No Rest For The Weary

Ratchet pinched the bridge of his wide nose, looking up from the delicate repairs to a small conduit casing to replace the one damaged on Bumblebee. His hands were now made up of numerous small, deca-jointed appendages looking like the legs of spiders helping the medic in repairing his patient's delicate systems. Ratchet had set up a temporary med-bay in the building that held Wheel-jack's semi constructed lab. That med-bay was a temporary home for three patients, all of whom were sleeping on a large berth several dozen feet from Ratchet's work desk. Well, sleeping was not the right word. To be asleep, a human would have to breathe and the three laying on the berth had not taken a breath in nearly sixteen hours. If Ratchet would have to choose a word to describe their state, it would be similar to 'stasis'.

What ever had happened to them in the instant between the med-bay being blown to shreds and Jazz coming back online, it changed the three beings laying there in such a way as to make them unrecognizable. They still looked vaguely human from a distance but the three had undergone a metamorphosis the likes of which the medic had never seen. And, he mused, would likely never witness again. Their bodies had absorbed the metal that made up the loose parts Ratchet had stored around Jazz. The evidence of which shone dully under the lights. Ellie's left leg seemed to have been completed in the same anatomy and style of their protoforms when the Autobots had first arrived on this planet. She and the two younger adults had not moved since they had been brought to the lab by a very panicked Bumblebee. The small scout had made himself a nuisance looking over Ratchet's shoulders while he scanned the three humans. Ratchet understood, however. Bumblebee was only wanting his mates to be safe.

Currently, the little yellow mech was recharging on a berth not far away from the three. He had finely gone down after being assured five times over that Ratchet would let him know if any of the three humans condition had changed. That was six hours ago and absolutely nothing had changed. Ratchet leaned back, the spidery appendages of his fingers drawing back into his hands as he enjoyed the peace of the current moment. Up until a few hours ago, the med-bay had played host to a haggard Defense Secretary, a worried Prime and two sets of parents who were absolutely beside themselves with fear. Not fear of their children dying. Those fears had been quickly soothed by Ratchet's masterful bluntness. What had taken the place of the fear of loss, was the fear of what their children were becoming. Ratchet could not comfort them in this regard. He could not explain to them what was happening with their children when he himself did not understand everything that was going on.

What the medic knew for sure, however was that the only thing that had remained human about the three were their skins. And those were quickly being assimilated as well. They had no brain, or heart, or lungs to speak of. What they had instead were CPUs, pumps and coolant systems. And one more addition as well. Even Sam had not had a Spark before yesterday. But inexplicably all three now possessed Sparks of their own, each giving the thin skin over their chests a soft azure glow. The limited explanation from Jazz facilitated the how, but not the why. Why had these three had to sacrifice their human bodies to bring the Autobot's Spark back from the Matrix? The Saboteur would only shrug his shoulders and say that what ever deal was struck, only the 'little ones' knew.

Ratchet sighed in a soft hiss of air escaping his intakes in his chest. He felt like he had just pulled a double or triple shift in his med-bay back on Cybertron. There was certainly enough to keep him busy. Iron Hide had made for a ornery patent, grumbling about not being able to feel the lower part of his left arm. Of course, when he was repaired his main complaint was a tingly feeling in his hand. Though the weapons specialist had quieted down when Ratchet had threatened to detach the offending arm and shove it up Iron Hide's rear plates. The CMO had never seen Iron Hide move so fast. Ratchet chuckled to himself as the door opened slowly, revealing the worried face of Optimus Prime. Ratchet waved him in raising himself from his seated position, groaning at the stiffness in his joints. "Are you alright?"

Ratchet shook his head, misunderstanding the question and thinking it was directed at his patients. "Sam, Mikaela and Ellie are the same as before," he said as he brought his fingers to Mikaela's leg, peeling back the gossamer like skin that was sagging from her now metallic frame. "We will have to wait until they come on line before we can know for sure what is happening."

