~Chapter 10

Her eyes lingered on the rusted body of one of Ratchet's fallen comrades. Parts were still visible underneath the rusty veil. Tearing her eyes away from the container back to the holoform before her. As she spoke, her voice was barely audible.

"Wh-What happened?"

Ratchet's blue orbs didn't meet her gaze as he continued to look into the container. From where she was situated she saw his jaw clench, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the lid tightly. Painful memories being brought to the forefront of his processor; "Sentinel Prime infected him with something called rust sickness."

'Prime..?' She paused, gathering her thoughts before asking; "But wasn't he an Autobot?"

Ratchet sighed, "He was, but he betrayed us by making a deal with Megatron; which ended up in his own destruction." His eyes shut, a soft sigh escaping his lips. Allison knew that they were sentient beings, but never, had she ever seen them show so much emotion. She felt her own heart breaking as she listened to him speak. Then and there she knew what she had to do.

"I'll help. Whatever you may want or need I will do whatever I can to help." Her sincere words warmed Ratchet's spark. He was secretly hoping that she would agreed to his request.

He nodded, a relieved smile spreading across his face. "I really do appreciate that, doctor." He paused, thinking. "Would there happen to be an android that would have to be transferred down here for the scientists at this facility to see?"

She nodded, "Yes. It was mandatory." Her brows furrowed in confusion at his random question.

"Good, we will need to have it transferred to Med Bay immediately."

"How come?"

Instead of answering he turned, deactivating the holoform, the sounds of shifting metal could be heard in the room over. The girl who she was told was named Riley rolled her eyes and sighed loudly. And from where Allison was standing, this was wasting her precious time. Having the urge to smack her upside the head was becoming more hard for her to control as she walked passed the girl and looked up to the Chief Medical Officer. His optics dimmed slightly as he set his hand down to the floor, urging her to climb on, reluctantly, she did, closing her eyes as she felt herself being lifted.

She wouldn't admit it, but she was terrified of heights. After almost falling out of a carnival ride when she was a child she had been scared ever since. Even though she knew that she was safe sitting on Ratchet's hand she couldn't help but having those memories fill her mind. Forcing herself to not pay attention to the height she was currently at and looked up to Ratchet's face when she felt an unfamiliar tingle running throughout her body.

"You do not like being up this high." It was more of a statement than a question. She gave a nervous laugh.

"Uh...no. I don't."

"Do you want me to place you back to your level?"

Giving him a timid smile she shook her head. "No, I'm fine. Thanks for asking though."

A few seconds after somewhat getting used to being up so high, she took a deep breath, gripped onto one of the ridges in his fingers and peered over the edge. Her breath catching as she noticed how high they were. Her thoughts were cut short when they entered a darkened room, except for a bluish light pulsing every few seconds.

As they entered she heard Ratchet's intake valve hitch a bit, and as he spoke his voice sounded heartbroken. "What you see here is Ironhide's weakened spark. The electrical current being sent to the spark is keeping it alight. Just barely." She looked up at him, noticing that he blue orbs were bright and fixated on her. "This is why I had asked you for your assistance. After your lecture I knew what I had to do; transfer Ironhide's spark to the android. It will be a protective casing and it would provide Ironhide a life again as his spark strengthens in time. Random: What do you know of the spark, Allison?"

She shrugged. "Not a whole hell of a lot. I do know it acts as your 'heart'."

"In human terms yes it is. A spark is also what you humans consider the very soul of a Cybertronian. When we are off-lined in battled, our spark is carried to the Well-Of-The-AllSparks."

"Just like human souls...though it hasn't been proven...we just think our soul leaves the body and is carried to Heaven."

"Just like that."

She nodded, understanding the concept in which all Cybertronian's believed in. Leaning in closer to the spark; a beautiful ball of light, currents of light blue, white and a hint of yellow danced together as they are absorbed into the spark. She had to admit it was mesmerizing to see.

"When Ironhide's spark becomes stronger it can be placed into one of our bigger shells."

"How long would that take?" She asked, not taking her eyes off of the ball of light.

"It depends. His body had sustained irreversible damage, the shock and drain of energon to the spark has weakened it considerably. It may take vorns for it to fully recover from it."

"When do you need the android?"

"As soon as it possibly can be transferred from your facility to Med Bay."

She turned, smiling a big smile up at him. "Well, today is your lucky day!" Without another word she grabbed her phone, turning her back from the medic as she dialed. "Hi, this is Dr. Allison Spencer. Head Researcher at the N.E.S.T. facility in London, England. Reference number 22124. I need to have the android that was brought to Headquarters in DC be transferred to Med Bay, immediately."

A voice on the other end spoke before Allison spoke yet again, her voice was sharp, and authoritative. "You best be getting it fixed." She cursed. "I really don't care who brings it down, do it. That is an order." A pause, "Good." Hanging up her phone she shook her head, rolling her eyes. "For a bunch of military personnel and highly educated beings they are incredibly childish at times."

