No Rest For The Weary

Ratchet waited for the numbing blast with the distinct urge to close his eyes and flinch. When several moments passed without the sound of the weapon firing, Ratchet looked up into the optics of that weapon's wielder. Starscream stood calmly in the door to his med-bay as though he had just popped in to say hello, an amused smirk on his angular features. The low chuckle was completely inappropriate for the situation, though coming from Starscream it was not unexpected. What was unexpected was the hand he used to gesture out of the open door as though beckoning the medic to follow.

"My, my you Autobots are slow. Get the three sparklings and follow me. It is not that difficult." The annoyance in Starscream's voice was enough to snap Ratchet out of his shock. The medic moved between the Seeker and the three sleeping on the berth, his features hard.

"No," the statement was as simple as it was final. Though the only thing it gained the medic was a rather dubious look from Starscream. Both stared each other down, Ratchet hoping to keep this going until the weapon's effect finely wore off on either IronHide or Optimus. He hoped that ten minutes went by as quickly as his memories of his life were through his CPU.

A burst of static issued from Starscream's vocalizer, the Decepticon shaking his head. "Do not be stubborn, Autobot. You and I both know that the sparklings will not survive if their sparks are not transfered into a larger containment unit." This brought Ratchet up short, his features slackening in surprise. How in the pit did Starscream get to understand their situation? "I know for a fact that you do not have the materials to build anything more than rudimentary spark casings," Again, this caused a slight back step from Ratchet. He had a feeling that he knew where this was heading. "I, however have the materials to build them fully functioning shells."

"Then what do you need me for?" Ratchet was standing so close to the berth Sam, Mikaela and Ellie were sleeping on that the bolts holding it to the floor creaked. He also wondered how much more the Seeker knew than he was letting on.

"Do I look like a medic?" Starscream spread his hands as though the answer was obvious. "The spark casings of the mechs we recovered from the abyss are damaged or cracked entirely. Only a medic would have the needed equipment and programing to repair such damage. Need I explain more, or are you going to question why I do not blow your worthless chassis to the pits and leave your precious Autobots without a medic?"

Ratchet reassessed his situation, deciding that what Starscream offered was much better than the alternative. He would not trust the Seeker to lay one digit on the three behind him for even the promise of Cybertron rebuilt. The medic sighed, his shoulders lowering in defeat. "I accept. I would not trust these three with you alone anyhow." He ignored Starscream's snigger and gathered the three in his hands after tucking his equipment away within his own side panels. He cast a brief apologetic glance down at Bumblebee who was trying his hardest to move. Starscream seemed to have improved his weapon's effect since he had used it last. Ten minutes had come and gone and still there was no sign of any of the other Autobots.

Starscream followed behind, his weapon always at Ratchet's back, reminding him of the consequences of trying to escape. As though the medic needed to be warned. He spotted Soundwave a short distance away, waiting in his Sea Knight transformation, doors open. Inside were three cots strapped down to the floor. No explanation was needed, though Ratchet was loath to release the three from his possession. A quick prod from Starscream to the small of his back drew as sigh from the medic as he strapped the three into Soundwave's interior, the doors sliding shut with a snap, almost catching Ratchet's digits. He stepped back as the blades began to spin, lifting Soundwave and the three with him into the air.

Ratchet turned to transform when a hand on his shoulder stopped the program in mid-execution. "No need for that." Starscream grinned. "You're entirely too slow to keep up." He was about to take offense at the blatant insult when Starscream transformed behind him, magnetic locks on his underside locking Ratchet to him as he blasted into the sky, Ratchet screaming all the way up. "Shut up! Do you wish for every recharging human to see us? You may be the pets of the governmental body of this continent, but I doubt they would come to your rescue if you were found outside of your play pen!"

