A/N: I know, I know, I said I'd take at least another week to upload the next chapter but this just sort of came to be quicker than I thought as I procrastinated from my studies. So here's an early present for anyone reading this. Thank you to all who reviewed the previous chapter, and I hope you enjoy this one just the same :)
Chapter Two
No matter how she looked at it, she was just a soldier following orders.
/\/\/\/\/\
She was emotionless as she pulled out her standard field medical kit, kneeling once more next to the seeker.
Orders were orders, no matter how much she disagreed with them, and she was a soldier through and through. It wasn't her place to question Optimus' motives, or speak out against them, or outright rebel against his decision. That wasn't how it worked, it was never how it worked. He was the leader for a reason, and whatever he said went.
A never ending mantra kept running through her head as she pulled out a syringe-like cylinder and a bottle filled with a very dilute, light blue liquid, shaking it, and pouring it up to the cylinder's half-way point: 'He's right. He knows what he's saying. He's thought this through. He's right. He knows what he's saying..'.
But it seemed the longer she tried to convince herself of it, the more things she found could go completely wrong.
Who or what was to guarantee Starscream would feel any bit indebted to them and willingly offer them information. What would Optimus do then? Would he still try to peacefully persuade him into giving them information? Would he resort to forcing it out of him?
And who was to say the second he was functional, he wouldn't blast a hole through the roof and just leave, or that he wouldn't turn on the lot of them and use their corpses to decorate the base?
Nothing was ever certain in these times, but that was just it, wasn't it?
Bringing the tip of the syringe to the crook of the seeker's arm, she prodded it for an opening to his energon lines, hoping his sensors would automatically respond to the emergency code embedded into the tip's edge. Unfortunately he didn't seem to take it too easily, putting up what she assumed was a fight, using what she believed was the remainder of his strength to attempt to stubbornly move his arm away from her grasp.
"N-No..just leave me..be.." he managed to choke out, his voice ragged and harsh with pain. "I don't..need..your help..Autobot".
'Great, here we go..' she sighed. As if it wasn't bad enough having to save him, she'd actually have to talk to him now.
"That's not up to you to decide" she replied assertively. "You're lucky Optimus has the mercy to keep you alive. No one else would've done the same".
He sneered.
"Mercy, ha!...Tell him..he can shove his mercy..up his — ah!" he clenched his teeth in pain as Arcee none-too-gently held his arm firmly to the ground and forced the syringe into place.
"Just hold still," she ordered with a passive expression on her features, but her eyes betrayed the satisfaction she felt at causing him that little bit of pain. "Believe me when I say you'll need it".
A series of harsh Cybertronian clicks escaped his vocaliser as he cursed her violently, before he relaxed as the medication took its toll fast.
"Charming," she commented sarcastically, glaring at him with all the hatred she could muster.
'Well, that's one thing dealt with' she thought with bitterness, pulling out a scanning device and monitoring his basic vital information – spark beat frequency, heat radiation and his life signal's strength.
It didn't take a genius to see that after millennia of fighting and death and destruction, Optimus was ready to end it all. Hell, he'd been there from the start of it – if there was anyone more ready to see its end, it was him. All things considered, she couldn't blame him for wanting to try something like this – she was almost certain he'd tried everything else without success.
And as much fight as she put up against the Decepticons, as much as she took part in all their battles, to defend herself and her team mates and uphold her values and beliefs, she too had grown tired of it – everyone on the team had grown tired of it. She could barely remember a time when her thoughts didn't revolve around whether she would live to see another day pass. War had become so intertwined with their lives that the two could not be seen as independent happenings any more, but rather as symbiotic events – but that didn't mean she was ready to welcome the enemy into their base with open arms after all they'd been through.
"I just can't believe it had to come to this.." she murmured under her breath, more to herself than anyone else.
Not two seconds later, a glowing green light illuminated the ground as a ground bridge portal opened up not 10 metres away from her, revealing Ratchet as he made his way through the portal.
"By the Allspark.." he gasped, watching the ground as he carefully stepped over the debris littered all over it. "You said it wasn't good, but I didn't imagine it was this bad".
"Does that change anything?" she asked, half expectantly.
