"What happened?"
Ratchet gave a scowl, turning to his patient.
"Nothing. Go back to recharge, Jazz."
"I may have had my head smashed but my CPU's still functional, Ratchet. I heard the angry screamin' from earlier and I know it was her. Now what happened?" Jazz said in a tone unlike his usual self. "What's got my ol' charge's wires crossed?"
Ratchet's scowl deepened.
"What makes you think she'd feel any better about me telling you about our spat? If I'm not mistaken she still isn't quite happy with you either."
"Ratchet…"
The CMO let out a growl.
"It's been taken care of. Keep your noseplate out of it."
"For your sake, ya better hope so." Jazz said.
She waited, seconds, minutes, hours...when she was pretty sure it was late in the night and that the medbay was closed off (due to its lack of noise) she dared near the door, hissing it open and peeking outside, it was dark at this time, but all seemed calm and clear.
She was half way across the medbay when-
"Leaving us so soon?" a gentle but strong voice spoke.
Quick as lightning the femme spun on her heels, arms raised up to face the voice and pedes spread apart ready to make a run for it. One of the medbay lamps lit on, showing none other then the Autobot leader sitting calmly on a chair.
"Relax Flamer. I'm not here to stop you." Despite his reassuring words, her pose didn't change a bit.
"Then why would you be here? I know you like to check up on your injured soldiers but this is a little different" she spoke sharply. His demeanour didn't change and simply gestured at the chair in front of him.
"Sit down. I just want to talk. I wasn't given any details or told what happened. Just that you might be leaving." He said calmly. She glanced wearily at the chair, clearly indecisive.
"I told you what mattered. There's not much else to tell" She didn't move from her spot, neither to leave nor to sit down. He merely shook his head.
"I'll take your word for it. But I won't be talking about what has or hasn't been said. Please, just sit down." He said to her. Another look of hesitance before she let out an impatient sigh and moved over to sit down, wincing as she did, the chair was far harder than she expected it to be.
"Thank you." He said nodding his head to her. "I'm aware that you are not much in the mood for talking, so I appreciate it."
She didn't say anything, only looking at her feet uncomfortably. She shifted a bit trying not to look like she was trying to find a more comfortable position in that chair. The Autobot leader took in a long breath of air before letting it out.
"Your sister...Do you have any clues to her whereabouts?" He said starting out.
She looked up, mildly surprised, then back at the floor uncertainly.
"I know the ship and crew she's working with...as far as I know they were heading near Cybertron, to an organic sector if I'm not mistaken...I don't know their goal though..."
He nodded his head, shifting in his chair.
"What is the name of this ship? Do you know who's leading it?"
She nodded.
"I've been fighting that thing for 9 years...managed to infiltrate it once or twice so i have some of its basic schematics...the ship's name is Chaos, MindGriever is leading it. Last thing we heard from them was a message we intercepted, between him and Megatron. It was all scrambled though, we didn't manage to get much info from it, but they mentioned the femme contingent...I got worried and went to check on them..."
"Mindgriever...While I have never engaged him personally I am well aware of him...This answers the question why you have not yet been reunited with your sister." He said nodding his head. Her optics dimmed, her hand tightening around the chair arm.
"She's...not herself...she doesn't remember anything...and I can't feel or make her feel me in turn! They filled her with so many lies...I don't even understand where they got so much information on us to make them. I can only assume he must have hacked into sister's entire memory bank..."
"I'm sorry, Ashbringer." He said sincerely. He looked to the floor for a moment. "You said that it was from them that you first heard about the femme contingent...?"
"Y-yea...well not exactly...it SOUNDED like they were talking about them...they just spoke like 'her' and 'she' and then 'them'. It was a really scrambled up message. Either way the cons that I found with the femme contingent were neither Megatron's nor Mindgrievers...although I can't tell you whose it was... I didn't get the name of anyone there." she shook her head quietly. He nodded at this.
"Still, it may do us some good to go and travel up to where they're going. We weren't able to get anything from your escape pod as you said. But thanks to Wheeljack and a little science, he was able to figure out which direction your pod had come from and based on where you told me they were going, it does fit the general direction." He said.
