The Diego Diaries: Cloudy (dd7 360)
=0=Primal Residence, Autobot City, Mars, getting on late
They chatted together going over commonalities and the new paradigm which would keep both Ironhide and Orion Pax out of the public view. Then Turbine glanced at Prowl and Kestrel. "I think its time to leave so everyone can get some rest. I'll be going to the Temple in the morning to try and contact the Pantheon. If I get no traction here I'll go to Simfur, then a secret place only my clan knows. Its our place of last resort."
"What if that fails, Turbine?" Kes asked anxiously.
"Then we find out what the Pantheon wants and is willing to do if it does. We have personal lists of things we want to accomplish in our lives, Kes, that we choose before we're born. If this is one of those particulars, then we have to go through it and solve it ourselves. They won't interfere with our free will. If there's nothing that you remember at all about the Pantheon, Primus and The One its this. They will never, ever, for any reason interfere with your free will," Turbine said. "Its an immutable law of the universe."
It was quiet a moment as they absorbed that, then Ratchet rose. He turned to Ironhide who glanced up at him. "Rise and shine, Old Mech. We live a few paces below."
Ironhide stared at Ratchet, then Turbine. "Where do you live?"
"Elsewhere," Turbine said. "You go with Ratchet. Look around your house. Ask questions. Familiarize yourself. Maybe something will break lose if you do," Turbine said as he stood himself. "Are there any questions you have, recruit, about this assignment?" He stared at his grandson. "I want decorum to be maintained, decorum and manners. I will not be happy to hear that you made a bad situation worse."
"For who?" Ironhide asked with a frown. "I don't remember anything."
"Then go and immerse yourself into your life." Turbine glanced at Ratchet. "I'm going to The Salton Sea and get things clear with Hardie. Then I'll see you tomorrow. No going out, Ironhide and Orion," he said as he glanced at Prime. Then he walked to the door and left.
It was silent a moment, then Ratchet turned to Ironhide. "Get the lead out, Ironhide." With that, he walked to the door and left.
Ironhide glanced at the others, then hurried after Ratchet. When the doors closed, only then did the others begin to talk to each other again.
=0=24th Floor of Tower Two in Autobot City
Ratchet waited by the door as Ironhide stepped out of the elevator glancing around at everything that was there. He walked to the door where Ratchet waited, then followed him inside the apartment. The lights went on as he halted to look around. It was the biggest apartment he'd seen in a long time, comfortably furnished, neat, orderly and filled with family mementos and images on the walls.
He walked into the living room and saw the line of portraits that were mounted on the wall portion that lined the walls along the ceiling on a wall of windows. They were big and featured a lot of individuals, most of whom he didn't know. He walked toward them, then halted before the first one. "Who are they if I may ask?"
"You can. Those are our kids, ones who live here and those that don't," Ratchet said. "That's Orion, Praxus and Prowler."
Ironhide glanced at Ratchet. "They have my face."
"They do. Cute little slaggers," Ratchet said. "They look like you but for the one with the red chevron. He has your face but is harder to spot because his is white."
Ironhide nodded, then looked at the next one. "Who are the little femmes? They look like me, too."
"That's Hero and the other is our youngest, Halo," Ratchet said. They were posed in the image together just like all were. "That one next to it is Sunspot, the Seeker. We adopted him. He was a Decepticon soldier before he came to us."
Ironhide stared at Sunny, then glanced sharply at Ratchet. "A soldier?"
"A lot of them are. We take them in and try to save them. He had a terrible life but he's a miracle, that one. The other three with him are our part time sons, rescues from a migration who found their families again. That one is Bos, the other standing behind Sunspot and his comfort pet, Spot, is Reflector and Co-D. They stay with us a lot. We share."
Ironhide stepped closer. "Who are they?"
"That one is Elita and the others are Arcee, Fireflight, Chromia, Greenlight and Lancer. Arcee, Elita, Chromia and Lancer are bonded. The others I'm working on."
Ironhide grinned. "I see."
"If you could, you'd be amazed," Ratchet said with a dazzling smile.
Ironhide took in the dazzling smile, then glanced at the next pictures in the row. "Who are they?"
"That's Springer and Drift, our adopted sons. Springer is a mid caste from Polyhex and he's bonded to the other, the former Decepticon killer, Deadlock who is now Drift. He was reborn when he found the Circle of Light and the Knights. They have one of the best bonds I know. That pair is Arcee and Magnus who is our son-in-law and right hand to Optimus. The others are bonds of our daughters, Jetta for Elita, Partition for Lancer and Maelstrom for Chromia. Do you remember a mech named Turmoil?" Ratchet asked.
Ironhide nodded. "He's a menace to society. Should be put down."
"We have him in our jail and that mech? Maelstrom? He's his brother. Chromia likes him enough to bond so its good enough for me," Ratchet said.
Ironhide glanced at Ratchet, then got a trillion watt smile. He snorted with amusement. "Go on. Its entertaining."
"You have no idea," Ratchet said. "That's our twins, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. The cute mech with them holding the little femmes is their bond, Prowl's adopted son, Bluestreak. He was the only survivor of the Seeker annihilation of Praxus during the war."
Ironhide turned to Ratchet. "Praxus was destroyed?"
"Nothing over two feet was left standing. Two million of our people there died right away. Bluestreak was the only living survivor of that event. We were there and looked, you and me and the others. Prowl found Blue. He was just a very young sub adult. It took 600 years for him just to tell his therapist his own name. Prowl adopted him, he bonded with our boys and so the babies are our grandchildren. That little mech is Kaon and the sweet little girls are Uraya and Iacon. They're twins as well."
