Oh my word, i am so sorry its been so long. I've had so many great ideas, but nothing tying back to this chapter. Then i decided to add a ticked off Sterling and now i like it. So here you go, chapter 52 right off the press, spelling errors and all.

Yeesh. I've been working over time so my evenings are needed to sleep because i sure don't get to do that in the morning. *whimper*

Anyways, here you go and i hope you like it.

TheRedScreech: The joys of being so ticked off your borderline suicidal/homicidal. :) i had one of those moments the other day at work. Nearly committed double homicide. :D As for the project, oooh yeah i got a LOT coming up. Lots of loose ends to tire up and at least another good old plot twist. Or two. something like that.

MadnessJones: I kinda wanted her to be a very neutral character in this whole mess. She's very much so willing to turn a blind eye because of her state of living but at the same time, she cant ignore whats happening because Ratchet's involved. Avalon i like purely because he's what the Elite class stands for pretty much. Most of them are on the same thinking field as he is when it comes to those below them. Ripsaw is just one of those characters that exist to make the MC's life a living hell and i think he's doing a heck of a job at it. Not scheming like Copper, just a good old fashioned PITA.

DreamChaser99: Thank you so much! I'm so sorry that it took so long to update. No sleep and moving (again!) tend to do that to you. Good news is that this place finally feels like home. I'm so glad that you like it, I'm having a blast writing it even if ive been staring at a half empty screen for months.

Outifthedeck: Oh don't worry, they'll get whats coming to them. Eventually. ;) Thanks for sticking around!

GreyHowler:GAH! Still alive! Yeesh! like i said, my writing style has changed so much since then that i needed to start over and so far, this version is way better, plus i actually have an idea where i want it to go. Bonus when that happens huh?

BandNerdJazzTec: Yes! Yes i am! Staying alive/staying alive/oh oh oh oh... :) Thanks for the reminders though.


"Well well well, the Royal still functions." A mech's voice laughed and Dusty stiffened even as Ratchet went rigid in horror. "Surprise seeing you online."

Dusty spun to the huge mech standing behind him with a snarl.

"I told you to stay down there!" Dusty yelled but the towering mech just chuckled.

"What, I just wanted to meet the rest of the gang." He said easily, denta bared in a grin. "Is that so bad?"

"You already knew who they were, get back to work!" He spat, jabbing a digit back toward the mine. "I told you to stay the frag away from Ratchet!"

"Whatever you say Boss." Titan said, still grinning as he turned back toward the mine. "See ya down below Royal!"

Dusty watched him leave before turning back to Ratchet. The mech looked like he was gonna be sick at any moment.

"Ratch-" He started to say, only to flinch hard when Carbon snarled at him. "I can explain."

"Explain?" Ratchet asked, his voice cracking as he focused on Dusty. "What's there to explain?! He tried to terminate me and Chrome after he tried to sell me for parts! Sterling, not to mention every fraggin miner in Iacon, nearly terminated because of his plan to sell Orion Pax!"

"You think I'm happy about this?" Dusty demanded. "He got my sire offlined and I ended up faceplate to faceplate with the wrong end of a driller. I hate him just as much as you do if not more."

Ratchet stared at him in open mouth shock.

"The frag are you talking about." He demanded and Dusty winced.

"Not important right now, what matters is that he's here now."

"Like frag it's not important!" Ratchet yelled and Dusty flinched back before scowling. "I just had Carbon's entire fraggin' life dumped into my processor, the mech I thought was my friend turned us into the Elite Guard, my creators tried to bribe me back home, and Ripsaw used my frame as a punching bag! I am sick of surprises so start talking!"

Dusty held Ratchet's murderous glare but eventually had to look away first. Primus the mech reminded him of Chrome.

