Thanks to Autobot00001 for helping me with this chapter.
Sorry this is so late, everybody! Had to get settled into college life and deal with some writer's block. Hope you all enjoy!
Chapter Eleven: Parents
"You did what?!"
Every human and Autobot in the main room cringed at Ratchet's ear-shattering shout when he learned what had transpired in the desert. Liza groaned in pain as Jazz somewhat reluctantly handed her to angry medic.
"What was I supposed to do, lie down and be a good little hostage? If I hadn't crashed Knock Out, I'd be at Megatron's mercy right now!"
"You should have waited for Jazz and the others to rescue you," Ratchet retorted with exasperation, though his voice had softened considerably.
"Well, to be fair, Knock Out was starting to get the upper servo," Bumblebee admitted with a small amount of shame. "Liza's probably right." Ratchet ignored him, glaring directly at the silver mech behind Bumblebee, who was carrying Jack and Miko on his shoulders.
"Jazz, didn't I ask you to bring the children to base before engaging the Decepticons?"
"We got jumped before we could make it," Jazz shrugged apologetically. The doctor sighed in irritation and turned back to the redhead in his servo. His bright blue optics flickered and clicked quietly as he scanned her.
"You have three broken ribs and two bruised ribs," Ratchet announced. "There isn't much I can do to speed the healing process up, but I can bandage your chest if you'd like."
"You said there wasn't much you could do to help the healing," Liza replied with a strained voice as she tried to sit up. It proved to be too painful, though, and she quickly returned to her back, panting quietly.
"It won't help the bones heal, but it may discourage you from taking deep breaths and make it less painful."
"All right then," Liza agreed. With that, Ratchet nodded and carefully carried the injured girl to the med bay. She nearly jumped out of her skin when the pair entered the giant doorway down the hall.
"Liza! What happened?"
Wincing in pain as her body shot up, Liza smiled weakly at the voice's owner.
"Hey, Arcee. How are you?"
"I'm fine, Liza," the cobalt femme answered irritably. "What. Happened?"
"I…had a little…run-in…with…Knock Out!" Liza shouted in pain as her shirt was suddenly yanked from her body. Whipping her head up, the redheaded teen glared at the medic bot. "I was doing just fine on my own!" Ratchet only scoffed in reply.
"Puh-leeze, you were barely moving your arms at all!"
Liza rolled her eyes in exasperation and opened her mouth to continue her story, but Ratchet cut her off again. "You'll have to remove your undergarment, too."
The red-haired girl's face shot up to the medic's in shock, almost not believing what she was hearing. But the look in his face told her he was very serious. Groaning in embarrassment and anticipation, Liza willed herself to fight through the pain as she reached for her back.
~.~.~.~.~
"Prime!"
Every human and Autobot in the computer room flinched at the familiar booming voice. Within seconds, the Autobot commander was approaching the monitor. His calm demeanor was in stark contrast to that of his caller, who looked absolutely livid.
"Agent Fowler," Optimus addressed in his usual business-like tone. Without waiting for him to continue, Fowler spoke angrily.
"What's this I hear about a civilian being injured by a Decepticon?!"
"Agent Fowler, it's all right," Jack hurriedly explained, raising one hand, "it wasn't a stranger, it was Liza!"
"Yeah, and she had to crash him, otherwise she'd be toast right now!" Miko cried. Jack inwardly groaned, resting his face in his hand. Now she had done it.
"She what?! What do you mean 'crash him'?!"
"Nice going, Miko," Bulkhead muttered at his charge, earning him a dirty look.
"She was kidnapped by Knock Out, Agent Fowler," Raf said, "he was gonna take her to Megatron and the Decepticons were gonna hold her hostage! She didn't know what else to do, it wasn't Optimus's fault!" Ignoring the younger boy, Fowler quickly rounded on Optimus once again.
"You allowed a human to be captured by Decepticons?!"
"Hey, listen, Fowler! Optimus wasn't even there!" Bulkhead shouted angrily, clenching his servos into fists. "Don't go blaming this on him!" In his rage, Bulkhead snatched a nearby gadget and thrust his fist in the monitor's direction, crushing the small machine to bits as if to threaten Fowler.
