Vows of Honor



There are many things the Beast Warriors do not know about the aliens.



Such as, where their planet is, what it is called, what the aliens look like, what they call themselves, and many other unanswered questions.



But Beta 99 knew all about his planet and his race.



He knew that his planet was called Homeworld. It was a beautiful planet, composed of light, colors and sounds. Homeworld was in a small little galaxy, so small it could be a rat hole in the vast house of the universe. But inside the rat hole, lived the most extraordinary rats.



The aliens looked like, if the truth must be told, cells. Roundish lumps of plasma or some unknown substance that shimmered and oozed like a cell. They were about the size of humans, except thicker. The aliens were white, but they shimmered with every single color ever known, and some unknown colors.



Homeworld was a big planet, which contained millions of Omegas, thousands of Betas, and hundreds of Alphas, the leading class. As a group of people, the aliens called themselves Beings. These were all the same type of alien, just they had different chaste. Whenever a Being, was created, the Being was immediately an Omega, and it was given a number. If a knew Being was created right now, that would be Omega 56893, because Omegas make up the majority of the population on Homeworld.



Beings could grow to be centuries and millenniums old. When they got to be at least eighteen centuries, then they can Divide, and make other Beings. They did not need different sexes to do this, for they were above such petty things. It did not matter what caste you were in, anyone could Divide.



Omegas do not stay Omegas though, and Beta 99 was very grateful for that. An Omega had to work it's way up the ladder of success, by creating worlds and planets and other galaxies. Because, as Beta 99 knew well, Beings had the most extraordinary powers, which are too numerous to mention.



When the Omega had made some very good and very creative worlds or galaxies, the Alphas decided to promote the Omega to a Beta, the middle class. Beta 99 had been promoted for his work on the planet which the Beast Warriors were on, as well as his sixty-five comrades who worked on the planet with him. The best world were the ones that took the most people.



Every Omega desires to become a Beta, and every Beta desires to become an Alpha. Every Alpha desires to keep his position as long as possible, and creates far better worlds and galaxies than the other two castes, to assert his dominance. All Beings had this ambition.



Beta 99 used to have it too, but not any more. He knew, as all his comrades did, that he was going to be punished by the Alphas. He had failed at his duty, to wipe out the Beast Warriors from his planet, his creation. And now he was going to be punished for it.



Beta 99 sat in his "room." A casual observer could not call it a room though. The casual observer would hear lots of buzzes, squeaks, and a few screeching sounds emitting from the top and the bottom of the "room". This observer would also see four walls of red and blue light. So, evidently, this observer would be very, very confused.



But the Being that was inside his room was not confused. Lights and sounds were his species' definition of barriers and doors. Sounds were a barrier to all, that meant no one could go through them. Light was like doors, anyone could pass through a light, if the person at the other end of the light wanted him to pass through.



"Phantom shall pay" the doomed Being whispered under his breath. "I shall steal a Breathing Machine, go to my planet, and make him pay before the Alphas can summon me."



A Breathing Machine......that was essential to any Being, if he wanted to visit the world or planet he had created. All those alien devices the Maximals and Predacons had come up against, they were things that the Being needed to travel through space, and visit his planet. Omegas had the less elaborate ones, while the Alphas had the most fancy kind. Inside Breathing Machines there was usually energon, because energon was what Beings used for their powers. Absorbed energon gave a Being strength, while if one's surrounded by energon it increases his power.



But energon was a double edged sword, as Beta 99 had discovered. If it broke when one was not expecting it it could be deadly. Beta had figured that out the hard way.



"Squark!" came a voice. Beta 99 turned, well, floated. All Beings float at least two or three feet off the ground, depending on the castes. The higher ranking you are, the higher you float.



Outside one of his walls of light, was Beta 99's wyrm. One of his Servants.



Servants are creatures that were created by the Beings, and therefore served them. There are many kinds of Servants. Most Servants were used to carry messages back and forth, or do things like bring jars of energon to their masters when they had spent a lot of power. Some, though, were used to spy on competition, which meant everyone else in their master's caste, because their masters were always trying to rise above their comrades. In Homeworld, there was no love and friendship. There was hardly any emotion.



Wyrms were created by a very fortunate Omega. They were such a good creation that the Alphas had immediately promoted him into one of their ranks. Wyrms were reptile-like, but they had horns and wings and sometimes flippers. No two wyrms were alike.Wyrms were very stupid, but they sometimes made good Servants, as long as they were not given too much time off. Wyrms were given to flights of fancy, and could ruin ones concentration. This particular type of Servant needed to breed with females for reproduction. It was an odd way, but the Beings found it acceptable, so long as the babies did not interfere with anything they were doing.



Beta 99's wyrm was called Wyrm Of Beta 99. It was a small thing, all wyrms were, about the size of a poodle. His wyrm was white, with iridescent scales that shone like a rainbow. Wyrm Of Beta 99 was one of the few whose eyes did not change color. This wyrm's eyes were purple.



"Alpha say come to Room of Alphas, squarrk!" Wyrm of Beta 99 said. The Being hovered for a few minutes, not wanting to leave. What was he punishment in store for him? Were they going to make him Non-Exsistent? Beta cringed at the thought. He liked being existent, as did every other Being.



"Curse Phantom!" Beta 99 said, anger smouldering in him. Anger? He was not supposed to feel such primitive emotions!



The Being sighed, and floated out of his room. His wyrm led the way. Beta 99 turned to thinking.



It all would have worked out. If only I had not put so much energon in my breathing machine! If only I had killed Phantom when I had the chance! I should have made sure all the sparks of the Beast Warriors were safely in their afterlife before I had gone out of Phantom's body! He is merely a foolish Transformer, I should not have fallen for anything he had done.



My plan was that the wyrms could visit the planet, to know why we are a wonderful race to serve. They did once, but one of the Transformers.....the one called Jade, took their identity. The Alphas got upset, and would never let any of the other Servants go to see our great work, our wonderful planet.



Another Servant, this time a wraith, passed through a barrier of sound. That was one of the power wraiths had, to be able to pass through not just light, but sound barriers. The wraith looked like a cloud of ink with blue, twinkling eyes. It could float everywhere, up and down and all around.



"Whose Servant are you?" Beta 99 asked.



"I am Wraith Of Beta 112" said the wraith, in it's normal, ghostly voice. "My Master wanted to know how you were faring."



"I am fine!" snapped Beta 99. The Being paused. Why had he snapped?! Snapping was showing anger, and anger was an emotion. No doubt the wraith had picked up the forbidden substance in his voice.



"I will report that to my Master" Wraith Of Beta 75 said, slipping through the sound barrier.



"We are here at Room of Alphas, Master" Wyrm Of Beta 99 said, after a few minutes of floating and walking on the wyrm's part. Beta 99 faced a barrier f black and pink light, a very elaborate door.



"Enter, Beta 99" came a voice, one of the Alphas. Beta 99 floated through the doorway, into the what his wyrm had called the Room of Alphas. In actuality it was the Conclave of Alphas, but wyrms were too stupid to say the word.



One hundred and five shimmer globs were in the room, all around Beta 99. They all floated three feet above him, and they shimmered their colors faster than he did. These were subtle reminders of their dominance.



"You failed" said an Alpha, Alpha 1. Alpha 1 was the first Alpha ever, and the oldest. When he was Non-Existent, Alpha 2 would become Alpha 1. That was the way things were.



"I did" Beta 99 replied. There was no use denying that, was there?



"The other Alphas and I have thought long and hard as to what your punishment should be" Alpha 1 said. "Gather all your Servants."



Beta 99 summoned his Servants with his mind. His wyrm was already present, so he had no need to come. In came Wraith Of Beta 99, Scuzzer Of Beta 99, and Depthseer of Beta 99. A scuzzer was a black and orange and pink furry glob, with a large tail.



Scuzzers could cling to any surface and eat any dirt, so they were valuable cleaning tools.



Depthseers were horses with horns and bat-like wings. They were useful because they could see anywhere at anytime, and their master would nt use up any of his power.



There were many other Servants that Beta 99 could have had, but he had not wanted any more. Four was enough.



"Beta 99, you worked on the planet that has been colonized by an inferior race, against your will" Alpha 1 began. "Your comrade Beta 92 was forced to destroy that planet, but even that failed. He was made Non-Exsistent for his failure. We have decided a more suitable punishment for you."



"Since you made your planet, you will live on your planet: as a Transformer." Beta 99 felt himself grow cold with an emotion akin to fear. This was indeed a fitting punishment.



Alpha 1 continued. "You will never regain you full memory, we will see to that. You will be half remembering, half forgetting all your life, never knowing who or what you really are."



"I will allow you some liberty though. You may chose the form you will enter. I believe it is called a "beast form." Your Servants shall be given to other Betas, ones more fortunate than you."



Beta 99 saw a Breathing Machine open up before him. Energon glowed within.



"This breathing machine will take you to the galaxy you and your comrades created" Alpha 1 said. "It will envelope one of the protoforms and release you inside it. There you will chose your beast mode. It will then bring you to your planet."



"First you must take this" Alpha one said. A chip with copper and gold wiring flew towards Beta 99, who stuck inside him in a place that was like a pocket.



"It is a memory damper chip" the Alpha said. "The two Transformers you brought to Homeworld have taught us many things with their anatomy, and the way they think and feel. You must not try to take this off you, for if it is parted from you it shall explode, and you shall loose your right to breath, and become Non-Exsistent."



Beta 99 floated towards the Breathing Machine. It was brown with red striped, and it looked like an odd mushroom. Beta took a look around him, at Homeworld, which had been his only home.



"Of course" Beta 99 said, and floated towards the Breathing Machine, taking, from our view, a long and sorrowful journey from home. But of course, Beings do not feel these emotions, so we can just say it was a "different" experience.



***************************



The Breathing Machine shot through space, through the porthole to Earth, and into it's galaxy. It found one of the few stasis pods still floating in space, and covered it.



If someone could have seen up in space, they would have seen a blue light emit from the breathing machine. The blue light faded, and the Breathing Machine dissolved.



And the stasis pod fell to Earth.



As it fell it knocked another pod out of orbit. That pod in turn knocked another pod out of orbit. This third pod fell away from the others, but the first two fell practically side by side.



And as usual, both sides found their signals.



********************





My only friends, Tabitha thought, looking at Unnamed Flyer and Waspinator. She was hiding in the doorway of one of the computer rooms in the Predacon base. The two bots did not notice her, for they were so intent on their young ward.



Waspinator was holding up a piece of sugar-cane to baby Griff. Griff grabbed it in his front talons and gnawed on it hungrily. The baby was so intent on it's chewing that it fell over backwards. Unnamed Flyer laughed and set him up again.



"Wazzpinator think bat-bot good mommy to baby-bot" Waspinator buzzed, glancing shyly at the floor.



"Thank you very much Waspinator" Unnamed Flyer replied. "And you're a good daddy. Where did you find the sugar-cane, anyway?"



"Wazzpinator find it in field" the wasp replied. "Bat-bot and Wazzpinator go eat it sometime?"



"Sure!" Unnamed Flyer said. The vampire bat paused. "Do you think Griff needs some education?"



"Dactyl-bot has Golden Eye on laptop" Waspinator voulenteered. "Griff play Golden Eye, learn fighting, and color of blood."



"No, I was thinking more like smarts" said Unnamed Flyer.



Waspinator shrugged. "Wazzpinator have plenty of smartzz. Teach baby-bot some. Wazzpinator greatezzt Predacon!"



Tabitha smiled at her two friends. Well, now they were her ex-friends. The two of them had distanced themselves from her, ever since she had tried to hurt their adopted baby. Why had she tried to shoot Griff? Why had she done so cruel a thing, when it meant losing her best friends?! Tabitha felt like kicking herself.



She knew she had only done it because she had wanted to be accepted as normal. Tabitha was friends with Waspinator and Unnamed Flyer, who were two of the dumbest Predacons. But, they accepted her for who she was, they did not just care about her body. Tabitha had just wanted others to accept her as well.



But, it had not worked, much to her dismay. Females still hates her for her looks, and males still slobbered over her for the same reasons. Or they ignored her, like Rampage. Some hated her for her friendship with Megatron, such as Inferno and Scorpinok.



Megatron.....he also understood her. And Tabitha admired and respected him for that, and also for being a wonderful Predacon leader. But the winged feline also wanted her two friends back.



Was there anyone who cared about me back on Cybertron? she thought trying to remember. Tabitha did not know that much about Cybertron. But she did remember one person........red and silver......with a female voice....had she been a friend of Tabitha's?



The black and blue feline shook her head.



She sighed, and walked towards the two bots. "I could help with Griff's education" she said, smiling and hoping they would accept her offer.



The two bots looked at her with wide eyes. Griff hissed at her. Apparently he remembered her well. Unnamed Flyer clutched the baby to her.



There was a hurt silence. Tabitha growled. It was time to confess.



"Look you guys, I'm sorry!" she pleaded. "I thought Griff would grow up to be a Maximal! I never thought that Predacons could reprogram Maximals, I didn't know! I didn't mean to do anything that would cost us our friendship. I can love that little guy as much as you do. Please, give me a chance to be your friend again, and to be Griff's friend."



She desperately hoped they would let her!! They were her friends, she did not want to loose them! Even though she was a Predacon, it was still okay to have friendship, and comraderie with people.



Unnamed Flyer spoke first. "Look, Tabby.......I don't really want to but........I can't!" she shrieked, amplifying her voice. After a few seconds, she had calmed down enough to speak normally again.



"I thought you were different than the others, I really did but...you showed me that you weren't because you tried to kill Griff. You might do it again. I am so sorry Tabby.....I mean Tabitha."



"Wazzpinator sorry too, Tabby-bot" Waspinator moaned mournfully. He looked sorry, and so did Unnamed Flyer. The two of them did not dare to look at her.



So that's it, Tabitha thought with a cold realization. My friends have abandoned me, and left me in a sea of bots who spend most of their time plotting my downfall, and that of Megatron's. My two best friends.....my only friends.....why did I have to shoot Griff?! Why?!?!



The winged feline walked out of the room, her heart heavy. Tabitha walked through one of the hallways to her quarters. She did not want to see her ex-friend's apologetic eyes anymore. She just did not want to see anybody.



Unfortunately, that was not to be the case. Demi-God popped up in front of her, followed sullenly by Guano. The two never seemed far apart.



"Tabitha, I must bequeath some information which I have located through many scanning relays and outposts" Demi-God said. "I beg of your assistance that you may go and saunter off with this mission of dire consequences in your cerebral net. It is imperative....."



"What is he trying to say Guano?" Tabitha asked, ignoring the bat/dactyl.



"I dunno" Guano replied. "But Megatron found some pods. An' he wants Unnamed Flyer 'n Waspinator 'n a couple of others to go get 'em."



"Thank you" Tabitha said, nodding gratefully. Demi-God snapped his beak shut, and slapped Guano on his spider head. Guano said a slow "ouch" and rubbed his head with one of his legs.



"So where is Unnamed Flyer?" Demi-God asked, speaking normally for a change.



"With Griff in the computer room" Tabitha replied.



"Of course, I should have known" Demi-God growled.



Demi-God ground his pointed teeth together, and his eyes glowed with the fire of rage. It was plain to Tabitha that the bat/dactyl was jealous of Griff. Insanely jealous.



Guano went off and summoned the two parents from the computer room, and the five of them went into the main room, to be given their orders.



Tabitha looked down at the fiery lava pits, and felt their heat scorch the pads on her feet. If she fell in her life would end, she knew. That might be why she had never liked the main room. The winged feline swished her dark blue tail nervously. She really would not mind going out to search for pods right now.



Megatron appeared. "Good, I want all five of you to search for the two stasis pods closest to us" he said briskly. "Serpentess, Blackarachnia and Terrorsaur have already gone off to get the one in Maximal territory. The pods closest to us are in sector J-65 and K-34."



"But Megatron, it's night time!" Unnamed Flyer exclaimed.



Megatron sighed. "Can't bats fly in the dark?" he asked, his annoyance clear to all present.



"Can they?" Unnamed Flyer asked, clearly confused. Demi-God slapped himself with the tip of his wing, and Megatron growled. Tabitha just smiled wistfully. That was something Unnamed Flyer would usually say. It seemed so dear to the feline, now that Unnamed Flyer was not her friend.



"Have you ever used echolocation?" Megatron asked.



"Nope" Unnamed Flyer said, shaking her head, which was an amazing feat considering she did not have much of a neck.



"Have you used any echolocation, Demi-God?" Megatron demanded.



"My dear pompous and overbearing leader" Demi-God began. " I am very regretful that I must enlighten you at such an unorthodox moment but-"



"The less than ten word version please!" Megatron snapped.



The bat/dactyl growled as some of the other Predacons snickered at him, Tabitha included.



"I don't think I have echolocation" Demi-God said. He paused. "There, that was six words. Pretty impressive, eh?"



"Bravo" Tabitha said, clapping un-enthusiastically. Demi-God pretended to bow.



"Enough!" Megatron shouted. Tabitha winced. Megatron was a good leader, but sometimes he could be very snappy. Maybe she should tell him that after they had found the pods.



"You must go find the-" Megatron began.



"Who'll look after baby-bot?" asked Waspinator worriedly.



"I will!" Demi-God said quickly, his eyes lighting up. Tabitha saw a gleam of scheming in his eyes. It was odd how much he looked like his father.......maybe she should tell him that sometime? She knew that would get him riled.



"I think I'd better" Tabitha interjected, glaring at Demi-God, who returned the glare. The kid had something cruel in his brain, Tabitha just knew it!



Unnamed Flyer and Waspinator looked between the two of them, not knowing who to choose.



"Eeeny, meeny, miny, moe-" Unnamed Flyer started out.



"Guano will look after Griff" Megatron shouted. "JUST GET THE PODS!!"



"But stupid spider-bot will-" Waspinator began, but the Predacon leader gave him a look of such fury that he was silenced.



Eager to escape Megatron's wrath, which could be as fiery as a lava pit, the four flyers flew out of the Predacon base.



