Too Useful To Waste.
Summary: Both the Autobots and the Decepticons know how resourceful and inventive Sam Witwicky was. When Soundwave finds him dying after a battle, he wonders if he has a way to save Sam so his skills are not lost.
Warnings: Character death, minor blood and gore.
Rating: T for safety.
Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro and DreamWorks/Paramount. I make no claim to the contrary.
Chapter 7; Optimus Prime
If Optimus Prime had not been the twenty-eight foot tall leader of the Autobots, and if he had not been surrounded by several of his team members and by tiny, fragile organics, he would have been pacing.
But as it was, he was the leader of the Autobots, he did have several humans and Autobots surrounding him, and he was twenty-eight feet tall. So he resisted the urge.
He knew that pacing wouldn't help any and would only end up wearing down his gears. Ratchet already had his hands full repairing Bumblebee and Hound without him adding to it.
Normally, he also thought himself past the urge of going out and shooting something, preferably a certain Seeker, out of frustration. Ages of disregarding such urges had left him immune to them…most of the time.
This was not one of those times.
He had just gotten word a few short hours ago that Bumblebee, Hound, Mikaela and Sam had been attacked on their way back to Tranquility, Nevada. If it hadn't been for the arrival of Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, and Bluestreak, they most likely would have all been destroyed. As it was, Bumblebee was in need of major repair, Hound would be on light duty for a while, Mikaela was in the hospital and Sam…Sam was dead.
If Optimus had been capable of flinching, he would have flinched at the thought of Sam, of how the Decepticons not only killed the boy, but how they desecrated his body afterwards. He was not looking forward to telling everyone else. As the commanding officer, it would be his job to inform the the Autobots as to what had happened to the human that had destroyed Megatron.
Sometimes Optimus Prime wondered if Primus was laughing at him. It would certainly explain a few things.
He was distracted from his thoughts by the sound of opening doors, doors leading to them temporary med-bay on the planet. The med-bay was very limited in terms of tools, and most of them were sent from the limited selection that was on the Ark.
Optimus watched as Ratchet came out, wiping energon from his hands with a cloth, head held high. This was good; Ratchet never held his head up when he lost a mech.
"How is he, Ratchet?" There was no need to ask who he was talking about.
"He'll live, though he'll be offline for a while. Except for a severed energon line near his spark-chamber, it was, for the most part, superficial." Ratchet tossed the dirty cloth aside. "He's lucky that his new armour was as effective as it was. If he had been wearing his old armour, his spark-chamber would have been severely damaged."
Ratchet turned and closed the doors behind him, hiding those inside from the curious gaze of the nearby humans. Most of them were Lennox's men, but a few were from the former Sector Seven, working as government liaisons. They most likely had things that required the Autobot leader to look at and approve.
Optimus Prime nodded as Ratchet glanced meaningfully at the two humans surrounding the Autobots. "Optimus, I have something I need to discuss with you. In private." Ratchet spoke in English, in the hopes that they would take the hint.
Luckily for them, they did, and they beat a hasty retreat. One did not become an agent of a secret government agency without being able to read between the lines, and the soldiers had quickly learned Ratchetese.
Optimus waited for the last of them to leave before turning to his chief medical officer. "What did you want to say, Ratchet?" Optimus said in Cybertronian, even though there were no humans in the area. If Ratchet wanted to keep something private, then speaking their native language would be the easiest way.
"It's about Sam." Ratchet hesitated for a second before continuing. "I scanned his body before it was taken away. I found something…odd. I know First Aid will be arriving within the system sometime within the next orn. I want him to stay on the Ark and analyze the scans. I don't have the necessary equipment here."
"Request granted. I'll inform Red Alert to pass the message to First Aid when I send in my report." Optimus vented some air through his vents in a sigh-like gesture. "Those scans would not be the only odd thing. I can't understand why they would cut open the boy like that, but didn't do anything else."
Optimus turned and headed for his temporary office, signalling Ratchet to follow him.
"If we're lucky, Nightbeat will arrive soon," Ratchet said. "But knowing our luck, he'll most likely arrive when we figure out what happened."
Despite the gravity of recent events, Optimus Prime chuckled a bit.
"I certainly hope that our luck is better than that, Ratchet. We'll need it."
AN; Hey guys, sorry for the shortness of the chapter, but this felt like the best place to end it.
I know a few of you are surprised that I have a chapter out, especially since I said that there wouldn't be one until after the holidays, since my beta is MIA until after the holidays. Well, Late Sunday night, I got a PM from a reader offering to Beta my chapters until Dealing With It Now is back
So, without further ado, I'd like to thank FanfictionWriter83729 for filling in for my beta!
Writer: Thanks, Silver! =) Enjoy, kind readers, and look forward to the next chapter. I know I am.