Family Matters

Chapter Eleven

Sam balanced on each leg in turn to tip the Sahara out of his shoes whilst Mikaela watched, smiling over a thermos cup of coffee made over the mini-stove minutes ago. The teen arched a brow at her whilst he wrestled with his laces. "You know, I've been here twice now, both times for some life-saving visit to the Prime's tomb, and you know what I've figured out?" She shook her head and he finished with his shoes, straightening to place his hands on his hips. "I hate sand."

"I hate how it gets stuck everywhere," Mikaela agreed, running a hand across her grainy scalp with a grimace, her fingers quickly tangling in her hair. "Optimus and Magnus can't like it much, either, getting in between their parts."

"At least they're inside and out of the sand storms," Sam reasoned, turning to regard the stone structure they are camped against. The soldiers had all been missing when they awoke and the mechs were already working, so they had lingered by the tents for the time being. "Think we should go inside and see how they're doing?"

Mikaela's mouth pulled uneasily, her forehead furrowed. "I don't know. It's a pretty awful thing they're having to do when you think about it. Maybe they just want to be left to get on with it."

Sam cocked his head with a quirked smile. "Or maybe they could use the distraction. I mean, Magnus was at it all night and Optimus already had enough on his plate before he had to go grave robbing his ancestors to cure his people." A frown as that replayed in his head. "Okay, maybe they do want to be left alone."

Grinning at his sweetly endearing inability to make a decision on the matter, Mikaela took his hand and tugged him towards the tomb. "We can at least say 'good morning' to them."

They only got a few steps towards the doorway when Lennox's jogging form caught their attention. The soldier had a radio to his ear and waved for them to stop, clearly troubled. Sam called out before he reached them. "Is everything okay?"

Scuffing to a halt in the sand, Lennox slipped the still-burbling radio into his pocket and shook his head. "Bit of a clusterfuck happening at the perimeter. The Egyptian military were giving us grief anyway for cordoning off the area for two years, but they came in with Abrams tanks as a bit of muscle this morning. Turns out our secret drop-in wasn't so secret. It's not turned into a fire-fight, but it's getting hard to keep them away."

"What happens if they do start firing?" Sam asked as his gaze swept across the dunes, catching on a haze of dark smoke rising from one point. The exhausts of the tanks, apparently.

Lennox gave a half shrug, smiling grimly. "Well if they did decide to start off an 'incident' between our governments by firing on us friendlies, we're basically screwed. We came in light and fast because this was supposed to be a quick and quiet in-out operation. We've got nothing like the firepower they're packing on our doorstep."

"We've got two huge Autobots," Mikaela suggested, their potential for intimidation at the fore of her mind. She knew as well as any of them that Optimus wouldn't fire on humans, and that Magnus wouldn't be allowed to either.

"That's what worries me," Lennox replied softly, rubbing a hand across his eyes that were already watering from the sandy breeze. "The Egyptian army is well-stocked, yeah, but there isn't any sense in them sending three tanks unless they know that Optimus and Ultra Magnus are here. The sooner we get out of here the better. I can get Chinooks here inside an hour, but I don't know when they think we'll be finished. If-"

He was cut off by a bellowed shout of pain from inside the tomb, obviously suppressed as soon as the mech who made it could clamp down on the sound. All sounds of work stopped and there was a ringing silence following the cry, though the three humans were already running. Lennox stopped just short of the Prime's bodies inside the tomb, looking between both kneeling Autobots as Sam and Mikaela slid to a halt a few feet beyond him.

To their mingled surprise and relief, it was not Optimus who had cried out. The commander was supporting Magnus with one hand on his chest, the other on his right arm and apparently bearing the weight of the blackened limb. His optics were bright with concern, and he spoke in the rapid shorthand clicks of their native language whilst Magnus nodded wearily.

Noticing the humans, Optimus looked to them as he opened a compartment in his thigh and removed a vial of fluid. "The necrosis has degraded Magnus's shoulder joint to the point of fracture." He stabbed the end of the vial into a gap in the mech's right chest plates, eliciting a grunt from Magnus before his shoulders sagged. "He cannot continue to assist."

"Afraid I've got some more bad news," Lennox intoned, venturing deeper into the room and forcibly keeping his gaze on the kneeling mech. Peripherally he saw the huge blackened sections where chunks had been sawn out of the petrified bodies. "The local military have decided we've outstayed our welcome. We're not going to be able to keep them at bay for much longer without shots being fired. How long do you need to finish excavating?"

Rising to stand as Magnus did, cradling the useless arm to his chassis, Optimus motioned to the pile of protoform blocks gathered to one side of the tomb. "It is less than we'd hoped to come away with, but it should be sufficient baring errors in its use. We can leave as soon as you are able to arrange transport."

