Chapter 109 – Mico's Lessons
(MPOV)
§Carbon Child§
"Mother?" I whispered. The presence felt amused.
§Carbon child you will learn now,§ Mico whispered. I opened my eyes in the light, and looked down at myself. A bare spark. Mico smiled and reached for me. Tentatively I reached for her, a single, delicate connection.
§You use destruction for protection,§ Mico stated in amusement, watching our day in a single flash. §But there is a method which you will need, my daughter.§
A flood of information passed into my mind, it left me practically reeling.
§Now go practice,§ she stated in amusement.
I woke up gasping, lightly tangled in Optimus' neurals.
"Kae?" Optimus rumbled worriedly, his holoform onlined beside me.
"Optimus," I gasped, he cupped my cheek gently.
"Are you alright?" he murmured. I ran my hands gently over his neurals.
"I need to try something," I stated softly.
"What?"
"I need to try something," I murmured.
"I heard you the first time," my Optimus rumbled with a small snort, looking at me in amusement. "What do you have to try?"
"Where's the closest minefield?" I asked with a small smile.
Optimus looked at me for a long moment.
"Should I rouse Ironhide and Bumblebee?" he rumbled with a snort. I stared at him for a moment and pursed my lips.
"Maybe?" I murmured unsurely.
Optimus chuckled slightly.
"We'll let them sleep," he rumbled gently. "If the worst happens we can comm them."
I smiled and relaxed into the hammock again. His engine rumbled to life.
"Where do you think you're going youngling?" Ironhide's voice rumbled quietly over the radio.
"Minefield, you coming?" Optimus rumbled with a small smile.
"Let's move younglings," Ironhide snorted softly.
"Jacobs?" Bumblebee's voice murmured quietly.
"Do I have to get up?" the man's voice mumbled tiredly from his cot.
"Not if you do not wish to," Optimus rumbled softly. "We shall return before the dawn."
"Cool," Jacobs yawned. "See you at breakfast."
I sat up as Optimus pulled out of his space, closely followed by Ironhide and Bee. I settled into the passenger's seat and glanced at my clothes, or at least, where my clothes had been. I couldn't help but laugh softly as Optimus idly opened his glove box.
"Really?" I snorted, wriggling into the lingerie. Purposely of course, it was an excellent excuse to wriggle my naked arse on his seat.
Optimus moaned in spite of himself.
"Really?" Ironhide snorted over the radio.
"He started it," I murmured with a smirk, lightly slipping my arms through the bra, I looked at the front clasp with a grin. The auto-bot insignia. "Nice," I laughed softly.
"I'm sorry, I-" Optimus rumbled softly, his holoform onlining to look at me worriedly.
"Optimus, do you realize how shy I am sometimes?" I asked with a low laugh.
He stared at me in confusion.
"Do you realize how long I've been arguing with myself about asking if I could wear this little insignia?" I murmured with a smile.
Optimus stared at me and broke out in a grin as I lightly fastened the clasp.
I touched it lightly with a smile.
"It is your night, my Kae," Optimus rumbled softly. "Where to?"
"Where do we always go?" I asked with a low laugh.
"High ground," Optimus chuckled. He turned onto a service road and began ascending.
I relaxed into his seat, smiling.
"So what do you need to try?" he rumbled curiously.
"Mico's settled for passing information into my conscious mind through dreams," I murmured. "She wants me to practice plasma splitting."
"No!" Ironhide rumbled in shock.
"Uncle?" I asked in confusion.
"Master Bladesing only spoke of it!" Ironhide rumbled in shock. "Not even he fully understood the concept!"
I raised my eyebrows incredulously.
"But it's the same as Energon splitting!" I stated in confusion.
"Not even I know how you manage that," my Optimus rumbled with a low chuckle.
"Huh," I murmured with a frown. I called a bit of energon to my fingertips, forming it into a ball, then splitting that ball into two, then four. I delicately made the four little balls hover over my palm as he drove, lightly twirling around and over themselves.
"Eventually you will do that when I am not concentrating on driving," my Optimus rumbled with a low chuckle.
I laughed softly, watching the night scenery through his windshield as he pulled up on the cliff edges.
