Web hosting Custom Email SiteBuilder

"Who in the Inferno are you?" were the first words she heard from him.

Dinobot -- his voice -- seeming so inhospitable -- so harsh; she couldn't place what quality she found soothing in it, but something was.

"Zinou..," she'd replied after a hesitance, being grilled by a wary, angry and uncertain stare. She'd been hauling him for a while, in her arms, and was quite happy to see him awake. Uncertainty barely showed through her guise of joy. "You're all right?"

Dinobot shook his head and stared at her. Yes -- he could detect she was Maximal. The last thing he'd remembered was being attacked by Megatron -- as the puzzle pieces fell into place, he realized that she must've been the stasis pod's result.

"Yes.," he snarled, rolling his shoulders. His internal repairs had been able to do quite a bit of work -- although not the repairs that he optimally could've used, it was enough to get him standing.

"Ah! Very good," the hyenabot replied, seemed almost ready to clap with joy, had she not been in beast mode. "So you can walk now?"

"I believe so," he responded, standing up and testing his weight on both legs. After doing so, he looked back to the hyena, giving her a slow nod.

"Good! Then..come with me." She spun around and started to lope off.

Dinobot didn't move. "Where are you going?" he snarled, blinking and looking around; he was just now crawling out of the foggy depths of grogginess, "..and --where are we?"

She turned and looked to him, eyes going blank for a moment. She shrugged. "Dunno."

He consulted his internal computer, but his calibration systems had been damaged when he'd been shot -- he couldn't get a fix on his location. After a brief session in discussing the instructions for the use of a calibration system with Zinou, he discovered that her nav-sensors were scrambled, too. He brought a claw to his chin and looked around, still sore. "Well," the almost impatient hyenabot mrred... "..come on. We must get going, now."

Dinobot's claws clenched. "We should head back to base," he replied, not directly answering her.

"Well... just come on. I'm sure we'll get to some... where..." was her lower response.

He stared.

She pinned her ears back.

"If neither you nor I -know- where we're going, what harm could it do?" was her best explanation. Her face slowly etched back into a grin.

Dinobot growled. She did have a point. He thought for a moment, and then nodded reluctantly. "Very well. Move out." He motioned a claw in the direction she was loping, an indicator for her to go. With another, larger grin, she turned and trotted off. Dinobot shook his head as he started to stalk after.

As soon as my navigational systems are back online... he thought in a growl to himself, we'll .. get going in the right direction.

He looked around, the terrain totally unfamiliar.

I hope.

Time passed slowly -- often attempts were made to hasten their travels with Zinou attempting to strike up conversation with the seemingly withdrawn raptorbot. It took her a while, but occasionally she would get to hear a lecture on the 'other Maximals' she was told existed and 'the base', of which she was also informed they were supposed to be heading back to. But she resisted every course-correction that Dinobot tried to implement. "Oh no," she'd insist. "That's not the right way.." And he begrudgingly continued to follow her. She wasn't damaged. He was.

His internal repairs, also, worked nowhere near as fast as he'd of liked them to -- his navigational systems stayed offline and were scrambled every time he tried to access them. That left him with little choice but to follow the hyenabot.

She never seemed to want to sleep, either. She would walk until Dinobot'd almost fall down with exhaustion. Continuous, and never-ending. On and on..

Dinobot didn't like admitting weakness, but the hyenabot was definitely pushing him. His attempts at force were looked upon but as a game, and this only proceeded to anger him further.

For almost a week this went on....

The savanna stretched on for miles in all directions. A gentle breeze stirred the grasses, the entire fields of their swaying, yellowed stalks bowing in accordance. The sun was setting rapidly, the orange orb seeming to be falling out of the sky. Through the grasses tromped two forms -- that of a hyena and a velociraptor.

Zinou loped out in front, ears perked. Her pace seemed tireless as she marched on, oblivious to the setting sun and all else. Dinobot, however, was slowly but surely lagging behind. "Zinou," he called out in a low snarl, "Do you not think is about time that we stopped, for a rest? As much as I hate to admit it, I'm tired, and we have been walking for almost -forty- megacycles straight, now..."

Zinou stopped abruptly and looked over her shoulder at the raptor. Her ears perked slowly. "Have we?"

She squinted. She'd seemingly lost track of time. "Oh," she looked at the setting sun, cocked her head, and looked to Dinobot again. Sighing lowly, as if exhaustion had just been made prominent to her as well, she stopped and looked at him. "Hrm. Perhaps you're right. I suppose I've..lost track of time."

Dinobot glared at her. "How in the Inferno can you lose track of time?! Do you have any idea, now, where are we going, anyways?"

Zinou sat down, and shrugged. "Somewhere," she murmured, uncertainly, again. She knew she was supposed to be going somewhere .. for some reason..but she couldn't quite remember clearly what.

All she recalled is that it was important. And it involved Dinobot accompanying.

Dinobot threw his arms skywards in frustration. "Wonderful. We are hopelessly lost, and you are dragging me 'somewhere'," he shook his head again, bringing his claws back down in bunched fists. "This is a waste of our time! We should try and head back to base. This is madness!"

He'd had enough.

Zinou looked at Dinobot, brows furrowing, face etching into one of stress. "No it isn't. Trust me...I know what I'm doing," she paused and mrred to herself, "..I think."

Dinobot sighed and averted his gaze towards the western horizon. The sun had all but set, twilight now surrounding them. He lay down abruptly. "I'm going to initiate a rest cycle. You should do the same. We will figure out what to do..in the morning. I'm tired of this ceaseless wandering," his tail curled around him.

Zinou sighed and looked towards him. "Dinobot...just.."

He ignored her, closing his eyes and going to sleep.

She sighed and shook her head, turning away, agitated. She knew she was going somewhere... and she knew there was a very good reason, too. She just didn't know how much longer she could convince Dinobot to stay with her, that was all.

She lay down too, putting her head on her paws. Her entire existence was a confusing puzzle to her. Why was she doing what she was? Why was she dragging Dinobot around? She squinted. There had to be some..reason...

Drowsiness started to creep up on her, but she fought off the notion of sleep.

Sleep disturbed her. She felt better when awake. She had horrible dreams when she was asleep. Every time she slept, always a variation of the same dream. It perturbed her. She didn't want to sleep.

But she couldn't fight off exhaustion for long....

..and fell asleep.

And the dreams came again, as they always had.

She found herself engulfed in darkness, a terrible, numbing cold present all about her, the frightening feeling of being alone. Two things always watched her -- two things of which she could not identify -- two things with two eyes apiece.

Sometimes they spoke. Their names were They, collectively, and then separately, it was One and the Other. They both looked at her. Stared. And did what they always did....

..told her.

One's red eyes shone in the darkness. Other's blue ones appeared alongside.

"Do not fail," Other's deep, calm tone boomed.

"You will fail!" One's screeched tone resonated after.

"Do not let him go," Other then said.

"You will let him go!" One cried.

She looked between them. What were they talking about?

"Do not continue.." boomed Other.

"Continue on!" screeched One.

"Remember ..."

"Forget!"

Then both voiced muttered in strange unison, "Failure is the price of failing to heed.."

"Failure of what? Fail what?" Zinou called.

"Fail..."

She had a sudden flash of thought -- some horrible looking beast -- some hideous..monster!

That'd never been in her dream before!

It had a gleaming silvery form, fangs like daggers, a bony, whiplike tail -- and red eyes narrowed in a furious madness. It had wicked, curved talons -- they too, silvery -- and it jumped straight for her, hissing.

"TO FAIL!" One and the Other's voiced cried in unison.

Zinou screamed -- a short, high pitched shriek....

And awoke. Awoke to the sharp overtone of her own voice screaming, of which she quickly cut off, sitting up. She looked around, bronze eyes so wide the whites were showing.

Dinobot jumped up at the sudden sound, tail lashing as he looked about. His gaze darted around, looking for some form of hostiles, but finding none, his gaze snapped sharply to Zinou. "By the Pit, what was that noise?"

He then noted the look of terror etched onto the hyena's face. "What happened to you?"

Zinou gasped, taking deep breaths as to calm down. "..A dream," she murmured.

Dinobot furrowed his brows. "A dream does not normally provoke such noise."

"A nightmare, Dinobot," she muttered, standing up, looking all around.

What was that thing? That -- hideous creature! She shuddered.

Dinobot merely shook his head. "Bah. Only a coward would be afraid of any 'nightmare' nonsense."

Zinou glanced up at him. "Surely, Dinobot, you've had a nightmare, before," her voice was still warily edged.

Dinobot glared down at her. "No," was his flat and growled reply.

Zinou sighed. She stared at him a moment more before deciding to change the subject. "What time is it..?" she muttered, rather not wanting to be grilled with hostility.

Dinobot consulted his internal computer, the solar clock, for a moment and glanced eastwards. "Almost dawn," he replied. He stretched his neck and tail, jerking them about in a quick lash. Looking at his claws, he flexed them, before looking back at Zinou, face melting to one of disgust. "What, you wish to resume walking again? To 'somewhere'?"

Zinou frowned, and snorted with contempt. "Dinobot... bear with me... just a few days longer. We'll get to where we're supposed to be going.. I just know it," she cast a toothy grin up in his direction, but he growled.

"This is madness, female. Your pod circuits were damaged when you were created, and now you are stuck in this feedback loop of nonsense, dragging me to who-knows-where. This ends now!" He swiped a claw through the air in a 'cut-off' gesture, snarling, "..we are returning to base!" He paused.."..wherever that is."

He still didn't know, but most definitely was -not- going to follow Zinou around aimlessly any longer.

Zinou loped around to be in front of him. "Dinobot... please... wait. Just give me a few more days... a few?"

Dinobot glowered at her. "We have been walking for 'a few'. You think I have energy in infinite quantities. I do not. Walking for forty megacycles straight is quite -tiring-."

His teeth gritted, voice lowering to one of anger. "I would much rather be spending my time getting back to base, then getting lost, because of the likes of you. Your ambitions to go 'somewhere' are foolish."

He started to stalk off. Zinou stood in his way. "Just a day more! A day!"

Dinobot glared down at her. "No."

"Yes!" She headbutted him, causing him to stagger back a few steps.

He growled.

"What does NO mean to you, female?" He grunted and rubbed his chest, hissing at her.

"Nothing. One more day!" she almost demanded.

He bared his teeth and hissed.

She bared her teeth and growled.

With a snarled sigh, he clenched his claws in frustration. "Very well. One more day," he held up a single claw and flashed it in her face. "Twenty-four more megacycles. No longer."

Zinou flicked her ears, grinning smugly, somewhat. "Good. Then follow me," she turned and started westwards again, the same direction of which she had been going all along.

Dinobot didn't budge. "You can keep going for twenty-four megacycles," he snarled, "..in whatever direction you wish. I will head east," he pointed a claw eastwards..."...and if you find your somewhere before the day has elapsed, then I will change course and come to you. But, if you do not find your somewhere, then you will change your course and follow me. Back to base."

He, for some reason, thought that he'd have a better chance at finding the base than she would.

Zinou frowned. "Dinobot...."

Dinobot fluttered his tongue and started eastwards. "That or nothing, female."

Zinou sighed. "Very well. Stay in touch?"

Dinobot nodded, but didn't turn to face her. "Hmyrr...yes. I'll ... check in at sunset."

"Sunset. Got it."

She loped off westwards, Dinobot stalked off eastwards.

To the west -- a jungle bordering mountains and plain. To the east..... a valley.

Noon. Dinobot had been stalking along the entire morning. How he hated to have lied to the female.. almost deceiving her in such a way -- he knew that there was no way that the crazy hyenabot was going to find what she was looking for. He knew she was crazy, even if she had saved his life. Gratitude only went so far, as far as he was concerned.

The day wore on. The sun shone down harshly upon the raptor, but he seemed to enjoy it, tail lashing like a ribbon as he walked. His steady, almost rocking gait made for easy travel on his part. He didn't mind walking, he just minded walking to nonexistent, imaginary 'somewheres'. He would much rather be utilizing his time heading back to base. He knew that he should've been missed by now.

Base... now, where was that again? he grumbled to himself, looking around. This terrain seemed a -little- more familiar than what he'd been trekking through -- he continued onwards, quite sure of himself. He was also much happier alone, than in the company of the annoying and overly-talkative hyenabot.

He snarled sourly as he thought of the time he was going to have explaining his foray to the rest of the Maximals. Especially if Zinou failed to return with him.

He frowned. The Maximals would probably benefit from someone like her, the way she was. It would be a pity if she failed to return with him.

He shook his head. Not as if he was really concerned -- if she was going to remain a supporter of nonsense, her failure to return was fine by him.

The afternoon was uneventful, insects droning in the midday heat. Midday faded soon into the evening, sun dipping almost graciously on the western horizon. To his back. He almost became drowsy as he walked.

He abruptly came near the edge of some sort of gorge, there being a valley sheltered within it. A lush jungle valley. He blinked slowly and thought to himself a moment, trying to recall if whether or not this valley was near the base.

He was suddenly brought to attention by an alert from his internal computer.

"Warning -- temporal anomaly detected."

He lifted a brow, looking all about. Temporal anomaly -- wasn't that the term for... rifts in time and space?

Wasn't that what the Predacon ship had passed through when being pursued by the Axalon? Wasn't that..

He continued to stalk forwards, looking warily about.

"Computer -- location of disturbance?"

"Bearing east -- northeast... .01 meters ahead..."

Dinobot paused. ".01 meters??"

He stepped back, looking around again. Some sort of strange distortion seemed to be materializing about him and surrounding him. His eyes widened. He felt threatened.

"Dinobot... MAXIMIZE!"

He jerked transformation, pulling out his sword and facing the distortion which was rapidly closing around him. He stepped back as to get away, but only found that he was surrounded on all sides. Within a split second, he was engulfed by the distortion, optics wide.

"What is happening..??!"

He held his sword to the sky, hissing in bewilderment.

Everything went blank for a moment, and then flashed back to existence. He was standing exactly where he was before, looking over the edge of some sort of gorge, which made shelter to a small, jungle-lush valley below.

There was no apparent change. What had just happened? Was he just imagining it, or...

His mind was suddenly filled with thoughts -- thoughts that were his -- but not ..his own.

The ancestors to the human race -- they dwell in this valley. His thoughts seemed to be overriding all thoughts of bewilderment he had been experiencing just moments before.

They dwell in this valley. The humans. Megatron knows it. I must stop him from destroying it.

What am I thinking? He gasped in side-thought suddenly. But the more he struggled against these intruding thoughts, the more they seemed to be his. He had caused this. He must stop it.

He suddenly felt the dawning of reason upon him -- as if he had just come to realize all that was in his mind.

The sun shone behind him, eerily casting a reflection on his already-drawn sword.

"...Let the battle be joined."

He delved into the valley below.

Sunset. Zinou had been traveling all day, and to her great dismay had made no progress, with the exception of changing her surroundings from savanna to near-mountainous terrain. The plain of which she currently loped across was bare and grassless, with the exception of a few trees, paws aching at having so long struck the cracked, greyish surface of the earth. Her own onset of depression at what she saw as an imminent loss on her part made each step heavier, and with a sigh, she loped to a halt alongside the trunk of one of the few, gnarled trees that twisted up from the ground.

Perhaps she was crazy. Perhaps Dinobot was right. Perhaps she was insane with this obsession to find 'somewhere', and was foolish to have been dragging Dinobot along all this time. She shook her head. She had no will to go any further. She glared at the sunset, as if blaming time for being too short.

As soon as Dinobot checks in, she told herself, I will tell him I will be joining him shortly. In returning to this... 'base'.

She paused, and amused herself with the thought: if he, too, even knows where it is.....

She glared at the mountains. She was growing bitter. She knew it would be insane to continue at the point. To continue, would mean traveling through a jungle, over mountains, at night. For what? Nothing. She would just have to turn around and come back. Or... be alone. She forced herself to accept that Dinobot was right. Why on earth was she even heading this way? Towards these mountains? It was crazy! Totally crazy.

She lay her head on her paws, watching the sun sink into the jagged horizon.

It sank... and sank... and finally, was no more. The last few fires of orange glow that illuminated the distant mountain crests flared, and then died out. Sun had set. Sunset was past. Twilight had stepped in and taken over. Far off, energon lightning lit the sky with its brilliance, and it was now completely apparent that a storm was in full force in the distance.

But... Dinobot had not checked in. And sunset had passed. She sat up. A sudden sense of dread flooded her. Perhaps he had deemed her so crazy -- as to deem her a hazard to the other Maximals that he had spoke of .. perhaps he had abandoned her. Perhaps he would not check in. Perhaps..she was alone.

She shook her head. No, no, that wasn't a possibility. Although it may have been possible that he may not have liked her, he wouldn't go so far as to do that.

She decided that she would check in with -him-. She activated her internal comm.

"Zinou to Dinobot....Dinobot....do you read?"

The screechy whine of static filled her ears. Static? Another flood of dread, followed by a whisk of relief. Perhaps Dinobot had picked up his pace, as had she, and they were merely out of range. She chuckled uneasily. Yes,..perhaps that was it. Out of range. Energon interference. Merely that.....

But no, ..it was not merely that. Fate was to have it differently.

Perhaps being out of range was one factor...

Dreadfully out of range....

But happening at the same times -- times as relevant to one place -- were in parallel existences occurrences that were to forever change the world. As Fate would have it ..One way or the Other...

He was not to die.

And as Fate would have it .. the timing...was..perfect.

Dinobot lay on the ground, the Maximals around him. Comforting him. He knew he was dying. He could feel it. He spoke with his comrades, but the words almost seemed to slip away as did he, optics starting to close -- forever.

"...and the rest..."
"..life... Transmetal 2 life!"
"..is.."
"I welcome you..."
"...silence...."
"..Transmetal 2, Dinobot...."

Perfect.

Lightning crashed through the air, illuminating the arms-outstretched figure of Megatron.

Dinobot's optics closed for what seemed to be forever .. only to open the next second. But he wasn't looking to the faces of his pensive Maximal comrades... but to the faces of two others he knew.

Megatron. And Waspinator. He felt overcome by the essence of something else. An essence of evil. Something he could not immediately explain.

He stepped out of a horizontal stasis pod, looking all about. His silvery, bony tail lashed in the dull glow of the alien machine, long and sharp talons clacking on the metal grating below them. His gaze fell onto his claws.....

He was surprised. They were transmetallized.

What's happened? he thought in a dull growl to himself, a weary, confused one.

He glanced back up and looked towards Megatron. The Predacon commander's grin was broad as he looked Dinobot over, hands rubbing together.

The sky was heavy with clouds, occasionally being pierced by a bolt of lightning. That evil feeling again -- Dinobot felt as if he was being forced to obey. And he was. Megatron had so programmed the protoform in the manner for it would be loyal to him only.

Dinobot seemed lightheaded for a moment, but quickly lowered himself to a crouched position, tail lashing as he surveyed his surroundings. Slowly, the doubt and memories started to fade, being recessed and replaced by a more prominent evil...

But Megatron had not counted on the interference of Fate itself..........

Zinou had finally fallen asleep, despite her discomfort. Her sleep was not a peaceful one, however -- her mind once again was tormented with the harsh voices of One and the Other.

Once more they boomed down to her conflicting statements. No hideous beast danced in her dreams this night, however, One and the Other seemed too into dealing their harsh vocalizations of her failure.

They, at the end of the sequence that always seemed to be the same, suddenly stopped. They eyes disappeared, as if they were closed.

"Alone.." Other's voice muttered.

"Without!" One screeched.

She was engulfed in total darkness. Alone. What was but a few seconds seemed to stretch on forever.

And ever. Just as, she felt, the consequences... the consequences of whatever she had.....

"FAILED!" The two voices boomed in sudden unison, breaking up the silence.

Zinou awoke with a start -- thunder, seeming to be the traces of Their voices, trailed across the sky with a loud, reverberating echo. Her eyes were wide as she glanced back and forth The storm was approaching.

Coming. Its very presence seemed ominous....

The winds that the storm brought with it suddenly picked up, whisking at her fur. She squinted, as the loose, dry and gravel-like soil started to be blown into the air as a result. She flicked her ears and snorted, standing abruptly. She remembered briefly her promise to herself -- the promise that she was going to go back to Dinobot.

She glanced over her shoulder, what seemed eastwards. Nothing but bare and dry soil seemed to stretch on as far as she could see. And with the approaching storm, such a trek didn't seem immediately feasible.

She looked towards what seemed the west -- the way she had been going and had felt inclined to go all along. The way from which the storm was coming. The way of which she could see many opportunities to take shelter. Opportunities that went by the guise of a jungle, which laid between her and the mountains beyond.

It didn't take her long to decide which way to go.

With but a slight misstep as she started out, she started loping towards what she thought was westwards again, in search of shelter. She knew she still had the small matter of contacting Dinobot to attend to, but that wasn't as immediately important as was finding shelter, despite her nagging thoughts otherwise.

Onwards she loped, trying to beat the storm...  

Muddied and exhausted, Zinou had taken shelter in a cave, which was merely a hollow in a rocky outcropping in the midsts of a tropical forest. Her thoughts were just beginning to clear as she had finally managed to calm down. Everything that has seemingly just taken place was but a blur. She could've sworn her computer had warned her about some sort of temporal anomaly, but when she tried to remember clearly, she couldn't.

A temporal anomaly....what did that word mean? She tried to think on it, but her mind only replied to her query with confusion.

All she remembered was running. A section of the jungle had seemed -- seemed -- well, she could only think it as being blurred, but she was so bewildered she didn't bother trying to figure it out.

She lay her head on her muddy paws, staring out at the wet jungle. She barely even recalled walking through the brush, nevertheless anything else.

The sun chose that moment to peek through the clouds. A shaft of it shot down at the jungle floor, all but a few sparkles and glimpses reaching through the foliage. Zinou lifted her gaze to meet the sudden light, and from its angle, realized the time to be sometime late-morning.

"Dinobot.," she murmured, remembering. She had to call him. Contact him. A sudden spear of dread seemed to have been thrown at her. She sat stiffly up, weary from lack of sleep. The little sleep that she did get was always terrifying, and that deterred her from trying to take naps or otherwise. She shook her head, and activated her comlink.

"Zinou...to Dinobot.," she muttered in an exhale.

"Dinobot...please respond..."

And still there was no response. There was a distorted, squealy static, one that one would expect to hear in such cases as if the frequency trying to be contacted didn't exist. She managed to choke off her mounting dread with a brief self-assurance, once more, that she was merely out of range. Contacting him was a simple matter of doing an about face and going back the direction she'd come. To follow him. To quit being a fool.. The simple matter...

But it was no simple matter...

She took another deep breath. She had no idea which way she'd run in her panic, and had completely lost her bearings. Her internal calibration systems, already malfunctional, seemed to have been knocked even moreso out of whack. North, south, east ..west.. the words seemed to have no literal meaning. And through the trees she couldn't get a fix on the sun's position.

She stood up.

Pain shot to her mind from all parts of her body. She'd failed to realize how much she'd damaged herself in her blind panic. There were gashes all on her flanks and forelegs, from hurling herself through the jungle. She glared at herself a moment, angry at her own stupidity. But then she realized that not much good was going to result from such.

She thought a moment.

What was it that Dinobot had before mentioned? A.. CR chamber? She knew from him and some basic programming that a CR chamber was the solution to this problem. She looked around. Where the slag was she going to find one of those? They only existed at bases. At least that is what Dinobot'd said...

She cursed herself again. Her foolishness had only resulted in this problem. What a fool she had been! If she would have been following Dinobot, then she would be that much closer to the aforementioned base that he spoke so often of returning to.

The question rose in her mind again.

Why did she even want to wander this direction? There had to be reason..

Her angry self, the one that was most in touch with reality, quickly hushed the foolish query. There was no reason. She was damaged in her pod crash and that was that. Now .... to try to find a 'base'.

She reasoned quite simply that finding a base would solve two of the two problems she had -- she was injured, needed repairs : a base had accomodities for that -- and she wanted to find Dinobot: he said he was going to be returning to 'base', so in all common sense, he'd be there too.

Finding Dinobot would only solve one problem... to find him.

So she decided to set off to find a 'base'.

Although she had perfectly no idea where she was going. Not a clue. This problem troubled her quite a bit, and as she slowly loped along, brushing through the jungle, she thought on it. What did a 'base' even look like? From what she had heard from Dinobot, it was a downed ship -- and a base of operations.

Wait -- what did a ship look like? A stasis pod? She shook her head and growled to herself. No..

She suddenly had an idea. A base would be a place full of other Maximals .. and so if she set her scanners to search for Maximals, she'd be able to quickly locate this 'base'. Or perhaps another that could assist her to it.

Dinobot had spoken of many other Maximals besides him and her, and this thought was all but what she was going by as she continued on her way.  

The sun was an annoyance, a glare. The jungle below glistened and swayed gently with the humid breeze. The sky was but his domain, as he soared along, on patrol. Silverbolt, of course. His talons stretched out in front of him as he flew, as if reaching for some unknown goal that continually moved. His wings flapped slowly, continually, and he seemed to have not a care in the world.

But of course, he did, and that care was patrol. Keeping a sharp eye out for all things suspicious.

He had his scanner array set on full, the greenish blur of the jungle below but the norm.

His computer suddenly droned: "Unknown signature detected."

He suddenly arched his wings and glid to a halt, a few feathers falling from his third set of limbs as he paused. Flapping furiously to stay in one place, he scanned the jungle below.

"Unknown signature?" he queried. "Faction?"

"Maximal." His computer replied.

Silverbolt's face lit up, muzzle breaking into one of his broad grins.

"Ah. I see! What a joyous day. I should locate this new comrade...."

He leaned to one side, wings spreading to a full-spanned glide as he dropped through the air, heading towards the jungle below. His gaze swept back and forth as he continually grew nearer. He decided to call for another to aid in his search, the jungle being dense as it was.

"This is Silverbolt, to any nearby and available Maximal units. I have located some unknown Maximal on my scanners, and am moving in to intercept. However, the new unit has been pinpointed as being in a dense jungle, and I may need some assistance."

He continued to flap downwards.

A moment later, a smooth and sharp tone responded back over his comm: "This is Depth Charge. I'm near your position.." there was a pause.. "..on patrol. I'll aid your search."

Silverbolt nodded as he brushed through the dense canopy, descending still. "Very good."

His talons grasped first a branch with ease, as his paws followed in a mad scrabble after. Now below the canopy, he could quite clearly see the jungle floor below, take the shorter ferns and palms.

He squinted and scanned below, catching but a glimpse of a moving object. "Hello?" he called out, ears perking.

He sprang from the higher branch and glided to a lower one, looking towards where he saw the movement. A pair of bronze eyes stared up at him for a moment before emerging from beneath a low hanging palm.

She perked her ears, and tried to look intimidating, but her weary slump totally botched the attempt.

"Greetings!" he called out, having quickly identified the unit as the Maximal he was seeking. He hopped from the branch, transforming, landing and extending his hand in greeting to her all in one move.

Zinou lost a little of her wariness, her own computer having confirmed Silverbolt as a Maximal. This seemed almost too good to be true. She took a few pensive steps forwards, looking the predominantly grey, bold and upright Maximal over. Her bronze eyes met his yellow optics, and his face curved into a soft and gentle smile. "Greetings.." she mrred back, after the long hesitation.

Silverbolt looked as if he was surprised at the voice being feminine, but continued to his friendly greeting. "My name is Silverbolt. Who, may I ask, are you?"

"Zinou.." she mrred back, voice noticeably weary.

Silverbolt nodded again, taking a step closer. "Greetings Zinou." He waved a hand in a brief motion towards her, "..are you injured?"

She nodded. "Affirmative.." she muttered. " I am looking for a 'base'..." she mrred suddenly, "As to get repaired. Would you know where one is?"

Silverbolt lifted a brow. "Of course. Our base is just a bit away from here. I will take you there.."

Zinou nodded.

Silverbolt barked, "Beast mode!" and fell to all fours once more, tucking his wings to his side. "Get on." He almost demanded, but it was merely the deep tone of his voice that made it sound so.

Zinou nodded again, and took a step towards Silverbolt. Her gaze suddenly drifted past him however, to the bushes beyond him. Two little red pinpoints of light, quite obviously optics, peered at her. 

And even if that was an impossibility, it never hurt to have one less Maximal around.

He had been closing in on the moving unit for a while, when his scanners were alerted by another Maximal presence. A unit he had identified already as Silverbolt. It wouldn't hurt to destroy THAT die-hard Maximal either.

Megatron didn't know it, but his new Dinobot was as dangerous to the Predacons as he was to the Maximals. He just hadn't yet had the stimulation to demonstrate his power towards both. Dinobot was like a wolf-dog, a ferocious hybrid between that which was wild and true, and that which was domestically-wise and had familiarities with BOTH factions...

Megatron thought that he was in control of every situation presented him. He wasn't.

Dinobot had located the signature. A beat-up hyenabot was all that greeted his gaze, a hyenabot that had already found her way to meeting another Maximal. As he had suspected. He would try to neutralize Silverbolt, whom he knew as a threat, first, and then he would go after the unknown unit.

The hyenabot and Silverbolt struck up brief conversation, which failed to interest him enough to keep his /full/ attention. The hyenabot headed towards Silverbolt, and they looked as if they were ready to depart. Now was his chance to strike. They would not know, for so quiet and clever was he... he hadn't been seen..

