AUTHOR'S NOTES FOR CHAPTER TWO-The encounter with Ratchet is based on a piece of information I found on one of the collectible movie cards. It reads:
"The Autobot Ratchet is dedicated to saving life, no matter what form it takes, and no matter whose it is. Every Autobot has had his Spark preserved at least once by him, and more than one Decepticon has opened his optical sensors after a mortal blow only to find Autobot Ratchet welding shut the final incision." BoldMy emphasis
-Transformers collectable movie card 11, "Ratchet"
CHAPTER TWO
A REUNION, OF SORTS.
RIAN
I quickly ended up, due to my relative youth, and my enthusiasm, with a new, affectionate diminutive added to my name. 'Rian' became 'Rianbot.' Not in battle or in an emergency, of course, in that situation my short name was an advantage, but in less stressful situations. It took some getting used to at first, but it wasn't an issue with me.
When I saw Sunblazer again, it was after we had left Cybertron, and we had landed for refuelling and reconnoitring on a planet I no longer recall the name of. It was rich in resources, and supported a population of sentient organic creatures whose civilisation was pre-industrial.
The Decepticons had found it first, and maybe if we had not been low on resources ourselves, we would have bypassed it, for whenever our sides clashed on a world with life, that life invariably suffered from our conflict. But we had little choice so we landed to resupply on the one continent that could support life and had the most resources.
We had several skirmishes with the Decepticons, and it was during one of these that I saw my sibling for the first time since our parting.
SUNBLAZER
It became apparent early on that my name would not all stay the course. Three syllables in a skirmish or tight situation was a luxury I could not afford. My name quickly became contracted to Blazer-and my ferocity in battle, coupled with my speed, made most forget that it was that way for convenience alone.
It was, of course, the Autobots we were fighting, even after we left ruined Cybertron. To my surprise, they did not get quickly exterminated as I thought they would, despite the fact that they still defended others, particularly the small organics we frequently ran into on other planets. We had no time for them, and although I did not take pleasure in using excessive force on them as some of the others did, I did tend to knock them aside to get them out of my way. Sometimes I had to shoot one or two, but always on a low setting, so they could self-repair. What was the point of destroying them? They were not our enemies.
Sometimes we won, sometimes we lost, forced to retreat, taking our wounded with us, if possible, for repairs while we regrouped. Rare although it was, both sides did lose members, the damage too severe or left too long before repair.
There were several situations I had heard of where injured members we had been forced to leave behind came back to us with their injuries repaired. It seemed that one of the Autobots, a medic called Ratchet, had been known-to the individuals' confusion-to treat Decepticon casualties as well as those of his own side. It seemed he believed that every Spark deserved a chance to be saved, regardless of its owner's affiliation. However, I digress.
In one particular battle, we were trying to press on to a rich deposit of the resources we needed. The Autobots had also discovered it, and were determined not to give it up.
I fought with the same ferocity and drive in this battle as in any other, in the manner that had made most who knew me forget that the "Sun" part of my name had ever existed. I fought my way forwards, striking out or firing at any Autobot that came within range, relying on my speed rather than my light armouring to protect me, although in a battle this big, I was getting hit, of course.
I was still quite cocky and believing in my almost invulnerability of my youth, not really noticing the toll all this was taking on my armour. As I whirled, shot, and struck out, my personal motto-"attack before they can attack you!"-rang in my head. I took another shot to my armour, knocking me forwards. When I raised my head to find my assailant, there was no sign, so I turned, just looking to take it out on whatever Autobot I next got in my sights.
There! A blur of red and silver. I raised my optics to get the dodging Autobot in my sights, only to find that I knew this Autobot better than I knew some of my Decepticon comrades. Someone I had given up as dead.
"Rian…" I breathed in disbelief.
RIAN
She had had the blue optics she had been born with exchanged for the red ones that the Decepticons favoured, which altered her features in quite a scary way, but as she raised her optics to look at me, I knew it was my sibling Sunblazer, whom I had not seen since the night we found our parental units bodies.
An odd feeling washed down my circuitry, as if someone had poured liquid nitrogen in my body cavity.
