Chapter 169 – Online
(SsPOV)
Sunstreaker had quit pacing a while ago. He was watching his brother taking care of the pacing now, right beside Ironhide. It was strange the way some things simply brought the lot of them together, for the most part, Ironhide rarely had the patience to put up with the pranks his twin and he pulled.
Until something like this happened. Then, then it was like Ironhide simply forgot the pranks, forgot his short-temperedness. Because it was then, that they stood side to side, paced side by side.
Everyone was watching Ironhide. He was the only bot with communications into the locked med-bay, Chromia calmly relaying the situation to her intended.
It was handy to say the least, definitely saved having his beautiful helm dented by Ratchet's wrenches.
To say the bots on base were excited was an understatement, they were gaining a new bot, another among their number.
Sunstreaker couldn't help but like Jolt, the quiet little technician was an immense help, and his enjoyment of seeing to the communications duty made it very certain that Sunstreaker and his twin rarely if ever had to sit around in the stuffy room surrounded by humans.
It left the predators and scout free to patrol, and patrol was far, far preferable to sitting around eavesdropping on the myriad of frequencies. Sitting around was not the credo of predators.
To date, he had had to do communications duty once in the past two orn, it had lasted for barely more than a joor. He could do that.
By some signal unknown to him, humans were trouping around again, some wandering, some walking in lines with each other. Jazz glanced around and shrugged, striding toward communications.
That was entirely confusing.
Less than a breem later, Soundwave was striding toward them.
Sunstreaker couldn't help but bristle slightly, there was a Decepticon walking willy-nilly around their base!
"Predator concern: noted." Soundwave stated, striding past. "Insignias: replaced at convenient time."
Ironhide snorted mid-step.
"Why don't you give him a paintjob Sunny?" the weapons master grinned.
"Don't call me that," Sunstreaker growled in irritation.
"I'm just sayin' you're all artistic and scrap, prob'ly do a better job paintin' over them Decepticon insignias than the drones."
That was very true.
"You got the time for a paint job?" Sunstreaker grunted, it was something to do, after all.
"Convenient time: not yet present. Soundwave: must see to damaged symbiont. Paint job offer: received with gratitude."
Sunstreaker nodded gruffly, the Decepticon had manners, that was something in his favour.
"And after you've finished up with the symbiont?" Sunstreaker grunted.
"Soundwave: return to communications. Banshee Hawk Femme online gift: Soundwave free electric-bot from two orn duties. Reason: attend to intended mate."
The entire corridor froze. How the scrap had the Decepticon communications officer beat the lot of them to the thought of an online gift for Lena!?
"What the scrap do we get her?" Sideswipe demanded immediately.
"Banshee hawk femme: will require cannons, training, proper paint job, enlarged berth to share with electric-bot mate."
"Well ain't he just the helpful one," Bumblebee grinned around himself, already striding down the corridor behind Soundwave.
"Where you goin' Bee?" Sideswipe called out.
"He's right! Jolt's gonna need a bigger berth!"
Sunstreaker glanced at his twin and grinned, the two of them beginning to walk to their own shared quarters. In a breem, the corridor was deserted. Sunstreaker was out of the base two breem afterwards, taking stock of his paint supplies and already headed out to get more.
(MPOV)
Optimus had me in his arms again, Lena had finally released her Jolt enough for Ratchet to get her on the berth again. My own scans showed her healthy, her body was properly formed, and no madness was showing in her optics. She was simply low on energon, but that was to be expected.
I smiled contentedly, if tiredly as my Optimus gently nuzzled at my helm. The spark separation had left me feeling lonely again, but that was quickly and easily tempered by the closeness of my mate.
"You're alive," Jolt was whispering, over and over again, staring at his Lena in shock and awe.
"I'm alive, c'mere," Lena murmured with a smile, reaching her hand out for her Jolt.
"I said quit moving," Ratchet groused quietly. "When I'm finished, with the provision that Jolt lets you get your proper recharge the two of you can cuddle all you want! Now stay!"
I'd already finished my scans on Lena. At this point, I was absolutely positive Ratchet was simply enjoying keeping the newest femme on the berth just to tease the two of them.
Another few minutes of Ratchet nodding musingly, releasing a few 'mm hmm's' now and again and he nodded contentedly. My spark-father turned and strode to his storage rooms.
Lena looked around for a moment and began trying to squirm off of the med-berth again.
