Whenever I can't come up with a good story line for a fic, I go to my brother. Of course, sometimes when I present him with problems, he just says something that totally does not help. For example: "_, how would I make Smokescreen go blind?" "Death by monkeys." Totally helpful, yes? So, just because I can think of nothing else but this route, I will give you this, to satisfy your need to read about characters going blind.

Enjoy.

Airachnid was getting really tired of being chased by the Autobots. She was especially tired of Arcee and Bumblebee chasing her around, so the femme turned and flicked acid out of her talons. She heard a wail as Bumblebee went down and shook his helm, but she couldn't see anymore. She had to keep running. She concluded that Arcee must have swerved and ducked or simply tripped in her efforts to get away from the acid.

A relic was strapped to her back, which weighed her down and made her a little heavy on one side, so she had to constantly readjust to make sure she didn't flop over. Optimus was on her heels. She growled and spun around just in time to flick a little acid at his face. It burned his cheek, just missing his optic, but a second attempt nailed both of his optics. The Prime went down like a sack of slag pellets.

She scrambled up the cliff face, panting softly as she looked down at Arcee, who was so close that if she dared, she could wrap a servo around her ankle. Airachnid gave her the same treatment she had given the other two, only this time, there was more of it. She hated Arcee with a passion, and she made sure the little femme knew it. Before long, she was screaming and falling down the cliff onto Smokescreen, who got the spatter of acid in his optics and on his face. How unfortunate, Airachnid thought, or rather, how fortunate for her. She laughed to herself and she scrambled up and out of the way just as Bulkhead started shooting.

Bulkhead stopped when Airachnid disappeared and he looked down and around at the crippled team. Optimus was moaning and twitching where he had fallen. His arm was at an odd angle and Bulkhead suspected it was broken. Arcee was panting and whimpering on top of Smokescreen, who cried acid-tinted tears. Bumblebee was silent, twitching only slightly. The former Wrecker commed the medic. "Ratchet, we need a MedEvac, ASAP. The team is blind save for me. I repeat, the team is blind."

"Blind!" Ratchet exclaimed when he saw the team. Bulkhead carried (or rather dragged) Optimus through first. His optics were fizzing and falling apart in their sockets. "Blind?" He waved a servo in front of Optimus' face, who whimpered again and shook his helm to clear the pain away, but that only moved the acid around in his optics to eat at another part of the sensitive parts.

Arcee limped through next, leaning on Smokescreen, who felt around. When he felt Ratchet, he collapsed into his arms and held Arcee close, who was too tired to protest even a little bit. "Ratch'...please say this is temporary..."

Ratchet ran around the MedBay, looking into everyone's optics only to see them being slowly eaten away. He flushed each optic out and was left with an almost fully blind team. Only he and Bulkhead still had their optics.

"Now what?" Bulkhead was holding a trembling Arcee in his arms. She was whining and whimpering, the same as Optimus was, which was saddening to see. Ratchet stroked his friend's helm.

"Now we wait. Their self-healing systems should jump in and correct the problem. If not, we'll have to play eyes for them."

Bulkhead groaned, but didn't say anything. He just nodded and looked at Optimus, who was cradling the busted arm. Ratchet went about creating a cast for it.

Arcee mewed in pain, causing Ratchet to drop what he was doing and run to her side. Her ankle was crooked, so he set it in place and secured two splints on either side of it with cloth. He told her to stay down when she struggled to get up, then ran to Bumblebee.

Bulkhead didn't know what to do. He just watched the medic run around before the mech looked at Bulkhead. The Wrecker flinched, expecting a scolding. Instead, the medic sighed and rubbed his helm.

"We need outside help," he whispered.

And outside help came quickly.

The Twins were eager to touch down on Earth. They had been in a ship behind the moon the entire time and were happy to come and treat the Autobots. They were both Amalgami, they were both Seekers, they were both highly respected medics. One was Autobot. One was Decepticon. They worked for both sides. They were closer to each other than normal Seeker trines, which was due to the fact that the older femme (by only three minutes) had killed their younger brother moments before they were to be born. She had been too big and her siblings were so small. The sister would have died had their carrier not gone into the MedBay on the Nemesis.

Ratchet greeted them when they came in. They were perfect negative images of each other, just like Optimus and Nemesis were.

One was blue and silver with limp wings she always tied back to keep from flopping around and distracting her. She had bright blue optics and was optimistic, eager to tackle any problem with her bare servos.

Her sister was purple and gold with large operational wings, red optics, and claws sharper than any Decepticon's. She was slightly more timid that her sister, but she was just as fierce and as talented behind the knife.

