Lightning flashed brilliantly overhead, giving Rattrap the brief glimpse he needed to pick off the hovering Waspinator. "Hurry up over there!" he called over his shoulder.
"I'm trying," Rhinox replied in frustration, bent over the control panel of the recently crashed stasis pod. "I don't know what Tarantulas was trying to do, but it's not helping me out any." He gave the pod a kick, hoping to get rid of the persistent error messages.
The pod's computer bleeped gently. "Suitable life form found," it announced. "Replication complete."
Rhinox shook his head in bewilderment. "Huh. Must've scanned before we got here," he muttered, giving the pod's cover a shove to get it all the way up.
Within huddled a hummingbird, somewhat smaller even than Rattrap. Her brown feathers glinted with hints of green when the lightning was bright enough to see by, and the way she sprawled clearly indicated unconsciousness.
"I've got the protoform," he called to Rattrap, scooping the small bird up in one arm. "Let's get out of here."
"No argument here," Rattrap replied, backing away as he fired at the damaged spider. Waspinator's pieces decorated a nearby tree.
Tarantulas continued to fire at the retreating Maximals, but he made no move to follow. If he'd had any luck at all, the protoform would be of no use to them...and he was far more interested in the pod itself.
At the Maximal base, Rattrap waited anxiously for the hummingbird to awaken. Rhinox had assured him that she wasn't seriously damaged, but her prolonged unconsciousness was worrisome, especially since they didn't know what Tarantulas had done to the pod.
The newcomer lay on a diagnostic table in robot mode. She lacked any symbols to show which side she was on, but Rhinox hadn't given Tarantulas the chance to reprogram her into a Predacon--they all hoped. Her predominant color scheme was brown, but an almost metallic green glistened through when the light was at the right angle. Soft, downy brown feathers framed her face and fell far past her shoulders.
Slowly, her optics came online, revealing their unusual dark blue color. They widened in shock as she caught sight of Rattrap, and pushed herself into a sitting position. "Who and what are you?!" she gasped.
"Eh, I'm Rattrap. A Maximal," he replied, a little startled at her violent reaction just at seeing him. "What's your name?"
The newcomer slowly shook her head. "I'm insane. It's the only explanation for...for this."
"I'd prefer not ta call you that, if you've got a name," Rattrap said.
Those blue optics were still staring at him. "Call me Dawn. I guess...since I'm here...that's probably the best name."
"What exactly is it you're finding so hard to accept about being here?" inquired Rattrap.
"Well--well--" Dawn gestured uselessly. "You're...a robot. You said your name's Rattrap?"
He nodded. "Hate to break it to you, but you're a robot too," he told her.
"What?" Dawn looked down at her hands, reached up to feel her feathery hair, and stopped, stunned. "But I can't be! I'm a human!"
Rattrap silently shook his head. Maybe the hummingbird's first introduction had been right.
Dawn looked at him. "Rattrap, I want to go home!" She buried her face in her hands, and curled up onto the hard bed. "It's a dream, it has to be," she said quietly. "I'll just..."
Rattrap waited for her to finish the sentence, but she was unconscious again. He sighed. Something was wrong with this little hummingbird, and he hoped Rhinox could figure out what it was. She really seemed pretty nice, and she was one of the few bots he'd met who was shorter than he was.
She came awake in a sterile room, and the first thought through her mind was, Have I been captured?
She tried to concentrate on that. Captured by who? Had she been fighting? But the details danced teasingly away from her.
Predacons. They were the enemy, she was almost positive. And she was a...a Maximal. Her name...Zephyr. That much she was sure of.
She activated her silver optics, and looked around, trying to get a better feel of her surroundings. Only one other person was in the room, a metallic red bot whose beast mode seemed to be some sort of rodent.
Her weapons were active, she sensed, and the next instant she had leaped off the table and had her short-range laser at the other's head. "Who are you and where am I?" she asked.
"Hold it a second!" the unfamiliar bot said. "Like I said, I'm Rattrap, a Maximal, and there's no call to go pointing weapons at me, Dawn!"
She hesitated. He hadn't made any hostile moves...she retracted the wrist laser, and retreated. "Three things you should know. I've never seen you before in my life, I don't know anybody called Dawn, and my name is Zephyr."
Rattrap turned to her, a puzzled _expression on his face. "But you just said--" he began, and probably he finished the sentence, but Zephyr didn't hear the rest. Darkness came up in a wave, and she fell into it...again.
Rattrap looked in worry at the hummingbird. Now she'd apparently had a name change, and claimed not to remember anything of their previous conversation. And he'd noticed something else--her optics had changed color, from the strange blue to a slightly more common silver.
