Again thanks to those who have shown interest in my story! I'm already having so much fun writing it and it just multiplies my joy to know that others are liking it too. :D
So here's the next chapter!
Chapter 5
Everyone was quiet after Optimus had finished his retelling of the past, all that he had said slowly sinking in.
Eventually Miko spoke up breaking the silence, "I say we've got ourselves a great new member for Team Prime. Once Ratchet has her back on her feet, those 'Cons better watch out!"
Bulkhead chuckled, "Well if Miko thinks so then I agree."
The voiceless scout beeped and whirred, '
"Me too Bee, if she's been fighting with the Autobots this long I don't see why we can't trust her," added Rafael.
"I can see why Megatron might have wanted her now," mused the two wheeler. "Perhaps a little revenge and a whole lot of use in the weapons department. Think she helped the 'Cons any?"
Smokescreen groaned softly, "She may have done... She mentioned that they used a cortical psychic patch on her. Imagine having Megatron in your head like that. Ugh..."
Bumblebee made a few angry noises waving his hands in the direction of the rookie, mentioning the time the Decepticon leader had inhabited his own mind for a time.
The younger bot lifted his hands in defence, "Woah, sorry didn't know! That must have been crazy."
The bot made a few more annoyed whirs and clicks.
"It's ok, Bee, you weren't to know Megatron would follow you back into your own head and you did get the antidote to save Optimus," Raf reassured the bot, calming his partner down.
"Our scout was invaluable in my recovery." Optimus agreed. His thoughts turned back to his unfinished tasks, including decoding the remaining Iacon database coordinates. With a nod to the group he bid them farewell for the time being, getting back to the computer.
The rest of them soon followed, falling away to their own tasks and talks. While the others did that Smokescreen headed back to the medical bay for Ratchet to check over him, not wishing for the doctor to be even more irritable with him than usual.
It was some time later when Violetwind awoke. Ratchet had long since finished fixing her up and left her to continue her recharge. In that time he had checked over Smokescreen, and found him in no need of repairs. The medic had then left him in charge of waiting for the femme to wake up, saying that a familiar face would be good for her.
"How're you feeling?" he greeted her warmly.
Looking about the unfamiliar surroundings she forgot about his question, asking one of her own, "Where am I?"
"You're safe in the Autobot's base, among friends. You've been patched up too, so the doc said to take it easy," the rookie answered.
The femme sighed and relaxed, closing her optics, so glad most of the pain was gone. Knock Out had not treated her this well but she believed it was more a lack of interest in her well-being rather than a lack of proper knowledge. Suddenly her optics burst to life again as a thought struck her. "Is it ok me being here? I-I don't want to be a burden on those I don't even know..."
Smokescreen snorted. "Of course not!" he reassured her. "Oh hey, the boss bot wanted to talk to you once you woke up. Think you're up to speaking with him?"
The thought of speaking with the leader actually frightened her but she slowly nodded. Obviously she could not really turn down the person in charge, not after they had helped her out.
"Great," he turned on his comm link, "Optimus, sir, she's awake now."
The reply came almost immediately, "I will be their momentarily, Smokescreen" before clicking off.
"Prime told us he met you back on Cybertron," Smokescreen tried to make a bit of conversation before Optimus arrived.
"I did?" she uttered confused.
The white mech stared back at her in his own confusion. "Don't you remember?"
The purple femme shook her head. Not knowing her past was being quite the bother and in a few moments could turn out to be more than a little embarrassing.
"But-?" he started before he was interrupted by Optimus Prime's arrival.
The tall mech nodded in greeting to both of them before walking over to Violetwind's berth. She tried to sit up and look more presentable to him. "No, don't strain yourself." His voice was so deep and commanding she felt she had no choice but to obey. So laying back down she looked up at him, worry clearly showing in her optics. He was the leader here, and that made her nervous, not sure why he would want to talk with her. Though Smokescreen had said that she used to know him, perhaps he wanted to talk about old times. This only made her more nervous because she did not remember anything before a few days ago.
"How are you feeling?" he asked.
"Um, I'm feeling much better, thank you."
