Chapter Thirteen
"My Lord Megatron, I have that which you desire." Shadowstrike said as he showed the unconscious human.
"It better not be dead." Megatron warned.
"No my Lord, just unconscious."
"You seem to do better than that pathetic excuse for a second-in-command I have." Megatron said.
"To be honest, that's not really hard to do." Shadowstrike said humorously.
A smirk appeared on the Decepticon leader's face, "no, it's not." His face returned serious "with this last human we will finally…"
Unknown to Shadowstrike and Megatron, Starscream had been listening to every word that had been said and was fuming about how they were speaking about him. Pathetic am I? I'll show that good for nothing Megatron and Shadowstrike, I'll get the information needed myself. Then we'll see how 'pathetic' he thinks I am! He thought as he stormed off already formulating a plan in his mind.
Moongaze awoke to someone shaking her gently and calling her name. At first she thought it might have been Ratchet but as she slowly raised her head she saw he was still in his unconscious state. She looked over and saw Skybolt smiling softly at her. "Skybolt? Hm, did I fall into recharge?" she asked still slightly sleepy as she began to sit up.
"It would appear so." He answered. "Moongaze, Tazer would like to see you. The arm Ratchet saw to is giving him trouble again."
Upon hearing the medic's name Moongaze looked sadly over at the mech before returning her gaze to her leader. "Perhaps Wheeljack should look at it, I'm in no condition to…" she stopped as the airliner placed a hand on her shoulder.
"He trusts you, we all do, and that's what he needs right now. Someone he trusts." Skybolt explained.
"With all that's happened lately, Skybolt, I wouldn't trust myself to do anything…medical. I'm sorry."
"Would you feel better if someone stayed here with him?" he asked referring to Ratchet. The Ford looked down at the ambulance again and found herself giving a nod. "I'll asked Surefire to…"
"Not Surefire!" Moongaze suddenly interrupted looking up at him "please Skybolt," she pleaded taking his hand in both of hers "anyone but Surefire."
Skybolt was most surprised at her request, she was virtually begging him not to have the white Ferrari watch the medic. A mech that she was closest to on the entire team, trusted more than anyone else. "W-who would you l-like?" he finally stuttered out.
Moongaze looked down at the floor thinking, who could she trust? Chaser was to 'wild', Cruiser wasn't serious enough, always joking around, and Skybolt would more than likely want to see Tazer with her. She didn't know any of the other mechs very well so it really only left one choice but it was so…outrageous. Surely he wouldn't do it, he'd be far too busy wouldn't he? "Prime?" she asked in a small voice.
Skybolt looked at her a second in complete shock, finally he said "you want Prime to watch over Ratchet while you tend to Tazer?" he received a nod in reply "Moongaze, do you know how hard that is?"
"Yes." She replied her voice still sounding small and meek.
The airliner sighed, "are you sure there's no-one else? Cruiser, Chaser, any of the other Autobots? Jazz maybe." He asked trying to find someone anyone apart from the Autobot leader. He got a shake of her head and groaned inwardly. The things I do for my team. He thought. "I'm going to need my hand back." He partly joked and walked out as soon as she released it.
Moongaze looked at the medbay doors confused, surely he wasn't actually going to ask Prime, was he? She looked back at Ratchet and sighed. She remembered back when she had started her medical training, Ratchet was to be her mentor. Her lecturer had said that she was the best in her class and so should be taught by the best medic around. As the months went on though both found themselves falling for one another, she knew the consequences of mentor/student relationships. Her friend, Stormfire, had told her all about what happened when she had fallen for her mentor and the femme had left out no gory detail. Moongaze had painfully decided to give up on medicine and save Ratchet's career though she still had enough knowledge to become a first aider. The one thing she truly regretted though was not saying goodbye, she just up and left.
As Skybolt walked back into the medbay he found the deep sky blue femme looking sadly at the medic, there was almost tears in her optics. It had been an embarrassing couple of minutes for him to fulfil Moongaze's request but if it made her happy then t was worth the embarrassment.
"Moongaze." He called out.
"Skyb-Prime!" she said in shocked surprise as she saw the semi behind her leader.
"I understand that you would like someone to watch over Ratchet while you attend to your teammate." He said.