He activated his comlink. "Rattrap to Rhinox. You gone over that hummingbird's schematics yet? 'Cause she's actin' even weirder now."
"It's very odd. There are three distinctly different sets of programming," Rhinox told Optimus. "One shows similarities to human brainwaves, and the other two are Cybertronian. One of those appears to be Maximal. The third hasn't made an appearance yet, as far as we know. Rattrap is keeping an eye on the protoform. She doesn't seem to be much of a danger, but it's possible that this is the result of some attempted reprogramming by Tarantulas, so we'd better be careful."
"Once you know what's wrong, do you think you'll be able to fix it?" Optimus inquired.
Rhinox shook his head slightly. "No way to tell yet. But I'll keep you updated."
"I'd appreciate that. In the meantime, I'll let everyone know what's happened."
Rattrap was beginning to drowse off when the hummingbird came awake again. This time there was no warning. The small bot had scarcely begun to move when she yanked out a gun that seemed somewhat more powerful than the laser she'd had previously, and aimed it unwaveringly at Rattrap.
Great, Rattrap thought, she's changed again. He looked at her optics. They were neither blue nor silver now, but an ominous red. "Who're you?"
"Quiet, Maximal," the little bot said threateningly. "Show me the way out of here, or I'll just get rid of you now."
That more or less answered the question of which side she was on now. "Don't get upset," Rattrap said, raising his hands placatingly. "I just wanted ta know yer name."
"Duskwind," she said warily. "Which way? If we run into any other Maximals, you're slagged, you understand."
"Ya gotta go through the bridge ta get outside, and someone's always there," Rattrap replied evasively.
"Then show me where the nearest outside wall is, and I'll let you go," Duskwind directed. "No tricks, Maximal." She gestured to the closed door with her free hand. "After you."
Rattrap led the way out of the room, searching for a way to let the others know about his predicament. If this Predacon was like most, he was in trouble as soon as he was no longer of use to her. But Rhinox had gone to tell Optimus about the protoform, Cheetor was off duty in his quarters, and everyone else was out on patrol. He was on his own.
Still, if this time was like the other two, Duskwind would be unconscious again before long. Then he could take her back to the med room and let Rhinox know about this latest change.
As they came closer to the outside hull of the ship, however, the hummingbird showed no sign of falling unconscious. Rattrap considered leading her around in circles, but she stopped as soon as they reached the hull. "Thanks ever so much for your cooperation," Duskwind told him. "You might want to get out of the way. Oh. One thing." She reached around and disabled his comlink.
A little surprised at his good luck, Rattrap backed away from her. The gun still aimed at him, Duskwind pulled out an explosive, and set it on the wall. Rattrap went faster. She must be crazy to set an explosive off without getting away first!
The detonation was oddly muted when it happened, seconds after Rattrap was out of sight. He risked a quick look around the corner. He'd led her to a part of the hull above the waterfall, but Duskwind transformed to her beast mode and flew away rapidly, apparently undamaged. Rattrap shook his head. The force of the explosive must have been directed at the outside of the ship--something that took quite a bit of expertise. He wouldn't have wanted to stand right next to one like that, even if he'd altered it himself.
He turned again to run to the bridge. Optimus and Rhinox were probably getting a little worried about the explosion.
Duskwind landed just out of sight of the Maximal base. Now that she was away from any immediate danger from the Maximals, she had to think things over. She didn't know where she was, or how she'd gotten there. She knew she was a Predacon and that Maximals were the enemy, but nothing else.
To make things worse, Duskwind was feeling awfully shaky for some reason. Her self-diagnostics didn't report any damage, but the shakiness wouldn't go away.
The world around her seemed strangely blurry. There was a soft voice saying something in the back of her mind. Duskwind tried to listen to it, but it was hard for her to concentrate on anything.
The hummingbird slumped to the stony ground, unconscious.
Zephyr opened her eyes, confused. What was going on? She had been inside the Maximal base, and now she was outside on a rocky plain, with nothing in sight.
'I suppose it's my fault for not expecting it,' a voice mused. Zephyr stiffened and looked behind her, but no one was there.
'You can't see me. Or you can. We're more or less the same person,' the voice told her. 'I've had a while to figure it out, since I was the first to wake up. No need to reply out loud.'
'What's happened?' Zephyr thought tentatively, wondering if she was going insane. 'Who are you?'
An image Zephyr hadn't thought of flashed through her mind, of a young human girl with long brown hair, her features rather like Zephyr's own. 'I'm Dawn, and I wish I knew what happened. What's your name?'
'Zephyr,' the Maximal replied. 'How did I get out here?'
'I'm pretty sure that was the third member of our little group. She ought to be joining us any time now,' Dawn said. 'This is going to be a problem.'
