Chapter 12: One-Two P.O.K.E.

There was a weird tension in the base when Wheeljack returned. At some point during the hours Wheeljack was away, Magnus deemed the red-haired human hybrid a threat and pissed off the "new" Ratchet. Wheeljack , like everyone else, thought Ultra Magnus was being overly paranoid but there was nothing he could've said to change Magnus's mind. So, while Miko, Raf, and the two newcomers were still away, Wheeljack accepted the task to retrieve a newfound Predacon bone. Smokescreen and Arcee joined him while Ultra Magnus stayed behind to "monitor" Ratchet.

A heavy silence filled the interior of the Iron Will as soon as they took off. Wheeljack preferred it over useless small talk. Arcee was also silent and focused her attention on the passing clouds. Smokescreen, on the other servo, was noticeably uncomfortable. Despite sitting outside of Wheeljack's range of vision, the Wrecker would still tell that Smokescreen was squirming and fidgeting in his seat. Wheeljack was too focused on getting to their destination to comment on Smokescreen's uncomfortable shifting.

About 20 minutes into their flight, Smokescreen broke the silence with an exasperated huff. He crossed his arms and pouted. "Okay, I can't take this anymore-"

Quick as a whip, Wheeljack had a reply for him. "If you don't like it, you can always leave. There are exits on all sides-"

"No, you know that's not what I meant!" Smokescreen glared at the back of Wheeljack's head. "I meant I can't handle the fact that we're not talking about the warwhale in the room here! No one will talk to me about it! Bumblebee won't talk, Prime won't talk-"

"Because they've both been on patrol all day." Arcee deadpanned.

"Okay, so then can we talk about it? Now?"

"No," Wheeljack stated firmly.

At the same time, Arcee sighed and finally turned to look at Smokescreen. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Oh, I don't know, how about the fact that we have a Bulkhead from another dimension who is a super smart space bridge genius? And we have a Ratchet who is even older and weirder smelling than the one we had before? And also the super strong techno-whatever with blasters in her arms? These all seem like conversation-worthy topics, don't you think?"

The bot had a fair point. Wheeljack wasn't going to admit it out loud, but he could admit it internally.

Smokescreen continued, "Seriously how can you guys be so calm about this?"

"I'm not calm, I'm just not flying off the handle. It's hard to be calm about your friends disappearing into a ground bridge."

"At least they're alive." Smokescreen huffed with relief.

"Probably." Wheeljack couldn't help but tack on.

Arcee gave Wheeljack a deliberate and exasperated look. Even Smokescreen gave him a sour look.

The grey bot bristled. "What?" He demanded.

Arcee pursed her lips and gave him a critical once-over. "You're not still upset at Bulkhead are you?"

"…If this is your attempt to goad me into a conversation, you need to try a different approach."

"Oh yeah Miko mentioned you and Bulk were fighting! Is that why you were out all night?" Smokescreen leaned forward on his elbows. He was either purposely ignoring Wheeljack's warning or being blissfully ignorant that the warning was given at all. "But you were always gonna come back. It's not like you'd abandon Bulkhead, right?"

The Wrecker's grip on the ship's controls tightened. His jaw clenched as he tried not to snap and overreact. "Of course not."

"Right! And you wouldn't do it now of all times, not when Bulkhead is….y'know"

"Not around." Wheeljack ground out.

Finally catching on to Wheeljack's unease and irritation, Smokescreen hesitated in answering. "Right. When he's not around..." He retreated back into his seat like a wounded turbofox pup.

Arcee's gaze bounced between the two bots. Wheeljack kept his gaze ahead on their path while Smokescreen awkwardly scratched at the paint on his forearm. She picked up the conversation where Smokescreen fumbled it. Shifting in her chair so she could watch both bots, she asked, "So, what do you guys think of those two bots Ratchet and Bulkhead?"

Smokescreen raised his head and slowly smiled. "I think Bulkhead's pretty alright. He knows a lot about space bridges, so that's good. He could probably fix our ground bridge by tomorrow."

Arcee nodded. "He's smaller than our Bulkhead. He's probably closer to your height, Smokescreen."

"Heh, and he's rounder than the other Bulk too."

The two shared a good laugh. Wheeljack remained silent.

A small, barely noticeable huff escaped his lips and Wheeljack tried hard to avoid rolling his optics. 'Smaller means weaker. We don't need some half-pint replacement.'

Smokescreen continued, "Honestly I can't imagine that guy being a Wrecker. He's super nice, you know?"

Arcee chuckled and cheekily commented, "Are you saying that our Bulkhead isn't nice?"

"Ehh. Kinda? You get what I mean! I handed this Bulkhead the wrong tool while we were working and he apologized to me. Ours would never do that. Our Bulkhead's tough. Wrecker tough!"

'Except Bulkhead's not as tough as he used to be. He's gone soft, and if the other guy is softer than Bulkhead that means we have a real problem on our hands. I can't be the only one that sees this.' Wheeljack griped.

"Think he'll be good in battle?"

'Probably not.'

"I can hear your thoughts, Wheeljack." Arcee loudly stated, effectively stopping Wheeljack's spiteful inner commentary.

