AN: Whew, one of my longer chapters!
Reviews: (member, anonymous reviewer)
Thanks for reviewing and continuing to enjoy this story, Fk306 animelover, Noella50881, Autobot Firekat, bumblebee girl, TransformerJunkie, and shadow-dog18!
Kat Shadow: It's fine that you never reviewed before, but I appreciate you taking the time to review now! I actually do plan to bring in Graham at some point, though whether he'll go with Sides while Sunny has Fig, I dunno. I might just have the both of them have Fig sense I actually think they'd be able to do that, while the other set of twins would just fight over one person. I do have an idea of who might like the other set of twins and stick with them, though. And concerning the relationship aspect, I agree, which is why whenever I wrote anything that I kind of wanted I put it in a oneshot that was an AU of this. So far that's only been BarryxMiles and SamxBee, though. I'm glad you enjoy this, and I hope you will continue to do so!
Rockubyebaby: Haha, I think they'd be risking death if they tried that!
The Result of Squffie: Genderbended Barricade? To me I don't really think there'd be that big of a hub bub about it, at least not with the way I'm righting it. Except maybe femmes would be hit on more or something, I dunno. But I think you should do that idea, it sounds funny!
Chapter 25
Why are my ribs bruised, 'Hide?
Miles stood in the control room/communications center, watching as Blaster, Jazz, and Optimus Prime attempted to talk to Skids and Mudflap. They were able to talk to them using Earth's satellites to play ping pong with the signal, but so far Miles, or any other organic for that matter, had no idea what was being said because they were talking in Cybertronian. He knew they were attempting to find a safe place for the twins to land and a good day to do it to use a cover up.
He heard a Cybertronian come in, but didn't turn around. He froze when he felt a body press close to his, and heard a voice whisper right next to his ear. "We've been found out."
He squeaked, turning around only to find no one there. The holoform had already been dissolved, but he noticed the newest addition to the room: Prowl. He glared up at the SIC, who appeared to be ignoring him.
"Miles?" Optimus asked, Miles turning to face him. The leader had turned to look at him. "Are you okay?"
Miles grinned sheepishly, "I forgot that ma wanted me to come help with something in about five minutes. Sorry Big Guy, I gotta go. Anyone know where she is?"
"Affirmative." Prowl, quickly saying this so it would work out. The whole reason Miles asked is so the two could go talk alone, after all. The SIC picked Miles up and strode out of the room.
"Stop smirking." Miles glared up at Prowl.
"I am not smirking." Prowl replied, faceplates as impassionate as ever.
Miles huffed, "I meant on the inside, fragger. So what happened?"
"The twins. They found out." Prowl walked into his office, setting Miles down on the desk. He sounded amused.
"How?" Miles groaned, letting himself pout just a little bit. The prank was going to be so awesome, and now it was ruined.
"Wheeljack created a device that would let humans detect basic Cybertronian energy given off by both holoframs and holoforms." Prowl sighed. "They were naturally suspicious as to whether someone was messing with them, and managed to steal one. I need to give them more credit, apparently. And some brig time."
"So we abort." Miles stated. "Bummer. Sounds like you'll be busy with both sets of twins anyway."
Prowl nodded, "Unfortunately."
"So why do we have to stay behind?" Sam asked, staring up at his guardian with a pout.
"Skids and Mudflap are a bit... out there." Bumblebee replied, preferring to use that instead of Ironhide's 'slagging glitched mistakes'.
Miles snorted, "So much so that we can't come to their landing site, but we can go to the one where the 'con or 'cons will be?"
"Ironhide can shoot the 'con, but not the twins, isn't that right, insect?" Barricade sneered.
Bumblebee nodded, grinning sheepishly. "That, and Ratchet plans to have some of you act as field medics. Your tiny hands can be useful. Like when Miles worked on Barricade."
"Wait, when did Miles work on Barricade?" Epps asked, thinking he missed some major aft kicking.
"Bee gave Barry quite the aft kicking, and he was left to lick his wounds alone." Miles grinned, then froze. "Uh, I mean… Well, frag, sorry Barry.