And then two bronze eyes directly met his gaze.... 

 "What's that?" Zinou queried suddenly, bronze eyes locked onto the two peering red optics.

"What's wha---" Silverbolt started to answer, turning his head towards the brush at which Zinou stared, before finding out the hard way...

Dinobot leapt from the foliage in one smooth movement, tail giving him perfect balance as he did so. He landed smack dab ontop of Silverbolt, gouging into the hapless Maximal's side a few long gashes.

Zinou jumped back in alarm, eyes widening as she squeaked a sort of surprised little shriek.

Dinobot brushed Silverbolt aside with his talons, having made short work of slagging the unprepared Maximal. His gaze lifted once more to the aghast expression of the hyenabot.

Zinou got a good look at the face -- by the Matrix .. this was the creature from her dreams. That horrid monster with gleaming fangs -- the skeletal body -- the -- she forced herself to snap away from her thoughts and back to reality, stepping back as the beast approached.

Growling and tail lashing, Dinobot approached the cowering, injured, and overly pathetic-looking hyenabot. He wondered briefly if she was even worth the trouble.

"State your name and faction," He snarled in his metallic tone, although he already well knew the faction of the 'bot. He wanted to see her reaction. He wanted to see her fear. He wanted an answer. And after a pause, and his continued approach, he growled again.

"Answer me.."

Zinou stared up at him, shivering with sheer nervousness and eyes wide at the same time. That voice! It was his! Dinobot's! No one else sounded like him. It was unmistakable.

"Dinobot?!" She cried, bewildered.

Dinobot arched his neck back, fangs clicking together in momentary surprise.

"How do you know my name?" he growled. Judging by the other Maximal's reaction to her, she was a new unit. How could she have had any information on him? He growled. He was the one supposed to be getting his questions answered. "Ghrrr, state YOUR name!" He took two abrupt steps forwards, wielding abnormally long and sharp foretalons.

Zinou took steps about the same distance backwards.

"Dinobot...it's me! Zinou! What's happened to you??"

She did not know that this was... supposed .. to be a clone. She was not aware of the difference. And in all her bewilderment, she could make little sense beyond that of this.

Dinobot took a step closer, talons clacking on the ground. She glanced to the talons. The wicked talons. Those frightening, horrid, wicked talons.... she looked back up to his face. His red optics stared down at her, blankly.

"Zinou?" He snarled bluntly, a cold edge to his voice, "I know of no such unit. Surrender immediately or prepare to be neutralized."

Zinou stepped back again, but was running out of room to step back into -- she had backed into a tree. "Dinobot...it's me!! Zinou!!"

"Cease your vocalizations. I KNOW of no such unit!"

"Dinobot..!"

"RAHHRRR!!"

He placed all four talons to the ground and transformed abruptly, standing nearly four times her height. He looked even more ferocious transformed, and his two optics, one a devilish little monocle and the other a blazing red, stared down at her.

"Maximize!" She barked suddenly, transforming.

"I said SURRENDER," Dinobot growled, and as Zinou completed her transformation, he jabbed forwards two dangerously long talons, effectively and accurately trapping her neck in-between. His claws pierced with a wooden 'thunk' into the tree just behind Zinou, sinking into the wood about 4 inches.

Zinou squeaked a muted scream, casting a nervous glance between the two talons so tightly trapping her. She looked back to Dinobot. His optics were cold and uncaring. Not like the Dinobot she had seen just a day ago, whose optics showed a very slight, even if extremely so, glint of concern. She thought, at least.

"Dinobot...what's happened?" She whispered, looking fearfully to him.

Fearfully. That was what fueled him. She could see a lust for fear in his eyes. A desire to make others fear him. But why..?

She tried not to act scared. She stood as erect she could while being pinned to a tree, trying to assume a stoic expression. Her lower lip trembled slightly as she tried as hard as she could to cull the sheer terror she was feeling.

Dinobot's face lifted into snarled surprise for a moment, and he growled, thrusting his claws closer. They dug into the tree further, leaving an even smaller gap for Zinou's head and neck to be in. He growled.

Zinou swallowed and averted her gaze, lest the fearful glint be detected in her eyes. She couldn't be scared of him. She somehow knew this.

But Dinobot even grew angrier at being ignored. In a quick move, he drew his claws from the tree, flexing them only briefly before swiping full force at the hyenabot.

"Insubordinance will NOT be tolerated!" He growled.

If she did not want to cooperate, fine. The world would be in debt a Maximal.

Zinou saw stars as she was forcefully slashed, falling to the ground like a little rag doll. Her world became but a blur, a swirl of sound and colors. And totally screwed up thoughts.

She glanced back up from the ground, dizzied. Dinobot beast moded with a raptoresque shriek, growling and staring at her. She didn't understand what was wrong .. why was he doing this?

He stalked towards her downed form, growling.

It appeared she was about to became scrap-heap fodder.

Dinobot reared back his head and ghhrarrred, arching his neck and starting to snap at the downed hyenabot. But he suddenly stopped. His snap looked as if it mis-aimed, or re-directed, and he suddenly whipped around, biting at his tail.

Zinou blinked.

She thought at first she was imagining it, but as her vision cleared somewhat, she saw that Dinobot had begun to attack -- himself.

He snapped at his flanks, his tail, talons clunking and clacking as he circled.

Wiring gone wrong or something much more?

Zinou tried to sit up, and succeeded to a small degree. It was a strange sight, watching the raptorbot attack himself. And whenever he did manage, he inflicted major damage.

Zinou squinted and just .. watched. He seemed to have forgotten all about her, so busy was he trying to kill himself. He grunted and snarled things as he spun around, but they were so distorted she could make nothing out.

It looked like he had suffered some sort of malfunction -- a major malfunction. As if he had identified himself a threat .. but what would cause him to do that?

He finally seized his left foretalon in his fangs, biting and shaking it as would a wolf that had seized its prey. This of course, shook him as well. His Transmetal fangs did little to his Transmetal arm, but he was slowly but surely marring, denting, and scratching the metal.

Totally oblivious to the rest of the world.

Zinou suddenly heard a new sound -- the whine of jet engines. The first thought that sprang to her mind was that the presence was Megatron, but as she glanced up, the sharply angled and manta ray-like form descending was identified as not being so.

The huge bot crashed through the jungle brush above, transforming all in one smooth move as he landed. His optics narrowed as they fell upon the rather absurd position of Dinobot. His back was to Zinou, but she could clearly see that he raised a huge and formidable looking firearm.

"The world can do without a second Rampage, scum." He muttered, hatred etching its way across his face as he started to pull the trigger.

Zinou's eyes widened in horror. He was going to shoot Dinobot! She felt the sudden need to defend him, despite the fact that he had disregarded her attempts at recognition...

Drawing her sword and sitting up in a sudden half-stagger, she leapt at the broadspread fin-like surface of the raybot's back. "GYYYYARRRR!" she whoop-screeched, furiously. She plunged her sword into the metallic blue surface, and it went through with but the slightest of hesitation, resonating with the sounds of the 'bots scream and the howl of buckling metal.

He whipped around suddenly, catching Zinou off guard. In a quick dart, although he had not yet seen his opponent, he grabbed for her, and his aim was true. His silvery digits clasped firmly about the hyenabot's sword-arm, holding her a good distance from the ground by it.

His other hand was still clutched on the huge, shark-shaped gun. He was furious. "Who the slag are you?"

Zinou kicked, lashed, and snapped at the bot. Her teeth clicked together in futile attempts at an attack. "Put me down!"

"I SAID, who are YOU?"

He tightened his grip, causing Zinou to yelp. She was in no condition to be going up against anyone, especially not someone almost four times her size.

She whimpered, trying to wrench out of the grasp, with no success. She caught a glimpse of the Maximal symbol emblazoned on his fins about the same time he saw the one on her shoulder. The marred remnants of a Maximal symbol on her shoulder, anyhow.

"You're a Maximal," he observed, suddenly releasing his grip from her arm, yet not from her sword.

Zinou dangled a moment more before letting go of her sword, and she fell about 3 feet to the ground. "Yes.." she snarled. " And I see you are too." She did a brief motion for him to give her sword back.

"Your name, would be nice." He muttered, voice still edged sharply as he winced from the wound on his back. He regarded the sword briefly.

"Yours first."

"Depth Charge."

"Zinou."

He hmmphed slightly. "I would say pleased to meet your acquaintance, but.." he reached the hand which held Zinou's sword behind his back and tapped it to his shoulder, ".. but, the circumstances permit me otherwise."

Zinou's ears fell flat against her head. "Well, what the slag did you think you were doing?! You were going to shoot Dinobot!" She made a few more gestures for her sword to be returned.

Depth Charge shook his head to her requests for the sword, and growled back, "Yeah. So? He--" he paused, remembering his true cause. He whipped around, wielding both Zinou's comparatively small sword and his huge sharkgun -- at where Dinobot was.

"SLAG IT!" he boomed suddenly, holstering his gun. He cast a glare in Zinou's direction. "This is all slaggin' your fault, I--" he shook his head, jumped into the air, reverted to his vehicle mode, and blasted off through the jungle.

Zinou's sword spun in mid air a moment before landing on the ground.

Zinou walked over and retrieved it, looking after Depth Charge's abrupt exit with a glare. She dusted her battered self off, resheathed her sword, and looked around.

The ground showed disturbances clearly where the conflict had taken place. The tree she had been backed against showed two large gashes in it -- gashes of which she was glad were on the wood and not her. Her gaze continued around through the area, past the rustling foliage which did so in reply to Depth Charge' departure, and... Silverbolt!

He was just coming to. He sat up slowly, shaking his head, looking about. The gashes in his side exposed circuitry, and the wounds glistened with mechfluid. He groaned, and glanced over to Zinou, whom was now transformed and with the addition of new gashes.

"What happened?"

Zinou proceeded to explain briefly to Silverbolt what had happened. When she was done, Silverbolt merely nodded. She had left out a few details, however -- including her strange.. witnessing .. of Dinobot's malfunction. And the fact that she had attacked and met Depth Charge.

She had a few questions that she didn't want presented to nor answered -- not to this Maximal, nor just yet.

Silverbolt nodded again, and started off through the jungle.

Zinou followed after.  

His attention was suddenly drawn to other things.

Dinobot staggered in from the hallway adjoining, beast moded, jaws still clamped onto his own foreclaw. The end segment of his tail hung on but by a few wires, indicating that he'd gotten ahold of that, too. There was a weird twitch in his gait, and his talons clacked irregularly on the metal grating floor as he entered.

Megatron stared a moment, and blinked.

"Dinobot?" he queried. "By the Pit, what happened to you?" He remained reclined, merely craning his neck forwards a little, optics narrowing in slight curiosity.

Dinobot kept his jaws clamped on his own arm. He started to speak, but his snarls slurred into inaudible gibberish. He gnawed his arm in a few quick snaps, fangs grating on the metal and causing sparks to fly.

Megatron lifted a brow. "Ahem. Dinobot.." he stood up from the R-tank and looked over the 'malfunctioning' raptor with a queer gaze. He shook his head, apparently there were some.. problems .. with the Transmetal 2's circuitry.

He stepped out of the R-tank, retrieving his tailgun discreetly from its place propped up on the side of the 'tank. Holding it in one hand, he reached for Dinobot with the other, attempting to pry the raptor's own jaws from himself.

The grip was so firm, it looked as if it'd been welded together. His efforts proved futile.

He brought a hand to his chin, face twisting in an expression of confused thought.

He looked Dinobot over again. "Hrm. There appears to have been some sort of ...malfunction...with your..logic circuits.."

Dinobot managed to snarl in a slurred tone, "Conflict ..."

Megatron lifted an optic brow. "Conflict?" He queried. He shook his head. "Go get repaired."

"Conflict.." Dinobot snarled slurredly again.

"Yes, that's nice. Go." He pointed towards the hallway. "Get repaired."

Dinobot nodded as best he could, and turned, towards the hallway. He managed to straighten up, to a normal stalking-posture, for second, and then it looked like one of his knees buckled, and he whirled, grabbing his other foreclaw.

Megatron regarded him strangely.

Dinobot raptorshrieked, tail lashing about. He was quite intent on rendering himself to pieces.

Megatron shook his head and grabbed Dinobot once more with his free hand, trying to keep him from gnawing his own arm off. "Pull yourself together you fool. This is totally irrational behavio--"

Dinobot's optics suddenly glinted; he let go of his arm and bit Megatron's instead.

Megatron's armor, although Transmetal, was not as strong as Transmetal 2, and was easily pierced by the raptorbot's fangs. Megatron bellowed, "GHYYAHH, let go of ME, you idiot!"

Dinobot's grip tightened, and he stood back up, whipping his head to one side. That effectively threw Megatron to one side, causing him to drop from his grasp his tailgun.

"Incompetent!" Dinobot suddenly snarled, still in that slurred manner.

Megatron's optics widened -- this wasn't supposed to be happening. What had happened to his order-following rule-abiding killing machine? He fumbled to reach his tailgun.

Dinobot continued to bite for a moment more, and then suddenly let go, twisting his body to odd proportions. With another slurred growl of "Conflict.."he whipped about and seized his tail.

Megatron scrambled to stand up, and grabbed his tailgun, arming it and aiming it at the strangely acting Dinobot.

Dinobot seemed now oblivious to Megatron's presence, trying to rip his own tail off.

Megatron seemed hesitant to fire at Dinobot; he so far, was his most efficient and deadly Predacon unit. He cast a glance at his arm. It was mangled, and bled mechfluid profusely. The armor had totally been shorn away, exposing only the circuits. Even those had been cut into.

He growled to himself and kept his tailgun aimed at Dinobot. Dinobot's actions were insane, he reasoned, and, as if he was any other, he would be disciplined.

"Listen to me, you, cease this immediately! HALT!"

Dinobot didn't listen, nor even appear to hear, and continued. Megatron fired off a blast from his tailgun at the engrossed raptorbot.

The blast struck him, but hardly caused any damage -- it barely even caused Dinobot to coil back from the shot. Megatron's optics widened.

"Megatron to any Predacon units," he grumbled into his radio, "Assistance is REQUESTED immediately, R-tank corridor.."

Dinobot severed the end of his tail, shaking the rest a moment more, before he turned his attention back to his foreclaws, of which there were two. He attacked both at once, hissing and growling.

"Conflict!" he snarled again, slurriness getting worse.

Quickstrike suddenly ambled in from the hall.

"Eh, whatcha' need, bossbo--" He paused and stared at Dinobot a moment.

He looked at Megatron.

Megatron looked back.

"Get him under control! To an R-tank!" Megatron barked.

Quickstrike took a nervous step back. "Him, bossbot? But.."

"NOW you fool!"

Quickstrike crept towards Dinobot, and reached out an eight-digited hand towards the raptorbot's shoulder. "Uhm, pardon me, lizard, but could yeh'...uhm, follow me to one a'the R-tanks?"

He immediately drew back, in fear of being struck or otherwise. But Dinobot didn't react, totally engrossed in gnawing his foreclaw. "Connnnnnnflict.." he snarled again.

Quickstrike timidly approached Dinobot again, and gave him a nudge in the direction of the hall. Dinobot was easily guided, talons clacking as he turned. Quickstrike glanced at Megatron again.

Megatron nodded, making motions with his hand for Quickstrike to proceed.

Quickstrike gulped, but continued.
 

He got Dinobot to the R-tank area, which was just down the hall, without incident, although it took quite a while.

It only took a bit more coaxing and guiding to get him into the R-tank.
 

The R-tank's systems were able to deactivate Dinobot, putting an end to his attacks upon himself. Megatron came in from the hallway shortly after Quickstrike, holding the severed piece of Dinobot's tail in his hand. He looked at it briefly before tossing it into the pool with Dinobot.

Quickstrike scratched his head. "I don't get it, boss.." he muttered. "Why d'ya suppose that yer' freaky new lizardbot was actin' so strange?"

Megatron looked thoughtfully into the pool, barely able to make out the raptoresque outline through the minimally translucent liquid.

"I don't know." He murmured. "Perhaps, a malfunction." He brought a thoughtful hand to his chin.

Quickstrike peered into the R-tank too, drawing back with a nervous chitter.

"Hmm, malfunction? Yhea, always knew there was somethin' wrong with all the dadgum new techno-stuff."

Megatron squinted. "Maybe." He looked towards Quickstrike. "But he said something to me... he said.." He paused and brought his hand into a fist, "..that I was..incompetent."

Quickstrike's optics widened. "Pretty darin', ain't he?"

Megatron nodded.. "But..where would he have acquired the programming parameters for such.. talk.?"

His optics narrowed. "Quickstrike, where was Dinobot last?"

"Uhmm, on patrol, ah' think."

Megatron nodded. "Hm, yess. Obviously..something influenced him while he was on his patrols.. but..what?" He idly rubbed the damaged spot on his arm. "How..?"

He shook his head and walked off down the hall.
 

His mind, subconscious, however, still was active, and input to him all sorts of conflicting and confusing information.

He was to obey Megatron, was he not?

But no, Megatron was his enemy...

He was stuck in a tumult of inner confusion, feeling overcome by some evil force of which he still couldn't explain. He recalled what had just taken place within the last day, trying to make some sense.

He'd died? Is that what he recalled? He'd died and he was dead? But that couldn't possibly be right....

What was going on?

Slowly but surely, thoughts that seemed foreign at first, but were soon found otherwise, trickled into his mind...
 

Megatron was awoken awhile later by the alarm klaxons. He had gone and reclined back in his personal R-tank, yet not for relaxation -- for the actual thing of getting repaired.

He sat up abruptly and blinked a few times, looking around. He sighed, into his comm.

"What is it NOW?"

Inferno's harsh tone called over the comm at him.

"Royalty! Maximal energy signature detected -- inside our base! Bwaahh!"

Megatron snapped to attention. "What? Identify."

"Unable to! It is a strange frequency -- and I cannot directly use the internal sensors to detect the location. Your orders, my queen?"

Megatron sat up and stepped out of the tank.

"Locate this Maximal! By manual search!" He growled as an order. He then paused, and muttered to himself, "Who would be foolish enough to venture into our base?"

Megatron headed off down the hall.
 

The first room he came across was the R-tank room, where the two were situated off to one side. Dinobot was still deactivated, in one of the R-tanks, and Quickstrike, whom was now beast moded, was sitting aside the edge of the ledge that led to the R-tanks, asleep.

Megatron walked over and kicked him.

"Wake up.." he growled.

Quickstrike ehhed, and yelped, "Tarnation!" Looking at the world in cross-eye view a moment before his gaze drifted up to Megatron.

"Oh! Bossbot." he straightened up as much as one with scorpion legs could. "What? What is it?"

Megatron glared at him a moment, wondering how anyone could sleep through a klaxon. "There has been a Maximal detected IN our base. Seek, and destroy!" He clenched his fist.

Quickstrike rapidly nodded, and turned to skitter off down the hall. But he was almost run over by Inferno, who tromped in, wielding two flamethrowers.

"Bwyahhhhh! Maximal located!" He barked, pointing the flamethrowers every which way, optics narrowed and toothy face curled into a devilish grin.

Megatron snorted. "You fool. There's no Maximals in here. Don't you think we would have noti--" he paused, as his internal computer suddenly droned the alert of a Maximal energy signature nearby.

His face fell flat for a moment, and he looked around.

Inferno tromped over to the R-tank.

"Gyahaha....in here!" he pointed his weaponry at the pool.

Quickstrike lifted a brow and skittered to the edge of the pool, peering into it. "A Maximal? But that's.."

Megatron stalked over and looked into the pool aswell, optics narrowing.

"It has to be a glitch.." he growled.

Quickstrike looked up. "Four a'em?"

They all stood about the R-tank, staring....

Megatron slowly reached for the R-tank release, and tapped it with his finger.

Inferno and Quickstrike skittered back slightly, as the grating that held the raptorbot rose from the 'tank.

Still offline and laying strewn across the grating was Dinobot, optics closed.

His optics flickered slightly, as he blinked a few times. Their red glow resumed, and he lifted his head, snarling lowly.

Megatron squinted and looked Dinobot over.

"..Dinobot?" he queried, in a queerly edged voice.

Dinobot stood up, assuming a raptoresque poise, looking to Megatron. He stood at attention, in his quiet way.

Inferno stared at Dinobot a moment, consulted his internal computer, and exclaimed in a harsh cackle, "Bwahh! Royalty! Maximal energy signature has....disappeared!"

Megatron hmmed, consulting his internal computer. "Hmm. So it has."

Quickstrike blinked slightly, and glanced at Dinobot. "Somethin' freaky's goin' on here.."

Megatron stepped onto the metal grating with Dinobot, looking him over with narrowed optics. Dinobot merely stood, watching Megatron, curious.

Megatron lifted a brow and glanced to Inferno and Quickstrike. "Something strange _is_ going on here....yess.."

A sudden groan and howl of pain echoed down the hallway, grabbing everyone's attention.

Megatron glanced over.

Rampage staggered in from the hall, the wreathing of electronic interference, the sort that resulted when his spark was messed with, playing its way over his bulky form. He clutched at his chest repeatedly, glaring daggers at Megatron before looking at Dinobot.

"What are you doing, you fool?!" He howled, writhing as he walked.

Dinobot glanced quietly towards Rampage, stared a moment, and hissed, lashing his tail.

Megatron looked between Rampage and Dinobot, his expression becoming alarmed. Rampage was, at this time, doing nothing wrong. He did not deserve the punishment being dealt. Why was Dinobot even doing so?

Rampage howled again, drawing abruptly from its holster his huge rifle.

Before anyone could react, he fired off a shot -- of which Dinobot saw, seemed to know was coming, transformed, and destroyed the projectile, sparing him harm, all in one move.

One very fast move.

Dinobot's face suddenly etched into a devilish grin, and he shook a huge foreclaw-finger in a 'nono' fashion.

Megatron stepped back slightly, blinking. What had just happened was almost too fast for him to have seen or understood. With a growl, he stepped in-between the two. He glared at Rampage.

"Put that down! You could damage the R-tanks." He barked.

He looked back at Dinobot. ".. and I don't know what your problem is, but.." he took a step towards Dinobot, pointing at the chestplate area of where his spark was, "..cease that immediately!"

Dinobot peered at Megatron curiously. He brought a foreclaw to his chest and tapped the wishbone-shaped marking on the metal that designated the spark's casing. He snarled a querious, "Hmyrr?"

"Yes, that." Megatron growled.

Dinobot grinned toothily, making him look almost comical for a moment. He shook his head, and thought a moment, obviously processing some internal command.

Rampage screamed again, and keeled over, gasping.

Dinobot's brows furrowed and his face curled into a nasty sneer of delight. He started to cackle, slurred little 'muwahahahs' that were extremely evil sounding. Vengeful, almost.

He stepped from the grating, sauntering towards Rampage. Megatron, although disproving, was extremely hesitant to get in the way of the two much stronger bots, and merely glowered at Dinobot, teeth gritting together.

Rampage stared up at Dinobot, pupiless optics blank with agony. His gaze met with the two different optics of Dinobot.

He paused. There was a strange glint in his eyes. A hatred. Like the stare of someone behind bars, one who wanted to be free.

What Rampage stared at was NOT him. He thought before that merely what looked back to him was a shadow of himself, a shadow that Megatron created that was more willing; willing to do Megatron's bidding. But those qualities seemed to all have disappeared, within seconds. Now Dinobot seemed to be something totally different. And as he approached, he heard Dinobot utter in a low snarl, "Let ..me...go.."

Rampage continued to writhe, interference of his spark being toyed with still wreathing him. "I can't..." he hissed, voice strained with pain.

"Who can?" Dinobot growled, tone once again slurry.

"Megatron... he... he..knows the way. He's..the one who did it... I can't..undo it..myself..."

"Make him."

"I ...can't!"

Dinobot hissed, enforcing the strain on Rampage even further. Rampage writhed a bit more and, with another moaned gasp, fell unconscious. Dinobot's face suddenly fell back to a flat expression, as he looked down to the huge 'bot with contempt.

Megatron had been watching the whole time, and now his optics were narrowed in curiosity, as well as concern. Never had Dinobot been so harsh -- and what was he saying? Megatron'd been standing too far away to hear the whispered snarls exchanged between the two.

"Threat has been neutralized." Dinobot chimed suddenly.

Megatron regarded Dinobot quietly -- but nodded. "I see." Discipline between the two, perhaps? Maybe they had something going on between them. Who was he to interfere with ..their.. interfactionary discipline? If it was even, that.

Dinobot opened his mouth as to speak. He got the first part of 'Megatron, I have a report to make' mouthed, but no sound came out except a slurred growl.

His optics went blank for a moment, and he shook his head, managing to growl, again slurred,

"Megatron. Shall I return to patrol duty?"

Megatron blinked slightly, optics narrowed to slits. What could possibly account for Dinobot's drastic behavior change? He was wary. He couldn't think of anything that could possibly account for this occurrence. Yet, rather than have him go nuts again, he nodded, waving his hand in a 'go' motion towards the hall.

"Go ahead.." he murmured.

Dinobot sharply nodded, expression once more stoic, beast moding as he turned to exit the room. However, he made quite a point of stepping on Rampage on the way out. His lashing tail vanished down the hall from sight of the group.

Megatron turned abruptly to Quickstrike. "Quickstrike. Follow him. But stay out of sight. And keep an eye on his..behavior, shall we say. Radio in if he starts to act up again."

Quickstrike peered up at Megatron, taking a moment to snap back to reality. He blinked a few times.

Megatron's face grew stern. "NOW."

Quickstrike shook his head, and suddenly murmured, "Oh ... yah..right, bossbot." And skittered off down the hall, after.

Megatron turned to leave, but Inferno stepped in front of him, saluting. "Royalty! What is your command, for me?"

The addition of 'for me' on the end almost made him sound childish, Megatron thought. He shook his head slightly. "Find out what has most recently taken place with the Maximals. According to Quickstrike's report from the scanner readouts, Dinobot made contact with 3 Maximal units. Find out who they were."

Inferno nodded rapidly. "As you command, my Queen!" And he tromped off down the hall.

Megatron stood, looking towards the stilled form of Rampage.

"Something is definitely...amiss."

"It's all right, Zinou.." murmured Silverbolt lowly. "It's just the CR chamber. It's not a trap..."

Zinou looked warily at the huge metal structure upon one rocky wall of the volcano base.

"Are you sure?" She mrred, rather afraid of the thing of which she'd never before seen.

Although she knew that those about her were Maximals, she had just met them, and frankly, she had her own, reserved doubts about them. Her trust only went so far. She only felt comfortable around Dinobot. Having met him first, --first Maximal, anyways -- out of her pod, she trusted him explicitly, and only acted like herself around him. But these new Maximals...

Silverbolt nodded, seeming to be the only one that could get within 5 feet of Zinou without being growled at. "Yes, I'm sure. It can only help you. It will not harm you." He grinned softly.

Zinou nodded after Silverbolt spoke.

"Help. Yes..of course."

She let Silverbolt guide her weary self into the CR chamber, and he grinned at her until the door was closed and the repair process initiated.

Zinou closed her eyes and leaned up against the wall, initiating a maintenance cycle. It actually allowed her 'rest' of a sort, rest not plagued by dreams. She'd never been aware of the ability until it was activated. As she closed her eyes, she thought in a murmur to herself, this is just another testament to my unawareness.

Silverbolt, who had been repaired first due to his worse injuries and Zinou's stubbornness, turned back towards the crowd of gathered Maximals. Optimus, Rattrap, and Rhinox were all present.

His smile faded, and he shook his head.

"I don't know, Optimus..." he muttered. "She's definitely been damaged or something other.. yet .. she was telling me about how she was looking for.." there was a pause, and he lifted a brow, "..Dinobot."

Optimus just listened, nodding slowly afterwards.

"Dinobot..." He murmured, accessing a console, a large one which had been constructed especially for him. He brought up a holographic display of the Transmetal 2 Dinobot. "..Dinobot?" He queried in Silverbolt's direction, pointing at the hologram. Silverbolt stared at the protection a moment and shook his head, voice reaching a queer tone..

"No..according to the descriptions ..that she was so..vividly giving me..she was referring to.." He walked to a console parallel to Optimus's bigger one, and tapped out a few sequences. A hologram of Dinobot -- the Maximal, Dinobot -- beastmoded, came up. "..Dinobot."

Optimus squinted. "Hmm.." he muttered.

Rhinox took a step towards the projection as well, optics narrowing.

"How could she even be aware of Dinobot?" He murmured, motioning towards the display, "According to her internal computers, she's only been online a lunar cycle at best. " He paused. "Dinobot... died over 6 lunar cycles ago."

Rattrap walked towards the three.

"Well, yah know, that alien device that fearless leader managed to blow up did crash all the pods. She hadta've come outta one'a those. And that did happen..before Chopperfa--erm--Dinobot.." His tone abruptly became almost melancholic, as he obviously didn't feel like finishing the sentence; he merely demonstrated with a fluttering, falling wave of his hand what point he wished to imply.

Rhinox glanced to Rattrap and nodded.

"Yes. That's a possibility. But Zinou's internal computer would have an accurate record of when she was created. And it says only about a lunar cycle ago. One." He held up a finger, and shook his head..

".. and that still doesn't account for her modified superstructure."

Optimus brought a hand to his chin in thought.

"Yes. And if Dinobot would've had any previous contact with Zinou, don't you think he would've reported it to us?" Rattrap leaned his elbows on the console, sitting down.

