Taiyoo
Soshite Tsuki
(Sun
and Moon)
By:
Sinead
Chapter
Eleven: Surprises
Old
Cybertronian Year: 5877
New
Cybertronian Year: 1
The
Predacon sat up, and looked at his hands. They were odd, different. They
weren’t hands that he had ever had before. They were new. They weren’t his
that he knew of. He rubbed at his head, and his hand came away entangled in . .
. hair. Reddish-brown hair.
Wait.
Back up. Something was odd about this . . .
Hair?!
With
a start, he looked at the rest of himself, seeing a reformatted warrior. He
didn’t move, not really able to understand all the new sensations that were
passing over him. Finally, he looked up, as saw a black form sit in front of
him, looking at him. “Wrangler?”
“Satsujin.
Slag.”
“What
happened?”
“Dunno.
I’m going this way to find the others. You?”
“I’ll
take the opposite route. If you find them . . . well, stick together. We’ll
find each other soon enough.”
The
reformatted panther nodded, and ran off, just as Satsujinhan’nin was dropping
to his beast mode. He began running in the opposite direction. Soon, he came
upon four figures, each in a beast mode, and each looking confused, scared, and
shaken. He blinked, then resolved to search for the others once he found out who
these bots were. He also wanted to find out who the Velociraptor was, and why he
had the others leaning against him.
“Are
you in need of assistance?”
They
all looked up as one, and the ’Raptor extirpated himself from the group, to
come snout-to-snout with Satsujinhan’nin. “S-Sats?”
He
blinked at the ’Raptor. “Primus. Kelsi . . . what happened to you?”
“I
. . . I dunno. There was a light, and then pain,
but . . . but now . . . we can . . .”
He
reached up with a clawed hand, and gently touched her new face. “I know. Come,
then. The others are Aolani, Fola, and Nari, I take it?”
“Yes.
We’re not used to bodies like this . . .”
“Hush,
now. Everything will be fine. You can all walk?”
“Yes,”
came the shaky chorus.
Satsujinhan’nin
sighed, then nodded. “Let’s look for the others.”
Wrangler
roared with all his might, then threw himself at his reformatted daughter, who
rolled with him, laughing, crying, ecstatically happy that he had survived.
Soon, though, she looked to Taiyoo, who had been watching, smiling sadly. She
went up to him, and reached up with a paw, to touch his hand. He looked back
down at her, and bowed his head. “You said that my father is alive,
Wrangler?”
“Yes.”
“What
of my mother.”
Cheetor
looked over, when silence came from that area of the clearing. Rattrap was
watching as well, with worry clear upon his face. The two walked over. “We can
look for them. Chances are that someone will find . . . find something that will
tell us what happened to them.”
Taiyoo
looked at the younger Maximal, and sighed. “Cheetor, I wish that I could be
that optimistic. I don’t think that the reformatting would have gone well with
them. I don’t even know if I still have my human mode, and . . . I slagging
don’t know.”
An
eerie screeching howl rent the air, and Taiyoo’s head lifted high, to listen. ~Suu
. . . you heard that.~
~Matrix
. . . let’s find them!~
She looked to Cheetor. “Wait here with the others. Don’t move from this
clearing. Dad, please stay here, too. Tai . . .”
He
stared off, his long strides taking him through the trees. Tsuki easily kept up
with him, using her long legs to help her maneuver around the trees that he
brushed by. Stopping suddenly, Taiyoo threw his head back, calling out the
answer to that call. It sounded again, with a higher note harmonizing with it,
and he moved off towards it. Every few minutes or so, this happened, until they
came upon the group.
Satsujinhan’nin
ran forward to greet his son and daughter-in-law, then stepped aside, to show
him the one who had harmonized with his call. “Do you know her?”
Taiyoo
looked at his father, unable to decipher any emotions from his new face. He
walked closer cautiously, and touched snouts with the slightly-smaller
Velociraptor. Blinking, he did it again, feeling something in his Spark tremble
. . .
“Mom?”
She
smiled shyly, and nodded. Taiyoo rested his cheek against hers, the equivalent
of an embrace, and then rested his head against her shoulder. Kelsi rested her
hands on his neck, rubbing it gently. Neither said anything more for a while,
until Tsuki walked over. Kelsi smiled down at her, then indicated Taiyoo, who
was starting to drowse off. The younger femme smiled in return, and then
balanced upon her hind legs, to lick Kelsi’s snout. “You’ll love having a
beast mode.”
She
smiled, and replied, “I’ll miss being human.”
“Taiyoo
and I don’t know if our human modes transferred over. We might have lost
them.”
Satsujinhan’nin
rubbed at her ears, then let his son’s now-asleep form rest against his side.
He picked him up, and moved his weight around slightly in his arms, until they
were both comfortable. “Show us the way, Tsuki.”
She
smiled, then looked to the other three femmes, as well as two of the single
fathers. “Everyone else is back with Dad, and the other Maximals. The rest of
my group . . . we’re going to look for them soon.”
They
called out affirmatives, and then followed the younger Predacon.
Taiyoo
awoke. His head was upon a lap, and fingers were gently brushing his face,
tracing his new features. He opened his eyes, and looked up into Tsuki’s black
eyes. “I’m glad that your eyes stayed nearly the same.”
“I
finally figured out what we were created for.”