My sibling was a Decepticon?
I had seen her fighting not two minutes earlier, dealing our forces some pretty serious punishment, seeming to hardly feel the retaliatory shots that others fired to divert her attention and distract her. However, I could see rents and fissures in her armour, knew the damage was more severe than she was letting on. This was just like the Sunblazer of old, in the happier times before the conflict, bearing scrapes and even fairly serious injuries,-received when she took a risk or gamble that failed- with barely a sound.
I knew not what was driving her to fight the way she did, but driven she was, with a ferocity that was frightening to witness, but with an apparent disregard for the safety of her own Spark. Yes, Sunblazer was a risk-taker, but if she carried on like this, she would soon take one risk too many, and that bright Spark of hers would be extinguished.
As I mentioned before, it was only when she looked at me that I recognised her, and as our optics locked, I could see that she recognised me too. I could not hear if she actually spoke over the sound of battle, but she definitely mouthed my name. I knew I had to keep moving, this was no time to stand and stare at the sibling I had reluctantly assumed had perished. Dodging and moving forwards, I watched as she did the precise thing I had avoided doing, the worst possible thing to do in a combat situation when facing enemy troops…..
SUNBLAZER
…I froze.
Not the healthiest thing to do in a combat situation, but it happened. My younger sibling wasn't dead, but had joined the side I was fighting against. Trust Rian. She was notoriously softly armoured around her Spark, emotionally speaking. I should have forseen this possibility. Now we were enemy soldiers facing each other across a battlefield. She was my sibling, and that tie was stronger than my loyalty to a faction I had joined up with before realising what they were about. Even if the shock had not made me freeze, I would not have raised my weapon.
As I felt two more weapons impacts hit my armour, I realised too late that I was, for once, a stationary target. One of the impacts holed my armour, already weakened in combat, and I staggered, turning to return a shot.
I never set optics on whoever dealt the final blow, but land it they did. I can only say that I know it was not Rian.
The shot caught me on the side, on the site of an earlier hole. I felt my Spark flicker, felt pain, felt myself fall.
Then felt no more.
RIAN
I didn't notice who felled Sunblazer, but I didn't have time to worry about her, as the Decepticons, in response, renewed their attack. I was too concerned about defending my own Spark at that moment to worry about Sunblazer's.
We pressed forwards, determined to gain some ground, and although it was a close thing, eventually the Decepticons beat a retreat, taking what wounded of theirs that they could with them, scurrying, rolling, or flying away.
Sunblazer was not amongst the wounded that they took. Our forces had pushed forwards by several metres, and Sunblazer was now on our side of the battle lines. To retrieve her, they would have had to fight through several Autobots to get to her. Obviously, she wasn't important enough to them to be worth the effort.
As the last of the Decepticons fled, I went over to my sibling, crouching by her inert form. She lay where she had fallen, face-down in the mud. I put my hand on her shoulder and called "Sunblazer?" There was no response, not even a twitch or a groan, to either my touch or my voice.
I rolled her over so that she was face-up. Her armoured 'skin' was already beginning to self-repair, however this was normal. Even detached limbs still self-repaired the armoured skin, so this was not indicative of whether Sunblazer still lived, and Sunblazer's eyes were dark.
Fearing the worst, I gently pushed aside her chest plates, enough to see that her Spark, although dimmed, had not been extinguished.
"I can repair the worst of the damage. Move aside." came a calm, measured voice. I felt a hand firmly but gently move me aside, and then Medic Ratchet bent down by Sunblazer, and got to work.
"If anyone can help her, it's Ratchet." said another nearby Autobot whose name had escaped me. "We should go."
"But-should we not wait and see?" I asked.
"Best not to." Said my new friend. "If she's still in a belligerent mood once he's fixed her, it is best if only Ratchet has to escape from her." He turned me around, and we began to walk away. "If anything can be done for her, Ratchet will do it. If he can't, then her Spark is not meant to survive."
We walked away, but I could not resist one last look back as Ratchet worked on trying to save my sibling's Spark.
