So, the other night, one of my friends was longboarding was hit by a car. He's in a coma right now, so I channeled into this chapter. Send up prayers for him to get better if your religious, every thought counts.
I'm going to take to the bunker. That seems like the smartest idea.
Ratchet's holoform vanished in a flurry of harmless blue sparks and his optics watch carefully as Ellie slowly woke up.
Her heart-rate rise slightly, and her eyes fluttered open. She lay there for a moment, her thinking face on, before her head rolled to look at Ratchet. They stared at each other until Ellie looked away, guilt flashing through her eyes.
"How are you feeling?" Ratchet asked, checking the monitor by the berth. Sideswipe twitched where he was laying on the other side of the room, where Sunstreaker had remained offline for a good week or so, getting the recharge he needed after so many lunar cycles of not resting. Sideswipe often drifted in and out of awareness, and right now, he was watching Ellie with dull but curious optics.
"Mentally or physically?" Ellie murmured, blinking slowly up at the bright light above her.
"Physically, Elina. I'm a medic, not a therapist." Ratchet replied, rolling his optics.
"My left arm hurts, my leg hurts, and I have a migraine." She replied.
"The migraine is expected, your legs are both stiff from not moving three weeks, and your arm should hurt for several more days, possibly a week." The CMO's voice took a professional air, and he avoided looking at Ellie.
"Ratchet…." She rolled her head over to look at him and sat up, using only her right arm.
He didn't answer, and Ellie touched her left arm. Her mocha fingers trailed up and down the metal attachment on her arm, and her lips curved down.
After several minutes of silence, Ratchet spoke. "Your arm was damaged in the explosion, and I was forced to amputate. The prosthesis is made of Cybertrainum, and I've attached it to the nerves in your arm. Once your body adapts to the prosthesis, it should act as your normal arm did. The skin around where I have attached it will be sore, and I would not suggest heavy lifting for several days. The burns on your body have been mostly healed, but take care with them. I want you in the Med-Bay for several more days for observation."
"Ratchet, where is Leon? Is she alright?"
The Med-Bay fell deathly silent, and Sideswipe's optics turned to stare at his servo, which was intertwined with his brother's. Ratchet's optics shuttered, and he pulled his chair over to the berth.
"Ellie, we are doing the best we can with our limited technology," Ratchet cleared his throat, obviously a nervous habit. "But we haven't seen, heard, or gotten a Decepticon signal since Texas."
"I asked about Leon, not the Decepticons." She growled, her single operational hand curling into a fist.
"The 'cons took her." Sideswipe spoke up, his voice nearly a whisper. "And we can't find them. She's alive."
Ratchet shook his head. "Excuse Sideswipe, please, he is not in the right frame of processor at the moment. The pit-spawned 'cons are not merciful and they hate humans. If Leon fell into their clutches, and we haven't seen helm nor tail-pipe of them since the Texas Incident, the most logical answer is Leon is offline."
Ellie's eyes widened in shock. Leon was offline….offline was the Autobot equivalent of dead….Leon was dead. How could Leon be dead!? Leon was the most energetic, most alive human she knew. Leon couldn't be dead. She wasn't allowed to be dead.
Leon wasn't dead. She was possibly the most stubborn person in the entire fucking universe, and if Ellie said she wasn't dead, than God dammit all to hell, Leon was not dead!
Ratchet seemed to sense that Ellie was pushing herself in denial. "Decepticons are ruthless and unforgiving. They probably tortured her for information, and if they didn't torture her at all, then she's the subject of some sick experiment at the servos of Soundwave. Either way, Ellie, Leon is dead. There is no bringing her back, and there is no way she survived."
The mocha skinned woman's eyes narrowed into dangerous green slits, anger flashing across her face. Her arm lifted, her fingers twitching towards her face.
Ratchet, being ever prepared for some sort of catastrophe, pushed a small needle into the flesh of her right elbow before she managed to claw her face off or start punching at him. Either would wound her further, and Ellie needed to recover.