"Titan was part of the gang a long time ago at a different mine that my sire, Gunner, ran." He growled. "Carbon, Sterling, Chrome and Ironlock remember him, the others came later. He caused an explosion and we missed the deadline cleaning up the mess and scraping our gang off the walls. It wasn't the first time he'd done it and Copper hated my sire even more then he hates me now. Sire got blamed again and instead of taking it out of our paycheck like he usually did, he wanted to hurt Sire more, so I ended up as bait-metal to a driller that was harassing a mine on the other side of Iacon."

"Stop, you don't need to tell me more." Ratchet cut in, armor flaring. "I can figure out the rest."

"You wanted to do a full checkup, that's why I have those scars on my legs." Dusty continued, ignoring the mech. "Energon attracts them, the fresher the better. Sterling tracked us down and drove it off, but not before it got the other mech they'd thrown down the shaft with me."

His gaze remained off to the side and he heard Ratchet sigh.

"Primus, Dusty." He said quietly before snarling under his breath. "Fraggin Copper."

"Trust me, Titan sets one ped out of line and Sterling is burying him alive. He sure hasn't forgotten the slag he put my sire or the rest of the gang through."

"Why not do it now." Ratchet growled.

"Do you really want to deal with Copper?" Dusty shot back.

"Frag no."

"Figured. So until we get back into his good graces, just stick close to Impactor or Sterling." Dusty said. "I hate it, but he' here to stay for the next while."

"Spawn of a glitch." Ratchet snarled, glancing away only to expose a gash down the side of his helm. Dusty stiffened, finally giving the sorry looking pair a once over. Carbon was a walking mess and Ratchet had clearly been beaten up.

"The frag happened to you."

"I told you, Ripsaw used me as a punching bag." Ratchet replied with a one sided shrug. "Cracked plating and a busted audio are the worse. I'll live."

"And you?" He asked, glaring at Carbon.

The mech shook his helm before his gaze slid down to Ratchet and the apprentice frowned.

"Still needs a lot of repair work." Ratchet said slowly. "I was able to repair the worst on the way back but…" He trailed off, shaking his helm. "He hasn't said a word since Kaon. A relapse."

Dusty glanced back at Carbon.

"But you're gonna be alright."

"Eventually." Ratchet replied before frosting the mech with a near murderous look. "He needs time to regain his strength more than anything, he isn't moving anything until I say he's ready."

It sounded far too much like something Chrome would say and Dusty stiffened instinctively.

"I ain't glitched enough to counter a medic." Dusty said with a forced smirk. "Did that once and it did not end well. Get back to the medbay, patch yourselves up. That's all that matters right now. We'll figure everything out later."

Ratchet nodded before glancing away.

"Sounds like a start." He said but his armor was tighter against his frame than usual.

"Ratch, there's nothing I can do about Titan." Dusty said with a sigh. "Pit, the only thing I can do is make sure Sterling keeps what little sanity he has left."

"He's not the only one about to loose it." Ratchet muttered before shaking his helm.

"You're not the same mech you were the last time you saw him." Dusty continued. "He wouldn't dare attack you now. You're not some weakling royal anymore. And this time, you have the whole gang behind you."

"What, I didn't when he tried to sell me off?" He asked dryly.

"No, we just hated him more then we hated you." Dusty replied back with a smirk. Ratchet gave him a flat look in response and he chuckled, turning back to the mine. "Primus it's good to have you two back."

"Dusty-" Ratchet trailed off, glancing behind him at Carbon and Dusty paused. Carbon glanced away, nodding and an odd whine escaped him.

"He didn't do it." Ratchet said after a moment.

"What?"

"He didn't rape that femme." Ratchet repeated. "I won't go into detail, it's not my right, but you needed to know. Carbon didn't hurt her. Ren was his sister."

Dusty stiffened in alarm, turning to fully face the pair.

"You never said you had a sister." He said, his attention on Carbon. "Primus, if we'd known we could have kept her safe! None of this would have happened!"

"He thought she'd be safer if nobody knew about her because of how she was treated within the mining gang at Kaon." Ratchet said, watching Carbon. "They shared the same Carrier, but different Sires. It made them both a target."