Ratchet snapped his mouth shut, vowing to disassemble the Seeker slowly. Though he found some advantage to having Starscream do all the driving. It gave him free time to come up with the basic designs for the new bodies for Sam, Mikaela and Ellie. He figured that with Sam's ability to get into anything, he would be a perfect Saboteur like Jazz. That body type would need a low profile, highly mobile joints, efficient pneumatic actuators and a fast CPU. For Mikaela, he figured a body like Fire Star, one of his trainees back on Cybertron would do. Slightly shorter than Bumblebee, but just as quick and nimble with her hands which came in handy in her work as a medic. And finely, Ellie. She had a kind heart, but when there was fighting to be done, she was not afraid to jump into the fray. The day Starscream attacked the base the first time, she had come out of her barrack with her father's pistol aiming it at Skywarp's optics. Only a quick save from Optimus kept her from eating a missile. Prime had scooped up Mikaela and threw them like a bowling ball into the med-bay. She seemed like the perfect child of IronHide and Chromia. It seemed fitting, since the two Autobots had become surrogate parents to the young woman.

With the basic designs chosen, Ratchet shuttered his optics and slipped into recharge, programming his CPU to come on-line the moment their altitude decreased to less than ten thousand feet.

*******************************************

It had taken the Autobots less than half an hour after they recovered to understand the full extent of Starscream's undertaking. Sam, Mikaela and Ellie were gone, and so was Ratchet. The reasons for which were fleshed out by an inconsolable Bumblebee. The three needed their sparks moved into housings that were able to sustain them better than the tiny containers they were in. Somehow Starscream knew this. Somehow he had ripped through international treaty to recover the bodies of Bonecrusher, Brawl and Blackout, each having more than enough material within them to build three shells for their sparks. And since Ratchet was the only Autobot on the planet that knew how to build shells out of spare parts, Starscream had conned him into the job. Though it gave the Autobots some comfort that someone they knew was going to supervise the construction. It was what would happen afterward that was frightening.

Secretary Keller had made a few calls to contacts from within his own department. What he had found out did not make the man happy at all. It seemed that Ellie's parents had been supplying key officials with information regarding the Autobots. Not only names and designations, but the location of their base had been compromised. The Major and Commander had also been in secret talks with the last vestiges of Sector Seven, which did not bode well at all. The major players within the agency were hell bent on getting their hands on any one of the other 'NBE's with the express purpose of turning it into leverage. And if tonight's actions were any indication, they had found that leverage in the three sparklings. This made Sector Seven no better than the Decepticons in Keller's eyes.

Informing the remaining Autobots of his findings was just as hard as John had anticipated it to be. Bumblebee's keening wail combined with IronHide's stony silence seemed to sum up what Optimus himself felt at hearing the news. He had tried to console Ellie's parents, tried to get them to understand that it was still their daughter. She was the same, just with a different covering. But they would not accept it and accused Optimus of playing 'God' with the All-Spark. Nothing he could have said would have changed their minds, so Optimus let it be. He hoped that with time, they would come to understand that who Ellie was had changed little. But neither could see past the metal, and cut Ellie out of their lives entirely.

Optimus sighed. Grief was something he understood well. He had lost many comrades in this war, some dying by his command. He understood the mental anguish that threatened to boil over into vengeance. It was so easy to give into it. To take a life for a life. But he had always told himself that acting in such a way would make him no better than those who had taken the mech he had cared about. But he had never lost someone as close as Ellie was to her parents. He had come close once, at Tiger Pax. Despair seemed inviting then. But he had others to remind him of his duty. Mechs and femms who counted on him, to pull him back from the brink and help him to focus on what was important. But this was different.

