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Legal disclaimer: I do not own the Biker Mice From Mars, Swatkats, Wildcats, X-Men, Batman, Thundercats, Transformers, Dragonball Z, SeaQuest DSV, the Miles Vorkosigan series, or the Deryni series, they are the property of their respective owners, and I make no profit from this material. This was written solely for the enjoyment of fans everywhere. Talon and Reno Astera, Tzuka Ryudo and Nick Gordon are my original creations and are my exclusive property. All rights are reserved.

***

This is a relentlessly maudlin, sloppily sentimental, unashamedly romantic, yank-at-your-heartstrings-savagely piece. Read It At Your Own Risk! The author is NOT responsible for:

- Diabetics going into insulin shock because that’s so ^%*@$# sweet,

- Cynics choking on their own venom because that’s so &$^%#* sweet,

• Significant others jumping their boy/girlfriends on sight because that’s so $&%^$* sweet,
• Or any other expressions of unrestrained affection, sentimentality and/or love. Don’t blame me!

***

Throttle, Modo and Vinnie’s rendition of "Do your ears hang low," having gotten a round of applause, more for the enthusiasm of their singing than for any lyric quality, the little circle sitting around the fire dissolved into laughter.

Primer chimed in, "I want to hear a love song this time!", and turned expectantly to the next person in the circle. Tally, sitting beside Throttle and rolling her eyes at Modo’s mother, looked a bit nonplussed.

"Am I supposed to play too? I suppose I could do a solo if you liked, I don’t happen to have any of my family here," and her laughing offer was cut off by Carbine’s sharp, sarcastic comment.

"For someone who supposedly has such a large family, we never see any of them, are you sure they aren’t just figments of your imagination?"

Her vicious tone made Throttle glare blackly and start to stand up, but Talon stayed him with a touch, saying very quietly and calmly, "You’re right, Carbine."

Everyone turned to stare at Tally in astonishment, and one and all stiffened as they realized more than one person was looking out of their strange friend’s eyes again. Talon’s voice sounded oddly distant, with the tones and inflections strange, as she spoke again.

"My clan’s not particularly pleased with the way I’m handling this situation, and would like to make an appearance," glancing over at Modo’s mother, "if that’s all right with you, ma’am?"

Morningstar picked up her gray-furred head proudly and said firmly, "Your clan is very welcome here, please come." She shot a sharp glance at Carbine. "It is a family occasion."

Talon smiled slightly and took a few steps away, pausing at the edge of the circle of firelight, the dark Martian nightscape outlining her creamy fur vividly. As she did, the first faint notes of a guitar sounded, and a small circle of dim light, with no visible source, took shape a few feet from her in the darkness. It revealed a tall blond human, clad in plain, unadorned black leather pants and an equally plain dark green shirt, sitting on a rock. His strong fingers were coaxing the quiet notes from the strings and shining wood of the acoustic guitar he held in his arms.

"Hey, love," he said quietly. Talon smiled in response, her green eyes very soft and bright in the flickering firelight.

"Hey, Cole," she whispered, and she lifted her wrists in an odd movement a piano took shape under her hands, a baby grand, and as she sat down a piano bench materialized under her. Her fingers caressed the keys with the lightest touch, and feathered out a delicate, fragile thread of music to twine with the faint melody of the human she’d called Cole.

As a slow drumbeat joined the soft, building melody, a second dim light brightened on a grim, grizzled-looking human sitting on another rock close by, tapping out the beat on a set of drums. Modo, recognizing the fierce eyes and battered face he’d seen only once before, mirrored in Talon’s mind, breathed, "Logan," and everyone else turned to stare at him. The grizzled warrior’s eyes shifted to him, and a quick, friendly wink surprised them all.

A third sound came out of the darkness, but this time, an obvious alien walked out of the shadows, clawed fingers picking out a tune on an ornate metal guitar, made of what looked like silver and gold, strung with steel strings. A shock of silky hair red as flame topped a face with cat-slit pupils and sharply pointed ears, the leonine stamp of his feline features making him majestically handsome. He was dressed like the others, in plain leather pants, dark blue this time, with soft boots and a loose, flowing, lighter blue shirt. As he stepped into the light, he began to sing very low, his thrumming voice resonant in the night.

I don’t want you walkin’ away.

A second voice picked up the tune as the redheaded lion’s voice faded away, and another human stepped into the circle; the firelight shining on night-black hair and dark eyes, in a face chiseled like a knight’s of old, proud, spare and strong. He was a study in deepest black, leather pants, shirt, boots; with a bass of matte black, bearing the silver symbol of a bat in flight on it, slung carelessly from a shoulder. He appeared soundlessly out of the shadows, moving like he belonged in them, his deep voice carrying the silent, wordless love he felt for Talon in every slow syllable as a bass heartbeat joined the music.

‘cause I want you to stay.

As the dark knight joined the blond first-comer on his rock, two different voices in harmony picked up the tune, and two more tall figures emerged from the darkness together and joined the growing circle, subtle defiance in their soaring duet.

