Not much for mushy chapters? Jump to chapter 5 after this one where more progress will happen.:)
Klik - 1 second
Astrosecond - 2.5 second
Breem - 2 minutes
Cycle - 1 hour
Orn - 31 hours
Solar cycle - 1 week
Lunar cycle - 1 month
Stellar cycle - 1 year
Vorn - 83 years
Pre-war Cybertron:
Ratchet had received a mystic communique from Hound. The green tracker had been roaming one of the metal forests in the wild and uninhabited northern part of the planet during one of his orns off duty. The only message coming through had been the nervous and rather panicky plea for Ratchet to meet him out IN the wilderness with no explanation at all to why he needed the medic
The medic had at first decided to decline the request, but something in the voice of the always calm mech had made him agree to meet up.
As he closed the Comm. he shuddered at the thought of the wilderness he was about to travel. Something his altmode would not thank him for. The tracker was designed to travel the unforgiving wilderness, Ratchet wasn't.
Hound was relieved when he cycles later saw the white and red of the medic forcing its way through the trees up ahead. He could see the medic sporting dozen of scratches but the ambulance seemed to have made it into the wilderness without much difficulty. Of course Hound had made the travel a bit easier if the medic had used his traveling route.
Confirming that Ratchet was fine, the tracker returned his focus on the topic of his request. He needed to be alert or the being might attack him – even in its weakened state. After all everyone knew how vicious those beings could be, and no one got close to one without suffering damages.
The only reason that Hound hadn't been attacked was the fact that the being before him was greatly wounded and almost dead.
Ratchet cursed as he came free of the trees and entered the little clearing that Hound had found. He didn't know what the tracker wanted with him, but for all the troubles he hoped that this was as important as he had sensed, or else someone was in for a reformatting.
Transforming and checking that his systems still functioned at their peak he then turned to the tracker expecting an explanation.
But he soon saw why Hound had summoned him.
Because before the tracker lay on the ground a delicate frame.
It looked nothing like the grounders that populated the most of the planet. No this one had a whole different build. One that was rarely seen this close. But something was off.
It lay in a pool of its own energon. And it missed an important part of its being. Ratchet couldn't stop the shuddering occurring when he recognized what had happened.
The being had been tranquilized and shredded of its precious wings.
Rogue hunters hunted its species like a sport and showed the prized wings as their testimony of surviving the encounter with one of the wild and brutal seekers roaming the skies of Cybertron. It wasn't illegal, but very ill advised to hunt the seekers. Even if they were wilder than the general population of the planet, they were nothing like the turbo foxes and petro rabbits.
As Ratchet came closer he registered the shivering running through the weak frame of the seeker. It was obviously in great pain; and who wouldn't be if someone had removed a major part of his armor like the wings had been removed. The medic had already confirmed the ragged parts that were all that remained of the wings that had been connected to the frame. The wounds bled violently and were the sole source to the major energon loss the seeker had suffered. How it even was alive after all that damage and loss of fluids Ratchet couldn't comprehend.
"Ratch. Can you do something for it?" Hound asked. The question shook the medic out of his thoughts and he nodded to the tracker as he came closer to the seeker.
"Yes. But I need to get it back to my medbay. I don't know if it is safe enough to sedate it. How has it reacted to your presence?" Ratchet was musing if he dared to let it in his altmode unsedated.
"Well, it hasn't moved since I found it. But I dunno." The tracker sighed. "I'm not sure it senses anything at all." He finalized.
As Ratchet came close enough to touch the seeker he heard a faint garbled whimper escape the seeker and he made his decision; he needed to sedate it, even if it was dangerous to the seekers health. The strain of the panic that he then knew that the seeker would suffer could be just as bad to the strained mechanics as the sedative.
Reaching into his subspace he withdrew a syringe and the sedative. With skilled hands he plunged it into the seekers main energon line and watched as the convulsions slowly subsided and its optics dulled to almost grey.
Breems later they were on the way back to Iacon, the seeker safely tugged inside Ratchet.
Unfortunately it turned out that the seeker was worse off than the medic first had anticipated and as the medic worked on his third cycle to save the seeker it seemed all futile. Stranger was that the seeker kept onlining even while it should be heavily sedated.
As Ratchet watched the spark rate slow down once more he was beyond furious. How could he not help this being? What was he not seeing?
Then something happened that would forever stay with the medic. The seeker woke one final time. But this time it didn't struggle, resignation was obvious in its optics as it with a last struggle freed its servos and drew them to its chest plates.
The medic hadn't been able to bypass the lock mechanism on the sparkchamber, so when the seeker itself initiated the opening Ratchet watched confused. The behavior was strange; no one bared their spark to another who they didn't trust.
Hound who had stayed at the door came closer when Ratchet stopped working and just stood there and watched. Then a marveled look entered the medics face as the treasure the seeker had protected was bared to him. Beside the slowly fading spark of its carrier a seekerling nested contently. Hounds processor spun at the fact presented to him.
The medic was shaken from his stupor when the spark monitor came alive with alerts. The seekers spark had entered the last phase. And as a last gesture the seeker managed to free the seekerling of its connections to the mature spark. Before the optics dulled completely it placed the little seekerling on its chestplate affectionately protecting the little one with its servos. Then it all stilled, the cooling fans stopping, the air intake releasing its last breath as the fuel pump, no longer energized by the spark stopped and the seeker died.
The medbay was completely silent. Then the sound of the newborn registered in Ratchet. His protocols activating as he gently removed the now greying servos and freed the seekerling.
As the medic touched the little one he sensed something foreign pressing at his mind. Frowning he prodded the feeling and was left astounded. Because when he had nudged the connection he had received a feedback, like someone talking to him in his mind.
/creator?/secure/love/
It was the seekerling!
Greatly mystified he studied the glowing pulp of metal resting contently in his servo while clicking and cooing.
Hound coming to stand beside the medic watched the seekerling fascinated. The little being was translucent, the spark shining through what was to become hardened metal alloys in time. As he reached a digit to touch the metal, one of the little clawed servos reached for it, and he like Ratchet sensed the foreign being that was the seekerling in his mind.
Not understanding, the tracker nudged the connection like the medic had done and was greeted with a satisfied response.
/carrier?/love/affection/
Just as mystified as the medic he turned his attention to Ratchet and somehow understanding occurred when they watched their own confusion in the others optics. They had been adopted.
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