"Yah..yer' right."

Silverbolt lifted his ears.

"But she speaks of talking to Dinobot only recently... less than a day or two ago. She said that she and him were returning to base, and she became separated and ....lost contact."

Rhinox shook his head. "It's not possible."

Silverbolt's expression grew a tad toothy, a sort of defensive frown. He wasn't too fond of the other Maximals' off-the-bat mistrust of Zinou. Because her origins were not immediately explainable was no reason to spurn her in such a manner.

"Well, she has to be producing these stories from somewhere. And the way she reacted to me, judging reservedly, you'd think she'd never seen any other Maximals before." He motioned a hand to the CR chamber, "..or a CR chamber."

Rhinox looked up at Optimus, watching his reaction, and nodded with a half-glance at Silverbolt. "Yes..you do have a point." Optimus returned Rhinox' questioning glance, and stared back to Silverbolt.

"Yes...you're right." He looked towards the CR chamber as well. "I guess we'll just have to wait and ask her."

Depth Charge suddenly appeared from the rocky corridor that led to the entrance.

"Ask who?" He muttered, walking full stride as he entered, optics narrowed in clear annoyance.

Silverbolt looked to Depth Charge. "The new unit, Zinou." He muttered.

"Zinou?" He growled. He paused and turned around slightly, pointing at the gash in the metallic blue armor on his back.

"Her?"

Silverbolt blinked. "..You've...met?"

Depth Charge sneered. "You could say that."

Optimus looked to Depth Charge.

"What are you talking about?"

Depth Charge rolled his sore shoulder and flexed the damaged fin. He cast a brief glare at the occupied CR chamber before shifting the same gaze to Optimus.

"She attacked me. " He muttered simply, without detail.

Optimus stared back a moment, and opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by the computer's intonement of: "Unit: Zinou's repairs complete." The hydraulics on the chamber' door hissed to life, and disengaging the locks, slid open. A little cloud of steam followed after, within from emerging Zinou, who looked good as new. She stepped out of the chamber, flicking her ears, gaze trailing down the length of both arms.

Rhinox squinted, staring at the CR chamber's doors at it opened. That was quick, he thought in a murmur to himself.

"Ah.." she murmured, having not been repaired ever in her existence, "That was...different."

Her cool mood however quickly was shot down by Depth Charge' piercing stare.

Her bronze eyes met his staring red optics for a moment and then averted. She turned to slink away, yet didn't really know the way around the base, and therefore knew not where to go.

Optimus's optics trailed to Zinou, of which they locked upon. "You attacked Depth Charge?"

Zinou ran her fingers through her mane, averting her gaze from the 5 pairs of optics that stared. Most specifically, she avoided Silverbolt's gaze, which was one of shock.

"Yes.." she mrred lowly.

Optimus' blinked, face stern.

"Why?"

"Why didn't you tell me?" Silverbolt blurted out, metal ears perking as he looked to Zinou. His jaw fell open a tad, and his incredulous gaze snapped between the looming form of Depth Charge to the equally opposite timid one of Zinou.

Rhinox shook his head no at Silverbolt, who quietly took a seat. Optimus continued to stare at the shrinking-away Zinou. "Why?" he asked more firmly.

"He...was going to shoot Dinobot.." she muttered.

Depth Charge interjected with a growl, "So?"

"You can't do that!" Zinou barked.

"Watch me..." Depth Charge hissed, "You slaggin' Predacon-protector.."

Zinou shrank back again. Is that what had happened to Dinobot? He had gone back to the Predacons? Her face twisted into a bewildered expression, and she growled aloud, "..what?!"

She couldn't explain why Dinobot hadn't recognized her, but knew that it couldn't possibly be right that someone would be shooting at him.

"You heard me! Predacon-protector! " he bunched his fist and stomped towards the small hyenabot.

Optimus stepped in front of Depth Charge. "Silence.." he muttered, looking to Zinou.

"You attacked Depth Charge because he was shooting at Dinobot?"

Zinou nodded timidly.

It'd been a pretty bad day for her, considering that everyone besides Blackarachnia was bigger than herself. Everyone was intimidating. Even Silverbolt, to an extent.

Silverbolt suddenly offered, "This Dinobot?" And pointed towards the holographic display, which still showed a beastmoded, Maximal Dinobot.

"No.." she muttered, although her ears perked and eyes lit up at seeing the hologram. Perhaps these Maximals she was with weren't so bad after all. They knew something about Dinobot! Or..Dinobot, one of them that she'd seen, at least.

"This one?" Silverbolt offered again, bringing up a display of Transmetal 2 Dinobot.

"Yes!" Zinou barked a little more sharply than she'd intended to.." Him. Dinobot."

Depth Charge shook his head.

"That's not Dinobot, you fool. That's Megatron clone. He used Rampage' spark to make it." His voice dripped with hatred. Zinou looked at Depth Charge oddly, and glanced back to the others.

Silverbolt nodded slowly at Zinou.

"He..is telling the truth. This..Dinobot.." he waved a hand at the display, "Is indeed a Predacon. He..is not the same as.." he flicked a few buttons, bringing up and adjoining image of the other Dinobot, "..him."

"Then what in the Inferno happened to him?!" She cried, teeth baring slightly as she motioned to the Maximal-Dinobot image. She didn't understand a bit of what was going on.

Rattrap lifted a brow slightly at Zinou's choice of words.

Rhinox' face grew grim for a moment, and then he shook his head.

"Zinou..Dinobot died. 6 lunar cycles ago."

"Impossible.." She growled.

Rattrap became a bit defensive.

"Hey, don't you go off like that, talkin' to Big Green that way. You're the one that's impossible."

Zinou's sharp gaze snapped to Rattrap. "How so?" She growled.

"You're the one comin' in here with the fairy tales includin' Dinobot." He muttered, optics narrowing. "And you're the one who seems s'spicious t'me."

Zinou growled and drew her sword.

"You doubt me? Bwah, I find it hard that you can, even. " She wielded her sword, and held it in front of her, and then in a few quick flicks, motioned towards the two holograms.

" I don't know what's going on here, but Dinobot isn't dead. You're all..mistaken." She stuttered slightly, that weird quiver creeping into her voice again. She started to almost choke on her thoughts. Someone had yet again thrown that spear of dread. Her sudden shivering was demonstrated by the wobbliness of her sword. Optimus calmly reached forwards and took Zinou's sword from her grasp, which was no task at all, considering that she barely held it.

"Calm down, Zinou." He murmured. "No one here is mistaken. Perhaps your logic circuits were damaged when your pod crashed.." What am I saying, Optimus thought, none of this explains still the fact that she seems to know Dinobot..

"No!" Zinou shrieked suddenly. This was the all-too-common excuse she heard. "I was NOT damaged!" Although she'd convinced herself otherwise, she was tired of hearing it. "Dinobot was there! Megatron was too! I saved Dinobot, and he has since been traveling with me! He's NOT DEAD!" She was practically hysteric, her voice but a restrained scream.

Rhinox took a step back, glanced at Optimus, and shook his head.

Optimus sighed.

Depth Charge interjected. "I beg to differ. And you get in my way of Rampage anymore and I'll slag your sorry hide.."

Optimus' optics cut to Depth Charge. "Touch her and answer to -me-."

Depth Charge looked at Optimus indifferently. "Is that a threat, Primal?"

"A warning."

"I'm really scared. Besides, we can't have her protecting Predacons, now can we?"

Optimus gritted his teeth, and glanced down to Zinou. "Do you understand, Zinou? Even if we do say that Dinobot.." he pointed at the Maximal-Dinobot hologram, "..is alive, /Dinobot/, " he pointed to the Transmetal 2 image, " ..Is a Predacon."

Zinou just shook her head, biting her lip. "No. You're just..saying that."

Her gaze darkened as she glowered at the huge Maximal commander.

Optimus sighed, getting frustrated. "I will allow you to believe whatever you wish, but you cannot fend for the Predacons. Not only is it a danger to us, its a danger to /yourself/." His voice was tainted with what sounded like real concern. But Zinou ignored it.

She stuck her nose in the air and shook her head, like a snobby little child.

Depth Charge just grumbled, glaring specifically at Zinou, as he stepped into the CR chamber. "I've got to get repaired.." he muttered. "For some reason.." he added sharply as the door closed.

Zinou lowered her gaze to stare at Depth Charge' exit into the CR Chamber. It then drifted about to look at the rest of the Maximals, of whom regarded her oddly. "..You're all fools!" she growled suddenly and sharply, ears falling flat to her head. Turning to walk out of the command center, she glanced to the two holograms of Dinobot as she passed by them.

She disappeared down a rocky hall.

Rattrap sneered after her. "Well, you're the one that's crazy."

Rhinox just shook his head. "Mmm-mm...."

Silverbolt just put his head into his cupped palms, leaning his elbows on the console of which he sat in front, and sighed. Zinou had been exposed as lying and hiding something in less than two megacycles.

Zinou appeared back from the hallway, pace still brisk. She tromped down the other rocky one, muttering something about "idiot wrong way'.

Rattrap cracked but the faintest of smirks.

Optimus watched Zinou, a humored glint appearing in his optics at her folly, but his stern look resumed as she exited again.. "Rattrap .. Silverbolt. You two keep an eye on her..indirectly. Use the monitors or something.." he motioned towards a screen's readout. " Make sure she doesn't hurt herself."

Silverbolt nodded, simply, but Rattrap, as always, had something to say. "Why?! The crazy dame wants t'go blow herself to slag jumpin' in front of Preds, who are we t'stop her?"

Optimus growled at Rattrap. "Shut up, Rattrap. Get on it."

"Fine, whatever.." he shrugged extravagantly, and went over to his normal security-console station, accessing its readouts. Silverbolt just solemnly looked to adjacent readouts.

Optimus looked down to Rhinox. "Try to figure out..how it's possible.. that she'd know about Dinobot."

Rhinox nodded slowly, sighing, and went to one of his own consoles to work.

Optimus looked back to the sword he held. It was Zinou's sword, an almost absurd size compared to him. Yet it was almost as tall as the hyenabot herself.

He glanced back at the two holographic projections.

The computer had posed the two Dinobots in the same way. Foreclaws tucked in front of and under their bodies, tail curled in an arch around them, eyes narrowed and heads turned to the right slightly. The structures were basically the same, but it was to be expected, after all, since the new Dinobot -was- a clone... He shook his head and headed off down on of the larger rocky corridors.

Something strange was going on. And it all rooted from this new Maximal, Zinou.

Where had she come from? And with a knowledge, so clearly, of Dinobot? The old Dinobot? He hoped those were questions he would very soon get answers to. Good answers.

Zinou sat on a makeshift chair, which had been haphazardly welded out of spare bits of metal. Her 'quarters' were actually a large storage closet that had been outfitted and prepared abruptly for her, making it a small living space at that. Sighing, she leaned back on the bunk, which was more of a shelf that had been drilled out in the rock.

Her face etched into a frown. Dinobot had also expressed to her before his occasional annoyance with the other Maximals -- was this perhaps why? She certainly wasn't happy with what had just taken place.

She picked up a datapad that had been given to her. Pulling up a file on Dinobot from the ships' computer, she looked it over.

A lot of it was missing, logged as "Data Lost - Unrecoverable from Ax." , whatever that meant. There were a few image files, profiles, and data.

She frowned, and mildly curious, looked into it further.

The datapad's screen read:

"And on this date of 2.93.002 ( as by Cybertronian dating ) Unit Dinobot was terminated in an attempt to save a valley and the human race within..."

Zinou's eyes widened and she froze. The datapad fell from her grasp, and thunked to the floor below.

Dinobot. Terminated.

Dead.

Not living.

She choked, and sat up abruptly. No.. it wasn't possible. He was alive less than 48 megacycles ago. The date stated was over 6 lunar cycles ago, as Rhinox had said. She put both her hands to her face, digging her claws into the metal side. Was she really crazy? Was it really 48 megacycles ago? Was Dinobot really dead?

No, he couldn't be.

There was no way.

But.... everything else besides her own accounts to it -- everything else which, she realized, was reality -- stated otherwise.

What was going on?!

She broke out crying.

What was wrong with everyone? Couldn't they see that their data was incorrect?

No. That wasn't it. Everything else...everything else opposed her.

Her.

What was wrong with her?

Zinou sat in the dim silence of her quarters for a long time, having succeeded in culling her crying but not her confusion. Every once and awhile she would cast a glance at the dreaded words upon the datapad, in some faint hope that this was perhaps a bad dream, but they were always the same. The words did not change.

They were as real as anything else. Everything else.

After a while longer, she finally got the nerve to do something other besides sulk. She had a few questions that she needed answered -- and she figured the best way to get them answered was to ask that knowledgeable 'bot, Rhinox.

He seemed nice enough, she thought, and would probably be most worthwhile to ask. She despised Rattrap, hated Depth Charge, was afraid of Optimus, and wasn't sure about Silverbolt. The others, that had been mentioned to her, she hadn't yet met, but really wasn't in the mood to now, either.

She bent down slowly after standing up, retrieving the datapad from the floor. She didn't really want to look at what it said again, so with a few flicks of her fingers, shut it off. She tucked it under her arm and opened the door to her quarters, stepping out to the hall. All was quiet, except for the muted drone of the power generators.

She accessed her internal computer. By solar time, it was the dead of night.

Good, she thought to herself, as if I wish to strike up conversation with any other.

She just hoped that Rhinox would not have gone to sleep as well. Thinking a moment as to the direction to the command center, she turned and walked that way, quietly.

Her programming, though intact, was a mess; she had, in her core, what looked to have been tampering with her original pod faction chips; and most baffling of all -- was her different, modified superstructure. It didn't match any of the known parameters that had before been set on protoforms.

Working busily, he compared the molecular structure of Zinou's shell to everything he had on record.

Was she standard-Cybertronian? No. Was she Transmetal? No. She definitely wasn't Transmetal 2 -- as was compared by Cheetor's and the new Dinobot's data...so what was she? Running out of choices, one of the last, and least probable things appeared onscreen. One of Megatron's short-lived CybeRaptors.

With an idle flick of his finger, he requested that the scan be done on those, in comparison, too.

The computer suddenly droned: "Molecular structure identical."

Rhinox had all but fallen asleep at the continuous strings of "negatives" , and was in all sense, not expecting to hear a positive answer at all. He blinked a few times, and said, "Huh?"

The computer took his words as a query and replied:

"Unit: Zinou's molecular superstructure composition matches known data from units: CybeRaptors."

Rhinox blinked a few times. CybeRaptors were Megatron's work...only Predacons had since implemented that technology. It was a 'failed' version of Transmetal 2 .. it was unstable, without a spark.

But Zinou most definitely had a spark....

Something strange was going on.

Rhinox tapped out a few more commands, optics narrowing. A theory suddenly formed in his mind, apparent by his accelerated work.

"Computer... access data on Zinou's faction programming. Detail on the tampering."

The computer beeped and whirred acknowledgment, and replied in a monotone: "Predacon/Maximal faction-personality chips have been implemented."

Rhinox paused. Predacon!

"Detail on implementation...."

"Predacon programming overwritten 64.90012% during scanning DNA and replication processes by Maximal programming."

Rhinox' optics widened. Someone most definitely -had- tampered with Zinou's programming. Her pod... chips had been switched. To that of a Predacon. And judging by the overwritten programming percentage, a Maximal chip had been re-implemented ... a little too late.

Rhinox put his theoretical two and two together... It seemed that the Predacons, more or less, had something to do with Zinou. A lot.

And that might even explain how she had this 'knowledge' of Dinobot. It could've been artificially supplied... for some reason. Maybe to throw them off?

His fists bunched as he moved his hydraulic chair along its track to the comm station. Optimus had gone out on extended night patrol, but he needed to know this --now.

"Rhinox to Optimus.." muttered Rhinox lowly into the comm speaker, "Do you read?"

"Loud and clear."

Zinou chanced to saunter in from the rocky corridor that very moment. She lifted a hand and went to ask Rhinox if she could have a moment of his time, but seeing he was busy, stayed back and decided to wait until he was finished talking.

"I've found out some ...disturbing things about that new unit, Zinou. I think you should come in from your patrol and have a look."

Zinou paused, and perked her ears. Disturbing things? Of what sort? She shrank back into the hallway a little more, still listening.

"Very well.." responded Optimus. " I'm on my way. Curious, what sort of ..things?"

Rhinox put a hand to his forehead. "I think I've figured out just how Zinou ..is the way she is. Someone's manipulated her programming. A lot."

Zinou's ears fell flat against her head. Manipulated? How could he have come to that conclusion? Surely he couldn't think..

"I think she's the work of Megatron."

Optimus' voice drew out into a long 'hmm.' "I....see. Well, I'm on my way, you can show these findings to me when I get there. Optimus out." And with a staticy blip, the comlink terminated.

Zinou set the datapad down, backing up back into the hall. What? Rhinox thought that she was... with Megatron? Had been a Predacon?! No! She had to get away from here. Her mind jumped into hysteric overdrive. To the Inferno with these Maximals! They just wanted to keep her here! They didn't care about what she'd said about Dinobot. They'd lock her up in the deepest darkest pit, and she'd never find him.

With a quiet mrr she folded back down to beastmode, and turned to lope down the hallway.

However, she'd failed to notice that Silverbolt and Blackarachnia, who were also exiting the hallway with intent of taking a moonlight stroll, had walked up behind her just after and also heard Rhinox' words.

She almost ran into Blackarachnia's torso and Silverbolt's knees. They both looked down at her, and blinked. She looked up between the two, mouth hanging open to some degree. Her ears fell flatter, and not being able to find her voice, merely shook her head rapidly 'no!', eyes wide.

Silverbolt once more regarded Zinou with shock, moving his arm around Blackarachnia's shoulder. Blackarachnia looked down at Zinou, an almost sorry expression etched onto her face.

Without another word, from any of the three, Zinou darted off, disappearing towards the exit. Silverbolt turned and looked after her, his mouth, too, hanging open. "..Zinou ..wait!" He called, lifting his free hand and arm in a gesture towards her departure. His wings spread out in a sudden burst, and his body tensed to spring after her.

Blackarachnia just shook her head... "Let her be, bowser boy.." she whispered, grabbing with her pincers Silverbolts' collar-plating and pulling him down towards her as he tried to go after, " If she wants to run.."

"No.." Silverbolt mumbled, putting his hand back on the pincer that held him in place, "..I must...she must not..." He reached his other hand towards Zinou's direction again and sighed.

"You'dve done the same for me.." Blackarachnia slyly muttered, scritching the underside of Silverbolt's chin. She still had every intention of going on that walk and wasn't about to let it be interrupted. "Come on, lets go."

Silverbolt grinned in ecstasy for a moment, only briefly snapping back to reality to glance once more after Zinou. With a sigh, and a soft grin, he started forwards once more, following Blackarachnia.

And no one said anything about the hyenabot's departure.

Dinobot had been stalking through the jungle, a tropical forest, all night. The sun was starting to spear through the trees, signalling the coming of morning. His gait was slow, and cautious. Unbeknownst to him, Quickstrike skittered along not far behind.

Dinobot panted and snarled as he walked, metal tail lashing and bobbing up and down with his steps. He seemed to have some certain direction, thing or place that he was homing in on, path almost a beeline through the foliage.

The tropical forest was almost annoying to the raptorbot as he continued his stalk through, not hesitating to slice through any flora he came across with his fangs, if it got in his way. His red optics were narrowed, searching purposefully.

I have to find Zinou, he thought, looking all about.

From what he could best remember, she was the start of all this.

I need to know what's .. going on. He shook his head. It was going to be hard to get close to her now if she saw him; considering the fact that he -had- before attacked him. But that was him being forced. He hadn't..meant to. Or really wanted to. And had only recently afterwards been able to distinguish himself from the zombified mess.

He clutched a few times at his chest. Something was wrong with his spark, too. He could feel it. He, yet again, just didn't know just quite what. All he knew was that it had something to do with Rampage. And Megatron....

Megatron...he growled mentally .. I'm going to tear his slagging processor out for this, once he does what -I- need of him.

"For this.." he muttered, aloud, tone slurred; but not really realizing it.

What's 'this'? He thought, again. Not even he was sure what'd happened. Another reason he had to find Zinou. Everything'd seemed to have gone awry after he'd met her. She had something to do with this all.

One thing he knew for certain, though, was that he was again considered a Predacon. At first he wasn't really sure why, but he soon found that Megatron considered him to be but a puppet, doing his every bidding. He was forced to obey for a while, but had finally figured out how to tune out the strange interference that rooted from his core, the interference that had caused him to obey.

He didn't know what it was, but he finally managed to override it.

He wrung a foreclaw. "No more.." he hissed in a slur.

His internal computer suddenly alerted him: "Requested Maximal energy signature: Identity: Unit, Zinou -- detected."

He paused and furrowed his brows. "Where?"

"Bearing west, 10.34 meters." Intoned the feminine voice of a Predacons' computer.

Dinobot turned, and squinted. Westwards. Zinou sat near a sort of pond in the midsts of the jungle, which was surrounded by a clearing. She lay with her head on the ground, paws over her face. Dinobot adjusted his course and started to stalk towards her. Quickstrike, still close behind, lifted a brow, spotting Zinou as well.

"Well I'll be.." he muttered, skittering a little closer before hiding behind a large-leafed fern. Dinobot continued towards Zinou.

Apparently, that was where he was going, so Quickstrike decided to stay behind the fern and watch. His squinted little red optics peered out at ground level, his snake head lifted above one of the fronds, getting higher view.

Zinou appeared to be sulking or sleeping, one of the two, and was totally unaware of Dinobot's presence. Unsure if she was even awake, Dinobot lifted slightly one of his long, curved hindtalons and prodded at her side.

Zinou's head lifted abruptly, and she blinked a few times, most immediate reaction to stare into the water. Seeing the huge reflection of the looming raptorbot failed to comfort her; she screamed.

Her quickest reaction was an abrupt statement of, "MAXIMIZE!" upon which shouting the command she transformed, whirling to face the raptorbot. Her arm darted back as to draw her sword in defense, but, being that Optimus still hadn't returned it, she grabbed nothing but air.

"Slag." She hissed, teeth gritted, trying to correct the apparent folly by bringing her hands about to a karate-type position in front of her. She's been attacked by him before, and was sure she would be again. Especially since she knew .. well, thought she knew. .. the 'truth', that this wasn't really Dinobot, but a clone created by Megatron. She growled.

Dinobot just regarded all of this calmly, blinking his white eyelids a few times. "Are you done?" he snarled, titling his head to one side. His tone was, once again, slurred.

Zinou blinked a few times, and stared directly into the red optics. No longer were they blank and cold. To a degree. "........Dinobot?"

He took in a deep, snarled breath. "Yes?"

Zinou's face lit up for a moment, but darkened into suspicion. She growled lightly. "For real?"

Dinobot snarled again. "For real.." he slur-sighed, waving his foretalons through the air. " I need to speak with you." Zinou almost shook with a sudden onset of joy. Ha! So the other Maximals were wrong! She tried to be certain, however, of all the circumstances. Not just the ones she wanted to be aware of. She merely nodded, managing to restrain her sudden happiness, still eyeing him warily.

"And..I with you." There was a pause -- she glanced at the ground and then back to the raptorbot.

He tilted his head again and peered at her hesitance to speak. Something about this seemed to give the hyenabot a green light to the situation.

Jumping into an almost hyper state, having almost apparently forgotten about the fact that this was the same 'bot who had indeed attacked her before, she looked brightly up to Dinobot's face.

"The other Maximals; oh, I met them! They all say you're dead! And think I'm a Predacon! And..." she did a general motion towards him, almost babbling, "..what happened to you?! Where have you been?! Why did you attack me?! Why did you attack yourself?!"

Dinobot looked quite taken aback for a moment, arching his neck to one side. Only one part of her questions seemed to reach his mind -- either that or he ignored the rest.

"You've seen the others?" he snarled, a few syllables drawn out in that persistent slur.

Zinou nodded.

"Then--" Dinobot began, but was cut off by Zinou.

"And they think I'm a Predacon. And they say you're dead. But of course, you're not..." her voice sounded shaky for a moment...

Dinobot glanced briefly down to his two foretalons. "Hmyrr... I'm not so sure. I.." he paused. " Either you're driving me mad, female, or I...was dead. But then..wasn't."

Zinou blinked, and regarded Dinobot strangely. "What...do you mean?"

He shook his head with another slurred growl. "..it's nothing, really. I need to talk to you abou--"

Zinou walked up to him and put both her hands on his shoulders, looking at him with her head cocked to one side. "In a minute. What do you mean, ...'were dead?'"

Dinobot sighed, stepping back with a slight buck as to rid himself of being touched.

He then proceeded to tell Zinou, in slight detail, of what happened to him after he continued eastwards. About the strange distortion, about how he suddenly recalled the thoughts, and about the incredible fight that followed. And his final stand. And then how he fell.

"As far as I could tell, I was dying.." he slur-snarled. "And the other Maximals said so, too." He shook his head slowly. "I was ready to die..I told them all that they last needed to know...and.." He curled a claw in thought, "..wasn't myself. All I recall was seeing myself laying on the ground, and then, I woke up..like this."

Zinou blinked. "So it's true? You ..did die at the valley, that they spoke of?"

Dinobot nodded slowly, appearing a bit shaken -- him, shaken ... the thought! -- in remembrance of the event. "Yes.." was all he replied, still slurred.

Zinou blinked, voice lowering to a whisper. "But they say that happened ...6 lunar cycles ago.."

"6??" Dinobot exclaimed. " How in the Inferno..." his gaze darted back and forth. " How is that possible?"

Zinou shook her head blankly. "I..don't know. But it hasn't been that long.... it's only been...2 days."

Dinobot nodded slightly. "Hmyrr...another thing still yet to be explained." he paused briefly, and then continued with a slurred growl, " As I was saying, the other Maximals...did they--" he stopped as it appeared that Zinou wasn't listening.

She squinted. "There's a snake over there..." she mrred.

Dinobot lifted a red-violet brow and looked over towards where Zinou was so intently, suddenly staring. Sure enough, a gold-headed snake, with turquoise lining on its face and back, cobra-like hood spread as it stared blankly towards the two, was peeking above the fronds of a fern.

"Oh slag.." Dinobot hissed, snapping sharply a bit of profanity not often used by him. Without any warning, he whipped back around to Zinou, and, quite easily, knocked her to the ground. She squeaked slightly, not being able to put up much of a struggle against the raptorbot. His talons dug into the ground around her, and he pretended to lean his weight on her, actually supporting himself with the other foot. Bending down quickly, he hissed with a strained and slurred snarl into her ear, " Go ..along .. with this."

"What?" She squeaked, almost, blinking a few times.

"Just shut up and go along. Change your command codes."

"Wh--...why??"

Not having the patience, suddenly, to put up with Zinou, he leaned to the side of which the leg was he held down on her. His tremendous weight beared down upon her. She gasped slightly, eyes wide. "JUST DO IT!" He hissed lowly, slurred snarl restrained in volume, fangs clicking together as he gritted them.

She nodded, knowing automatically by core programming how. It was easier than she had supposed it might be. Her eyes closed for a moment, and opened again, red Maximal symbol on her shoulder deforming and twisting into the yellow insect-like visage of a Predacon one.

She looked up at his optics, still struggling to understand what was going on. Did that snake have something to do with this...?

Dinobot's gaze was approving, and he lashed his tail, acting as if Zinou was putting up a fight, although she actually wasn't. "Ghyrr, state .. your name and faction!" he growled in Zinou's face.

Zinou blinked and squinted, not quite catching on.

"Go along.." whispered Dinobot in another slur. "Answer!"

There was a pause. "..Zinou...and..I am a...Predacon.." she said aloud.

Dinobot pretended to be fighting against her again, and she merely winced in response.

His fangs clacked in her face momentarily. "Then, stop putting up a fight and accompany me back to base."

"But I'm n--" she started to whisper, before Dinobot's fangs clicked together inches in front of her face.

"Go along!"

Zinou's mouth formed into a semi-understanding "o" and she nodded sharply, mrring loudly, "Very well.."

She still didn't understand what Dinobot was doing, but being trapped under his 2 1/2 foot long talons was enough to keep her from resisting in any manner. The more rational side of her mind idly wondered if even striking up conversation with this alleged "Dinobot" was even a good idea in the first place.

Her irrational side growled at the other side's thought, with the reasoning, 'He is Dinobot, because only he'd know about leaving me, heading eastwards!' That thought was the only thing that kept Zinou from freaking out totally.

Dinobot slowly stepped back from Zinou, carefully lifting his talons from her comparatively small form. She stood up, looking at him a moment. Dinobot merely gave her an unreadable stare and then turned back towards the fern.

"Quickstrike.." he slur-snarled, now aware of the other-bot's presence due to the less-than-apt hiding job, "Assist me back to base with this new unit."

Quickstrike blinked a few times at being discovered, and pretended to stay hidden.

"Quickstrike..." drolled Dinobot. "Now!"

Quickstrike sighed and peered out from under the fronds, skittering out to look to the two. "Yah, sure, a'course.." was his queerly edged reply.

He looked Zinou up and down, scorpion claws clanking together for a moment. He looked around, figured out which way that the Predacon base was, and started off in that direction. Dinobot walked around to the backside of Zinou and nudged her, what he thought, was gently, to get going, but he ended up knocking her over.

