[July/August 2008 Entry, #7 of #7] Better Left Unsaid
Title: Better left unsaid
Rating: T
Universe: TFA
Pairing: Ratchet x Omega
Word Count: 5,400
It didn’t matter what time you were from or what planet or system. War was always long and hard. There were always those that saw more than their fair share of hard times and always those that had no business being mixed up in it in the first place.
When the war was over, there were those that emerged as heroes, and those that came out broken. There were always those that came out of the whole thing as heroes, benefiting from some seemingly brave and noble acts or leadership.
But Ratchet knew the truth. It didn’t matter who wore medals or bright crests on their chests. It didn’t matter who got to sit in a comfortable chair and call himself Prime or Ultra or some other ego stroking title. In the end, they all had forgotten who the real hero was.
Everyone had lost someone by the time the war had come to an end. It all just boiled down to how you handled yourself once the fighting stopped. Many good bots had required extensive rehabilitation. Those that could not stop fighting were sent to get their processors wiped clean. They called it a ‘fresh new start’. Those that could not get over their losses or particularly bad episodes were sent to have their memories or personalities modified to ‘help them become model citizens’ again.
But those were just the extreme cases. The rest, like Ratchet, were left to find a way to move on and try to live normally again. Many found their own ways to cope and simply forgot.
Ratchet refused to forget. He knew that talking about it would help. It would let him move on and let go. But he wasn’t ready to let go. He didn’t want to relive it either. If he didn’t speak of it and didn’t let it go, he could hold on that much longer.
He could still remember the face of each and every soldier he had operated on. Those that he had lost, those whose sparks he had held in his hands… A few soldiers had left more than faces. They had touched his very spark.
Ratchet had once been called a hero. He had been given a medal and offered a cushy job. He had gone down as one of the top medic bots in the war. He had done more for and saved those with injuries that other medic bots wouldn’t even touch.
He had been young back then. Young and foolish. It hurt his spark to think of how many mistakes he had made. How angry he had been… He had turned down those offers. Thrown the medals back in their faces and made demands that left the higher ups wondering if he would be one of those in need of rehabilitation or not.
He had asked to be taken away from it all. No more fighting. No more hard choices. No more sparks withering and dying in his hands. He didn’t want to face a world where a beautiful young intelligence officer was wiped clean and left no more than an empty drone. A world where the greatest heroes of them all were forgotten…
A medic bot was meant to be alone. They were meant to stay in the front lines, running across mine fields and through heavy fire. To stop at each and every body, dead or alive and attempt to treat them. To revive the fallen and put the weapon back in their hands so they could run forward and get shot again.
It was a lonely existence. If he stayed still too long and thought about it, it was enough to drive him to the breaking point. So he hadn’t stayed still. He had pushed himself harder and kept himself going longer. It was this effort to keep himself sane that had made him so distinguished. They thought him a hero when really he was just trying to survive.
Midway through the war, he had met and lost Arcee. The experience had left him bitter and broken. He hadn’t cared about his own life. Walking through the roughest of Decepticon fire for those he knew were already gone.
Just when he had hit bottom, he had been reassigned to a different location. His heroics on the battle field had lead to a promotion to a top secret project. It was all a big laugh to him. This war was a joke and there was no hope for anyone.
He had been about to declare his feelings on the matter to his commanders when he had seen the ‘project’.
“Are you out of your minds?! Do you have any idea what that is?” He stared up at the slumbering giant in wonder.
“This is Omega Supreme.”
“That’s a guardian! They’ve been extinct for millions of years!”
“You are correct about one thing. This is indeed a guardian. The last of his kind. He was the last guardian ever created. In essence, he is still quite young.” His commanders handed him the charts confirming the current status of the giant.
“Yeah, young by a few thousand millennia.” The chart did confirm that as guardians generally went, he was in fact quite young. “So what do you expect me to do about any of this?”
“The war is turning, soldier. An end is in sight. But we need more help now than ever. This is our last line of defense against the Decepticons.”
“His kind were wiped out by the Decepticons when this damn war started!” He interjected and angrily flipped through the charts. Had the war really been going on for so long?
“He was badly damaged. We found him in stasis ages ago, and it’s taken us this long just to get him back into working order. Now it’s up to you to finish the job.”
“You mean you want me to wake him up so he can go to war.”
“In simple terms, yes. We’re counting on you, Ratchet. You’re the best medic bot we have right now.”
Ratchet looked down at the chart then back up at the giant. This went far beyond his training as a simple medic bot. Yet, this was a life that needed his help. And if they could end the war…
“Alright. I’m going to need some tools and all the notes you have on him! This isn’t like simply opening a bot up and taking a look inside. This thing has more components than half our army put together!”
In all honesty, he hadn’t a clue where to begin. The major damage had been repaired already. But it was the little things that always lead to problems further down the road.
Ratchet slowly walked around the guardian, taking in his size for the first time. He recalled the history lessons on the Guardians, how there had been some that transformed into a whole city. He couldn’t even begin to imagine something that large. And to think that this one was just a child in comparison to them.
He couldn’t help but wonder how he had survived the attacks when all the others had fallen. It must have been devastating to lose your whole life like that… His spark sunk.
“Don’t worry big fella… I’ll take care of yah.” He lightly patted the large shoulder, marveling at how thick and strong the armor must be.
“I’ll need a lift over here! I want to take a look at his spark chamber eventually! See what kind of damage you uncouth scientists have done.” He seldom trusted any other hand but his own. They were the only fingers that could do more than a decent patch up job in a hurry.
He waited impatiently for his helpers to get a lift going, wishing he still had his own EMP. There really was no replacing something that had become an extension of your body. All the ones he had borrowed and gotten as replacements always seemed to fail him when he needed them the most. Though he wondered if he really could hurt something as large as this giant. Did they feel like any other bot?
Finally getting up to a decent height, he was able to look down at his patient properly for the first time. His spark skipped several pulses.
The face shield that was a characteristic of most guardians was badly cracked and burned. The face under it was not at all what he had expected. Chiseled, yet young and so trusting. Even as he slept in his stasis, a pained expression was more than apparent.
