Chapter 26 - Guardian Predator
(MPOV)
I woke up with stiff muscles, again. Wondering what had roused me this time, the sun wasn't quite up yet.
"Mikaela?"
"Will?" I called back.
"Morning run," the man behind the door stated almost apologetically.
"I'll be out in a half sec!" I called out, scrambling out of bed and staring at my rather limited wardrobe. I shrugged and put on the shorts and tank I'd worn yesterday, a quick couple of strokes with the hairbrush and I was tying my hair up out of my face while walking out the door. I picked up the same pace that the others were jogging at, following them out of the barracks and onto the tarmac. I fell in at the back of the line as they settled into a ground eating trot. Will was in front as the group splintered from it's regimented two deep line of jogging soldiers, a group formed.
"Hey Kae, you sleep in those clothes or something?" Epps asked with a broad grin, looking at my outfit.
"Nah, I just don't have all that much to wear," I replied with a half smile, "just means I wear the same thing twice in a week."
"That would absolutely kill my sisters," Jacobs laughed from Epps' other side.
"Oh woe is me!" I said in a perfectly winsome little girl tone, "the same clean clothes twice in a week?" I laughed along with everyone else in earshot.
"Why didn't you say something before?" Chance asked curiously.
"Right, 'cause I'm going to walk up and say: 'Hey, you mind if I borrow that eighty million dollar C-17 so I can fly to Miami for a mall crawl?"
"Don't know if that's such a good idea," Lennox said calmly, "You can borrow the C-17 sure, but I'm more worried about how open you'd be to attack at the mall."
"Another good reason," I grinned.
"For?"
"For not having brought up my distinct lack of outfits," I laughed, "Seriously, I wear coveralls ninety percent of the time, I am so not worried about it."
"And we're sure she's a sheila?" Chance asked with a grin, I gave him a light punch in the side.
"No, I'm actually an extremely curvy boy," I stuck my tongue out at him.
"You hit like a sheila," he shot back at me.
"Considering the kicking force of a 'roo? Thank you." I grinned. Chance laughed.
"You lost me," Epps frowned.
"Kangaroo can balance on 'is tail and kick a man flat on his arse, break a good few ribs in the process," Chance grinned, we turned, jogging toward the air tower. Epps elbowed Chance, vying to run beside me and starting a trend.
"The hell are you lot doing?" I finally asked with a laugh.
"Last hundred yards to the tower you carry the one on your right," Lennox shouted with a broad grin, "Go!" I promptly ducked out of Epps' reach and picked Chance up in a fireman's lift, picking up my pace slightly as Chance howled with laughter, the over-sized boots lay forgotten behind me. I set him down at the old concrete tower and turned to watch the last few steps of the rest of the soldiers.
"You headbutted my boob!" I told Chance indignantly, rubbing my chest. He promptly sat down, laughing harder.
"Okay fine, point taken," Will wheezed, evidently having been stuck with carrying Jacobs. The enormous African extended a fist toward me as he laughed, I pounded it automatically with a broad grin.
"Little Sister!" Sideswipe bellowed, his voice quieted by the sheer distance between the tower and the hangar. My heart stopped. Wrong tone. Panic. I took off at a dead sprint, easily outstripping the heavily booted men behind me.
"Sides!" I shrieked, "What's wrong!"
"Primus damned Decepticon symbiont came in pretending to be deactivated and got Ratchet!" Sideswipe bellowed, skating toward me at high speed. In a second I was in his hands and being whisked back to the hangar.
"How the hell did it manage to pretend to be deactivated?" I demanded, breathing heavily with my heart pounding at high speed. Sheer adrenaline making my tone sharp.
"You ain't never played dead?" Sideswipe asked, his tone panicked as he put on an extra burst of speed.
"Humans still have vital signs that indicate life," I snapped, I'd apologize later. Sideswipe set me down at the doors and I was running again toward the downed medi-bot. "Sit-Rep!" I commanded, immediately climbing into Ratchet's chest as he groaned. I pinched off a tube spurting coolants and laid a free hand against the badly damaged and glowing spark chamber.
"Symbiont lashed out and caught him in the chest," Ironhide rumbled furiously.
"Has it been deactivated?" I demanded.
"Not yet, it's playing dead again," the weapons master reported.
"Well segregate it," I snapped, "make sure it doesn't hurt anyone else then do a full scan on the rest of the parts that have been shipped in. If it has even the remotest trace of energon I want it isolated for further inspection to make sure this doesn't happen again! Move!" Ironhide practically ran.
"Bumblebee!" I shouted, "I need you to get me five of the number three hose clamps, A-3 in the blue case and a number two Phillips screwdriver. ∂Ratchet! You with us?∂ I asked sharply.
∂Spark... my Spark...∂ he mumbled, obviously in shock.
