(posted June 21, 2008)
Disclaimer: See chapter 22.
Thanks a million to the REVIEWERS of chapter 24: Dragowolf (for reviewing first and second version), blood shifter, flamingmarsh, Bluebird Soaring, mou, lady tecuma, jadedfalcon, ArmoredSoul, thechickenlittle, MadameSoybean, ferretsareillegal, Blume, Hearts of Eternity (for reviewing first and second version), theshadowcat, Kesera (for reviewing first and second version), Violetlight (revised version), plenoptic, i-love-me-some-leggypoo, Phoenix13, Xerios, Lecidre, grlwdgrntrk, and Shizuka Taiyou. Thanks to those of you for reviewing both versions and keeping me on track.
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CREDITS: The name 'Nightfire' belongs to lady tecuma from her fic "Sparks and Plasma." She has graciously allowed me to use the name for my purposes in this fic. The Decepticon femme character with that name, however, is mine.
THANK YOU: HUGE thank you to Hearts of Eternity for helping me with the interactions and dialogue in this chapter. Your help and suggestions have been invaluable. You have been wonderful!
EDITS for chapter 25: I didn't have any complaints about this chapter and the reviews were great. I just felt I needed to make the techno babble less confusing. That was quite a challenge. It may not be any easier to understand, but if you read it a few times, it ought to make more sense...LOL! Just skip it if it's too daunting. I have it there for a reason. You can just skip it and go straight to the dialogue that follows if you want. Perhaps, later, when the reason is known, then you can come back and read it.
I also tried to clear a few things up within the text and dialogue about Ratchet. Again, not due to any complaints from you guys, but I was just concerned that I had him looking like he is too behind on medical practices. However, I have been trying to set that up over the last few chapters; the fact that he knows very little about how to treat sparkshock, etc., is because he is a battlefield doctor, etc. Things like missing ports that a bot can live without are normally of less concern to him than missing arms and legs and parts a bot can't do without. But a medic from Floatilla, who deals with sparklings and femmes day in and day out, would know more about that, which is why Nightfire does know. I would think that if Nightfire were thrown a bot with a battlefield injury, then she wouldn't necessarily know how to deal with that. It simply isn't her specialty, just as sparkshock isn't Ratchet's. I think Ratchet is brilliant, and I'll show that more later.
At any rate, I certainly tried, so I hope you like it (smiles again).
I want to thank Kesera for her wording suggestions. I have definitely taken her up on her recommendations of making some wording a bit more clear, so have edited them in. Thank you so much! Also, she has perfectly clarified what I am trying to say about why Ratchet looks like he's behind...He's not behind at all: He's a trauma surgeon, not a family practitioner. Nightfire could best be described as a family practitioner.
Normal text is the present. Italicised text are flashbacks or memory reviews.
Enjoy!
Night Fire
Chapter 25
Misunderstandings and Misconceptions
by Litahatchee
Chromia felt...disoriented.
Her CPU was running memory reviews, but they were strange somehow. They were memories that she was a part of, but she felt like she was outside of herself. It was as if they weren't her memories at all, but someone else's. They might have been Ratchet's, but the majority of them seemed to be coming from...
"Nightfire...My name is Nightfire."
Chromia jerked her optics open to find that someone was connected to her CPU port. At that moment of realization, another memory review that wasn't hers ran through her mind...
---
Nightfire had quickly discovered that Audio Flash, the one that called himself 'Wheeljack,' had not been deceiving her when he said she wasn't a prisoner. She was, indeed, free to move about the med bay. She really didn't have anywhere else to go, so she hadn't even tried to move beyond that. If she ever did, she figured she would find out, then, how 'free' she truly was.
