Chapter Text
Heatwave powered up with a scream, a small hand tightly grasping his digits. “Professor Heatwave?” Whirl’s voice shook with urgency. “Don’t move, sir. You might be damaged.”
Damaged? Slag his damage! “Where’s Kade?” Heatwave could still feel the heat of Kade’s body against his palm and chest plates. He struggled to sit up, but Boulder suddenly appeared, pressing Heatwave back to the ground. “Boulder, where’s Kade?” He looked up, optics desperately wide, as the recruits mumbled questions to each other. “I had him! I swear I had him! Where is he?”
Boulder looked up to the sky. “Blades?”
The sky, of course, was clear. There was no sign of Blades or Kade. “Damnit, Boulder! Answer me!”
Turning back to his leader, Boulder spoke as calmly as possible. “You fell, Heatwave. Kade was never here.”
Heatwave struggled violently against the heavier bot. “Slag it, Boulder! I was holding him! We have to find him! He could be hurt!”
Fixing him with empathetic optics, Boulder sighed. “He’s on Spray Isle, Heatwave. You hit your head and had a nightmare.”
“No…” Heatwave denied, but he was no longer sure.
“You dropped a seal when the cliffside gave way. It landed in the water, you landed on the rocks. Kade is fine.”
“That— That…” That wasn’t what Heatwave remembered. They’d been clearing a rock slide… “Wow, Ginna. That’s some bad Jenga,” Kade had said with a serious look at the entrapped car. “Let’s peel the roof—”
Heatwave picked the fireman up. “We’re wasting time.” They needed to get Virginia out of here before more rocks fell. He lifted the large boulder Kade had been standing on, the one that was blocking the driver’s side door.
Kade and Virginia screamed as the slide gave way, taking the guardrail, the car, and Heatwave with it. Heatwave tucked Kade against his chest plates and put his chasse between the human and the rocky ground.
That was the last thing Heatwave remembered before waking up. He tried to get up again, but Boulder’s slackened grip instantly became immovable. “I must have dropped him! Primus in the Pit, Boulder! He’s here somewhere!”
Boulder’s face went stern. “You did drop him.” Heatwave felt the Energon drain from his body. No. Why had they lied to him? No. “Ten months ago. You were up Cliffside Drive with Kade ten months ago to clear a rock slide. The ground gave way and you fell, ten months ago. Kade was paralyzed. He hasn’t been here for ten months.”
Kade was— Kade was— It all came flooding back to Heatwave. Kade was paralyzed and it was his fault. The man hated him now. They hadn’t spoken since. He closed his eyes. “Virginia…”
“Died,” Boulder confirmed mercilessly.
Heatwave remembered. He remembered Dani arriving on the scene with Doc McSwain. Remembered the Doctor’s anguished sobs as she chose Kade to save over her own daughter. Heatwave himself had been terribly damaged, unable to move or even avert his optics. He’d watched it all, Kade on the ground between the Doctor and his sister; Charlie and Graham pulling Virginia from the car and laying her on the grass, Chase and Boulder shoring up the rockface to keep it from falling on the humans. It had taken Heatwave a rather long time to realize he couldn’t see Blades because the bot was trying to stabilize Heatwave himself. He would never forget the strange gasping sounds Virginia McSwain had made as she died, or the abject worry in Kade’s voice when he heard them and called out to her.
Heatwave opened his eyes, but the memory didn’t fade. “Boulder, Kade hates me.”
The green bot’s face finally softened. “No, he doesn’t.”
“It was my fault.” Heatwave could see the placation forming, but at that moment Boulder turned away. Heatwave heard rotors nearing the ground. Heard what must have been Blades landing.
“BOULDER!” Heatwave’s spark froze in his chest. The urgent voice yelled out again, “BOULDER! CHASE!”
Heatwave could not do this.
Kade was going to kill him.