"Optimus!" I barked as Bumblebee handed me the clamps and screwdriver. "I need my energon pack NOW!"
"Ratchet kept it. It has been destroyed," Optimus barked.
"Aw this is gonna hurt," I growled, shifting and pressing my bared thigh to Ratchet's spark chamber, quickly closing off the leaking hoses. "Fine! Bumblebee! Grab the filament strands, bag number 55862!"
The scout was gone and back in a moment, handing me the sealed bag. I tore it open with my teeth, still holding the irregular, gaping hole in Ratchet's spark chamber closed with my thigh. In a moment the strands were reacting to the energon flickering over my skin, concentrating, I forced half of them to connect to my nervous system, gathering the energon from my tissues and turning into a mild welder stemming directly from my wrist. I ignored the searing pain as metal came to life and bonded with my nerves.
"Plate metal! Bag number 48159!" I commanded, it was in my free hand in seconds. I tore that open and suspended it on the now gently waving tendrils emerging from my free hand. It began to reshape itself, forming a perfectly sized patch. I quickly laid it over the wound and watched as the filaments began to integrate the patch and spark chamber.
"Nova?" Ratchet murmured, his optics still offline.
"No Ratchet," I said gently, "I'm sorry, it's just me, Mikaela."
"Kae, power me up," Ratchet grumbled tiredly, "my nanites are being lazy little bastards again."
I smiled and took a deep breath, focusing myself before reaching out and stroking one of Ratchet's neural bundles. I watched bemused as the fibres reached for me, slipping into my skin beside my borrowed neurals. The medic's nanites finally got to work again, quickly repairing the hoses and finalizing the patch on his spark chamber. I climbed out from between his chest plates as his optics onlined again. Ratchet sat up and shook his head.
"Rusty Decepticon scrap," he grumbled irritably. "Good call using your energon... pack..." he trailed off and picked up the still smouldering light pack that housed my energon connector. "Mikaela what the pit did youdo?" he demanded, looking at me sternly.
"Helped out a friend," I growled, the filaments delicately winding themselves around my forearms. "Did I miss anything?" I asked in a gentler tone.
"No, I'm alright now," Ratchet sighed, scooting back to lean against the wall for a few moments to regain his equilibrium, his nanites still straightening the odd strut.
"Good," I said with a curt nod. I turned and began walking toward the pile of servos being guarded by Ironhide and Sideswipe. "Lennox!" I called out curtly, "I need your gun."
"They aren't hot loaded-" he started with a frown.
"Good," I interrupted flatly, holding out a hand.
He stared at me in shock, handing over his gun without another word. I accepted it readily and looked it over for a half second, testing the weight and inspecting the calibre as I walked toward Ironhide.
"This is the lot?" I asked curtly.
"It is," he rumbled menacingly, glaring at the pile.
I immediately took off the safety and shot each piece, watching for the slightest twitch. Two recoiled, transforming in front of our eyes into small advancers. Their guns came online, aiming for as many as they figured they could take down. Their optics glared hatefully at me. In seconds the filaments on my arm had transformed, firing two searingly bright arcs of plasma before anyone had time to react. Two well-concealed spark chambers imploded.
"Now they're deactivated," I growled, reversing the gun and handing it to a stunned Lennox.
"Since when did she have a friggen Rambo program?" Epps called out in a stunned voice. I turned to look at him with raised eyebrows.
"Don't be absurd. Rambo got his ass handed to him," I said with a half grin. I held up my hand and the filaments coiled again, I looked down at them with a frown, another personality was trying to encroach on mine, searching for a spark, metals to convert.
"It's been fun boys, but it's time for you to stop trying to initiate a personality overlay," I snarled, walking toward Ratchet again. The fibres writhed, receding into my skin before I reached back and wrenched them from the base of my neck. I threw them on the workbench and massaged the abused muscles and nerves in my spine, collapsing into my usual chair across from Ratchet.
"Don't do that again," we chorused.
"I won't if you don't," I replied, burying my face in my hands.
"Today, is a day for painkillers," Ratchet rumbled, his head leaning against the wall again. I nodded agreement.
"What the fuck just happened?" Lennox shouted.
"She just..." Ironhide rumbled in shock.
"Never. Again." I groaned, curling into myself, I felt like I was on fire.
"Unless someone gets hurt again," Ratchet murmured wryly.
"There is that," I murmured, pinching the bridge of my nose.
"Still not telling me what just happened!" Lennox stated worriedly.
"Mikaela somehow managed to integrate Cybertronian neural fibres into her own neural network to repair Ratchet," Optimus rumbled mildly.
"So, that pack she used does the same thing doesn't it?" Lennox growled.
