First of all, sorry for the short delay, I've been having my ups and downs and wrote this along the way. Plus there are a few more fics I've been itching to write one centered on blurr and two OCs and another which is still yet to be thought better of. But I still have my sparkling fic to finish so those can wait.
As a result of their last stunt, Bumblebee had gotten his punishment in monitor duty, stuck in a room and watching screens, it was infuriating for him, but he gladly took it, especially when he found Ashley's brand new allies.
He was staring in awe at the screen watching the five dynobots run amuck the base with the tiny girl currently ridding Grimlock's head with the biggest smile he'd ever seen on her pale face.
Primus that was such a dangerous place to be sitting on. She had no where to hold onto, yet she wasn't falling somehow. That was the good news, the bad news were that they currently had Prowl and Ironhide at their tails, literally…
Prowl hung onto Grimlock's tail attempting to stop the larger robot on his tracks, with no result obviously, while Ironhide made several attempts to grab sludge failing every time because his massive cannons got in the way and he didn't want to damage them.
The poor SIC was pulled upwards with the tail and unexpectedly slipped falling behind and landing right on Ironhide's face with a resounding crash.
The girl giggled hysterically and nearly fell off had it not been for quick reflexes. Primus my spark nearly jumped out of its casing right then.
I then turned my optics to the hall they were headed for, Optimus was waiting there along with wheeljack and Ratchet who were holding a large wire net.
Apparently Wheeljack had been working on a way to reinforce the wire into a stronger metal yet still bendable, he said the purpose for this was for successful capturing of decepticons but everyone suspected it had been designed for the Dynobots, just like he was proving now.
Grimlock turned around at the end of the hall and headed straight for the trap.
"GRIMLOCK!WATCH OUT!" he tried to stop but since the other four were coming behind him they crashed and all five ended sliding right into the net with the little human holding on for dear life.
Expert hands caught the little human before any metal could crash upon her and pulled her between the wires which were wide enough for her to pass through.
She lifted her head up from the crouching position she had been in to look straight at the five dynobots piled on each others and covered by the net now being closed by the two smaller bots. Then slowly looking up she was face to face with a slightly irritated Optimus Prime.
"Hi Prime!" she said in an innocent tone. " came to join the fun?"
"Your idea of 'fun' is a bit dangerous Ashley" he said putting her down on the ground with care.
"Aw c'mon! They'd never hurt me willingly! They have the sweetest sparks!"
"I have no doubts about them doing it willingly, it's unwillingly that I'm afraid of."
"Pft…your just a worry wuss…c'mon everything was going along just fine until you guys put that net on them!" she said pointing at the confused looking bots trying to get free. "please release them?"
"No, they must be responsible for their actions, Prowl will assign them the deserved punishment for now." At this she glared up at him bawling a fist in his direction.
"Quit being a hypocrite!" Both Wheeljack and Ratchet looked at the tiny human startled and then at their prime, no one talked like that to him. " You keep talking about taking responsibility for our actions but so far you only punish them, well ya haven't done anything to me. What am I? Too weak to handle it?"
Optimus was stunned, he didn't expect this from the tiny human, he crouched down to a knee to look better into her eyes, there was defiance in there, and absolute firmness, she wasn't going to let this go until she got an answer. He let air out of his intakes as a sigh.
"I do not give you the same treatment because you are our guest and not my soldier."
She looked at him suspiciously and made a sign for him to come lower, he bowed down till his chin nearly touched the ground.
"That's not the truth is it?"
"Yes it-" BANG, a tiny foot came and him right in the nose platting, it wasn't very strong but it was enough to make him back away from the human and rub it, it had mildly stung.
"Stop lying! You don't punish me because I'm human! Because I'm different from you guys!" the way she said it had so much venom he just couldn't come up with a logical answer.
"Well until you do so I'll just keep getting victims and cause all chaos in this place! Am I clear?!" she stood there for a few seconds waiting for an answer, when she saw none was going to come she stomped off into another hall not saying any other word, everyone was stunned, even the Dynobots who were still tangled amongst each others.
Okay, maybe that hadn't been her brightest idea, but she was getting tired of special treatment, if there was one thing she hated it was just THAT. None the less that was no way to talk to the leader of a race protecting her at the moment.
"I have got to learn to be less of a hot head…" she said to herself slowly walking around the halls. "How am I going to face the government official now?" Yes she might have missed the last meeting but there was no running away from this one, he was due to arrive in three hours. Three! And she had been stressed, that was why she convinced the Dynobots to give her a ride around the base but ended up overdoing it.
