Title: Breaking the Cage
Author: ontuva
Beta: Lunarburst23 (thank you so much ^~ ^)
Warnings: Cursing, cursing, cursing...
Disclaimer: Don't own anything, you know the drill.
Word count: 3,058
A/N: Soooo... *peeks from under a rock* I'm back? I'm so sorry for not continuing this earlier (I'm seriously quite ashamed). Real life got in the way pretty badly. The latest chapter was like... TWO YEARS AGO? *cries* Forgive meeee~
So what have you readers been up to? There's been quite a lot going on with my life (sickness, surgery, graduation (I'm now a MASTER OF SCIENCE), my first real job, buying a snail as a pet). Hopefully now I'll stay healthy, so I can continue bothering you with my stories. :3
Also, I took part in the Inkshares competition with Geek and Sundry! If you are interested in my original stories, you can either message me or check out my profile! I'll put up a link. :) Also, if you are a social media person like I am, you can find me on Instagram with the nick 'ontuva' (so same as here!).
And now, on to the story! (I hope I'm not too rusty...)
o O o
Chapter 12: Sweet, sweet Mocha
The sparkling (Ratchet refused to call her Mocha even though Sam kept on persisting) was as healthy as a sparkling could be. Her protoform wasn't the most durable thanks to Sam's father's tendency to buy cheap appliances from Walmart, but that could be fixed. Ironhide had already promised to build some armor that could be added to her form to make it more durable.
What Ratchet had found worrisome was the fact that when he had discussed this with Ironhide, Sam had insisted they leave the "Mr. Coffee" part on her while the sparkling was nodding vigorously. Mainly because Sam was urging it to nod vigorously. Mikaela was doing her best "I'm-trying-to-act-like-I-disapprove-but-secretly-find-this-very-cute"-impression.
"We are not leaving the Mr. Coffee part on her," Ratchet sighed. "She's not a coffee maker anymore, and not a mister."
"But she needs it! It's her only way of being in touch with how she came to be! From Walmart Coffee maker to a sweet, sweet sparkling. Yeah, you are a sweet sparkling, daddy's favorite sparkling, yes you are!"
"She is going to be so, so, spoiled!" Mikaela laughed. Ratchet agreed with Mikaela even before Sam continued his babble.
"My little princess Autobot, yes you are, the perfect little sparkling!" Sam continued. "You are absolutely perfect, daddy's little joy, oh yes you are."
Ratchet wasn't sure anymore whether Sam was actually serious or doing this just to annoy Ironhide. He had a feeling it was on purpose, because they had all witnessed how Ironhide reacted to the smallest member of Lennox family.
"Titania… Hm, Titania sounds good, don't you think?" Ironhide muttered. "Do you like Titania? Do you want to be Titania?" Ratchet raised his optics from the datapad he was sketching the new parts to see Ironhide kneeling in front of the sparkling. He had to bite his cheek plate not to laugh out loud to Ironhide's outraged face when 'Titania' fiercely shook her head, still mimicking Sam's movements. Bumblebee was not so good at hiding his reaction and received a quick kick to his thigh guard.
"You are corrupting our little Titania…" Ironhide accused Sam while glaring at Bumblebee, who failed miserably at looking even the slightest bit apologetic.
"Mocha. Her name is Mocha! M-O-C-H-A!"
The sparkling cooed at that. Ratchet sighed. Yeah, apparently the name had stuck. Mocha it was. He had a sinking feeling that he would be the one to tell Optimus that their newest member was named after coffee.
Oh the joy.
"But Titania is so much better. Isn't it? Titania better than Mocha. Much better. Mocha bad name. Right? Bad Mocha. Good Titania!" Ratchet couldn't believe his optics. Ironhide was actually emphasizing the options with a sad face and a happy face. From the look on Bumblebee's face plates he couldn't either.
.:Did you record that?:. They both messaged each other at the same time. Bumblebee's face fell. Yeah, that had been a once in a lifetime chance and no one recorded it.
Optimus would never believe it.
The sparkling surprised them all when Sam's loud voice boomed from its' voice box:
"Mocha! Mocha! Mocha!" It repeated. Ratchet sighed. Again. Mocha was small, young and a tad too smart for her own good. They would have their servos full with her. This was worse than when Bumblebee had been a sparkling. He hadn't figured out how to use the recorder until he had been many orbital cycles old. Ratchet still thanked the Primus for that.
Ironhide looked like he had smelled something fowl.
