Crack in the Pavement
Chapter 7
This is turning into a monster fic. Save me before it eats me. I've written
21 chapters as of May 15 and this sucker is nowhere near done.
Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers; I'm just prostituting it for my amusement.
Summary: Megatron uses Ironhide to get his revenge on Prime. Multiple minor side pairings, see list in fic.
Warning: Graphic rape. Torture. M/M robot slash consensual as well as NON-CON
Pairings: Non-con Megatron/ Ironhide, Con Optimus/ Ironhide. Established Jazz/ Prowl, Twins/ Ratchet, Mirage/ Cliffjumper
First Aid and Swoop were waiting for Ratchet when he entered his medbay. Ratchet was genuinely surprised to see that Optimus was not in the room. He frowned and looked to his students for an explanation.
"The Dinobots spiked Optimus's energon," First Aid explained.
"It was my idea," Swoop added, the pterodactyl looked terribly proud of himself.
"Good job," Ratchet said, it was a relief not to have to get back to his repairs without Prime hovering like a parent over his/ her child. Or a bondmate over his/ her bondmate.
"You know what? You two can finish Ironhide's repairs," Ratchet said. "I've repaired everything but some of the lash wounds and dents. I need to get to work on Prowl's doorwing."
The damage was worse and better than Ratchet had feared. All of the cables that attached the doorwing to Prowl's protoform remained attached, although two of them were badly strained. The external damage was worse than Ratchet had first thought. All of the plating would have to be replaced, most of the sensory wiring. But it could be done, Ratchet had done it before. He sucked air through his intakes and went to work.
It never should have happened. Ravage shouldn't have been able to sneak up on him. Prowl was always alert. From the scans First Aid and Swoop had first taken, Ratchet could see Prowl had already been low on both fuel and energy. He'd been pushing himself, egged on by his own need to save a friend and Prime's orders. Ratchet dearly wanted to give Optimus the dressing down of a life time. But that wouldn't be fair. Prime was already on the verge of a breakdown over Ironhide; he'd already made it clear that he blamed himself. If Ratchet raged at him, blamed him for Prowl's injuries, it could push Prime over the edge. The doorwing would be sensitive for a few days, until the sensors and new plating stabilized. But the repairs would hold; it was time to wean Prowl off the sedatives and let him wake up.
Jazz was at his bondmate's side minutes after Ratchet alerted him. Ratchet gave him space, watching the monitors until he could see that Prowl was just about to come online, satisfied that he was no longer needed, he went to Ironhide's side to look over his repairs.
"Slag," Prowl groaned as his processor came online. He knew immediately where he was and what had happened. His doorwing throbbed slightly, the discomfort that remained after damage was first healed. It didn't matter, it would fade in a few days. But... Damn him to the Pit. Rumble was probably long gone and with him any hope of finding Ironhide.
"Sweetspark," Jazz called Prowl from his self-deprecation. "Online your optics."
"Jazz," Prowl whispered as he obeyed his bondmate. At first his vision was fuzzy, but it quickly cleared and he focused his sights on Jazz.
"You had me worried," Jazz said, he held Prowl's face in his hands.
"Jazz," Optimus interrupted. "Could I have a moment with Prowl?"
"Yeah, sure," Jazz said, looking up to see Prime in the doorway.
"Prime, I'm sorry," Prowl said once Jazz had walked a few steps away and Optimus had come to stand by his berth.
"Prowl," Optimus sighed, weary to his protoform. "If I ever give you an order like that again, don't listen to me. Better yet, tell me I'm being a tyrant."
"But," Prowl replied.
"You are not expendable," Optimus interrupted. "You're my Second-in-Command and you are absolutely vital to the Autobots. We can't afford to lose you."
"I lost Rumble," Prowl insisted, feeling both incredibly guilty and incredibly stupid. "How will we find Ironhide now?"
"He's here, Prowl," Optimus said. "We found him."
"Don't you slagging sit up!" Ratchet snapped from across the medbay. Prowl eased back off his arms; he hadn't even lifted his shoulders off the berth before Ratchet has snapped. The medic knew his patients.
"Ratchet's seen to his repairs," Optimus continued. "I'll explain the circumstances after you've been released. For now, I'll leave you to your bondmate."
