Title: Battle Scars
Summary: Optimus and Ratchet realize they both have something in common when a war story suddenly becomes two tragic tales of lost love…
Timeline: Season One. Set after the events of "Thrill of the Hunt", along with foreshadowing of "Along Came a Spider".
Pairing(s): Light Ratchet/Arcee & Optimus Prime/Elita One (a.k.a. BlackArachnia)
Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or Transformers Animated, but own rights to the ideas for this fanfiction. All rights belong to Hasbro and Cartoon Network.
Beneath the murky waters of Lake Eerie, the Autobot medical bay was quiet as Ratchet attended to his leader, Optimus Prime, who was sitting quietly on the examination table. He watched as the medic 'bot repaired the damage to his wrist with a finger laser. The rest of Optimus' team, who all had a rough night trying to catch a muscle car who was actually a Decepticon bounty hunter in disguise, had wanted to see Optimus since Ratchet had rescued him from being handed over to the Decepticons.
Unfortunately, as the saying went: "Doctor's orders." Optimus just hoped that his teammates were alright after tonight's little adventure, due to the look of their worn bodies. Bulkhead, the largest and strongest of the Autobots, had especially a hard time getting out of that black foam cocoon and regaining his pride back in one piece. Hopefully, when their human friend, Sari Sumdac, arrived, she would heal the rest of the damages with her AllSpark powered key.
"How are you healing?" asked Ratchet, after mending Optimus' grappling hook back into place on his wrist.
Optimus Prime shot his weapon out and watched it swoop around in the air before it slid back perfectly into place. "Arm's as good as new…" He looked at his friend, relieved. "Thanks to you."
The medic bot bowed his head. "That wasn't what I meant."
Optimus paused for a moment, letting the remnants of the night's events sink into his databank. "Let's just say I have a much better appreciation for what you went through back in the day and why you don't want to remember it."
"It's that I don't want to remember," said Ratchet softly, rubbing his battle scarred arm gently. "I have to remember…for those who can't."
The Autobot leader rested a hand on the medic's shoulder plate. "Still, I don't suppose it doesn't hurt to talk about it sometimes… with a trusted friend?"
Ratchet sighed. "What do you want to know?"
Optimus hesitated, a little startled by the grumpy medic's response. "Well, I guess how you know that Decepticon bounty hunter." He frowned. "I can't remember his name…"
"His name is Lockdown," interrupted Ratchet. "He only sides with the 'cons because they pay him better than us Autobots. He hunts down other 'bots for trophies - mainly their weapons." He looked down at the scar, disgusted. "I met him back in the Great War when I was still a young 'bot working in the field."
"He stole your EMP generator, didn't he?"
Ratchet glared at the Autobot leader. "The generator was the least of my worries, Prime. I was disgusted how he had used it – a medical tool – as a weapon. Primus, you were still partially in stasis for at least another twenty cycles when I hauled you back to base. He must have used a strong pulse to keep you down."
"He took my axe and… ripped out my grapplers." Optimus shuddered. "Slag him to the pit." The leader didn't swear a lot, especially around his crew but he couldn't help himself to say it. He just felt so violated. An Autobot's weapon was a tool – a part of his or her soul - and Lockdown almost managed to take it away from him forever. "What happened when you fought him? You know, back in the war."
"I was attending to a bot that had injured one of her legs in a Decepticon ambush. She had a memory core filled with important Autobot access codes that could help us win the war. I was under orders from Ultra Magnus to protect her until she was safe with the Elite Guard, but I got cocky and we were captured."
"What was the bot's name?" Optimus asked curiously.
Ratchet's optics lowered, grief showing as pain spread through his spark. "Arcee."
"Arcee?"
The medic bot solemnly nodded, his old servos creaking in several places. "She was an Autobot Intelligence Officer."
"What exactly happened after you were captured? How did you escape?"
Ratchet held his hand over his scar where his EMP generator was previously connected, optics shut tightly to hide past pain. "It was the same as when I found you, Prime. Lockdown had us strapped down onto examination tables, getting us 'comfy' for our interrogation with Megatron."
"And you saw Megatron?" Optimus would never forget the close encounter he had when the Decepticon leader nearly put him offline. Thankfully though, Megatron was probably a pile of molten scrap in a distant part of space by now. Optimus was just thankful that he never had to face that menace again in his lifetime.
"Trust me, Prime. Seeing him back then was just as frightening when he breached our ship. 'Hadn't changed in four million solar cycles…" Ratchet shook his head, ridding of the image of the massive Decepticon from his central processor and getting back to his story. "He wanted Arcee's information so badly that Lockdown was prepared to take her offline in order to retrieve it." The medic shuddered, like he had a small glitch inside his processors. "But she… she ordered me to use my EMP at full blast to wipe her core clean, so that the access codes wouldn't fall into Decepticon hands."