"Oh Primus…" Dusty trailed off, feeling sick. "I had no idea."

"Nobody did. Don't blame yourself." Ratchet continued. "I figured you needed to know the truth."

Dusty nodded mutely, watching them. All of a sudden Carbon's drastic change in temperament all those metacycles ago made sense.

"It's good to have you both back." He said quietly before turning back into the mine.

xxXXxx

Ratchet watched Dusty as he left before nearly jumping out of his armor when Carbon touched his shoulder guard.

"What the frag does it take for us to get a break." Ratchet growled before glancing at the black mech. Carbon gave a one sided shrug and Ratchet snarled lowly, transforming and heading back toward the medbay. He kept a close optic on Carbon as the big mech followed him down to the medbay.

He couldn't help but take a deep breath once he walked in, the smell of the disinfectant a sharp and welcoming smell after having the smell of heat and energon in his senses for so long.

"Go sit on a berth, I want to take a closer look at that leg." Ratchet said, gesturing Carbon toward the main part of the medbay. He hesitated before moving past Ratchet and he watched the way the mech was still favoring his leg. Between his medical knowledge, and having Carbon's entire life dumped into his processor, he was easily able to identify what abuse had caused what damage. It made his tanks roll and he glanced away as the mech sat on one of the berths, peds touching the floor. Once he'd calmed himself down he dragged a chair over to Carbon to better examine the joint and the mass of scar metal that encased it.

"That scar metal needs to be cut out." Ratchet muttered, running another deep system scan of the joint. "The scarring's pushed the joint off center, it's twisting your whole leg out of alignment."

He glanced up at Carbon but the mech's gaze was off to the side and unfocused.

"Carbon?"

Dim red optics slid back to Ratchet and he frowned before standing up and shoving the chair off to the side again.

"I'll need to cut a lot of that scar metal out of that joint." He repeated, watching and gauging Carbon's reaction. "Easiest thing to do would be to replace the joint, but I don't think Chrome has the right one for your frame. I might be able to hunt one down but I don't know how long it would take to get one. You're not working with your leg like that."

Carbon's entire posture tightened and Ratchet continued to watch him with a frown. He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out except a pained hiss. Ratchet ground his jaw till he tasted sparks and glanced away. 'I can still work' is what he'd been trying to say. What he'd say every time there was a risk of him being terminated, he'd force himself thought he pain to keep working. The inability to keep working meant he was useless and that was the most dangerous position to be in.

"You're not useless Carbon." He said softly, shaking his helm. "I promised Chrome I'd watch out for you mechs and fraggit, I will. You're not going anywhere."

The mech didn't relax though and Ratchet though about banging his own helm against the wall a few times.

"The other option is I spend tomorrow manually removing the scar metal, and readjust your joints with shims. Eventually it will straighten out on its own and I can remove the shims." Ratchet continued. "I'm guessing your prefer option 2."

Carbon nodded but his gaze was still on the floor. The mech was exhausted, physically and mentally.

"Lie down, I want to pump some more drugs into you now that we're back here." Ratchet said after a klick and Carbon tensed again before slowly bringing his legs up onto the berth and lying down on his back. Ratchet got what he needed, and walked back over to the mech. He didn't need his scanners to know the mech's spark pulse jumped a couple notches.

"Medgrade." Ratchet said, holding up one of IVs before setting it down and picking up another. "Novrin, it's the painkiller Chrome uses." Carbon nodded, relaxing slightly and Ratchet held up the last two syringes. "Liquid anti-virus. Won't help much if it's an active virus but it should make it more difficult for one to set in. The other's Assemic, a sedative. Last, I'm hooking you up to a spark monitor. Your spark so much as hiccups I want to know."

Carbon nodded, the heavy plating on his bracer coming loose. Ratchet quickly inserted the first of the two IV needles into an energon line below his protoform before inserting the second. He secured them with a few wraps of mesh before giving him the first shot.

