Hidden Spark on Earth (TFP)

Chapter 53

The word Cybonic plague repeated itself in Saphira's mind. She let the tears fall from her eyes, but she kept herself as quiet as possible. She hoped to Primus that there was a cure for this disease. She knew what it was like to watch someone fade away from an illness that has no cure. Saphira kept stroking Optimus's cheek gently, he was still taking deep intakes and exhales that came out as struggles. She hoped what little comfort she was giving Optimus was enough...the horrid feeling of being helpless and not knowing what to do...the very same feeling she had with her mother, was back and she didn't like it one bit.

"It's only contagious if contact is made with the infected energon," Ratchet continued speaking about the plague. And he confirmed basically how Optimus got infected, Saphira was relieved that Ratchet himself was not infected. Ratchet glanced at Saphira as she looked at him with teary eyes. "Do not worry, Saphira, you are free from the infection."

"I'm not worried about me," Saphira responded in a weak voice and sniffled. She looked at Optimus's flickering optics and lowered her voice. "It is you I'm worried about." Her bottom lip trembled as she spoke to him. "It seems...even though you were careful...it didn't matter right now..."

Optimus's lips twitch slightly into a weak smile briefly before groaning slightly from the pain he was feeling. Saphira did not know what exactly the Cybonic plague was doing to Optimus, but she glanced at the right side of his face. More of the energon veins were darkening and defining with more rust growing. It really was horrible watching this unfold before her very eyes.

"What was a plague doing in an autobot spaceship?" Miko asked curiously as she listened, seemingly wondering how the plague got to the bots in the first place. Saphira was curious too...but there were no passengers from the vessel to answer that question.

"Its passengers were infected," Arcee said in a soft tone, she was trying to hide her worry, but it was clear in her tone while trying to cover her fear. "The virus wiped our millions on Cybertron during the great war."

Saphira shuddered a little. Hearing the number of bots that the plague had killed did not give her a lot of hope, and she hated it. "Cybonic plague was engineered in the decepticons biological warfare program," Ratchet explained in a weighted done. He glanced at Saphira and the children as he completed who created the plague. "By Megatron himself."

"You...have a cure don't you?" Raf asked in a hopeful tone.

Ratchet was about to answer when everyone heard Optimus. "Uuuggghhh...n-no cure," Prime said in a struggled, pained voice as he turned his head to glance at Rafael.

"Optimus, please, save your strength." Ratchet glanced at Saphira as she gently placed her hand on Optimus's right cheek to have him move his head back into a resting position and he smiled slightly at her.

"Would Megatron create a disease without having a cure?" Jack asked in a quick, worried tone. "I mean, what if he caught it by accident?" They were both very good questions, but Saphira knew the answer to that was gone.

"It's not like we can ask Megatron, Jack," Bulkhead responded in a calm tone, taking a brief worried glance at Optimus. All of them were worried for Optimus as they likely had seen many bots they knew perish from this plague. "He's pushing up lugnuts."

Ratchet walked over to a console and typed on it, bringing up the screen showing the scan result he had earlier. "But...we might be able to access the decepticon database. For the moment, we still have a fix on their warship's location."

Saphira looked at the screen and smiled slightly. "If there's any hope of finding the cure..." She began in a weak voice and glanced at Optimus who seemed to be struggling to listen at the moment. "It is worth the risk."