"Eh, I've seen worse in my days.." he grumbled, pulling out a more complex scanner, attaching wires with electromagnetic tabs onto the side of the seeker's head, chest and abdomen before looking at the readings. "Spark beats are slow but steady, and his secondary systems have shut down to conserve power. His life-sustaining systems are damaged and only part-functional, but his brain activity is spiking – did you administer the inhibitor?".
"Yep. Can't say he was too happy about that though" Arcee replied as she took the offered scanner from Ratchet's grasp.
"Well, with your bedside manner, that's hardly surprising" he retorted quietly, expertly inspecting the large indent where the blast had hit.
"Oh? You're one to talk" she bit back.
"Mmmhmm...Keep it up and your next check-up may involve several unwanted personality modifications" he threatened without emotion as he pulled out several tools and quickly got to work on patching up the delicate energon lines under the plating of the seeker's chest that'd broken and burned on impact, that had caused most of the energon loss.
"Sorry for trying to lighten the mood" she shrugged, keeping her optics on the scanner. "I don't understand why the damage hasn't forced him into stasis lock yet. With the inhibitor in his systems, shouldn't he be well into it?".
"Hmm" he thought out loud, while still working on the seeker's wounds. "It's not unheard of for mechs to physiologically resist inhibitors, especially if the solution is particularly dilute – like your standard one. You'll find that unless they are administered by a trained medical practitioner, they rarely have the potency to place a mech in full stasis lock. The inhibitors found in every standard field medical kit were only designed to suppress pain receptors, amongst other things, just long enough to do the most basic of repairs in the middle of a battle before naturally wearing off. No lasting effects, no reduced motor ability, nothing".
He paused for a moment, briefly considering a thought.
"Still with his damage, it is a rather unusual case. He's quite a..resilient one".
A short silence stretched between them as they worked in silence but for the occasional sound of a spark or a faint protest from their patient, which they ignored without question.
Finally he spoke.
"I've finished bridging any crucial circuits I can find, but I can't do much else without taking him back to the base and thoroughly cleaning and inspecting the damage" he said, checking and double checking his work on the seeker's internal wounds. "I've made sure to disable his weapons system as well, lest he try anything funny. He should be stable enough to move now, but any sudden movement may put him into a critical condition again – I'm afraid we can't afford to make that mistake if he is to make it through this alive".
'Oh, what a shame' she only just refrained from saying, instead opting to go along with it.
"And…we're going to transport him, how?" she questioned – as soon as she asked, she had a feeling she was going to regret it.
"Well…" he started, as he pulled out a large folded, rectangular object, laying it out on the flat ground next to him and uncompressing it, revealing it to be a thin inflexible metal-plated stretcher - although to her it looked more like a fragile board.
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me" she protested. "We're going to lift him with that?".
"Do I look like I 'kid'?" he shrugged. "I know it's not the most..'up to date' piece of equipment, but I had to make do with what I had. Unfortunately I haven't got around to fixing the other one after somebody broke it".
Arcee smiled and rolled her optics at the memory of Bumblebee accidentally failing to catch a lob by Bulkhead, causing the hulking metal sphere to fling off his fingers and land inside Ratchet's medical supply room, conveniently smashing into the said piece of equipment.
"Besides, we can't risk lifting him without any support" he continued. "Any more unnecessary strain on his body may place him beyond the hope of repair – it could re-open fresh wounds, undo what repairs I've done to his body, trigger his very life-sustaining systems to overheat and crash under pressure. Why, if that were the case, his systems could offline before he'd make it through the ground bridge, and then I'd have to perform an emergency-".
"All right, all right, I get it" she interrupted, before his processor overheated at calculating the countless number of possibilities that could go wrong. "Still, my point is that that's not going to hold him" she said with a hand pointing at the stretcher, eyeing its thin frame.
"Hey, who's the expert around here? If I say it'll hold, it'll hold – and I'm saying, it'll hold" he said conclusively. "Now, what we need to do is carefully shift him onto it – we're talking about the slightest of movements here".
She sighed, giving in, and placed the scanner on the seeker's abdomen.
"All right, so who grabs what?".
"We'll both grab his arms – it'll be easier if we shift his body on first".