"She will need a proper guardian. We'll have to have a meeting with Optimus and decide who would be the best choice. I think we can all agree it can't be the twins," Ironhide stated, clearly still upset that Mocha had refused to be Titania.
"Can I be her guardian?" Bumblebee chimed in, while watching Sam play peek-a-boo with the small femme, clearly enthralled. "She's so small and cute… I'd be the best guardian ever!"
Ratchet had a feeling both he and Ironhide had just thought the same horror scenarios, because they both managed to yell a firm "No!" at the same time.
"You're still too young!" Ratchet stated firmly. He wasn't ready for that sort of responsibility. Considering the trouble Bumblebee managed to find together with Sam… Yep, not going to take any chances with a sparkling.
"Frag!" Bee swore and then realized his mistake, but the damage had been done. Mocha repeated the word gladly. "Sorry. No, Mocha. Bad word, don't repeat that, oh Primus…"
"Frag, frag, frag…" Bumblebee's voice repeated.
"I don't know how I feel about my baby girl swearing when she's just one day old," Sam muttered while Mikaela tried her best not to laugh, since it only seemed to encourage Mocha. "And I'm not an Autobot expert but won't she need a mother? Didn't you have a female here? Could she be Mocha's mother? Do you need a mother?"
"Frag!" was Mocha's enthusiastic answer.
Ratchet furrowed. While it was good for a sparkling to have both a femme and a mech in their lives, it was not strictly necessary. Bumblebee had turned out okay even though he was raised by just mechs.
Ratchet thought that for a while. Bumblebee. Turned. Out. Okay…
He looked at Bumblebee. Then Mocha, who was still repeating "Frag!"
Yeah, they were in trouble.
"Who needs a mother?" Aurora asked quietly from the doorway. "Am I allowed to…?" She motioned for herself to come in. Ratchet nodded. He was about to ask whether Aurora was fine, because of the earlier episode, and apologize for basically throwing her out of med-bay, but by the Primus, the Witwicky kid had a quick mouth.
"Would you like the honor of being Mocha's mother? She is the best sparkling on Earth!" This was emphasized by Sam raising Mocha up. "Small and cute! What's not to love?"
"She swears worse than a sailor?" Mikaela offered.
"Frag!" Mocha echoed and cooed.
"I'm sorry…" Bee muttered.
Ratchet was about to explain to Sam that Aurora wasn't ready for such a task and the sparkling would be just fine without, as humans would say, a mother figure in her life, but the look on Aurora's faceplates stopped him dead on his tracks. He had grown used to reading emotions on Aurora, but these were new. Even when she had had trouble with her new body, even when she was afraid, never had he seen such a face.
Utter and complete despair.
"I… I…" She stammered. Her optics were pleading with Ratchet. Pleading, with a 'please don't make me do this'. It was probably the tone of her voice, but even Bee noticed something was wrong and looked worriedly at Aurora.
"Unfortunately Aurora isn't ready for such a task yet. She's still adapting to being an Autobot," Ratchet explained and then realized that amidst all the chaos he hadn't even had the time to explain that Aurora was previously a human. Before he could explain the situation, Sam jumped to his own conclusions.
"Adapting as in she previously was a Decepticon?" Sam asked and not so subtly placed himself between the sparkling and Aurora.
"Are you completely daft Witwicky?! She was previously a human!" Ironhide boomed. "We wouldn't accept a stinking con here!"
"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Could you repeat that Mocha? I don't think I heard correctly." Sam emphasized his point by digging his ear. "There, now. Repeat!"
"Mocha! Frag!"
"Wrong file, Mocha. Ok, ok, rolling back. I just heard you say she was a human?" he asked incredulously.
"Aurora was previously a human female, yes," Ratchet explained, and cringed when Sam yelled "Holy shit!" Mikaela promptly hit him in the head, so Ratchet didn't have to.
"Frag! Shit!"
Yep, Bumblebee and Sam weren't the best role models for the little one. Still, better than the twins though.
"No! Mocha! No swearing. Help!"
"How does a human become an Autobot?" Mikaela wondered. "I mean, that's just impossible. Right?"
"Can I become an Autobot?! Like, for real?! And Mikaela?" Sam asked with wide eyes and then whispered to Mikaela "You'd be a total babe even as an Autobot." Mikaela looked like she wasn't sure what to think about this revelation.
Ratchet could feel his processor starting to hurt. This was going to be long, long day. At least Aurora was looking a bit better, but she still had that wild look on her optics which meant she was inches away from running away from the situation again. Well, Ratchet was going to offer her a way to back out of the situation if she so wanted.