Ellie pressed her forehead to the side of Mirage's helm, fighting off waves of tears. He purred at her in response, one of his digits rubbing her back.
The mocha skinned woman had been released from the Med-bay yesterday, and hadn't split with Mirage since. He offered her a shoulder to cry on, and was constantly there to take care of her.
An angry rev came from the direction of Sunstreaker, who was standing beside them, his servos curled into fists and his depressed brother hunched beside.
Will had taken "center-stage", so to speak. His voice was husky, filled with tears, and as he spoke, they ran down his face. Epps was silently crying near the podium next to the empty grave in the ground. And empty coffin sat in front of the podium, filled with flowers and pictures, mostly of Leon.
"My name is William Lennox, most of you know me as Major Lennox. I'm Leon's uncle. It's privilege to be here today to honor her life. My condolences extend to all of you, because each of us is here for the same very sad reason."
"I didn't know what to say today…because I realize that there are many things I don't know about Leon, about her life. Many of you here are her close friends, people and bots she saw and interacted with everyday, and you may know her better than I did. In a sense, we are each mourning for someone very different, because each of us knew and loved Leon in our own way. We each have our own feelings, our own memories, and our own connections to Leon."
He swallowed thickly before continuing.
"The Leon I know –knew- was a daddy's girl. She was my brother's only daughter. We were close when she was young, and we both loved her deeply. I took her in when John died, just weeks after Cassandra died. Cassandra was a Marine, a loving mother and lovely person; she was John's wife. I had a hand in raising Leon. She was spunky, fun, very loud, and always up to trouble."
"Leon always knew what she was going to do. She was going to follow in her father's footsteps, be a mechanic. She did. She went to college for a few years, and stayed with Ellie, Sergeant Epps' niece. They knew each other through us."
"The last time we spoke, she was cursing at me for making her ride a plane; she is –was- horribly afraid of them. This stemmed from her adopted brother's death. He died in a plane crash, at only twenty-eight. I told her I loved her as she was getting on the plane, and she looked at me with a look I hadn't seen for several years, and she said 'Uncle Will, I love you too. Keep that in mind when I come back worse for the wear.' I was sending her to do liaison duty, to meet and introduce the Wrecker unit to Earth, and I'd told her they were rowdy. I don't think either of could have foreseen her not coming back."
"I think in the days to come, I personally will realize more and more the impact Leon had on my life; I'll see her in the little things around base, I'll see her fierce spirit, her passion for fun, and I'll see her every time I look in the mirror. We shared the same eyes."
"One thing I've heard a lot since Leon was announced to have passed is 'I don't know what to say. There are no words to express my feelings.' Well, you're right, there are no words. No one has ever invented the word, or words, to express what we experience when someone passes on. That's okay. Language has its limitations. The message still comes through, and we appreciate that. You don't have to say anything, simply being here speaks in volumes."
"On behalf of what remains of our family, I thank you for being part of Leon's life." He stepped away, holding himself together.
Ellie refused to cry. What was the point, when Leon was alive? She hid her face, her forehead against Mirage's helm as he stood stoically near the back of the group with the twins.
Sunstreaker was silent, his servos curled into fists, anger on his face, and his brother's servo on his shoulder. His optics were glazed, as were Sideswipe's, and Ellie watched them silently. Sunstreaker's optics shifted slowly to her and the pair stared for a moment before looking away. His servos relaxed slightly, but he did not look at the empty coffin again.
"I did not know Leon as well as I should have," Ellie's head snapped around to the Autobot commander, who was speaking in his comforting tones. "And I dearly wish that I had taken the time to do so. Leon was wonderful at what she did and she loved her occupation. I do not think that she could have done anything else and have done it so well."
"Leon enjoyed playing pranks, and this made her great comrades with two of my best fighters. We forced upon her the duty of liaison, and I feel that if we had not, perhaps Leon may have lived."
