The Lilac Horizon part two

Note: You will notice one of my characters repeats a speech that I used for that character in one of my earlier stories. The reasons why I reuse this speech is because A: It’s very long, and B: I had a writer’s block at the time and in order to get over it, I used this to help me. I’ve modified it slightly. I wasn’t being lazy; I simply couldn’t think of any other way to describe it at the time. You’ll see what I mean, and if you don’t, great! No déjà vu to spoil it for you! Also, Kismet and Chimera or any of the siblings that have their amulet and full power are immortal to just about anything, except themselves. They can only be killed by one of the family who has the power to do this. Just a little recap for you! J

She wanted to know what this ‘Operation Phoenix’ was all about and when it was going to happen.

“Cybertron is dying, Diamond. The two opposing races are killing each other and the planet,” he said dolefully.

“The Maximals realize that one of the main causes of conflict is everlasting hate passed down from generation to generation.

Take the Great War, for example. Our ancestors fought in that and out of the wreckage came two new factions: Predacon and Maximal. The humans called it The Modern Rebirth. But the hate between Autobot and Decepticon was passed down and continued and grew until bang! Something like this happens,” he explained.

“We are going to separate Maximals from Predacons once and for all. The present day Maximals will remain on Cybertron to fight to the bitter end for out planet and our freedom. We will surely perish. However, there is hope for our children.”

“There is a planet, Diamond, that was colonized during the Great War, situated billions of miles away from Cybertron. It was used and still is being used, without Predacon knowledge, as an energon base. A secret supply incase something like this happened. There is lots of energon there, enough to feed a small population, in fact. What we plan to do is take two ships. In these ships, we will have stasis pods, about four hundred, and two young pilots, two scientists and two doctors. Each protoform will be allocated a spark. These sparks will not have been generated by Vector Sigma, but by other transformers. This is so we don’t have any reincarnations from the Matrix with memories of the past, the Predacons and the wars. We want to start a new nation afresh, free from any parental influence. There will only be Maximals. The ships will take them to the planet where they will be placed and made to fend for themselves. To build, to work out there own government, to grow. No oldies allowed, no parents, no one from Cybertron except the scientists and doctors as back up. And, when they grow and reach a certain age, or have children of their own, they will be sent to Tylonax, the planet’s very large moon, to retire. Thus, no previous generation ideas will ever be passed on and with every new generation, there will be new ideas etc. It may sound harsh to separate parents from children before they even meet, but the children are given the option to live on Tylonax, so long as they never come back. This is our plan, Diamond, to clear away the rubble of the old, and let the seeds of the new finally begin to grow. The operation is called Phoenix as the firebird represents rebirth, and the planet they will go to, has been named the Planet of the Youth.”

There was a long, incredulous pause before she finally brought herself to believing this was possible. This was really possible.

“There’s a problem, though. We need Vector Sigma to create the transformer shells. Others can create the sparks, but for the bodies, we need that machine,” she pointed out.

“Vector Sigma will be on board! We have arranged it with Axterbeam Heliotrope.”

“Tarantulas? You mean, the Predacon my father fought in the Beast Wars?” she gasped.

“He’s not actually Predacon. You see, he belongs to the Tripedicus Council. For years the Tripedicus have been waiting for something like this so when both Maximal and Predacon sides are destroying each other, they can move in. They have a multitude of undercover agents. We’ve arranged with them that we will fund them with whatever they need to retrieve copy the plans of Vector Sigma as long as, when they have it, they copy the plans for the machine for us. We will use these plans to build out own VC. In return, the race of New Maximals at the Planet of the Youth will never attack the Tripedicus and will openly share energon with their small but powerful population. Should the Maximals lose totally, Cybertron is theirs for the taking. The humans have promised that if the Tripedicus go back on their word to give us the plans for the machine, then they will fight to get them back for us. What Tarantulas is going to do is, because he is top Predacon scientist, go into VC’s chamber, scan the machine and walk out calmly with all the information stored in his processor. He will be one of only twenty personnel ever allowed in the chamber. As you know, all bodies created there are protoformed and sent off to birth institutions all over Cybertron. The scanner can be attached to his memory circuits. He’ll report to the Tripedicus with the plans and then they will copy them for us. This entire operation is to take place tomorrow. Once the Predacons or Maximals have won on Cybertron, they are going to destroy the original Vector Sigma. Once the old population has died out, they will re-colonize Cybertron and make it their own. Long and complicated, and you still don’t know the half of it. That’s what we plan to do, in a nutshell.”

Diamond was in awe at how all this had been going on all this time! And, from what she had heard of Tarantulas, he was treacherous and untrustworthy. Yet still, if he was the only scientist able to get close enough to the machine and if they had this deal with the Tripedicus, then what the hell? It was their last chance. Why not take it?

“It’s ambitious, it’s crazy so the odds are it’ll work. I understand the idea, sir, but I find it tragic that it had to come to this. Imagine, years later, when their explorers find Cybertron, what they will wonder. They’ll pick up the ash and rubble as they trudge over what used to be a splendid city or capital and they’ll wonder: how could such an empire fall? How…could….”