And as long as I live you will know,

The new duo were a study in contrasts and similarities, an identical regal grace and presence in their movements and bearing; but one a darkling prince who seemed born to stand on the bridge of a starship and command armadas, and the other a bright lord of the elements, around whom the forces of magic shimmered like a cloak. The pair leaned side by side against Tally’s piano, and two strong, defiant voices lifted again, daring the omniverse itself to tear them from their beloved clan-sister.

Don’t want you to go.

But even as the circle of onlookers stared at the uncanny duo, each and every one suddenly realized that while the darkling prince, clad in leathers and silks of deep blue and silver, was human, the tall blond lord with the storm-tossed gray eyes was manifestly not. It was impossible to describe, but while he looked human, an energy vastly more powerful and wild lay banked within him. Even wearing the same leathers and silk as the others, his the rich green of fir trees, there was no denying he was something other than human... something more. And six voices lifted to blend together, lyric joy in every note, their song soaring up with the fire’s sparks into the endless expanse of the star-spangled Martian night.

Mmmm, with my restless heart…

Darkling prince and bright sorcerer, dark knight and flame-maned lion, grizzled warrior and wild renegade, all bound together by this one girl, hearts and minds and souls united forever, their love far beyond the reach of even death itself. Modo sat speechless, awestruck by the beauty of the music. Of the onlookers, he alone knew this wasn’t all of Talon’s clan, knew three yet remained to arrive.

The seventh warrior that strode out of the darkness needed no crown of light; he walked with a quiet thunder of vast, leashed power surrounding him like a mantle, wisdom and fierceness in equal parts, strength tempered by knowledge and balanced by wry humor. Not one of the onlookers could have even put a name to his green-skinned, obviously alien species; at some seven feet tall, with wing-like pointed ears, green antennas almost identical to a Martian’s, not a strand of hair visible anywhere, and a proud, hawklike face intensely focused and honed, he was nothing any of them had ever seen before... a vision conjured of heroic science-fiction fantasy as he sang.

Looking into those fathomlessly deep alien eyes was like looking into the burning heart of a star, and more than one soul looked back out at you. A tripartite soul inhabited that green-skinned, alien body, each soul loving Talon; the sum of their loves for her, like themselves, so much more than the sum of their parts. The most exotic of all the brethren thus far, his voice cut through the night like the hum of a slashing sword, yet as gentle as the kiss of the blade…

And seven voices rose into the night together, pledging,

It was a triumphant affirmation of the love-bonds that joined them, bonds that made them, too, infinitely more than the sum of their parts… loving promises silently renewed by all of them to their nearest and dearest, all around them.

An eighth voice joined the song, the deeper voices falling away to let the new, young voice soar alone, and to everyone’s astonishment a blond human youth, barely Primer and Rimfire’s age, strolled out of the night, hands stuffed casually in his jeans pockets, his t-shirt proclaiming ‘Sub-mariners do it below the waterline’.

Grinning engagingly as he sang to the shocked onlookers, locks of tumbled, dark blond hair falling into his sea-blue eyes, he joined the circle, and Talon slid over on the piano bench to make room for him. The young human put his hands on the keyboard beside hers and two melodies flowed seamlessly together, his young voice joined by his clan-brothers’; their voices showing their fierce pride in this youngest and brightest member of their family, telling him despite his youth,

One last clan-brother had yet to arrive, he who had been first among them, and in many ways the cornerstone of their clan, the strong heart of all. One last rich, resonant voice joined in, asking gently,

A warrior of steel flowed out of the darkness, firelight shining off a metal body that towered in the air above them, with the tallest among them, the green-skinned alien, barely reaching his knee. The outpouring of love from the others swelled to an apex at his approach, their clan finally complete. Already shocked speechless by the strange variety of species and ages, a sixty-foot warrior robot as Talon’s clan patriarch nevertheless made the Biker Mice’s and their friends’ jaws sag helplessly. But the voice of that red, silver and blue metal giant vibrated with love and trust, and the emotion pouring out of that unbelievable voice made them ashamed to even think a cybernetic clan-brother might not love his family as much as his organic brothers did.

with my restless… with my restless… with my restless heart…

That voice belonged to a leader that a soldier would follow into Hell without a second thought… the singers fell silent a few moments, the wandering tune shifting from instrument to instrument idly as they played together.

The clan basked in a pleasure almost like pain, the pleasure and pain of knowing all too soon this moment would end and they would be separated again, but for now they were all together, such a rare, precious thing. Never truly apart, still they prized these moments together beyond all things…

Charley’s mouth went dry as she realized why she was feeling all these strange feelings, Talon and her clan-brothers had completely shut down all of their telepathic shields and were letting their naked emotions wash over their kin down to their very depths of their souls. Charley and the mice, sitting beside the fire, were merely catching the backwash of their telepathic sharing. Her eyes filled with tears at the beauty of it all and she felt Vinnie’s hand fumble for hers, gripping it tightly in the dark.

For the first time Talon began to sing, and as she picked up the tune her melancholy voice shocked them yet again, this time painfully. Her sweet, heartrending tones made her brothers all turn toward her, her pain mirrored in their sad eyes: human, alien and cybernetic.

