Chapter Text
It has been a month already since Charlie prolonged her stay in the Autobots base and Bumblebee couldn't feel any happier. Sure, she surely didn't bring energon, useful resources, cybertronian relics or anything slightly valuable that could benefit the whole team, but her presence could only lit up his days. Her being there filled up an absence he didn't even know he had.
The fact that she also managed to fit in with almost everyone in the silo was beyond Bumblebee: the kids treated her like she's been there from the start, agent Frowler surprisingly didn't say much about her staying, despite not looking very pleased at the idea, and his friends saw her like one of the kids now. Well, not all of them though. Ratchet still wasn't really an enthusiast for humans and his relationship with Charlie wasn't really optimal but, that's Ratchet. He couldn't do anything about it if not wait for him to eventually warm up to her and pray he'd keep himself from crashing out on her.
On the other hand Charlie felt like she was home again. But not the abusive one where she couldn't speak her mind, do her way or live her life without someone always bickering in her ear and finding fault with any small thing she did. She felt like she belonged in a place for the first time in many years and, coincidentally or not, that place was with Bumblebee.
She went up the usual metal stairs, ready to test Ratchet's patience as soon as he opened that ground bridge to let the others go into yet another mission around the globe. Specifically into a very ancient cave system deep between Europeans and Asian tectonic plates, in Georgia.
Turning around she locked eyes with her best friend and warmly smiled, getting closer to the railing to exchange a few words. They didn't even have the time to get closer when the familiar greenish white light started flaming into the tunnel, giving away a few beams of purple. The ground bridge was open.
The yellow mech instinctively turned around, quickly getting closer to the rest of the group instead. Then Optimus briefly explained the circumstances they'll be in and said his usual catch line. A second later you could hear roars of car engines from the distance as all four Autobots went into the blinding portal that closed right behind them.
Hours passed, the mission continued seemingly without any problem; Charlie could hear the voices of the Autobots through Ratchet's monitors, well and relaxed if you could even say that, so there was still no problem, meaning that there still was no Decepticon in sight. Strange but not impossible from what the old mech told her.
“There had been a few brief missions where there were no Decepticons encounters.” - he told her and even if she had known him for less than a month she trusted Ratchet's knowledge as if it was Bumblebee himself speaking to her.
Strangely enough Charlie preferred putting one headphone in to listen to some music and watch the medic work instead of doing the usual asking around and trying to learn what the bot was doing. She didn't give up on her initial objective: she still wanted to learn how to fix cybertronians but this one day she almost didn't feel like living. Not in a depressive way, she just felt tired for no particular reason. The ancient bot noticed how quiet and peaceful she was for once in a while, but just went back to work, enjoying the silence he was finally granted after too many weeks of bickering with a human less than a tenth his age.
Time passed faster than what both expected as a familiar notification beeped on the monitor: the kids just finished school. The only problem was that the Autobots were still Primus knows where deep into enormous caves, searching for cybertronnians old “junks” thrown aways.
“Scrap.” - “What? What's up?” - “Someone needs to pick up the humans from school. I can't just leave the station while Optimus and the others are on a mission.” - “I don't think June will answer the phone even if I try: she's on her shift now. Maybe we can try agent Frowler?” - “No. He told Prime about a meeting or something he had today.” - “Well, we can't just leave the kids there to wait till tomorrow, can we?” - “No.”.
They both stared at each other, not really knowing what to do in that situation, trying to find a solution as soon as possible.
“How much is the drive to Jasper and back?” - she asked as a possible idea peared up from her mind.
“Around ten minutes if I recall correctly. Why?” - “Don't you have, like, that messaging thing in your ears to communicate with each other? You'll keep contact with the others, go pick the kids up and get right back.” - “No. I won't risk the sake of the others to pick the humans up. I'd have to be fast, but I can't go over your stupid speed limits. Surely there's another way.”.
Charlie looked Ratchet up and down, mentally scrapping her idea as she recalled one very important detail.
“Wait. Aren't you an ambulance?” - “Yes. And?” - “You can turn on your siren!” - “My.. siren?” - “Yeah! The siren is used during emergencies, so even if you go over the speed limit none will stop you. Plus when people hear them they move aside to let you pass.”.