"The Hatchet's keeping him in stasis," Jazz explained when he returned to Prowl's side. "Ratchet's replaced the entire outer plating of your doorwing. When you aren't sore anymore I'm going to repaint every inch of you."
"Jazz," Prowl said in a soothing tone.
"You scared the life out of me, Prowler," Jazz said, brushing his lips over Prowl's faceplates. "I'm going to play nurse until I know you're all better."
Optimus watched the pair with pangs of guilt and envy. He joined Ratchet at Ironhide's side. Ratchet gave him a long look before he gestured to his office. Inside, Ratchet grabbed two cubes of energon and forced one into Optimus's hands. Optimus took the seat across from Ratchet's desk. Naturally, Ratchet took the seat at the desk.
"You're shorting yourself worse than Trailbreaker," Ratchet said. "At least he recharges. I know for a fact you would not have recharged last night if the Dinobots hadn't slipped a mickey into your ration. You wouldn't have consumed your ration if they hadn't brought it to you in your office. And it wasn't like you asked anyone to bring you it. And I know you have at least a few cubes of high grade in your office at all times."
"Times like this," Optimus began. There had never been times quite like this before. "Times like this don't suit high grade."
"Nonetheless, you can't starve yourself," Ratchet said. "As Prime, as head of the Autobots, you don't have the luxury of wallowing in depression. Slag, I know what Ironhide means to you. But how can the Autobots stand against the Decepticons if our leader is on the verge of collapse?"
"I have no argument for you, Ratchet," Optimus said. "I can't stomach the thought of speaking with my own people. I don't trust myself with them."
"Well you need to work on that," Ratchet sighed. "And I'm not saying that to be an aft. They look to you for leadership. Even if I was releasing Prowl, which I'm not, he doesn't mesh with the others the way you do. He's quiet, too quiet to be approachable to most mechs. We march under your banner. We need you to lead us. Right now your soldiers are twiddling their fingers, sitting around and wondering what we are going to do now. We have Ironhide back. That's a relief off of everyone's processors, so now they have to be wondering what we are going to do about that second 'Con base. They have no orders, and they need them. They want to avenge Ironhide."
"I've been shirking my responsibilities," Optimus admitted grimly. "I practically crippled Prowl's own investigation. If I'd trusted him to do what he does best, we likely would know where that base is right now."
"Maybe," Ratchet said. "I do know that Red Alert and Inferno are working on just that as we speak."
Optimus's expression was one of inquiry; Ratchet only shrugged.
"Swoop got wind of it, let me know what was going on," Ratchet said. "Jazz has been trying to help. I'm actually really impressed. This is the first time Prowl has been seriously injured while they've been separated. Jazz has been handling it well."
"And I should be the one telling you this over energon and not the other way around," Optimus said with his hands raised. "I hear you, Old Friend."
"Good," Ratchet said. "Now I'll give you the update you really want. Ironhide's systems went through an incredible shock. Severe energon depletion. His spark is still pulsing at a slower rate than I'd like because of it. All of his non-essential systems has been locked up for at least a day before we got him back. That causes damage of its own. This isn't damage I can fix, his self-repair systems get that task. I'm keeping him in stasis because that way those systems can work faster. Still, when I let him come around it's probably going to take time for him to even come online. His systems are exhausted, and stasis doesn't actually help that. He's going to be recharging for a while, I don't know how long."
Ratchet paused and looked down at the still unconsumed cube in his hand. He sucked a long breath of air through his intakes before he looked back up at Optimus.
"And I can't begin to guess how he will be when he wakes up," Ratchet said. He took a swig of energon. Anger and fear made it taste bitter. "His processor isn't damaged, not in any physical way that I can see but Primus knows only what sort of damage can be done without it being visible. And there's still the fact that he is going to be emotionally traumatized. There's no way around that and there's no guessing how he is going to react. You need to be prepared for a very different Ironhide waking up compared to the one we all knew before."
"How can I prepare for that?" Optimus asked, his voice tight.
"Okay, you can't really," Ratchet admitted. "Just take it as a warning. I wish I had more answers. I wish there was more that I could do..."
"He's your friend too," Optimus said gently. "I've been selfish, behaving like I am the only one who's been missing him."
