Author's Pre-story note: Recently went through and re-edited this for here and posting on my DA account. Nothing really story wise had changed, just proper edits and a few details. Thank you!
This still giving tid bits of stories that are currently in progress, so if you're confused as to a few of the characters they are either mentioned or will be mentioned in TFP: 8.
The search for the missing Autobots that had been captured by M.E.C.H. was still a rather hot issue despite the ongoing fight with the Decepticons. Unfortunately due to the nature of the enemy the U.S. human military authority had demanded a heavy hand in the operation, meaning that the Autobots could not knowingly engage discovered M.E.C.H. locations without a human team with them. Naturally this irritated more than a handful of Autobots, but with a reluctance to willingly endanger any humans Optimus Prime agreed to the terms.
Elita-One stood in as the liaison for the Autobots, helping prepare the team of humans that were selected to work directly with the Autobots for such missions. It was not uncommon for visits from Prime's growing team to lend a hand in the training, allowing both sides to become more comfortable working with each other. Despite the good that had come from a handful of successful team ups, there were some hold outs on both sides that seemed to blend like oil and water.
Elita, in her whole form, crouched down beside the group of soldiers as they surrounded the compound. It had taken them nearly an hour to get into position, the strike planned for the middle of the night to help hide the impending retrieval. They were waiting for back up from Optimus, Elita having requested a medic as a precaution, before they moved in. As soon as she received word that Tracks and the other Autobot back-up arrived they would strike.
Across the way, Jazz and Ratchet slowly crept their way through the thick forest that surrounded the compound, hiding it away from curious eyes. The small army of humans aiding them was spread out around the fenced buildings, making it easier for the pair to not accidentally step on one. When one of their allies spotted them he tapped twice on the device over his right ear. The Autobots heard a two light buzzes over their receivers from the action followed by three quick buzzes in reply before the humans began to advance. The infiltration had begun.
The double fence quickly came down thanks to the Autobots cutting their own entrances, their human allies focusing on the M.E.C.H. agents during the process before they swarmed in around the three behemoths. They let the humans do what they were trained for as they tracked the quickly weakening Energon signal. The opposing force was quickly subdued and gathered at an empty area in the parking garage as the Autobots busted into the main building.
Elita frowned a bit as she caught sight of Ratchet, but otherwise ignored the medic as they both rushed into the massive hanger bay. Not only were they following their scanners, but the splattered glowing blue on the back wall told them where their missing comrade was. Elita was the first past the half wall that divided the area, taking in the damage quickly before she moved out of the way for Ratchet to have access to the parts that were strewn around. Whomever it was, M.E.C.H. had completely dissected the Cybertronian, leaving parts in bins and puddles of Energon on the floor.
"Savages," Ratchet grumbled, kneeling down to take a closer look to see who it might have been.
"Agreed," Elita said quietly as she looked around, listening to the fire fight outside slowly die down.
He glanced up at her as she turned her back to him and signed softly at her cold decorum. Things between them had not been the same since the fight and since she had moved to the military base he had not really had a chance to speak with her one on one. Every time he visited her base she was kept busy with not only with the care of her troops but planning missions not only for the humans but for the Autobots as well.
The way her fingers twitched on her hips told him that something wasn't settling with her. "What's wrong?"
"There's something wrong with this Energon," she mumbled as she was looking over the splattered walls and floors. "It's refined, but there's nothing telling me whom it was from." Turning back to the medic, who was giving her a questioning look, Elita looked down at the bin of parts he had been scanning. "When someone's bled out I could tell who it came from. This Energon didn't come from a Cybertronian."
Ratchet shook his head and focused on the parts himself. "I don't think this was one of ours. All of the alloys are Earth based."
"A berserker?"
"Could be. I don't expect a human's synthetic structure to function as flawlessly as our own form." He ignored her clearing her throat, but did notice that she quickly turned her back to him. Ratchet would not let her mood determine how he felt about the subject; his opinion was it wasn't only in their technology that humans were found lacking. As he had pointed out to Optimus when the kids first joined them, they have no protective shell, and that was the most positive point he felt like making at the time. He was glad he didn't have to scrape any of them off the bottom of his foot.
But it was honestly an unintentional stab at her very core and that made him feel guilty. Without that jumbled mess of parts that Bulkhead and Miko dragged into the base Optimus, and possibly so many others, would have died. Still, Vector Sigma had improved her form to suit its purposes.
Looking back up at her, Ratchet immediately became alarmed when several red dots appeared on her form, most of them focused on her upper back and head. Surging to his feet as he heard several mechanical whirling sounds from the upper balcony area, the medic shouted out for her, making Elita turn around. Massive amounts of explosions happened behind him, but time seemed to slow down as he saw several strike Elita in the torso before he wrapped himself around her. The shout of pain she gave echoed in his audio receptors as they fell to the floor, but the pain eradiating out of his back made his systems overload.
Elita heard the firefight as she struggled against the dead-weight Ratchet had become on top of her, catching glimpses of both humans and an Autobot as they subdued the M.E.C.H. agents that had ambushed them. Reaching up, she activated Ratchet's communicator since she couldn't reach her own.
"Elita-One to Autobot base," she groaned. "We need a medic, now!"
The Ground Bridge that opened up cast the darkened room in an eerie glow, several heavy metallic footsteps promptly filled the area. The groan Ratchet made as he was moved made Elita's heart nearly stop, Optimus gingerly moving the medic into his hold so she could get up. His back was still a smoking mass, as if he had several of Wheeljack's explosives detonate at once, and just the amount of Energon that was pouring from his wounds made what they had found splattered around the room look like a drop of water. Tracks was at Prime's side digging his hands into Ratchet's back to attempt to stop the bleeding.
