Please Note: I do not own Transformers. I do, however, have my own OC, Reese Shields.
Chapter 10
The events of this chapter correspond to the episode "One Shall Fall"
Optimus called all of the autobots to a meeting, including Reese. She was the most recent addition to the autobot team. While she might not have a cybertronian form, she was still an autobot at heart, and had proven herself capable of protecting herself and those around her.
"I'm sure you have all noticed the strange phenomena that have befallen this planet as of late. There have been lots of minor earthquakes taking place all over the globe. I do believe that it is due to the planetary alignment and the prophecy of the coming darkness. The doomsday prophesy says that when the 40 stars align a war will break out on a world forged from chaos and the weak shall perish." Optimus recounted the prophecy to the autobots.
"How long do we have until the planetary alignment is complete?" Arcee questioned.
"A few day at most" Ratchet said as he turned from the astronomical data that was displayed on the monitor. A murmur went through the group as they began to realize the severity of the situation at hand.
"As unsettling as this revelation may be," Optimus interrupted the murmurs, "I am more concerned about those who would believe that the prophesy speaks to them alone." Everybody knew he was referring to Megatron.
"Do we know what will happen when this darkness awakens? I mean we know it says that the weak will perish, but does it say anything else about what we can expect?" Reese piped up. She had been quiet, listening to the prophesy without interrupting, but now she was wanted to voice her own concerns.
"Unfortunately, the prophesy does not say anything else about what will be to come. We must hope for the best and prepare for the worst." Optimus replied gently. He could see the fear and uncertainty in Reese's eyes, but he also knew that she was strong enough to handle the truth.
Later that afternoon, once the children arrived at base, Jack, Miko, Raf, and Reese squeezed together on the sofa to look through conspiracy websites. Bumblebee had a habit of showing up on them quite frequently. Sure enough, after just a few minutes of searching, Raf came across a picture of Bumblebee. Ratchet heard them talking about it and looked up from what he was doing.
"Did you say that you found a picture of Bumblebee on the Internet?" He looked over questioningly at the group huddled up on the sofa.
"Yea, on a conspiracy website where people post articles about alien sightings, but don't worry, we will just scrub the pic and replace it with something much less incriminating," Raf said as he replaced the pic of Bumblebee with a talking cat.
Ratchet looked at the clip of the talking cat and let out a short laugh. He quickly stopped himself though and turned back to the computer. The four young people exchanged shocked expressions before turning back to Ratchet.
"Ratchet, in all the time that I have been here, that is the first time I have actually heard you laugh!" Reese had a hard time containing her own laughter; the situation was just so bizarre.
Jack instantly tried to see if it would work on anybody else in the base. The only other autobot nearby was Optimus, so Jack tried to show it to him.
"Hey Optimus, you want to see something funny?" Jack asked the autobot leader.
"No," was all Optimus said; he didn't even turn away from the computer monitor he was intently studying. Arcee and Bulkhead came in just in time to hear the response. They both said something to the extent of Primes don't laugh or really show any kind of emotion in general.
"Well, I have known Optimus much longer than the rest of you, and I can say that he was much different before he became a prime. On Cybertron, one isn't born into greatness as some would believe, but it must be earned. Before Optimus became a Prime, he was actually a lot like Jack." Ratchet recalled.
"Like me?! I… I'm nothing like Optimus," Jack stammered. Before anybody could respond, though, a call came in over the comm. link. Agent Fowler informed the autobots that the decepticons had been stealing a multitude of different high level weapons. At first, the military had thought it was MECH, but their security feeds were able to capture a video of Soundwave stealing from one of the military bases. Fowler also sent over a list of all the items that had been stolen by the decepticons.
"A plasma injector, neutron shield, teseract, they almost have everything they need to build a new space bridge!" Ratchet exclaimed. "All they need is an ample power source and they will have a fully functioning space bridge!"
"Well, I will keep you updated and let you know if we spot anymore decepticon activity," Agent fowler said just before closing the comm. link.
A few hours later, Agent Folwer called the base again. "The decpeticons really went big this time! They just hit a US military lab. Our boys in green will hold them off until you can get there," Agent Folwer informed the autobots.
"Agent Fowler, I fear that Megatron has reached his highest point of desperation and you know that I cannot condone even one human casualty." Optimus Prime held firm in his decision. He would help, but all of the soldiers needed to be evacuated immediately. Agent Fowler knew there was no use in arguing with the autobot leader and so he ordered an immediate evacuation of the military base.
"Alright Prime, the base is clear, it's your turn now!" Fowler notified Prime and then hung up. Prime, Arcee, and Bulkhead took their cue and bridged directly to the lab. Bumblebee would be notified and meet up with them there.