"I meant the question for you, Ratchet." The CMO turned to regard Prime strangely. It was something he never thought about. He judged his well being on the health of his patients. But now that Ratchet thought about it, he was exhausted. A quick check of the time let him know why. It was almost half past one in the morning, and he felt it in every servo and gear, his shoulders sagging with fatigue. "I suspected as much," Optimus smiled, placing his hand gently on Ratchet's shoulder. "Why don't I keep an eye on these four while you recharge?" The question also carried a subtle plea not to make the request a command.

Ratchet stared Prime down for a moment, his processor coming up with thousands of reasons why he should not even off-line one optic. The three could take a sudden down turn, or they could wake up and need his attention. But just as fast as those objections came to mind, Ratchet threw them into the rubbish bin. Each was as unlikely as the last and as much as he hated to admit it, he could not make up an excuse good enough to reject Optimus' generous offer. Optimus patted Ratchet's shoulder as the medic nodded mutely and shuffled over to one of the open berths on the other side of the temporary med-bay. He would not have broken his own self imposed rule if the four in with him did not need constant attention. "You wake me the moment anything changes. I don't care if it's a twitch or a sneeze, you wake me up."

Optimus smiled, sitting at Ratchet's work desk, leaning back in the chair. "Don't worry, old friend. You will be the first to know if anything happens." Ratchet nodded, laying flat on his back and off-lining his optics. He did one last scan of the med-bay before he booted up his recharge sub-routines and slipped into blissful unconsciousness.

Optimus quietly watched the three beings, several hours ticking by before he observed something strange. One of the forms on the berth was moving. Almost as though their entire body were stiff and sore. Optimus imagined that his observation was not far from the truth. He could only imagine what it felt like to change so suddenly into something so different. The slightly shorter stature and ginger hair marked the one waking as Ellie. She seemed to settle down with a sigh, remaining on the berth. She lifted a hand to her face, the thin skin on her arm shredding as it was stretched against her now slightly thicker frame. Prime winced, wondering if she still had feeling in her skin as she lifted it from her face like a grizzly neoprene death mask.

The skin fell to the berth with a soft whooshing sound as Ellie sat up, her hands examining her new face. Instead of skin covering muscle, nerve and bone, her visage was made up by plates which slid past one another as they were manipulated by controls hidden away underneath. The space between her cheek and lower jaw was left open, giving anyone up close an intimate view of the workings of her neck. Her fingers poked at this open area as though she were exploring an open wound, gingerly touching the plates. The rest of her body was equally as altered. Even in it's protoformic state, it was still evident that she was female. She no longer had breasts in the normal sense, but she did have a rounded swell at her chest that designated her as a femme. Optimus smiled as her optics met his. Unlike Sam's, who took their design from Bumblebee's human like optics, Ellie's looked more feline inspired like Iron Hide's optics.

Ellie shuddered her optics several times as though getting used to the sensation. She must have found the action slightly annoying, much the same way, Optimus mused, that he would feel if he had flesh coverings for his eyes that touched and scraped against his optics with every blink. Prime got up to alert Ratchet when Ellie raised her hand, her voice coming out in a croak. Optimus went to her as she coughed, thinking hard as she got used to speaking without moving air through her throat. "Need to talk...to you first," she softly annunciated. "Things you need to know." Optimus clicked to himself in curiosity, leaning down toward Ellie so that she did not have to strain her vocalizer.

Optimus held out his hand for her to climb onto. Ellie hesitated for a moment before extricating herself from the now dead skin that used to protect her delicate organic workings. Her legs were still not capable of supporting her, so she managed a modified bear crawl into Optimus' waiting hand, settling into his palm with a sigh. She off lined her optics as the sensation of movement made her dizzy, only opening them again when the movement had stopped. Gently Optimus deposited her onto Ratchet's work desk, seating himself in the chair as Ellie got comfortable on the table. "There is something I must ask, Ellie. Before the battle, the All-Spark was hidden near Jazz's body and now it has disappeared. Do you know what happened to it?"

