Phoenix opens her eyes to bright blue sky, which is odd because she could have sworn she went back inside her room last night instead of sleeping on the care home roof again. Apparently not. Groaning, she sits up and finds herself on the edge of a giant metal cliff.
"What the hell?!" She yelps, moving away from the cliff edge. Then, the memories come flooding back. Jazz, Prowl, the rescue.
And Scalpel.
Wincing, she checks that she can move before looking over the cliff edge to a giant sea of….well… metal. She realises that this is the sea of rust that Jazz was talking about and she marvels at it, before wondering what the heck she is doing on Cybertron. It certainly is pretty damn impressive.
"Hello child." Comes a voice from behind her, and she jumps before swivelling to look up at a tall, pink and obviously female robot.
"Uh, Hi. Who are you?"
"I am an Autobot leader who has joined the Well of Sparks."
"Okay…. Why are we here of all places?" She's confused now, did scalpel kill her? Is she actually dead at the young age of 15? Well, if she is then that definitely puts a major crimp in her day.
"Primus has chosen me to be your guide. I asked to bring you here because I thought you would like to see the place your guardian described." Phoenix looks at the sea again, and decides that it is quite a good view. She's seeing something most people don't even realise exist and it's on another planet for God's sake. Shame she might not be alive to tell them about it.
"Right… so I'm not dead then?" She asks hopefully.
"No, just in a Coma."
"Oh, goodie." She says sarcastically. An improvement over death, but not by much. She looks back at the female 'bot again. "So why am I here?"
"I am here to give you a gift which will help you on your journey. Primus has chosen you for great things." This 'bot sure loves to speak in riddles, she reflects wryly.
"In case you haven't noticed lady, I'm not exactly the same species and I'm not the ideal choice. I live in a care home, I get in fights and I'm not the nicest of people. So why me?" The 'bot smiles at her.
"It is your destiny, Primus has seen that you will end the war and bring peace to both our species and to your own." So, this 'bot is convinced that she is basically the saviour of robot-kind. This is definitely a step-up from where she was a few weeks ago, in a care home with no prospect and no future, although she thinks that 'Primus' may be a little crazy if he wants her to bring peace. From her experience with the care home kids and the kids at school, she's generally better at making war.
"Alright then, so how exactly do I do that?"
"You must decide that for yourself, I am merely here for guidance. Now, I shall give you a gift." With that, she touches her finger to Phoenix's arm and Phoenix feels something burn into her skin which writhes and forms black characters on her arm that are obviously Cybertronian.
"Ow! You could have warned me!"
"Then you may not have accepted." Grumbling, she nurses her sore arm and studies the characters again.
"What does it mean and what will it do?"
"It is a very ancient name-glyph of a spark who died long before her time was due. It will keep you safe and protected once it has been recognised. I also have this for you." A bracelet appeared around her wrist with more glyphs on it. "That is my name and it will prevent them from being suspicious of you." The she-bot that Jazz said was called a femme looks across the metal sea. "Now, you must return to your own world, time is growing short." At that a portal appeared and the 'bot turned to go, when a question came to Phoenix.
"Wait! What is your name?" The 'bot turned and smiled before speaking softly.
"I have several names, but the one known by many was Elita-1." Then, she walked into the portal without a backwards glance and the world lurched sideways.
"This is getting seriously old." She grumbled as she came to on yet another metal table, although this time it was one that she recognised. Ratchet's med-bay! Sitting up, she looked around and saw that it was indeed the Autobot base.
"Lie down." Said an approaching figure with blondish brown hair and green eyes that looked around 40. She smiled at the voice, for she recognised it immediately.
"Ratchet! Man, am I glad to see you!"
"I said, lie down youngling." He repeated again. "You have once again sustained heavy injuries and nearly offlined three times."
"Oh. Guess that explains why I feel like I got hit with a machete, a truck and then a bloody spaceship." She was aching all over yet again, obviously from the things that the little spider-bot had done to her. Then, she found that her arm was aching less than before. Curiously, she sat up and looked at it.
Utter shock ran through her body.
It was made of metal.
