Learning to Dance

her, robots who’d come looking to die. She fought through
the pain, through every part of her that wanted to give up,
give in, let it be over. She fought because she knew that as
long as she was fighting, Up would be fighting too.
Then a shadow crossed the greenish light, and she found
herself looking up, and up, into the impassive faces of two
monstrous Autobots. The sentinels she’d been fighting
dropped away. They were dwarfed in comparison.
“Taz!”
She backed up, the cave wall behind her, the Autobots
advancing. No, Up! You have your own fight. Don’t get
distracted by-
One of the Autobots reached down and picked her up as
easily as a child would a toy. From this height she could see
the impromptu battlefield, strewn white with robotic
corpses, and Up, a grey blur among them, running towards
her – and Taz could see what he couldn’t, looming behind
him, the massive form of an Autobot so powerful that every
child on Earth knew its name.
The Autobot’s grip was crushing. Taz couldn’t draw
enough breath to warn him, could only watch in paralyzed
horror as the second Autobot lashed out with snaking
tentacles for Up, lifting him straight up in the air, holding
him spreadeagled and struggling as the evil belly of
Optimus Prime began to open, a lethal, spinning saw
extending slowly from its metal arm.
And Taz found the will to cry his name, to beat the
robotic hand clutching her with her fists, with her legs, with
everything she had, but it wasn’t enough.
His torn scream seemed to cut her in half.