The Parting Glass

New Recruit

"I have a solvent that can clean that out back at base." Ratchet rolled his optics after transforming with the others. I transformed my servos into both my cannons and activated my ped thrusters. We approached the pod carefully and Arcee wiped away some dust.

"A Decepticon escape pod." Optimus concluded. No shit, Sherlock.

"If there was a Decepticon, it blew its way out." Arcee stated before someone opened fire on us.

"Can't we have one peaceful mission?" I groaned as my cannons whirred to life and I began firing on the Vehicons and some Insecticons.

"Apparently not." Arcee replied jumping behind a boulder as I ducked behind the pod.

"I'm so gonna need a drink after this." I muttered firing some more.

     An Insecticon cornered me, so I freed one servo and summoned my talisman into the giant sword. The beast looked at me in fear as I charged him and pierced his thick armor with the Knight's blade. A screech came from my opponent as my weapon sliced through his spark. I didn't bat an eyelash as I watched it fall to the ground dead. As I went to poke my head out and fire my activated cannon, I saw the energon on fire and rushing for the pod. Before I knew what was happening, I was engulfed in extremely hot blue flames while flying back into a pile of rocks. It took a good moment for the pain to hit me as I laid on the ground. Then a scream of excruciating pain tore its way out of me. The blue sky was filled with smoke as I listened to someone cheering.

~Where's Dawn?~ I heard Bee whirr. Slowly I managed to roll over into my charred front side. I looked down and saw that underneath my blackened flesh was smooth silver metal.

"Is she not with you?" Arcee asked.

"Who's Dawn?" a new voice questioned.

"DAWN!" Optimus called out slowly moving around the area. I made a pained smile form.

"O-over h-here!" I shouted while wincing in pain. Rushing pedsteps came my direction and Optimus stopped in front of me. "It hurts!"

Tears formed in my vision as I was gently picked up.

"Who is that?" the new voice inquired. I looked at the new bot and glared at him. He was the one who shot the energon.

"Your living nightmare, judging by that glare." Arcee crossed her arms while worry was etched onto her faceplate. Much like the others that knew her better than the new recruit. My vision went dark as my body forced itself into stasis. Damn, cybertronian parts.

"What happened to Dawn?" worried voices shouted when I was laid on a smooth cool surface.

"He happened." I heard Arcee growl.

"I didn't know she was there! What is she anyway?" the new kid defended.

"No longer human, thanks to you. I'll have to remove all the burnt flesh and she'll be left with just a basic protoform. Even her clothing is incinerated." Ratchet snapped. It was weird hearing this while I was out of it.

"She's a native life form?" the new bot gasped.

"Was, and she served alongside a different Optimus in a parallel dimension." Bulkhead sneered.

"Easy Bulk." Miko warned the green mech.

"He almost killed Dawn! She's one of our strongest fighters. Nearly as strong as Optimus." Bulkhead told the girl. I felt a warmth in my spark chamber that spread throughout my body. It was quite soothing.

     Silence soon filled the base other than the hum of computers, Bulkhead's therapy, and Miko's coaching. Gentle and well trained hands moved along my body gently peeling something off of me. One particular spot sent a wave of pain through me till after a few hours, a crème like substance was placed on me before a blanket covered everything but my head. Scared that I lost connection to my prosthetics, I tried wiggling my digits and toes. It worked, they were still there. After a while I felt a new energy and slowly opened my... optics. I had noticed that my human eye was slowly changing beneath the flesh, but that was all. Carefully, I looked around the room then at what exposed parts of my body I could. It was all smooth metal known as protoform. Even my limbs had become protoform. Although I was metal, I was complete, no prosthesis at all. A small smile crept onto my face as I looked at my perfectly smooth arms.