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 damage was massive, there was metal scattered across the ground and a huge hole in the side of the ship that wasn't there before. Fury circled a few more times as he searched the outer hull of the wreck for more damaged caused by the thing that should have been one of his commanders. With a final blast from his jets the Decepticon leader landed near the hole where the creature had exited the ship, it was far larger than himself and he found it easy to step inside and follow the path of destruction left by the creature. Shattered bodies of failed sparklings littered the floor and Fury remembered what the thing had tried to do to the traitor Unseen, "I should have attacked the autobots when they tried to save that traitor and let that thing feed on his spark" though Fury his hand crushing one of the lifeless shells in place of his former commander. The Decepticon leader followed the trail of destruction back to the chamber where he and the others had been reborn. The room had been almost totally destroyed no doubt the work of the creatures birth and escape. Yes the thing had to have escaped as Scalpel would have not allowed something like that to go freely, the thought of the small bots name caused Fury to wonder why his farther had not been there to greet him on his return. And suddenly he felt a very human chill run through his spark.
The Decepticon leader searched the wreckage of the room hoping that he would not find the shattered and lifeless from of the small bot who had given him his new life. Fury hurled huge pieces of metal clear across the room as he scanned every square inch for the Decepticon he considered his farther. Then suddenly he came across a mess of wires and cables that had been patched together in an almost crazed fashion. The work though disorganized was a sure sign that Scalpel had not been consumed by the creature during it's escape. "then where is he?" though the Decepticon leader as he left the wreckage of the room behind him for a more intact part of the ship. The search did not take the large bot long as he soon came upon the still form of Scalpel laying in one of the corridors as if he had just collapsed on that spot. Fury lifted the small bot into his massive palm gently and carried him to a chamber where he could attempt to repair him. The dreams had all but consumed his consciousness while in stasis, horrific images of the total destruction of his home world mixed with those of his children being torn limb from limb by the creature he had created. The first moment of relief came when he returned to the waking world and the image of his first son Fury.
The small body shuddered and twisted as the Decepticon leader feared that he had done something wrong in his attempts to restore the small Decepticon to an active state. "my fury you are safe" said Scalpel as he scuttled forward on the large metal table that Fury had been working on. "farther we encountered the creature, what happened?" said the Decepticon leader knowing that he didn't need to explain any more at this point to get his answers. Scalpel looked at his hands and said "I have lost my youngest son because of megatron". It took the small bot some time to explain all that had happened to the new leader of the Decepticons but when he was finished Fury rose to his feet and let out a yell of frustration that ripped through the ship like a blast of weapons fire. The large bot slammed his fist into a bulkhead buckling it like it was made of paper, "even now that fool is causing us problems" said Fury as he stomped back to the create he had been sitting on. "now I must ask what happened to you and your brothers?" said the small Decepticon as he looked pleadingly at his first creation. "you may not like what happened" said Furry as he started to explain what had transpired on earth. The small bot listened saddened and angered that Unseen had broken with his brothers but relieved that Fury and the others were safe and that they had not been the ones to dispatch the creature Zack had become. "there was some kind of energy release some time after we left so I figure that the creature was destroyed by the autobots some how" said the Decepticon leader. Scalpel just remained silent as Fury carried on "I did a check for soundwave along his orbital flight path but I couldn't find him so I sent tank and interface to search for him along the line that he could have crashed on, though I don't hold out much hope that he managed to survive an encounter with that thing".
"soundwave is a survivor my fury I am sure that they will find him" said Scalpel, "I am more concerned by the fact that the autobots have found a away to transform humans into their own" he continued. Fury looked at the small bot and said "he claimed that it was the power of the allspark that brought him back, but that was supposed to have been destroyed when he tried to kill megatron". Scalpel placed his hands together in thought before he said "the fallen claimed that the allspark could not be destroyed only transformed, perhaps that means that more than just information was transferred into witwicky by the cube". The Decepticon leader balled one of his large hands into a fist before he asked "do you think that we should go after him so they can't use whatever power transformed him on others?". Again the small bot though before he answered, "no, the autobots will not transform humans to increase their numbers no matter what they are facing, they consider it wrong as they value such lesser creatures as they are" said Scalpel. Fury leaned back an air of superiority washing over his form like a powerful wave. "then we have the advantage here" said the Decepticon leader "we are willing to do what ever it takes to win while they are not, I'll call in others with orders to help advance the plan here". Fury got to his feet and strode over to a now functioning computer terminal where he brought many of the ships functioning systems back on line. Seeing the old ship restored to a more usable fashion the Decepticon leader turned to Scalpel and said "for the moment we need to disappear from the autobots radar, we'll go quite and gather our forces from across the universe while we collect suitable humans from earth to become more of our brothers". A slight pause came as Fury inwardly smiled then he continued "and once we are strong enough we will take earth from the unsuspecting autobots and destroy any who we deem an enemy".