"I…uh…" the femme stammered.
"Would you like to see Tazer now?" Skybolt asked.
Moongaze's optics darted from one mech to the other too shocked to do anything. Seeing this Optimus walked over to her and gently helped her up from her seat.
"Go see to your teammate, I will watch over Ratchet."
Gradually the femme gave a nod and walked towards Skybolt, just as they reached the door she turned back to him and said, "thank you." He gave a nod and she walked out.
Optimus looked down at the white and red mech, "Ratchet my friend, if you wish to stay with her…"
"I think we both know that's not possible." Ratchet suddenly said powering up his optics. Optimus chuckled he had a feeling that the medic had already regained consciousness. "You need a medic, Prime."
"And you need to stop denying your feelings."
"You've been talking to Ironhide." The medic said grumpily as he sat up and crossed his arms over his chest.
The semi placed a hand on the ambulance's shoulder, "I do not need to talk to Ironhide to see what had and what is happening between the two of you."
"I had my chance and never acted on it, now it's too late. She's found someone else." He stated trying hard not to sound spark-broken.
"If you believe that you're in for a surprise, my friend." Optimus said an amused smile behind his faceplate as Ratchet gave him a curious look.
Suddenly the medbay doors opened as Moongaze, Skybolt and Tazer all ran in, none of them noticed that Ratchet had regained consciousness and was sitting up. "Sit here." Moongaze ordered the stereo as she got out some equipment "give me your arm." The mech did as he was told and she began hooking it up to the machine.
Ratchet watched the first aider as she 'fussed' around the mech and ordered Skybolt to get her an instrument telling him exactly where it was. After retrieving the instrument the white and black mech noticed him, he stared at him for a moment before a smile came across his face. "Skybolt I need that instrument!" Ratchet couldn't help but smile as the HIT leader hurried back over to her. "She maybe a first aider but she has all the makings of a first class medic. It was why she was assigned to me." He said quietly to Optimus, who gave a nod as they both continued to watch.
After a few minutes of 'digging around' in Tazer's arm Moongaze pulled out a device with a blinking red light. "I believe this is what lead the Decepticons here." She said as she handed the device to Skybolt.
"A tracking device." The airliner said as if it was now plainly obvious.
"Tazer, do you remember having any longer than usual recharges?" Moongaze asked.
"I tried not to recharge at all while I was there to be honest." Tazer replied "but I do remember onlining from a recharge that I don't remember going into."
"That must have been when they installed the tracker." Skybolt said "I'm sorry I doubted you."
"That's okay, Skybolt. I would have done the same in your position." Tazer reassured him "I'm just glad we found out how they managed to find us." He looked over at the Ford "thanks Gaze for…Gaze? Moongaze?" seeing the femme wasn't paying attention he turned to see what she was staring at and saw Ratchet sitting up a berth away.
"Prime, we have a problem." Jazz said as he walked in. "Hey Ratch, nice ta see ya online." He greeted the medic "we've searched the entire base and can't find Crystal anywhere."
"Have you tried Sunstreaker?" Moongaze asked coming out of her daze and looking over at the saboteur.
Jazz shook his head, "he hasn't seen her."
The Ford ran out of the medbay before anyone could say anything. There where places Crystal would hide if she was scared and frightened, places only she knew about.
"It would seem that the Decepticons attack was successful." Optimus said.
"Then let's go get her back." Tazer said somewhat forceful.
Skybolt looked at him in surprise. "You're starting to sound like Chaser." he said "stop it, I've had more than enough shocks today."
The silver and teal mech looked at his leader confused, "all I'm saying is that the sooner we get her back the better. Primus knows what they've got in store for the poor femme."
"Ya sound like ya know her well." Jazz said.
"Tazer was the one I sent to keep an optic on her with Surefire as backup if needed." Skybolt explained.
"Do you know why the Decepticons were after her?" Optimus asked.
Skybolt shook his head, "no, the only thing we know is that all the humans that went missing were involved in a secret goverment project."
"She was the last one, we were too late to get to any of the others." Tazer told them.
"Do ya know what this 'secret project' was?" Jazz asked.
"That was Moongaze's assignment but she wasn't…how should I say…skilled enough to acquire the information." The airliner informed.