A/N: Thanks to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday. It was a great day... once I'd killed Nightmare for the whole… 'other name' business. I… took care of her. (go see my DA page to find out how.)
And at least only 6 of you followed her instruction on 'the other name'... you would do well to run.
"Humm." Scrap sighed to herself, looking at the jacket before her, judging it. "No." she decided at last then put it back and moved on. "Come on."
Her companion silently followed behind her as she patrolled the shop, looking over the many products, wondering if they would be suitable until suddenly she spotted something in the corner and hurried over.
It was a pair of dog tags, blank but with a deal stating the shops engraver would put anything on them for a small fee. "Perfect." She laughed and hurried towards the till, partner at her heel. "Excuse me, can I have this? And… the engraving?"
The man behind the counter nodded and rang it in. "That's three dollars please." As she handed over the money, his gaze shifted to her side. "Umm, I'm sorry but you can't have dogs in here."
Scrap blinked at him. "Pardon?"
He looked down behind her. "Your dog. We don't allow dogs in here, he'll have to wait outside, I'm sorry."
Looking down at her side, she saw the dark black furred creature looking up blankly at her. Then the girl laughed. "Ah, I'm sorry but Ravage isn't a dog. So he's ok in here."
As he passed over the tags, the shopkeeper stared at the beast. "It's not a dog? Well what… what is it then?"
Stroking his head, the human nodded. "Ravage is jaguar. He's perfectly harmless, unless you wish to harm him." She looked at the bag with her gift in, she shrugged. "Where do I get the engraving done?"
His eyes widened as he backed off all of a sudden. "A what!"
"The engraving? The poster said I could get the tags engraved."
The man appeared more interested the other fact. "You're telling me that is a jaguar! Like the big cat? The… carnivorous big cat."
"Yes. I've known him since he was cub. He's almost fully grown now. So, the engraving?"
Dumb stuck, the man stared at the cat as it patently sat at the female's side. It appeared to be looking at him as if he was stupid. Which, in a way, he did feel. "Up… upstairs, by the watches."
With a sweet smile, the woman nodded. "Thank you. Come along Ravage."
Flicking his tail in the air, Ravage stood and followed behind, his eyes tight for anything that may harm his mother. His father would never forgive him if something did happen to her.
He did quiet enjoy the looks he got while out with the humans, the way people tried to pet him and he would hiss and growl at them, the arrogance he felt towards them.
The one thing he hated was being compared to a canine. It made his heckles grow at the idea of being compare to those mutts. He'd seen them; common, stupid animals, chasing their own tails with no mind of their own. He knew he was different, the chip in his skull made realise he was different but that didn't mean they had to be so stupid.
As his mother figure stood talking to some other human, he sighed and decided to go prowl the shop floor, sniffing around while looking for something to eat. Problem was; nothing was really 'Ravage friendly' in this human world. Perhaps Scrap would make a call at the butchers on the way home, pick him up some venison for dinner.
He stopped suddenly as he turned to look back at his tail where a small human child was stood with it in his grip. His eyes narrowed on it. Release my tail. He growled, pulling his tail out but the child's grip just increased. "Kitty!"
Well, at least you got that part right. Ravage snarled while trying once more to free his tail. Now, let my tail go.
The child laughed as it shook the tail in her grip. "Kitty! Kitty! Kitty!"
He growled softly and showed his fangs to her, pulling his tail even harder from her grip. Will you just let go of my tail!
"Tina? What have you got here darling?" A woman said, looking at the girl but then down on jaguar. "Oh my… what is…?"
The child looked up with a large pleading eyes to her mother. "Can I have him? Pleaseee?"
Ravage eye's widened a little at the display. Wow, she's good. But with the child distracted by her mother, he was able to finally yank his tail free and hurried as fast as he could away from the child and back to the human. Mother! He yelled as he went towards her and curled up at her feet, purring. This place is weird.
His head reached up to her hand and allowed her to stroke him between the ears. "Where did you get to Ravage?"
You don't want to know. He chuckled, enjoying the attention. Please say we are finished here.
Scrap smiled as she knelt to his side, scratching under his chin. "I know you want to go Ravage but Breakdown is coming home today and I want to get him something special."
