Recovery
"Any improvements?" Jack asked Ratchet as the three arrived at the former missile silo after school, three days following the entire mishap with the Scarplets and Arctic, "The others haven't said anything when we asked."
The white and orange medic vented heavily.
"Improving," was all he grumbled for several long moments before turning away from the monitor from seeing the Autobots off for patrol, to face the three curious and worried children, "Her body's working almost double time trying to heal the damage the cold did."
"I hear a but just waiting to be added," Miko raised a finger, brow going up.
Ratchet shuffled, "If her left leg does not reach a certain standard, it may need amputation."
The children's eyes widened.
"A—Amputation," Raf stuttered, biting his lower lip as his eyes were drawn to the comatose ginger, who had been removed from Ratchet's spark chamber two days prior and was now bundled up in several thick blankets and some sort of blue (energon?) I.V drip feeding into her left arm.
"I don't like it any more than you lot," Ratchet grumbled.
It was the first time the children had seen Ratchet look almost lost—the glint in his optics as he glanced over at Zelda with worry and hopefulness at the same time, "Zelda's stubborn, however. She was up and about only three days after she lost her arm."
"Wait-wait-wait, hold on a moment—what do you mean she lost an arm." Miko gaped, her eyes turning from Zelda to Ratchet and back.
Ratchet frowned down at them, "You haven't seen her robotic arm yet?"
"No," all three answered in unison.
"It happened almost four years ago; we'd only known her for… two earth months before it happened. It was shattered beyond repair and the only logical thing was to amputate it."
"Shattered?" Jack urged.
"She was in a fight and held a shield on the arm. It was stomped on; the bones were splintered beyond repair from the attack," Ratchet answered.
"Damn," Miko murmured and Raf nodded mutely; all three children couldn't help but respect the woman.
"How'd she met you guys anyway?" Raf asked—he'd been curious since they'd first meet Zelda and the Autobots.
Ratchet snorted—fondly. He shook his helm as his lips twitched upwards, "She was directly involved with the reason we'd even come to Earth to begin with."
"And that's—"
"Yip, yip, yip," Ratchet interrupted Jack, "I'm getting there, kid."
Jack rolled his eyes.
"What happened was the All-Spark, a sacred Cybertronian artefact, one of the very things that give us life, was jettisoned into space where it landed here, on Earth. Only Megatron had followed the All-Spark and crashed landed here also. Then an uncounted amount of time later, a man called Archibald Witwicky, who was on an expedition to explore the Arctic Circle, accidentally discovered Megatron and activated his navigation system which the location of the All-Spark was imprinted onto his glasses," Ratchet started, watching with hidden amusement as the kids shuffled forward as if that action would satisfy their curiosity alone.
"And the glasses wound up in Zelda's family's hands?" Raf asked.
"In a way," He nodded, "While Zelda's last name is Larsson, she is a direct descent of Archibald from her mother's side. Her destiny had always been intertwined with ours in a way."
"That. Is. Awesome!" Miko cheered, pumping her fist into the air.
"But that doesn't explain why she's still with you, or why she lost her arm," Raf pointed out.
Ratchet vented again, "Zelda was formally part of a classified government operation called the D.A.A which stood for Defence Against Anarchists. She was on medical leave at the time we landed on earth to search for the All-Spark and so ultimately, she and her cousin Sam, along with his now fiancée were all brought into it to search for the All-Spark. Truthfully had Zelda not been the one to shove the former All-Spark's vessel into Megatron's spark, it is unlikely she'd even still associated us by government orders."
"Megatron's spark?" Miko frowned. "Why's she shoved something powerful into—"
"It killed him," Ratchet cut in.
"Well, he wasn't exactly dead last week," Jack added.
Ratchet grunted in annoyed—youngling who don't know anything frustrated him. He let that go, however, because they'd only known of Cybertronians for a week, they had to learn somehow.
"The All-Spark's power can both create life and take it away," Ratchet answered, crossing his arms, "But what we were all surprised about was the power decided that Zelda would be a suitable host. So she became the new All-Spark, an All-Spark with a direct conscious—something that's not happened since long before the creation of the Thirteen original Primes, but even then, it was the All-Spark's original form before she gave her body up to create life."
The kids stared at Zelda's form for several long moments in stunned silence before Jack turned back to Ratchet with a question: "So she's like what? A God?"
"No," Ratchet shook his head, "Deity is a more correct term."
"But isn't Deity another word for a god?" Raf argued.
Ratchet vented heavily, "There is not a direct translation of what Zelda is from Cybertronian to English—or any Earthen language. A divine or celestial being, and Deity are the closest translations. Think of it like a Priestess with direct contact with her patron but has sole control over the ability to create life."
"Like in Greek history, right?" Miko offered. "In temples for Athena and stuff, they'd have women that would prayer and Athena would answer, am I right?"
"Close enough."
"What is the Cybertronian word?" Raf asked.
Ratchet peered down at him in surprise, "Spoken in Cybertronian?"
Raf nodded.
§Primera§ It was Optimus that answered. The children swirled around to look at the Prime. They'd never heard any of the Autobots speak in their native tongue before. Obviously it was far different from English—or any language on their blue planet, incorporating sounds no human could possibly recreate. But despite that, they could make out the sound was a single word.