"Hey Bee, thanks for letting me come with you and Raf to go racing," Reese said from behind the wheel of Bumblebee's alt mode. She had convinced Bee to let her drive based on the account that he had ended up on too many conspiracy websites as a self driving car.
"No problem, but I think it was more like you roped me into letting you come," Bee said with a hint of laughter in his artificial voice. His attention was quickly diverted, though, when a call came in from Ratchet.
"Bumblebee, there has been a decepticon disturbance at a military base and the team needs backup! Let Raf and Reese off at the junction up ahead; I will bridge them back to base so that you can head directly to the scene," Ratchet ordered over the comm.
"Welp, looks like the joy ride is going to be cut short." Bumblebee sounded pretty disappointed.
"Hey its fine Bee, we can go racing another time!" Raf insured Bumblebee from the backseat.
Bumlebee was preparing to stop and let Raf and Reese get out when all of the sudden, Megatron appeared out of nowhere and began shooting. Bumblebee took control of the wheel and swerved to try and avoid the cannon fire, but the shots were just coming so fast. One of the shots hit Bumblebee, causing him to spin out of control. When he finally got himself reoriented he checked his passengers. To his dismay he saw Reese slumped over the steering wheel and Raf unconscious in the backseat.
"No, no, no, no, no, this can't be happening," he thought to himself. He honked the horn, trying to get either of them to stir. After a few seconds, Reese groaned and raised a hand to her head. There was a deep gash in her forehead and it was leaking a mixture of energon and plasma.
"Bee, what happened?" She asked groggily, wincing in pain as Bumblebee accelerated and began driving away from where they had been attacked as quickly as he could. "Bee, what's going on?"
Bee could tell Reese was doing everything she could to keep from panicking but he could still hear the panic in her voice.
"We were attacked by Megatron; I think Raf is badly hurt." Bee whirred with panic in his voice as well. He continued driving until he reached the coordinates that Ratchet had given him. He transformed, holding Raf in one servo and Reese in the other. Gently he transferred Reese on his shoulder plating, and cradled Rafael in his servos. She was okay other than the gash on her forehead. Rafael, on the other hand, was badly injured and still unconscious. He walked into the perimeter of the military base to find the rest of the autobots standing face to face with Megatron.
"Optimus I need help!" Bee beeped urgently. All of the autobots turned around and their sparks instantly dropped at the scene that was right before them. There was Bumblebee, holding an unconscious Rafael in his hands, and with a wounded Reese precariously perched on his shoulder plating.
"Bumblebee, what happened?" Optimus questioned sternly.
"Aha, so it seems I've swatted a bee and squashed a couple of bugs," Megatron sneered before Bumblebee could answer Optimus' question. Bumblebee, who had handed Rafael to Arcee, activated his blaster and jumped forward to attack Megatron, forgetting that Reese was still sitting on his shoulder plating. She lost her balance and fell from her perch. Luckily, Bulkhead caught her in his servo just before she hit the ground, and he grabbed Bumblebee with the other to hold him back. Optimus looked from the injured humans to Megatron and back with anger in his optics.
"Ratchet we need a ground bridge back to base… Now!," Optimus comm'ed the base. Within a matter of seconds a ground bridge opened up behind them. "Arcee, attend to Rafael, Reese, and Bumblebee," Optimus ordered. Bulkhead set Reese down and stepped up beside Optimus. Reese, Arcee, Bumblebee, and Raf, when through the ground bridge, leaving Bulkhead and Optimus to stay behind and deal with Megatron.
Ratchet, Miko, and Jack were intently waiting on the other side of the ground bridge when Reese, Bumblebee, and Arcee came through. Raf lay still in Arcee's arms.
"What happened!?" Ratchet exclaimed in horror when he saw his unconscious young friend.
"Megatron happened," Arcee spat in reply. Saying the tyrant's name made her want to purge right there. Ratchet took Rafael and laid him on a gurney in the med bay. He quickly hooked the boy up to some vital monitoring systems, but there was nothing he could do because all he had were Cybertronian tools. Jack, realizing that the situation was going to require a level of human expertise, called him mom and told her to come as quickly as possible. Ratchet kicked himself for not learning more about human anatomy. All this time he had spent with the humans, but he had taken no time to learn anything about them.
Once Ratchet had gotten Rafael as stable as possible, he turned to assess Reese's wounds while they waited for Nurse Darby arrive.
"Don't worry about me, Ratchet; it's just a scratch." Reese tried to assure Ratchet that she was fine. "Rafael needs all the attention right now. This is a wound that I can manage on my own. I know where a first aid kit is; I will be fine." She knew that the wound was not that bad, it would just leave her with a pretty bad headache for the next few days.