Zephyr managed a mirthless laugh, half aloud and half silently. 'You're a voice in my head and you're telling me it'll be a problem.'
'I'm not just a voice. No more than you are, in any case. But it's not that, exactly. It's just that from what I've seen so far, the third one of us is a Predacon.' A silent sigh echoed through Zephyr's mind. 'And you're a Maximal. Talk about personality conflict.'
'But...you aren't real, right?' asked Zephyr, a little afraid. 'You and she, whoever she is, you're just illusions, or something?'
Dawn laughed, aloud, with Zephyr's mouth. For an instant, Zephyr was banished to the background, unable to do anything. 'Cut that out!' she ordered, frightened.
Dawn retreated again immediately. 'Sorry,' she said apologetically. 'I'm not used to this yet. I'll stay out of your way--you have more right to be in control than I do, here--but the other is from here as well, so she'll probably want control. All three of us are real. And we have to come to some sort of understanding, or we'll just be fighting one another for control all the time.'
'How's this for an understanding? Take your Predacon and get out of my mind!'
Zephyr caught an image of the human girl shaking her head. 'I have no control over you or her. As I said, I won't talk if you don't want me to, but I'm afraid it won't be so easy to get the Predacon to do the same. She has as much right to be here as you do. If you change your mind, call me.' And the sense of Dawn's presence faded.
Zephyr frowned. If Dawn was right, she shouldn't go back to the Maximal base yet--not that she knew where that was. Of course, Dawn couldn't be right. She couldn't even be real. But still…
The Maximal settled down near a rock, and waited for any other strange voices.
Duskwind came awake slowly. She opened her eyes, wondering why she'd fallen unconscious, and started a self-diagnostic.
"No damage," her internal computer finally reported, and Duskwind started to get up--only to find that she was unable to move. What's going on? she wondered.
Then she half-heard another mind/voice think, 'So Dawn was right after all.' There was an undertone of resignation to the thought. Then the voice continued, 'I'm Zephyr. Who are you?'
'Duskwind,' the Predacon replied cautiously. 'Who's Dawn?'
'The third one of us. She can explain this better than I can.' In the back of her mind, Duskwind heard Zephyr call for the other.
'Do you believe me now?' The soft voice sounded slightly amused, and it was accompanied by the image of a small human girl. Now that she thought of it, Duskwind had had an impression of a short green-brown bot when Zephyr spoke, though not as vivid as Dawn's representation. She wondered absently if she was broadcasting her own image to the other two.
'You are, but don't worry.' Dawn again. 'It's just like someone's voice--a way we can tell who's talking. Anyway, you and Zephyr don't seem to have very clear ideas who you are.'
'Zephyr said you would explain what happened.'
'Yes. I'll do the best I can, seeing as I don't know all of what happened. It seems to me that the three of us will have to find some way to share control. If you two start fighting, I'll take control,' Dawn warned. 'Don't think I can't do it.'
Duskwind heard an unhappy agreement from Zephyr, so she said, 'That makes sense.'
'All right then. None of us is any more real than the others. I'm a human--or I was,' Dawn corrected herself. 'Duskwind is a Predacon. Zephyr is a Maximal.'
A Maximal! Duskwind might have pulled out a gun except for the fact that she had no target, and still couldn't move besides. 'Then this is all a Maximal trick,' she growled. 'What am I, an experiment? Is any of this real?'
'I think I can assure you that the Maximals didn't do this. Neither did the Predacons. But whether or not any of this is real...now, there's an interesting point.'
'What do you mean?' asked Duskwind, and heard it echoed by Zephyr.
There was a quiet mental sigh. 'Believe it or not, this is all a television show where I come from.'
It wasn't exactly silence, but thoughts flew too quickly to understand. 'You're crazy,' Zephyr finally opined.
'Crazier than you two? That'd be hard to manage. But it doesn't matter. The question is, what are we going to do?'
'The Maximals would help us figure this out,' Zephyr suggested.
'Sure, they'd help you and get rid of Dawn and me. No thanks,' Duskwind disagreed.
'The Predacons probably wouldn't help at all, and if they did, it'd just be to see how this happened, and if they could use it. Not to mention that we have no idea where the Predacon base is,' the Maximal pointed out. Somehow all three knew something of the situation, perhaps leaking from Dawn's knowledge, or maybe an update from the stasis pod.
'Let's face it--you don't trust the Predacons, and I don't trust the Maximals. We aren't going to agree this way. Dawn, what do you think?' Duskwind felt more inclined to trust the supposed human than the Maximal, despite her impossible claims.
