"Hiya, Blaster!" Trixter greeted. "Couldya do me a big favor and patch me through to Earth? I need to talk to Jazz."
On the Starcruiser's comm monitor, Blaster smiled. "Sure thing, Trix. Just gimme one second..." He turned to something off-screen and the picture went black.
After a moment the monitor sprang back to staticky life, the snow resolving into an image of the Earthbase's own communications officer. "Trixie!" Jazz exclaimed. "How is my favorite space cadet?"
She leaned forward in her chair, brushing the screen with her fingertips. "Not too bad, considering," she sighed. "But we'll talk about that later. You remember right before we left Earth we were talking about a vacation, going to a resort planet for a little R an' R? Well, we had to keep putting it off and we just now got a chance to go and, well, can you come with us now?" she finished excitedly. "We were planning to stop by Earth for a few days anyway but if you could get Scattershot to give you some time off..."
She sounded so hopeful he couldn't have refused if he wanted to. "I'll try my best," he smiled.
"Thanks!" She heard the door of the ship woosh open behind her and turned to find Furie standing in the doorway. Trixter turned back to Jazz. "I need to go now. See you soon!"
"Bye, Trixie!"
She cut off the feed and turned back to Furie. "Were you about to go?" he asked sadly. It seemed to Trixter like he had been doing everything sadly in the two days since Dharma and Skids had been killed. They were all upset by the deaths of their friends, but he had taken Dharma's death worse than any of them.
"I was about to go into Iacon, yeah. Then we're leaving for Earth. Are you sure you don't want to go to Xuna-Karr with us?"
Furie shook his head, looking at the floor. "I...I want to stay here on Cybertron a little longer. I want to try to remember some more about my past. What Dharma did helped me a lot, it helped me control the Decepticon programming. I'm not having the violent spells as much anymore, and when I do I can push them down, control them. But she still couldn't recover any of my memories. I know what you've told me, about who I was, and the things we did together, but I still can't remember it for myself. And that's what I want, to be able to remember it for myself."
"It's okay," Trixter said quietly, "I understand. Just keep in touch, okay?"
"Okay, I will," he said, smiling weakly.
It never failed to amaze Trixter how beautiful Iacon had become in the few years since she had left to become a Firestormer. She had lived the first part of her life under that city, in the base of the Autobot Resistance, when the city itself was little more than ruins. But since the Autobots had retaken the planet it had been rebuilt and revitalized, a testament to the beauty of the past. Or something. She had been on Earth when all the eloquent speeches were made about it. Whatever it was supposed to symbolize, though, it was quite a sight. The spaceport, where the Starcruiser was, was on the outskirts of the city to the south, so she decided to take the senic route to the north end, bypassing the roads and mass transports in favor of walking. In the center of the city were the Autobots' administrative buildings, an interconnected cluster of gleaming towers built in a style almost reminiscent of Earth-style skyscrapers. In the middle of the cluster was a courtyard featuring statues of long-lost war heroes surrounded by foliage from assorted planets, each encased in a crystal dome with a computer programmed to provide whatever environment it needed to flourish. As Trixter walked through the courtyard she recognized several species from Earth, and a few from other planets she had visited. As she stood for a moment admiring a particularly colorful specimen, one of the statues caught her eye. It was on the other side of the courtyard, and she couldn't make out who it was, but it was a yellow-gold color that stood out from the mostly silver surroundings. She was certain that it hadn't been there the last time she visited. Trixter usually didn't pay that much attention to the memorials, but she was sure she would've remembered one that unique. She started towards it, then let out a gasp as she recognized it. "Xaaron..." she whispered to herself. No wonder it was that color, it was the same color he had been. She walked up to the base of it so she could read the inscription, trying to keep from drowning in the flood of memories that overtook her. "Emirate Xaaron," she read, "leader of the Autobot Resistance Movement". As if that could sum it all up, she thought. He had been their source of hope when all had seemed lost, when it had seemed only a matter of time before the Decepticons wiped them out, when what had started as a war of ideals became a war of survival for what was left of the Autobots. And eventually that hope had paid off. But he never got to see it. She and Upstart had been upset when he was killed, but by then things had changed drastically and the loss of their leader seemed just the last nail in the coffin of their old lives, lives they were all too happy to leave behind.