"Calm yourself, Bulkhead," Optimus commanded, holding his arm out. Bulkhead obeyed his leader and stood down, but kept glaring dangerously at Fowler. "I can assure you, Agent Fowler that Elizabeth is now in Ratchet's care, and we are planning to keep her here at the base with us to ensure that she makes a complete recovery."
"Hmph." It was obvious that Fowler still plenty angry with Optimus for allowing Liza to be captured and harmed, but as there had been no lasting harm done, there was little he could do at the moment. "Make sure this doesn't happen again, Prime," he said grimly, "or I'll have to make good on the threat to shut down your base." From the look on his face, it was clear that this was the last thing Fowler wanted. As he finished speaking, the monitor fizzled out before going blank again.
"I can't believe that guy!" Bulkhead cried in exasperation, still clutching the destroyed gadget. "Every 'Con attack, every car crash, every little fender bender, he blames on us!"
"Agent Fowler was right to be concerned for Elizabeth, Bulkhead. She was put in very real danger today." Optimus said.
"I know," the green wrecker grunted in defeat. "Still, Liza came back in one piece, didn't she?"
Off to the side, Jazz pressed a digit to his comm. Link. "Yello? Jazz here."
"It was still a close call," Bumblebee shrugged. Bulkhead didn't answer. Instead, he turned to Jazz and saw that the newest member of Team Prime had morphed into the silver sports car.
"Where are you going?"
"Out for a little drive," Jazz answered casually, "the little lady's mama wants to come by and check on her." Without waiting for more questions, Jazz sped out the underground exit, leaving Bulkhead and Bumblebee standing there confused.
"Wait…I thought Liza's mom was dead."
~.~.~.~.~
"Augh!"
Tears streamed down Liza's face as she stubbornly tried to silence her cries of pain as Ratchet tightly wound the bandages around her chest. She was failing quite miserably. Inhaling sharply through clenched teeth in a vain attempt to dull the sharp pains, Liza was beyond relieved when Ratchet told her that he would only have to constrict the bandages one more time.
Arcee watched with concern as Liza panted heavily while Ratchet finished wrapping her chest. The pair had long since given up trying to talk while Ratchet worked, so the sapphire femme was left to wait a little longer to hear her charge's story.
When she got her servos on Knock Out…
"There, that will do it," Ratchet finally stated. Liza dropped to her knees and breathed deeply. She was just about to thank the doc bot when Ratchet rolled his aqua optics behind her at her dramatic behavior.
"Humans are so weak sometimes," he grumbled as he turned to walk away. At this, Liza glared sharply in the departing medic's direction.
"Hey! Want me to snap those wires in your chest so you can see how it feels?"
Ratchet halted briefly in surprise – he'd obviously meant to talk under his breath. Pulling himself together, he gave Liza a condescending half glare. "I'd like to see you try." He scoffed. "You're welcome, by the way."
Liza sat in angry silence as the door whirred shut behind Ratchet. Of course she was grateful for his help! But sometimes his attitude just made her blood boil with rage; without realizing it, the redhead's hands had clenched tightly into fists.
"Easy, girl."
Arcee's outstretched digit brought Liza back down to Earth and the teen saw that she had begun to rise to her knees. Sighing in frustration and shame, Liza sat back down and hung her head, half aware that Arcee was leaning down in concern.
"It'll be okay," the older femme reassured the girl, "that's just how Ratchet gets sometimes. Gets on all of our nerves, really."
Liza didn't move for several moments. "We're not weak."
"What?"
"Humans aren't weak. Is he the one who was kidnapped by a Decepticon today? Is he the one who was almost killed while escaping from said Decepticon? Did he have to make the decision to either become a helpless little hostage or nearly get crushed trying to avoid being captured? Is Ratchet the one who cried himself to sleep in his closet every night never, knowing if he would live to see the next day, or the day after that?!"
The tears had begun to fly again, and Liza did nothing to hide them this time. Arcee just sat, stunned at what she was hearing.
"Was he afraid to go home every weekend – every night – to endure another week's worth of torture and terror? I don't think so!"
Liza fell to her knees again as sobs racked her body. She knew her fury at Arcee was sadly misdirected, but something about Ratchet's comment had pushed her over the edge; she couldn't hold it in any longer.
