- Present - Kup sighed, surveying the countryside around him. He needed this time alone, time to deal with the past, desperately. He'd caught Rodimus and even Optimus giving him odd looks ever since the Sentinels had joined forces with them, and he wondered just how much of his inner turmoil showed. //I dealt with all that eons ago!// he railed inwardly. "Not true," a small voice inside him answered. Kup's optics dimmed in resignation, silently acknowledging the voice. He'd buried his past, at least the part in question, and the questions it had brought with it deeply, building walls around it he'd thought until just recently impenetrable. Then Midnight and the Sentinels, not to mention the Seekers, had appeared and utterly destroyed his peace of mind. He'd hidden it well, or so he thought... Until he heard the calls. * - The recent past - //Kup relaxed, stretching stiff muscle cables. He'd finally finished with his portion of the paperwork piled from Rodimus and Optimus's kidnappings, and had stolen a few minutes to wind down from the tension and let his mind wander. "Wander?" he said quietly to himself. "I know exactly where my mind is going..." And he succumbed to the temptation. *** - The long distant past, on Kaiy'thala - "Kup?" He turned around, his optics flaring in pleasure, a small smile appearing on his face as he saw Firefall approach him. The slim, jewel-red female walked gracefully to him and leaned against the computer console. She looked at him for a moment, as if memorizing his face. "We need to talk," she said finally, her tone serious and a little sad, a little anxious. A little frightened? Kup's smile vanished and he stiffened, jumping to conclusions. "Ummm...sure." Shaking her head slightly, she flashed him a reassuring grin, muttering, "Men," before taking his hand and leading him out of the room. "This isn't about us...Not that way, at least. We've got some new developments, and I wanted to tell you myself. And..." She ducked her head, turning away from him a bit as they walked down the hallway, which was thankfully unoccupied. "And?" Kup prompted, a spark of fear igniting. "And there are some things I want...no, I -need-...you to know about me. About what I am." Firefall was silent for a few minutes, shaking her head in answer to Kup's confused, anxious questions. Finally they were outside, and after both transformed, Kup into a pickup truck, Firefall into a sleek red x-wing plane, headed west. It seemed hours had passed before Firefall stopped skimming along the ground, transforming back into her robot form, and waited for Kup to do the same. "Here we are." She pushed aside a few large bramble bushes and a few boulders, Kup helping silently with the latter, exposing a large cave. "This is where you go off on your little 'excursions,' isn't it?" Kup asked. She moved deeper into the mouth of the cave and activated something. A hologram appeared dimly over the entrance, copying the random rocks and vegetation of the region. As far as security went, it wasn't much, but as the only inhabitants of the planet were Autobots, plants, and unintelligent carbon-based lifeforms, it would suffice. Finally, Firefall nodded in answer. "I value my privacy, and I don't want to risk anyone overhearing what I'm going to tell you." *** - The recent past - Kup jerked himself forcefully out of his musings. He had enough trouble with these memories popping up unexpectedly. It seemed to him that he was encouraging the lapses by dwelling on the past. //Don't give up on me!!// The cry was accompanied by a stab of fear, pain, and desperation. He bolted upright, his optics flaring white-hot, every muscle cable tense. "Firefall?" he asked tentatively. A stab of pain went through him at the sound of her name, but otherwise there was no answer. "That was her! It had to be!" Kup thought, his mind working frantically. The voice print matched perfectly to his memories. Even the way hearing it had made him feel was the same as it had been when she'd been alive so long ago. But it couldn't be her. She'd led a suicide battle against the Decepticons millions of years ago to cover the evacuation of Kaiy'thala's moonbases. There was no feasible way she could have survived. And even if she had, there was no way she could communicate with him from half a universe away.// *** - Present - Kup shut off his optics for a moment, letting the pain of his memories wash over him. Even after so very many years, the loss still hurt terribly, and he'd responded by building walls. And now he was getting these unexplainable calls, sometimes words, sometimes just emotions, sometimes both. He'd had First Aid check his memory circuits and databanks to make sure he was ok, but nothing was wrong. Nothing physical, at least. Even worse than his own personal problems with his past was the conflict he foresaw between himself and Optimus and Rodimus over what Firefall had told him. "I know they're looking for answers to our origins. I should tell them what I know, but...I promised her! It's the only thing I have left to honor her with, except to remember..." *** - The long distant past, Kaiy'thala - "You have to promise me you won't tell anyone else." Firefall stared at him, her expression almost grim. She shook her head slightly, adding, "I'm not supposed to tell anyone, but I wanted to tell you. You're too important to me to keep this kind of secret from." Kup nodded, thankful robots couldn't blush, knowing she trusted him and feeling honored by that fact. Firefall was a commanding officer, and officers, he knew, had to keep some distance. But even more than that, Firefall didn't trust many, even among the Autobots. Firefall stared at him a moment longer, then began by reaching up to her shoulder and removing a small, squarish piece of metal armor. The symbol underneath was neither Autobot nor Decepticon and resembled nothing he'd ever seen before. "What...what is that? What does it mean?" Kup's voice was hesitent. "I'm not an Autobot, Kup. I'm a Guardian." *** - Present - Kup grimaced, thinking over everything she'd told him about what she was and how important it might be to the Primes' research. Weighing his promise to Firefall and his personal need to keep her to himself against his feelings of duty towards the Autobot leaders wasn't easy. "How much do I tell them?" he asked himself. "Do I tell them anything? Does it matter?" He thought back to the time he'd gone to Alean to look up Guardians in the library there. There'd been the symbol and a small, almost unreadable file on what their function was, which had been to protect their creators, whomever they were, but nothing else. Not a hint of what Firefall had told him. *** - The long distant past - "A Guardian?" Kup looked at the symbol, then at her, confused. "I don't understand." "I know, Kup," Firefall answered softly. "There aren't very many