DISCLAIMER: I do not own this franchise I am only using it and some of its characters as a base universe for this story.
Chapter 17- Cybonic Plague
POV: Twinwave
" " Normal talking
": :" Bumblebee talking
(Note: this chapter takes place during season 1 ep 13 "Sick Mind" of TFP)
"Optimus, you're not going to believe this. I've just pinpointed the location of the Decepticon warship." Ratchet said, his optics fixated on the tracking beacon that represented the warships location. Me, Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, the kids and Optimus gathered behind Ratchet to see what all the fuss was about.
"How did you penetrate their cloaking technology?" Optimus asked as everyone upturned their heads and helms towards the screen. Ratchet now had his helm turned to look at Optimus and to respond to his question, "I didn't." Ratchet responded. "What do you mean 'You didn't'? How'd you find the ship without uncloacking it?" I asked a little puzzled.
"If you had've waited Twinwave, I would've explained that." Ratchet responded, narrowing his optics at me a little before turning his helm to face the monitors screen. "I was experimenting the variable frequency wavelengths when I stumbled upon it. Even still, their ship must be experiencing some kind of electromagnetic breach." Ratchet said, as he talked a model of the warship appeared on the screen next to the beacon.
He turned back to face the rest of us, "With Megatron deceased and the element of surprise..." Arcee said. She tightened one of her servos into a fist and punched it into her open one, "...We could cause some serious damage." Bulkhead finished. Everyone nodded their helms and heads in agreement.
Ratchet's computers did some recalculating and another modeled ship popped up, "Also on the same frequency, an Autobot emergency beacon." Ratchet said with disbelief. "The Decepticons can wait, there may be Autobots in distress. Ratchet bring your medical kit." Optimus said.
Ratchet nodded his helm and left for med bay to grab the kit. Everyone now seemed to be having their own private discussions, but I wanted to help whoever was on board. If there were more Autobots here and plenty of them were injured Ratchet and Optimus may need more help, I left Bee, Cee and Bulkhead and walked over to Optimus who was waiting by the ground bridge.
"Optimus, I'm coming with you. There may be too many injured for you and Ratchet to tend to and carry, with me there it'll lighten the load a little." I said joining next to him, "You may come along, I fear you are right about the amount of injuries we will find." He said. I nodded and joined next to him.
"Ground bridge activation is ready and the coordinates have been inputted." Ratchet said as the swirling vortex of the ground bridge whirled to life in front of us. I heard Ratchets padsteps lead next to us and stop, "Let's go." Ratchet said heading into the portal Optimus and I in tow.
When we stepped out the other side nothing but a vast sandy desert met our optics, it was cooler than it would've been if it were day time but the sand still felt a little hot on my pedes. "Where are we?" I said, marveling a little at how pretty this place was at night, this desert didn't compare to the one that surrounded our base.
In front of us underneath the full moon were the remains of the distressed ship we were here to investigate, most of the remains stuck out of a sandy dunes but the thrusters and engine could still be seen sticking out of the sand.
"A crash landing. Buried here for centuries." Optimus said, looking at what had become a sandy tomb for some of this fellow Autobots. "There can't be anyone still alive, right?" I said, we hadn't started moving towards the ship yet but I was already getting bad vibes from it. "If we're lucky maybe." Ratchet replied, he and Optimus started walking towards the ship. I walked quickly behind them trying to keep up.
As we got closer and closer to the ship, the feeling that I was getting from this place kept getting worse and worse. "I don't think we should be here." I said once we'd reached the side of the ship, "We'll be fine Twinwave." Optimus said switching his battle mask on and using his blaster to cut a hole in the side of the ship, once he'd made us an entrance he kicked it down.
I looked behind us, taking in the beauty of the desert before we stepped inside the ship.
Optimus led the charge with Ratchet following close behind. I went in after both mechs, making sure to step carefully over the rusted metal of the ship's wall. "If they traveled in stasis mode there may be some survivors." Ratchet said, answering my question from earlier, he handed me and Optimus flashlights to turn on to light the interior of the ship as we made our way around it.
The three of us walked just a couple of inches before the ship teetered to adjust for our weight, the sudden change made us drop to our knees until the shifting stopped. "I think that's a sign we should step lighter while we're in here, we don't want the whole place coming down around us." I said, Optimus and Ratchet both nodded their helms keeping the unspoken rule or silence kept between them.
We walked in silence for a few minutes down the eerie halls of the abandoned ship, until we came across a door. No power to the ship's core meant that the automatic opening system wouldn't work. Optimus quickly handed Ratchet his flash light and walked over to the door, prying it open with his servos.
"Impressive." I said out loud my voice echoing through the halls, "Scrap. That was more of an inside your processor thought idiot." I thought to myself. Optimus and Ratchet didn't even acknowledge my statement but just continued walking leaving me to quickly scamper to get back to them.