Everyone but Barricade snorted, the 'con doing his best to glare Miles in to an early death.
"Way to stick your pretty lil' foot in your mouth, Mimi." Epps smirked.
Miles glared at the older man. When Barricade had sacrificed him to the Prankster Gods, otherwise known as Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, they had decided to make him into a drag queen and deem him Mimi. The teen was still searching for whoever had the pictures that would randomly appear.
The Neutral, or Neutrals, and the Decepticon, or Decepticons, would be landing in a few days, thankfully during Thanksgiving break. The Cybertronians could guess at the size of the ships the 'con and neutral were traveling in, but how many people were inside was a mystery. They could only guess.
There would only be five humans going. Two, Sam and Miles, acting as civilian field medics. Three soldiers, Will, Epps, and Fig. Ironhide, Optimus, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Trailbreaker, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe were the Cybertronians that were going. Trailbreaker would act as a shield for the medics, or just the humans when ordered. Optimus would go to guarantee peace and freedom for the Neutral if they were still alive. Ironhide, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe would be the main battle force if it came to that, though Optimus and Trailbreaker would pull back up. Ratchet would be the foremost field medic, and if Trailbreaker was busy Bumblebee would stay with the humans. He was smaller and faster then Trailbreaker, anyway.
Miles and Sam were already receiving a crash course in Cybertronian insides, though Miles knew more then Sam. They both learned how to get in to the hardest places for Ratchet to reach right away, and the places that would lead to immediate or fast death when wounded. They would both carry a backpack with a tool kit inside of it.
Sam, Miles, and Mikaela were just taken to meet Skids and Mudflap. The three stared up at the goofy Autobots as the two began to fight. Bumblebee had walked off a bit to talk with Optimus and Ironhide, leaving them near the twins.
"Ah ge' ta hol' one of 'em first!" Skids smacked Mudflap as he began to reach for a human. Their speech was ruff, and it took Mikaela a bit longer to figure out what was said as they spoke quickly. Miles and Sam had no problem, having been around Blurr more then her.
"Naw, ya too ugly! Ya face'd scare 'em!" Mudflap.
"We twins, doofus! You ugly too!"
And it quickly dissolved into a brawl, the two brothers attacking eachother as the humans watched. Optimus, Bumblebee, and Ironhide just ignored this, so they assumed it must happen often. The three humans watched with amusement, until a ped got a little too close and they were suddenly in the middle of the two fighting Autobots. Mikaela squeaked, trying to run, only having to dodge a ped as it came out to kick it's brother.
"BUMBLEBEE!" Sam yelled, trying to escape himself.
Optimus and Bumblebee quickly strided over, Ironhide picking up Skids by the back of his neck, and Bumblebee repeating the gesture with Mudflap. Ironhide tossed Skids at the wall hard, and Bumblebee followed suit, Mudflap landing on top of his brother. The twins became a groaning heap of metal.
The five humans stood together in a wide expanse of open desert, binoculars practically glued to their faces as they watched the Neutral space craft be chased by the Decepticon space craft. The seven Cybertronians stood far away from their tiny organic friends, gesturing and attempting to talk to the whoever was on the Neutral ship to get them to land so they could protect them. Currently the two ships were playing chase through the sky over their heads, and it was already obvious who would when. The Neutral ship was surprisingly tiny, and looked like it was barely managing to hold together. No one could see how it managed to fly, much less take the sharp turns necessary to avoid the Decepticon fire. Compared to the Neutral ship, the Decepticon ship was large.
Epps whistled, "Alien. Definitely alien."
The other humans couldn't help but silently agree, despite all they had already been through with the seven Cybertronians standing far away from them for their own safety. After the initial shock had worn off it was easy to accept the Cybertronians and not really think about how they came from outerspace. It was even easier to accept when there had previously been little to no Decepticon activity, so the fighting had been non-existant for the human faction of NEST. They were riveted by the riveted by the chase going on above them, how the Neutral ship could evade so effectively despite looking ready to fall apart, how the Decepticon ship kept chasing no matter what.