Wheeljack sent her a sidelong glance and was mildly caught off guard seeing Arcee sending him an irate glare in return. He covered his surprise by spitting out a defense. "No you can't."

"If you have something to say, just say it."

Smokescreen leaned forward in his chair. He let out a happy chirp. "Yeah! You can trust us not to tell anyone."

That got a bark of laughter out of Wheeljack. "I doubt that."

All further conversation was stopped by the loud klaxon indicating their arrival to their set location.

The Iron Will soared high above the clouds, away from the watchful eyes of humans and Decepticons. That would soon change as the ship blew past the surrounding wisps of clouds and began its descent. A group of Vehicons troopers were positioned near the entrance of the cave and it only took a few seconds before one of the troopers noticed their arrival. Once one trooper noticed, the others followed suit.

Blaster bolts shot through the air as the Decepticons attacked the ship. Wheeljack evaded most of the blaster shots, piloting the Iron Will through the air with a practiced calm. Arcee wordlessly helped as his co-pilot. The Iron Will soon began to fire back at the attackers, picking them off one by one. As much as Wheeljack would have liked to hand the others the controls and take care of the troopers himself, this was the fastest solution.

Eventually, the last of the Vehicon troopers fell and the Iron Will landed. The Autobots departed from the ship soon after.

Wheeljack was the first to exit the ship. He had a drill clasped in his servo and a dour expression on his face. Arcee and Smokescreen lingered behind, giving Wheeljack some space before they followed him into the cave to mine for the fossil.

"So…" Smokescreen began in a hushed voice as he and Arcee walked down the Iron Will's ramp. Wheeljack could feel the young bot's optics burning a hole into his back. "Do you want to enter the cave with the grumpy hellhound or should I?"

Wheeljack couldn't see Arcee's physical reaction to the question but he imagined she was rolling her optics.

Arcee commanded in a loud and firm voice. "Smokescreen, you stay with the ship. Wheeljack and I are going to drill for the Predacon bone."

The Wrecker glanced behind him just in time to see Smokescreen give her a grateful thumbs up and Arcee shake her head in exasperation. Ignoring his irritation at Smokescreen's dramatics and general relieved demeanor, Wheeljack politely waited for her to catch up to him. That's where his politeness and the friendliness ended.

Their entire journey into the opening of the cave was silent.

Wheeljack hoped the silence between them would stay until they returned to Smokescreen. For the second time in an hour, the silence was broken by an annoying statement.

"You're awfully quiet, Wheeljack," Arcee stated. She kept her gaze forward but there was an obviously displeased aura emanating off of her.

Wheeljack responded neutrally. "I've never been one for chit-chat."

"Still keeping up that routine, huh?"

"…What do you mean?" He was already starting to hate this conversation.

Arcee snapped at him with narrowed optics. "Why do you pretend? If you really wanted to 'roll alone' you would have hit the open road yesterday but you didn't. You called for a bridge back to base."

"Hey, don't assume you know me. And in case you didn't notice, I didn't exactly get a chance to split after I asked for a bridge back to base. A ground bridge malfunction kind of prevented that from happening. Remember?" Wheeljack had no idea why Arcee was so frustrated with him. His actions and the mission in Scotland had nothing to do with her.

"I'm talking about what happened before that malfunction. You asked to come back to base and Bulkhead followed you. He wanted to talk but you blew him off. You didn't split after the ground bridge malfunction either. You came back despite every optic roll and snide remark. You're no lone wolf."

Wheeljack's frown deepened. He prided himself in being cool, calm, and, most importantly, hard to read. This bot, someone who knew him for less than a stellar cycle, saw through his layers of sarcasm and disinterest and promptly called him out on it. It would be infuriating if it wasn't so impressive.

'She's definitely Wrecker material.' Wheeljack huffed to himself.

Wheeljack tried to deflect one more time. "It's not something you'd be able to understand, alright?"

"Try me," Arcee said, gravely serious.

The mech let out a long, weary exvent. On the bright side, Arcee wasn't the worst bot to share his thoughts with. "On the way here to Earth, I kept thinking about all the good times we used to have back in the day. Me, Bulkhead, Seaspray, Whirl, Rotorstorm, Impactor…" Wheeljack trailed off as the faces of many other fallen squadmates flashed through his processor. He chewed on a scarred lip before continuing, "We were a good team. The best. Unbeatable…Until we weren't. I thought being with Bulkhead again would be like those days."

"What, is Ultra Magnus stopping you from reliving the glory days?"

He shook his head. "Bots like Magnus…I don't let 'em peel my paint. I peel theirs."

"So if it isn't the new commander that's grinding your gears…it's Bulkhead."

Hearing his own feelings stated so clearly out loud made Wheeljack's spark twinge. "It just burns me up when a Wrecker goes soft. A bot like Smokescreen would think Bulkhead is still tough, but he shoulda seen Bulkhead when he was rolling with us."

He expected Arcee to reject his statement. It's not like she would know the difference between Wrecker Bulkhead and Team Prime's Bulkhead though. The Bulkhead that stuck with Team Prime wasn't as rough and tumble and ready to rumble as the Bulkhead that fought with the Wreckers.

