Midas Touch
Chapter Seven
"Sam, is your brain glitching or something?" Ratchet asked acerbically once Bumblebee had finished singing to the Essence within Sam.
"Wh-what?" Sam asked in a slightly dazed tone of voice, then, in a voice more like his usual one: "What do you mean, Ratchet? I'm fine."
"In case your memory is failing, I shall remind you that you have just made a deal with something so advanced and unknown that even Cybertronian Sensitives, who have worked with it as far as our records ever went, still know very little about it. It's agenda may be very different to yours, yet you just agreed – albeit informally – that you will allow it to alter your body, when the way it was put was vague at best and potentially misleading at worst. If you were Cybertronian, I'd want to examine your processor coding for degradation!" Ratchet told Sam, training one of his fiercest scowls on the human.
"Now, hang on Ratchet, I did tell it that we had a deal 'pending deeper discussion.' Sam said.
"I told it that as long as it let me explain each and any thing it wanted to do to Sam, and he then agreed, that we would discuss it." Bumblebee said." It understands that it can't do a thing until I have explained to Sam what the Essence plans to do to him, and he has given me a yes or no answer. For example…" and Bumblebee looked directly at Sam.
"Sam, the Essence said this whole thing would be quicker and easier if you were to be altered, in its words, 'to the extent that you would become one of it's Sensitive children. The required empathy is present, but needs augmentation.' By that, I believe it is offering to turn you into a Cybertronian." Bumblebee said.
"Hey, hey, hey, wait a minute!" said Sam, raising both hands in front of him, fingers splayed. "Do we even know that that is possible?"
"Legends say that it has happened." Ratchet stated. "Legend stated that Primus made both organic and inorganic life, but inevitably, conflict broke out between the two kinds of life. When it became obvious that the inorganic was thriving, and organic life was dying out, Primus offered a few select intelligent organic life-forms the chance to convert to inorganic forms. Not all accepted, but for those who did, legend stated that Primus 'had them remade and placed into inorganic bodies'." Ratchet said. "One of those I worked with when I was Prime's representative to the High Council of Ancients claimed to be one of those select, but I never believed him, although he did seem old enough at times – and I mean that some of his arguments sounded glitch-ridden - to make it believable." Ratchet snorted.
"Uh – I think I'll pass on that one, at least for now." Sam said. "I know this body, I'm comfy with it, and I want to stick with it. When I become old and infirm, I may reconsider, but for now, I'll stay as I am. Also, if I get remade, bang goes hiding in a human, because I won't be human any more." Sam said. "When you talk to it again, ask it what the discreet changes it wants to make actually are."
After another speaking-session, Sam had his answers.
"The Essence has stated that none of the changes would be immediately obvious, and with some, only over a long period of time would the changes become apparent." Bumblebee explained, both to Sam and the listening medic.
"Well, that sounds okay so far, but what are these changes?" Sam asked.
"Yes, Sam, make sure you know what you might be getting yourself into." Ratchet said. Bumblebee nodded, and spoke again.
"For example, Sam, it can ensure, just by being within you, that you do not fall ill due to pathogenic organisms or parasites. It can detect them, and assist your immune system in eliminating them. It can discreetly speed up the healing of any injuries you might sustain in day-to-day life, and could probably ensure you survive some things that might often kill other humans, such as a lightning strike. It can help your body self-repair, and excrete toxins far more efficiently, leading to an extended life-span. It cannot prolong your life indefinitely, but when the time comes, can, as you suggested, put you into a Cybertronian body when your own is no longer able to be maintained – and the process should be monitored, of course, by a medic such as Ratchet." Bumblebee said, nodding his head towards the medic. He turned to face Ratchet.
"It understands your concerns, Ratch, but it says that as Sam is now its Vessel, it would not want to do anything to compromise his safety and comfort. It has agreed that Sam can take as long as he feels he needs to, and ask as many people as he deems necessary, before coming back with an answer, and that it will accept his answer whatever it may be. It will even change whatever it is able to if he changes his mind later, although there are some changes that cannot be reversed, but it will make it clear which ones these are before it initiates any that he has agreed to. For example, if Sam became a Cybertronian, he could not, if he changed his mind, go back to being organic. That is an irreversible change." Bumblebee explained.
"Okay, I guess I'm okay with that for the moment." Sam said. "As long as it does nothing noticeable and irreversible, and Ratch can keep an eye on it, I guess that's okay." He turned to the frowning Ratchet. "Look, I honestly don't think it'll hurt me, after all, I'm now its Vessel." he said. "It's the AllSpark Essence, it's good, beneficent, right?" he said.
