Optimus pulled himself out of stasis nap to notice that Vesper was still not awake, and that made him feel miserable as he straightened up. Nobody else was around, which confused him, until he saw a small piece of paper sitting on the Ground Bridge control mechanism. He stood and walked over to it to see that it was a small, hand-written note from Jack, who'd written it for Ratchet. Ratchet, in the note, informed Optimus that he was to keep an eye of Vesper, just in case she woke up. He sighed as he crinkled the note up and tossed it gently into a nearby bin, then walked back over and sat down next to Vesper. He resisted the urge to reach over and gently touch her face again, although he couldn't help but trail his eyes down her body, lingering a few seconds longer over her chest area. Then he jerked his optics away and cursed himself before standing and walking over to one of the many monitors in the base; it was a desperate attempt to preoccupy himself, although he knew that his thoughts would eventually trail back in Vesper's direction.
Meanwhile, Arcee – who was a part of a simple scouting mission with Jack – was mulling over the conversation she'd had with Vesper in the moments before the Decepticons had attacked. Arcee had questioned Vesper about her feelings towards Optimus, to which Vesper had blushed and had started to stammer, although the scarlet femme had never actually admitted that she had a crush on the Autobot leader. So she didn't even notice when Jack tried to get her attention; she only noticed when Jack picked up a stick and threw it at her arm.
"Arcee, the energon reading has spiked," Jack said, and Arcee looked down at the energon reader to notice that Jack was indeed correct; the energon they'd been tracking was mere metres in front of them. Both human and Autobot quickly ducked behind a rocky ledge, then peered out, but the clearing was completely empty. This made Arcee feel very grateful; with the Autobots at an all-time critical low on energon, they didn't have the resources to face the Decepticons in battle. "This seems to be an untouched energon deposit," Jack breathed, and Arcee nodded.
"We need to get as much as we can carry," Arcee whispered, and Jack looked up at her in horror. Arcee sighed. "As dangerous as it is, we all need energon… well, maybe not you, Miko and Raf, but the rest of us do." She looked back in the direction of the energon deposit, then back down at Jack before seeming to come to a decision. "Stay here; I'll go scout out the area."
"Be careful," Jack murmured softly as Arcee jumped out of their hiding spot and towards the energon deposit. She transformed her servos into blasters before walking into the mine shaft, noting how quiet it seemed. It was odd, she knew, for Decepticons to leave an energon deposit untouched, especially because they wanted to have every advantage over the Autobots. It concerned Arcee, but she tried not to think about that as she ducked behind a rock just as she entered the main mining area. There weren't even any mining drills, and most of the energon looked completely untouched.
Thinking about her next move carefully, Arcee walked tentatively forward before walking over to a rather large energon crystal. She knew that there was no point in trying to get a hold of Ratchet, due to the fact that she was almost underground. There was far too much interference. Instead, she turned and gathered as many of the smaller energon crystals as she could, before she hurried out of the cave and back over to where Jack was still hiding. "That's all I could grab, but it will definitely be useful," Arcee said, her voice warm and grateful.
Jack nodded, then pulled out his phone and typed a quick message to Raf, who was accompanying Bumblebee and Ratchet. He soon got one back, and soon enough the three had shown up, for they had not been too far from Arcee and Jack. Bulkhead and Miko arrived a few minutes later, having been informed of the untouched energon by Raf. The group walked into the mine, looking around at the energon that, currently, was all theirs.
"Well," Ratchet said, looking pleased, "There's plenty here!" He pulled the Ground Bridge remote out and clicked a button, which immediately opened a bridge, which startled Optimus out of his self-distraction. Ratchet walked into the base, took one look at Optimus (who was obviously puzzled), and said, "We need your trailer. We found a lot of energon that doesn't appear to have been found by the Decepticons."
Optimus nodded. "I will go, then. My trailer will only come to me… and can only be moved by me," he said, and Ratchet knew that the Autobot leader spoke the truth. So he relented and allowed Optimus to go and aid the energon gathering effort, handing the Prime the Ground Bridge remote as he walked over to the medical table and scanned Vesper. Optimus, with one last look at the unconscious femme, departed to go help his friends, the Ground Bridge closing behind him. As soon as he emerged into the mine, he summoned his trailer from wherever it went (most likely a personal subspace) and it appeared next to him.
