Please Note: I do not own Transformers. I do, however, have my own OC, Reese Shields.
Chapter 7
The room swam as Reese slowly opened her eyes. Her eyes had difficulty focusing and she tried to shake her head to rid it of the fog. Only then did she realize her surroundings; she was back at base. She attempted to sit up but the pain caused by the sudden movement was enough to take her breath away. She tried again, this time more slowly. Her eyes began to come into focus but she noticed that things looked different. Colours were brighter, more vibrant. She could see the each of the pixels on the computer screen individually, each one a slightly different colour and brightness. The lights were so intense they that she had to squint in order to see at all. It was like sensory overload. She tried to rub her eyes, but when her hands touched her face, they were cold… metallic. She looked down at them in surprise.
"I have to be dreaming. There is no other explanation for this." She tried to pinch herself, but it didn't work. The pain that surged through her body was so real; it couldn't be a dream. Slowly realization that all of this was real began to dawn on her. Panic rose in her chest and it threatened to escape in the form of a scream. Before that happened though, Nurse Darby came in the room.
"Oh Reese! I'm so glad to see you are awake. We-"
"What happened to me? What have they done to me!?" Reese cut Nurse Darby off. "They have turned me into some kind of robotic freak." Her body shook with angry sobs. Nurse Darby came over and embraced the girl in a hug, trying her best to comfort her. After a few minutes the sobs subsided. "Please, can you turn off the lights? They are hurting my eyes." Reese's voice had lowered to a hoarse whisper.
"Oh, of course," Nurse Darby quickly went over to the light controls and dimmed them a bit. "Here, why don't you let me take a look at your eyes." She said as she tilted Reese's head up so that she could look into the girl's eyes. "Oh my," she gasped in surprise.
"What, what is it?" Reese asked in a panicked tone. She knew whenever a medical professional said, "oh my", it was never good.
"There also appears to be some kind of circuitry running through your iris. Perhaps, Ratchet would be the better one to examine you." She backed away and turned to get Ratchet.
"What, what do you mean, circuitry? Please, don't leave, I need answers!" Reese called out but June had already left to go to Ratchet's quarters. "Circuitry, robotic limbs, I will never be able to show my face in public again; I will be seen as a freak. The autobots should have just left me to die." She looked looked around for a mirror but all she could find was a reflective metal tray. She looked into the reflection and gasped as she noticed her eyes were no longer the deep brown that they used to be. June was right, they were now a bright, energon blue, and appeared to have circuitry running through them. She dropped the tray in shock as she tried to process what was going on.
"Well, it's good to see you back onlin- er awake. How are you feeling?" Ratchet seemed to have a softer, gentler, look on his face and in his voice than he usually did; beside manners, perhaps?
"Why did you save me? After what they turned me into, how could you let me live? I can't even go outside anymore; people will take one look reject me. They will treat me like an outcast." Reese glared at the autobot medic.
"We couldn't let you just die, or worse, be turned into some cyborg to be used as a weapon by MECH." Ratchet said all this whilst running routine diagnostics. "Now, look at me and hold your optics open; Nurse Darby here told me you were having some trouble with them." Some of Ratchet's old demeanor was beginning to show. He clearly didn't have time for human pity parties. He ran his scanners across Reese's eyes. "Just as I suspected, the CNA has caused alteration to the optics as well." Ratchet muttered.
"What do you mean, the "CNA" caused alterations? What even is "CNA"? I thought MECH did this to me!" Reese pushed Ratchet's large servo away from her face. "I want answers, now!" She had lost all patience for them and the secret she could tell they were holding.
"Very well, you are a techno-organic life form, part cybertronian, and part human." Ratchet began to explain to Reese who she really was. While his explanation was truthful, it lacked tact, and when June saw the horror forming on Reese's face, she knew that someone more 'diplomatic' would be better suited for the job.
"Ratchet, perhaps Optimus would be better suited to break the news to her, okay?" She gently placed a hand on Ratchet's servo. Ratchet vented in annoyance as he realized that Nurse Darby was correct.
