Hey guys, I want to wish you a happy Thanksgiving if you celebrate that. If not, hope you had a wonderful day! I also want to thank you guys and apologize about the break. It, unfortunately, didn't help me. Posting will still be few and far in between. I have two other stories in mind to write, one is about Predator/Yautja, and the other is an original story. I'm excited for it. Please bear with me!
Warning: detailed description of gory, damaged skin.
Energy blazed through the area right as I turned to face the source. It was too much, nearly striking me to my knees. The supporting limbs stumbled to hold me up. The air in my lungs felt like it was knocked out. They burned for oxygen.
A raging headache pounded at my head, danger ringing the loudest I've ever felt. Heat exploded throughout my body before the true explosion occurred.
The building rumbled before an ear bleeding boom rung out. Instinct drove me first, brain not thinking clearly. I connected to the heat energy building inside of the place and understood immediately where it came from.
A bomb. Powerful too.
Pain immediately shot through my body. A cry left my lips at the agony. Somewhere behind me, I heard someone call my name and the familiar feel of that person about to touch me. Luckily, they flinched back, the heat radiating from my scales would've burned them.
My arms shook as I compressed it as much as I could. It didn't work though. The energy field was too great. It expanded, easily fighting against my powers and growing in size. No! I wouldn't let it reach the humans or bots. My will power surged through me, help fighting off the explosion.
It shook, the walls seeming like they were about to collapse. Windows exploded, other flammable things catching fire. The place falling apart on itself under the sheer weight of the explosion. Possibly taking me with it.
Out of the corner of my eye, both of the twins stood, gaze switching between the building and I. Ironhide gripped Sides's shoulder and began to pull him away, yelling something at him. The bot fought against him, his twin coming to save him. I couldn't pay more attention to them, the burn feeling crawling up my arms too painful.
A cry left my lips again, sobs following after it. Chaos erupted around me, people and bots running for their lives at the dome of fire expanded, getting too close for comfort. I gritted my teeth, feeling them grind against each other, before settling my focus completely on it.
Sharp stinging pricks raced up my arms. Tears fell down my face but the heat of my scales evaporated them in seconds. It felt like I was being torn apart, molecules being pulled away from each other. This wasn't the worst pain I've experienced but it was up there, close to the top.
Time ticked back as I held on to my conscious. Darkness was clouding my vision, threatening to make me blind. Everything started to feel light. At most, my body could fall over and give up protecting the humans. Yes, protect them, Azar. That is your job.
Determination hit me in full force. Fight it off. I lightly shook my head, dug my talons into the now muddy ground, and held on for dear life.
The explosion finished an unknown amount time later. It died down and left a demolished building behind, nothing left for us to sift through. I fell to my knees, energy completely gone, pain radiating from my scales.
With whatever will power I had left, I lifted my arms and stared at the smoking and burnt flesh. Fuck me. My lungs gulped every ounce of oxygen they could get in, but it wasn't enough. I had exerted too much energy for me to handle. The edges of my vision blurred to darkness. Definitely not good.
Though my vision was going, that didn't stop me from sensing other's presences; including a special pair. As much as I wanted to snuggle up to them, my scales were too hot for them to touch. The mud was sizzling just from being in contact with me. "No, no t-ouch," I croaked out, body low on needed water and mouth dry.
"A-are, are you okay?" Sides asked, voice soft and filled with worry. I had no answer without it being a lie or making their concern worse. A whimper escaped me, accidently. "Can I pl-ease touch you? I need to br-ing you to Ratchet." Gods, the poor bot sounded like he was about to break down.
I shook my head, scales still too hot for any human or bot to touch. With the last few ounces of energy left, I fought to my feet and turned to face the group rushing back.
Zayden dashing through his and William's soldier like his butt was on fire. No one could step in his way to stop him unless they wanted to be mowed down. A smile graced my face at the sight of his frantic self. That man loved me too much.
When he reached me, the twins had to stop him from hugging me. That didn't go well over him. He nearly put a bullet in both of their frames from the action while yelling to let him through. "You can't touch her. Her scales are too hot," Sunstreaker grounded out. The man stopped and calmed down enough so the two didn't have to hold him back.
He came up to me, careful and dutiful. His brows furrowed and hands reaching out but he reframed himself. Then, he caught sight of my arms. "Shit, Azzie. I'll get Kade so he can look you over and take care of those burns." I hissed, not wanting a random human wrapping my wounds.
"Ra-" I cleared my throat- "R-Ratchet," is all I could get out. Luckily, the twins understood the name. Sunstreaker glanced behind him, seeming like he was searching for something or someone. Please, let it be Ratchet.
"What? The bot? No, Kade knows a lot more about you than him. He can take care of you," Zayden argued. A look of anger passed over his face as me declining Kade's help.