"Well, okay, but please come to me if you have any problems," Ratchet said as he turned back to Rafael, albeit a bit reluctantly. He hated not knowing what to do, or how to help. Thankfully, Nurse Darby arrived in just a matter of minutes. She quickly took charge of the situation, checking all of Rafael's vitals.
Bumblebee was not handling the situation well. He punched the wall out of anger and frustration that he couldn't help. He couldn't look at Rafael without blaming himself. He walked away for a minute to try and get his emotions back in check. He walked over to Reese, who was delicately trying to apply a bandage to the wound she had just cleaned. Her cybernetic hands were shaking, though, and she was having a hard time applying the bandage. Bumblebee knew that this was something he could help with. He activated his holoform and took the bandage from Reese's shaking metal hands.
His holoform was pretty new. He and the rest of the team had obtained them after Optimus said that it would help them be better robots in disguise. With all the pictures of Bumblebee floating around the internet, heaven knew he needed one most of all. He was tall, standing about 6'3". He had jet black hair and a kind face. He wore a yellow varsity jacket over a black t-shirt, a black pair of jeans with a yellow stripe down the outer leg seam, and a pair of black and yellow checkered Vans.
Carefully he applied the adhesive bandage over the deep cut on Reese's forehead. She winced slightly but quickly regained her strong composure. She looked up into Bumblebee's face and her own heart broke to see his spark so broken.
"Bumblebee, it's not your fault. You can't blame yourself for what happened. It was all Megatron's fault. Now, we both know that Rafael doesn't need you to be having a pity party right now. He needs you to be strong, to help him be strong. Don't you understand?" Reese placed her hand comfortingly on Bumblebee's shoulder. He just sat there with his head down, but after a few minutes he looked up into Reese's eyes and nodded his head. He couldn't bring himself to say anything for fear that he would lose it completely, but he didn't need to say anything for Reese to understand. She sat there being a silent companion, just like he had been for her when she was depressed. He didn't know what he would do without his new "sister". She was teaching him to forgive, and to be strong.
"We need to get Rafael to the hospital as quickly as possible," June said with determination.
"They wouldn't know how to even comprehend what is afflicting Rafael, not without decades of research," Ratchet argued. The two had been arguing since June had gotten there, and Reese had had about enough.
"Look, there has got to be some way to figure out what is wrong with Raf and treat him here. Let me try to think back to the attack. The shots that came from Megatron were purple, not blue like yours. What would make his shots purple, and could that be what is affecting Raf?" Reese started spouting off any details that she thought could be helpful in the diagnosis of Rafael's illness. Ratchet seemed to think about what Reese had just said and suddenly a look of hope flashed across his facial plating.
"Why didn't I see it before? Reese you are a genius. The only thing that would make Megatron's cannon fire purple would be dark energon, and that makes sense because he has been experimenting with dark energon since he arrived here on Earth. Rafael has been infected with dark energon!" Ratchet began running scans to see how high the dark energon levels were in Rafael's body.
"I was riding with Bumblebee too, so why haven't I been affected?" Reese asked.
"I think that it is partially due to the fact that you are part Cybertronian; the CNA in you gave you some form of protection against the effects of the dark energon blast." Ratchet explained as he continued scanning Rafael. "The levels of dark energon in Rafael are enormous. We need to find a way to expel the toxin from his body before it can do any permenant damage. Perhaps we could use the energon particle transductor to expel the dark energon from Rafael and into a particle form that could be destroyed. We would need regular energon in order to do that, though. I just worry that pure energon might be too much for Raf's small body to handle, given its current condition." Ratchet vented in frustration. The situation was quickly turning from bad to worse.
"Ratchet, I have an idea, but you are not going to like it." Reese said.
"Well any idea is better than no ideas," Ratchet encouraged her to explain her plan.
"Well, as you said, Raf's body probably wouldn't be able to handle pure energon, but I don't have pure energon pumping inside me. You said that the energon that is in me has an organic factor to it and I wonder if my energon would be organic enough for Raf's body to handle. The techno-organic energon would be diffused into particle form in the air and then those particles could be used to pull the dark energon from Raf's body, kind of like osmosis. Unfortunately that would require for me to be in the particle transductor chamber as well. I know it's risky, but I don't see any better options."
"Absolutely not!" Nurse Darby interjected. "Rafael is already in enough danger, we don't need to be putting you in danger as well," She said frustratedly.
"But, Reese is right, Mrs. Darby," Ratchet countered June's argument. "What she has purposed does appear to be the safest way for us to save Rafael. I will keep a close eye on her vitals during the whole procedure; if anything starts going downhill, we will abort the plan."
June sighed and complied. She was not happy about the situation, but it did appear to be their only option.