She was going to die. Cheetor was going to die. They had been in two wars, for Primus’s sake; there was no way they were going. No future for them, no life, hell, if they ever had children, they couldn’t even bring them up! Never even see them. No, things didn’t get much worse than this. At least the future will not suffer like the past.

“It’s sad, I know. Someone has to act now if they want a chance at finally reaching peace. Even if the Predacons win and somehow manage to revive the dying core of our planet, there will be no future for the future generation of Maximals here. Even if the Maximals win there will be no future. The Tripedicus will make sure of that. I cannot bring myself to believing there’ll never be a war after this one,” he said, almost wearily.

Something jerked inside of her. She felt a wave of emotional pain and anger flood her.

“The ship leaves in two weeks, although I’m reconsidering. Sooner would be better. Tomorrow we are going to select four hundred pregnant females and ask them if they wish to donate their babies to the operation.”

“Tell your father, but explain to him that he must act like he never knew when one of the officers come to tell him tomorrow. They won’t tell him as much as I’ve told you; they’ll simply give him orders.”

“Thank you, Major. I appreciate all that you’ve done for me,” she said, her voice straining with emotion.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Rattrap shoved through the crowds and made his way to the exit of the stuffy room. Finally, he pulled himself out from the swallowing masses and stumbled into the hallway, trying to carry a sleeping Tourmaline in his arms. He looked to his right to see a rather anxious looking Dinobot.

“Vermin, I do believe my daughter has recently conversed with you on the issue of Megatron,” he snarled.

“One of Megatron’s associates. Blight, I think his name was. He was found scavenging through the remains of the city in poor conditions, near starved. Yet, they managed to revive him. He was rather open on what he said about his former leader. He was unhappy that he’d deserted him and thus, in an act of revenge, told us quite a lot of what Megatron was doing the night of the Uprising beginning,” he explained.

“Oh? Well, I’d think dat he was helpin’ wid’ settin’ up da bombs, dat night,” Rattrap said.

“Yes, he was. But he was very involved in the Uprising. He’s apparently one of the heads of the operation and Blight suspects he’s been promoted in rank, by now.”

“Really? Well, den, doesn’t dat just put da cherry on da top. What d’ya think he’s capable of from, oh, let’s say…a major?”

“Maybe it is. Perhaps the old Predacon will realize what a mistake this is Uprising is and prevent it.”

“And come up wid’ somethin’ worse! Hah jeez. Well, danks for informin’ me on more reasons dat I should be depressed. I’ll look out for him an’ if I see him, I’ll tell ya.”

She tried to stand up and Rattrap put her back on her feet, as wobbly as they were.

“Nope. Da way I see it, it can’t get any worse. I mean, getting betta would mean I get blown up and put outta my misery!”

He turned the corner, still muttering and his voice faded with him down the corridor.

Megatron was sitting in front of his computer, his face lit with the light of the computer screen.

Waspinator immediately felt like flying into a window. This was because Megatron’s tasks were always more painful than doing that, and also, perhaps, because the light from the computer screen was very appealing. He shook his head and focused.

Megatron handed him a cloak. He then pointed to a small red button stitched onto a panel on the cloak.

“Put it on and press it. You’ll be invisible with this technology. Don’t ask how I got my hands on it, and don’t ask how I know Kismet is in Vixadonia. Just do as you are told.”

“Tell her that I have something of great importance to her, and that I am waiting here at Quantile Head Quarters to discuss urgent matters. She tends to be invisible, so you’ll have to keep an eye out for when she goes back into transformer mode, or, if you feel a gush of cold air call for her. Go.”

Waspinator hadn’t the faintest idea what Megatron wanted her for. He didn’t actually care. It was just another impossible task he was assigned to in order to keep him busy, he thought. Or get him killed.

Cheetor glanced briefly at the human. He was a short man with a particularly ugly face.

“It’s been bombed by STF super-charged electronic bombs. I’d like to see how your city would look if we dropped one of those on it.”

The human scowled at Cheetor. They were rummaging through the wreckage of Caramin, an area just outside Vixadonia. It was a small village in the shadow of the city. Of course it had been bombed, it seemed that the Predacons left nothing unturned. They were patrolling the area for anything of use. Energon, utensils, and scrap they could use. It wasn’t the most interesting job. He’d much rather be in Vixadonia with Diamond. He missed her so much.

“They already have! The Predacons, apparently, launched an internal attack in London. They blew up Big Ben. It was like the entire September 11^th thing all over again. Bastards. I’m no fan of the old bell, but it was the people around it that got killed that ticks me off,” he said aggressively.

Cheetor knew vaguely where London was. He knew it was heavily populated and polluted.

“Oh, shame. You lost a bell and some people. We lost everything!” he snarled. He was particularly irritable today. He’d been in charge of a clean-up group of humans who simply couldn’t get used to the idea of listening to a super-intelligent machine. Awful creatures, he thought bitterly.

He actually didn’t hate humans, but he certainly wasn’t fond of the majority of them.

“Yeah well, thanks to your mess my planet’s gonna get it once the Preds are done with you,” the human muttered.

The human opened his mouth to say something, but looked past Cheetor and closed his jaw. He carried on clearing away some rubble. Cheetor turned around to see a major standing behind him, the insignia clearly marked on his torso.

