The Diego Diaries: Redemption? (dd6 128)
-0-At the pen of Luminous
It was a nervous wary group that watched a big delusional mech alternate between telling Ratchet in grim, gruesome detail how he killed 'the others', then turn to speak to someone or something only he could see. He was seemingly having a conversation with Onyx Prime. It was highly unlikely that he actually was in his condition but given that their pantheon existed in reality, he could have.
Ratchet turned at the sound of a vehicle halting. It was a highly secured ambulance and out of it came Jarro, three mechs from the Processor Hospital who had eons of experience taking violent delusional individuals into custody, then Rung himself. They walked to Ratchet, then looked at the big mech. "He's coming apart?" Jarro asked with a frown.
"He says he's killed his other personalities. He's been telling us how. I think he's crisscrossed his delusion with actual stuff he's done. It's all damned diabolical, boys," Ratchet replied. "We have to take him down and get him into secured care so we can do deep scans and figure this out. Who's his guardian ad litem?"
"I called her to come. We can't move on this mech until she's here unless he's posing imminent risk to himself or others," Rung said. "A young femme social worker with experience in processor commitments … Bon-E of Altihex. She's on her way."
"Hey, Ratchet."
They all turned to the big mech who was grinning at him. "What?" Ratchet asked. "By the way … what do I call you? Do I still call you Boss?"
"That's my job title. You can call me Sentinel. You do know I'm Prime, right?" Luminous asked with a curious expression on his face.
"I do," Ratchet agreed as he stepped closer. "What happened to you, Sentinel? I haven't seen you since The Fall. Fill me in, okay?"
He considered that, then nodded. "I was killed. I died. They buried me in the Basilica but I didn't die. I'm here."
"I can see that," Ratchet said. "You're as big and handsome as ever."
Luminous grinned. "I am. I was always handsome. And powerful. No one could do anything to me. I did it to them first. Everyone feared me. I liked that."
"No one could hurt you then," Ratchet replied.
He considered that, then nodded. "Yes. No one could. They tried and some did. I joined the Decepticons. No one knew I was Sentinel. I worked for the enemy to learn their tactics, then I used them. I killed a lot of mechs, Ratchet. I tried to kill you. I killed Ironhide. Did you know that?"
Ratchet nodded. "That wasn't very friendly, Sentinel. You do know that."
"I know. I wasn't friendly then but I am now. You can come in here. We can sit and talk about Cybertron. I want you to kill Optimus. He has my Matrix. Onyx told me that He wants me to have it. He comes a lot and we talk," Luminous said as his guardian showed up. She was small and petite but burned with a fever for her clients. He looked at her, then grinned. "You came back."
"I did, Luminous," she said as she looked at the others.
"It's not Luminous. That was a cover," he said as he turned toward her. "My real name and identity is Sentinel Prime. All the others including Luminous are pretenders. I killed everyone of them. Do you want to know how?"
Bon-E turned to the others with an expression of shock and concern. "What's happening?"
"He's coming apart at the seams, Bon-E. We have to take him into custody and help him before he kills himself or someone else," Jarro said.
She looked at the others, then the curious mech staring at her with mad optics. "Alright," she said.
Jarro transmitted the forms to her, she affixed her glyphs internally, then sent them back to Jarro. He sent them WiFi to the night court where they were given emergency priority. Everyone waited quietly as Luminous turned to thin air and began to carry on a conversation with Onyx Prime who no one could see or feel around them.
"Oh, Ratchet," Bon-E said as she blinked back tears. "He's so ill."
Ratchet nodded, then squeezed her shoulders. "We'll do our best. I promise you."
She nodded, then looked at the others who looked equally as solemn. She turned to the fence. "This is a tragedy. Who knows what he was like before the war?"
"He might have been a first class slagger all along but every disaster has a ground zero. Maybe his was in a slum where he never stood a chance from the time he was born. We might never know. But now, we have to deal with the slag. This mech will get the best we got for as long as it takes."
"We have the court order. We can take him." Jarro turned to Ratchet. "Advice on how to proceed or do we rush him?"
Ratchet, who had more working knowledge of Luminous than anyone there including the doctors he refused and his guardian who he sometimes didn't know was there when she was standing in front of him, considered the options. Then he stepped closer. "Sentinel."
For a moment, Luminous continued his conversation, then at last turned toward Ratchet. "Doctor? I don't require medical attention right now. The Matrix will protect me."
"I was thinking, Sentinel, that you might want to go for a ride, to see the city as Prime, right?" Ratchet said. "We have a car here just for you so that you can go to your office and work on things for The People. We have mechs here to make an honor guard," he said nodding to the guards and his own mechs who were watching solemnly.
