Intro Note: Ladies and Gentlemen, this is where we leap from the canon train. I'll be honest to say that I screamed when I saw that they had just left it at a cliff-hanger and restarted Season 2, and I realize that it is possibly some way payback for all the cliff-hangers I do. But much like at the end of Season 1 when I had come up with Elita-One in my head, my mind had been working on what could happen. I realized that they were possibly going to do with Silas that I had already planned because I waited too long. This time I promised myself that I'd get it "written out" before it might actually show up in the show.
[Location: Autobot Base] Timeframe: After Toxicity
Elita ignored the pain from the cuts and burns as she reached into the blast wound in Bulkhead's back. The victory that Ratchet and Rafael had achieved forgotten as she and the medic worked together to save their friend's life. The sickly green energon that was pouring from the wound and covering Elita's humanistic hands worried her.
"He had found Tox-En," Special Agent Fowler told them as he and Rafael watched from the platform they observed from, "To keep it from the Insecticons he threw it into the volcano to be destroyed. That's what we were working on when you came in."
The Autobot medic stopped moving as he read the results of his scans, the information on the screen coming up at the same time Fowler spoke. "Tox-En? By the All Spark..." Ratchet trailed off painfully as he stared down at the wound. Then snapped himself out of when he saw that Elita's arms were covered in up to her elbows in the sickly green, along with some runs of red from cuts from her digging around. "Elita! Stop!"
"He's still alive, Ratchet," was her urgent, almost desperate reply, "We can save him!"
"Elita," the medic tried to nudge her away from the wound, "you're poisoning yourself." When she waved one arm at him to move him out of her way to dig back in Ratchet had to move his hands out of the way.
"I can't let him die," Elita almost yelled, stopping to take a breath. She looked up at Ratchet and he had frowned as he saw the light blue glow of the tears that ran down her cheeks. "I should have gone with him. It's my fault that I got captured and he had to go alone."
"It is no-one's fault," the medic told her sternly, watching the larger form pump another shot of prepared energon into the Wrecker's arm, "but Tox-En poisons the energon and in turn the bio-mechanical systems."
She paused, closing her eyes and making her larger form stop. She was pressing her hand against one of the major leaks, the sickly green fluid seeping between her fingers. In human terms, his blood was full of things that were slowly killing him. A transfusion would be ideal, but while the bad blood was in his body it would destroy any good blood they put in. Dialysis was used to wash out the impurities in the blood, like the kidneys naturally did. The pulse of fluid coming from around her fingers was growing weaker, so they needed to do something to boost up Bulkhead's systems to help get the Tox-En out.
Her larger form was running to the storage area as Elita looked back up at Ratchet, "Get all the Synth-En you have."
He frowned at the thought, "It is still far from safe for use."
"Ratchet," she looked up as her larger form began to set down the large armload it brought back with it, and began to set up hoses to a large hand pump with the end of that tube feeding into a sizeable tub, "his pump is getting weaker. I've read all of the files on it and it'll give his system a sizeable boost that will help. It's more like a shot of testosterone or adrenaline to the human body, and we wouldn't be using the good energon up first."
Realizing that Elita's logic had some merit, the medic was grumbling about being replaced by some 'pretender' as he moved over to where he was safely storing the Synth-En. Where did these humans get the idea that they knew more about Cybertronian physiology than he did?
Rafael had to move away from Fowler's side at the railing overlooking the bots when they began to receive calls from the others. The only one in real danger from their environmental settings was Optimus.
Agent Fowler watched as both of Elita's forms worked to attach the hose inside of the wound on Bulkhead's back and the larger form begin to work the pump. Ratchet had returned by this time, stacks of Synth-En at his side as he began to set the containers up like an IV drip, attached to another hose Elita had attached again into the wounded area. She had the Tox-En filled energon going out of one connecting hose and the Synth-En being funneled into where it was originally attached to.
"Ratchet," Rafael said as he stood beside Agent Fowler again, "the others are requesting to come through. What do I tell them?"
The medic looked up at the young man, looking as worn as he felt. "They risk becoming infected with the Tox-En if they return now.
"Like you and Elita are now," Agent Fowler said calmly. Then suddenly his fist hit the railing, sending Raf skittering away slightly. "He should have blown it all up at the start, instead of carrying it all over creation."