"The pack used neural fibres that Ratchet donated, they were neutral," Optimus rumbled, turning to glare at me. "Mikaela used fibres that had been taken from a Decepticon, they still had memories from that Decepticon which tried to overlay it's personality over hers. And damn near succeeded."
"Not even close," I muttered.
"Then would you care to explain that display?" Optimus bellowed at me.
"Nobody hurts the people I love," I snarled, standing up and facing him. "That thing almost fucking killed Ratchet! There are times for compassion, and times for making damn sure that it doesn't happen again." I shut up immediately, covering my mouth and shrinking into myself in horror.
Rule number one, never lose your temper.
Instinct kicked in. Retreat.
I ran toward my bike, ignoring leathers and helmet and roared off.
(OPOV)
Optimus took a couple of steps to go after the obviously distressed young femme but was quickly blocked by Bumblebee.
"Let her go – cool off," the scout played the soundbytes quickly.
"She's been infected with-" Optimus started.
"No," Bumblebee shook his head vehemently. "No – she hasn't." the mech frowned for a second then sighed, onlining his vocal processors.
"...She is not infected... that was all Mikaela..." he said calmly, shutting off the processors to cut the static.
"Bumblebee?" Optimus stared at his scout in shock.
Bee rolled his optics and touched his temple, a hologram of a conversation began to play in an open space.
...
"Why don't you talk to Sam more?" HoloBee asked, cutting soundbytes together.
"I dunno Bee. It's a bad idea for someone like me to get attached to people," Mikaela sighed, carefully waxing Bee's hood.
"Uncle Sam needs you!"
"Heh, no he doesn't," Mikaela laughed sadly, moving to wax the rest of his armour. "No... Sam needs a nice, even tempered girl who can settle down with him and provide a couple of adorable, awkward babies for his parents to dote on and spoil rotten. I just..." she sighed. "I just don't know if Sam is strong enough to handle the person I actually am."
"But you're sweet."
Mikaela snorted.
"So long as the people I love aren't in danger." She gave a final rub on a slightly dull spot and began walking around Bumblebee. "Did I miss anything?" she asked calmly.
"Nope, come sit down."
Mikaela sighed and slid into the passenger seat, leaning her head back. Bee adjusted his seat so that she was half reclined.
"Oh so you're my shrink now?" Mikaela asked with a wry smile, looking at the dash. "You know the shrinks they had in juvie hall wrote me off as a lost cause."
"Why?"
"I refused to open up to them, so they figured I was too deeply closed off from the world," Mikaela smiled. "As if keeping secrets is a crime."
"What secrets?"
"They'd hardly be secrets if I told you," Mikaela chuckled, her body seemed to sag then. "I just hope that someday... someday you'll be around when I can tell them... How's your oil doing?" She asked suddenly, "I'd swear that you're burning your oil instead of the gasoline for the amount of carbon you keep putting into it."
"Oh baby, you change that oil," Bee played a soundbyte that sounded oddly like it had come from a porno. Mikaela laughed and sat up.
"You like that do you?" she asked in a sultry tone, running her hands lightly over the dash. "You've been a dirty boy again, haven't you?"
She and Bee dissolved into giggles at that point, his hood opened and she collected an oil pan. "You want a new filter too?" she asked over her shoulder.
"Nah, I'll clean mine."
Mikaela went about draining the oil and purging Bee's lines.
"If Trent's such a jerk, why do you hang out with him?" Bee quietly played Sam's question from two years ago. Mikaela sighed and leaned against him. "Kae?"
"Guys like Trent..." she murmured softly, "Guys like Trent are easy to not get attached to, I get attached to people and..." she broke off and picked up two bottles of oil. "You want synthetic or the real stuff this week?"
"Synthetic please!" Bee chirped. "I get attached to people and..."
"And you're all about the getting me to talk today aren't you?" Mikaela asked wryly, carefully filling Bee's oil reservoir.
"Just one more moment, that's all that's needed, like wounded soldiers, in need of healing, time to be honest, this time I'm pleading." Bee cut off the Nikleback soundbyte.
Mikaela sighed and screwed the cap on, gently closing his hood.
"It's hard sometimes Bee, I guess you'd be able to sympathize. I'm strong, it comes with mechanics, you need to be strong. But I was taught to fight, too. They never should have taught me to fight, I have a temper to match. And sometimes... sometimes it's impossible to hold it in, to stay calm. If someone I care about gets hurt I react – either to fix the problem or to make sure it doesn't happen again. It's automatic."