And then the Decepticon ship managed to land a hit, having dropped down below the Neutral ship just as it turned a corner to run off again, and appeared in front of it instead. The Decepticon ship lifted up as the Neutral ship did a sudden nose dive. Right near where the humans were standing.
"GO, GO, GO!" Will yelled, not even needing a moment to think about it. He ran, Epps, Fig, Miles, and Sam following suit quickly.
When it hit they were safe, but the tremor that rushed through the ground at the impact knocked them all flying, and not long after they fell to the ground the tremor was followed by a blast of hot air. Miles and Sam stayed down, dazed and eyes burning from the hot air, while Epps, Will, and Fig were quickly back on their feet. Two of the soldiers took off running to where their Cybertronian comrades were, while Epps stayed back to help out Miles and Sam. Trailbreaker broke away from his fellow Autobots, moving to the humans when Optimus ordered him to do so, and check the ship for survivors.
"Primus," Sam muttered as Trailbreaker helped him to stand steadily. "I thought I was all good with earthquakes because of Prowl."
Epps helped Miles up, "You guys ain't used to bein' knocked flat on your asses."
"Optimus wishes for us to check out the ship." Trailbreaker cut in before Sam could reply. He didn't mind if the humans held their own conversations, but at the moment there was something a little more important.
The three nodded, following Trailbreaker as he strided toward the downed ship. They had to jog to keep up with the mech at a sensible pace, but none voiced a complaint. In the distance they could hear the sounds of metal clashing with metal, and the sound of gunfire. They paused outside the ship, watching as Trailbreaker hacked into it and the door slid open. While it seemed bigger to the humans up close, they knew it was tiny compared to most Cybertronian ships, and could probably only house about five mechs safely, not basing their size off of a normal mini-con, that is. If it was mini-cons then there would be a good few more.
Trailbreaker picked the three up, holding Sam and Miles while Epps rode on his shoulder. The first place he went was the command center, and the humans heard him muttering in Cybertronian as soon as the door opened. As they got closer they could see why. A mech was sitting at the controls, slumped over and the optics offline. There was evidence of him being in battle, poorly welded together wounds and stains of energon along the frame. Trailbreaker set the humans down outside of the room and closed the door behind them, effectively keeping them out.
"Think he'll make it?" Miles asked softly.
Epps didn't bother to answer the question, instead steering Sam and Miles away from that door and down the hall. "We have to search for other passengers."
The two boys nodded, following the soldier as they walked close to eachother. The first room they entered showed another mech, looking much like the first one, except this one was slumped against the wall and his spark chamber was wide open. It was extinguished. The next room seemed to be the medbay, and a Cybertronian femme layed on a berth, a mech that sat beside her half slumped over her. The femme was battered and war torn, but the mech was in reasonably good shape. There was no question the femme was dead, but Epps moved in closer to check the mech.
"Is that... a femme?" Miles asked softly, whispering, as if speaking any louder would disturb the dead femme, and seemingly dead mech by her side. It was the first femme any of them had seen, and they all knew how rare a femme was. Some of the mechs that Ironhide would talk about while over energized hadn't seen a femme once in their lifetime.
Sam swallowed, whispering. "Primus. Bee, he told me, about... Sparkmates. Where if one offlines then the second one usually does, too." Both teens averted their eyes, Epps returning to them and shaking his head. The mech was dead. He put one hand on one of both of their shoulder's.
"C'mon, boys. Let's go." He whispered softly, gently leading them out of the room. He was a soldier, and had been for years. The sight of the two like that wouldn't get to him now, not in the moment where he needed to be calm and head cleared of unrational emotions, but it would later. He knew the teens couldn't exactly help themselves, and he didn't say anything when Sam's eyes misted over as the teen looked back at the two Cybertronians over his shoulder.
They were about to enter one of the last rooms when Miles heard something that sounded odd, a good familiar odd, but odd non the less in the startling quiet of the Neutral ship. It was coming from the very last room in the corridor, and he turned towards it. "Do you guys hear that?"
Epps nodded, "It sounds like Cybertronian! Let's check it out."