Tabitha smiled, and transformed into beast mode. Oh, the night air was crisp and cool, and she loved it! And the stars were out too! They peppered the night. The moon was only a thumb-nail of silver, making the sky look like a children's collage.



She looked down at the world below her. Things were so black it was hard to see, it was like peering into an abyss. Other than the lava pits, which illuminated the abyss. The flying feline could barely make out the shapes of trees and mountains in the distance.



"Thizz izz going to be hard!" Waspinator buzzed unhappily. He scanned the area with his eyes for pods.



"I have infra-red" Tabitha said "that might help." She turned it on, seeing all red. To her, her comrades looked like bright orange globs, showing that there was body heat nearby. When Tabitha looked at the ground, she saw the the body-heat of woodland creatures, all glowing like small flames.



"Unnamed Flyer, if it is not a great offense upon your most diligent yet unworldly person-" Demi-God began.



"You know, when you speak the point is for people to UNDERSTAND you" Tabitha elaborated.



"It's not my fault that you people are uneducated swines" Demi-God said. If it was not for her infra-red, Tabitha guessed she would have seen the bat/dactyl's tight beaked smile.



"UF, try to use your slagging echolocation, it'll probably help a lot more" Demi-God commanded. Tabitha hated the way he always commanded people. It was like he could not ask them anything! Sometimes Tabitha felt quite sorry for Guano, who had to put up with his master's slag all day.



"My what?" Unnamed Flyer asked. There was a pause as she figured it out. "All right, yeesh, don't be pushy" Unnamed Flyer grumbled.



The bat let out an ear piercing screech. Tabitha flattened her ears against her head.



"Woah!" Unnamed Flyer said. "I just had a vision! It was a white outline of pointed things."



"It's what happens when your scream bounces back to you" Tabitha explained. "Those white outlines must be trees."



"Uh....thanks Tabby" the bat said, hesitating to thank her former friend. Tabitha felt a stab in her heart.



"Bat-bot cool Predacon" Waspinator said, approval evident in his voice.



"Yeah, I am!" Unnamed Flyer replied.



"Don't flatter yourself" Demi-God grumbled, but Tabitha caught it.



The winged feline looked down, and saw a large blob of something. A VERY large blob of something. Around her was supposed to be a coniferous forest.....was something that big supposed to be in a forest like this?



"Guys, let's go in closer, my infra-red is picking up something" Tabitha said, switching off her scanner.



"Wait!" Unnamed Flyer said. She let out another ear blasting screech. "A pod! I saw the outline of a pod! Down there in the brush."



The group of four did as she had said. Sure enough, Tabitha found herself and Unnamed Flyer right. There was a flash of grey metal.



The group of four flyers came in quickly. Unnamed Flyer transformed into robot mode and squinted at the computer.



"I can't see anything" the bat announced after a few minutes.



"We should have brought ant-bot, ant-bot makes firezz" Waspinator said. Tabitha chuckled.



Unnamed Flyer chuckled too. Demi-God just snorted, and mumbled something under his breath.



Even though she was literally as blind as a bat, Unnamed Flyer punched in a few codes.



"Programming codes accepted, protoform is now a Predacon" the pod's computer said.



"Woohoo!!" all of the Predacons shouted, except for Demi-God, who gave a half-hearted victory squawk.



The protoform emerged from it's pod.



Tabitha gave a long blink, to see if she did not have a bug in her optics. What she saw before her defied all nature, and all sensibility.



It was a giant, twelve feet high and twenty-four feet long dragon.



It's coloring was pure white, but it seemed silver in the moonlight. It looked like a normal creature, with four legs, and long neck, and an even longer tail.The dragon's muzzle was short and broad. On the tip of the muzzle was horn of pure ivory.



The dragon had four horns on it's head, two sprouting from above the eyebrows, and two more sprouting at the forehead, which were longer than the others. The eyes of the creature were large, and a deep, rich purple, right above and to the side of the muzzle. At both sides of the dragon's head there were three thin spikes, connected by two flaps of skin. This made it look like it had two short fish fins on either side of it's neck.



On the creature's long neck there was a main of long hair or fur, like a horse's mane. The mane started between the two long horns on the dragon's head, just as a little tuft of fur, but it grew. The mane of fur went down the back and stopped at the base of the tail. The tail was bare, but it looked long enough to be deadly.



On her belly were different kinds of scales then her top. The dragon's top scales were smooth and almost unrecognizable as scales. They were like fish like scales that shimmered, but her scales were pointed and grooved. The dragon's belly scales were like armored plates laid out on her belly and under her neck and tail. At both sides of these armored plates were short points, and then the smooth other scales came back.



The creature's legs were like those of a mammal's, and not splayed out like a lizard's. There were long claws at the end of them. Of course, the white creature had two large wings, with white spikes at the end of the membranes. On the creature's elbows there were large spikes.



Tabitha closed her jaw, which she had not realized had been open. This was so weird! It was like the Beast Wars had turned into some Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game. But then, she supposed, she herself must have looked very odd to the other members of the Predacon fleet.



"Where am I?" the dragon asked, in a deep, feminine voice. The dragon arched her long neck and looked at her body. "What am I?" the dragon exclaimed. Then, she focused her purple eyes on the Predacons. "And who are you?!"



"We are Predacons" Tabitha replied. "And so are you. We must recover another stasis pod, will you come with us?"



"I might as well" the dragon said.



"Having a creature the size of two horses would certainly improve our chances of success" Demi-God said.



The dragon snorted out something white, which landed on the ground beside Demi-God. The ground immediately crystallized. The bat/dactyl yelped and moved a bit farther away from the creature.



"You can breath ice?" Unnamed Flyer asked, her eyes wide.



"Evidently I can" the dragon said, an amused smile on it's face.



"Can I do some medical tests on you?" the bat asked, transforming into her beast mode. Her black eyes shinned. Tabitha smiled. This creature would be any biologist's and scientist's dream come true. And Unnamed Flyer was a dedicated biologist and scientist.



"I will consider it" the dragon said, raising an eyebrow. "But, now I need a name." The creature went up on her hind legs, shimmering silver, along with the stars and moon. It opened it's glistening wings.



"I am a dragon, powerful and strong. I can breath ice. I come from the coldest and deepest depths of the abyss, spawned at night with the stars to watch my back. I reflect all light and fracture it, absorbing it into myself as it touches me. I am like a crystal. Crystal I am, and Crystal shall be my name. Let the world hear my roar!" A loud roar emitted from Crystal's throat, and it was carried on by the night air.



It was a while before any of them could speak. It seemed they were under a dragon-spell, a spell of awe and enchantment. Tabitha shook her head and wondered if Crystal could actually cast spells. Could she? Did she have magic, like that Maximal Firecat?



"A most pompous entrance, with a direct touch of some late Victorian operetta, or perhaps a musica-" Demi-God commented.Before he was finished, Crystal shot some ice at him, this time nearly hitting him.



Demi-God coughed. "Very dramatic" he said quickly.



"You're not so much of an entree as I first thought" Crystal said, putting her front feet onto the ground with a huge thud.



"Nice name" Tabitha commented, smiling. Crystal nodded her agreement.



"I believe there was another pod you were asked to find?" the dragon asked casually, making them realize their business.



"Dragon-bot izz right!" Waspinator cried, suddenly busy. Tabitha nodded.



"Let's get moving!" she said. The five flyers took off. Crystal made miniature whirlwinds as she flapped her wings.



After a lot of searching, infra-red scanning, and ear splitting echolocation from Unnamed Flyer, the group got near the location of another pod.



It was near the mountains.



Tabitha could see the black shapes in front of her, blocking out the stars. It could be pretty treacherous here, they could wham into the side of a mountain.



"We're going to need your echolocation pretty badly, UF" she said.



"Gotcha!" the bat replied. She screamed a few times.



"Okay" Unnamed Flyer said. "To the left.....no right.....no....umm..."



"Which way?!" yelped Waspinator in exasperation.



"Follow me" Unnamed Flyer said, and made a ninety degree turn to her left. Waspinator had to stop himself and turn around. Demi-God followed his mother's lead without hesitation, he was that good an athlete. Tabitha almost flew into the mountain but missed by a hair's breadth.



There was a thud. Tabitha turned around and saw Crystal smack her side on the rock face. The dragon shook it's head and followed the others, a little bit slowly. Tabitha turned her attention back to Unnamed Flyer, who was using her echolocation like there was no tomorrow.



"This way" the bat called, banking to the left again. This time, Tabitha was prepared, and she swerved away from the mountain side with room to spare.



Under the vampire bat's careful, if somewhat muddled guidance, the group of five managed to avoid the looming mountains. They also managed to find the stasis pod.



This one was empty.



"Where izz protoform?" Waspinator asked, looking back and forth.



"I am right here" came a voice from the shadows. Suddenly, a cougar with big brown wings pounced at Demi-God. The bat/dactyl and the eagle/cougar were a mass of tangled limbs, but it turned out the new bot was getting the upper hand.



"You could help!" Demi-God snapped, stabbing the cougar with his beak.



"We wouldn't mind if you got slagged" Tabitha began. "But, I'm a nice bot, so I'll let you go." Tabitha pounced on the Fuzor, knocking the cat off Demi-God.



"Lemme go! I wanna tackle that jerk some more!" the cougar snapped, growling.



"We'd all like to" Tabitha replied, eliciting a few laughs from the other three Predacons and a squawk from Demi-God. She got off the cougar and let her stand up.



Under closer inspection, the cougar was a very formidable warrioress. The cat was a cinnamon color, it's fur compact and close to it's body. There was a patch of white on it's jowls, and black on the sides of the top part of the jaw. That patch of white went underneath the chin and down underneath the belly. The cougar was bigger than Tabitha, with muscular legs and a strong back. The cougar's head was smaller then it's body, which was quite thick, with a very long tail. It's wings were a deep brown. The cougar/eagle's eyes were a deep, wine-red, and they glowed in the light.



"What allegiance are you?" Tabitha asked.



"I have no idea, but if you hurt me...." the tan cat growled, leaving her sentence dangling in mid-air as a threat.



"What's your name?" Unnamed Flyer asked.



"My old name used to be........Doomsday" the cougar said.



Tabitha gasped. She had heard that name before! She knew she had! Where had it been? Her memory circuits crackled to life, and the blue and black feline remembered a fragment of her past. But what an important fragment it was.



"Doomsday!" she cried. "Don't you remember me? My old name was Aeris! You're my sister!"



Doomsday stood silent for a few minutes. Then a smile broke over her cougar face.



"Sis!" she cried, pouncing on Tabitha, and making her fall down on the rocky mountain path. Tabitha did not mind though, she laughed, and nuzzled her sister's neck happily.



Her sister was back! Well, the two of them were not really sisters, but they had been programmed at the exact same time by Vector Sigma. They were the first people they had known, and the two of them had stuck together like glue. Doomsday and Aeris had been different, of course. Doomsday was more of a warrior, and loved fighting a lot. Aeris had been more of a peace keeper, and more friendly. But still, they had had a bond between them, and it was a bond of sisterhood.



Doomsday allowed her sister to get up and shake herself. "Look at you" the cougar said. "All spiffy in your new beast mode. Whew! I never thought I'd see the day you could transform into a little kitty cat! What's your allegiance?"



"I'm a Pred" Tabitha replied. "You're gonna join me, right?" she asked fearfully.



"No duh!" Doomsday said, laughing a deep laugh. She looked down at her cougar form. "Hmm....I think I'll get another name" she said. After a few minutes of thought she announced it.



"Jungura!" the cougar/eagle said.



"Wonderful, just wonderful!" Tabitha commented.



"Yeah, well I am wonderful" Jungura said, grinning. Tabitha laughed. That was her sister all right.



Tabitha introduced her sister to the other members of the Predacon fleet with her. Jungura seemed to be a bit nervous around Crystal, because of the dragon's large size. She seemed to like Waspinator and Unnamed Flyer, though. Demi-God, she did not like, that much was obvious.



"Come on, let's get back to the base" Tabitha said, eager to introduce her sister to the rest of the Predacons.



And, just eager to be with her sister.



*************************



When the bot first stepped out of her pod, she noticed three things.



One was that she was a bird. A soft brown bird. She had a straight beak, and two dark brown eyes. Her legs were the same dark brown as her eyes, and her claws were black. The bird she was did not look like the predatory type.



Two was that she was on a very beautiful planet, with stars above her and a black sky. There were some large trees around her, and a few rocks. It was indeed lovely.



The third was that there was a fight going on.



Three bots, one red and white, another one yellow and black, and the third tan and brown, were shooting at three other bots. One of the bots was brown with a dark grey face, the other one was a yellow and deep green, and the other bot was silver and white.



"We get the last laugh you Preda-morons!" the green and yellow one shouted. "The protoform's a Maximal, you idiots!"



Maximal.....yes, she was one! The bot grinned. Those three must be Maximals.



"Yeah, well we can still chop the head off of this chicken!" the red and white bot shouted. That one was obviously a Predacon. He shot at her. The bird jumped up into the air and flapped her wings indignantly. That stupid jerk!



"I'm not a chicken!" the bot shouted. "Um....." she stumbled. What was a good name? The bird looked around and saw a tree in full flower. The flowers were white. What kind were they? Suddenly, the female found her name.



"Lotus, Maximize!"the bird shouted.



Lotus transformed into her robot mode. She looked down at herself. Lotus was emerald green all over. The only places that she was not green she was silver. These places were on her fingers, her face, her jets, her knee caps and elbow joints and her feet. It made her look like some kind of roller-blader, one without a helmet. The female's optics were red and huge. Lotus had no nose, just a bump on her face. The Maximal had a small mouth. She had two separate eyebrows over her eyes, other than her head was and emerald green and smooth. Lotus was small, but that made her agile and quick.



So quick that she whipped out her gun and shot the red and white bot all in one movement. He got hit in the chest.



"You little sneak!" he shouted, and opened fire on her. Lotus dodged from most of the bullets, but two get her on her left side.



One of the Maximals, another bird by the looks of it, quickly flew over and shot the red and white Predacon with two wrist missiles.



"Preds just never learn" the other bird said to Lotus, smiling.



"Tsk, it's a pity, being so dense" Lotus replied. The other flyer laughed.



"Maximals, always blabbing away when they're supposed to be fighting!" said the yellow and black Predacon, obviously a female by the looks of her chest.



She fired at Lotus with some guns attached to her legs, that acted like machine guns. Lotus and the other Maximal tried to get away, but the bullets cascaded over them.



"Blackarachnia, stop please!" called the white and silver Maximal, who was worried.



"Shut up Silverbolt!" the female Predacon replied, turning to face him.



Without further fanfare, Lotus took out a small gun and shot the Predacon, while the Maximal right next to her shot her with her wrist missiles. The Predacon did not have time to dodge away, and she fell down.



"Fellow beasts, a little help?" shouted the green and yellow bot, who was being shot at by the tan and brown Predacon, who was carrying a ray gun that spat out red rays. The Maximal looked like he was indeed having a bit of trouble.



"I will try Cheetor" said the Maximal named Silverbolt "but it is wrong to shoot a female in my Book of Honor."



"Your Book of Honor isn't doing me any favors, sorry to say it" the bot named Cheetor replied. He howled in pain as the Predacon blasted him in the chest.



"Help is on the way!" Lotus shouted, diving at the last remaining Predacon. The bird took out her whip and grabbed the Predacon's arm with it, stopping her from shooting again.



The other flying Maximal shot at the Predacon with a quasar this time. Lotus took out a sword and stabbed the female Pred in the gut. As usual, this Predacon fell down, unconscious.



Lotus and the other flying Maximal landed on the ground where the other two Maximals were.



"Thanks!" Cheetor nodded gratefully. He clutched his chest with a grimace of pain. "I needed that."



"Glad to help" Lotus said smiling. "I'd do anything for the Maximal team."



"I am sorry I could not have helped you more, my friend" Silverbolt said, giving Cheetor an apologetic glance.



"No sweat" Cheetor replied.



"Thank you" Silverbolt replied. "For now is no time for grievances. Let us welcome the new Maximal into our ranks!"



Silverbolt bent down and kissed Lotus' hand. Lotus felt her cheeks grow warm. She could tell she liked this bot already.



"My name is Silverbolt, as you have no doubt guessed" he said, getting up off the ground.



"My name's Cheetor" the bot said with an enthusiastic smile. Lotus smiled back.



"And I'm Air Razor" the Maximal next to her said. "It's nice to have another bird in the force."



"It's great to be here" Lotus said.



"Let's take you back to the base, I'm sure we've got a room for you" Cheetor said. The four of them transformed into beast mode. Lotus could see that Air Razor was a peregrine falcon. Silverbolt was.....well, he looked like a wolf with wings and with the front legs of a bird of prey. Cheetor was.....a metallic cat?! This was something she would have to look into.



The four Maximals took to the night sky, to begin their journey back to the base.



********************



It was daytime.



And Megatron was extremely tired.



He had been up all night waiting for his troops to get back with the stasis pods. And it did not help that Scorpinok had alerted him of the fallen pods around midnight. So, near dawn, when his troops had come back with the new warriors he had told them to find a room and go to sleep, and that he would see them in the morning.



After that he had tried to get some sleep. But then, Terrosaur, Blackarachnia and Serpentess had barged in, and announced their failure to recapture the third pod. Megatron, his anger tempered by lack of sleep, had slammed Terrorsaur against the wall, and shouted at the three of them to get out of his sight.



By the time he had finished with that, dawn had risen, and he could only catch a few hours of sleep before he had to review his new troops.



So, Megatron was in a bad mood.



He stepped out into the sunlight, blinking his optics. The Predacon leader looked at one of the new recruits. This one was a giant white dragon, about twelve feet high. And this Predacon was only in it's beast mode.



"Greetings Megatron" the dragon said, in a deep voice that had a feminine touch to it, but a small touch. " I am Crystal."



"Do you have any functions?" Megatron asked, still a bit awed by the size of the creature.



"I can be a good reconnaissance, and of course a power hitter" Crystal said, stabbing the volcanic ground with her claws. Crystal blew out some ice near Megatron's feet.



