When morning arose, Minnie woke up with a start. She had got used to nodding off to sleep in the cold cage in Shockwave's lab. Putting her hands on her lap, she sighed heavily. Reaching down, she opened the door and jumped down. It seemed Optimus was still sleeping. Walking quickly down the corridor she turned the corner and smiled at the sight of Ratchet. Just the bot she wanted to see. "Morning." She said, Ratchet gave a start and turned to look down at her.
"Morning to you too, how are you?" Ratchet's usual blunt tone was seemingly replaced by one of genuine care and concern.
"Hm." Minnie appreciated his worrying over her. But how could she go about answering that question? She herself was okay, she supposed. But mentally? So many things were going through her head. With more questions, Shockwave probably would've told her more, but surely Ratchet was just as good? He was of a scientific mind too.
"A bit like that?" Ratchet smiled, Minnie nodded slowly. "What is it?"
"Hm?"
"What is it? You look like you want to ask me something. You humans have this expression when you wish to ask a question." Ratchet said while pointing a digit at her face, Minnie wasn't sure she was pulling a face, apparently she was.
She smiled and shook her head, there really wasn't anyway to hide things from Ratchet. "Can I talk to you in confidence?"
"I don't like the sounds of this already."
"Ratchet, I don't think I'm human." Minnie said, Ratchet laughed and waved a hand at her. When he saw she wasn't joking, he coughed awkwardly and composed himself. Honestly, it was the reaction she was expecting. She wasn't expecting him to take her seriously, not straight off the bat. She rolled her eyes though, not taking his reaction to heart.
"Why do you say this?"
Minnie lifted up her hand and winced as the skin split, metal clinked against each other and she was soon aiming a gun up at him. "Humans don't tend to be able to do this."
"By the All Spark." Ratchet said distantly. He leaned down, "What did Shockwave do to you?" Ratchet's optics scanned over what he was seeing, he truly couldn't believe it at all. His mind reeled with questions and possibilities, but it all depended on how much Minnie was willing to divulge, or if she truly knew anything at all.
"Nothing, nothing on board. On Cybertron however-"
"Wait a minute, wait a minute." Ratchet held up a hand, Minnie lowered her arm and winced as it returned back to normal. "Are you suggesting...? Oh, of course you are...that Shockwave..." Ratchet said to himself. Clearly he was processing everything to himself. "Does Optimus know?"
"No."
"I really think he should."
"Can you not like...give me a check up before telling him?"
"Minnie," Ratchet sighed. "Keeping something this big from him for any longer isn't going to end well."
"Fine! I'll go wake him up and tell him. But if he's grouchy and sleep deprived, I'm pinning the blame on you." Minnie said and pointed a finger at him. Turning, she shuffled awkwardly down the corridor. She passed Optimus's room and ducked into her adopted one. Pulling out clean clothes she changed into a simple black vest and green hoodie and jeans. Pulling on her boots again she walked back down the corridor.
——
There was a very distinct tapping, Optimus became rather alert to it because he didn't know where it was coming from. When he become more awake he realised the tapping was someone tapping against the front of him. Shifting he looked down, Minnie of course it was. "I really would rather let you sleep because you did do a very daring rescue, and I never said thank you, but thank you, and there's something I have to tell you. I would prefer it if I could tell you after you had rested more, but I spoke to Ratchet and Ratchet thought otherwise, and perish the thought of going and doing the opposite of his words." Minnie rambled out rather quickly.
Optimus nodded slowly, he caught her words which was surprising considering how quick she spoke. "What is it?"
Minnie tapped her fingers together thoughtfully. "Obviously, for all purposes there is more to you than just being a truck, catch my drift?" He nodded. "I think I have it on good grounds to say the same applies for me." He looked down at her for a long while. "You erm, don't get what I'm on about really do you?"
"Not really."
"At least you're honest." Minnie laughed. She was glad he wasn't humouring her like he humoured Fowler at times. "Maybe a show and tell would be better." Minnie sighed heavily. "No freaking out." She held a finger up at him, Optimus gave a low nod and watched interestedly as she repeated what she had done earlier on.
Optimus looked at her, leaning down he lifted her arm up with a digit. "What did Shockwave do to you?" He asked lowly, his tone was angry and Minnie hadn't heard him speak like that before. It worried her, that he would feel such a strong emotion for little her.