The medic turned around to his motors, going over other options that he knew wouldn't have worked. He sighed heavily then set his processor on Charlie's careless idea.
“Very well. I'll warn Optimus, hoping he'll get my comm.” - “I can do it while you go. I'll manage." - “Absolutely not. You're coming with me. I'll need someone at the wheel anyway.” - “Soo. You need me?” - she giggled while coming down the metal staircase.
“Shut it.”.
By the time she got to the ground the mech had already transformed into his altmode, immediately opening the driver's side door, signing Charlie to get in. They both sped out of the base, siren blaring in the light of the day as Ratchet raced on the old road like he had waited to go over those lame fifty miles an hour his whole spark-cycle. Formula 1 racers probably went slower than what they were going.
“Woah! Slow down Speedy Gonzales! I don't want to end up ten meters ahead of you when you brake! Schumacher goes slower!”.
He didn't seem to even have heard what she just said over the siren and the rumble of his own engine, but he silently pulled the seatbelt around her, clicking it into place and slightly slowed down, making the speedometer go under the one hundred and twenty mark.
The drive went smoothly, also because there were no cars on the road. Little did they both know someone's system finally had locked onto his dreaded target.
Soundwave was there too.
While some Decepticon troops were sent to the Autobots location, he knew they weren't nearly that stupid to bring a human with them, and since the medic wasn't in their base, chances were that he could be with the girl.
Laserbeak flew at just a few meters over the mech, keeping its distance and trying not to fall behind. The speed was bearable for the small drone but Soundwave knew that if he didn't act now he could lose both his drone's signal and the opportunity to complete his main mission.
And so he did.
He transformed back into his altmode, finally catching up with the noisy ambulance that was inadvertently giving away his location easily.
The Decepticon rapidly shot a few rounds, hitting the mech a few times on the roof, making him swerve and abruptly stop as Soundwave transformed right in front of him on the road.
The dark mech’s frame seemed imposing, towering on the empty road as he pulled himself up straight to analyze better the circumstances. In the meantime Ratchet managed to transform back to his bepede mode, almost launching Charlie out of the cabin and keeping his frame in front of her, shielding her knowing damn well she could get crushed in an instant if he didn't pay the proper attention to where she was.
“What do you want, Soundwave.” - he said coldly as he changed his servo into his blade.
Soundwave didn't respond, keeping his usual silence and opting for just pointing his weapons back at the medic. Ratchet snapped into a defensive stance, raising his arms to protect himself, slightly backing up as Charlie stood up herself, ready to cut and run as fast as her body allowed her to.
“Charlie.” - Ratchet whispered to her, trying to keep his tone steady despite feeling his energon become ice cold in his lines. “Get out of here. Now. Run and hid-”.
Not even the time to finish his sentence that Soundwave quickly freed his cabled tentacles, both seemingly going for Ratchet's front panels. As the mech braced for impact both mechanical snakes slithered besides him revealing a new target: Charlie.
As soon as she saw those black worms heading towards her panic set in: she spun on her heels and ran. She could hear the unmistakable sound of that familiar alien metal stretching at incredible speed right behind her, almost feeling it hovering as she felt metal claws grab onto her ankle and yank her body back with a violent movement, easily managing to make her instantly meet the ground. Hard.
As the Decepticon rapidly dragged the poor human to him, Ratchet already caught up to his intentions, snatching away the tentacle holding the earthling, trying his best to cut it with his blade, the two metals coming together and damaging each other just slightly at the hard impact.
Then he switched to the source, lunging directly at Soundwave as the Decepticon narrowly dodged him, the Autobot blade sliding right off his visor, scratching just the center of it.
Not even the time for his processor to register he missed the punch that he felt a sharp blow right to the side of his tanks as the enemy spy threw back his own servo, the impact launching the medic right to the side, temporarily knocking the wind out of his vents.