"Trix! Hey, Trixter!" She was snapped out of her reverie and turned around to find Siren approaching, grinning. "Hey, Trix! Long time no see!"
Trixter smiled. "Hey, Siren! Whatcha been up to? Have you seen this?" she asked, gesturing to the statue.
"Oh, wow, no!" he said, noticing the statue behind her. He slowed his approach, gawking up at it. "That's a great likeness. I wonder who did it?"
"It doesn't say. Had to be someone who was here back then, probably someone who knew him pretty well. Just look at it!"
` "Yeah... So, how've you been, Trix? Still doing the Firestormer thing with Upstart?"
"Yep. We were about to leave, actually, go to Earth for a few days then hit this resort planet Air Raid was telling us about. Your team still together?"
"Yep. We're just visiting here for a couple days, too. It's amazing how much this place has changed. I remember when all this was just one big pile of rubble..."
Trixter glanced down at her chronometer. "Ooo, slag, I've gotta go. I have something I need to do before we lift off. Maybe we can all get together for a party or something someday, okay?"
"Yeah, that'd be great! See ya around, Trix!"
After asking around, Trixter found Maleeus' warehouse in the northern sector of the city. The building looked older than the others around it, as though it had been standing since before the rebuilding of the city. The building seemed vaguely familiar. Maybe it had been standing since she had lived in the base there. As she thought about it she realized that it had been one of the secret entrances to the Autobase, with a trapdoor in the floor leading underground to the tunnels. She stood in front of it for a moment, looking up at the giant double doors and wondering what to do next. Dharma's dying request for her to find him had raised a lot of questions for her. She figured he was a friend of hers, but what had she meant when she said he had to look out for her now? She didn't realize Dharma had been looking out for her to begin with, and she had never heard of this Maleeus guy. And why had she wished her luck? Luck with what?
After standing there a few minutes Trixter finally got up the nerve to knock on the door. A moment later a smaller door set in one of the larger doors flew open and an old-looking Autobot stuck his head out. For a moment she was reminded of the old absent-minded professor characters from Earth movies and she smiled in spite of herself. "Hello," she said. "Maleeus, I presume?"
"Trixter!" he exclaimed, smiling. "But where's Dharma? And Skids?"
Trixter stared at him, confused. "You were expecting me?"
"Yes, yes! Come inside!" He ducked his head back in and she hesitantly followed. The interoir of the cavernous warehouse was filled with tools and gadgets of all kinds, and a few of the workbenches spread through the room had half-built works in progress on them.
"Now where are Dharma and Skids? They were supposed to bring you here." the old Autobot asked as he closed the door behind her.
Trixter turned to him, dreading what she had to say. "They...they're gone," she said solemnly.
Maleeus just stared at her for a moment, then his face fell and a silence decended between them. "No..." he finally whispered.
Trixter put her arms around him, trying her best to comfort him, but her own feelings got the best of her. "I...I'm so sorry, it was all my fault..."
"Don't blame yourself," he said quietly. "I'm sure they were doing what they thought was best. You can't hold yourself responsible. They were supposed to be protecting you, after all..."
"What is all this about protecting me?" Trixter cried. "I don't understand! There's so much I don't understand anymore..."
He held her at arm's length so he could look her in the face. "Trixter, I have a lot to tell you. Maybe we should have a seat." He left her standing there and pulled over a pair of crates for them to sit down on. "I wish I could tell you everything, but I fear that will have to wait until later. I guess I should just start at the beginning. I built you, Trixter. That's how I recognized you."
Trixter just stared at him, speechless. "So...you're my father?" she asked when she finally sopke again.