"The anti-virus will hurt going in, and will feel weird as it works but just let it." Ratchet said, holding up the remaining syringe. "Don't fight it. Part of the reason I'm sedating you is so that it has time to work. It needs to be injected directly into your leg where the damage is."

Carbon visibly tensed again but he nodded weakly, optics a few shades darker and Ratchet rested a servo on the mech's leg. Last thing he wanted was to get kicked in the faceplates again…

He quickly slid the needle between the armor plates on his thigh, angled under the plating to where he knew the fresh welds were. As expected Carbon jerked hard, trying to pull his leg away from Ratchet but he'd been expecting it and kept his leg pinned to the table. The sedative was starting to kick in but Ratchet still winced when the mech's spark pulse jumped again and a whine escaped the mech. He quickly injected the anti-virus and withdrew the needle, capping it and tossing it with the other into the trash.

"Get some rest big guy." Ratchet said softly as Carbon's optics flickered. "I'm not going anywhere and neither are you."

Carbon's frame all but deflated as the sedative overpowered him and the mech went limp in recharge. Ratchet waited a few klicks before reaching for the spark monitor beside the berth. He slid the palm sized sensor filled disk under the mech's armor, positioning it over his spark chamber before calibrating the machine to his own scanners. The steady beep was slower then he would have liked but it was stable.

Ratchet watched him for a nano-klick, running another half a dozen scans over the mech before being satisfied that the mech wouldn't drop offline suddenly and turned toward Chrome's workshop. It had a full length mirror in the back that had somehow managed to survive Chrome's temper. The coating had been scratched off in places and a crack split in in half, but Ratchet just needed to see the damage to his own side. He stripped off his armor, wincing as his protoform pulled. His armor would take a bit to beat out, it was so much thicker than his Elite armor but it had done its job and instead of splitting and tearing like the old armor would have, it had just been dented in and cracked in a few places.

His protoform was a lovely shade of purple blue and he hissed as he ran a servo over the ugly colors and the shallow gashes on his side. Nothing vital had ruptured from the hits, but his tanks were gonna be sore for a while and transforming hurt like a fragger. His helm still hurt the most and he leaned forward to take a closer look at the gash running down the side of his helm. It wasn't too deep, but it was the same side his audio had blown and he knew he had to keep an optic on. While infection was always a possibility, it would be fatal if that infection spread to his processor.

The medbay doors slid open and he jumped at the sound, spark racing before recognizing the spark signature that had walked in.

He walked out just as Focus turned to face him and his optics widened.

"Spawn of a glitch, did Ripsaw do that to you?" He demanded and Ratchet nodded, wrapping his arm around his tanks. He felt Focus run a scan over his frame, fully expecting the scowl on the mech's faceplates when he got the results. "Fraggit Ratchet, do the others know how bad your hurt?"

"How'd you find out so fast about that." He asked, ignoring the question.

"Nova called me." Focus replied with a frown. "She was hysterical, kept saying something about you being arrested, that Ripsaw had taken you and that she didn't know if you were even still functional."

"Functioning but sore." Ratchet said with a one sided shrug. "Nothing too serious considering who it was. What are you doing here."

"I came here to make sure you were aright and to apologize." Focus said and Ratchet straightened in surprise.

"For what."

"Everything. I've been a horrible friend these last few groons and I feel terrible." Focus said softly, optics drifting off to the side and his armor tightening against his frame. "Fraggit, that should have been me going with you to Kaon, we're best friends Ratch. At least, we were."

"We still are Focus-" Ratchet started to say only for Focus to shake his helm.

"Not like we used to be." He said, "We used to tell each other everything and now, I didn't even know you'd left the state until Nova called me freaking out."

"To be fair, I didn't even tell most of the gang what I was doing." Ratchet admitted. "The less mechs that knew what I was doing the better."

A snarl escaped him at the thought of the mech and he shook his helm. "Quicklight only came because he caught Nova."

"What happened with him, Nova kept saying something about her glitch of a brother but she kept stammering. I could barely understand her. Something about the Guard?"