Thankfully, the twins came to my rescue. "Not to be rude or anything, but Ratchet has been taking excellent care of her when she gets injured. When she came to us, she was starving and Ratchet was able to get her to eat what was needed for herself," Sides bit back and skated around to behind me. Sunstreaker following his movement
A snarl made its way onto the human's face. "That's not my fault. She ran away and I couldn't find her." His gaze returned to me. "If it was up to me, I would drag you back home and let you heal there."
My energy was too low to be dealing with him right now. I stumbled backwards, legs no longer strong enough to handle any weight. Both twins reached out without thinking and caught me. Luckily, my scales had cooled enough for them to touch. "It's okay, sweetspark. We got you. You've done your job, just rest," Sides cooed. His voice started to loll me to sleep.
"We know you miss her but she's in great servos, I promise you that," Sunstreaker stated, his attention returned back to me. He carefully lifted me up and held me bridal style, a bit awkward due to my size and four wings. His spark humming, not helping my exhausted self.
"How can I trust you guys? I've only met you only a few times. I can see she trusts you but I have different set of eyes than her," Zayden stated and moved closer to Sunstreaker. With my brain mostly asleep, I limply reached out an arm. The man before us flinched inward at the sight of my charred scales and carefully took the limb into his grasp. "Oh, Azzie. I'm so sorry."
I slowly blinked my eyes before speaking up, mouth somewhat less dry. "I'm… I fine. My boys will-ow… will," it felt like an uphill battle trying to get words out, "will take care-" a yawn interrupted my own words- "care of me."
Zayden held his breath for a few moments, eyes searching mine, before releasing a huge sigh. "Alright, I guess, I can let Ratchet take care of you, but I'm going there with you. And there's no ifs, ands, or buts about it, from any of you. Let's just… get you better."
After coming to an agreement of sorts, the four of us headed towards where we were dropped. Both twins fretted over me. Since Sides had his hands free, he would be quick to wipe a tear or brush my hair out of the way. He also cooed to me, reassuring I would be fine and on the edge of praising me. "You did so good, you saved a lot of lives." It wasn't long before sleep claimed me.
By the time I woke up an unknown time later, my sense of time was screwed up and body throbbing agonizingly. A headache was pounding away, pushing on the back of my eyes.
Bandages wound up from my third knuckle to my mid bicep. The tips of my fingers could be seen, though they seemed to be healing quiet nice, they were still charred to a degree. A problem at hand was I couldn't move anything below my mid lower forearm. Muscle and tissue badly damage.
Darkness filled the Med. Bay; we had made it back. Luckily, my cat-like eyes easily adjusted to the lack of light. The CMO wasn't in for the night, sadly. The base itself sounded quiet for the first time I've been here. It was eerie and left a bad feeling in me.
Hunger and exhaustion settled deep in me a few minutes later. No food in sight. The painful twist my stomach made it so falling back to sleep would be impossible. I needed food, now.
Everything ached as I moved, body protesting at all costs to not move. It wasn't like I much choice, food was a necessary thing for me to heal properly. I fought against myself and sat up, now noticing the large amount of wires attached to me.
A beeping sound coming from behind, finally able to listen in on the noise around. The wires were in my way and prevented me from leaving without tearing them off. Oh well. I did just that and leaned back on my arms to carefully slip off of the cot only to howl in pain.
The burns on my arms causing it from the pressure. Well, fuck me, I guess. With some vigilance, I slid off and nearly crumpled to the ground. It was too much. As much of a stubborn and strong willed person that everyone saw me as, I threw in the towel and plopped down onto the ground. Everything throbbed and I knew for a fact if I did too much, these injuries would be worse.
As sleep started to swallow me, the Med. Bay door was nearly ripped off as it rolled back; the hydraulics giving up under the force. I was startled at the sudden arrival and banged my horns against the underside of the cot, drawing a pained cry from me. Through my bleary vision, Ratchet rushed in, blue eyes snapping over to me. "Slag!"
With as much grace as a newbie in heels, he dashed over to me, set on getting to work. "Azar, are you awake? Can you hear me? Can you please make a sound?" his voice was boiling over with worry as he timidly picked me up and placed me back on the cot.
I hummed and rested a hand on one of his hands. Ratchet froze, eyes clue to the charred and bandaged limb. "Primus, don't scare me like that again. Or us. The Terror Twins, Zayden, and I were really worried," he scolded. I gently smiled and tried my best to curl my fingers around one of the plating on his wrist. Nothing. No movement.
My brows furrowed, frustration bubbling. "M-my-" I cleared my throat- "hands… How bad?" The damage had to be horrible if I couldn't even move them, let alone feel much with them.