"Oof." Zinou merely muttered at being knocked over.

No apology from Dinobot, just a look of brief surprise. Either he was incredibly strong, or she was incredibly weak. He shook his head slightly and slur-snarled.

"Get out in front."

He motioned with his snout towards the skittering-away Quickstrike.

Zinou stood back up and brushed herself off, glancing warily at Dinobot a moment, but she nodded.

"Beastmode.." she called, falling down to all fours in an abrupt move. She turned and loped off to be in front of Quickstrike. Dinobot turned and stalked up to be alongside him. Zinou had a lead of about 6 feet, gait much quicker and deft through the brush.

Quickstrike, idly skittering along as he had been, lifted a claw to scratch his head. "Heh, hey, Dinobot, tarnation, you sure know how t'.." he did a little whistle, "..find 'em."

Dinobot glanced down to Quickstrike stoically, a bit annoyed. "What?"

Quickstrike chuckled lowly. "Yeh'know...findin' 'em.." he motioned a claw towards Zinou. "Shoot, we ain't had any pretty femmes' 'round the base fer' a long time now.."

Dinobot snorted in disgust, and rolled his optics slightly. If there was a way he never looked at people, that was it. "Shut up arachnid, and walk."

Quickstrike looked taken by surprise, but only slightly -- as if he'd really expected to have a conversation any along those lines with Dinobot, anyways.

"Well, she is --"

"Shut -UP-."

They continued onwards, heading towards the Predacon base.

Optimus's arrival was one that was hard to go unnoticed. Landing abruptly and deftly, he transformed, all in one swift move. With a gigantic hand, he reached forwards and opened the door, clunking his way into the base.

Rhinox greeted him tiredly as he entered the main bridge area. "Hey there, Optimus. Patrol's quiet, I assume?"

Optimus nodded, taking his place up alongside his specified 'big' console. "Yes. All's quiet." He paused, read through a few things briefly on his control panel, and added, "You wanted to speak to me about something?"

Rhinox nodded, walking to the main table. "Yeah. I think I've figured out just how Zinou's possible... as I've already told you, her programming's been messed with.." he tapped out a few commands on a console, bringing up some readouts and 3D models via holographic display. "..As best I can tell, most of her programming was written in Predacon, and then someone implemented a Maximal chip about 4/5ths the way through the process.."

Optimus nodded. "So she's...?" he waved his hand briefly in a 'finish the sentence' gesture.

"More Maximal than Predacon, but just barely." Replied Rhinox.

Optimus squinted. "Hmm, I see. But that could be explainable by a number of different factors.."

Rhinox bobbed his head..

"...what else makes you think she's one of Megatron's?" Optimus queried, green optics narrowing slightly.

Rhinox pulled up a 3D model of Zinou, and one of a CybeRaptor. "The same sort of molecular structure and certain properties are identical to that of the CybeRaptors.. which leads me to think that Megatron had something to do with her programming. Only Megatron ever had that miserably-failed Transmetal II stuff.."

Optimus nodded, "..yes. Failed until he got ahold of that alien driver..."

Rhinox glanced to the readout and back to Optimus. "Mmm-hmm. But Zinou doesn't have that new Transmetal /2/ tech in her. Just .." he motioned towards the CybeRaptor image, "..that sort."

Optimus brought a hand to his chin.

"And Megatron..his..involvement, supposedly -- that could also account for how she has these alleged 'memories' of Dinobot... they may have been artificially implanted.."

Rhinox sharply nodded. "My thoughts exactly. In fact, there's no other explanation..."

"Not a reasonable one, anyways.." Optimus added, thinking a moment before continuing, "Call Zinou to the bridge. I think we should speak with her."

Rhinox scratched his chin and mm-hmmed, turning to the console. He tapped on a few buttons. "Rhinox to Zinou. Your presence is requested at the bridge."

He paused a moment. It wasn't really a bridge anymore, but, that's what he was used to calling it nonetheless.

There was no answer.

"Rhinox to Zinou, please respond."

Optimus' optics narrowed.

Rhinox sighed. He tapped out a few commands on the controls, and blinked. "Slag, she's not showing up any of the sensors, internal or external."

Optimus frowned. "Well, Rattrap and Silverbolt were -supposed- to be keeping an eye on her.."

Rhinox sighed again and pulled up two video displays. "Rattrap. Silverbolt." He called, activating the video monitors for their positions. Upon him calling the names, two pictures, video monitors, came up in compliance. Rattrap was in his quarters, standing on a table, holding a cyber-tennis racquet like an electric guitar, and pretending to play it. Silverbolt's face appeared onscreen, but his optics were closed. He was kissing Blackarachnia.

Optimus averted his gaze from both displays and shook his head. "Cabin fever..."

Rhinox crossed his arms and stared at the two video-readouts, missing Optimus' remark. "Ahem." He stated loudly.

Rattrap continued standing on the table, playing his 'guitar'. He was shouting aloud what was -supposed- to be guitar sounds. It sounded like someone was killing something.

Silverbolt didn't hear, and continued to kiss Blackarachnia.

"RATTRAP! SILVERBOLT!" Rhinox boomed, not liking being ignored. Rattrap froze and his red optics snapped to the monitor, of which upon doing so he abruptly dropped the racquet.

Silverbolt paused and jerked to attention, moving Blackarachnia aside.

"Sir?" They both chimed simultaneously.

"Have either of you seen Zinou?"

Silverbolt's gaze averted from the monitor.

Rattrap tossed the racquet aside and shrugged. "No. Bird-dog said he was gunna watch 'er for awhile."

Silverbolt looked back up to the monitor. "She..left." He murmured.

Rhinox' attention snapped to Silverbolt's face. "Left? Why?"

"I believe she heard you ..talking about her, sir. She .. became afraid and fled."

Rhinox lifted a hand to his forehead and sighed loudly. "Oh-no..." he muttered, dragging his hand down the length of his face until his optics were revealed. Looking at Silverbolt again, he growled, "Why didn't you stop her?"

Silverbolt paused.

"I..didn't feel it within my juridstriction. You said ..watch her. Not .. intervene." That was the best excuse that he could conjure.

Rhinox sighed, and muttered a few things under his breath.

Optimus' face remained stern as Rhinox looked back to the two monitors. "You two -- find her! We have reason to believe she's a work of Megatron's..."

Silverbolt merely nodded, terminating the video-link.

Rattrap growled, "Nyahh, I knew she was a--" and flicked off his monitor too.

Rhinox turned back to Optimus and sighed. "Primus, " he muttered. "This hyenabot is getting on my nerves."
 

The three had reached the rocky , ash-grounded terrain that marked nearing the Predacon base.

Quickstrike had long since ended up skittering in front, and Zinou and Dinobot now stalked and loped behind him, alongside one another. Zinou was confused.

"Dinobot.." she whispered, making sure her tone was too low to be heard by Quickstrike, "What were you doing back there? Why did you pin me?"

Dinobot continued stalking for a moment, gaze sweeping the area before falling back on Zinou. "I had to.." he growled lowly in a slur. "I had to make sure that the fuzor doesn't get suspicious."

"Suspicious? Of what?"

Dinobot lowered his head , crouching in his gait somewhat. He got nearer Zinou's ear. "I cannot let Megatron, him, or anyone else become suspicious of me. There is another, Rampage, who is somehow affecting me. He says that the only way out of his grip is through Megatron. If Megatron suspects anything, my supposed Predacon allegiance will be blown and I will get -nothing- accomplished."

Zinou blinked, lifting her ears, bronze eyes snapping up to Dinobot's red ones. "What..?"

"Just..." he shook his head; trying to explain it to her here and now was going to be far too hard -- and risky. "Just silence yourself, female.." he slur-snarled, "Do what I say and bear with me."

Zinou nodded warily, unsure of whatever was going on. As they crested a hill, she got a good look at the ugly yet formidable-looking Predacon base. She drew back slightly. "We're going in -there-?"

Quickstrike was rapidly getting father ahead of them as they slowed down with their talk. Dinobot, never an avid fan of talk himself, grumbled and snorted, punting Zinou forwards with his snout.

"Yes, there. Now get going! We're falling behind.." he whispered through gritted fangs.

Zinou yelped as she tumbled down the hill, once more being a little over-forcefully shoved by the raptorbot. She ran into Quickstrike, who broke her tumbling-fall.

"What in tarnation?!" he cried, getting landed atop of by the hyena.

Zinou shook her head and sat up slowly, stepping off of the strange fuzor with a snort. "Sorry.." she mrred lowly, flicking her ears in contempt as she looked up, waiting for Dinobot to come up alongside her again.

Quickstrike shook his head and looked at Zinou. His eyes bugged out for a moment, and he blinked. She'd said something to him!

"Ah, shucks, y'don't hafta say sorry, I mean, geez, I guess it was me who was in yer' way..." He skittered to one side and then continued towards the base.

"I mean, you're always welcome t'fall on top a'me, I'm glad t've been a'service.."

Zinou stared at Quickstrike a moment, listening to him chatter to himself. "..y'ever need m'help again, I'd be glad tah'. Speakin' a'that, you remind me a'sugar-bot..."

Zinou quit listening as Dinobot stalked alongside her.

"Is he always like that?" She queried in a low mrr.

Dinobot merely nodded.

They all continued inside.
 

Stalking through the dark and gloomy corridors was by no means comforting to the small hyenabot. A twist or turn, a choice of two or three ways to go, a spiral of hallway or an elevator seemed to dot every five feet of the corridor.

Zinou idly wondered how Dinobot knew which way to go, before remembering that he, was before, a Predacon, and had served on this ship. Or, that's what he'd told her, at least. She stayed close to the raptorbot's legs, almost causing him to trip over her a couple of times.

"By the Inferno.." he growled aloud, "Keep in step, female, not under it!"

Quickstrike merely skittered ahead the two, oblivious to their comments to one another.

"I don't like it here.." muttered Zinou.

"Live with it.." Dinobot growled sharply. "Just do what I say, when." He took in a snarled breath. "Understand?"

Zinou meekly nodded.

They cleared one last doorway and came to an intersection in the hall, a room of some sort, that had within it a console, an R-tank, and behind that, a monitor screen.

Megatron, large as he was, reclined, asleep, in the R-tank.

Quickstrike skittered up to the rim of the R-tank, peering over. "Pssst, Bossbot. Hey, boss. Psssst."

Megatron didn't wake.

"Pssssst! Bossbot!" Murmured Quickstrike, voice an absurd sounding, strained whisper, " Wake up!"

Dinobot growled and stepped forwards, Zinou still hiding behind him. "Dinobot.." she whimpered in a whisper, "That's...Megatron. He already's seen me. This won't work! He'll make me stay a Predacon...I don't have my sword...you'll get in trouble...!"

Dinobot didn't even turn to regard Zinou and simply whacked her in the head with the broad side of the prong on his tail. She drew back and put a paw to her head with a muted yelp, looking back up at Dinobot confusedly.

Dinobot, still looking towards Megatron, snarled slurredly and aloud: "Megatron!"

Megatron blinked awake, feet kicking up from the R-tank with a start to nick Quickstrike in the chin.

"Ow!" Quickstrike howled, falling backwards from the side of the R-tank.

Megatron shook his head slightly and looked to Dinobot, sitting up and bridging his fingers together.

"Ahh, yess...Dinobot. So you've returned from your.." his tone lowered, "..patrol."

Dinobot nodded, assuming a stiff and upright posture. "Affirmative.." he slur-snarled, as now seemed a defect in his speech, " ..and I may have found something of interest. Her.."

He stepped to one side, revealing the cowering Zinou.

"I.." there was a long pause... "..found a stasis pod and managed to reactivate it. I reprogrammed her, this new unit, Zinou, into.." he took in a snarled breath, " a Predacon."

Zinou's eyes widened. She expected to be recognized by Megatron at any second. Yet, noting Dinobot's coolness on the situation, she sat down, posture as erect she could manage.

Megatron leaned forwards , looking over the edge of the R-tank. "Ahh, yess..." he murmured again. "Greetings, Zinou." His voice was curt. " I welcome you to the..Predacons."

He cast but a forced grin in her direction, and stood up from the R-tank. He stared down at Quickstrike. "You..accompanied them?" he muttered.

Quickstrike looked up, nodded, and hopped back to an upright position. "Uh....yeh, well, back t'base, and I was.." he paused, looking at Dinobot briefly, who stared back at him, "well, ..I didn't see 'im get th' pod, but I saw 'im gettin' some sense knocked into the pretty femme there, heh."

Dinobot tensed, but not visibly. As he'd begun to suspect -- he wasn't paying enough attention and Quickstrike had been following him the whole time. Slag! Well, at least the fuzor didn't make too much of 'not seeing him getting the pod'. And Dinobot didn't expect him to, either.

His talons clacked on the floor. This was seemingly a nervous habit in replacement of fluttering his tongue while he spoke, for his beastmode physique no longer allowed it.

Megatron looked flatly at Quickstrike a moment, but then nodded. "Very well.." he dismissed Quickstrike with a wave of his hand, " I'll expect a full report."

Quickstrike nodded again, and skittered off down the hall, frankly, glad to be able to get away from Dinobot.

Zinou's gaze remained locked onto Megatron the whole time, however, unblinking, unmoving. She looked away before he looked back however, casting a queer glance at Dinobot.

Megatron rolled his shoulders and sat back down in the R-tank, spreading his arms to lean on the rim of it. " A report from you, as well, will be expected.." he muttered, looking to Dinobot, his optics narrowing. " And assign 'Zinou' to ... something as well."

Dinobot nodded slowly, clacking his fangs together as he turned and stalked down the hall.

Zinou, glancing over her shoulder briefly to look at Megatron again, slinked after Dinobot, ears pinned back.
 

Dinobot continued down the hall, stalking to, yet again, some predetermined destination.

Zinou once more fell in step alongside him, now a bit less nervous, but still wary nonetheless. "Dinobot.." she mrred. "He..didn't recognize me."

Dinobot glanced down, red optics half-lidded nonchalantly. "And what specifically does that mean?" he growled with a slur.

"Dinobot! Megatron's seen me before! I -attacked- him when I came out of my pod! " She paused.. "Oh..that's right. You were unconscious."

Dinobot stared at Zinou a moment longer, and then averted his gaze back to look down the hallway. "Hmyrr....I see.." he slur-snarled, optics narrowing. There was a long pause, and then Dinobot's reply:

"He is not one to just..forget. How could such happen?" Zinou shook her head..

" I don't know..." Dinobot growled. "He only would have no recollection .. if...it had never happened..."

"But it did.." Zinou retorted. " You and I both know! It's how -I- came to be, and you coming with me! Remember?"

Dinobot nodded.

Zinou continued. " I don't think he could forget how I stabbed him with my swor--" she paused, suddenly realizing she still didn't have any weapons. "Optimus took my sword.." she murmured, not liking being without a weapon.

"Optimus.." he hissed, shaking his head.. " I have since seen him. When Megatron.. had told me to seek out Cheetor. I fired upon Optimus, and sparred with Cheetor.. I saw Rattrap and Silverbolt arrive..obviously the Maximal faction has more or less remained intact and unchanged..." His gaze grew blank as he tried to remember, but then his mind was set back on track. " Optimus has changed.." he snarled, getting to the point of his observance.

Zinou flicked her ears. "Well, I never knew what he was like before, so I cannot share that opinion.."

Dinobot merely nodded. " I will show you soon enough."

Zinou's gaze averted to the floor briefly, and then to Dinobot's talons. "If you saw them all, why did you not make contact with them, as you did me?"

Dinobot stopped. " I couldn't.." he muttered.

Zinou stopped too. "Why not?" She mrred.

Dinobot averted his gaze and snarled. It was mere weakness, he thought. Mere weakness on his part. He was more strong-willed than that. " I couldn't.." he repeated, tail lashing as he craned his neck back around to stare at her. "Something..strange is going on."

Zinou blinked. "Strange? How so..?"

Dinobot himself was unsure of what to tell her. How to make her understand..? -He- didn't even understand. He averted his gaze, thought a moment, and, talons clacking on the floor, turned to an adjacent door.

"You ..said you required a sword?' he snarled, a slur catching onto the 'sw' of sword.

Zinou stared at his evasion of the subject a moment, ears perking and brows furrowing. But she knew better than to argue with him. "Yes." She replied, tone flat.

He nodded, and typed in an access code on a panel aside the door. It slid open. Dinobot stalked in, and Zinou followed after.

"Light.." Dinobot growled, the computer acknowledging and illuminating the room dimly.

Now visible, were many racks of weapons of all sorts -- explosives, guns, cannons, and on a rack farthest back in the room, swords, daggers, and all things long and pointy.

Zinou's eyes widened. She loped immediately to the sword rack in the back of the room, and with a low mrr, said, "Maximize."she acted like she expected to transform, but didn't.

She looked at her forepaws a moment and squinted. "..Huh?"

Dinobot stalked over and growled. "It's Terrorize, for a Predacon." He stated flatly, seemingly knowing what her problem was.

"Terrorize?" Zinou stated afterwards, lifting a brow, but not having much time to say much else as she jerked transformation. "Oh.." She shook her head slightly.

Dinobot, still taller than her in her 'bot mode, growled slurredly into her ear. "Remember it, female. No mess-ups on your part."

The sharp edge to his voice was almost threatening.

Zinou nodded timidly, stepping away slightly before looking over the dusty rack. Judging by its appearance, not many of the Predacons used swords. Also, another thing that hinted towards that was the fact that they were all neat on the rack -- the guns were miscellaneously scattered about on hooks and tables, shelves and the floor.

She looked through the swords, carefully sorting through them. After a few minutes, she finally put her hand on a broad handle, and yanked, as to see what was attached. The handle was nice, maybe the sword was too.

What appeared from the rack was one of the longest blades she'd ever seen, it almost being as tall as she was. It had multiple blades, arranged in tiers, each one of the 8 or so 3 edged. Her face lit up. This was the best sword she'd ever seen! It was even better than hers.

"This one's good.." she stated, holding the huge thing with a grin to match.

Dinobot blinked, and Zinou could've sworn that he saw the corners of his snout curl into a vague smile. Although it was hard to tell, as toothy as his face was.

Her suspcicions of his smile were confirmed with the sounding of a low sound...a ..chuckle?

She regarded him oddly. She'd never heard him chuckle, laugh, or appear humored in any manner. It almost seemed as if he couldn't make the sound, as slurred and growled as it was.

"What?" She mrred, confused.

Dinobot reached up a foreclaw and tinked the edge of the blade with it. The chuckling faded, and his face resumed its normal look.

"Zinou.." he snarled lightly.."...that's my sword."

Zinou's face twisted in confusion for a moment, and she oh'd. "You want it?" She said, offering it.

Dinobot shook his head. " My old sword.." he snarled. "I'm not outfitted to carry it any longer..." he growled , motioning to his Transmetal 2 self.

Zinou twirled the sword a moment deftly in one hand, handling it, for its size, quite well.

"I'm surprised they've even kept it.." Dinobot murmured.

Zinou pointed it downwards behind her, and sheathed it in her sub-space sheath. It allowed her to keep stuff bigger than would be expected, having the sheath so designed.

"I'm better now.." she mrred conclusively. " Can't stand to be without a sword."

She beastmoded abruptly and headed out of the room. Dinobot followed.

Zinou looked to him as he exited the room after her. "So... as you were saying, before you changed the subject so drastically...?"

Dinobot looked at her and sighed. There was no point in trying to avoid the persistent hyenabot's queries any longer. "It's...like this. Megatron supposedly used a part of Rampage' spark in my.." he screeched a Transmetal foretalon along the length of his Transmetal forearm, "..creation. I've since been trying to figure out how this was...significant..."

Zinou nodded. "Go on..."

"...Well, I don't understand what's going on completely myself, but I believe that--"

Rampage suddenly seemed to appear in the hallway in front of the two.

He finished Dinobot's sentence. "-- the sparks have been fused somehow."

Dinobot glared at Rampage and hissed, abruptly transforming with a slurred screech. "Ghhhyr, no one asked you!" He snarled.

His tail lashed, posture lowering into an aggressive crouch, the laser-sight of his monocle-optic targeting immediately Rampage's forehead.

Zinou blinked and looked between the two. She stepped back slightly.

Rampage didn't immediately notice or heed Zinou, holding up a hand to intercept the little red point of light. "Now now..." he muttered in his own scratchy tone, " Is that really necessary? I believe that we're..." he approached Dinobot, who continued to growl, "..in this together."

Dinobot felt a strange inner sensation, evident by the queer look that suddenly appeared on his face. His normal-optic widened in sudden comprehension, a clawed 'hand' reaching up to grasp at his chestplate. "So -that's- why you were so infernally interested in me! " He exclaimed.

"And you so hostile towards me.." Rampage muttered, rows of spikes on the sides of his head pinning back.

The two faced off for a moment.

" I don't enjoy it any more than you do, lizard..." Rampage growled again. " I can't help the way my spark -is-."

He reached out a tentative hand towards the wishbone shaped marking on Dinobot's chest.

Dinobot hissed, and bringing his claws into the best fists that he could, appeared to focus on something a moment.

Rampage wreathed with interference suddenly, and staggered back, hand curling away from Dinobot sharply. He dropped to one knee.

"All right! All right! Together! No tricks. In this together.." The interference stopped, and he looked up, supporting an arm on his knee. "..Literally."

He stared a moment more. " I'd still like to know what happened to you... you've been changing."

Zinou put a paw on one of Dinobot's formidably long talons. " Dinobot, what's going on?"

Dinobot just shook his head. "I don't know all the details, but it's his fault for my altered behavior.." He pointed an accusing talon at the reddish bot. " As we both.." he took in a snarled breath.. .".realized, -somehow- our sparks have been fused. Whatever Megatron's done..."

Rampage stood back up, the same height as Dinobot, making Zinou seem minuscule in-between.

" Agreed. Although, I don't think that -this- is what Megatron had in mind.." He motioned towards Dinobot, "When he did this. "

Taking another step forwards, he queried further, "If you're not just a part of me... who ..are you?"

Dinobot's face curled from a snarl into a sneer. "The name says it all."

Rampage optics widened. "Dinobot.... gwah, you slagging..." he shook his head, and shook a finger at him. "I don't know how you did it, but.."

Dinobot growled again, and forcibly lowered Rampage's shaking finger with authoritative claws. " Neither do I.." he hissed.

"Now, are we going to try and figure out a way to free ourselves from one another or are we going to waste our time.." he grimaced, "..talking?"

Rampage cast but a glance at Zinou, putting a hand to Dinobot's shoulder. "Of course not. And I already know what's in this for me. What's for either of us to resist?"

"Nothing." Dinobot stated with a flat growl. He jumped slightly as he felt something fuzzy brush against his legs, and looked down. Zinou had loped between Rampage and him to stand in front.

She cleared her throat and faced the two. "Well, whatever Megatron's done, as you said, Dinobot, only Megatron can undo. Why don't the three of us formulate a plan against him?"

Dinobot nodded, casting with a flick of his claws Rampage's hand from his shoulder. He looked to Zinou. "Yes.." he snarled, slur catching the s and drawing it into a hiss, "..that would be the only..logical course of action now."

"Heh, of course.." chimed Rampage after, his tone lightly sarcastic, as the three headed down the hall.

They went to work, trying to come up with a 'plan'.
 

Megatron played with a rubber squeak toy, still lazily reclining in his personal R-tank. Either the Predacon commander didn't have much else to do or he didn't want to do much else. He was only idly interested it the toy, and after a few moments, cast it aside. Leaning back, he looked at the backside of his hand idly.

Hmm, he mentally murmured, perhaps my thoughts on Dinobot were a tad. .. paranoid. I suppose that that Maximal frequency incident was..just a glitch, after all.

He chuckled to himself.

Dinobot'd seemed just fine after returning from patrol, and there'd seemed to be no more 'glitches' involving such. That was fine with him.

He leaned back again, sighing lowly.

Fine with him...

He jinxed it.

"Royalty!" Inferno's voice suddenly chittered over his comlink. He blinked a few times, and tilting his head to one side, murmured, "Yess?"

"I have done your bidding, my Queen, and have come to some very interesting conclusions!"

"Go on.." Megatron murmured.

"I believe that --"

Dinobot and Rampage, both transformed, suddenly stalked in from the hall. They were glaring daggers at each other, approaching Megatron quietly.

Megatron looked up to the two. He looked down to his com. "Just a moment, Inferno."

".....As you wish, my Queen."

He terminated the link and leaned back, looking up towards the two. "What do you two want?" He muttered.

Rampage started. "Megatron.." he grumbled in his scratchy tone, "..something..has happened! You'd better take a look."

Megatron craned his neck forwards only slightly, optics narrowing. "Happened? What has -happened-?"

Rampage started to ramble on, but Dinobot didn't particularly listen nor pay attention. His telescopic sights were locked down the adjoining hall, of which he saw a robot moded Zinou creeping down, --- just as had been planned. He regarded her only briefly. His attention turned back to Megatron, who was regarding Rampage impatiently and strangely.

Rampage still chattered to Megatron.

Dinobot seemed oblivious to all things said, more or less just waiting to hear the utterance of a single word. A 'signal', if one would so call it.

Zinou set a little box-like unit up at the arch of the hallway, and continued to creep in the room. Dinobot watched her again for a brief moment, normal-optic narrowing.

Be careful, female... he thought, knowing that if anyone would negatively benefit from this venture if it failed, it'd be her.

Dinobot turned back to Rampage.

Rampage just continued.

"Oh, but Megatron! You don't understand..something's wrong...he's caused me ..-pain-..." That was the word. The signal-word.

Dinobot focused his attention for a moment, staring to Rampage. Rampage suddenly wreathed with interference, falling to both knees.

Megatron looked to Dinobot. "Stop that, right now.." he growled.

Rampage flailed and propped himself up with an arm on the side of the R-tank.

"Maybe you should have a ... look?" Rampage suggested in a hoarse mutter, tapping at his own chest.

Megatron turned to Dinobot, leaning forwards and standing up in the R-tank. "Yess, perhaps I should.." he murmured back at Rampage.

"Dinobot.." he motioned for the Transmetal 2's spark casing to be opened, all the while his face set into a grimace. Judging by that expression, he wasn't too happy about all these 'malfunctions' on Dinobot's behalf.

Zinou crept up slowly and balanced on the ledge of the R-tank closest the wall, slowly unsheathing her sword.

Dinobot looked to Megatron and lifted his face into a sharp little toothy grin, taking his time in pointing a huge foretalon at himself in query.

"Yes, you.." Megatron grumbled.

Dinobot bobbed his head, and looked down at his chest, slowly forcing the casing to open.

Megatron leaned forwards and squinted. "Now I don't know whatever could be wrong.."

Dinobot opened the casing only about 1/4 of the way, and just stopped, grinning maliciously.

Megatron sighed lowly and stared at Dinobot. "The -rest- the way, pleas--"

He suddenly felt something pointy against the back of his head. "Hello.." chimed a feminine voice from behind.

Megatron suddenly stopped, and blinked. "Wha--?" His optics shifted slightly, but he couldn't turn his head --

Zinou put more force on the blade, forcing Megatron's head to remain set straight forward. Dinobot and Rampage both reached forwards, grabbing Megatron's arms.

With a mighty heave, they both yanked Megatron from the 'tank and threw him onto the floor, to his back.

Dinobot placed a foot-talon on Megatron's chest, effectively holding him down. He glowered at him.

Rampage put his arms behind his back and looked down at Megatron, green optics narrowing.

"What ....what treachery ...is this?!" Megatron bellowed, resisting against the talon holding him down, but to no avail. His expression towards Dinobot was confused, he hadn't yet seen Zinou, and Rampage was scaring the slag out of him.

"You told me before that only you had the power to de-segment my spark and make me whole again.." Rampage growled.. "Now that opinion's two sided. You do what we say and you'll be just fine." He drew out 'just' with one of his sadistic cackles.

Zinou hopped from the rim of the R-tank, landing on the floor alongside Dinobot. Although she was nowhere near Dinobot's size, to Megatron on the floor, she looked big nonetheless.

"So, you -all- plot treason against me, yess.." Megatron snarled. " I think not.." Glaring at Rampage specifically, he activated his internal comm.

"This is Megatron, to all available Pr--"

Dinobot's laser-sight found its way to pinpoint Megatron's forehead. That wasn't what stopped Megatron's speech however, it was Zinou.

"No use.." she mrred. "The room's been jammed." She smiled tauntingly down in the purple-faced bot's direction. Rampage sneered. "So, Megatron, you -were- telling the truth on your abilities, correct?"

Megatron fidgeted under Dinobot's pin.

"I really do hope that you were.." murmured Rampage with another little cackle.. " Your spark's in serious trouble if you weren't."

Megatron stared at Rampage a moment and said nothing, teeth gritting together in anger. "You traitorous -worms-..."He merely growled, looking to Dinobot, -his- Dinobot, the one that he had so explicitly trusted, "..and...Dinobot.." he shook his head, " So you plot just as your forebearer of your title did..."

Dinobot slung a forearm over the knee of the leg with which he held Megatron down.

Staring at his face, he sneered, " ...incorrect ..I -am- him."

Megatron's face would've turned white had it not been metal. "...Dinobot?" He gasped, optics widening briefly.

Dinobot gave Megatron a positive, malicious and toothy grin. "Yes."

