(Please see all previous disclaimers)
As Aquaformer headed to the brig area, Optimus finally made his way towards the med bay. Optimus was determined to figure out why and how this whole thing had happened. Soon, Optimus was at the med bay and entered. Ratchet had sedated the broken Stealth and was working on repairing the bot. "I can't believe a femme could cause such destruction" Optimus suddenly uttered, alerting Ratchet to the Prime's presence.
"Pissed off femmes can do all kinds of damage. It just depends on why the femme is pissed off. For example, I've had to repair mechs when their femme mates blew off their parts due to the mech pissing of the femme" Ratchet replied matter of factly.
"But that was usually in a bonded pair" Optimus uttered, or so he had assumed.
"Not always, but most often" Ratchet replied, straightening out a piece of metal Aquaformer had severe twisted in her anger.
"But that wasn't like this damage, was it?" Optimus asked, wondering if there was more to this.
"No, the only time I've seen this damage was when a cocky mech pissed off a rare femme whose optics go black when in a rage. In that sense, this is relatively minor damage" Ratchet answered, stunning and shocking Optimus.
"This is minor damage?" Optimus asked, concerned.
"Yes, rare femmes who have the glitch of getting black optics when mad have been known to totally rip a mech in half and crush the spark with their hands. I guess we should be glad Aquaformer is an Autobot" Ratchet stated, knowing the Autobot programming stopped Aquaformer from killing Stealth.
Optimus processed what Ratchet stated, but Optimus was still confused. "But I don't understand why Aquaformer would be so upset to do this kind of damage" Optimus replied, unknowingly opening a can of worms.
Ratchet sighed. "Optimus, you have to understand that back on Cybertron, Stealth wasn't a good mech. Yes, he was an Autobot, but he liked to use femmes and then break their sparks" Ratchet stated.
"But Aquaformer seems to smart to fall for that" Optimus quickly answered, defending his mate.
"Well, she is but…" Ratchet stated.
"But what?" Optimus asked, dreading the answer.
"Aquaformer was young and longing to be accepted. While she rejected her being used by him, he decided she deserved something else. He thought she deserved to be humiliated and punished when she wouldn't submit" Ratchet explained.
Optimus listened, but was curious. "How do you know this?" Optimus asked.
Ratchet looked at the Prime. "Optimus, while you have been around for a while, I am still older than you. Before I was forced to be a medic in the war, I was a regular medic and I treated Aquaformer many times for strange wounds and damage that she refused to tell me where she got them. From what I can only surmise, she learned you can't trust any mech or femme to believe you are telling the truth about the damage because the attacker will say otherwise" Ratchet explained.
"But you don't know for sure he caused this" Optimus replied, making his point.
"No, I don't, but if you want to see the truth for yourself, go visit Wheeljack. He has a time machine. You may get the answers you seek there" Ratchet suggested before returning to his delicate work. Optimus thought about it. The only way he might learn the truth now lay with Jack's invention. Optimus just had to decide if this was what he really wanted and needed to do or if he should just let it be.