"I, myself, have suffered the loss of someone dear to me, and I believe that if Elita-One, my sparkmate, had met Leon, they would have gotten along. Leon reminded me of a younger Elita, and though we did not interact often, I held her close to my spark."
Optimus lowered his azure optics to the empty coffin, and he lowered something into it. Ellie drew in a breath as did the other Autobots.
"I have always thought Leon to be part of the ranks of Autobots, and I wish I had accepted her sooner." He lifted his eyes from the Autobot insignia he'd place in the empty coffin, on top of the flowers near the spot Leon's head would be. "Leon Lennox will always be in my spark, as an Autobot and a friend."
The funeral filled itself with speeches, some that made Ellie tear up, others that made Will chuckle sadly, but in the end she did not step foot on the podium, and the twins did not move from their spot.
The moment the coffin had been lowered into the grave, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe had transformed and driven away, showering the humans in the back rows with debris and dust. Mirage followed quickly with Ellie, though not as fast nor as soon.
When they found the pair, Sunstreaker was demolishing the Seeker Trine piece by piece in the holographic training room. Sideswipe was helping him this time, and had appeared to have left the dark mood he'd been in for the last week.
Mirage and Ellie watched as they took their anger out on the holograms before Mirage turned it off and faced their wrath.
"She's not dead." Ellie was first to speak when the twins whirled on them, wrist blades out. That made the pair stop, glance at each other and subspace their blades. "You think so too?"
"I've known Leon most of my life." Ellie murmured, crossing her arms over her chest. The metal one twitched, but did what she wanted. "She is the most stubborn, immature, person I know. She would keep herself alive on sheer willpower alone, and she would do it to spite the Decepti-creeps."
"She's alive," Sideswipe muttered sadly. "But there's no getting her back. Not if she's an experiment, and not if she's barely holding on. And if we did get her back…she wouldn't be the same. You've seen what Prowl is like…."
"It's not fair!" Sunstreaker growled, kicking a piece of scrap on the floor into the wall. It made a large dent before it clattered nosily to the ground.
"The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places, but still there is much that is fair. Life is under no obligation to give us what we expect. When you have lost hope, you have lost everything. And when you think all is lost, when all is dire and bleak, there is always hope." Mirage replied, almost in a whisper, before venting heavily and leading the twins to the rec room, where no doubt three cubes of high grade waited for them.
Autobot-Fangirl0203: Thank you. I'm glad you liked it.
Topkicker26: I'm glad you like Ellie. I personally think that Ellie is a sweetheart, and she was created by one of my good friends. I'm glad you like both of them though. I'm honestly so pleased that I'm getting personalities right for the twins and Mirage. And thank you for the chica alert, I didn't even realize I put that in there.
TatteredAngel42: *is smothered* Thank you. I'm glad you find it so addicting. I'm trying to branch out a bit with character development, and more realisme, because I know that I'm pretty good at writing crack, but I needed to expand. I'm so pleased that you love Tattoos.
Guest: Yes, it's that kind of story, but I'm hoping to add twists to the whole idea. I realize it's way over done, but this is the path I've chose. I'm glad you adore Ellie. And I'm working on Leon, slowly.
2211Nighthawk: Thank you. In most of the FF's I read, Starscream is an aft-kissing coward and he's not that smart. Starscream was not only the Prince of Vos before the war, but he was a scientist too. Scientists are fragging smart, dammit! Everything that Starscream does has some sort of logic to it. At the end of the day, the Decepticons are all only looking out for themselves, and the best way to survive is kiss ass. If Starscream was a bit more powerful, and wasn't watched constantly by Soundwave and the other 'cons, he would probably be the leader of the Decepticons by now. It ticks me off when everyone forgets that Starscream is actually really quite intelligent. He had to work his way to Second in Command, he's not there by default. So thank you!
