Savannah sighed deeply as she allowed Kay to lead her to an area of the base that she hadn't been to yet. She was silently fuming; the brig was no place to keep an injured woman or ally. This wasn't her choice, and she was certain that Optimus was going to be furious once he found out that she had all but ordered Kay to take her to see Lillith and Ravage.
"Remember, don't tell anyone that I visited them." Savannah whispered to her four-legged companion. "You don't want to get in trouble either."
"He's going to find out, Savannah." Kay sighed in exasperation. "And he'll know that I took you to see them."
"He won't get that mad." Savannah shook her head.
What are you doing?
Savannah paused and almost deflated, it had been less than 24 hours since he had found her in the shower panicking. And she still hadn't seen Ratchet like he had asked her to do. Which, coincidentally, is what he thought she was doing at that moment.
Nothing suspicious. She thought to herself, only to feel surprise come from his end of the bond.
Followed quickly by suspicion.
Do not tell me that you are going to visit Lillith and Ravage.
Fine, I won't. Savannah's eyes were wide, because she was SPEAKING to him through the bond. Not just sending feelings. I'll tell you that I'm just walking in that general direction.
Savannah… Now she could feel his exasperation, and then Kay tensed beside her.
"Don't you dare stop and wait for him." Savannah hissed and continued forward, practically forcing the Petro hound to keep walking.
"I'll take her from here Kay." Jazz's chipper voice called as Savannah felt herself be scooped up by the TIC. "You go to Ratchet for some diagnostics."
"Thank you, lieutenant." Kay sounded relieved as she left.
Savannah huffed and crossed her arms across her chest.
"I don't need a babysitter."
"Apparently you do." Jazz laughed at her indignation. "Besides, I'm still taking you to see them. Op can get mad at me."
Savannah, you better not be…
Jazz is taking me. I'm safe, love you. She felt his irritation at her, but some relief as well, before she blocked the bond just enough to concentrate.
"Yeah, he's letting me have it over comm now." Jazz laughed as he entered the brig. "He's being a little overprotective right now, but he'll come around."
"I hope so, he thought I was going to see Ratchet." Savannah sighed as Jazz placed her back onto the floor. "Thank you."
"Anything for my little sister." She could hear the grin in his voice as she walked forward, following the sounds of a heart monitor.
"Hey, how are you doing?" Savannah asked as she came to the side of a bed.
"I am doing much better, thanks to you." Lillith's voice was warm and strong. "Your medic saw to it that I was stabilized and has been checking on both Ravage and I every hour or so."
"I'm glad." Savannah sat on the edge of the bed gently. "How is Ravage doing? I know he was pretty badly hurt…"
"Your medic fully repaired him." Lillith reached out and gently took Savannah's hand. "I am glad to see that you are well. Did the contact with energon harm you? You should not have touched it."
Savannah chuckled lightly; she had heard Ratchet enter the brig only seconds earlier.
"Optimus demanded that I come check on you, Savannah." The medic sighed in irritation. "I need to run some scans and make sure that the energon that entered your system didn't cause any adverse effects."
"And to make sure that I didn't get killed by our guests." Savannah rolled her eyes. "I trust them, Ratchet. I wouldn't be alive without their help; you guys need to remember that."
"I do, which is why I've been trying to convince them to release my patients from the brig so that I can keep a better optic on them." Savannah felt Ratchet's holoform appear beside her and she smiled at him. "As far as I'm concerned, these two are neutrals, younglings. They shouldn't be in the brig."
"Thank you, Ratchet. But we are far from younglings." Lillith sighed. "I am much older than I appear, thanks to the bond I share with my adopted creator."
"I was meaning to ask you about that, how it works and what all it has changed for you physically." Ratchet sounded interested. "Given the state that Savannah is in…"
"Her exposure to more energon has most likely strengthened the bond she shares with Optimus Prime. I would not be surprised if she can now speak to him through it, instead of just send emotions." Lillith sounded like she was smiling. "As for any further developments, it depends on the unique skills and abilities Optimus has, as well as her own."
"Okay, we just found out that I can actually talk to Optimus through the bond. I was going to come to you right after this I swear!" Savannah had felt Ratchet spin around to study her closer. "It literally just happened while Kay was leading me here to check on Lillith and Ravage."
Ratchet started muttering under his breath angrily, and Savannah could feel him running deep scans.
"I do not see any damage caused by the energon in your system." Ratchet finally sighed as the last traces of static from the scans faded.
"She is very lucky that her unique biological makeup allows her to absorb the energon and use the energy to strengthen her spark." Lillith stated quietly. "Very few organic beings have the ability to do so. As far as we know it only runs in a few bloodlines."
"What?" Ratchet had frozen after turning towards the woman.
"Soundwave discovered the possibility of it after meeting and adopting me." Lillith explained calmly. "In this curiosity he discovered that only a handful of bloodlines are capable of being in direct contact with energon without it being toxic to the person. I wish I had more of the information for you, Ratchet. But I do not, Ravage may be able to share some of the files with you however."
Savannah felt Ratchet's holoform disappear in a shower of static and then heard the metal panther stand and trot over to the medic.
"I need to look over this data." Ratchet muttered after a few seconds. "Jazz, you need to find and rescue Soundwave as soon as possible. Ravage has informed me that Soundwave's research could potentially help Savannah immensely. As well as the treatment he and the other cassettes have been enduring so far."
"We've almost got a location." Jazz had straightened and was moving towards the door. "I'm hereby clearing Ravage and Lillith. They are free to be moved to the med bay and I'll have Prowl assign them quarters that will also have room for Soundwave and the others when they arrive. If I could just somehow get Soundwave's spark signal…"
"Ravage can give it to you, if that will help locate my father sooner." Lillith spoke up hopefully.
"It really would Red." Jazz was smiling now; Savannah was almost positive. "Come on Rav."
Savannah chuckled at the nicknames, he said them with such ease she was certain that he saw them as his niece and nephew.
"In his mind we're also your niece and nephew." Lillith chuckled quietly.
"Okay, we need to discuss mind reading rules." Savannah sighed with a smile.
"Of course." Lillith laughed outright, and the two women fell into a relaxed conversation.
~.~ ~.~
Writers block sucks ass, just fyi guys. It's been a very stressful time, not even going to lie. There's just so much going on in the world and trying to get caught up with everything left me exhausted.
The biggest thing was discovering that my daughter was being physically bullied. Like, that was literally the worst thing. She is 4, in preschool. How… how was this happening with 4-year old's? And when I told the teachers and program director (a conference call over a month ago) they said, "We'll keep an eye on it." That's it, just 'We'll keep an eye on it." I even had the kids name, my daughter in tears telling me about it, and picture evidence of the bruises! Well, we've now pulled her out of school and decided to go the homeschool route as the bullying did not stop and the school refused to even speak to the parents of the kid(s) doing the bullying. It got so bad that my daughter was in tears from anxiety every morning we told her it was time to go to school, so she's at home with me now and she's loving it.
Sorry, long rant there. But, yeah, that was a big factor in my stress induced writers block. Thank you all for being patient with me! Hopefully I'll be able to get back into the swing of things and update sooner now.
Please review!
Until all are one,
Chistarpax