"Fine, he's better at this kind of stuff anyways." Ratched stomped off towards Optimus's quarters to get their tactful leader. Reese just sat there, trying to take in what she had just been told. Nothing made any sense to her anymore.
Ratchet soon returned with Optimus, who immediately knew how to handle the situation.
"Reese, you are a very unique individual. The mutated DNA, that MECH had mentioned, is actually cybertronian CNA. As unlikely as it may seem, one of your parents, or grandparents, were cybertonians. When MECH flooded your system with energon, it reawakened the CNA that had been dormant within you. While some of the changes to you have been because of MECH's cybernetic enhancements, others are due to the cybertronian side of you reawakening. I know this is a lot for you to take in, but you are strong willed, and if anybody is worthy to be called a cybertronian, it's you. Others may not understand your cybernetic enhancements, at first, but they will quickly learn that it is your spark that defines you." Optimus looked at Reese with gentle optics. She was clearly in shock, but his explanation seemed to have been more effective than Ratchets.
"I don't understand; nobody in my family looks like a cybertronian. I didn't even know what a cybertronian was before I met you. I have met all of my closest relatives, and they all seemed pretty human to me."
"Well, that would make sense. Whoever he or she is, they were probably using a holoform when you met them." Ratchet mused. "It would have had to have been either your parents or your grandparents though."
"Like I said, all of my family members seem to have been completely human, but…" Everybody looked at her expectantly waiting for her to finish. "Well, my grandfather on my dad's side. I only met him once, when I was very little. Dad said we couldn't visit him because he was always away on business. He always sent me cards on my birthday and at Christmas, though. He always called me his precious 'grand-femme' in all of his letters to me. I never knew what it meant but dad said that it was his little nickname for me. His name was Trevor, but dad always called him Tracks. He is the only one that I can think have who would even have the remote possibility of being a cybertronian." She lowered her eyes as she finished talking. It always hurt to bring up her parents.
"Tracks, yes I knew him. He ended up being stationed here on Earth to protect as a robot in disguise. We lost touch with him for some time, though. I wonder if he is still on earth. He would be a valuable asset to the team."
"So you mean, my grandfather really was a cybertronian? I guess that makes my dad a techno-organic as well. Why didn't he ever tell me?" Reese spoke more to herself than the others. All of this was almost too much for her to take.
"Maybe, he just wanted you to live a normal lifestyle. Maybe, he figured that if you didn't know, then you would be able to live like a normal kid," Bumblebee said. His idea seemed to make sense and Reese decided to just accept it and move on.
"I think I need to go clear my head." Reese very gingerly stepped off of the gurney and made her way to the elevator. Her legs screamed at her with every step, but she ignored the pain. She was too numb inside to even care about the pain.
"Reese, I don't think it's such a good idea for you to be up and about just yet." June called out, but Reese ignored her.
"Give her some time; she had just had a huge amount of information dropped on her, and she needs some time to process it all." Optimus said with a gentle but sad tone in his voice.
Out on the top of the plateau, Reese sat stone faced. She thought about crying, about trying to release the turmoil of emotions that was inside of her, but she couldn't. She did not want to seem weak willed, and she did not want pity. She just wanted to be normal, but the more she thought about it, she had never been normal.
"God, I know you are up there listening. I know that none of this came as a surprise to you, but why did you make me like this? Why did you allow all of this to happen? My parents are gone, and now I find out that I'm really part robot. I am having a hard time seeing the good in this." She sighed deeply, and got up. "God, I know you are listening, I just need some encouragement. I need you to give me the strength to handle all of this." With that, she turned and went back down into the base.
As she walked down the stairs, one of her cybernetic legs buckled underneath of her and she grabbed for the railing. Bumblebee saw this and immediately stepped forward to help. She brushed him off, though, unwilling to accept any help or pity from anyone. "I have this, Bee. I'm fine." She pulled herself back up to her feet and finished walking down the stairs. She made her way to her room and laid herself down on the bed. She didn't bother turning on the light because she knew it would hurt her eyes. She had so much going through her head that she couldn't even think straight. For a while she tried to sleep, but every time she would close her eyes, horrible memories would come flooding back into her head. She stayed in her room all day; she didn't want comforting words or sympathetic looks.
