Chapter 31 - POV Ratchet
He couldn't believe he allowed the situation to progress this far. Knockout had been right under his metaphorical nose this entire time, and when he was actually aware of what Knockout was up to, they moved too slowly to truly stop anything. It seems their intervention hadn't slowed anything either - he'd assumed she would be too distraught to attend the pre-championship race and get them easily eliminated just like that, but when Rylee and Knockout walked into the hangar, laughing together, it seemed that was not the case.
"First place!" Rylee laughed. "Finally! I have to admit, that felt good. Even better for you, probably."
"Yeah, I can't believe the first first place 'Team Knockout' got was the time I was passed out and Smokescreen was out racing. Unfair! But it was fun to cut loose for once. Exhilarating ." He transformed into robot mode and closed shut the hangar behind him, and they were both so absorbed by their conversation that they hadn't even noticed the eight other people in the hangar with them. June Darby cleared her throat, and both finally looked at the interior of the hangar. Both looked like deer in headlights.
"Hi, Ratchet… I can explain," Knockout winced awkwardly. Rylee finally broke loose from Knockout and ran towards the crowd.
"Mom!" she jumped to hug her mother. Knockout had a look of utter confusion on his face.
"What… is going on?" Knockout finally said. "Why are you all here? And why is she here?"
"Why should I not be here? She's my daughter," the mother frowned at Knockout. "So, this was the man in your garage?" She squinted at him. " Hmm ."
Rylee stepped back from her mom for a moment, nervously bouncing on her feet. "I… ah… agree with Knockout though. What's going on?" She looked towards Jack, Raf and Miko, who were all leaning against the wall. "Why didn't you tell me they were here?" Rylee hissed quietly.
"Didn't want to stress you out," Jack shrugged. "Would've found out eventually."
"We are here ," Agent Fowler began. "Because we've taken notice of your activities, as you've obviously noticed by now."
Rylee's face fell. "And you're shutting us down."
There was a silence, and sorrowful eyes were all on Fowler.
"No, actually," Fowler said with a smile, and all of Team Knockout suddenly perked up with a smile. "It would be too suspicious for you all to drop out now. So since you've got this far, go put on a show. Finish your last race tomorrow. But then it's back home to Cybertron for you, Knockout." Fowler pointedly looked at Knockout, who looked down. And then nodded. The kids of Team Knockout ran over to where Rylee and Knockout were, and soon there was a flurry of 'Thank You's erupting from them all, overwhelming the visitors.
"Remember that we're not doing it for you , Knockout," Ratchet frowned. "It's just that your whole case is a mystery enough. If you didn't take part in the final race tomorrow, the conspiracy theorists would never see the end of it."
"Are we… allowed to get first place tomorrow?" Rylee tentatively asked, and everyone - including Fowler and co. - looked up at him.
Ratchet allowed a small smile to break through his frown. "That depends on if you can manage it."
Smiles lit up the entire room, and Ratchet felt a warmness in his spark. Especially seeing the original three children beam up at him - it wasn't something he'd seen in a while. Sure, they smiled all the time. But ever since Team Prime left, there was sort of a morose sadness in the air - of being left behind, and of unanswered hopes. They'd smile and laugh but deep down there was hidden despair. And despite being a medic, that was the one thing he could not fix.
"We're really thankful," Jack nodded, grinning. "I… honestly thought you'd never even consider letting us continue… so um… thank you, for surprising us all."
"Yeah, yeah, damage's already been done. May as well go through with it if it means so much to you all." He then met Jack's eyes. " But , you, Raf, and Miko have to finally sit down and listen to what I've had to tell you for a month. A month!" Ratchet flailed his hands in the air.
"Sorry Ratty," Miko said cheekily. "We were just so caught up with everything."
"Yeup, yeup, yeup," Ratchet waved them off. "I get it. Why hang out with the old medic bot when there's someone more fun."
"Ratchet," Raf began. "That's not what we -"
"It's okay," Ratchet waved them over to the edge of the hangar. "Just c'mere. I have to tell you all something." He then sternly looked up at Knockout, who was still standing there awkwardly. "And I'm not done talking to you , mister. Breaking into my hangar, stealing things, and sending me on a wild goose chase? You're going to be in big trouble when -" Ratchet sighed. He didn't have time to start this now, not when he had to break the news. "I'll talk to you later." He knelt down and turned back to the kids.
Knockout sheepishly smiled, looking anxious. "Well, I'll take that as my cue to ask er… Fowler? Yes, Fowler. Some legal questions ." He stepped over to Fowler, who looked up at him incredulously.