Optimus gasped, absolutely shocked. "And…you actually did it?"
"I had no choice, Optimus!" Ratchet shouted angrily, his vocal processors now laced with pain. "If you had to risk everything in your career to protect Cybertron from a Decepticon takeover, would you do it? If that night went differently, Megatron would have won the War and we wouldn't be online now. Think about that!"
Optimus fell silent. "I-I'm sorry." He paused again, struggling to find the words. "Did…did you have…strong feelings for her, Ratchet?"
Ratchet didn't reply, only putting a hand on his chest. His spark ached from the bitter memories of that nightmarish mission. He remembered when he managed to rescue Arcee from Lockdown's ship, of how his servos ached from struggling to escape the binding cables and his spark trembling under his chest plate after jumping ship…
Ratchet panted, trying to settle his spark down as he took cover behind some old debris on the war torn battlefield. He could see Lockdown's ship emitting black smoke and red hot flames while it was trying to steer clear of the war zone. He supported the limping body of Arcee beside him. She seemed very quiet after that incident; a little too quiet. He assumed she was just a little shaken up from the crash landing.
"'Y-you alright, Arcee?" Ratchet asked exhausted, letting go of the pink Autobot to let her stand by herself.
The intel bot just stared at Ratchet with her baby blue optics, almost zombie-like. "Who's…Arcee?"
The medic bot gasped, frozen on the spot.
The EMP overload really did wipe her memory core clean.
He shut his optics tight, his spark aching.
Dear Primus, what have I done?
"What's… going on? Do…I know you?" Acree asked slowly. Her childlike tone of voice sounded similar to an innocent lost sparkling. "Where are we?"
"Arcee. That's your name. Try to remember…" Maybe this might jumpstart her memory …
Arcee screwed her optics tight, trying to concentrate on the sounds her name made. She started to mouth off the sounds silently and then broke it into syllables. "A…Arr…sssee. Arcee." She smiled proudly. "My name is…Arcee."
Ratchet was silent, his blue optics widening.
Primus, she really doesn't remember anything. Not me, the mission, not even her name! Lockdown, you son of a glitch…
Ratchet couldn't help but the experience the agonizing sorrow he now carried in his spark, knowing that he had failed everyone – especially himself. Being as the stubborn young 'bot that he was, he concentrated the pain into his now shaking fists at his sides.
"Are you…okay, sir?" Arcee rested a hand on one of the medic's shaking shoulder plates. She had a soft, gentle touch against his scratched armor.
"Ratchet," the medic bot croaked, trying to look away from the confused Autobot.
Arcee was quiet, obviously trying to understand what this stranger was saying.
"That's my name," said Ratchet softly, now slowly calming down. "And…and don't call me 'Sir'. I work for a living."
Huh, this must be what they call: 'déjà vu…'
It took another few nanoclicks before Arcee processed the information and smiled again.
"Okay… Ratchet."
Ratchet's face was solemn as his mind slipped back to the present. "You wouldn't understand, Prime. You never lost someone you cared about…"
Optimus' blue face suddenly hardened into a painful mask. "Yes, I do."
Ratchet blinked his optics. "What are you saying?"
"I had…feelings for someone once," said Optimus softly. "She was a very close friend when I was training at the Autobot Academy. We had made a promise that we'd work hard to make it into the Elite Guard after we graduated. She was recruited the same time as me and Sentinel-"
"Sentinel Prime? That pompous crankshaft trained with you?" Ratchet cried, grimacing upon the memory of the smug, enormous chinned face of Sentinel Prime back when they had discovered the AllSpark all those solarcycles ago. It made the medic have thoughts about giving the Elite Guard member some hard reprogramming if Ratchet ever encountered the Autobot again in his career.
Optimus laughed. "Well, he was just called Sentinel back then and he was a bit less pompous than now. He was actually one of my best friends at the Academy before we lost … her. You see, while we were still students, Sentinel had found out about an organic planet that was rumored to have an old Decepticon energon carrier that had crash landed there solarcycles ago."
"As I recall, Optimus, aren't organic planets forbidden?" asked Ratchet, raising an optic while questioning Optimus' logic.
Optimus hesitated. "Well…yes, but I was a bit curious too. Although, I was a little worried about what the consequences would be if any of us got caught. I thought we wouldn't find anything and we'd leave as quickly as we came. However…" Optimus rubbed his optics with one hand, sighing as he did so. Ratchet, who understood how Optimus felt, rested a creaky hand on his shoulder. "There was a cave in and three of us got separated, and…" The leader's voice was suddenly cracking. "Primus…only me and Sentinel got out alive."
