The Distance Between us. (Ratchet X Ex-Decepticon/Mech/Reader.)

Chapter 2

The Ground-bridge coordinates landed the old mech right where he expected to be dropped off. He landed in a natural cave tunnel that branched out into a cavern of some sort. Small stalactites hung from the cave ceiling, adorned with sparkly flakes of energon and in the walls itself. It was honestly quite pretty. He theorized that the energon flakes could be the cause of the signal. But if (Y/n) could find the main energon source, then it would rule out that possibility.

Reaching out to the sparkly cave walls, some of the glowing flakes fell of without much resistance. It lightly stuck to his fingertips as the doctor more closely inspected said energon flakes. (O/c) optics zoned in, studying the materiel. Doc-bot's sight flickered from the walls to his digits.

"Fascinating." (Y/n) whispered to himself. Squinting a bit, his (o/c) coloured gaze drifted from his servo towards the tunnel ahead of him. The formation of the tunnel already gave evidence of opening up further along. He needed to investigate it, reminding himself what was at stake. Possible trap or energon stash. The more time spent on thoughts, meant less time to leave before the cons found him.

Cleaning off the energon flakes from his digit-tips, (Y/n) turned to the side and pressed into the tunnel. He took note of the walls for further reference, in case of an ambush. Sounds of the mech's peds lightly echoed through said tunnel.

Progress was showing itself through the walls, crystalline energon clusters began to appear more and more frequently the further forward he walked. Their glow softly reflected onto (Y/n)'s (a/c) armor. It was sad that such beauty would be uprooted. Like many worlds he was taken to by the Decepticon faction, planets that thrived on energon always ended up dead by Cybertronians. Mainly the Decepticons.

Eventually, their walk through the growing energon came to a halt. It appeared that he had reached a dead end, one of witch opened onto a half dome shaped cavern. The old medic's optics scanned the energon that hung from it's various locations, stepping through the entrance towards the nearby formations. Unlike the clusters before, these were much more vibrant; ready for harvesting.

As much as the aged medic wanted to study the crystalline structures for an upmost of thirty or more minutes, they knew that they were working on borrowed time. Reaching his servo to to neck cabling, he stretched the limb one way, then the other way. Prepping physically for the task ahead. They stepped towards and reached out to one of the energon crystals. With his other servo, holding a laser scalpel, he carefully and meticulously cut off a sample. Examining the cut piece as if it was the last of it.

A Medic like him did try to stay on schedule, much like he had strictly done on Cybertron. However, unlike his forge planet, Earth time was still strange. What were mere moments, were in fact, an hour's worth of Earth time or more. He had gotten used to it, but with the lack of any interesting activity did mess with his processor a bit.

While the old bot continues examined the raw energon sample he held, optics scanning over the blue crystal, a Ground-bridge opened at the far side of the rocky cave room. (Y/n) could feel it in his spark with who could walk though the greenish portal. His propeller blades rattled at the possibly that it was Megatron. The medic was specifically targeted to become their Chief Medic.

The doctor snapped back to reality, focusing on a familiar winged figure approaching the ground-bridge's exit barrier. He grunted, knowing exactly who it is. Luckily, his relationship with the commander was on the better side of the Decepticon faction. Turning his body to face away from the Ground-bridge before the figure could spot him, a gravely shrill voice spoke out to the old bot.

"Miss me?~" Starscream, strutted completely out of the green and towards his personally favoured Medic. Posture up, wings slightly flicking and clawed servos behind his backstruts. The seeker always liked the respect and attention he got from him and thus, liked being around the older mech. Though they have had their spats, Starscream could never hate or be annoyed by him. Often preferring them with his medical needs. Not that he would ever admit it willingly.

They gave a deepened hum in response "Always, Commander." Though his face showed that he didn't care, there was a slight tug on the corners of his intake. He'd rather deal with Starscream then any other con.

The air shifted suddenly when Starscream's EMP pulsed uncomfortably. (Y/n) had almost forgot the feeling of the fields, from being away from his own kind for so long. It didn't go unnoticed by the medic. The sudden uncertain feeling that emitted from Starscream. He turned somewhat towards the seeker, optics now trained on the seeker's movements. They looked vulnerable now. Perhaps even a little frightful. Starscream tried to cover his actions, but failed when speaking again.

"I uh.." Crimson optics shifted away from his favorite medic. Uncomfortably, his peds anxiously moved and adjusted. His wings tried to stay proud, giving up and just hug sadly fully down from their connecting joint. He looked and felt so small, luckily he knew that the bigger bot wouldn't harm him. "I forgot that you... uh... lost contact with us..."

Raising in optic ridge, (Y/n) wondered why his commander was suddenly acting exposed. Different from the usual private encounters he had with the silver flyer. At first he thought that this was joke. Megatron, though stupid with keeping Starscream around, wasn't had taken the SIC's position away from him. A threat perhaps, but they always just got punished and that way that. It was how the two of them ended up on the same room. Though more so at the seeker's request, but still. For Starscream to possibly act like this, something damming must of happened.

"Narrowing his sights down at Starscream, he spoke carefully with a tone. "Starscream... What. Did. You. Do."

The named con made a noise akin to a strangled gulp.