“How are you?” he asked. He could see the glow of Dinobot’s red optics in the dark. It was getting late.

“Hey, Dinobot, I’m sorry if it irritates you that I care for her. The fact is, I-”

Cheetor narrowed his optics in brief anger and annoyance. If he would just listen!

“We’ve cleared about two miles of stuff and found 1 ton of useful scrap and about 500 kilograms of energon. The stupid Predacons didn’t find all of it when they came back on their patrols,” he informed him.

“The ‘stupid Predacons’ took enough. 500 kg’s is nothing,” he growled.

Cheetor realized that he had to use long, complicated words to get his point across to Dinobot. He didn’t appreciate slang. Cheetor felt insulted.

“Are you out here just to get that report from me or are you out here for some exercise?” Cheetor asked innocently enough.

“I feel claustrophobic in those underground cabins. I think I’ll sleep outside tonight.”

Cheetor sighed again and moved over to watch his group of humans that has a tendency to be lazy. But then he didn’t blame them. Most of them were suffering from serious jet- lag and since they arrived. Some looked like they hadn’t slept for days. Organics tire so much quicker than transformers. It’s a great excuse. They spend at least seven hours a day sleeping! Cheetor couldn’t get over the fact that they only live on average 65 years and that they sleep so much of it away.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

She couldn’t believe that she was finally seeing him. Her brother. Magnanimous.

The two of them were standing in the brilliant sunshine on this side of Cybertron. A definite contrast to where she’d just come from.

He looked like he’d been frightened. As if he’s just witnessed something horrible.

“I’ve come to take you away from here. I’ve come to take you to your family.” She almost whispered.

“I know. We all were. I’ve found your sisters. You have three,” she explained.

“How do you know? Who do you think you are? I seriously doubt there are any long-lost-relative searchers in business at the moment! Everybody’s dead or dying or going to die,” he almost snarled.

“Magnanimous, I’m your sister. I located you because I felt your presence, your pain. Look,” she said and pointed to a wound on her arm.

“Blinx will be okay. I’ll make sure he’s protected. You know that if you go to Aswade you’ll die. You’ll never see your sisters again, or your moon that you’ve lived on for so many years. Or Vermillion,” she said, dragging out the last part of her sentence.

“It’s a gift. We all have gifts. Strange happenings that occur once in a while remind us that we are not like others. You have a gift too, you just have to find it.”

Vermillion, he knew, he had never spoken about. She was his girlfriend, but so much more than that. She was everything to him. Then the ship came and he was taken away and she was left as a defense unit, back at the station.

She felt along the wall for the light switch. It was badly situated as it was quite far away from the door or any object for that matter. It just floated on the wall somewhere. She was getting irritated and decided to use her infrared. Green-grey light flooded her optics and she could see the eerie scene before her. She was facing her bed. Everything was now lighter. She felt a little frightened. The silence was so terribly ominous. Quietly, she walked towards the light switch about two meters to the right of her bed. Her vision was a bit hazy in this light. She came up to the switch and moved her hand towards it. Suddenly, the form of a female transformer materialized in front of her, like a ghost.

She gasped and stumbled backwards. The features on the girl’s face were distorted and she resembled a corpse somewhat. A scream rose up in her throat but as so often was the case, it seemed to lock up. The blurred femme began to whisper, her jaw moving slowly, almost as if it were in slow motion. Her voice was dark, cold, dead.

Diamond was terrified and spun around and ran. She wasn’t even halfway across the room when the door slammed shut by itself and a cold wind swirled around her legs.

She looked down, optics wide with terror to see two ghostly hands fastened around her ankles. They weren’t attached to anything. She opened her mouth to scream but nothing came out. It was like someone was choking them back. As if someone were stuffing their hands down her throat.

Diamond almost jumped six feet. The adrenaline soared though her and she broke into a sprint. She ran towards the door and tried to open it. Locked. She reached for her sword that was leaning against the wall next to the door but it fell and slithered backwards, being dragged by invisible hands.

“No!” she finally managed to utter and slammed her fists against the door. The metal door was old and should have cracked on impact, but nothing was happening. Something grabbed her from behind. She felt her arms being pulled and twisted behind her back. She struggled and kicked backwards in a desperate attempt to free herself from this demon. She was suddenly pulled up high into the air, and then slammed onto the floor. She landed hard on her back and felt the breath being knocked out of her. Her legs felt as if they were plastered to the ground, as did her arms. She couldn’t move. She was paralyzed. Her infrared failed her and all went black for a moment. Then normal light burst into the room and she found herself staring at the ceiling. A shadow blocked out the light. A female transformer was standing over her, watching her with a blank expression. She was beautiful, but in a dark, evil way. A mixture of soft purples and blues, she seemed like the perfect death angel.

“Diamond, I’m sorry I had to hurt you. But you were going crazy. I had to calm you, even if it was by force,” she said dully.

“Let me tell you. Afterwards, you’ll know all the answers to your questions about me, and yourself.”

Diamond felt her ‘heart’ thumping. The blood was rushing in her ears so loudly it was almost deafening.