"Bulkhead made his choice, Agent Fowler, and for the best outcome despite the price," Ratchet was switching out an empty container with a full one of Synth-En, "if Megatron got a hold of the Tox-En…"
"Then he would have been able to win the war," Fowler finished, "in his favor."
"Precisely," Ratchet replied.
The Autobot medic was surprised to find the Synth-En draining quicker as the moments passed. And the sludge that was being pumped out was thinning out with streams of glowing green, the Tox-En slowly fading out in the mix.
Ratchet's scans were showing the an improvement in his comrade's vitals as Elita was having to do less and less pumping while Bulkhead's own internal energon pump took over. Her smaller form was still on his back, one hand on each hose connection to make sure that they stayed, but she swayed as her direct exposure to the toxic energon was taking its toll.
When it was just pure Syth-En pouring out of the exit hose into the tub Ratchet began to replace the empty containers with the pure energon. It was nearly two hours from start to finish before pure energon began to pour out of the exit hose into the tub. That was when Elita stopped pumping, the smaller one doing a quick bypass with a spare hose before she weakly slid off of Bulkhead's back and onto the floor. Once she was safely away, Ratchet and her larger form picked up the Wrecker and managed to get him over to Ratchet's work area and into the repair bay.
"Get yourself into the decontamination bath, now," Ratchet told Elita through her larger form, focused on the Wrecker's repairs while Elita took herself to the other chamber. It will take time to repair Bulkhead completely, but thanks to her quick thinking, they now had that time.
While the repair chamber did its job, Ratchet focused on the next issue at hand, the large vat of contaminated energon. Its contents were a swirling mess of colors, but as the medic ran the scan over the contents, he was rather surprised to find that the threat the Tox-En had been was being neutralized by the Synth-En. The vapors weren't as much of a threat now, but touching the mixture was not advised.
"Rafael," the red and white Autobot turned to the humans, seeing their own frames relaxing with relief, "you may now bring our friends home."
Raf ran over to his laptop and began to open the ground bridge portal to retrieve their comrades. Optimus was the first to come though, looking over the condition of their base, especially the vat, before standing over beside Ratchet while they waited for Bumblebee, Arcee, Jack, and Miko to return.
[Location: Nemeses, Medical Bay]
Knockout was fuming privately as he focused on preparing the new visor to replace Soundwave's cracked one. The Decepticon medic was highly peeved at Megatron for treating him as if he was a complete fool. Though knowing full well that if his leader wanted to slag him, Megatron could have easily done so on the spot. No, his 'glorious' leader decided to humiliate him further with the grenade. It was bad enough that his paint job was ruined thanks to Bumblebee and the artifact the Autobot scout had stolen from him, but he couldn't do a thing about it until all the work Megatron had piled up on him was completed.
With a growl of anger, the red custom shoved himself away from his work table and marched over to where all the information he had on Elita-One was scrolling on the screen. The worst part was, even though he had her captured he still didn't have any more information than before he saw her on the road.
Pressing a few buttons, he brought up the video he had recorded of her vehicular form. Yes, she did look very nice. As he watched he noticed that the rider actually moved more than a standard hologram did. Had Elita had already picked up a human? It was then the realization hit him.
There wasn't a human standing in the sand when Knockout tackled her into the ground bridge portal into that lead to the Decepticon warship, his recording confirming that. She must have hidden her human on or in her and it must have helped her escape. Unfortunately video records on the Nemeses was scrambled from both the power surge during the crash and the Dark Energon infusion that Megatron insisted on which gave the ship a mind of its own.
It didn't matter now. Megatron blamed him for her escape and for so much more.
While pausing the video on a still of Elita standing her ground with the ground bridge blazing behind her, Knockout had to admit that the Autobot fem might be worth the time to persuade her into joining with the Decepticons. If only for her great tastes alone. Besides, he needed a new assistant since Breakdown's disappearance.
[Location: Autobot base]
Elita let herself come to, though her groggy mind fought against it. She was resting on Ratchet's work table, the Autobot medic placing her there after she had finished with the decontamination bath and gave her a small dose of Synth-En to help her fight against what Tox-En her smaller form absorbed. To keep her smaller body from becoming overloaded with the synthetic energon she merged with her larger form and let it work through both parts. But it seemed as soon as her head rested against the table she was out to the world.
