All Creatures Great and Small
Directors Edition
Chapter Two

'Life signs are barley readable. Internal damage is extreme. Without doing something radical she won't survive the night.'

'Highbrow; how could you let this happen?'

'I didn't let anything happen Hot Rod. Starscream was going to kill Gort and she jumped in the way saving both our lives!'

'This young human not only stood up to a Decepticon but saved the life of an Autobot. Ratchet, we can not let her die.'

'There isn't anything I can do Prime. I don't know how she is still alive. Just about every nerve is burnt, her neural pathways are dying one by one.'

Dawn couldn't move. The voices were distant and sounded desperate. Painfully she forced her eyes open and looked around. She was in a enormous yellow room. The walls were made of metal and she guessed they were very old. Standing a short distance away were four robots. The green one she recognised, the others were all different colours the largest was red, a deep red and it's body looked like it was made of a trucks cab the other two were around the same size as the green one. One was red again but this time mixed with orange in what looked to be a flame pattern on it's chest. The final was all white except for a red cross painted on his shoulders. 'Wh… Where am I?'

Each of the robots jumped to her side. The white one stopped at a keyboard. 'She shouldn't be awake! She can't be awake! The damage to her body is too much.'

'But she is Ratchet and now she deserves answers. My name is Optimus Prime. I am the leader of the Autobots. You were injured by a Decepticon called Starscream. This place is our home, we call it the Ark.'

'Cool, like Noah and the animals.' Optimus looked confused, for someone with out a mouth that's quite a trick she thought.

'Prime, I believe she means the famous human story about a planet wide flood.' The flame painted robot turned to Dawn, 'By the way my name's Hot Rod.'

'Mine's Dawn. Pleased to meet you.' The more she talked the worse she felt but she would not stop now.

'Well Dawn,' Ratchet turned to her 'I'm a mechanic and a doctor. I need you to help me if your going to live. What I need you to do is rest and conserve your strength. We'll be right here, if something happens I will be here. Can you do this for me?'

'I. Can. Do that.' She forced the words out and then tried a smile before falling once again into darkness.

Prime looked at the human in front of him, her face set in grim determination. She would not give up. With her very body failing she fought for a shred of life, second by second. Never had he seen such an act by one so little. 'Ratchet. The must be something you can do.' His old friend looked at him.

'Prime I feel as you do but she should already be dead. She's strong but not strong enough and there is nothing I can do.'

'Optimus, Gort has an idea. Why don't we rebuild her into a head-master?' Highbrow asked.

'What! Is he out of his mind! We don't know if a human can merge with an Autobot. We could kill her and whoever would join with her.' Ratchet was shocked at the idea.

'It is the only way and you know it' Midnight looked at Prime, pleading him to try it.

'Ratchet, do you think it would save her.' Prime wished the answer was no

'As a head-master, no. But the is something I've been working on. Humans generate power on a large scale, using the same conversion process as a target-master we could make her into what I call a power-master. An augmentation to our internal power supply and the capabilities of a head-master.'

'A power-master? You're suggesting turning this girl into a backup generator. Could it work?'

'Possibly the wouldn't be a merging of minds like a head-master but both minds will inhabit the same body.'

The more he looked at this female the more he felt something deep within his spark. It was more than respect, there was something different about her. He made a decision 'If that is the only way then we do it. But I will bond with her.'

Buffy and Xander were helping clear the rubble. Three ambulances and two fire trucks had been and gone. Leaving one more of each in case of other survivors. None of them had found Dawn. While Xander and the others had to stop Buffy kept looking. Deep inside her something was telling her it would be alright. She ignored it. Dawn was missing. The motel they left her in was destroyed by some sort of tornado out of nowhere. It was almost sunrise before Buffy fell to her knees. Everyone had searched the disaster area from top to bottom the was no sign.

Buffy couldn't stop blaming herself. It was her fault. She dragged Dawn with her on some fools errand for some unseen power and a couple of vague threats. Buffy stated crying again, lifting the same rubble back and forth. Suddenly Xander was there, he picked her up off her knees and half carried her back to the car. There she cried herself to sleep.