"You know the only problem with this?" I murmured with a small smirk, holding up the balls for him to see.
"What?" he rumbled curiously.
"I can't re-absorb them," I stated innocently, lightly flicking one of the balls to land in the centre of his dashboard.
He promptly snorted back a laugh, his frame squirming slightly.
Ironhide was chortling the next moment.
"Careful Kae, you tickle him too much he might run automatically into his root mode." my uncle chuckled.
"Oh does that tickle?" I grinned, flicking another ball at him before jumping out of his cab. My Optimus was snorting as he transformed, his transformation somewhat clumsy as he tried to dodge the tiny balls of energon I was flicking at him.
"You're forgetting something sis!" Bumblebee chirped gleefully. I flicked an energon ball at him, making him giggle.
"What's that?" I asked cheerfully, flicking rapid-fire energon balls at the mechs surrounding me.
"Two can play at that game," Optimus' holoform rumbled behind me.
I couldn't stop the squeal of laughter if I'd tried as he half-tackled me, tickling me mercilessly.
"So what'd you drag us out here for?" Ironhide snorted, lightly poking my side with his holoform. I straightened slightly, looking around at the moonlight landscape.
"Practice," I murmured, narrowing my eyes. "Hey Bee? Could you light up the landmines for me? Please?"
Bumblebee grinned and transformed, half-glaring at the landscape as he scan pin-pointed every landmine. I surveyed the landscape for a long moment and looked up at Ironhide.
"Get a plasma burst off of you?" I asked curiously.
"Where you want it?" my Uncle asked curiously, kneeling down beside my Optimus.
"Hundred feet above that central mine," I murmured with a frown, his cannon began whirling softly as he took aim.
"Mark," Ironhide rumbled a moment later, "Set!"
I took a deep breath, feeling my neurals grow excited at the new game.
"Fire!" I snapped.
Brand new instinct sprang to being within me, my hands flew up, the physical, bodily manifestation of my forcefields as I caught Ironhide's shot. Concentration wasn't the splitting, concentration was focused on aiming each piece of the fractured shot, raining them down on the mines.
The four of us stood in shocked silence as I caught each of the targets, every landmine blowing up as the plasma touched it.
On one side of the coin, the plasma, split in the air looked like beautiful, gracefully arching fireworks.
But the fire landed, precisely where I directed it. The sheer, inherent destruction possible caused an iron fist to squeeze around my heart.
"A skill," Ironhide rumbled finally. "That will only be used when absolutely necessary."
I nodded, unwanted tears streaming down my face.
My Optimus was there the next moment, winding his arms around me and burying his face into my hair.
"Simply because we are capable of such destruction, does not make us the monster," he rumbled gently.
"We're using destruction to protect," my little-brother murmured gently, rubbing my back. "And when you get right down to it, tonight? That was scrapping cool."
I choked out a laugh, turning wry eyes to my little-brother.
"We're just not gonna show the humans," he grinned at me.
"Deal," I murmured.
(RPOV)
"KAE!?" Ratchet shouted, scrambling to cover her body except... oh. Her eyes were closed. In fact...
He was astonished that his yelling at her hadn't woken her up.
He was almost certain she was asleep. He got up and followed her, just to be sure she didn't get hurt.
Except...
"Oh Primus Kae don't go that way..." Ratchet whispered.
Regardless, he walked toward Jazz's casket, following his spark-daughter.
He turned a corner and felt a few processors pop.
In shock.
Not casket. Stasis pod.
He scanned it.
Jazz.
His spark.
In it's chamber. The body practically living on it's own.
Simply focusing on regeneration.
But his spark had been out.
Kae reached forward and lightly connected to the stasis pod, directing cables to gently hasten the regeneration process, offering it pre-formed pieces of neutralized living metals.
She withdrew slightly, after a time, and instead focused her energon to grow the cell of solid state crystals powering the unit.
She withdrew fully, turned around and walked toward him.
"Kae?" Ratchet demanded.
"Oh! Hey Ratch," she stated calmly. "Before you say I raised the dead blame it on Mico apparently I need to know how Jazz is in stasis recharge I made sure he wanted to be alive before I brought him back wow I'm really tired..."
