TFP - Freezing Absence

15. Out of Place

"I-I'm Flare," she mumbled, optics darting down to the floor, gradually adjusting to the light. "I've been alone for a long time . . ."

"Unfortunately that is often what happens with our kind these days," Ratchet muttered. "But I'm sure you'll be welcomed into our ranks easily enough. We take care of our kind, Flare. We'll protect you and teach you so that you don't have to be afraid of the Decepticons."

"Ratchet, how-?" The peds and the voice stopped in the doorway, and Flare looked up, squinting against the light a bit still. The tall figure of a red and blue mech stood there. Somewhere in her memory, Flare recalled his appearance, and how he'd been in the mine she'd followed her sire to so long ago.

She wondered if he remembered her, too. She wondered if he'd seen her at all that day. And with a bit of panic, she wondered if he'd already revealed her connection to the Decepticons. Would they harm her if they knew her affiliation?

It was in that moment that Flare remembered she'd never been branded. Her sire had insisted it wait until she was older, and even when she insisted she wanted to wear her father's emblem, he wouldn't allow it.

"You have awakened," he said gently, his voice deep as he nodded to her. Flare was flustered at the acknowledgement of her presence, and looked down to the floor again, gripping her arm nervously. "I am Optimus Prime, leader of the Autobots. You are welcome to stay here as long as you wish, and if you would like to reside as one of us, you are more than welcome to do so. Our numbers may be small, but we will fight for each other, and we will fight for you if you wish us to. You are still young, and I do not believe you've seen much of the war."

Flare vented quietly. If only he knew how much of the war he'd seen in her visions and her nightmares.

"Don't you want to be safe?" The voice whispered to her from the shadows. "Don't you want to be somewhere you're loved and cared for instead of hated and beaten? Don't you want to reside somewhere you don't have to worry about being shoved off a ship and falling to the planet below? They could give you that. They could give you all of that. He might not be your sire, but he's still a better mech than the one you call 'Daddy'."

"Shut up," Flare hissed through her denta. "You're wrong about him."

"Pardon me?" Optimus asked, and Ratchet watched her carefully, optic ridge raising. Still, he'd had no luck in reading her vitals.

"Nothing," Flare answered, forcing a smile and cheery tone. "I'm Flare. S-ScatterFlare." The voice vanished, and her cheery tone became real. "It's very nice to meet you, Optimus Prime. I'm lucky to have wound up in the care of such a caring and skilled medic."

Ratchet paused for just a moment before continuing to try, and fail, to read her vitals. "Well, if I wasn't any good, I would've been assigned a different task a long time ago." But beneath his metal, a bit of heat rushed to his faceplate, not that he'd ever show it.

Flare's smile grew a bit more before it fell again. Ratchet's confusion and frustration was showing at his inability to read her vitals.

"Unfortunately, you are unlike any mech or femme I've ever encountered," he muttered. "I can't read your energon levels, your sparkbeat, anything. Not even your ventilation systems. You're truly a first for me. Do you have any idea why I would be unable to get a read on you?"

Flare's optics dropped again before she shook her helm. "No," she lied. "I have no idea."

"Do you know how you wound up on Earth?" The medic asked gently. "Perhaps you were damaged in a crash?"

"I don't know," Flare lied again. "I just woke up here. I don't know how."

The medic could sense she was lying, but he decided not to press it further. Aside from her vitals not showing, her damage seemed to be minimal, and what you'd expect from one who'd been in stasis for a while.