Luminous stared at him, then the others. For a moment, it was touch and go what he would do, then he smiled at Ratchet. "I must conclude my conversation with Onyx, then I will be ready to go." He turned to the thin air behind him, then continued a conversation that made no sense to anyone listening.
Ratchet turned to the group. "Get ready and be careful. This mech is super fast and has a grip if he catches you that can yank off hunks of metal and protoform. That makes for a slagging gruesome and long term wound repair."
They nodded, then organized into a honor guard by the door with Roadbuster holding a specialized weapon that he pulled from his subspace. It was a bit like a zip gun but fired heavy-duty tranquilizer scripts, the kind that would be needed to land a blue whale on Earth. All of the prisoners in this section were scanned and dosages prepared against just these moments. It was grimly silent.
At last, he turned to the group, then smiled at the reception waiting for him at the gate. Walking there, he paused as the alert group tensed. The guards opened the gates, then stepped back to get out of the shot should it happen. Luminous walked out, looked at everyone with satisfaction, then turned to Ratchet. "You will join me and my entourage as we go to the Citadel?" he asked rather chivalrously.
"I would, Sentinel, but I have to go do diplomacy for you with the slaggers," Ratchet said as everyone watched, ready to leap at a moment's notice.
"You are, then?" he asked, then mused. "You will take care of it, Ratchet. I am well pleased with your skills at holding the enemy at bay. We must save Cybertron from the enemy."
"You know it," Ratchet said. "Under your leadership, we've turned the tide. I now have to tidy things up like you ordered. You were a champion, Sentinel. They fled before you."
Luminous stared at Ratchet, then grinned. "I'm glad. We must protect Cybertron and The People."
Ratchet nodded, then gestured to the ambulance. "Your chariot awaits, Prime."
Luminous stared at it, then the mechs around him. "Very well. Carry on, Ratchet. I would like a full report when you come back." With that, he walked to the ambulance and climbed inside to sit. The mechs who worked at Processor Health joined him, the door shut and away it went to The City where Luminous would be placed for his own protection and everyone else in a light stasis until the scans were finally done at last. His guardian ad litem would be by his side the whole way.
The ambulance disappeared, then everyone turned to stare at each other. Springer vented a soft sigh. "I never thought I'd feel sorry for Luminous. He's a really bad mech."
"He's a broken mech. Everyone here is. They have rights, though. We have to respect that. You lot would have scrapped everyone here by now," Ratchet said as he turned to the four mechs who looked halfway between frightened to death and sick to their chassis. "That sorry mech is your legacy. He probably wasn't that great a mech in all aspects in civilian life but I doubt that he was this fragged up before the war. How does it feel to know that this," Ratchet asked as he turned in a circle with his arm sweeping the area, "is your legacy. You fraggers created this and its on you. Some fine orn, you'll face the Pantheon and The One. Some fine orn, you'll have to explain this to them, how you didn't give a tinker's damn about all of us being one like They asked us to become."
They stared at Ratchet stoically. Luminous had been incredibly unsettling, something none of them had ever witnessed before. No one was going to voice anything, including Burris for once. Ratchet looked around, then looked at the mechs. "We have a couple more, then I want us at the Control Center. I have a need to speak about this, Gee-Gee, and I would need you to listen."
Gee-Gee nodded. "Done deal, brother," she said as she stared at the four mechs with cold optics.
They followed, a solemn group filled with dread as Ratchet continued onward.
-0-Up there
"WHERE ADA?!"
Ironhide stared at the little mechs on the floor who were staring up at him. "He's in the jail. He's helping in the jail but he's coming."
"Ada is coming home?" Hero asked. Then she handed Ironhide another fork. She was 'helping' load the dishwasher like a 'good girl'.
"He is," Ironhide said with amusement. Standing at the sink rinsing out a big pot that had held dinner, Partition was watching them with a grin too. Sitting at the table working on their homework, nine titanic kids and a small Seeker were hard at it. Spot was sitting with the little kids watching Ironhide work at stocking the dishwasher, licking the odd plate from time to time. It was humorous as hell.
"What comed to the thing, Atar? Shes tolded I, Orion. We go here and there. Doing this and that. We go to the doing with the things? We go there to doing it?"
Everyone in the room stopped to stare at Orion who was looking at Ironhide with a hopeful expression. When he noticed all optics on him, he smiled his Pac-Man smile and struck a pose like his favorite super hero at the moment, Superman. "I SAID IT! I, ORION, SAYS IT TO LOU, ATAR! WE DOING THE SHES?!"
When the laughter died down and the little mech finished lapping up the humor and applause, Ironhide turned to Hero who could translate Orion like no one else. "What's he going on about, Hero?"
Hero smiled, blushing slightly as all optics turned to her. "Trick-or-treat, Atar!" she said.