Kismet watched the terrified child stare into the air, her fingers twitching. Her entire body itched to get up and run.

Then she spotted something on her lips. Something red. She stared at it in amazement.

It appeared to be blood. Human blood. There was a cut on her lip. She was bleeding human blood.

“You were a human in your previous life. Huh. Looks like some of the human stayed within you. A gift? I doubt it.”

“No Diamond, your gift is one of the greatest. Once you have your amulet, you’ll come to realize it.”

“Long ago, when the Universe was young, two entities formed. How they formed, and who made them is still a mystery. Perhaps it was Primus, others believe it was Unicron, but it does not matter. The two entities drifted through space until they met. When they met, there was an explosion that spread stars and planets shooting through the sky, galaxies and nebulas flying. There are many different terms for this; I like to call it the beginning of the end. The two entities that met were Alpha and Omega. And when they met, they had two children.

The first-born was called Life, and the second born, Death. Life and Death lived side-by-side, they played together, they fought and they explored the universe. They were so big that they covered most of it, and where they passed they left a trail.

Life and Death could be everywhere and anywhere at the same time, so naturally they were difficult to keep track of. One day, (Time and Space, their niece and nephew who were the children of Light and Dark, who were descended from Alpha and Omega, hadn’t recorded any dates for us), Life and Death created something. They were merely experimenting with unformed entities drifting through space when they made these things. And these things were Perchance and Definitely. Perchance and Definitely became their ‘pets’, if you will, and Life and Death took good care of them. But as the Universe formed and time went by, Perchance and Definitely had a daughter.

Diamond was strangely calm. She was listening with interest. It was probably because things were beginning to fall into place for her. Her questions were being answered.

“Now Fate,” Kismet went on “was very playful. She enjoyed watching her parents create life on planets and take it away just as quickly. She loved to watch them set the Universe alight with trillions of billions of glowing planets, billions which had life forms living on them, some still forming. And when she saw these life forms, she took an immediate liking to them. And she toyed and played with their futures, changing it, directing them onto paths that would take them to Death eventually, but each path was different. Each path had a whole lot of sub branches of what ‘could happen’ and she turned them down these paths at will. Thereby deciding their fate. Now Fate too was very large and she could control the destinies of every single form of anything at the same time. She loved it. But as Fate grew older, she decided she’d like some rest and she created a few thousand children to help her do her job. Each one was a branch of her. These children did just this thing, well, most of them. Some decided to hide themselves within a life form and live on a planet, undetected by Fate. They were adventurous and enjoyed living in these life forms but it caused them to forget their tasks. They passed from one life form to another until they decided to take control of a body and become that life form. And here’s the answer to your questions about why you’re different,” Kismet said.

Diamond’s eyes glowed with shock for a moment. The realization had finally dawned upon her. Kismet decided to continue anyway.

“You and I are Fate’s children, who have long forgotten our tasks, much less how to do them. Except I remember vaguely what I had to do, but not how to do it.”

Diamond swallowed hard. Kismet was holding Diamond’s amulet in her hand. She’d retrieved it from the cave. The mere closeness of the amulet with Diamond was brining out the human in her. She was beginning to sweat. Kismet was interested to see if Diamond would adopt a second, human mode once she had the crystal…if she had the crystal.

She released Diamond from the invisible locks around her arms and legs. Diamond slowly rose up, her face pale.

“I’ve journeyed far to find you, Diamond. I cannot go back to Fate unless I have you with me. There are four of us, you, your brother Magnanimous, your sister Chimera and I. None of us can return to Her unless we all go back up together. Diamond, once we’re there, we will have control over Cybertron. We can change it’s future. Diamond! We can save it! So, I ask you out of the goodness of my spark to join me, to rejoin fate and save the lives of billions. All you have to do is take this amulet,” she said, opening her hand to reveal the diamond-like crystal, “which will restore you your full powers and then we can leave. Chimera and Magnanimous are on their way here. What do you say?”

Diamond stared at her for a long, long time. She was contemplating all she had heard and Kismet understood it was a lot to take in and was patient.

“What powers will I have with the amulet?” she asked, her voice almost a whisper.

“I’m not entirely sure. I know that your clairvoyance will be increased to the point that anyone you touch, you can see the futures of, if you wish to see it. I also do believe that you will be sense-enhanced. You feel human feelings at times, don’t you? You sweat, you bleed, and you feel a heart thumping. How do I know? One of my powers is that I am linked to you. I read your fear and feel your pain.”

“If it’s to save Cybertron, my family, I will join you. Hand me the amulet,” she said.

“It will feel a little funny at first, but once the amulet is next to your spark, you’ll feel strong and powerful,” Kismet told her.

Diamond nodded softly and opened her hand. Kismet dropped the amulet into her palm. Immediately, Diamond felt her forehead begin to burn. She closed her eyes. The crystal in her hand sunk into it, without leaving a mark. It went straight inside her like a ghost and she could feel it traveling up her arm and through into her chest. It was cold, very, very cold. She gasped and put her hand over her spark. It was a strange feeling. Inside, she felt something bumped her spark gently. A thing blue shock wave rippled over her transformer body, but she didn’t feel it. That was the human side preventing the shock from the heated energon inside of her, she knew.