"Hmm, that will be quite useful for tactical advantages, yesss" Megatron said.



It would also be quite useful for sending me to the Pitt and taking command of the Predacons, he thought as he eyed the dragon some more. I had better keep a close watch on this beast, because she does not look like the loyal kind.



"There is one problem though" Crystal said.



"And what is that?" Megatron asked.



"I can't fit in the base's front door, or the roof hatch" the dragon said. "I tried last night."



"Now this is a delima, isn't it?" Megatron said. After a few minutes of thought, he told her his plan.



"I think it would be best if you made yourself a permanent scout, and only came to the base if truly necessary" Megatron announced. "We can set up some laser relay stations for you to contact us with."



And it would also be keeping away another potential threat, Megatron thought. But, if Crystal remains so far away, how can I keep an eye on her?! This could have disastrous consequences! If only I was a bit more awake.........



"May I see you in your robot mode?" the Predacon leader asked.



The dragon nodded. "Crystal, terrorize!" she shouted, and unfolded into her robot mode.



Crystal had shrunk. Now she was only two inches taller than Megatron, instead of six feet. This relieved Megatron considerably.



Crystal was pure white in bot mode, with purple optics. Her face was broad and mostly flat, except for a sharp, jutting nose. She had no eyebrows, but her eyes were still wide. Over the female's eyes were two short horns, and on her head were two longer horns, like her beast mode had.



Crystal was stocky and thick as well as being tall, and she looked like a female Goliath. Down her back was a metallic version of her mane. She still held her beast mode wings on her back, except they, like the rest of her body, had been reduced in size. On the dragon's elbows were two longs spikes, and there were long spikes on her knees too. Crystal's feet had dragonish claws at the end. Her fingers did not have any claws, they were just normal fingers.



For weapons Crystal had a large bazooka, and two shoulder mounted missile launchers. She also had another gun that, while not as big as her bazooka, could still inflict a lot of damage. There was steam rising from that gun, and Megatron guessed it to be a gun that shot out ice.



Even though she was smaller now, Megatron guessed in a fight with her, she would probably come out the victor.



"Now I presume you can fit in the base" the Transmetal t-rex said. "I don't think you would need to be a permanent scout any longer."



Crystal took a few steps inside the base, then jumped out, shaking the ground.



"I don't like it" she said. "It's too hot. Fire makes me......uncomfortable. I think I'll take my chances as a permanent scout."



Crystal transformed into beast mode, and Megatron cursed himself. There had to be a way to keep watch over that dragon! Could he send one of his loyal troops out? No, not one of them was subtle enough to be a spy. Tabitha might be able to, but he required her services around the base, because she was his only intelligent follower. And if he sent any other Predacon they would probably work with Crystal to overthrow him. Blast! Megatron felt like hitting something.



"Are you sure you won't reconsider?" he asked of the dragon.



"I am very sure" Crystal replied. "My mind is set on this goal. I do not wish to offend you, but I am afraid I might......frighten off some of your more timid Predacons. This is the best way. When I have found a lair suitable for my size and tastes I will fly back to you and report it's location. You must then send me the necessary components to make at least five or seven laser relay stations."



With that speech finished, Crystal took to the air, kicking up ashes and soot and almost blinding Megatron. The t-rex snarled. She had only been introduced to him for seven minutes and already she was acting like she owned the fleet! This would never do, no........



"Ahem, over here Megatron" came a voice below him. Megatron glanced down. He had almost forgotten there was another troop to be surveyed.



This one was a cougar with eagle wings. It's eyes were deep red, and it had the look of one with strength and cunning. Tabitha was standing beside the new Predacon.



"And you are?" Megatron asked.



"My name's Jungura, pleased to meet you Megs" the Fuzor said. "My sis told me all about you."



"Tabitha is your...." Megatron trailed off.



"No, not real sister" Tabitha said quickly. "It's just, we're so close we feel like sisters."



"Of course" Megatron said, nodding. Honestly, sometimes he thought Tabitha was more of a Maximal than a Predacon! But, he could tolerate that spark of goodness inside her. Tabitha was after all, a very charming creature. And sometimes firm bonds with people could be useful on occasion. Just not usually.



"Well, I am glad you have a history with one of my best troops" Megatron said to Jungura. He saw Tabitha shift her weight shyly.



"May I see your weapons, please?" Megatron asked.



Jungura nodded, and transformed. She was basically a dark red, bright red and black robot. The black parts of her body were her rear end and her really long metallic tail unlike her sister's tail, which detached and became a whip, Jungura's tail was still on her body. The other black parts were her wrists and hands, her shoulder blades, the outline of her wings and her feet.



The dark red parts of her body were her chest, the outline of her face, the inside of her wings and her neck.



The bright red parts were: Jungura's face, her claws, and her fingers. Other bright red parts on her body were her arms, her legs, parts of her chest, and a sharp point at the end of her metallic tail.



Jungura's optics were a bright yellow. They were around medium size, so she looked kind of innocent. Her face was narrow and sleek, her nose was the same size as Blackarachnia's, which meant it was small. Her mouth was average sized.



Her limbs were sleek, yet strong. She had a red spike on the end of her tail and black spikes on her shins, where her feet started. On her shoulder blades, there were black spikes also. They protected her arms and shoulders.



For weapons, Jungura had a large sword with a red handle. Other than that, she had a plasma blaster, like her sister, and wing missiles as well. There were two compartments on her arms, one for bombs and one for grenades. She also took two things that looked like glowing balls of energon with hooks on them.



"What are those?" Megatron asked, raising an eyebrow.



"Energon charges" Jungura replied. "They recharge weakened sparks and give bots temporary strength. After I use one they need to be re-filled with some more energon. And the charges are only good if the person is near death. What can I say? I'm a part time medic."



Megatron nodded. The feline had a lot of weapons, as well as energon charges. That was good.



"What are your specialities?" Megatron asked.



"Well, beating up people who I hate is my best asset" Jungura said with a grin. "Other than that, I'm the best at sneaking around. Even though I'm big, I am still light on my feet."



Suddenly, inspiration came to Megatron.



"Jungura, how loyal are you to me?" he asked. It might be bold if he asked such a question, but he needed it answered.



"If you're the bot that my sister has been telling me about, I'd give you my life" Jungura said, making a low bow.



"I assure you I am" Megatron said with a smile. More loyal people were always good.



"I want you to be a permanent scout, along with Crystal" he said. "You don't exactly have to work with her, but try to keep an eye on her. Find a lair close to where hers is, or as close as possible. Report any suspicious activity to me. I will give you a personal long-field communicator that Unnamed Flyer has whipped up just in case I might need it. That way you won't need to use the scanning relays. Can I trust you with this?"



"Sure!" Jungura said, saluting in her beast mode. Then she glanced at Tabitha. "I really would like to stay with my sister though" she pleaded.



"I will allow Tabitha to visit you whenever she pleases" Megatron said. Jungura and Tabitha both looked at him, joy in their eyes and smiling big cat smiles.



"Really?" Tabitha asked.



"Yes, but I might need to call you back as well, if an emergency arises" Megatron cautioned.



"If one does I'll be back in a jiff!" Tabitha said. "Thanks Megatron! See Jung, I told you he was the best leader!"



"I'm beginning to see why" Jungura said.



"Can I go with her to find a lair, please?" Tabitha asked. "I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise."



"Very well" Megatron said. "I don't see why you can't."



"Yahoo!" Tabitha and Jungura shouted. The two of them jumped into the air and took off.



Megatron smiled. He just felt good about himself, seeing the two sisters off like that. He knew Blackarachnia would say he was being soft, but he did not want to think about her right now.



Megatron yawned. Right now, he wanted to get to sleep.



********************

Jade was wondering about the new Predacons.



What are they like? They're probably a lot better than me. Everyone is. I stink.



At least I can shoot, came another voice in his head.



And I keep having conversations in my head! the first part thought. I'm some sort of freak! I hate being a freak, it is so annoying.



Jade stopped thinking to himself, and looked at the scenery below him. He hoped to calm his shifty mind.



He succeeded, for a little while. There were some beautiful valleys below him, as well as some beautiful mountains. He could even see some mountain goat in the craggy peaks, baa-ing and bleating. The valleys held wonderful amounts of green, most of it darker than he himself was.



The dragon grinned, and caught an updraft. He sailed even higher than he had been before. This would be a wonderful place to make a lair, if he ever was going to.



Suddenly, the wind underneath Jade ceased to carry him. He tucked his wings close to his side and did a barrel roll for a few seconds. Quickly he opened his wings, and caught another air current. He flapped this time, to make sure he did not fall again.



That was stupid, Jade reprimanded himself. I'm always stupid, wish I wasn't. But I am. Stupid dragon!



It's weird, how the Predacons always get the best people, and we're always stuck with the wimpy ones, Jade thought, trying to divert his one sided conversation away from his stupidity.



Oh great, I called Lotus stupid! another side of Jade retorted. Lotus isn't stupid, she's cool. A lot more cool than I am. Because I'm stupid.



Maybe I should see a shrink, Jade wondered.



Where am I going to find one? he thought after a few seconds. This is a ball of dirt, there are no shrinks here. It's a pretty ball of dirt, but it's still dirt.



Jade grumbled. He was starting to get the sneaky suspicion that he was skitzophrenic. Which really would mean he was a freak, and that was something he hated being immensely.



It was not just his beast form that made him a freak. Well, that played a large part in his freakiness. He wore his emotions in his eyes, so that anyone could see what he was feeling just by looking at his eyes and seeing what color they were. Jade had heard Rhinox say to Optimus that his eyes changed very rapidly, and Rhinox had guessed he had mood swings.



Mood swings, no duh! Jade thought. Before another side of his brain could respond, he heard a roar echo across the mountains.



The dragon swooped lower, wondering what the roar was about. He flapped his wings quickly, scanning the area below him. He could not see anything



Great, now I'm hearing things, Jade thought.



I remember that on Cybertron the insane were treated with the utmost dignity, another part of him responded. A padded room might be nice for me. I couldn't bother anyone there, and no one would have to see my face. If I got back to Cybertron, that is.



Jade considered that possibility with a bit of joviality. He smiled. Padded rooms, who would have thought.......



Jade heard the roar again. This time, it was right behind him. The Maximal whipped his head around to see a large, white........dragon?! Another dragon, on Earth?



Apparently it was. And it's jaws were open and it was heading straight towards him.



"Die Maximal!" the dragon shouted. Jade understood. So that was it, the dragon was a Predacon! Of course, that was not very comforting.



Jade flew in a straight line, planning to dodge to the right and do a quick dive. Then he would come up again and circle around the Predacon, transform and shoot it.



Unfortunately, he never got his plans into action. A blast of cold took him from behind. He fell down, his wings and back legs frozen. Another blast of cold flew over him, and this time Jade fainted from the shock.

*********************



Tigatron looked at his daughter. Little Birch was walking beside him, rubbing up against his foreleg. Tigatron smiled, and licked his daughter's neck. The tiger/falcon rubbed up against him some more, and fell flat on her face.



Tigatron quickly grabbed his child in his teeth and set her down on all four feet. Birch mewed and shook her head, as if clearing her eyes. The white tiger noticed proudly that his daughter did not cry. He licked her face, and she sat down as she was bathed.



The white tiger looked at the world around him. It was beautiful, as nature always was. No matter what, Earth's beauty never ceased to amaze him. There was always something new to be found.



Right now he was leading her through a savanna of golden grasses and few trees. The sky was a lovely light blue. The clouds were fluffy and playful, like wind blown mashed potatoes. There was a hill in front of the two Transformers. On the hill a herd of meerkats ran to their burrows at the sight of the Maximals.



"Mew!" Birch said. Tigatron looked at his daughter again. It seemed she was hardly every curious, and that she would rather be next to people she loved than exploring the world around her. That was fine, but Tigatron was a bit worried. Babies were supposed to be a bit more curious, were they not? He did not really know, because he had never been a father before. And he did not think either Satin or Dinobot would be of help.



"Birch" Tigatron said. "Look at the skies. Look at the white, fleecy clouds. If you look hard enough, you can see pictures in them. When you are older, I will tell you about them. I will tell you all I know about nature, and about life. So will your mother. Because we both love you and want the best for you."



"Meow! Purr....." Birch said, rubbing up against her father, as if saying "I love you too."



"Which reminds me, we should get back to the base" Tigatron said. He did not want Birch to fry in the afternoon sun, especially not on the savanna. Tigatron picked his daughter up in his mouth.



He did not see the two shapes flying over him. And it was a bad thing he did not.



**********************



Jungura swung her sword at her sister, who dodged away.



"Come on, you've got the sword, you're more powerful" Tabitha said, dodging another swipe.



"Use your whip, you can make it hard like a staff" Jungura replied.



"I just don't want to hurt you" Tabitha said, a bit fearfully.



"Don't worry" Jungura said, shrugging. "Live a little, take a few risks!"



"You asked for it!" Tabitha said, laughing. She hit Jungura in the arm with her tail whip. She had made it strong and tight, and Jungura's arm hurt. But she did not show her sister.



"All right Tabby, face my wrath!" Jungura replied, slashing at her with her sword. Tabitha blocked with her whip. A few times they dodged, blocked and parried and dodged some more.



Jungura grinned. She had missed these constant play fights with her sister. Back on Cybertron, they had many of them, all for fun of course. She had been a Maximal, but Jungura had been a pretty violent one, and Tabitha had changed a bit, to suit her more violent friend.



Jungura decided to halt the play fighting.



"Let's stop" she said. "I don't want to fight anymore. I just want to talk to my sister."



The two flying felines transformed into beast mode. Jungura flapped her wings, trying to keep herself steady. She was still a little shaky on her wings, even though she hoped it would pass.



Jungura had to marvel again about how different the two of them looked in beast mode.



In robot mode they were both skinny and, other than their colors, their faces looked somewhat the same. Their eyes were different colors, and Jungura had huge claws on her hands, but other than that their feet and limbs and hands were the same.



Tabitha's face in her robot mode was a purple color. Her optics are big and innocent looking. They were a bright, neon green. Her nose was the average size, and her face was narrow. She did not have a big mouth. She did not have any eyebrows, but she had a silvery tiara, with a point on the top. This tiara went all the way around her head, and it could not be removed, it was only there for decoration.



Her upper body and torso were sleek and she had a very big chest, as did Jungura. She had huge azure wings that were nearly bigger then her body. Her arms were sleek and strong. Tabitha's hands were purple, like her face was, and so were her feet. The rest of Tabitha's body was a dark blue, with her breasts and stomach black.



Her body was very sleek and skinny, maing Tabitha very acrobatic and fast. Her streamlined body also was good for stealth missions just like Jungura's. Sneaking into buildings had been a favourite pastime for the two sisters. Tabitha was very good at martial arts, but Jungura is way better at fighting and shooting. Tabitha was really good at flight and was light and good at making sharp turns and swift movements.



For her bottom half, she had really sleek and strong legs. On her shins there were huge spikes for kneeing people where the least expected it. These spikes were blue but outlined in black.



Her tail whip was attatched to her waist with a clamp. She had shoulder mounted cannons. Her wing missiles looked like Silverbolt's except they were blue. Tabitha had a blue plasma blaster with a black gun barrel.



In beast mode, their differences were quite noticeable, other than the obvious difference such as fur color.



Tabitha was the skinnier and narrower of the two. Her legs were longer, but slimmer, than Jungura's. Tabitha's ears were pointed, Jungura's were rounded. Tabitha had a longish muzzle, for a cat anyway, because she looked like she was part Siamese cat. Jungura had a short, round muzzle. Tabitha had small paws, Jungura had large ones. Both of them had long tails, but the cougar/eagle Fuzor's tail was thicker. Tabitha's fur, while not long, was a bit longer than Jungura's, and if ruffled in the wind. The two sisters both had huge wings, but Jungura's were a bit bigger, because Jungura was a bit heavier than her sister.



Jungura felt a bit jealous of how.....wonderfully colored Tabitha was. Her top half was a dark blue. It was not as deep as royal blue, but it was not as light as normal blue. Underneath her chin and on her belly Tabitha's fur was a deep black. Tabitha's wings were a beautiful azure blue. And of course, Tabitha had a light purple, five pointed star on her forehead. All Jungura was was cinnamon, white and brown, with a bit of black. But, she did not complain.



"So, what is the Pred fleet REALLY like?" Jungura asked. She had been wondering that for quite some time now. "Give me all the dirt, and don't be shy."



Tabitha smiled. She did a loop-dee-loop in the air, then turned to face her sister.



"Well, Inferno and Crimson are both Megatron's mindless servants" Tabitha began. "Scorpinok is a pretty good scientist, even though he seems pretty stupid. He can control the mind of Terrorsaur, and Terrorsaur can control him."



"Woah! Somebody call the exorcist!" Jungura said, laughing. "That's pretty weird, how did that happen?"



"I really don't know" Tabitha replied, shrugging her shoulders. "Anyway because of this, Megatron has kind of demoted Scorpinok, who used to be his second-in-command.



"Terrorsaur is a schemer, but he's also a coward. Stick a gun to his head and he'll spill the beans on his latest plot. He tried to take over the Preds a couple of times, but it didn't work. Megatron stopped him."



Jungura looked closely at her sister. She could see they way Tabitha's eyes light up every time she mentioned Megatron. Jungura smiled secretly to herself. So, Tabitha had a little crush on the Predacon leader, did she? Well, that was interesting! Jungura could understand why though, Megatron seemed like one great leader.



"Quickstrike" Tabitha continued "I don't like him. All he wants to do is fight, anytime, anywhere."



"All I want to do is fight, anytime, anywhere" Jungura said.



"No, you're a lot better than this guy, believe me!" the black and blue feline said. "I mean this guy REALLY loves fighting. He's a fighting addict. You LIKE fighting, but you can live without it."



Jungura nodded. That was true. She might have to check this Quickstrike guy out, to see how insane he was.



"Serpentess and Blackarachnia are probably Megatron's, and our, two greatest threats" Tabitha warned. "Blackarachnia is a ninja, not as strong as you or me, but still fast and deadly. And very smart. She's not very good with technological things though, so that's a drawback.