“You fools! Just because he’s in stasis doesn’t mean he can’t feel anything!” Had he the time, he would have gone on a tirade, tracking down each and every idiot that had ever worked on his patient and smacked them so hard they’d be looking out of their afts.
Turning to get a good look at the open chest, he spotted the problem. Major repairs aside, they had missed more than a few of the small problems. Small but highly important problems. His fuel lines were riddled with cracks and holes, his main sensory wires shredded from their protective casings and halfway melted.
“You left him in his own self induced stasis? You’re lucky I don’t come down there and make you eat your own cervos! There’s a break in the connection, he’s only part way under. Someone go get me a decent EMP, a jumper cable big enough to support this fella and enough wire to reroute half of Cybertron! Then get out of my sight! I need some peace and quiet. The sounds of your idiotic processors are giving me a blown fuse.”
He didn’t wait for them to acknowledge him. He couldn’t let this travesty of a repair job go on any longer. He positioned the platform and leaned down, diving his hands into the tangle of wires, starting to quickly strip the melted wires and prepare them for replacements.
Ratchet worked for hours, only stopping long enough to make further demands or to chase off any noisy and impatient officers. Work this critical and delicate required more concentration than those idiots were capable of.
Finally sitting back, he looked over the giant, satisfied to see his face no longer contorted in pain.
“Are you done?”
“Of course I’m not done! I need rest and you need to start gathering together enough energon to power this fella.”
“Then you’ll be done soon?”
“This work takes time!” He glared at the officer. They were all the same. They wanted instant results. They didn’t care that a life took time. “I can have him up and running soon enough, but he’s not going out to battle till I give the okay. I need to make sure it’s all working properly. You don’t want your ‘last defense’ to crash mid battle, do you?”
The officer stayed silent, only nodding and going off to most likely report to his commanders. Ratchet distantly wondered if these officers had ever even seen battle. It was so sheltered in here away from the Decepticons and the constant death…
Climbing down for a much needed stretch and refueling, Ratchet looked up at his patient quietly. This guardian had seen things back in the days of early Cybertron that he could only dream of. The first battles… The first wars. The first peace that didn’t last nearly long enough…
The Decepticons had viewed the Guardians as dangerous and attacked them early on. They had all been taken completely by surprise. Many even killed while they recharged. First their cities and homes were wiped out, leaving them with no purpose, then they were killed one after another.
And here they were, bringing this poor Guardian back just so he could fight for them. Did they have any right to ask that this bot that was still just a sparkling by all right fight for them?
A bot this size wouldn’t be forced. If he did not wish to fight, who was going to stand in front of him and tell him no?
With a sigh, Ratchet patted him on the arm and took a seat while he ate his energon snacks. “I’m sorry about all this, big guy. You don’t deserve to be brought back into our mess.” He stayed silent for a moment longer, feeling foolish.
Many medic bots felt it was pointless to speak to a patient when they were out. They couldn’t process what you were saying anymore than they could respond. Yet, it had always given Ratchet hope. A feeling that as long as he could talk to them, there was the chance they would come back and make a full recovery. It gave him hope.
“You don’t have to fight… None of us do, really. I guess we’re all here for our own reasons really. I wanted to make a difference. To help my fellow bots… That’s all that’s keeping me here anymore. If I leave, how many will die that I could have saved?”
It was a hard truth. As much as he wanted to leave. To get away from it all… It was the knowledge that someone was dying because he wasn’t there doing his job.
“After I finish fixing you up, I guess I’m going back to the front lines.” He paused and looked up at the red and yellow armor. “They say with you there, the war could end soon… But then what? Is everyone expected to just settle down and go back to the way things were before? No one even remembers how it used to be. We’ve nothing to look forward to! Everything’s gone by now…”
It was hard to stop now. This had been troubling him for so long and he needed to get it out. “And you. What will you do after the war? Where will you go? You’re a Guardian with nothing left to guard! Your city was destroyed before I was even a glimmer in someone’s spark!”
“Not important.” Ratchet nearly lost his energy as a deep rumble interrupted his thoughts. “Not how it used to be… How it will be.”
He looked up in alarm as the armor he had been leaning against shifted. “You aren’t supposed to be online yet!”
He mentally cursed at himself for his negligence at taking the time to fully understand how a Guardian functioned. They weren’t like regular bots. He should have known that a regular stasis lock wasn’t going to be strong enough to hold him for much longer. He’d probably run the power down from the strain.
“I am a Guardian of the people… Not of a single place…” Omega shifted again and turned his head to look down at Ratchet fully.
Ratchet didn’t know what to say as he stared up into the large optics that were slowly taking him in. “I… I’m Ratchet. Medic bot, first class.”
“Omega Supreme. I am programmed to protect.”
“Pleasure to meet you.” He slowly snapped out of it. “You aren’t supposed to be up yet! You could be putting a strain on your circuits! I haven’t finished repairing you yet!”
“Dok bot. I am… Alone?”
Ratchet flinched at how vulnerable those words were. “You’re the last one. I’m sorry…But you aren’t alone.” He walked up and rested a hand on Omega’s shield, lightly feeling the small cracks and dents that he hadn’t gotten to yet. “I’m with you and I’m not going anywhere any time soon.”
Omega smiled and settled back once more. “Stasis activated. Will resume functions again when ready.”
Ratchet stood still, watching as Omega slipped back into stasis quietly. For the first time since he had joined the war, he had a purpose.
--
Ratchet worked tirelessly, ignoring the various officers sent to check up on his progress. He refused to stop and rest until he could allow the giant to wake again.
At last, he sat back and moved to open Omega’s chest plates. He had seen hundreds of sparks during the war. Held them in his hands, jumped them with his emergency cables in an effort to restart them, and stroked them gently as he urged them to stay with him. But seeing Omega’s spark up close like this caused his own to pulse harder. The size and sheer amount of energy radiating out of it was amazing.
He hesitated, taking the time to fully appreciate something that powered a bot of Omega’s size.
“Alright big guy… Let’s get you up and running again.” Slipping his jumper cables in to attach to Omega, he fired up his engines, giving it all he had.