Mindlessly heading back to the rec room she started trying to think of ways to speak to the said official that wouldn't make her seem like a freak or something. She inwardly sighed.
Like I didn't give off that idea before… she mentally said to herself.
Climbing up the tall chair and over the table she went to her bag, she had run out of money a few days ago but apparently the autobots had spoken of this with the government who said they'd pay for anything she strictly needed, so she now had a few clothes more to her liking and a few supplies of food to last her for a week, whenever she'd need more she could just ask to go out and be escorted to a super market, something she felt unnecessary but they weren't going to give in after the first time.
Shuffling around the bag she took out the closest thing to appropriate she could find, a simple black t-shirt along with a pair of jeans, she didn't want to give away who she was or how she was just yet, and keeping things simple was the best way to do so.
She set them aside wondering if she should go and put them on now or later.
To make things even more stressing Bunblebee was to take her to his charge's girl friend today, the one she had borrowed clothes from, and she was so not looking forward to that, however she couldn't just say that in the cheerful bot's face, the poor thing was dying to get outside and the excuse of having Mikaela show her around town was the best excuse.
So now her nerves were pilling up, she was to meet two strangers today, neither of them sounded that pleasant to begin with AND she had yelled in Optimus's face, not to mention getting the Dynobots in trouble.
"Maybe…maybe I was a little too rough on the big guy…" she said to herself lining the wrinkles in her clothes to smooth out the tissue. "I'm not part of them anyway...its not like I'm staying here for ever…" she let out an air she didn't knew was holding in. The depressive thought clung to her heart like a scared animal who didn't want to fall.
She took the clothes and decided she should put them on, just for the sakes of her nerves. Quickly leaving the rec room she went for the human bathrooms, which wasn't very far and changed clothes. Once done she returned her other clothes to their place and looked around helplessly, it was silent.
"Great…now what do I do?" she asked to the empty room plopping back onto her sleeping bag.
"You could start by helping me prepare for the government" a calm and stoic voice answered her from behind, she nearly jumped out of her skin. Turning back she came face to face with Prowl, who had yet to choose an alt form.
"How the hell did you sneak up on me?! Your feet are supposed to make a lot of noise! or at least vibration!" she shouted trying to calm her beating heart.
"I'm not called Prowl for nothing." He said raising an optic ridge " I apologize for frightening you, it was not my intention." He leaned down to be more to her eye level.
"So…what were you saying again? Something about preparing?" he nodded.
"I have yet to understand what you humans call appropriate for such meetings and how to prepare for such things."
"Righhttt…so you came to me. No offence but I'm not exactly the best person to advise you, I'm just a kid, I haven't met anyone from the government before…" she shrugged. "Guess I could give you a few basic human pointers though…" He nodded holding up a palm, she hesitated for a while, so far she hadn't talked much to this mech and didn't really know him that well, but according to the stories of sunny and sides this was just the way he was, quiet.
Hopping onto the offered hand she was taken out to what she knew as Optimus's office, which had an absurdly enormous table. Right in the middle was a smaller version of a table and a few metallic chairs to go along with it, right in front of the leader's seat.
"Okay…" Prowl had stopped at the entrance waiting for her to say something "let's see…first things first: How many people and who is coming?"
Prowl's optics brightened for a second and she took that as a sign that he was accessing the information.
"Three officers, senator Kelly from the-" she raised a hand to cut him off.
"You know what? Don't tell me what they do…that'll just freak me out…they are all men right?" she asked climbing down his shoulder and hopping onto the table much to his distress as he didn't want her to fall off.
"Two are of the male species and one is a female. A scientist." She groaned
"I told you not to tell me what they do! Urgh why the hell are they bringing a scientist here?" she asked adjusting the table and the stares to a spot where they wouldn't have to crane their necks higher to stare up at optimus.
"It seems your people believe we might have passed some sort of radiation onto you, or better yet our enemy faction, they are bringing the scientist to make sure nothing is wrong with you" she snorted at that.
"Bet Ratchet isn't too happy about that." Prowl looked away as if a bit disturbed with the thought.
"He…had to get a few moments to gather his calm" she let out a small chuckle.
"So…I guess since you already let the cat out might as well tell me who the third person is." The robot stood there motionless for a while watching her arranging things with a thoughtful stare.