"I see..." she said looking at her knees thoughtfully."If I may...I'm tempted to ask a favour? But I don't even know how to ask it...I want to protect the one that helped me out but I ...don't know who he is...I could hardly see right at the time so even showing pictures won't help...and he didn't speak much to begin with so voice recordings won't do either..." she seemed displeased.
"I understand. Though I wouldn't worry about it until we actually do locate the ship containing the femme contingent. Going to that sector and finding them is still a long shot after all." He said shaking his head. She nodded.
"Plus I think at the time I escaped they were being attacked...although I didn't hear any gun fire, the alarm was going off...that's why he used the chance to send me in an escape pod, in the middle of the confusion no one shot me down. In any case I don't know if I was the only one...he might be doing the same for the rest of the femmes."
"I see...Do you know how long you were in that escape pod?"
She shook her head as a slight no.
"I don't even know how long I was in the con ship. Most of my systems were crashed and my reserves were all going to self repairs. It felt like weeks though...probably was considering I still got operated and healed up from it somewhat. Then judging by how much I recovered in the pod I'd say...3-4 Quartex? Maybe?"
"All right...I'll see what we can find out with that." He said weaving his fingers together and leaning back against the chair. She shifted in her place, clearly uncomfortable, looking at anything but the imposing leader.
"I'm glad that you were able to find clues about her...to even see her. Even able to provide the ship and crew she's working with. While it may not seem like much, you have a lot to go off of in your search...Something that shows that you're headed in the right direction or at least have something to work off of." He said looking to her. She didn't seem that convinced.
"While that may be true...to get her to see reality is ...much more difficult...I don't need a bond to know that she's unhappy there, but I do need one to make her see that herself. The way she is now I can't even have a decent conversation without entering in battle."
"But you know that she's there. You know that she's still alive and out there somewhere. And while it may not be pleasant you get the occasional chance to see her and not lose hope. Others are not so lucky when searching..." He said with his optics going distant.
"I guess...but that bot isn't her...I don't know if she can revert back...Prometheus and SteelBreaker said she would but I think they were simply trying to moralize me..."she let out a dry chuckle "I'm quite useless after all...I can't even save my own twin, and I suck at everything else...I'm not even good for...other things..."
"You still have hope...and faith...Never lose it. No matter what you think of yourself. I myself strongly disagree about your assessment. You can do many things if you put your mind to it and maintain your strong sense of perseverance. That is what I believe. But at the end of the cycle, what matters is what you think about yourself. "
She didn't comment, not knowing how to answer that to herself. She winced a second time, trying to disguise it with gestures of thoughtfulness, her hand slowly and discreetly made its way up to her chassis, putting on some pressure into it.
"Is that all you wanted to talk about?"
Optimus Prime stared at her critically for a long moment, his gaze gentle and caring before he gave a nod, getting up from his seat.
"Yes...that is all. You can leave. I do wish that you would stay and it saddens me that you had not even the chance to spend time with your friends. But if this is your decision, I will not force the matter. We are nearby some settlements. Our escape pods should have enough fuel to get you to navigate to one of them. Please be careful. " He said making his way to the door, the light from the ever lit hallway shining into the medbay as the doors hissed open. He turned back to her before taking another step.
" Your mission to be reunited with your sibling reminds me of some dear friends of mine who were brothers. Like you, one is lost out there somewhere and the other has been searching for him ever since...Him and one of his lost brother's creations...It's been many years and not a trace has been found since...I pray that your mission does not take that turn...for both your sakes" He said with strong feelings behind his optics and a solemn tone. Her look hardened with confidence.
"I won't let it. Cliffstrider is my sister and my responsibility, I'll do whatever it takes to get her back." He nodded to her.
"See that you do...please take care of yourself." He said leaving.
She sighed to herself, staying in the chair a while longer, staring at the empty one in front of her. Optimus just had to make her feel some guilt... she rubbed at the spot on her chassis no longer afraid anyone would see it since he was out.
