To everyone who pointed out to me that I re-posted the last chapter I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and beg for your forgiveness that I thought I'd be pro-active and post from the hotel parking lot. Curse my half-asleep brain! At any rate:
Chapter 27 - Predator Guardian
(the actual one)
(RPOV)
Ratchet watched Prime drive away.
"It's nice to have a nurse again," Ratchet murmured, turning back to the new pack he was building. Mikaela's own energon was powering his regeneration beautifully, enough that he could easily spare some new neural fibres to rebuild her pack.
"I don't get it," Lennox finally said, grabbing a chair and sitting beside Ratchet.
"When Mikaela drove off, what would you say was going through her head?" Ratchet asked mildly.
"Well she was pissed off at something..." Will frowned.
"Wrong," Ratchet shrugged.
"That's what I still don't get." Will grumbled. "Something about a personality overlay..."
"That personality didn't get anywhere close to overlaying hers," Ratchet chuckled, "have you never seen her get pissed off at an engine?" the mech looked down at the human in amusement.
"Well yeah, once maybe, she shouted at it for a second and walked away. Five or so minutes later she went back and in two hours it was either fixed or damn close to being fixed." Will shrugged.
"Because she cares," Ratchet smirked. "Now think for a second, if she can care enough about a scrapping engine – enough that she'll go to the trouble to fix something that even I would write off – what would that translate to if she cared about a living, sentient creature? She's a force to be reckoned with," Ratchet nodded, turning back to the pack. "A strong young femme with the natural, protective instincts of a mother, and the training of a warrior? She killed to protect, and now she grieves that she killed. She just needs the safety of isolation or someone strong enough to care for her to let the grief go."
Will sat in stunned silence for a long time.
"What did Bumblebee mean, she'd have been born a Prime?" Will finally asked in a muted tone.
"Not so much born a Prime..." Ratchet murmured. He paused for a moment, thinking. "More... on occasion, the strength and inherent ability to command would cause the mark of the Primes to be cast as a youngling received their adult body, rather than etched. It's in their very base codes to lead, command, protect. Heal."
"Then why didn't he fix you?" Lennox demanded. Ratchet looked down at him calmly.
"Heal, not repair," Ratchet stated gently. "In your terms I suppose I would heal the body. Optimus heals the soul." the bot looked sadly into the distance. "Except his own."
"His own?" Will asked hoarsely.
"Optimus was one of the primary guardians of Cybertron. In his own processors, he lost the war, he lost Cybertron, and during that, he lost his mate." Ratchet stated sadly. "He has never blamed us, any of us for those losses. But neither has he forgiven himself. He hasn't allowed himself to heal."
Will stared up at him in shock.
"So..." he choked.
"I have spent the past seventy vorn worrying about him," Ratchet murmured softly. "In all of that time, he has never laughed, barely smiled until now. And now, the only change for us, is Kae. Whatever she does, whatever they talk about, he's beginning to heal."
Will looked at him in shock.
Ratchet smiled.
"It's good to have a nurse again," he repeated himself softly, looking at the doors.
"You guys really care about each other," Will murmured.
"We are more than a unit," Ratchet nodded with a small smile. "We are friends, family, we rely upon each other, trust each other absolutely. Carry each other through pain, celebrate our individual victories together. We are..." he trailed off, looking for the word. "Cohort."
Ratchet looked down at the major calmly, idly scanning him.
"Go eat," he stated calmly. "Your body requires fuel."
Will stared at him.
"We exist together, fight together," Ratchet stated calmly. "As a medic, you are one of my charges. Your cortisol levels are high again. Go eat."
Will grinned and stood up, wandering to the mess. A few minutes and he returned, bearing a sandwich and settling down on Kae's stool.
The dull roar of a large engine finally sounded from the edge of the compound. The dual Energon signatures tickling the edges of Ratchet's sensors immediately identified Optimus and Mikaela returning together. As Optimus parked, Mikaela slowly got out of the cab, her eyes downcast. Optimus transformed and cast a quick glance around before he gently set her bike down in it's place.
"Kae!" Ironhide called out, she glanced up to see the holoform materialize in front of her, a powerful arm wrapped around her shoulders. Ratchet glanced down to see Will watching the interlude curiously.
"What's he saying?" Will finally asked, looking up at the Medi-bot.
"He's complimenting the cannons those filaments formed," Ratchet chuckled quietly.
Will shot him an incredulous look.
"What?" Ratchet snorted. "He's the Weapons Master, it's what he does."
(MPOV)
"Kae!"
I glanced up just as Ironhide's holoform caught me in a one armed embrace, he ducked slightly to murmur in my ear.
"Good job with them cannons, they were good shots," Ironhide murmured softly, "clean kills, neither of 'em suffered."
I took a gasping breath at that quiet announcement, 'Hide's arm tightened minutely around my shoulders, leading me somewhere, I couldn't see.
