*** Now updated due to several readers catching a big error on my part! Thank you all!

Title: Puppy Love, Chapter 34
Fandom: Transformers G1 AU
Author: FuziPenguin
Pairing/Characters: Ratchet, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, First Tier, OCs
Rating: PG13
Word Count: 2454
Summary: Sideswipe has no processor to mouth filter, but still manages to provide some nicely shocking and incriminating testimony against TopNotch.
Warnings: Potentially triggery for child/dog abuse.
Disclaimer: This is a piece of fiction. No harm was intended in the creation of this work. All rights belong to the original creators.

The same femme juror who had been concernedly watching Sunstreaker during his testemony let out a shocked cry. She was not alone as several others in the audience did the same. Even Ratchet frowned, his hands clenching on the railing in front of him. Sideswipe was certain their guardian's reaction was only tempered by previous knowledge.

"How do you know this?"

"I saw TopNotch hand over a bunch of credits. Then our Creator walked out of my line of sight; we've never seen him since."

First Tier's optics gleamed, a triumphant look flashing across his faceplates as the murmurs continued throughout the room.

"I see. Sunstreaker mentioned his first real memory was being separated from you. Do you remember this also?"

Sideswipe involuntarily shuddered. He remembered that first separation very clearly. "Yes."

"Is there anything you can add to Sunstreaker's testimony of the event?"

"Uh… it happened right after our Creator left. I remember because we were still so hungry and when they took Sunny away it was like the end of the world: I was cold, my tanks were empty, and I was alone."

Sideswipe's optics rose to meet Sunstreaker's. He wasn't surprised that this was the first complete memory his twin had; it had been a terrifying moment.

"When they put us with the bitch, it was a relief. She made room for us immediately."

First Tier frowned. "Did someone come back for you? To feed you?"

"Oh no, she fed us. Took some doing… we weren't really coordinated, and we were actually smaller than her pups. But she eventually nudged us to her belly. Once there, it didn't take us long to figure out what her teats were for."

Sideswipe hadn't thought much about her before now, but in remembrance, he felt a lot of fondness for that bitch and her pups. They had been one ever-moving, squirming mass of warmth and metal that never yelled or hit. Besides the brief moment with their Carrier and their time with Ratchet, it had been the only time he and Sunstreaker had ever felt safe.

"You drank energon from a… a dog?" First Tier sputtered in disbelief.

"Yeah?" Sideswipe ventured. He startled at a loud exclamation from the audience and turned his head to watch Ratchet mutter something to Wheeljack, arms gesturing about wildly.

What in the Pit? Sideswipe asked, hoping his brother knew what had upset their caretaker.

He's having spark palpitations that we survived on drone-grade energon, Sunstreaker replied dryly. He'll get over it; we're fine. …Gonna die in a few more years, but we're fine for now.

Sunny… Sideswipe began but trailed off at a loss.

Data's suggestion that they had caused their Carrier's death had been horrifying to both of them, but especially to Sunstreaker since he had always felt it was his very existence that had caused their creator to sell them. They had assumed it had been due to financial necessity because of an extra mouth to feed combined with a loss of their Carrier's income.

But Data's words had made them wonder if in addition to the monetary factor, their Creator had blamed them for his mate's passing. Maybe he had been so disgusted with their mere presence that he had gotten rid of them as soon as an opportunity arose.

That thought had been bad enough. Add on those damned statistics about younger twins going mad… Sideswipe had felt Sunstreaker's already fragile psyche crack with each and every word out of that fragging lawyer's mouth.

It had left Sunstreaker reeling, barely afloat in a sea of uncertainty. Only their bond and Ratchet's presence had kept Sunstreaker from sinking completely into despondency. Sideswipe vaguely understood that Data had been doing her job, but Sideswipe would never forgive her for the damage done to his brother.

Stuff if, Sides, Sunstreaker replied wearily.

Just… don't believe everything she said. We'll talk with Ratchet later.

It would have to be a long talk. Sideswipe didn't think Ratchet had deliberately withheld information like that from them. There had been a lot going on since they had met their guardian and Sideswipe was sure that explaining other culture's viewpoints on twins to them had been pretty low on Ratchet's priority list. Nevertheless they needed facts, and Ratchet was just as invested in their future as they were.

