Please note that these characters belong to their original creators as do any songs used in this fiction, not me, this is just my take on what might happen enjoy and let me know what you think.
also i am still trying to fix any mistakes that i might have missed in past chapters (i.e spelling, grammar and so on)
The metal was cold to the touch, it was like laying on a large operating table. The room was dark and for a moment Al though that he was in some kind of hospital somewhere because of the disinfectant smell. "it had to be a dream" he thought as images of the battle with the creature that Zack had become became mixed with those of Trent showing himself as a Decepticon. Those images stirred a deep anger inside of Al and as he reached out with his hand and balled it into fist. It was only when a shaft of light caught against the metal that Al realized that none of it had been a dream. In a panic he bolted up right gripping the edges of the table with his hands as he looked around the darkened room. "easy there" said a strange voice as two blue optics turned to him from out of the darkness. The small bot readied himself to make a bolt for the nearest door as the glowing optics got closer. "just a second" said the voice as lights started to come on in the hospital like room he was now in. The room grew brighter and Al could see for the first time that he was facing the medic of the Autobots called Ratchet if he remembered correctly. "let me take a look at you?" said the Medbot as he crouched down so that he was at the same height as Al. "you gave us quite a scare you know, you were out of two days after what happened" said Ratchet as he ran a few scans. The small bot pulled away remembering what had happened after he had been scanned the first time by Scalpel on the Decepticon ship. Images and memories of pain that were hidden from him before were now clear and strong as the memory of cables and attachments that had burrowed into his body returned with frighting clarity. Al gripped at his arms as if the wounds were fresh before he moved his fingers to his chest and the rest of his body in places that the cables had burrowed into.
Ratchet did not miss the behavior as he continued his scan of the small bot sitting before him. "well it looks like your all right now al though I can see that some of your systems are acting like they've just come on for the first time so I advise that you get some rest until your systems are up and running fully" said the Medbot as he walked over to a table that held a collection of parts and tools. "why were the lights off?" asked Al as he tried to distract himself from the memorize of floating in a tank with a massive frightening face staring at him. "we're still having power problems after someone sabotaged some parts of the city, I thought that my medbay had been spared but it looks like some surveillance devices were planted here as well so the security teams are working to remove them, though it's making things hard with the lights going up and down all the time" said Ratchet as he fixed few parts together as the lights went down again. This time the room was lit again a few seconds as the Medbot lifted what looked like an over-sized lantern into the air, "haven't made one of these in a long time" he said as he placed the light on a table near the small bot. The light lit all around Al and he could easily make out the Ratchet who was working on another lantern. Looking round the room the small bot caught sight of his reflection in a mirror and saw for the first time that his optics were a bright shade of blue while his chest bore the marking of an Autobot. "what have you done to me?" he said backing away from his reflection that seemed to belong to a totally different being. "I haven't done anything, not even any repairs as I wanted you to get some much needed rest after your ordeal" replied Ratchet as he connected a few parts together for his next lantern.
"my eyes, my chest, I look like an autobot" said Al as he forced him self to look at his reflection in the mirror. "you don't remember?" asked Ratchet as he stopped working and turned to face the small bot. Al froze as the final moments of Zacks life came back to him, he remembered his friend who looked like a ghost standing before him smiling and telling him that he wasn't in pain any more and then he remembered the gift that he had been given. The Autobot logo felt suddenly warm like the gentle touch of a human hand on flesh and Al knew that this is what he had been talking about. He felt different, the constant anger was gone, the feeling that he was better than everyone around him, the desire to fight and kill were now missing. He felt lighter, like he had been set free from a terrible weight that he hadn't been aware of . His fingers traced the lines of the logo and he felt better than he had in years, better than he had in what felt like a life time. His memories seemed different somehow, he remembered the hatred he had for people who didn't fit into the mold he had been brought to believe in and now it seemed so alien to him. The image of what people should be and how they should live seemed shattered in favor of something more organic that was sculpted by the events of their lives making each person seem more right no matter who they were. It was like seeing the world through a different point of view, like his mind was open for the first time and he found that there were almost no limits to what he could understand and accept in himself and others. Then pain and guilt flowed through him as he remembered the way he had acted towards people, the face of Max being made a target came to him first then others followed. He felt ashamed of the way he had acted, of the things he had said to his friend and he felt disgusted as to the way his father had encouraged him by saying that people like that weren't normal and should be locked up where they couldn't corrupt others.
The small bot doubled over wanting to be sick at the way he had been and the way his family had acted. His head spun as everything hit him for the first time and he fell over on the large table as he drifted away from the world his mind reeling form his new perspective like he had suddenly been thrown a thousand feet into the air. Ratchet moved to the small bot and lifted him on to the center of the table as he commed Optimus to alert him of the young bots condition. Hours passed and Al found himself waking in a dimly lit room with voices coming from the darkness the lay beyond the lighted area he was in. "he's awake" said a deep and strange voice and then another that he recognized as Sam's said "it's time" and the small bot pulled him self into a ball frightened at what was to come. Sam stepped forward into the lit area followed by none other than Optimus Prime who towered over Al's small form. Both seated them selves in chairs that looked like they had been placed there while the small bot had been in stasis. Sam was the first to speak "how are you feeling?" he asked as he looked at the former Decepticon without any sign of malice that a former enemy should have shown. "I'm still a little out of it" replied the small bot as he kept his optics locked on the larger of the two Autobots before him. "I understand that you will feel like this for some time" said the Autobot leader as his gaze seemed to bore into the spark of the former Decepticon. "are you guys going to lock me up or something?" asked Al nervously as he fidgeted on the table while looking for a place to hide in case they answered "yes". "no" replied Optimus Prime as he let out a deep sigh "though there has been talk about doing that given you actions when you first encountered sam and his team".
