Warning: There is some language in this chapter. You've been warned. ;-)
Light cascaded through the kitchen window. The sunlight was so bright that there was no need for the electric lights to be on. Stacey sat at the table, staring out the window but not exactly seeing the birds flying into the branches of the suburban trees. She had dreamt that dream again. She had dreamt of that night that saved and renewed her life. Something of a phoenix-like night if you will.
It had been a few years since that night. Six, soon to be seven years, actually. She was still able to remember every detail of it. Maybe it was because he had saved her life.
She hadn't seen Ratchet, not since then. Sure, when she was being driven to the hospital in an ambulance she thought she heard him whispering words of encouragement. She knew she must've just imagined it in her pain. She had asked the nurses, and there wasn't anyone working there that had gone by the name 'Ratchet.'
Her little daughter knew the story, though. Of course, it was a more child-friendly version. Stacey wasn't planning on telling her the cold, hard, not sugarcoated facts until she was old enough to really understand it.
Stacey shook her head to rid herself of these thoughts. It was unlikely she'd ever be able to forget that night, but she needn't dwell on it. She heard the front door open and close, and the sounds of small footsteps announced the arrival of Lily, her daughter.
Stacey smiled and stood from the table. A small head peered from the doorway.
"Well come on, don't I get a greeting?" Stacey asked, holding her arms wide. The child giggled, and tackled her mother in a hug.
Stacey examined the girl in her arms fondly. She had brown hair and pretty blue eyes. "How was your day, angel?" she asked. Lily looked up at her mother with a big grin.
"Mrs. Orphal told us that we're going to make an art project this week! It's going to have everything, sparkles, paste, paint, those colorful feathers…" Lily chattered happily. Stacey let her daughter go.
"Why don't I take out some cookies and you can tell me over them?" she said, grabbing a small, beaten up Christmas-style cookie tin on the shelf. She set it on the table and, with a hand quick as lightning, Lily snatched a cookie from the container and munched it happily.
Lily chattered on and on about her day. Stacey smiled at her daughter's antics. Soon, the cookie tin was down to one.
"Oh! And we learned a new game today," Lily said, taking the last cookie. "It's like hide and seek, but there's a home base, where you can't get tagged. If you get to home base before the other person finds you, you win! You make the home base by marking it. It could be a fence with a ribbon on it, or a house with a splash of blue paint… Can we play, Mommy? Can we?" Lily asked, puppy eyes going up to full-blast. Stacey chuckled. It was weird how different people were around their own children.
"Okay, but what'll we use for our home base?" she asked. Lily's face screwed up in deep thought.
"Oh! I know!" she said, snapping out of the trance. "We could go into the woods out back. We could put duct tape on the trunk of a really really big tree in the middle of the woods where little elves will watch us play!" she said, allowing her imagination to run away with her. (Again…)
Stacey smiled and stood from the table. "Okay, let me just get the duct tape."
Lily jumped up enthusiastically and scurried out the door. She was soon followed by her mother.
Lily was bouncing up and down by the time they went into the woods, but when they went inside, she quieted in awe.
Honestly, it wasn't surprising. The forest was rather awe-inspiring. The trees towered over the two females majestically, and the wind caused the beams of light showing through the trees to move and disappear in a sort of dance only nature was capable of. The wind rushing through the leaves and branches made something like music, and for a moment, Stacey really believed that elves and fairies lived here. How else could a place be so magical?
Stacey wished she didn't have to, but she shook off the feeling. They were getting deeper in the woods and she had to remember which way was back home.
Suddenly, a horrible screeching sound echoed through the woods, shattering the peaceful atmosphere. It sounded like the sound of metal against metal, followed closely by something that sounded suspiciously like a cry of pain.
Stacey and Lily looked at each other for a moment before they dashed towards the sound. Clashes of metal against metal reverberated across the forest. Finally, they got to a clearing, and Stacey gripped Lily to keep her from running out there.
Stacey clapped her hands over Lily's ears. "Holy freaking shit!" she said as soon as she was sure her daughter couldn't hear her.
Two robots were fighting each other. Two big-ass robots were fighting. Stacey nearly fainted right there.
One robot looked a good deal more damaged then the other. The damaged one had blue liquid trailing from a gaping hole in its side, and it seemed to have a yellow paint job with what Stacey assumed to be scattered stripes of red. The other was a big black and white robot, and somehow its movements seemed more practiced. Wow. Not only did they come across two robots, but they were also human enough to have different skill levels of fighting. Next thing you knew they would have sentient robot doctors.
The black and white robot slammed a fist into the shoulder of the yellow robot. It let out a grunt of pain, but it lashed out with something sharp in its hands. The black and white robot recoiled with a brand-new slash across its chassis.
The robot kicked out with a leg, and the knee joint of the yellow robot was out. Without anything to support it, the yellow robot fell to the ground, causing the earth under him to shake.