"Nightshade, Starsong... It's good to see you. I wish the others could."

Starsong whined when she saw Optimus struggling around, feeling for the Energon cube with his good servo. She rushed over immediately and helped him drink, holding his helm against her chest as she stroked his cheek and guided the cube to his lips. Nightshade looked at Ratchet and asked for details.

"Can't you see that they are blind, Nightshade?" She was feeding Bumblebee next, helping the scout who had a servo wrapped around her arm as if he could see through her optics if he gripped her hard enough. She dettached herself from him to go to Arcee, who was less than thrilled to get special treatment "just because she couldn't walk or see".

Ratchet explained that Airachnid had been the cause and Nightshade's twitching wings was the only giveaway at how mad she was. "Ah," she said softly. "Then there should be some sort of cure. What is she rubbed her optics while acid was still on her servos?"

Starsong finally convinced Arcee to let her help. "Perhaps," she said, finally seemingly running out of energy. "Airachnid's not stupid, she's just really full of herself sometimes." She perked up again. "Like Starscream!"

Nightshade opened her mouth, but was interrupted by a wail. Starsong rushed over before Nightshade could even consider what to do with the wailing Elite Guardsman.

"I can't see! I'll never see again! This is terrible!"

Starsong, the forever-optimist, purred and patted his helm. "It could be worse. You could be deaf, too."

Nightshade checked every mech and femme out, looking into their ruined optics as she reached a thin claw. The sensors in there were dead. They wouldn't heal back for weeks, maybe years if they were lucky. She sighed and shook her helm. "There's nothing we can really, truly do for them while the sensors are damaged." She looked over at Ratchet, who lowered his helm. "What we can do is blindfold them and hope no further damage comes to their optics."

Starsong got up and smiled around at the bots. "You'll all be okay," she purred and she blindfolded Optimus, soothing the Prime when he flinched back. "It's just me."

Ratchet helped the femmes blindfold the team, sighing as he felt completely hopeless. These femmes only needed a patient and five minutes to discuss what the best route would be. He needed someone to hold his servo and then he could maybe figure out what to do, with their constant help and ideas. How had he been serving this team, anyway?

Bumblebee helped the femmes put on the blindfold, turning it into some sort of game like he always seemed to do with little tasks such as this. He hugged Starsong and chirred when the femme stroked his helm in a fond way.

"You'll be running around in now time, Bumblebee," she promised as she knelt and took his servos. "You'll see."

Nightshade watched, then she helped each Autobot onto a berth to rest, even Ratchet. The medic made small protests, but they were ignored. "Ratchet, you have done enough. Starsong and I can handle the rest. You can trust me." As she spoke, the light caught her Decepticon insignia and the medic laughed. She glanced at it and she nodded. "Yeah, I know. Trust a Decepticon, isn't that a funny joke?" She laid Ratchet's helm on a pillow, then she walked to check on the others. "Let them sleep," she said, swatting her sister's servos.

She smiled and made a final adjustment on the blindfold on Smokescreen's optics, then she settled in the middle of the room. She sat down on the floor, crossed her legs and let her optics close. She was all over the room at once, having the ability to separate from her body and peer down at the other's faces.

Nightshade was not that calm and thought she never would be. She watched her sister, trying to match her breathing, but sitting still too long made her anxious. Her sister might have lost the need to move when she lost her wings, but Nightshade was still antsy like any other Seeker. She got up and started to pace.

Starsong's audios were focused on Optimus, but then they focused instead on Nightshade. "Calm," she whispered, and Nightshade felt as though she was being wrapped in a blanket.

"Enough of the creepy mind things," she snapped, but she did it fondly. Starsong was her little sister that she almost killed. She couldn't be mad at her for too long. She felt guilty soon after.

She opened an optic and smiled at her. Then she flopped onto her back and spread out. "It's good to be on Earth again, right?"

Nightshade looked around at the sleeping Autobots. She had no loyalty to them, but they were family through her sister, through her sire. She shrugged. "Sure," she murmured.

Her sister got up and checked on the Autobots again. "I wonder if they will ever see again."

"With you hovering over them, they probably don't want to for fear of waking up and seeing your face peering down at them."

Starsong stuck her glossa out at her sister. "You're mean, you know that?" She looked around the room at the others, smiling and purring.

Nightshade sat down on an empty berth. "They'll be back on their pedes and seeing again with you constantly tending them."

"Really?"

She nodded, mostly for her sister to leave her alone.

It worked.

ooo

Optimus opened his optics wide when the blindfold was removed. All he could see was haze. Hazy blue, hazy purple. But he could hear fine.