His eyes pleaded with her but he just licked her cheek softly causing her to smile and stand back up waiting for the engraver.
It took a while but finally the man handed over the tags. "Here you go miss."
Checking it over, she nodded. "It's perfect. Thank you. Come on Ravage, let's go home."
Leaving the store, Ravage stayed at her side before he stopped and turned, his nose catching the smell of something he liked. Scrap turned to look at him, the large Black Jaguar in the middle of a high street, the only movement being his tail flicking to the left and right. "Ravage, come on. What's wrong?"
He turned to look at her before walking after his nose, knowing full well the woman would follow. When he stopped, he looked up at the store he was outside before looking over to her, trying to duplicate the look the child had given her mother. Staring down on his childish, pleading eyes, Scrap laughed. "Alright, I guess you've been good enough." She looked at the shop. "You stay out here."
Sitting down, Ravage purred to himself as the woman entered the butchers and spoke with the man behind the counter then over the display before her, tapping her cheek while daring small glances at the cat and then placed her order. The butcher appeared amazed by how much she was buying, coming out with four large bags full. Money was never a problem with the cons, it was just numbers to them so with a simple card they could withdraw any amount they wanted from anywhere. It was… fraud but Scrap didn't care anymore. She liked having stuff. And Ravage needed feeding.
With bags full of meat, she left the shop and stood before him, holding up the bulging plastic. "Happy?"
He purred across her knees, to show his affection for her before heading off down the road and out of the centre, meeting up with a pair of drones who took them all home.
As they arrived at the Nemesis and the drone held out his hand to help her down, Scrap's communicator bleeped with a red light, signally an emergency. "Knockout?"
"Scrap! I need you to get here! NOW!"
She instantly broke out into a run, leaving Ravage and her bags behind her as she made her way to the medical bay. There was a group of people outside, most of them sporting small wounds but nothing worth worrying about. The fact they were outside meant someone inside was in a serious state.
Many of them tried to talk to her but she just ran past and into the bay. Knockout was stood over one of the medical tables where a body was lying, looking up at her with panic in his eyes. "Scrap, I need your help. I can't do this alone."
With a nod, she hurried over but then looked at the body. "Breakdown." She whispered.
Breakdown was a mess, his crest was ripped open, energon was flowing everywhere, the same to his face. He looked like someone in the middle of open heart surgery. Or worse, an autopsy.
Knockout sighed, his hands deep in his chest. "Scrap! Snap out of it! Come on, I need your help!"
Nodding, she went over to him and stared down. "What do you need?"
"The body is too damaged." He stated. "I need your help getting his spark out. Once that's stabilised, we can work without risking his life."
"Stabilise a spark!" She paled at the idea. "Knockout, I'm not ready for that. I've only ready the theory twice at most!"
His eyes narrowed fiercely on her before softening to try and calm her down. "I'll talk you through it."
Her eyes shifted to the already exposed part of Breakdown's chest. In the middle, where a human heart would normally be, was a large saggy dark blue pocket of muscle, trembling with each passing moment. The spark was within that pocket, keeping it safe from harm and powering the body.
Taking a steadying breath, she nodded. "What do I need to do?"
"I've got my hands on the worst of the bleed, if I let go, his spark will fail at once. I need you to take a scalpel and cut along the top of the chamber."
With the blade in hand, she turned and looked at the pulsing organ before spotting that her hands were trembling. "Knockout I…"
She felt his presence as he leant closer to her from across the table. "You can do this Scrap. Just calm down and concentrate."
Steadying herself once again, Scrap leant over and placed the tip of the surgical tool at the top of the chamber. It felt like she was pressing on an old saggy balloon and she gradually pressed down, into the tissue. Hand trembling, she drew a line down along the top of the sack, blue energon seeping from the incision but also releasing a soft bright light from inside.
Heart pounding, the human stared at the spark before her.
A pure light blue orb of hazy light, like looking at a star that floated unaided inside the body but this one flickered a little darker and trembled, as if cold.
The movement snapped her out of her trance and she hurrying to a machine at the side of the operating table and pulling it forwards.