The spark faded slightly, causing Ratchet a painful moment of panic. He was foolish to think that his engines alone would be enough to power something of that size. He couldn’t pull back now. To rip away before completing the cycle would be painful and dangerous for them both. Forcing his engines to work harder, he forced all of his energy into his patient.
“Don’t you give up on me now, damn it! I’ve worked too hard to lose you now!” He braced himself for the backlash as his systems started to overheat and crash. The spark before him shuddered and started to pulse brightly; growing till it filled the whole spark chamber once more.
Ratchet pulled back, sliding to the floor as he delicately rubbed his smoldering arms.
“Dok Bot…” Omega came back online, sounding stronger than before. “You are hurt!”
“It’s nothing a few cycles of rest can’t fix. You’ve got a hell of a spark, Omega. How yah feeling?”
Omega Supreme slowly sat up, closing his chest and powering up his systems fully. “Better than ever before… Thank you, Ratchet.”
“Hey, it’s my job… And my pleasure.” He reached out and lay a hand on Omega’s arm. “Omega… You understand why they had me bring you back, don’t you? They’re going to use you as a weapon. They call you the last defense. They’re going to just bring you in to fight when they have no chance…”
Omega looked down at Ratchet fully, seeming to consider his words for a moment. “I understand. I am programmed to protect. It is my main function.”
“That doesn’t mean anything!” Ratchet was suddenly angry. He wouldn’t let Omega just be another bot he fixed only to turn around and get blown up all over again. “It’s just a program! You can override it. I can write it out of you! You can refuse them. Not like they can stand in front of you and tell you no.”
Omega leaned in and suddenly picked up Ratchet, bringing him up to look him in the eyes fully. Ratchet felt his spark pulsing harder, leaving him feeling weak and useless.
“I am a Guardian. I was built to protect the people, but it is also my choice to protect the ones that I care about. If it means I must sacrifice, it is what I choose.”
“But you don’t know what’s out there! Those Decepticons are ruthless! They wiped out your whole kind… You haven’t seen them like I have! They’ll rip out your servos!”
“You will be with me, won’t you, Ratchet?”
Ratchet was taken aback by the utter trust he saw in the optics in front of him. He could still feel the large spark pulsing as if he was still connected to it directly. “Of course I will be… If you want me to be.”
“You will make me strong. If they rip them out, you will put my servos back in.” Omega smiled; his youth showing through for the first time.
Ratchet couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m good, but I’m not that good. Don’t go testing my abilities when you’re out there.”
--
Ratchet had spent the next day arguing with his superiors about being reassigned to be stationed with Omega Supreme. In the end, they had agreed under the condition that Ratchet continue to be on call to the front should the need arise.
Their first battle had happened soon afterwards. Omega was barely up to speed with the war when the Decepticons had attacked the main city. The wreckage and casualties had been the highest since the first few battles before the Autobots had learned to fight back.
Seeing Omega’s Alt mode for the first time, he was as nervous as a sparkling, sitting behind the controls to the large war ship.
“You didn’t tell me you could fly!”
“Did you think I turned into a city?”
“Frankly, yes!” Flying always made Ratchet nervous. It had been a course in the academy that he had been more than willing to rush through and never look back at again. Keeping all four wheels on the ground was perfectly adequate.
Ratchet gingerly took the controls and hooked into the main computer, praying to Primus and anyone that would listen that he didn’t crash right out of the hanger.
Once clear of the bay, he was over taken with a giddy rush. “Let’s see what this baby can do!”
The Decepticons certainly took note of the large warship flying towards them. “Ratchet, they are flanking us.”
“I See them!” Pulling up the weapons, he was amazed at the sheer power they wielded. “Guardian indeed…” The foolish Decepticons that had gotten too close were left nothing more than scraps falling to the ruble below.
“Too many… Ratchet. Hold on.”
“Hold on? To what?!” Ratchet clutched the wheel tightly as he was suddenly moved around, shifted and brought up to sit in what he could only imagine was the very center control system of Omega.
He had never been inside of a bot in their bipedal mode before. If someone had asked him a week ago, he would have declared it impossible and improbable. It almost seemed as if Omega had purposefully made room just for Ratchet.
He sat in shock, watching and feeling as Omega moved around, power flowing through ever piece of the Guardian. His every movement was with a great purpose and pure will. Looking out at the battle field, he could see the impact Omega’s presence alone had on everything around him.
The fights stopped. Bots and Decepticons alike stood still, watching as Omega moved and took out the first wave of attackers. His cannons shaking the ground and incinerating those that flew too close.
The Decepticons decided they didn’t much care for being annihilated so easily and retreated quickly. The first battle was theirs.
“Way to go, Omega!”
“Ratchet. Damage…” Ratchet stopped his cheering and looked around in alarm, checking Omega for anything critical.
“I don’t see anything. Just some scrapes and chipped paint. Nothing I can’t fix easily…”
“Not me. Them…” Ratchet leaned forward and peered down at the ground below them. “They need your help, Dok bot…”
“Oh Primus…” Ratchet suddenly understood ‘last defense.’ The carnage was terrible, bots and cons torn apart and meshed into one giant mess. Dying and dead sparks lay exposed, energon leaking out of ripped lines. “Omega. I have to get down there…”
He moved quickly, only able to save a handful. On more than one he could only help ease the pain as the bot slipped away.
At the end of the day, Omega had gathered up Ratchet and pulled him away, heading back to base. “No more can be done, Ratchet.”
“I know… We did our best, big guy. We’ll do better next time.”
Ratchet learned quickly to cope with the carnage. He was used to showing up early on in the battle and moving with the gun fire. It was different to arrive at the end of the battle… To clean up after a side had already won. He preferred the front line by far to the back.
He felt Omega’s frustration and did his best to consol the large bot. Omega was starting to lose moral and his drive.
“Ratchet… I cannot protect them… I have failed as a Guardian.” Omega looked across the recharge area to Ratchet.
“You can’t hope to protect everyone, Omega Supreme. Even the old Guardians couldn’t. You aren’t meant to either. You’re just one bot.” He looked up at the Guardian and moved closer, bringing his hand to rest on the other. It looked ridiculous, this tiny thing trying to comfort such a large mech.