"Serpentess is an assassin, she is silent and deadly, just like Blackarachnia. Serpentess pretends to be loyal to Megatron, but everyone knows she isn't. She is very, very creepy."



"Our third greatest threat is Tarantulus" Tabitha said. "But, he got himself exiled from the Predacons. He's supposed to be this crazy guy. Megatron told me some stories about him, and I think that he is very crazy."



"Any other threats?" Jungura asked.



"Well," Tabitha said " this might sound a bit paranoid, but I think Demi-God can be a bit worrisome."



Jungura burst out laughing. "Demi-God?! That little wimp? He couldn't shoot worth squat!"



"Still, I don't like him" Tabitha said. "He could be dangerous. I'm hoping he has his father's misfortune though. Demi-God is extremely proud and pompous, he speaks with lots of big words. He thinks he's the best, but really he's not. Demi-God isn't that strong.



"But his servant, Guano, is."



"Guano?!" Jungura said, roaring out laughter. "Did he name himself?!" Jungura almost lost control of her wings, she was laughing so hard. Ow, her sides ached! But it was so funny!



"No, Demi-God named him" Tabitha said. "Guano is strong, but stupid. I mean, really stupid. Demi-God is his master. Sometimes I feel pretty sorry for Guano. I'd like to be his friend, but Guano has an attitude problem, and hates everybody."



"With a name like that, who wouldn't?" Jungura said. Tabitha laughed with her.



"Then there's Rampage" Tabitha said. Jungura could tell by the tones of Tabitha's voice that this guy was really freaky. "He has an indestructible spark" Tabitha said. "He can't die. And he's some sort of evil psychopath, who wouldn't hesitate to kill anybody. Luckily, Megatron holds his spark, so we hardly have anything to worry about."



"This guy does sound freaky" Jungura said. Tabitha nodded. Jungura continued. "So, what about Waspinator and Unnamed Flyer? What are they like?"



Tabitha sighed. Jungura could see sadness in her eyes.



"What's wrong?" the cougar asked worriedly.



"Unnamed Flyer and Waspinator used to be my friends" Tabitha said. "They might have been stupid and foolish to other Predacons, but I liked them. They were my best friends."



"Unnamed Flyer is a scientist and a biologist. She knows a lot about anatomy of animals and bots and stuff. Unnamed Flyer is kind of like a doctor in some ways. She likes to dissect animals for fun. She was kind of forgetful, and lots of Preds called her a ditz."



"Waspinator thinks he's the greatest Predacon. Sometimes I think he is. He's nice, but he isn't treated very well, so he complains a lot."



"I know they don't sound like much but....slag, they were my friends! They cared for me, and I cared for them. They were nice, and funny because they were so idiotic. I got to know them so well.....and they're not my friends anymore."



Tabitha explained the story of how she had shot Griff to Jungura. The cougar/eagle looked at her sister. She had never thought Tabitha would ever try to harm anything.



Tabitha was the nicest Predacon she knew of. Tabitha was friendly and open. Sure she acted like a Maximal sometimes, but still, even Maximals had their good sides. The cougar felt Tabitha's pain.



"I swear to the Matrix that I'll make them regret ever hurting you" Jungura growled, and nuzzled her sister's neck.



"No don't Jung!" Tabitha said. "They might be my ex-friends, but I don't want you to hurt them."



Jungura sighed. "Fine" she said. She really wanted to see her sister released from her pain, but violence was not the way to do it. "You know, whatever happens, I'll be there for you" Jungura said.



"I know" Tabitha nodded. She looked at the ground below her.



"Hey Jung, look down there!" she cried.



Jungura looked below her. She saw a sea of gold, broken by a few trees and.....a white tiger? Jungura blinked and looked again. What was a tiger doing on the savanna? Tigers inhabited jungles, not plains.



"Unless it's....." Jungura whispered.



"It's Tigatron" Tabitha explained. "He's a flower child, and never likes hurting things."



Jungura chuckled. "Well, I do. And he's gonna realize that, to his misfortune!" The cougar/eagle Fuzor swooped down into a dive, but Tabitha flew in front of her. Jungura had to swerve to the side quickly, to avoid hitting her sister.



"He's got his child with him!" Tabitha said. "Birch is with him."



"And that's why I can't hurt him?" Jungura asked. She sighed. Even though she would have liked beating the Maximal up, she admitted that she would feel pretty guilty if she hurt a child.



And my sister did......Jungura thought with a shiver. Tabitha must have gone through some changes ever since she got out of her stasis pod. What has changed my sister, my peace-loving, non-violent sister?



Tabitha must have guessed Jungura's thoughts. She said "sis, I think the time I shot Griff, that was just a fluke. I mean, I felt pretty bad afterwards, and I felt pretty bad before I shot Griff too. Sis, I'm not cruel, I never was. But, for one moment, I just thought that I.....that the other Preds would like me, if I acted like them. That I'd be normal."



"Sis, you're normal to me" Jungura said. So that was what was bothering Tabitha! She felt excluded.



"Thanks Jung" Tabitha said, smiling at her sister.



"So, because Tigatron has his kid, we can't attack him?" Jungura repeated, turning the conversation back to the immediate delima.



"No" Tabitha said, excitement building in her voice. "I've got a perfect idea! We'll take Birch and Tigatron back to the base. Tigger, we can hurt, but we have to spare Birch. Then, we'll reprogram Birch into a Predacon. I'll give Birch to UF and Waspy. They'll be my friends again! Sis, I'll have my friends back! And Griff will have his sister!"



Jungura nodded and grinned. Slag, if it made her sister this happy she would be a fool not to go along with this plan!



"Jungura, terrorize!" the cougar/eagle shouted.



"Tabitha, terrorize!" Tabitha shouted, their voices blending together.



Jungura saw Tigatron look up quickly, then maximize into his robot mode.



"Hey Stripes!" Jungura called. "You can't beat both of us! Were the Cat Sistas, and we are ready to kick your fuzzy butt!"



"I'd like to see you try, Predacon!" Tigatron shouted back.



"Watch us!" Jungura replied. She circled around to Tigatron's backside. While she was maneuvering her wings the tiger shot at her. One shot got her in the chest, the other she dodged away from. The red and black Predacon winced in pain, but her warrior instincts trained her to ignore it.



Jungura could see Tabitha shoot at Tigatron with her shoulder cannons. The white tiger dropped and rolled to the left, got onto his knees and fired on her sister. Jungura saw Tabitha dodge away from the shots.



Unfortunately, while Tigatron was busy shooting Tabitha, it seemed he had forgotten about her. Jungura took a grenade out of her left arm compartment, and was about to throw it. Then she stopped, realizing that if she did that she would possible kill Birch.



Jungura shot at Tigatron with her wing missiles and her plasma blaster. Her two black missiles got Tigatron right in the back, and the energy bullet hit him in the arm.



Tabitha again opened fire from the front. Tigatron tried to dodge away, but he was too wounded, and he got hit three times on the chest.



The white tiger fell down. He struggled to get up, realizing that he had to protect his child. Tigatron weakly took out his gun.



"I will not let you hurt my daughter!" he shouted, with seemingly renewed energy. Tigatron shot at Tabitha a few times, then he weakly turned around and shot and Jungura.



The shots were so poor that the two sisters managed to dodge them easily. Tigatron's hand faltered, he dropped his gun. He still looked awake, though.



Jungura and Tabitha swooped in closer. Tigatron, with surprising quickness, picked up his gun and shot at them, first at Tabitha then at Jungura.



Tabitha managed to dodge one shot, but another one got her in the wing, shorting out one of her wing missiles.



Jungura got hit in the leg and chest. She growled. The pain was getting worse. What did it take for these Maximals to die?



The cougar/eagle Fuzor swooped up higher into the air. Tabitha followed a bit more slowly, her wing causing her obvious pain. Tigatron still shot at them, but he did not hit them anywhere serious. Jungura got hit another time in the leg, and Tabitha one on the arm.



"All right, that's it!" Jungura shouted at Tigatron angrily. "You're gonna pay for not dying!" Jungura shot to of her wing missiles at Tigatron. Again he rolled over, but one missile hit him in the shoulder.



This time Tigatron fell down and did not get up.



"Finally!" Jungura sighed. Suddenly, she looked down at the ground.



"Hey sis, where's that kid?" Jungura asked.



"I don't know!" Tabitha said, worry in her green optics. "Matrix, if anything happened to Birch I'll never forgive myself!! Let's go into beast mode, maybe we'll be able to sniff her out" Tabitha suggested, when she had calmed down a bit.



"Fine" Jungura replied, transforming into her beast mode. She took a long wiff of fresh air. All she could smell was mechanical fluid and metal. She and Tabitha both landed on the blistering savanna ground. It was almost noon, and Matrix was it hot!



"Birch" Tabitha said, in a slow, soothing voice. "Here Birch. Come on little Birch. Do you want to see your brother Birch? Don't you want to see Griff again? Come on Birch, come to me."



"Hey Birch" Jungura called out. She was not as good as Tabitha when it came to parenting. Jungura decided to let Tabitha do the calling, and she would go and inspect Tigatron's body, to see how damaged he really was, and if he would get up soon. Jungura grinned. She did not think he would get up again, after the beating he got.



Jungura turned around and gasped. There was Birch, huddled on top of her father. She was nuzzling her father's head. Birch was almost covered in Tigatron's silvery blue mech-fluid. The odd thing was that Birch had been so silent and still that the two of them had not noticed her. It was like she was silently mourning for her father.



"Hey Tabby" Jungura said. Tabitha turned around and walked up to Jungura.



"The poor thing" she whispered. "It looks so sad." Tabitha walked up to Birch and licked the child's back. Birch turned around and faced Tabitha. Her azure eyes seemed clouded at first, then they turned crystal clear.



"MEW!" Birch said, opening up her fluffy wings, covered with down. The baby growled, showing toothless gums. Birch struck Tabitha on the nose with her paw. It was not a hard blow, but Tabitha seemed shocked.



"She remembers me Jung" Tabitha said, turning to her. "She remembers how I shot her brother. She thinks I killed her brother, and her father. Birch thinks I'm a killer, a cold-blooded killer, just like Unnamed Flyer and Waspinator. They all think I'm cruel, when I'm not. Jungura, you know I'm not!"



"Oh sis" Jungura said. Tabitha could get very emotional at times. She remembered back on Cybertron when Tabitha had lost her boyfriend. She had refused to come out of her room for a whole week. Still, it was one of those things Jungura loved seeing about Tabitha, because it showed that she was still the old bot she always knew.



"Sis, look" Jungura said in a practical manner. "I know you're upset, but we need to get these two to the Predacon base. Megatron will reward us for capturing one of the Maximals. Unnamed Flyer and Waspinator will be your friends again for bringing Birch to them. And, in time, Birch and Griff will learn to love you as an aunt. But we have to get them back to the Pred base. It's the only way your plan can work."



Tabitha sighed and looked at her sister, a smile on her Siamese-ish face. "You're right, as usual" she said. Tabitha picked up Birch by the scruff of the neck. The baby squirmed and kicked and mewed, but Tabitha would not let it escape.



Jungura transformed back into her robot mode and picked up Tigatron. He was heavy, but Jungura was strong enough to lift him.



The two sisters flew off into the sky.



**********************



Lotus looked around her. The Maximal base had SO many corridors! But, she was confident she would figure them out in time. Right now she was being led about by a Maximal named Killshandra.



"And this is the engine room" Killshandra said. There was indeed an engine in the room. Unfortunately, it was blackened and there were coils and springs sticking out of it.



"As you can guess, the slagging thing is useless" Killshandra said. "Not that I'm completely unhappy about that. I like this planet."



Lotus nodded."I like it too. It's really pretty. Do you remember much of your past on Cybertron?" she asked.



Killshandra chuckled. "You're reminding me of Nightshade. No, I don't really remember that much about it. Just bits and pieces. I remember I was in the Great War, though."



The Great War.....no, Lotus remembered, she had not been in it. She had been programmed after the War. Her old name had been Skyflight, and......and after that her memory was a bit fuzzy.



"Hello, you okay?" Killshandra asked. Lotus smiled guiltily and nodded.



"Just thinking, that's all" Lotus replied.



"That's the problem I find, too many of you Maximals just think. It's like they never do anything that requires action" Killshandra said with a rueful sigh.



Lotus looked at the black and red female. She could see that sometimes Killshandra sometimes missed some certain Predacon policies. But still Lotus did not doubt for an instant that she would betray the Maximals, even though she did not really know her.



Killshandra led her away from the engine room. They walked down a few metal hallways. Lotus shivered a bit. They were were missing the cool breezes of the outside, and trees and streams of nature.



"Next I'll show you your quarters" Killshandra said.



"How many rooms do they have?" Lotus asked.



The black and red raptor shrugged. "A lot" she said. "I've never taken the time to count them."



"But I 'ave!" cried a rabbit with brown wings. "There's forty-five personal quarters! Forty-five! Rabbits can 'ave forty-five babies in their lifetime, I think. Why is it that only girls can 'ave the babies? Is some statement about how lazy males are? Some males aren't! Because males do important stuff. They bring food to the nest and feed the female worms. I ate a worm once. It squiggled down my throat, it was a wriggly worm. Nobody likes me, everybody 'ates me, I guess I'll go eat worms! That's a song from Earth. I liked Earth, I served there during the War. In a musty, dusty foxhole. There weren't any foxes in it though. I never once saw a fox in that foxhole....."



"I think they meant the kind of foxholes used by Earthling soldiers, not actual foxholes" came another voice. This one belonged to a black raptor with a yellow blaze. The blaze started down her snout and ended at her tail. The raptor had sky blue eyes. It was a lot smaller than Killshandra, and it had ivory white claws.



"Oh, of course, I knew that" the rabbit/sparrow said. He opened his mouth to speak but he was cut off by the small raptor.



"My name is Nightshade" the raptor said. "This is Bouncealot. What's your name?"



"Lotus" the nightingale replied, smiling at the raptor. She liked Nightshade already. Bouncealot.........he was a little odd, but he seemed friendly enough.



"That's a very pretty name" Nightshade said. "I'm not the only one who named myself after a plant."



Lotus chuckled. "Have you ever seen a lotus blossom? Their quite pretty. I saw one on a tree and I thought "there's my name." So what if it's not very unoriginal, I like it."



"Well said!" Nightshade grinned. "I'm sorry to cut this visit short but this is the first time Bounce has been allowed on scouting duty, and I'm supposed to go with him."



"It's okay" Lotus replied.



"I don't really need someone to look after me" Bouncealot grumbled. He was still mumbling to himself when Lotus and Killshandra left.



"I'm sorry those were the first Maximals you met" Killshandra apologized. "Nightshade is the resident angel, all nice and sweet and all that. Bounce is the crazy one. It's not very good for first impressions. We do have some better people than them. I'm one of them, of course."



Lotus grinned. She went into an unused room, which Killshandra said was supposed to be her quarters. It had a skylight, a small square of glass which light streamed down. There was a small shelf on the left wall of the room. There was a bed in the center of the room, and the light from the skylight hit right on the bed. Other than that there was hardly anything in the room, just cold bare metal.



"It certainly lacks some decoration" Lotus said, eyeing the room skeptically.



"You should see my room" Killshandra said, chuckling. "I really don't see what's wrong with bare rooms. But, if you must have some decoration, you could go pick some wildflowers or something." Lotus noticed a sneer in the black and red raptor's voice. "Cheetor also has some posters, and I'm sure you could con Rattrap into giving you some junk to make it looked lived in. Although, whatever Rattrap has, it's going to smell."



After that, Lotus was led to the sickbay. It turned out her room was only two doors away from it.



When the door opened she saw a shortish silver and blue bot leaning next to a bed. In the bed there was a turquoise and pink female. There was a red and white bot standing over the short bot.



"This is the vermin, Rattrap" Killshandra said, pointing to the short silver and blue bot.



"Hey Killer-head" Rattrap said, looking up at Killshandra. He seemed to be preoccupied with the prone bot in the bed.



"The name's Satin" said the red and white female. "What's your name, girl?"



"Lotus" the bird replied. Satin seemed like one of those "street cats." Street cats was a slang Cybertronian word for fembots who were less than innocent, very pretty, and fought a lot with other girls.



"Nice" Satin replied, nodding.



"Who's that on the bed?" Lotus asked, looking again at the turquoise and pink bot.



"Her name's Marbelle" Rattrap said, almost reverently. Lotus guessed Rattrap and Marbelle had a history together. "She's been unconscious for almost a week. No one knows how to wake her up. The only one who could tell us dat would be Marbelle herself, she's a medic. Dere's a whole lotta irony in dis world."



"How about an energon overload?" Lotus asked. She did not know a lot about medical stuff. But she knew that bots used electricity for movement and to send impulses to their cerebral net. So, if there was an energon overload in Marbelle's systems, then it might jerk her into life.



Rattrap shrugged. "Yah gotta talk tah Optimus about dat one. Rhinox probably won't say yes though. He's been pretty strict about Marbelle's treatment."



I'll do that, Lotus thought. It was just so sad, seeing Marbelle just lying there, not being able to do anything.



Killshandra led Lotus out of the sickbay. Lotus followed gratefully, realizing that Rattrap and Satin just wanted to be alone with Marbelle. In the console room, she saw Air Razor and Rhinox.



Rhinox was looking at a holographic scanner image, showing where Predacons and Maximals were as far as the long distance scanners could reach.



"Birch and Tigatron haven't come back yet" Air Razor said to Optimus, worriedly. She looked up at Lotus and Killshandra and gave a half-smile.



"Did you finish the tour of the base?" the falcon asked.



"Pretty much, everything else is just a bunch of hallways" Killshandra said.



"I know, this place is pretty confusing" Air Razor said. "I don't live here, I'm usually a permanent scout, like Tigatron. We're only in the base for a little while, until Birch is old enough to live outside the base with us."



"Is it nice as a permanent scout?" Lotus asked, feeling kinship with the nature loving falcon.