Ellie nodded, glancing over to Sam and Mikaela for a moment before shifting her gaze back to Optimus. "The first thing you have to understand, is that this was our choice. We were given the option, and our answer did not affect Sentinel Prime's promise that he would bring Jazz back. The second, is that the All-Spark did not disappear. In order to better protect it, Sam, Mikaela and I agreed to give it different physical form." Optimus seemed confused by this explanation. Ellie chewed her lip trying to word it better. "We agreed to become the All-Spark in order to protect it and our bodies were changed so that the All-Spark wouldn't die when our organic bodies did."

Optimus appeared stunned into silence as he tried to process all of what Ellie was telling him. "The All-Spark was split into three pieces," Optimus trailed off when Ellie started shaking her head, her face becoming sad.

"Not three; four." Again Optimus tried to process what he was being told.

"Who has the fourth piece? Jazz?" Again Ellie shook her head. "Who could possibly..." Prime trailed off, his face going slack as his optical guards widened in disbelief. "No...please tell me that it is not true." The desperation in his voice made Ellie wince.

"It's true. The moment we each touched what was left of the All-Spark and touched Jazz, we awakened him as well. There was no other way, Optimus." Ellie immediately crawled on her knees, putting her hands on either side of the Autobot leader's face as his shoulders sagged in defeat.

"But Megatron is on the bottom of the Atlantic at the moment. It would take him months to climb back to the surface." Optimus' hopefulness was dashed with the uncomfortable look on Ellie's face.

"I don't know how they could have gotten the distance wrong, Optimus. The Laurentian Abyss may be in northern Canada but it is only a little more than 4,000 meters deep from the North American continental shelf to the sea bed. The deepest place is actually in the Pacific, the Mariana Trench. It's more than 10,000 meters deep and would have held him better. But what is done is done. And because he has a larger part of the All-Spark with him, he has almost fully repaired himself." Ellie held on to Optimus' face tighter when it looked like he would panic. "This is the only way we could protect the All-Spark without having to lug the thing around with us all the time." She smiled. "Besides, I think Primus did a pretty damn good job." Ellie pushed herself to her legs, wobbling slightly. "Don't you think so?"

Prime laughed as Ellie struck a pose, her hand on her hip as she gave him her most seductive smirk before sticking her glossa out at him. Ellie walked forward, placing an awkward kiss on Optimus' forehead. "That's better. Megatron does not have all of the All-Spark's power and what he has resists him at every turn. That is why we took this piece into ourselves. It makes it impossible for him to access all of its powers and much easier for us to defeat him."

Optimus's brow ridges rose slowly. "Who told you all of this?"

Ellie smiled, tilting her head. "I believe his name was Primus. Well, he really isn't a He. Or a She or an It. Primus is...well Primus." Ellie shrugged. "And the biggest guy I've ever seen. I thought you were tall," Ellie whistled, not noticing the slack jawed look Optimus was giving her. "Sam called him a 'Heavy Metal Grandpa', Primus nearly fell over laughing. I wish you could have heard it. It took him forever to get himself to stop laughing."

"Not that I wish to interrupt this wonderful story...But what was it about 'Wake Me Up If ANYTHING CHANGES' did you not understand?" Ratchet bellowed as he planted his feet on the ground, stalking toward a visibly cowering Optimums. Ellie's optics widened as she was greeted with a very irritated Ratchet about to go into Glitch mode.

The yelling from Ratchet roused two very sleepy looking silver protoforms, their optics wide. "Wow, someone needs to get laid."

The entire med-bay was silent, crickets chirping somewhere outside. Suddenly both Optimus and Bumblebee burst into laughter, neither able to keep themselves in their respective seats as they toppled to the floor. Ratchet, however narrowed his optics at Sam, looking like he was going to chew him into a metal pulp and reform him into an ashtray. Sam only smiled in return, looking like the perfect Cyber-Cheshire cat.

Mikaela rolled her eyes at the two. "I think you broke Optimus," she stated, referring to the way Prime had tried to get up only to topple over again when Ratchet had fixed him with his meanest glare. Iron Hide peeked into the med-bay, but ducked out when Ratchet threw the conduit casing he had repaired at Bumblebee, hitting him square in the head. Ellie rolled her eyes as the med-bay filled with the sound of a gong being struck.

"Just another day in paradise."