Ironhide stared at them, then Ratchet. "I can't be a grandgenitor."
"You are," Ratchet said. He glanced across the room at the other wall which was covered with images because there were no windows to prevent it. "That first image is of my genitors, Ravel and Tie Down of Iacon and the owners and makers of things from RTR Tools."
Ironhide glanced at him. "That firm? I have a knife they made. Its miraculous."
"They don't make junk," Ratchet said. "That image next to them are my grandgenitors. They were rescued from Cybertron, those three and the other one, my namesake Appa Ratchet was rescued from a camp off world when we came for the prisoners. That's Amma Docker and Amma Corr. That's Appa Ratchet and Appa Chan. Three of them were dumped into the Dead End to die."
"What's that?"
"That was a cordoned off district in the slums of Polyhex where the useless, too injured to have a value and those who couldn't be used for their utility were dumped to die. They had no food, no shelter, no help or supervision. They had to survive in there without anyone to help them. Some of them had missing limbs, some missing processors or damage that made them mental. It was a nightmare when we liberated it. The Decepticons used them for target practice and when they needed it, they would come with big ships and 'harvest' the inmates to be taken to smelting pools and be melted down alive."
It was darkly silent in the room as Ironhide stared at Ratchet. "You aren't lying."
Ratchet shook his helm. "I wish I was. I've seen a lot, everything really. But I never saw anything so awful ever. They were so helpless, some were wandering lost in their processors. We had to root them out of hiding places they were so scared. My Amma Corr was so starved that he began to develop what's called situational dementia. It comes from starving systems and the processor. They hid him but in the end he was ordered to go to the Dead End. They had to pretend to be the same so he wouldn't go alone. He would've died pretty fast there alone."
Ironhide turned to the picture to look at them. "What have we become?"
"Better, here," Ratchet said. "They make their tools, my genitors, and my grandgenitors go to college and live large. They live next door to us where I can watch them. The Decepticons are without mercy."
Ironhide turned to the images again, then stared at his own genitors. "What's that on my atar's lap?" he asked. "He looks like me." He turned to Ratchet with surprise. "Uh..."
"That's your little brother, Scout. That other thing is your old dad's cow. Its an animal that's prototyped on a creature from our ally's world, Earth. Your folks had a kid," Ratchet said. "Check the other images."
"They're here," Ironhide said.
"Blackjack and Alie came from the Benzuli where they were holding off the Decepticons while they gathered up a 100,000 refugees into their protection. Raptor and Turbine were next along with Hardie and Delphi. They came with the same. Flint, however, was first. He stayed with his fleet when The Fall came and pretended to be a loyal 'Con while gathering refugees and saving Seekers. It earned him a dirt reputation everywhere but when he came in and explained it, all was made right.
"Scout and Trooper were next and somewhere in the middle of that came Auntie Lissie and lastly, Steiner. That picture there with Hardie and those two are your great great uncles, Ironhide the Elder aka Sun and Blackjack the Elder. All of them live and work here," Ratchet said. "We got lucky. Our family members were soldiers and knew how to survive. Not everyone is so lucky. We just grabbed the Functionalist Council shortly ago."
"You did? Those slaggers," Ironhide said.
Ratchet nodded. "They are. They killed half a million individuals at their last colony before setting out to find us. This business here is very daunting and terrible. We're making headway here and on Cybertron but we've lost a lot."
"You have Cybertron?" Ironhide asked. "You said it was destroyed."
"It was. But we took it back because Optimus Prime has a great spark and big ball bearings. Speaking of which," Ratchet said as he turned to more images. One of them was a group shot of nine big mech younglings. "These are ours, all nine of them, though only three live with us."
Ratchet moved closer. "These three live with us and are immature Dreadnoughts. This is Quasar, Genesis and Fireball. These six are Santee, Saber, Verilus, Quadrus, Lumi and Tru. They're stellar infants and hang out here half the time, though they recharge with their ammas and appa, Typhoon, Clipper and Dangerous." Ratchet stared at them. "They all use pretender gear to fit in here and range in size from 30 feet for the metrotitan kids to 33 for the dread. They go to school and are brilliant."
Ironhide stared at them, then the images of the others. "Who is this? Is this Prime and his family?"
Ratchet stared at the group shot of Prime and his family. Prowl looked happy and proud as he held Possibility. The other children were gathered around them as the two sat in chairs for the picture. "That's Optimus, the handsome slagger and all around Messiah of our people. Prowl you know. The others are their kids … Rambler, T-Bar and Spirit there. The others are Sojourner, Solus and Possibility. That smiler is Miracle. They chose purposeful names for their kids."
"I can see that.
"Prime and Prowl got their genitors and grandgenitors back. Sometimes miracles happen," Ratchet said.
Ironhide nodded as he stared at the images of which there were more, then looked around the apartment. "You collect mementos."
"I do. Kids art, things we collected over the eons, this and that. Its all home." Ratchet walked to a chair and sat down. "Sit and lets get this organized. We have kids and now you know our world and who populates it."
Ironhide stared at him, then walked over to the table. He pulled out a chair, then sat. Staring at the beautiful stranger before him, he leaned back in it. "Got beer?" he asked.
Ratchet shot him a dazzler. "Ask me something hard."
=0=TBC 8-22-2020
ESL:
immutable: unchangeable, unchanging