of us. In fact, as far as I know, I might be the only one left." An expression of pain appeared fleetingly on her face before she shook herself and continued. "We were created by the people who created Vector Sigma, not the Quintessons. The Creators wanted to experience what it was like being a physical entity, but doing so would leave them vulnerable. So they created us, the Guardians, to protect and serve them." She broke off as he looked questioningly at her. "Physical entity? These...Creators, they aren't...the energy fields!" All the pieces fell into place--why Firefall was so insistent on protecting this planet, why she'd had the energy fields mapped out and had made the rule that no one was to approach them...Everything. Firefall's optics dulled, and she nodded reluctantly. "They're my masters, Kup. They created me. I'm older than any other robot alive save the Sentinels and the Creators' First Ones. I have more combat programming than any robot, even the Sentinels." She went on to describe her past, her design, her weaponry...If she had been a Decepticon, she would have stood a decent chance at taking out the Autobots on her own given time and energon, and they never would have known what hit them. Firefall finally finished, dimming her optics until they were almost off and refusing to look at him. Kup was more confused than ever. He had no idea why she was telling him all this, and no idea what to do with information. He didn't care who or what she was, who she served, as long as they fought on the same side, even if for different reasons. He'd accepted long ago that she had secrets, ones she wouldn't tell anyone, even him. "Firefall?" She looked up at him, anxious and fearful. "I promised I wouldn't tell anyone. And I knew before we ever paired that you had your secrets." He tried to put as much reassurance and caring in his tone as he could. Firefall nodded, relief plain in her expression. "Thank you," she answered quietly. *** - Present - //I can't tell them! I can't!// Firefall was dead, her secrets lost. She herself was nearly forgotten, and Kup doubted that anyone besides himself or Optimus would recognize her name now. //If they find out some other way, then they find out. It's not my place to tell her secrets. I owe her more than I can repay just by keeping her secrets,// he thought to himself, //and Optimus will never know that I knew about the Guardians all this time. I've kept her secrets this long...I'll keep them until I die.// His immediate problem solved, he turned to his own emotional turmoil, starting with the fight he and Firefall had gotten into that same afternoon... *** - The long distant past - There was a strained silence before Kup changed the subject. "What about the new developments you wanted to tell me about?" Firefall looked uncomfortable again, moving away from him. "We found Decepticons moving into the area." "Well, that's nothing new." Firefall shot him an angry look. "I'm not talking about the normal small fighting force. I'm talking about a force that's estimated to outnumber us at least a hundred to one. The Creators generate an illusion of energon sources here, Kup. We're not going to win this one. And I can't leave." Kup heard fear in her voice, watching her pace restlessly from one side to the other. "So...what happens now?" he asked, dreading the answer. "Razzle took my advice on the issue...Everyone who's still in training or not essential personnel is being evacuated to the moonbases." Kup went dead still in shock. The planet's entire force numbered about four hundred on the surface. Stripping the garrison of trainees and civilians would lower it to less than half that. Worse, it meant -he'd- be leaving. He was a civilian, since he wasn't assigned to one of the units based on the surface. And Firefall wouldn't be going with him. "We're going to try and kick the 'Cons hard enough in the first couple of strikes to get them to move, but I doubt it will work. We'll do what we can, then cover the moonbases' withdrawal." "But...but that's suicide!" Kup protested. "You can't do that!" "I can and I will, Kup." Firefall's tone brooked no argument. "We can't afford to lose the Creators. I -can't- leave them like this, when the 'Cons want to use them for energon. They'll deactivate and reprogram me, and I won't BE me anymore. And then they'll send me out there to defend them and I'll die. At least this way we have a chance." Kup looked and felt sick and looked down at the rough stone floor. Firefall was ready to lay down her life for these...these Creators of hers, and there wasn't a thing he could do about it. She wouldn't even let him try and help defend the planet--that wasn't even an option. Firefall was -the- most respected Autobot on the planet, or any of the moonbases. What she said went, without question. He looked up again as he felt hands on his shoulders. Firefall's expression was compassionate and loving as she tried to ease the pain of her orders. "I want you out of danger, Kup. You're the only thing I really have to fight for. The only thing I -want- to fight for. Give me a reason to come back, to pull through. Get out of here with the others. Don't look back, and I'll join you as soon as I can once this is over." "But...but you can't use any of that stuff you have to defend yourself, can you? I mean, no one else is supposed to know what you are, right?" Kup cringed inwardly, hating the fact that he sounded just as young as he was. Firefall smiled gently, shaking her head. "I'll use them when I can. But I can't let the others know about me. Or the Creators." She traced his jaw with one hand, and he noted that her hand shook. "I'll make it, Kup. One way or another, we will be together again, someday. I swear it." Her voice broke on the last, and she pulled him close, hiding her face in his shoulder, unable to keep up her facade of strength any longer. *** - Present - //That was the last time I had her to myself,// Kup thought, his muscle cables tense with grief. //After that, we were busy with the evacuation, and then just the radio messages we sent back and forth. And then her orders to evacuate the moonbases.// That had hurt the most, knowing she had willingly sacrified herself so they could escape. And only he had known she'd done it for him, at least in part. //I never knew how you died, only that you did for me. And you asked me to live, to remember you, and to honor my promise. I guess it's time I let you go, then...// He carefully brought every memory of the time they'd shared to mind, building a perfect mental image of her, her smile, the aura of confidence, the way the sunset reflected off her armor and made her seem to glow... Then he let the vision disolve, swirling into a mist of red and gold before his optics only to drift into the landscape. //Goodbye, Firefall...We will meet again. Someday.//