Omega moved closer slightly, letting Ratchet lean against him as best he could. “This war is long… Too many have died… It needs to end.”
“I know… I think we all realize this. But we can’t give up. As long as those creeps are still out there we have to fight…”
“We need an advantage.”
“We have you. That’s all we need for now.” Ratchet wrapped an arm around the large wrist and leaned into him, comforted by the heat that Omega always gave off.
Omega stayed still, deep in thought, as Ratchet settled back for a quick recharge.
--
Ratchet would never forget the last battle of the war. The day the Autobots had won… And the day Omega Supreme fell.
The Decepticons had grown tired of Omega rising up over their victory and stomping them flat, quite literally.
Both sides had seemingly agreed to give it all or nothing at the same time. If Ratchet had to guess, every Decepticon and Autobot soldier was there in a mass of carnage and death.
He road in Omega as usual, keeping his systems up and repairing any damage the Decepticons threw at them as he went.
There were so many Decepticons, swarming them and slowly bringing the giant down.
“Ratchet, there’s too many!”
“Don’t you give up on me, Soldier! This is it! We have to win! Just think, we’re so close to the end of the war… The end of the fighting! Just give it a little more, Omega. I know you can do it!”
They had both looked down as the Decepticons turned, slowly overpowering the Autobots and ripping out sparks at every turn.
“Ratchet… I must protect them… I must carry out my main function.”
Ratchet had barely had time to protest as Omega quickly ejected him, sending him tumbling down as Omega stood tall, in the middle of the battle field. The Autobots quickly started to pull back, familiar enough with Omega’s fighting style to know to give him room.
No one had expected him to take on the whole Decepticon army alone. No one had expected to see such power from such a young guardian. His cannons firing with enough power to rip through the whole Decepticon fleet, taking down ships and fliers by the hundreds.
Ratchet called out across the link, watching in horror as his friend took hit after hit, sinking to his knees, and continued to fight with his entire spark.
“You fool! You’re overpowering yourself! You’re going to shut down if you don’t back off! Leave them!”
“Ratchet… I must protect, and sacrifice is necessary…”
“Sacrifice isn’t necessary! We can’t lose you! I can’t lose you! I need you, Omega!”
No one else saw it. They weren’t familiar enough with the guardian to recognize just how vulnerable he really was. They all thought he was nothing more than a war machine.
Omega smiled as he activated his destruct sequence. Ratchet called out, his voice lost in explosion.
Everyone that had been there that day always had a different version of the final battle. But they always ended the same. The war had ended with a terrible explosion of light and a deathly silence.
The shock wave that hit knocked everyone off of their feet, knocking the flying Decepticons out of the air as they crashed around them. The remaining few Decepticons retreated, leaving Cybertron for good, knowing that the war was over.
There was no cheering. No celebrations. There had been nothing but chaos as the Autobots frantically captured and fought the fallen Decepticons trying to escape. Knowledge that they had won would not arrive till days later. For now, all that was left to do was to pick up the pieces.
Ratchet found Omega’s body in the chaos around him. He still had color to him, his spark shuddering like that of a Sparkling’s.
“Omega… It’s alright… I’m here… You did good… I’m proud of you, soldier.” He frantically worked, desperate to keep that spark going.
In the end, the spark was so small and dim it may as well have been gone. In one last desperate move, Ratchet locked him in stasis in an effort to preserve what little life still lingered in his friend. Deep down, Ratchet knew he was gone.
They had honored Omega Supreme and all the others that had fought and fallen in that last battle. Though Ratchet hardly called breaking them down for scraps honoring. They had tried to take away Omega, to sell him off or melt him down for spare parts to ‘help the recovery effort’.
Ratchet held them off, chasing them away and yelling at anyone that came too close. They thought he’d gone crazy, his processors unable to cope with his loss. Rumors circulated about the poor hero medic who had lost it all.
Eventually, they had come to an agreement. Omega could still function on the most basic level. He would become Ratchet’s ship, and Ratchet would help in the cleanup effort.
Serving as a basic ship medic, he was assigned to various maintenance teams. A low degrading rank to many, but Ratchet was simply happy to be away. Away from the politics and the death. He never took the time to get close to the various teams, happy to be reassigned again and again. Just as long as he had his ship. Just him and his old friend…
--
Fate was funny. So funny, Ratchet thought he might break down and cry. It was just supposed to be another dull pointless assignment. He hadn’t asked to be thrust back into war. To face down Decepticons and be stuck on some alien organic planet. To be faced with these hard choices again or to have his memories dug up and bared for his spark to feel again.
Above all, he hadn’t expected for his spark to have to suffer the same loss twice. He had felt just like a youngling again… Comforting Omega as he awoke and reached out for the only spark he knew. His own spark shivering and reaching for that familiar friend from so long ago…
Omega was the same as he remembered. He needed guidance and his strength. Patching in to use his own energy and systems to power the giant, his spark practically cried out in joy at feeling so close to that large energy source.
And just as soon as he had gotten everything back, he had lost it again.
“I was built to protect, and sacrifice if necessary.”
With age, Ratchet could now fully understand those words. He could understand Omega, but it didn’t make it any easier to let go. Once more, Ratchet had been the only one to really look into Omega’s optics as the giant fell. To feel the loss of such a beautiful spark.
There was no time for mourning. No time to cheer for the victory. With war, there hardly ever was. The others, they might understand, but he didn’t have the energy to explain it. They were still so young. So naive.
It was easier in many ways this time. Yet now he felt more alone than ever. He found himself wondering if perhaps Omega had survived? Perhaps he was out in space somewhere waiting for Ratchet to find him.
That thought hurt more than it should have. The very idea that Omega Supreme was out alone and scared in the nothing of space. He preferred to think that Omega was knocked back into stasis, or that the surge of power he had taken for them had pushed him offline quickly and painlessly.
Omega was still so young… And Ratchet was now just a cranky old bot anyways. Omega deserved better… And there was no one good enough left for Omega.
Day by day, Ratchet forced himself to carry on. Slowly, he allowed his spark to heal again. He accepted his fate now. He was also built to protect. And when the time came, he would sacrifice too… And hope his spark found Omega’s again.