"Ratchet tells me it will not be long before you are moving around again," Optimus commented.
"Ratchet?" she repeated not recalling the name.
"You know, the doc that helped fix you up," responded Smokescreen, "I introduced you to him earlier, after they fought off the 'Cons."
"Oh, yes, him..."
Optimus looked thoughtful. He knew for a fact that Violetwind had met Ratchet before, along with himself. It did not make sense why she would not remember him now.
"Smokescreen, would you please allow us to talk privately," the leader politely asked the young soldier to leave.
"Yes, Optimus," standing he gave nod before waving to the femme, "I'll come see you again later. Can't have our newest member getting lonely!"
Waving goodbye she squirmed a little, not sure what to think now that she and Optimus were alone. Her optics glanced at him briefly before looking away, focusing on the pattern on the wall.
"Violetwind," his voice was calm and slow, "Why did you come to Earth?"
She did not know what to say, "I- I don't, um, really know... sir..."
A moment of silence passed as Optimus considered his next step. Once he made a decision he spoke again, "Do you remember me?"
"O-only from e-earlier today. You were with those who came to help me and Smokescreen." Glancing up at him nervously she asked, "Did I know you before then?"
He nodded before asking another question, "What is it you do remember?"
"Um, not much actually..."
Violetwind slowly recounted what had happened since she awoke in the woods: the fateful incident and the subsequent capture by Megatron, his use of the cortical psychic patch and finally her and Smokescreen's escape from the Decepticons. She explained that she had actually be a little afraid to admit her memory loss to anyone along with the voice in her head that had been talking to her and so had avoided brining up the subject with Smokescreen during their capture.
Optimus listened quietly taking it all in, his processor going over the information. When she was done he stood, "Thank you for sharing that information with me." A small smile lifted his face, yet his optics remained thoughtful with a hint of sadness. "We shall see that a room is set up for you that you may use once you are well enough to leave the medical bay."
"Thank you, Optimus Prime, Sir."
He walked out of the medical bay, leaving the femme wringing her fingers, wondering what they were going to do with her. She had determined that they were in a war and a bot who could not even remember how to defend herself would not be of much use to them.
Optimus...
"So we do know him? You going to tell me anything?" she muttered quietly to herself.
Just that he's a good leader. You can trust him.
The femme did not respond to her voice at first. Blue optics glanced back at where she had last seen the tall mech thinking over what little she knew of him. She felt a little bit of comfort, believing the voice. "Yeah... he seems like a good person..."
Upon leaving the medical bay Optimus Prime returned to the main hub of the base, where most of the Autobots were situated.
Seeing the leader, Miko quickly jumped up and went over to him, "So can we meet the new bot now?"
"I think it would be wise to wait." Moving off before the girl had a chance to respond, he called over to the medic, "Ratchet, I need a word with you."
"Of course, Optimus," he replied.
The two of them walked off into the halls, leaving the humans and Autobots wonder what was going on.
"What was that about?" asked Jack, his gaze staring after the retreating figures.
Arcee merely shrugged, not knowing either.
Bulkhead wondered out loud, "Think it has anything to do with the new femme?"
"I saw we go say hi!"
"Miko! Didn't you hear Optimus?" chided Jack.
She whined, "Yeah but it can't hurt to go see her right? Come on!" Then before anyone could stop her, the girl was running towards the medical bay, determined to properly meet the new Autobot. The desire to meet this Violetwind was very much driven by her thirst for stories about battles and after what Optimus had told them, the femme should have some great ones.
When she turned the corner she saw that someone had beaten her to the punch, or rather two someone's. "Hey," she called out earning their attention.
Bumblebee was sitting beside Violetwind, with Rafael on his upturned palm.
"Oh hey, Miko," greeted the boy.
The yellow Autobot beeped a greeting as well.
Turning back to the wounded bot, Rafael introduced her to the girl. "Violet, this is Miko. We were just telling you about her."
"Um, well, hello there Miko," she spoke, waving shyly at their visitor.
Walking over, she climbed onto the berth. "All good stuff I hope."
