Wild Ride (Cyberverse Mech!reader X Hot Rod)

18: Ghost in the Machine

Once again I found myself floating in the void I had seen multiple times now.

'What is happening to me?' I called out to the void, my voice sounding ethereal and distant. 'Where am I?' I do not know why I bothered, no one was going to answer. But something did.

'Remember.' A whisper said.

I then saw my death, or at least the memory Windblade helped me repair, but there was more to it. I saw my spark leave the gunmetal gray husk and gently hovered as if awaiting something.

'It's a shame this universe has already seen its judgment.' One of the Quintesson's I identified simply as The Scientist said. 'But you are such a beautiful Anomaly, perhapse we shall not destroy you yet. After all, you were suppose to protect this universe. You should be the one to see it fall.' The Scientist captured the spark in some sort of containment device and brought it close to his ugly face. 'Slaying a Quintesson Judge is punishable by death, so enjoy existing. For now.'

The memory faded back to the void and a new one played, one that was too painful to describe. It was of the destruction of the universe, the very fabric of space and time tearing itself to pieces. I felt the universe die and become the void I now was in.

'I don't understand!' I called out to the void. No answer was returned. Instead I felt like I was falling and falling fast.

While I was in this state Ratchet wad hurriedly hooking me up to a spark support  system and fighting desperately to keep me online.

"Dammit! I can't keep him steady!" Ratchet exclaimed as he rolled me onto my side to hook up another monitor and spark stabilizer. Eventually after much struggle he was able to keep my spark beating at a somewhat normal rate. "Phew, now let's see what caused this." He then noticed the small item that had been planted on me and immediately opened a comlink. "Medbay to Wheeljack. Gonna need you for something!" A few moments later Wheeljack entered followed by Hot Rod and the pair were quick to join Ratchet's side.

"What is it Ratchet?" Wheeljack asked.

"What do you reckon this thing is?" Ratchet said as he pointed to the tiny device.

"Hmm, if I were a betting bot I'd say that was a killswitch." Wheeljack said after inspecting it carefully.

"Someone tried to assassinate him?" Hot Rod asked.

"Looks like it, I can get it off and hopefully figure out how it got there. Hold him still." With the help of Hot Rod and Ratchet they were able to hold my frame steady as Wheeljack gently pried the device out of my back. My optics snapped open and my spark rate skyrocketed before crashing to a barely there rhythm.

"What did you do?!" Hot Rod snapped.

"Nothing! These things aren't suppose to do that!" Wheeljack said defensively. A quiet sigh left me and my optics fluttered open and I sat up with my hand gripping my head.

"Hey! Lay back down!" Ratchet huffed as he pushed me back. I looked over to him and Wheeljack with confusion before glancing over to Hot Rod who gave a relieved sigh.

"You scared me big guy." Hot Rod said. I gave him and apologetic look and then winced a little as my head throbbed. I then saw the device Wheeljack was holding and jumped out of the medical berth in fear.

"Whoa hey easy there! What's got you spooked?" Wheeljack asked. I then pointed to the device with a very terrified look. I recognized what he held, and I never wanted to see one again. "You know what this is." I nodded in response, desperately waving for Wheeljack to dispose of it. "I don't understand your hand flapping Y/D."

Frustrated I went over to one of the consoles and used the monitor to display a very specific and obscure schematic to him.

"Isn't that... one of your tools?" Hot Rod asked. Grimly I nodded. "What is it?" I then made a motion of a throat getting slit followed by a dramatic death only to rise back up and wall around like the human creature called a 'zombie'. "So... a killswich that makes you... undead?" I shook my head and tried to further elaborate only to continue to lose the trio further and further away from what I was trying to say.

"Oh hold still." Ratchet huffed as he grabbed some sort of chip and jammed it into the back of my neck. "There, a Cybertronian sign language data chip. Use to belong to Bumblebee but he never used it." Ratchet pressed down onto the chip so that it clicked into place and I felt a stream of information run to me as the language software downloaded into my processor.

*can you understand me?* I signed nervously, unsure if anyone in the room could.

"I can." Hot Rod said.

"By default I can as well." Ratchet said. "Now spit out what you were trying to say before."

*I was trying to tell you that the device "kills" the target but then resurrects them. It's one of the things I use to use to fake my death when I did assassinations.* I then pointed to the schematic and then to the device in Wheeljack's hand. *that is a modified version, one for... when there was no way out.*

"What's he saying?" Wheeljack asked.

"Y/D, are you saying... the thing that Wheeljack pulled off of you was... a suicide device?" Hot Rod asked. I reluctantly nodded.

*tell Wheeljack to be careful with it. It's a fragment of my past that I wish to forget ever existed.*

"Be careful with it Wheeljack." Hot Rod said.

"I will don't you worry about a thing." As Wheeljack left I looked over to Ratchet with a slightly urgent expression.

*can I go back to my habsuite?* I signed.

"Not until I run a full diagnostic workup on you Y/D." I glared at the medic in annoyance and reluctantly sat back on the medical berth. After around an hour of poking and prodding from the old medic I was finally released from the med bay and I joined uo with Hot Rod, Bumblebee, and Cheetor.

"The Anomaly survived! This is great!" Cheetor exclaimed happily.

"Like you said, he's tougher than he looks." Hot Rod said while playfully slapping my back.

*please, you Autobots just can't take as much damage as I can.* I jokingly signed. I then noticed the confusion from the others and I awkwardly rubbed the back of my neck.

"What was that all about?" Bumblebee asked.

"Cybertonian sign language, he was saying that he's built of sterner stuff." Hot Rod explained.

"Wait, why do you know Cybertronian sign language?" Bumblebee asked.

"When I was saved from that fire by Y/D, I couldn't really hear much and picked it up while I was recovering. Didn't know I still remembered it however." Hot Rod then looked up at me and gave me a sweet smile that almost ignited my cooling fans and turned my face blue. "Now it's no longer a guessing game huh?"

*that is true my friend, very true.*