Dawn was silent for a moment, then said, 'First, we need to figure out what we're trying to do here. I assume the two of you want to be separated. I want to go home. So, how are we more likely to accomplish that? Duskwind, you have to admit that most Predacons are hardly known for keeping any promises.'
'True,' Duskwind agreed reluctantly. 'But how do I know that the Maximals would?'
'Well, you don't. But so long as you promise not to harm any of them or damage their base while you're there, I think I would trust them.'
'Maybe you would, but you're not a Predacon,' Duskwind retorted.
'What choice do we have, Duskwind?' asked Dawn. 'Do you really want to live like this for the rest of your life, sharing everything with Zephyr and I? I sure don't want to stay here. Not that the company isn't great, but I'm not sure of anything away from my books. I know them. I don't have the slightest idea what to do here.'
Duskwind let out a mental sigh. 'Okay, you're right. If the Maximals can separate the three of us, they're our best bet. But maybe one of you should take control. It'd be safer.'
'Zephyr can do it. I don't have any right to,' said Dawn. Duskwind felt the Maximal take over. They stood, and Zephyr flew into the air with the other two little more than shadows in the back of her mind.
The Maximal base over the waterfall came into view quickly. Nervous but determined, the three made for it.
"Um, Bigbot?" called Cheetor. "The scanners're picking up an unfamiliar Maximal energy signature. Looks like that protoform of Rattrap's came back again."
"Hey!" protested Rattrap. "She ain't my protoform."
Optimus smiled slightly at the continuing argument, and came over to check the readings. "It's the protoform, all right," he said to Rhinox. "Have you discovered anything else about her yet?"
The scientist shook his head glumly. "Nope. I don't know how it happened, I don't know why it happened, and I certainly don't know how we can do anything about it."
"Well, maybe you'll get another chance to figure it out. Rattrap, you and I will go out and meet her. Be careful. Remember that last personality of hers."
"I'm not gonna forget somethin' like that," muttered Rattrap as he headed for the lift, pulling out his gun. Optimus followed him.
Zephyr landed near the base, unsure. 'We don't have a comlink, do we?' she silently asked the other two.
'We might, but it wouldn't do much good, since we don't know what frequency the Maximals use,' Dawn replied. 'Let's just wait. They'll be out in a bit.'
Sure enough, before two cycles had passed, the lift descended with Rattrap and another bot inside. Both carried weapons, which weren't pointed quite at Zephyr, but made it impossible to miss the implied threat nonetheless.
Rattrap stepped forward. Zephyr thought she saw a hint of relief--at what? That she'd returned? "Glad you're back, Zephyr," he said. "Er...do you remember how you left?"
Duskwind quickly supplied that memory with a tinge of embarrassment. Zephyr nodded. "I know how it happened. But it wasn't me who did it."
"Yes, about that," the other put in, "we would like an explanation. I'm Optimus Primal, Maximal commander."
"Nice to meet you. I'm Zephyr." She paused for a moment. 'This may be confusing,' she added privately. "There are three of us, actually," Zephyr continued aloud. "I'm a Maximal, and Dawn thinks she's a human--"
'Thinks?' Dawn flared. 'I'll have you know I remember being a human perfectly well! I'm more sure of that than you are of being a Maximal!'
'Sorry!' "--and Duskwind's a Predacon," Zephyr finished hurriedly. "We've sort of agreed to a truce. None of us much like the current situation."
Optimus nodded. "So you came to us, to see if we could help you out. Well, we'll do what we can."
Zephyr smiled in gratitude. "We all promise not to do anything to your base or any Maximal as long as none of you hurt us."
"Well, that's...encouraging," Optimus muttered. "Zephyr, I'd appreciate it if you handed your weapons over to us while you're here. To prevent misunderstandings."
'I don't like this,' Duskwind muttered, but she told Zephyr where her gun and her explosives were located. Zephyr pulled them out in some perplexity. She hadn't even known they were there.
She placed them on the ground, then flicked open a small access panel on her arm and deactivated her own laser, removing the crystal that focused the energy. Dawn watched in equal bemusement, and Zephyr got the distinct feeling the human hadn't known they had any weapons at all.
"I think that's everything," she said, surveying the largish pile of explosives and wondering what other surprises would be in store for the three of them.
Rattrap blinked. "That's more'n I have," he mumbled.
'And he'd better not go messing with them, either,' Duskwind said darkly.
'Don't worry. Rattrap might want to, but he won't, not without permission from someone,' Dawn said. 'Not with us, anyway.'
'I'm not even going to ask,' the Predacon muttered.
Ignoring the conversation in the back of her mind, Zephyr continued, "I'm awfully sorry about what happened before. So's Duskwind. It was just...all three of us were awfully disoriented when we woke up."
Optimus smiled. "No harm done. Come on in."