Where Sector Seven was getting their clout, not even Keller knew. But they apparently had enough sway within the U.S. government to strike a deal with the remaining Decepticons in order to further their goals. Not one of Keller's contacts knew everything that was going on. There was so many covert agendas being batted around that it was hard to know which ones were true and which were decoys. Even following up on the leads was risky. Just putting feelers out, asking to obvious a question could get their attention and put Simmons on the defensive. Even if Commander and Major Murdock knew what they were getting into, there was a good chance that if it fell through, they would be brought up on treason charges. Keller had had his colleagues slip in an additional clause to the Transformer Registration Initiate that made it a treasonous offense for any citizen of the United States to have any willful dealings with any being associated with Decepticons. He pulled an often used trick; slip the clause in a few hours before voting to make sure anyone opposed to it would have no time to even file a motion to suspend voting. If they found it.

Unfortunately not even that law could track one of these beings if they wanted to stay hidden. Despite their size they had an uncanny ability to be anywhere at all and have no one know what they were standing next to. Even the EID on Ratchet had been disabled. Or perhaps turned off. If Keller's limited time with the Autobot medic was anything to go by, Ratchet had disabled it intentionally to give his patients the best chances of survival. He was like most of the medics within the armed forces, he would take parts from his own body if it would help ensure his patient's survival. The only difference between Ratchet and a human medic, was that he could make good on that wish.

**************************************************

As Ratchet had anticipated, he was given no time rest. The spark casings of the three non functional decepticons were laid out in front of him with little pretense. It was apparent the extent of the damage these three had taken was severe. Shaking his head, Ratchet set about resealing the casings and making sure the energon conduits leading to and from the casings were not clogged with debris. It had not helped that Soundwave and his charges were hanging around the makeshift repair facility. The ceiling of the warehouse was full of asbestos and cobwebs and every time Soundwave's main weapon brushed the top of the rafters Ratchet would have to cover the casing he was working on lest it be filled with dust. "Stand still or leave!" He had shocked the Decepticon into silence...well, even more silence. "If I have to do any disassembly work to remove particulate from any of the sparklings systems, I will use your body for spare parts!"

Ratchet fully expected to be terminated on the spot, but Soundwave merely sat as best he could in the corner and called Ravage to him. The feline mini-decepticon was getting too familiar with Ellie for Ratchet's liking. It was likely that the mini-bot was still curious if her legs still detached themselves. Though Soundwave was intelligent enough to know that Ratchet's threat extended to his charges as well, and kept them close at hand. He had heard enough about Ratchet from his spy work on the Autobots long ago to know never to cross the medic. He had spotted Sunstreaker sporting several deep dents in his cranial casing along with unpainted patches on his armor. What ever the warrior had done to incite such wrath, Soundwave did not want to know.

Now free to work without dust or dirt in his way, he was finely able to seal the third casing. It had been hours since he had started and he hoped that Optimus would be understanding enough not to go looking for him too soon. Optimus had personally observed many complete assembly operations and knew that the design and construction then core programming took time. Especially without the equipment that made such undertakings that much quicker. But then Ratchet had a brilliant idea, a dangerously eager smirk pulling at one corner of his mouth.

Soundwave caught the look on Ratchet's face, suddenly wishing he could turn invisible like Mirage and run as fast as he could. He wondered just what kind of punishment Starscream had intended for him when he ordered the telepath to guard Ratchet. What ever the offense, it must have been bad enough to be stuck in a warehouse with a medic from the pit. "How good are you with an arch-wielder?"

Soundwave was struck dumb for a moment before he recovered, thanking his maker for the battle-mask on his face. "I am no medic. However I have had experience with field repair." Ratchet grunted, satisfied.

"Good. I am going to need your help if I am to finish the shells quickly." Ratchet sent a file to Soundwave listing everything he would need for all three shells. "Either you or your charges could gather the needed materials for me. I have a feeling I will be active for quite a while desalinizing everything. I just hope barnacles have not had a chance to take hold on their bodies." The medic seemed to descend into grumbling loudly to himself, leaving Soundwave to happily leave the warehouse and gather the listed materials. From the length, it would take several trips to get the needed materials for just the rough protoforms. Armor could wait. The salt water damage made it necessary to start from scratch, and that would require smelting and heavy processing until anything on this planet could be made into something resembling acceptable armor. That was assuming that Starscream even wanted them able to defend themselves.

