"Does it all have to be me Wheeljack?" Ratchet asked as the few vorn older mech who was dragging him around the halls.
"Yes! Ratchet, you have to see him!" The inventor said as he dragged the younger but mature mech.
It was the signing of peace in the Golden Ages of Cybertron. All mechs who were anyone were gathering around the Halls of Iacon for the peace electives where all representatives would pledge to should peace and love to the others. Ratchet could tell some of the Senate members weren't there for a reason, Ratchet had went along with Prime on time because Jazz had gotten "bedridden" by a hospital. Ratchet huffed, Jazz was signed under his medical care. But when he went into the meeting, Senator after Senator growled and hissed, bickering at each other like cyberwolfs. Prime, the King of Vos, Prowl, the ambassador from Northern Tarn, and himself were the only ones calm in the meeting.
The representative from Kaon saw him and immediately recognized him as not Jazz and yelled, "Spy! You are no Jazz!"
Of course one half of the Senators screamed at Prime for this and one half didn't bother to give it a thought. Soon, he was the head of the discussion and it made an uproar. One half of the Senators ordered their ambassadors to shoot him! His hide was saved when the King of Vos said, "You grounders make a big frag over everything, this is Prime's personal medic, Ratchet. If me, a king who barely keeps up with you grounders business knows this, then you should!"
Long story short, half the Senators and ambassadors weren't there for peace reasons.
Wheeljack dragged him into the crowd of mechs who were all different, he knew the differences too. There were shuttles and jets near the front of the gathering and some even hovering in the air, there were warrior and brute frames from Kaon on the edges (trying to squeeze the crowd it seemed), heavy polished frames from here in Iacon, beat up but mended frames from Yarn mixed in here and there and the list went on for a while. He had been in all these places in different clinics over Cybertron, not as of late because Prime had him recruited.
The crowd of mechs seemed to have optics in the back of their helms and made a path just big enough for them to squeeze through. As Wheeljack pulled him forward he looked up at the impossibly handsome gathering of mechs on the stage, geez, even he wasn't as old as these mechs (he was only a few cycles out of university and internship) but he wasn't much younger (hint, hint).
He looked at the amount of mechs on stage; Fire Shooter and his left servo Division from Tarn, Sharpshooter and his mate Swift from the Island of Iron (Rust Sea), he spotted Optimus and Prowl (no Jazz) in the middle, Dryshift and his lackeys Scattershift and Dunbells from Praxus, but their was not King of Vos only of red, white and blue jet with a blue and white and black and purple beside him.
When Wheeljack got to the front, the fliers grumbling because Wheeljack touched and shoved their wings away, and he was pushed up the podium and onto the top.
Prime stepped forward and his voice boomed loudly, "Now that my medic is here, we can begin with the pledge."
Some of the immature mechs whooped and whistled and the more grown up mechs and femmes clapped.
As the mystery tri-colored seeker stepped forward, he announced, "I am Prince Starscream, from the flying utopia, Vos. As I am here, you automatically think something happened to my sire, and... Yes, something has happened. My sire has been killed (everyone gasp here), assassinated on the night before the Golden Age pledge. I have been taken as Prince until I am older to become King, I'm afraid Vos... for the time being is off limits to those who are not approved by the senates guards beforehand. I apologize, but this is to protect my people from my sire's fate."
Ratchet looked sadly at the young flier, Starscream he had said, as he looked down at the document on the metal table in front of them. Poor thing.
"Now," Optimus addresses the crowd who now we're paying attention, "Since we all met our new addition to the Senate, let's get this peace treaty out of the way!"
All mechs and femmes, mature and childish, all screamed in happiness and the fliers that were in the air did flips (literal) in the rising happiness of the crowd about peace to their homes. But... something was off. It was hard to put his digit around it but time began to slow down around Ratchet and everyone's claps were slow jerked motions. His delicate optics circled the crowd about three times before he landed on a mech on a mech trying to blend in with the mechs who's color schemes were off. A green and purple mech with a visor over his optics wasn't smiling (he had a straight face) and he stood still, not clapping or ever crossing his arms. The mech may have had a visor but he could feel his optics that were hidden gleam into his own. Crystal cyan optics met red visored optics.
The mech was talking through a private comm link, he knew because his servo was on his audio.
He looked around the crowd for anymore people who were out of place. His optics caught a gleam of another red visor, looking in that direction fearfully. He saw a mech who was dark blue and had a silver face mask as well as a red visor, the mech had a tapedesk on his chest quite like Blaster's but had a strange purple symbol on the glass. He was also using the comm link...
Ratchet didn't know what they must be doing, they were as emotionless (as he could see) as stones and didn't really look like they would hurt anyone, well, maybe the large purple and green one.
"We have almost finished our treaty," Optimus said, "We just need the Prince to sign as well as myself. I am as humble as I am loyal, you may go first Starscream."