"Oh," Ironhide said with a grin. All of them later that evening would sit on his lap as they looked through the comic books for costumes. Partition and the titanic mechs would help debate the possibilities before the potential final ones were decided upon. All it would take for Ironhide to get them made was 'Ada's seal of approval, Atar'. Or so Hero would say.
-0-At the lock up
They were waiting at the fence, all four of them. They stared at Ratchet and the others like they were prey, which they would be, them and anyone else if the four ever got out. There were a vicious, ferocious team, all of them, their familial ties compounding the mental illness that made them utterly fearless and terrifying. Ratchet halted, then turned to the group. "These four are brothers and share a group psychosis that's as deep and dangerous as anything I've ever seen. I've seen Decepticon combiners that were more normal and less scary than these four. They would murder you without a thought, you and everyone they could see in fifty miles around them. Frenzy murder. They fantasize about killing children. They want me to bring them one. Only one of them speaks. Don't even look directly at them. Don't speak to them. Keep your mouths shut. These mechs are so dangerous that they're fed by drone. They won't allow treatment and they have nothing on their processors all orn long but murder. You've been warned," Ratchet said as he turned to walk toward them. They gathered, their optics focused on the medic. He looked smaller than them though Ratchet was a tall gangling mech. They hovered, their anxiety to grab him completely apparent to the others watching. Their menace bled out in their aura and some of those in Ratchet's group stepped back from it, it was so awful.
They didn't notice so consumed were they by Ratchet. "Hi, boys. What about it? Can I help you. How about it, F-13. You might want to think about it. The world is a lot nicer out here than in there."
F-13 who was leaning in to look as closely at Ratchet as he dared turned his helm from side-to-side like a bird of prey. "We want to have someone to dismantle, Ratchet. I want something to play with."
Lucien who was watching and listening felt his energon go cold at the madness before him. He glanced at the others who were watching with horror and fear. None of them would have gone that close, bars or not, the way Ratchet had done. They watched with a fascination bordering on physical upset, quashing the urge to flee forcefully. This was impenetrable darkness and nothing in their experience could touch it.
"I'd love to get someone, F-13, but no one will volunteer. Tell you what, why not come with me, you and me, and I can help you. You know that I love you, right?" Ratchet asked gently.
F-13 stared at him, then shrugged. "No."
"I do," Ratchet said. "I love all the soldiers. I take care of them. I make them feel better. Don't you want to feel better?"
F-13 nodded and so did the others when he did. Then he leaned in looking Ratchet up and down a moment. "I want to feel better. Get me someone, Ratchet. I promise it will help me. I want to kill someone. Did you think about getting us some children?" he asked as casually as if he were asking for a beer.
"I took it to Prime and he's thinking about it. He thinks you have to have a physical and processor scan first. We have standards, you know. We like our mechs in tip top shape. You let me treat your bugs and boo boos and I'll personally go to Prime and tell him about your request. I'll push hard for it. You know me … I care about you." Ratchet stared at the four who looked as dangerous and deranged as anything he had ever seen. They were discussing the request internally, then F-13 shook his helm. "Tell Prime first. Then come back. You can come inside, Ratchet. We can sit and talk. Come inside."
Ratchet nodded. "I'll talk to Prime and come back. Can I do anything for you? Are you eating alright?"
They nodded, all four, thereby giving Ratchet a clue. Either they were mentally linked and processed their thoughts together or they were individuals who just until now never showed they were listening beyond F-13. It was an insight, however small. "We're good. You can come and eat with us. We have plenty. You come inside. Now. We're going to be waiting."
"I would but I have other patients first. You just think about what I've offered. I know smart mechs like you have to talk about it together. I'm on your side. I want to help you. You have the right to feel better and I have the duty to help you." Ratchet nodded to them, then moved onward. The big mechs watched him, then followed as far as they could go. They would watch for a long time until the party moved out of sight.
"Those mechs need a hearing, Gee-Gee. I'm thinking we need to take down all of the dead enders here. There's nothing that's going to be gained in keeping this going." Ratchet shook his helm. This place was a total burn.
Gee-Gee nodded. "By the way, Luminous is in stasis. They didn't have a thing go wrong. They just humored the poor slagger until they shut him down. I expect you want to look him over too?"
"I do. I want them cleared out of here, the ones that are falling down the drain," he said pausing beside an empty cell. He turned to the others. "None of the mechs and the femme you have seen understand how they look and sound to others. They have no concept of what they say and how it appears to others. They were all killers and marauders for Megatron who were sorted out of ships that came to us. We have a duty to them that transcends factions and the past. They weren't always like this, I assure you. We won't throw them away. This slagger," he said nodding to the empty pen, "was named Paradis. He had been gravely injured in the war losing half his face and most of his reason and emotional processing with it. He had no conscience after that and whatever he was asked to do he did no matter what it was. He was darkness personified. He'd degraded to the point where his life was at stake. We got him condemned, then given over to a guardian ad litem to manage his affairs. Right now, he's in stasis awaiting the creation of some very fine replacement parts that might, and I stress might help him have a personality that doesn't include mass murder and mayhem. If not, then he's doomed for something more. When I'd scan him, the pain was so great on his messed up neural net that he would throw himself at the bars."
