(Untitled)

[upwind_of_you]

Who: Dinobot 2.0 (upwind_of_you), future!Rattrap (vermin_downwind)
Where: The outdoor Maximal-tech containment cell.
When: One late night after the beast's capture.
Rating: PG
Summary: And so we welcome the approaching end.
the Story:

Comments

[vermin_downwind]

He's not alone in the night.

Rattrap strolls out from the mansion, unusually furtive, considering that it is, technically, his shift. He's supposed to be there, according to DC. So this is perfectly okay.

Nevermind the truth. He rolls quietly to the cell, making certain things are working as they should be. No more, no less. After finishing, he speaks.

"Hey, Chopperface." He's quiet. Thoughtful, even. "You wanted to talk more?"

[upwind_of_you]

The raptor doesn't move, does not even lift his head, though he hears the approach. The time for noise and posturing and dramatics is done. The time for battle-readiness is done. The nickname (an old and familiar thing) is accepted without fuss or fanfare, as though it had never left.

"Indeed," he replies, and for a rare change he is not growling--though no change in mood could ever make his voice sound like anything other than a gravel pit gone wrong.

"It may provide some small comfort to know that my instinct was correct, by the way. I have kept my silence with the others, but I may still hear them, and since our communication they have been speaking quite clearly amongst themselves. I know who has been asked to deal with me, and I know that he will succeed." He sounds almost serene saying it, which is a little unnerving, though perhaps not entirely unfamiliar.

[vermin_downwind]

For a moment, he's surprised at how much Dinobot knows, but then it's replaced with another moment of fear.

The thing that should have worried Rattrap is that it's not fear of Dinobot. It's fear for him. "No- I-" He stops himself, confused at what just happened here.

"So you're going out for good tomorrow? We'll be free of you?" Now he sounds almost hopeful. Almost. "I- Is that it, Dino-butt? Just here to tell me that you know you're going out tomorrow? Nothing else? I coulda heard that back inside."

[upwind_of_you]

"Hmn...but then I would have missed my chance to drag you into the snow in the middle of the night without ever lifting a finger," comes the absent reply.

"But--no, no. My reason remains precisely as I stated: it does not do to perish and leave things unsaid, and what I have to say is not for the ears of those organics who will gather here, when the time comes."

Dinobot falls silent then. Though he does not lift his head, he turns his long neck a little, and the red lights of his optics flicker in his visitor's direction.

"Would it startle your circuitry to know that I would have spared Depth Charge and the feline from the Queen's fate?"

[vermin_downwind]

Now that gets the rat's attention. "What?" he gasps, leaning forward to be almost optic to optic, tail lashing in a shocked sort of anger. "Then why didn't you? Why'd they have to be done in like that? Other people've gotten out. Why not them?"

"Slag, Dinobot. Why? Why us?" And like most shocked sorts of anger, he fades back to the usual exhaustion. Rattrap scrubs his hands across his face, trying his level best to keep from just blurting out the entire 'why' speech. He knows better. Dinobot does too.

[upwind_of_you]

He never flinches, and the gentle calm remains undisturbed. "Why is it ever, rodent? Why was it the Axalon, of all possible ships, that was close enough to chase us to Earth? Why did that unknown ball of dirt and seawater have to turn out to be Earth? Why any of it, rodent. It simply was as it was, and continued to be so."

"That is why they were not spared. It was...simply as it was, and it was not permitted. It is not for me to know the higher workings of this world--for all my past swaggering, even when the boasts were no longer genuine, I am not now nor have I ever been a leader. Others come and go from these grounds at the bidding of those greater than I, and that is all I know of it."

"But our own kind, the others of our crew...I might have shared with them my fate, would it have saved them. But what they would have become after the change would still not be welcome here. Their fates would have remained the same, and ever their master. Still, I...would have done it."

[vermin_downwind]

"Would have. Sure. So you went ahead and let them die anyway. That didn't have to happen."

He shoots Dinobot a nasty look. They were his friends, you know. "They didn't have to."

[upwind_of_you]

He sighs quietly through his long snout, with a shadow of the old annoyance. "They did--have you not listened? They would have perished regardless; the fifth death would not have bought their lives."

The flicker of annoyance fades as quickly as it came. "Yes, I let them die. Death has been a law of my existence since the day I came online...meaningless sacrifice has not. And it would have been meaningless, had I abandoned sense and turned on her."

"They would have perished, and I would have perished, and to what end?"

A long intake of breath, exhaled again, "They were not, after all, the whole of the Axalon's crew on mansion grounds."

[vermin_downwind]

"...You know, I'd ask 'Why me', but you'd give me another speech, and I don't think I could handle smelling that awful breath of yours that long, Chopperface."

He leans against the wall next to the cell, thinking about where to go next. Crossing his arms against the cold, the rat ends up using his tail for the usual gesturing. "And I'm never getting out, either. We're both stuck right now. You, a little more literally right now. No Axalon to hop on now, and I don't think this place has an opening for an astronavigator. No way out."

[upwind_of_you]

His tail, curled around his body, raises a little and softly thumps back down again. "She will permit you to stay."

[vermin_downwind]

Another good pick of words.

He slumps, letting his head thump up against the wall. "I don't know if I want to."

[upwind_of_you]

Inhale, softly creaking exhale. "This is not a place of in-betweens forever, vermin. Perhaps it will take another six years, or six centuries, but it will one day be decided."

"You have two possible fates here, where most in the end shall have but one. When that day dawns...for once in your miserable existence, listen to what others have told you. I have lived this life and I regret no part of it. When your choice comes, remember that."

[vermin_downwind]

He laughs a little, as his tail carefully tucks itself back close. It's chilly out, after all. "Oh, you're really him, alright."

Then he sighs, relaxing into his spot, leaning against the wall a little more. "We shoulda tried this whole talking thing sooner. Even if I can't stand you. And I'll listen to who I want to listen to." Which might be Dinobot, after all.

[upwind_of_you]

"Yes, well. You will...forgive me if I put very little faith in your ability to listen wisely." They can both pretend there was real venom in that, can't they?

Metal rasps faintly against metal as he turns his head again, just by a few degrees, either watching the fallen snow or the trees or else nothing in particular. "Perhaps you are correct. Perhaps we truly should have, but neither of us was ever the sort. Though we never once lacked for words, those words were never these--even when, perhaps, they should most have been."

[vermin_downwind]

Rattrap turns to rest his back against the wall, looking at something off in the distance as well. "Right up to the end, even. But I liked that, the joke cracking and the teasing. It's better than the alternative. You get serious, and- well, you know what happens. Let things get to you and you're a dead bot."

He lets things go quiet for a second before almost unconsciously reaching towards Dinobot, planning a pat on the shoulder or something. He barely catches himself, and quickly pulls it back, crossing his arms again with a quiet huff of breath.

"...So. What happens if I signed up for the astronav spot here? What's their dental plan like? What can I expect from the co-workers?"

[upwind_of_you]

There is an oddly gentle murmur, barely-audible, during that pause: "Very dead." That's all that need be said, really.

The raptor remains very still, though he saw the movement at the edge of his vision. You may keep your dignity, rodent. His voice takes on a distant quality when he speaks again.

"It is much like a reformat. No truly new experience--the change from vehicle modes to beast modes was worse. All other things I have said of it in these last years are true. As for dental, I have no complaint--" and really look at the jaws on this thing.

"--but when it comes to co-workers, there is...little I may say."