~{ Beast Wars Chronicles }~ ~{ Kindred Spirits }~ By Eliot Lefebvre It was always the same one. He was in a dark, barren landscape. Shadowy figures surged past him, blowing away other shadowy figures. Barely recognizable faces drifted past him, and he knelt to the ground in pain. "Get up!" bellowed Megatron at the soldier. "M-m-mighty Megatron..." he began. Megatron picked him up and smashed him into the ground. "You will obey! Now, combine to form...Devastator!" The soldier nodded, and ancient procedures ran through his head, clicking him into a perfect shape to combine with his teammates - - but for some reason, it didn't work. They simply smashed together, and began falling into deep, dark holes. He felt himself falling... ...Falling... ...falling... ...falling..* * * * * * * * * * * Bonecrusher sat up in a cold sweat. *Whew,* he gasped, wiping his brow. *Only a dream. Wonder where it comes from...* He shoved the thought out of his head. Getting up, he glanced out of the porthole in his quarters. *Still dark. My organic form probably needs more rest.* The thought of having the nightmare again did not appeal to Bonecrusher. He decided that it would be prudent to get out of the Axalon for a little while. Maybe a little night jog would get his brain moving. He began to head towards the exit. He tried his best to keep quiet, since normally his footfalls would echo throughout the ship - not something that would put him high on anyone's list. He reached the nearest exit. Pressing a couple of buttons, the ramp slid open to allow easy exit. He transformed and gallopped out of the Axalon. * * * * * * * * * "Work faster!" bellowed Blackarachnia at Drill Bit. "Yes, Empress," replied Drill Bit, continuing to assemble the framework that Blackarachnia wanted. "Wazzzzzpinator zzzzick and tired of working for you," grumbled Waspinator. "Wazzzzpinator not follow your orderzzzz anymore." "Oh, Megs..." began Blackarachnia. "Wazzzzzpinator love thizzzzz job," said the Predacon as he lifted another girder into place. Blackarachnia sighed. "I'm going outside for a little while," she said. "If anyone asks what this is all about, it has nothing to do with me." "But you ordered itzzzzz conzzzzztruction," said Waspinator, puzzled. "Come here, Waspinator," said Manterror. Waspinator did, and Manterror smashed into the side of his head. "Now quit acting dumb and let us do the talking!" Blackarachnia could hear them bickering even when she left in spider mode. * * * * * * * * * * Bonecrusher plowed through another row of trees. *Nineteen,* he thought. *That's the most yet.* He'd been out here for over two hours now. He tried his damndest to get the nightmare out of his head, but he couldn't. And it wasn't even just the nightmare. Ever since he had landed here, there had been a part of him that never felt right. He was always second-guessing himself, asking himself if he was doing the right thing. He often felt like the best idea would be just to leave the Maximals and strike out on his own. But he never did. A noise disturbed him. He stood perfectly still, listening to the distant noise. He could hear it distinctly - the click of mandibles. Like a Predacon. He was miles from either of the ships. Any battle he got into would be strictly on the up-and-up. He decided to go with his instincts. So he barrelled through the forest at full speed until he reached Blackarachnia. He transformed and lept at the female Pred. She yelped and scampered out of the way before he landed. She transformed and fired a pair of missiles at him, which he dodged to the left. He then came up with an uppercut, which she flipped away from into the trees, where she launched another volley of missiles. He reurned fire, then dived forward as the missiles she launched exploded behind him. Blackarachnia fired a web at Bonecrusher and leaped to another tree. Bonecrusher ripped the web apart with a berserk charge, then madly fired missiles into the trees, without even bothering to aim. The sky was lit up by the missiles as they blew apart the tops of trees. Blackarachnia fired a pair of missiles behind Bonecrusher, knocking down the tree he was standing in front of. He dropped to the ground and rolled away from the falling tree, them charged forward in bison mode, knocking Blackarachnia out of the tree. Blackarachnia gracefully landed on the ground and delivered a swift roundhouse kick to Bonecrusher's head. She followed through with the kick, then transformed to spider mode and advanced on the downed Maximal. Her mandibles clicked dangerously near