Chapter 10 – Hello Darkness, my Old Friend
When the call came in, he felt as if the earth had cracked open beneath his feet and swallowed him whole. Connor staggered backwards and fumbled with his hand to find a stabilizing point before sinking against the couch. His mother rushed to his side and sat down quietly, wide eyes asking a million questions to which she knew he had no answers.
"Yes, thank you Sir" he mumbled and slowly lowered the phone away from his ear. "They found her"
"Who? Where is she ?" asked the woman with both hands no placed firmly over her son's.
"Military has her. The Autobots found her." He whispered and looked at his mother with tears in his eyes "She is alive. She is fine. A car will come and pick me up in the morning" he added. " I need to pack"
"Where am I ?" was the first think that ran through her mind. Instinctively her hands reached over the large metal palm that was holding her down and she looked at Ironhide with big questioning eyes. She knew him, she remembered him. And there was Optimus, and Ratchet, and ofcourse the Major who was talking, but she really could not hear him. The weight of Ironhide's palm was enough to keep her calm in a strangely comforting manner, but she wanted to get away so badly. There were metal restraints across her body, and suddenly she heard them hissing as they clanked unlocked and slid under the table. Ironhide slowly lifted his hand and took a step back, while Optimus walked closer and gave him a brief nod.
As soon as she felt the weight lifted off of her, and the ability to move her arms and legs, Vanessa literally jumped off the table to her left side and slid right between Optimus and Ratchet. And then it hit her. She looked down at her naked body, eyes wide with shock and anger that she would be left like that. One quick glance was cast towards Lennox who pointed to a cabinet.
"Robes are in there" he said and then looked up at Optimus and Ratchet "Should I worry now ?"
Vanessa lounged forward and grabbed the blanket that was dangling off the side of the bed and pulled it to her body, somewhat covering herself up. Quickly she made her way to the cabinet, but before her hand could reach for the handle, the woman froze in place. Her fingers released the blanket and it crumbled in a soft pile at her feet. Slowly she stepped forward, her head tilting to the side at her reflection in the 2 way mirror. Hands traveled up her naked form, slowly inspecting the bullet holes which were now perfectly repaired with metal, as well as scrapes, scratches, tears in her skin over her stomach, under her breasts and down her thighs. In the reflection, she could see Optimus and Ratchet stepping closer to her, but her mind was simply not registering it all. She felt short of breath, dizzy, and the room was spinning with her. Her words were silent, and her screams were raging inside her mind, but nothing would come out. She fell to her knees, hands flat on the floor holding herself up and fought the need to through up. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Lennox rush to come to her, but one hand pointed at him stopped the man in his tracks. Vanessa shook her head and brought her right hand to her mouth, slid it up her face and then through her hair. A few deep breaths went in and out, and she stumbled back to her feet. Her naked body turned to face them, eyes moving from one autobot to the other, and then to Lennox.
"What happened to me?" asked Vanessa and about gave herself a heart attack. That was not her voice! Hands quickly shot to her throat and to cover her lips. "Why? Major?" she continued "Optimus?! "
"Listen, you've been through some pretty wild shit Ma'am" Lennox stated while stepping past her to the cabinet and pulling out a robe "Here, put this on" he added and handed her the piece of clothing.
She slipped it on and tied it around her waist, then picked up the blanket and wrapped it around herself as well. Ironhide took a step back and remained silent, watching them intently. Ratchet walked up to her and motioned for the monitors behind her " Here take a look"
"You are quite the interesting young female" Ratchet stated as images of her body scans started flickering onto the screen. " What is the last thing you remember?" he then tilted his helm at her "Do not worry about the voice… eventually you will get used to it"
"I…I remember dying" she whispered, with that soft metallic tingle to her tone. "I remember Chicago…You.." she pointed at Optimus "Were chasing Megatron with that one kid, the hell was his name.. .. something…and the Cube… yes" her hands went up to her head and dug through her hair. "I remember coming around a corner trying to cross the street and get back to the scrambler that we had deployed…and then I flew…I couldn't hear anything, couldn't see anything" she sighed and looked up at the screen "Well, and then I woke up here, tied with metal straps to a metal table, naked, with implants…"
Lennox shook his head. He knew this was not going to end well in any shape or form. Apparently her Fiance was going to be enroute come morning, so at the earliest, she would have to put up with that mess mid day tomorrow. Something told him that she may not be as happy to see other humans as they thought she would.