The three practically sprinted towards the room, but had to stop when they reached the door. The pounded on it, hoping whoever inside would open up, and after a moment the door slid open. They rushed in, only to stop in shock. It was another femme, this one alive, and desperately reaching out to them as she spoke in broken Cybertronian. From her wounds and the pain in her optics it was obvious she wouldn't last long.
"She's gonna die if she doesn't get help now! We need Ratchet for this!" Miles exclaimed worriedly, taking a deep breath before screaming. "TRAILBREAKER GET YOUR AFT IN HERE!" The femme flinched at the sudden unexpected loud tone, her whirling and clicking getting more frantic as the sound of running peds could be heard. Trailbreaker entered, and stared at the femme in shock for a moment.
"I'll comm Ratchet." Trailbreaker said in clear English, for the benefit of the humans, and then he switched to Cybertronian, telling the femme he would be calling the best medic around. The femme keened as Ratchet did so, and after a moment Trailbreaker started using a long list of human cuss words. He had obviously been spending too much time at the soldier's poker games again. "He's under fire, I gotta go bring him here! You guys work on her, you'll be able to seal any wounds better than me." And with that he ran back out.
Epps was at a loss as to what to do, and he could see panicked expressions on Miles' and Sam's faces. He pulled himself together, "Okay, you two, you're the medics, get to work!"
They both started, Miles slinging off his backpack and pulling out the large tool kit. He held it up to the femme, Ratchet having put symbols that meant Medic trainees in Cybertronian on to it. Sam moved closer to the femme, sliding his pack off and pulling his own tool kit out. He stopped when the femme reached out and wrapped a gentle but shaking hand around him, clicking and whirling at him desperately. He stared at her with wide eyes, unsure what to do and fearing that she'd squash him in the back of his mind.
After a few moments the femme seemed to get that he couldn't understand her, letting out a frustrated and pain filled screech. The next second all three humans could feel the kind of scan Ratchet tended to avoid, this one being more thorough and personal. Using her other hand she pointed at a body lying underneath some rubble, and the humans looked. It was a lot smaller then a normal Cybertronian, and it was obvious a previous shot from the Decepticon ship and made some of the Neutral's ship collapse on to it.
Miles gasped, "Is that a sparkling?"
Sam and Epps gaped at Miles, and then the little body. There was no way it could have survived that. The metal itself was unsalvagable, and they could just barely recognize what the pile of metal was supposed to be for. There attention was drawn back to the femme when she let out a tiny keen, and her chestplates moved aside to reveal her spark. Orbiting around it was another, tinier spark.
"Primus! The sparkling is still inside of her! The body she would have put it in is destroyed!" Epps sounded horrified, and Miles and Sam soon looked horrified. Epps had been given more of the Cybertronian birds and the bees then the two teens had, and knew what he was seeing. Ratchet had used diagrams.
The femme grabbed Miles up, the teen giving a startled cry, and shoved him into the same hand that she was using to hold Sam. The two were squashed together almost painfully so she could hold them, and she put them closer to her spark chamber, clicking and whirling frantically. The two watched as her own spark dimmed a bit, the tiny spark beside it doing the same a moment later. Both of them were dying all three realized with a small amount of shock, Epps coming to this conclusion on his own.
Tentatively Miles reached out, touching the tiny sparkling. He felt a jolt of electricity run through him, but it was Sam and Epps that gave a startled cry.
"What the hell just shocked me?" Epps cried out, looking around for anything dangerous. Sam followed suit, and Miles was about to say something when all three stopped in shock.
"Please, please, help my baby! My sparkling, you have to save my sparkling!" The femme begged, but she was still speaking in Cybertronian. They could hear the distinctive whirls and clicks of the language, but it was like their minds were automatically changing it to a language they could understand. They all looked at one another to make sure it was just them individually and that they weren't going insane. "My mate-dead! I will die! My sparkling-please!"
Sam squirmed in her grasp, trying to get out to do something, to do anything. We have to do something to save the baby!, he thought. And that was when their worlds seemed to dissolve around them.