"Ex- sector seven agent officer Simmons." She gave him a short nod, she didn't know who that guy was or what the hell that sector did, but she'd know soon enough. Something inside her though told her it wasn't good news.
"Right, I'm going to get a few cups of water so stay here, make sure NO ONE touches those!" she said pointing at the table and chairs " I swear if I have to re-arrange them it'll be the end of you guys!" quickly going to the edge she held onto the table's leg and slid down like a fireman much to the mech's agitation and ran off shouting "I'll be right back!".
True to her word the small human came back carefully holding three glasses full of water and made a motion for her to pull her up.
"I do not see the need for you to bring these water containers. What is their purpose?"
"Er….well that's kind of complicated, as far as I know in meetings humans always have these for each person, I think they get their mouths dry after long hours of talking. But if your asking in a more biological term then I should let you know most of our bodies are made of water so we frequently need to drink it to keep our own systems working correctly."
"Fascinating" he said in a genuine tone. She put down the three glasses each in its place and turned back to him.
"Well that's it. Anything else you need me to do?" He stood there, staring back down at her with that awfully disturbing thoughtful look. Immediately she knew what this was about and let out a big sigh. "You're here because of what I said to Prime earlier aren't you?"
"For a human you catch on quickly…" he said not sounding that amazed.
I'm not sure I should take that as an insult or a compliment." Pulling out a chair she sat down on it resting her arms on its back and staring at the tall machine. "Spill it then."
"I beg your pardon?" he asked confused.
"It's a way of telling you to just get on with it, I know what I did and I know it was wrong, so I'm just waiting for you to preach."
"You sound like you don't really need one." She dug her head in her arms groaning.
"I know…my consciousness won't let me go…but its just that…"she paused, prowl turned up his audios to make sure she wasn't saying anything in a low tone but it simply seemed she was at a loss of words.
"I can't say I'm sorry when I feel that what I said was right anyway…though I could have said it in better terms of course…" she heard the sound of a gigantic chair moving and looked up to see prowl sitting in front of her considering what she was saying.
"You have to agree he has been unfair in this point of view."
"And you have to agree that it is also not his place to punish you Ashley, not to mention we're not used to punishing creatures like yourself." She cringed at the word.
"Don't call me that."
"Do you not like to be called by your full name?" his optic ridge raised.
"No not that, don't call me a creature." The way she spoke it had a lot of restraint in it, Prowl could detect a lot of anger and pain being held back and his sensors were indicating her stress levels had increased slightly.
"I apologize; it was not my intention to offend you."
"It's not really an offence…it's just something I've been called before as a bad thing. It…gives me bad memories…" she looked to the side not really moving her head, it was an uncomfortable subject. There was a long pause until she decided to speak again.
"How long do you think I should be staying here?"
"That would depend on what your people decide, if it were up to us you would stay a lot longer, after all we were hoping you could indeed fix the allspark." She looked up at him, studying his features, his optics were a bit dimmer, his shoulders sagged slightly and his doorwings had completely gone down, either he was tired or sad, or maybe both?
"You hear about that huh?" he nodded.
"As Second in Comand I always have to know such things."
"See, I don't even know if I can do that! One thing is deciphering Ratchet's scribbles the other is decoding your god! They are completely different!" He didn't say anything and she just gripped her hair out of frustration. "But Ratchet got so excited with the idea that he just had to tell Optimus and now he is also counting on that and I just…argh!"
"You are not used to others counting on you" he stated as a matter of fact.
"No…" she admitted in a slight whimper" that's putting it mildly actually…everyone always reacts like I'm going to destroy something…I have like this bad luck black kitten always following me around…" the SIC surveyed the area briefly but didn't see the said creature so he assumed it was another strange human expression.
"Have you tried to do it yet?"
"Well…no…not really, I did go there to look at the codes but…I was just looking at them, nothing to try and solve it…"
"Then how do you know you will fail if you haven't yet tried?" she didn't answer. Just a tiny nod his hand came over to the chair and she stared at it questioningly. "I'll take you there a bit, we still have some time, and I have been intending to pay a visit there anyway" the way he said it sounded almost as if he choked on his own words.
Climbing on they headed out of the office and as they neared the location Prowl seemed to slow down until he stopped at the door staring at it as if evaluating an enemy he knew he couldn't face.
"Prowl?" he didn't answer, it was then that she remembered what Bumblebee had told her the night they got there, Jazz had been his bonded. And that same Jazz was inside that room, dead. " Its okay if your not ready to go in yet, just put me down and I'll go ahead." He seemed to snap out of his thoughts and shook his head.