"Quicklight called the Guard on us." He said with a low growl. "The glitch turned me in. What's more to say. Could have gone a pit of a lot worse but everyone's functional. That's what matters."

"And the new paint scheme?" Focus asked, deliberately eyeing the bruising down Ratchet's front. He winced, folding his arms over his chassis as he felt Focus run another, more precise scan. Another scowl crossed his faceplates and Ratchet glanced away.

"Fraggit Ratch, how hard did he kick you?!" He demanded.

"Keep your voice down, Carbon's finally in some form of recharge and I'm still debating on whether or not I should sedate him to keep him out." Ratchet said, gaze shifting to where the big mech was unconscious. Focus followed his gaze before sighing.

"Listen, if you need anything, supplies, med-grade, anything, let me know." He said, glancing back at Ratchet. "Alright?"

Ratchet didn't respond right a ways and Focus sidestepped to be in his line of sight.

"Alright?" He repeated. "Primus Ratch, you could have been terminated, then what happens to your gang. You can't keep doing this by yourself."

"Alright." He said after a moment, meeting Focus' optics. "Alright. I'll keep you informed."

"Good." Focus said before reaching out and grabbing a chair. "Now let me patch you up at least. Can't do anything about that audio but I can at least patch up your helm."

"Least let me get my armor back on. Don't need the others to see this. They'll heal on their own." He said, gesturing to the bruising and Focus scowled but didn't say anything. Ratchet turned back into the work shop, grabbing his armor before coming back out and sitting down. He hid a wince as his side pulled and Focus gave him another scowl.

"Don't move." He muttered as Ratchet shifted till he could keep an optic on Carbon. The mech had yet to move since he had laid down and it was unnerving to say the least. Without the spark monitor, he might as well have been an empty frame.

"Open up." Focus asked, tapping the back of his neck.

"For what." Ratchet asked, turning to give the mech an odd look.

"Something is obviously loose in that processor of yours, open up." He said, sharply tapping the top of Ratchet's helm with a digit.

Ratchet gave the mech another dark look before scowling and accessing his core coding. The thin slips of armor on the side of his helm loosened and Focus easily slid them out of the way. Cold air flooded his processor and a dozen warnings popped up on his HUD. He brushed them off to the side, ignoring them as he felt Focus working on the side of his helm.

"Unfortunately, everything is still functional." Focus said, his attention shifting to the physical damage. "Nothing's wrong with your processor."

"Told you I wasn't insane." Ratchet muttered, careful not to move his helm.

"Still think something's loose." Focus shot back as he slid the plates back into place, and started working on the gash. Ratchet smirked, his gaze sliding back to Carbon.

"What happened there?" Focus asked. "In Kaon."

Ratchet's armor clamped tight enough against his frame his side throbbed. He didn't answer and Focus remained silent as he worked.

"I used to be so sure about everything." Ratchet said after a while. "And now…"

"And now?" Focus prodded.

"I don't know about anything. That mine… I braced myself to expect the worst and yet… it still left me in shock."

Focus paused before sighing.

"I don't know what to say Ratch." He replied before backing off. "Helms fixed, I'll see if I can get you something for the bruising."

"It's fine Focus, I've had worse." Ratchet said turning to look at the mech. Focus smirked before his gaze suddenly snapped toward the doors. The slim mech nearly jumped out of his plating as the doors nearly came off their tracks, Sterling bursting in with his armor standing on end.

"Carbon!" He yelled but the mech had already jolted upright, tearing the IV lines out and the spark monitor screamed as his spark pulse skyrocketed to a dangerous level. His legs didn't support him as he slid off the berth and he stumbled hard as Ratchet shot to his peds, nearly taking out Focus as he lunged for the silver mech.

"Carbon ya fraggin' glitch!" Sterling yelled as Ratchet grabbed his arm and jerked the mech to a stop.

"You would shut it?!" Ratchet yelled back as the silver mech finally glanced down at him. "Focus, check Carbon, Sterling out!"