Instead, Arcee said, "Look, Wheeljack, you'll always have the Wreckers as you know them. In here." Arcee placed a servo on her chassis in a heartfelt gesture. "Times change, players come and go, and if you can't adapt you'll rust like the bones we're digging for."

What a hypocrite.

"Oh yeah? So what's going to happen if it takes us a year or more to cross dimensions or do whatever freaky science is needed to get Ratchet, Jack, and Bulkhead back? Do you think you'd be able to adapt with that change? Do you think Jack's mom would adapt to 'players' changing?"

Now he'd made Arcee falter. Her lips pressed into a tight line and her optics dimmed for a split second. Wheeljack continued to press his point. "If we're gonna talk about change and moving on, let's not ignore the warwhale in the room here. I know this isn't easy for you to accept either."

"We're not talking about that. I'm trying to talk about you out of pushing away a friend that's always stuck by you."

"He hasn't always stuck by me, that's part of the problem!" Wheeljack stressed with agitation. "You should have seen him out there the other day! He kept making excuses for Ultra Magnus being a pain in the aft. Never thought I'd see the day when Bulkhead would play moderator for a guy like Ultra Magnus."

A tense silence followed. Wheeljack snorted and turned to walk away, now more eager to get the Predacon bone and return back to base. The sooner they did that, the sooner Wheeljack could be alone again. Maybe he wasn't as much of a loner as he portrayed but he definitely wasn't in the mood to be social. The bot located the projected area of the fossil and began to drill.

Arcee had yet to activate her drill, she continued to watch the tri-colored bot carefully. Eventually, she spoke again."You're right. Bulkhead is different from the person you knew all those stellar cycles ago and I can't easily adapt to what happened to Jack, Ratchet, and Bulkhead."

"So-"

"But," Arcee continued, "Bulkhead's been supportive of you since you arrived, don't forget that. He wanted you here more than anyone else and that never changed. Don't push Bulkhead away. Who knows when we'll see him again. If something happens to him out there, you'll never forgive yourself…Trust me, I know."

Guilt hit Wheeljack hard. Getting run over by Astrotrain would have hurt him less. There was a high chance Bulkhead was alive now, but that could change at any moment. He was upset at Bulkhead but he still wanted to see Bulkhead again. His spark ached as he thought back to his last interactions with his friend. 'I should have heard him out. I shouldn't have pushed him away. What the frag was I thinking?'

Arcee finally turned on her drill and then added, "And, if it's any consolation, we all need you here more than ever now."

Miko instantly popped into his processor. At the very least, he couldn't leave her here with Ultra Magnus as the only Wrecker around. Plus, with the Predacon around to give this team a run for their shanix, they needed as much help as they could get. He'd be a terrible Wrecker if he left now, all because he got his feelings hurt.

A humorless laugh worked its way out of Wheeljack's voice synthesizer. "Aren't I lucky?"

Arcee gave him a wry smile. "I'd say so."

The sun had set long before Arcee and Wheeljack emerged from the cave. The duo walked in amicable silence, the tension between them evaporated. They managed to uncover a massive, rusty piece of a Predacon's spinal cord. Arcee was no biologist, but she didn't think any creature needed their vertebrae to be that spikey. Wheeljack dragged it by a chain with little difficulty or concern for the sharp bits.

Spotting their arrival, Smokescreen immediately transformed and sped toward them.

"Okay, running from Bulkhead, shutting down like that…it was pretty spineless of me." Wheeljack decided to admit before Smokescreen joined them. The pale moonlight painted his face in an incredibly melancholic silver.

In Arcee's optics, Wheeljack being able to admit his own faults so openly and calmly was progress. Wheeljack likely didn't notice the change but she did. She also noticed the way Wheeljack was visibly more relaxed. His steps weren't rigid and his frown lessened.

"On the bright side, you have plenty of backbone now." Arcee cheekily commented as she looked back at their find.

Smokescreen was near them a few seconds later. He transformed just as he hit his brakes, breaking out into a jog as soon as his legs were fully formed. "I called the base and told them we're heading back." The young bot whistled as he got a good look at the Predacon bone. "That thing is massive! No wonder it took you so long."

"We were surprised too. Shockwave would have had a field day if he got his servos on this much CNA material." Arcee said.

"Yeah, and that's all the more reason to get the frag out of here and back to base." Wheeljack dropped the chain and transformed.

Smokescreen transformed while Arcee worked on securing the spinal cord chunk to Wheeljack's trailer hitch. She finished quickly and gave the cars the signal to start moving. Arcee transformed and followed behind a few seconds later.

The Autobots were halfway to the ship when a faint noise from above drew Arcee's attention to the night sky. Even with the help of the moonlight, it was hard to see what was making that noise. But as the sound continued for longer, it got louder, and as it got louder, it was easier to tell what was going on. Something, or someone, was falling to the ground. The large size of the object and the glowing red dots made it easy to guess what it was.

"Incoming!" Arcee cried out as she realized they were being ambushed. She accelerated in a nanoklik, swerving to avoid hitting the Predacon bone in front of her.

