Hey, sorry to leave everyone hanging all week, but I haven't had time to type & post until now!
Ratchet threw a wrench and smashed my disclaimer, but Lexi rebuilt it for me. So, ha! I own only Lexi!
Chapter 6:
Ratchet nearly collapsed when he transformed back to his bipedal form. He reached for Lexi's limp form, but the Decepticon femme held the injured – and probably half crushed – human away from him.
"You will do what we want first. Then you can tend to your pet," Airachnid sneered. Ratchet scowled at her, wishing he could dent her helm with one of his many wrenches, but knowing she would kill Lexi if he did. So he settled for scowling.
"If she dies before I finish whatever you want me to do, Primus help you, because I'll send so many viruses and glitches into you, your comrades, and your ship that you survive long enough to kill me," he growled. Airachnid smirked.
"She won't die…yet," she assured him, expression cruel. "Now, as to what we want you to do…down that corridor is a room with a dying mech inside. Repair him, and then you may tend the fleshling," she told him. Ratchet didn't understand.
"Why not have Knock Out fix your mech up?" the Autobot medic demanded. Airachnid's smirk shrank a little.
"Because Knock Out is that mech, you imbecile!" she snapped. Ratchet nodded slowly. That would explain it.
"Why did you attack me before, then leave me?" he asked suddenly. "If your goal was to capture me, why blow me up and leave?" Not that he was complaining. He'd rather be blown up and left for dead than captured. But it didn't make sense.
"If you were too injured to even repair yourself, how would you be of any use to us?" Airachnid pointed out. "Now, go do your job, or I'll squish your squishy friend here." Ratchet went.
Hours later, at the Autobot base, the groundbridge opened. A signal bearing Ratchet's energy signature had appeared outside Jasper, and the Autobots had opened a bridge to those coordinates. Ratchet walked through the swirling green light, carrying the limp and battered form of the human who had repaired him in her garage.
"Ratchet! Are you all right?" Optimus Prime asked. Ratchet didn't answer. Instead, he bore his small burden to his work area and set about doing what he could. She would not be exactly the same, would not be fully human, not after the damage Airachnid had done, but the medic would do his best.
Lexi opened her eyes in an unfamiliar place. The walls yawned around her, and the ceiling was more than twice the height or a normal ceiling. Her first thought was, I've shrunk. Then she carefully sat up and looked around. No, she was still the same size The room she was in was just a hundred times bigger than anything a human would design.
With that thought, her gaze found the enormous red and white robot who was fiddling with some wires sticking out of a gigantic computer across the room. She blinked. Those marks on his armor…
"Ratchet?" she croaked. Speaking felt different than it had before…before…Lexi remembered Airachnid's grip tightening, remembered fighting to scream, to breathe. Then that horrible crack, that consuming agony…then darkness. The robot turned toward her.
"You're awake," he said, sounding relieved. His voice was the same voice that her talking ambulance had used. She blinked, and even that felt different. Come to think of it, just about everything felt different. "Take it easy; it will take time for you to adjust."
"Adjust to what, you old scrapheap?" Lexi demended. Surprisingly, Ratchet chuckled. "What's so funny?"
"It's good to see you still have your spirit," he said. "Unfortunately, Airachnid damaged many important parts of your body. I had to replace some of them with synthetic substitutes." What he was saying didn't sink in at first, but then, in a rush, it did.
"You replaced some of them? Some of me?" Lexi whispered.
"Your back was broken, Lexi, and many of your nerves and organs were damaged almost beyond hope. You nearly died. I did everything I could, andn it almost wasn't enough." He sounded rough, tired…worried. Lexi stared up at him.
"You replaced my back and nerves and organs?" she suddenly shrieked. He backed away, even though he was still most of the way across the room. "How could you…am I…am I even human anymore?" she demanded, tears welling in her eyes. "Can I even go home – not that there's much left of my garage, since Airachnid tore up the bay door and you blasted the other wall?" Ratchet looked at her, blue optics troubled.
"I won't force you to stay here, Lexi. But you might want to stay. The Decepticons know you exist. They know you are…important…to me. They will target you again." He hesitated. "If you choose to remain here, we will take care of you. You can help me with the repairs my comrades seem to need constantly."
"Comrades?" Lexi repeated. Then she remembered. "Oh. You mean the Autobots?" He nodded. She took a deep breath. She would not cry. She would not. She was a grown woman and would deal with this. "All right. I'd like to meet them before I decide." Inside, Lexi couldn't believe she was actually considering this. Leave her shop, her garage, her home, her life? Live in an oversized base (she assumed there was a whole base) with a bunch of alien robots big enough to squish her if they accidentally stepped on her?
Ratchet approached cautiously, and held out his hand to her. Carefully, as though relearning her body – which she kind of was – she crawled from the hospital bed she was on (she made a mental note to ask where that had come from) and onto that huge metal hand that was surprisingly gentle as it lifted her.
"Ready?" Ratchet asked. Lexi inhaled deeply again.
"To meet a bunch of alien robots? No. But why not?" Lexi shrugged. It felt like her shoulders moved differently now. She pushed that to the back of her mind and concentrated on where Ratchet was carrying her. Then her eyes widened as Ratchet carried her through an enormous door into an enormous room ten times the size of the one they'd just been in. "Holy crap." Four ginormous alien robots were waiting for me. One was the blue and pink female one that had been with the boy on Sunday. One was about five times her size, with dark green armor. One was kind of cute, with yellow armor and little wing-things on his back like the doors of a car. And one…one was, in a word…she guessed 'leaderly' worked, if that was a real word. Red and blue didn't seem to describe his colors. He was scarlet and cobalt. And he was tall, slender, and held himself like he knew he was in control of the situation.
"Greetings, Alexandra Bruner. I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. This is my team. You already know Ratchet, our medic. This is Bumblebee, our scout, and Bulkhead and Arcee." Bumblebee was the yellow one. Bulkhead was green, and Arcee was the one Lexi had seen before. She grinned.
"I know Arcee, too. She and the kid from the fast food place came by to say hi to Ratchet the other day," she said with forced cheerfulness.
"The kid from the fast food place has a name," said a half-familiar voice. "And his name is Jack." Lexi turned and saw a sort of balcony with three kids and two adults on it. One of the adults was S.A.F. The other was a woman who looked like Jack-from-the-fast-food-place, and she was standing next to Jack-from-the-fast-food-place. The other two kids were a Japanese girl and a very young American boy with pale skin and wild brown hair.
"Hi, I'm Miko. Bulkhead's my bot. That's Raf; he's with Bee. Who are you?" the Japanese girl asked. Lexi grinned.
"My name is Alexandra Bruner, but call me Lexi or there will be consequences." The mechanic grinned. "I'm kidding about the consequences. Mostly. Anyway, I'm Ratchet's human."
Well, that's a wrap! I might revisit Lexi and the Prime verse later and explore exactly what changes Ratchet had to make to save her, but right now I'm starting a new fic for movieverse, (Desert Sunrise, which will feature T'Reilani's OC Riella) and am planning a couple for G1/comicverse. Please r&r! Flames will be used to roast s'mores!