Megatron shook his head and tried to look away, but turning his head the other direction only met his gaze with that of Rampage.

Rampage narrowed his optics. "And something you've done had caused us to be.." he paused.. "..one." He shook his head, "Frankly, I don't like it. And you're going to undo it, as you said you could.."

Megatron's face curled into a growl. "Never, you tr--" he started to reply, but halted abruptly as a freakishly long foretalon was placed on the side of his head.

"Choose your words wisely, Megatron.." Dinobot hissed, slurred tone dripping with a gut hatred, "If you refuse, I'm sure we could find some way to extract the details of the process from your .." he tapped the talon on Megatron's head, "...core processor."

Rampage nodded in agreement. "Yes, I'm sure we could." He rubbed his hands together. " In fact, why don't we? We can't really risk having -Megatron- carry out the process anyways.." Another sadistic cackle, the crab-bots' face curling into glee as terror etched across Megatron's.

Megatron shook his head slightly, attempting to regain his composure. He cleared his throat and muttered back deeply: "My core datatracks are all encrypted, you fools. Try to retrieve them yourselves and you might as well not have tried at all." Dinobot growled, joining a chorus of Rampage' already strained hiss.

"Then you'd better un-encrypt them.." Dinobot hissed, tapping the claw against the side of the Predacon commander's head again.

"No.." Megatron replied lowly, " I think not. You can't make me, and harm a sliver of silicon from my core and you can kiss your twisted dreams goodbye.."

Rampage leaned down and stared at him. "Twisted dreams? Who, may I ask, has the twisted dreams?" he motioned to Dinobot. "Surely, that is not something you conjured yourself?"

Megatron merely growled. He stared at Dinobot. " I don't know how you've done this, but I swear....I'll make sure your worthless spark is extinguished, by the time I'm done with you..."

Dinobot crossed his arms, narrowed optics looking Megatron over before locking with the Predacon commander's pinkish ones. "Speak for yourself, incompetent..." He snarled, motioning to Megatron with a general bob of his head.

Megatron fell silent, under the harsh gaze of 3 pairs of optics.

"So will you willingly undo this spark-splitting or will he have to mangle your head to get it?" Rampage howled impatiently after a moment of the silence.

"I already told you.." Megatron muttered, "My datatracks are encrypted! You'll--"

"Ever hear of a bluff, Megatron?" Dinobot snarled in a slur, clacking his talons on the broad sides of his crossed arms. " Convincing story, but if I know you well enough, its not entirely true. There's -always- a loophole.."

Megatron paused. His rapidly-shifting and nervous gaze tried to avert, but everywhere was surrounded. "ALL RIGHT!" He boomed. " I'll do it! And I'll supply the data needed..." He shook his head.. "...for whatever you expect me to do. Or undo."

Dinobot grinned toothily again. "Good." He lifted the talon which held Megatron down.

Megatron immediately sprang up and tried to make a run for it, but Dinobot had obviously anticipated this. Focusing his monocle-optic on Megatron as he turned away to dart, Dinobot suddenly looked to be channeling some sort of energy towards Megatron. Megatron looked as if he suddenly was paralyzed, enveloped by a whitish-light, and slumped to the floor with an exclamation and a grunt.

"And I assume you won't be trying that again?" he slur-snarled, staring down at the glowering Predacon commander.

Megatron merely glared back, his face one of hate and teeth gritted.

Rampage and Dinobot both picked up Megatron, by one arm apiece, turning to one of the less used corridors and starting down it. Megatron looked like an oversized toy, smaller than the two. He struggled for a moment, but the tight grips kept him from doing so.

Dinobot glanced over his shoulder at Zinou. "Come on.." he snarled.

Zinou watched them for a moment and nodded after, picking up the jamming-device from the arch of the hall, running up and affixing it to Megatron's back.

A sly grin crept across her face as she kept in step behind the others. "You won't be calling anyone, Megatron.." she mused to herself.
 

Depth Charge skimmed about 10 feet above the ground in his flight mode, yellow optics narrowed. "Computer.." he muttered to himself.."...location on Rampage's spark?"

His internal computer whirred for a moment, and then replied: "Location, bearing : north by north-east, distanc--"

His computer's tone was overlapped and then cut off by an incoming comm transmission. "Hey, flounder, you there?"

Judging by the whiny tone, it was most obviously Rattrap. Depth Charge mumbled lowly to himself. "No, mouse, I'm not. Leave me alone.." he answered in a growl.

"Mm-hmm, I'm sure.." grumbled Rattrap in response. "Optimus wants me to relay some orders to yah..."

There was a pause.

"I'm busy."

Rattrap scoffed. "Rampage-huntin', yah, I'm sure. Well, Optimus figured as much...now will you shut your flubbery-lips for a moment and let me finish my sentence?"

Depth Charge sighed. He didn't answer.

"Good.." mumbled Rattrap, "..now, as I was sayin', Optimus just wants you keep an eye out for that slaggin' hyenabot, Zinou..."

"Why?" Depth Charge snapped, annoyed enough at that particular female already.

"She took off," Rattrap replied in a snort, " ..cause she overheard Rhinox speculatin' she was a Pred. Sounds suspicious t'me, anyhow. Just .. contact base or somethin' if you see her."

"Understood.." Depth Charge muttered in response, terminating his comlink before Rattrap had any further chance to speak. He'd heard the orders, that's all he had to do. He wasn't going to grind a total halt his own personal search for Rampage to look for some slag-forsaken hyenabot.

He sighed.

"Computer , repeat location?" he murmured after a pause.

The computer mindlessly repeated the coordinates. The equivalent to a northeastern direction, about 82 miles away.

Depth Charge sneered to himself. 82 or 2, it made no difference to him. He'd get there eventually. Setting his thrusters on high, he jetted north-east.
 

Silverbolt too, was on patrol, upon orders. His sharp green eyes scanned the ground below, as fast as he was going, it all a blur. He had his scanners set on high, searching for Zinou's particular frequency.

Optimus flew alongside him, in his 'jet mode. "Anything yet?" Optimus called.

"Nothing , sir.." Silverbolt replied with a bit of a droop.

Optimus hmmed lowly, and swooped off course from Silverbolt. "All right, then. Let's spread out. We'll be able to cover more area more easily, then..."

Silverbolt bobbed his head, ears still flat to it. "Yes sir.." he murmured lowly, keeping his gaze averted. He felt some degree of responsibility for this all-out search anyhow.

Silverbolt continued flapping furiously, pausing every once and awhile for a resting glide, as Optimus veered off course to search elsewhere.

Silverbolt shook his head solemnly. "All this for a misunderstanding.."
 

The sky was heavy with thick grey clouds, the temperature almost reaching an uncomfortable level, humidity magnifying the conditions to what could only be described as muggy. Although such an atmosphere might've seemed likely to inspire gloom, those who stalked below, with the exception of one, seemed unfazed by the fact.

The 3, Dinobot, Zinou, and Rampage, tromped across the barren soil, a reluctant Megatron forcefully accompanying them.. Dinobot had now been given full responsibility of holding Megatron, which wasn't much of a task, considering that just keeping his robot-mode foretalons on the Predacon commander's shoulder was enough to keep him walking.

Rampage was lugging a few crates of supplies that Megatron had told them were necessary on the way out.

They had long since trekked far out of range of the Predacon base, without incident, much to Megatron's dismay.

Megatron intensely rued the fact that he had sent Waspinator and Quickstrike on patrol.

Although not the brightest bots on the team, Waspinator, if anyone, would have noticed Megatron's absence. Even Quickstrike would've been helpful in this situation, one way or another. Megatron muttered to himself, being forcefully walked along. Inferno and Tarantulas were his only hopes of rescue, but knowing Inferno's general obliviousness unless aroused and Tarantulas' reputation, Megatron had all but given up hope on the situation. He slumped slightly, gritting his teeth with a low growl. Dinobot kneed Megatron from behind.

"Stand up straight." He snarled in a slur, actually quite enjoying it. That fact was quite evident by the malicious grin that had managed to plaster itself across his grey face. Megatron grumbled and stood up straight again, as he was told, continuing his forced walk along.

Just you wait, Dinobot., he thought, just you wait....

"Where are we going?" Rampage asked, looking down at Zinou, who was beastmoded, loping ahead of the group.

Zinou glanced over her shoulder. "Just up ahead." she mrred, motioning with her muzzle towards a rocky outcropping in the distance. " It'll provide good shelter for whatever we need to construct and keep us from being too readily noticed.."

She grinned to herself, feeling quite clever at having caught up on knowledge of the terrain maps for the surrounding area. As, of course, per Dinobot's suggestion.

Dinobot looked to Zinou. "Why not in a jamming zone? It would make it difficult to detect our presence , if possible at all, and provide adequate cover.."

Zinou shook her head. "Too far. Too close to the Maximal base. We might be seen."

Dinobot's optic narrowed in thought, but he nodded. " Ah ... I see."

They continued towards the rocky outcropping.
 

It was a while later.

Rampage and Zinou had successfully set up the sparse equipment that Megatron had told them to bring, and were now incorporating the finishing touches.

Rampage positioned the larger, heavier parts of the device while Zinou nimbly darted around him, affixing bolts and whatnot on the structure they'd created where required.

Dinobot stood back, keeping his claws firmly on Megatron's shoulders, as Megatron muttered begrudgingly instructions on the primitive arrangement's assembly.

"There.." Megatron grumbled after the two were done, "..that is what you need." He resisted against Dinobot's hold slightly. " Now I need to figure out what exactly in the Pit I need to -do-.."

Dinobot loosened his grip and allowed Megatron the freedom to move towards the device, immediately targeting his laser-sights on the back of Megatron's head as he did so.

Megatron didn't need to turn around to know that it was, he could feel the intense heat of the focused light.

Rampage stood back from the device, looking it over.

It was primitive indeed, considering the few parts that they had built it from. A portable computer-unit was in the center of it, two hookups, one arching out of each side like gnarled tree roots, and a sort of shielding in-between was all that it was.

"Are you sure this will work?" Rampage murmured to Megatron, scratchy tone laced with a mistrusting doubt. His arms crossed. Megatron activated the portable computer unit, teeth gritted and posture unconsciously drooping as he futily tried to evade the targeting light on the back of his head.

"Sure of it.." he muttered. "These are the base components, all that this...process should require."

"Should?" Zinou sharply queried.

"Will..." Megatron corrected after a pause.

He went to work tapping out commands, looking over the computer screens' readouts with narrowed optics. He hunched over, not only because the console was shorter than what he was used to, but because Dinobot, out of spite, was purposely making him uncomfortable.

"Do you mind?" he bellowed.

Dinobot didn't quit.

"Do your work, Megatron.." he growled. "And quit complaining." Another nasty toothy-faced sneer followed.

Megatron sighed in frustration and continued to work a few more moments, before muttering: "Dinobot...Rampage.. I need scanner data to figure out what to do. Step over here."

He motioned towards the two hookups on either side of the main computer unit.

Rampage complied slowly, looking the hookup up and down before stepping into it.

Dinobot was a bit more hesitant, but approached, still keeping his laser-sight on Megatron's head. It moved around from being on the back to the front, causing Megatron to become even more uncomfortable and unnerved.

Zinou, almost on cue, lithely hopped from her seat atop a rock to be near Megatron. Barely half his height, she stood near him, drawing her sword.

"Don't try anything.." she intoned with a low mrr, ears perking and hackles bristling slightly

Dinobot was careful to keep his laser targeted on Megatron, stepping into the scanner-hookup as well. Dinobot on the left, Rampage on the right.

Megatron glared down briefly at Zinou. Although she in herself was not threatening, the sword which she held, being almost as tall as she was, was. "You really think I'd be such a fool..?" he hissed through gritted teeth, motioning with a quick lift of his optics the red pinpoint of light so accurately centered on his forehead.

Zinou merely growled in response, her relatively weak one backed up by a chorus of Rampage' hissing and Dinobot's snarl. Megatron shook his head and pushed a few buttons in sequence, glaring at Dinobot and Rampage as a whitish sheet of light, in a way, a scan, swept over the two. The light then cut off, Megatron looking to the computer at the lot of data that'd been input by the scan.

Zinou merely stood, watching him.

Megatron tapped through the readouts quickly, nervously. He was being faced with an ultimatum that he'd been hoping he'd never have to, and had failed, insofar, to come up with a plan of which to escape this. Reminded still by the red dot of light on his forehead that he had work to be doing, he continued.

Not much else he -could- do.

He continued to read through the data. As far as he could tell, Rampage and Dinobot were correct...

In some freakish way, Dinobot's spark had been fused with the part of Rampage' spark that he'd thought he'd exclusively used to create the 'clone'.

How the two sparks had come to be fused, he had no idea. All that he knew was that Dinobot's spark was not and had never been a part of his design. How it got there, was anyone's guess.

His brows lifted slightly.

He tapped through a few more strings of data. What was this?

Dinobot's spark was unstable; in fact, the only thing holding it together was the indestructible forces of Rampage' spark. And Rampage' spark, no matter how invincible it may have been deemed, was also weakened by the strain!

Megatron brought a hand to his chin in thought, face twisting from its worried one that it had been so long plastered into, back to the sly one that he most often liked to have.

Running a few quick simulations, he came to the very quick conclusion --

/Doing what Dinobot and Rampage wanted him to do would ultimately lead to their demise/.

He lifted his head and looked to the two, automatically starting to tell them.

But he paused.

Why -should- he tell them? It's what they wanted, wasn't it? Of course. See, no tricks on his part. And Dinobot couldn't shoot him once he was able to start the process.

He'd be too busy dying, thought Megatron with a dour chuckle.

He then grinned broadly. Unable to resist, he murmured, "Oh...yesss..."

Zinou had been watching Megatron's changing expression this entire time, and now at his sly look and puzzling utterance she paused, prodding him in the side with her sword, growling.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, ears lifting.

Megatron looked down to Zinou and..grinned. He now was in control of this situation.

That, he could handle.

"Nothing, my dear Zinou....nothing..at all. Just ...what you and your.." he motioned towards Rampage and Dinobot.. "..friends requested of me.."

Zinou didn't like the sly tone that Megatron's voice was reaching, but she nodded. Slowly.

"Very well.." she murmured, returning back to her at ease position, sword still raised.

Megatron grinned again, pink optics narrowing as he continued to organize and prepare the data in the machine; organize it for what he saw as not only his chance to escape but also, his ultimate victory....

  Megatron continued to tap rapidly out the commands, optics narrowed as he looked over the displays, pleased. The farther he progressed with his 'discoveries', the more and more convinced he was that his 'plan' against the three traitors would succeed.
  He was certain that this would extinguish Dinobot's spark  -- being unstable as it was. The unsuspecting traitor -- he wouldn't know until it was far too late.
Grinning, he shook his head slightly, continuing his scrutiny of the readouts. Knowing that Rampage' spark was 'indestructible', he could only hope on what effect that the process would have on Rampage -- but basing his assumptions on the most current data, it would cause the crab-bot considerable suffering. Maybe enough for he would learn to know better, better than this. Better than to gang up and commit such .. mutiny.

Megatron continued to grin, and Zinou's observance of him grew more acute.
She sauntered closer, peering at the displays. In automatic reaction, he quickly tried to shield her view with an arm.
Zinou growled.

"What are you doing?" she hissed, ears perking.

"Just what you've asked, my--"

She wasn't tolerant of his suave attempts at dissuasion.
"Let me see."

Dinobot was still targeting Megatron's head, and Megatron felt the light grow more intense. He dimmed his optics and gritted his teeth, shifting his gaze back up to look at Dinobot. He was watching all right, teeth baring.

"Show the female.." Dinobot snarled, Rampage nodding slow agreement. The little trust they wielded  was placed in Zinou, not Megatron.

Megatron muttered to himself and leaned back slightly, tapping a few commands which only let Zinou see the extremely technical and barebones end of what he was doing.

She didn't understand a word of it.

"Hmm..." she pondered, looking over the displays a moment, trying not to let her inability to understand what was shown be noticed.

Megatron caught on however -- as he'd suspected, this hyenabot's function had nothing in common with technicality. That fact being realized, she'd be able to realize none of what he was doing as harmful.

He gently tried to move her aside.

"Now, you see? Nothing. Just what you've asked." His voice was tainted with a false assurance. "If you'll move aside and let me continue..."

Zinou moved aside in a broad step, Megatron moving back in front of the console. As he resumed his work and position, however, she took the chance to clamber up his back and sit on his shoulder.

Megatron snorted in surprise and looked to her.

"What are -you- doing?"

"Seeing what -you're- doing.”

" I already showed you."

"I want to watch you work."

Megatron growled, "No, you slag-forsaken--" and tried to snatch at Zinou with a few darts of his hand.

Zinou lithely dodged these attempts, Megatron's own shoulder-armor preventing him from reaching her effectively. His attempts, however, were brought to an abrupt halt by the 're-announcement' of the laser targeted on him -- a beam of the reddish light sizzled through the air, accurately missing by only a few centimeters, as had been intended.

Dinobot growled.

Megatron sighed, but didn't even look back at Dinobot. Putting both hands up in a submissive gesture, he muttered, "Fine. Very well. Watch." And continued his work.

Zinou nodded, and strained her eyes in an attempt to understand what was being shown and input.

Megaton now had to be careful. He didn't wish that the hyenabot would see any of his 'work' -- the fact being that his work entailed the destruction of Dinobot, of whom it was quite apparent that Zinou was in cahoots with.

His work slowed down greatly as a result, and it became quite apparent that every button pushed required a lot of hidden thought on his part.
Zinou picked up on this. She did know enough about data and its processing to notice the fact that Megatron was using data from his datatracks and not data from the console. In a sweet and low tone, she mrred, "Megatron...would you mind downloading the data detailing this 'process' you're commencing? I'm..curious."

Megatron's fists clenched.
"The data's encrypted, I already told you."

"That's nice." Her tone grew sharp. "Un-encrypt it. I want to see what you're doing. Those readouts.." she motioned to the console below, "..are of no use without the corresponding data."

Megatron grumbled.
"They are of use. To me. And I'm the one doing this. You don't -need- to see the correspon--"
His gaze drifted back towards Dinobot as he heard a low growl -- Dinobot was baring his teeth.

"Dinobot.." Zinou airily complained, "..he's not letting me see..."

Dinobot growled and started to stand up from the scanner-attachment to which he was confined.

"Ghyyr, is that so...?"

Rampage looked quietly on, optics narrowing.

Megatron paused. Although Zinou couldn't make sense of the readouts, he knew Dinobot was trained in many aspects of intelligence, and also knew that Dinobot would be able to make heads or tails of this. Briefly noting that his tailgun had been disarmed, without Dinobot in quiescence, he was in serious trouble.

"Fine!" Megatron bellowed in a grumble. "..I'll show you.." he growled at Zinou, optics narrowing to slits. He had a better chance of getting away with this against the hyenabot than Dinobot.

Dinobot stared at Megatron a moment longer before leaning back into the hookup. A nasty snarl was still etched across his face; he continued to target Megatron pointedly.

Megatron slowly uploaded the un-encrypted data on the process and device of which he was dealing with from his datatracks, watching from the corner of his optic Zinou's reaction.

Her face remained as it had been, as she watched the data rush onto the readouts. Her head titled to one side, but it was fairly apparent that she didn't even understand this.

Good, Megatron thought, she hasn't noticed anything -- yet.

He continued the preparations carefully.

Awhile later, Megatron announced his completion of whatever he'd been doing with a broad gesture over the console and a huge grin.

"There.." he spoke aloud in his deep tone, confidence lacing it throughout, " It's finished."

Zinou nodded, still carefully looking over the displays. She could see nothing wrong with what was being shown, and merely looked to Dinobot and Rampage and nodded.

"Good, then.." muttered Rampage scratchily, "..all the faster we can start. The sooner I'm not a part of him.." he spat in Dinobot's direction, "..the better."

"Same to you, crustacean.." Dinobot hissed, tail alongside him lashing in an expression of annoyance.

They both snorted.

Megatron still grinned.
"And, if you two are ready...I will -- begin?"
He suspended his hands over the controls, ready to activate the device at a moment's notice.

 Zinou unsheathed her sword and pressed it up against the backside of Megatron's neck, eliciting a growl from him.
"No tricks.." she hissed, hackles bristling. She still didn't like his tone, nor the way he was going about things.
"No tricks." He muttered flatly.

Dinobot kept his laser-sight on Megatron while Rampage nodded.

"Go ahead.." Rampage murmured, crossing his arms as he leaned back into his designated hookup.

Dinobot nodded reluctantly after, and leaned back as well, keeping Megatron targeted.

"Begin.." Dinobot snarled permissively.

Megatron nodded deeply, grin reaching a demonic proportion. He reached to the console and tapped out a few more button sequences, and with a low whine, the 'machine' powered up. The two hookups droned lowly for a moment, the rest of the machine following suit with a mechanical moan.

Megatron stepped back slightly and crossed his arms, looking this over.

Zinou still held her sword to his neck, but he seemed more or less unfazed by this fact.

"Goodbye, Dinobot.." Megatron suddenly muttered in an almost songlike tone, crouching down as he inched away.

Zinou blinked.
"Goodbye?" she queried, confused, looking between the readouts and Megatron a few times before something clicked, "..what do you mean goodbye?"

Megatron merely grinned, inching away from the device in more of a hurry.

Zinou growled and thrust down her sword as Megatron started to move faster.

Whatever he was doing was going to stop -- now.

In a quick buck, however, Megatron managed to mis-aim Zinou's strike, where it harmlessly marred his shoulder armor. Zinou's eyes widened as she quickly tried to correct this mistake, but Megatron had already taken advantage of the situation. He'd been waiting for her to mess up.

"Beastmode!" he shouted , twisting and turning back to a mechanical t-rex. The move sent his shoulderplate to his side quickly, effectively knocking Zinou off.

Zinou was thrown roughly to the ground, as was her sword, which flew from her grasp.

Dinobot watched these quick events in suspicion for a moment, before his optic widened in mild panic.
Megatron was clearly up to no good, and it merited being fired upon. Especially at Dinobot's current tolerance level, which was virtually non-existent. Hissing, he focused even more intensely the laser-light upon Megatron and fired.

Tried to fire.

He made the motion but no laser appeared as a result.

Megatron activated his jetengines and took to hovering, neatly out of the staggering Zinou's reach. Looking to Dinobot, he merely grinned, toothily and sadistically.

Dinobot suddenly gasped, both claws curling to his chestplate.

Rampage did the same, fingers curling in sudden agony as he clasped at his chest.

Zinou's gaze snapped over to the device.

Displays were going red with warning all over to console.

Dinobot's optics suddenly went dark, his head falling limp, and body slumping in the grasp of the hookup.

Rampage writhed with sudden interference, and broke out in a scream, "MEGATRONNNNNN!"

Zinou's face turned to one of horror. What'd Megatron done?
She looked skywards in a quick glance. Well, flown away was one thing.
Dashing to the console, she nervously looked it over. A bunch of data was onscreen, including the protocols of which Megatron'd downloaded. But she could make no sense of it, only knowing something was terribly wrong because of all the red warnings all over the screen.
She looked up to the two.

Rampage was trying to get out of the hookup, but appeared to be stuck, wreathed by a bluish, crackling energy. One hand grasped at his chest while the other clawed at the air, mandibles around his mouth wide in a muted scream, green optics shut tight with pain.

Dinobot, however, was alarmingly still, form drooping limply, seeming to be but a statue, a slouching skeletal mass of claws.

Zinou tried to make the most sense she could of the readouts, tapping out a few sequences on the controls. Her motions were jerky and erratic, eyes more on Dinobot than anything else.
"Slag it.." she cried sharply, "..what's that fool done?!"  Her gaze jerked skywards momentarily, looking for Megatron, but he was nowhere in sight. She bit her lip, frustrated tears welling up in her eyes. She'd blown it, hadn't she? She hadn't been paying enough attention to Megatron.
Not enough at all...but what was she to do now? She hadn't and didn't know what to be looking for.
The red displays grew more insistent, the console emitting small, regularly-intervaled beeps of warning.
Her eyes locked on the console in panic. What was wrong? What could she do?
Nothing! Slaggit, NOTHING! She pounded her fists on the controls, hissing angrily.
Her vision clouded in fear and frustration, ears falling flat to her head in distress.

The only thing that snapped her out of this state was Rampage' strangled exclamation of , "GWAHH, slag it, nooo!"

Her gaze lifted to him, eyes narrowing sharply.

"What?" she snapped, voice shaky.

She cared little for him, and glancing again to Dinobot, she became even more frantic.

Rampage pointed rapidly with his free hand to the space behind Zinou. His interference and restraint choked him off -- he couldn't manage to utter words any further.

Zinou stared at him furiously, opening her mouth to reply -- when something large and metal touched the back of her head. From what she could see from the corner of her eye, it was blue.

Her spark skipped a pulse.

Him.

"What's this?" a sharp voice asked from behind, a looming, sharp-finned figure seeming to materialize behind her. His narrowed red optics looked over the displays hatefully.

Rampage, although only subtly, shrunk back at the raybot's very gaze.

A shudder passed over Zinou's body.

"Nothing.." she mrred in a hoarse whisper, furious panic melting away to be replaced by fear, "It's....nothing..."

The red displays continued to show themselves, the beeps becoming louder and more frequent.

Depth Charge shoved her aside roughly and stared at the console. He obviously understood what technical details it showed, and his suddenly dark gaze shifted to look towards Rampage. His mouthpiece shifted towards what could be considered a grin.
"Your spark.." he hissed in a purely vengeful tone.."...it's.." he appeared lost in ecstasy at whatever fact he'd discovered. With an almost sadistic laugh, he lifted his gun to the console.

Zinou's gaze snapped back around to him as he did so, and she let loose in a furious growl.
"NOOO!"
She did a sudden, rolling dive, retrieving her sword from the ground.  Hissing, she quickly sprang at Depth Charge' fins once more, slashing in a broad arc downwards with the much larger and more formidable weapon.

Depth Charge whipped around and halted her jump once more, blocking the sword's slash with his own tail-spear. His red optics narrowed. "Nothing, you say? Nothing, you slaggin'.." his gaze drifted to her shoulder, where he saw the Predacon symbol. "..Predacon!!"

Zinou blinked at his gaze a moment, wondering what could've caused him to come to such a conclusion. It was just then she realized that her command codes were still Predaconian, as was the faction symbol on her shoulder.
"..No....no! It's not..."

"Predacon!" He growled again, voice low and hateful. He pointed an accusing finger, just staring for moment, before whipping back around to the device. He wasn't to be distracted for long.
His attention was to be devoted to more 'important' things.

Rampage still struggled to break free.

Depth Charge cackled , in a deep and evil tone, abruptly thrusting his long tail-spear at the controls with a flick of his wrist.

Zinou leapt forwards, using the much longer and broader sword she'd acquired to deflect Depth Charge's attempt at sabotage.

The two weapons collided with a loud CLANG!, the force of the latter knocking Zinou backwards, into the console itself.

"What do you think you're doing?!" She cried, the console blaring warnings in her ears. "If you destroy this, you'll....you'll..."
She wasn't sure what the consequences would be, but knowing that the data that Megatron'd downloaded only existed on this console, any chance at finding out what he'd done or what to do about it would be destroyed along with it.

"I don't CARE.." Depth Charge barked. "..About ANYTHING you're yapping about, dog! You're just some worthless Predacon, logic circuits so scrambled you don't know what's what. OUT OF MY WAY!"

He leveled his huge gun once more to aim at the console, and now, her.

"No! ...Listen! Dinobot!" She motioned briefly in the limp Dinobot's direction, shivering. "You can't destroy this machine! We have to help him!"

"I -can- destroy this..machine..." Depth Charge growled sharply, unresponsive to the hyenabot's words. "And I'm going to. Watch me."

"NO! Dinobot!" She frantically motioned towards him again, "I have to figure out..what's wrong!"

"I'm giving you one chance to move, dog..." Depth Charge muttered in a warning. "Take it or leave it. No difference to me."
The massive shark-shaped gun clicked as it charged, and Zinou could see the orbs of energy forming down the barrels of the gun.

"You can't destroy this!" She pleaded. " I have to find out what Megatron's done! Undo it! Please!"

"Last chance..." Depth Charge hissed.
Rampage was his. If there was a chance to be had to wound, cripple, or possibly even destroy Rampage, nothing was going to stop him. Especially not this slag-forsaken hyenabot.

"Please..." Zinou cried in a whimper, tears streaming down her face, throat constricting with fear as she backed up to the console,  barrels of the gun dominating her view.

"Too late."
Depth Charge pulled the trigger.
The bolt of energy crackled from his gun, exploding towards its target.
Targets.

Silverbolt's perked ears were met with the sound of a single gunshot ringing through the twilight air.
His gaze darted about, scanners on high as he did so.
"What was that?" he queried to himself, looking down to a small, rocky gorge below him, which seemed to have been the source of the sound.
"Silverbolt to Optimus.." he called into his comm," ..I believe our search has paid off...come quickly, to my coordinates...something is going on down here!"

Optimus' voice crackled back over the comm: "Very good Silverbolt, on my way."

Silverbolt nodded to himself and did a high speed dive towards the gorge, transforming on his way down.
He landed deftly on the ground, wings spreading to give him balance. His wide yellow optics met the scene before him with astonishment, aghast at what he saw.

Depth Charge stood, arm holding his gun lowering, staring at the destruction he'd just caused.