Lennox gave a firm nod, reaching for the radio. "Great. One hour it is. I'll tell the others. Get this stuff boxed and netted. We might be getting airlifted out as quickly as we came in."

As the soldier jogged back out, Sam folded his arms with a wince. "Great, a backwards skydive."

After giving the taller teen a sympathetic smile and touch to his shoulder, Mikaela looked to Optimus and approached the slim mech. "Is there anything we can do to help?"

He nodded immediately. "If you and Sam could seal the severed lines in Magnus's shoulder and find some way to stabilise the break, it would be much appreciated."

"Sure thing," Mikaela affirmed with a reassuring smile up to the silent mech. A glance to Optimus was all Magnus needed to nod his consent and follow the teen out, leaving Sam alone with the remaining mech.

"You sure you're going to be okay moving all this on your own?" Sam asked with an uneasy glance to the pile of grey blocks, quickly adding, "With the leak and all?"

A rumble escaped from Optimus's vents, though it was not irritated. His expression was strangely unreadable, moreso than usual behind the mask. "It cannot be helped, and yes Sam, I will be fine. I shall look forward to several hours on a plane not doing very much afterwards, but I'll be fine. Thank you."

Pursing his lips, Sam nodded at the answer and turned to jog after Mikaela and Magnus. Alone in the tomb, Optimus rubbed his shuttered optics and rested a hand on the stack of protomatter, wincing when the sparkling delivered a hard kick. This was going to be a long hour.

When the six containers of protomatter finally arrived from Egypt, there was no room in the Medbay for them and they'd had to go into Wheeljack's lab. Starscream had been quietly grateful for the move to the most isolated part of the Base, finding it far easier to concentrate in the devoted lab. He was not alone, however. With his femoral strut failing in the night, Ironhide was relegated to sitting and assisting the scientist whom had now largely lost the use of his hands.

"You sure Ratchet can get everyone back from this?" Ironhide asked softly as he ran a fine laser cutter through the length of the grey sample, boring a cylinder through its centre.

Hands hanging in the space between his legs as he sat, Starscream made a soft sound of agreement, optics narrowed on the dark mech's hands. "This is all still reversible. He estimates another three days before the necrosis advances to the disintegration phase, at which point it's slagged."

The channel made, Ironhide set the laser aside and held it out for Starscream to inspect, turning it slowly. They'd been working together for going on fifteen hours now, and though not enjoying Starscream's company he was impressed by him. When he wasn't screeching, the Seeker wasn't a terrible bot to be around and was a peculiar centre of knowing calm in the midst of this disease. "And what do you think?"

Starscream's mouth quirked in a grim smile, nodding his approval of the work. "I think that's optimistic. It's closer to two, but I know what I'm doing now and should have a viable cure by the end of today." He nodded towards an array of fine metal needles piled on a silver tray, each one millimetres wide and only an inch long. "Alright, you need to feed those into the hole all the way through."

Ironhide considered the thickness of his fingers and the delicate look of the needles with a grimace. The Seeker's hands were ruined, though, so he just had to be careful. Locating the long tweezers on the workbench, he picked up the first needle and examined it in the light. "Does this need doing for every bit of protomatter?"

The Seeker shuddered and brought up his arm to cough into the joint, swallowing back the energon that had seeped through into his corroded air lines. "No, I can activate it all from this one. Start from the middle and work your way back. There should be a gap through the centre of them to feed the probe through later."

Shifting on the chair with a grimace at how it made the scorching pain in his leg flared white, Ironhide rested the protomatter on a stand and slowly put the first needle inside. In the middle, he bit his glossa and twitched his hand down, impaling the fibre into the metal softened by the laser's residual heat. "This is gonna take a while."

"I know," Starscream replied softly, coughing again. "I'll need to run more calculations before we can administer the probe anyway, though. This is a lot denser than my protomatter was."

There was no doubt in Ironhide's mind that the Seeker would accommodate the discrepancy successfully and he simply nodded, carefully lifting the second needle. His processor ached as much as his joints, the necrosis sinking into old scars and weaker welds, but he was no stranger to having to concentrate through pain. This would be hard but it was perfectly doable. Truthfully the scientist opposite concerned him more. Starscream had almost completely changed colour with no single plate left untouched by the black webs. He was also used to pain, though, so they kept working without speaking of it.

Neither of them looked up when the doors to the warehouse opened and Ratchet came inside, slowly approaching the workbench via a meandering path through stacks of cold protomatter. His hands were significantly worse than Starscream's, but he'd already found ways around that through the extensions of examination and repair parts that could emerge from his arms. It wasn't perfect but it allowed him to continue to service the bots.

