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Talons. That’s what they were called. At least by their human companion Andi. Talons— a beastformer who resembled a mighty red tailed hawk. ….they certainly didn’t feel mighty, given how their biggest failure meant their memory had been lost.
Letting out a small breath, they stepped into the autobots base, stationed in Nevada.
“Talons, I see you made it safe.” Ratchet comments, looking up from his work
“Yeah. The warp gate certainly makes things easier. wish I had this before my…uh….you know.” They gestured to their head
“Your processor damage.” He looks down thoughtfully before walking over and gently taking their clawed hand, “let’s get that examined, see what the root of the issue is.”
“….you don’t have to. I’m not in any hurry to get my memory back anyway. ….my body still seems to remember, and whatever memories I’ve lost— they must be pretty bad.” Their optics shifted downwards. It was clear they were shaken up about something, even if their processors no longer held that information.
“I see.” Ratchets optics shifted up in thought before he took talons’ servos into his “let’s get you checked up regardless. Your human… Andi mentioned issues with coordination.”
“You met Andi?” Talons looked up at ratchets face as he guided them to the station and got them situated, “I hope she uh… didn’t disturb you. She hangs out with all sorts of transformers.”
“And not any of her own kind?” Ratchet retorted a little too harshly as he typed on his data pad, beginning to scan their processors
“Not really. And I can’t blame her either. Her town is abysmally small, even for human standards” they close their optics, “the people that *are* there don’t exactly care for her either. I encourage her to leave to live a better human life, but she evades the topic— like humans are scary to her even though she’s one of them.”
“Sounds awful.” Ratchet muttered, not enthusiastic about human drama in the slightest
“I wish I could help…” talons continued, not getting the hint, “she’d be safer if she wasn’t here… she’s almost getting hurt because of me.”
“…that’s I can relate.” Ratchet looked at the readings before his field drifted over to talons. “However, we’re not here to mull over the decisions of humans. We’re here to look at your health.”
Ratchet quietly reads everything that turned up in the results, his optics widening with each new line he read. How were they alive? Their processors were ruined— burned even. This kind of damage could not have been from the fall they had.
“Talons, your results are…” he paused, looking at them again, “did you go into recharge mode!?” He hissed under his vents, scooping them up to place them down on a berth. Waiting for them to wake, ratchet looked back over at the information. …. “Featherbreeze…” ratchet muttered, his helm lowering.
Featherbreeze— a martyr who sacrificed themself to help the autobots gain the upper hand on a conflict that happened very recently, a death that still lingered among some of the troops. Yet the bot in question was laying on a berth just a few steps away. Ratchet felt sickened by the prospect that featherbreeze was left to die… but at the same time, relived that they were alive, mostly unharmed save for the memory loss.
Talons shifted, sitting up. “Did I sleep again….im so sorry ratchet..”
“Don’t worry about it. I was looking over your results anyway.” He sat next to them, gently pushing aside the little wings on their helm away from their face. “Your processor damage seems to affect your whole body. It creates odd signals which make you sleep at random times… err… narcolepsy as the humans would call it.”
Talons nodded thoughtfully, “Andi did say I had something similar….”
“She seems to have a lot of knowledge on transformer anatomy for a human.” He remarked before continuing “another thing was brought up in you analysis though. Your identity.”
Talons’ optics widened. Was it really that simple? Could they have done something about it sooner? Known who they were…? talons felt their chassis ache just thinking about it. “M…my… iden…identity?” Their servos trembled as their voice failed to reach their mouth.
“…” ratchet watched them start to devolve before putting his servos on their shoulders. “I won’t say anything until you’re ready to face yourself. I am going to make one thing clear to you though; you were not a bad person.”
“I—….” They put their clawed servos over their mouth, their optics darting around the room before they took a deep in-vent. “….can you tell me…” they lowered their servo, “can you tell me what my name was…? And… what role I played for the autobots?”
His optics softened as a small smile lifted his expression. “Your name is featherbreeze. You were a fantastic scout who aided in the autobot cause by gathering information from the decepticons.”
Just hearing how great they used to be…. It made them conflicted. A good scout— a good *person*…. “Did you know me before I…”
“Not personally. If I recall you weren’t one to stay in the medical bays or hospitals during the war. It was a pain for everyone who took care of you.”
“Snrk…” they stifled a laugh, looking at ratchet and freezing. “Uh… why are you looking at me like that?”
Ratchets smile dropped “like what?
“Like…how humans look at each other when they like each other… romantically.”
“Romantically?” He retorts, sitting up, “we don’t have time for *romance*… especially now when megatron…. Is…”
“…I.. i understand.” Talons nodded, moving to get up, stopping when they felt ratchets servos on theirs
“When this is all over, I hope you are still alive. …. Anyone would be lucky to have you, featherbr—…Talons.”
“…” they smiled, feeling relieved to find their feelings reciprocated at the very least. “Same goes for you ratchet. Anyone would be lucky to be with you….” They got off the berth and walked around to him, “stay alive for me, will you?” They leaned in and kissed him on the mouth. Short and sweet. “I can’t wait to have time for romance..” they mumbled, giddy as they walked to the land bridge.
Alone with his thoughts, ratchet touched his mouth. Perhaps, after all this time, featherbreeze hadn’t changed. Perhaps there was a chance things would be the way they were…