Nightfire walked into the recovery room once the larger medic had gotten Ironhide and Chromia to join again. It was becoming increasingly difficult to get them to do so, as the pair were fighting it, probably due to their guilt and the fact that they couldn't face what had happened to them yet. She certainly couldn't blame them, but she knew that it was extremely important at this point in their recovery. She also knew the Autobot medic was having trouble getting enough energy transferred to Chromia to aid in her recovery. He was using spark-merging to get as much energy transfer as possible between the two, which, at least, he was getting that part right.
However, Chromia needed more than just that balance. So, the Autobot medic was trying to get more energy to her by channeling the energy that would result from Ironhide's overload during the spark-merge. It wasn't working as well as it should have been, so Nightfire came to see if she could figure out why. Of course, the best way to transfer energy was through the interface port. The fact that Chromia was missing hers was making it an extra challenge.
She leaned over the medic to get a better look. The one that called himself 'Wheeljack' was there too. The medic was connecting Chromia's CPU wrist cable to Ironhide's interface on his frame. She could see the problem immediately.
With the connection the medic was making, he was trying to get the energy from Ironhide's overload transferred to Chromia through her CPU cable. However, it was extremely difficult for a Cybertronian to receive energy through a cable. It wasn't entirely impossible, but it was damn well near it.
The best way to transfer energy was from a cable to a port, the absolute best way being through interfacing. She figured the medic already knew that, as it was fairly common knowledge among medics. However, since Chromia no longer had an interfacing port and overloads were typically transferred through interfacing through the frame connections, Nightfire knew what this medic was thinking. Overloads were not transferred through the CPU port. CPU ports were not designed for that.
However, medics gave energy transfusions through CPU ports on a regular basis. The energy wasn't as concentrated as the energy that could be transferred through the interface, but medics did it all the time, since interfacing could be considered too intimate. Only as a last measure did they resort to interfacing. Usually the energy that could get through a CPU port was enough.
She idly wondered why the medic wasn't just doing it himself. Chromia would gain the balance she needed through joining with her sparkmate. The medic could then give her the extra boost she needed by giving her an energy transfusion through her CPU port. Maybe he was just being an Autobot and was being concerned for their 'feelings.' She made a noise in disgust. He turned and looked at her incredulously. She glared back.
Of course, if he could acquire some connection in order to transfer the concentrated energy from the overload of a spark merge, then that would be better. It was certainly worth a try, she conceded.
Energy was energy; even though transferring it through the interface port was better, it could still be transferred through the CPU. It was always transferred from a cable to a port, whether that be from the CPU wrist cable to the CPU port or from the interfacing cable to the interfacing port. Even though energy from the overload caused by a spark merge was super concentrated, it had to be the same thing on some level, she reasoned. Probably not as much energy could get through the CPU port, but it was still a port.
"You've got this connection backwards," she said, finally.
The medic gave her a sidelong glance before turning back to his work, making no move to ask how this was so. Despite the fact that this femme knew how to treat sparkshock, he wasn't sure how much he could trust the Decepticon. It didn't help matters that he was becoming increasingly frustrated with himself for not figuring these problems out on his own. He hadn't become the Autobot CMO for nothing.
Undaunted, Nightfire continued, "The energy from his overload can best be transferred to her this way." She pointed at Chromia's CPU port.
"That's not the same thing," he said, gruffly, without giving her another look.
"Sure it is," Nightfire responded. "Energy transfusions can be given through the CPU port, so at least some of the energy he expends from his overload can be channeled through that port, wouldn't you think?"
"I think this should work better," the Autobot medic said, stubbornly keeping the connection the same. He refused to be upstaged by some Decepticon medic that he didn't even know.
Nightfire shook her head, "No...He recovers from the merge before she does, doesn't he?"
The Autobot medic didn't respond, but she knew the answer already; Ironhide was recovering first.
"That's the problem," she continued, taking his silence as an admission. "She isn't getting the maximum amount of energy from his overload. If he's waking up first, it either means they are overloading at the same time or she is overloading first. He's benefiting from her more than she is from him."
Sure, this was still helping Chromia through the balance of energon they were getting through their merged sparks, but she needed more if this medic expected her frame to recover more quickly.