Taking in the two mechs and the equipment between them, it didn't take him long to work out that they were looking at a very long and delicate task. Extending two vials of pain suppressant from his bicep, he fed out a line to lower them to the table beside Ironhide's elbow. "You might want to think about recharging at some point, as well."

"Later," Starscream muttered with a glower at the vials, his darkened optics flicking up to the medic. "And don't think I'm going to use that. I'm running eight thousand calculations to reactivate this stuff. I can't have my processor fogged with drugs. I need to think. Besides, you're not taking any."

Ratchet gave an admonishing click but did not touch the vials. "Do as I say, not as I do." A glance to Ironhide whom was installing another needle, jaw tight as he kept his hands from trembling, and the medic sighed a little. "Good luck, you two. If you need any more help in here just comm.."

"Ironhide's doing fine," Starscream murmured with a vague nod intended to shoo the hovering mech out. Ratchet's concern and weariness were thick and cloying, inviting his own anxieties to the surface where they would only serve as a hindrance.

To his credit, Ratchet took the unspoken instruction and retreated back out of the lab. Starscream waited for Ironhide to withdraw the tweezers from the protomatter before reaching over and picking up both vials between the heels of his hands, stabbing them down into the mech's extended arm with a hiss. They emptied instantly and he dropped them to the floor, grimacing with narrowed optics at the agony doing that had brought. To Ironhide's glare, he forced a smirk. "Oops."

The mech shook his head but couldn't immediately complain as the edge of the searing pain was taken off, sagging his shoulders. "I thought you said we needed to concentrate on this?"

"I need to concentrate," Starscream corrected archly. "The spanner doesn't need to think. Anyway, it'll help keep your hands steady."

Despite himself Ironhide smiled, thin and grim, taking up the next needle from the pile of at least one hundred and guiding it into the tunnel. "So, eight thousand calculations, huh?"

Starscream's mouth tightened as he sat back, tipping his head back. "And a couple more."

"I figured," came the murmured reply. Ironhide glanced to the Seeker and found his optics to be shuttered though from the buzzing in his helm he could tell Starscream was far from recharge. Settling in for a quiet few hours performing a very repetitive task, Ironhide brushed the bond softly before shutting it out of his mind.

Optimus had the protomatter boxed and secured in the cargo nets ready to be hooked and lifted out inside an hour. The Egyptian army, however, did not give them an hour though the soldiers assured them that they'd be gone inside that window. Indeed, once Lennox had conveyed that they were leaving imminently the tanks had suddenly charged forwards through the blockade and begun to climb over the dunes. It was at this point that Lennox realised that they were here for the mechs, one way or another, and hadn't finished calling his soldiers back over the radio before he'd run to the mech's feet.

"It's hit the fan," he shouted up, one hand moving to rest on the rifle slung at his side. "And they're coming in hot. The choppers are still ten minutes away."

"We'll be ready," Optimus replied firmly, looking to the tomb's entrance where Magnus sat with Mikaela standing on his hip, taping over the lines and cables that had been severed when the central strut in his arm gave. He touched his finial, ignoring the aching twist in his chassis. Magnus, we're departing in ten minutes under potential fire.

Magnus looked up and met his optics, requesting that Mikaela and Sam retreat to a safe distance to allow him to stand. Decepticons?

The Prime's mouth twitched in a grimace behind the mask. In some ways, Decepticons would have been preferable. No, the local human militia. We cannot harm them. They are only defending their territory against what they perceive as a threat.

Getting to his feet, Magnus began a slow approach with Sam and Mikaela trailing behind him. If they fire on you though, Prime-

You will not retaliate, Optimus finished flatly, turning to face the other mech fully. We do not harm humans, Magnus. It is one of the many things that differs us from the Decepticons.

Magnus frowned as if stung by the reminder. Of course, Prime, but I detect significant incoming firepower and you are vulnerable, as is the cargo we must transport out of here safely.

Optimus pressed the point between his optics with a sigh, knowing full well that Magnus was right and not savouring the fact at all. Heed me, Magnus. Do not fire on the humans. Our priority is to get Sam, Mikaela and Lennox's men out of danger, then the protomatter, and finally ourselves.

It was not an order of priority that he agreed with, but Magnus nodded without hesitation. He couldn't have anticipated any different order from Prime. "Yes Sir."

"Uh, could you guys clue us in?" Sam called up from the giant bots' feet, one hand shielding his eyes though they were already protected by his shades.

"Forgive us, Sam," Optimus replied, bending on one knee and lowering his optics to the two humans. The change in posture released the well of energon that had formed from the leak in his chassis, and it slipped out between his plates to spatter in the sand. "We were merely discussing how best to depart if the tanks reach us before Lennox's helicopters do."