"You can go and rest in my quarters if you wish. You've had a… rough day." Understatement of the year. Attacking Sunstreaker and getting to live to tell the tale. Not a feat many could accomplish. At that moment Ratchet realized he had no idea what Aurora had been doing while they were gathered around the sparkling. He hoped Sides would have been smart enough to let things cool down and keep Sunstreaker away from her.
Aurora seemed to ponder the offer for a while and her stance relaxed somewhat. Ratchet made a mental note about that. Apparently offering her a way out had been the way to go.
"I'd like to stay… Is it okay for me to meet the newcomer?" Aurora glanced towards the med-bay table where the sparkling was next to Sam and Mikaela.
"Go ahead. Just don't get scared if she starts climbing all over you. Sparklings like to do that."
"Bee sometimes recharged on Optimus' shoulder when we traveled. Primus, that was ages ago… You were so small… So tiny… Sometimes he recharged on the command center's table while I was on duty. Those were the days…" Ironhide reminisced to Aurora who smiled back at him.
Ratchet could almost hear his fans choking. Ironhide had a dreamy look on his face. A dreamy look. The pit was freezing right now, right?
.:At least tell me you recorded that?:. He sent to Bumblebee who had seemingly forgotten how to operate himself as he just stared at Ironhide with wide optics.
"I'm sure he was a cute sparkling!" Aurora laughed.
.:Bee? Bee?! BEE!:. Ratchet was about to see whether there was any processor activity left on Bee when he finally managed to compose himself.
.:Did… did he just? I mean, I didn't imagine that. You saw that too? Right? He had a… a… I can't even say it.:.
.:Ironhide sporting a dreamy look. And neither of us caught it on tape.:.
.:Frag!:.
Meanwhile Aurora had lowered herself a bit so she could look Mocha straight in her optics.
"Hello there little one. Aren't you cute!" she stated and smiled. Mocha stared back at her and cocked her helm to the side.
"Mocha! Frag! Shit!" She smiled proudly after the words boomed from her speakers.
Aurora looked like she didn't know whether to laugh or cry. To be honest, Ratchet didn't neither.
"Her name is Mocha and she was born from a coffee maker! Nice to meet you, I'm Samuel Witwicky, but everyone calls me Sam," Sam introduced himself.
"Or menace…" Ratchet muttered and coughed when Sam turned to look at him accusingly.
"And I'm Mikaela. Mikaela Banes."
The look on Aurora's face quickly changed to that of bewilderment.
"Mikaela Banes? As in… Cal's daughter?! From Tranquility?!" she exclaimed. Now it was Ratchet's turn to be amazed. The chances of them knowing each other… Or even being relatives….
"How did you…?"
"I'm Aurora! Banes! My father is your father's cousin! We met a couple of times when you were like… nine? Maybe ten. You had this ridiculous bowl haircut, because Cal had wanted to save money and cut your hair himself."
"Uncle Ralph's Aurora? You have a brother named Leo? And a cat called Chocolate McPuffins!"
Ratchet was speechless. And the cat's name wasn't the only thing that had made him that way. Aurora was related to Mikaela. Second cousins he believed the term was.
He had not seen this coming. He knew they shared the same last name, but he had thought that was just a coincidence. He should have checked. Dammit.
"Chocolate McPuffins?!" both Bumblebee and Sam blurted out at the same exact moment. Aurora looked like she wanted the ground to swallow her.
"I lost a bet to my brother…" she muttered as an explanation.
"Once I lost a bet to the twins. They made me go to Ironhide's quarters and paint the walls pink!" Bumblebee chimed in.
"IT WAS YOU?" Ironhide yelled and tried to grab at Bumblebee who swiftly hid behind Aurora's back.
"Never mind the cat and your walls! You are actually relatives?" Ratchet commented.
"And she is an Autobot now?" Sam yelled. "My girlfriend's second cousin is an Autobot, I'm a dad to an Autobot and, and, and… Wow. Just wow. And you never explained to me how that is even possible? Like… Wow! My mind is officially blown!"
"Your mind is always blown!" Mikaela commented dryly. "But seriously, this is quite… I mean, I haven't seen you in ages and now you are a giant robotess?" Mikaela looked at Ratchet and he was once again reminded that Mikaela was actually quite smart.
"We did check her, she is genuine," Ratchet said to Mikaela's unspoken question. "She is Aurora Banes and she was previously a human. No matter how weird that may sound. I had no idea you are relatives, though."