"Me?" Fowler shrilled. "Now what kinda legal question can an alien robot that's already broken dozens of laws have?"
He then looked at Marissa Faireborne, who was watching the scene curiously. "You look like someone important. Come with me too." Knockout slightly cracked open the hangar door, and Rylee turned away from her mother to look at him.
"Where you going?" Rylee asked, as Knockout turned into vehicle mode.
"A surprise," Knockout hummed simply. He popped open the car doors, and Marissa and Fowler tentatively entered.
"O-kay," Rylee raised her eyebrows, and then turned and went back to talking to her mom.
"I agree with the girl, where are we going? And what are you asking us?" Fowler asked, strapping in.
"Somewhere private," Knockout said. "And really, I'm half asking a question, and half asking permission. A bit of both."
"Oh, this is going to be good," Marissa said.
"Marissa?" Thundercracker asked concernedly, kneeling down to Knockout's window. "You okay with this? You want me to fly overhead, and… I don't know… watch?"
"I'm fine," Marissa smiled. "I'll ping you if there's any trouble."
They quickly took off out of the hangar, and Thundercracker closed the door behind them. He then sat in the corner alone, smiling at Buster in his hands. How someone as big as Thundercracker managed to care for something as small as an Earth dog was beyond Ratchet, but somehow he did it. Rylee was still talking with her mother, and Mrs. Darby walked over to where Ratchet and the kids were.
"I can't believe I heard about the news before you all. That you'd go a month without hearing what Ratchet had to say. Especially something that important." June Darby shook her head at them.
The kids looked concerned now. It was Raf that finally bit.
"What is it? What happened?"
"You know that letter that Knockout brought with him from Cybertron?" Ratchet opened a compartment in his chest and out came a holopad, filled with cybertronian letters. The kids nodded, but Ratchet couldn't meet their eyes.
"I'm leaving tomorrow. Back to Cybertron. And I'm not coming back."
All three children stood up at once, a chorus of protests.
"There's no way!-" Miko yelled.
"Cybertron requested me. I'm sorry , I have no choice. Otherwise I'd stay." He finally looked up at them all. "I wanted to spend the past month with you all, since I may never see you again. I thought you'd want that. But you've all been… gone ."
"Ratchet, we didn't-"
Ratchet held up a hand, and they went silent. "I know, I know. I didn't tell you all in time. I just didn't expect you all to do something so impulsive so quickly." He sighed, but smiled. "I figured if I couldn't spend time with you all to say goodbye, I'd at least let you all finish what you've started. Instead of leaving off on a bad note."
Miko was sobbing already, and Raf had a silent streak down his cheek as well. Even Jack was mourning, his eyes welling up despite his stoic expression. Miko quickly ran forward, hugging Ratchet's leg and crying. Raf and Jack soon followed, and Ratchet didn't know how to deal with this expression of emotion. He finally opted to place a tender hand over all of their shoulders, and looked down. This is the closest they'd ever come to making him want to cry.
"Hey," Ratchet finally backed up, and they let go of the group hug, sniffling. "I'll try to come back. You hear me? I'll go to Cybertron and see what's been holding up those teammates of ours, and bring them all back for a visit. But until then, stick with Fowler and Unit E. Work with other incoming Cybertronians. And one day, I'll be among them."
Miko placed her small hand on his, looking up at him with glazed eyes. "We'll miss you, Ratchet," she sniffed.
He looked down at them all, at Raf crying silently, at Miko's floodgates of emotion, and Jack's effort to keep it all in but failing. He never expected to care about any of the indigenous life forms of the planet he crashed onto. In fact, he despised them all at first - wanted to be as far away from them as possible. And now he couldn't bear to leave them. It's funny how the universe plays out.
Ratchet lowered his hand down to them all, and they grasped it. He then smiled sadly.
"I'll miss you all too."
Author's Note
Hey everyone, hope you're all safe! We're finally getting to the finale of it all. For context, in Robots in Disguise (2015) (Transformers Prime's sequel) it's revealed that Ratchet was requested back to Cybertron not long after the main cast all left, so I'd always wondered how the kids would react. Sure, they had Unit E still, but they had counted on Ratchet remaining there with them as their last link to Cybertron and their friends. Cybertron requesting him left them with nobody.
Anyways, that was just one of the questions RID15 raised for me and I tried to answer it here! Thank you all for reading and I deeply appreciate every single comment and favorite :)