Wheeljack and Smokescreen gasped in shock. Wheeljack began to speed forward as well but the weight of the Predacon bone prevented him from going much faster. The fallen Vehicon bots littered on the ground slowed them down even more. Seconds after Arcee shouted her warning, the Decepticon hit the ground.

A fearsome boom echoed through the air and a shuddering quake rocked the earth. Rocks and sand battered their armor. The ground fractured and shot in every direction as a giant crater was made from the impact.

The Autobots managed to get out of the direct path but were unprepared for the scope of the explosion. The powerful shock wave caused the cars' wheelsets to shift suddenly. Smokescreen veered in one direction while Wheeljack went in another, taking the Predacon bone with him. Wheeljack didn't panic and instead tried to straighten himself out. He almost succeeded in getting away unscathed. But as he began to continue his path to the Iron Will, his tether snagged on one of the large rocks that had fallen around them. The metal chain curved around the rock, getting stuck underneath it, and the large fossil refused to move without dragging the rock as well.

"Scrap!" Wheeljack hissed. He accelerated forward with little improvement. He called out to the two other Autobots, "A little help?!"

Arcee and Smokescreen turned their wheels in unison, forcing themselves to drift as they tried to help Wheeljack. Arcee felt her spark beat harshly as the rush of battle settled into her circuitry. She transformed first, intent on destroying the boulder. A split second after, Smokescreen transformed and aimed for the tether that bonded the Autobot to the fossil. Two shots rang out, each one from a different Cybertronian.

Arcee seethed as soon as she noticed what Smokescreen had done. She sprinted forward to grab the bone. She loudly admonished him, "Bad move, Smokescreen!"

Smokescreen quickly caught up with Arcee. He answered with a flippant, "It was holding him back!"

"Breaking the chain wasn't the way to do it!"

"Agree to disagree!"

"Autobot scum! Surrender what rightfully belongs to Megatron!" Their attacker, a behemoth of a Decepticon, bellowed from the center of the crater he created. He was so big that the difference in elevation didn't matter, Arcee could clearly see all five of his optics glaring at them.

"Not a chance, Decepticon!" Smokescreen retorted without missing a beat. His attention shifted from the bone to their new opponent. A scowl graced the bot's usually cheerful face and he leveled his blaster forward. He wasted no time firing a few rounds.

The Decepticon brought up his massive forearm to protect his face. Arcee was momentarily surprised to see pincers instead of servos. The purple bot rumbled, "Then I shall have to rip the bone from your cold, lifeless shells!"

"I'd like to see you try," Wheeljack said. Battle mask on and his swords drawn, used the advantage of higher elevation to launch himself at the Decepticon.

The large purple bot used his already raised forearm to block the hit, but Wheeljack managed to leave long thin slashes in his forearms before hitting the ground. He continued to attack the Decepticon with his swords but did very little damage. Wheeljack went for the forearms, the small gaps in the chassis, and the legs. The Wrecker's quick movements were stopped by a swift punch to the face. Wheeljack was sent flying back into the side of the crater. As soon as he hit the ground, the sound of blaster fire filled the air again.

Smokescreen eagerly took Wheeljack's place. Instead of fancy kicks and swordsmanship, Smokescreen was all about shooting and dodging. He aimed for the face and sensitive parts of the body. Unfortunately, the Decepticon's thick forearms blocked the face and the blasts had little effect on the thick armor. Smokescreen ran a circle around the circumference of the crater, blasting away the entire time. Wheeljack soon joined him.

It only made the Decepticon more frustrated. Small ports in the Con's body opened to reveal small missiles. They shot out two-by-two at the two mechs. Smokescreen and Wheeljack jumped and tumbled to avoid getting hit or running into each other. Wheeljack threw a grenade at the purple bot, but one of the Decepticon's missiles hit the grenade before it could reach its target.

As Wheeljack and Smokescreen fought the Con, Arcee decided to focus on the Predacon bone. She grabbed the charred end of the metal chain and began hauling the bone to the ship. If she could make it to the Iron Will, she could keep the bone safe and turn the ship's canons on the Con. She was a few meters away from the Iron Will when her actions were finally noticed.

"Puny Autobot!" The purple bot cried out and launched himself into the air.

Anxiety gripped Arcee's spark but she forced her legs to keep moving. The shortened tether combined with her smaller stature made for an unfortunate combination. She hadn't covered much more ground before a shadow fell over her. Arcee fell forward as the Decepticon landed on top of her. One monstrous pede trapped her entire right leg underneath its weight, effectively crushing it. A raw, ragged scream ripped through Arcee' throat.

The pain was blinding and unrelenting. Everything else fell away as Arcee's entire being focused on her mangled limb. Error messages burst across her vision. Her HUD went wild alerting her to the massive injury and loss of energon. After what felt like an eternity, the pede lifted and the Con walked away, granting Arcee some relief and mobility. Her other senses began to return bit by bit. With her sense returning, she noticed the absence of their Predacon fossil.