"It's alright, Prime. It's hard…" Ratchet paused. "Do you know what happened to your friend?"
"We tried to escape together. She had a downloading power that she used to temporarily replicate weapons for about a cycle or so. I created a distraction once she copied my grapplers. Her power only lasted about a nanoclick before I saw her fall into a bit filled with these…giant eight limbed organic creatures." Optimus shuttered upon the haunting memory of eight glittering red eyes staring at him through the darkness, while a harsh hissing could be heard from all around him. "They're on Earth too, but they're much smaller. I-I think there what humans call…spiders.
"Sentinel blamed me for not going back for her, but I was already too late to save her. We couldn't locate her energy signature. I had never seen Sentinel so upset in my life. It was later that I found out he wanted to make her his sparkmate after we made it to the Elite Guard. He's never forgiven me for what happened to her. So, as time passed on, our friendship disappeared as we went our separate ways. Both of us completed training, and then I dropped out and went to work on space bridges. Sentinel got promoted to Minor and went to train more recruits as a sergeant at the Autobot boot camp. The last time I had heard from him was before we were caught up that AllSpark business, when he kept gloating about his new position on the Elite Guard and that he was finally promoted to Prime."
When Optimus had finished, the medical bay fell silent. Neither Autobot spoke for what seemed like megacycles to them. It was then, after drinking in Prime's painful tale, Ratchet looked up at the young Academy bot and said, "'Looks like we have something in common."
Optimus, a little startled by the medic's response, nodded seriously. "Yeah." He briefly rubbed where his grapplers were reattached then hopped off the medical table. Ratchet did the same with his old 'war wound'.
"I…I think I'm going to power down for a few cycles," Optimus said, transforming into his vehicle mode of a blue and red fire truck.
"We can all use some rest," answered Ratchet softly. "Everyone's had a rough night." He stretched his aching servos and then transformed into a traditional red and white ambulance. "Sari's supposed to come over tomorrow afternoon so she can give everyone a patch job. 'Better get enough rest for her. That little organic's got spunk..."
"I guess that's why she and Bumblebee get along so well."
Ratchet smiled beneath his front window. "They're young, but I think Sari's in good hands with the kid, however childish he can be sometimes."
"I just hope that Bumblebee doesn't experience anything that we've had to deal with. He'd be crushed if anything happened to her…
"We'd all be, but don't try to think about it. That's why we're Autobots. We most certainly won't let anything happen to Sari."
"Come on, let's roll out," said Optimus, his voice laced with fatigue. "I'm sure the others have been worried about us back at the base."
Finally, both Autobots revved their tires and took off down the vacant halls of their sunken spaceship. As the back door opened, Optimus felt the cool lake water wash over his aching joints of his metalic body. It was a sign of relief after being beaten and blasted by Lockdown. All Optimus need now was a long stasis nap and he somehow knew that Ratchet wanted the very same thing.
"By the way, Optimus, what was the name of your friend who went missing?" asked Ratchet, as both the Autobots broke through to the surface and continued to drive down the highway to their makeshift base – an abandoned warehouse just outside of the city of Detroit.
Optimus was silent for a moment, remembering the foggy image of a yellow and black Autobot femme falling into a dark pit filled with glittering red eyes along with him being utterly helpless to do anything. He could remember her screaming in fright as she disappeared and him screaming his name. Even Optimus couldn't shake off the memories of a heartbroken Sentinel beating him senselessly inches away from where their fallen comrade had gone offline, blaming Optimus again and again for the whole incident while the young soldier saw the pain in Sentinel's optics after every punch he threw at him. The whole episode was too precious to delete from his memory core.
He would never make that mistake again. No more innocent lives would be taken on his watch.
As both Autobots made their final turn for home, Optimus answered Ratchet softly, almost too low for anyone to hear over their engines.
"Her name…was Elita One."
A/N: Ever since I started watching TFA, "Thrill of the Hunt" is one of my top five episodes of Season 1, and I'm a sucker forcanon pairings (mainly Ratchet/Arcee). I swear, they've got to bring in Arcee again in Season 3 and patch it up with Ratchet or at least show what happened to both the 'Bots after the incident. Damn you, Spring, why won't you come any faster?
I've had this oneshot on my desktop for over four months and I had a serious writer's block when it came to finishing it off. It was kind of a 'bleh' ending, but at least it's finished. And the good news is that I've got longer breaks for my final semester in college, so you can expect more updates from me! I'll be (hopefully) finishing up "Shattered Mirror" soon. Sunstorm's almost done, but LiarScream's gonna be a pain to write!
Anywho, you know the drill...
Celestial Maiden Sukira