I spent quite a while debating on how much I should alter this chapter. But after conferring with my TRUSTED ADVISOR, I decided to keep it much how it is, and just clean up some very minute details.

Enjoy the chapter! :)

It was as if time had stopped. Ironhide couldn't think. He couldn't speak. He didn't see anything or feel anything around him. He didn't want to feel anything. But he knew he had to face it. And what he had to do.

"Ironhide. Ironhide. Who-"

"Artemis."

He databurst her name to Ratchet. He couldn't bear to announce to the world that he was condemning his brother to death, for his second time, for this fragile human girl.

Ratchet only hesitated for an astrosecond longer before running to Artemis and scooping her up carefully, and rushing her across the hall where he kept his spare tools.

Ironhide knelt beside Jazz, who was barely online. He picked him up gently and held him close, knowing his Spark would go out in a matter of minutes. Optimus watched sadly from a few feet away, and Bumblebee had disappeared down the hall. The poor mech was still a youngling among the Autobots and had never seen anything like he had today.

"Jazz. I…I'm sorry…" It was all Ironhide could do to not break down completely. He may be a hardened warrior, but this was just too much.

"Don't be. You …kept your promise. I couldn't be…prouder of…of you." Jazz struggled to reply. But this only made Ironhide feel worse. His brother wasn't even the slightest bit angry that he chose a human girl to live over him?

"You're not…mad at me?"

"Why would I be, 'Hide? You stuck...to your word."

Ironhide was still overcome with guilt, and Jazz could clearly see it on his face.

"Look. If you want to make it up t…to me, promise me you…you will tell her what happened. And continue to...protect her."

Ironhide shuttered his optics. "I promise, Jazz."

Jazz's face, though plastered with so much pain, managed a weak but sincere smile. It was all Ironhide needed to know he was grateful for his promise.

"Jazz…"

No answer.

"Jazz." Ironhide shook his shoulder. More panic was creeping into his voice. "Jazz, answer me!"

Nothing.

It felt like someone ripped his Spark into a million pieces. Ironhide watched helplessly as Jazz's optics dimmed and went completely out. His entire body relaxed as if all the pain had suddenly left him. His Spark flickered dimmer and dimmer…

Ironhide didn't consciously know what he was doing. He acted on an instinct deep down in a hidden part of his processor. As Jazz's Spark was flickering for the last time, Ironhide did the unthinkable: he reached down and pulled his brother's Spark from his body and pushed it into his own Spark chamber, shoving over his own Spark to make room.

Then he felt the pain.

Optimus didn't see this coming. He stared in shock while his Weapons Specialist took his First Lieutenant's Spark into his own body. And then watched as Ironhide fell to the floor, yelling out in pain. "Primus, no…oh please, don't let this happen…" Optimus thought, optics wide with fear.

"RATCHET!"

Ratchet was across the hall, frantically working on Artemis. Though he had started research on human medicine when Artemis came to live with them, he didn't have many of the supplies he needed. So he just had to improvise. He hooked her up to many machines he built himself to monitor her vitals. Then he did a quick scan of her arm. It was pretty bad, with not much keeping her arm attached. He did hit one stroke of luck…her brachial artery was not completely severed, only cut open. "That explains why she hasn't bled to death yet," Ratchet thought. "But I can't save her arm. I don't have enough tools or know enough about organic medicine and there's no time to get her to a real hospital."

He began sealing up the blood vessels that were severed open, as quickly as he could without making a single mistake. Even the tiniest of mistakes now could mean life or death for this girl. Again, for the first time as a medic, he found it hard to keep his processor free of emotions while he worked…he needed a clear mind so he could focus on what he had to do. But that was just about to get even harder.

"RATCHET!"

He froze. Optimus sounded…scared. He had seen his leader worried before, he had known him to be upset before…but he had never heard him sounding scared. It was such an awful sound

It sent shivers throughout his armor.

He knew there was something terribly wrong across the hall, but he couldn't leave Artemis or she would surely die. Solutions ran past his processors so quickly he could barely keep up with them.

"There's only one way…Primus I don't want to do it, but I don't have a choice!"

He activated his holoform to work on Artemis while he ran across to see what was so wrong. It wasn't something he wanted to do. Splitting his mind and energy was very, very difficult, and his energy had already been drained by his injuries from Ravage. Plus there was a higher risk of him making a mistake when he was trying to concentrate on two completely different problems at the same time. Such a maneuver was to be used as a last resort only…and that's what Ratchet had to do.

Running back across the hall, he burst into the medbay. "Optimus, what's-"

He skidded to a halt. Ironhide was writhing on the floor, optics shuttered tight, and literally screaming in his extreme pain.

"What the frag did he do?!?" Ratchet exclaimed. "He didn't…did he take…" he looked from Jazz lying motionless on the floor, to Ironhide doubled over in pain, to Optimus, who looked genuinely scared for the first time in his life. It was all the answer he needed.