Arcee looked behind her to see Wheeljack and Smokescreen had drawn the purple behemoth's attention back to them. The fossil was firmly gripped in the Con's large pincers and the mech had no issue using it as a spikey warhammer against the two Autobots. Wheeljack and Smokescreen continued to use their blasters, making sure to stay out of arm's reach of the bot. Their blaster marks were starting to leave scorch marks on the Con's armor but they had yet to deter the bot from his mission.

'We should just destroy the thing. That way no one can have it.' The thought floated through Arcee's processor despite the pain. It wasn't a half-bad idea.

Just as Arcee was about to turn on her side to see if she could attempt to blast the fossil, she heard the awful creak of metal piercing metal and shunk sound.

"Wheeljack!" Smokescreen cried, devastated.

Arcee turned just in time to see Wheeljack crumble to the ground face first before tumbling into the impact crater. Arcee could then see the distinct glow of energon on the fossil's spikes as the Decepticon continued to brandish the bone like a melee weapon.

Smokescreen kept dodging but exhaustion was evident on his face. The purple bot swung the Predacon bone in one servo and tried to grab the Autobot with another servo.

Arcee scrambled for something to do, some way to help Smokescreen. It took her a few tries before she was able to transform her servo into a blaster. She was too disoriented from her own lack of energon and pain to aim properly. None of her shots hit their mark. Fortunately she didn't hit her ally either.

It wasn't the Con's servo or the spikes of the Predacon bone that caused Smokescreen to falter. It was the metal chain that was attached to the Predacon fossil. It whipped Smokescreen in the face, hitting his left optic and cheek, and the Autobot stumbled back. The Decepticon grabbed him by the shoulder and wrenched him off the ground. Smokescreen only had a few seconds to claw at the offending servo before he was slammed into the ground. A swift punch to the face knocked the blue Autobot unconscious.

Arcee shot at the Decepticon, whose servos were covered in Smokescreen's and Wheeljack's lifeblood. Only one shot hit him. The Decepticon shifted his attention to Arcee again. There was bloodlust in the crimson glow of his optics. Arcee braced herself for more attacks.

But rather than charge her, the Decepticon leaped into the air and transformed. A purple bomber hovered above them with a Predacon bone attached to its wing. Its nose turned her way and Arcee pressed against the ground to protect her face and chassis. The bomber shot at her as it flew away. The fembot hissed as a blaster bolt hit her in the back. She kept her head down until the sound of the bomber's engine disappeared into the night sky.

"Arcee to base." She said as soon as she slapped a servo to the side of her head. Her spark was still beating wildly and her cooling fans had yet to properly regulate her temperature. Arcee was panting as she continued to speak into the communication channel. "This is an emergency…! We need a ground bridge back to base. We're all injured. I repeat: three Autobots down."

"Arcee, this is Ultra Magnus speaking. Where are you?"

"We never left the site of the cave. Smokescreen's message was a little -ugh!" Arcee faltered as a pain erupted from the wound in her back. She had no idea what organ the Decepticon hit when he shot at her but it hurt.

"Help on its way. Hand on, soldier."

Rafael and Bulkhead, as diligent and reliable as they were, couldn't fix the ground bridge. With each passing second, the risk of Arcee, Smokescreen, and Wheeljack offlining increased. The trio of Autobots was about a 3 hour drive away. The ground bridge would be a much faster means of transportation, but they couldn't wait around for it.

And so, after about 20 minutes of serious deliberation, they drove to the Iron Will's location.

During that drive, Ratchet discovered two things: Optimus Prime could fly and the entire state of Nevada was dry and barren. Ratchet turned on his ambulance sirens to make the drive smoother but they rarely ran into cars on their journey anyway. The lack of humans made it easier to go twice the speed limit and also made it easier for Optimus Prime to fly ahead of them without risking being spotted. It cut down their drive by nearly an hour.

Now Ratchet understood why the Autobots lived in here.

Optimus arrived about half an hour before they did. He assessed everyone's condition. By the time Ratchet, Ultra Magnus, and Smokescreen arrived at the site, Ratchet already had a good idea of who needed help first. Ratchet mentally prepared himself for what he would see when he arrived.

The scene was still jarringly grim when he arrived.

There were three Autobots lying on the ground, Arcee and Smokescreen relatively close to each other while Wheeljack was in a crater. Arcee was the only bot still conscious and was currently being tended to by Optimus Prime. The blue bot was dwarfed by Prime's massive size. Prime tried his best to work with their size difference as he used the medkit that was found inside the Iron Will. Ratchet was grateful Optimus Prime was dealing with her injury. He wasn't keen on operating her quite yet.

He barely paid the two a glance as he made his way to the bot that needed the most immediate attention. Ratchet made a beeline for the crater, Bumblebee hot on his trail.

Thankfully, Ratchet had the foresight to look at medical journals today. If he hadn't, the sight of a large amount of blue energon glistening on Wheeljack's body would have thrown him for a loop. The closer he drew to the injured Autobot, the more clearly Ratchet could see the puncture wounds in his chassis. There were six wounds, three on the top, three on the bottom, and all of the same shape.