Then the shock died down, and a sense of strength grew. She felt energy pulsating though her body, running straight down to her fingertips. She felt the sound of blood rushing in her ears again. The sweat on her forehead increased, but she felt strong. This feeling was growing. Her arms and legs seemed to jolt a little, before finally settling. A purple light started glowing from her chest, and it spread all the way to her head and down to her feet. As the purple wave spread, she felt herself changing, growing, and strengthening. And then it was over. She opened her eyes and breathed. She felt she needed to and it came as naturally as ever.

She raised her eyes and looked at Kismet. There was silence as Kismet eyed Diamond up and down.

“There’s something different about you. Not physically, but your entire aura has changed,” Kismet said.

Kismet smiled. She didn’t mind being hugged. If it was what she had to do to get back to the stars then so be it. She’d have to play this game of lies all the way back to the cave where they will leave in order to get Diamond to follow. In truth, she cared little for what happened to Diamond, Chimera and Magnanimous. Once they’re up there they will, after all, have no idea how to move as an entity with no body, for a start. It will take them years to figure out what to do with themselves, whereas she already knew. She patted Diamond on the back like a real sister or friend.

“I’m glad to have found you, Diamond,” she said, and she did mean it, but not in the way Diamond would have thought.

“I will alert Chimera using my telepathy to change course and take Magnanimous to the cave where we’ll meet. Come with me, I’ll fly you there,” Kismet said.

“A little forgetful today, aren’t we Kismet?” Diamond said coldly, her optics narrowing.

“You just gave me the amulet, you fool. I hugged you, I touched you and I saw into your future. I saw what you planned to do. How you were going to abandon us,” she explained, her fixed stare on Kismet’s eyes never faltering.

“Join me, Diamond, or I will kill Dinobot and Cheetor and making the lives of your friends a misery for eternity,” she growled.

Diamond would usually never have said this if she wasn’t sure, but she just felt so confident. She felt she knew how to use her powers and she decided to risk her next move. She’d seen Kismet’s evil, and she wasn’t going to let her prevail.

She ran towards Diamond but found herself hitting an invisible wall. Diamond was holding up both her hands, using her powers to create a transparent shield.

Kismet stumbled back and floated up, her hands beginning to glow in a blue light.

Suddenly, a beam of energy flashed out from her hand and hit and shattered the shield. Diamond couldn’t see it break, but she felt it. Her instant reflex was to fight back, and almost without warning, a pulse of green energy rippled though her arm and fired and hit Kismet. She let out a gut scream and was flung back into the wall.

Diamond snickered. Kismet was obviously not a fighter and handled using her powers for attack and defense badly.

She heard someone gasp to her right and she spun around and fired at the owner of the voice.

A small femme bot had somehow floated through the door and was standing in front of it when the shot hit her and knocked her out. That must have been Chimera, Diamond thought. She wasn’t sure what to feel. Chimera had been tricked into Kismet’s spell and was a victim, but Diamond had never met her. There was another bot beside her. A male bot. Her brother.

“Hey, what’s going on? I thought we were all friends here?” he asked frantically.

Diamond switched her firepower from attack to suspend. She just knew how to do that, how to change what kind of power surge came out of her hands. She shot at Magnanimous and when he was hit, he wasn’t hurt, but suspended. He was paralyzed, just like Diamond was a few moment’s ago. That was a power she and Kismet shared.

Magnanimous looked utterly confused. She heard him talk, even though his lips didn’t move. His voice was in her mind. Telepathy. Incredible.

“I forgive you, sister. But please, once you’ve finished beating up your sibling, explain to me what’s going on. I must have misunderstood Chimera somewhere along the line!” he exclaimed

She responded to Magnanimous’s mental warning by looking in the direction she last saw Kismet at. The femme bot was grinning and a split second later Diamond felt a blow to her chest. She was flung to the floor. Suspended.

A wave of terror swamped Diamond. She was defenseless! She could be dragged to that cave like this!

“Yes! Help me, Magnanimous. Kismet’s evil. She lied to you! I can tell because I’m clairvoyant and I saw what she did to us!”

“I believe you! I never liked Predacons anyway. But I can’t help you suspended like this.”

She set Magnanimous free in the hope that he would trust her and come to her aid.

“Okay missy. You’re going down!” he cried out aloud and cupped his hands together and fired a green beam. It hit Kismet dead on and she flickered and vanished. Just like that.

Diamond was immediately released from the suspension. She jumped to her feet and looked around. Kismet was nowhere to be seen.

“Gee. Guess the amulet Chimera gave me really did improve my firing capabilities.”

Diamond ran over to Magnanimous and grabbed his hand. She stared at him blankly, her mind somewhere else.

She spun around and fired at the air, but instead of hitting the opposite wall, it exploded halfway across the room.

“You know what my power is? I can see into the past, what has recently happened. And you know something else? I’m never going to trust tall, dark and creepy again.”

“Good. That means Kismet is dead. If she dies, you lose your powers. Magnanimous and I retain ours. Speaking of which,” she began, looking around the room, “Now that I am my own free agent, I’m off to explore. I hope you two siblings of mine don’t mind me leaving you almost as quickly as I met you?” she asked, a slow smile spreading across her face.