Will growled to himself, hiding behind Ironhide as he fumbled to reload. Fig was crouched on the ground near him, grumbling things in Spanish. When he felt a shock go through him he dropped his gun and the sabet rounds in shock, causing Fig to look at him with barely concealed worry. They were friends after all, though he wasn't as close to Fig as he was to Epps. Fig just happened to have a big Spanish heart.
"IRONHIDE!" Will shouted, turning to glare up at the back of the black gmc truck. "What the hell just shocked me?"
Ironhide didn't even look at him, intent on guarding them while Ratchet did some patch ups on Sideswipe. Trailbreaker was by the Medic's side, trying to get his attention away from the patient. He started to talk to Optimus in Cybertronian, and Will was about to yell again, when he could suddenly understand what was being said.
"-wrong with Will. Should I get him out of here towards the Neutral ship?" Ironhide.
"That may be best if something is ailing him. We do not want to lose one of the tiny organics." Optimus.
Will practically snarled, "Okay, what the slag is going on? You are not taking me away from the fi-!" He froze as his world dissolved around him, but to the others he just froze. Eyes wide open and unblinking, mouth still open in mid word. The only movement he made was to breathe.
"Ironhide, something is wrong with Will!" Fig went over to his Captain quickly, trying to catch the man's attention.
"RATCHET! WILL NEEDS YOU!" Ironhide yelled, bending down to scan the Captain's body multiple times.
They were all there in that unknown place, and they could all sense eachother but didn't know how. Just the feeling of Epps. Just the feeling of Sam. Just the feeling of Miles. Just the feeling of Will. It was indescribable, and later on they would just say they knew it was eachother. They knew that wherever they were was safe. There was no light, but it wasn't dark. It wasn't cold or hot, dry or wet. It just was. They didn't have any bodies, they just were. It didn't feel empty, but comfortable. All four of them were there and that felt just right. They had eachother.
And then came Sam's thought, echoing in the place that wasn't anything but was everything at the same time. We have to do something to save the baby!
And with it came the knowledge to Will, not words, but images and feelings. Feelings from all three. Feelings from the femme. Feelings from the Sparkling. The others just felt the feelings from eachother, Will, the femme, and the sparkling that wasn't.
Then there was nothing, and almost hesitantly Miles sent emotions towards all of them. Fear, confusion, sorrow, pain, guilt, hope, no hope. Do anything. They sent agreement back, attached with whatever other emotions they were feeling. There was a lot of confusion, some fear coming from the younger of the four, and some anger coming from the older of the four. They realized that wherever they were it didn't involve bodies, but that realization faded into the background. It didn't feel weird. Just natural, comforting even. There wouldn't be anything happening to them in this place.
Then Epps sent them Optimus' voice, the sound once more echoing around them. A conversation the two had together when Will had been sick and Epps had been filling in for his duties.
There have been little to no sparklings since the beginning of the war, Robert. And that was long before your planet was even made. In fact, I believe Bumblebee has never seen an actual sparkling besides in the data we used to teach him with while raising him. He was just going into younglinghood himself when the war started. But even before that there were fewer and fewer sparklings being made due to the decline, and the way things seemed to be heading. A sparkling was seen as a blessing.
Once the last echo had faded the idea of what would be done to save the sparkling came to them. Energy was needed, and they were more then willing.
But then Will felt a sudden pain, the place of everything and nothing flickering for just a moment. It whiplashed, pinging to Sam, then Miles, and then Epps. Fear and pain became Will's dominant emotions as he tried to think. This place made it hard to do that. Conveying things with emotions was so much easier then forming actual thoughts in their head's. Fear echoed back from the other three, as well as confusion and worry.
"...You are extremely lucky Ratchet was not here to see that." Optimus speaking softly.
"I wanted to see if he would move if I flicked him." Ironhide.
"Your flick just bruised his ribs and knocked him over, old friend. You get to explain it to him, and Ratchet." Optimus. Fig merely stared dumbfounded at the fallen body of his friend.