"She should be waking up before him," Nightfire continued. "It would be best if she doesn't overload at all, so that she doesn't expend any of the energy she already has. He needs to overload first. Since she no longer has an interfacing port, the energy from that can best be transferred from his CPU cable through her CPU port."
Nightfire paused, but the medic said nothing. She continued, thinking that, perhaps, she ought to simplify things for this bit-brain Autobot, "Cables transfer energy, ports receive it."
The medic simmered. "I KNOW that! A youngling would know that!" He didn't need to be told the basics. He was simply improvising the best he could.
Nightfire pointed to the current configuration Ratchet had them in. "Getting his energy through that cable in her wrist to her frame is almost impossible."
'In theory, I could connect Ironhide's interface cable to Chromia's CPU port. THAT would be a weird surprise for them,' the medic thought to himself as a retort.
He almost said that out loud, but had the presence of mind to keep it to himself. Knowing this femme, she'd probably say that he should do that. The whole idea seemed a little too perverse for his liking, even though he was the one that thought it up.
Oblivious to Ratchet's thoughts, Wheeljack nodded his head in response to Nightfire's last statement, "She does have a point there."
"Get out, both of you," the Autobot medic said, wanting nothing more than to be left alone with this.
"Suit yourself," Nightfire said.
She and Wheeljack were almost out the door before she turned around, "Oh, and Autobot Medic..."
"I have a name, you know," the medic interrupted her.
"Oh yea?" she replied sarcastically. "Then what is it?"
"My designation is 'Ratchet.'"
"Ohhh, so you're Ratchet."
Ratchet glared at her. The way she said that...She was less than impressed. She even looked bored.
She harrumphed, "Someone with your reputation...I would have expected a bit...more."
"Say what you are going to say and get out of here," Ratchet's replied curtly.
"Well, Ratchet," she stressed his name for emphasis. "You might want to avoid that configuration in the future," she commented about his current connection. "You also might want to disconnect her wrist cable from his interfacing port before you try something else?" She inflected her voice as if that was a question, but Ratchet knew it was really a statement.
Then, she actually winked at him, "Who knows what could happen."
Ratchet stared at her in confusion as she left the room, the mirror effect of the shiny black overlays of her armor giving the illusion that she was gone before she really was. The femme had lost her mind, he decided. He figured that losing a sparkmate could do that to someone, which was another reason he shouldn't listen to her.
He reached down and disconnected Chromia's wrist cable from Ironhide's interfacing port.
'She is a Decepticon,' he thought to himself, as he continued to make the connections necessary to test her suggestion, '...that isn't of a sound mind.'
He seemed to be trying to talk himself out of trying this, but he didn't have anything to lose, and what she said did make sense. However, he didn't want her to be there to say, 'I told you so,' if it actually worked.
He connected Ironhide's wrist cable to Chromia's port on the back of her neck...and waited. When Chromia gained consciousness well before Ironhide, having finally gained that extra energy she needed from him, Ratchet decided it was time to find out a little more about this 'Nightfire.'
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Chromia was too disoriented to see who was connected, but since some of the memories seemed to be Nightfire's, she jumped to the conclusion that it was Nightfire. She didn't even think about how long it had been since Nightfire had passed.
Nightfire had had to transfer energy to Chromia via her CPU port several times during Chromia's initial recovery. She knew how Chromia felt about it, but there was a time that Ironhide had been absent, so Nightfire did what was necessary for Chromia's survival.
Chromia hated CPU-port energy transfers. Ever since she had been tapped, she didn't want anyone near her CPU. She eventually agreed to allow Ironhide to do it, but only if absolutely necessary. Over time, and since his presence was so comforting, she was okay with him there, but she still didn't want anyone else near her CPU for any reason, even for simple data transfer. Chromia preferred to keep her thoughts and memories to herself.