Maleeus smiled. "In human terminology, yes. I have kept up with you over the years, I know how fond you are of human ways. If you choose to think of me that way I certainly won't mind. And that would make Dharma your sister," he added sadly.
"I never realized... What about Skids, then? Was he, like, my brother?"
"No, Skids was one of those who crashed on Earth with Optimus. But he and Dharma were so close that I let him in on everything. When the Decepticons held the planet, there were very few Autobots with the skill to build new ones. No one was supposed to know about me but Emirate Xaaron. He always said it would be too much of a security risk, and the last thing he wanted was for me to be captured or, even worse, killed. I usually gave my creations, my children if you prefer, to him to raise as soldiers in his resistance force, but I kept Dharma here as my assistant. We...were very close, before she left." He paused for a moment, then continued. "I had spoken to her before you left for the Twilight and arranged for her and Skids to bring you here before you left Cybertron. I was happy you had all ended up together and thought you might have some questions. I wanted a chance to explain things to you. For one thing, she said you hadn't yet discovered your own special ability."
"Special ability? You mean I can do what she did, that mental thing...?"
"No, yours is very different. Here, stand up..." He stood up himself and put a hand on her shoulder. "Concentrate on being over there," he said, pointing across the room. "There's a tiny computer in your brain that, if you tell it to, will allow you to teleport. But you have to know it's there. You had just never thought to give it a command."
Trixter shut off her optics and tried to concentrate despite the confusion her emotions had been thrown into by what he had told her. Soon she felt a tingling sensation overtake her for a brief moment. When she switched her optics back on she was indeed across the room. She turned back to him, open-mouthed. "That's...that's so cool!" she finally managed, grinning. "I never thought..."
"That is where your name came from," Maleeus smiled, walking over to her. "It'll take some practice before you can do it really well. You can teleport other things with you, too, but that internal computer has to scan them first."
Trixter realized with a start that her friends back at the spaceport were probably getting impatient. "I...I'm sorry, I just remembered, I have to go now. My team and I were about to leave for Earth and we still have to finish getting the Starcruiser ready."
"Well, no need to keep them waiting. I have a comm station here if you ever need to get in touch with me, alright?"
Trixter knew something was wrong the moment she set foot in the shuttle hangar. It was dark inside the cavernous building and she didn't see or hear any of her teammates, who should've been busy preparing the Starcruiser for the trip to Earth. Most of the empty fuel barrels that had been stacked against the wall were now strewn across the floor and the walls were speckled with round black laser-char marks. She cursed to herself as she noticed a large dent in the hull of the Starcruiser.
She took a few steps inside, her footfalls echoing in the stillness. Suddenly, a stack of barrels to her left exploded outward and she felt someone force her to the floor. Panicked, she cursed herself for falling into so obvious a trap while trying to think of a way to get out of her attacker's grip. Then she heard a familiar voice above her. "Oh, sorry, Trix, didn't realize it was you." The weight holding her down lifted and she looked up to see Air Raid standing over her, reaching down to help her up.
"What happened here?" Trixter asked, getting to her feet. "Where is everyone?"
"Decepticons happened. About ten of them barged in here and just started shooting. I think they had some kind of stun guns, nothing lethal. None of us were armed, though, so we couldn't put up much of a fight. They didn't see me duck behind the barrels. The weird thing was, after the fight, they took the other guys with them! I didn't even know there were Decepticons on Cybertron anymore, much less that they were into kidnapping. I...I'm sorry I jumped you like that, I thought you were one of them."
"It's okay, I understand," Trixter said as she walked over to examine the dent in the ship. "Was everyone else here when it happened?"
"Furie went to pick some stuff up for us just before they hit, so it was me, the two Technobots, Upstart, and Dial. Come to think of it, they seemed more concerned with Dial than anyone else."
Trixter considered that for a minute, then turned to Air Raid. "I think I know who might have done it. Wait here for Furie to get back, then you two arm yourselves. I'm going back into Iacon for reinforcements."
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