"Right." Knockout said. "Use the platform and place it gently under the spark."
"Like flipping pancakes." Scarp mumbled to ease her own worries as she gently eased the flat round plate under the spark, coating it in energon and taking the pressure of the spark from its barer.
Knockout kept his eyes on what she was doing while his hands locked on Breakdown's bleeds. "Now, slowly lift it up and place it in the stabilising chamber. Slowly."
Her knuckles cracked under the pressure Scrap was applying to the handle as she lifted the orb up. It was near weightless but it did go dark for a moment and tremble a little as it was removed, taken from its host, hovering just above the platform as if magnetised against it.
Turning on the spot, Scrap carefully held the handle with both hands and placed the spark and platform inside a large metal box on the machine at her side. It was designed to hold them both and once inside, the spark began to glow even brighter and it stopped trembling, showing it was getting stronger once again.
With a deep sigh, Scrap lent back from the situation until she felt a hand on her shoulder and saw Knockout staring at her with a soft comforting smile. "Well done. That was text book perfect."
Still pale and shaken, Scrap managed a small smile before looking back at Breakdown who now appeared to be completely dead. "Will he be alright now?"
"With his spark stable, I can deal with the rest of his wounds. The problem will be getting his spark back into his body."
"But he'll be alright?"
Knockout winked. "He's too stubborn to die kid."
Scrap smiled at his confidence then let out a deep breath. "Will you be alright seeing to him alone? I really should see to those outside, get them ready for battle again."
"Spoken like a true medic. I'll call if I need you."
~#~
Since his wounds were now seen to, and his body was in a deep recharge to help it recover, Breakdown had been moved from the main med bay to the same long term room that Lord Megatron had been in a few months ago, set up to the machines to keep him alive.
Scrap slowly entered the room and looked over at the red haired medic sat at the side. "Knockout, I finished with the others and cleaned up."
"Thank you Scrap."
"Is… is he going to be alright?"
"If he makes it through the night then he'll be fine. It's tough on the body, having the spark removed."
Scrap stared over at the body then blinked. "Can… can I sit with him for a bit?"
"Sure. He'd like that, I'm sure. I need to go get some energon anyway. My comm.'s open, call if anything changes." He hugged her softly and stroked her hair back. "He'll be alright sweet spark."
Scrap nodded and watched as he left, leaving her alone with her wounded brother, stepping over in the silence and pulled up a small stool to his right, reaching out and holding his hand gently. "Hey Breakdown." She said softly, as if not wanting to wake him up. "It's been a while. I was really looking forwards to seeing you today. You know, I was going to cook chicken soup for you, just the way you like it. With the little pasta bits?"
Her thumb absentmindedly brushed against the back of his before she let go and reached into her back pocket, pulling out a small plastic bag. "I was going to give you this later but… maybe you should have it now." She tipped the dog tags into her palm and looked over the beautiful engraving on the front. "It has your name on it." She informed him, placing the tags in his palm and her hand over the top. "I… I thought you might like them, they seem your kind of thing." Her eyes lifted to look up at his sleeping face; his right eye gone, too damaged to be saved and now was nothing but a patch. As she leant over and brushed his hair back from around the dark grey metal, Scrap had to feel that he was lucky, if that was his only lasting injury. "Please, wake up."
"Nurse."
Suddenly she blinked and looked up at the entrance to the side room. "Lord Megatron." She stood up and brushed down her shirt. "I'm sorry my lord, do you need anything?"
The mech frowned as he looked at her but then over at Breakdown. "How is the patient?"
"We don't know. He was quiet seriously hurt. Knockout said that if he makes it through the night, he'll be alright."
"I see."
Returning to her seat, Scrap shifted her attention back to Breakdown but she soon realised there was still a presence behind her. "My lord?"
The leader looked at the before frowning at her. "You are concerned about him?"
Hand in the soldier's, the nurse nodded. "Yes sir."
"It is unsuitable for a member of a medical team to have sentiment for soldiers."
The human blinked as she looked at the leader. "I would have to disagree."
His eye brow quirked. "Oh? And why is that?"