"No…I really should…for old time's sake" he opened the door and went in, not hesitating one single step until the two stood in front of the silver form motionless in its spot. He gently put her down and stayed there, staring at his bonded with a look she most definitely could not identify. Not that she wanted to anyway, she went over to the allspark's cabinet, it was a bit high up and as usual it didn't glow while someone else was in the room. Every inch of the object looked like it could slide into another place; the very symbols were pathways for it to shift. It was one very complicated jigsaw puzzle, and according to them it was just a tiny piece of it too!
For the longest time she tried to concentrate on memorizing its symbols and comprehending it, but she would often steal a glance at Prowl who stood in the very same place and position staring at Jazz, it was a sad sight to see. Finally she thought it had taken enough time and went back to him, though when she got near she noticed his optics were off. "huh? Prowl? You there?" she tapped his foot with a bit of strength because these things usually didn't even feel her tapping. Then to her surprise she heard a threatening whining sound of metal. "Oh shit!" she ran to hide on the other side of the memorial as Prowl's Body crashed backwards completely motionless. "Prowl!" After making sure he wouldn't suddenly jolt live she ran over to his head and banged a fist on it but got no reaction. "What is this?! Can robots pass out? Urgh!" she pushed his head so he would be facing the ceiling and searched around his audio for the right connection." where is it?!ah here it is!"
Over at the medbay Ratchet was enjoying his free time cleaning his tools and not having to put up with the twins or wheeljack when his com link turned on, it was prowl, or it was supposed to be until he heard Ashley's hurried and panicky voice.
"Primus child calm down! I can't understand a word your saying! Your worst than blurr. And why are you communicating through Prowl's com link?"
"His out! He just… went off when we came to see jazz! I can't get him to wake up! I think he's dead!" her voice had gone incredibly squeaky in her panic much to the cmo's irritation.
"Slag it, hold on, I'll be right there"
No sooner had he said that Ash could hear his footsteps from the hall, her heart was racing, Prowl wouldn't move despite her fervent attempts. She didn't even notice the allspark had begun to glow once more, until the said medic barged right in and without hesitation was on the fallen comrade shooing her away. She stood back watching him work with worry.
Within instants Ratchet was retracting helmet platting and putting it back, checking every wire or circuitry that might have possibly fried.
Nothing seemed to be wrong, so he could only get to one conclusion "slag it he short circuited…"
"He what?"
"In human terms I suppose you could say it is like fainting." He glanced at the human and noticed her whole frame was shaking violently and her eyes were leaking like rivers, her skin had gone reddish and she was sniffling from time to time. Going into a more complete scan he could tell she was a complete wreck. " He'll be all right. What were you two doing here anyway?" that seemed to snap her out of the terrified gaze she was giving prowl.
"He wanted to bring me to the allspark so I could study it a bit, but he hesitated so I told him it was okay not to go b-but he insisted" her voice was squeaky and it really just unnerved her more. "he seemed fine and all for a while when I noticed his optics were off, I sort of touched his leg and he just fell…god I thought I killed him!" she buried her face in her hands sobbing uncontrollably.
"Now how on cybertron would you do that?" he questioned trying to bring her to reason.
"I-I.."she was hiccupping so much she couldn't even speak. He had to take away his attention from prowl to try and calm her down.
"Breathe child, no one got hurt and everything will be okay." He tried to say as gently as he could, which was quite a feat.
"I t-thought I k-killed him" she repeated " b-because bad s-stuff always happens ar-round me" as soon as she finished saying it all hell broke loose, she kept crying and just couldn't seem to stop no matter how much Ratchet tried.
Eventually he had to call someone, and he cursed for ever actually having to call those two.
"Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, come in"
"Sunstreaker here, what's the problem Ratch'?" The CMO made a huge effort not to scold him for calling him that.
"Prowl just short circuited and I have a sobbing human in hysterics here, I need you to come get her while I take Prowl to the med bay."
"Sure, where are you guys?" Sideswipe's voice asked.
"The memorial room" There was a pause.
"What were they doing in there?"Sunstreaker asked, Ratchet could hear them moving through the com link.
"I'll explain later, now get your afts in here!"