Zephyr hesitantly returned the smile, and stepped toward the Maximals and into the lift...trying to ignore Duskwind's silent predictions of imminent treachery and death.
"So, ya find anythin' yet?" Rattrap asked Rhinox. The little hummingbird was in the CR chamber, while the Axalon's computer scanned the three's systems. A schematic hovered over the golden holotable in the center of the bridge.
"Not much," the scientist rumbled, his voice betraying frustration. "This should be impossible. But..."
"But, they're there," Rattrap completed. "Any idea how Tarantulas managed it?"
"I'm afraid not. He may just have started messing around with the programming chips, though why I don't know. Both a Maximal and a Predacon chip might have resulted in a split personality, but even that doesn't explain how Dawn appeared. The only thing I have been able to find out is that there's no way they could be working for Megatron. All three are entirely sincere, and even Dawn thinks she's telling the truth--no matter how impossible it sounds."
"And ya don't know how ta separate them."
"No."
Rattrap sighed. "They ain't gonna like that."
"Undoubtedly not," Rhinox agreed dismally. "I'm still working on it. We have the scans, though--you can go ahead and open the chamber."
Rattrap nodded and reached over to activate the door of the CR chamber. It hissed and slowly opened, giving off puffs of steam.
The bot within blinked several times in disorientation, her optics slowly clearing to a bright blue. "Rattrap?" Dawn asked. "Anything?"
"'Fraid not yet. Rhinox's got all the scans he needs for now, though, so he can keep working without you havin' ta be in that thing the whole time."
"I see." She let out a quiet sigh, then smiled at him. "What shall we do, then? I'd kinda like to see the ship. The others are still unconscious," she added in response to his unvoiced query. "It takes them a little longer to wake up."
As if Dawn was better adjusted to this situation than the other two--even though they were Cybertronian and thus should fit in better here, and she was human, or thought she was. Intriguing, to say the least. "I could probably show ya 'round a bit--though I don't think Optimus would really approve if I started giving away our secrets," he smiled.
"No, probably not," Dawn grinned back. "I promise I won't ask about your plans or your defenses or anything. How's that?"
"That'll do fine." Rattrap led her out of the bridge.
The little hummingbird was curious about almost everything, asking a good many questions about things that most Cybertronians knew already. She was especially interested in the transwarp systems for some reason, and seemed to have not the slightest idea of even the theory behind them.
He was in the midst of explaining the transwarp cells when she interrupted him with a touch on the arm, closing her blue eyes briefly. Opening them again, she said, "Zephyr's awake now. She'd like control, if that's all right with you."
"This is gonna take some gettin' used to," Rattrap muttered.
Dawn grinned ruefully. "You're telling us."
Rattrap nodded. Of course it would be strangest for the three suddenly thrown together. "Sure, why not. Er...will you still be able ta hear me, Dawn?"
"Yeah," she replied. "As long as I'm...um, awake, I'll know what's going on. If that's the right term." She shook her head. "At first we only woke one at a time, but we can all be aware at the same time now. Duskwind might wake up before too long."
Rattrap wasn't entirely sure he wanted to meet the Predacon portion of the hummingbird again. "I see."
Bright silver eyes filled with amusement met his. "Quite so."
Rattrap blinked. The changeover had been so quick he'd hardly even noticed it. "Is it hard," he asked, "sharin' your mind with a Pred?"
Zephyr shrugged. "I've more or less gotten used to it," she sighed, "seeing as I don't really have a choice. Dawn makes it easier. She's headed off or reconciled half a dozen arguments so far."
Had her attention wavered for an instant? Evidence of a comment from Dawn, perhaps? "It must've been hard to get Duskwind to come here," he said slowly, trying to understand the strange relationships between the three.
"It was. But Dawn convinced her."
Just then, a loud siren echoed through the hallway. Zephyr spun, optics wide, her arm coming up in a useless attempt to activate her disabled laser. "What's happening?" she demanded of Rattrap.
Equally startled, the Maximal rat cast a glance toward a panel on the wall. Its blinking lights told him all he needed to know. "Predacon attack," he told her grimly. "I have ta get out there. You'd best stay here."
He began to run to the bridge--only to find the hummingbird still beside him. "I want to help," she said determinedly.
"You can't! You haven't even got any of your weapons!"
"There's gotta be something we can do!" Astonishingly, it was the gentle Dawn who had spoken.
Rattrap shook his head impatiently. He had no time to deal with this when the Predacons were outside, fighting his friends! "Go to the bridge then!" he told her. "Bother someone else about it!"
She wordlessly followed him there, and stood watching as the lift lowered him out of her sight. The bridge was deserted.
