The Complications of Life

By: Nightelfcrawler

Disclaimer: I do not own, merely covet adoringly.

Authors' note: This is a re-telling of the movie-verse, given that do not assume any of it happened the same way. I'm writing from scratch with all new secrets. And while certain characters have been included, do not assume end results.

Forgive the slowness of updates. I have just gotten a brand-new mac, and had to deal with some complications of how to write and edit without having to run windows all the time. It's a bit of a bugger, but I'm getting used to it. Anywho, I'm going to attempt to update more often again.

Warnings: Contains a background of slash relationships.

Chapter Seven

Amazingly, Alexis slept solidly. One would have thought snoozing in an alien med-bay under bright lights would have been disconcerting, but it did not bother her one bit. She woke feeling alert, refreshed and rested. As she rolled over, the smell of something akin to oatmeal assaulted her senses. She squinted down and saw a large bowl of something very much like it sitting beside her. There was no spoon, but that hardly stopped her. She sat up and glanced over towards the medic seeing him hard at work with his back to her. She took that time to scoop the food into her mouth. Optimus hadn't been far off when he said it was not to her liking. It tasted like cardboard and water, but her rumbling stomach was satiated after the first few mouthfuls, forcing her to make her way through the rest of the bowl until she was full. She wiped her hand on her pant leg, grimacing at noticing how dusty and filthy she was.

"I see you are rejuvenated." She lifted her head to spot Ratchet glancing over at her from the table. She smiled knowing he must have scanned her. "I thought you might like to clean up, and prepared an area for you to bathe." He nodded his head and she glanced behind her to see a curtain draped over a pile of small boxes with steam coming out from behind it. "I regret that we do not have replacement garments for you, but I have provided you with clensing agents to wash your existing garments if you desire." A glance down at her dusty boots told her she was making marks all over the top of his table, which brought a smile to her face. He was concerned about dirt was he? How amusing.

"Thank you Ratchet." She said, holding her mirth within.

"If you need anything else, I will be here."

"Thank you Ratchet."

His optics narrowed. "You may wish to scrub the table when finished."

"Yes Ratchet."

He studied her a moment more, then snorted and returned to his detailed work. She couldn't help but grin. Despite how different these robots were from humans, there were nuances that transgressed all boundaries. Ratchet was a neat freak. Shaking her head, Alexis ducked behind the curtain and began to disrobe, dumping her clothes on the ground and then climbing inside the large bowl of steaming water. It was hot, almost too hot, but bearable. She sunk down to her chin, sighing in relief as the hot water tingled around her, and simply sat there enjoying it until it became uncomfortable, then she began to scrub the dirt off her. Ratchet had provided her with a few rough cloths that worked well to rub the grime, and some clensing agents that smelled like disinfectant, but at least did better to clean her hair than plain water. Once she was satisfied with her hygine, she slipped out and dunked her clothes in the now murkey water, and put them through the same rigorous clensing ritual. When done, she pulled her undergarments back on, thankful that military issue came with both top and bottom elements, and hung her thicker canvas coveralls over the edge of the curtain before stepping out. She knew in the desert her light cotton top and khaki cotton boxers would dry quickly. It was comfortable enough in here for her to walk barefooted on the table, and she doubted that robots had the same nuances about clothing that humans had, therefore was not disturbed to parade around in her undergarments.

Ratchet was still working, but one glance told her that her partner was in better shape than he had been before. Several damaged pieces of armor had been repaired, and many others removed entirely to show polished but worn pieces of a brighter silver beneath. She assumed this was his old armor, something of what the two had been discussing before. He did appear much less bulky, and the pile of armor in the corner of Ratchet's lab showed her just how much the medic had removed. She sat on the table, watching as he carefully moved along a seam at the mech's back, seeing as he'd been turned onto his front side, and then pulled something free. The entire wing that had been attached to his back separated from it's seam, latches and struts having been removed so the piece came away easily. Ratchet eyed it speculatively and then placed it in the pile with the rest. "That should do it." He muttered, rolling the mech back over onto his back with easy now that the bulky wings had been removed. "Now I just have to fix the damn things."

"How's the repairs going?" She asked, finding it strange to gaze down at the rather unfamiliar visage of her partner. Without the additional armor and wings he appeared an entirely different mech. The bulky part of his helmet also had been removed, revealing a streamlined and less severe face. It was scarred with deep scratches and silver marks that revealed welds to rends had been repaired long ago, but it was far less severe than the hawk-like mask had been. The only part remaining now was the mouthpiece covering his lower face. Even the red crystal that had been covering his eyes had been removed, giving him a dark haunted look without the facits protecting his optics. He appeared an entirely different being.