"It is a word that Prime was formed from. It is the name used to refer to the femme that came before the All-Spark's inanimate form," Optimus explained, "There is no direct translation as Ratchet has explained but I believe the word Ratchet might be looking for is demiurge."
"Demiurge?" Jack echoed, "What does it mean? I've never heard of that word before."
"A being responsible for the creation of the universe, a creator of a world but also a subordinate to a Supreme Being."
"I'd argue with that, Optimus," came the croaky voice of Zelda. It had everyone's eyes and optics turning onto the exhausted but conscious giner.
"Zelda," Ratchet leaned back against the wall, optics dimming. The kids watched on in confusion, only for their eyes to widen as a man flickered into existence beside Zelda. He wore a white lab coat similar to that of a doctor, he had dark brown greying hair and healthy but aged light skin.
"Ratch," Zelda turned to the holoform with a weak smile, "Haven't seen the holoform for a while."
Ratchet rolled his holoform's eyes, followed by a head shake, "Holoforms are only necessary when interacting with humans, therefore I have no need most of the time as I hardly leave the base."
Zelda pushed herself up, groaning but Ratchet was already grabbing her shoulders to stop her from going much else, "Stop, stop, stop, you're still recovering from hypothermia!"
"Wha?" She blinked at him.
"Wait, hold up, what's a holoform and what's up the sudden human with Ratchet's voice?" Miko butted in. Ratchet rolled his eyes, shooting the girl an annoyed look over his shoulder.
"A holoform is a solid projection of pure light," He answered shortly, turning back to his patient, who was already trying to sit up again, "Youngling, stop it!"
She grunted, "Let me sit up, Ratchet. I'm boiling like I've been shoved in a stove, thank you very much."
With a disgruntled expression, Ratchet helped her sit up. Zelda turned back to the others, "Anyway, what was I saying?"
"Something about terms for what you are?" Raf offered.
Zelda blinked twice, "Oh, right."
She shook her head, using her right hand, her robotic arm which allowed the kids to finally get a glance at it—which they did in awe—and continued. "Primus refers to me as an Avatar because while I am the All-Spark, I'm not the All-Spark, if you know what I mean."
She received blank stares from the kids.
She gave an annoyed sound, face scrunching up, then suddenly she paused. Then with a sudden scrabbling movement, she tried to pull the blankets off her.
But Optimus and Ratchet jerked at the almost overwhelming feelings of confusion and frustration—and fear.
"Zelda," Ratchet tried to grab her wrists, "Wait, slow down."
"Why can't I feel my left leg?" She snapped. Ratchet froze for a moment then tightened his grip as she continued to try and get the blankets off.
"You've got frostbite, Zelda," Ratchet lifted her arms away from the blankets and she huffed, eyes narrowing at him in frustration.
"For the love off—the second person in my family to go to the Arctic and it went shit. At least I didn't end up blind and batshit crazy like my Archibald!" She snapped.
"Zelda, calm," Optimus's firm tone made her pause, jaw clamping shut.
Suddenly Optimus stilled and another holoform—the kids weren't idiots and knew it was Optimus—appeared, joining Ratchet. He laid his hand on her shoulder firmly but reassuringly.
"A situation out of our control happened, and I know that it's frustrating but working yourself up especially so soon after waking up is not good for your health," Hhis brows furrowed softly with his concerned expression.
His human face was a lot more expressive than his real one, the kids noted, and they knew having seen him fretting over the unconscious Zelda before they'd been sent home four days ago that he cared deeply for her.
Soundwave felt (key word felt) like stomping down the hallways of the Nemesis to take out his frustration but knew he couldn't do that if he had to keep up his controlled persona, it didn't stop others from avoiding him from the constant angry emotions emitting from his frame. Four days ago, his bond with Zelda had suddenly become near non-existence. It was scary because that could only mean one thing—she'd been dying.
The others on the Nemesis had been the same, Knockout had stumbled over during his entrance to the deck. Breakout had gone to catch his red-painted companion when he himself froze up.
Even Starscream had visibly frozen.
And that said a lot about the moron because he might be a backstabber and despite him declaring he cared nothing about Zelda, he looked nervous and worried as the Decepticons took several long moments to collect themselves enough to say anything.
He'd tried texting her that night to no response—then the next night, just for the same answer. Nothing.
It was making him jittery and Lazerbeak had been forced to watch and feel the fallout the most because of their bond.
The condor waved him off because he knew Soundwave was fond of Zelda like he himself was.
It was unusual for him to have so little control of himself after all this time. It made him frustrated—surely, he should have more faith in Zelda than this, right?
Have faith she'd come out on top of anything that happens—she'd gone through too much too simple just, die.
He just didn't—
He was thankful that no one else was on the deck to watch him smack his helm onto the keyboard—they'd of no doubt given him weird looks, that's for sure.
Lazerbeak's amusement filtered over their bond, ~What's this? Boss doesn't understand something?~
He'd be receiving the twin's constant ribbing had they been here. Thank Primus they weren't. Just Lazerbeak was enough when they decided to tease him.
~You really don't know, do you?~ Lazerbeak tittered over the bond in light disbelief and Soundwave frowned.
No, he didn't.
Lazerbeak full-on laughed at him.
What was so funny?