Time was still slow to Ratchet, every second toke four times longer then usual for him right now. So while Optimus was handing Prince Starscream the stylus, a glimmer of silver hit the side of his optics from a nearby balcony. He looked up and after a second of searching for a (camouflage) figure, he say it. A yellow and orange detailed mech was on a third story balcony with a gun aimed right at the platform.
Ratchet followed it, it was aiming for the Prince!
As Starscream's digits wrapped around the pen, a ring of a gunshot was heard and no one reacted fast enough, not anyone but Ratchet. Ratchet, seeing everything slow and precise, ran quickly forward and pressed his body in between the Prime and Prince, pushing both with his forearms. The adrenaline was used up pushing the two startled mechs out of the way and speed turned to normal, the bullet digging into his left headlight. It was going to be a shot that would have killed the Prince since Ratchet was taller then the Prince.
The splatter of energon and the cry of pain hit everyone like the bullet to Ratchet's ambulance head, clear. Optimus, Starscream and Prowl dove to catch him as he crumpled like the energon goodie in a sparklings mouth. As he was laid down, he could still see the shooter in his other position on the balcony. Persistent fragger! He saw the trigger about to be pulled, everyone's screaming and concerns were not heard as he sat up and pushed the Prince again. He fell back in time for the bullet to hit the floor around the Prince tanks.
Everyone screamed in the crowd and an uproar was caused, one of terror and fear not happiness.
He was leaned up against Optimus as he was faced to Starscream, Prowl, Wheeljack (must have run on stage sometime) and a young red and blue medic (the nurse symbol recognized) he turned his helm to the shooter to see he was having a tantrum on the balcony and the two mechs in the crowd were pushing out of it, trying to escape.
He grabbed Prowl's shoulder armor and pointed in the three directions of the mechs who were attacking (they all wore the same purple symbol) and he heard Prowl and Starscream curse. Prowl was pointing at his forces and ordering something that made them run immediately off the stage and Starscream put his servos up to his face, covering his optics. Ratchet watched the servos, stunned to see energon covering them but soon the pain struck him as a reminder of his choice of action. He looked around to see Prowl was covered in it as well as Wheeljack and the medic (especially him).
"He's not lying..." He heard Starscream say, "He would really rather kill me."
"What do you mean, Starscream?" Optimus asked for him, shifting the medic in his arms.
"Megatron, is what, Optimus," Starscream said and looked at the leader, "He threatened me, if I toke that pen and signed my sire's name, I'd pay for it. But it's not me, it's your medic!"
"I assure you, Starscream," Optimus said calmly, "Ratchet would do anything necessary to protect anyone, it's in his coding."
Frag it was.
His optics lit up with a blinding white and yellow he had to recognize as a hospital room (him being in one more then once with the same effects) and he tried to lift his servo but found an IV attached to his main energon fuel line. Casting a glance to the left, he saw an IV filled with a grey green liquid he remembered as coolant, casting a glance to the right, he found a stabilizer attached to his chassis.
"Your a stupid frag, you know," a familiar voice rung in his newly used audios, "Making everyone terrified about you like that, we thought he shot you twice, not once."
He tilted his helm to the side even more to see Wheeljack, his headfins glowing a soft hue of green, the color he recognized as Wheeljack's happiness.
"Wheeljack..." He coughed softly as he said his life long friends name, "Where...?"
"Your in the hospital Ratchet, you blacked out from energon loss after Prowl sent his forces after the shooter and his two goons. You were shot very accurate in the headlights, close to your spark chambers energon line."
"How is... ev-everyone...?" Ratchet coughed before his shaky last word.
Wheeljack laughed, "You should have seen the Senator for Tarn and Praxus! Dryshift looks like he has never seen a mech she'd energon because he literally leaped into Fire Shooter's arms like a bonded femme into his mates arms!"
Ratchet chuckled softly, Dryshift was quite femme-like when he wanted to and Fire Shorter was a brute and had much more muscles (but he had more brains then muscles, and that said something). It was common to somehow see these two do something a bonded couple would do around each other.
"But seriously," Wheeljack sucked in all emotions and his optics held only a flame of seriousness, "Your shooter got away and so did one goon, the other was not as lucky. Caught him trying to escape through a crowd of mis-match frames."
"He's...?" Ratchet was about to ask.
"He's in custody and undergoing treatment, we're trying to get information out of him," Wheeljack said and put a servo on Ratchet's chassis, "He ain't coming after ya' Ratchet."
Ratchet frowned, "I... know he won't... he's not something I'm afraid of...!"
Wheeljack sighed as he looked at the medic, "Your going to have to learn that, not everything is going to be perfect, good people will die and bad people are going to prevail over others..."