Finally, around 2:00 a.m. she couldn't stand to be in the room anymore. She was not able to get to sleep, and she needed some change in scenery. Nurse Darby had gone home hours earlier, and the rest of the bots were in recharge, so she knew that the base would be quiet. She threw on a light sweater, pulled on a pair of shoes, and made her way into the main room. As quietly as possible she climbed the stairs leading to the elevator. She jumped slightly when the elevator made a few loud creaks as it made its way to the level she was on. She looked around, warily, hoping that nobody was woken up by the sound. She didn't want the others to be woken from recharge just because she couldn't sleep. Finally the elevator quieted down as it stopped on the highest level, opening to reveal the top of the plateau and the desert landscape. She walked to the edge of the plateau and sat down, letting her legs dangle over the edge of the cliff face. She looked out over the vast desert that was laid out before her. She thought about how things used to be before the accident that took her parents. She wished she could just go back in time and be with them again. She wished she could be sleeping at home in her bed, and they would be in the room just down the hall. A silent tear streamed down her cheek at the memories. She had told herself she wouldn't cry, that she was too old, but even though she had accepted her parents deaths as part of God's plan, it still hurt her deep inside.
Suddenly she felt a presence behind her and something soft being wrapped around her shoulders. She turned her head and looked up to see Bumblebee standing behind her, gently draping a blanket over her shoulders. She took the blanket gratefully and wrapped it tightly around herself. She had not realized until that moment that she had been shivering violently in the cold, desert, night air. Bee sat down beside her without saying a word. He knew that she didn't need words right now, but somebody to sit with her in companionable silence. They both sat there staring off into the horizon, until he felt Reese lean against his arm. He looked down to see that the girl had actually fallen asleep. He looked down at her compassionately. He understood the pain that she was feeling. He too had lost his creators when he was just a youngling. They had been taken from him before they were able to have anymore sparklings, and so he was left all alone. He had always wanted a sister, and as he looked down at Reese, he realized that he saw her as the sister that he had never had. His spark broke to see the sorrow and pain that was on her face, even as she slept. Time went by and he had fallen back into recharge, only to be aroused again by Reese stirring beside him. She looked up at him kind eyes. All the hardness and frustration that had been in them earlier that day was gone.
"Bee, I want to thank you for this. I needed somebody to just sit with me and keep my company. You are like the brother that I never had. You have spent time with me when the others wouldn't, you have gone along with my reckless ideas, and you have taken the time to keep my company when I needed it most. You, and the rest of the bots, are the closest thing to family that I have anymore, and I'm thankful that God brought me here, even if I didn't understand his plan at first." Reese looked sincerely up into the young scout's optics.
"Reese, you are very welcome. I think of you the exact same way. I completely understand how you are feeling right now as well. I lost both of my creators when the decepticons stormed Praxus. I had always wanted a little sister that I could look out for and confide in, but they were taken before they ever had the chance to have anymore sparklings. I am glad that you see me as a brother, because I see you as the sister that my creators were never able to have. If you ever need anything, just let me know." Reese looked up at him with tears in her eyes. God had given her a new family and she was so thankful. They both looked out in front of them and noticed the reddish glow that was starting to peek up over the horizon. "I suppose we should probably head back down. The others will probably be wondering where we went." Reese said as she stood up, still wrapped tightly in the oversized blanket. Both she and Bee walked to the elevator, and Bee couldn't help but chuckle to himself at the sight of the girl, almost hidden in the blanket, dragging the ends of it behind her. It was at that moment that he vowed that he would do everything in his power to keep her from ever being hurt again.
Thanks for reading and please review!
Please do not ship Bumblebee and Reese together. They have a sibling relationship and that is it. I have other plans for Reese as far as relationships go ;D