Charlie was still hostage of the mech silver stingers that were placed tight on her ankle. After Ratchet's failed attempt at knocking the Decepticon out the black snake holding her lower leg halted dragging her around like a ragdoll, stopping slightly elevated in the air, keeping the girl with her legs high, slightly reaching the ground with the tip of her hair, as she kicked and wriggled around, desperately trying to free herself. She managed to reach the small metal claws clinging to her on the end of the mechanic cable, using as much straight as she could to break them off as it was starting to sting her skin.
All that effort paid off as she finally managed to snap one of the sharp dents, forcing her ankle out of the strong grip. As she slid out her skin completely broke, starting to bleed out, staining her old jeans edges as it firstly dripped upwards her leg, then down, coloring her socks and shoes as she completely fell down to the ground, wincing as she fell.
Despite the ache she felt mostly everywhere the adrenaline in her brain was focusing on one thing only: survive. She stood up and started sprinting away from the cybertronians, not really knowing where she was going, but that wasn't important. The only thing that mattered was escaping.
As the human ran Soundwave retrieved his broken limb as energon slowly dripped from it, the pain he sensed stinging in a way he hadn't felt in way too many solar-cycles. And as Ratchet fully regained back the function to vent properly after feeling his internal systems get crushed and crumple up, finally attempting to get back to his pedes, the Decepticon felt pissed.
How come a human managed to escape him: a superior specie five times more powerful, intelligent and bigger than her.
Even if not really showing his annoyance, Soundwave moved faster now, more brute than before, using less calculated movements, not really caring if he permanently hurt the human or not anymore. He just wanted it dealt with and report back.
He got back to his drone mode just to waste less time chasing the girl even a second more, managing to fly and get right in front of her in less than a second.
Charlie wasn't exactly amused to see the death machine right back onto her tracks. Especially not now that she was actively running from it.
She jumped as Soundwave promptly decided to use his servos instead of those disgusting moving cables as the girl saw them, quickly reaching out to her despite his bigger size that theoretically should've at least made him a little slower. Jokes on her he was probably faster than human reflexes.
She managed to helf-dodge his first try, jumping over a few rocks in the process as she tried to find an escape route from that situation, but of course nothing ever go as she plans it to. The time she got to look around for a quick exit was a second too much as the mechanical servo managed to catch her from behind, clipping both her arms in the clasp, too.
She desperately tried to wriggle out of the grip once again but, this time, there was no getting out.
Soundwave sent a comm back to the ship, requesting an immediate ground bridge as Charlie really couldn't give this up, still moving around and trying to force the bot's digits open with the little strength she had in her. Her struggles did little to nothing except slightly irritate the communications chief even more, her miserly useless efforts at breaking free making the Decepticon lock his servos even tighter around her. She squealed in pure pain as she felt her bones being to the point of cracking, having to grasp for air as her lungs got squished and almost pierced between her ribs. She genuinely felt she was about to explode, feeling every single organ get jammed onto each other, having little to no space to exist into the body anymore.
Now she knew how those silicone, squishy stress toys of hers felt every time she used one.
Finally the medic got up onto his two pedes, stumbling and clutching his side as he realised the enemy actually managed to break one of his lines. Fantastic.
He was too old for all that fighting slag.
It was more than obvious he couldn't really stand very well after that hit but there was no sign of worry from the Decepticon side as his requested ground bridge finally opened nearly a few meters from him.
Soundwave slowly turned around and walked towards the enlightening portal as Ratchet finally realized how serious the situation was getting: he wasn't targeting the human because she was the medic's weak point, he was doing it because he only wanted her.
He transformed back into his vehicle mode despite the stabbing pain on his side as he felt his lines shift and settle as energon quickly slid in every gap and joint possible onto him.
Even at full speed he still was too late by just a few seconds.
Soundwave successfully entered the quantic door to his ship, still Charlie firmly in his servos, face red, almost blue-ish, as she kept struggling for air, the Decepticon grip way too tight on the fragile body.
He missed the portal.
He failed. But he knew it wasn't the end of it. It couldn't be.
He'll tell Optimus everything and maybe he'd see Charlie again.
No. No maybe. He will see her again. Alive.
That promise wasn't really for her, though. It was for him and his own sanity.