He bodily shoved the mech back toward the doors as Focus slid past him but Sterling outweighed him by a couple tons and stood his ground.

"Tah frag is goin' on!" Sterling snarled, his attention still locked on Carbon. "Tah frag is tha' Royal doin' here!"

"Out!" Ratchet yelled, finally shoving the mech outside and slamming the doors. "Calm the frag down already!"

"Wha' 'appened tah' 'im!" Sterling demanded. "Where tah frack 'ave ya been tha' glitch Dusty won' tell meh nothin'! Ya disappear like tha' an' then tha' pit spawn Titan shows up-" He accent got so heavy he might as well have been speaking another language.

"Stop yelling before I sedate you!" Ratchet snarled. "You have no idea how long it took for him to calm down enough to recharge again! He nearly terminated Sterling now shut. The. Frag. Up!"

Sterling's engine skipped gears in a horrible sounding snarl as he loomed over Ratchet. He didn't move, his own engine snarling as he stood in the doorway deliberately blocking Sterling from going back in. They weren't glass like the old ones but Ratchet knew that the silver mech would have no problems taking them clean off their tracks.

The mech spun away with a furious howl, armor flexing to make that Primus awful screech. The feral mech from the Kaonite mine flashed across Ratchet's processor and he flinched, remembering just how dangerous Sterling could be.

"He's gonna be alright Sterling." He said after a moment and the mech snarled again, optics flashing and Ratchet stiffened.

"Wha' 'appened." He demanded, his tone deadly. "Start talkin' or ya gonna loose plating."

"Ripsaw already beat you to it." Ratchet snapped and Sterling's engine stalled before kicking back in with a painful sounding crunch.

"Blow your transmission again and you're walking back home." Ratchet growled. "I don't have time for your slag right now. Carbon needs all the help I can give him and then some."

"Wha' 'appened." He repeated but without the gear grinding.

"He got shipped to a Kaonite mine. One of the open pits."

Sterling's engine cut out completely as he stared at Ratchet in shock.

"I chased him down and got him back. He's in pretty rough shape, physically and mentally, and needs rest and a sense of familiarity more than anything right now. You barging in like that didn't help anything."

The last part was said with a snarl on Ratchet's behalf and Sterling flinched hard as his plating clamped to his frame.

"Wha' 'bout Ripsaw." He asked in a weak voice. "Wha' tah Guard do tah ya."

"We got caught coming back into Iacon." Ratchet said, avoiding details. "Ripsaw wanted to vent and it was either my hide or Carbon's. And there was no way in Pit he was touching Carbon."

"Ya lucky 'ee didn't off ya." Sterling said but his attention was locked on the medbay doors again.

"You calm enough now I can let you back in without terrorizing anyone?" Ratchet demanded and Sterling flinched again.

"Yeah…. Yeah Ah'm ok." He mumbled but Ratchet continued to glare at him. After a klick he turned back to the medbay doors, unlocking them and walking in, Sterling right on his peds.

Carbon was sitting on the berth, Focus examining his kneebolt and he shot to his peds when they walked in. Carbon's armor tightened against his frame as Focus' flared and Ratchet gave Sterling another murderous glare.

"Ya 'right mech?" He asked, completely ignoring Ratchet and Focus. Carbon nodded as Sterling hesitantly walked over. Ratchet's engine rumbled in warning and Sterling flinched hard enough it was more of a spasm. Focus slunk past the silver mech to stand beside Ratchet, optics wide and armor flared.

"The frack was that all about." He demanded.

"That's the kind of loyalty I deal with." Ratchet said with a shrug. "We're brothers, we all are. When someone goes missing, especially in the way Carbon did, things tend to go downhill pretty fast. Honestly, I'm kinda surprised I didn't expect that."

"Wow." Focus muttered, shaking his helm.

"Carbon ok?"

"Yeah, just had a few metacycles scared off of him. You weren't kidding about that proximity alert." Focus said, glancing out of the corner of his optic at Ratchet. "He ripped out the IV's but didn't break off the needle."