It was an incredibly concerning amount of energon. If Wheeljack had been from his dimension, the bot definitely would have gone into stasis lock or worse. Here, though, there was a chance Wheeljack would recover quicker.

He knelt before Wheeljack and raised his optic lens to reveal a telescopic optic. He checked over Wheeljack's body with his optic and the vis-scanner built into his servo. The blue light of the scanner blended with the lifeblood on the injured Autobot's body. Ratchtet's HUD sent him notifications of Wheeljack's condition as he continued to scan the bot.

Wheeljack wasn't dead yet, but that could change quickly if they weren't careful. Wheeljack's puncture wounds severed important circuits, wires, and fuel lines. One of the wounds created a large hole in an organ near Wheeljack's left shoulder. Ratchet's servos immediately flew to unclasp Wheeljack's chassis.

Unfortunately, Ratchet's body was working against him, portraying his nervousness without Ratchet even saying a word.

'You're just taking off his chest plate, for sparks' sake! Pull yourself together!' Ratchet scowled at his unsteady servos. His self-loathing and frustration spiked to an all-time-high.

[Do you need help?] Bumblebee beeped curiously as he knelt by Wheeljack's helm. He quietly stood by the two Autobots when Ratchet did his analysis, but couldn't keep his concern quiet anymore.

"No!" Ratchet snapped. He lifted his gaze toward Bumblebee and regretted his outburst. Bumblebee hadn't even been looking at his servos, his focus was solely locked onto Wheeljack's wounds. Ratchet corrected himself quickly. "I'm fine."

He then produced his magnet-clamps and quickly magnetized the chest plate to one of the clamps. From there it was easier to work the clasps on his patient's chassis. Bumblebee let out an impressed whistle as Ratchet used his magnetic ability to move the chest piece aside. Bumblebee's fascination quickly turned to alarm as he looked down at Wheeljack's inner workings.

Lubricants, dirt, and energon coated Wheeljack's insides, creating an ugly, grainy dark blue concoction. The severed energon and lubrication lines continued to leak, seeping into practically every nook and cranny. Wires connected to his spark chamber sagged ominously.

"His laser core's been damaged." Ratchet assessed with a frown. Bumblebee let out another alarmed exclamation.

The laser core was the protective lining of the spark chamber. It kept the spark from burning through the chamber or jostling around when a bot was physically active. Five of the lines powering Wheeljack's laser core had been cut, causing his spark chamber's lining to flicker worryingly. Wheeljack's spark continued to beat steadily, if a bit slower than normal.

[What do you need me to do?] Bumblebee eagerly asked again. Ratchet was more inclined to accept some assistance now.

"His spark won't be able to handle laser core damage if he falls into stasis lock. We need to replace his fuel lines first," Ratchet muttered as his telescopic optic bounced from one corner of Wheeljack's inner workings to another. "I need you to hand me the hoses in the medkit while I start taking out the broken lines."

Sand and lubricants coated Ratchet's servos as he shut off Wheeljack's fuel pump. As long as it wasn't off for hours, the Wrecker would be fine without it. Ratchet produced his cable clamps and attached them to the edges of Wheeljack's chest cavity. An electrogram appeared in Ratchet's windshield chest piece, showing Wheeljack's sparkbeat. For every severed line Ratchet disconnected, Bumblebee was by his side handing him a new one. The medic bent and manipulated the hoses before slotting them in their proper places.

"Ratchet," Optimus called out. The large bot was standing at the edge of the impact crater. From this angle it was impossible to see his expression and his tone was as flat as usual. "Arcee needs your immediate help."

Foreboding crept into the bot's spark.

Ratchet grabbed a rag to wipe his servos as he wordlessly stood. He tried to ignore the sensation in his spark but it grew with every passing second. He was dreading the moment someone would eventually call him to Arcee.

Before leaving he pulled out fuel clamps and other tools for Wheeljack and gave Bumblebee some instructions. "Put fuel clamps on the end of the replacement lines and monitor his spark. Don't move him until I come back."

As soon as Ratchet was within hearing distance, Optimus Prime began to restate Arcee's condition. "Arcee's leg was crushed during their battle with an unknown Decepticon. We managed to stop her bleeding, but she has started convulsing. We were unable to locate the cause of this."

Ratchet tightened his grip on his medical kit. The convulsing was news to him. The taller bot kept going, but the rest of his words were buried under Ratchet's unease.

In the back of his processor, Ratchet knew he was in the Nevada desert, on Earth, unbelievably far away from home. The rest of his processor, however, was somewhere else. There was a red sky above him and smoke was everywhere. He'd just dodged a stray blaster shot from an unknown Decepticon and weariness from battle was seeping into his being, but he'd located the missing intelligence officer. When Ratchet drew closer, he noticed Arcee didn't look like any of the intelligence officers Ratchet had the displeasure of meeting. She didn't act like any of them either.

'Something's wrong, Doc. I can't move my leg.' Arcee had said, completely polite despite her injuries. Her voice was hard to get rid of, like a specter in those horror movies Sari and Bumblebee loved so much. Her sweet smile and sympathetic gaze were even harder to scrub from his memory.