In the place that was everything and nothing at the same time Will tried to convey something through his sudden and confusing pain. He felt dumbed down and sluggish, while the other three just felt a bit hazy. Like everything was a bit more difficult. On the third try he managed to send the right emotions. Tired, patient, experienced, war-hardened, ready to fight. He aimed this at the two teens. Then he sent the feeling of wanting more to them, and tired again.
It clicked for Sam quicker, and the teen sent agreement. Miles followed soon after once he got it. Epps sent agreement to all of them, and the feeling of being pleased. The teens would give most of the energy, the soldiers only giving some so when they came back to wherever they were going they'd be more ready to get up and fight if need be.
Then everything started to fade, and the last thing anything any of them got was a single name. Then the place that was everything and nothing dissolved into blackness and nothingness.
"The Allspark energy in them is building up to a startling level, Ratchet." Bumblebee, trying to sound calm though the worry in his optics gave him away.
"Frag it all!" Ratchet, giving up hope on saving the femme. He knew there was no way to save the sparkling, though the femme kept pleading with him. He had put her offline so she wouldn't feel pain anymore.
Silence before Bumblebee spoke again. "Ratchet scan them and keep your scans on them! It's like the energy's travelling through them and heading towards the femme!" Awe and confusion in his voice. Sam and Miles were practically bathed in the energy, it running through their bodies and dancing across their skin as it left them. Epps had more then he previously did, but not as much as the teens.
Ratchet turned quickly, doing just that before the room filled with a bright light coming from the femme's spark chamber. Both of the Cybertronians froze, the light blinding to even them, and the sense of don't move coming to their processors. They both sent out an alert to their fellow Autobots on the mission with them.
"Prime, what the frag is wrong with him?" Ironhide.
"I do not know, my scans only show that he has a lot more Allspark energy then before. It seems to be dispersing to somewhere." Optimus.
"WHAT THE FRAG DOES THAT MEAN?"
"I am no medic, old friend. I can not say."
Silence as they all got the emergency alerts from Bumblebee and Ratchet, minus Fig.
"Trailbreaker, Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker, stay here and make sure the Decepticons do not come back. Guard William and Figueroa." The Autobot leader ordered, about to run for the Neutral ship.
Ironhide picked up Will, holding him firmly in a hand, and took off sprinting. "Just guard Fig!"
By the time they got there a bright light had engulfed the entire inside of the ship, some of it shining through. As they stepped in, heedless of it, it receded quickly, and they followed its path, optics on the ground and careful to avoid looking at until they adjusted to it.
They came up to Ratchet and Bumblebee, both of them slumped on opposite sides of the corridor of the ship as they stared at the last room, the door just sliding shut as all the light receded inside of it. Through their comms they had a quick conversation, Ratchet and Bumblebee saying what was in there and what they knew had happened. Optimus and Ironhide saying that Allspark energy became more pronounced in Will, too, and that it seemed to be going somewhere, though unlike with Sam, Miles, and Epps they couldn't tell where. They tried to open the door, but it wouldn't budge. All of them were reluctant to use force because they could be certain where the bodies of the organic's layed, and they didn't want them to come to harm. They all started when they heard a sudden groan, staring at the now moving organic in Ironhide's servo.
Will sat up, and groaned. "Now that was wild." He looked up, glancing at all four Cybertronians. Ratchet was already reaching for him, but he quickly dodged, jumping off of Ironhide's hand. "Wait!"
All of the Autobots froze, staring at Will. Not only had he jumped out of Ironhide's hand, which Ironhide would normally berate him for, but he had outright denied Ratchet, the Chief Medical Officer. The soldier ignored them, walking toward's the door. It slid open, and he walked in, disappearing from sight as the Autobots made no moves to follow, and the door slid closed again.
Ratchet was the first to snap out of it, and he stormed towards the door, the others following suit. Once it opened they all went inside, only to freeze. In the middle of the room was a sparkling body, in perfect condition. Sam and Miles layed near to it, both awake and just staring at the ceiling in a dazed and tired manner. Epps sat beside the body, grinning up at Will, who had just walked over to him. The femme's body remained where it had been up against the wall, though some plating and what appeared to be some other parts was missing.
