A Medic's Last Hope

Ch. 7: Back at Base

Sethblackwolf

A/N: Don't own. I hope Sunstreaker's and Sideswipe's argument is easy enough to understand. I forgot who's the head Science Officer. I'm just going to say Perceptor.

Autobot Base -

Optimus sighed as Sunstreaker and Sideswipe burst into his emergency meeting with his officers. Prowl stood up quickly.

"Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, this is a private meeting between Prime and his officers. Leave now before you're thrown in the brig!" Sunstreaker flipped him off before turning to the Prime.

"Prime, with all due respect…" There was a snort of laughter somewhere behind him. "…Sideswipe and I want to know what in the Pit happened with Ratchet and neither of us are leaving until we do." Most of the mechs in attendance gasped at the audacity the frontliners showed. Sideswipe stepped up.

"Throwing us in the brig won't do anything but delay us and besides, with what happened you can't afford to put any mech on the sidelines. You can't just keep this to the higher ups." Prowl snapped back into focus.

"What is it that you suppose we do? Open up this meeting to everyone and have a riot on our hands made up of every mech who wants revenge on Ratchet?" Sunstreaker turned to the SIC.

"No but if us lower level grunts know nothing of what's going on then there will be a riot, too many mechs saw what happened and won't like being in the dark. This shouldn't be kept to the 'need to know' personel, you of all mechs should know that. Didn't one of your sons pay the price the last time you adhered to that mindset in a big situation like this?" Deadly silence followed that statement. Then suddenly the room erupted into noise as Prowl leapt over the table and threw himself at the yellow frontliner.

"You fragging, pit-spawn creation of a pleasure drone! Don't you ever bring him into this again!" The tactician spat as he furiously punched Sunstreaker. Optimus and Sideswipe jumped up to separate the two. It took Optimus bodily picking up Prowl to succeed; even then he only calmed down when Jazz wrapped his arms around him and brought their foreheads together. The TIC turned to the twins, his visor a low glow.

"That was a low blow Sunstreaker." For once Sunstreaker looked ashamed, bringing up that painful past not only hurt Prowl but Jazz as well. Carriers always took the loss of a sparkling hard. Most of the time harder than the Sire although, if Prowl's reaction was anything to go by, Sires felt the pain more than anyone knew.

"Jazz, I'm so so-" Jazz cut him off and turned back to his mate.

"But you have a point." He never took his visor off of Prowl as he spoke through their sparkbound.

: He's right Prowl.: Anger flowed through the bond.

: I don't care! He shouldn't of brought, brought… him into this: This time there was sadness from Jazz.

: After all this time, it still hurts you to much to say his name. Do you still feel guilty for what happened?:

: How can I not? I should of known what they were doing to him.:

: How could you have known? They didn't…:

:He managed to contact me before the… before everything went to the Pit.:

:WHAT?: Jazz wanted to scream, to shout, but the overwhelming guilt coming from his bondmate bade him to keep his silence.

:I wouldn't listen. I told him there were just some things he just had to deal with and to hold out until everything was done. I didn't know that-: Jazz cut him off.

:That a very fragged up group of council members forced him into kill or be killed situations where he only 'passed' when he killed every other student set up against him?: Jazz forced himself away from his bondmate to the surprise of everyone. The saboteur was so enraged that he brought their fight out into the open.

"You didn't even care did ya? Is that the real reason you can't say his name? You didn't want your illustrious reputation ruined-!" Slap! The meeting was just full of surprises as everyone tried to understand that Prowl just smacked his mate. The voice that came out of the tactician was cold, collected, and ruthless.

"How dare you to say that I didn't love our youngest, out of all our children I loved him the most. There's not a day that goes by that I don't regret what happened and how I got to the 'school' too late." There was a subtle cough and Optimus spoke.

"I know that that's a serious memory for you but perhaps we should get back at the matter at hand. Prowl, I think it's a good idea to let Sunstreaker and Sideswipe into the meeting. After all, they were the ones who had the most interaction with Ratchet during the party, especially Sunstreaker." At that he turned to the yellow twin. "What happened Sunstreaker?" The frontliner shrugged his shoulders.

"Nothing happened, one moment Ratchet and I were dancing and in the next Wheeljack punched Ratchet. The rest you and everyone else knows." Next, Sideswipe spoke up.

"Didn't you sense anything? You and I can both tell when Ratchet is about to go off the handle." There was a sarcastic snort from Sunstreaker.

"This wasn't Ratchet going off the handle. This… this was like Ratchet died and someone else is using his body. Whatever that was… it wasn't Ratchet." A shudder came over the golden twin. "For the first time in a long while I was actually afraid of someone." Sideswipe nodded.

"I think everyone was afraid of Ratchet. He tore into Ironhide like we…"

"…tear into Decepticons…" Optimus gave a start.

"What are you talking about Sunstreaker? You think Ratchet, for some reason thought that Ironhide, his best friend next to Wheeljack, was a Decepticon?" Sunstreaker shook his head.

"No but he definitely didn't see him as a friend." A pensive looked crossed his face. He glanced at Jazz. "He seemed to recognize you though, and he called himself Chop-"

"Chop Shop." Jazz nodded. "When I was under deep cover in the Decepticons their CMO was him."

"When were you in deep cover?"

"It was before you two joined the Ark and before… Runner was born. Anyway, Chop Shop looked a lot like Ratchet."

"And you didn't think to bring that up when he applied for the position of Chief Medical Officer?" Red Alert screeched.

"Don't tell me how to do my job Red Alert. He went through a through hack and nothing was out of the ordinary." Perceptor spoke up.

"What about his spark?" All of the other mechs looked at him. Optimus's optics faded as he scanned his memory banks.

"According to our previous CMO there were unusual scarring on his spark." Everyone gasped, scarring on ones spark put the poor mech in constant agony and was often unfixable.

"Unusual?" Optimus vented.

"It seemed dripping with-"

"A dark purple liquid that seemed to make the examiner feel both sick and envigorated at the same time? I don't suppose that the CMO had to do almost a complete overhaul of his systems due to destroyed tubing?" The leader leaned forwards.

"How did you know that? I didn't think you read other mechs' medical files.

"I don't really, I just think I know what we're really dealing with."

"What are we dealing with Perceptor?" Just then Skyfire barged in.

"Forgive me Optimus Prime but I felt that Perceptor had to see this." He held up a vial full of a dark purple substance. "Hound and Trailbraker found it while following Ratchet's tracks. Hound touched it and started to act weird."

"Weird?" The shuttle nodded.

"Yes, according to Trailbreaker he started to sway a bit before turning and attacking him."

"Hound attacked Trailbreaker?" Jazz could believe it.

"During the fight Trailbreaker noticed that Hound had a lot more strength than normal, managing to pick him up with one arm and throw him. Thankfully whatever got into him didn't last. He collapsed and is in the med bay under supervision." Perceptor thanked him before taking the vial and dismissing him. The microscope held the vial to his optics, twisting it this way and that way, a disturbed look on his face.

"I knew it."

"Perceptor, what is it?" Optimus asked. Without taking his optics off the substance Perceptor answered.

"The answer to what's wrong with Ratchet. Dark Energon…"