He remembered the way Arcee's optics widened when he informed her he was going to use his EMP to help repair her. She was too self-sacrificing, caring more about the war effort than her own wellbeing.'No! You…could delete the access codes. They're too valuable…!'

But it all changed when they'd been captured by Lockdown. She hadn't been intimidated by him, despite being strapped to a table on his ship.

'Use it on me full blast! Wipe my memory core! Ratchet, the access codes in my processor are crucial to the war effort. If Megatron gets them…' Arcee pleaded quietly. She was brave and practical, all the marks of a good intelligence officer and an even greater Autobot. It was admirable. No wonder she was chosen as the guardian for Omega Supreme.

And when it was all over, when they finally escaped Lockdown's ship, she furrowed her optics and asked him, 'Who's Arcee? Where are we? What's going on? Do I know you…?'

If only he'd-

"Ratchet, do you have a diagnosis yet?" Someone practically shouted at him.

Arcee and her confused expression dissipated. The red sky of a battle-beaten Cybertron became the dark expanse of an Earthen sky. The explosions of battle were replaced with a fembot's tortured groans. Ratchet returned to the present. He was kneeling in front of Arcee and Ultra Magnus, who were both stained with blue energon. Arcee was propped up on her elbows and gave him a curious look. Ultra Magnus's look was as skeptical and hostile as expected.

The ambulance scrambled to appear like a bot who hadn't experienced yet another flashback.

Ratchet moved quickly to make up for lost time. His telescopic optic and vis-scanner swept across Arcee's body. Her right leg had been crushed from the upper thigh downward. It was a miracle that her hip joint hadn't shattered from the damage. The hollow oval in her thigh was now a jagged upside down U shape. He could also detect multiple severed wires, which caused the electrical currents in her thigh to stop abruptly. It wasn't enough to give anyone an electric shock, not yet.

He let out a quick excuse for his actions. "I haven't found anything yet."

"I think the source of the problem is my crushed leg- augh!" Arcee's barb was cut off by another groan. Her entire body spasmed alarmingly. Her chestplate separated and rose, her digits curled into claws, and her undamaged leg bent at the knee joint. The telltale sound of a jammed T-cog accompanied her spasm, barely heard over Arcee's pained sounds.

Ratchet's vis-scanner located the wound on Arcee's torso just as she stopped spasming. Blue light shone right through Arcee's wound to hit the ground underneath them. The Decepticon landed a shot on her back that made a clean hole through her body. An energon line hadn't been punctured, thankfully, but there was some oil that leaked out of the wound. The wound was smaller than the width of his digit and Ratchet already knew what organs had been damaged, even without the help of the vis-scanner.

"I think I'm gonna puke. Again." Arcee mumbled regretfully.

Ratchet nodded with sympathy, all the while trying not to dwell on a certain pink Autobot he'd been thinking about minutes prior. "That's normal given your…injuries. Your equilibrium chip is having trouble processing it."

Ultra Magnus, who had been surprisingly quiet these past few minutes, quickly pointed out, "If she purges her fuel tank again, she risks going into stasis lock. Arcee has lost a lot of energon."

"I know," Ratchet responded, slightly annoyed at his backseat driving. He moved his vis-scanner to the lower corner of Arcee's chestplate to assess her asynchronous transfer adapter. As long as it was functioning normally, Arcee's nausea would subside eventually. "Her asynchronous transfer adapter should kick in soon to help your equilibrium chip. My main concern right now is your autogyro. That shot you took ripped a hole through it. Your autogyro is sending signals to your T-cog and it's-"

As if on cue, Arcee curled in on herself again as her autogyro tried to activate. She made less noise this time, and the sound of her T-cog was much easier to hear. Her spasms were her body's failed attempt at transforming.

After her autogyro settled, Arcee collapsed back against the cool ground. If she were human, she'd likely be drenched in sweat by now. But since she was only a Cybertronian, she panted to calm her systems while her optics burned brightly from the intensity of her pain. Arcee gulped down more air before speaking again. "Look…the diagnosis is n-nice and everything…but I ne-ed a s-solution…!"

That wasn't an issue. Ratchet knew what to do and he wasn't happy about it.

"An autogryo is more active when a bot is online. Do you have an EMP generator on you?" Ultra Magnus asked, catching Ratchet off guard.

Ratchet sputtered embarrassingly. "No! Of course not! I…" He couldn't lie about this, not when it came to his patient's health. But there was also no way he was going to be able to use his EMP generator on Arcee. Not again.

'But that's not her. Operating on Arcee without the EMP will cause more issues than it's worth,' His pesky conscience was split in two. One was the faithful medic who put his patients above all. The other was the scarred war veteran who was determined not to make the same mistake twice. 'You're going to ruin the life of another Arcee. Use the EMP and she's done for.'

"Ratchet, what's going on with you?!" Ultra Magnus searched Ratchet's face for the reason behind his hesitation. His optics narrowed as he continued on, "If you're unfit to do your duty, then you will be relieved of it."