"I'm guessing… fast?" Sam broached with a wry smile, running a hand through his hair when Optimus murmured an affirmative. "We'll be ready."

"As shall we," Magnus added in a baritone rumble, his own expression grim but focussed.

Magnus and I have managed the awkward task of transforming inside a cargo net without breaking it, opting to disguise ourselves in vehicle mode before the tanks come ready to be winched up by the incoming helicopters. I have detected them less than a mile away and closing in fast, three incoming to lift away ourselves, our cargo and the humans – and hopefully before the tanks arrive. To them we shall appear to simply be an unusual cargo to be flown out of the middle of the desert, and they will hesitate to fire upon us.

The helicopters haven't reached us before I'm proven wrong. Coming up and settling on the cusp of a sand dune, the first tank swings its barrel past the collected protomatter towards me. I tense which makes the sparkling flutter with movement beneath my cab, and then the shell booms out with a resounding echo. I've no choice but to transform and roll sideways, drawing the potential follow-up shot away from the humans and the protomatter.

Magnus also explodes out of his alt mode, instinctively bearing a cannon on the tank but withdrawing it at my barked order to stand down. The two tanks that had been following appear on the dune and all three descend at speed. To my right the soldiers shout to one another as Magnus and I form a barrier between them and the tanks. His optics flicker towards me. Orders?

We both duck and run to the side as we feel their weapons lock onto us again, outrunning their shells by mere feet. Disable the turrets but do not harm the humans inside. These aren't Decepticons we're dealing with.

The helicopters roar overhead as we sprint towards the incoming armoured vehicles, slowed by the shifting sand but still reaching them within seconds. Seizing the main guns of the closest two, we bend the metal back on itself to neutralise the vehicles without compromising their integrity. The final tank manages to fire before either of us can reach it, the shell slamming through my side and out into Magnus's shoulder.

We both stumble back with a spray of energon, braced for the inevitable following shot and unnerved when it doesn't come. Assuming them to be deterred and with the helicopters now on the ground, we make to sprint back regardless of our injuries. The cargo net containing the protomatter containers has been secured and is lifting off the ground with the first helicopter. Lennox is guiding Sam and Mikaela into the second whilst shouting for us.

Magnus reaches the helicopter hovering just above his head and grasps the lowered harness chain with his good hand, ready to be lifted. He turns to watch me follow, and I'm warned of the incoming attack by his suddenly wide optics as much as from the sound of the weapon being fired.

It is not a shell that the final tank sends out. It does not explode on contact, nor deal a percussive blow. Instead, the harpoon-like spear lances and becomes lodged through my left leg from the force of its delivery, sending me down. My visual processor registers flashing lights as my chassis slams into the ground, crushing pressurised lines and splitting the wound across my rib struts wider. The sparkling slams down like a dead weight, motionless once momentum leaves it.

Though stunned, my voice across the comm. remains firm and even. Get away, Magnus. Take the protomatter with you.

I do not hear his 'yes Sir', nor the commotion on the other helicopter between the humans. Forcing my systems to function around the damage, I heave up onto my feet and turn on the remaining tank – now bearing down on me with an unknown missile ready to be fired. It is only a few staggered steps to reach it, even when it begins to track backwards from me, and I twist its gun barrel back as I had the others. The danger is not passed, though, as my sensors warn of more armoured vehicles closing in.

"Optimus!"

Sam's shout makes me turn sharply enough to groan, pressing a hand to my ruined side. He, Mikaela and Lennox have abandoned the helicopters and are running towards me. Lennox shouts to me as he runs: "We've gotta go! They've got air force units incoming as well."

The helicopters cannot linger or they will be at risk of being shot down, and with them Magnus and the cure for many Autobots. I convey an order for immediate departure through him and watch as the two helicopters obediently veer away after the third. Marshalling away the pain, I stoop on the run to capture the humans within my hands. There are rock structures less than a mile away we can take shelter in, and where I can find out why they neglected their safety to remain.

My spark pulses hot and hard, swollen from concern for the cure being flown out and overtaxed from the strain of my systems as I run across the sand. I keep my hands closed together as gently as possible, but I can still feel the humans being knocked into my plates. A shot fired and a spray of sand erupts from the dune beside me reaffirms my decision to retreat. The cure is going to the Base and Magnus is safe. Barring the humans and the state of my own body, things are okay.

Tempest and Ironhide will be okay.

Despite the danger and pain, a corner of my processor is tugged towards the sparkling lying still in my chassis. It lives, but it is disturbed. Hopefully this will be something Mikaela can assist with.