Three Protoforms

Finding the Balance

By: Sinead

Things weren’t going as well at the Predacon base as Xephyr had been hoping. There was always some sort of power-struggle, usually ending in a brawl; a fight that ended in someone in an R tank; or someone or another was being punished for something that just seemed . . . strange.

Blackarachnia watched the ex-Maximal with a strange feeling. It wasn’t often that one of the “Good Guys” became one of the “Bad Guys.” Stuff like that just didn’t really happen every day. So what were her reasons for leaving the Maximals? Her motives? ’Cause all Predacons had at least one motive. After a bit more   silent contemplation, the black widow walked up to the rat and leaned against the wall beside her. “Whatcha looking at?”

“Dinner,” Xephyr replied, pointing to Megatron.

“You’re kidding. Why would you want to seduce him?”

“Lack o’ anyone else intelligent who would appreciate trained attention.”

“Tarantulus.”

“Ewww . . . an’ is even slightly pleasin’ t’ th’ eye an’ normal taste?”

“Point. Then Rampage?”

“He’d kill me for even askin’.”

“So you want something out of throwing ‘trained attention’ up in the air like that? Try going back to the Maximals.”

“Been dere. Da only available bachelor went in favor of an undersized, know-nothin’ runt.”

“Who?”

“Anarkye.”

“You’re kidding. Silverbolt went for her?”

“No! Not Silverbolt!” Xephyr sighed. “Dinobot. He looked like he knew how ta handle a girl.”

Blackarachnia went silent at that. She could see Anarkye winning her way into his Spark, and easily. He had a gruff way about him, but she could see that he wasn’t all about killing. He needed a girl, like all guys do. A girl to balance him further. And congrats to Anarkye for ousting this ragamuffin Predacon-wannabe into a real Pred nest.

“So since you didn’t get the prized bachelor of the Maximals, you thought that you’d come over here and seek out a bed-partner.”

“No, dere were other reasons. Good ones.”

“Such as?”

“My brother breathin’ down my neck. His ol’ pal from home doin’ da same, sayin’ dat all dey were doin’ was ‘lookin’ out fer me.’ Hah! Slag, all of it.”

Silently, Blackarachnia wished that she had someone like that to watch her back. Someone not with a typical Predacon ulterior motive. She sighed. “All right, you go for Megs if you like. But approach him when he’s groggy.”

“Tried dat with Dinobot.”

“That’s him, this is Megatron.”

“You would know?”

“He approached me. Now I have to go kill something and eat it.”

Xephyr watched the spider leave, wondering what Blackarachnia had meant by asking her questions like that. And then she wondered why she had answered.

Sighing, expelling such thoughts from her head, she walked down permanently-darkened halls, biding her time in the concern of Megatron. Meanwhile, she’ll have a chat with the resident homicidal maniac that she knew would be lurking by a moonlit beach.

After all, just because she arrived three hours ago doesn’t mean that she can’t get serious until later. She had plans to make.

Sunup.

A shaft of light fell upon both Dinobot and Anarkye’s optics, gently stirring them awake by its warmth. And the two stared at each other from where they had ended up. A knock upon the door forestalled any conversation, and Anarkye moved so that Dinobot could answer it. She leaned against the desk, yawning, while Shangrila walked in. “Primal made me wait to wake you two up. Said that you two needed sleep.”

“What time is it?” Dinobot asked.

“Almost nine. You slept in, by your standards. You needed it.” She sighed. “Rattrap’s still out. This was a hard blow for him.”

“Why did she leave?” Anarkye walked closer, wanting to be beside the tall warriors.

Shangrila shrugged. “Any number of reasons. One, she didn’t have the freedom that Rattrap let her have on Cybertron. Two, she didn’t get the man she had wanted, thanks to an arrogant little furball,” Shangrila said this with a smile and a pat on the shoulder, ignoring her brother’s uncomfortable cough warning her to knock it off. “Three, she might just have wanted something different than anything else.”

“Dinobot, is Shang in there with you?” came a quivering voice.

“You bet,” Shangrila said cheerily, opening the door. “And Anarkye, too, hun. Come on, you’re invited in.”

“Says who?” Dinobot grumbled.

“Shut up, bro.”

Anarkye smiled at the siblings’ banter, while Shangrila reached over to hug Rattrap, who sighed, accepting the comfort that the hug tried to give. Her optics met Dinobot’s and she nodded. “Hey, can you two check the schedules for us?”

“Yeah, sure,” Rattrap said quietly. “You three wanna talk without me.”

“No, Rattrap, I was asking both you and Anarkye. Dinobot wouldn’t believe you even if you brought Rhinox in to tell him.”

“And he’ll believe Anarkye?”

“Precisely.”

He smiled wearily once they were down the hall a little ways. “So three sets o’ siblings are in da Wars.”

“Not something that Dad wanted, let me tell you. He personally abhors and fears some of the antics that twins can pull when we want to,” Anarkye replied, looking at the roster in the hallway. “Now. I have patrol around Beta Quadrant now, and you have Neutral Zone for the afternoon shift. Did you want to switch?”

