Author's Note: Thanks to Riptide2, Exactlywhat, and I am Blueberry for reviewing the last chapter! Enjoy and I own nothing but my OCs
Revenge-Genius or Insanity
"Genius is one of the many forms of insanity"-Cesare Lombroso
Some said that genius and insanity were not that far apart. Ratchet was beginning to believe them. It all started when Jetfire came in spouting what they all wanted to dismiss as a ridiculous fairy tale. The problem was, as Starscream had reluctantly admitted, that it sounded too much like something Ramjet would do. Add that to the fact that Sunstorm was no fool, Scalpel was insane, and Flashfire suspected they had some way to get the medic to Earth and you came up with something that sounded plausible. That was unfortunate.
Now Ratchet and Flashfire were trying to come up with anything about Scalpel's virus and how to counter it with little or no information. The result was two irritable medics that everyone avoided like they had the plague. "How's it going?" Ok, almost everyone. Ratchet glanced at his sparkmate with a dark glare.
"How do you think?" he retorted and she gave him a dry smile, shoving Nova into his arms. The sparkling chirped in her sleep and cuddle up next to him with a sound that was almost a purr.
"Do you know what Jetfire told me?" she asked softly but her tone was deadly. Ratchet knew from the bond that something had ticked off Shadow. He pitied anyone who had made her this angry; they were going to pay for it.
"What?" he asked calmly but he was worried. Jolt had told the medic that his friend had been acting strangely in the hours since Sunstorm had delivered his disturbing warning.
"He said that Sunstorm called him brother. Do you know what that means?" Shadow asked coldly.
"That Ramjet sparked not one but two mechs and kept them apart?" Ratchet asked, unsure where Shadow was going with this. The icy fury in his sparkmate's tone wasn't fitting with what he was hearing. There was no reason for the unnatural anger that was flowing to him through the bond.
"No," she said, anger obvious in her tone. "It means Jetfire had a twin that he was never told about it."
"What?" Ratchet asked, his tone suddenly cold.
"I've calculated the time frame. Sunstorm is roughly the same age as Jetfire and Ramjet's sparkmate died just a joor after sparking him," Shadow said. "There's no other explanation. It also means Ramjet purposely lied, probably to both of them." In Cybertron twins were special but the Seekers had always been secretive. Their ways were still a mystery to Ratchet and for everything he learned there was always something else that he didn't know or understand.
"What does that mean for Ramjet?" he asked, guessing by her tone that it wasn't good.
"You have to understand that separating twins at the time they're sparked for our kind can result in sparkshock and death. Doing so results in a sentence of equal severity even if both survived, "she said, her voice void of emotion and her end of the bond a frozen abyss.
"In other words it's a death sentence," Ratchet said, understand. Shadow nodded. "Does Jetfire know or even suspect?"
"Not that I know and I'm guessing Sunstorm found out on his own," Shadow told him.
"So what do you plan to do?" he asked.
"Spread the word through the bonds I share. Jetfire is family as well as a Seeker. The law is clear on what must happen and when Jetfire finds out I'm not sure that he won't kill his creator himself. We need to prevent that at all costs. He wouldn't survive the guilt," she said. Then she turned and left the room leaving Ratchet alone with Nova. The Autobot medic had about sixty seconds of silence before his peace was invaded, this time by Flashfire.
"I have an idea," she told him and her optics were bright with hope. "We don't know what virus Scalpel is using, correct?"
"Yes," Ratchet said flatly.
"We don't need to work to counter a specific a virus then. We need to make a blanket that will at least slow all the viruses if not destroy most of them," she said and her tone was bright.
"Is that even possible?" Ratchet asked, slightly stunned.
"I don't know," Flashfire admitted. "Hook and I were working on something like it before his demise but we never had a chance to test it. It could probably use some tweaking."
"Do you have the program with you?" Ratchet asked and Flashfire nodded, handing over a data pad.
"It's a pretty extensive software and it took us a long time to create. It'd be nice to have another set of optics looking over it to see if we missed anything," she said with a dry grin.
"I don't know whether to say this is genius or insanity," Ratchet said as he flipped the pad on and began looking over the program.
"A little of both," Flashfire said. "I'll be back in a couple of hours. Right now I have to track down Shadow to check on her and that's easier said than done." Ratchet laughed but he was quickly absorbed in the programming even as the other medic left the room.