"To me, it's nicer than being here" Air Razor replied. "Not as much metal."



Lotus and Killshandra chuckled.



Rhinox's voice broke into the conversation. "I don't think you'll be laughing any more" he said, his optics wide. "Tigatron and Birch are heading away from the Maximal base and towards the Predacon base."



"Why in the world?" Air Razor asked, her eyes wide and filled with concern.



"Their being carried there by some Predacons!" Rhinox replied.



"We have to save them!" Lotus said, standing up. All humor was abandoned, it had no place in this moment.



"They're at coordinates Y-8 and Y-10" Rhinox clarified. "I'll get Cheetor over there. You three have to fly out to them quickly. It will be faster for you, because you're all flyers."



"Got it" the three of them nodded.



The roof hatch opened up, and the three of them flew out of the hatch, praying that they would make it on time.



*******************



Crystal smiled a self satisfactory smile. She had found a lair.



It was a huge cave, near the mountainous regions of the Predacon's territory. It was high up in the mountains, but not near the snowy tips. That meant that there was enough air for her to breath comfortably. The floor of the cave was rock too. Crystal had found another cave, higher up, that had had ice for it's floor, but she had decided against that cave. The cave she had found was bigger and more spacey, with lots of room even for a twelve foot tall dragon to rest in, as well as some equipment.



And, Crystal also had some prey. The giant stared at the Maximal. Ice surrounded the small dragon in a type of cube, making it look like he was in an ice cube, and making the scene rather comical. Only the small creature's neck and head were not frozen. Crystal had made sure that the cave was cold enough to keep the Maximal frozen, and to make sure the ice would not melt. Any way, it was impossible for him to move.



The small dragon was a jade green color. It had two cow-like horns that stuck out on the side of his head. The horns were smooth and looked pointed, but they only pointed up from the side of his head. They did not point forward, and it would be very hard for him to ram his horns into anyone's skin. The horns were a light blue. The dragon's muzzle was long and skinny, with two small nostrils on the end of it.



The Maximal's neck was long, and somewhat scrawny. On the dragon's torso there was some curly, light blue fur, the same color of his horns. It's tail was bare, and it claws looked short but sharp.



The little dragon was a very plain creature. It had no frills, no spikes, no mane or spines. It's claws were not even that long. Crystal smiled. It was times like this that she felt so......proud.



It is odd, Crystal wondered, how did this Maximal get his beast mode? How did I get my beast mode?



That was the thought that had been troubling her. Oh, it was a very GOOD beast mode, she had no complaints there. It showed off her cold, powerful side. But how she got it was another story. As far as she knew and had been told, there were no dragons on prehistoric Earth.



Unless I got my beast form some other way, Crystal thought. Is there any way of choosing ones own beast form? No, stasis pods do that.



Suddenly, an image popped into her head. A glob of......white, shimmering.....nothingness?! It was a blob of something that looked like goo. It shimmered with a myriad of colors, some Crystal could not even name. It danced around in her mind, teasing her with the experience of a school yard boy. She tried to picture it again, but it was gone. Crystal blinked her large, purple eyes.



What had that been about?! Crystal tried to bring back part of her past, to make her memory circuits crackle with some form of recognition. It did not work.



Where might I have seen something like that? Crystal wondered, analyzing the situation. Could I have seen it on Cybertron? I don't think it is something anyone just sees on the street. No, it was definitely unusual. Could I have been a scientist that created something like that glob of.....whatever?



Crystal thought for a moment. She could have been a scientist back on Cybertron.



The giant dragon sighed. She felt that there was a type of gap inside her. It was like she had had no life before her coming into the Beast Wars, just a large empty space. Crystal wanted desperately to refill that space. She just did not feel....whole. The dragon felt like she was living partially, with one part of her in this world, but one part of her in another, quite stranger, world. She could not be a full person until she knew who she once had been.



"C-c-old" came a slow voice from beside her. Crystal turned her head and looked at the small Maximal. His eyes had begun to glow dimly. They were a glassy white, with no pupil. Crystal gave an amused smile. She was not the only odd one.



"Of course it's cold, Maximal" the huge dragon replied. "We are on top of a mountain, in a cave."



The green dragon did not respond.



"Why a-are we he-ere? Oh wait, you're a Predacon, l-let me guess...." the dragon said, with a touch of sarcasm in his weak voice. The green dragon's eyes grew a light orange. Crystal thought that the dragon's voice sounded a little bit like a teenager's voice, or at least a bot in his mid-twenties.



"This is my lair, Maximal" Crystal said. "Unfortunately, you will not be able to tell your little Maximal friends of this discovery, for you are frozen here."



"Th-ey don't ne-need me anyways" the young dragon whispered to himself, but Crystal caught it. The Maximal's eyes turned a deep, sad blue, and then a red, for hatred. The white dragon raised a scaly eyebrow curiously. Maybe that was self-hatred?



Crystal smiled. She would rather just torture the young Maximal physically, and bring him extreme pain until he begged for mercy. But, if she could bring him extreme emotional pain, that would be even better. Now, how could she go about doing that?



"What is your name, Maximal?" Crystal asked.



"Why?" the dragon said, his eyes lighting up a lighter, more frantic color of blue, which she guessed contained worry.



"I'll need to tell the Maximals in who's honor they should erect your tombstone" Crystal replied, quite pleased with her one-liner.



"Jade" the Maximal said. Crystal looked down at him. Jade's name suited his body. "What's your name?" he asked.



"Crystal" the giant dragon replied. Why should Jade not know the name of his magnificent captor?



"Well then Jade" Crystal said "tell me what the Maximals are up to."



"What do you mean?" Jade asked, his eyes turning a greenish color. Crystal deduced it must be of suspicion.



"When are they planning their attacks on the Predacon base?" Crystal asked, exasperated. "Who are they going to kill? Are there any wounded ones, ones that are mentally insane or dying or off-line? Tell me any information that might be of interest."



"I-I won't" Jade replied. His eyes turned a deep orange yellow, which was supposed to signify stubbornness. "I'd rather d-die than bet-tray the Maximal c-c-cause."



Crystal smiled at the Maximal's stubbornness. This would take a little persuasion. But, she was happy to give it.



She took a deep breath but, instead of bringing the breath down into her belly, she brought it into her craw.



A craw is a sack that is around underneath the chin and just where the throat starts. It is only found in birds, lizards and apparently, dragons. The craw is used for storing food and giving it to the animal's young. Instead of getting digested in the stomach of the animal, the food gets put into the craw, and therefore is pretty much fresh when it is fed to the young.



But, Crystal had no young to feed. Besides, any food that she put in her craw would get frozen. For that was where she kept her ice.



Crystal exhaled, feeling some ice go from the back of her throat and out her mouth. There were not many nerves around the area of her mouth and tongue, so Crystal did not feel any coldness as the ice exited her mouth. She made sure she had only taken a small breath, a large breath could spew out most of her ice, and leave her minus her breath weapon. If she ran out of ice in her craw, the dragon needed some time to get it back, for her craw to produce some more ice. She did not know how she produced ice, but she was grateful that she did.



The ice hit Jade on one part of his neck, forcing his head to the ground. Jade looked up at her with red eyes, which probably meant pain.



"Now will you tell me?" Crystal asked. "I can do this all day, you realize."



"I won't tell y-you bec-cause I don't know anyth-thing interes-s-sting" Jade said, his eyes converting into the blue color of sadness or self-pity.



"Ah, so the Maximals ignore you" Crystal said.



"N-no they don't" Jade said, but his eyes said otherwise. Their color shifted to a melancholy grey, and then into a deeper blue.



"Yes they do" Crystal said, nodding. It was so easy to read his thoughts just by looking at his eyes.



"They think you're a freak, don't they?" Crystal asked. "They stay away from you because you look different, because you look small and wimpy. You do know you look small and wimpy, don't you?"



"E-everyon is small and wim-mpy compared to y-y-you" Jade replied, his eyes glowing a yellowish orange again. Crystal had figured out that that meant he found something funny, and the white dragon had to chuckle too.



"Yes, because I have so much power" Crystal said. "You are small and wimpy to me, but you are also a wimp to your comrades. They don't like you, and never will, because you are so different. No one is your friend there, am I right? Does anyone try talk to you, other than to order you about? It must be true."



Jade nodded forlornly. His eyes were still the same blue color.



"But, you and I are the same" Crystal said, moving in for the kill. "I said I think you are small and wimpy in strength, but I never said your personality was." That was a lie and she knew it. The white dragon thought Jade's personality was sappy and worthless. But, she would not let him guess what she thought.



"You and I are two of a kind, cut from the same cloth" Crystal continued. "I am big and powerful, but you are smaller and faster. You can get to places I cannot. We are different, yet ultimately the same. We both seek acceptance in this world where your looks rule what people think of you."



I need to figure out the secrets of my past, but that is a different story, Crystal thought with a mental chuckle.



"We could band together and form a team" the white dragon said. "You could leave the Maximals, and I the Predacons. We could live together in this cave, and start our own faction. We could form a Dragon Duo of sorts. I could attack the Predacons. You would not need to attack the Maximals, for we could leave them alone. Will you join me?"



It seemed as if those four words had opened a dam of colors in Jade's eyes. Reds, greens, blues, yellows and purples flickered through his eyes at an alarming rate. They were so fast that Crystal could not keep up with his emotions.



"Anybody! This is Jungura!" came a voice on the white dragon's com-link. "We are battling Killshandra, Cheetor, Air Razor and Lotus. We have two Maximal prisoners. We aren't doing so good, so come on and help us, please. We're at coordinates Y-13 and Y-12"



Crystal turned back to Jade. "I will leave you to decide what you want your life to be" she said. "An unknown Maximal, or a respected and adored partner. You decide. Indeed, it is a lot to think about." With that, she walked to the entrance of her cave and launched herself out of the opening with a mighty heave of her back legs.



Crystal still had to marvel at her strength. With one flap of her wings she was slicing through the wind and flying through the air. With one swipe of her claw, enemies were impaled. With one breath, ice covered the trees. Her beast mode was odd, but she loved it. What was better than being a huge dragon? It was not that she was vain, she was just mildly pompous. And what was so bad in reveling in what was true? She was beautiful, powerful, and all in all a wonderful creature.



The mountains were disappearing, and so were the valleys below her. She was heading now over some dry, woodland area. Crystal noticed that the planet was very varied in terms of terrain. It was like all these different pieces of land had been squashed together to form a continent.



After a few minutes of riding the air currents, the landscape changed again. Now it was a plains area, with waving grasses and shimmering heat. Crystal winced. It was the heat that she hated. Heat was so uncomfortable. Cold was so much better. It was nicer to feel a freezing chill of arctic winds than pant all day in the hot sun.



Crystal heard the gun shots even before she saw the fighting. When she did see the fighting, she saw that her comrades were hopelessly outnumbered.



Tabitha carried a small bundle of white fur and white feathers, with a bit of yellow and grey on it. The bundle had azure blue eyes widened as it stared at Crystal. Tabitha was scratched and bruised all over, with one of her wing missiles gummed up, and her left leg almost falling off her body. The biggest wound was a thin slash that was from her right shoulder, all the way across her abdomen. It was dripping rivers of silvery-blue mechanical fluid.



Jungura was faring little better. One of her shoulder cannons had been blasted off, the other was firing away at Air Razor. Her metallic tail had been severed, and mech-fluid was dripping from it. She, like her sister, had scratches and bruises all over. Jungura carried a large black and white striped bot, obviously a white tiger.



Jungura and Tabitha had kept their two Maximal prisoners with them as they fought. This meant that the Maximals had to be careful not to hurt their comrades, and therefore shoot less. But that also meant the Tabitha and Jungura were more weighed down, and were not good at dodging the shots aimed at them.



Crystal bellowed, alerting the Maximals of her presence. She smashed into one, a black and red bot. The black and red Maximal tried to take out her sword to defend herself, but Crystal merely slashed through her gut and dropped her to the ground.



"Killshandra!" screamed an emerald and silver bot, and the other flyer looked pained at the loss of her comrade.



The next bot who was foolish enough to attack her was a bot who shot at her from the ground. The white dragon dived towards the ground, and tried to grab him, but he dodged away. Crystal got blasted at by shots from above, but her thick hide hardly felt them. Crystal landed on the ground and slashed at the bot, a green and yellow Maximal. He dodged her claws by rolling, ducking and diving.



"Is that the best you can do, you overgrown lizard?" the Maximal taunted.



Crystal growled. "Actually" she said, "I was just getting warmed up."



With that, she lashed at the bot with her tail. He was caught off guard, and she wrapped her tail around his legs. The young bot put his hands together and shot at her. He hit her in the throat. This time, the dragon roared in pain. She lifted the impudent Maximal to her mouth and took a deep bite. Crystal felt her teeth cut through vital organs, and mech-fluid gush into her mouth. She then dropped the Maximal on the ground, and cleaned the mech-fluid off her teeth.



"You are sick!" screamed the brown and grey flyer, Crystal was not sure of it's gender.



"That was gross!" exclaimed the emerald and silver Maximal. Both of them had horrified looks on their faces.



"You should try it some time, it works" Crystal said with a sneer. She pushed herself up with a mighty heave of her back legs. The next bot she attacked was the brown and grey flyer, because the other one was busy with Tabitha and Jungura.



Crystal lunged at the flyer, grabbing her arms and legs in her talons.



Suddenly, she had a flashback, or a vision. It was two other dragons. One was red and long, with no horns at all, only claws and a skinny tail. The other dragon was black, with five golden horns on it's head. The two were attacking, and play fighting with each other, growling, snarling and shrieking.



There was no background to this scene, only a blackness. It was like Crystal was seeing only what someone wanted her to see, not what she herself needed to see. It was like watching a mystery movie, when you really wanted to see who was the murderer, but the movie did not say who until it was almost over.



"They are so inferior" came a calculating, emotionless voice that rang in Crystal's ears.



Then, the flashback ended quickly. Crystal realized where she was, and what she was supposed to be doing.



Instead of doing anything fancy, she merely slashed the flyer's chest open and dropped it. She heard a crashing of metal as the body struck the ground.



"Air Razor!!!" came the other flyer. The emerald and silver flyer turned to Crystal. "You'll pay for that you ugly.....smelly.....I wish I knew some swear words to call you!!"



With that, the emerald flyer dove at Crystal, her sword in her hand. Before she could even touch Crystal, though, Tabitha and Jungura opened fire from behind. Bullets ripped through the Maximal's back, although she tried to dodge away from most of them.



But, she fell down, like the rest of her comrades. Crystal smiled at the carnage they had caused.



"You were having trouble with these Maximals?" Crystal asked, yawning a fake yawn.



"We're not all as strong as you Crystal" said Jungura, looking at her chopped off tail and wincing.



"It's a pity too" the white dragon said. She looked at the two of them. "You will be needing assistance to get those prisoners back to the base" she stated.



"Yeah, we won't be running in the Cybertronian Sports Association for a little while" Tabitha said.



Crystal took the white tiger from Jungura and slung it over her back sideways. When she tried to take the bundle of fur and feathers, it turned out it was a baby, it started mewing and howling like there was no tomorrow. It kicked and squirmed and whined, but in a few seconds it was still, breathing heavily, with wide eyes. Crystal kept the baby in her hands.



The two wounded Predacon soldier and the one Predacon savior flew off into the sky, to deliver their cargo the the Predacon base.



***************



The hatch of the CR chamber opened up, and Lotus stepped out. She blinked her red optics, and looked around.



She saw Cloud Runner sitting in front of one of the CR chambers. The blind fox/raptor looked very worried.



"Please be all right Cheetor" Cloud Runner whispered



Rhinox was carrying Air Razor's battered body. He put Air Razor's mech covered body into the chamber Lotus had just gotten out of.



The nightingale looked at her friend's body and she growled with anger. Those stupid Predacons! How dare they steal an innocent child like that! They were evil, good-for-nothing thieves!!



"It's okay Lotus, just calm down" said Rhinox, putting a hand on her shoulder. Lotus looked up into the rhino's comforting optics and calmed down a little, but she still felt anger smouldering inside her.



"How could they do this to the mother of a child?" she asked Rhinox. "How could they take a child from her home, as well as her father, and leave the mother here without her loved ones?!"



"It is awful" Cloud Runner said, shaking her head sadly.



Lotus nodded too. She had not been in the Maximal fleet for very long, but she knew everyone's names and personalities, to a degree. She already knew that she liked everyone, because she was the kind of person that liked everyone. But.....Air Razor was her very close friend, and so was Cheetor and Killshandra.....and the Predacons had hurt them all! And worse, they had stolen an innocent creature from it's parents!



That was pure evil, and evil had to be stopped. Things would always work out well in the end, but you needed someone to make them work.



Optimus walked into the room. "How is everyone?" he asked, worriedly.



"I just got Air Razor in the CR chamber" Rhinox replied. "Killshandra is out, and Cheetor is still in there. Lotus is fine...."



"No I am not fine!" Lotus replied, running to Optimus. "We have to go rescue Tigatron and Birch! We need to go now! Right now! Birch and Tigatron could be hurt. And what would Air Razor say if we still haven't given her back her loved ones by the time she gets out of the R chamber? She'll be so upset! Please Optimus, we have to go!"



Optimus looked at her and sighed. Lotus groaned to herself. She knew that when leaders sighed, it meant that they were going to say no.



Sure enough, that was what Optimus said.



"Lotus, I know how you are feeling right now" he said sympathetically. "But we need to devise a plan, a strategy. We can't just go busting into the base. It would not work. They might hold Birch and Tigatron against us for ransom, like they did last time. We need to be able to sneak them out, and for that we need all our warriors. Especially Air Razor. Do you understand?"



"But....Optimus......" Lotus began. Action was what they needed now. Not a stupid strategy! They could make that up when they were on their way to the Predacon base.



"I'm sorry Lotus, we'll get those two back, I promise you" Optimus said. "I need to go talk with Dinobot and Rhinox. Jade also is supposed to be here. See of you can radio him, Lotus."



And with those words, Optimus and Rhinox left.



