fell back asleep again. He sighed, and said, “She reminds me too much of her mother.”

“But she’s nothing like her mom, from what I’ve heard of her.”

“But by looks alone, she’s her mother’s spitting image. With the exception of her eyes. It’s hard for me to see her without thinking of Sinead.”

Rogueslash opened the album, seeing a picture of a small girl clinging onto Depth Charge’s legs, peering distrustfully at those around her. The Maximal sighed. “She was seven. Something went wrong with the shuttle that was taking her and her family here, causing it to crash. Her mother, father, and brother were killed.”

“Was this the day you met her?”

“Yeah.” Depth Charge chuckled, and smiled beneath his mask. “Sinead was a wild tyrant when she was a child, and hardly seemed tameable. I trained her out of that over a few years, although she never lost her ferocity.”

“She had another outlet for it. Swordfighting.”

“Yes.”

“Who taught her? It never says.”

Depth Charge brooded over the question for a moment, trying to find an answer that would satisfy her, while she flipped the pages of the album idly. Finally, he came to a solution. “He was a bot born without a faction, which was a wonderful thing all in itself. He taught Sinead more about trusting someone because of their personality, instead of trusting merely their faction, than I ever could dream of.”

“He was half-Predacon, half-Maximal? Is that what you’re saying?”

“Yes.”

Rogueslash grinned. “That’s cool.” Her face fell, as she saw a picture of Sinead with the bot Depth Charge was talking about, actually in the middle of a training duel. She brushed her fingertips over the picture gently, and whispered, “That’s Steele . . .”

“No. That’s Steele’s father.”

“Steele’s father taught Sinead?!”

“And well enough that she’s defended herself many times, thanks to him.”

Rogueslash reached the end of the album, and handed it to Depth Charge, who handed her another. She grinned and started flipping through it. “How many albums are there?”

“Seven. Eight? Eight. Primus, I’m losing my mind.”

Rogueslash laughed, and looked up at the Maximal. “Why did Steele send us to live with you?”

“Because you wouldn’t have been safe where you were.”

“Why? What does he do when he’s not home?”

“His job, Rogueslash, and that’s all that you need to know for now.”

“But Depth Charge–”

“Rogueslash, don’t press the matter. You’ll learn when you’re a little older, I promise you.”

The younger Cybertronian sighed, then nodded, and continued looking at the album. There were so many pictures . . . all of a girl who grew steadily from the sulky, limp-haired terror into a smiling, square-shouldered beautiful young woman who was always grinning into a camera, turning an unsuspecting friend to look at who was taking the “surprise” picture. Rogueslash had to laugh when she saw a picture of Steele’s father looking at the camera with a confused, surprised look that Steele always mirrored when Korona said something unexpected. Depth Charge looked over her shoulder, and then smirked. “Primus, but that bot was never prepared to pose for a camera. Now there, Ian, he always had a habit of turning and smiling at the same time.”

The Predacon smiled gently, at a particularly beautiful picture of Sinead and Ian, the setting sun to their left, while Ian was turning to his right, and Sinead was smiling around him, her hair a flaming red in the light. Ian’s normally gold-blond hair was stained a strawberry blond color, and his emerald green eyes sparkled with mirth. The next picture showed what they were laughing at.

“By the Pit . . . is that Stormblend?”

“Yes.”

“Who’s the kid holding onto his leg?”

“Steele.”

“Nuh-uh!”

“I’m serious. Look at those optics. He was a slagging terror. Still is.”

Rogueslash yawned, and Depth Charge plucked the picture album from her hands, setting it upon the bed, then picking her up. “You’re getting to bed.”

“Aww . . .”

He chuckled, and added, “But you can come back here again tomorrow. Just please be careful in there. I . . . I haven’t touched the room in years.”

Rogueslash nodded against his shoulder, and sighed, falling asleep.

Depth Charge smiled at her back, then rested her upon her bed before turning the light off and walking back to Sinead’s room. He had told Korona to get to bed before he had come upstairs to Sinead’s room, so he had the night to himself. As he entered the room, he saw the bed, slightly rumpled from him sitting upon it, with the open album next to the small indent. He closed the door, not wanting to disturb the girls’ sleep, and fell to his knees, holding his head in his hands, weeping brokenly at his loss . . . at the woman he raised and loved. He wept tearlessly that he couldn’t face Awn’néad as much as he wished he could, because this was always happened after he met the daughter of Sinead and Ian. He would sob at how he couldn’t have saved her mother, at how he couldn’t have prevented this from happening.