Sure enough the twin's loud steps arrived just minutes later, by the looks of them they had been outside because some of the sand was still on their armour along with some dirt. Still this was the best choice he had at the moment, he wasn't going to call optimus to help, not after the last incident, Bumblebee was still attending monitor duty and both Ironhide and Blurr had left for patrol, they still had wheeljack of course but he'd be slagged before he left the human alone with him.
Actually he was surprised to find the two immediately coaxing the little human into coming onto one of their palms, she down right refused but they kept insisting giving ratchet the go ahead to leave.
Sideswipe's and Sunstreaker's POV
When Ratchet had contacted us we had no idea how bad it actually was, first we thought she had simply gotten startled, everyone did when they first saw Prowl glitch out.
This however was on a completely different level, not even when we were recovering from the battle with barricade had she freaked out this much.
The little organic had managed to needle her way in between jazz's memorial stone and the pod he rested in, where we couldn't reach her, she kept sobbing and muttering things neither of us understood. Sunstreaker took the job to try and find a possible language she was speaking in to translate it while Sideswipe kept trying to convince her out.
She shook her head persistent to hide away in there and shoved her head into her knees crying her heart out.
"Aw c'mon Ashy! Prowl's glitched far more times than this! It never hurt him to bad, in fact I think it only made him better." Sideswipe tried to tell her, but she just kept on doing the same thing, he sighed and looked at his twin in search of any ideas.
His brother had a concentrated look, one that told sideswipe he was still searching the internet, then realization came into his optics and he frowned.
"what?"
"She's speaking in a dead language"
"huh?"
"Its called Latin, apparently one of the oldest languages of the humans." Sideswipe quickly did his own search and gathered sufficient files to translate what she had been saying.
"a monster to come a monster to tame, lives to be gone lives to be drunk? " he translated out loud " what the pit does that mean?"
"Why are you asking me?" His brother said irritated leaning down to look at the shaking girl from the other side of her hiding place. "Come on girl, you have your meeting in…" he checked his internal chronometer "slag it, 15 minutes! You have to come out!"
"Yeah, you can't miss the guy a second time! Come on, Prowl is going to fritz if he wakes up to know you missed it because of him."
There was silence, then a few sniffles and a small trembling voice.
" H-he would?" a double sigh of relief came from their vents.
"Yes! You have no idea how much he panics about these things."
"If-f I come out and attend the m-meeting will he not…not…" she was struggling with the words.
Seeing their chance to get her out they didn't even hesitate.
"Yes! He'll be very happy if you finally get this over with." Very slowly the small human got to her feet and timidly peeked out from behind the memorial stone.
She did not want to get onto the offered hand but if it would stop prowl from passing out then she'd gladly do it.
"Good" Sideswipe said once she sat in his hand and he lifted himself up. "now mind telling us what happened?"
She slowly told them the story while they made their way out of there, the clock was ticking and she still looked down right terrible with her eyes suddenly puffy red, worse of all she wasn't calming down, she simply had stopped crying. The twins exchanged looks only they could know of once she finished explaining.
"Look, I didn't get where you think this was your fault but let me tell you, its not." Sideswipe said since his brother wasn't exactly the most tactful mech when it came to these things. "This happens a lot with Prowl, and its going to keep happening, so don't you worry that little processor of yours anymore"
"Brain" she corrected him, her low whimpers had finally quieted down, now she simply looked like someone who was incredibly tired. "Do I really have to meet the official?"
"yes!"both said at the same time.
"Don't take this the wrong way Ash, but you have to go back to your kind, this isn't a place for a human" Sunstreaker said, his brother elbowed him giving him a glare as if he was saying "that was so uncalled for right now"
The 14 year old sighed though as she was put down on the ground again in front of the door.
"I suppose your right…I do have to go sometime right?" she was staring away over her shoulder to the end of the hall with a ghost of a smile, it felt eerie and neither was quite sure if it was a smile of happiness.
"Its for the best" The red lambo agreed sourly, he had gotten fond of the little human and it saddened him to know she would leave soon.
She turned to the door nodding slightly, her smile completely gone now, if either knew about it, they would think she was a ghost, she had the most corpse like expression, like one who had been shot and its body frozen in time, yet she moved to the door and entered not saying any other word.
She knew that soon she would have to leave, soon she would be that empty soul again, it was just a matter of days.
Good? Bad? I get few reviews so I really don't know your thoughts on this….I'm more and more reverting back to this character so its been a bit easier to write her as I progressively remember what it was like to be that person years ago.
Anyway, I'll possibly update in a few days, give it two weeks maybe, maybe less.
