CHAPTER NINE
THE TRUTH WILL FREAK YOU OUT
AN: Okay, I meant to make this longer, but I wanted to get it posted before work.
Also, I would love some ideas (especially from you, KHALTHAR) about some things that might freak out the Autobots on 'growing up human'. I've already made a chart (baby humans VS Sparklings) but I could use some more ideas.
ONTO THE STORY!
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MED-BAY
RATCHET/OPTIMUS/CASSIE
For Cassie it was like a hazy dream.
For Ratchet and Optimus it was more like a movie playing behind their optics.
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Now, remember, Ratchet commed his leader and friend. we're looking for something traumatic so, hopefully, it won't be that hard to find.
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Optimus made a low sound of agreement and they watched as the 'femme' as a
sparkling opened her eyes for the first time.
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Frag! Ratchet exclaimed. Something was wrong with her optics as a sparkling!It didn't occur to him that a human babies eyes didn't begin to focus until one month of age.
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I'm sure her carrier or medic took care of the problem. Optimus soothed his old friend.
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That was when the heard what the sparkling had heard; voices. But not the chirps and whirrs used to communicate with a baby sparkling; but human language; English!
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"She's not breathing—"
"Come on baby, BREATHE!"
"Quick, get the incubator ready!"
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Probably for the first time in their lives since the had learned to walk, both Ratchet and Optimus stumbled in shock then fell flat on their afts.
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IRONHIDE
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When the old guardian mech heard the resounding boom that came from the med-ba, he pushed in with cannons at the ready, certain that, at the least, one of Wheeljacks experiments had gotten into the med-bay or, at the worst, a Decepticon had managed to crash in through the med-bay ceiling.
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What he HADN'T expected was to find the femme in recharge on the med-bay berth and both Optimus and Ratchet on their afts looking like the had just seen Megatron in a frilly pink pinafore inviting them for tea and scones.
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"What in the name of Primus is wrong with you two!?" the bodyguard/weapons-specialist demanded while he scanned the area for hidden intruders just in case, but his search turned up nothing; not even a glitch mouse.
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Ironhide watched as both Optimus and Ratchet climbed to their feet, though both looked just a touch wobbly, and Ratchets mutterings of "Impossible" and "It just can't be!" weren't helping Ironhides worries.
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The Prime held up one servo to his guard. "All is well. It is alright, Ironhide."
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"Don't give me that slag, Optimus, it obviously ISN'T alright!" the oldest Autobot growled. "What is it? What are the femmes memories showing you?"
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It was obvious by their glazed optics that the two were still watching the femmes memories but unbeknownst to Ironhide, they were viewing a blurred world from a newborn babies eyes and hearing her wails at being out in an atmosphere that was considerably cooler than her mothers womb.
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They 'watched' as her cord was cut and she was settled into a incubator; watched the blurred, looming shapes that were obviously doctors, and listened through her ears that were, surprisingly, working very well.
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The Doctors diagnosis were immediately stored in Ratchets data banks as well as Optimus; premature, lungs not fully formed, but hearing and reflexes fine. She would (obviously) live.
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….They watched as the carrier (the human term, Ratchet remembered vaguely, was 'Mother') signed away all rights to her sparkling without even holding her once.
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OPTIMUS/RATCHET
After the mind-blowing revelation the two had just had slammed into their helms, Optimus decided that he and Ratchet needed to pause in their foray into the femmes memories to talk a bit and try to come to terms with what they had just witnessed.
.
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That was how they ended up in the med-bay, unhooked from all the wires needed for the memory probe, and sat in two Autobot-sized chairs that had been dragged in by Ironhide, nursing two cubes of energon. They both stared at the still unconscious femme.
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"Ratchet," Optimus said finally. "is there any way her memory banks may have been tampered with?" the Prime was grasping at straws for anything—ANYTHING—that could make sense of what, frankly, could NOT be possible; a Cybertronian born as a human child.
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"They haven't been." Ratchet said bluntly, eyes still glued on the femme. "It was the first thing I checked for after we unhooked from the probe." And it had been a frantic Ratchet, certain that somehow, someway, someone or something had managed to record a humans life from birth and slipped it into the femmes memory core. "There was no tampering." Ratchet concluded again. "Those are her true memories."
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Suddenly, Optimus's servos clenched in anger. "Her carrier did not want her! How could a femme not want her sparkling!"
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Ratchet let out a low sigh, swirling his energon drink. "You know it happens sometimes, Optimus. Generally, I think, it's either because of trauma or something wrong with the carriers processor. It's even MORE common among mankind." The medic paused to take a sip of his energon. "What we should be focusing on right now is how this happened and what we're going to do about it.
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If some of the humans—Galloway, for instance—" his own servos tightened "—discovered that the femme was once human, there would be mass hysteria and the pit to pay! Half the humans would probably fear they might become a Cybertronian!"
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Optimus stiffened, uncertain if that would be a good thing or not. "That's not possible…..is it?"
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Ratchet shrugged, looking just as disgruntled. "Until we find out how she became a Cybertronian, or until some other human-Primus forbid-transforms, there's no way of knowing. I believe this is what the humans would call a 'ticking-time-bomb'."
CITATIONS:
CITATIONS FOR THIS CHAPTER WILL BE INCLUDED IN THE NEXT CHAPTER
LOL.
...mainly because I can't find the citation for the info right now...I think it may be in a journal in my car.
LOL...please don't maim me (jk)