Zinou lay limply to one side, out of Silverbolt's immediate view.

A console lay in 3 or 4 wrecked pieces... all of them smoking, the monitor, which had somehow managed avoiding being blown to pieces in the blast, showing nothing but static.

Quite clearly, even in the fading light, was Dinobot's white-metaled form, laying in heap, looking almost to be but a tangle of claws from the position the explosion'd blown him in. He didn't stir.

Rampage was on his hands and knees, gasping and uttering strangled little cries.

Depth Charge took a step through the smoke, towards Rampage.

Silverbolt treaded forwards a bit more, quite unaware of all that'd taken place. He could barely make any sense out of the wreckage that lay about, metal ears perked in bewilderment.

Depth Charge took another step, unaware of Silverbolt.

Silverbolt took another few steps, and saw Zinou.
He ran over to her and bent down, lifting her gently with one arm, supporting his own weight on his knee.
His wide optics fell upon the Predacon symbol. So it was true...
At least she was still alive.

"..No..." she whispered, a slight shiver passing over her..."....D...Dinobot.....no..." her voice trailed off in a wail, unaware that Silverbolt was holding her.

He blinked. Had Depth Charge done this? Who else had? That single gunshot...
"Primus forbid.." he suddenly cried, "Depth Charge? You've..?"

Depth Charge froze and whipped around, facing the much-smaller Silverbolt with a sneer. "What?"

Silverbolt laid Zinou back on the ground and stood up, shifting both wings forwards, arming two missiles.
His face etched into anger. "You'd fire upon your own comrades in a lust for revenge? You--"

His words were cut off by the sudden arrival of Optimus, who transformed as he landed.
Inbetween the two.

"What's going on here?!" he boomed, narrowed green optics snapping between all the devastation.

Depth Charge stared at Optimus, not answering.

Silverbolt glared at Depth Charge.
"Sir!" he barked, briefly glancing to Optimus to address him, "I believe that Depth Charge has -directly- violated your orders..."
He did a motion to Zinou, who was strewn on the ground.

Optimus glanced to Zinou, and his optics widened slightly at her awful condition.
"By Primus, " he growled, "..what happened to her?!" He noted the Predacon symbol on her shoulder before abruptly scooping her up with one of his huge hands.

"She wouldn't move.." Depth Charge growled, gaze shifting towards the still-struggling Rampage every few seconds.

"Wouldn't MOVE?!" Silverbolt growled, becoming infuriated. "What kind of Maximal are you?!"

Optimus gestured to Silverbolt in a ‘cut it out’ type manner, quickly, looking down to the muttering Zinou.

She opened her eyes and looked up at Optimus, becoming subtly fearful for a moment before relaxing to be less so.
“D..Dinobot..” she muttered, trying to look over towards where he lay, but to no avail, “...have to help...him...Dinobot...” he mutters were but repetitions of the same thing, over and over.

Optimus shook his head. She still seemed to be leaning, programming-wise, towards Dinobot. And the fact that her faction-symbol was indeed Predacon only seemed to confirm Rhinox’s theory.

“Help Dinobot what?” He murmured in reply, brows furrowing as he looked the small hyenabot over.

“..Have to help..” her last few words drew out in a stutter, and she fell limp, stasis lock having engaged.

Optimus frowned, but merely looked down to the melancholy expression of Silverbolt.

“I’ve got to get her back to base..” he mumbled, shaking his head.
“You get back to base too..” he ordered, looking to Silverbolt.
Upon seeing the nasty look that Silverbolt was giving to Depth Charge, he followed the gaze to the raybot’s face.
“And you too.” He growled, a bit more stern.

Silverbolt beastmoded abruptly and took to the air, Optimus transforming into vehicle mode and blasting off after, carrying Zinou delicately across his front.

Depth Charge stared after and gave a purposely delayed, sarcastic salute.
“Yeah -- back to base. As soon as I take care of a little..unfinsihed business...”
He turned his attention towards Rampage, whom, much to his delight, was still present.

Rampage had managed to stagger a bit from where he was, and was now kneeled over the stilled form of Dinobot, frantically attempting to pry the raptorbot’s chestplate open. His attempts had so far only met failure, despite the fact that he was no longer bothered with the bluish interference.
“Slag you..” Rampage hissed through gritted mandibles at the slumped form of Dinobot... “ It’s mine! You cannot keep it from me!”

Depth Charge watched for a moment, and casually lifted his shark-gun to aim at the two. He fired off a shot, rather blithely doing so.

Splinters of rock and metal flew into the air upon the explosion, yet the force barely scratched the two’s Transmetal bodies. It moved Dinobot to one side a bit more, and knocked Rampage away, but only proceeded to make him angry.

Rampage staggered back to his knees, lifting one leg to a standing position, propping his body up on the other. He pointed accusingly at Depth Charge.

“ Stay away, you!"  He warned, with no real threat to back it up. His green optics narrowed as Depth Charge approached -- he only shrank back in return. His weakness was quite apparent, the only hope for him he could see was recovering his spark’s core. The strain being placed upon it by the fusing of the sparks was so great, it weakened both, somehow.

“I’m really scared..” Depth Charge responded coolly, keeping his gun pointed at Rampage. He continued his sauntered approach, optics narrowed to slits.

Rampage crept back, glancing to Dinobot again. “Slag you!” he hissed, voice strained.. “Wake up! Wake UP!”

Depth Charge laughed, having seen what the display that he’d blown to pieces foretold.
“ You can forget that.” He snapped sharply. “ His spark’s damned to the Pit, and I’m going to make sure yours follows.”

Rampage froze. His mind raced in brief calculation, before he looked back to Depth Charge.
“Yes! It is!” he said scratchily. “The Pit! This is Dinobot--if you weren’t so ignorant to know--” he paused. “A Maximal!
You,” he paused yet again, “wouldn’t slay a..comrade...”
Rampage’s ploy was quite transparent, a last ditch effort.

“ I don’t care..” Depth Charge responded in an icy tone, “ He’s dead, remember? So I was told.” He laughed at his own remark.
“ Like..you’re going to be.” He leveled the gun once more.

Rampage cringed back, holding up both arms to shield his face. Shutting his optics tight, he could feel within him the strange feeling of his spark being strained. But it wasn’t going to matter in a few moments anyways, now was it?

He stayed like that a few seconds, expecting to feel the sharp sting of gunshot. But it never came.

“What....the.....SLAG?!” Was the next thing he heard, Depth Charge’s tone laced strangely.

Rampage opened his optics and glanced at Depth Charge, who was rapidly creeping backwards, gaze focused on where Dinobot was.

Rampage glanced to Dinobot.
The metal prongs on the side of Rampage’s head perked, green optics widening.

Two snakish tendrils of a strange, translucent-yet-tinged light slithered out in origin from Dinobot’s spark casing, criss crossing to wrap around his chestplate. The light glowed momentarily, and then faded, almost as soon as it had appeared.

Rampage felt a tingling energy rush through his body, but barely had time to acknowledge it before he was shocked again by a bluish crackle of his spark’s interference.

Dinobot’s optics abruptly flickered back on, and before Depth Charge could re-aim his gun at the reawakening threat, Dinobot’s laser-sight locked onto Depth Charge’s chest, him being the immediate threat that Dinobot identified.
“..Put it down..” he snarled, tone no longer slurred. He panted, though, gasping as would someone who’d  held their breath for too long.

Depth Charge was frozen for a moment, the shark-shaped gun falling from his grasp.
“By Primus, it’s not possible...” is all that he muttered, mouthpiece barely moving in correlation. His gaze looked between the seemingly-recovering Rampage and the panting, yet furied Dinobot.

Rampage’s interference once more dissapeared, and he returned to a normal stance. Cracking his knuckles, he looked towards Depth Charge, his normal aura of toughness and cockiness returning.
“Who’s spark’s condemned to the Pit?”

Dinobot snarled, adding to Rampage’ scratchy hiss. Depth Charge backed up a few steps, optics narrowed to slits.
“You..” he looked to Rampage.. “You....” he looked to Dinobot. He pointed a finger at them both.
“Primus....Primus...it’s...just...not..possible....”

Dinobot advanced a step, hissing, focusing the heat of his laser-sight on Depth Charge’ chestplate.

“He doesn’t have a reason NOT to blast you..” Rampage snarled, advancing as well. “In fact -- there’s no reason that I can’t tear your spark from your body! Gwaahhhh!”

In a dart, Rampage lunged for Depth Charge, who responded by jumping back and quickly jerking to Vehicle mode. Angles changed sharply as Depth Charge went into a hover, moving quickly over Rampage’s head.

Dinobot stepped back a bit and continued to target Depth Charge, the raybot's movements making the task difficult. Yet, he was hesitant to shoot.

Depth Charge went to jet his thrusters, but Rampage abruptly grabbed his tail.
“ I don’t think so!” The crab-bot called out, mandibles clacking together in sadistic glee.
He pushed downwards on the tail, knocking Depth Charge’s abrupt flight out of balance.

Depth Charge slammed to the ground in a plume of dust and grit, thrashing his tail to dislodge the crab-bot’s grip.
“Off, YOU!” He bellowed.

Rampage continued to hold on tightly, however, and glanced to Dinobot.
“Slaggit, make yourself useful. Shoot him or something!” His voice was strained with effort as he struggled to keep his grip on the flailing raybot’s tail.

Dinobot went to oblige, focusing his laser-light once more to target the raybot -- this time the broad surface that made up his head. But he once again met hesitance, inside his own head.
/What are you doing?/ his mind screamed at him. /You want to go back to the Maximals, right? You shoot him , a -Maximal-, and they’ll take you for a Predacon./
/But I am./ He replied in a blatant thought.
/Fool, no! Remember! You’re a Predacon by your soul, but you swear allegiance to the Maximals. Besides, for what you have now done to Megatron, he’ll never forgive./
He blinked, recalling. Yes, what he’d done. He shouldn’t have done that -- it didn’t work. Megatron had most obviously betrayed him, as he always was known to do -- oh what a fool he'd been to even trust him!
Now he was faced with an even greater dilemma -- his cover as a Predacon had been blown -- and -- where was Zinou? His gaze swept the area.

“Dinobot!” Rampage growled, struggling to keep Depth Charge from flying away. Slowly but surely, the grunting raybot was dragging Rampage along the ground, as his grip became fatigued.

“Let GO!” Depth Charge snapped in a demand.

Dinobot glanced to Rampage but disregarded him, optics scanning the area. What had happened in the last few cycles he wasn’t sure of -- he’d awoken to a threat -- sprung to neutralize it -- but...
Wait -- what was the threat? What’d happened? He’d gone against his programming -- or had he?
He had betrayed his creator, Megatron. Yes, he had; no, this wasn't right. But -- Rampage was his enemy.. or was he?
Megatron was his enemy! And always had been! But -- how could such be?
Why the Inferno was he even thinking this? Ingrained core programming and his true core consciousness clashed once more, into the confusing tumult of conflict.
He put both claws to his head. That interference again. He fell to his knees, hissing. The pain...he had to make it stop! Go away!
He shut his optics tight and staggered back a few steps, metal tail lashing about.
Away!

 All in one second, Rampage was afflicted by the bluish, crackling interference, losing his grip on Depth Charge. Depth Charge abruptly zoomed off skywards from his pent up momentum, while Rampage fell to the ground in an ungraceful heap, writhing.
“Gwahhh, slag you, what are you doing, fool?!” he hissed, looking after Depth Charge hatefully for a moment before looking to the kneeling and gasping Dinobot.
Pausing, he stared and squinted at him.

Dinobot returned the glance briefly, whatever problem he had suddenly stopping, evident by the fact that he suddenly relaxed.

At the same moment, Rampage’s interference disappeared.
Rampage sat up and stared towards Dinobot.
“What’s wrong with you?! Why didn’t you shoot him?!”

Dinobot remained kneeled, huffing, mulling over something.

“What’s wrong with you?!” Rampage demanded again.

Dinobot’s claws curled slightly, both of them reaching to grasp at his chestplate. Something was horribly wrong, and he could feel it. His normal-optic’s gaze lifted to stare to Rampage.
“ I don’t know..” he snarled..”..It’s...I...I..can’t explain it....”

Rampage stood up and looked over the bent form of the raptorbot.
“What? What is it?” He queried scratchily, a brow quirking.

Dinobot stood up as well, his posture slightly hunched. He’d felt this feeling before -- what was it? It was a dark, cold feeling -- a sense of detachment. It felt like someone had put his spark through a grinder and watched the results. It felt like his innards were but a pincushion. But, oddly enough, it felt warm...and bright...and --inviting; it was...the feeling of...
“...Death....” Dinobot snarled, gaze distant.
Yes -- this was how it’d felt to die. This is how he’d felt those very last few moments in the valley -- how he’d felt when his sight was dimming, when he knew.
He knew once again; and was filled with dread, but at the same time, relief.
Yet dread soon enshrouded the last glimmers of relief, pain repronouncing itself in sharp stabs. He felt stuck, bound to this Transmetal body. Tortured by pain. His spark didn’t let go as it had before...it stayed. The feeling was excruciating.

Rampage’s optics narrowed as he sauntered towards Dinobot.

“Death?” he queried, not sure he’d heard that correctly. When Dinobot didn’t respond, his mandibles fell into the equivalent of a thoughtful frown.

“Fine by me..” he answered after a pause.. “.....But I want my spark back!”
In a quick jab, he grabbed at the dazed-yet-standing Dinobot, clawing at the wishbone-shaped marking on his chest.  With no resistance to Rampage’s strong actions, the metal surrounding buckled and bent, allowing him to pry open the delicate spark-casing.
Dinobot just stood, face locked in an expression of sheer horror, yet not at the situation present. His gaze was focused far off, tail twitching erratically behind him.

Rampage drew back suddenly, at what sight the ajar spark casing revealed.
Within what was supposed to be a the spark’s containment was a weakly pulsing dimly blue-tinted spark, the presence of its core so faint that Rampage briefly wondered how the spark had managed to not yet collapse and extinguish itself.

 His query was answered suddenly by the brightly glowing and rapidly pulsing spark’s presence -- a second one -- that was, on one side of the weaker one, fused.

Both sparks pulsed simultaneously, the stronger pulse from the spark Rampage knew was his creating a sort of ‘shell’ around the one he identified as Dinobot’s.

He regarded this only a moment -- he didn’t care about Dinobot. Only himself. He didn’t care what happened to Dinobot, because it wasn’t his idea in the first place. Nor was it Megatron’s, but ah well. That was his spark in there, and he had every right to it.

 He reached eagerly  towards the two sparks, intent on using brute force to extract it; not Megatron’s ‘procedure’.
That was all slag, Rampage mused briefly to himself, and as if I get a second chance..

If this didn’t work, he was no worse off.

He barely even touched the outer energy field of his own spark when the strange, snakelike light seemed to appear from the material surrounding.
Rampage squinted and stared at this odd phenomeon a moment, his hand being lightly forced back by the barrier of light forming.
The light coiled around both sparks a moment, trying to force them together.

 Rampage wreathed with the bluish, crackling interference again, jerking his hand away from the sparks, falling to his knees and gasping. The pain was so much more severe! A burning, icy sensation! Perhaps the feeling Dinobot was describing..as death?
He writhed a moment more, before the feeling suddenly halted. The traces of the physical feeling faded away...the shock didn’t.

He looked back up in bewilderment just in time to see the metal he’d bent and malformed to get to the sparks morphing and shaping back into place, the two sparks no longer visible as the wishbone-emblazoned hatch slid closed.

Dinobot snapped out of his seeming ‘trance’, and curled a claw to his chestplate again. Looking down to Rampage, of who’s crackling interference stopped at the very same moment, he choked out a strangled pant, once again, as if he’d been holding his breath.

“What’s.....happening?” He managed to snarl aloud, a weary slump working its way through his massive frame.

“ I don’t know..” Rampage sneered, standing back up once more, regarding Dinobot warily and scrutinizingly at the same time... “...all I know is that.. I need to do something....about you.”

The Transmetal 2 driver seemed to have implemented some sort of automatic regeneration -- but the raptorbot’s systems failed to recognize the two sparks as separate entities, being, as Rampage had seen, because Dinobot’s spark itself was so weak. It was trying to repair that which could not be, and as long as it tried, Rampage was going to be the one suffering. He didn’t fancy the thought.
There had to be some way that he could restore Dinobot’s spark integrity -- for once that was accomplished, the regeneration systems might reject Rampage's spark -- he could retrieve it -- and he would be whole once again!

His mandibles twitched in muted joviality.

Dinobot shuddered, before returning Rampage’s glance.
“Do what?” he gasped out again.

After a very, very long pause... Rampage concluded:
“Get you back to your precious.....Maximals. Where you belong.”

  A weary moan followed by a muted exclamation echoed from within the confines of the CR Chamber. Moments afterwards, the hydraulics disengaged and the door lifted with a droned hiss. The steam from within rolled out into the much-warmer air of the Maximal’s base, and somewhere amongst it, out staggered Zinou.

  Optimus was the first to greet her bewildered gaze. Looking down at her and trying to seem unimposing, he queried softly, “Are you all right?”

 Zinou blinked a few times, trying to regain her bearings. Her mind was cloudy for a moment, but it quickly cleared. Once it did, realizations rushed back to her, as quickly as if she’d been hit by a bolt of lightning.
“Where’s Dinobot?” she blurted quite suddenly, not answering the question.

Optimus sighed. “He’s probably back where we last saw him, Zinou. And that doesn’t matter...”

“Yes it does!” She immediately became frantic. “We have to help him! Dinobot! Megatron..he......he.....”

Optimus put a massive hand to the hyenabot’s shoulder.
“It’s OK. You’re fine now. Whatever this..programming block of yours is, I’m sure we can work it out..” he smiled.

Zinou tried to draw away, but found that impossible, being that Optimus’s hand was so large.
“No! I’m FINE! We have to help Dinobot!” Her tone was sharp and insistent, tainted with despair. Had she had a bit more nerve, she probably would’ve bitten something.

“No Zinou..” Optimus sternly replied, green optics narrowing harshly, “ ..we don’t. Dinobot is a Predacon, you are not.”

Zinou became stiff with rage as Optimus told her “no”. She was not some sort of child. She was not to be reprimanded so. Her gaze trailed to her shoulder, where the Predaconian visage was still emblazoned. Eyes narrowing to slits, she bared her teeth as she spoke.
“Looks like it to me...”

Optimus’s sigh turned to more of a mutter. “Zinou..I understand that what you are going through may be confusing.” He smiled again .. a gentle, reassuring smile.
Rhinox stepped up from behind him, seeming concerned.
“..But we’re only here to help you.” Optimus concluded.

“Help me?! I don’t need help! Dinobot does!” The hyenabot replied with a hiss.

Rhinox sighed.
“Zinou, Depth Charge came back from where we found you.” He paused for a long moment. “ He says that he saw nothing there. Obviously, -Predacons- came and helped...Dinobot....”

Zinou’s hackles bristled. “Depth Charge. Depth Charge. Depth Charge..” her voice dripped with an utmost hatred... “..He’s the one who did this. HE fired on me, slag it!”

Depth Charge was sitting on one corner of the bridge. He glanced over.
“Mistaken identity..” he muttered nonchalantly, leaning on his gun. “ After all...you...are...a Predacon...”

The raybot’s narrowed red optics locked onto and studied the hyenabot for a moment, and in return, Zinou drew back. “ You lie...” she spat, bronze eyes proceeding to dart about the rest the room. “You all LIE!”

“Zinou..” Rhinox began, reaching out what should’ve been a comforting hand towards the hyenabot.

“Get away from me!” she cried, beastmoding abruptly, and in one quick movement, darting in-between Optimus’s legs to end up on the other side of them all.

Rhinox frowned, brows furrowing and lifting in unhappy concern. “We’re not going to hurt you..” he murmured. “We only want to help...”

“No you don’t!” she snapped back sharply, backing away. “ If you wanted to help me, you would be! You’re not! You all doubt me, and YOU--” her gaze snapped to Depth Charge.. "--YOU lie!”

Rattrap blinked and lazily glanced at Depth Charge.
“Mmm-hmm...” he muttered, looking back to Zinou nonchalantly, “ ..and you ain’t?”

“No!” Zinou replied in a snap.

“Oh, I see...” murmured Rattrap, bridging his silver fingers together and peering at Zinou, “..So all those stories you parade in ‘ere makin’ up are true?” He burst out with a chuckle. “Oh, that’s rich!”

Optimus glanced to Rattrap.
“Shut up, Rattrap.”

Rattrap sighed and averted his gaze, staring at the boring external monitor a moment before turning back to--
"Yhea yhea, always pickin' on the rat, never listen t'him, just the crazy Pred-dames.."
Rattrap paused, and did a double take, gaze snapping around to look at the monitor again.
“Whoa!” he suddenly exclaimed, “ There’s a pair a’Preds-on-steroids at our door!”

Everyone turned to look at the monitor.

Onscreen, quite clearly, were the two massive forms of Dinobot and Rampage, making their way towards the door of the base.

Rampage, in beastmode, was acting like a brace for Dinobot.
Dinobot, transformed,  barely looked like he could stand up on his own, leaning heavily on the broad “shell” of the crab-bot.

“Dinobot!” Zinou exclaimed abruptly, with a sort of delighted shriek. She did a dart towards the door, but Optimus stopped her.
“Stop, Zinou..” he muttered through gritted teeth. “You can’t just walk out there....”

Rhinox walked over and put a large, restraining hand on Zinou’s shoulder.
“Go see what they want, Optimus..” Rhinox suggested in a murmur. Glancing to Zinou, he said, “You can’t go out there, Zinou. It’s too dangerous....”

“Dangerous my aft..” she snapped in sharp reply, struggling against being forced in place, “..the only dangerous things I see around here are YOU!”

Rhinox just shook his head and watched Optimus walk towards the monitor’s console.

As Optimus approached, Depth Charge stood up, arming and raising his gun, optics set towards the rocky corridor which led to the door.

“Where are -you- going?” Optimus growled in the raybot’s direction.

“Outside..” Depth Charge replied.

 Optimus eyed the shark-shaped gun a moment before rather bluntly pushing Depth Charge back.
“ I don’t think so. You’ve shot quite enough with that today...”

Depth  Charge raised the fins that hung on his back slightly, in some sort of attempt to appear imposing.
“This is my turf, Primal..” he muttered, motioning to the monitor, Rampage specifically. “ Let ME handle it.”

“As I said, you’ve handled enough. Sit down.” Optimus replied sternly.

“Primal...” Depth Charge started to growl..

“DOWN!” Optimus barked, staring Depth Charge straight in the optics.

Depth Charge stared at Optimus a moment, arms crossing, before sitting back down in the corner.

Optimus turned back to the screen. He started to say something over the external speakers installed on the base, but the audio sensors rang out with Rampage’s words first.

“Maximals..” scratchily hissed the crab-bot over the speakers, “ I have a ....proposal to make.”

Rattrap lifted a brow. “ A proposal? What could crab-cake possibly want?”

Optimus frowned, and replied over the speakers.
“A proposal? Of what sort?”

Rampage’s interlocking yellow teeth clacked together a few times. He took in a deep breath, and muttered, “ I ..” he seemed hesitant to speak, “..need your help. Dinobot...here....does too.”
The crab tilted his head to one side, antennae twitching for a moment. “ I would prefer to speak to someone, not a wall.”

Optimus’s face twisted in thought for a moment, and he glanced to Rhinox and Zinou.

Rhinox returned a puzzled glance, and shrugged.

Zinou just bared her teeth and hissed, strength focused on a futile struggle against Rhinox to break free.

Optimus glanced to Rattrap. “Rattrap -- do a perimeter scan of the area. Are there any other Predacons about?”

Rattrap tapped out a few commands on the console before him, before twirling back around in his chair to peer at Optimus. “Nope, not-a one. Crabby and Dinobot are the only ones about.”

Optimus nodded, and turned to head towards the door. “I’m going outside. If the Predacons wish to talk -- especially Rampage -- we really can’t refuse this chance. Perhaps they wish to try for peace, for once.”

Rhinox blinked, but nodded slowly. “Yes -- but.. Rampage...” he shook his head slightly.

Rattrap grimaced, optics widening. His jaw fell open slightly, as he cried out in his singsong tone, “What?! Have you flipped?! I’m....should we...turn the slaggin’ autoguns on, then, at least?”

Optimus nodded only vaguely, heading outside.

Zinou once more struggled briefly against Rhinox’s grip to follow, but Rhinox’s stern resistance and abrupt headshake kept her unwillingly in place. 

  The doors slowly parted, Optimus’s massive figure stepping out from the crack between. He looked down towards Rampage and Dinobot, gaze wary, yet open minded.
“Now, what is it?” he muttered down towards Rampage, face set into a thoughtful frown.

“Optimussss....” Dinobot hissed, leveling his gaze to look towards the Maximalian commander. “ It’s me...”

Optimus eyed Dinobot a moment, squinted, and looked to Rampage.

Rampage spoke. “ As I was saying, Optimus Primal.....Megatron has done something very unwise. As you may or may not already know, he used one of your protoforms to make him..” he motioned his head backwards, towards Dinobot, slightly.      “ ..but something...happened....” he paused a moment, obviously thinking of his wording beforehand. A touch of hesitance laced his speech.  “Basically, this is -- Dinobot -- a Maximal -- your Dinobot.”

Optimus blinked, not knowing what to say.
He replied with an equally hesitant, “ No...he’s not.”

Rampage nodded matter-of-factly, as best he could in beastmode. “Yes -- he is.”

“No...he’s not.”
“Yes he is.”
“No he’s not.”

Dinobot’s optic narrowed. “Yes.. I am! Optimus...” he snarled lowly, “It’s me!”

“Dinobot...” Optimus muttered, head shaking slightly and optics dimming briefly. He frowned momentarily, before focusing on Rampage. “ So what do you.... “propose”?”

Rampage twitched his antennae idly.
“Nothing much. All I request is that you allow Dinobot in with your ranks. And repair him...” his yellowed mandibles clacked together.. “....fully.”
Rampage dared not mention the fact about the sparks being fused. Knowing that his spark was supposed to be imprisoned, and that also the Maximal commander would not willingly let him regain independent control of his spark, he wisely didn’t mention anything related in his “proposal”.

Optimus lifted a brow. “That’s not “nothing much”, Rampage. And you know it isn’t.”
Optimus was never fond of Rampage -- Protoform X -- whatever he was to be called. He’d rued the fact that their mission on the Axalon had a dark side anyways. And now he was ruing it even more.

Dinobot just continued to stare up at Optimus, his gaze a searching one. Optimus met the different-opticed gaze of the almost freaky-looking raptorbot. The stare was cold, yet confused. Blank, yet with an inner craving for something denied him. Haunting, yet dreadfully familiar...

Optimus averted his gaze. Clones could easily be like that. Shaking his head slightly, he glanced back to the querious little eyes of Rampage. Was there any way to be sure? Any way of knowing whether or not this was a lie? It very easily could be...

But what if it wasn’t?

“Well?” Asked the crab-bot, out of mounting impatience. “ Do you accept my proposal? Or not?”

Optimus sighed. “ I’ll ask the others...what they think.” he muttered indecisively, voice low and to a degree, suspicious.
“ Stay here.”

And with that, the massive Maximal commander turned and tromped back into the base. 

Rhinox greeted him with a queer look.
“What was that all about?”

Optimus looked down to Rhinox, and Zinou. He glanced towards Rattrap.
“Rattrap -- keep Zinou in here.” he looked back to Rhinox. “Rhinox...I need to speak to you. In private.”

Rhinox nodded, letting his grip on Zinou loosen. He turned to walk down one of the rocky corridors that led to one of the few rooms that they’d drilled into the rock.

Optimus turned to follow after, but was stopped by Rattrap’s harsh cry.

“Hey?! Keep the Pred-dame in here?! Uh, no thanks, and ..-how- exactly do yeh propose I do that?”

“You’ll find a way..” Optimus muttered, Zinou not on his priority-list at the moment.
Optimus and Rhinox both headed down one of the rocky halls.

Rattrap turned to Zinou, who immediately bristled.
“Uhh...nice doggie.”

“Don’t you “nice doggie” me, rodent...” 

Optimus looked down at Rhinox upon their reaching the room.
“Rampage says that Megatron’s Dinobot-clone is the real Dinobot..” he muttered flatly and hesitantly.
“He proposes that we let Dinobot stay with us, rather than the Predacons, in exchange for nothing but..repairing Dinobot.”

Rhinox lifted a brow.
“Repairing him? He’s got no damage. Not any that we can see on the monitors, anyways.”

“Exactly..”

“And why would..Rampage-- of all bots -- care about repairing someone else? His proposal -- there’s nothing in it for him.”

Optimus’s optics dimmed briefly. “ Well, from the sketchy information we gathered, Megatron supposedly used part of Rampage’s spark in the creation of this Dinobot-clone. Split Rampage’s spark. But this..”Dinobot”.. acts independently.”

“Spark-splitting’s an untested variable..” Rhinox muttered. “ Besides Starscream, Rampage’s spark is the only other  spark on record that was created to be indestructible. We don’t know how a split-spark would -- or wouldn’t act.”

Optimus nodded.

Rhinox brought a hand to his chin in thought.
“Optimus..” he murmured...”..doesn’t this all seem a bit...strange? First, Zinou was trying to convince us that Dinobot was still alive -- and then -- that he’s Megatron’s clone -- and now..Rampage is trying to get us to believe the same thing?”