"How long were you with the dog and her pups for?" First Tier asked, not noticing Sideswipe's distraction.

"It's hard to say for sure. Maybe a week? We were taken away a day or so after we transformed for the first time. We were injected with something that made us weak and eventually fall offline. When we woke up, the backs of our helms hurt, and we were together in one of the individual dog rooms. I think that was when they injected us with the inhibitory chips. We were left alone for another day or two after that. Then they started training us."

"Do you have anything to add to Sunstreaker's testimony regarding your training?"

Sideswipe cocked his head to the side thoughtfully. "No. No, he got it right. We picked all the commands up pretty quickly. It was the fight training that took us the longest. It went against everything they taught us in not fighting them."

"From what I understand, the two of you were some of the best fighting dogs in the circuits. Do you believe that was true?"

"Not some of the best. The best," Sideswipe boasted. Their bond and superior intelligence had made them a formidable team, beaten only when severely outnumbered or weakened when the time between mergings had grown too long.

First Tier nodded, seeming to take the statement at face value. "You killed other dogs frequently; did you have any moral objections to that?"

Sideswipe shot a quick glance to Data; she was watching him carefully, and he thought for a moment before answering.

"At first we did. But then we realized… these other dogs weren't smart like us. They didn't think like us. The dogs in the kill fights had been trained to keep attacking until either they or their opponents deactivated. Those matches didn't stop until something died.

"So it was either us or them. And if it came down to Sunstreaker or them… I would chose Sunny every time," Sideswipe added, voice turning hard.

"I think we all can see that the bond between you two is very strong," First Tier commented wryly. "Let's move forward; unless you have anything else to add to your brother's testimony?"

At Sideswipe's shake of the head, First Tier continued on.

"All right then. Tell me, Sideswipe – do you clearly remember your first meeting with Ratchet?"

Sideswipe nodded eagerly and leaned forward, much more willing to talk about the happiest weeks of his life than the despairing years that occurred before.

"Sure! Sunny already mentioned that he had gotten hurt the night before. Well, Ratchet was escorted in the next morning by one of the ring guards. He just walked on in, never once showed any fear of either of us. We weren't all that welcoming either. In fact, the guard thought I might attack so he flipped on my shock collar.

"Primus! It was awesome!" Sideswipe exclaimed, wriggling a little in his seat.

"Ratch got so mad that he threw one of his tools at the guard. He hit the guy right in the head and dropped him. Bam! Right to the floor!" Sideswipe said, chortling a little in remembrance. As a first meeting, it wasn't the smoothest, but it certainly had made an impression.

First Tier blinked his optics at Sideswipe for several moments. "Ratchet… hit him?"

Ratchet respectfully asks that you stop, Sunstreaker interjected.

Sideswipe cocked his head and glanced over to his brother. Beside him, Ratchet had his helm lowered, forehelm covered by one hand.

Stop what?

Stop being you, Sides, Sunstreaker replied, amusement at their guardian's embarrassment quite evident in his tone.

Sideswipe's grin widened as Ratchet's optics warily peeked through his fingers up at the witness box.

Never!

"Yeah! The guard got the hint and left. Then Ratchet darted Sunny and started working on him. Even though he didn't know I could understand him, he still talked out loud and described what he was doing every step of the way. He was quick but thorough."

"He didn't know about you at that time?" First Tier asked.

"He suspected we were siblings, even mentioned twins. But he still thought that we were just dogs," Sideswipe said, a little sadly. At that point in their lives, he would have been happy staying a dog as long as he had been owned by someone as nice as Ratchet had been to them that day.

"He looked me over next and gave me ear scritches and a tummy rub." Sideswipe's optic shutters squinted nearly closed in concentration as he paged through his memory files.

"No one besides our Carrier had ever touched me like that before. We got hit and kicked plenty, shocked through the collars daily, but no one ever once patted us on the head. After a while of living and fighting in the rings, it was hard to remember anything else. Ratchet made me think that there was hope for something more."

Sideswipe couldn't help the small, dopey smile he beamed in Ratchet's direction. It was gratifying to see it returned ten-fold.