Soundwave had only just gotten that last thought out when Starscream himself wandered around the corner. As soon as their eyes met, Soundwave knew that Starscream had figured out what he had been sent to do, the snide insults and barbed remarks already loading themselves into his processor for easy use. Soundwave wanted nothing to do with what ever was bubbling up in the Seekers mind. "The Autobot already has the Spark casings fully repaired and ready to accept the low-grade transfer." Soundwave knew before he even saw the moment's indecision on Starscream's face that he had not thought of building the machine. Nor had he thought of a way to process raw fuels into energon for their use. The new 'Commander' of the Decepticon forces had more important things weighing on his CPU than how they would enable the survival of the two femms that would ensure their campaign was not cut short. Soundwave continued to gather the supplies he needed from the pile, including the energon processors from the three non-functioning mechs to fashion the equipment needed to keep energon flowing through the casings.

Starscream let Soundwave pass back into the warehouse, an acidic glare in his crimson eyes. Soundwave paid him no mind, and set the three energon processors on another table to begin configuring them to take a mixture of fuel and high-grade energon to produce low-grade. It was not difficult, only tedious. Though with Ratchet grumbling in the corner, it made to be circuit-racking as well. The Autobot medic was a volatile as Starscream on a bad day and twice as likely to make good on his threats. Hours seemed to pass like moments and the three processors were finished. All they needed was to be primed with energon and fed fuel to begin manufacturing low-grade to feed through the spark casings.

"What are you doing?" Ratchet's highly annoyed voice made Soundwave turn his head slowly, wondering what in the pit he had done to garner his attention. "Why don't you get one of those 'fly-boys' out there to donate? I need you fully functional. They can dump their entire fuel tanks into those things for all I care." Soundwave smirked behind his mask, thinking that he was going to like working with this medic. He would enjoy watching Ratchet putting caldera sized dents in Starscream's armor. Ravage purred from the table, sensing his creator's amusement. He hopped on Soundwave's shoulder, settling himself in the crook of his armor. He wanted to see the looks on the three Seekers faces as well when Soundwave informed them that they had been tapped as energon donors.

***********************************************

As expected, the three Seekers were not exactly thrilled with the idea of having their energon pumped out of their bodies into any thing else. Soundwave told them to think about the femmes they would be helping to save, and was not surprised at the immediate eagerness that bloomed in their optics. Though when the three were hooked up to their respective fuel processors, Starscream seemed deflated to know that his energon was going toward Sam's processor. Even experiencing the first stages of energon loss, with alarms trilling softly in his HUD, Starscream managed a lethal glare toward Soundwave. The telepath was punishing him for being too slow to recover Megatron's body from the abyss. The Seeker had lied and said there was not enough left to bother with retrieval. He would not dare tell the others that Megatron's shell was not where it was supposed to be. Nor was it where the currents could have taken it. And to make matters worse, there were huge gouge marks in the rock. Gouges made by a mech pulling himself along the sea bed while crawling with one leg.

Starscream was brought out his memory by a none too gentle knock on his head by Ratchet, who seemed to enjoy the surprise on the seeker's face a little too much. "Is your CPU still functioning?" A quick nod and grunt brought a rather disappointed look to the medics face. "Too bad. Well, don't just fall there, go lay down somewhere out of my way. These processors have a while yet before the low-grade is usable enough to begin the spark transfers.

Blasting the medic seemed so tempting. All he would need to do was to raise one cannon...

Ratchet tapped Starscream on the forehead, sending the Seeker keeling back-wards and into Soundwave's arms. By the time he was caught, Starscream was already recharging like a sparkling. Leaving Soundwave to deal with the Seeker, Ratchet returned to monitoring the three processors, nodding and grunting in satisfaction when they were working at optimal efficiency. He set all three in front of their new casings and waited for the processors to finish.