“Nope! Just don’t get killed,” Magnanimous said. “I’m getting used to these powers. Goodbye private, hello lieutenant!”

………………………………………………………………………………………………

The first few rays of sunlight managed to penetrate through the dust that still clung to the air. The silence was beautiful. There wasn’t any movement, only the dust particles dancing in the air.

Dinobot yawned and stretched. He’d slept outside the cabins that night. Within the Vixadonian shields and thus out of immediate danger, but away from people in general.

The nights were cool outside, so he’d snuggled himself into a pile of empty plastic bags. On earth, he would have looked like a hobo. He didn’t care. He stood up, transformed from beast mode to robot mode and looked around. There was nobody, except for the perimeter patrols you could see in the distance. He’d had the most peaceful sleep since…since…. He couldn’t recall. The thought that Diamond might have been wondering where he was last night came into mind and he decided to go back inside and stop her worrying, if indeed she was. She was, nowadays, valuing solitude. She was grown up he hated to admit. She didn’t need him anymore.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tourmaline woke up early. She woke up alone. She woke up with an extreme headache.

She sat up groggily. Rattrap must have already left for his patrol and she was supposed to be at the medic camp by now. There were still recovering patients in the camp that needed tending to. She had offered to become a nurse in order to help, and she had better stick to that commitment, she thought.

She stood up, rubbing her head. She felt like something had exploded inside her.

“Yeah well, maybe the nurses can run a couple of tests and check to see if I’m dying of some cyber virus,” she grumbled and left the cabin.

There were two camps. On in the underground cabins, and an outside one where an overflow of patients were kept. She worked in the outside one, which was set up in a fairly large tent behind some buildings for protection.

She left the underground and walked over to the camp. There were three nurses in there that she’d come to know, two transformers and one human.

The two transformers were Melonia and Quest and the human girl was known as Samantha, although she preferred Sam.

“Hey Tour,” Melonia said cheerfully. She was busy cleaning an operating table.

The other two were changing a drip bag for one of the human patients and upon hearing Melonia’s greeting, they both looked up.

“Hello Tourmaline,” Samantha said and left the bag to come over to her. Quest flashed her a brief smile and began wheeling the stand with the drip down the aisle of beds towards the needy patient.

Samantha frowned. She looked as though she were thinking as to what it could be. Samantha had been born and raised on Cybertron and had studied transformer biology for years. Tourmaline trusted her judgments. Samantha knew more about transformers than humans, and had never been to earth. She claimed she didn’t want to.

“Hmm. Go sit on that table there and I’ll bring out the scanner and give you a check, okay?” she said eventually.

Tourmaline nodded and walked over to the now cleaned table. Melonia was cleaning her hands in a nearby sink.

“Melonia, Tourmaline’s got a head ache, I’m running a quick scan on her, ‘kay?” Sam explained.

“Fine, Sam. Shame Tourmaline. You’ve been hanging around sick people for too long!” she chuckled.

Samantha came over to Tour, holding up a scanner that resembled a gun, somewhat. It was a small device that could scan your entire body for numerous things. It had a little screen at the back, which reported results.

“Not really. I mean my cousin on earth sends me pictures of the mountains, the sea and the deserts and all to try and attract me to come over. He misses me. He was born here, but moved to earth. It looks beautiful in a strange sense, but that’s not what human earth is all about. As far as I’m concerned it’s war, drugs and money.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Having all the latest anti-detection shields was never a bad thing when entering an enemy occupied city. Not having the latest detection equipment, however, was another story.

Waspinator sighed (which sounded very strange) and drifted around the underground cabins. So far there had been no sign of Kismet. No even a wisp of wind.

He pictured himself buzzing around for days looking for her, and was ultimately depressed by this. It was like finding a blonde hair in a haystack; forget a needle!

However, Waspinator thought all his Cybertronian festive holidays had come at once when he heard someone mention her name. The voice echoed down the hallway and he followed it to the cabin in which it had come from. The door was slightly ajar and he pushed it open and slipped inside. There were two bots, a femme and a male.

The femme was sitting on the bed, talking to the male bot who was standing in front of her. He listened closely.

“Listen, when my dad comes back from wherever, I don’t want to tell him about the whole fate thing, okay? It would just…worry him. I’d rather say that you had been looking for me for your entire life and you bumped into me in the hallway last night. I’ll tell him you’re my long-lost brother. Simpler and easier to take in, don’t you think?”

“I agree. It was traumatic enough and I understand you don’t want to put that kind of thing on Dinobot’s shoulders, even if Kismet is dead.”

Waspinator felt a mixture of joy and surprise. Surprise because he’d found Dinobot’s daughter (he didn’t even know he had one) and joy because Kismet was dead. Which meant this mission was over. He decided to hang around a little longer to see if he could find out how she died.

“My father may appear cold and rather scary, but once you get to know him, he’s a wonderful person. He’s kind of old fashioned. He believes in honor and glory and as I told you earlier, he used to serve with the Predacons. He’s intelligent, hates slang and has the patience of a moth. In other words, make a good impression and don’t get on his bad side. Then he’ll respect you, and that’s all you’ll need from him.”

