How high are you willing to bet?

In more ways than one, but this one brought me to a quick defeat. The computer hands revealed their cards to show two pairs: two aces, two nines. I had two pairs, too, but in this game I was playing the aces as the high card. I didn’t have any.

The computer won handily. New Game?

“Yeah.”

Aces high?

“Always are.”

Unknown command. Aces high?

“Yeah.”

The computer dealt while I leaned back in my chair and considered the stakes of the game. Not this one; I didn’t particularly care how much money I lost. It didn’t matter anyway. My hand was slag, but I played it anyway. I lost again and set the game up once more, aces high.

I watched the holographic hands deal the cards, not really seeing them. These choices were just to fill the time until the game came to a real close.My hands hit the keys without thinking about it, and I kept losing.

Around me the command room was silent. No cat claws clicking; no raptor hisses. I didn’t hear Optimus Primal’s voice, and there was no trace of Rhinox. The last I had seen of Tigatron and Airazor was them together in their quarters. Now I was alone here, waiting for the end of the game.

Game ended. Computer wins. New Game?

Not THIS game. “Yeah.”

Aces high?

“Yeah.”

The computer dealt, and I looked at my hand. Pure slag. But with a quick couple of commands keyed into the computer...much better. Aces high in MY favor this time. I won. I had cheated, but I had won. It’s all about winning, after all. It doesn’t matter how you get the result as long as you actually get it.

I’d always known that one day I’d have to use my aces. I’d been lucky for so long that cheating hadn’t seemed necessary. I’d cashed in on other people’s chips for so long that I’d forgotten what it was like to cash in on my own. But I still remembered how to cheat, and all those aces I’d been stashing away were going to pay off. A couple quick moves, and BAM! I win the game.

But if I was going to cash in after so long, so was everyone else in the game. A tiny part of my mind is screaming that this is insane, that I’ve snapped finally; the strain of a gambler’s life had finally caught up with me. I’d seen it happen before, people betting it all in the hopes of winning for good, but I had something that they didn’t have. I had my aces. There was no winner in this game but me. My game; my call. Cheating to win, but I win all the same.

That part of my mind is insisting that there’d be no winners, least of all me. But I know better. I haven’t snapped. I’m not insane. I’m just cashing in for the last time on my winnings.

Rattrap heard the lift activate, bringing someone--no, a group of someones--into the Axalon. He didn’t look away from the computer as it dealt a new hand. Two quick key commands, and he’d changed the cards he’d been dealt into winners. He won the game again.

They were spreading out behind him, surrounding him. He could hear them; see their reflections in the computer screen. Megatron, Terrorsaur, Tarantulas, Blackarachnia, and Waspinator. They were all staring at him in what he thought was horror. He didn’t know why. The explosion outside hadn’t damaged HIM at all. Oh, true, he had a couple splatters of mech-fluid on him, but it wasn’t from his body. Maybe that’s why they seemed so shocked. It was just cheating! As Predacons, they should understand that. If you take out the other players in the game, you’re practically guaranteed to win. And what did the Maximals really mean to him, anyway? They were just losers in the game. HE was a winner.

In front of him, hidden from their sight, the timer continued its inevitable countdown towards zero. Not long until his aces went into action. Cheat to win if that was the only way. A part of his mind might still have a couple protests, but his aces would win the game.

And everyone would cash in their chips with him.

Five.

Game over. New Game?

Four.

“Yeah.”

Three.

Aces high?

Two.

“Yeah.”

One.

You lose.

Zero.

Game over.