"I understand that it can make things complicated. But having feelings for those we are healing makes us more dedicated in our work, that we are more determined to do well."
Megatron thought about that for a moment before scratching his chin. "I see." He murmured, eyes still on her. "But do you give this much… attention to anyone?"
Shaking her head, she placed her hand back in Breakdown's. "No, I wouldn't to just anyone. But Breakdown is… Breakdown is… he's like a brother to me."
"A brother? Yet you are human."
"That's being related. He is a brother to me more in spirit than anything else. You see… a long time ago, I… I had a family of my own but it was very small, just the three of us. Unfortunately my mother died when I was 14 years old and my father died five years later. I was an only child and I had no aunts or uncles and my grandparents died before I was even born. After that, for years, I thought I was alone. I was old enough to stand on my own, with just my friends around me. But friends are very easy to lose so I've spent a very long time just drifting on my own." She nodded to herself, looking up at the lights. "And yet when I arrived here, I found so much. I found a whole new family. The brother I never had in Breakdown. I'd call Airachnid an aunt but she's far too… lewd for that. More a big sister than an aunt. Dreadwing…" She paused to think then smiled. "Dreadwing is definitely an uncle; always there with good advice, to protect or to scold but never to impose himself."
Megatron paused before looking at her closer. "And Knockout?"
The human paused, thinking but then chuckled and nodded. "I know he jokes about being me being his sparkling, but in honesty… I do see him as a father to me. He's… a great teacher and really cares for and looks after me. He reminds me of my real dad as well, the quirky way he is." She froze, looking up at the ceiling, smiling. "I never thought I would ever find another family but… here I am… surrounded by one."
Beside her, Megatron took a moment to think, to allow what she was saying to sink into him. "Indeed. But I would even hedge to that you're so called family stretches even further than that."
"What do you mean?"
"I have seen the way drones look at you." He stated, looking over at the other wall. "And I have heard the recordings of your songs. You have an impressive way of raising the moral of this ship."
"Really?" Scrap said, blinking. It had been a long time since she had sung for anyone, she'd forgotten how everyone had enjoyed it.
"Indeed. In fact, moral has been lacking recently." His head turned to the side, looking down on her stunned frame. "Would you consider performing for the crew?"
Her dark green eyes shot up into his dark red ones, wide with amazement as she staggered to her feet. "You… you want me to sing? For the crew?"
"Yes."
Her jaw slacked, Scrap stared at him, trying to wrap her head around the idea. "Are you… you sure?"
He stiffened a little. "I would not request it, if I was not sure."
"But…."
Her attention was suddenly grabbed by the machinery behind her, eyes wide as she looked at the registered increase in spark activity. "B…Breakdown!" she hurried over to him, both as a concerned sister and nurse, checking his condition and holding his hand. "Breakdown! Can you hear me? Come on big guy, wake up."
The mech stirred a little, his hand closing around hers, moaning in the pain.
Behind her, Lord Megatron watched for a moment then blinked, turning for the door. "We will continue this discussion later."
Scrap was too happy with Breakdown waking up to noticed, her little human heart beating fast with love as she squeezed her brother's hand. "Yes, Lord Megatron." She intoned, her eyes not leaving Breakdown.
Too caught up in her new hope, she didn't see Megatron's optics trail over her form before he stepped from the room, leaving her in his wake just as Breakdown's remaining yellow eye opened and looked up at her. "Scrap?"
Her eyes filled with tears, the human nodded and leant over to his shoulder. "Yeah, it's me."
"It really is you? I'm not with the All Spark?"
She smiled in his chest. "No bro, you're not dead."
His hand slowly stroked into her hair back. "Don't cry for me bug, I'm alright."
"Don't you dare scare me like that again." Her voice whimpered as the tears flowed. "From now on, you come home every single day, am I clear?"
He laughed, painful as it was. "Yes boss."
Next Week: CommunicationA/N: AHH! And I was wondering why I didn't have any reviews all day! I submitted to DA but forgot Fan Fic! *slaps self on forehead* Blonde moment!
Ops. Sorry to keep you all waiting. I'm gonna blame my cold. Been sneezing and coughing all week! Anyway, don't forget to review and mind the onions.