Optimus narrowed his optics. “ I see your point. But..is there any way to be certain? Certain that..it’s not a lie?”

Rhinox frowned. “The only thing I can think of is scanning the alleged...”Dinobot”. Completely. Core consciousness, datatracks, everything.”

“That means we have to let him in the base..” Optimus growled .

Rhinox nodded. “ And we already know what damage he can do...”

Optimus rubbed the spot on his chestplate that had just a day or two before been totally seared away by the raptorbot’s laser.
“All too well...”

Rhinox lowered his gaze momentarily, in thought.

Optimus sighed. “ Should we take the risk? Can we?”

Rhinox glanced back up. “I’d say no -- it..all seems too ..organized. Zinou, her fuss about Dinobot -- her Predaconian programming -- Megatron’s new Dinobot -- and now, Rampage. Too..real. But...”

Optimus tilted his head. “But?”

Rhinox peered upwards. “Zinou -- her programming and modified superstructure.... her internal computer’s timing...there’s been no pods with sparks in scanning distance of either base for... some time now. And Zinou came around just a day after Dinobot..I don’t think Megatron could’ve pulled something together..so complex...so quickly...”

Optimus squinted.
“So...do we give Rampage and his proposal a chance..? Or..?”

“It’s risky..” Rhinox muttered.

“Yes. But is the chance..worth the risk?”

“It’s a pretty....wild chance, Optimus.”

Optimus sighed, shaking his head slightly. “ I know...”

“But, if you think it’s worth it -- it wouldn’t hurt to do a scan.”

Optimus glanced back down.
“Worth it...” he thoughtfully whispered.. “ To tell you the truth, I don’t know what anything’s worth anymore. Nothing ever ends up....what it seems.”

Rhinox lifted a brow. “No. It doesn’t. But..given the strange...” he paused, and shifted his stance briefly, “..coincidences that seem to have been happening lately...I’d say it’s worth a Maximal try.”

Optimus grinned vaguely and nodded
“All right then.” He cleared his throat and resumed a stiff posture.
“ I just hope we’re not letting the Predacons take advantage of us..” he paused... “..again.” 

  Rampage looked almost eagerly up towards Optimus, the Maximal commander slowly stepping out from the base once more.
“Well,” scratchily muttered the crab-bot, “ Do you and your comrades accept my proposal? Or...not?”
His tone was sharp upon reaching the word “not”. His tiny, beady beastmode eyes narrowed, although the action in itself was difficult to detect and did little to change his facial expression.

“Your proposal has been considered...” Optimus replied slowly. “ However, before we accept -- we must have proof that this is not a trick.”

Rampage’s toothy yellow mandibles clacked together. “Proof?! Bwahh, is the fact that we even drag ourselves here and throw ourselves at your feet in haplessness not enough? What sort of slagging proof do you want?”

Optimus frowned. “ We want to take Dinobot inside and run a full scan on him first.”

Rampage stiffened. “ Scan?” he scratchily hissed. “What sort of..scan?”

“ A complete one..” Optimus replied without detail and sternly again. “ We will not accept your proposal until we have proof that this is not an attempt at deception.”

Dinobot lifted his gaze to look at Optimus.
/Careful when he’s not needed to be so and foolish when caution is required.../ the raptorbot thought to himself with a snarled sigh. For a moment Dinobot considered to himself perhaps that speaking to the others might be beneficial, but quietly hushed himself yet again, the fear that excess boisterousness on his part might be cause for even more suspicion.

Optimus didn’t return nor heed Dinobot’s gaze, continuing to look at Rampage. He waited for an answer.

Rampage clicked his two foreclaws together in momentary thought, glancing once to the cargo resting on his back. He peered back up at Optimus. It was this, or nothing, wasn’t it?
“Very well..” Rampage answered, at long last. “ And -- let me guess -- you want me to remain out here?”

Optimus nodded, simply. He was taking enough chances letting one killer-Predacon in the base; he did not need to add Rampage to the list of hazards.

Rampage merely shrugged, having figured that would be the case. Leaning to one side, he helped stand Dinobot up with his claws.

Dinobot staggered to his feet, standing up to full height. He’d had a chance to rest -- it’d improved his strength to a degree. His chest still hurt, but just as he and Rampage both knew -- this was their last chance. Screw it up and they both were just..plain out of luck.

“Well, this is our only try at this..” Rampage muttered to the raptorbot. “ Don’t slagging mess it up.”

Dinobot stared at Rampage for a moment, a brief flash of anger glinting in his red optics. Yes, he was well aware of what would happen if this failed. He was every bit as nervous as Rampage was about this, and had every right to be. It was his spark, after all, that’d nearly been extinguished, and that wasn’t invincible, like certain other bots he knew.
Shaking his head, he merely nodded, walking towards Optimus and the door of the base.

Rhinox stepped out of the door a moment afterwards.
“One thing.” The green-faced bot added. “I’m going to have to disarm your weapons.”
Rhinox looked Dinobot up and down. What was he saying -- this thing WAS a walking weapon.

Dinobot stared down at Rhinox a moment and snarled, obviously thinking the same thing. Reminded by the crab-bot’s stare of which was so intense he could feel that he was not to be snarling at the Maximals, he cut it off. Although he’d always done it, before he was like this, even, he’d have to just hold his breath and shut up long enough to keep them from becoming too wary.

“Weapon?” Dinobot snarled in query, bringing a long foretalon up to his head, tapping the side of his monocle-optic.

Rhinox nodded slowly. “That’s a good start...” he murmured. “Kneel down, please.”

Dinobot obliged with a grunt, kneeling to one knee.

Rhinox walked up alongside the raptorbot, looking over the monocle-unit. Every energy-firing unit, gun or optic-mounted alike, was powered by a small crystal -- a sort of compressed energon crystal which focused energy into concentrated beams that could easily be deemed weapons. Rhinox slowly inspected the side of the monocle unit until he found what he was looking for. A small cover, barely discernible, which marked where the armored plating could be opened.

Rhinox was an expert in matters such as these -- opening the plating carefully, he quickly severed the link between the crystal and the firing-unit with a specially-designed cutting tool, rendering the laser useless.

Rhinox stepped away, and abruptly headed back into the base, giving Optimus a vague nod. That was as unarmed as the freakish Transmetal 2 Dinobot was going to get, short of declawing him.

Optimus nodded back to Rhinox, and turned to Dinobot, motioning him inside.

Dinobot nodded and stepped in after.

Rampage watched silently as the doors slid closed. His antennae twitched again briefly.
“Free...I’m going to be..free...” he almost cackled to himself, anxiously awaiting the results of his little venture. 

Dinobot entered the command center, met by Rattrap’s oddly quiet gaze and an exuberant Zinou.

Optimus and Rhinox followed behind and alongside him, in a semi-circlish fashion.
Optimus quietly noted upon his arrival to the ‘bridge’ that Depth Charge was nowhere in sight.

Zinou had obviously been coaxed by Rattrap to chill, because she was sitting down, but as soon as Dinobot entered, she sprang to her paws.
“Dinobot!” she almost squealed, running over towards him and bounding in tight circles around his legs.

Dinobot just glanced down and gave her a slow nod. He looked tired -- or otherwise thoughtful -- as he sat down on the main table in the center of the room.

No one said much of anything, including Rattrap, which was highly unusual.

Dinobot’s tail idly flicked, the lot of it draped over the command table.
“So...scan me. Or..whatever. For..whatever proof you require.”

“I’m working on it..”Rhinox impatiently muttered, looking up from a console where he’d busied himself tapping out commands.

Dinobot snarlsighed and lowered his gaze. He really hated the fact that he wasn’t trusted. He could easily understand why -- but the fact bothered him. The only gaze that looked towards him that was not one of suspicion was Zinou’s bright-eyed bronze one, which peered up at him from her spot on the floor. Her joviality was quite apparent, her brushy tail wagging.

He wasn’t in the mood to talk, however; usually never was. He focused his gaze on Zinou momentarily in acknowledgment and an attempt at making her stop staring. His looking to her only made her happier however, and she just continued.

 Rhinox paused his typing a moment, and glanced up to Dinobot. He motioned towards a built-in hookup on one of the panels nearest Dinobot. “Please connect your data transfer and downloading cable...” he muttered, “..and I can begin the scan.”

The very fact that “Dinobot” had not yet tried destroying something was quite convincing proof in itself -- but they couldn’t be too careful, especially with their obligation to protect the Ark. Megatron might have surmised that the Maximals would be comfortable after a short time, and this all could’ve very well been a part of some elaborate scheme.

Dinobot nodded, and connected a wiry cable from the side of his head to the console beside him.
Optimus merely looked on, glancing to the console which disclosed Rhinox’s findings.

Rhinox tapped a few more keys, and the scanning process started.

A few seconds later, the data appeared on Rhinox’s console.
Optimus frowned thoughtfully, looking the monitor over.

What the scan had turned up as far as datatracks and core consciousness consistencies was shown on the screen, represented by 4 rows of blocks, 6 in each row, in total, 24 blocks. The blocks were currently all a grey color.

Rhinox looked up at Optimus.
“This’ll compare between the data we’ve got on..Dinobot...” he paused... “.and the data from him.” He motioned with a broad gesture towards the sitting and slightly-slumping form of Dinobot. “The ones--these blocks--which..represent datatracks and core consciousness --” he motioned to the graph of sorts in the screen, “.. that are consistent’ll be green.”

Optimus nodded, and Rhinox pressed the button, the computer whirring acknowledgment and beginning the scan. After a few more seconds, a block turned green. Then another. And another. And another.
4, 5, 6, 7, 8...one after another, they turned green. Optimus’s brows lifted in quiet surprise, and Rhinox arched his neck back slightly.
11, 12, 13, 14...15, 16, 17...
Rhinox blinked a few times.
18 -- 19 -- and it stopped. The remaining  five turned red. After a second more, one of the five blocks turned purple.

Optimus could figure out what the red meant, -- quite clearly, a negative match. But purple? He turned down to Rhinox.
“What’s the purple mean?”
Rhinox frowned. The amount of consistent data was quite convincing -- but they few left out had him concerned. And purple...
“Purple means.. inaccessible data. Inaccessable to...him.”

Optimus lifted a brow. “Inaccessible? “ he glanced to Dinobot, who seemed oblivious to their conversation. Looking back at Rhinox, he murmured, “Try to access it.”

Rhinox nodded, and tapped out a few commands. After reaching some sort of conclusion with himself, he lifted his head, peered at Dinobot, and pushed the button.

The color of the block changed from purple to green with surprising ease, considering it was supposedly encrypted.

Dinobot’s head shot up suddenly, optic widening. Stiffening, a shudder passed over his body. He glanced over at Optimus and Rhinox, blinking a few times. His expression was “odd” -- whether or not he was actually trying to achieve that effect was in doubt, being that his monocle-optic always added a sort of modification to any of his facial expressions.
“What the Inferno...” he muttered in a snarled whisper, to no one in particular.

“What’s wrong? Rhinox queried, lifting a brow at the reaction.

Dinobot lifted a foretalon and put it to his head, bowing over slightly. What had they just done? What was that..memory? A thought had just seemed to pop into his mind; a thought so --strangely wonderful-- any thought besides it hurt. But what was it...?
/No./ He reprimanded himself, /No, not now. I can figure it out later. Not now! I cannot lose this chance. I refuse to spend the rest of my existence sharing my spark! I can and will do nothing to arouse any suspicions!/
“Nothing..” Dinobot replied in a growl.. “..n-nothing...at all...”

Rhinox frowned, but nodded briefly.

Optimus observed Dinobot for a moment more. The raptorbot seemed to settle down a little -- but there was a difference in his posture -- something about what’d just happened.
Dinobot closed his optics and leaned over, muttering inaudibly.
Zinou tilted her head in reaction, and tried to talk to Dinobot, but he didn’t respond. He just growled.

Optimus glanced at Rhinox.
“So -- 20 out of 24. That’s a lot more than mere chance would deem -- a clone....isn’t it?”

Rhinox nodded. “ A clone’s DNA and actions might be consistent..” he waved a hand at the console.. “but not the datatracks and..core consciousness.”

Optimus just blankly looked at Rhinox. “So -- there is actually a chance that that’s...” he motioned towards Dinobot , “..Dinobot?”

Rhinox nodded again, more vaguely. “Perhaps. I just need to figure out what these non-matching datatrack entries are.... we just can’t say “yes” because it’s not 100 percent...”

Optimus turned to look back at the console’s readouts. “Hmm. You’re right..” he murmured.

Rhinox tapped out a few more commands, and eyed the readouts. “That’s strange -- these non-matching datatrack sectors are also encrypted -- they’re double encrypted, high-density behavioral logics.”

Optimus quirked a brow. “Try to un-encrypt them.”

Rhinox hmmed and brought up a few more displays on the console, typing out a few complicated strings of information.
“Access denied.” Droned the computer in reply.
Rhinox typed a few more things.
“Access denied.”
Rhinox growled. “Slagging Predacon encryption protocols...”

Rhinox and Optimus continued to puzzle over the console on the far side of the room. Rattrap was paying attention to them, which left Zinou and Dinobot to themselves, at the main table.

“What was wrong?” Zinou queried in a mrr. “Something..happened just a moment ago?”

“Nothing...it was nothing....” Dinobot growled, finally replying, his tone plain denial. Yes, this had all seemed to stem from her, Zinou, and somehow their plan against Megatron had been botched. He’d wanted to know exactly what happened, but he now seemed so preoccupied with his thoughts he either forgot to ask or didn’t want to.

“Leave me alone, female.” He snarled conclusively, putting his face in his foreclaws and closing his optics.

Zinou frowned, but nodded, sitting back down on the floor. Out of the corner of her eye, however, she saw a faint glimmer of some sort of strange energy -- a snakelike little wisp of light that started to form from Dinobot’s spark casing.
Ears perking, Zinou snapped to full attention. “What’s that?” She mrred quietly, in low alarm.

Dinobot opened an optic to peer at Zinou again. “What’s wha---”

He felt that strange burning sensation again, and keeled over with a hiss. The automatic regeneration ...whatever-it-was -- that thing which Rampage’d described to him, on their way to the Maximal’s base-- had been reactivated.
He now realized what it was.
“No...not again..” he growled... “..not now!...”
His voice was strained, as he tried to not be noticed by the others.
The light coiled tightly and lashed out at him, this time not centering on his chestplate, but his monocle-optic. The light curled around the side of the intricate unit, focusing there for a split second, before just totally disappearing once more.
Dinobot gasped afterwards, looking around the room -- no one but Zinou had noticed the few-second phenomenon. 

And if anyone would have been paying attention to the outside monitors, they would’ve noticed that Rampage wreathed with interference too.
The crab-bot endured the brief spike of torture with a cringe, antennae twitching as he peered back up at the doors of the Maximal base.
As soon as the interference started, however, it just as quickly stopped. He tilted his head.
/What -are- they doing in there..../ 

The pain faded, Dinobot’s head lowering in brief thought. He experimentally held out his foreclaws in front of him. The lens from his monocle-optic lifted, focused on his claws and...

A shaft of the ruby-red light, only the targeting laser, but a laser nonetheless, appeared from his optic with a sparkle.
/But I thought Rhinox de-activated it.../

Comprehension settled in quickly. That snaky-light -- was a physical regenerator -- it didn’t just affect sparks. It actually repaired structures.
He quickly shut off the laser, acting as if nothing had happened. Although it worked, using it wasn’t going to help his identity crisis with the Maximals, at all.
He resumed his original sitting-posture, and finally, glanced at Zinou.
“What are you looking at?” he muttered.

Zinou’s mouth hung open a moment, but she said nothing, lying back down as well.
“Nothing....” she replied in a whisper.

Rhinox’s face settled into a grin. “Aha...” he murmured, tapping out a few more complicated sequences. “This should about do it...”
He glanced up at Dinobot and peered at him, pushing a button on the console.

Dinobot met Rhinox’s glance with a quizzical gaze, a grey brow quirking in silent query. What were they doi--

The console nearest Rhinox beeped its success in unencrypting the datatrack sequences.
Rhinox glanced to the screen, studying thoughtfully what data was revealed. He paused, however, glancing back at Dinobot -- who was suddenly acting strange.

Optimus glanced up too, following Rhinox’s gaze.

Dinobot stood up from his seat at the table, and growling a low, droned hiss, he put both claws to his head.
The first thought that sprang to his mind: /Connnnnnflict!/

He twisted into an agonizing posture only a split second, before the expression on his face changed totally. No longer was it the solemn, quiet face that he’d been wearing the whole time, but a devilish, toothy grin.
Looking around, his monocle-optic abruptly flickered back on, the targeting laser cutting through the air towards Rhinox and Optimus.

Rhinox froze as within the 5 second span of time that this’d all happened in, he found the ruby dot centering on his forehead. He drew back slightly, with a gasp.
“Oh slag.” Rhinox growled under his breath.

Optimus gasped, and quickly intercepted the point of light with a hand, scowling  through gritted teeth.
“Rhinox? What happened?!”

Rhinox peered up to Optimus quickly. “Slag, I don’t know! I thought I deactivated that thing!”

A wisp of smoke started to curl up from Optimus’ hand as the laser grew more intense, Dinobot lowering into an aggressive crouch.
Optimus drew back in surprise and mounting pain, glancing to Dinobot. So maybe he was wrong -- maybe this just was a trick, and he’d fallen for it -- taken the bait -- hook, line and sinker.

Zinou watched in increasing bewilderment from under the table.
“Dinobot!” she barked, “What are you doing?!”

Dinobot whipped around to face her, the ruby-red light finding its way to pinpoint her forehead. Quite obviously, a favorite spot of his to target.

Zinou drew back under the table with a yelp, but the acute aim could not be shaken.
“Dinobot!” she cried, this all terribly reminiscent of...when she’d first found him Transmetal 2’d. She paused. Tilting her head, she added in a low whoop, “It’s me....Zinou!”

Dinobot chuffed, in slurred and harsh reply: “ I know of no such uni---” he began, before he froze. His gaze went blank a moment; he caught sight of his tail out of the corner of his optic.
He raptorshrieked and beastmoded abruptly, lunging at his tail. The ensuing movements of his body twisted him around, and he began to buck, snapping at his own tail.
Again.

Optimus and Rhinox lifted a brow, and Optimus moved towards Dinobot.

“Connnnnnflict, connnnnflict..” slurredly snarled the writhing raptorbot, as he snapped at his tail, fangs grating together with such force the metal sparked.

Optimus continued to approach Dinobot, as he neared, reaching out a hand in attempt at restraint.

Dinobot snarled again and glanced at the hand nearing -- with no hesitation whatsoever he snapped at Optimus, quite firmly locking his fangs onto the Maximal commander’s digits.

Optimus drew back with a muted cry, quickly using his other hand to grasp Dinobot’s tail. The raptorbot shook his head back and forth, wrenching metalloid tendons and all other mechanisms out of their appropriate places.

Optimus winced at this, the hand that Dinobot was so firmly latched onto becoming rapidly rendered useless. Optimus quickly leaned to one side, putting Dinobot on the ground, holding the raptorbot still with the combined efforts of his immense size, weight, and other free hand.

Dinobot’s thrashings were muted to mere twitches, fangs letting go of their tight purchase.

Optimus stared down at Dinobot, frowning, and Dinobot peered in a side-ways fashion up back at him.
“Connnnnflict...” he growled in a slur. “Connnnflict...”

Rhinox walked over, staring down at Dinobot as well.

Rattrap approached too.

Zinou merely watched from her place under the table.

“What just happened?” Optimus muttered, still straining himself to keep Dinobot still.

Rhinox shook his head. “ I don’t know -- I’m sure..we can figure out. But first, we’ll need to get him under restraint -- it’s..” he paused.. “ Too dangerous to keep him in here.”

Rattrap eyed Dinobot. What sort of thing was this? What was going on? Someone who was Dinobot -- but wasn’t? Carefully looking at the teeth as well, he mused briefly to himself that this bot, of anyone, could most easily be deemed “chopperface”. He cast a glance at Optimus’s hand. Yep, chopped.

Dinobot’s gaze focused on Rattrap, where it stayed. He thrashed again briefly, before just -- strangely enough, giving up.

Optimus bore down  upon Dinobot unexpectedly as the struggling ceased, letting back up quickly and returning to a normal standing position, with the exception of his effort of keeping Dinobot down. It wasn’t what he’d done -- just Dinobot’d quit struggling.

Rhinox lifted a brow and bent down, looking into the red optics of the raptorbot.

Dinobot, in response, closed his optics and growled, turning his head as best he could being pinned to the ground. The noise he was making however, which at first sounded like a growl, could be secondly identified as a gruff whimper.

“Well..” Rhinox muttered, standing back up and looking to Optimus.. “This is...strange. What should we..” he motioned towards Dinobot.. “..do?

Optimus shook his head, looking Dinobot over. “We should get him under restraint, as you said, first. In some other..room.” he replied in a mumble.

Rhinox nodded, and started to pick Dinobot up. Optimus assisted, and Dinobot didn’t resist. He just started to slurredly growl, something inaudibly unidentifiable, over and over...

Rhinox, Optimus, and Rattrap all toted the raptorbot down one of the rocky corridors, Zinou getting up from her spot beneath the table and breaking into a brisk, worried lope after. 

Rampage impatiently paced back and forth in front of the door, claws clacking together. He’d experienced no more of the intereference spikes, thankfully, but the time this was taking was bothering him. Never an advocate of patience, and definitely not fond of a wait ensuing, he paused, finally staring at the door.
“How long does it take to run a simple scan?” he scratchily muttered, shaking his head.
Not really expecting an answer, he twitched his antennae, and went back to pacing.

“Long enough, creep.” A voice suddenly responded over the external speakers.

Rampage froze and peered at the door again. His tiny beastmode eyes narrowed.
Him. Depth Charge.

“ I do not think I was addressing you.” The crab-bot replied loftily, his mind far too busy and occupied with the thoughts of his impending freedom to even think about arguing with his eternal seeker.

“Get out of here.” The raybot's sharp tone replied in a growl.

“I’m waiting for something.”

“Not anymore, you’re not.”

“Oooo..” Rampage cackled sadistically. “Is that a threat?”

“Oh...” the doors to the base suddenly parted, the raybot emerging from inbetween. His optics were narrowed to hateful slits. “Maybe..it is.”

Rampage paused again, and tilted his head. His yellowed toothy madibles cliked together and then locked -- the equivalent of gritted teeth. He really wasn’t in the mood for this.

“Go back in your hut. I’m busy. I’ll play with you later.”Rampage muttered, waving his claws in the raybot’s direction disdainfully, as if dismissing him. He had more important things to be regarding than Depth Charge -- like, getting his spark back. As far as he was concerned, his “mission” here at the Maixmal base was more important than Depth Charge would ever be.

Depth Charge growled. “ I’m not in the mood, X. “ He pulled his shark-shaped gun from its holster. “ I said scat.”

Rampage huffed, and clicked his claws together. “ I said scat..” he mocked. “Scat, scat, oh why don’t you...” He felt a tad mischevious. “ You’re not one to be talking, old friend.”

Depth Charge frowned, his expression quite nonchalant. “ I believe..you’re mocking me.”

Rampage’s antennae shot up. “Oh? You just figured that out?”

Depth Charge growled. “Don’t even...”

Rampage paused his skittering back and forth. “Don’t even _what_?” He muttered again

Depth Charge locked and loaded his shark shaped gun, mouthpiece curling into a frown.

“I’m getting really sick of you. And I don’t think you’re welcome here. So get your slagging worthless carcass out of here before I pump it full of missile.”
His tone never seemed to change, his demeanor stoic as he continued towards the Transmetal crab, weilding his shark gun in threat.

Rampage parted his claws, not appearing the least bit intimidated. Depth Charge was trying to make him leave that way he could get away with shooting him. He’d heard Optimus tell Depth Charge no before, and was quite sure that’s what he’d done again. No, he wasn’t about to oblige to what Depth Charge wanted. If the raybot wanted a fight, then so be it. But he wasn’t going to make it easy.

“Shall we dance?” The crab tauntingly called.

Depth Charge stood right next to the crab and looked down at him. “Lets.” 

Rhinox carefully activated each energy-restraint, the beam of pink and white light appearing between the two black connections. Several more like it were activated, all with the intention of keeping Dinobot held down; down to the table of which he’d been laid across, his bulky form spilling over the table’s boundaries in size on all sides.

Dinobot, still, offered no resistance to any of this, tail flicking occasionally as he snarled various things, the loudest and only-audible one being: “Connnnflict.”

Optimus regarded Dinobot with a frown, looking to Rhinox. “Did you complete the scan?” he asked.

Rhinox shook his head. “ I only got the datatrack and core consciousness consistency scans done. I still have one or two to do.” He replied in a murmur.

Optimus nodded. “Proceed. We need to be su--”

His sentence was interrupted by a loud blast of gunfire, followed by a different sounding shot, and an explosion. Another shot, another loud crack, and other explosion.
It didn’t take him long to figure out the source of the noise.
“Depth Charge -- slag it -- NO...”
Optimus took off down the rocky corridor.

Rhinox turned back to Dinobot, who was watching Optimus depart.

Rhinox shook his head, and looked back down to the console, tapping out a few commands.
“Now...Dinobot -- we’re almost done. I just need to run a spark scan...” 

Optimus burst out from the base’ doors, face set into an angry scowl.
Rampage and Depth Charge were full at it, Rampage, now transformed, and likewise more of a threat, locked in a stranglehold with Depth Charge.
“Gwaaahaahaaa...” the crab-bot cackled, straining against Depth Charge’s struggles to reach his own gun, “Be still just a moment...this WILL HURT!”
His mandibles clacked together, but they both paused as Optimus appeared.

Optimus didn’t know who to stare at -- Rampage for not “behaving”, or Depth Charge, for not obeying.

“Stop this at once!” Optimus bellowed, hands, his injured one included, clenching into fists. He was sick and tired of fighting, not only with the Predacons, but with everything in general. He didn’t want this to go on, not so close to the base; the Ark. Not right outside the base doors.

“Depth Charge! I told you NOT to fire on Rampage! And Rampage--” he suddenly felt as if he was inadequate to be ordering the crab-bot around -- “ You stop it too!”

Rampage continued to keep his strangle-hold on Depth Charge, glancing back at the raybot with a sort of taunt before peering at Optimus.
“I was merely defending myself..” he blatantly muttered, his pose making an oxymoron of his words.

Depth Charge growled and continued to struggle lightly against. He knew how to very quickly elude this grasp -- he just had quit his half of the actual struggle a moment to appease Optimus.

“Off, Rampage..” Optimus barked.

Rampage continued to stare at Optimus. “Off, Rampage..” he mocked in a very low mutter, starting to loosen his hold, “ Very well..” He started to murmur in reply, before pausing; the metal prongs on the sides of his head perked, and he turned towards the base door with a queer gasp. 

At the very same moment, inside the base, Rhinox had initiated the spark scan, as he said he would. The computer, however, did not comply.
“Spark selected to be scanned does not fit normal spark parameters.” It replied. “Please respecify.”
Rhinox frowned. “Respecify? What doesn’t fit normal spark parameters?”
“Spark integrities do not match known spark configurations.”
“Of?”
“Normal spark parameters.”
“Manual scan, then. Don’t apply the known parameters.”
“Acknowledged.”

A yellowish beam of scanning light swept out from the mechanical arrangement that dangled above Dinobot. Dinobot coiled back with a hiss, turning his head to face the scanner.

“Gyaaarrr....no...stop! Stop!!” He screeched in a slurred snarl.

Rhinox glanced up, “What? What is i---” He paused and drew back with a gasp.

Strange snakelike coils of light suddenly appeared from the raptorbot's chest area, slithering and wrapping tightly around him in their weird opalescent translucence.
Dinobot let loose with a nerve-wracking hisshowl, the strange metallic echo to his voice only magnifying it. 

“Gwaahhhh!” Rampage cried an instant after, his scratchy hiss joining the chorus of the raptorbot’s howl, which was audible even outside of the base.
Rampage wreathed with the blue, crackling interference again, and jerked away from Depth Charge with a strangled scream.

Depth Charge, as Rampage did so, blasted one of the circular energy-discs from his chest, his firing weapon, at the crab-bot

Lost in the midsts of the excruciating pain, Rampage didn’t heed the shot nor avoid it, getting squarely blasted and knocked away. Sprawling as he hit the rocky wall, Rampage slumped and curled his fingers in agony, leaning to one knee and scratchily howling his pain. The interference did not stop -- it persisted.

Optimus blinked at the sudden occurrence, glancing in reprimand briefly at Depth Charge before turning to Rampage. He lifted a brow, but turned back towards the base doors, where the earsplitting hisshowl was coming from.

“Rhinox!” Optimus called into his comm, “What’s going on?!”

Rhinox’s voice replied in a pant: “I don’t know -- I tried to do a spark scan on Dinobot and he -- he went haywire! The restraints aren’t going to hold -- and there’s some kind of strange ..energy around him!”

Optimus quirked a brow and glanced back at Rampage, who was keeled over, howling. The bluish interference became more and more, and Rampage managed to glance to Optimus.

“Make it stop!” He hissed, bringing up a writhing, shivering hand in Optimus’s direction, “Make it stop!!”

