Chapter 3

Skyfire spun around. He had heard a crashing sound, the same kind of sound a clashing two pieces of metal together. Almost like…

"P306!" Fearing the worst, Skyfire rushed towards the origin of the sound. He was fearing that the sound was that someone was beating her up real bad. He rounded a corner, and saw something that made his spark stop and his tanks plummet. P306 was lying face first on the ground, her right arm twisted the wrong way. He realized that the crashing metal sound he heard was from when she tried to get up, but instead knocked some scrap over and passed out.

"No." He whispered. He rushed over to her and gently turned her on her back and held her tiny upper chassis in his arms, her helm resting on his right elbow joint. He held her that way for what felt like Joors, not wanting to leave her. He couldn't call for help because he couldn't get a signal from his position. He heard a groan. He looked down, and saw her slowly open her optics.

"Sk-Skyf-fire?" Her vocals cracked, most likely damaged. She tried to move, only to falter. She tried again, only for Skyfire to gently stop her.

"Wh-wha…why…" Her vocals suddenly faltered completely. She felt so weak, so tired. She tried to move again, and only managed to twitch her digits. Skyfire's spark sank as he realized how quickly she was weakening. He allowed a single tear to come out. Her vents were slow and painful, and her optics were dimmed. He heard the sound of pedesteps, and looked up. A red-orange and white mech was standing a small distance away. The mech slowly approached the two, watching with cautious aqua blue optics. Skyfire growled warningly at the mech, who stopped. Then, he spoke.

"Are you alright? Do you-" he stopped short, when he caught sight of P306's small but damaged frame.

"By the Allspark!" He gasped. Before Skyfire could react, he came up and knelt down in front of of the pair, and started to examine her small frame. Skyfire was about to push him away, when he caught sight of the Autobot insignia on his chassi. He optics widened a bit in surprise, then asked "Who are you?"

The mech looked up at him, and replied "Ratchet."

Skyfire wheeled back a bit. He knew of the famed Ratchet, but never met him. He watch as Ratchet inspected P306's small frame.

"Hmm. Broken arm. Dented helm. Several broken minor energon veins. Luckily none of the major cracked. Broken armour, damaged vocals…" Ratchet muttered. He raised his servo to his audio receptor and spoke quickly "I need a ground bridge stat!" and quickly ordered Skyfire to carry P306. A swirling green vortex appeared, and Skyfire followed Ratchet though.

They walked into a light orange-brown room filled with medical equipment. Skyfire watched as Ratchet moved around and quickly organized stuff to get ready for something. He quickly realized that the famous Ratchet was preparing to fix this small, weak, and poor youngling in his arms. P306 looked around weak optics. Skyfire watched as a flicker of surprise flash her optics and as her gaze slightly softened. Almost as if she trusted Ratchet. As if she knew him. Said mech quickly turned around and order Skyfire to lay the youngling on the medical berth. He quickly obeyed not wanting to risk the famed Ratchet's wrath as he was known for whacking mechs over the helm with a wrench. Ratchet quickly got to work repairing the youngling. Skyfire stood like a cyberhawk watching over the whole operation. Joors past without one word. Ratchet had already hooked P306 onto an energon IV tube, put her in stasis and had already fixed her damaged arm. He had also fixed her dented helm and had begun to repair several of the minor energon lines. Skyfire couldn't take it anymore. He had to know how P306 was doing. He walked over and tapped on Ratchet's shoulder. Ratchet suddenly wheeled around and smack Skyfire on the side of the helm with a wrench.

"Ouch! What was that for?!" Skyfire half yelped-half asked. Ratchet looked at him angrily, and replied, "Because you aren't suppose to interrupt a medic's work!" Skyfire let out a small sigh.

"Will…will she be ok?" Skyfire asked quietly. Ratchet sighed, and looked at the mech calmly.

"I managed to repair her damaged arm, fixed her voice box and un-dented her helm. I also just finished fixing the minor broken veins. But…" Ratchet trailed off a little, took a deep vent, and locked optics with Skyfire's, and after a few clicks, "But… her protoform was compromised. She might not survive the night." Skyfire almost crashed after hearing those dreaded words. "N-not surv-v-viving the n-night!" He stammered. Ratchet nodded gravely. Skyfire wanted to scream his agony out loud, but held it in. Unfortunately, he could not hold back the tears that started flowing from his optics. Ratchet watched sadly as the mostly white mech cried. He glanced at the femme from the corner of his optics. He could not believe of how much she looked like Optimus. The only difference was the familiar coloured pink stripes on her arms and legs, the ponytail and the fact that she's a femme. He could not help but remember the time Optimus had almost died from Cybonic Plauge. He shook the thought out of his processor and looked at the seeker. He was bawling by then. Ratchet walked over and sat beside the bawling mech and rubbed the seeker's back, calming him down. Once the mech had calmed down, Ratchet stopped rubbing his back.

"What is your designation?" Ratchet finally asked.

Skyfire looked up, his tear stained face plate showing how hard he cried, replied, "Skyfire."

•••

After a joor of crying, Skyfire finally stopped, but kept letting small sobs and sniffles escape him. Ratchet had asked Skyfire for the femmes designation, and was told a number, P306. Ratchet was confused. He asked Skyfire what he meant, and it ended up with Skyfire explaining all about all the younglings lives since they were sparked. Ratchet wad horrified to find out that younglings were being taken from their creators and immediately sent to school. And they were barely a joor old when it happened!

"So, this is all, true?" Ratchet asked, still having trouble comprehending the fact that nobot knew their creators. Skyfire nodded.

"When my family unit landed here 15 Vorns ago, when I was 5, elite guards swarmed and took me away, put me in school, and did Primus knows what with my creators. They striped me of the name I once had that I cannot remember, and I earned the name I have now by taking a picture of the sky 'on fire' and I got a new name."

Ratchet felt sick to his tanks. He couldn't believe it! Those poor souls. Ratchet gritted his denta in frustration and let a small growl slip out. As he clenched his servos, he stole a glance at the young femme, P306, on the med-berth before them. Her vitals, while they were low, the were steady. During the operation, she had slipped into a deep stasis lock, and unless she managed to survive her sensitive protoform being breached, she would offline. Ratchet new from his time as a Chief Medical Officer (CMO) during and even before the war when he was a simple medic, he knew that the chances of surviving a breach in anybot's protoform, no matter how small the breach, the chances of survival are slim to none. Only one Cybertronian had survived, and only because of pure will to return to his family. But P306 had no family, and no proper home or nice adults to go back to. If her will isn't strong enough, she will offline.

A harsh beeping noise interrupted Ratchets thoughts, and his optics snapped over to the spark monitor and the line on it immediately flatlined. Ratchet quickly stood up as his medical programming kicked into high gear. He quickly grabbed a pair of electro-spark shockers, which were designed to restart the spark. He quickly placed them on P306's chest and activated them. Skyfire watched worriedly in the background as Ratchet repeat the process again and again to no avail. The spark monitor staid flatlined. After the twentieth or so attempt, Ratchet stopped, and turned to Skyfire with a sad look on his faceplate. Then Ratchet shook his helm.

"I'm sorry."

Don't kill me! If you could kindly take your helm out of your exaust port then you would realize that I would not just kill off my OC before it got to the good part! Sheesh!