"I told you to stay put!" Ratchet called out.
I began laughing, cuddled into my Optimus as Lena crossed her arms with a pout. Jolt froze, midway through edging his way closer to Lena.
"Right," Ratchet stated flatly, carrying a large cube of energon and a few oil bottles. "You're still low on energon and your lubricants. Drink this while I sort out your oil reservoirs and then you can get out of my med-bay."
Lena's eyes lit up and she quickly reached for the cube of energon. Then, she stared at it in confusion, turning the sealed cube around in her hands and trying to find the opening.
Jolt was beside her the next second, pointing to one of the corners.
"You just poke it hard, there," he murmured with a smile.
Lena popped the cube open and grinned. Then frowned.
"Uh..."
"It's the same method as drinking a glass of water, Lena," I murmured with a low laugh. "Your body knows how to do it."
That earned me a shrug, Lena took an exploratory sip and shrugged again, downing the cube.
The surprise in her optics was priceless.
"Wow that feels weird!" she laughed cheerfully, looking at her servos again.
My Optimus looked down at me curiously.
"Humans don't experience the same immediate energizing surge after consuming fuel." I murmured with a smile. "It takes us... them more time to process it."
"Ah."
I smiled as my mate nodded musingly and tucked me just that little bit more deeply into the circle of his arms, but I couldn't help but look up at him curiously as he bent somewhat more over me.
Seemingly, to shield me all the more from the doorway.
"You know he's gonna be like that for the next couple of days," Ratchet informed me cheerfully.
"You're going to be damn near unbearable once I'm actually sparked, aren't you?" I teased my mate gently, squirming somewhat more into his arms to reach up and kiss his jaw. "You know my weapons are still fully functional yes?"
My Optimus grunted and surveyed the area again. I looked up at him worriedly.
"His protective circuits are fully engaged, Kae, when you have a sparking you're going to need those circuits of his fully functional." Arcee murmured gently.
I raised a brow ridge at her regardless.
"Do a weapons check," she murmured in amusement.
Curiously, I obeyed and groaned.
Weapons, down to forty percent. My balances were still compromised and my systems still reeling from the sudden 'pregnancy' and 'delivery.'
Suddenly, my Optimus shielding me from the door? That was the only thing keeping my preservation circuits from tripping.
"That's what I thought," Arcee murmured. I shot a mildly irritable look at her and rolled my optics as she burst out laughing.
"Alright, c'mere daughter," Ratchet snorted, pointing to the med-berth beside Lena.
I sighed and moved toward the berth, Optimus close behind and watching my back. My dear bot. I laid down on the berth and tried to relax. My chest felt weird, almost... bloated. Then, the familiar, gentle tingling of my spark-father scanning me.
Then he scanned me again.
"Ratchet," I stated darkly, narrowing my optics at him as he concluded a third scan.
"Uh..."
That was bad.
"Kae why are you still running the sparking protocols?" Arcee asked calmly.
"OH!" Whoops. Forgot that bit. I buried my face into my hand and frowned in concentration, feeling my systems slowly begin to resume their previous protocols.
Scrap but it was difficult.
"Any particular reason this is so much harder?" I grunted through that frown, I hadn't noticed the dull ache of the metals shifting when the protocols had been initiated...
"Because you're tired dear-spark," Arcee murmured gently.
True.
My spark flared slightly as my Optimus released a soft, plaintive hum, a gentle caress reaching across our bond. I touched him, gently, reassuring my mate that despite the ache and exhaustion, I was okay.
At least, I was okay. I could feel it the same time the sound resounded through the med-bay. A painful, squealing crunch.
A few cogs and plate metals, bent out of shape and grinding against each other.
And then they got stuck.
It hurt.
A lot.
In an instant, I was shutting my vocal processors down before the screech of pain could escape. It did not, however, stop the snarl from escaping my Optimus.
"Stand down Optimus, that's why we had her doing it here!" Ratchet snarled at him. In a moment my spark-father was beside me. "Open up Kae," he commanded flatly.
I unlatched my chest-plates, but that was about all I could manage.
They were stuck.
"I'm sorry, daughter," Ratchet grunted, in a moment, my chest was forced open. It was all I could do to keep my protective circuits at bay.