'We have to do something,' Zephyr said silently.
'But he's right. We'd be more a of a liability than an advantage. The only thing we can do is stay here and watch.' Dawn directed the Maximal's attention to a monitor across the bridge, showing a view of the battle outside.
'What's going on?' a third, slightly groggy voice put in.
'The Predacons are attacking the base,' Dawn told Duskwind. 'At a guess, I'd say they're trying to find out about us. How strong we are, that sort of thing.'
'Why aren't we out there? We have to fight them!'
A flicker of surprise from the other two reached the Predacon. 'Why would you want to fight your own side?' Zephyr asked suspiciously.
'Because if we don't fight and the Maximals lose, what chance is there of our ever being separated? Besides, we promised not to harm any Maximal or their base, and isn't letting them be hurt the same as doing it ourselves?'
'There's an interesting subject for debate,' Dawn said, 'but we don't have time for it now. If we're going to help out, we need weapons, and all of yours are gone.'
All three looked at the monitor. It was obvious the Maximals were outnumbered, and Sentinel's autoguns were being picked off one by one.
'If I were a weapon, where would I be,' mused Zephyr. 'Dawn, do you have any idea?'
It was strange, Duskwind thought suddenly. The human was certainly the least experienced with any sort of battle, and unused to this form besides, so she ought to be the one with the least voice in decisions...and yet somehow both Duskwind and Zephyr found themselves constantly turning to her.
Dawn apparently was thinking the same thing, because there was a faint hint of amusement to her thought as she said, 'I'm pretty sure I can find something. C'mon.'
'I don't even want to know how you found these.'
'Good,' Dawn replied. There was a sense of uncertainty to the thought. 'I'm really not quite sure myself.'
'How do we get out?' Zephyr asked. Even now, the Predacons might be winning, the Maximals injured or killed...
It was Duskwind who supplied, 'I'd bet they haven't had time to fix that hole I blew.'
Zephyr tried to find a clue as to what Duskwind was thinking, and couldn't, her own confusion keeping them separated. 'Good point. Let's go.'
Duskwind had been right--the exit was still there, unchanged. The three leaped from the jagged opening, just barely making the edge of the cliff, not transforming for fear that the Predacons would hear the whirr of their wings. The explosions were clearly audible on the other side of the base.
On edge with anticipation and fear, the three hurried around. Zephyr felt Duskwind push for control, and pushed back. There was no way she would let the Predacon fight this battle alone, not when she might well decide to take the opportunity to go to the Predacons instead.
Dawn's sudden, almost effortless takeover shocked them both into stillness. 'We do this together,' the human said grimly. 'Together, or not at all. Zephyr, Duskwind's given her word. She'll keep it. Duskwind, you can't fight alone this time. There is no alone for us anymore.'
Both warily agreed. Dawn released the tight control she had held.
Duskwind reached for an explosive, while Zephyr readied her wrist laser, and Dawn watched and kept them from wasting time fighting one another. They rounded the last few steps.
Rattrap was trapped, a large bot who Dawn somehow identified as Megatron holding a weapon to him. The leader of the Predacons wouldn't hesitate to fire on the short Maximal.
Duskwind froze. 'The Predacon leader!' her suddenly unguarded thoughts reached the two who shared her mind. 'If I fire...I can never be on their side...What can I do? I can't let Rattrap be killed!'
Zephyr could not help. She could only agree helplessly with Duskwind's circular train of thought.
'Duskwind!' Dawn's voice cut sharply through their awareness. 'Your explosive! Now!'
It would be too late--Megatron was already beginning to fire--Zephyr let out the high-pitched trill of a hummingbird, almost painful to delicate auditory sensors, hoping it would buy enough time. Duskwind hurled the explosive, trusting Dawn's unspoken assurance that they would find a way to work it all out.
Rattrap threw himself to the side, off the lift, as Predacon shots from above tracked toward him. Returning fire in that general direction, he took a quick overview of the situation.
With Dinobot, Airazor, and Tigatron away, they were badly outnumbered. Most of the Predacons were there--Rampage held Rhinox at bay while Quickstrike took potshots at him, Waspinator and Inferno hovered above battling Optimus and generally making nuisances of themselves, and Tarantulas had Cheetor pinned down against a rock with sprays of bullets from his spider legs.
Rattrap abandoned the cover of the Axalon's side and hurried to help the cheetah, whose slim protection was fast disintegrating under the continued fire. Ducking, firing, and keeping the rocks between himself and the Predacons, he slowly worked his way there.
It didn't occur to him to wonder where Megatron was until the Predacon leader landed heavily not four feet away and lowered a gun that suddenly seemed at least twice Rattrap's size.