"Nothing! Nothing, I swear...but as I said to Ratchet-"
"He created you on Cybertron?"
"Well...yeah..." Minnie blinked, Optimus let her arm drop back to her side. He shook his head slowly, "It's bad isn't it? It's bad to admit that I have no family I know of because my family doesn't exist, nor do my friends, other than you guys naturally. It also explains why I feel so at home here with you all. But, it's bad to know that I was created as a weapon against you all." Minnie looked thoughtful before slapping a hand to her forehead. "If Shockwave created me...does that make him my father? Oh wow, how screwed up is that?!" Minnie crossed her arms. "Am I some sort of freak show? I feel like Frankenstein's Monster."
Optimus held out a hand, Minnie hesitantly clambered up. "You are none of those things. But what you are may be more complicated than what we originally thought. Perhaps we should return to Ratchet?" He started forwards as Minnie sat down in his hand. Out of all things, he wasn't expecting this. He knew that the Decepticon scientist would have done something, but he didn't know he would be behind Minnie's origin. That certainly made things more complicated. Although it was safe to say, that Minnie was definitely sided with the Autobots. Looking down at the human in his hand, he sighed. What was to say that there wasn't a homing chip in her? But if there was, Decepticons would be crawling all on the base by now.
Ratchet looked at them both as they appeared. Minnie stood up and jumped down when Optimus had lowered his hand. Minnie looked up at the medic. "Can we avoid weapons testing? I found that as far from enjoyable as possible...well...it was until I shot Knock Out." Minnie sniggered, against his better judgement Ratchet let out a short quiet laugh.
"So, you're the culprit behind the three hours of buffering?" Optimus questioned, Minnie looked up at him with a smirk and nodded. "Quite the aim it seems you have."
Soon others joined them, curious really as to what was going on. Ironhide and Bumblebee sat and watched the rather odd turn of events. Bumblebee tilted his head to the side and let out a low beep, "I hear that," Ironhide said. "Weird."
Minnie walked up to them, "Yes?"
"Nice gun." Ironhide pointed at the gun which was formally her arm. The chromatic appearance of it was shining rather brilliantly in the large, overhead bright lights within the room.
Minnie smirked. "We can't compete, I'm afraid." She giggled.
"Minnie, get back here, I need to finish some tests." Ratchet called out from the medi-bay.
Ironhide smiled. "Hiding from the Doc?"
"No, merely strolling away."
Bumblebee made a chorus of beeps which could be similar to laughing. Ironhide laughed too and shook his head. "He'll come get you, if you're not careful."
"He would not- woah!" Minnie said defiantly and gave a start when she was carefully scooped up. "Optimus, can you put me down?"
"Ratchet hasn't finished his work." The leader said while placing her back down. Ratchet shook his head and pointed to a metal bed. Minnie scrambled and climbed up onto it.
"What do you think?" Minnie looked to the medic.
"I think you may be one of a kind, on this planet that is."
"There were some like me on Cybertron?"
"Not exactly," Optimus answered as Ratchet picked up some small tools, he shone his scanner on her and looked to the computer as the results popped up.
"Which means there weren't." Minnie huffed. "Am I an endangered species?" She laughed, trying to make light of this situation.
"You can fall into that category." Optimus answered, he was glad Minnie wasn't being upset over this matter. Most people wouldn't cope well with finding out they weren't exactly human. But when he thought over it, she had spent a day and a half coming to terms with everything. Just a shame Shockwave was her companion for the moment.
"This is...amazing..."
"All right, Doc." Ironhide said cutting Ratchet's moment off. Him and Bumblebee had moved over to see what was going on. Bulkhead, Arcee and Smokescreen were currently out doing patrols.
Ratchet coughed and put a hand to his chin. "Exterior is organic, organs are too. But her blood, veins and skeleton isn't." Ratchet explained as he continued to look upon his findings.
Minnie sat up. "At least my bones can't break." She said quietly. "So...what does this mean exactly?" She looked around confused.
Ratchet looked down at her as she stood. "It means...well..."
"You're one of us," Ironhide reached down and nudged Minnie on the shoulder. She tottered about and smiled up at him. Well, it was definitely a nice feeling to get the approval and acceptance of one of the hardest and more serious bots about the base.
——
(Edited: 6/August/2020)