Challenge Set: 61

Challenge: Cold

Rating: PG

Word Count: No clue

Pairings: None

time frame: Before Alpha joined the 'Bots

summary: A certain pickup's trapped in a glacier of ice, can she get out or will it kill her?

Her breath was coming out in fluffy, white puffs as she shivered from where she was lying in the prison she had been stupid enough to get herself stuck in. The ice was closing itself around her slowly, too slowly for her liking. She couldn't move; her body wouldn't answer her mental pleas to scramble out of the glacier and try to send a distress signal to her someone, possibly her faction. On second thought…

Oh hell no.

Screw her faction; find the Autobots. They'd help her. Her faction, the Decepticons, would leave her there to freeze to death. No one would even glance twice at her distress signal, save her little brother. The thought of her little brother made her try to struggle even more, but she the only response she got from her numb body was the sound of frozen gears grinding against each other.

With a shudder, the femme's head hit the small patch of ice it had been resting on for the past week and a half. She weakly tried to clench her fist, but found that it wouldn't move at all anymore. The ice had completely frozen itself around both of her hands, freezing them in a half-curled position. Another shudder wracked her frame and she closed her emerald optics, one of which was cracked.

"Please…" She tried her comm. again, but all she got was static. A horse, rough cough forced itself out of her throat and energon splattered itself over her chest and the ice around her. "Ugh…"

The back of her head smacked the ice a few times as she hit it against the perfectly cut, frozen square pillow of ice. "Hurts…'s cold…numb…running low on energy…" With every complaint, her head hit the ice again. Her optics flickered one and off for a moment before they finally cut themselves off. "Oh of all the fraggin'…" Her soft, ragged voice sighed again in complaint as she struggled to cut her optics back on.

Her world stayed dark.

Another muffled curse. The femme shuddered as an icy wind made the already sub-zero temper drop another couple of degrees. "I hate my life." C'mon, brother…please answer me…someone! Anyone! Her mental pleas went unanswered.

If there was anything more desolate than the barren, frozen wasteland she was trapped in right then, in was her mind and spark. Usually, she could feel the warmth of her brother's spark shining in hers, his mind was almost always poking and prodding hers, cheering her up after long days at the Decepticon labs. Now, her brother's soul was gone, torn from hers, along with his ever-teasing mind. If any, those facts only chilled her to the spark even more.

Energy levels critical, Her internal computer beeped in her mind, Energon needed for body's survival.

"I know that. I'm a medic, you idiot." She muttered, "Now I'm talking to myself. Perfect. I'm loosing it…"

Stasis lock inevitable. Energy levels at ten percent.

"Oh. Joy."

Another wind blasted through and she shivered, forcing her to let out a shuddering breath. The femme tried to shift to get comfortable, but then remembered her lower body was frozen from the hips down. The glacier's arctic grip was surrounding her now, holding her in place like a thousand freezing, merciless hands. Its touch stole her breath with every stroke of icy wind that surrounding her body and the ever-falling snow only made everything even more unpleasant, as if that was even possible.

Snow fell into the circuts that were usually hidden by the thin glass of her alt mode's windows – her windows had shattered when she had hit the glacier, causing glass to bury itself into the self metal flesh of her middle arms, neck and cheek. The energon had long stopped bleeding – it had stopped bleeding before she had awoken after the fall knocked her out – and it was frozen.

Oh, how she hated the cold.

She swore as she laid there that, no matter what happened, she would not – if she survived this, of course – ever go to a place with snow again. No matter what the Decepticons did to her. Unless, of course, they threatened her brother. Then, she'd go. But under no other circumstances.

She had known the moment she had awoken in the glacier that she would regret her internal computer awaking her after a long period of inactivity. She wished she knew how long she had been out, but her internal clock wasn't working; it had been one of the first things her computer had shut down when her energy started to run low.