He desperately tried to swing his own weapon into line, knowing instinctively it would be too late--sensed the faint warmth and the hum that foreshadowed a blast--at this range there won't be enough of me left to take to a CR chamber--
--and then there was a high-pitched whistle from behind him. Megatron looked away for a split second, startled. An instant later, a tiny box Rattrap recognized flew through the air and fastened itself to Megatron.
The explosion blackened the Predacon's entire front, sending him staggering backwards in shock. Rattrap hardly felt a breeze.
Rattrap yanked his gun into position and followed up with a few close-range shots of his own. Then he turned, astonished, to meet eyes that were flickering wildly from blue, to silver, to red, and back again.
Rattrap shook his head in bemusement and turned back to the fight, hoping the three would have sense enough to get out of sight before one of the Preds caught sight of them--and hoping that Duskwind wouldn't suddenly decide to switch sides.
"How," Optimus asked frostily, "precisely, did you manage to get at your weapons again?"
Zephyr stared at him, defiant and at the same time somehow embarrassed. "We just...looked for them. Would you have preferred we let Rattrap get scrapped?"
"Of course not," the leader snapped. "But you broke your agreement."
"We didn't. We handed over our weapons while we were in the base, and we haven't hurt anything. We even turned everything back in after the fight was over. But what do you expect when you make us just sit here while you guys are in danger?"
Optimus began to speak; stopped, paused for a moment, then said, "Maybe you're right. I apologize for my lack of trust. Thank you for your assistance." He turned to leave. Dawn thought she heard him murmur to Rhinox, "Check the security systems."
Zephyr looked after the Maximal leader with a sense of helplessness. It wasn't their fault something had gone so wrong in their programming...but she wondered, even if the three could be separated, whether the Maximals would ever trust her. And Dawn...what would happen to her? The human would never fit in here. Duskwind, too, had little chance of being accepted by the Predacons, even if the Maximals let her leave.
'Especially now I've fought on the Maximal side,' Duskwind whispered.
'It will be all right,' Dawn reassured. 'Think about it. The Predacons don't know about our...situation. If we're separated, more than likely we'll be in entirely different forms. So you can start over. They'll never know you were with us.'
The Predacon brightened. 'That's right, isn't it?'
Dawn had taken charge briefly as she explained her reasoning to the others. Now she stiffened as Rattrap approached. Zephyr, surprised, felt her near-panic at the thought of talking to the rat for whom she had thrown herself into battle, and quickly retrieved control.
"I wanted ta say thanks," Rattrap said quietly. "You saved my life." A flicker of doubt entered his optics. "Was it you, Zephyr?"
"Actually," she said, "it was Dawn who pushed us into doing it. Duskwind...she was afraid to fight the Predacons. And I didn't know what to do."
"Dawn." He looked surprised. "I wouldn't have expected her ta get involved in a battle."
Zephyr knew quite well why Dawn had done it, and the knowledge roused a strange feeling in her. 'Don't tell him,' the human girl pleaded. 'I don't want him to know.'
'All right.' "Duskwind helped, too," she felt obliged to add. "Even if she is a Predacon, she can be trusted."
He nodded. "If you think so, I believe you." There was a long hesitation. "Zephyr...how did you find your weapons? Especially in time to get out there and save the day?"
"Hardly that." Zephyr silently queried Dawn, but the human was in no shape to explain. "I'm not entirely sure, Rattrap. It was Dawn who found them. She just went right to your storage area under the lower deck and told us this was where you'd most likely be keeping explosives and weapons."
Rattrap shook his head in disbelief. "How'd she know?"
The brief image that flashed through the shared mind was unhelpful, to say the least. Zephyr shrugged halfheartedly. "Believe me, you don't want to know."
"Sure I do. Why wouldn't I?"
She hesitated again. "Because...because she saw it on television, wherever she came from. On Earth. She says."
He rocked back, staring. "You were right. I didn't want to know."
"Don't tell anyone? Please? It'd make them absolutely sure we're crazy."
"True."
She searched his face, and sighed. "You'll tell anyway. Never mind. They all think we're crazy already, anyway."
"Ain't ya? You do have a neural malfunction, which is the technical definition of 'crazy'."
"I suppose."
He grinned. "But we like ya anyway."
Zephyr looked down. "Really."
"Of course. You're safe here, Zephyr; all of ya. Rhinox's the best scientist I know. He'll figure out a way to separate you."
Red optics snapped up into his. "And then what will you do with me?" Duskwind asked bleakly. "You can't get rid of me now because I'm sharing the body of a Maximal, but what happens when we're separated?"
Taken aback, Rattrap was about to answer her when a loud, strident bleep broke the silence. "Predacon signature detected," Sentinel's emotionless voice said. "Activating security systems."