"Wheeljack-!" Ratchet started to cough his intakes clear as he yelled at his friend, "I know... this... p-people are not... good... forever!"
Wheeljack's headfins flashed from green to red, a glowing red and his shoulders tensed. Oh PRIMUS, he snapped...
"Ratchet, I know people don't stay good forever! Do I need to bring up your sire and my carrier?!" Wheeljack stood up and slammed his servo into the berth, "Do I?!"
"No," Ratchet softly pleaded.
"Well, then I won't because I care for you, but you know exactly what they did to us!" Wheeljack said as his headfins went into an icy blue at seeing Ratchet nestle into the medical berth, trying to avert his gaze from his friend, "Ratchet..."
Wheeljack tried to put his servo on Ratchet's chassis again, to comfort the younger mech but Ratchet pulled the thermal blanket over his body, only showing his helm and no more then his neck as he needed to. Wheeljack kept his servo ghosted over Ratchet for a second but soon pulled it back.
"Ratchet, you know I didn't mean to bring them up," Wheeljack said as he put his hand on where Ratchet's hip was under the blankets. Ratchet only nodded.
"You can leave now," Ratchet said softly so he didn't cough again.
"I don't want to," Wheeljack said in a mist of concern and love, "And I know you wouldn't want me too, because I know even I wouldn't want you to leave me."
Ratchet smiled to himself as Wheeljack stroked his hip, he had the best friend in the history of anyone.
"You know, Wheeljack," Ratchet said to the inventor, "Maybe one day, I'll do this again; jump in front of someone's shot and take the pain ment for someone else."
"You'd be the best medic I've ever heard of," Wheeljack said as he felt happy Ratchet was looking at him again, "You'd sacrifice yourself twice, without a thought to it."
Both laughed, he really would be, wouldn't he?
Ratchet gasp to himself when the memory played along with all his others, red lips landing on his with a small whimper he heard. Ratchet could remember, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, stroking over his body, increasing the pleasure he never knew they could make him possess, and brushing his hip. The memory of Wheeljack stroking his hip and making his weak frame happy in its time of recovery made him slouch like a bag of sand.
He heard the cries of the twins as he "fainted" in Sideswipe's lap and he almost fell if it hadn't been for Sunstreaker's leg. He wanted to moan or something to show he was fine but he couldn't, he was in what everyone called a "Prowl." It was where a mech was shorted out and couldn't move or do anything or someone was shot into an immediate stasis lock from something corrupting their logic (or any sensor involving life) sensors. Yeah, a "Prowl" in action for you.
He didn't know how long he was thinking for because the next thing he knew, he had his helm on Side's lap now and he was looking into two mechs who ruined his life, green... purple... silver...
He wanted to cry, scream and kick at Sideswipe to drag him out of there, to drag him anywhere but his present grounds. The only line of defense was standing up and hissing curses and threats at the enemy like a rabid feline. Suddenly, Ratchet saw Sunstreaker tense and growl, stopping all conversations between the bickering.
Ratchet couldn't hear what but all he saw next was Sunstreaker and Megatron launch at each other.
It happened again, time slowed to a minimum of four times slower then normal speed and his optics sharpened with precision of never before. The stink of the sudden quiet made his audios ring with a long and high pitch screech, only when Sunstreaker or Megatron toke a step was when he heard a thud! instead of the screech. He could only think of one thing to do as Megatron charged his cannon and Sunstreaker was pulling his gun out...
'I always said I would do it again, Wheeljack,' Ratchet thought as he sudden rolled off of Sideswipe and stood up to start a sprint to the almost met ex-gladiators.
The speed a gladiator possesses was greatly used in the arena for survival and both the twins and Megatron had been trained in speed and agility as well as strength with grace. That's why Ratchet barely had time to register what was going to hit him as he flung his body in the middle, taking both hits.
The fighting stopped for some reason, Wheeljack knew someone must have cried or screamed in against from the way everyone looked around. But Wheeljack, Prime, Prowl, Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Soundwave knew what the agonizing cry was about.
"Oh no," Optimus cried, 'he couldn't...!'
Everyone toke off in a herd of colors and emotions swinging back and forth, no one cared who they ran by or the person who gripped on to them as they ran... they just ran.
Prowl mental reached for Jazz, begging everything was going to be okay!
Optimus, Prowl and Wheeljack were all thinking the same thing: Ratchet was going to die if they didn't hurry. As they ran into an opening, the horrid sight made them all want to purge immediately.
Ratchet had his tank blown into pieces, his optics were still on and he was breathing with his exhaust pipes but he didn't know that was keeping them all from knowing his death was foreshadowing. Ratchet had energon... everywhere... on Sunstreaker, on Megatron, on himself, and on the ground... he started to fall into Sunstreaker's shaking arms and he flickered his optics off.
All Wheeljack could think was, 'He did it... Ratchet... He finally made his wish...'