"It's a force of unknown origin, of unknown limits of power, which has been of benefit to us, but may have it's own agenda that we don't know about, Sam. At the moment, for all we know, it may be prepared to do anything to survive." Ratchet said.
Sam sighed. "If that's the case, might it not be better to arrive at a compromise rather than risk forcing its hand? If it's as powerful as you suggest, then if it wanted to, it could just take over my body and use me, without thought for me. However, it is asking me, and it's communicating with me, asking for my input. At least this way, I get a say."
"I suppose so." said Ratchet. "I'm going to keep an optic on things though."
"You do that." said Sam. "Perhaps Bumblebee and I can ask it some questions that might give us an idea of how much power it has got."
"Okay." Ratchet said. "If you want me, I'll be finishing up on welding Jazz's body back together. I know I'll end up using him for spares, but I at least want to repair his body, even if he's not alive anymore. To not do so would seem to be a disservice."
Sam frowned as he walked away with Bumblebee. He began to think of some questions that he could ask the Essence to ascertain the limits – or otherwise – of its power.
oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo
"It told you what?" Sam said, his eyes growing wide.
"Jazz's Spark is still in the Essence. There is a period of time where a Spark returns to the Essence from which it came before going to either the Pit or the Matrix." Bumblebee said. "It said it can take our own consciousnesses, if we want, to search for Jazz's Spark, and we might be able to use it to channel Jazz's Spark back into his mended body."
"I knew it was powerful, but to turn back death?" Sam said.
"Not quite, Sam, it's just fortunate that there is this interlude before the Spark departs even beyond the Essence's reach."
"So, it's offering us a chance to get Jazz back?" Sam asked. "Then what are we waiting for?"
"I don't think Ratchet would like it." Bumblebee said.
"Then let's not tell him." Sam said, snuggling down into Bumblebee's hands. "He'd only stop us, and this is too good a chance to miss."
"Sam, the Essence said it might be dangerous." Bumblebee said.
"I'm willing to risk it if you are, and if it means we have a chance to get Jazz back." Sam said. "No sacrifice, no victory. So, are we gonna try this, or not?" Sam asked his yellow friend.
Bumblebee blinked twice, than started to sing.
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Ratchet finished welding together Jazz's body, and ran a critical optic over it. He was pleased to note that the welds didn't show. Jazz's body was as good as new. He sighed: if only they had the Spark to go in it. It was as if he were in shutdown, and that the right touch would wake the small silver 'bot, as if he was about to unshutter his optics and ask Ratchet where that slagger Megatron had gone.
He sighed. He had to pull himself out of his melancholy mood, and decided to see what Sam and Bumblebee had found out from the Essence. He was still uneasy about the symbiosis the Essence was suggesting to Sam, but Sam did have a point: at least it was asking, not just taking.
Ratchet knocked on the room he'd seen them heading for. He frowned when he got no response, knocked again to announce his presence, and then opened the door and went in.
He knew something was wrong the moment he saw the Autobot and boy at the far end of the room. Sam was curled up in Bumblebee's cupped hands, pale, breathing very shallowly and very slowly. Bumblebee had locked his joints, and his optics, although still lit, were very dim.
Ratchet immediately initiated a scan on both of them. Sam's heart rate as well as his breathing, had slowed right down, and it seemed the autonomic actions were just enough to keep his body alive. Although Sam had brain function, all of his brain waves were at minimum, except for the delta waves, the ones associated with sleep and dreaming. However, Sam was not asleep, or dreaming, as far as Ratchet could tell: even these were not operating at full strength, they seemed suppressed or diverted.
Ratchet searched for brain scan results similar to those that Sam was exhibiting, and was disturbed when his Internet search only turned up two matches: those of dying humans, or those who had seemed to die and had come back, a phenomenon sometimes described as 'near-death experiences.'
He checked Bumblebee, and the results were just as worrying: optics fixed and unmoving, Spark almost dormant, processor functions at a level that suggested imminent catastrophic function failure, but too stable to be that far gone. Nothing he could think of could account for this except, possibly, something the Essence had done.
Ratchet sat down and prepared to wait. Sam and Bumblebee's consciousnesses were quite clearly not with their bodies and processors, that much was clear to Ratchet, although he had no clue as to where they were.
He would just have to hope that the Essence would bring them back safe and well.