Ratchet walked onward, pausing before another fenced cell. "The mech who was in here was an anomaly among anomalies. He was an apex predator, Our Lan. He killed for the sheer pleasure of it and worse …" Ratchet hesitated, then turned to the group. "He was into force 'facing."
They stared at Ratchet with disbelief. There had been tales in the long ago days about such things and there was standard issue equipment in the services branches and policing forces that prevented sparking that were enforced from regulations dating from those days. But this … this was horrifying for a society that settled things with a fist or crowbar, rather than this unspeakable thing. This wasn't a feature in their society.
"I had him removed. Another failure of reason, Our Lan. Of course, it wasn't his failure altogether. It was yours. You were the ones running the society. The failure of politics and compromise, the failure of discussion and equality, democracy and all the other 'quaint' notions … they made him possible. They made all these mechs possible. They didn't spring out of the ground fully formed. The System of Exception made it possible for one billion of our people to be obliterated, half a billion to be living in tents, three quarters of a billion to be squatting in whatever we can cobble together until real shelter arrives, these mechs and femmes to become psychotic marauders … shall I continue? That's all on you." The anger that was rising in Ratchet felt white hot. "These are the ones we have in custody. What about those still running loose? What if they still live on Cybertron? We have serial killers there, too."
Everyone stared at him, then the four. Maddow hung his helm. "There are no words, Ratchet, to say that make any difference."
"This isn't about you, Maddow. You and Hauser, you tried. You did your best. This is on them. You saw it and ordered it but it didn't matter to you, the things you did, the orders you followed. You can't do this to someone without getting bit hard back. Cause and effect. Elementary physics. They took it for eons but there's limits, slaggers. All the wasted generations, the broken dreams and sparks, the loss of genius to our society … the rise of Megatron and the Decepticons … it was inevitable the first time that someone took something they didn't earn because they could and believed they deserved it more than the others. The moment you turned your back on all of us being one together, this was ordained," Ratchet said.
It was quiet, so still that the sound of machines running around the area could be heard. Ratchet stepped closer to Lucien. "Your boy, Partition, is trying to get himself out of your caste quicksand. He's a good kid, someone who's looking for substance and truth. Honor that, slagger." He looked at Burris. "Your boy, Bezel, is a great kid. He's bonded with another great kid. Both of them are Night/Day Watch and both of them are soldiers. Ordinarily, kids like those two would never see combat but they're good at what they do and they're burning to serve. Just like Partition, they found their way in spite of you and they want to help our people. That's a miracle. Inweld and Morius, I hear they're doing great. What about you four? Someone asked why you aren't behind bars, too. You deserve it but for Prime. He has faith even now in the possibilities of everyone to change and evolve. Yet, you disdain him. You call him less than yourselves, this mech who but for him you'd be rotting in jail."
It was silent as the four stared bleakly at Ratchet. "You have made your point," Lucien said quietly.
"Have I?" Ratchet asked. "I don't know but I think I'm at the point where I don't care. You and your family are mine, Lucien, by your own rules until I say otherwise. Partition can live at my house forever if he needs it. I like that mech. He's a good spark. As for the rest of you, let's go to the Center and discuss a few things." Ratchet turned to walk around them, then headed toward the Center.
The four glanced at each other with alarm, then followed with the armed guards behind them. Until they cleared the lock up they were in, several dozen pairs of psychotic and murderous optics would watch them until they faded into the prison beyond.
-0-TBC 9-15-17 edited 9-19-17
LACKWIT! Sorry about part 125. I think I fixed it. HUGS!
NOTES:
Chivalry: a set of behaviors that accented cultured regard and rules for medieval knights borne out of class consciousness and the romantic novels written then that focused on Arthur. You were supposed to be of a certain kind of classiness and demeanor, etc. To be chivalric is to be concerned about the down trodden or considerate. A man who is courteous to women, helps them when they need it and takes personal and social responsibility for themselves is a chivalric man. Or so they say. :D Throwing your coat over a puddle so a woman can walk without getting their feet wet is a form of chivalry.
Guardian ad litem: someone appointed to be the guardian, legal and otherwise, of someone who is a child, infirm or mentally deficient. They protect that individual through all issues and everyone that I've personally met was a dragon for their charge. It takes a lot of good and tough stuff to become one.