Rating: T
Universe: TFA
Pairing: Ratchet x Omega
Word Count: 5,400
It didn’t matter what time you were from or what planet or system. War was always long and hard. There were always those that saw more than their fair share of hard times and always those that had no business being mixed up in it in the first place.
When the war was over, there were those that emerged as heroes, and those that came out broken. There were always those that came out of the whole thing as heroes, benefiting from some seemingly brave and noble acts or leadership.
But Ratchet knew the truth. It didn’t matter who wore medals or bright crests on their chests. It didn’t matter who got to sit in a comfortable chair and call himself Prime or Ultra or some other ego stroking title. In the end, they all had forgotten who the real hero was.
Everyone had lost someone by the time the war had come to an end. It all just boiled down to how you handled yourself once the fighting stopped. Many good bots had required extensive rehabilitation. Those that could not stop fighting were sent to get their processors wiped clean. They called it a ‘fresh new start’. Those that could not get over their losses or particularly bad episodes were sent to have their memories or personalities modified to ‘help them become model citizens’ again.
But those were just the extreme cases. The rest, like Ratchet, were left to find a way to move on and try to live normally again. Many found their own ways to cope and simply forgot.
Ratchet refused to forget. He knew that talking about it would help. It would let him move on and let go. But he wasn’t ready to let go. He didn’t want to relive it either. If he didn’t speak of it and didn’t let it go, he could hold on that much longer.
He could still remember the face of each and every soldier he had operated on. Those that he had lost, those whose sparks he had held in his hands… A few soldiers had left more than faces. They had touched his very spark.
Ratchet had once been called a hero. He had been given a medal and offered a cushy job. He had gone down as one of the top medic bots in the war. He had done more for and saved those with injuries that other medic bots wouldn’t even touch.
He had been young back then. Young and foolish. It hurt his spark to think of how many mistakes he had made. How angry he had been… He had turned down those offers. Thrown the medals back in their faces and made demands that left the higher ups wondering if he would be one of those in need of rehabilitation or not.
He had asked to be taken away from it all. No more fighting. No more hard choices. No more sparks withering and dying in his hands. He didn’t want to face a world where a beautiful young intelligence officer was wiped clean and left no more than an empty drone. A world where the greatest heroes of them all were forgotten…
A medic bot was meant to be alone. They were meant to stay in the front lines, running across mine fields and through heavy fire. To stop at each and every body, dead or alive and attempt to treat them. To revive the fallen and put the weapon back in their hands so they could run forward and get shot again.
It was a lonely existence. If he stayed still too long and thought about it, it was enough to drive him to the breaking point. So he hadn’t stayed still. He had pushed himself harder and kept himself going longer. It was this effort to keep himself sane that had made him so distinguished. They thought him a hero when really he was just trying to survive.
Midway through the war, he had met and lost Arcee. The experience had left him bitter and broken. He hadn’t cared about his own life. Walking through the roughest of Decepticon fire for those he knew were already gone.
Just when he had hit bottom, he had been reassigned to a different location. His heroics on the battle field had lead to a promotion to a top secret project. It was all a big laugh to him. This war was a joke and there was no hope for anyone.
He had been about to declare his feelings on the matter to his commanders when he had seen the ‘project’.
“Are you out of your minds?! Do you have any idea what that is?” He stared up at the slumbering giant in wonder.
“This is Omega Supreme.”
“That’s a guardian! They’ve been extinct for millions of years!”
“You are correct about one thing. This is indeed a guardian. The last of his kind. He was the last guardian ever created. In essence, he is still quite young.” His commanders handed him the charts confirming the current status of the giant.
“Yeah, young by a few thousand millennia.” The chart did confirm that as guardians generally went, he was in fact quite young. “So what do you expect me to do about any of this?”
“The war is turning, soldier. An end is in sight. But we need more help now than ever. This is our last line of defense against the Decepticons.”
“His kind were wiped out by the Decepticons when this damn war started!” He interjected and angrily flipped through the charts. Had the war really been going on for so long?
“He was badly damaged. We found him in stasis ages ago, and it’s taken us this long just to get him back into working order. Now it’s up to you to finish the job.”
“You mean you want me to wake him up so he can go to war.”
“In simple terms, yes. We’re counting on you, Ratchet. You’re the best medic bot we have right now.”
Ratchet looked down at the chart then back up at the giant. This went far beyond his training as a simple medic bot. Yet, this was a life that needed his help. And if they could end the war…
“Alright. I’m going to need some tools and all the notes you have on him! This isn’t like simply opening a bot up and taking a look inside. This thing has more components than half our army put together!”
In all honesty, he hadn’t a clue where to begin. The major damage had been repaired already. But it was the little things that always lead to problems further down the road.
Ratchet slowly walked around the guardian, taking in his size for the first time. He recalled the history lessons on the Guardians, how there had been some that transformed into a whole city. He couldn’t even begin to imagine something that large. And to think that this one was just a child in comparison to them.
He couldn’t help but wonder how he had survived the attacks when all the others had fallen. It must have been devastating to lose your whole life like that… His spark sunk.
“Don’t worry big fella… I’ll take care of yah.” He lightly patted the large shoulder, marveling at how thick and strong the armor must be.
“I’ll need a lift over here! I want to take a look at his spark chamber eventually! See what kind of damage you uncouth scientists have done.” He seldom trusted any other hand but his own. They were the only fingers that could do more than a decent patch up job in a hurry.
He waited impatiently for his helpers to get a lift going, wishing he still had his own EMP. There really was no replacing something that had become an extension of your body. All the ones he had borrowed and gotten as replacements always seemed to fail him when he needed them the most. Though he wondered if he really could hurt something as large as this giant. Did they feel like any other bot?
Finally getting up to a decent height, he was able to look down at his patient properly for the first time. His spark skipped several pulses.
The face shield that was a characteristic of most guardians was badly cracked and burned. The face under it was not at all what he had expected. Chiseled, yet young and so trusting. Even as he slept in his stasis, a pained expression was more than apparent.