Starscream kept his fading optics on both of them as they hooked their arms under his shoulders, the seeker giving an involuntary hiss of discomfort, protesting as his body was lifted slightly from its position and then pulled to the side until he could feel most of the cool metal along his back. Despite the fact his pain receptors had been inhibited, he couldn't help but grimace as the broken edge of the wing – or lack thereof – on his back grazed the surface of the stretcher, emitting a small screeching sound as he was placed flat on the surface once more.
At this his vitals on the scanner pinged for a few seconds, before they stabilised once again. Checking over them for any drastic changes, Ratchet nodded as he thought to himself.
"All right, everything is still functional, but we have to hurry it up. Any minute now the inhibitor will start to wear off, and I'd prefer to have him set in the repair bay before he becomes fully aware. Quickly grab his legs".
Obeying without hesitation at Ratchet's hurried tone, she made a grab for one ankle while Ratchet took hold of the other, pulling and pushing individually in one direction until both of the seeker's slender legs were placed straight along the centre of the flat metal surface. At making sure he was secure, he contacted the base, his optics taking note of the pieces of metal around them.
"Ratchet to base, we're ready for a ground bridge at our location. We..may need an extra hand however" he said, eyeing the severed wing in particular.
"Understood. I'll send Bumblebee to meet you on the other side. Stand by for a ground bridge" Optimus answered, before cutting the connection.
Arcee turned to Ratchet.
"You think Bumblebee and Bulkhead took the news well?" she asked, indicating to the incapacitated seeker.
Ratchet shrugged.
"As well as any of us took it, I suppose" he sighed. "But I'm sure Optimus will give us all a full explanation of the details once we return. It's been a long day".
Arcee sighed to herself, lost in her own thoughts, still wondering where they would go from there now that they were about to harbour the enemy within their own base; what it could change, what would need to be changed, whether it would all be worth it in the end?
"You can say that again" she murmured to no one in particular, awaiting the arrival of the ground bridge.
Not much later one appeared in its previous position, with Bumblebee appearing quickly from it. He bleeped a greeting, moving over to Starscream's position and waving a hand over the seeker's fading optics.
"Buzz off, bug" the seeker managed to snarl, though with perhaps not as much vigour as he'd intended, however his action caused the scanner's spark rate monitor to beep as he coughed twice and took in several wheezy intakes.
"All right all right that's enough. You can continue your antics after we've returned to the base, but for now could I please have your cooperation?" Ratchet interrupted, his medical instincts taking over as he took note that the seeker was becoming more aware.
Bumblebee shrugged, unaffected by Ratchet's stern tone, but bleeped in agreement just the same.
"Good. Arcee, I want you to collect any piece of Starscream's armour you can find on the ground – that wing piece over there in particular" he said while gesturing to the object, before crouching at the top end of the stretcher behind the seeker's head, grabbing the handles on either edge in his grip. "Bumblebee, you're going to help me lift him into the base".
As he gave out further instructions to Bumblebee, Arcee moved to the wing piece first, bending to pick it up. While it wasn't heavy to carry, the first thing she noticed was its size in comparison to her own body. While it was narrower than her own body's width, it was close to half her height in length. The metal plating of the wing, she also took note of, was very smooth to the touch – it didn't take a genius to know it had been taken care of very well over many millennia.
'Well, I guess what they say is true' she thought, adjusting it in her arms so that she could collect the remaining pieces off the ground. 'A seeker's wings are their only pride and joy. I'm sure Ratchet will have a field day when he gets around to fixing this'.
As she was collecting the final piece, Ratchet and Bumblebee lifted the seeker off the ground, one of his arms falling limply off the stretcher as they manoeuvred him before the awaiting ground bridge.
"Arcee" Ratchet called out, twisting around to partly face her. "Are you almost done?".
With both hands occupied and scrap pieces of metal clutched to her chest, she replied, "Yeah, I've got the last piece. Go, I'll be right behind you".
Without waiting a second longer she followed them through the ground bridge and heard it close behind her, noting that Bulkhead was at the controls with Optimus, who had a grim expression on his features as they moved through to the repair bay. But rather than feeling at ease at being within the walls of the base, a feeling of anxiousness overcame her as she couldn't help but think, 'This is actually happening. We're actually going through with this'.