The purple femme nodded quickly, not willing to admit that perhaps not all of it was that good. From what Raf had told her, Miko was constantly getting into trouble and dragging the other human children into it.
Having followed the headstrong girl, Jack, Arcee and Bulkhead came along as well. Looks of surprise lit up all their faces as they saw Bumblebee and Raf already situated there.
Giving a defeated sigh, the older boy gave a shrug and climbed up onto the berth with Miko. Looking over the purple femme, he asked, "I guess your feeling better?"
"I am, thank you. It's really nice not to be anchored to the table this time too," she replied earning grins from everyone around her.
Raf went on to point out each of the newcomers. "So that's Jack and Arcee and Bulkhead."
"Um, hey," she muttered giving them a wave.
They slipped into an easy conversation. The Autobots shared a few tales and some laughs as they recalled the funny moments of life.
Miko had just finished telling them about something that happened to her at school earning a round of laughter when Ratchet walked in.
He spluttered a few times in shock at seeing them all there before recovering to yell at them. "What are you doing in here?! Out! All of you! Out!" Shooing them out he yelled some more, "My patient needs her rest!"
Quickly everyone scurried out, not wishing to mess with the grumpy medic.
Miko called back before she left, "We'll bust you out real soon!"
The others called out goodbyes as well and hopes for her to get well soon.
"Doesn't anyone know how to follow orders," the medic grumbled as the sounds of them leaving faded.
With a look of disappointment after her visitors, Violetwind, silently wished they did not have to leave. They were having such a good time. Now alone with Ratchet, she was not feeling so comfortable and it certainly was not as fun.
Walking over to her side, he continued to grumble under his breath, the femme only able to catch a single word, "Insubordinates..."
Finally he turned his full attention to his patient, calming himself down and doing his best to sound a little more amicable. "Optimus, told me you've got some memory trouble."
"Mhmm," she nodded.
"I'm just going to give you a quick head scan. Nothing invasive like those Decepticons though," he said, bringing a cable to her head and anchoring it in place before going back to his screens.
"I-I guess he told you what happened then? And about that, um... the voice I've been hearing?" she asked hesitantly.
"Mmm, yes, yes..." he muttered, letting a moment of silence pass before he continued, "Well good news, I believe you memories are intact but..."
"But?" she prompted, not sure if she really wanted to know what was wrong.
"You seem to have an internal memory block, which is stopping you from freely accessing your past memories. It- hmm... I wonder..."
Violetwind looked curiously over at the mech. The silence grew as the seconds ticked by and he did not respond, leaving her to wonder about what he had started to say. Unable take the nerves building up in her any longer she broke the silence, "Um, what is it?"
Ratchet turned to her, "I think that perhaps that voice might have something to do with your block. Maybe part of your past personality coming through the block. But I don't really know. Then again it might but it might not actually have anything to do with your inability to access your past memories."
She took a few seconds to let it sink in, processing what he had just told her. "Is there anything you can do?" the femme looked up at him expectantly.
"I do not believe so. It is too integrated into your processor, and would be dangerous to try anything. We can only hope that you will regain access to your memories with time..."
With a frown, she sighed, leaning back and closing her optics. Things were not looking good. Her memories were locked away, possibly having something to do with the very voice that liked to show up randomly. That was just great...
Looking back over at Ratchet, she asked, "What could have caused it?"
"Well, I've never encountered anything for this sort before. Memory loss instances usually occur from head trauma causing physical damage, or through some terrible experience that they block out completely but nothing quite like what you have," the medic told her, rather perplexed by her condition. He turned back to his computer screens.
Would you really want to get rid of me? The voice broke in jokingly.
I would – surely it would be better to have my memories than you.
I think I'm offended, it scoffed teasingly before trying to comfort her, With time you will remember, just not today but someday.
Does that mean you know?! You are from my memories?! Are you part of what's blocking them?! Why would you do that?
It did not reply.
Her optics narrowed. "Mmph, you're so annoying..." she mumbled quietly.
Ratchet turned his head, "Did you say something?"
"Um, no..."
The mech turned back to his work shaking his head, wondering about the sanity of their new addition.
Till next time guys! Till all are one.