Lotus grumbled to herself. Leaders were so impersonal! They did not care about anybody's individual worries or needs. Yes, the good leaders did what was good for the team, but was it good for certain individuals? Not Lotus.



An idea began forming in her mind. What if she disobeyed Optimus, went into the Predacon base solo, and got Birch and Tigatron out? Lotus grinned. She would show Optimus that action was just as good as plans.



Killshandra walked into the room in her beast mode. Her teeth were bared in frustration.



"What's wrong Killer?" Lotus asked.



"Our leader is a colossal idiot" Killshandra replied. Lotus looked at Killshandra. Could it be that she thought the same way she did? Would the black and red raptor help her if the two of them went off alone to rescue the two captives?



Killshandra's next words squashed her ideas. "He should have let me help with the battle strategies. I am a warrior as well. Lucky Dinobot....."



"We don't need any strategies!!" Lotus exploded. Cloud Runner and Killshandra both looked at her.



"We need action!" Lotus continued. "It's like you yourself said Killshandra. Too many Maximals just think, and never put anything into action. Well I'm going to put something into action, and see what comes out of it. I solemnly vow that I will get Tigatron and Birch back by tonight! If I don't.....I'll do something really bad to myself. And I never go back on my word. Lotus, maximize!"



Lotus unfolded out of her nightingale form and into her robot mode. She opened the roof hatch, and fired up her jets. Just as she was about to go out, Killshandra called to her.



"Wait!" the black and red raptor snapped. "Optimus might be an idiot, but you're acting like one even more! You can't face the Predacon fleet alone! We need all our warriors for this mission. You will have to learn to control your temper. "



"I know it must be tough" Cloud Runner said. "But if you blast off now you'll come back here as a pile of scrap."



"No, I'll come back here with two missing Maximals" Lotus replied, and she shot up into the sky.



**************



Jade struggled against the ice that was holding his neck down. Matrix, he was so cold! He tensed his neck muscles, and struggled some more, gnashing his teeth. He knew it was useless to try and get his body out, because that was covered in solid ice.



What about Crystal's offer? came a voice from his head. Jade groaned. He could tell he was in for a mental debate once again. Like he did not have enough already! Could his mind just shut up for a minute and let him be in peace?! He was trying to get out of here, he could think about something like that later.



But, the debate had been started, and there was no use trying to stop it now.



Of course not! Jade thought. I can't do that. I am a Maximal, I can not betray their cause. That would be rude and mean. No one would like me after that.



But, on the other hand, Crystal said she would, another part of Jade's mind began. She said she would be my friend. Even though I'm wimpy, I'll still have a friend, someone who really cares about me.



But I am a Maximal, and I cannot abandon them! Jade shouted mentally.



Yes I can, the other voice replied. They won't even notice. I can run off with Crystal, and the Maximals will let me go.



No they won't! Jade's other voice replied desperately. They need me in the Beast Wars. They need me very much!



What do they need me for? the other voice asked with a cunning tinge.



Umm......scouting duty, the first voice replied.



Jade heard the second voice laugh.



A third voice joined the conversation, adding it's two cents.



I'm stupid, the voice said. I'm so stupid, I shouldn't evil flatter myself to think that Crystal will like me. She won't like me, she'll be just like the Maximals. I should wait until she comes back, and kills me. Then I won't bother anybody.



In another part of his mind that was not a debate room, Jade wondered again if he was schizophrenic. All these voices sounded like his own, but they were so different in their opinions. And they always referred to themselves as I, as if they were the only voice in his head. It was like they were all in separate rooms, separate places in his mind. It seemed that he was a bunch of splinters of glass, each with it's own view and personality, and never forming one whole person. Jade sighed. If this was schizophrenia it was not fun at all.



Just then, the large white dragon flew back into the cave. She landed gracefully on the ledge and walked in. Jade looked at her. She was so magnificent, and he was not. He was just plain and ugly. Nobody liked him, nobody.



"Well, have you decided?" the Crystal asked.



"No" came Jade's answer.



The giant dragon's eyes flashed in anger. She took a deep breath. Jade squeezed his eyes shut, expecting to feel the cold chill of ice swallow his head and neck. When he did not feel anything, he opened his eyes.



"It is fine" Crystal said. Jade marveled at how the light of the entrance flickered on her scales, and turned them into beautiful patterns of color. Jade had scales as well, but they were not as big or as pronounced. And they also did not fracture light into many colors. Yet another way in which he was a wimp.



"It is a hard desicion to make" Crystal agreed. "But still, I suggest you hurry it up. I do not like to be kept waiting. I shall rest my eyes, for I have had a hard battle against your comrades."



"Did you kill them?" Jade asked, worriedly.



"I do not know" the dragon replied with a shrug of her shoulders. Jade felt a twinge of panic. What if one of his friends had been killed? That would be awful!



Crystal continued her story in a lazy, unconcerned manner. "Tabitha and Jungura, the two Predacons I saved, were carrying two of your comrades back to the Predacon base. One was a white tiger, the other a small baby of some sort. From what I gathered they planned to reprogram them, or at least one of them."



Jade gasped. Birch and Tigatron had been captured by the Predacons! He felt a sudden instinctive urge to fly away and save them, but he knew he could not, because he was frozen in a block of ice.



I have to save them! he thought. I can't let them die! What can I do? What can I do? Oh I am a stupid dragon, stupid, stupid, stupid!



Crystal yawned and lay down on her stomach. Before laying down her head she looked at Jade.



"Remember what I said Jade" she said, "you must chose what your allegiance is before I wake up, or I shall kill you." With those cold words, she lay down her head and closed her purple eyes.



Crystal's breathing quickly turned steady and deep, which meant she was sleeping.



Jade wondered what he would do now.



Okay, he thought. My life is in danger because I have to chose my allegiance. If I go with her, I will either have a friend or someone who will hurt me.



She might not, came another voice.



The first voice continued. But, if I say I am a Maximal, I will have a clean conscience. I will also die.



All the more reason for me to join up with her, came the second voice.



Suddenly, another part of Jade seized control of his mind. Jade could not tell which part it was though. Maybe it was the part of him that was fed up with listening to the others whine? Jade dare not think that it was actually himself, because it seemed he had many personalities, and not one actual self.



"Jade, maximize!" he whispered. He felt his gears grind and his skin shift, but other than that nothing happened. He sighed in despair. The ice was to thick to break, even by transformation.



"Unable to reply with request" his personal computer bleeped.



"Convert all power to transformation request" Jade whispered again.



"Procedure will leave unit Jade with low power reserves for uncertain period of time" his computer warned.



"Just do it!" Jade snapped.



"Complying with request" the computer replied.



"Jade, maximize!" he whispered again. He felt his gears grind with more ferocity than ever. His body twisted slowly and painfully into it's robot mode.



First, his dragonish neck shrunk into his body, and his beast mode head disappeared into sub-space. Then, his robot head sprang up. Two jets sprang up on the robot's back. Jade's tail folded in over itself a few times until it was short, only four inches long, and rested in between his two jets. His wings did the same thing until they were smaller in size, about two inches by two inches, and rested on either side of his jets. Jade's draconian legs and hands melded into his body, and his robot legs and arms stuck out.



Jade felt a draining of energy. Transforming when his computer had told him not to had had consequences. He was pleased to note that, by transforming into his robot mode, he had broken the ice that had surrounded him.



In his robot mode, Jade still had his cow-like horns sticking out on the sides of his head, making him look like a green and blue bull rather than a dragon. His face was green. He had one eyebrow which was attached to the base of the horns an ran all the way around his head, like Rattrap's old face. That eyebrow did not dip down at the nose, so it did not look like Dinobot or Cloud Runner's eyebrow. Jade's face was round and childish, with an expressive mouth, and a wide nose and hardly any chin. His eyes were round, wide and red, for they did not change colors in his robot mode.



For his body, Jade had his sky blue beast mode fur still on his torso. This time the fur was hard, like armor, except it did not look like normal armor. His torso armor in robot mode was still curly, making it look like he was wearing some ridiculous vest. The torso fur was on his back as well, with his two green jets the only green patches on his torso. His wings had shrunk, so they were only on the side of his jets for decoration, as well as his immovable tail in the middle.



Jade's legs and arms were somewhat skinny, making him look like he was a marshmallow standing on toothpicks. His feet were round, and his hands were of average size. Both his limbs were green, so were his feet and hands.



For weapons Jade had two green shoulder cannons and a medium sized gun.



The green and blue bot lay on the ground for quite some time, staring at the floor of the cave.



"Computer: power statistics" he said, after he felt that he had lain on the ground long enough.



"Power levels at forty four percent and rising" his internal computer replied.



"Well, that'll have to do" Jade said. He tried to get to his feet, but he was still pretty shaky. He almost fell back down.



"Just to be safe, beast mode" Jade said, and he morphed back into his dragon form. Jade walked a bit unsteadily towards the entrance. He looked below him. There were beautiful valleys, and sloping hills. To the far left he could see a black, dead land. It was the land of the Predacon base, and the one he had to get to.



The dragon flapped his wings. They seemed in working order. Now all he had to do was fly out of the cave, and to the Predacon base. He would think of a plan to rescue Birch and Tigatron along the way.



What if she sees me leave? came a voice that suddenly popped into his head.



Well, I'm already this far, I'll have to chance it, came the other, more authorative voice.



Jade grinned. He liked that voice.



The green dragon launched himself off of the ledge with a thrust of his hindfeet. It was an unsteady thrust, so he wavered a bit. But with a few flaps of his wings he was flying through the air.



He flapped up a bit higher to gain some altitude. He felt his spirits soaring with his body. Things would be all right! Birch and Tigatron would be safe!



It was just then that he heard Crystal's roar of fury behind him.



*******************





Tabitha looked at Birch. She looked so scared, she was shivering with fright, and her eyes were still wide. Tabitha felt like some sort of monster.



But, she reminded herself, it's for a good cause.



Birch, Tabitha, and Jungura were in Megatron's headquarters, nicknamed the throne room. She had been there many times before to discuss battle strategies with Megatron, and just to talk about what was happening in their lives. She found conversing with Megatron very enjoyable, for the he had a good sense of humor, and he could be pleasant to people who earned his respect. Tabitha felt very privileged that she was one of those people.



"And so Megatron" she explained "we plan to reprogram little Birch. We have Tigatron locked away in one of the cages in the the dungeon. Should we reprogram him too?"



"Hm......no" the Predacon leader replied. "The last time we tried that was with Rhinox, and that had disastrous consequences. But I will let you reprogram Birch. I suppose to trick is to catch them when they're young" Megatron chuckled.



Tabitha chuckled too. She held Birch closer to her with her paws, trying to get the baby to stop shaking. Birch did not.



"You have done well, Tabitha and Jungura" Megatron said with a smile. "I can see you two make an excellent team, and you shall rank with my highest soldiers. You Tabitha, shall be my second-in-command, and you Jungura, my third-in-command."



Tabitha smiled. "Thanks Megatron!" she said, nodding in her appreciation.



"Ditto!" Jungura said, a big cat grin on her face.



"You are dismissed" Megatron said.



Tabitha picked up Birch by the scruff of her neck and walked out of the room, Jungura following her.



The two sisters walked down a few of the hallways. Tabitha kept checking to see Waspinator and Unnamed Flyer. Where were they?



"I see you and Megs are kind of friendly" Jungura said casually.



Tabitha put Birch on her back, so she could speak to her sister. "What do you mean?" she asked, although she thought she knew what her sister was getting at.



"I mean, he made you his second-in-command" Jungura replied. "And, I get the feeling that you've been around him before a few times. So spill the beans, do you have a crush on him or not?"



Tabitha laughed. "I could never keep anything from you sis" she exclaimed. "Okay, you're right, I do have a crush on him" she whispered in her sister's ear.



"I knew it" Jungura said with a chuckle.



"But please, don't tell anyone" Tabitha warned. "Half the fleet has already guessed, and I don't want to give them any official confirmation."



"My silence is yours" Jungura replied.



"You should see the way the other Preds look at me!" Tabitha continued in a low growl. "It's like I'm some sort of prostitute! Just because I get along well with Megatron, and just because I might have a little crush on him does not mean I have......well....you know what I mean."



Jungura nodded, a snarl lighting up her face. "If they bother you when I'm around, I'll kick their butts!" she said.



"Thanks Jung" Tabitha said, "but you don't have to do all of that for me."



"Yes I do" Jungura replied. "You're my peaceful little sister, and unless you're pushed to, you'll never kick someone's butt. I have to do it for you."



Tabitha was about to protest, then thought it would be better off if she not. When Jungura set her mind to do something, hardly anything on Cybertron or Earth would stop her.



"I have to admit, it would be fun seeing you stick your sword down Blackarchnia's throat" Tabitha said with a laugh.



"Then she'll be my first victim!" Jungura said, with a mock hiss.



"Mew!" Birch said. Tabitha felt claws dig into her back. She realized Birch was scared of Jungura's snarl.



"We have to go find Unnamed Flyer and Waspinator" Tabitha said, getting back to business.



"I know where they are" came a male voice from one of the many hallways.



Tabitha looked and saw that Nexus was there, in his beast mode. The triple Fuzor had on a debonair grin. He looked and the two of them with the eyes of a starving street dog's. Tabitha hated that look in men. It meant they wanted to see how big your chest was.



"We were never properly introduced" the coyote/porcupine/osprey Fuzor said. "My name's Nexus, I used to be a Maximal, but I found out they sucked. I killed one of them to."



Oh Matrix, this one's a braggart! Tabitha thought with a mental groan. When she glanced at her sister she saw similar displeasure on the cougar/eagle Fuzor's face.



"Where are Unnamed Flyer and Waspinator?" Tabitha asked.



"Why do you wanna know?" Nexus replied. He went up against Tabitha and rubbed her side. Tabitha quickly moved away with a grimace. Men!



"It's pretty boring, I don't think you'd like to know" Jungura replied. "You're too sexy for that stuff anyway." Tabitha chuckled. She had seen Jungura put on this performance many times, all with the same result. Tabitha was almost feeling sorry for Nexus.



"Yeah, I am sexy" Nexus said with a sigh. "The two of them are in the main room. So, what's you're name, cutey?" he asked of Tabitha's sister.



"My name's Jungura" Jungura said. She walked by Nexus, and flicked the end of her tail in his face. Nexus giggled to himself. Tabitha just smiled and watched the poor fool.



"Well Jungura" Nexus said. "From what I can gather from your beast mode you look not bad looking yourself. So, how's about you and me, going off someplace nice and quiet together? We can chat without the....ahem, watching eyes of other people" he pointed a talon at Tabitha.



"Sure" Jungura said. The two of them walked down another hallway to Tabitha's left.



"You know what I like about men Nexus?" Jungura asked. Tabitha set Birch down and crept closer to watch the fun.



"The way we can be so handsome?" Nexus asked.



"No" Jungura said with a flirtatious laugh. "What I like most about men is the color of their mech-fluid."



She quickly pounced on Nexus, who had no time to react. Tabitha laughed out loud as Jungura sunk her claws into Nexus' hide and ripped off hunks of fur. Jungura managed to avoid Nexus' porcupine spines, and only slashed at his side and belly. Nexus yelped and squirmed in pain.



"You're hurting me!" he cried.



Jungura smiled and cut open his ear. "That's the point!" she said, and slapped him on the head.



Jungura gave Nexus some time to run away yelping, a small trail of mech-fluid in his wake.



"You are cruel" Tabitha said, chuckling.



"Yep!" Jungura said, smiling.



The two sisters picked up Birch and ran off to find Unnamed Flyer and Waspinator in the main room.



When they got there, Tabitha saw her two ex-friends. Her happiness turned to anxiety and fear. What if her friends did not accept her? What if they did not like Birch? Oh, what would happen if that came true? How would she get her friends to like her then?



"They'd be fools not to be your friend" Jungura whispered to her sister. Tabitha looked at Jungura. The cougar/eagle's paws were stained with mech-fluid, but her eyes were filled with kindness.



"Thanks" Tabitha said. She put Birch in her mouth, and walked over to the wasp and the bat.



Unnamed Flyer and Waspinator stopped talking to each other and turned around. The two of them saw Tabitha. Waspinator buzzed in confusion, and Unnamed Flyer's jaw dropped to the floor. Tabitha looked at them with what she hoped was a pleading look. She put down Birch, and began to talk to them.



"Hi you guys" the black and blue cat said. "I've brought Birch back to the Predacon base. We can reprogram her, and Griff will have his sister. And, you'll have a daughter to look after."



Unnamed Flyer was the first to speak. "T-thanks Tabby!" she said, "this is wonderful! But, why are you doing this for us?"



"Because, I want you guys to be my friend again so much" Tabitha said, feeling tears well up in her eyes. She blinked them away. "I never meant to hurt Griff, or to hurt you guys. I never meant to destroy our friendship. This thing has been tearing me apart, and I needed some way to make it up to you. If you guys will allow me a second chance to be my friend, I will be the happiest cat in the world."



There was a silence. Unnamed Flyer and Waspinator looked at each other. Tabitha's heart was in her mouth and her stomach was churning.



"Wazzpinator say Tabby-bot can be Wazzpinator'zz friend" Waspinator said with a nod.



"And I say Tabby-bot...I mean, Tabby can be my friend" Unnamed Flyer said.



Tabitha jumped for joy. She had her friends back! She did indeed feel like the happiest cat in the world.



"You guys are the best!" Tabitha ran up to them and nuzzled them. "Do you hear that sis?" she turned to Jungura. "My friends are back."



"I heard you" Jungura said, smiling.



Tabitha laughed out loud. She had her friends again!



Birch mewed, breaking the festivities. Unnamed Flyer picked up Birch and held her in her wings.



"Let's reprogram her" the bat said. The four of them walked off to the reprogramming machine.



*********************



Tigatron hoped his internal repairs system was functioning. Matrix, he needed it. He could still feel the pain of all the wounds the Cat Sisters had inflicted on him.



When he had first woken up, he had found himself in a cage, hanging over a lava pit. He had banged on the bars, and tried desperately to get out, but he had been so weak that he could hardly move.