"How many digits am I holding up?"

Optimus squinted and struggled to see, shaking his helm. "Five?"

Starsong stroked his helm and Optimus knew he was wrong. She would have squealed in delight had he even guess right.

"No, sorry. You're getting there!"

"It has been months, Starsong."

"Exactly! You're getting there!" She repeated the optimistic phrase all the Autobots were getting tired of hearing.

She went over to Bumblebee and undid his blindfold. "How many?"

Bumblebee squinted, produced three digits.

She sighed and she hugged him. "Close," she said.

Nightshade replaced the blindfold on each 'bot her sister tested.

Finally, they had some results.

Arcee was squinting, frowning and squirming in frustration. "Two?"

Starsong squealed and hugged Arcee tight, nodding. "Yes! You can see!"

Nightshade smiled and left the blindfold off, touching the femme's helm and helping Arcee get up. "I told you, Starsong. I told you they would be fine."

She giggled happily and held Arcee's servos. "I knew you'd be okay! You're a very strong femme and I'm not surprised you're able to see, but oh my Primus, you can see!"

"It's fuzzy, but I can make out shapes and stuff..."

"Well, you're missing most of your optics, but atleast their blue again." Nightshade smiled back at Ratchet, who was at last relaxing and helping the two sisters as they worked with Team Prime.

Starsong held the others close, then grinned up at Bulkhead who was guiding Arcee back to her quarters. "Your team will have their sight back in no time!"

Optimus winced. "And soon we will be deaf."

The team laughed in a half-sparked way, but Starsong didn't seem to notice. She was trembling in excitement.

"Soon we'll let you go outside!"

Nightshade clamped a servo over her sister's mouth. "I believe Optimus just told you in the nicest way to be quiet...mm?"

Starsong giggled into her sister's servo, but nodded and made a muffled apology.

Nightshade gave Starsong a black bag, which made Ratchet perk up immediately. "You're leaving?" He stopped Starsong by grabbing the bag.

"We came, we healed, now we're going back until the Decepticons need us. But don't worry, Ratchet. At this rate, you'll only have to play Mommy for a couple more weeks."

The medic whined and nodded. "But...what do I do?"

"Nothing. You sit and wait for them to see again, but keep them away from Airachnid, okay?" Nightshade touched Ratchet's shoulder. "You couldn't have believed that we would stay forever."

Ratchet lowered his helm. "I...can't do it without you."

"Nonsense. What did you do before we came here?"

The medic laughed weakly. "Got lucky, I guess?"

Nightshade shook her helm. "You're older, more efficient, and you take such good care of your team. We're constantly changing sides, only wanting to heal and then leave. If someone dies under our servos, oh well, too bad, so sad. If someone dies under your servos, which a very rare few actually ever do..." She touched Ratchet's servos. "Right now, you're the best medic they have."

Ratchet nodded a bit and he looked down at his pedes. Starsong wrapped him in a hug.

"You'll see, doc-bot. They need you here, not us." She hugged his neck and kissed his forehelm. "We'll stop by the next time you need us, okay?"

Ratchet nodded again, then he watched them leave. He turned to his team, checked their optics, and waved his servo in front of their optics. "Can you see me now?"

Optimus chuckled. "There has been no difference since Starsong asked me that question..."

ooo

Ratchet was relieved. All the Autobots could see once again. Well, they had foggy vision and Ratchet still had to lead them around by the servo, but they were getting better.

They could tell Ratchet how many digits he was holding up.

"Can you see me know?" got the answer "yes".

And Ratchet felt like he belonged.

Okay, honestly I had no idea where this story was going anyway XD It took me two days, and I still didn't come up with a good idea for the ending. But I knew I wanted to throw Nightshade and Starsong into the mix and make Ratchet doubt himself (again, the poor little medic). I hope I satisfied your want to see your favorite 'bots going blind for a couple...did I say months? If I didn't, the whole process of healing took about a month and will last into a second month for the Autobots to regain their entire healing. My brother pointed out that according to the books, they had self-healing properties, but all I really pictured was Optimus and Smokescreen running around screaming CHIMICHANGAS! or PANCAKES!

Alright, so I'm working on a new story! I hope it will get out soon, since it's just sitting in my head and I've got itchy digits. Autobots Assemble! is going well, too x3 I like where it's going, and if no one is screaming and throwing crucifixes at me, it's going great. Awesome x3

Well, thank you for reading this plotless collage of words that might actually make since if you squint x3 You guys are awesome, you know that?

-Prime627