Vanessa stepped closer to the screens and then started running her fingers over the keyboard. Optimus watched intently. She was rested, she was fully recovered and ready to go and her mind had just woken up from a very, very long sleep. A good 7 months had passed since she slipped into the coma, a time during which her health was impeccable, and safe for the little escapade from a few days ago which required her rebuild, she would have been perfectly ok.
"Circuits, metal, metal, stomach, head, bone tissue… Ratchet… what in the actual Fuck did you do to me?" she asked him and looked up at the massive Medical Officer.
"Actually you did that to you" he started.
Over the next few hours they spent the time going over the events of the last few days. Ratchet explained everything that had happened to her body, from the escape and the attack of the thugs, to the need to rebuild herself. He showed her the charts, the dna coding and the change in the genome. Xrays of her body showed her the shard fragment inside her heart, completely surrounded by tissue and thoroughly embedded. He helped her understand how she can't remember anything because the Spark inside her had taken over, but he carefully left out the melding and Ironhide. Through all this, she kept looking at the Weapon's Officer as if something was calling her to him. At a point in time, she needed to address that nagging feeling of emptiness. But not now. No one really kept track of time. Lennox eventually excused himself to get some rest, and briefly informed her that her fiancé will be coming here tomorrow. Vanessa did not have enough time to register that, and she filed it in the back of her mind, along with all the other information that was pouring in at the time.
"Ok, so assuming this is a viable solution" she started
"It is" Optimus interjected
"Ok fine… since this IS the viable solution for me, and I am now, 25% transformium…what the hell does this make me. What am I?" the woman asked.
"A potential Pr'ahme…" Ironhide almost whispered from the back of the room.
Vanessa looked at him shocked. She walked past all the others and straight to him. The autobot backed away a few steps, but inadvertently hit the wall and was stuck there. He sighed, the warm air venting from his body. She didn't have to ask him to do it… he went down on one knee and lowered himself to her as best as he could. Her small fragile hand reached up to him and she touched a piece off of his metal. Her sharp gasp filled the room instantly. Before her eyes images flew by. Sun, canyon, the storm, autobots in primal form running, an embrace, no faces, and then the fall off the ledge. Startled she pulled away from him, her mind racing as she didn't understand what happened. She pulled her hand to her chest and gathered the blanket around her even more.
"I'm sorry… didn't mean to" she started, but the massive robot already was on his feet walking away quickly. She felt horrible. "I didn't… I don't know…" she crumbled to a pile on the floor without strength to take any more of it in.
Ratchet wanted to come to her, but Prime motioned for him to remain put. She could hear him walking towards her, and could feel the vibrations in the metallic floor. He bent over and scooped her up with both palms, as if he was dipping his servos in a bowl of water. Vanessa was sobbing ever so lightly.
"The hell have I done…" she asked him while curling up in his hand like a child.
"There is much to learn about this little one. And I will teach you.." Prime whispered to her. He lifted his servos to his face-plates and looked straight at her "But for tonight, you need to rest…tomorrow…we will begin our work."
Vanessa nodded through tear filled eyes and tried to wipe her face clean. Optimus carried her outside the medical hangar and started to make his way over to the barracks when she about jumped out of his hands. "ugh calm down sparkling!" he said and tightened his grip a bit to hold her down. "What has gotten into you? Crazy human!"
"I need to talk to him!" she called out and pointed at Ironhide. "Ironhide!" she called at him.
The Autobot turned to look at her but didn't make his way over until Optimus nodded in approval. Without rushing, he moved towards them and held out his servo. Optimus did the same and she scrambled over from one mech to the other, then curled up against the metal palm as soon as Ironhide snorted a bit and brought his other servo alongside to make more room. " Ah'll never hear the end 'f this …" he told Optimus. The Prime seemed to smile as he tapped the shoulder of the other "Maybe it is just your personality that makes Primes and Sparklings attracted to you"
Ironhide grunted a bit and wanted to say more, but as he looked in the palms of his servos, he realized she had passed out. Not because she was sick, but because she was exhausted. A feeling of absolute peace washed over him, and his pleading optics focused on Optimus. He had no idea what to do, or why he felt like this.
"Take her to the barracks and have the doctors find her an area large enough for us to be in with her. " he turned to leave and then stopped, half turning his helm towards Ironhide "And yes, you should stay with her tonight…"