Turning her head to the side she saw Bulkhead still in the repair chamber, the machines working as safely as they could as they continued their repairs. Apparently somebody had moved the couch down to rest near the side of the chamber, with a sleeping Miko on it. She didn't blame the young lady for wanting to stay. Elita had lost count how many nights she slept in a chair at her mother's bedside, both in and out of the hospital, while her mother battled the cancer.
Metallic footsteps drew her attention back up, the medic coming into view. "How are you feeling?"
She let him run the scan over her and took mental inventory of all the aches and pains. "Everything hurts, on both forms, kinda nauseated."
"That would be your smaller body's request for food," he said quietly, being mindful of the sleeping base around them. "Agent Fowler had left shortly after everyone had returned home and brought back food. I believe Jack and Rafael had placed what was left over in the cooling unit."
"Is everyone alright?"
He nodded, letting his arms rest at his sides, "Bulkhead was the worst off, but thanks to your quick thinking we believe he'll make it."
"Good," she said letting her eyes close. She felt herself disconnect and reopened her eyes to the torso pieces opening before her. Ratchet was even kind enough to extend a finger for her to hold on to and pull her out, letting her find her feet before pulling his hand away. "I'm going to go get a bite to eat and I promise I'll be back to resting in no time."
"Alright," he agreed, "just don't make me come and find you."
With a smirk she headed down the hall to find the kitchen area. Opening the large, double door fridge she found that there were quite a few left-overs left for her. Being ex-military, she knew when somebody prepared to feed an army when she saw one. But she was so hungry that she figured she'd probably eat at least two sizeable portions.
Grabbing one of the large, aluminum serving pans that most places gave for huge take-out orders, she moved it over to the island table and set it down before she went in search of a fork and plate. She had to smirk as she found both items sitting on the island, right next to the folder of the pictures that Fowler had brought with him for her to go through. Dishing up a large plateful of food from the mostly full container, Elita sat down and began to eat as she carefully looked over the photos.
Growing impatient for her to return, Ratchet went looking for her when she had not come back after an hour and a half earth time. Heading straight for the kitchen, the medic had to almost place his head on the floor to look in the small doorway. He found her with three of the large serving containers that Agent Fowler had brought back with him, all stacked up beside her while the photographs filled the rest of the table in whatever organization only she knew. Elita was holding one of the photos in her hand, focusing intently on it.
When he called to her, she only looked up and gave him a weak smile. "Sorry, I guess I got caught up in all of this." She gathered the photographs and placed them how she wished in the folder, one stack turned facing the back of the folder, the other stack facing up with the picture she was focused on paper clipped to the inside front of the folder. The medic then watched her gather up the garbage and put it in its place before she left the room, folder in hand. He offered her his hand, which she accepted, and he gently lifted her up onto his shoulder and walked her back into the main room.
Stopping at his usual console, Ratchet began working again while he let Elita sit on his right shoulder. It was something he had seen Bulkhead do with Miko several times and it was rather nice, though he'd be the last to admit that to anyone. Glancing over every once in a while he would catch her looking at that top photograph. There was something about the man in the picture that kept her attention.
"Is he one of the possible M.E.C.H. agents that Agent Fowler was hoping to identify?" he asked quietly, but it still sounded loud to him as he broke the silence around them.
"Not possible," her voice sounded a bit weak, almost wounded, "he is one."
"Are you absolutely positive?"
She did nod, but also vocalized her answer. "He was my handler, and apparently for years."
"How is that possible?" When she stood up, he lifted his left hand to let her step onto and set her down on the walkway that ran around his workstation. "If M.E.C.H. had you for six months working on Project: Adaptation…"
The look Elita gave him made his energon run cold. It was that wounded look in her eyes, the one that matched her voice, making her look vulnerable. Ratchet really hated it when Miko would get that look and the feeling was a hundred times worse with Elita looking at him that way. It left the medic feeling helpless and not knowing what to do to fix the problem.
"He was my boyfriend. Ex-boyfriend the night I was kidnapped."