"Stop gawping and hold her hand!" Arcee commanded my mate sternly. My Optimus was on his knees, at my head the next second, his hands enveloping the one closest to him. My mate, my sanity. I focused on him, even as pain wracked my chest as my father forced my metals to go where they needed to until finally, the shifting finished.
"Stay online for another breem," my father commanded me flatly, turning back to his storage areas and returning with a cube of energon.
I made a face, I couldn't help it.
"Jetfire brought in some of the cubes they retrieved from the Decepticon ships," Ratchet stated gruffly. "It's not yours."
I nodded and struggled to sit up, my mate beside me the next second, cradling me in a sitting position. I struggled to open the cube.
That wasn't right. Normally I could pop it open in one hand!
But Jolt was there, energon streaming down his face as he reached over, gently opening my energon cube for me.
"Kae..." Lena whimpered softly on the next berth.
"Jolt, Lena, hush." I commanded tiredly. "Cee..."
"It happens all the time," Arcee took up the explanation gently, reaching over and taking Lena's hand. "Her body simply got confused, next time she'll be just fine returning her body back to proper form."
"But-"
"No buts!" Arcee interrupted patiently. "Had I been there Kae would still have been the one to transport you, Lena. She is the larger, and the better capable now."
"But..." Lena trailed off under Arcee's stern gaze. "It's my fault she's in pain now," Lena whispered miserably.
I began laughing softly, admittedly it was a bit of a struggle to do it though.
That had every bot in the med-bay staring at me.
"We all withstand the pain of bearing children," I murmured with a small smile, turning my head to lean on my Optimus' arm and looking at Lena. "If nothing else, I got to borrow your spark to get the initial metal-bending over and done with. Jolt quit genuflecting to me." I added somewhat irritably, looking down at the technician practically grovelling on the floor.
"You saved my intended," he choked out.
"I saved your intended, my sister femme," I stated sternly, struggling to squirm in my Optimus' arms.
"I beg the knowledge to make reparations," Jolt intoned regardless.
"Okay, if you're going to thank me for doing something I would have regardless, don't ever grovel like that!" I growled softly. "I am not a Decepticon, and I am not-"
"Kae for Primus sake it's traditional," Arcee snorted.
"It's a stupid tradition."
"Optimus, take your mate to berth, she's tired and cranky," Arcee commanded. I could plainly hear her struggling to not laugh, but by this point I was far too tired to glare properly. "Tell me I'm wrong." Arcee smirked at me.
"Optimus!" I groaned, burying my face in his neck. Gentle arms wound around me, hitching beneath my knees and pulling me against the strong, familiar chest-plates. I squirmed somewhat and wound an arm across his neck struts, burying myself into my mate.
"If you take your armour off, don't put it back on," Ratchet commanded quietly. "And I don't want you transforming for the next orn."
"An orn!" I groaned.
"It's your turn for med-bay shift anyway."
"Mmm," I nodded somewhat and nuzzled my face into my Optimus' neck-struts a little bit more, privately loving the gentle, protective way my Optimus cradled me as he turned and carried me to our quarters.
(WPOV)
Will reached up and rubbed his forehead irritably.
"Your answer Colonel?" Director Mearing demanded.
"With all due respect Director, that's not something I can answer." Will repeated himself. Again.
"Well then who do I ask," the woman asked with a surprising modicum of patience.
"Well, weapons technology is Optimus' domain, and the training is Ironhide's. I don't know who you're supposed to ask which about what."
"And he is..."
"Optimus is with Kae. Look, with all due respect we've had a rather... stressful day, Director."
"Oh?"
"Lieutenant Lena Davies was kidnapped earlier, and that caused her to change into a spark or an auto-bot or something which you'd be better off asking Ratchet about."
Director Mearing blinked.
"There's another auto-bot?"
"Sort of?"
"Sort of?" Mearing asked in exasperation.
"Well we haven't seen her yet, hell, we don't even know if she's still alive!"
"Jolt and Lena are doin jus' fine," Jazz reported comfortably, lounging in the technician's area.
"The report's finally come in!?" Will demanded incredulously.
"Nope."
"Well then how do you know!?"
"Lena's spah'k is begin'in ta join the collective."
"Can we go see her!?" Jerry shouted immediately.
"See, mehbeh. Talk, mehbeh not." Jazz snorted.
"Explain," Director Mearing's voice called out amid the silence.
"She's jus' onlined, gonna need a goo' recha'ge first."