Epps looked at the Autobots with a smirk, amused that they were the ones who were shocked and in disbelief for once. "Scan 'im."
They all did so without thinking, stepping closer. Their scans registered the sparkling as alive, and healthy, if in need of some good energon.
"Alright, men, who besides me barely remembers what happened?" Will asked, turning to his fellow humans. Epps nodded, and Miles just nodded as he struggled to sit up, using Sam to do so. Sam groaned, mumbling something in agreement as he continued to lay there. "Okay, good. Not just me then. Who else has a name nagging the shit out of them for this little guy?" They all nodded in response, Sam finally managing to get himself into an upright position.
Bumblebee was torn between confusion and excitement. The excitement ran out. "Name him whatever you want, it's an actual Sparkling!" He practically ran over the last few steps, getting on his knees to examine the tiny Cybertronian more closely. Ironhide moved over beside him, staring in amazement.
Sam watched his Guardian with a little amusement, Will catching his eye and nodding. Epps did the same with Miles, and they all turned to look at Optimus and Ratchet. Will counted down from five, and they all spoke together. "Orion."
Optimus stared at them, looking as dumbfounded as a Cybertronian could get. "That... That was my name before the matrix chose me. Orion Pax."
Ratchet looked from his leader, to the humans, to the sparkling and the two Autobots currently examining it. "What the slag is going on?"
Sam and Miles let the adults do the talking, leaning against the wall tiredly as they watched. The name was one of the only clear things they could remember, that and the fact that it had been the four of them. It wasn't long before both fell asleep, feeling utterly drained, but satisfied by somehow saving the sparkling, even if it would never make sense to them. It helped that Ratchet was using a lot of text book terms, reverting to that when he was confused or shaken. They were both in dreamland before the 'bots and the soldiers had even started talking about what would happen. They talked of the sparkling first.
Miles slowly regained conciousness, opening his eyes and staring at the ceiling. It was somewhat familiar, but disconcerting in the fact that he couldn't remember why and it wasn't a place he frequented regularly. It wasn't until he allowed what he was hearing around him to register that he realized where he was. The steady drip of an IV, the beeping of a heart monitor. He was in the medbay, the human medbay. He had been in it only on tour, and had been in the Autobot medbay much more often. For himself and any Cybertronians that wanted or didn't mind him there.
To say he felt horrible was an understatement. His head pounded, a full blown migraine coursing through it, and his entire body was stiff and sore, like he had excersized too much. His eyelids felt like they had five pound weights on them, and his throat was raw and dry.
He tried to recall how he had ended up in the medbay, and just barely remembered the mission. Everything after they had arrived to wait at the wide expanse of desert was blurry, and when the pounding in his head grew stronger he just gave up.
"You're awake, I see." A voice said from off to his side, and he didn't need to look to know it was Barricade, most likely in holoform. While the human medbay was big enough for Cybertronians, in case Ratchet was needed, it was preferred that they use their holoforms while inside of it. "Ratchet's been giving us different times to sit with you and Samual for when you wake up. It's fragging annoying. How do you feel?"
"Like I was tackled by thirty football players and then a herd of buffalo went on a stampede, the only ground available being my head." Miles rasped out, cracking a grin.
Barricade snorted, "The one time Sam woke up he said it felt like Optimus and Megatron had drank too much highgrade and decided to do the tango on his body, mostly around his cranial region. You woke up once, but didn't do anything besides eat."
"Once? How long have I been out?" Miles asked, trying to gather enough energy to attempt an effort to make an effort to sit up.
"About three days. Thanksgiving is in two." Barricade got up and walked away, leaving Miles to wait. He came back, putting a glass of water in Miles' hand. "Told a fleshling to come give you something for the pain."
Miles thanked him, sitting up and drinking on his own. He doubted Barricade would help him, and he wasn't going to ask for that kind of help unless he absolutely needed it. "The sparkling? Orion?"
"He's fine, somehow. Go ahead and go back to sleep, Ratchet will come to wake you in a bit."
Miles smiled with relief, putting the glass to the side and laying back down. He was out not even a minute after closing his eyes.