A smirk played on his metallic face. "I know what you mean."

"The android had gotten slightly damaged as they took it off of the plane. Apparently they didn't read 'FRAGILE' on the box. It's not major damage; however, so it should take at least a couple hours before it arrives."

"I appreciate what you're doing for us, doctor."

"No problem."

~~~xXxXx~~~

A couple of hours had passed, during that time Allison and Riley had finally gotten out of their hardened shells and spoke about anything that came to mind. Allison admitted that she felt guilty for thinking about hitting her earlier. Riley had amazing ideas for things that meant the most to her, she even considered about applying to Harvard to get a degree in Political Science and Technical Engineering Science. Allison had even offered for her to become her assistant after getting her degrees from the prestigious university. Riley had eagerly agreed.

Their conversation was cut short when the android was finally brought in on a stretcher. Ratchet transformed, activating his holoform as both Riley and Allison got into their protective gear. Thanking the soldiers for bringing it down, they immediately rolled the android to the room where the spark was kept. As Ratchet prepared for the transfer of the spark, both human females took to doing the systems check of the android, making sure that the electrodes were placed exactly on the right spots as what was shown previously on the slides.

Minutes passed before everything was all set. Ratchet held a small disk in his hand. Riley nodded to it. "What is that, doc?"

"Ironhide's up-to-date memory processor. I had forgotten that he had decided to have his CPU streamlines to the Autobot System Management. Everything up to his memories of Sentinel's betrayal has been stored." Placing the disk to the back of the android's head he looked at the girls. "Ready?"

Putting their eye goggles on they indicated that they were indeed ready. Ratchet told them to clear the body as his bipedal mode transferred the spark carefully into the make-shift spark chamber that was created. It was a tight squeeze but fit in their right. he nodded his holoform's head to Allison, indicating for her to start the energon drip.

Tension was high as their was nothing at first, but with a bit of tinkering, the breath that everyone was holding was let out in woosh of air. A steady beeping; a heart/spark monitor indicated that the spark was indeed thriving. Slowly but surely. They watched as the energon seeped into the clear tubes connecting to the spark, it seemed to have glowed slightly brighter.

Allison smiled behind her mask. "He's a fighter."

"Tell me about it." Ratchet began closing up the chest plates, attaching the skin colored silicon back onto the plating. He sat back. "Now we wait."

They didn't know how long the three of them had waited. They had a couple instances where the spark seemed to be in distress, but as soon as Ratchet got remotely close to the android it would go back to normal. Eventually, it stopped freaking out, and the beeping increased steadily. Allison yawned, glancing over at the chair that Riley had somehow managed to curl up on, sleeping soundly.

Allison grimaced. "I wonder how she can sleep like that without falling off."

"You'd be surprised."

She turned. "She does it often, I take it?"

"More times than not." He looked to her. "You have done quite a bit of work, Allison. Maybe you should get some recharge as well."

"What about you?"

"My systems can be alert for at least a few earth weeks before I need to recharge. Do not worry about me." And before Allison could protest he added. "Don't make me get a sedative for you to sleep."

She gawked at him.

"By Primus human, I do mean what I say."

"Yes grouch." She murmured, situating herself in a way that she could be comfortable. As much as she could on a love seat. She never realized how exhausted she was until she closed her eyes, drifting off into a dreamless state.

What only seemed like minutes was actually a couple hours as yelling startled her awake. Painful yelling, shooting up from her awkward position her grogginess quickly dissipated as she looked to where the commotion was. Her eyes widening.

Both she and Riley quickly got to Ratchet's Aid. Allison gasped when she saw that the androids eyes were not hazel like what it was earlier, instead it was overrun by a vibrant color of blue. It was beautiful. However, his gaze was awfully deadly. Ironhide narrowed his gaze. "Let me up. Before I shoot."

Allison couldn't help but smirk. "If you had a gun maybe."

Ironhide's gaze hardened even more and he grumbled, but settled back down. His gaze turned to Ratchet. "What happened?"

"You don't remember?"

"...Not exactly..." He paused. "Bits and pieces, pain, anger, then blackness."

Allison nodded, "Don't worry, you will get your memories in due time." She glanced up at Ratchet with a worried gaze. "However, I don't think that's a particular memory you would necessarily want..."

Ironhide's hardened gaze turned confused. "What in the name of Primus are you talking about?"

"Uhm, let's wait until you recover a bit more before we tell you anything."

"Fine."

Ratchet turned to Allison and with a quiet voice he said. "Thank you, doctor. For everything." He smiled. "Both you and Riley must be exhausted, go to one of the beds out in Med Bay area and sleep. I will see to this bag of bolts."

This time they had no complaints. Allison turned, yawned, walked to the door and then paused. Without turning she smiled. "Hey Ironhide?"

"Yeah?"

"Welcome back."