"I… I got transported to this body after I died," Aurora said quietly. "It probably had something to do with the fragment I had on my chest. Or that at least is Ratchet's theory."
"You died?" Sam gasped as Mikaela put hand on her mouth looking shocked. Aurora nodded, her faceplates becoming more and more strained.
"That's horrible! I'm so sorry! Do your parents know? That you're here?" Mikaela asked her. Ratchet was starting to feel they were on a dangerous territory. Aurora hadn't agreed on their decision not to tell easily. If someone were to agree with her, would she contact them on her own?
Aurora shook her head.
"No," she said quietly. "It was deemed best that I stay dead."
"The cons," Sam realized, "they would have a field day with this."
"We don't have enough botpower to keep everyone under surveillance," Ironhide said. "They'd be in a lot of danger."
"I understand," Aurora sighed. "I understand, but I don't have to like it."
"Yep, it sucks," Sam offered and then realized he'd offered another swear word to Mocha's repertoire. "I'm so sorry, Mocha, please don't use that-"
Except that Mocha wasn't where she had been. Everyone looked at the spot where Mocha had been just an astrosecond earlier. Ratchet could have sworn she had been there one moment. Then he had blinked. Apparently he had forgotten how quick sparklings could be.
"Mocha? MOCHA?" Sam yelled frantically.
"She couldn't have gone far. The doors are closed," Aurora pointed out.
"But this medical bay. There are all sorts of torture devices and instruments!" Sam argued and flailed his arms around.
"She could hurt herself on Ratchet's hatchet!" Bee said with wide optics.
"I know someone who's going to hurt themselves on my hatchet if they don't shut their audio," Ratchet muttered. His med-bay was filled with all sort of small crevices where a sparkling could hide themselves. He just hoped she hadn't found his stash of high grade. That would be bad. Even Ironhide didn't know he had one.
"Fragging sparklings and their quick and silent peds!" Ironhide muttered. "I'm too old for this."
"Tell me about it!" Ratchet muttered and started to shuffle through various shelves and drawers while Bumblebee was searching underneath his operating table.
"Why does everything need to be so big?! I can't help at all! MOCHA! MOCHA! COME HERE AT THIS INSTANT!"
"Oh my god, you sound just like your mother!" Mikaela noted, horrified.
"I do not!" Sam argued. Both Mikaela and Bumblebee just threw him an unimpressed look. "Oh frag, I sound just like my mother. Ew. Ew, ew, ew! Please, Mocha, come back. I don't want to turn into my mother. This is not healthy for my sanity."
"I found her!" Ironhide yelled and all eyes and optics turned to him. Ratchet mentally cursed. Of course. Of fragging course.
The sparkling was contently napping right on top of Prowl's chestplate. Of all the places, the sparkling chose the one that she shouldn't go even near. Ratchet would have been happier if she had actually found his secret stash.
"Hey, little one. That's not a good place for you to recharge," Ironhide muttered gently and lifted the sparkling away. She just cooed, content, and continued her nap on Ironhide's palm. Prowl didn't react at all. Not that Ratchet had expected him to.
"Is that Prowl?" Sam whispered to Bumblebee not so quietly. "He looks like he's dead."
"He might as well be," Ratchet answered darkly. "I just hope our sparkling realizes he's not the person to bond with right now."
"What do you mean?" Bee asked with wide optics. "She could bond with Prowl?"
"There have been some cases where being close with a spark shocked bot has caused a sparkling to deteriorate as well," Ratchet explained. "It's more common if the sparkling is unbonded, like our little Mocha here. So it's best if we at least try to keep her away from Prowl until Optimus has decided who is going to be her guardian and we can get her a guardian bond."
"I don't get it," Sam said.
"Unbonded sparklings crave a bond. Sometimes they try to bond with someone with a spark shock. More often than not the results are not pretty," Ironhide said.
"Why would they try to bond with someone who has a spark shock?" Bumblebee asked.
"Maybe she knows he's sad and tries to comfort him the only way she knows?" Aurora suggested.
Ratchet furrowed. Sparklings were sensitive, so it was not that farfetched.
"Has anyone ever recovered?" Mikaela asked, with a worried scowl on her face.
"From spark shock?" Ratchet ensured and grimaced. "None of the bots I know."
He glanced at his friend's unmoving body. The odds were against him, but he wouldn't let Prowl go down without a fight. Ratchet would crawl to the pit and back to make Prowl whole again.