"Okay Reese, go ahead and get on the other gurney. We need to start the procedure as quickly as possible. Listen, I can't promise that the procedure will be painless. I need you to be strong, but if it gets to be too much, let us know and we will try stop the process." Ratchet informed Reese of everything that she should expect from the energon particle transduction process.
"It's okay Ratchet, I trust you. You are an incredible medic and I know that I am in good hands." Reese comforted Ratchet as she climbed onto the gurney. Nurse Darby wheeled both gurneys into the transduction chamber and closed the door. Then, Ratchet began the transduction process.
Inside the chamber, Reese could see the rest of the group outside. Everybody had worried faces, so she gave them a thumbs up to let them know everything was going to be okay and that she was ready for the process to begin. She closed her eyes. Even with them closed she could sense the light in the room getting brighter and brighter as the process began. At first all she felt was a slight tingling sensation. It felt like her whole body had fallen asleep and was experience that pins and needles feeling. Quickly, the sensation began to intensify, though. She forced herself keep breathing calmly as the sensation grew into a sharp stinging pain. It continued to crescendo until it felt like she was being stabbed with thousands of sharp needles. Against her will, a scream of pain escaped her lips. The pain was unbearable, but she wouldn't let Ratchet stop the process. If she didn't do this, then Rafael would die, and she wouldn't be able to live with that, knowing that she could have saved him. After what felt like an eternity, the stabbing sensation dulled slightly. The pain began to slowly deescalate until it felt like the tingling feeling at the beginning. The bright light dimmed and she forced herself to open her eyes. The procedure was over and now she needed to know if it had worked.
On the outside of the chamber, everybody watched as Reese gave the thumbs up, letting them know she was ready. Ratchet began the procedure, making sure to keep a close optic on both Rafael and Reese's vitals. A bright light turned on in the chamber and quickly it became too bright to look at. At first, all was quiet, until a scream of pain could be heard coming from inside the chamber. June gasped and grabbed Ratchet's servo, expecting him to turn off the machine.
"I can't stop the process at this point, Mrs. Darby, but I know that Reese is strong, she will be okay." Ratchet tried to sound encouraging. "If I stopped the process now, we could lose both Reese and Rafael. She knew that it would be painful and she still chose to go through with it. She is stronger than you might think."
They heard a few more screams of pain before the lights in the chamber began to dim. When the procedure was complete, the doors of the chamber opened. June instinctively ran in to check on the patients. She was followed by Jack and Miko, and then by Ratchet. While June, Jack, and Miko crowded around Rafael's gurney, Ratchet walked up to Reese's. She was pale and trembling. Weakly she looked over at Raf and then up at Ratchet.
"Did… did it work?" She asked weakly. She closed her eyes as it took too much effort and strength to keep them open. It felt like the room was spinning and closing her eyes helped to ease the dizziness.
"It worked, but you are going to need an immediate energon transfusion. The transduction process used up all of your energon reserves and you are running critically low. I need you to stay awake, Reese." Ratchet quickly wheeled Reese from the chamber and over to some medical equipment where he could start the transfusion. She tried to heed Ratchet's orders, but she no longer had the energy to keep her eyes open. She prayed a quick prayer for help as she felt herself slipping from consciousness.
"I need somebody to donate some energon, Stat!" Ratchet ordered. "She isn't going to make it if we can't get her energon reserves back up!" He hooked her up to several monitors and prepared her for the energon transfusion. Her heart/spark beat was extremely slow and weak.
"Here Ratchet, take some from me," Bumblebee stepped up first. He knew that this was something he had to do. Reese had risked herself to save Rafael, so now he had to help save her. Ratchet quickly drew a canister of energon from Bumblebee's arm and then hooked the canister up to the IV that was connected to Reese. Slowly, the energon was fed into her system intravenously.
"Can't you make it go any faster, Ratchet?" Nurse Darby sounded impatient. She knew it was a bad idea to let Reese go through with the procedure.
"If we introduce the energon too quickly, it will overload her system. The energon must be replenished slowly; we just have to be patient." Ratchet rechecked the drip on the IV and went back to monitoring Reese's vitals. After a few minutes, the monitor showed that Reese's heart/spark rate was stabilizing and growing stronger. Everybody gave a sigh of relief when they knew that she was going to be okay.
"Reese, is very strong, I knew she would make it." Ratchet smiled.
Ratchet comm'ed Optimus to let him know that Rafael was going to be okay, thanks to Reese. Everything really was going to turn out okay after all, or so they thought.
Thank you so much for being patient with me. I have been traveling and unable to upload for a bit. I did enjoy writing this chapter a lot. Please review and tell me what you think of the story so far! Once again, I hope you have a wonderful and blessed day!