“You fools! Just because he’s in stasis doesn’t mean he can’t feel anything!” Had he the time, he would have gone on a tirade, tracking down each and every idiot that had ever worked on his patient and smacked them so hard they’d be looking out of their afts.
Turning to get a good look at the open chest, he spotted the problem. Major repairs aside, they had missed more than a few of the small problems. Small but highly important problems. His fuel lines were riddled with cracks and holes, his main sensory wires shredded from their protective casings and halfway melted.
“You left him in his own self induced stasis? You’re lucky I don’t come down there and make you eat your own cervos! There’s a break in the connection, he’s only part way under. Someone go get me a decent EMP, a jumper cable big enough to support this fella and enough wire to reroute half of Cybertron! Then get out of my sight! I need some peace and quiet. The sounds of your idiotic processors are giving me a blown fuse.”
He didn’t wait for them to acknowledge him. He couldn’t let this travesty of a repair job go on any longer. He positioned the platform and leaned down, diving his hands into the tangle of wires, starting to quickly strip the melted wires and prepare them for replacements.
Ratchet worked for hours, only stopping long enough to make further demands or to chase off any noisy and impatient officers. Work this critical and delicate required more concentration than those idiots were capable of.
Finally sitting back, he looked over the giant, satisfied to see his face no longer contorted in pain.
“Are you done?”
“Of course I’m not done! I need rest and you need to start gathering together enough energon to power this fella.”
“Then you’ll be done soon?”
“This work takes time!” He glared at the officer. They were all the same. They wanted instant results. They didn’t care that a life took time. “I can have him up and running soon enough, but he’s not going out to battle till I give the okay. I need to make sure it’s all working properly. You don’t want your ‘last defense’ to crash mid battle, do you?”
The officer stayed silent, only nodding and going off to most likely report to his commanders. Ratchet distantly wondered if these officers had ever even seen battle. It was so sheltered in here away from the Decepticons and the constant death…
Climbing down for a much needed stretch and refueling, Ratchet looked up at his patient quietly. This guardian had seen things back in the days of early Cybertron that he could only dream of. The first battles… The first wars. The first peace that didn’t last nearly long enough…
The Decepticons had viewed the Guardians as dangerous and attacked them early on. They had all been taken completely by surprise. Many even killed while they recharged. First their cities and homes were wiped out, leaving them with no purpose, then they were killed one after another.
And here they were, bringing this poor Guardian back just so he could fight for them. Did they have any right to ask that this bot that was still just a sparkling by all right fight for them?
A bot this size wouldn’t be forced. If he did not wish to fight, who was going to stand in front of him and tell him no?
With a sigh, Ratchet patted him on the arm and took a seat while he ate his energon snacks. “I’m sorry about all this, big guy. You don’t deserve to be brought back into our mess.” He stayed silent for a moment longer, feeling foolish.
Many medic bots felt it was pointless to speak to a patient when they were out. They couldn’t process what you were saying anymore than they could respond. Yet, it had always given Ratchet hope. A feeling that as long as he could talk to them, there was the chance they would come back and make a full recovery. It gave him hope.
“You don’t have to fight… None of us do, really. I guess we’re all here for our own reasons really. I wanted to make a difference. To help my fellow bots… That’s all that’s keeping me here anymore. If I leave, how many will die that I could have saved?”
It was a hard truth. As much as he wanted to leave. To get away from it all… It was the knowledge that someone was dying because he wasn’t there doing his job.
“After I finish fixing you up, I guess I’m going back to the front lines.” He paused and looked up at the red and yellow armor. “They say with you there, the war could end soon… But then what? Is everyone expected to just settle down and go back to the way things were before? No one even remembers how it used to be. We’ve nothing to look forward to! Everything’s gone by now…”
It was hard to stop now. This had been troubling him for so long and he needed to get it out. “And you. What will you do after the war? Where will you go? You’re a Guardian with nothing left to guard! Your city was destroyed before I was even a glimmer in someone’s spark!”
“Not important.” Ratchet nearly lost his energy as a deep rumble interrupted his thoughts. “Not how it used to be… How it will be.”
He looked up in alarm as the armor he had been leaning against shifted. “You aren’t supposed to be online yet!”
He mentally cursed at himself for his negligence at taking the time to fully understand how a Guardian functioned. They weren’t like regular bots. He should have known that a regular stasis lock wasn’t going to be strong enough to hold him for much longer. He’d probably run the power down from the strain.
“I am a Guardian of the people… Not of a single place…” Omega shifted again and turned his head to look down at Ratchet fully.
Ratchet didn’t know what to say as he stared up into the large optics that were slowly taking him in. “I… I’m Ratchet. Medic bot, first class.”
“Omega Supreme. I am programmed to protect.”
“Pleasure to meet you.” He slowly snapped out of it. “You aren’t supposed to be up yet! You could be putting a strain on your circuits! I haven’t finished repairing you yet!”
“Dok bot. I am… Alone?”
Ratchet flinched at how vulnerable those words were. “You’re the last one. I’m sorry…But you aren’t alone.” He walked up and rested a hand on Omega’s shield, lightly feeling the small cracks and dents that he hadn’t gotten to yet. “I’m with you and I’m not going anywhere any time soon.”
Omega smiled and settled back once more. “Stasis activated. Will resume functions again when ready.”
Ratchet stood still, watching as Omega slipped back into stasis quietly. For the first time since he had joined the war, he had a purpose.
--
Ratchet worked tirelessly, ignoring the various officers sent to check up on his progress. He refused to stop and rest until he could allow the giant to wake again.
At last, he sat back and moved to open Omega’s chest plates. He had seen hundreds of sparks during the war. Held them in his hands, jumped them with his emergency cables in an effort to restart them, and stroked them gently as he urged them to stay with him. But seeing Omega’s spark up close like this caused his own to pulse harder. The size and sheer amount of energy radiating out of it was amazing.
He hesitated, taking the time to fully appreciate something that powered a bot of Omega’s size.
“Alright big guy… Let’s get you up and running again.” Slipping his jumper cables in to attach to Omega, he fired up his engines, giving it all he had.