An old and powerful voice was waiting. In the silence of her soul he talked to her. 'Your sister is safe with my children. They need her, the world needs her. Together my spirit and The Key have the power to stop the coming darkness. No harm will come to her. This I swear to you Slayer.'

Dawn woke up again. Everything felt different, the pain was almost gone and she could think clearly now. She went over the last day in her head. Opening her eyes she saw something different. Everything was tinted green and there was a column of words scrolling down the right corner, almost too fast to read. Getting up she saw Ratchet working over a red truck cab 'Hello?'

'You're active. How do you feel?'

'Fine. Why is everything green?'

'I'm sorry, your body was dying. The only thing we could do was rebuild you.'

'Rebuild as in re-make. Like turn me into a robot?'

'Yes. I'm afraid it was the only way.'

Dawn was busy thinking of how to explain this to Buffy, 'So as a little robot is the anything I can do? like shoot lasers or turn into someone's head?'

'Well I think its best If I show you.' He picked her up in one hand and carried her over to the truck 'You see your designed to merge with Optimus Prime here.'

'I become part of him! Which part?' There were some parts she did not want to become.

'You change into a second power core when he transforms into robot mode, watch.' He put Dawn down on top of the cabin and pressed a button build into his wrist. Dawn was trying to remember something when the cab stood up, to her left the roof slid back and a head came up. Behind her the back split open and rolled forward, bringing the headlights and wheel arches around with it. Two hands slid forward where the headlights folded up. She was so amazed she almost forgot about what had felt wrong, then it came to her: The Key. If she became an engine she would power this robot with energy of The Key. Almost to herself she whispered 'Err guys. this might not be a good idea.' Dawn felt herself change, silently cursing she realised the she had folded up into a box. 'This is a VERY bad idea guys!'

'Is something wrong?' Prime asked while he lifted her up off his shoulder.

'Yes something is very wrong! I'm not a normal human' Dawn finally overrode the transform order and switched back to having two legs and two arms again. something about the big guy told her she could trust him and before she knew it she was telling them all about The Key.

The giant looked at her sceptically. 'Its true.' Dawn insisted. 'I was made human to hide from this hell-Goddess who wanted to use me to rip down the walls between the dimensions.'

Ratchet took a scanner and pointed it at her. 'I don't detect any extra power and i didn't find anything when I was rebuilding you.'

'Its trans-dimensional. I'm telling you the truth.'

'Are you sure?' Prime was detecting something beyond the normal visual range but he thought that was normal for a Power-master.

'Yes positive. If I become your engine you will be powered by the universe itself!' She almost pleaded

'There is no way that such power could be contained within you. The human body, even yours that somehow could withstand a null ray blast, couldn't hold nearly that much power.'

'Don't be to hasty Ratchet. The matrix is also a trans-dimensional power, in this case wisdom, and you yourself proved that the human mind could hold more data than it should. Perhaps she is some thing more than human, It would explain how she survived so much damage. There is only one way to find out.' With that he fianlly put her down on the ground and opened up his chest.

Dawn saw him pull out a blue crystal in some sort of silver cage, the crystal's glow dancing like it was always catching a new flash of light. Its deep blue light slowly filled the room, in response The Key's green energy cascaded out of her eye's just as brilliantly.

Prime pulled out the Matrix of leadership. He could feel it dancing in his hands like never before when it shot a pure pulse of light straight at the human girl. She responded with a bright green beam that shot from her optics. Mixing the two colours burned together into a brilliant white. That was the last thing he saw before the lights overloaded his optical systems.

On the Ark's bridge Ironhide was monitoring the security sensors when a flash of multi-coloured light fried his own sensors.

Five miles from the Ark a small bird watched as the mountain literally exploded in green and blue light.

On the other side of the planet night became day.

Just out side the orbit of Pluto a rogue planet saw a beacon of blue and green. In that instant He knew fear, In desperation He sped up. Hoping to get there before the full power was ready…

End chapter 2