So, he had gone into beast mode. It had been a painful experience, with gears grinding uselessly and sparks flying this way and that. But, he had gotten into his beast mode, and accessed his internal repair systems. Now all he had to do was wait until his repairs would be complete, and then he could put his plan into action.



Unfortunately, he still needed a plan.



Tigatron had tried to think of a plan, but his mind just was not functioning. Any attempt at reason was crowded out by thoughts of his daughter, his lover and the Maximals.



What have the Predacons done with Birch? Tigatron thought, for what seemed like the millionth time. What if they have killed her? Or if they are torturing her? Both of those are cruel things to be doing to just a little child! What if they have reprogrammed her? That would be just as awful.



If only I had paid more attention to what was happening around me! I might have seen those Predacons. If only I had gotten to the base faster, I might have spared my daughter whatever she is going through.



And what of Air Razor? Does she know we are missing? What of the Maximals? Are they going to come and rescue us? When will they come? Will they come too late?



Tigatron sighed. He loved his daughter, and his faction, and he wished nothing would happen the either of them. Why could the Predacons not leave them alone? If only they could achieve peace with the Predacons, then things would be good. He could live in the wilderness with Air Razor and Birch for the rest of his life.



But, peace with the Predacons was not very likely to happen, as he had found out. He had once tried to hide from the Beast Wars, to live completely in nature. He had learned that to protect this planet he had to fight the Predacons, no matter how he would feel otherwise. They would destroy this planet in their greed and destruction. Now, to protect his family, he had to fight the Predacons, for his family, and faction would be destroyed by the Predacons.



Predacons were pure evil. That was what Maximals thought of Predacons. But, what if there were some who were not pure evil? What if there was someone he could reason with, to get him out of this cage, to get him back to his daughter?



Is that possible? Tigatron wondered.



"Squark!" came a voice. Tigatron turned his head, and looked to where the voice had come from.



Tigatron gasped at what he saw.



Sitting in one of the air vents, was a tiger/falcon Fuzor. It had a small, sharp, yellow beak. It's front legs were like Silverbolt's, except they were smaller, and yellow, with their talons less sharp. Of the back part of the creature Tigatron could only see a little puff of a tiger tail, with small grey, unpronounced stripes. The tiger/falcon's eyes were a stony greyish blue, and right now they flared brilliantly with anger.



Tigatron stared. At first, he thought this was merely a figment of his imagination. Tigatron thought that his internal repair systems must be mal-functioning, and messing with his optics.



Then, his mind began slowly prepossessing the information, unwilling to recognize the truth. This was his son, the one Cheetor had called Griff. What was he doing in the Predacon base? Was he not supposed to be dead? How come he was alive?



The white tiger took a few deep breaths. He carefully took the pieces of the puzzle and put them together.



Cheetor and Killshandra had seen Griff die. When they had left, Griff might actually had been alive, and the Predacons had discovered this. They must have reprogrammed him, and made him into a Predacon.



"My son!" Tigatron cried. "Is that you? Is that you, my Griff? Do you not recognize me? Don't you remember me, your father?"



"Squark?" Griff said, cocking his head to one side in his curiosity. Griff sniffed Tigatron, but since he was in an air vent Tigatron doubted that he would get much of a scent. The white tiger breathed heavily. If Griff did not remember him, then that meant the Predacons had stolen his son from him. And that meant that they would not escape his wrath.



"Squawk! Squark! SQUARK!!" shouted Griff. The baby was obviously confused, and angry. He glared at Tigatron. "Squawrk" he hissed.



"My son, it is me" Tigatron spoke again, this time more soothingly. "I am your father. Do you not remember the Maximals? I am one of them. You are one of them. You are not a Predacon, you are a Maximal, and you are my son. I love you, and so does your mother. Griff, I love you. You are my-"



"SQUARK! SQUAWK! NOT DADAWK!" cried Griff. The tiger/falcon blinked. Tigatron had guessed that was the first time he had spoken anything comprehensible.



Tigatron looked at his son, who had just claimed he was not his father. The white tiger felt like his heart was being ripped up into small pieces. He wanted to cry, but he was a warrior, and he had pride. If not a son.



"Not Dad, squark!" Griff repeated, satisfied with the answer. With that, Griff turned around. Tigatron could see that his son's backside looked much like a tiger's backside, except he had two down covered wings.



When his son had gone, Tigatron was left in silence, to contemplate his feelings. What was there to contemplate, really? He felt anger at the Predacons. A harsh, burning anger, deeper than he had ever thought he could feel. It grew hotter than the lava pit which was underneath his feet. And his son......he felt a deep sadness at the fate of Griff. It was like there was two entities inside him. One was fire, the other water. One was anger, the other sadness. And neither seemed to be extinguishing the other.



"I swear" Tigatron said, in a rich, clear voice. "I swear that all the Predacons shall pay for what they have done to me, Air Razor, my daughter, and my son. I shall destroy them, and will not rest until I have seen them all in their graves. I shall not bother to show them mercy, for they would never bother to show me, or my familly any. I will live this war to the fullest, and practice the law of the jungle at any costs. I will be strong, and never let my guard down, and kill any Predacon when I have the chance! Let Primus hear my vow!"



Only the shadows and the lava seemed to hear it, but Tigatron still felt better. He had a purpose now. He would break open his cage, somehow, and get to Megatron's quarters. Once he had destroyed the spawn of such evil, the rest of the pack would desintigrate, and he could hunt them down one by one.



But what about his son? Could he hurt Griff? Tigatron shook his head. For a minute, his head had been clear of all thought other than the fact that he had to get a plan and put it into motion. Now, he had some more things to think about.



But, it seemed he could not. For the tiger's sharp ears heard the scraping sound of metal against metal, and someone crawling towards him. Tigatron tensed, if it was a Predacon......



But it turned out it was not. A new bot, emerald and silver in color, peeped through the air vent. The bot smiled a relieved smiled, slid herself out of the air vent, and flew towards him, her jets roaring lightly.



"Am I glad I found you!" the female said. "I'm a Maximal, and I'm here to rescue you."



"I am much in your debt then" Tigatron replied. The new Maximal pressed a few buttons on Tigatron's computerized lock, and the door opened.



"I met Terrorsaur on the way, and he coughed up the lock activation codes......after I had jammed my sword down his throat" the emerald and silver bot said. Tigatron smiled lightly. "My name's Lotus" said the bot.



"Tigatron" the tiger replied.



Lotus nodded. "Air Razor's worried about you. I saw the room they were taking Birch to. They're going to reprogram her." Tigatron sighed, his worst fears had been realized.



"Summon platform" Lotus said to the base's computer.



"Voice code unrecognized" came the computer's reply. Lotus grumbled.



"Summon platform you stupid thing!" she said, in a deep, Megatron-ish voice. It was not that great an impression, but it worked. A floating platform came zipping up, and Tigatron got on it.



"Follow me" Lotus said, as she flew through the open door of the lava pit dungeon. Tigatron did as he was instructed, anxious to get to his daughter.



"Do you think they have reprogrammed Birch yet?" he asked of Lotus.



"I don't think so" Lotus replied, much to Tigatron's relief. "The group that was going to reprogram her seemed kind of......chatty. It was like they were old friends or something."



"Predacons are evil, they do not have friends" Tigatron replied. He was surprised to find how calloused his voice sounded. What was going on with him?



After a few more minutes of going through the tunnels, Tigatron began to wonder if Lotus knew where she was going. It was taking somewhat longer than he had expected. He asked her if this was the right way.



"Yep" Lotus replied. "We'll barge in, save Birch's life, and get away heroically." Tigatron did not think that was that good an answer to his question, but he kept quiet about it. He smiled, because he could almost picture Cheetor saying that line.



Soon enough, after navigating dark hallways and hiding from Predacons, the two of them got to the room with the reprogramming machine. Tigatron jumped off of his platform and was about to rush out and save his daughter from imminent danger...... when he realized his daughter was not in imminent danger.



The scene was this: Unnamed Flyer was punching buttons and trying to get the machine to work. Tabitha's sister was talking to Waspinator, who was buzzing insanely in his usual fashion. Tabitha herself was holding Birch, stroking and cuddling his daughter. And, Birch seemed to like the cuddling and all the attention, for she purred and mewed happily.



Tigatron growled to himself. These were Predacons, not caretakers! Did Birch not realize that she was in danger? Was she not worried about him? Predacons were pure evil, every single one of them.



If they are so evil, then why are they taking care of my daughter like that? Tigatron thought. Why do they look like they love her and care for her? Waspinator is now petting Birch's head. Is that the act of someone who is pure evil?



But the other side of Tigatron refused to see it that way. They are trying to steal my daughter from me! I need her more than they do. They have stolen my son, and now they are trying to take Birch. They must pay!



Tigatron roared, and dashed out into the room, transforming into robot mode as he did so. He took out his gun and knocked Unnamed Flyer away from the reprogramming machine.



Lotus popped out too. "You should have waited until we were in a good position" she said. "I like a dramatic entrance as much as the next bot, but we're outnumbered!" It seemed to Tigatron that Lotus's eyes got wide with the realization that what she had just said was true. The female shook her head.



"I'm starting to sound like Optimus now" she whispered to herself, but Tigatron heard it. Lotus blasted Waspinator's wings, making him fall to the floor with a crash.



Tigatron dodged shots from Tabitha and Jungura, but Unnamed Flyer hit him in the chest. Tigatron growled and shot Unnamed Flyer back. He hit her with the first two shots, but the third and fourth she got away from. Tigatron saw Lotus get caught off guard by a shot from Waspinator.



Tigatron got hit in the shoulder by one of Tabitha's wing missiles. He staggered, but did not fall. The white tiger shot back at Tabitha, hitting her rapid fire in the torso. Jungura roared and hit Tigatron in the leg with a plasma blaster. This time Tigatron did fall down.



He saw Lotus get in close, and start sword fighting with Jungura. Tigatron shot at Unnamed Flyer a few more times, and managed to get the bat away from Lotus. But, Tabitha and Unnamed Flyer were now approaching him, and Lotus was battling Waspinator and Jungura. What was worse, Tabitha still held Birch in her arms, so he would have to be careful of where he shot.



Tigatron stood up and shot at Waspinator's head, hoping to even the score. It did not work, for Waspinator dodged away.



Tigatron began to experience a sinking feeling. Lotus was right, it had been a stupid idea to jump out at them like that. And he was paying for it now. He prayed to the Matrix to get him out of this mess, but he did not feel very comforted.



But, maybe the Matrix did answer his prayer.



Because, at that very second, a gigantic shock rocked the base. Birch flew out of Tabitha's hands, and Tigatron managed to catch his daughter.



But, Tigatron wondered, what rocked the base?



**********************





Jade laughed as he saw Crystal wham right into the side of the Predacon base. He did a U-turn and flew straight at the dazed dragon.



Crystal shook her head, and was about to launch some ice at him, but Jade ducked underneath her. The green dragon went through her legs, managed to avoid her tail and came up behind her.



"You will die for your impudence Jade!" screamed the white dragon in fury. She spat some ice in his direction, but Jade flew away from most of it. Only a little bit got his tail. He had to be careful to dodge the ice, because last time had fallen into shock because of the cold ice surrounding his body.



"I have better things to do today than die" Jade shouted back.



"Like what?" Crystal asked, flapping into the air again.



Jade paused.



"Well......I'm sure I could think of some!" Jade said.



Wait! a part of him cried. I should have said "I have to rescue Birch and Tigatron." I didn't! Matrix I am so stupid!



That's what I keep saying, said another voice.



The green and blue dragon growled. Matrix would the voices leave him alone. He had always thought as the voices in his head as his consciences, but now he just found them a nuisance.



Jade saw Crystal coming up behind him quickly. He flew up, his wings flapping mightily, to gain altitude. But, for every five flaps he took, Crystal only needed to take one. Jade knew that if he kept up at this rate he would exhaust himself in five minutes or less.



How do I get out of this situtation, yet still manage to rescue Birch and Tigatron? he thought, waiting for the council of voices to take over. And that was what they did.



I could play dead, one voice said.



No, then she'd probably throw me around until I was dead, another one replied.



I could go into the Predacon base, came another voice.



And face all those Predacons?! came a fourth. No way! I'm not going in there. There Predacons will beat me up and kill me.......



Okay then I will just....umm..... stuttered a fifth voice.



Suddenly, Jade heard an explosion. He plummeted into a dive. When Crystal was about to spit some ice at him, he soared up again, but quickly went back into the dive. He realized that Tigatron, Birch and Lotus were down on the ground. And they were being followed by Tabitha and Jungura.



Jade dove in lower, to talk to his comrades. Unfortunately, he had almost forgotten about Crystal.



The white dragon's claw whistled through the air, and cut Jade in the arm. He cried out in pain and twisted away from another blast of ice, and the other talons. Lotus flew up to him, Birch in her arms.



"We've got to get back to the Axalon" Lotus said, dodging another blast of ice. The two Maximals flew quickly, putting some distance between themselves and the three Predacons, who had formed a group of three, with Crystal at the front and the two felines at the sides.



"The closest way is over a major energon field" Jade replied. "We're all going to have to stay in beast mode, just to be safe. We won't be able to fight very long in robot mode."



What about if we go over the mountains..... came another voice, but Jade shut it up.



"Got it!" Lotus said, morphing into her beast mode, and putting Birch in her claws. The nightingale struggled under the weight, but she managed to hold the baby.



The two Maximals flew lower to the ground, and told Tigatron their plan. The white tiger nodded, and the Maximals were off.



The green dragon flapped quickly, fear bringing speed to his wings. He quickly sucked air into his lungs then spat it back out. His wing beats were quite fast, as were Lotus'. Tigatron was running pretty quickly too, for a tiger.



Jade looked back. The Predacon base was fading, but the three Predacons were not. The bad thing was that they were above the Maximals, and that meant they had the advantage, in ariel fighting. Jade wanted to remedy that in some way, to fly up above them and engage one of them in a fight, but he knew this was not the time. This was a time for flying, and dodging the blasts fired at them.



There was a few more minutes of frantic flying. Jade looked back, and saw the the Predacons were farther away. The ground beneath Jade was turning from black to a greenish grass. Jade was beginning to overheat, and his wing beats were getting unsteady.



"We need to slow down" Jade said. The dragon took Birch from Lotus, who thanked him.



"We are at the energon field" Tigatron said. Jade nodded, noting the energon scattered around, inside crevices and there were a few formations that crackled above the ground.



Jade and Lotus both landed on the ground to get some rest. Tigatron stopped too. The dragon put Birch on the ground, and groaned in pain as his muscles screamed their agony. Jade looked up and.........and saw that the Predacons were not there!



The green dragon was about to tell this to his comrades, when suddenly some blasts shook the ground.



"Maximals, maximize!" Tigatron said, with a low growl.



"No, it would be better if we keep running" Jade said.



Is it really? a voice is Jade's head wondered. Maybe I should listen to Tigatron.



No! came another voice. I have to stand by my descision! We will run, and that's final!



But...... came the first voice.



"We must fight the Predacons, and rid the world of their evil!" Tigatron replied, taking a step towards Jade. The dragon gulped. What had gotten into Tigatron?



Lotus looked between the two of them, undecided. "I guess it would be okay if we fought bravely to the death....." she said. "But then, it would also be bad if Birch died with us."



Jade shook his head. He was sick of talk, in his head, and in the real world. He picked up Birch and launched himself into the air.



Tigatron growled. "We will finish this another time, Predacons!" he shouted. "And you will meet Smelter then!"



"Yeah right!" Jungura laughed, shooting at Lotus and Tigatron, who had taken off behind Jade, and were farther away than him.



Tabitha's shadow loomed over Jade.



"Well, you're gonna meet Smelter now!" she said, aiming her wing missile at Jade. The green dragon dodged away, but the missile struck a large energon cluster.



"It's gonna blow!" shouted Jungura.



And Jade saw that the Predacon was right, as the energon sparked and charged up. Jade tried to fly away from the energon, but it was too late.



For at that time it exploded.



*****************



When Tabitha woke up, she thought she had indeed gone to the Inferno. Every single part of her ached and cried out in pain. She slowly light up her optics. At first, the sunlight blinded her, but soon it stopped, and Tabitha opened her eyes fully.



The blue and black feline lay on the ground for a little while, hoping that the pain in her muscles and joints would subside. It did not.



"Tabitha, beast mode" she said.



Sparks showered, gears squealed, metal shifted into skin and fur. Tabitha yowled in pain. Never had a transformation hurt so much! She took a few breaths out of her feline nose. All around her was the scent of mech-fluid, charred ground, and burnt skin.



Tabitha stood up slowly and painfully. She looked around. Tigatron was lying somewhat near her. Tabitha stared at him. Was it just her imagination, or did he look more metallic than usual? Jade was near Crystal, both lay in a crumpled heap. Jade had the most scratches, and both of them were burnt. Lotus was surrounded by a lot of feathers, and she looked like what she was, a wounded bird. Birch, oddly enough, was the least hurt. She was near Jade, and she looked very much awake and alive.



"Jungura" Tabitha said, looking around for her sister. she saw Jungura behind her, but what she saw made her gasp.



Jungura was lying in a pool of mech-fluid. She was scratched and torn. The most disgusting thing was that her body had been stuck through a large rock, and it cut through her abdomen.



"Oh Primus!" Tabitha cried, and ran over to her sister, ignoring the pain of her own wounds. She lifted Jungura off the rock, and set her down on normal ground.



Tabitha's heart pounded in her ears. Her sister......gone? No, that could not be! She had just found Jungura, she would not lose her again. They had gone through to much for her to die now. Tabitha loved her sister so much, it would be cruel if she was left behind like this!



"Oh sister, oh sister" Tabitha cried, tears coursing down her cheeks. She let them fall to the ground. She looked down at the gaping, mech-fluid filled hole in Jungura's belly, and she felt sick. Tabitha nuzzled Jungura's robotic face.