When I got there they were already stopped in some sort of room, Optimus was shining his flashlight around the room illuminating rusted corpses of perished Autobots. "Yep, I was right definitely a tomb." I muttered joining next to them. "Optimus." Ratchet said, opinion and I both turned our helms to face him.
He was knelt by one of the corpses performing a medical scan, "What happened here Ratchet?" I said before he got the chance to speak again. He looked a little unamused but the reason for this could've been that we were standing in a room full of bodies. "Well, my scan says that these Autobots didn't perish in the crash. They're displaying the effects of a virus." Ratchet said as he stood up.
Optimus turned back towards the mass grave, "This is a plague ship." He sounded a little saddened. He tried to take a step forward but Ratchet blocked them, he said something about the virus having a chance of still being active but I wasn't listening.
I now knew the reason why I'd gotten bad vibes from this ship, "All these wasted lives over a stupid victory." I thought of scanning the room with my optics. I remembered when the diseases had been released during the war, the amount of ships that had launched off world to attempt to get away from them.
I was snapped out of my thoughts by the swaying of the ship, except this time it had gotten worse. Optimus, Ratchet and I were knocked against the nearest wall, and because I hadn't been expecting it I stumbled and grabbed Optimus' arm to stabilize myself. The three of us were now crouched against the wall waiting for the rumbling and movement of the ship to stop.
There was some movement above us and Optimus managed to grab his flashlight, a body hanging from the ceiling dropped down because of the ship's movement. Three drops of energon landed on the two causing Optimus and me some discomfort because it had landed in our optics.
"We need to leave, Now!" Ratchet said helping Optimus and me up, the ship continued to rock as we made our escape. Ratchet led us back to our entrance hole, helping both of us out one after the other. I could already feel the effects of the tainted energon starting to work their magic.
The rest of our journey home went by in a blur, but to sort of sum it up it went something like this. Ratchet called the three of us a ground bridge back to base, making sure to tell everyone to stay away from us unless we were to contaminate the rest of them. Ratchet with the help of Bulkhead and Bee led us over to med bay and laid us down on examination tables, where we are presently.
Ratchet was bent over Optimus scanning him, during about the 5 minutes we'd been back at base I could already feel the optic that the energon had landed in short circuiting. And from the look of Optimus' the rusting had already started too. "Cybonic Plague." Ratchet said reading the device he had in one of his servos.
I looked towards the rest of the group who all seemed worried, "Ratchet, how does it spread and will it affect the kids?" I asked weakly. I could barely support myself on my servos now, so laying down will have to do. "It's only contagious if contact is made with the infected energon and it shouldn't be because they're human but I'm not sure." Ratchet replied.
I saw little relief on the rest of the team's faceplates. "What was a plague doing on in an Autobot ship?" Miko asked from the human area, her, Jack and Raf were standing above us. "Its passengers were infected, the virus wiped out millions on Cybertron during the great war." Arcee said, her voice didn't sound as close as it has before which meant I was getting worse. "It was biologically engineered in the Decepticons' biological-warfare program by Megatron himself." Ratchet said, he too seemed distant now though.
I couldn't hear the kids many questions but I could hear Optimus straining to talk, "No cure."."Please Optimus save your strength." Ratchet said quieting him, I was just as weak as he was but I found some strength to speak "He's right Ratchet, there isn't a known one and even if there is I doubt it's easily obtainable." I felt a little faint after that but I was glad I'd spoken.
"You too Twinwave, you'll need your strength." Ratchet said hushing me. "Would Megatron really create a disease without I cure? I mean, what if he caught it by accident?" Jack's far off voice said. I tuned out their conversation and turned my helm to the side to get a better look at Optimus, I'd never seen him so weak.
He looked utterly helpless and I couldn't say that I looked any better, probably worse in fact, but seeing him like this really gave you an idea of the effects of this plague. Optimus never showed any weaknesses or was rarely weak when he was injured but now it looked like his life force was being drained helplessly as the rest of us stood by.
I moved my helm back into an upright position but shifted my optics towards Ratchet. "Ratchet" I said weakly, my voice sounded so muffled to my audio receptors that my processor wasn't even identifying it as my own. "I'm...going to rest my optics..." I finished, feeling fatigue taking over me. It had been taking a lot of effort not to offline the moment I was laid down on the med berth. In the moment the words left my dermas (lips) my optics offlined, I knew Ratchet would be frantically checking my vitals until I re-awoke.
-
(In dreamland...)
"Twinwave, here." Rainjet said handing me something, I was back in the garden again. "Why is it that everytime I drift into my subconscious I end up here?" I thought, it was true every time I'd ended up knocked out or been induced to sleep by something I ended up in a memory that corresponded with the garden. I didn't look down into my servo to see what she'd given me but instead I looked at her faceplates.