"Well will someone please call Optimus, I need a word with him."
"G' luck with tha'," Jazz snorted.
"Why?"
"'E's not gonna be too cohe'ent for the nex couple a days."
"Why?"
"E's too busy keepin' Kae safe."
"Safe from what?"
"Herself an' whatevah mech looks at hah."
"Why?"
"'Cause when she carried Lena heah, by ah reckoning Kae was very pregnant for a while, it tripped ha' mate's protective circuits."
"You've seen and read the reports on just how protective Optimus is over Archangel?" Will grinned at the woman on the screen, she nodded curiously. "That tripled earlier, before even Kae came back."
"Alright, is Ratchet free to converse as yet?"
Will looked at the woman in surprise and turned to Jazz. Before he even had the chance to ask Ratchet's holoform was standing beside him.
"Make it fast, I'm busy," Ratchet stated flatly.
"Can you confirm the reports of another auto-bot present at your base?" Director Mearing shot at him immediately.
"I can confirm the presence of another being bearing a Cybertronian frame," Ratchet stated immediately, turning to the screen. "I cannot as yet confirm that she is an auto-bot, for now Lieutenant Lena Davies is classified as a neutral until she takes the marks of whatever caste and cause she chooses."
"What happened?"
"Lena was kidnapped earlier, once she has recharged we will go into the details of her kidnapping, but for now she is newly onlined as a Cybertronian and already en-route to her intended's quarters to enter her recharge. For now, the best speculation I can offer is that the trauma of her experience caused her spark to demand a chamber and frame strong enough to protect it."
Director Mearing was nodding intently on the screen.
"And has she chosen an alt-form as yet?"
"No, she has not," Ratchet stated patiently. "As I said, she requires a proper recharge first. Suffice to say your governments will be notified as to her standings and alternate form when they are made known to us."
"Will you provide an explanation as to why I will not be able to converse with Optimus?"
"Mmnph, his protective circuits, the part of us that demands us to guard and protect those who rely on us have been tripped by his mate initiating the sparking protocols. In human terms, Kae had her body take on the cycles of a pregnant woman to bear Lena's spark home more easily. She has suffered a few minor complications in the process, therefore Optimus will be devoted to caring for his mate for the next few of your days as she recovers, as his instincts dictate. His mate is low, politics are the absolute last thing on his processors."
"And may I request of you to update me when in your medical opinion Optimus is thinking clearly enough to deal with the politics again?" Mearing asked patiently.
"You may," Ratchet nodded patiently. "Now is there anything else? I want to use the processor maintaining the holoform for other duties."
"No, thank you." Mearing nodded patiently. Ratchet winked out and Mearing looked at Will.
"So in other words your base of operations is going to be on vacation for the next couple of days?"
"We're still on standby for emergencies," Will shrugged patiently.
"Fair enough. Keep me updated. Mearing out."
Will stared at the blank screen for another moment. Whatever Optimus had said to the woman, he rather liked the change in her.
(OPOV)
Guard mate.
Alright, he was over-doing it a little. Just a little. His mate had registered within his spark and systems as being sparked. Very sparked. His systems were still singing with that knowledge.
What could he say, he adored the thought of sparkings.
Lena was healthy, whole. Her body had been perfectly cast. But his Kae was exhausted.
Guard mate.
That thought sang through his processors, through his spark. He loved that thought. His sweet femme was ensconced in his arms, cuddling into him and already seeming to be half in her recharge. In a moment, he stepped into their shared quarters.
"Your armour?" he murmured softly.
"Which is gonna make you more comfortable?" his Kae murmured drowsily, burying her face into his neck. He loved it when she did that.
"It is my honoured duty to guard you, my mate, not force you to maintain your armour in the safety of our quarters." Optimus murmured gently.
Guard mate.
He couldn't stop enjoying that thought.
"Armour off," his Kae immediately murmured, squirming somewhat, the way she always did.
Carefully, Optimus balanced his mate on her feet, gently holding her upright until her body released the forces holding her armour in place. Then with infinite care, gently bore his mate to the berth, laying her down and making absolutely certain the environmental controls were set the way she preferred.
"You're spoiling me again, Optimus," his Kae murmured softly. Optimus simply chuckled, gently helping his mate arrange her body into the position she always slept. He shed his own armour, and carefully insinuated himself onto the berth, sitting up somewhat, he was guarding his mate, after all.