"Don't leave me, you can't die!" Tabitha shouted at her sister. "I order you to get back here now! Oh Matrix sis, don't leave me alone. I just got my friends back. I want to show you all the great spots on this planet, I want to show you how to hunt gazelle. I-I want to see you beat up some more Predacons, I want to see how you kick Blackarachnia's butt. You said you would sis, you always live up to your promise. Primus, Jung, don't die. Don't die, don't die."



The Siamese/cheetah closed her eyes and sniffled. Her sister, her other half, gone. Just gone and disappeared. And she would be left on this Earth without her sister.



At first Tabitha's mind was just a swirl of painful emotions. Of the sorrow of losing a loved one, at the fear of being alone, of the anger of being the one left behind. But soon, from the cloudy depths of her mind there began to form conscious though.



If only I could save her, Tabitha thought. If only I could heal her. I can picture her body, all healed up. There's no big hole in her gut, there's no scars on her. If I can picture her healthy, maybe she just might become healthy. Oh please let this work......



Suddenly Tabitha felt a draining sensation. It was like something was draining away her power. The feline's eyes flew open. She saw, to her vast amazement, the Jungura's body was healing up! All her scars were disappearing! And that wound to her abdomen was gone as well! Tabitha blinked in happiness.



Then, she blinked in dizziness, as the world spun around her. What was happening?



She never got to figure it out just then, for she had collapsed, unconscious.



*********************



Jade woke up.



And he stared at a white face, with burning red optics.



And two missile launchers aimed right at him.



"Well done Jade" Crystal said. The green dragon got on his feet and looked at Crystal, his newly found arch-nemesis.



"You managed to evade death so far, this time, you will not be so lucky" Crystal said, with a grin. Jade noticed she was significantly smaller in robot mode than in beast mode. But, she was still a lot bigger than him in both modes, and he was only in his beast mode.



Surprisingly, Crystal transformed into her beast mode, bringing her back to her original splendor.



"You want to finish me off properly?" he asked, smiling a little.



"I want to finish you off in style" Crystal replied, nodding. "I suggest you start praying to the Matrix, young one. It will need another room, seeing as you will be going there."



"Did I ever tell you your one-liners suck?" Jade asked, grinning again. Crystal glared at him, with anger in her eyes.



Crystal took a deep breath, and Jade felt a tingle of fear. Well, this was the end. Oddly, he did not feel as scared as he thought he would be when he was going to die.



Jade took a deep breath too, to prepare him for the fatal blast of ice. But instead of going into his belly, the air went into......a pouch near his throat?! What in the Matrix?



He felt the pouch near the beginning of his throat crackle with some sort of electricity. Jade exhaled quickly, to see what would be the result.



The result was a blue flash of lightning that went straight down Crystal's throat.



The giant dragon howled in pain. She glanced down at Jade, who was still somewhat stunned.



"How did you do that, young one?!" Crystal cried, in a croaking voice.



"Like this!" Jade said, taking another deep breath, and aiming it at Crystal. This time it hit her on the chest, and elicited another howl of agony and surprise.



Jade grinned, and continued hitting Crystal, once, twice, three times. She seemed to much in shock to move. Finally, after a few hits, she shook her head and growled.



"We shall meet again Jade, and I tell you this: one of us shall be dead when the meeting is over" Crystal growled.





"You know it" Jade said in agreement. Crystal launched herself, slowly, into the air, and flew off towards the Predacon base.



Jade watched his enemy fly away, with satisfaction in his eyes. The Maximals did need him, to defend them from Crystal. They were both dragons, both abnormal, and they shared a certain bond. A bond of power, of the fact that, even though they were different, that made them more special. They were majestic and mighty, and the members of both factions would tremble when the two of them took wing.



"Mew!" said Birch, who had come up beside Jade. She rubbed up against him, as if saying "that was some cool lightning!"



"My feathers!!" came Lotus' voice. Jade turned around, and saw that Lotus was missing most of her feathers, making her look like a plucked chicken. Jade chuckled discreetly to himself, then he stopped.



He had not heard a voice.



Surely, a voice would have reprimanded him for laughing at Lotus. But it did not. His head was silent.



Hello? he asked mentally. Nothing answered back. His council of voices was gone, with all their thoughts and notions, views and opinions. All of them disappeared.



At first, Jade was a little bit afraid. Where had all his voices gone? Were they ever going to come back, were they ever going to spring out again, and just randomly babble?



Then Jade laughed out loud. "They're gone!" he shouted, happily. "They've finally shut up!"



"Um.....no they haven't gone, they're right over there" Lotus said, pointing to Tabitha and her sister. The sister was standing over Tabitha's prone body. Jade blinked. Lotus thought he had been talking about the Predacons. This just made him laugh some more.



"Okay, I'm calm" he said to Lotus, after a few minutes of belly-aching laughs.



"I'm glad!" Lotus replied, nodding her nearly featherless head. "Where's Tigatron?" she asked, after checking around.





"I.....am right here.....but I am not quite sure if it is actually me" came Tigatron's voice. Jade turned to his right and looked at the tiger.



But, this tiger did not look like the Tigatron he knew. It looked like a Transmetal.



Tigatron's body was metallic, and glinted brightly in the sun. He seemed to carry his same tiger attributes, but some things were altered. First, Tigatron's base color was now a deep brown. He still had his stripes, but they were a bright orange. His claws, nose, paws, teeth and tail tip were white. Tigatron still had the ruff of fur that had surrounded his face, and his ears were the same. But, his teeth and claws were longer, and his muzzle thicker and wider. The whole of Tigatron seemed thicker, but he had long, strong legs to make up for his body weight. The eerie thing about Tigatron was his eyes. They were silvery blue, the color of bot mech-fluid.



"Can it be?" Tigatron asked out loud, "that I am a Transmetal?"



"Evidently yes" Jade said, nodding. He could see the look of revulsion on his face, and Jade sympathized with him. He knew that Tigatron adored his natural beast mode, and now that he was a Transmetal, that had been taken away from him. Jade wondered what it would be like to be a Transmetal. Ick, it must be so cold and metallic, it was not something he could like at all.



"Mew?!" cried Birch, hesitantly walking up to her father.



"It is me, my daughter, do not fear" Tigatron said softly. Birch looked at him for a second, then dashed up to him and nuzzled him. Tigatron smiled, showing mis metallic teeth.



"I suggest we get back to the base" the newly Transmetal-ized bot said, and the other two agreed. Lotus changed into her robot mode, because she was afraid she would not be able to fly with half of her feathers missing.



"Tigatron: vehicle mode" the tiger said. Expecting some big change, Jade was disappointed. All that happened to Tigatron was two white air plane wings popped out of his back. In the middle of the wing there was one large jet, making for excellent propulsion. The wings were a meter each, so they supported Tigatron's weight.



He picked up Birch in his mouth. "Jets....umm......on-line" he muttered, as his jets lit up. Tigatron was thrust off the ground, with Jade and Lotus quickly following behind him, to make sure nothing happened to him.



As they flew up into the air, Jade heard Tabitha's sister shout some parting words.



"I swear to all of you Maximals, that you shall pay for harming my sister Tabitha!!" came the cougar/eagle Fuzor's voice.



"Don't you know it's not nice to swear in public? It's rude!" Lotus shouted back.



Jade and Lotus laughed, while Tigatron chuckled heartily. Even Birch gave a happy mew.



"I guess we can safely say that we've saved the day" Lotus said.



Jade grinned. They had. Was that not a reason for smiling?



******************



Tabitha got out of the CR chamber. The first thing she did was transform into robot mode, because her sister and Megatron were also in the same mode.



She still felt weak, and almost stumbled. Surprisingly, it was Megatron that caught her. Tabitha grinned. She had never been in this close quarters with Megatron ever since she had met him. It was nice to be close to him.



"Hi Megatron" she said, smiling a little.



"Greetings Tabitha" Megatron replied. He looked like he wanted to say more, but Jungura came busting in on the two of them and hugged Tabitha.



"Oh sis I thought you were dead!" Jungura cried, letting go of her sister and looking at her with worried optics.



"I thought you were dead" Tabitha replied. "What happened? All I remember is.....you all healing up....and, and then I fainted."



"That is what I wanted to talk to you about, yesss" Megatron said. "Are you feeling well enough to practice your newfound powers?"



"Newfound powers? Woah, slow down Megs" Tabitha said, shaking her head. What did he mean by that?



"Tabitha, I have reason to believe that you have magic, just as that Maximal Firecat does" Megatron replied. Tabitha widened her eyes. Magic? Her? Was that possible? A part of her desperately wished it was. It would be so fun to have magic!



"If you would try to work some, I would be most appreciative" Megatron said.



"Umm....okay" Tabitha said, shrugging. She closed her eyes. In her mind, she pictured a yellow arrow, made out of pure electricity. It would be two feet long, and two inches thick. It would have a pointed tip.......suddenly, she heard Jungura let out a gasp.



Tabitha light up her optics quickly, to see what had happened. Sure enough, there in front of her, was a yellow arrow, made out of pure electricity.



Tabitha gasped, and the arrow vanished. Suddenly, her strength seemed to desert her once more, and she was on her knees in a few seconds.



"I do have magic, it's true!" the black and blue feline exclaimed.



"Talk about class!" Jungura replied, helping her sister to her feet.



Megatron gave a broad grin. " Since you were created by Firecat, you could have inherited some of her magic, and just not known it. I suppose that the energon explosion must have triggered these powers in you. Isn't it interesting how the world works?"



"Yep!" Tabitha replied. Suddenly, a thought occurred to her. Since Firecat was the element of fire..... "elemental mode!" Tabitha said.



Her body suddenly morphed into a cat, but a liquid cat. Tabitha felt cool, like water. She looked herself over.



Tabitha was now a transparent, silvery color. Her eyes were still the same light green as they always were, and her claws were still black, and so was her nose. Her wings were still on her back as well, but they were the same color as her skin. It seemed she still had her feline shape, but she was made entirely out of water.



"My element is water, the direct opposite of Firecat's element" Tabitha said, looking herself over once more, with amazed eyes.



"Indeed, it would appear so" Megatron said, nodding a satisfactory nod.



"Well, my dear Tabitha, it seems that the Predacons are now up to par with the Maximals, both in soldiers and in power" Megatron said, smiling.



Tabitha and Jungura smiled too. She had magic! Matrix, that was great. Tabitha grinned, thinking of all the cool things she could do with her power.



"Come now, I think I shall announce your promotion publicly" Megatron said, motioning them into the main room.



Tabitha and Jungura followed.



*******************

Birch was a baby. Which meant she was inexperienced in most everything, defenseless, and had little to no intellect.



It also meant that she was innocent. Pure. Blameless and free from guilt. She did not yet put her thoughts into words. Her thoughts were a collaboration of pictures, and feelings. At this point in time, her heart controlled her brain, and emotions ruled her thoughts.



To her, everyone was based on their status in her life. If Birch could think in words, Tigatron and Air Razor would be "Deeply Special To Me." Cheetor and Phantom would be "Special To Me" for they had been present at her birth. The Maximals that spent a lot of time with her would be dubbed "Give Warmth To Me" because they gave her warmth both in body, and spirit. It was not as honorary as someone who was special to her, though. The Maximals that did not spend any time with her were called "Do Not Give Warmth To Me" because they did not spend any time around her.



Birch did not know the difference between factions. Waspinator, Tabitha, Unnamed Flyer and Jungura were all "Give Warmth to Me." Of course, there were the "Bring Me Pain" the other Predacons who had tortured her and brought her pain.



Birch did not know what people meant when they spoke to her. She only knew that the sound of a voice was nice and soothing most of the time. Sometimes it could be rough and harsh, but most of the times it was not.



Right now, Birch was back in the Axalon, which she called "Place Where I Stay." A conversation was going on between a few of the "Give Me Warmth" as well as the "Deeply Special To Me." Birch herself did not understand what was being said. But, if suddenly he brain fired up with enough intellect to understand, this is what she would have heard:



"Well Jade" said Rhinox. "It seems that because you were so close to the energon when it exploded, it must have transferred some of it's power into you. Now, normally an energon explosion would just destroy a person. But, I have detected some radioactive matter in your craw and bloodstream. The energon must have been stuck partially underground, and it must have been touching a radioactive substance. Maybe something like sulphorite or dea-toxins, some of those have been discovered in modern day Earth."



Rhinox ignored Jade's clueless look, and turned to Tigatron. The rhino seemed quite happy that such an extraordinary miracle had happened to the Maximals.



"The reason you were turned into a Transmetal, well, that's kind of difficult to explain" the large Maximal admitted. "But, I think it might be because of the radioactivity I mentioned earlier. I don't know, I'll have to scan you to see. It could have mutated your DNA and superstructure, and given you this form, just as the quantum surge did the Cheetor and Rattrap."



"Hmm....interesting" mumbled Tigatron.



"Of course it is!" Cheetor said. "Now I can teach you how to fly with jets!"



"And we can fly together Tigatron, and teach our daughter how to fly" Air Razor replied. Birch could sense some unhappiness in both her mother's and father's attitude, and that was something she did not like.



"So you're saying that these guys get all the good stuff, and I don't?" exclaimed Lotus.



"It was probably because you are a flyer, and therefore were flying high up in the air at the time" Rhinox said. "You did not get the full force of the blast, which left your superstructure relatively unchanged, or not changed at all."



"Matrix, what a gyp!" Lotus replied, transforming into robot mode. She was ready to stomp towards her quarters, when she stopped.



"Something's different here" Lotus said. The nightingale took out her sabre sword. It glowed blue, with energon sparkling and crackling over it. A look of pleased surprise spread over Lotus' face, as she beheld her sword with awe.



"Well, it seems you to were affected by the energon explosion" Rhinox said, smiling.



"All right!!" Lotus said with a huge grin. She brandished her sword for all to see.



"Well, pretty impressive" Optimus said, walking into the room. Lotus turned to him and gulped quickly. She looked somewhat afraid.



"Hi Optimus" she said, regaining her composure.



"You disobeyed my orders, you realize" Optimus said, getting right to the point.



"Well, yeah....but....." Lotus sighed, deflating like a balloon with the air slowly spilling out of it.



"I'm proud of you for doing so Lotus" Optimus replied. Lotus looked at him with happiness in her eyes.



"You mean, I'm not getting punished?" she asked. "You think it's okay that I disobeyed you, because you know I had a just cause?"



"Yes, you did have a just cause" Optimus replied, chuckling. "But" he added "you could have got yourself killed."



"I didn't though" Lotus replied, with angry undertones.



"Well, you could have" Optimus replied, still calm.



"Do we have to bring up what could have been? It didn't happen, so it's okay!" Lotus replied.



"Lotus, you're grounded for a week" Optimus replied, smiling. "You are not to leave the base."



"What...but I....why....you can't....." Lotus sputtered. She just glared at Optimus, anger and resentment showing openly in her eyes. Then, she sighed and gave a slow grin.



"Well, the I'll have time to bug you day and night!" Lotus replied, and sauntered off to her quarters with a light gait.



Optimus rolled his optics. "Some bots!" he exclaimed, and went to his own quarters, after being given a briefing on the affects of the energon explosion by Rhinox.



Birch decided to stop listening. There had been a lot of emotions flying through the air, and she was tired of listening to voices, comforting though they may be. Birch decided to make her boredom known. She mewed, and looked expectantly towards the door, mewing again to make sure they understood her. A baby could not tell what to expect, when adults were involved.



Her father, one of the "Deeply Special To Me" picked her up in his mouth, and lead her towards the door. Birch was going "Not Home" to the outside world. Birch liked it there.



The baby looked back at her father. It was odd to see Tigatron all dark brown and shiny. But he was, so she would have to be happy about it.



When the first breath of outside air assailed her nostrils, Birch felt excitement run through her blood. "Not Home" was wonderful. It had large green things, and a blue roof, with white decorations on it. It had many sights and sounds to hear and see. But, Birch liked it better with the people she loved, and some parts of "Not Home" scared her. That was why she kept close to her "Deeply Special To Me."



Birch dangled in her father's jaws for a little bit, as he talked to Air Razor. She was let down, and the baby sat on her haunches and looked at the golden dish, up in on the roof of "Not Home." It hurt to look right at the golden dish, so she did not look at it for too long.



Suddenly, Birch could hear the voices of her father and mother moving away from her. She got up off her little furry behind, and was about to run after them, when something else caught her attention.



It was a group of......Birch did not know what they were. They were small, and the palest shade of blue, with a small, black body. They fluttered around her on small, delicate wings, being tossed by the wind. The wind seemed to like them too, for it only tossed them gently. Birch stared at the small creatures with a rapt fascination.



It was beyond her knowledge that these creatures were butterflies. The only thing Birch knew about them was that they were pretty, and they made her feel nice and happy. She called them "Give Me Warmth" which was the most appropriate thing she could think of to call them.



The butterflies fluttered away, and Birch felt a bit sad. She wanted to see some more of them. They were so pretty, their wings a pale blue, their bodies little black dashed that connected the wings together. Oh, but it was such a wonderful color of blue.



Suddenly, a butterfly popped out of no where, and in front of Birch's face. The little baby mewed in curiosity. What had happened? Why had the "Give Me Warmth" suddenly appeared? It did not seem to be doing anything, it just hovered there in front of her, without even flapping it's wings.



Birch wanted the "Give Me Warmth" the flap it's wings. It did. She wanted it to fly around her head, and the butterfly obeyed her command. Birch wanted the creature to rest on her nose, and it did. Birch was surprised that it did not feel like much of anything. In fact, if it had not been for the fact that she was staring right at it, she never would have noticed it was there.



Birch made the butterfly do loop-dee-loops and twist and turn in the air. She mewed a mew of happiness. The "Give Me Warmth" was doing everything that she wanted it to do! It was so fun!



"Birch!" came the voice of Tigatron. Birch looked back, and saw her dark brown father and her mother a little bit farther away than she had first thought. Birch sauntered after them, but after a few paces she stopped and turned around.



Her butterfly had disappeared. She searched around for it, and even sniffed a little, even though her nose was not the greatest. But her giver of warmth had disappeared.



Birch heard her mother call her again, and she went to join them.

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