When the ocean meets fire

~~~~~~~~~~~Agony~~~~~~~~~~~~

They were back on the ship. They’d met a ranger from the starship that crashed on the planet eighteen years ago. He must’ve been on the planet all his life as his name was even Bug. He’d helped them to find the drop-pod that February had come down in, however when they talked to Junior (he hadn’t had the guts to go onto the planet with them- surprise, surprise- so he hadn’t been left behind), he said that they couldn’t go back yet because the warp crystals were missing in the ship. There was something about his story that Up thought didn’t quite add up, but he had other things on his mind. For one thing, Taz’s words from back on Bug World were haunting his every thought. She was right to be mad at him but he couldn’t shake the one conclusion that he gathered from that sentence: that Taz didn’t love him anymore.

He’d tried to mask it- he’d even tried to talk to her dead-god damn it, but his thought was confirmed even more thoroughly. Why in the Universe did he think that Taz would want to watch a movie with him now? Even if it was the Karate Kid...  Taz had shrugged his friendly words away and walked off, saying:

“No...NO! I’m going to go work out, jou know- in case any other killer robots try to kill us, and I’m the only one who can kill them.”

So now he was trying to concentrate on looking after the rest of the crew. He’d sent everyone off for a bubble bath, which seemed stupid to Taz, but it was actually a technique to let the crew concentrate on the mission. Even though they’d completed it successfully, he didn’t want a restless and agitated crew armed with zappers as they figured out how to find some more warp crystals. He’d just talked to Specs and found out that her outburst earlier when she yelled at Krayonder was due to tiredness, and he’d managed to get her to sleep. He was just watching Krayonder carry the sleeping engineer off to her room with a rather smug look on his face, when he heard Bug at his office door.

“Uh, hello sir.” He looked around to find the newest member of the crew looking nervous to talk to him. It seemed like he was the only one who was now.

“Why, if it isn’t Bug, my oldest friend!” Now he was the one who was nervous talking to people- he’d met Bug a few hours ago- why was he calling him his oldest friend? Now he was going to lose the respect of the one person who still respected him. The way his new mind was treating him was agonising.

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“Well, Bug... I’m not the same as I used to be.” What was that? Taz heard Up’s voice coming from his office as she was walking back to her room and froze. He was talking to Bug about...about...

“...I’m...soft.” she heard his voice get thicker as he said the word and felt a stab of guilt in her heart. She pressed herself against the wall next to Up’s open office door and craned her neck to listen. “Ever since my injury...” he continued.

“Well what happened, Up?” she heard Bug ask him. Surely he wasn’t going to tell him- he’d never told anyone. Ever.

“Uh, I don’t usually talk about it, I-”

“Well you’re not usually on top of a lap, are you?” ¿Qué? Taz shook off her curiosity and continued to listen.

“It was the final battle,” No. He was actually going to do it. Up hadn’t told anyone about what had happened that day and now he was going to tell someone he hadn’t known for more than three hours? Taz leant back against the wall and slid down so she was sitting, a lump already gathering in her throat as she hugged her knees to her chest, and she was thrown into a flashback as she heard Up’s next words.

“of the robot war,”

***

It didn’t feel like the end. There was a jubilant atmosphere on the ship- premature in Taz’s opinion. Two and a half gruelling years of war meant that it was all she was used to and the thought of there being no more war, no more robots...well it was unfathomable. Up had given the brief to the rest of the crew just moments ago encouragingly, but as she looked at him sitting next to her she saw doubt in his eyes. Taz felt the same doubt as she saw his expression and thought about their situation: they had one of the only ships left in the G.L.E.E, and it wasn’t exactly in good condition; they’d both seen so many die, and she knew the images of Up’s commander for four years, Commander Jackson, being brutally murdered by Autobots still haunted his thoughts as much, if not more, as it did hers, and now they were heading off to Qu’Onos where there were more robots than anywhere else, with the bare bones of a crew. She warily adjusted her new lieutenants’ armband and she saw Up shift uncomfortably in his ‘new’ commanders’ uniform. Taz knew the G.L.E.E was in desperate times, but did they really have to make him wear one of Commander Jackson’s old uniforms? She reached out and took Up’s hand and he looked up at her; she could see the pressure of leading a crew already  making his blue eyes swirl with a tempest. She gave him a determined nod and squeezed his hand, and he gave her a brief yet genuine smile before hardening his expression and nodding back, the storm in his eyes calmed.