She looked the same as when I'd last seen her except happier, much much happier. "So where do you want to go today?" She asked looking back into my optics, I couldn't remember what happened in this memory but memory me said something. "How about we go to Slaughter city and then maybe six lasers afterwards?" I asked, now I remembered. Before the war and chaos when we had just started dating Rain and I had decided to go see the not so nice side of Cybertron, places that were built for the lower castes.
"Off to Slaughter city then." Rainjet said grabbing my service and entangling it with hers, for the first time since the war broke out I was happy. Not the childish excitement I'd been when I'd got my holoform but purely happy, just seeing Rainjet again before we went our separate ways was enough.
She dragged me down the streets of Iacon towards Kaon, we skipped going past the Iacon database building but instead walked the outer rim towards Kaon and Slaughter city. "You could just fly us there ya know." I said sarcastically, she rolled her optics back at me. "Well that's the easy way out, but if it's what my girl wants then that's what she'll get." Rainjet said transforming into her alt mode, I clapped my servos together excitedly and transformed myself before hopping on.
I knew this wasn't the safest way to travel but it was sure the quickest and the funniest because before I could blink Rainjet was already landing in the middle of Slaughter city. "Where to now?" I said untransforming on the ground next to Rain's alt, "Why don't we go see a gladiator fight? I know you hate violence but I promise I'll take you to six lasers right after this." She said sticking out her smallest digit.
I sighed sticking out my own, "Fine but right there afterwards." She smiled excitedly and grabbed my servo again, no doubtably heading for the place she knew where the fight was happening. Instinctively I looked down at my chassis, the blue energon crystal that I always was in it's normal place, the chain didn't seem as tarnished as it was in real life. "Yep, still younger than I thought, I dont think I've even been taken by programmers yet." It thought.
The tugging at my wrist stopped, I looked up. We were at some sort of makeshift area, "Are you sure this is a good idea?" I asked, a little frightened. The last time I'd been at one of these I'd fainted and gotten hurt pretty badly. "We'll be fine, now come on we're going to miss the show." She said tugging on my wrist again.
I didn't move though, I was rooted in place. "Wave are you okay?" I heard Rainjet ask, except her voice seemed far away now. Like the others had before I'd drifted off to here. "I'll be fine, my love." I said smiling, I could feel myself getting lighter and lighter until the scene around me blurred. Nothing looked how it should until I onlined my optics.
(End of dreamland)
-
"Ratchet, she's waking up..." Arcees voice said, it was still muffled and there was some white noise in the background but it might've been because I'd just woken up. I felt Arcee's servo on my arm helping me to sit up on the med berth. I shook my helm, trying to get rid of the fuzziness that had come with waking up.
"Ugh...what happened?" I asked putting a servo to my helm, I was groggy but thankfully alive. "We got you and Optimus the cure just in time." Ratchet responded, he was looking over my vitals making sure I was stable. "Optimus, how's he doing?" I asked Ratchet motioned over to him, he was laying down still but seemed to be better but the rust under one of his optics was still present and I took it that it was still on my faceplates too.
"As you can see he's doing fine, but Megatron seems to be in the same condition." Ratchet said grimly, "Great we get to deal with him too." I thought shock was on my faceplates but anger plagued my processor. "He really didn't die easily, well I guess I'll have to do it myself." I thought, but right now I was just happy that I survived. I sighed, I'd been having a really good dream before they'd waken me up. But a part of me wished they hadn't getting to spend some time with Rain even if it was just reliving a memory, it had been amazing and made me realize how much i missed her.
"Alright, you two are free to try and stand, both of your vitals have returned to a stable enough condition that you can try walking with support." Ratchet said leaving the monitors in front of me to help Optimus up first, "That's it. Steady." Ratchet said, helping Optimus out of the med berth. He was a little hunched over at first because Ratchet was supporting him but soon he stood to his full height with Ratchet supporting him.
An applause broke out among everyone, even the kids were clapping at Optimus' recovery. "Please. Reserve the hero's welcome for my physician…" Optimus said using his servo to gesture to Ratchet, "...And my scout." Optimus finished gesturing to Bumblebee who whirled with excitement at his mention. Then it was my turn, being smaller than both Optimus and ratchet. I was already standing to my full height when I started walking to join Optimus. "Thank you Ratchet, without your quick thinking I don't think we would've survived that." I said quietly. I was still a little weak from the damage that my systems had undergone but I wanted Ratchet to know how thankful I was that he saved the day.
Ratchet smiled a little, "You both are expected to make a full recovery but that also means that there is lots of rest scheduled for you both in the coming days." I nodded. I was still just happy that we'd survived that but angered that Megatron, no matter how hard we tried, still just wouldn't seem to join the Allspark.
(Sorry if this chapter felt all over the place, I was in a little of a rush to get it done because we had family coming to visit us, yes I know it's a pandemic but we did it safely outside.)
I hope you enjoyed this chapter, feel free to leave some feedback for me so I can make it a better reading experience for you guys!
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