The cold was slowly killing her and she knew it. You didn't have to be a medic to know that prolonged exposure to the elements would ultimately kill your body. And, with the body dead, the spark wouldn't last much longer. Of course, with no body to protect it, the spark would die in even more agony than the body did. And she couldn't stop it. She was helpless, lying half frozen in the glacier while her body was completely numb and unresponsive. There was nothing she could do to stop the death she knew was coming. The death that would claim, not only her spark, but her brother's as well.

Joy, oh joy, my life's nothing but.

With a shudder, the femme finally fell into stasis, hoping her computer wouldn't wake her up again before she died.

"Hey, wake up…c'mon, kid…"

The voice teased her tired mind as she moaned, slowly awakening from the stasis lock she had been trapped in. Her optics flickered and she clenched her fist, but then remembered they were frozen. That is, until they actually moved.

Surprised, Alpha opened her emerald optics and looked around. Where in the Pitt was she? She shivered; it was still cold wherever she was, but not as bad as the glacier she had been trapped in before. At least now, her breath wasn't coming out in white cloud puffs. She shook her head as the world spun and rolled over, falling off of the berth and onto the hard, cold metal floor.

Perfect.

She moaned softly as the world around her continued to spin relentlessly and she went from standing on all fours to lying on the floor instantly. The cold metal stung her silver cheek when the two collided, but she made no attempt to move. She just silently begged for the world to come to a complete and total stop so she could get off the ride.

"Please keep your hands and feet inside the vehicle at all times while the ride is in motion…Thank you." She slurred out, struggling to get on all fours, but falling back down. Her head throbbed painfully and she put one hand to her left temple, grumbling and moaning in pain.

Where in the flying, flipping Matrix was some painkillers when you needed them?

"By the allspark, why must you femmes be nothing but trouble?" The voice she had heard before growled. Two hands, each grabbing a different arm, lifted her onto her feet, but then released her when she tried to hit their owner. "Hey! Watch where you're swinging, femme! I didn't have to repair you, you know!"

Holding her head and trying to figure out where in the heck she was, Alpha glanced up as the world finally settled into place under her feet and spotted a large, boxy white mech with a black chevron on his forehead. "Who…?" Her voice trailed off when she realized what she sounded like. She sounded weak and helpless, two things that she was most definitely not.

"Name's Ratchet."

"Ratchet…" The name was familiar. She had heard of a medic by that name; he had left with a few other Autobots aboard the Ark, a few Decepticons following them. Oh slag. He was an Autobot…and she a Decepticon. Nervous evident in her optics, she watched the elder medic carefully and closely.

"Calm down, kid. I ain't going to hurt you." He motioned for her to calm down as he told her to, but fear still tugged at her spark. "If I wanted to, your internals would still be frozen and you'd be dead by now."

What was he…? Oh, that's right. The glacier had probably frozen her insides once she had passed out. Why had he helped her? How the heck did he get her out of the glacier? Oh screw it. Those were questions for another day. Right then, all she wanted was to recharge. She wasn't sure if he was a good medic or if he had seen the look on her face, maybe both, but the next words out of his mouth made her think he was reading her thoughts.

"Get some rest." He grunted out, pointing to the berth.

A slight smile crossed her face. "Grumpy, are we?" She asked, voice still ragged, but it held some humor in it. She sat down on the berth she had rolled off of and smirked when he frowned. There was something about him that just begged to be irked.

And she was more than happy to please that begging.

"Just get some rest…" He turned and walked off, but Alpha heard him mumble, "Stupid femmes are more trouble than they're worth."

"Hmph." Green optics narrowed and the femme laid down, but then shivered as the outside wind made itself known to her. It caressed her arms and legs, even when she curled up, and iced her to the spark. She figured they couldn't have been far from where she was originally trapped in the glacier.

She just hoped that being with the Autobots would be better than being trapped in that glacier, whatever they decided to do with her. With those thoughts echoing in her head, begging for her attention, the femme shut herself off and slipped into recharge.

YP: read and review, please.