Waspinator left the two to prepare daddy for his inheritance of another child and began his long flight back to Quantile. He was not eager to report that Kismet was dead; Megatron didn’t take to obstacles in his plans well. However, he didn’t find floating around bad smelling, claustrophobic cabins much fun either and was only too pleased to be leaving.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Diamond smiled as Magnanimous told his story. He told her about how he was born an orphan and struggled through the streets for a few years, making money where he could. How he eventually found a job offer as an 18-hour a day guard on the Moon Station. She nodded in empathy as he explained his strange dreams and the visions he had during the day. How his forehead burnt during these visions and how he didn’t always feel he was quite alone in his mind. She had experienced just about everything he told her, except that now she was free from them. Kismet was dead, so she lost her powers. As for Magnanimous, well, as long as Chimera was alive, he’d have to keep either all of his (if he kept the amulet Chimera had given him on the way here) or some of them.

He was a good-natured bot with a sense of humour and Diamond was instantly drawn to his personality. She loved him already. Her brother. It was such a relieving idea. She no longer felt to lost and had someone to relate to. She’d told him all about her dad.

“Then the army transportation ships came and took me away from the station and dropped me in the middle of this mess. Oh, and one of my friends. His name is Blinx. The both of us survived the failed attempt to recapture Kiulist and made it all the way back to Aswade underground.”

“Could have been, but Blinx is a transformer with the mode of bird. He flew us through the tunnels at a much quicker pace. Of course we couldn’t fly above ground. The ships would have shot us down.”

“A kingfisher. He got his mode when he went to South Africa, Earth. He then moved to Australia where he had a little farm. He wanted to be a doctor. I don’t know how he is now. Now that I have my powers, which make me, like, immortal, perhaps I can go and find him? But then, I don’t want to leave you. Not when I’ve just found you,” he said.

“Oh you don’t have to. As I told you, I’m a lieutenant with plenty of experience. I can take care of myself. However, if you wouldn’t mind,” she began, getting a little nervous, “Could you look for a…close friend of mine who I think is in the area? His name is Ch-”

Both turned around sharply when they heard the door opening. There in the doorway was Dinobot, looking a little confused as to what he should be thinking upon entering his daughter’s room and seeing another male there, so early in the morning.

“Dad! Nice…to…see that you’re back! I want to introduce you to someone,” she coughed.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

The computer screen ahead of him flickered a little. It was the information on the screen that had infuriated him.

“Unit Kismet – Terminated” was in black, bold letters next to an image of her.

He sucked in the air and breathed out in a shaky sigh, trying to contain his anger.

“That witch has ruined my plans! How am I supposed to get into the chamber with this now? Witch!!”

“Many things, Blackarachnia. Many things. However, my current problem does not concern you,” he said as he closed the report on Kismet, "so I’m asking you nicely to leave me be and find something else to do for the time being. If you don’t leave, I will be forced to hurt you,” he snarled.

With that she spun on her heels and swaggered out of the room. Wow, she looked magnificent in that new body….

He shook the brief attraction out of his head. He had truly created a monster back on earth.

The plans of the Tripedicus will be ruined if I don’t get into the Vector Sigma’s chamber. I needed someone like Kismet because she could warp into there undetected. She’s the only one I know who can do that. Or is she?

He began typing away at the control panel of the super-powered scanner Kismet had previously used and began looking under ‘Past Searches’.

Who were you looking for when you came into my lab, Kismet? Who were you trying to find? Another like you, perhaps?

He located the file that contained the information she’d found at the end of her search. He began to read the details of this person she had been so desperate to find.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sam had been staring at the results for a long time and slowly a frown had set in. Then it disappeared, and then it came back again.

“Melonia, come here a moment and tell me if I am reading this correctly!” she called. Melonia left her work and shuffled over to Sam.

Both of them fixed their eyes on Tourmaline, who was sitting on the table quietly.

“Well, you haven’t got a cyber virus or an inner rust infection,” she told her, trying to look a little brighter.

“Darling, the reason why you’ve been having these headaches and all, is because you’re pregnant.”

“Oh, it’s nothing to be scared of. It’s a perfectly natural thing. I can explain all the biology to you, if you don’t know it already. But, the important details are that you’re two weeks pregnant, and transformers give birth after about two weeks. It’s not going to kill you if you keep on nurturing the baby spark, but you’re not going to be healthy if you do,” she explained.

“You don’t understand! This is the worst time for it to happen. I wasn’t even ready for it. And…and how am I going to get hold of Vector Sigma? It’s Predacon property now!” she exclaimed frantically.

“Shh shhh shhh. Calm down. We’ll work something out. You just leave that problem to old Melonia and I,” Sam comforted.

“Yes, there are other ways. We can arrange something. For now, I think it’d be a good idea that you get back to your cabin and have a little rest,” she said gently.

“Calm down. It’s going to be okay. You can be happy that it’s not as complicated as human pregnancy. Now that would be something to worry about,” Samantha said.

“Go and sleep. If anyone should stop you and order you to work, show them this card and they’ll let you go,” she said and handed Tourmaline a white card with ‘Under Medical Care’ printed on it.

