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Chapter Text

The boom of ped steps seemed to swallow him whole. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Nowhere safe. His servo felt around and found a gun. He felt around the pitch black void for any ammunition. Just as he had found some he felt a hand on his shoulder.

"You remember me, little mech." The voice said. He stopped, breathing erratic. Every inch of his body frozen par his tremulous lower lip. Then with a shake it all disappeared.
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Ratchet awoke, startled. The medic's optics shot open, not registering the blinding light until it was too late. He covered his face closing his optic shut tight before dareing to open them again.

" e okay?" Ratchet heard what sounded like Bulkheads voice. Ratchet timidly pulls his hands away from his face. Allowing his optics to adjust to the light. When he could see Ratchet made a grimace at the sight awaiting him.

Optimus, Bumblebee, Arcce, Bulkhead, and even the kids were looking at him like he dropped the ancient ceramic plate at an important dinner party. Not that he didn't like that they were concerned about him. He just didn't like the fact they were all looking at him. Ratchet, after a few minutes of looking at his team back, finally thought to check his systems as his hearing came back to him.

Some of his internal systems were knocked offline. It's an easy fix. All he had to do is manually turn them back on. They would come back on by themselves, but that would take forever. And Ratchet doesn't have forever.

"Are you alright, old friend." Optimus' soft baritone voice asked him, deep with concern.

Ratchet tried to speak but no sound came out, so he nodded his head yes. Ratchet tried to move around and see what was actually going on with everyone. He stumbled and would have fell if almost a hundred servos didn't reach out to help stabilize him.

"Be careful Ratch, we don't need you falling again." Arcee said. Ratchet didn't pay her anymind though, his thoughts drifted to the dream he had. He heard that voice before, he knows he did. Ratchet thought back to were he was in the dream. It seemed like a black void but the floor felt a bit like tile.

Ratchet swated the others hands away like it would help him to concentrate better. He knew he heard that voice before and that floor was tile. It in a flash it all came back. He felt like fainting again, but he knew better.

As the medic's sense of touch came back to him he sat down on the velvet couch Bulkhead setup for the team a couple of months ago. Ratchet never really used it much, mostly because it was always taken when he was actually has the time to use it. I was a lot less comfortable than it looked, but it gave him a place to think.

A room with tile floor, a loaded gun, a tall mech with optics the color of ice. A void in them that said the love and care that used to live there was killed long before Ratchet was born. A green paint job with olive green highlights. A lankthy yet boxy figure in the center of this room. A lit candle behind this out of place mech.

"Whoa there little mech," the lanthy green mech said sounding a little surprised, "you might want to stay away from that there gun before someone gets hurt." The mech didn't sound like he actually cared about anyone's safety at all.

The mech aproched at a steady pase, the gun was in his hands and ready to fire before the fifth step was taken. The aim was set and the shooter was about to fire at the mech when a femme burst into the room.

She was white and pink with a dark gray crown that circled her head. Her face filled with panic and her light blue eyes overflowing with fear. She looked like a carrier watching their child slowly die in a fire. The shooter shot the gun the same time the white and pink femme shouted "RATCHET!"

The shot missed and hit the candle knocking it over. A fire started to pervade the room as the white femme drop kicked the green mech. The femme then lifted the shooter, Ratchet, over her shoulder and jump out the window. The house blew up in blue flame as the femme landed on the ground holding Ratchet in her arms.

"It's okay baby," the femme comforted. Holding Ratchet in a vice like grip, "he's gone, he won't hurt you anymore."

Ratchet felt himself closing his eyes as the fire grew hotter and hotter, higher and higher with each word that came out if the femmes mouth.

"It's over now you're okay" the femme said as Ratchet's world became black.

Chapter Text

Opal laid back as the song of silence greeted her. She laughed, she used to yell at her kids to shut the frag up and now all she wants is to hear their voices. To know they're alive. To hear them argue in the background over who's gonna sip their tea first.

Opal sighed. Her the white on her body was tainted a light gray and the pink on her torso and hands forever tainted with energon. Her dark gray crown now a black halo to anyone unlucky enough to be in her presence.

