Inflicted (TFP Ratchet Fanfiction)

6: Burned

Three days of doubting. Three days. What harm was there in finding out for himself, keeping it to himself?

Grunting in irritation with himself, he threw his servos at the keyboard again, making up his mind. A familiar feeling washed over him as he worked away, the screen flashing and words flying as he saved his progress with the data record of Iacon. He pushed that away, monitor and mind, and began hacking into the ship's systems, searching and breaking in rather easily, despite its impressive make up. He grinned with a small hint of pride as he flew through it all, having brought the cybernetic security down to its knees, in only an hour. Growing a bit excited, he typed faster, read faster, processed faster. Despite his weakened condition and horrible state of mind, he worked thoroughly and quickly.

There. The ship's log. Ratchet quickly glided through, skipping down to the specific date Optimus had been given to show. His spark fluttered a bit in happiness as he read it, a smile bursting out. Megatron had lied to him. There, right there. It said plainly and clearly that Bumblebee and Bulkhead had tried to shoot their way in, not far from the rendezvous point. It even had a file attached to the date, the feed of a few security cameras that had caught the action.

For a moment, Ratchet hesitated again. Did he want to see it? He realized quickly that if the two of them hadn't even made it close enough to the ship for Ratchet to hear them, or even WORD of them, that one or both of them could be injured. He hated the thought of their agony, and him not being able to help them. He quickly opened the file, a bit frantically. He had to know.

He had to know.

The file was clean and precise, as he expected it to be. It showed the images clearly. Ratchet grit his teeth as he watched the several platoons of Vehicons standing in wait. They suddenly began shooting and dividing strategically before the medic even saw what happened, which meant the Vehicons had caught sight of the scout and wrecked before the cameras did. Ratchet gripped the console hard as he watched the Decepticons fire mercilessly at them. Bumblebee popped into view first, firing with ease and determination in every step as he ran. Bulkhead was not that far behind, his jaw firm and anger in his movements as he barreled through the Vehicons.

Ratchet knew it was coming. It made logical sense. Still, he gasped in horror as Bee was finally brought down, after having taken many wounds to his frame. Bulkhead quickly came to his head, although he was not looking very clean himself. The wrecker helped Bumblebee up and through the what seemed like endless wave of Vehicons, before a GroundBridge appeared ahead of them. The two hesitated, making Ratchet's spark twitch with a certain feeling of longing, but they quickly transformed into their vehicle modes and drove in, just escaping the enemy.

The videos abruptly ended, the recording no longer than it needed to be. Ratchet stood there, feeling uncertain about how he should feel about what he had found. Relief and gladness has filled him, knowing that his family had come to try and find him, despite everything. At the same time, however, he knew that they shouldn't have. It had only hurt them, and Ratchet had no way of knowing if Bumblebee was in better health. It made him tremble a bit, his spark sinking. He stood there in silence, the only light present at all being the screen. Emotions battled within him, and he let them, making him shake and his physical pain feel worse.

When was the last time he had been so overcome with emotion like this? The turmoil within himself made him hurt, and he hated it. He just wanted the pain to go away, no matter how childish that sounded. The medic was good at keeping the troublesome feelings out of the way, normally. Decisive and stern was all he really needed to be most of the time. It helped keep the vulnerable part of him in check. He was the medic, and all of his team's senior. They didn't need to see him at such a loss, though that wasn't to say they hadn't before.