“Y-yeah, Ann. Thanks.”

“No problem. I need to eat something soon, so that’s why I offered. That, and getting fresh air will do you good, you know?” She winked, smiling.

“So I should get movin’ on dat soon?”

“If you want. I’ll let Optimus know whenever you leave.”

The Transmetal nodded silently. Anarkye bent slightly to peer up into his face. “Are you all right?”

“What d’you think?” he snapped more harshly than he had intended to.

“Look, I’m asking you straight out, instead of asking Shangrila. She’d tell me to ask you. So are you?”

“No. It hurts. I dunno why she left. It . . . any of the behavior she’d been showin’ wasn’t like ’er.”

Anarkye nodded. “Rattrap, stop for a second, and listen.” She waited until he did, then looked him squarely in the optics. “Did Rhinox ever tell you about me? Or did Cheetor?”

“A little. Not more’n dat dey missed you.”

“So you don’t know who I was back home.”

“No.”

“I was a withdrawn, shy little thing who hardly spoke at times. Then I came out a little, and had started to show how much I was learning. Everyone who had looked over my head before now looked at me, wondering how much I had been taking in over all those years. I would have kept going, but something happened.”

“’Ya mothuh.”

“Right,” Anarkye whispered. “My mother was killed by a hired gang.”

“I’m sorry, kiddo.”

“It’s in the past, Rattrap. She’s in the Matrix. She was already an angel before dying.” Sighing, Anarkye continued. “But when I learned that Dad was leaving me home with some aunt who I barely saw, taking Nav with him, well . . . I wasn’t happy. So I snuck into a pod. I didn’t want to be left behind. I had been just coming back out of my depression when I had heard, and didn’t bother thinking about dangers and hazards and all.”

“Ann . . . you’re not dat kid at all.”

“And that’s my point. People get a lot of time to think about things when they’re in Stasis Lock and in a pod. I don’t know why she’s doing what she’s doing, but . . . I think she’ll come around again. I never meant her any ill will or whatever, but we just bounced off of each other.”

“’Ya don’t have ta explain, kiddo,” the Transmetal said, smiling. “I know. I listened to her rant about you a few times.” He rested his hand upon her shoulder, squeezing once then letting go. “I have dat patrol ta take. I’ll see you when I come back.”

“You better. I have a card game to win with you.”

“In your slaggin’ dreams,” he grumbled over his shoulder, walking off.

Shangrila’s voice startled Anarkye. “Thank you.”

“Holy slag, don’t do that to me!” the younger femme half-shrieked, hand on her chest, hoping to slow her pump-rate.

Dinobot’s snicker echoed to them. “Now you see what I have had to deal with!” His tone changed. “I’m getting more sleep. Don’t disturb me.”

Once Dinobot’s door closed, Anarkye looked at Shangrila, leaning against the wall closest to her. “Primus . . . but for what?”

“Getting him to smile.” Shangrila leaned against the other wall.

“Oh, please.”

“I’m serious.”

“So’m I.” Anarkye looked up at her female mentor. “Look, I can’t have you moping around here because we lost his sex-driven sister. I hardly care one cent about Rattrap, and you know that, Shang.”

“You’re being nasty simply because your dad knows that you and my bro have a thing for each other,” Shangrila said, seeing what the real problem was, and as usual, pointing it out without even a by-your-leave.

“Yes I’m angry about that, too! Why didn’t you wake me up?!” the younger Maximal stood on her own and paced a few steps, then turned back. “I don’t want him butting into my affairs! He’s my father, sure, but I don’t want him to tell me, ‘No, nine years is too big of a difference between you two. Are you sure you really love him?’ I mean, c’mon. You know that something like that will come up.”

“That was a spot-on impression of your old man. But remember that he told me to leave you two alone, right? I was going to go in and wake you up at seven.”

“He stopped you.”

“Yeah. And he talked to Dinobot about how he thinks that it’s completely fine. He respects Dinobot, understands that he would rather die than hurt you, and frankly, Ann, I think you’re being irrational about this.”

“But he’s done stuff like this before. Said one thing, did another.”

“He’s always trying to do things in your best interest. Remember that.”

Silence grew between the two femmes, broken finally by Anarkye’s sigh. “But . . . I really don’t want this to end.”

“And you’re insecure about your relationship status with Dinobot.”

“Yeah . . .”

“That’s normal.”

“I don’t really know what he thinks of me, now. I mean, I spilled my heart out to him, but I don’t know what he thinks of me after last night.”

Shangrila walked over to the twin and embraced her, feeling the younger girl’s silent sobs against her arms and chest. Hearing a footfall, she snapped her head to glare evilly at Rhinox, who immediately held his hands up and went back in the direction of where he came. Once he was gone, she looked down at the sniffling girl. “Hey, now. Dry your tears and go ask him.”

“But . . .”

“Do you want to feel this way for more than even just one more cycle? He’ll answer you.”

“But what if he doesn’t really like me?”