Bonecrusher's head. He struggled to push her off, trying to keep from being injected with her deadly venom, similar to that of Waspinator. He finally shoved her off and raked the clearing with missiles. Flames licked at Blackarachnia's heels as she ran in robot mode from the missile blasts. She finally dived to the left, sliding out of the clearing and into the forest. Bonecrusher followed, missile launcher at the ready. She leaped onto his back in spider mode, and sunk her mandibles into him. Bonecrusher twitched and convulsed for a few seconds, then went limp. She tied him up in a mass of web and dragged him off towards her camp. * * * * * * * * * * Bonecrusher's world slowly came back into focus. "About time you woke up," said Blackarachnia, who was toying with a small rodent. Finally sick of it, she grabbed the small animal and tossed it down her throat. The sound of crunching bones was audible as she devoured it. "Why haven't you killed me yet?" asked Bonecrusher angrily. "I don't know, really," she said, a cocky grin on her face. "Mother always said I had a nasty habit of playing with my food." "I hope that doesn't mean what I think it might mean," said Bonecrusher. "Oh, but it does," she said, still smiling, but now more seductively then anything else. "You see, a black widow finds a mate, then uses the mate's body as nutrients so that she can lay her eggs." She began crawling towards him. "Oh, come on! Maximals don't kill Maximals!" exclaimed Bonecrusher, inching away from her. Not that she was by any means unattractive - indeed, Bonecrusher would not mind having a good excuse to both take his mind off of his problems and get laid all at once. But somehow, it didn't feel right. "Are you suggesting I'm a Maximal?" asked Blackarachnia incredulously. "Well, you were - until Tarantulas reprogrammed you." Blackarachnia shrunk back. "You mean I used to be a Maximal?" "Yes." "Sounds just like something a Decepticon would say." Bonecrusher glared at her. "I'm a loyal Maximal and you know it, Blackarachnia!" he bellowed. Was he trying to convince her...or himself? "You used to be a Decepticon, though. Admit it. Some of that old Decepticon programming still gnaws away at you, doesn't it?" "I'll admit it...but only when you admit that the reason you didn't kill me was because some of the Maximal in you still couldn't kill me." They were both silent for a long moment. "You're right. I couldn't bring myself to kill you. I don't feel any remorse when I think about it, or when I send off others to kill, but when it comes to the actual deed, I freeze up." She looked Bonecrusher over. "Although the part about the mate was not entirely untrue." Bonecrusher remained silent for a few seconds after before saying anything. "I know that that Decepticon programming does still eat away at me. Not just at me - I often have flashbacks of my former life, flashbacks that I remember but yet seem totally alien to me." He sank his head. "To be honest, I sometimes think of leaving the Maximals." "So return to us!" said Blackarachnia, her voice taking on a slightly fanatical tone. "Come back to the Predacons, and together we will go to victory!" "I can't," said Bonecrusher. "A part of me is still evil, but it's a part I must come to terms with, not a part that must take over." He looked at her intensely. "And what of you? Don't you ever want to return to the Maximals?" She shook her head. "The Maximal part of me is so deeply buried, I can only barely feel it - and even then, it gets smaller every passing day. I miss it, I really do." The two of them sat across from each other in the darkness. Then, Blackarachnia began cutting the web encasing Bonecrusher. "What are you doing?" he asked. "I'm cutting you free. What does it look like I'm doing?" "But - I'm your prisoner." "Not anymore you're not." She finished cutting the last strand of web. "Let's just say that you burst loose, and I couldn't restrain your mad rage." Bonecrusher nodded. Then he turned to face her. "I -" he began. "Forget it. Now go, before I change my mind." Bonecrusher transformed and sped off into the night. * * * * * * * * * One last thing to do, now. For the first time since he had landed, Bonecrusher's thoughts felt clear. He had one last thing to do before he could return to the Axalon. Climbing up on a ledge, he began to sing the Cybertronian Song of the Dead for the Maximal Blackarachnia and the Decepticon Bonecrusher - two beings that were now gone forever, no matter what. The song filled the valley for hours as Bonecrusher paid his homage.