Years of having to survive on the wasteland once called cybertron has made her an irattable person. She seams to be more moody now than when she was young. Getting annoyed at the slightest bit of chaos, even if said chaos is what she is dieing for. Her tealish blue optics now dull from lack of energon scan the area of anything really. Food, beast, other cybertronian survivors. You name it.

"Scrap" Opal said to her self. She looked at her inner clock and sighed. It was getting late, and soon he things that aren't as to be eaten will crawl out onto the dead surface of a once thriving planet. She walked away thinking of what her three babies might be doing right now. Unsure she will ever see them again she hopes they're at least alive.

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Ratchet wakes up in his berth having himself yo with a grown. Stretching he looked around. He'd been in his room before, but he's never actually BEEN in it before. As he looks around he sees optimus, seemingly asleep on a chair by his berth.

The medic gets up out of the berth and tries to open the door but a quiet voice stops him.

"Are you sure that is a wise choice?" Ratchet whiped around faster than he did when he was actually young to stare at Optimus.

"I didn't know you were awake." Ratchet said, his voice sounding rough from lack of use.

"Old friend, it is 3:15am, neither of us should be awake. You most definitely don't need to be up and about. Not after you fainted twice." Optimus said, trying to get Ratchet to jot immediately work himself to death.

"What do you mean twice?" Ratchet asked, confused. Did he faint before he woke up with everyone looking at him? Did he faint causing himself to relive a memory long forgotten? So many questions going through his head, but all Ratchet did was put his hands on his hips.

Optimus sat up and walked over to Ratchet. Holding the medic in his arms it reminded Ratchet of when he was little. When he couldn't sleep he'd go to his brother and wake him up just to snuggle in bed with him for maybe an hour or so before getting kicked out. Then he would go to his carrier's room. She would laugh a bit before her and Sire made room.

Ratchet huged Optimus tight. His eyes feeling heavy he sighed and drifted to sleep in his friends arms.

Chapter Text

Opal walked through the wasteland that she once called home. She was in Iacon right now, the city nothing like it once was. The buildings now broken and battered, the sky no longer sheding its golden rays. The white femme sighed remembering all the fun things she used to do.

As Opal walked through the hollowed streets she couldn't help but trace her servo over the building as she went by. Hallow memories went by in her head. She remembered running around the market area while a lot of the big buildings were still in production. She remembered the fear of going to bed at night when all the light seemed to runaway.

She remembers taking her son and daughter here to get groceries Vaporex couldn't get her. Her oldest was with his sire so Opal was left with the other two. Ratchet and Clank. Having the two of them wouldn't have been bad in the vaporexian market but Iacon was new to them. Clank held on to her hand as her brother looked around.

Many vendors seemed to see his awe struck gase and called him over. Ratchet running over and looking at the toys, food, hats, etc. Clank got jealous. She ran up to the vendor, her mint green and dark red paint sliding next to her brother's white and red. Her boxy little head strained to look at the sweets her brother was being offered.

Opal felt a tear run down her cheek. She swiped it away, there isn't room for that anymore. Their smart kids, they know how to survive. The femme continued walking, shoving any happy little faces or old friends and foes that might think to haunt her to the back of her head.

The white femme cringed at the unwelcome sound. Wouldn't that darn scientists know when she wanted to sulk by know? "Yes my darling" she replied, making sure to put venom in darling.

Opal could hear the mech shift his footing.

Opal rolled her optics, "Yeah. You know only to call me when I'm out if it's an emergency!"

Opal begain walking faster now. She knew that tone of voice. He only used it when the kids are involved.

"Overheadred, tell me. Honestly, which one do you think it is." Opal said. The white and pink femme walked right through a wall and into a refugee city.

Overheadred said, the voice sounded a lot clearer now that she was in the city. Opal's vents hichted.

"You are showing me what the thing is when I get home. I'm almost there" Opal told him.

The call dropped as Opal aproched her home she felt something come forward from the back of her mind.

Her baby boy, scared, clinging on to her for dear life as the only home he's ever known burns down with a monster he couldn't kill. She feels her grip tighten around him, " It's okay baby," she hears her self saying, "he's gone, he won't hurt you anymore." She feels him relax in her arms as the flames behind them become more erratic, "It's over now you're okay."