"You know my first kill was a mess," Ironhide stated amicably, finally stopping. I blinked rapidly and stared at the two advancers I'd killed. "Took hours to deactivate him, still remember the look in his optics toward the end there. Only reason he was my first kill." he looked down at me. "I looked down at him with compassion, fully prepared to take him to Ratchet, he looked up at me with nothing but hatred. It wouldn't have mattered if I had taken him to be repaired, he would have started up killing the second he could stand. It was him or us. It don't get easier to take a life, not really. Now you look me in the eye Mikaela."
I looked up at him, knowing Ironhide could see the grief in my eyes. He nodded and pulled me in tight.
"Yep, I knew it," he grunted.
"What?" I whispered.
"Every life I took, I looked them in the optics, lookin' for even the remotest shred of compassion, grief, kindness, hope. If even a shred of good remains I don't kill." he gripped my chin and forced me to look up at him. "Now get the hope back into your spark," he growled, "you're one of us, a warrior class protector. If you didn't care you'd be nothing more than another Decepticon butcher. And you'd be dead by my hand."
I looked up at him with a sharp gaze.
"Promise?" I said quietly. His hand snapped up to grip mine, I held his just as firmly. Our forearms pressed tightly together.
"On my spark," he growled. "You will never be a murderer. You and I both saw murder in them optics. You put 'em down clean before I could."
I pulled his holo into a fierce hug
"But next time," Ironhide chuckled, giving my back a quick rub before I pulled back, "Give us some warning before you take on a couple of Decepticons. Don't matter what species y'are, it's a shock to see the gentlest of us all pull a total takedown."
"Optimus is pissed off at me," I said quietly.
"Nah, Optimus is pissed that you beat him to the punch," Ironhide's holoform laughed outright, swinging a companionable arm across my shoulders. "Now get over to Ratchet so he can scold you and make sure you didn't actually hurt yourself."
I snorted softly and glanced over at our shared work area, then looked twice. Ratchet was working on something. I scowled, squeezed Ironhide's forearm and began stalking toward my mentor.
"For Primus' sake Ratchet!" I shouted, using the exact same tone he did. "You just had your guts ripped out, you should be resting!"
Ratchet looked up guiltily for a second before smirking at me.
His optics flashed for a second as he scanned me then frowned. "You stripped your nerves." he growled at me.
"Nice try," I said flatly, "You're going for a recharge cycle if I have to drag you there myself."
"And how do you plan on doing that?" Ratchet growled at me. "Your entire nervous system is sending signals to your brain that you're currently on fire. I'm astonished you're actually walking. I'm not the only one going for a recharge."
"Same time." I announced, crossing my arms.
We glared at each other for a long moment.
"You stripped your nervous system of most of it's protection. I am going to fix this pack first so that you don't do something so stupid as directly interface with un-modified neural fibres. While you go rest." he growled.
"There sure as hell isn't going to be a next time, I'm going to personally go through each of the shipments to make sure they're deactivated. I don't give one Primus damned piece of rust if I stripped my nerves or completely tore them out of my spine, you are going to recharge and let your nanites do their work." I snapped back.
"There's always a next time," Ratchet almost snarled at me. "And next time I want you properly equipped so that you don't do more damage to yourself to save-"
"I don't care if I have to interface with neural fibres from Megatron himself until I'm crippled! There are thousands of me, and only one of you!" I shouted back at him. "I can be replaced, you can't. Now go rest!"
The hangar stood stock still as Ratchet and I stared each other down.
"Love you too Kae," he rumbled softly, parroting my usual response to his nagging.
Any possible aggravation swiftly drained out of me. Ratchet reached over and gently picked me up as I walked blindly toward him.
"Don't you dare scare me like that again," I finally choked out, clinging carefully to his shoulder.
"C'mon, I've done what I need to," Ratchet murmured gently, standing up with me still nestled into his shoulder. "But you are wrong, there's only one of you, Kae."
Ratchet set me down beside a tall tent I hadn't noticed before.
"You are going to have to stay with us," Optimus' holo said quietly, flickering in front of me. "Your energy readings have been getting strong enough to register as an auto-bot."
"We did try to give you something for privacy," Will added apologetically.
"Within the EM field, that makes sense," I said with a quiet nod. I looked at Optimus, "I'm sorry for flying off the handle."
"Get some sleep Little Sister," Sideswipe's holo grinned. "Tomorrow we're sparring, and you're not allowed to hold out on me anymore."
I closed my eyes and sagged into myself until powerful arms wrapped around me.
"You don't have to hide yourself from us," Optimus rumbled softly in my ear, "and I am not mad at you, you were not the only one who got a scare today. You have no idea how horrifying it is to watch you tear so many unwilling, hostile neural fibres from your body. You could have killed yourself."
I buried my face into his shoulder, fighting back tears again.
"Um, I'm no expert but..." Chance began warily behind me. Optimus' hand quickly slid up my back to touch the base of my neck, his fingers seeming to press dampness into my shoulder blades. The next second a flash of pain swept out to my very fingertips. I bit my lip, hard, keeping the yelp at bay. But I knew that Optimus' holoform had felt my flinch.