Back on earth a small bot who no longer knew who he was stirred from stasis in the Autobot medbay. Al looked around and saw that the room was now fully lit by the lights in the ceiling instead of lanterns dotted all over the room. For the moment he thought that he was alone as the room seemed empty of any other being but the sound of metallic footsteps told hit that someone was coming in from outside. A large door opened and Ratchet stepped in carrying a large crate filled with medical supplies and parts. His blue optics could barely see over the top but he managed to navigate his way trough the room like he could see clearly. Al watched as the old Medic lowered the box onto the floor and stretched slightly as if easing an aching back. Ratchet turned and saw that he was being watched by the young bot who had still not left the table he had been on since his arrival. "how are you feeling today?" asked the Medbot in the gentlest tone he had. The small bot looked at his gleaming metal hands then said "I still feel kind of out of it like I just woke up from a nightmare, although there are times when I still get the feeling that's going on when I'm not looking". Ratchet walked across the room and sat in one of the chairs that had been left after Sam and Optimus had spoken with the former Decepticon. "I can't imagine what you've been through" said the Medic "in truth I think that only sam has any idea what you might be feeling though his transformation was something in the way of an accident or some kind of destiny depending on who you ask". Al just looked at the old bot silently as the Medbot continued "I herd what they said to you and sam was right, you have been given a second chance by your friend zack and that means that you have to respect what he gave you and try to make the best of all this". "and what does that mean for me, what should I do, how do I make things better?" asked the small bot as he looked at the Medic questioningly. Ratchet looked back and with a small smile he said "I cant tell you how you can make things better all I can say is that you should take each day as it comes and do the best you can, as for what you should do there's a load of supplies over that won't unpack themselves and since your going to be staying here for a while you might as well make your self useful". The old Medbot got up and made a small gesture with is head towards the supply create that he had carried in as he looked at Al. The small bot got off the table for the first time since he had gotten there and walked to the waiting create.
It felt strange at first doing something so normal but in time Al found some kind of reassurance in the simple work. There was no killing, no fighting, nothing to run away from, it felt good to do something so simple and ordinary even if he was a big metal robot that turned into a car. After about an hour the last of the supplies had been stored in air tight compartments that slid out of the walls and the huge create lay empty on the floor ready to be taken out of the Medbay. "not bad" said Ratchet as he turned to the small bot "it usually takes me twice as long to put everything away, I may just ask optimus or sam if you can stay here for a while longer". "err thanks" said the former Decepticon as he looked around the room searching for another topic of conversation. "so how many people do you get through here?" asked Al as he tried to talk about something else. The old Medic sat on the create they had just unloaded and said "so far I've had a few injury's both human and autobot, one life threatening and more deaths than I wanted". "deaths?" asked the small bot his voice unsettled, "as I said we had some problems with sabotage here and because of that we lost some of the security force, it ended when the man responsible took a hostage and sargent epps was forced to shoot him to save her" explained Ratchet. "so people get killed round here two?" asked Al his voice shaking slightly. The Medbot nodded gently then said "that's why this place is so important, with out it there would have been more deaths in the city though I'm still waiting for some doctors to be approved to work here as at the moment I'm handling things all on my own". "so your all there is you don't have any help here at all?" asked the small bot, "I get a little help from some of the soldiers who are trained as field medics but other than that it's just me here" replied Ratchet.