Ratchet froze once more, hands stilling from placing the wires back on. "Pretty bad. You've sustained both third and fourth degree burns. Most of the bad ones are more towards your hands. Bone are exposed too and extensive muscle and nerve damage," he explained, pity in his voice.
This is bad. I stared at the bandages, wondering what they looked like under there. After the explosion, I was able to see a little but my brain was barely paying attention to the damage. I've never had this bad of a wound. Healing was going to suck. That's why I was tired. "Ratch… could, could you get me food? I'm really hungry."
"Yeah, yeah, I can. Let me get these back on you then I will. Just-stay put, please." I dipped my chin. The mech continued, easily placing things back where they belong before leaving.
He came back quickly, or what seemed swift to me with a plate full of food and two cups water. My mouth watered hungrily at the sight, then I realized something: I couldn't moved my hands. Thankfully, the mech already thought about this.
"Since you can't use the muscles in your se-hands, I'll feed you, if that's alright." What I'm seeing is a different Ratchet. A soft, caring one. Yes, he is usually soft and caring to me but this was different. He wasn't as demanding in a sense, now questioning if it was alright.
With a sore and semi dry throat, I answered with a simple nod. Ratchet smiled quietly and brought the fork up to my mouth. Steak. It hurt my pride that I've been reduced to this, only for a moment though. I didn't let it settle and focused on eating to regain my strength back.
It didn't take me long to finish up the food which I was more than grateful for. My stomach full afterwards, yet I knew that wasn't going to last long. I was horribly injured and needed every ounce of energy that I could acquire to heal as quickly as possible. The longer I was out of commission, the deeper trouble we were in.
A cold, metal finger tilted my head up to face the CMO. "Everything's going to be alright, I promise." I scoffed at his words and gave him a deadpan expression. "Don't give me that look. You will be. It'll be a hard process for however long it should take you but you'll heal fine."
"What about the twins? Are… are they okay?" That was my first priority. They needed to be fine. Of course, I do remember them fine after the explosion but I had passed out. Anything could've happened then.
Ratchet smiled gently and stroked the middle of my head for reassurance. "They are fine. Neither sustained any injuries. Thank Primus, those two are always getting themselves injured. One way or another."
With a sigh of relief, I calmed myself. "That's good. I, I didn't know if something happened after I passed out… Wait, what about Zayden? He said he would be here."
"He's here as well. Wouldn't leave your side for the couple of days you were out." Oh that's good. I'm glad he's here…
Wait a moment! 'Couple of days I was out'? My eyes immediately locked onto Ratchet's. "Days?!" I exclaimed, worried for the amount of time I had lost.
"Yes, days. Three days to be exact. I'm really relieved you did. Zayden was threatening to move you to his facility if you didn't wake up today and said he would use force if need be." He walked over to his desk and grabbed a tablet to scroll through.
"That damn man… I can't believe I was out for three days. My body feels like it's only got three hours of sleep, not days." Pain shot up my arms from the nerves that weren't burnt to a crisp, drawing a short gasp from me. "Ugh, and I thought they wouldn't hurt. Hey, Ratch, do you think I could see what they damage looks like?"
He hesitantly thought about it, pity in his eyes as they flicked between mine and my arms. "Azar, I don't know about that. They are really bad." His voice croaked. The poor bot looked nervous to show me.
Of course, I wouldn't push him to do something he didn't want to do but I really wanted to see what they look like. The scars were going to be horrible, I knew that without even looking. "But if you really want to, I can't deny you that." I nodded my head to signal for him show them.
His hands carefully unwrapped the coverings. I watched closely as red and irritated skins appeared first. The beginning wounds weren't too bad, that wasn't something I could say for the rest.
Ugly, nasty, charred scales appeared at my wrists, hands, and fingers. Bones appeared on the upper and thinner part of my hands, causing me to cringe. I've been injured, limbs ripped off but something about how this looked nearly made me puke. Yet, for the life of me, I couldn't tear my eyes away. Too consumed by the burns.
Once he moved his hands away, I finally took in the full extent. "Gods," I trailed off, distraught by the damage. "This is going to take me weeks to heal!" What was I going to do?!
A thought came to mind: I would do it again, if it meant keeping the twins safe. Oh, and of course, everyone else on the battle field. Couldn't forget about them.
"And you'll probably have to have physically therapy to regain proper control of your muscles again." Yeah, no, definitely not doing that. I can easily learn on my own. "I'll change your wrappings then leave you to rest, you really need it."
Ratchet carefully slathered some sort of paste on the damaged scales before rewrapping them. "I'll let Zayden and the twins know that you've awoken. I won't let them disturb you though. Only Primus knows how much sleep you'll need. I will say though, they are looking a bit better from when I first saw them."
With that, the bot leaves for me to rest. I heaved a heavy sigh and carefully lowered myself down to sleep. It wasn't long before it captured me.