"Optimus, I think you'd better get that shirt off of her," Lennox stated in a worried tone.
My jacket was carefully unzipped and slid down my arms.
"Jesus Kae," Chance muttered, breaking the silence.
"How badly is it bleeding?" I asked in a weary tone.
"Um..."
I rolled my eyes and reached a hand back, mapping the bruising by feel and touching a swollen hole at the base of my neck.
"Great," I groaned, looking at the red on my hand. "That's going to hurt in the morning."
I sighed irritably and ducked into the tent where some dear, enterprising soul had moved my things. I dug out a small bag of powder and brought it back out again.
"Could someone sprinkle a bit of this over the cut?" I asked quietly, holding up the bag.
"Ratchet?" Optimus looked over at the holoform that flickered beside him.
"That's going to hurt like the pit itself, Kae," Ratchet stated quietly.
"Better than letting it get infected," I sighed.
Shaking his head, Ratchet's holo took the bag and opened it, digging out a small amount as I turned my back to him.
"Somebody hold her hand," Ratchet murmured.
"Better not," I said quietly, "hands are fragile. Just do it Ratch, I'll live."
Optimus' holo flickered out in front of me as the mech crouched close, offering a hand for me to lean on. I laid my own over his finger gratefully as the first grains touched the screaming nerves on my back. Fire flashed through my limbs again, leaving me feeling weak and drained.
"What's in that stuff?" Chance asked curiously.
"Powdered murungakai, salt and xian he cao," I grunted, "You'd know them as moringa oleifera and agrimony."
"Herbal stuff?" Lennox asked with a frown.
"Mikaela reacts badly to a lot of the processed medications," Ratchet shrugged, gently wrapping the wound. "Now go lay down."
I nodded tiredly, leaning heavily on Optimus' hand for another few moments before forcing myself to stand straight.
"My kingdom for a hammock," I sighed, "is there any way to roll up the side of the tent so I can keep an eye on Ratchet? He's almost as stubborn about working as I am."
Lennox snorted while Ratchet's holo glared at me, he jerked his head at Epps and untied one side from it's poles, the two men working together to roll up the canvas and tie it off. A screen lay beneath, I walked through and laid gingerly down on the cot, gritting my teeth against the stinging pain radiating through my limbs.
"Chance, we got any hammocks in storage?" Lennox asked quietly. The Aussi nodded and walked toward the storage rooms. Minutes later he was carrying a massive armful of netting with a broad grin.
"Africa," he said in explanation. Lennox grinned.
"Hey Kae?" he called quietly, I opened one eye to look at him.
"What's up Will?" I asked, struggling to sit up again.
"What's the sale price on that kingdom of yours?" he asked teasingly, Chance held up the netting.
"You two are life savers," I groaned in appreciation, standing up to help unravel the massive amount of netting, the three of them waving me off as I stumbled.
I looked at it a bit more closely. "You've got to be kidding!" I laughed weakly, "It's got mosquito netting too?"
"Little extra bit of privacy," Chance grinned, hooking one end to the bizarrely solid tent leg and crossing to tie off the other end. I settled gingerly into the hammock and sighed in appreciation as the menfolk suspended the netting over me.
"Bloody miracle workers, that's what you are," I groaned, closing my eyes and setting myself to swing gently. "You know? Everyone used to think that I slept better on dad's boat 'cause we were out on the water, it was Uncle Sho who hung one up in my room for me though, out in – Damnit Ratchet! You slipped thiopental past the agrimony didn't you?" I grumbled, falling asleep the next second.
"I did, but how she detected it is beyond me," Ratchet chuckled, his holoform flickered out as he pulled out of his spot, stopping as Optimus stood in front of him.
"You are to rest as well, there is nothing on roster that cannot wait." Prime ordered calmly. Ratchet transformed in front of him.
"Mikaela fed me an enormous slow burst," the medi-bot protested. "I've already regenerated everything and the patch has fully integrated."
"Physician, heal thyself and quit arguing," Lennox piped up with a grin. "Pentathol doesn't last long as a sedative. Kae'll be right pissed off if you're not resting too."
"I want to know how she detected it!" Ratchet protested.
"That's easy," Chance laughed, "Sodium Pentathol, aka 'truth serum' lowers a person's inhibitions. When was the last time you heard her offer information about her father and uncle? You gotta twist her arm just to get a story. Damn but she's been keepin' her mouth shut 'bout her personal life. My money's on her having been a military brat."
"No, as close mouthed as she is it's gotta be CIA or something," Will interjected, "how else would she know Pentathol's name?"
"Ooh, good point," Epps added, "But my money is naval if her dad had a boat."
"Why are we making bets anyway? It's not like she's gonna confirm it, hell do we even know her dad's first name? Or any of their names? She gave us their nicknames." Jacobs rumbled, standing with his arms crossed and watching the unconscious girl.
"So you're in?" Epps grinned.
"Twenty on marines," Jacobs nodded, "She's got Semper Fi written all over her."