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Battle
Beasts
Death Comes To Us All
Part I
Death.
When all life functions cease to be.
Death.
To extinguish the flame of life.
Death.
To no longer live.
DEATH.
To die.
Within every soul there exists the desire to die.
**********
The Battle Beasts breathed a sigh of relief. At last the war had come to an end. Together the Cybertronian Beasts stood watching as their leader White Leo shook hands with the leader of the robot beings who helped liberate them from their Destron captors. Rodimus Prime. The Cybertronian leader, spoke.
"White Leo, on behalf of the Cybertronians, I want to thank you for your help in defeating the Destrons."
"We should be thanking you ." White Leo replied. "" After all, if you hadn't come, I don't know how much longer we would have survived."
Rodimus raised a hand to the Cybertronians and Beasts.
"To teamwork, and newfound allies! Till all are one!"
White Leo looked around and smiled as his fellow Beasts, along with the Cybertronians echoed Rodimus' words in unison.
**********
"FOOLS!!!" Gruesome Gator bellowed into the darkness. He shook with rage. He and his followers had been forced to take refuge underground after the humiliating defeat at the hands of White Leo...and those robots. Those accursed robots! The Destron robots, Gruesome's supposed allies, had abandoned him and his Beasts, left them to fend off an army of Cybertronians and White Leo's Beasts. They had been defeated. Crunched. Humiliated. They had fled, forced to hide in this underground mining shaft.. The mine had once shone brightly with energon, before the destrons plundered it. Now it was devoid of its previous luster. It reflected the way Gruesome felt. But Gruesome Gator would not be defeated so easily, oh no. This was not over. the Destron Beasts would win this war, even if they had to do it without those treacherous scrap heaps!
"Beasts," Gruesome began, "This is not over. White Leo and his Beasts may have won the battle, but-"
"But the war is far from over, right?" a high pitched mocking voice finished.
The other Beasts were silent. Gruesome recognized the voice. Only one member of Gruesome's team squeaked. Scout Mouse.She'd grown rather bold since joining the Destron Beasts. Now she was trying her luck. Gruesome growled. If only he could see in the dark.
"We will rule Planet Beast." he tried to continue, but Scout Mouse piped up again.
"We're screwed, a-aren't we? You-you and your..allies got us into this! We were w-winning, and now...now..."
Gruesome slowed his breathing. She was close.
"They left us. They left us! Now we're all gonna die! It's your fault! It's all your-eep!"
Gruesome had her by the throat. With no effort he lifted the rodent, tightening his grip as Scout Mouse struggled for air.
"No one questions me." Gruesome hissed. He squeezed a little tighter. For a moment, he considered snapping her neck right then and there. That would silence any others who would think to open their mouths. Though the shaft was dark, the other Beasts knew what was going on, but none of them approved. Scout Mouse had merely voiced what they were all thinking. Among the disapproving members was Devil bat, who currently hung from the rocky ceiling, gathering his thoughts. Now he dropped to the ground with a light flap of his wings and made his way towards Gruesome Gator. He didn't need light to see, and easily wove his way through the many Beasts.
"Question me again," Gruesome was oblivious to everything except for the task at hand, "I'll flay you myself and watch you bleed to death." By this time, he was throttling Scout Mouse, who had practically gone limp from lack of air.
Devilbat's right hand had been destroyed by White Leo during the war, and replaced with a wicked metal hook. He approached Gruesome from behind and buried it in the back of the tyrant's armor, yanking as hard as he could. Gruesome was thrown back, losing his balance and dropping Scout Mouse. He fell and hit the ground with an unceremonious 'thunk.' Devil bat stood over him while Scout Mouse gasped, filling her tiny lungs with cool air again.
"Leave'er alone." Devil bat spat. "It's not bein' her fault we've a lousy leader."
Gruesome rose to his feet, fully intent on removing Devil bat's head from his neck. That would reassert his authority. It was too late, however. With but a single sentence, Devil bat had motivated the other beasts to speak up against their leader.
"We were foolsss to follow you." Cobrander's words were sharp, full of anger. He had been one of the most resistant to fleeing, he fled with the others only because Gruesome ordered him to.
Confusion washed over Gruesome. What was going on here?! These were the same two beasts (generals in his army now less) who would have sacrificed themselves on command less than 24 hours ago! How quickly things fell apart! Gruesome clenched his hands into tight fists and whipped around to face Cobrander's voice. "You ...idiot." He was breathing faster now. "We run into a small problem, and you want to give up? WHAT KIND OF BEASTS ARE YOU?!" Gruesome cursed his eyes for their inability to see anything besides dulled shapes in the darkness.
Badshark had spent the last few hours completely lost in his thoughts. The war had been terrible, both sides had their losses. But now...now things were getting out of hand. Their allies had abandoned them, and no doubt White Leo and the other Beasts would kill them on sight. He sat back an breathed heavily. He'd had a harder time keeping the nausea from overcoming him. Every time he closed his eyes, visions of the beasts he'd hurt, tortured, and killed flashed in front of him. How could he have done so many horrible things? How? he couldn't be a part of this anymore. He just couldn't.
Badshark, arguably the best soldier in Gruesome's army, now stood. Even in the blackness of the mine Gruesome could make out Badshark's tremendous form. His hopes began to rise. Badshark was Gruesome's second in command, a true warrior. Surely he would stand up for his leader.
Badshark advanced a few steps. His footfalls were slow, heavy. He had been out of water for at least fourteen hours straight, and was getting weaker by the second. Being one of gruesome's first recruits, he'd pledged to stay with his until the bitter end.
But enough was enough.
"This has gone on long enough." Badshark's voice echoed throughout the mine. "It's over Gruesome. We've lost." He turned around, not waiting for a response from his incredulous leader. "I'm going back."
**********
Gruesome's hopes plummeted. He clutched the olive armor covering his forearm and twisted it back and forth with such a grating harshness, it was a wonder he wasn't drawing blood. It was all he could do to keep from going berserk. They wanted to go back did they?
"And where do you plan to go?!" He thundered. "Do you think the Cybertronian Beasts are just going to take you back with open arms?!!" He stopped, waited for a response, got none.
"Traitors!!" Gruesome pointed to no one in particular. That's what the call you. YOU'RE to blame! Don't you get it? Gruesome lowered his voice to a low grumble. "We're outcasts now. All of us. We're at war here, and I intend to win it." He looked around, unseeing, but expecting to hear the excited clamor of old times.The rising excitement of an anticipated bloodbath. But he was met by silence. Silence save for the occasional unconformable shifting.Gruesome was preparing to continue his speech when something completely unexpected happened. Badshark, who up until now had merely stood where he was, began to walk towards the mouth of the mine. Gruesome could hear his heavy footfalls as he got farther away.
"What are you doing?" Gruesome called after him.
"What I should have done a long time ago." Badshark's voice rang with a certain grim finality. Gruesome was speechless.
"You can't..." he began. His other Beasts were following Badshark. Slowly, one by one, they rose and followed behind Badshark. No one said a word. There was nothing left to say. The only sound made was the steady crunching of gravel as the no longer Destron Beasts marched silently past Gruesome Gator and out of the underground shaft. Gruesome watched them go,as if in a dream.
"You can't..."
**********
To be continued...