Shangrila sighed, hugging Anarkye close again. This girl really was just that, and didn’t know what to do with the world around her sometimes. Sure she acted highly mature for her age around most people, but she let the walls down only around two, and those were Shangrila and Dinobot. She had her own feelings inside, ones that remained silent when they should be spoken, but she wanted so badly to be a leader like her father, and shuttered some opinions and wishes away, not wanting to share them lest they respectively be either overridden or unfulfilled.

“Then he’ll tell you in the most gentle way he can manage. He’s not terribly good with gentle words, but he’ll try his hardest to say it in a way that won’t hurt you too badly.” Shangrila rubbed at Anarkye’s head, standing back. “But I think that you’re also afraid that he’ll say that he does like you.”

Anarkye nodded. “What then?”

“Well . . . I dunno!” she chuckled. “You’ll know what to do, sweetling. Your Spark will tell you.”

And thus Anarkye tapped Dinobot’s door, Shangrila gone to check in with their leader. “Dinobot?”

“Enter.”

Anarkye did so, closing the door after her. Dinobot had been looking over one of his swords, trying to find out what in the Pit was bothering him. They blinked at each other, and the female knelt before the older ex-Predacon, gaze locked upon the weapon. “I’ve never seen this one before.”

Dinobot smiled inwardly, then held out the hilt. “It belonged to my mother. She trained with it, and passed it to me. My sister has her formal sword, the one that she used after this one.”

Anarkye took the proffered hilt, feeling the steady, even weight of the sword settle into her hand comfortably. Dinobot noticed a flicker of sadness, balanced with peace, cross over her face. “What’s wrong.”

Anarkye looked up at the blood-colored optics, then away, down at minute Predaconian letters on the cross-tree, spelling out a name, followed by Dinobot’s old one. Her voice trembled. “I . . . I’m still not sure . . .”

“I heard your voice with my sister’s. She had that tone signifying that she had come to an answer to something.”

“She might have. I still don’t know.”

“May I ask what the problem was about?”

Anarkye glanced up at Dinobot, and his gaze gripped hers. She swallowed. “You.”

Dinobot blinked, and held back comments that wouldn’t make her feel any more secure. In fact, they’d rightfully tip her careful balance. He made sure that she didn’t look away. “What about?”

“She . . . well . . . I . . . wanted to ask . . . um . . .”

And then it was clear. Dinobot sat back a bit more on his heels, letting his smile show. “How I feel about you, was it?”

“Y-yeah.”

Looking at his hands, the older Cybertronian realized that what was bothering him had actually been what she wanted to know. He shifted his position so that he wasn’t kneeling, and settled cross-legged, watching Anarkye with a growing confusion. He didn’t know how he felt. And that was something strange to him. But . . . he . . . didn’t know how to go about this, either.

The truth. Hah. As always, the truth was hardest to say.

“I slagging honestly do not know. Primus, but that’s been sending me off-balance. I . . . I don’t know, Anarkye.” He chuckled suddenly, then shook his head. “But I would not be adverse to trying to find out.”

“. . . huh?”

After a moment of realizing how plain stupid that had sounded and realizing what Dinobot had meant, Anarkye started giggling out of relief that she wasn’t being turned down, and that he wouldn’t mind letting her still be around him. Dinobot took the sword from her, tugging her closer for a moment, actually embracing her for a moment, whispering, “Thank you for not leaving last night.”

“I didn’t want you to wake up alone.”

Dinobot took this in, still holding Anarkye. Then sighed, bowing his head slightly and pulling her even closer. “Thank you.”

“Dinobot?”

“Hn?”

“Thanks for not turning me away.”

He smiled, even though she couldn’t see it. “Anarkye.”

“Yeah?”

“You’re about to cry. Slagging stop bottling it up and cry already. It’s disturbing me.” He heard her tear-ridden laughing sobs, pulled her onto his lap, and whispered, “Better. Now tell me everything that’s bothering you.”

“Why?” she half-laughed, half-sobbed.

“Because you’re stressed, your mind and soul is not at balance with who you are, and your father oddly believes in me. He trusts me with you. He . . . said that he knew that I would not break your heart.” Dinobot sighed. “That’s why. Now start.”

Anarkye relaxed in the strong arms, then whispered, “I can’t stand Rattrap, that slag-spouting, double-crossing, cross-eyed, fart-faced ignoramus . . .”

Hearing Dinobot’s incredulous and warm laughter, on the other side of the door, Optimus and Shangrila smiled at each other before walking silently away.

“Aah, so you are here for what, now?”

“You heard me,” came the purr.

“Hmm . . . I might not necessarily want or be in need of your ministrations, you know.”

“I’m still willin’ t’ offer dem.”

“Why would that be?”

“Why d’you think?”

“Mm, I like the way you think, yes . . .”

But what Megatron didn’t know was that once he was completely oblivious from everything around them due to her attentions, she would pick her way into his mind, getting much-needed information. That was her gift, one that not even her brother knew about.

“I think, Megatron,” she whispered into the darkness late that night, “dat you won’t win dese Wars. I don’t think dat you’ll even see da end of ’em, possibly.” Her lavender optics activated in the dark room. “And I think dat dey will be pleased t’ know of dis. Oh, yes, indeed.”