The small Bot looked away as he remembered his attempt to kill the flying Autobot who had been fighting both him and Interface. Now looking at his feet Al said "I wouldn't blame you if you did, I tried to kill a perfect stranger just because he was with you and I don't know why I would do that, I, I, just cant think why I would do something like that". Sam reached out and placed a hand on the shoulder of the small bot as he said "there are some things that you should know, they might help you understand why you did what you did and why you feel the way you do now". Al looked at the two Primes his optics full of confusion and and questions. Optimus began "after you were transformed by what ever process the decepticons used you didn't see the world like you do now, we believe that subtle changes were made during you transformation that altered the way you viewed the world". The small bot looked on as the old Prime continued "the changes were made to the darker side of you nature enhancing what the decepticons wanted in you but through whatever strange twist of fate you encountered it was not total and when you found out that your friend was suffering in that twisted form you wanted to help him rather than destroy him which is what the others wanted". Now Sam spoke up "for whatever reason some part of your better self survived the decepticon programming which left the others only able to connect to other decepticons while regarding other forms of life as inferior". Al just nodded as if he fully understood what they were saying "now when you struggled to free zack from what had happened to him your optics turned blue on more than one occasion and we think that when zack gave you that piece of himself he gave you only the better part of his spark, this is what destroyed the decepticon programming and somehow made you an autobot like optimus and my self" continued the young Prime.
"so he gave me what, his good side?" asked Al as he placed a hand to his spark chamber. "in a manor of speaking" said Optimus "though were not entirely sure how he could have affected such a transformation on you with out the power of something like the allspark or the matrix" he added. The small bot looked at his feet again as he said "that's how they created us, they used the power of the matrix of leadership or at least a piece of it". "they have a piece?" asked Sam as he looked to his brother who was just as surprised as he was at the news. "they have these tanks" said Al as he continued telling them what had happened, "they put you inside and these things connect themselves to you like something out of the matrix only it really hurts as you don't have built in holes on your body, then they fill the tank up with some kind of fluid and you float as another cable comes down and connects it's self to your heart". The small paused as he remembered what had happened to him "it's like they start a fire inside your heart that starts to burn through your veins and before you have a chance to scream they knock you out but you wake up from time to time as parts of your body change and break away leaving this behind" he said as he lifted up a metal had. Al looked ready to break down again but he continued "you never remember any of this afterwords all you know is the power and the strength, you never think about what you've lost or how you've changed all you can think about is what this new body can do and who you can crush under you heel". "it sounds like they did a real number on you" said Sam his voice offering comfort to the small bot. Al just nodded before he grabbed hold of the young Primes hand saying "I can see what we did to you and the others now, I can feel how it must have hurt, its like a knife in me and I cant take it out".
"I can't do anything to take away your past al, but I can tell you that Zack gave you a new future and a new life, this is your chance to do things again any way you want to" said Sam as he held the small hand of the former Decepticon. Al let go of Sam's hand and curled up into a ball on the table drawing his legs to his chest as he tried to escape the multitude of feelings that were now tugging at his spark. "I don't want this any more, I don't want to fight others, I don't want to see the pain I've caused them on their faces, I just want to runaway" he said as his optics flickered into darkness as he fell back into stasis. "they really did do a number on him" said Sam as he got to his feet, "it seems that he has been left much like a young child in the aspect of emotion, everything is new to him and for the first time in his life he no longer has the views of his piers coloring his view of the world" said Optimus as he stood up. "we shouldn't leave him alone when he's like this" said the younger Prime as he looked at the small bot who had curled himself into the fatal position. "you don't trust him?" asked the Autobot leader confused by the statement as his brother had been the one saying that they should give the former Decepticon a chance. Sam looked at Optimus and said "I don't trust him not to hurt himself like this, after everything he's been through he's in a fragile state and he may try to find a way out of all this even if it means offlineing himself". The Autobot leader looked at the small form and then asked "do you want to watch him?", "I'll drop in from time to time when he wants to talk, but the way he's acting at the moment I think he needs a break from any reminders of the last few days so I think a bot who wasn't there should keep an eye on him" said Sam as he looked to a light that had just come on. Ratchet stood in the now illuminated area hanging the newly built lantern from a improvised hook in the ceiling. The moment he felt the optics on him he turned to both Primes and said "I haven't exactly had training in this sort of thing before you ask", "no but at least your not going to shoot him if he gets a little twitchy and he knows you which makes things easier" said Sam. The Medbot let out a small "huff" then said "fine but you have to help me when ever I ask and bumblebee has to lend a hand" deal replied the young Prime. Once Optimus and Sam left Ratchet looked at the small form and said to himself and the empty medbay "this is going to be rough".