Ratchet wasn't surprised by the other's reaction. He deserved the warning, in fact. Ratchet gripped his forearm and felt the seams that concealed the EMP generator. "I don't know how Arcee will react to this EMP blast. There could be unintended side effects: memory loss, paralysis-"

"Gah frag!" Arcee cried out in pain again as her autogyro tried to activate. The clamps Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime placed on the energon lines in her damaged thigh began to loosen, one of the clamps already sliding off of an energon fuel line. Energon began to seep out of her thigh again, adding more color to the already stained ground. "I'm willing to take the risk, trust me! It'll be fine!"

'I hate this thing,' Ratchet decided and finally allowed his EMP generator to come to the surface of his forearm. His spark beat harshly as it clicked into place. He couldn't look at Arcee or Ultra Magnus. He aimed the generator at Arcee's chest and activated the device. With a burst of light, Arcee was put into stasis mode.

Ultra Magnus caught her before she could hit the ground and gently maneuvered her in his arms. He contacted Optimus Prime while Ratchet gave Arcee one last scan. He couldn't detect any glaring abnormalities, thankfully, but dread still ran rampant inside him.

'She won't wake up. You're going to transfer her to a berth and she's going to be stuck there for stellar cycles.'

Ultra Magnus cut into Ratchet's thoughts with another critical statement, one that mirrored Ratchet's own internal dialogue. The difference was that Ratchet's internal dialogue didn't include an icy glower. "You should have stayed at the base if you were unwilling to do your job as a medic."

Ratchet glared back, albeit weakly, and he didn't respond. He wasn't incompetent, no, but this definitely wasn't one of his best moments.

"I have prepared the Iron Will for departure after everyone is onboard," A deep voice cut through their conversation. It was the only reason the two stopped growling at each other like turbofoxes. Optimus Prime sounded as banal as ever, but when Ratchet turned he saw a concerned crease in Prime's optic ridge.

'Right. You're here to help the injured Autobots, not bicker with Ultra Magnus.' Ratchet reminded himself.

[Smokescreen! He's waking up!] Bumblebee cut in, about as loud as a siren. Ratchet turned in all directions before finally finding Bumblebee. The bot was standing a distance away with a prone Smokescreen. The blue and yellow bot was indeed stirring and slowly returning to the land of the living.

Ultra Magnus stood effortlessly while holding Arcee and pivoted toward the Iron Will. He gave Optimus Prime a grateful nod and ignored Ratchet.

Ratchet stood with a creak of his joints. Considering the condition of Arcee and Wheeljack, Primus only knew what Smokescreen would look like.

"Is everything alright?" Prime asked, gravely serious.

Ratchet blew him off with a quick and sarcastic, "Everything's just peachy."

Optimus didn't press him for more information but his gaze burned into Ratchet's back. Ratchet ignored him. Bumblebee watched Ratchet's approach with an intense focus. Ratchet ignored the unspoken concern in Bumblebee's expression and kept his gaze on Smokescreen. Ratchet knelt in front of Smokescreen and did yet another scan. Smokescreen's only working optic flashed on and off sporadically as the bot fought stasis. It was a good sign. A great sign.

'I can handle this.' Ratchet told himself. He tried to return to the state of mind he had when working on Wheeljack. It was hard to do when his interaction with Ultra Magnus and Arcee was fresh in his processor.

[His sparkbeat is steady.] Bumblebee informed him quietly. He paused before asking, [Are you going to use your EMP on him?]

"No." Ratchet nearly barked and Bumblebee's optic ridges furrowed. Too caught up in his processor, Ratchet had forgotten to put it away. His EMP generator abruptly disappeared into his forearm.

Notifications of Smokescreen's condition sprang up across Ratchet's HUD. It was a welcome distraction. Thankfully, Smokescreen's condition wasn't as critical as the other two.

"We need to make sure the dent in his helm hasn't affected his processor module. Other than that, everything else is a simple task of replacing anything that's been cracked." Ratchet surmised. The blue and yellow bot would need a new optic and a shoulder joint replacement, all relatively easy tasks.

Smokescreen let out a groan, his mouth twisted in pain, and his optic flashed online again for a few seconds. His vocalizer spit out static before he was able to speak. "Ugh, someone turn off the sun."

Ratchet deactivated his vis-scanner, assuming that was the source of Smokescreen's annoyance. He spoke gently, "Take it easy, Smokescreen. You took quite the hit to the head."

"Getting hit by Megatron would have hurt less." Smokescreen groaned in response.

"We can talk about your attacker later. Right now, we need to get you back to the ship."

It took a bit of finagling, but eventually, Ratchet and Bumblebee were able to help Smokescreen sit up. Just like with Arcee, Smokescreen's asynchronous transfer adapter worked with his equilibrium chip to help stabilize him. Eventually, the bot was also able to stand with Bumblebee's help. Given that the two bots were around the same height and weight, it was much easier for Bumblebee to help Smokescreen hobble around than Ratchet.

[Thank you…Seriously, thanks.] Bumblebee buzzed as he caught Ratchet's gaze. Bumblebee's large optics held an intensity Ratchet was unprepared for. His sincerity was palpable, despite the difficulties of translating such a vivid emotion with a broken vocalizer. It was unfamiliar and, in Ratchet's opinion, completely undeserved.