(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:

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[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?"