"Fairly well." Ratchet muttered. "I've finished removing the excess parts and the damaged ones. Now all I have to do is reconstruct what's missing and replace it."

"How long will that take?"

"Quite some time." He grumbled. "However, I feel fairly confidant that it will be safe to bring him out of stasis, seeing as I've disconnected his survos so he can't jump off the table. I'd like to speak with him as well to get a better idea of how to start repairs, given I'm not yet certain of his sub-structure mode." He glanced up at her. "Once his energy levels are back to green, I'll pull him out of stasis." He studied her a moment as she watched the offline mech on the table. "Did he say anything to you about himself? I'd like SOMETHING to go on… a name, a location, anything you can give me to do some tracing on who he is."

She shook her head slowly. "I can't, I'm sorry. He didn't give me any specifics, only that he'd been studying us for some time, doing research not far from here. He'd been hit by some battle fire and had to warp out of his location, and crashed here. I'm not sure if that helps any…"

"Unfortunately it doesn't give us much. Most of our database on scientists has always been incomplete. I can give Wheeljack a buzz to see if he knows anything that might help, but likely we won't find out anything until he wakes."

"Why is it so important to find out who he is?"

Ratchet hesitated, frowning as he stared down at the mech with a blank unreadable expression. "Let's just say I have my suspicions. And if I'm right, it could mean trouble."

Alexis frowned, not liking how her partner was being spoken about. But then, she knew so little about their politics, and only knew what she'd heard from the mech herself, that she couldn't make any judgements yet. "I can't presume to speak for him, but I'm sure he doesn't mean anyone harm."

"Likely." Ratchet agreed. "I analyzed his weapons systems. He has one standard cannon, issue most of us have these days, and also two other weapons systems specifically designed to disable his opponant without significant damage. Both systems are of a design I've never seen before, and are not standard or even common useage."

The door abruptly opened to their right, drawing both gazes as Optimus Prime entered. "Status report?" He inquired, nodding one to Alexis as he stopped at Ratchet's side.

"He's stable and I've removed all the damaged parts." Ratchet re-itereated to him.

"Any indication as to his identity yet?"

Ratchet frowned, hesiatating as he had moments earlier when speaking with Alexis about the very same thing. "I have some ideas, but nothing confirmed until we know his name, I'm going to wager."

"Give me what you have." Optimus instructed, folding his arms as he stared down at the computer console."

"Very well." Ratchet sighed. "But I'm not certain you'll like it." He turned to the console and pulled up a schematic of the mech currently laying on the berth beside them. "As you can see, I've separated out the areas that show older wear and the newer sub-structure that I've determined was installed at a later date. You can see that much of it overlaps, and it's clear that this was done co-inciding a massive repair to his body. I haven't been able to uncover why he would need such a repair, as most of the work is adaquetly done, if poorly constructed, it did at least cover up whatever signs that might have told us why he needed this repair in the first place. Needless to say, most of his structure was re-inforced by this repair, and his alt-form altered as well as his external bipedal form. By looking at the original sub-structure, you can get a feel for what kind of mech he was prior to his reconstruction."

Optimus leaned forward, studying the design. "It isn't a common schematic." He mused at last. "I've seen a few different fliers' schematics, and his seems vaguely familiar…"

"But you can't quite put a finger on why?" Ratchet asked, his voice deadly serious. "I can tell you why." Optimus and Alexis looked at him expectantly. "Our friend here was a Seeker at one point."

Optimus blinked, obviously surprised. "A Seeker?" He turned and studied the design. "Yes… you are right. I can see the similarities. His size is about right… but as far as I know, all the Seekers were employed by the Decepticon fleets, or killed."

"And you would be correct." Ratchet agreed, frowning as he regarded the schematic. "There are only three recorded Seekers that we recorded having survived the attack on Kaon, and I believe you know who those three are." Optimus frowned, nodding. "One of them is dead, supposedly." Ratchet added as an afterthought. "And as far as I know, the other two haven't taken a liking to playing dress-up."

"Ratchet…" Optimus said slowly, fixing the medic with a firm gaze. "Do you have a guess on what we're dealing with?"

The medic fixed him with a firm stare. "I never was one to believe in ghosts, Optimus. But if I didn't know better, I'd say we're looking at a dead mech."