The spark faded slightly, causing Ratchet a painful moment of panic. He was foolish to think that his engines alone would be enough to power something of that size. He couldn’t pull back now. To rip away before completing the cycle would be painful and dangerous for them both. Forcing his engines to work harder, he forced all of his energy into his patient.
“Don’t you give up on me now, damn it! I’ve worked too hard to lose you now!” He braced himself for the backlash as his systems started to overheat and crash. The spark before him shuddered and started to pulse brightly; growing till it filled the whole spark chamber once more.
Ratchet pulled back, sliding to the floor as he delicately rubbed his smoldering arms.
“Dok Bot…” Omega came back online, sounding stronger than before. “You are hurt!”
“It’s nothing a few cycles of rest can’t fix. You’ve got a hell of a spark, Omega. How yah feeling?”
Omega Supreme slowly sat up, closing his chest and powering up his systems fully. “Better than ever before… Thank you, Ratchet.”
“Hey, it’s my job… And my pleasure.” He reached out and lay a hand on Omega’s arm. “Omega… You understand why they had me bring you back, don’t you? They’re going to use you as a weapon. They call you the last defense. They’re going to just bring you in to fight when they have no chance…”
Omega looked down at Ratchet fully, seeming to consider his words for a moment. “I understand. I am programmed to protect. It is my main function.”
“That doesn’t mean anything!” Ratchet was suddenly angry. He wouldn’t let Omega just be another bot he fixed only to turn around and get blown up all over again. “It’s just a program! You can override it. I can write it out of you! You can refuse them. Not like they can stand in front of you and tell you no.”
Omega leaned in and suddenly picked up Ratchet, bringing him up to look him in the eyes fully. Ratchet felt his spark pulsing harder, leaving him feeling weak and useless.
“I am a Guardian. I was built to protect the people, but it is also my choice to protect the ones that I care about. If it means I must sacrifice, it is what I choose.”
“But you don’t know what’s out there! Those Decepticons are ruthless! They wiped out your whole kind… You haven’t seen them like I have! They’ll rip out your servos!”
“You will be with me, won’t you, Ratchet?”
Ratchet was taken aback by the utter trust he saw in the optics in front of him. He could still feel the large spark pulsing as if he was still connected to it directly. “Of course I will be… If you want me to be.”
“You will make me strong. If they rip them out, you will put my servos back in.” Omega smiled; his youth showing through for the first time.
Ratchet couldn’t help but laugh. “I’m good, but I’m not that good. Don’t go testing my abilities when you’re out there.”
--
Ratchet had spent the next day arguing with his superiors about being reassigned to be stationed with Omega Supreme. In the end, they had agreed under the condition that Ratchet continue to be on call to the front should the need arise.
Their first battle had happened soon afterwards. Omega was barely up to speed with the war when the Decepticons had attacked the main city. The wreckage and casualties had been the highest since the first few battles before the Autobots had learned to fight back.
Seeing Omega’s Alt mode for the first time, he was as nervous as a sparkling, sitting behind the controls to the large war ship.
“You didn’t tell me you could fly!”
“Did you think I turned into a city?”
“Frankly, yes!” Flying always made Ratchet nervous. It had been a course in the academy that he had been more than willing to rush through and never look back at again. Keeping all four wheels on the ground was perfectly adequate.
Ratchet gingerly took the controls and hooked into the main computer, praying to Primus and anyone that would listen that he didn’t crash right out of the hanger.
Once clear of the bay, he was over taken with a giddy rush. “Let’s see what this baby can do!”
The Decepticons certainly took note of the large warship flying towards them. “Ratchet, they are flanking us.”
“I See them!” Pulling up the weapons, he was amazed at the sheer power they wielded. “Guardian indeed…” The foolish Decepticons that had gotten too close were left nothing more than scraps falling to the ruble below.
“Too many… Ratchet. Hold on.”
“Hold on? To what?!” Ratchet clutched the wheel tightly as he was suddenly moved around, shifted and brought up to sit in what he could only imagine was the very center control system of Omega.
He had never been inside of a bot in their bipedal mode before. If someone had asked him a week ago, he would have declared it impossible and improbable. It almost seemed as if Omega had purposefully made room just for Ratchet.
He sat in shock, watching and feeling as Omega moved around, power flowing through ever piece of the Guardian. His every movement was with a great purpose and pure will. Looking out at the battle field, he could see the impact Omega’s presence alone had on everything around him.
The fights stopped. Bots and Decepticons alike stood still, watching as Omega moved and took out the first wave of attackers. His cannons shaking the ground and incinerating those that flew too close.
The Decepticons decided they didn’t much care for being annihilated so easily and retreated quickly. The first battle was theirs.
“Way to go, Omega!”
“Ratchet. Damage…” Ratchet stopped his cheering and looked around in alarm, checking Omega for anything critical.
“I don’t see anything. Just some scrapes and chipped paint. Nothing I can’t fix easily…”
“Not me. Them…” Ratchet leaned forward and peered down at the ground below them. “They need your help, Dok bot…”
“Oh Primus…” Ratchet suddenly understood ‘last defense.’ The carnage was terrible, bots and cons torn apart and meshed into one giant mess. Dying and dead sparks lay exposed, energon leaking out of ripped lines. “Omega. I have to get down there…”
He moved quickly, only able to save a handful. On more than one he could only help ease the pain as the bot slipped away.
At the end of the day, Omega had gathered up Ratchet and pulled him away, heading back to base. “No more can be done, Ratchet.”
“I know… We did our best, big guy. We’ll do better next time.”
Ratchet learned quickly to cope with the carnage. He was used to showing up early on in the battle and moving with the gun fire. It was different to arrive at the end of the battle… To clean up after a side had already won. He preferred the front line by far to the back.
He felt Omega’s frustration and did his best to consol the large bot. Omega was starting to lose moral and his drive.
“Ratchet… I cannot protect them… I have failed as a Guardian.” Omega looked across the recharge area to Ratchet.
“You can’t hope to protect everyone, Omega Supreme. Even the old Guardians couldn’t. You aren’t meant to either. You’re just one bot.” He looked up at the Guardian and moved closer, bringing his hand to rest on the other. It looked ridiculous, this tiny thing trying to comfort such a large mech.