Hours passed where the two bots sat in conversation with each other Al asking questions and talking about how he felt about what had happened and how he no longer wanted to be involved in the fighting. Ratchet had little experience in dealing with a bot who was going through something like this but he did his best to help the former Decepticon come to terms with what he was going through. The day wore on and Al had managed to talk about things without putting himself into stasis to avoid the pain, it was a step forward for him but there was still a long road to travel along before he could move on. "so how did you deal with it when you lost someone in battle?" asked the small bot as he straightened an arrangement of tools that had been left out. The old Medic let out a deep sigh and said "you never fully get over it, there are still days when I think that one of those I lost will just come walking through the door talking about the day they've had". Ratchet paused as he face showed a sadness that Al understood well "time passes and the pain starts to fade a little but you never forget it, it's more like you learn to accept it as a apart of yourself instead of trying to block it out" continued the Medbot. "so I'll always feel like this?" asked the small bot as his form became still, "in a way" said Ratchet "but you'll learn to feel other things as well, good things that you'll find help ease the pain and good friends that will help you through the though times while helping you remember the good times you had with those you lost" he continued. "you make it.." but Al was cut off as the sound of tires screeching to a halt came from outside and a two bots came rushing in one injured across his chest.
"skids, mudflap what on earth is going on here" bellowed Ratchet as he whirled round towards the pair. Mudflap was holding Skids up as he said "there was an accident and skids got injured" though his face said that there was more involved than he was saying. "get him on the table" said the Medic as he activated some of his tools and began scanning the injured Autobot twin. Al backed away as something in him froze at the sight of the injury and the leaking energon that was coming from the corners of the large gash that ran across Skids chest. The room felt tight and for a moment all the small bot wanted to do was run away and hide in a place where he wouldn't have to look at what was happening. Then a cry of pain stilled his frantic spark and he remembered the pain he had gone through and that which Zack had been forced to endure by his own deformed body. Skids twisted and turned on the table as Ratchet tried to work on repairing the wound. Mudflap just seemed to be watching like an immobile statue as the old Medic attempted to fix the damage. "I need you to hold him down so I can work, do you hear me mudflap" but the other twin did not reply he just looked at the damage his brother had. Again the cry of pain clutched at his spark and AL wanted to run but his body wouldn't respond to his commands. Then the small bot did something he though was crazy, he took a step forward and then another until he was standing opposite Ratchet who was trying to hold the injured twin down while he worked. Al wanted to look away, he wanted to run and hide but he knew that he would only see this injured bot in front of his optics no matter where he ran. His hands trembled as he reached out and pressed the body of Skids down holding him still while Ratchet worked on the wound. Thick energon oozed onto one of his hands and Al felt like screaming and running but still he stayed there some part of him wanting to offer comfort to the injured bot before him no matter how much he wanted to run away. His hands were now both covered with energon and the small bot looked at the pained face as the old Medic worked what looked like some kind of magic that was slowly repairing the damage to the injured twin. As time went on Al became more and more entranced with the repairs, he watched as the damage was fixed as the energon ceased to flow out of the conduits that were repaired.
Al seemed to remember each subtle movement Ratchet made with crystal clarity, after some time he knew what each little flick of the wrist would do, what each flash of the laser beam would repair. His hands moved now that Skids wasn't moving so much and he started shifting plates of metal back into place ready for the old Medic to work his magic touch. Ratchet looked at Al who seemed to be working almost on autopilot as he made simple but skilled adjustments to the damaged sections that were yet to be worked on. Never once was the old bot tempted to tell the small bot to stop what he was doing as his movements seemed to mirror his own perfectly. Working together the last of the wound was soon closed and Mudflap finally seemed to be coming out of the trance that he had been in. "is he going to be ok?" asked the uninjured twin, "yes" replied Ratchet as he retracted his tools. "now how exactly did he get injured?" asked the old Medic as he looked at Mudflap with a scowl. "it was sort of a prank that went wrong" said the uninjured twin as he looked away from the old Medbot's gaze. Al lifted his hands which were now shaking and looked at the repair that Ratchet had performed, the skill and the ability seemed almost to much to be real and yet here was the bot alive after a massive amount of damage. It was only when the loud clang rang through the room that the small bot seemed to return to reality. The uninjured twin was rubbing his head while Ratchet was using some of the most colorful language the Al had ever heard in his life. With a final movement the small bot fell to the floor shivering like he'd been shot which caused the old Medbot to rush over to him scanning him for signs of distress. As Al once more drifted into stasis his spark felt light, for one moment he had been able to make a small down payment towards what he had done wrong in his life. As the face of the old Medic faded into blackness the former Decepticon knew that there was now another path for him to take, one which would allow him to atone for what he had done wrong.