“Do
I honestly want to know? I’m comfortable. It’s not often that you let me
grace your lap with my head.”
“Oh,
you!” she laughed, bowing closer for a moment, before stroking his straight
nose. “You might not, but you don’t have to move when I tell you.”
“So
. . . tell me.”
She
smiled sadly. “You and me, we’re different than the others. We know that.
They were the initial tries to get the balance you and I hold. Jinsei was
originally supposed to be female, and your mate, hard as that seems, and I was
going to be the male. But they couldn’t work with Fola and Rapid’s . . . you
know . . . the egg and seed . . . they couldn’t get that balance for some odd
reason or another. The child would be another male, and they didn’t want a
male-male pair, and a femme-femme pair. They wanted us to mate, raise children,
all that . . . so those options weren’t even in the question.”
She
paused, and Taiyoo reached up to rest his hand upon her cheek. “Love . . .
there’s something else, isn’t there?”
“Y-yeah
. . . We . . . you and me . . . we’re designed not to age, once the first
child is born.”
“What
are you saying?”
“We’re
the government’s secret killing machines . . . they designed us. I can control
. . . I could once control, energy.
Like when I used to do that energy surge. You . . . I saw that you were able to
control something . . . minds, I think. Something like that.”
“You’re
talking in circles, love. What is it? What
are you saying?”
She
bit her lower lip. “We’re . . . immortal.”
Satsujinhan’nin
looked to the newly-formed Kelsi, who had been getting used to her new body
easily. He smiled reassuringly at her, and pulled her closer. “You’ve
mastered more than just your body, Kels. You’ve mastered your mind and soul as
well.”
“You
want something.”
“Mm-hmm
. . . my virgin.”
Kelsi
laughed, and wrapped her arms around his neck, smiling back at him. “Because I
didn’t want you to be hurt. You know
why. You . . . you would have out-lived me by a long shot.”
His
voice was grave, as he reached out to touch her cheek tenderly. “Affirmative.
But now, Kelsi . . . will you?”
In
answer, she tackled him, and they landed upon their bed in a passionate kiss,
not noticing the open door. A familiar voice broke them apart. “Matrix, Mom,
not one week as a Predacon, and you and Dad are already at it. And remember to
close the door, please.”
Satsujinhan’nin
laughed, embarrassed. “Son, you’re annoying me!”
“You
know it’s my job, and I enjoy taking that job seriously.” His voice and face
turned serious. “Tsuki told me what you found out.”
They
sat up, and watched him. Kelsi was the first to speak. “Where is she?”
“With
her father.”
“Tell
me what’s on your face, my baby boy.”
He
bowed his head, and whispered hoarsely, “I don’t want to be immortal. Never
have. Primus, Mother . . . One lifetime of the horrors Tsuki, myself, and all
the others have lived through is enough for me to wish for my death at a
reasonable age.”
“Define
‘reasonable,’ Taiyoo,” Satsujinhan’nin asked in a level tone.
“You
know, for a Cybertronian; close to the middle of two hundred. Possibly three, if
I was lucky.”
Kelsi
blinked to Satsujinhan’nin. “You never told me that was the average age!”
“Uh
. . . I didn’t?”
“Great,
Mom, he’s confused.”
“Son,
you’re gonna find yourself grounded.”
“Mmph.
Sure, Father.”
Kelsi
held her hands up. “Back to the original
subject.”
Satsujinhan’nin
chuckled, and rubbed at his chin. “If I am remembering correctly, then it was
about whether or not you were going to hold your tongue when it wasn’t time to
loose it.”
“That’s
ancient history, Sats.”
“You
said the original subject, Mother. You know
that’s getting into trouble with him!”
“Taiyoo!”
“Apologies!”
“You’d
better be apologizing!”
Taiyoo
chuckled, but sobered, and said, “Tsuki feels the same way.” His voice was
pleading, broken . . . he sounded as if he were ten years old again, trying to
be strong, but failing miserably, and knowing it.
Kelsi
reached for him, and held him close to her, curled up, partially on her lap, and
sobbing. Satsujinhan’nin kneeled in front of his son, and rested his hand upon
his shoulder, squeezing it once. “Taiyoo, son, listen to me. Those were
theories. Only one of the scientists thought about that. They didn’t know for
sure. If Suu stops aging after her first child, then we know that it’s true.
But, if she is like all other Cybertronians, and ceases aging though
the duration of her pregnancy, then picks up once the child is born, we will
know that it is false.”
The
son managed to take in a shaky sigh. Satsujinhan’nin moved his hand to the
back of Taiyoo’s neck. “Look at me, boy. You know that no matter what
happens, you have me and your mother. If we die, then you have the Oracle to
speak to us through.”
Taiyoo
nodded.
Kelsi
kissed his forehead, after sitting him up, and embraced him close. Taiyoo rested
his head upon her shoulder closing his eyes and sighing, much like he had done
when he was a young child. There was a knock upon the door, and
Satsujinhan’nin rose to open it slightly, shielding his wife and son from
sight. Tsuki and her father were there. Satsujinhan’nin opened the door for
them, and soon, all of them were close together, and asleep, feeling like it was
back before Taiyoo had even heard the name Megatron, and when the two children
were inconsolable.
The
family was once more united, and would once more stick together, to find the
answers.