Omega moved closer slightly, letting Ratchet lean against him as best he could. “This war is long… Too many have died… It needs to end.”
“I know… I think we all realize this. But we can’t give up. As long as those creeps are still out there we have to fight…”
“We need an advantage.”
“We have you. That’s all we need for now.” Ratchet wrapped an arm around the large wrist and leaned into him, comforted by the heat that Omega always gave off.
Omega stayed still, deep in thought, as Ratchet settled back for a quick recharge.
--
Ratchet would never forget the last battle of the war. The day the Autobots had won… And the day Omega Supreme fell.
The Decepticons had grown tired of Omega rising up over their victory and stomping them flat, quite literally.
Both sides had seemingly agreed to give it all or nothing at the same time. If Ratchet had to guess, every Decepticon and Autobot soldier was there in a mass of carnage and death.
He road in Omega as usual, keeping his systems up and repairing any damage the Decepticons threw at them as he went.
There were so many Decepticons, swarming them and slowly bringing the giant down.
“Ratchet, there’s too many!”
“Don’t you give up on me, Soldier! This is it! We have to win! Just think, we’re so close to the end of the war… The end of the fighting! Just give it a little more, Omega. I know you can do it!”
They had both looked down as the Decepticons turned, slowly overpowering the Autobots and ripping out sparks at every turn.
“Ratchet… I must protect them… I must carry out my main function.”
Ratchet had barely had time to protest as Omega quickly ejected him, sending him tumbling down as Omega stood tall, in the middle of the battle field. The Autobots quickly started to pull back, familiar enough with Omega’s fighting style to know to give him room.
No one had expected him to take on the whole Decepticon army alone. No one had expected to see such power from such a young guardian. His cannons firing with enough power to rip through the whole Decepticon fleet, taking down ships and fliers by the hundreds.
Ratchet called out across the link, watching in horror as his friend took hit after hit, sinking to his knees, and continued to fight with his entire spark.
“You fool! You’re overpowering yourself! You’re going to shut down if you don’t back off! Leave them!”
“Ratchet… I must protect, and sacrifice is necessary…”
“Sacrifice isn’t necessary! We can’t lose you! I can’t lose you! I need you, Omega!”
No one else saw it. They weren’t familiar enough with the guardian to recognize just how vulnerable he really was. They all thought he was nothing more than a war machine.
Omega smiled as he activated his destruct sequence. Ratchet called out, his voice lost in explosion.
Everyone that had been there that day always had a different version of the final battle. But they always ended the same. The war had ended with a terrible explosion of light and a deathly silence.
The shock wave that hit knocked everyone off of their feet, knocking the flying Decepticons out of the air as they crashed around them. The remaining few Decepticons retreated, leaving Cybertron for good, knowing that the war was over.
There was no cheering. No celebrations. There had been nothing but chaos as the Autobots frantically captured and fought the fallen Decepticons trying to escape. Knowledge that they had won would not arrive till days later. For now, all that was left to do was to pick up the pieces.
Ratchet found Omega’s body in the chaos around him. He still had color to him, his spark shuddering like that of a Sparkling’s.
“Omega… It’s alright… I’m here… You did good… I’m proud of you, soldier.” He frantically worked, desperate to keep that spark going.
In the end, the spark was so small and dim it may as well have been gone. In one last desperate move, Ratchet locked him in stasis in an effort to preserve what little life still lingered in his friend. Deep down, Ratchet knew he was gone.
They had honored Omega Supreme and all the others that had fought and fallen in that last battle. Though Ratchet hardly called breaking them down for scraps honoring. They had tried to take away Omega, to sell him off or melt him down for spare parts to ‘help the recovery effort’.
Ratchet held them off, chasing them away and yelling at anyone that came too close. They thought he’d gone crazy, his processors unable to cope with his loss. Rumors circulated about the poor hero medic who had lost it all.
Eventually, they had come to an agreement. Omega could still function on the most basic level. He would become Ratchet’s ship, and Ratchet would help in the cleanup effort.
Serving as a basic ship medic, he was assigned to various maintenance teams. A low degrading rank to many, but Ratchet was simply happy to be away. Away from the politics and the death. He never took the time to get close to the various teams, happy to be reassigned again and again. Just as long as he had his ship. Just him and his old friend…
--
Fate was funny. So funny, Ratchet thought he might break down and cry. It was just supposed to be another dull pointless assignment. He hadn’t asked to be thrust back into war. To face down Decepticons and be stuck on some alien organic planet. To be faced with these hard choices again or to have his memories dug up and bared for his spark to feel again.
Above all, he hadn’t expected for his spark to have to suffer the same loss twice. He had felt just like a youngling again… Comforting Omega as he awoke and reached out for the only spark he knew. His own spark shivering and reaching for that familiar friend from so long ago…
Omega was the same as he remembered. He needed guidance and his strength. Patching in to use his own energy and systems to power the giant, his spark practically cried out in joy at feeling so close to that large energy source.
And just as soon as he had gotten everything back, he had lost it again.
“I was built to protect, and sacrifice if necessary.”
With age, Ratchet could now fully understand those words. He could understand Omega, but it didn’t make it any easier to let go. Once more, Ratchet had been the only one to really look into Omega’s optics as the giant fell. To feel the loss of such a beautiful spark.
There was no time for mourning. No time to cheer for the victory. With war, there hardly ever was. The others, they might understand, but he didn’t have the energy to explain it. They were still so young. So naive.
It was easier in many ways this time. Yet now he felt more alone than ever. He found himself wondering if perhaps Omega had survived? Perhaps he was out in space somewhere waiting for Ratchet to find him.
That thought hurt more than it should have. The very idea that Omega Supreme was out alone and scared in the nothing of space. He preferred to think that Omega was knocked back into stasis, or that the surge of power he had taken for them had pushed him offline quickly and painlessly.
Omega was still so young… And Ratchet was now just a cranky old bot anyways. Omega deserved better… And there was no one good enough left for Omega.
Day by day, Ratchet forced himself to carry on. Slowly, he allowed his spark to heal again. He accepted his fate now. He was also built to protect. And when the time came, he would sacrifice too… And hope his spark found Omega’s again.