"Good, last thing I want to do is to go fishing through his systems for a needle tip." Ratchet muttered, keeping his tone down as he kept a sharp optic on Sterling. "His systems are traumatized enough as is, I doubt he could handle a system flush."

"Mineral additives would help with the self repair." Focus said with a shrug.

"I have the credits but I don't have access to them." Ratchet said with a frustrated sigh. "I can get basic supplies but I don't trust the additives. There is way too much stuff they can mix it with that could kill a mech in this state."

"I'll get you what I can and you can pay me back later." Focus offered and Ratchet nodded. "Guessing you're gonna be spending the night here?"

"Got that right." Ratchet said with a snort. "I ain't letting that mech out of my sight."

"Ratch, you have to take care of yourself." Focus hissed, dropping his voice. "He dented your transformation cog, you push it too hard and it will crack. It could leave you crippled for fracks sake and I cant help you with something that serious!"

"I know Focus, I'm a medic-in-training too." Ratchet replied. "I know the risks."

"You're a glitched medic-in-training." Focus said with a smirk, nudging the bigger mech before frowning. "Something else is on your processor. You look like you've aged fifty metacycles."

Ratchet shot the mech a look but Focus was abnormally serious and Ratchet dropped the mech's gaze before taking a step back and walking into Chrome's office. Focus followed him in and shut the door as Ratchet leaned against the desk.

"Do you… do you remember at the academy, all the things that can go wrong with a processor sync?" He asked, arms crossed over his chassis

Focus's optics widened in horror.

"Way too many last I remembered." He replied, armor flaring. "Almost gave up when I found out there was a dozen ways you could terminate if a sync went wrong."

"Memory Dump was one of them." Ratchet continued softly and Focus nodded.

"Yeah that's when the patient has severe processor damage to the point that they can't even control their memories and it overwhelms the medic." Focus replied. "Fragmentations are usually the culprit but emotional trauma can cause it as well."

"Carbon dumped his entire life into my helm." Ratchet said after a klick and Focus' optics nearly popped out of his helm.

"What?!" He hissed.

"I know how he got every scar on his frame." Ratchet continued. "Every beating he received I could feel it like it was happening to me. The loss of losing his carrier and his sister, it felt like my spark was being torn in half."

"But you've…"

"Had a creator-creation bond break?" Ratchet supplied. "I know. But we'd already closed it off for so long it had pretty much faded by the time Avalon severed it. But this…"

Ratchet shook his helm, his servo subconsciously moving to his chassis, just over his spark.

"I've said it once, and I'll say it again. I don't know how that mech is functional, let alone still in his right mind."

"I don't know how your sane, knowing all this." Focus replied before straightening. "I'll go see if I can hunt down those additives. Sounds like your gonna need them. Promise to keep me posted?" He asked, optics hard.

"I will." Ratchet replied with a nod.

"Good. I'll pop by tomorrow to check on you myself." Focus said before heading to the doors. He paused just as they slid open before glancing back at Ratchet. He smirked, not saying anything and shook his helm before walking outside. Ratchet watched him as he transformed before turning his attention back to the medbay. He had a Pit load of work to do…


And so everyone is back home. Well, except Chrome and Sandy. No they are not dead! Just MIA for a few more chapters.

So here's the deal. I know you all love Ripsaw and Avalon, but i need one more for the Three Douches to be complete (see what i did there?) So i'm looking for another big mean guy, leaning toward eventual Deceptions. Ain't gonna spoil it for everyone, but if you want more details i can PM you. And if any of you suggest Megatron I'm gonna hit you with a wrench for not paying attention to the story line!

I love you all and PLEASE feel free to harass me the next time i take three months to update... please please please, i makes me want to bang my head against the wall and you ALL know that's how all the good ideas come around.

Read and review with ideas for the next big baddy! Love you all, 2211Nighthawk.

Edit: heh heh, character mixups fixed. Oops.