Data transfers were just that, transferring any specific piece of data. It was done for expediency and accuracy of the data. There were no side affects, no memory transmissions or broadcasts.
With energy transfer, however, there were side affects. It was less controlled than a data transfer. It could result in disorientation and inadvertent memory transmissions from the giving bot and memory broadcasts from the receiving bot. None of these memories were taken, as with tapping, but they could flow freely and randomly. Most of the time, the transmitting Cybertronian didn't even realize it was happening. However, to a bot that had been tapped, it could feel like a violation just the same.
"Nightfire?!" Chromia growled out angrily, still too disoriented to know it couldn't have been her.
When a familiar mech's voice sounded in her audios, Chromia tried to twist away.
"Ratchet!" she yelled as her mind began to clear itself and she realized where, and when, she was. Another memory slipped through their connection...
---
"Who are you? What is your function?" Ratchet asked.
"I'm Nightfire. I'm the CMO of Floatilla."
Ratchet looked at her suspiciously, "The CMO?"
She nodded her head.
"I didn't know Floatilla had a CMO," he sounded very suspicious.
"There's a lot about Floatilla that you don't know," she replied.
"How does a Decepticon know so much about bonded pairs and sparkshock?" he asked next.
"How does an Autobot not know?" she retorted.
The thing is, he SHOULD have known, but he had been dealing in battlefield medicine for so long that he was only prepared for so much. A warrior could live without an interfacing port. It made things harder for him or her, but it wasn't essential. A warrior living without an arm or a leg was another thing entirely. Optimus needed soldiers; Ratchet was going to be sure he had them in working order.
"This is a war...I specialize in battlefield injuries," he growled. "I can repair and reattach any bot that's been blown apart."
"And what about ripped apart family units? Can you repair and reattach them? This IS a war! And I specialize in treating the family units that have to suffer because of it!" she spat back.
Ratchet stared at her. That sounded so strange, especially coming from a Decepticon.
Anticipating his thoughts, she said, "You think a Decepticon is incapable of the compassion that would be needed for such a function?"
"I think a Decepticon is incapable of a lot of things," he replied.
"How very typically narrow-minded of an Autobot," she shot back.
There were numerous misconceptions about all factions. She was guilty of it too. However, what they all needed to realize was that, at their core, they were all Cybertronians, one and the same.
"I find it hard to believe," Ratchet said after some length, "that the Autobots of Floatilla would allow a Decepticon to be the CMO." He just couldn't bring himself to trust that what she was saying was true.
Nightfire sighed sadly, her spark spreading a painful jolt through her frame. "It was Floatilla. Things were different there. It wasn't about factions. It was about protecting the future of Cybertron."
Ratchet suddenly realized that he believed her after all. It had been an unusually peaceful city, and the only place on Cybertron where all factions lived together. The rest of the warring planet could probably have learned something from Floatilla, if they had only paid more attention.
Nightfire bowed her head and whispered, "I guess Lord Megatron has other plans."
Ratchet momentarily glanced away before making optic contact with her.
"I can use your help," he said after awhile.
He hadn't wanted her 'suggestions' at first, but the more they worked, the more it appeared that he could certainly learn a lot from her. He needed her help in order to properly care for his spark-shocked patients.
"I can use yours," she replied.
Nightfire didn't have anywhere else to go. She was also going to need someone to tend to her sparkshock. Besides, she felt an obligation to Prime that she had extended to Ironhide and Chromia, as much of a challenge as that was proving to be. It was a challenge that gave her a purpose, a much needed distraction from her own loss and assured fate. Anything and everything had to be done to stop Megatron. Helping these bots would surely put them in the position to achieve that goal, her own motives being satisfied as well.
As soon as she felt that she had fulfilled her self-appointed obligation, then she could pass on, knowing that she got some amount of revenge, as direct or indirect as that may be. In the very least, she would be satisfied knowing that she had a hand in helping to safe-guard the innocents, as large or small as that may be, now that most of them were gone.