"Good thinking, Optimus," Arcee said, and Optimus mutely nodded and handed the Ground Bridge remote to Jack before the bots got to work, the humans standing back and observing. They mined as much energon as they could and packed it tightly into the trailer, only stopping when Optimus' trailer was packed so tightly that you couldn't even fit a spatula between the side of the trailer and a crystal of energon. When they were ready to depart, Optimus transformed into truck form and, with the help of Bumblebee, hooked the trailer on. Then Jack pressed the button that opened the Ground Bridge, and Optimus drove in, followed by the others.
Ratchet turned to look at the group as they drove and walked in. He walked over to Optimus as the Prime pulled up, unhooked his trailer, then transformed back into robot mode before opening the trailer and showing Ratchet the spoils. The doctor was very pleased, and the Autobots got to work unpacking the trailer… which was much more difficult than packing it had been. Bumblebee, at one point, threatened to throw the trailer into a wall, but it never ended up happening, for once the first piece of energon was dislodged the whole lot fell out… straight on top of Ratchet. Once they dug the medic out, he refused to stop grumbling and refused to help anymore, instead preferring to go back to making sure that Vesper was stable.
When all the energon was finally processed and stored correctly, Ratchet immediately began work on Vesper. Now that the Autobots had more energon – at least enough to last them a few more Earth months – Ratchet could finally give the unconscious femme the transfusion she so desperately required. She didn't wake up, but Ratchet gave everyone the good news that they'd all been waiting to hear, especially Optimus; Vesper would now begin to recover at a much faster rate than she had been before.
"Thank the Allspark for that energon," Bulkhead said with a heaving, relieved sigh, and received nods from everyone. "Now, all we need to do is wait for Vesper to wake up," he said, looking at everyone.
"Epp epp epp!" Ratchet said, immediately drawing everyone's attention. "Vesper isn't going to wake for a while yet."
Optimus nodded. "Understandable," he said. "Now, it is getting quite late; Rafael, Jack, Miko, I believed your parents will want you to return home soon?"
Raf stiffened and swallowed nervously. "Uh oh," he said, immediately drawing Bumblebee's attention, who chirped and beeped something. Raf scratched the back of his head nervously. "Yeah, I kind of had to be home about an hour and a half ago…"
Ratchet facepalmed. "Oh boy."
"You're totally grounded," Miko whispered, and Raf nodded.
"Yeah… Mum's not going to be happy…" He looked away from everyone. "I may not be around so much for a while."
Ratchet walked over to the Ground Bridge control and quickly pressed in the coordinates of Raf's house, then opened the bridge and gestured to it. The boy smiled, thanked Ratchet, then hurried into the bridge and disappeared. Bumblebee went to follow, but the medic grabbed his shoulder and shook his head. Bumblebee chirped in disappointment but did not try to follow Raf again as the bridge closed.
"Bumblebee," the medic said, "It'd be best for all of you to recharge." He looked back at the others as he spoke, and they all nodded in agreement. Even Optimus agreed, for he was beginning to feel extremely tired and was already struggling to keep his optics open. So it was him who wandered back to his own berth first, followed by the others. Ratchet was the last to leave, but he did so, although he knew that it was probably not wise to leave Vesper on her own. However, exhausted as he was, Ratchet knew that he would probably fall asleep while trying to keep an eye on his patient. So he departed, turning the lights off as he did so.
About an hour later, Vesper finally opened her optics. Her whole body was in a tremendous amount of pain, and she didn't quite like the fact that it was dark, either. She slowly sat up, suppressing agonised cries as she did so. Then she looked around, her optics adjusting quickly to the inky blackness around her. It wasn't completely dark – the monitors were giving her small amounts of light – but it was still dark enough to make Vesper feel quite claustrophobic.
She frowned as she realised that she was no longer on the Nemesis. This confused her, as she remembered nothing of being taken away from it. She remembered only the face of the Decepticon leader and the Decepticon that had almost cut her arm off with a buzz-saw, as well as being jabbed repeatedly with an energon prod. She also remembered chains, darkness, and blazing red optics.
With shaky legs and agony shooting through her entire body, Vesper stood and tentatively took a few steps. Her footfalls sounded far too loud to her, and she flinched at every small noise. She jumped when she saw something moving in the darkness, but soon realised that she had jumped at her own shadow. Sighing with embarrassment, she slowly made her way back over to the medical table and gingerly sat down on the edge of it. Then she became aware that she was shaking. A choking, tearless sob burst from her chest then, and she buried her face in her servos, trying to muffle her sobs.