Mikaela bowed her head, crossing her arms around herself protectively. "I guess you know how hard it is to not hurt us accidentally, for me it's hard to not snap into a protective mode and hurt someone on purpose, because I can, I know every weak point to hit. It's so stupidly easy to hurt someone." she visibly shook herself. "That's why I don't get attached, if I feel apathetic about someone I don't try to protect them Bee. And that's why I'm not the right kind of person for Sam, either. If he knew that I could kill him in two hits he'd run so fast not even you could catch him." Her laugh sounded forced, exhausted and full of grief. "They're probably right though, I am a lost cause at this point. The only one I can bring myself to be honest with now is you, because I know I can trust you to not tell anyone my weaknesses."
Bumblebee transformed and crouched, reaching for Mikaela.
"Aw Bee," she nestled against him as he gave her a gentle hug. "If you don't quit with the being a sweetheart you'll make me cry, and I just finished waxing your armour."
...
Bumblebee cut the holo and looked up at his leader with sad optics.
"She had just finished work, then school, completely exhausted but she still came to visit and care for me. She was so tired she didn't have her normal shields up."
"That... that explains so much," Sideswipe murmured thoughtfully.
"Elaborate," Optimus rumbled, looking at the silver mech.
"She holds back," Sideswipe reported. "Mikaela takes defensive positions even when she is clearly aggravated. That explains why, she was trained to kill. She's terrified of actually allowing her temper to surface. Heh, she is my little sister."
"Sir," Bumblebee looked up at Optimus with an obstinate expression, onlining his vocal processors again. "... She struggles to contain her emotions, and succeeds to the point that it took a severe injury on top of overload stress for her to finally show it ... she has the voice of command, a spark full of compassion, and the strength of a warrior... please don't discipline her for having the same reactions you do." Bumblebee pointed up to Optimus' spark definitively. "If she had come to being in Cybertron, she would have been a Prime." the bot finished firmly.
The hanger stood stock still, staring at the yellow and black Auto-bot standing firmly in the middle of the Hangar doors with his arms crossed.
"When did you get insightful?" Ironhide finally asked curiously.
"...It's amazing how much you really hear when you stop speaking..." Bumblebee shrugged, tapping his throat. He offlined his vocal processors again and began walking toward the deactivated servos, preparing to catalog them for Ratchet, a song playing quietly over his speakers.
"Everybody wants something, just a little more, but making a living, ain't what we're living for. A rich man or a poor man, a pawn or a king: he could live on the street he could rule the whole world but it don't mean one damn thing.
"What do you got if you ain't got love, whatever you got it just ain't enough, you're walking a road but you're going nowhere trying to find your way home but there's no one there. Who do you hold in the dark of night? You want to give up but it's worth the fight, can have all the things, you've been dreaming of.
"If you ain't got someone you're afraid to lose, everybody needs just one someone, to tell them the truth, maybe I'm a dreamer, but I still believe, I believe in hope I believe that change can get us up off our knees..."
Bumblebee looked up from his task suddenly, onlining the holo again. The same song was playing.
"Bee? Could you switch that song?" Mikaela asked softly. "You don't have to but..."
"Do I get to know why?" Bee asked gently, transforming and crouching on the bluffs, evidently having taken Mikaela for a drive.
"It hits too close to spark, I've already lost my someone," she whispered after a time. "you know how much I hate crying."
"You should be allowed to cry," Bee said sadly, "talk to people-"
"That's the thing Bee," Mikaela said with a choked, saddened laugh, "if I stay quiet, I might be able to see them again."
Bumblebee lightly picked her up and set her on his leg, wrapping enormous arms in front of her as they watched the sunset together.
"She is one twenty-eighth my size," Bumblebee stated calmly, "but there is a reason I proudly call her my big sister. Far more than oil changes and polishing my armour, for all of the pain and sacrifice she has held in her soul, she still has the time to listen to me when I'm upset, hug and sing away chargefrights. She has lost more than I can even figure out, been burned so badly that she figures caring is a weakness. But she still does, with every beat of her heart and pulse of her spark she cares and gives her love, comfort, friendship, trust and support to us. All of us."
Optimus watched his scout with new respect as the bot went back to sorting servos.
"What are you still doing here?" Ratchet finally grumbled, looking up from his work, "go bring my assistant back so that I can scold her for taking risks on her own life. She'll be at the cliffs by now."
Optimus snorted and transformed, driving quickly toward the most isolated spot on the island. He followed the coast road until he found her motorcycle and began up the steep path.
She was sitting curled up in a ball out on the edge of a jutting boulder.
"I'm sorry," she said softly before Optimus could even announce his presence.
"Life is difficult when you care too much," Optimus murmured, sitting on the cliff edge carefully.
"Bee finally gave himself up huh?" Mikaela murmured.
"He did so to protect you," Optimus scolded her gently. "Caring is not a weakness Kae."
Mikaela began keening softly, eventually crawling into the enormous hand that gently enveloped her.
"It is when it causes you to create pain in another," she sobbed. In silence, Optimus drew her toward his chest plates, cradling her over top of his spark as she cried.