"Well, I am the CMO around here," Ratchet asserted himself with a feral grin, breaking the uncomfortable silence that had suddenly settled around them.
"Fair enough," she said, matching his grin. He could keep thinking that if he wanted.
She glanced at his chassis, "But I am not wearing that Primus-forsaken symbol." She might have told Chromia and the other femmes that she fought with at Floatilla that she would join the Autobots if she survived, but she would have said damn near anything at that point. "I'll help you, but I'm not joining you."
"Fair enough," he replied.
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Ratchet knew all too well how Chromia felt about CPU-port energy transfers. However, she was suffering from spark deprivation and low energon levels, which could be taken care of by simply joining with her sparkmate. From the thoughts that she was broadcasting, he was beginning to see why she wasn't doing so. It was a misunderstanding, but misunderstandings between Ironhide and Chromia could be colossal in scale. For bonded mates, they were both just so stubbornly, fiercely, independent.
Ratchet normally stopped CPU energy transfers if and when he started receiving broadcasts from the other bot, but not in this case. She needed energy now and he was trying to get her a lot of it as quickly as possible.
However, he had been startled when she called him 'Nightfire.' Concerned that he might have been transmitting from his most private of private moments in his life, he almost disconnected, but knowing how badly she needed this, he continued.
He should have known that this deterioration in Chromia was going to happen. He had just figured that Ironhide would take care of her and that everything would be balanced out as they became reacquainted with each other. He didn't anticipate that their problems would surface so soon. He was fairly certain that her meeting Bumblebee precipitated it.
If William Lennox hadn't been with them when they first got there, he would have had them join right then. Chromia would have been better equipped to handle the situation with Bumblebee and Ironhide would have been better equipped to handle Chromia's concern over what appeared to be the complete absence of his memories of their sparkling.
"What happened?" Chromia asked Ratchet once she could clear her head again.
"You came in, said something about Bumblebee and Nightfire...Then, you collapsed."
"Nightfire..." Chromia whispered reverently.
"I know how much you dislike this," Ratchet said about their CPU connection. He had tried to call Ironhide but, "I couldn't get in touch with Ironhide. He still has his comm shut off."
He had then tried to call Bumblebee to go and get Ironhide, but, strangely enough, Bumblebee had turned off his communications system as well.
He couldn't call Optimus to get Ironhide, because Optimus wasn't there at the moment. He had taken up Ironhide's duties at the Army installation and was staying with William Lennox until Ironhide was ready to return.
William Lennox had understood that Ironhide needed some time, but his boss, some 'Colonel Lagier,' did not. Ironhide had been absent for only a few orns, but that time had equalled a couple of months in human time. Colonel Lagier had been demanding to see the new arrival and for Ironhide to come back for more weapons questioning.
Optimus informed the Colonel that he, himself, knew all there was to know about Cybertronian weapons systems and that any questions regarding the new arrival could be directed to him. He even satisfied their demands by going there himself.
Ironhide didn't know Optimus had done that. If he had, he would have felt like he was neglecting his duties. Ironhide was very strict about his obligations. He may not always agree with Optimus's orders, but he took his job seriously. Because of this, Optimus had asked Ratchet not to tell Ironhide what he was doing unless Ironhide asked for him. Optimus knew Ironhide needed time with Chromia. He didn't want to take it away from either one of them, not for the demands of the humans, and especially since he could take care of that himself.
"Open yourself up to Ironhide, Chromia. If you call him, then he can do this instead of me," Ratchet tried appealing to her discomfort with the situation in order to get Ironhide in there and get them joined.
Chromia became angry that Ratchet knew she was closed off to Ironhide. He could only know that through thoughts that she must have been broadcasting through the CPU connection. She tried to remain calm.
"No, this is fine," she said.
Ratchet knew things were bad if she was willing to allow him to continue with the energy transfer. The issue between her and Ironhide was, indeed, a colossal misunderstanding.
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