'It's different for you,' Ratchet thought grimly. The relationship between Ironhide and Optimus was almost like bondmates, except that they were not bonded. The relationship was strictly platonic. But Optimus held Ironhide closer than his right hand, and Ironhide held Optimus as the single most important mech in the universe to him. Maybe they should have been bonded, maybe their duties to the Autobots had overridden their duties to themselves. Ratchet wasn't sure.
The Twins wanted to bond with him. Would he be able do is job if he crumbled when they were damaged? Ratchet almost choked on his energon. That was something to think about.
"I don't remember the media being so prolific on Cybertron," Inferno said. He and Red Alert had quickly found themselves overwhelmed by the media, thank Primus for Blaster.
"There's far more cultural diversity on Earth than there ever was on Cybertron," Blaster explained. "Hundreds of languages and cultures and hundreds of political groups. And about as many media groups to match."
"That's sort of overwhelming," Inferno said. "Can I leave this to you? I told him not to but I have a feeling Red Alert is planning on installing cameras in the damaged sectors and I need to be there to make sure the mountain doesn't cave in on him."
"Of course," Blaster said. He'd work better without an audience, anyways. He needed to listen and to read and focus intensely on both. After several hours, one broadcast caught his attention.
"Another skier has gone missing on Mt Black horn," a reporter explained. Blaster turned all of his attentions on this broadcast.
"Forty-two year old Stuart Friessen was believed to have gone to ski in the back country of the mountain, Wednesday. As of today, no trace of him as been found. Search and rescue is working from sunrise until sunset in the frantic hope that Mr Friessen will be found. In the last two week six skiers and snow boarders have gone missing, without a trace, while enjoy the out of bounds sections of the mountain. Search and Rescue Idaho are asking that everyone to please stick to the marked trails to avoid a similar tragedy from unfolding."
"That reeks of Decepticons," Blaster said. He brought up a picture of the mountain in question on the screen, and set Teletraan 2 to scanning the mountain for any oddities.
Several minutes later, he barrelled into the medbay, nearly tripping over himself in the process. Jazz helped Prowl ease himself up to look at Blaster and Ratchet and Optimus came out from the medic's office to investigate the disturbance.
"I found it," Blaster exclaimed, excitement made his optics glow wildly bright. "I'm sure I am. Across State lines in Idaho. People, more people than normal, have been disappearing on Mt Black horn. I set Teletraan on to scan for any oddities. Nothing showed up at first but on the fifth scan I caught a door opening in the mountain. The Constructicons came out. This has to be it. I mean, I think it has to be it."
"Call everyone here," Optimus ordered. Ratchet twitched and glared at Optimus, wrath was the only emotion visible on the medics face. "I'm sorry, Ratchet but we need Prowl's thoughts on this and you haven't released him yet."
It didn't take long for every mech in the Ark to swarm into the medbay. They clustered around Optimus and Prowl. Ratchet had put up privacy screens around Ironhide's berth and guarded his patient zealously. During the briefing, Ratchet remained apart from the others. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe couldn't join him without missing out on parts of the planning. That was the point. There was too much on Ratchet's processor to let him feel at ease around the Twins. Before too long the plan was hatched and Optimus ordered the Autobots to roll out. Throughout the entire briefing Ratchet had twirled a wrench between his fingers. When Optimus turned to leave, he flung the wrench at the back of Optimus's head. It connected with a satisfying clang. Optimus looked over his shoulder and almost laughed. He was lucky to be heading into battle or he'd have received many more dents than that for taking over Ratchet's medbay.
Sunstreaker and Sideswipe held back for a moment. They wanted to see Ratchet, it had been, at least a full day since they had last seen him. Ratchet saw them approach. The expression on his faceplates was that of prey that had spotted a predator.
"Ratch..." Sideswipe began.
"You'd better get going," Ratchet said before quickly retreating into his office.
Both Twins tensed and they watched the medic walk quickly away from them. They looked at each other. Confusion and surprise passed over their relay. Perhaps they would have shaken it off if Prowl hadn't been watching after Ratchet as well, confusion plainly written on his faceplates. The Twins couldn't hang around and find out what might be wrong with their medic. They had a battle to fight.
End Chapter 7
A/N I'm sure you dears are waiting for smut. I promise it is coming... In chapter 14. The more reviews, the faster I post chapters. What can I say, I like knowing what you like about each chapter.