“You just leave us to discuss this matter and we’ll talk to you once you’ve rested.”

She turned around to say something to Sam, but she’d gone back inside and was hurrying down the hallway of the camp to aid a screaming patient.

“Joe, I’ve just come back from the medic camp. They scanned me and told me that I was pregnant!” she exclaimed miserably.

“No. Not at all. It’s a huge problem. What am I going to do? I can’t even access Vector Sigma!”

Joe had heard all about transformer biology and Vector Sigma from other bots he’d asked and could understand her frustration.

“Have you told Rattrap yet? Er, I presume he’s the father? I mean, well, you know on Earth, uh….”

“No. I can’t! It would ruin everything. I’m not ready, and neither is he. He’ll hate me!”

“No he won’t. He’ll just have to seriously rethink about that two-seater sports car he wanted,” Joe said, trying to humour her.

Joe was about to suggest claiming that the child was Mick Jagger’s when he heard someone coming up behind him.

“Hey Joe! Just left my dad with my newly found brother so he can get to know him and— hey, what’s wrong, Tourmaline?”

“Oh yeah, you bots’ve probably never heard of euphemism. Oh, well, to be blunt, she’s pregnant and hasn’t told Rattrap because she thinks he won’t by her a two-seater sports car.”

“Oh Tour, I’m sorry that you’re in this mess. Why won’t you tell Rattrap?” she asked.

“I just can’t. He’s got enough stress as it is. I don’t want to put any more on his shoulders,” she said unhappily.

“It takes two to make a baby. You don’t have to be the only one carrying the burden!”

“Listen, last night I talked a senior officer into telling me about some secret operation they're planning to launch. He told me that because wars were forever recurring on Cybertron, there was no future for the next generation of Maximals here. So, they decided to build a ship and send it off to an uninhabited but energon rich planet miles and miles away from here. On the ship there will be about four hundred pods with protoforms. They wanted the sparks in these protoforms to be new, not a reborn spark from the matrix. They want these new Maximals with no knowledge of Cybertron at all to inhabit this new planet and live without their minds being poisoned into hating any kind different from theirs (example the Predacons) and into thinking war is the solution to any problem from previous generations. It is a rebirth plan. A restart. They will build their own society with no past influence. There’ll only be some doctors and teachers to train them to know how to build and how to care for the sick and inured. They are collecting transformer created sparks to put into these protoforms. They’re doing this in Hashlyn at present, and if you hurry, you can get there and donate your child to the operation. It will mean you will never be able to see your child, but at least you will be able to give him or her a future.”

She turned and looked at a small, unfixed gap in the shields, then her eyes darted to the right of the gap where there was a lone, abandoned cyber car.

“Thank you, Dimes. I owe you,” she said with a melancholic smile. She turned and ran towards the car and when she got there, didn’t hesitate to get on and start it up.

“If the corporal asks for his car, just say he shouldn’t park it next to gaps in the shield!” she called with a weak smile. Diamond nodded with a grin.

“Don’t tell anyone about this. It’s supposed to be a secret!” Diamond called.

She watched Tourmaline start the car and fly through the gap, and a few moments later she had disappeared into the lilac horizon.

She sighed and walked off to an empty fuel bin. Joe was sitting there gazing at her curiously. She decided she might as well tell him that Tourmaline had gone off to Hashlyn where she might be able to find a solution to her problems. Otherwise he’d be pestering her with questions all day, and she really wasn’t in the mood for that.

………………………………………………………………………………………………

“Waspinator, take off that invisibility coat and report to me,” he asked patiently.

He heard the noise of a zips being pulled and a moment later, a large wasp head appeared and blinked.

He shook himself and the coat fell onto the floor, by the sounds of it, and Waspinator’s entire body was revealed. Waspinator bent over and started feeling the invisible coat for the button, which would turn off the transparency.

Megatron sighed wearily as the wasp seemed to stroke and dust the floor with his hands.

“Yes, well, now that you’ve done that highly unimportant bit of work, I’d like to hear a report. Where is Kismet?” he asked.

“Fate-bot wazzz killed zzzomehow. Wazzpinator overheard scaley-botzz daughter-bot talking to brother-bot.”

“Yezzz. But Wazzpinator found Scaly-bot, Diamond-bot and brother Magnanimouzzz-bot in Vixadonia!” he piped up.

“Blight was a former soldier of mine who I lost somewhere in Nystrin. He contacted me a few days ago to tell me he was alive and that he wanted me to pick him up. I asked him why I should bother and he said he had some interesting information for me. I persuaded him to tell me what he knew first. Amongst the mostly useless information he told me that dear Kismet was looking for Diamond. I was planning to collect him yesterday in order to try and find out more on the issue, but the Maximals found him first. He’s being held captive,” Megatron explained.

“I’m not sure yet, but what I do know is that Kismet was on a mission, and that mission included her. I want to find out why, which means there’s going to be a change in plan, yesss,” he muttered to himself.

Waspinator shook his head slowly and left the room. He had no idea what Megatron was on about, but quite frankly, he didn’t really want to. Besides, if he hung around any longer he’d be given another grueling task, and he didn’t want that either.

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