How he had lost the second love of his life.

Korona watched from the crack of the door as he straightened slightly, no longer holding his head in his hands, but instead kneeling, shoulders slumped forward, hands tucked between his knees, and taking in deep, shaking breaths. No matter what he did, he couldn’t face Awn’néad, and he feared that he would never be able to be comfortable around her. Sinead said that this would happen. Why didn’t he believe her? Why didn’t he allow her to be right?! He wanted to love Awn’néad, he wanted to be everything to her that Ian had been. He wanted to be to Awn’néad what he should have been to Sinead: a father. He tried, with Shyn, but she turned to love him almost like a brother, but more like a lover.

It wasn’t fair!

It just wasn’t fair . . .

“Sinead, why didn’t you leave Rugby? Why didn’t you just leave and hide? You’d still be alive, and your daughter . . . your daughter would have you and Ian . . . she wouldn’t have to guess at who Ian’s Guardian is. Everyone knows why she doesn’t want to be known to Awn’néad. She would be doing what I’m doing.”

Deep in his Spark, he heard, “I love you.”

He shook with sobs again, hearing, “Don’t cry. Talk to me.”

“You’re dead.”

“Not in your mind. Never in your soul. Charge . . . I can’t talk to Awn like this . . . only to Cybertronians.”

“But Sinead . . .”

“Talk to me.”

He sighed, and moved so that he could rest his head upon the side of the bed, calming his breathing. Crying hurt more than ever.

Korona’s optics widened as a shadow materialized to sit beside Depth Charge, resting a cool hand upon the back of his neck; resting it there gently. She looked directly at Korona, revealing deep blue eyes and copper hair. Korona swallowed nervously, but the representation of the angel Sinead smiled, and said privately to her, “Go to bed. I’ll watch over him tonight.”

“But he’s hurting.”

“I know. I’ll take care of it. But I’d wake up early tomorrow and fix him something, if I were you. Have your sister help you. It’s . . . it’s what I used to do for him if I had done something stupid the day before. He’ll appreciate it. He’ll appreciate the symbolism.”

Korona nodded, smiled once, and then walked off to bed, strangely satisfied with who Sinead still was. Awn’néad couldn’t compare. The girl simply couldn’t, unless she proves herself to be as capable as her mother. And Korona wouldn’t settle for anything less than Awn’néad’s absolute best.

Sinead chuckled, and said, “Titan’s daughter certainly is a fierce brat, isn’t she?”

Depth Charge looked up at the hologram, then sighed, and nodded. “How are you here?”

“The Oracle. It knew that you were hurting, and it let me come for a short time.”

“Primus, Sinead . . .”

“Close your eyes.” He did, and she rested his head upon her lap, tracing invisible lines upon his face, and humming to herself as she did so. “I miss you, love.”

“Primus, if you only knew of the hole you left behind . . . why didn’t you let your consciousness be downloaded while you were healed?”

“It would have hurt much more. And I already told you that my work was done here. It’s up to my little girl . . . who isn’t as little anymore.”

“I wish you were still here.”

“I know, Charge, I know. I wish that I were there as well. But it isn’t my place.”

“Sinead . . .”

“Hush, love, please. I’ll stay with you and guard your dreams tonight. Awn’néad will be fine.”

Depth Charge looked up at her, then whispered, “You’ve been watching over her dreams?”

Sinead smiled, resting her palm against Depth Charge’s cheek. “She hurts as much as you do. And trust that whenever you visit her, I’m with you, in your Spark with you, helping you be strong until you can rely upon your own strength to handle her.” She raised the Maximal’s head up so that she could kiss his forehead. “And sleep. I’m here.”

Sighing and settling his arms around Sinead’s back, Depth Charge did just that, only to wake up the next morning to a full breakfast feast waiting for him alone. Korona even chased Rogueslash away from the food until the Maximal came down. Not for the first time did Depth Charge mentally thank Steele for entrusting him with his sisters. They night be a handful, but having them around to ease his loneliness was certainly worth it.

Click here for part 9