She collapsed.
"Scrap. Scrap scrap scrap scrap scrap," Ratchet grumbled irritably.
She'd used up all of her energy creating energon to repair Jazz and keep the stasis pod running. For Primus sake Ratchet already had enough of her energon stockpiled to keep that pod running for Vorns.
Ratchet shrugged and lightly picked his spark-daughter up, carrying her to the berth and onlining his holoform. Sleep and nutrients.
He delicately inserted an intravenous needle into her arm and set her up to receive a gentle infusion of nutrients. She'd be out for a while. Ratchet turned and strode back to Jazz's pod.
He stood there. For a long, long time.
Deciding.
Kae wasn't in bad shape, Ratchet would bet that she could have made it to Optimus' quarters and curl up on his chest plates. She'd just used that up being startled awake.
But he definitely needed to know that Jazz was alive.
He'd be in stasis for a while yet. But he was definitely alive.
::. Ratchet to Optimus.:: he sent gently.
::. Ratchet?.:: the Prime sent back worriedly.
::. You guys better come see this.:: he sent gently.
::. What?.:: Optimus rumbled.
::. Can it wait until morning?.:: Ironhide grumbled.
"Ratchet what the hell," Mikaela grumbled from the berth.
::. No, come see now.:: Ratchet sent with a grin. "Stay put." he added sternly to his spark-daughter.
Kae groaned and laid back on the berth under his holoform's watch.
"Not for long," he added gently, reaching out and taking her hand. "Just long enough for your body to restock on the nutrients and chemical energy you used up."
Kae smiled slightly and relaxed.
"You want to put the needle back in then?" she asked with a soft snort.
Ratchet rolled his optics and delicately re-inserted the needle into her vein.
Footsteps resounded through the corridors, the bots walking toward med-bay.
"Kae!? Ratchet!" Optimus rumbled the next moment.
"She's fine," Ratchet shrugged, walking back into the med-bay proper. "This way."
He strode back into the back bay and looked over his shoulder.
"Coming?" he asked calmly.
"What the scrap couldn't wait until morning?" Ironhide demanded. Ratchet turned toward the corridor none of the bots ever travelled.
"Ratchet?" Optimus rumbled hesitantly.
"Come on," Ratchet grinned, there weren't any footsteps behind him. He turned around and scowled, reaching out and catching hold of Optimus' wrist. "My med-bay. Come."
He half-dragged Optimus to Jazz's stasis pod.
Silence.
"What. The scrap." Ironhide finally stated flatly.
"How... what... how..." Optimus began muttering in shock.
Ratchet stood patiently, waiting.
"You... he...?" Optimus looked at him for answers.
"Kae led me here three hours ago," Ratchet explained gently.
"I've been trying to decide how to tell you," Kae's voice stated quietly. Ratchet jumped and looked down at her.
"Kae," he rumbled irritably.
"Hey, I brought the nutrient bag with me, you gotta give me that," she stated tiredly. "But yeah, uh, surprise?"
"Jazz?" Optimus asked softly.
"He is going to be in stasis repair for a while yet," Ratchet stated gently.
"How?"
"Kae?" Ratchet murmured.
"Don't blame me, Mico decided she wants me to start my education with her, so apparently every few days she's going to emerge from my sub-conscious to train me. Lesson number three, recalling a bot's willing spark from the well." Kae yawned. "Jazz asked first of my intentions, whether I'm to interrogate him for the benefit of the cons, then asked of Optimus. He was bored in the well anyway."
"What was lesson one and two?" Ironhide rumbled flatly.
"Lesson one, how to heal. Lesson two, how to fight, you were there," Kae yawned, Ratchet leaned down and gently scooped her into his hands. She curled up there, half asleep. "Next time though, quit yelling at me Ratch, Mico's still pestering me to change, I don't think she understands that I can't spontaneously create metals, I need a seed first."
"You were going to make it back to your quarters had I not woken you," Ratchet murmured.
"Optimus' quarters, I'm tired, low on energon, vulnerable. But I can deal with that when my Optimus is near," she murmured. "I don't need my knife when he's near."
The next moment, she was asleep again.