She hoped – prayed to the Allspark – that she hadn't succumbed to the torture. She desperately hoped that she'd not given the access code embedded in her processor to Megatron, for she knew that such a weapon was never supposed to be deployed unless it was being used to protect Cybertron… and she knew, in her spark, that Megatron had been attempting to use the weapon to exterminate humanity and the Autobots.
She also didn't know what to do. She wanted to stay here on Earth – the Autobot group here were the first bots she'd encountered for many, many years. Yet she believed herself to be a problem, incapable of defending herself, and a burden that the Earth-based Autobots did not need.
She didn't notice that she was not alone until Optimus sat down next to her, surprising her and making her flinch away. His turquoise optics met with her cyan ones, and he smiled lightly at her before saying, "It is good to see you awake."
Vesper looked away. "I am sorry for causing you and your team much difficulty," she said, feeling as if she owed Optimus an apology, before tearlessly sobbing again. "I do not know why you did not just leave me in Decepticon hands…"
Optimus put his servo on her shoulder. Her spark started beating rapidly as she marvelled at the warmth of his touch, then she shook her head wildly and looked away. "Vesper," Optimus said, his voice still quiet, "I would never leave you in the hands of the Decepticons."
She sighed. "Is it because of the access code?" she asked, her cyan optics quivering with misery.
When Optimus shook his head, Vesper was very much surprised. "No," he said softly, his servo falling back to his side. "The access code means nothing to me." He took one of her servos in both of his own and smiled warmly. "I would not leave a friend behind."
Vesper smiled and looked away, feeling extremely miserable. "I am a burden, sir, one that you and your team do not need." She stood and slowly walked away, pulling her hand from his. Then she looked down at the floor. "I have had no formal military training; all I am is a data analyst."
Optimus stood and walked over. "You are armed, are you not?" he asked, his voice curious. Vesper frowned, then nodded.
"I only have one weapon on each servo," she said, revealing the blaster on the right and the blade on the left. "But yes, I am armed."
Optimus nodded approvingly. "Then you are no burden to us," he said. Nor were you, at any time, he thought to himself. He didn't realise that he was staring at Vesper's chassis until she nervously cleared her throat, and he blinked and looked away in complete embarrassment. "I'm sorry," he apologised.
Vesper blushed and looked away. "It's alright," she said, just as the both of them heard footsteps walking down the hallway. Optimus realised that it was time for the others to wake just as Ratchet walked out, still looking half asleep. Vesper quickly replaced both her weapons with her servos. If Ratchet thought anything was up, he said nothing about it, instead of saying a greeting to the both of them and walking over to Vesper.
"Well," he said, "It's good to see you awake and moving." He gestured to the medical table. "I do need you to sit down so I can run a few more scans, but you seem well." He looked over at Optimus and nodded before following Vesper over to the medical table and pulling out his scanner. He immediately scanned her, then gave her the all-clear when he found that she had recovered a lot. The medic knew that Vesper was far from ready for active duty, but she would at least be allowed to help out around the base.
"Ratchet," Optimus said, drawing the medic's attention away from his thoughts, "I would like to train Vesper."
Ratchet frowned. "How so?" he asked, confused, as Bumblebee walked out and beeped a greeting. "Good morning, Bumblebee," Ratchet replied, and Optimus nodded. Vesper just looked down at the floor, which made Bumblebee chirp in sadness at the femme's behaviour.
"I feel as if I am a burden to you," she said sadly, loud enough for both Ratchet and Bumblebee to hear, and the two shared a shocked look. "I am armed, yes," she said, revealing both of her weapons, "But I have not been formally trained."
Ratchet frowned, then gripped his chin and turned his back. Everyone waited patiently for the doctor to come to a decision, which happened quite quickly. The medic turned around and looked over at Optimus before saying, "Try not to hurt her too badly, if at all. I'm sure she doesn't want to be confined to the medical table again."
Optimus nodded. "Please open a Ground Bridge, then, to a remote location."
Ratchet nodded as he walked over to the Ground Bridge control, then typed in a bunch of seemingly random coordinates before opening the bridge. Optimus walked over to Vesper, who was still having some difficulties moving quickly, and supported her as the two walked into the bridge, Ratchet closing it after them.
Bumblebee chirped and beeped, and Ratchet nodded in agreement. "They're not making it completely obvious, but we can all tell," he said, a small smile appearing on his face as he spoke.