Tally looked over at Throttle, her whole heart in her eyes and voice as she sang sadly to him, in the voice of one who fears what she loves is about to be torn away forever…

Unable to meet Throttle’s gaze any longer, Talon cast her eyes down on the piano keys, but her song begged him,

Don’t leave me here with my restless heart!

Throttle, sitting by the fire with Talon’s naked emotions washing over him, her entire heart and soul laid bare for him to judge, felt his own eyes fill with tears at the extent of her love for him. All this time, she had hidden the nature of her strange family, fearing he would not understand, fearing he would reject her and all she loved. Longing to take her in his arms and tell her he would never, never leave her, and her clan was his family now… even as he thought it, nine heads rose and nine pairs of understanding eyes stared straight back into his.

*You can, you know,* and time froze for Throttle, suspended in those nine pairs of eyes. Human, mutant, alien, robot, or Martian, none of it mattered here, in the sparkling point of light that was the union of their minds. Throttle didn’t need to wonder who sent the thought, nine voices blended into a harmonious whole as it echoed in his mind.

*How?*

*Join our song, join us, now and forever…*

Throttle recoiled at the thought of breaking that beautiful melody with the harsh dissonance of his singing.

*Are you serious? You heard me, I can’t sing!*

The sharp rejection of that idea was absorbed by the mass-mind, those nine personalities gently shielding their crux-point, the shimmering junction-matrix that was Tally’s sorrowing mind and aching heart.

*But we can. It is simply a matter of trust, brother, a leap of faith, if you will. Close your eyes and jump, beloved brother, we’ll catch you. We’ll always be there to catch you...*

Throttle thought it all over in the space of a heartbeat, asking one last question of the mass-mind.

*What is she to you, my Talon? My beautiful Tally-kat…*

*She is sister/lover/wife/mother, our beautiful Marina… She who loves with no boundaries, and with no idea how exceptional her unconditional acceptance and love for all races truly is. She is our heart, our soul, our Matrix. She is us… and we are her… and we are one. And we would welcome you, brother/husband/father/lover, we would welcome you...*

And there in their minds was the proof, the sincerity of these nine hearts, for to his shock he saw they all loved him, even as Talon did.

*How can we not? For she is us…*

Discarding any remaining hesitation, Throttle took the one last step, from which there was no turning back, saying, *You’ll catch me?*

*Always.*

Casting aside his fears forever, Throttle stood up, breaking the split-second telepathic union, and walked over to Talon, grieving silently in the midst of her clan. Leaning down, he stroked the hair away from her lovely face as her tear-wet eyes rose, incredulous hope dawning in those emerald depths. Talon opened her mind at his shy, half-fearful mental nudge, and through that hesitant, hoping link came a flood of wordless knowledge that spanned a lifetime, spanned ten lifetimes… and ten minds welcomed him into their souls; and Throttle felt his soul expand to encompass them all as he lifted up his voice and sang, his song blending flawlessly with theirs.

Around the bonfire, every jaw hit the dusty ground again as Throttle’s song rose clarion-clear and joyful, joining with his new clan-brothers’ in a thrilling complexity of harmony that soared into the night. Tally, her eyes still wet with tears but her face shining with happiness, lifted her voice to join them and the rapture in the music made Charley blink back tears again.

As they let the tune fade slowly, each gently smiling singer picked up the lyrics for a line, one after another letting a soft phrase hang in the air and die away.

Don’t leave me here with my restless heart! pleaded the blond human who had arrived first.

Don’t leave me lonely… the grizzled warrior sang back quietly.

The one you filled with emotion, baby, right from the start, agreed the green-skinned alien softly.

Don’t leave me alone… Throttle crooned to Talon as he twined his fingers through hers, the blond youth picking up her piano playing with an amused, but heartfelt, caress of loving thought.

…‘cause the hardest part is bein’ alone with my restless heart, Tally breathed, the song dying away, and Throttle gathered her into his arms, sealing the unspoken promise with a kiss. As he did, eleven minds and souls breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief that everything was going to be all right, after all.

The silence stayed unbroken for a long, breathless moment, then as the nine strange figures turned to disappear back into the shadows from whence they’d come, Primer cried out, breaking the silence, "No! Please don’t go!"

The nine figures paused, and the giant warrior-robot turned back to her, his cybernetic eyes curious but kind, as the young mouse bit her lip nervously, everyone’s gaze on her.

"My name’s Optimus, Primer," the giant robot said gently, making Primer start as she realized everything Talon and Throttle knew about her, this incredible being knew as well, "what is it?"

"Please," she stammered awkwardly, terminally embarrassed but determined not to let this fascinating family leave so quickly, "don’t go yet, won’t you play another song for us? Please?"

Eleven smiles twitched at the corners of eleven mouths, Throttle’s face mirroring the same emotions as the others’, a faintly eerie effect. But an affectionate, speculative glance was exchanged among the little family, and the group settled back into the places they’d been occupying as the first notes of another song drifted up into the night…

***

THE END

***