Depth Charge regarded Rampage hatefully, but murmured thoughtfully to himself, “It’s that same thing...”

Optimus’s gaze snapped to Depth Charge. “What thing?” He barked.

Depth Charge turned to Optimus, and froze. He hadn’t told anyone about his “encounter” just a while ago with the two -- Dinobot and Rampage -- for a very good reason. He averted his gaze.
“No--thing. Nothing.”

Optimus tromped towards Depth Charge, “You said something. What same thing?”

Rhinox’s voice called back over the comm: “I can’t shut off the scan! Dinobot’s going nuts! Optimus, I need you down here!”

Rampage, admist his writhing, managed to convert to beastmode. The interference still persisted, however, and he curled both claws around his head. “Gwaaaaahh!”

Optimus glanced to his comm, to Rampage, and back at Depth Charge.
Staring at the raybot, he growled, “In the base, now. You have some explaining to do.”

Depth Charge sneered and tromped back into the base with a huff, and Optimus turned to follow.

Rampage’s interference suddenly faded away, and the crab-bot relaxed with a choked gasp.

Optimus paused, thinking a moment before mumbling into his comm.
“Rhinox -- did Dinobot quit -- acting strangely?”

Rhinox replied a split-second after, “Optimus, Dinobot’s qu--” Rhinox paused. “--How’d you know? That fast?”
Optimus’s face set into one of thought. He nodded.
“I think I know what’s going on. I’ll be right there.” 

Optimus arrived back in the room where Dinobot and everyone else present in the base was.

His gaze fell first onto Zinou and Rattrap, who were both peering at Dinobot, and Dinobot, who was trying to avoid both of their gazes.

Optimus’s gaze then fell onto Rhinox, who was puzzling over some readouts on a console.
Optimus walked towards him and looked over Rhinox’s shoulder. “Well? What did that scan find out?”

Rhinox shook his head. “I’m not sure..” he murmured. “I guess that weird energy messed up the scanner readings or something -- because the computer says that there’s two sparks present.”

Optimus tilted his head slightly. “Two?”

Rhinox nodded. “ But, it must be a glitch -- or something -- that strange energy interference -- whatever it was...”
He wasn’t sure of whatever facts he may have been saying, evident by the general disorder of his sentences and erratic motions towards the display.

“A glitch..” Optimus mused momentarily before peering back to the rhinobot, “..hmm. Yet -- outside -- at the same times you said Dinobot was acting strangely -- Rampage was too. Like when Megatron imposes his will on Rampage’s....spark...”
He did a brief clamping motion with his oversized hand to demonstrate the action.

Rhinox lifted a brow, his fingers twitching over the console. “Oh -- really..” he muttered, glancing back to the screen queerly,     “ I see." He glanced towards Dinobot, and then back to Optimus.

Optimus returned the same sort of glance. “And Depth Charge said something about some “thing” with Rampage. And Dinobot and Rampage -- Depth Charge saw them last..”

Rhinox blinked.

Optimus continued. “You go ahead and try to figure out these scanner readings -- I’m going to have a word with Depth Charge. I’ll be back in a moment.”

Rhinox nodded and Optimus once more headed off down the rocky hall. 

It was later.
“So -- what you’re saying is -- some sort of strange energy came from Dinobot -- and then he was repaired.” Optimus said.

Depth Charge nodded. “Yes.” He blatantly replied.

Optimus hmmed. “And..when this happened -- it affected Rampage?”
“Yes.”
“And -- then you flew away. And you didn’t catch anything else?”

Depth Charge shook his head, a slight hesitance and the air of defiance about him. “Nope.”

Optimus nodded. “ I see. Well thank you..” he paused, standing up and turning to exit down on of the rocky corridors, “...Depth Charge.”

Depth Charge muttered something inaudibly as Optimus departed.
“Whatever, Primal...” 

Optimus tromped back into the room, his face once again set into a thoughtful frown.
Rattrap and Zinou had apparently left the room.
Dinobot had barely moved at all, staring blankly at a wall, and Rhinox still was centered in front of a console.
He’d long since seated himself on a crate of supplies, and was currently eyeing the screen’s readouts again.

Rhinox glanced up to Optimus.
Optimus nodded. “It’s what I thought. Depth Charge says he saw the same thing. That ..energy.”

Rhinox paused, optics dimming briefly. “That energy...” he muttered.. “I’ve been thinking on it. Didn’t we observe a similiar phenomenon with Cheetor?”

Optimus thought a moment and nodded suddenly. “Yes..we did. The Transmetal 2 driver, perhaps?”

Rhinox shrugged, glancing back queerly at the console. “What could it mean? I mean -- none of this makes any sense. And take a look at this..” He motioned back towards the display. “ I ran the datatrack and core consciousness scan again -- and look --” he motioned to the block-graph display, just like the one he’d had on the bridge’s console earlier. “Those differing .. behavioral logics that we un-encrytpted earlier-- that obviously caused Dinobot to act so strangely -- look..” The display now showed the 4 of the blocks as red again, “..they’ve been re-encrypted .. by...something.”

Optimus lifted a brow. “Re-encrypted? By what?”

Rhinox shrugged. “ I don’t know. And I really don’t want to try un-encrypting them again.”

Optimus shook his head slightly, and peered at Dinobot. He glanced back to Rhinox.
“Did you find out anything else on the spark-scan?”

“Nope..” Rhinox replied, “ I tried re-verifying the data, enhancing it, everything -- according to this scan, there’s two sparks.” He shook his head. “But .. they’re can’t possibly be.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he continued. “ I’d try the scan again -- but it was so drastic earlier...”

Optimus hmmed thoughtfully, staring at the display again, and looking back to Rhinox.
“What says that the scan was incorrect?” He suddenly asked.

Rhinox blinked. “Oh c’mon, Optimus. It has to be. Two sparks can’t co-exist in the same body.” He eyed the Maximal commander. “Well -- not for long, anyways.”

Optimus glanced towards Dinobot. “No -- really. How do we ...know? Is there any other way besides the scan to try and verify this?”

Rhinox tilted his head and thought a moment. “Well..apart from a physical inspection , no.”

Optimus narrowed his optics. “Well, why don’t we just .. have a look?”

Rhinox shrugged broadly, and stepped out around the console, walking towards Dinobot. “I guess..” he muttered, gait slowing to a halt as the raptorbot lifted his head to regard the two.

“Connnnflict...” Dinobot slurredly snarled upon Rhinox’s approach.

Rhinox nodded vaguely, eyeing the raptorbot. Sparks weren’t accessible in beastmode -- he’d have to deactivate the restraints and allow Dinobot to transform.
“Dinobot -- can you hear me? I’m going to deactivate these restraints -- and I want you to transform, got it?”

Passively, the raptorbot tilted his head. His tail lashed only briefly, and he parted his jaws to speak. All that came out, however, was another slurred statement of  “Connnnflict...”

Rhinox just shook his head -- he didn’t understand what that feedback loop meant, but he had enough things to be figuring out already without stopping everything to juggle that too.
“Get ready to hold him, Optimus.” muttered Rhinox as he deactivated the energy-restraints.

Optimus nodded, taking up a position behind Dinobot.

The restraints flickered dimly and faded away as Rhinox turned them off, Dinobot immediately jerking to a standing posture. It was unsteady, however, and he staggered to one side, falling onto the floor with a metallic grunt.
Rhinox watched this and drew back in slight caution, but approached once more.
“All right. Now..transform.”

Dinobot tilted his head, and nodded in a weary fashion, lowering his head for a moment. With a droned, raptoresque shriek, he jerked transformation, immediately being gripped by his shoulders by the much-larger Optimus.

Rhinox squinted, eyeing Dinobot up and down. His appearance, in robot mode, although he’d seen it several times, was still -- how could he describe it? Spooky.

Optimus frowned thoughtfully, looking down to Dinobot and murmuring to him.
“We need you to open your spark casing.” He muttered simply. “Please.”

Dinobot shifted his normal-optic’s gaze around to look up towards the Maximal commander, but didn’t turn his head. He’d be extremely vulnerable if he was to open his spark casing -- but -- he trusted the Maximals. Moreso than he would ever trust Megatron, and more than he’d ever trust Rampage. Because all he could seem to say was “conflict”, he just bobbed his head twice in a positive response.

He glanced down at his chestplate and accessed the internal command which caused the wishbone-emblazoned casing to part.
Slowly, and with obvious hesitance, the metal casing slid open, revealing once more, the grotesque sight: Two sparks -- most definitely two sparks, were fused together. One was weak, the other strong, and both were currently being bound together by two thin tendrils of light. Some sort of freaky “mending” appeared to be taking place at the spot where the two sparks were fused, a third wisp of light coiling and twisting its way between the two.

Dinobot became quickly entranced by the sight, his brows furrowing and lifting in morbid curiosity and worry at the same time.

Rhinox and Optimus both regarded what they saw with wide optics for a moment, before Rhinox finally snapped out of his engrossment with a gasp.

“By the Matrix...” he gaped, “The sparks -- there -- there’s two!”

Optimus glanced to Rhinox as he spoke, and merely dipped his head once. “ I see. Can you scan each spark, Rhinox? Separately?”

Rhinox stood there dumbfounded for a second more, before glancing back to Optimus and nodding rapidly. “Yes -- I can get clearer information -- now that I can set the computer to scan for two...” he glanced back at Dinobot and the open spark casing, “... sparks...instead...”

Turning quickly, Rhinox walked back to his console, Optimus staying in position, holding Dinobot’s shoulders.
Dinobot arched his neck back slightly. The thought of that scan and that pain again was enough to clear his mind.
“No!” He snarled quite sharply, “...you cannot do that again...”

Optimus looked down to Dinobot. “Why not?”

Dinobot had figured this out. Regardless of what Rampage had said about keeping quiet regarding the two sparks, he was tired of hiding behind a guise of solemn confusion. He wanted to be free from Rampage too. It was his spark, his choice, his life. As he’d promised himself earlier, he was not going to live bound to a monster forever. He seemed to come to sudden realization of all these facts, his mind continuing to clear.
 “Rampage’s..spark..” he muttered, curling a claw to his chestplate. “ Mine -- and his -- are fused. The scan..” he gritted his teeth.. “..hurts.”

Rhinox nodded. “ I got that picture..” he murmured, “But...”
He paused, glancing over at Dinobot oddly. The slur to his voice was gone. Had he just been listening, and not looking, he would’ve sworn that Dinobot -- the old one -- was in the room. That certain “tone” was in the snarled voice. He couldn’t quite explain it, but it was.
Rhinox glanced up to Optimus, who looked back down at him with the same sort of comprehension.

They both suddenly had a much better idea of what was going on
.
Although neither of them knew how the Pit Dinobot’s spark -- which had supposedly joined the Matrix -- had ended up in this body. And fused with Rampage’s spark, no less.

“So that’s why Rampage wanted our help..” Optimus muttered, looking still to Rhinox, “He can’t get his spark away from..” he couldn’t believe he was saying it, “..Dinobot’s.”

Rhinox nodded vaguely. “And -- he wants us to separate the two.”

“That’s why he wanted us to repair Dinobot “fully”. The Transmetal 2 technology -- like with Cheetor -- it’s binding the sparks together -- and his systems don’t identify the sparks separately.”

Rhinox nodded again, “ Exactly -- just how this computer didn’t recognize the two..” he motioned at the console.

Dinobot looked between the two and listened quietly, his face etching into even moreso an expression of worry.  He spoke up.
“So what are you going to do about it?” he growled.

They both glanced to him, and lifted a brow simultaneously.

Rhinox placed both hands on the console and eyed Dinobot.
“Uhm....”

Optimus glanced down at Dinobot, and back to Rhinox.

Shrugging, Rhinox returned a confused look. “I still say we need to run another spark scan...” he murmured.

Optimus tilted his head, regarding Rhinox for a moment, before nodding and turning back to Dinobot.
“We still need to run a spark scan, Dinobot..” he muttered. “I’m sorry that it hurts, but we have to take precautions. You, of all people, should know this?” After speaking, Optimus loosened his grip on the raptorbot’s shoulders and stepped away.

Dinobot growled lowly, rolling his shoulders as they were released. He ended the breath in a snarled sigh.
“Very well..” he snarled, sitting back down on the table.

Optimus brought a thoughtful hand to his chin, looking to Rhinox.

Rhinox continued to eye Dinobot a few more moments before his gaze trailed to meet Optimus’s.
“OK .. I’m going to do the scan again.” He looked to Dinobot. “Get ready.”

Dinobot nodded and braced against the table, tail curling tightly around his narrow hips. Gritting his teeth, he begrudgingly prepared for the pain again.
/It’s worth it, if it gains their trust.../ he thought to himself.

Rhinox tapped out a few sequences of information, the computer responding with a beep. A few seconds later, the devices dangling over the table flickered to life, a yellowish beam once more sweeping out to scan Dinobot.

Dinobot cringed as it reached him, but surprisingly, he felt no pain. In fact, nothing that had happened before happened again. The scan finished quickly, dimly flickering off, the information input by it appearing in strings on the console Rhinox stood over.

Dinobot lifted his brows and looked at his foreclaws. “ It didn’t hurt..” he snarled, voice tainted with surprise.

Optimus hmmed thoughtfully and looked to Rhinox for an explanation, tromping over towards him.
“Rhinox?”

Rhinox’s optics were wide, as they read what information the scan had gathered. He didn’t reply to Optimus’s query. Quite clearly, on the screen the computer had identified what it had scanned.

Dinobot. And Rampage. Their sparks.

Walking up behind Rhinox and looking over his shoulder, Optimus stopped. “Rhinox? What happened?”

“By Primus..” Rhinox muttered, sharply peering up at Optimus, “What the slag are we going to do...”

Optimus quietly quirked a brow and eyed the readouts. “What? What is it?”

Rhinox lowered his tone, turning away from Dinobot’s curious gaze that peered at both of them.
“Optimus -- the sparks -- they’re fusing -- permanently. The scan says now that there’s only one spark. If the core fibers fuse, we won’t be able to get them apart.”

Optimus drew back slightly, optics widening in a comprehensive aghastness. His voice lowered too. Dinobot could hear neither of them.
“Wha--...why?”

“ I don’t know. The energy from that first scan must’ve stimulated the Transmetal 2 regeneration -- but the fibers have already begun to fuse. They’re healing around each other. We don’t have a lot of time. What should we do?”

Optimus’s face twisted in a worried frown. He looked over at Dinobot, who was still watching them talk. He didn’t know..there was no way he could have. The choice -- was theirs.
“What can we do?” Optimus muttered.

“I can try to separate the two sparks -- which is risky -- and then..Dinobot would be independent -- and Rampage would .. be whole again. But I don't even know...if that would work -- Rampage's spark is all that seems to be keeping Dinobot's online.”

Optimus nodded vaguely.. “Or..?” he asked, hoping there was more ultimatums than one.

“Or...we do nothing. At the current rate, the two sparks’ll be fused in less than 2 megacycles.”

Optimus frowned.

Rhinox idly rubbed the back of his neck, waiting for Optimus’s response. “ The only good news is that the Transmetal 2 regeneration systems have identified Dinobot’s spark as the “dominant” of the two. Which means that its protocols..should...override whatever influences Rampage’s spark may or..may not have.”

Optimus’s frown remained.

“Optimus...we don’t have all day..” Rhinox impatiently muttered. “ This is a now-or-never type situation. I need your decision -- now.”

Optimus’s optics darted back and forth, cutting to Dinobot quickly before refocusing on Rhinox.

“Rampage -- would be independent again?” he asked.

Rhinox nodded.

“And.. Dinobot’s survival -- on the first option .. would be in question..?”

Rhinox nodded, a bit more slowly.

“And..if Dinobot’s spark ..” he paused.. “..extinguishes, then -- Rampage will have his spark back anyways?”

Rhinox nodded.

Optimus swallowed, a sudden heavy feeling working into his chest. This didn’t seem right -- he couldn’t let this happen to Dinobot -- because they knew it was him -- but they also couldn’t let Rampage regain his independence.
Optimus dimmed his optics and closed them, exhaling loudly. What a choice...

Dinobot continued to look to the two, unable to hear what they were saying. The silence bothered him, and he once more spoke up.
“Megatron was supposed to have separated the two sparks..” he growled, “ But..he betrayed us. As one would surmise..” he paused, tail twitching briefly. “Rampage and I thought perhaps that you could..undo this fusion.”
There. He’d said it. That was the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. To the Inferno with Rampage’s secretive slag. He awaited an answer, his brow lifting, again, in concern.

Rhinox glanced to Optimus, and watched the massive Maximal commander swing around to give a reply.

“Dinobot..” Optimus began.. “ The sparks -- they’re..” he paused, “...we’ll.. see what we can do.”

Rhinox’s stare against the side of Optimus’s head sharpened.

Optimus turned quickly away from the raptorbot, motioning Rhinox down the hall a tad.

“Stay here Dinobot..” Optimus called over his shoulder.

Dinobot nodded, and Rhinox followed Optimus. 

Once a bit down the hall, Rhinox stopped, and looked up to Optimus.

“Optimus, I need to know what to do. Now. And what the Pit are you going to tell him?” He jerked his thumb in the direction of the room they’d just departed.

“I don’t know..” Optimus muttered angrily. “ Rhinox, I need you help on this one. Dinobot’s supposed to be dead -- yet he’s not, we have blatant scanner proof that’s him.”

Rhinox nodded. “Like..Zinou said.”

Optimus held up a finger, and dipped his head once. “Yes. Like Zinou said. But now we’re faced with a choice. We either take the risk that we could be reallowing Rampage his freedom -- and at the same time, Dinobot his -- or we just let what’s happening , happen ...and...” He did a vague gesture with his hand, to demonstrate what he didn’t wish to say.

Rhinox nodded. “ These choices are some cold slag..” he murmured, “But you have to choose,” he held up a finger, “one.”

Optimus hung his head and stared at the ground.
“Should we let Dinobot choose? It .. is...his spark.”

Rhinox nodded. “ But it’s Rampage’s too. And he was our responsibility. If the sparks are fused -- we’d have control over Protoform X aga--”

“Slag it!” Optimus yelled, in a sudden outburst, teeth gritting. “ I know! But..Dinobot!”

Rhinox averted his gaze and nodded slowly. “Yes...that’s the problem...”

Optimus sighed, obviously frustrated. “ These are slagging choices. We either oblige our duty that we swore to on our mission here with Protoform X, or we don’t..” His voice started to raise in anger.

Rhinox tilted his head and looked up at the glowering Maximal commander. “ You know -- either way, Dinobot is at risk. One or the other, Optimus, it’s up to you.”

Optimus stared back at Rhinox, his angry look starting to fade. It changed from a face of frustration to one of solemness, brows lifting and tilting at angles opposite one another, finally stopping in an expression of sadness.
“ I know. I know... I know!”

Rhinox sighed. “Optimus. I need a decision. Now! There isn’t much time.”

Optimus’s expression fell flat and he leveled his gaze with Rhinox’s.
After a long pause, he mumbled lowly:
“All right. Then .. we’ll..” his voice choked off, and he took in a sharp breath, “...just let -- nature take its course.” 

Two megacycles later.

Dinobot had remained in the room as he had been instructed, and had busied himself with the idle activity of examining his claws. He was almost happy, if one could deem the former Predacon such an attitude.

/You know.../ he thought to himself, eyeing acutely his teeth via the reflection of his claws, /I could get to like this Transmetal form
He mused to himself, but glanced up as Rhinox entered the room.
Strangely enough, Optimus was not with him.

Dinobot tilted his head to one side in mild curiosity, standing up.
“Well?” he growled. “ That certainly took long enough. What did you conclude?”
He had it quite set in his mind that the Maximals were going to be able to do what Megatron had promised him. His and Rampage’s sparks were to be separated; that way the crab-bot’s annoying presence would no longer plague him.

“Dinobot..” Rhinox began, hesitance lacing his tone, “ We -- can’t undo the sparks.”

Dinobot perked slightly, brows furrowing. “What? Is it the technology you lack? Megatron has it. I will retrieve it, again..” He jumped into an aggressive poise, looking left and right. Obviously, the raptorbot was more than willing to do -- anything -- to find his spark separate from Rampage’s.

Rhinox bit his lip. “No, Dinobot. It’s not a question of technology... it’s just...” he exhaled sharply and shook his head, dimming his optics.

Dinobot returned to a normal standing position, face still set in stone as he lowered his gaze slightly.
“What? What is it then? Why not?”

“The.. Transmetal 2 systems -- they’ve..they’ve ....fused the sparks.”

Dinobot snarled. “ Yes, of that fact I am aware. And Megatron stated that I can be undone. If it is the technology you require from him than I will get it..”

“You don’t understand, Dinobot. It can’t be undone. Not now.” Rhinox's voice was solemn as he gained the nerve to level his gaze with Dinobot’s harsh one

“What do you mean, “not now?”” The edge of hysteria crept into his voice only briefly. “Megatron said that it could be done..so of course it can be...”

Rhinox closed his optics. “Not anymore. The sparks fused. At the..” he motioned to his own chest, “..core.”

Dinobot’s posture stiffened. He lost his rather boisterous, snarling demeanor, expression abruptly going blank and becoming unreadable.
“Th-the core?” He snarled. “You mean...fused..?”
His face curled into a look of true worry, normal-optic widening and monocle-optic’s pupil dilating.

Rhinox stated what Dinobot already knew.
“It’s permanent, Dinobot.” After a long, wary pause, he added, “There was nothing we could do.”

Dinobot  looked as if someone had shot him. He took a step back from Rhinox, glancing around the room. His gaze fell to his foreclaws, where it focused for a moment.
“No...” he growled.. “No...it’s not true. It has to be reversible!”

Rhinox shook his head pensively.

“Yes!” The raptorbot snarlshrieked, turning to look down at the barely-reflective metal surface of the table.
“It has to be!! IT HAS TO BE!!”

Rhinox frowned and lowered his head, shaking it once more. He didn’t respond verbally this time, just turning and walking off down the rocky corridor quietly.

Dinobot fell to his knees, staring incredulously at his reflection. His expression was aghast, teeth gritting as he lowered his head.
"IT HAS TO BEEEE!" 

Rampage had known something was wrong -- he’d known it for a while. Something just wasn’t -- right.
He was still crouched where he had been, twitching antennae the only clue to his conscious state.

The doors to the base suddenly parted, Rhinox being the one who’d opened them.

Dinobot, his expression locked in one of horror, slinked out from between the doors, Optimus following shortly after.

Rampage lifted his head, peered at Dinobot, and glanced back at Optimus expectantly.

“Rampage..” Optimus began, “..your proposal.. has been accepted. We will accept Dinobot back into our faction, and he will be..repaired, as you requested.” After a moment of silence, he added, “Thank you for bringing him here.”
With his words curtly said, Optimus turned and tromped back into the base.

Rhinox watched Optimus go and then glanced back at Dinobot.

Rampage stayed where he was, head tilting at Optimus’s general lack of speech. He still looked expectant of something. In a quick skitter, he crept towards Dinobot.
“Well?” he simply and scratchily muttered.

Dinobot stared down to Rampage, his expression turning to one of rage. Total hatred. Kneeling , Dinobot murmured something to the crab-bot. Too low for Rhinox to hear.

Rampage stiffened, beady green eyes widening and closing abruptly. A shudder of what could only be described as shock passed over the crab’s body, and he dipped his head, toothy mandibles gritting together.
“No....No.......NOOOOOOOO!”

Dinobot leaned back, standing back up. He merely nodded, his own teeth gritted in a restrained fury.

Rampage hissed and drew back one of his gigantic purple claws as if to strike at Dinobot. However, he stopped, looking up to the red-opticed gaze that stared down at him.

The two exchanged glances for a moment, a wordless show of utter hate.

Rampage shook his head, antennae perked angrily, and whirled around abruptly, storming off as best a crab could.
“Gwaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!”
The erratic gait of the crab-bot was watched sharply by Dinobot’s narrowed red optics until he was too far away to be seen, even by means of telescopic sights.

Dinobot lowered his head and gritted his teeth, using the same momentum to beastmode.
He whirled back around, facing the doors to the Maximal base.
Staring at them with a misdirected hatred, he stalked back into the base.

Rhinox started to say something as Dinobot tromped past, but the curt brush-by that Dinobot managed to achieve silenced any further words. 

The day faded all too quickly into night.
Rattrap took his usual place as the security-monitor, nighttime shift, and the rest of the Maximals retired for the night.

Dinobot had earlier been appropriated quarters, of which ever since they’d been given, he’d been in. He locked himself in his room and would not answer the door. Not to Optimus, not to Rattrap, not even to Zinou. No one.
He lay on his bunk, in his raptoreqsue beastmode, staring at the wall.
Just staring. 

Zinou was happy that Dinobot had been accepted back into the faction, but was slightly distressed at his general antisocialness. Rhinox had explained to her that “he was merely stressed” from the day’s events, and didn’t go into details.

Everyone just held their tongue around Zinou, half awed at the fact that all her noise had been correct, and half feeling-guilty that they’d deemed her crazy, when they were really the ignorant bunch.

The rest of the day she’d been greeted by forced smiles and nods of acknowledgment.

Before night fell, Optimus had confronted her.
“You should change your command codes back..” he lowly suggested, before disappearing down a hall. He’d not been his normal self either, in a way, he was almost being as antisocial as Dinobot was.

Zinou had complied and returned to command codes to that of a Maximal, but afterwards mused to herself over the whole event. Upon nightfall, she slinked into her small quarters and lay on the floor.

/What a day./ She thought with a happy sigh. Dinobot had returned, and now she was -- to a degree, respected in the Maximal faction. As a Maximal.

She smiled to herself and curled up in a ball, sighing with relief as she started to drift to sleep. Tomorrow, she could ask Dinobot all those unanswered questions, learn her way around the base, become more acquainted with the other Maximals, and...
..she drifted off to sleep.

In all of her excitement, she had forgotten what evils awaited her slumber. As soon as she fell into a deep sleep, she found herself surrounded by the darkness. The two pairs of eyes appeared yet again, the menacing glares that of One and the Other.

She looked between them, ears pinning back.

“You have failed.” Other blatantly stated.
One growled, “Failed!”
Zinou drew back slightly, eyes widening.
“But...I didn’t! I....Dinobot’s alive!”
“You have FAILED!” Other insisted in a louder tone. “Failure is the price of failing to heed.”
“But I didn’t fail...”
“Silence!” One shrieked...
“Silence..” the Other boomed.
“Silence..” Their voices seemed to combine, until they strangely enough sounded like ..Dinobot.
“And the rest is silence..” Their voices snarled.
Zinou tilted her head, “Wh--what does that mean? Dinobot?”
Their voices fell out of unison, but they both semi-simultaneously boomed together. “You have failed. You failed him, and you continue to fail.”
“Fail what? Wh-what have I failed?”
Zinou thought at first that Their telling her that was Their warning about that instance -- where Dinobot disappeared. She thought she’d failed that -- but what had she done -- or not done, now?
“FAILED!”
Zinou caught a brief glimpse of .. perfection. The sensation of wholeness; the feeling of being one with the world. With everything. It was wonderful! All were one -- all seemed to be one. It was --
But she was suddenly jerked away from it, left in the darkness once more.
She gasped, looking around. Her dreamscape seemed to fall apart, and as it did so, she awoke--
--Awoke with an equivalent gasp, looking around. It was still night.
What had she failed? 

Dinobot lay, in beastmode, awake on his narrow bunk. He stared blankly at the holomap that glowed and emanated from the datapad he’d set on the floor, his body shivering in convulsive little twitches.

On the holomap was displayed a three dimensional map of the terrain -- terrain that looked terribly like that which he’d met Zinou in. Beyond it, his gaze trailed, to the projection of the mountains. The mountains of which he had refused to accompany Zinou to. And in those mountains? This base.
This base. The one he now sat in.

Now, in his seclusion, he’d remembered that thought that had come to him earlier today.

That thought -- it was...
“..The Matrix..” he growled to himself. The end to his questing. His one true goal.
His place there had been forfeited, forfeited for him to be jerked back to the living. His solitude had caused him to realize much.
He’d died.
He’d gone to the Matrix.
Something..had pulled him away -- and now he was alive again.
Again -- but tortured.
He glanced to another datapad that lay on the floor. The main header on it read “Protoform X”.
The first paragraph read “The Maximals experiment at replicating an indestructible spark....”
Indestructible. That meant -- immortal. Undying. Unable to die.

Dinobot turned his head to stare blankly at the wall.

Protoform X. Protoform X was Rampage. Rampage’s spark was fused with his own.
His spark was indestructible.
He was condemned -- not to die, but to live.
Forever.
Perfection had been denied him.
Why?
His goal in life had been achieved -- his honorable death.
He’d seen the Matrix. His thoughts continued to bounce back to that -one-.
He’d been to the Matrix.
He was never going to go there again. It was not merely a thought of not going there again -- it was a fact.
He was .. doomed to live.

He closed his optics tight, a single tear shimmering from beneath the white eyelid.
The single tear rolled down his bony visage, the structure of his face making a mockery of the very notion of a tear. Another tear followed it. And another.
The warrior was reduced to crying.
Muted, choked, and snarled utterances of pure misery.
Dinobot -- the mighty Maximal warrior.
Dinobot -- the treacherous Predacon traitor.
Dinobot .. the monster.

Yes, he was alive.
Alive, forever.
 

THE END