First Tier took a step back, attracting Sideswipe's attention back to the lawyer. They looked at one another, Sideswipe in curiosity and First Tier with contemplation. Sideswipe could tell that the lawyer was considering the information Sideswipe had given him and deciding where to go next.

It seemed like all of their careful planning was going out the window. A great deal of the information First Tier had wanted exposed was getting out there; it just was coming out in a different way than they had originally agreed upon.

Which was fine by Sideswipe; they had learned in the rings that predictability could get you killed. A little spontaneity never hurt anyone. Well… except that one time… and that other time with the thing…

Sideswipe was snapped out of his musings by First Tier's voice asking another question.

"Did you know that you were inhibited at the time?"

"No. Well… yes…" Sideswipe huffed a quick ex-vent. "It's complicated. For those first few days, we or rather I, remembered our carrier, but I think I was too young to really know what those memories meant. And they faded pretty quickly, especially when we were thrown in with the bitch and then into training."

Sideswipe paused again, his denta worrying his bottom lipplate as he struggled to find the words to describe what he was thinking. "I don't know much about sparklings. And I don't know anything about how sparklings are supposed to learn to transform.

"I mean, obviously we had access to the coding to transform into our dog forms. But I don't think it was a conscious decision to transform when we did. I think it was just instinct; we wanted to fit in. We didn't want to lose what we had with the bitch."

"And later?" First Tier pressed. "Did you realize you had the capability to transform?"

Sideswipe hesitated, mouth open for several seconds before actually speaking. "Not… not really? I mean, we had more intelligence than the dogs around us, so eventually we realized that we weren't truly like them. None of the other dogs got along or communicated with each other like we could. And then of course, there was the spark merging.

"But we were nothing like the mecha around us either. So I knew that we were different, but I didn't know exactly why. It was only when we met Ratchet, and he touched me and spoke to me like he did that I started remembering that there had once been more. I knew something about our forms wasn't right, but I never really made the connection that we were being prevented from transforming," Sideswipe finally finished.

First Tier nodded thoughtfully. "I see. Why do you think that none of the other veterinary residents suspected anything?"

Sideswipe snorted, grinning. "Because Ratch is that good," he reported, proud of his guardian. He watched Ratchet hide his faceplates behind his hands again.

Sobering a little, Sideswipe continued.

"To be honest, I don't know why none of the others noticed anything. We were sedated a lot, or even separated at times when we were being worked on. So maybe they just didn't see us together for long enough?" he suggested.

Sideswipe didn't mention that Ratchet had worked on them for less than five minutes before wondering out loud if they were related.

"So after that first interaction, you next saw Ratchet at the fighting dog Expo?" the lawyer inquired.

"Yup. He and Wheeljack were in the crowd in front of our display cage. I also saw him in the stands for our fight, but then we were placed back in our room so I didn't see him any more than that."

"Sideswipe, your brother reported being sedated for Ratchet's next visit, which was when you were injured. Do you recall that time any better?"

Nodding, Sideswipe shifted on the stool, trying to find a more comfortable position. Sunstreaker had been right that the thing was a torture device.

"Yeah. Two of his classmates got there first. I was going to let them work on me, but they darted Sunny before doing anything else.

"I wouldn't let them near me after that," he said delicately, fuzzily remembering himself flailing and snarling at the mech and femme who had sedated Sunstreaker. "We can share pain along the bond, you know? After Sunny was knocked out, I suddenly felt all of it, and it was a lot, trust me. It messed up my head a little."

"But you let Ratchet tend to you?" First Tier questioned.

Sideswipe cleared his intake, briefly looking away in shame. "Uhhh… I didn't really identify him at first. He had to whap me upside the head with a wrench before I could get past the pain."

At First Tier's subtle wince, Sideswipe realized that maybe telling the jury Ratchet had hit a patient wasn't the best idea ever.

"It was just what I needed, though," Sideswipe rushed to add. "It focused me, and I recognized him. After that, Ratchet went to work."

"I'll be sure to ask Ratchet about the medical details; is there anything else you'd like to add about that encounter?"

Sideswipe met First Tier's optics and smiled humorlessly. Now they were back into territory they had previously discussed.

"Yeah, actually. That was the day TopNotch tried to have me killed."

~ End Chapter