First off, I commend those of you who saw the pairing for this fic and didn't run for your lives. You may have seen 38southerangel89 post a TFA fic mentioning a bet? Yeah, she wasn't the only one who lost. We bet over a fan comic and neither of our guesses about what was gonna happen were right. So, the pairing? Her fault. I can't pretend I didn't have a surprising amount of fun with this, however. XD

Disclaimer: TFA belongs to Hasbro, not me. I'm just a fan.

Mistakes

By Netbug009

"Why do you follow him?"

Ratchet blinked in surprise at the question. He had lost count of how many times he had fought against the femme he had nicknamed the "eight legged glitch-head," and she had never said a word to him before now, save the occasional insult or unintelligible battle cry. "What?" He fired a blast from his magnets. No contact.

"Haven't you heard the story? Or is he trying to keep it hidden up? Wouldn't surprise me." A kick. Dodged.

"I've heard it," he grabbed the leg and tossed her over his head into the ground. It was a hard throw, even for him. It was true, he had heard the story. It had taken Prime a while to open up to him about it, but one day after a fight with his current opponent, he just walked into the living room and began speaking to the group with a melancholy tone in his voice about her. He told them who she really was, and about the mistakes he had made. He apologized for not telling them sooner, seeing ho he had known about this for a few solar cycles now, and that he felt leaders shouldn't keep important things from their team, even if they hurt.

She transformed and crawled onto a building's side. "And you still follow him? Oh, please. But why should I surprised? All of you are the same, just like I thought!" A blast of web shot at him. Finally, impact. He started trying to pry himself free from the sticky substance pushing him against the floor. "But you know what?" She walked up to him and simply stared, her expression mocking him to try and get up. "In ways, I'm glad I found that out. I wish it didn't have the same consequences it did, but over a thousand stellar cycles ago, I was freed from the lies of you people being the good guys."

She wouldn't have been mocking if she knew that she was dealing with a war veteran. "Have you ever considered that bots can make mistakes at times?" He tore an arm out. She would have blasted him again if she wasn't so busy being completely appalled.

"A mistake? You call that a mistake?!" She punched him several meters backwards, and the fists kept coming as he struggled to block them. "I was left alone and mutated because of your leader's so-called mistake! I was miserable with no one to talk to for longer than I care to remember!"

He continued to block. "At least you can remember at all!" This time she went flying with a punch. "Or better yet, trying being the one who caused it to happen! Try living all those years with that regret, and tell me if you'd be so unforgiving if somebody else make a mistake!" Another punch, she blocked. Then the fight became a frenzy. Combat was preformed, both hand-to-hand and using their weapons, as a speed and brutality that probably broke some war record or another. They both had a bad taste in their mouth from the verbal exchange. They both reminded each other of somebody, and it was a sickening realization. But Ratchet wasn't done with the verbal part of this fight yet, so he blocked her fist him his hand and gripped it to she couldn't grab it back. She threw the other fit. He put out his other hand. He practically screamed at her. "You think you have it bad?! Try going years and years running from yourself because you suffered a tragedy that wasn't even your fault! Try putting all your emotions in a corner and letting the gather dust, because you opened up to people and it got hurt! How do you think that would feel?!"

Her eye's widened and her struggle to break free evaporated. Ratchet raised an eyebrow and felt awkward as the femme replied in a sad, sincere voice. "...That's exactly what happened."

Both their hard drives skipped a rotation.