"Holy shit! What happened to my arm?!" She cried in surprise and Ratchet placed his hand on her shoulder, forcing her to lie back down.
"Calm down young one. I am sorry, but the energon scalpel injected into you burnt most of your nerves, muscle and most of the bone in your arm away. It was irreparable and so I had no choice but to amputate it." He said gently, knowing that this would be hard to process. She looked from Ratchet to the arm again, and inspected it.
"Okay, but why is there a metal arm there then?"
"I have given you the equivalent to a Cybertronian limb, made of a rare metal found on earth that is attached to your nerves. It will work the same as your actual arm, it is just…."
"Metal and weird looking."
"Precisely. Other damage was various cuts and bruises on your body and burns in places where scalpel experimented with energon." This day just kept getting better. Phoenix tried not to think about the fact that she didn't have a bloody arm now, and had a weird metal limb instead. She blinked back tears and looked up at the medic again.
"Can I see Jazz?"
"Jazz is currently in the brig, you may see him when Ironhide brings him up in approximately half an hour."
"Oh, is Prowl okay? He made it right?"
"Prowl is online and functioning although Shockwave and Scalpel may have caused irreparable damage to his spark chamber. You may see him later when Jazz arrives, but he is currently resting."
"Okay." She said and waited for the medic to finish injecting something into her arm which was probably a painkiller. Sure enough, some of the pain in her body managed, although the feeling of discomfort in her metal limb remained.
"I guess I can't really go back to the care home with this arm now can I?"
"No…. Optimus Prime will be visiting before Jazz and Prowl to inform you of what will happen now. Your government want to take you into their custody but the Autobots believe this is not the best solution." She didn't think becoming a government experiment was the best idea either. It certainly wasn't what she had planned for herself. Being a lab-rat was definitely not on the top of her to-do list.
"I agree I guess. So what happens now?"
"For now, you shall remain in my med-bay until I see it fit for you to leave and even then I shall keep an eye on you for a few weeks to make sure the energon does no further damage. Now, Optimus is outside the door. Are you feeling well enough to sit?"
"Yes." She replied, and sat up again. Optimus came in and she looked up at his towering body, reminding herself that he was pretty tall, to say the least. He knelt down beside the medical table until he was at her eye level.
"Hello again Phoenix."
"Hi there."
"I am sorry that we must meet in such circumstances. I did not mean for you to become mixed up in our war." His tone was full of regret and she smiled weakly at him, trying to ignore the twinge in her arm as she did so.
"That's okay, things happen sometimes." Like losing an arm. And, if Elita was right then there is no way anyone could have prevented this.
"Now we must discuss what will happen to you. We wish for you to remain near the Autobots as it would be safer for you and also because I understand you have taken the Guardian-Ward vows with Jazz." Phoenix reflected that he definitely didn't sound too happy about the last part. Oops? Ah well, what's done is done and let bygones be bygones as her teacher often said.
"Yes, we did." She replied, and Ratchet started muttering threats at Jazz after having this re-confirmed, but a look from Optimus quickly silenced him with a look and a wave of his hand.
"You will be in the care of William Lennox whilst on base and he has offered to take over legal custody of you so you do not have to return to the care home."
"That's fine with me." She was being adopted then. Sort of. She was being adopted, but only because of a necessity that had arisen. It wasn't like the Lennox's actually wanted her or anything, so she wouldn't kid herself into thinking they did. They definitely wouldn't want her now after she had no arm.
"Jazz will be allowed to have contact with you despite the fact he broke several rules to do so. However, if he breaks any rules again, we shall put you in the custody of another guardian."
"Understood." She said. So they had one more chance which seemed a bit mean considering what had happened. It wasn't Jazz's fault that they had taken her, and it wasn't hers either. Sighing, she just decided to consider herself lucky they hadn't separated them already.
"I will leave you to recover then. If you need anything you may come to me at any time."
"Sure. Thanks." Phoenix knew that she would probably never take him up on that offer considering he terrified the crap out of her, and it didn't help that he was really tall, even for a giant robot. He stood, and bent down to say something to Ratchet who nodded, before leaving the med-bay. Phoenix just stared at his back wondering what he had just said.