Optimus sighed, placing a hand to his chin in thought as he transferred his gaze to the sleeping mech on the table. "Well… this is quite the interesting situation."

"Indeed."

Alexis had remained quiet through the entire conversation, left wondering what they were talking about. It was odd feeling so out of the loop, when here she thought she knew more about him than the others did. Apparently, as it seemed, she had been wrong. She stared at the schematics in silence, not able to imagine what they were seeing out of the mess of struts, wires and fuel lines. But then, she never had professed to being an engineer.

"We cannot confirm this until he wakes." Optimus said, sighing heavily. "But it would make things very interesting if our hypothesis is correct."

"It raises more questions than it answers." Ratchet muttered.

"Can you wake him safely at this point? I think rather than spinning our processors trying to determine if we are correct or not, we should give him the chance to speak for himself."

"I can." Ratchet said with a frown. "But I don't want to keep him up too long and risk straining his systems. I've only just gotten them stabilized, and if he starts getting upset over what we're asking him, I'm going to put him back under. Also…" He glanced up at Alexis meaningfully. "He will have to speak through her, at least until I can repair his data processing unit and his vocalizer, which will not be a quick fix."

"I understand. Still, I would like to at least confirm his identity." Optimus said. "Wake him, please."

Ratchet moved silently to the mech's side, grabbed a needle from the table nearby and carefully injected it's contents into the mechs' neck where thick cables ran. He withdrew the needle after a moment, and seconds later the mech's optics flickered to life, glowing white and light spilling out brighter than it should be, thanks to the lack of focusing crystals. Ratchet put a restraining hand on the mech's shoulder just in case he decided to attempt to sit up. "Easy there. I've had to remove your focusing crystals, so everything will be blurry. You're in a med-bay. I am your medic, Ratchet, and you are speaking with Optimus Prime." Alexis felt the grogginess spreading through their bond, felt his confusion. There was no fear there, but she also sensed a diminished sense of pain and guessed whatever Ratchet had pumped into him contained a pain-killer which dulled his processor as well as his suffering. She sent a warm thought through the link, letting him know that she was there nearby. She felt a faint touch in response, as the mechs' head turned slightly towards her direction, sensing where she was. "Your friend Alexis helped us locate you. She'll have to speak for you until I can finish your repairs, but we would like to ask you a few questions before letting you go back to resting." The mech turned his head back towards the two Autobots, and after a long moment, dipped his head into a faint nod. "Good." Ratchet glanced up to Optimus. "He's all yours."

Optimus leaned forward so the mech could better distinguish the red and blue blurrs that probably was all he could discern for the moment. "First, I would like to assure you that you are our guest, and we will do all we can to repair you. No matter what you tell us, this shall not change. Do you understand?" The mech nodded groggily. "Good. You are here as long as you need our services. But we need to know if anyone followed you to this planet that you are aware of."

Alexis felt the tingle along their link that told her he was about to communicate, and she opened up her mind to assist him, feeling the drugs affecting his ability to think clearly. He was still able to produce a response, however. I was not followed… that I know of.

She relayed that answer to them, and Optimus nodded in acceptance. "We have not tracked anyone as of yet, but we wanted to investigate all options." He paused before continuing. "We uncovered some incontinuities with your substructure that brought up a few questions. I believe you know what it is we are speaking of." The mech grimaced faintly, but nodded. "We need to know your identity. Can you provide us with an Earth equivalent to your name?"

This time, Alexis could FEEL the grimace through the link. There was a subtle sense of grudging acceptane, a twinge of regret, and a small bit of resigned depression, before his words filtered through to her. I need to know something from them… I need their word that they will not throw me in the brig, press me for information I am not willing to give, or treat me as an enemy if I provide them with my name.

She lifted an eyebrow, but passed along his request. Optimus glanced at Ratchet, and Alexis had the distinct feeling that their suspicions had just been confirmed. However, Optimus spoke gently. "You have my word. I promised you that no matter what you reveal to us, you will remain a patient and guest, and be permitted to leave when you desire, given Ratchet's medical approval. Nothing you tell us will change this, upon my word as Prime."

Alexis felt a slight twinge of respect through the link at that declaration, but the feeling of walls closing in suddenly surrounded her through their bond. He was regretting the necessity of revealing himself to them… but there was no other option. Very well… Came the reluctant reply. Tell them that my name is best translated to: Starscream.