Though the thought had very much been there before, it was but a possibility within the recesses of her processor not five kliks ago as she'd clung to the hope that maybe, just maybe, something would go wrong. That Ratchet would deem Starscream beyond repair, or that Starscream would naturally offline, or even that the Decepticons would make a late return for his body. It was a cruel thought, and she knew it, and had it been the same case in a different circumstance she wouldn't have stopped to think before she helped him – but that was exactly it.
This was a war, not some sparkling's fictional tale about a 'happily ever after' where everyone lives in the end; this was their reality. And even yet she could feel there was something underlying this fact, something she couldn't put her mind to that, deep down, bothered her to no end. It wasn't unheard of for Autobots to take prisoners, but one with such a high profile..standard Autobot protocol dictated that such an individual had to be transported immediately to the high council for interrogation and sentencing – any average soldier such as herself or Bumblebee or Bulkhead would never have to hear of him again if that was the case.
That would be one less Decepticon in the universe.
But there was no high council on Earth, they were their own judges, juries and executioners, should it come to that. So what would happen next? The inner workings of the high council were kept quiet even to them. So what dictated the next course of action? Optimus would no doubt draw the line somewhere – surely even he wouldn't consider giving Starscream the freedom to roam around the base, or converse with them, or, Primus forbid, join them.
Arcee figured if it had been any other lowly drone, worker or generic soldier, the whole situation wouldn't have been so controversial, but that wasn't the case. She internally hoped, above all things that no matter what, Optimus would remember Starscream was, primarily, Megatron's second-in-command for a reason – a high profile, unpredictable Decepticon with a notorious streak for treachery.
But she believed in Optimus as a leader, as the rest of the team did. He would not make that mistake, surely, she was sure of it. And as she placed the scraps she'd been carrying on Ratchet's workbench, she had managed to convince herself of that fact, choosing to ignore any could-be signs and blindly trust in him as she'd always done.
She watched as Bumblebee and Ratchet shifted the seeker onto the repair berth, his vocaliser letting out a groan of pain as his receptors became more aware. Optimus and Bulkhead, she noticed, had also arrived in the room.
As Ratchet hooked several monitors to Starscream's body, Optimus spoke up.
"Will he make it, Ratchet?"
Without pausing his search for some object Arcee wasn't sure of, he replied, "I can't say for certain. The damage is bad, I'll admit, and he's lost a lot of energon. But the blast's impact managed to cauterise most of his wounds and..given time, should he make it through a full solar cycle from now..he will".
Optimus nodded, moving forward to get a better look at the semi-conscious seeker, seemingly considering something to say, before sighing and speaking to Ratchet.
"Do what you must. I want you to notify me if anything else changes".
Ratchet nodded as Optimus left the repair bay, turning to work on preparing the seeker's body for repairs. Noticing that everyone else was still there watching, he made a pointed look towards them.
"Unless you all have nothing better to do for the next few hours, I suggest you leave me to my work. This operation requires my utmost concentration, and I'm afraid it'll hold nothing for you in entertainment value should you choose to stay – well, go on, shoo!" he nudged, not really giving them much choice.
Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead left, the latter sliding the door to the repair bay shut, and they walked down the corridor in silence, not really sure what to say to each other, until Bulkhead finally piped up, vocalising the question that was on all their minds.
"So..what do we do now?".
No one answered for a moment, before Bumblebee bleeped a response.
"What we always do, I guess".
"And that would be..?" Arcee asked, trailing off.
"Wait for something to happen".
"Oh yeah, like what?" Bulkhead wondered. "It's not like any thing's gonna change because we caught one 'Con".
Arcee shrugged.
"Bulkhead is right. Megatron wouldn't have tried to terminate Starscream unless he had someone else on the sidelines to fill the empty spot".
"Hmph, three guesses who?" Bulkhead questioned rhetorically, not to anyone in particular.
Without a doubt the first name to pop up at that thought was Soundwave's, after all, it was the most simple and logical choice.
Deep down however, Arcee wasn't sure it was at all that simple.
End Chapter Two
Righty-oh, so that marks the end of the 'introductory' chapters. From here on I believe things will start picking up, if not in the third chapter then definitely the fourth. But in all seriousness, I can say for certain there won't be an update until after next Friday for sure, so that's just a heads up. Anyway, feel free to leave a review, and as always constructive criticism is very much appreciated - anything on characterisation is particularly welcome :)