Rattrap turned to see a nonlethal stun weapon being leveled at Duskwind from the wall. "Oh slag--Zephyr, come back! Now!"
Startled red optics changed to equally surprised silver. The weapon withdrew as Sentinel said, "Predacon signature lost."
"What was that about?" the Maximal demanded.
"Our security system. Sentinel. I guess no one thought to program in Duskwind's signature--hold on a minute." Rattrap's comlink activated with a small beep. "What happened down there?" Rhinox's voice came urgently.
"Nothin', big green," Rattrap responded. "I was talkin' to Zephyr, and then she switched over so I could talk with Duskwind, and Sentinel went bananas. Didn't anyone think to set her in as a friendly?"
There was a short pause, then Rhinox returned, sounding almost embarrassed. "I'm afraid not. I just assumed since she was already inside and we weren't having any trouble, I didn't need to."
"Well, apparently ya do."
"I'll get to it right away. Zephyr, Dawn, Duskwind, when you have time I'll need you to come up here so I can get a scan on each of your signatures."
"All right," Zephyr agreed into the com. It clicked off. "What was that about?" she asked Rattrap again.
"Sentinel's set to disable Predacon intruders. Rhinox didn't add Duskwind as a friendly, so it was trying to paralyze her."
"I...see." Was that a red flicker of suspicion at the back of her optics? "And now he's going to make sure it doesn't happen again?"
"Right."
"Good. Let's go, then." She began to walk quickly back to the bridge, forcing him to hurry to catch up.
"Duskwind, if you would."
Optics flashed red. The little hummingbird stood steadily in the center of a sensor ring.
"Zephyr."
Silver once more. A pause.
"Dawn."
Bright blue. Dawn looked faintly nervous.
Rhinox frowned at the console before him. "That can't be right...Zephyr, would you come back for a moment?"
The Maximal complied. "Is something wrong?"
"Might be a glitch in the scanners...it seems to be working now. Dawn, please."
As the human returned, Rhinox let out a sigh and began to twist dials on the side of the scanner. "Must need recalibrating," he muttered.
Very quietly, "What is it?"
The scientist didn't answer for a brief moment. Then he scowled heavily. "That's impossible. It's working all right."
"What is it?" Dawn repeated, no louder than the first time.
"I can't find a signature. Duskwind's distinctly Predacon, and Zephyr's Maximal, but I can't find one for you at all."
"Why is that so unusual?"
"Any Cybertronian gives off a unique energy signature from their basic circuits," he explained. "Every once in a while you'll find someone damaged or shielded enough to block it, but it's still there. You're not shielded, and both the others have normal signatures, but I can't find a thing. It's like when you're in control, your circuits aren't Cybertronian at all."
"Maybe they're not. I am human, after all. But Sentinel won't attack me?"
"Oh, no," Rhinox reassured. "Sentinel can't even find you. It depends on signatures to track people."
"Are you done?"
"Yes."
She stepped from the circle. "Rhinox, how come Sentinel didn't attack Duskwind the first time she woke up?"
"I'm trying to figure that out. It didn't register her at all."
"Like me."
"Well, yes."
"I was trying to keep awake," Dawn said thoughtfully. "Maybe I blocked her somehow."
"How do you mean--keep awake?"
"Be aware. I was trying to talk to Duskwind, to keep her from doing anything bad. I didn't want to just take control, but I almost did when she was attacking Rattrap."
"I appreciate that," Rattrap murmured. "Why didn't you?"
"I felt she wasn't going to hurt you, and I figured it would be better to have some time alone for us to come to terms with the situation."
Rhinox nodded. "Probably a wise idea--though I'm not too happy about your exit. It'll take forever to repair that hole you left."
She winced. "Sorry about that."
"And weren't you risking kinda a lot on a feeling?" Rattrap added.
Dawn flinched, eyes panicky, in rather an overreaction to the question, then calmed herself. "Maybe feeling isn't the right word. I mean I felt it..." At a loss, she tapped the side of her head. "I just...knew it. Our thoughts overlap a bit."
"Oh." Rhinox looked faintly thoughtful, studying her for a long moment. "Thank you for your assistance," he said finally. "I think that should take care of that problem. I'll get back to work on your other difficulty."
The hummingbird nodded. "We really appreciate your trying," she said, with a shy smile.
Rattrap looked at the small bot, feeling oddly sympathetic. "It will be all right," he said gently.
Uncertainty flickered, all three colors visible for a long moment. But she nodded gamely. "Shall we finish that tour?" the newcomer inquired.
Edit: go and see the beautiful pic Lady Dementia drew for me! Triangle's hummingbird--looks like Dawn in charge.