TRANSFORMERS: I WILL NEVER DESERT YOU

DOG TAGS

CHAPTER 13
Dog Tags

Searching for his best friend in the ruins of Chicago was the most disturbing moment of his life.

Bluestreak remembered how fast his spark was beating when he didn't see James among the soldiers after Megatron was defeated. Continually, he reminded himself that he should have stuck with him, and not let himself get separated. But all the same, he wanted to believe that it had changed nothing. That he was not among the many vaporized, or dead humans. He vented out quietly, yet again scanning the street he was staring down, and running on down the next as he gave up his search there.

"JAMES!"

His voice seemed to travel through the ruins of the once thriving city. Echoing endlessly, hauntingly. Bluestreak didn't like it, he didn't like it at all, and he was praying James would hear him soon. He groaned quietly, he was tired, and he was in desperate need of repairs, but he was not giving up, he wouldn't give up. He had promised Rita that he would bring James home, and fate be damned, he was going to bring him home. "James!" He shouted again as he moved towards another street. "Primus, James, you can't be dead. You CAN'T be." He whispered.

"B-Blue."

The voice was so soft that Bluestreak almost missed it. His head whirled towards the ruins of a building, his optics twisting quickly. With a single scan, he took in where the man was, and what condition he was in. No, his energy levels could not be so low. He had to be reading it wrong, he told himself, had to be completely wrong. The mech trudged towards the building's rubble, and quickly threw the small hunk that covered the lower half of James's body as if it were nothing more than a piece of paper. "Oh, Primus, James," Bluestreak muttered. "Awwww slag."

"I was getting a little family of four out of the way," James told him weakly, his eyes welling with tears. "They had a little boy and I could... I could only think of Scott," He shook his head. "There was only room for me or the kid to get out of the way of the explosion, but I'll be damned if I let that little boy die," He added. "I thought I was dead for a while, but then I woke up... They were gone, and then well... You can see the rest," He added quietly.

The man looked like hell, and furthermore like he had been there for a while. Activating his holoform, Bluestreak carefully crouched over, and placed his hand hard against the freshest of the plethora of wounds the man had. "B-Blue I don't have a lot of time," James muttered, his voice soft as he looked over at him, exposing the massive gash over the side of his face. "You can't get me to Ratchet in time if that's what you're thinking... I've already lost WAY too much blood," He groaned.

"You mute that talk right now!" Bluestreak told him bluntly. "Ratchet, Ratch I need you right now," He shouted over his comm link. "James is hurt bad, real bad. But I think we have just enough time to save him," He explained.

"Bluestreak, I'm thirty minutes from your present location-."

"Slaggit Ratchet, STEP ON IT!"

He didn't even listen to Ratchet after that, continuing to put pressure on it. The man's blood oozed onto his holoform, a sight which thoroughly disturbed him, especially as James weakly reached his hand over and gripped his arm. "Blue, we both know I'm gonna die out here," James said with tears in his eyes. "God, stay with me, I don't want to die alone," He rasped. "I don't want to die alone."

Bluestreak used his holoform to pull James into his lap as the man sobbed. He promised himself that this was a bad dream, that everything today would end up being just that. James couldn't die, he still had Rita and little Scott to take care of. Scott had only just turned one, he was already growing so big. He was supposed to be there for all of his firsts, but he'd only been there for a few and that would not do. "I'm right here, James," Bluestreak commented. "But you're not gonna die. Help's on the way," He then added. "Think of Rita and Scott, James. Let them keep you here, because they need you, slaggit," He could see that James was struggling to keep his eyes open. "Dammit, you are NOT dying on me!"