Elita was breathing hard, her eyes wide as she just stood there watching. The urge to rush over and attempt to help was strong, but she knew that she would only hinder the process so she turned to the human aspect of the mission. The unit commander was shouting out orders, having successfully subdued the ambushing force. Moving over to the gathering of prisoners, she listened to the updated report and issued her orders for the M.E.C.H. agents to be detained and moved to the base for questioning. She only glanced back long enough to watch as Optimus and Tracks rushed back through the Ground Bridge portal, leaving a trail of Energon that suddenly ended where the glow winked shut.
Jazz stepped up to her, drawing her out of her thoughts. "You look like you need to see the 'Con Doc, too."
"I'm fine," she mumbled, but still looked down at herself. She was covered in the Energon that came from her defender with a few running streaks of her own that slowly poured out of the handful of bullet holes in her torso. Giving a deep breath that came out almost like a growl, she walked towards the exit to follow the humans. "We've got a mission to finish."
Agent Fowler arrived on the scene via helicopter as they were loading their prisoners onto trucks and promptly sent the two Autobots back to the new base of command. Unable to drive back to the base covered in the glowing blue and in need of repairs, Elita and Jazz stepped through the glowing portal and walked onto the Logikrator.
The pair promptly made their way to the medical bay on the ship, where Tracks furiously worked on their comrade. Arcee and Prime stood by, passing the tools that the former Decepticon requested as Bumblebee and Bulkhead brought in armloads of prepared Energon. Elita didn't bother wasting time washing the Energon off, but rushed over to see if she could help.
"This is the last of the prepared Energon," Bulkhead announced solemnly.
Tracks quickly looked up to see how much they had brought, but promptly shook his head with a disgruntled sigh. Energon was never in short supply when he had been on other side of the war, his finish back then attested to that, but it made him wonder exactly how the Autobots had managed to survive for so long with the limited supplies. "It's not going to be enough."
"We'd have more if you and your buddies didn't steal it all," Arcee snapped.
"That is enough," Prime calmly broke through, halting the argument before it pulled more focus away from Ratchet's care. "There is no way to change the past, Arcee."
Watching as Bumblebee switched out the containers of their life blood, Elita realized Tracks was right. There wasn't enough Energon stored for him to be able to finish. With a rush she spoke before she thought. "Grab the Synth-En. I have an idea."
Most of the others shot her a look as her hands began to glow, but it was Optimus that spoke, recalling what it has cost her when she had repaired and upgraded him. "It's not safe, Elita."
She only looked up at her commander, Energon welling up in her optics. "We don't have a choice."
His mind was plagued with nightmares over the events that had happened, the pain overwhelming him before it shocked him offline. But it didn't matter what happened to him, he just needed to protect Elita. He refused to lose another friend. Slowly he became aware of things outside his mind, the smell of fast food and coffee, the oddly soft surface he rested on, but it was the sound of voices that brought him slowly out of his rest.
"This … this is unbelievable."
Jack's voice was soft, awestruck. It was how he spoke when he learned something else that he found important and in need of his gentle focus. It reminded Ratchet of young Orion Pax, knowing that when he heard that tone it was a subject that Ratchet needed to focus more on when teaching the young bot.
"It's freaky."
"Miko, please not so loud. He's still resting."
This time June's voice broke through the fog, sounding a lot closer than he was use to it being. She had spoken quietly, especially compared to Miko's loud outburst, but it was extremely close to his audio receptor.
The feeling of someone lifting his arm up and grabbing his wrist gently was a rather odd sensation, but soon it was resting back on the soft surface again. The soft shuffle of shoed feet moved around him, over to where he had heard two of the voices resided to his left.
"When do you think he's going to wake up?"
Three voices from his left, this time it was Rafael's voice that had a deep edge of concern. All four of their human allies were at his side and concerned over his well being. That made the pulsing in his torso quicken a bit, the warmth that spread through him over their concern helping him recall that humans had some wonderful qualities, too.
"I'm not sure," June replied quietly.
Why would they be asking June about his condition? Tracks or Elita would have treated him; they would have fixed his chassis.
Heavy, metallic footsteps drew him away from that line of thought as he heard Optimus speaking to someone as he walked into the room. "It was a grave risk you took, Elita. You cannot continue to disregard your safety."
"He risked himself to save my life, Optimus. I owed him."
Relief flooded through his form at hearing her voice, soft with concern. She was alive, that's all that mattered to him. It was such a powerful sensation that it helped him wake-up completely.
With a deep groan, that felt extremely odd through his body, Ratchet forced his optics open, wincing at the bright light that assaulted them. It took a little while, but when he managed to adapt to the bright he was confused by what he saw.
Jack, June, Miko and Rafael not only surrounded him, but they were closer than they should have been. Optimus was at the center of his view, looking so much larger than the medic ever recalled, even with the repairs Elita had done to his form. The Autobot commander was setting Elita's human body down so that she could step up beside Ratchet's side, she putting an arm around Rafael's shoulders to hug the young man close to her side.
"How do you feel?" Elita asked carefully.
Something wasn't right. The view was not right. Alarmed, Ratchet sat up quickly, throwing the blanket down to his lap. His glowing green eyes wide as he looked down at his hands, his flesh covered hands. Staring up at her, it was hard to hide the horror he felt.
"What did you do to me?"
Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thank you for reading.
Ah, yes! Thank you Cobra Commander for giving thousands of Transformers fan-fiction writers one of the most over used, under explained, and the slippery slope to many *ahem* storylines. Confused? Check out the G1 episode "Only Human".