"That's for Megatron, Autobot. It will be easier for the Decepticons if you aren't there to put the rest of the Autobots back together again," the black and white robot hissed, and, with a gun built in its arm, it shot the other robots last remaining knee, rendering it completely cripple.
"Bleed to death on the ground. You won't get a message to the rest of the Autobots now," it said. The yellow robot growled at it defiantly, then the black and white robot disappeared in the forest.
The yellow robot seemed to try to fumble for something in a small compartment on its leg, but its arms soon were out of action. It lay on the ground, seemingly defeated.
Stacey didn't know what made her do it. She slowly edged out of the woods, towards the robot. Had she been in her right mind she would've run the opposite direction as fast as her legs could carry her, but there was something disturbingly familiar about this robot. Lily watched her mother curiously, as if not quite sure what she should do.
"Hello?" Stacey asked hesitantly. The robot turned its head towards her, confusion evident in its metallic face. She didn't dare look it in the face, though.
"Hello…?" she asked again.
"Help… me…" it murmured, then it went limp. Stacey glanced at its face just before it went offline. She recognized his voice. It was the same voice that told her to not throw away her life. It was the same voice that comforted her when she was crying on his shoulder. And the eyes… There was no forgetting that almost glowing shade of blue. She didn't know if she was imagining the familiarity or not, but she wasn't taking the chance.
She looked at the rip at the robot's side. A couple of important-looking pipes were ripped and leaking blue fluid. Suddenly she was really happy she had to take that part-time job at the car garage all those years ago.
She ducked out of the hole and turned to her daughter. She knelt in front of her and gripped both shoulders with her hands.
"Angel, you need to run back to the house and get grandpa's old toolbox and bring it back here, now!" Stacey said. Lily looked up worriedly.
"But mommy…" she started.
"Please, run my little angel. Run like the wind. I don't know how long the robot will hold," she said. Lily bit her lip and nodded, and then she dashed into the woods with the grace of an elk in her desperation.
Stacey ducked into the tear again and ripped a piece of duct tape off of the roll and taped up the worst tears to hold until Lily could get back. She noticed how the fluid seemed to be burning her hands a little, but at the moment she didn't really care.
"Mommy! I got it!" Lily's voice called from the outside. Stacey scurried out of the rip and took the toolbox from her daughter. Running back into the tear, she strapped on a pair of goggles and took off the duct tape on one of the pipes off, and started attempting to weld it closed.
Sparks flew from the metal, and Stacey worried that her scant knowledge of machinery wouldn't be enough. It had been a long time since she worked at the garage, and she didn't even work there for that long. Well, scant knowledge is better than no knowledge, she supposed. At least she could say she tried.
Stacey heard the beat of what she assumed was a robotic heart. The reassuring beat calmed her down slightly, and she set diligently to her work with new resolve.
Outside, Lily was sitting on the grass. She let her eyes wonder down the robot's body. The face was surprisingly human, as was the general design. She gazed at its legs sadly. The knees weren't bleeding blue fluid, but it was obvious the robot wouldn't be able to walk when he woke up. Lily didn't know why, but she had dubbed the robot a he. She sighed and rested her head on her knees, listening to her mother's welding inside the robot. Lily was afraid. She was afraid the other robot would come back, or this one would turn out to be evil, but seeing the pathetic state it was in, it was hard to see the robot as a threat. And Lily's innocent child's state of mind wouldn't allow her to view this wounded creature as a bad guy.
She must've fallen asleep, because when she opened her eyes again, it was dark and the stars were out. A clatter from inside the robot had woken her up. Lily looked up to see her mother stumble out of the robot, toolbox in hand and weariness in her face. Blue liquid was all over her hands, legs, and some dots on her face. When the liquid dripped off, Lily saw angry red sores on wherever the liquid had been.
"Mommy, do you know this wobot?" Lily asked. Stacey wiped away the painful blue liquid.
"I think a did. A long time ago. But that is not important now. He'll wake up soon, with any luck," Stacey murmured. She looked at Lily square in the eye. "It is beginning to get late now. Go back to the house, lock all the windows and doors, and go to bed. I'm going to watch him."
"How will you get back inside, Mommy?" Lily asked. Stacey flashed a key with a cute apple key ring.
"I have the house keys," she said plainly. Lily nodded, deciding not to question her mother further, and disappeared into the woods.
Stacey sighed, and now that her daughter was gone, she allowed her full weariness to show through. She looked at the apparently sleeping robot behind her.
"I don't know why I think it's you, after all, the one who saved me was human. Maybe it's wishful thinking, but I'll find out when you wake." She sighed again and slumped to the ground, not bothering with the harmful liquid that was still drying on her skin. "Sleep well."
A/N
Drat, it's snowballing. I blame the reviewers for encouraging me. :-b Oh well, more to write, I suppose. Hope it wasn't rushed. Review please!
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Ratchet OR Barricade and lawyers will get nothing out of suing me because I have no money to give, so nyah!