"Liza, I…" Arcee was at a complete loss for words; had Jack and June known that Liza had felt this way?
"And what about the people who risk their lives every day to protect their homes and their families? How can you call that weak?" She sighed heavily as more tears flowed from her bright green eyes. "I'm sorry, Arcee. This isn't your fault, I shouldn't be yelling at you like this."
"Liza…was that really what it was like for you…every night?" Liza didn't answer, only hung her head and sobbed quietly, which Arcee took to mean 'yes'. Sighing softly, Arcee scooped Liza into her servos and looked her directly in the optics. "Liza, I want you to listen to me very carefully." The cycle bot's voice was firm, but held no anger or contempt. "You are not weak. Anyone else in your situation might have died or been permanently damaged by what you went through. But you didn't. You had Jack, Miko, Raf, and June to help you, and with their help, you survived your abusive home. You beat your father. And today, you beat Knock Out and Megatron."
Looking straight into Arcee's optics, Liza blinked at the sincerity in her voice.
"And you're right, humans are not weak. More fragile than Autobots, yes, but not weak. Don't let Ratchet or anyone else tell you otherwise, got it?" Liza nodded as her tears began to taper off.
"Thanks, Arcee." Liza's voice was still shaky and she sounded a little hoarse. "I know Ratchet's always like that, I don't know why I lost my temper like that. It shouldn't bother me, but…"
"You're right," Arcee agreed with a hint of amusement, "Ratchet's not exactly our ray of sunshine. That's more of a Bumblebee thing." A small smirk formed on Arcee's faceplates when she heard Liza chuckle. "But I can see why this felt like a personal attack. Just the wrong thing to say at the wrong time, I guess." Liza nodded, but wasn't really comforted by this. "But deep in his spark…way deep down…I know he cares."
"He has a strange way of showing it." Liza said, unconvinced.
"Hey, if Ratchet didn't care, he wouldn't have gotten so upset when he found out what you did, right? And he wouldn't have bandaged your chest for you. Plus, between you and me, I walked in on him hounding Optimus several times about bringing you to the base for protection before you came to live with Jack, and the pictures I sent of your condition made him furious."
Liza recoiled. She had no idea Ratchet had even known what her life was like with her father. "Wow."
"Want me to talk to him about it?"
"No," Liza quickly answered, "he doesn't need to know about this." Smiling, she looked up at her guardian's face. "Thanks a lot, Arcee. You're a great friend." The red-haired teen grasped the blue Autobot's digit in place of a hug.
"Of course, Liza. You know you can talk to me anytime."
The heartwarming moment was abruptly ended by the med bay doors swinging open and a woman's voice shouting loudly.
"Elizabeth Ann Darby! What on Earth happened?!"
~.~.~.~.~
Cries of agony echoed off the walls of the Nemesis as Knock Out's body was tossed violently to the other side of the room. The crimson mech groaned miserably as he pushed himself off the metal floor, flinching at the deep footsteps approaching for the hundredth time.
"Get up, Knock Out," Megatron ordered impatiently, "and be grateful that your punishment was largely cosmetic."
As the large warlord walked away again, Knock Out could see from the unblocked light that his fresh coat of paint was indeed completely ruined. It would take him hours to polish it again! Glaring in his leader's direction, Knock Out noticed Starscream smirking at him and whispering something to Barricade, probably glad it wasn't him being tossed around for a change. Knock Out was about walk over and wipe that smirk off the Seeker's face when Megatron spoke again.
"Not only do we have no prisoners to use against the Autobots – thanks to your incompetence, Knock Out – but we have no means of proceeding with the device's creation! It will take us far too long to harvest the necessary amount of Energon! And we have no bargaining chip to encourage the Autobots to hand over their own supply…"
Knock Out inwardly gulped at the look of death Megatron gave him, but he quickly recovered his usual cocky demeanor. "Forgive me, Lord Megatron, but we did manage to dig up something that could be useful."
"Oh? And what would that be, Knock Out?"
The red medic snickered and reached into his chest plates, pulling out a glowing purple shard. All optics widened in shock at the object in Knock Out's servo.
"Dark Energon!"