"DAMNIT!" Ratchet yelled, punching the wall. He rarely used human curses, so when he did, you knew there was something horribly wrong. Of course, he had read about this. One Cybertronian feeling so destroyed by another's dying that they would take the dying Spark into their own chest in hopes of sustaining it. They would writhe in blind pain as the Sparks fought for control of the body, clouding the processors, sending circuits sparking and vitals pushed to the breaking point. Medics would try anything they could come up with to save them, but usually failed, resorting to crushing the Sparks on their own to end the suffering it caused. But he thought it was a myth. He never thought he would have to deal with this for real.

"Ratchet, is there anything you can do for him?" Optimus pleaded. "Can you separate their Sparks?"

He shook his head. "No. Separating their Sparks at this point would be instant death for both of them, not to mention a danger to anyone near the outburst of energy that will be released. There's not much I can do."

"But what can you do?"

Ratchet paused for a moment, thinking. "I can't offline them. Not in this state. Temporary deep stasis isn't much better either. The only thing I can do for them is shut off Ironhide's pain receptors. It won't stop the pain, but it will make it much more bearable. But it's a risky move. We'll have to keep him as still as possible so I can disconnect the right wires. One wrong move and their dangerously unstable Sparks could explode."

Optimus nodded. "Tell me what to do."

"I need you to keep his head, neck and upper torso as still as possible."

Optimus looked over at Ironhide, who was violently thrashing around. His optics had a scared but determined glint to them as he approached his old friend. Then, he threw himself down on Ironhide, pinning his upper half down with his entire body.

Ratchet hurried over and quickly searched for the right wires to disconnect.

"Optimus, you have to keep him still! He's still moving too much!"

Optimus put more pressure down on Ironhide, which gave Ratchet the two seconds he needed to pluck out three red wires from the main circuitry in Ironhide's neck.

Ironhide immediately relaxed and his yelling stopped. He was still in pain, but the pain no longer radiated from his Spark chamber throughout his body, so his reflex reactions were deactivated.

"Ironhide! Ironhide, old friend, can you hear me?" Optimus asked, gently rolling him over on his back.

"He can't respond, Optimus," Ratchet said, very somber. "Our bodies and Spark chambers were created to handle only one Spark. Having two Sparks…its almost unthinkable. They're both fighting for control over his body, thus neither Spark controls anything. And when…if…they manage to stabilize, chances are it could be too late to save them. Having two Sparks would be like the entirety of who you are…your soul…being crushed. Its literally a slow suffocation of your being, the most painful experience you could imagine. A Spark doesn't need a body to feel pain." he paused, sighing tiredly. "They need to be separated as soon as possible for the best chances of their survival."

Optimus was solemn. "What does all this mean?"

"If Jazz's and Ironhide's Sparks don't stabilize, I can't separate them. If I can't separate them…worst case scenario, they both die."

"And the best case scenario, if they can't be separated?"

"Best case…they live, but lose everything about them that made them unique. No personalities. No memories. Just a pure machine with two soul-less Sparks."

Ratchet almost collapsed as he walked back to Artemis. While he was working on Ironhide, his holoform had managed to seal all the blood vessels in Artemis's arm and put a temporary covering over her entire shoulder once he finished amputating her arm. He also hooked her up to an IV drip with a blood substitute he created just days earlier out of pure curiosity. Thank Primus it worked.

Ratchet's holoform had to start chest compressions and use the makeshift defibrilator twice on Artemis, each time begging her to stay with him and not to give up on him. Both times her heart restarted.

He also had started on the slashes in her stomach, which went deeper than he expected. He was just about to work on fixing those when he shut off his holoform as he walked back in.

He was exhausted. He needed energon and a deep recharge cycle. But he couldn't stop now.

Drawing on the very last reserves of energon he had, Ratchet got up to fix the slashes. He had to patch up several of her internal organs before he could finally seal the deep cuts closed.

"Come on, Ratchet. Keep going. You have to keep going. Not until there's absolutely nothing else you can do…"

Ratchet then turned his attention to the gigantic swelling of her head. "This is bad…" he thought, scanning her. "Broken in three places…severe bruising..."

He needed to fix that now. It was risky because Ratchet was so tired thus more prone to making mistakes, but if he waited it would definitely be too late. He'd take his chances.

Ratchet grabbed his drill and went to work.

Optimus came in a few hours later, carrying Ironhide with him. Ratchet was finishing wrapping up Artemis's head with bandages when he looked up, and wordlessly pointed to a table nearby.

Optimus laid Ironhide on the table. His optics flickered constantly, and his body twitched from time to time. Just a few of the side effects of having two Sparks in one body. Optimus closed his optics. His own Spark was throbbing with pain in empathy for Jazz and Ironhide. And Artemis.

The astrosecond Ratchet tied the bandage, he collapsed on the floor into a very, very, very deep recharge cycle. There was absolutely nothing else he could do for anyone. They would have to fight it on their own now, fight the ever-growing odds against them. Optimus laid Ratchet on his back before falling against the wall himself.

"Now…we wait," he said. A single tear escaped his optics.

So, not too bad, was it? I hope not. :P