More than a Beast (oc!reader x tfa!Optimus) (On Hold)

8: Tales of Trust: Ratchet

The next bot I gained the trust of was the old medic Ratchet, which in all honesty surprised me. Then again, the Autobots are full of surprises, it seemed.

I would begin to earn his trust, ironically, when I accidentally injured myself attempting to patch up a hole in the base's roof.

"Son of a-" I cursed as one of the steel rafters came down and slammed into my shoulder. I gripped the now dented and slightly leaking metal with a hiss, Ratchet hearing the noise and quickly making his way towards me.

"You okay, kid?" He asked.

"I'll be fine, just a nasty dent." I grunted quietly. "Wouldn't happen to have a welder on ya, would you?"

"Wouldn't be a medic if I didn't." Ratchet said as he pulled a welder from his subspace. "I can fix that for you."

"No need, I know how to stop the leaking." I said.

Ratchet hesitantly handed me the welder, and I quickly used it to stop the leak. It wasn't a pretty weld, but it worked. I then skillfully popped the dent out and flexed my arm to make sure everything was functioning.

"You've had medical training?" Ratchet asked in surprise as i handed his welder back to him.

"All Decepticons are required to have some medical knowledge," I said. "It allowed us to continue fighting rather than relying on someone else. Especially if you were a front liner like me."

"You fought on the front lines?" Ratchet asked.

"Yes, I did. It wasn't often since my sire preferred that I took on more... discrete missions."

"Like?"

I paused to ponder whether or not to answer the old medic's question before deciding to humor him.

"Ever heard of Project Hydra?" I said. Ratchet's optics went absolutely wide in astonishment at the name, suggesting he knew it very well.

"That... that was what happened before we came up with Project Omega." Ratchet said with bewilderment.

"I was the lead for that project." I said with a grim expression. "One of my most complex and deadly designs. Project Hydra was supposed to be the end all for the war by producing a super weapon that could target all 9 of the Autobot controlled sectors. And by Primus was it effective."

"A lot of Autobots died to that weapon." Ratchet said almost angrily.

"I know." I said with an increasingly darkening expression. "It wasn't supposed to."

"What do you mean?"

"It... it was only supposed to act as a threat." I said barely above a whisper, my servos lightly trembling as I looked down at them. "No one was supposed to fire it. It... it was meant to intimidate the Autobots into surrendering." I gripped my denta together as rage boiled with the grief inside my spark as the memory of Project Hydra played in my mind.

-flashback-

"Sire, the Hydra Cannon is ready to be shown." I said to Megatron.

"Good, have it set out in full view so that we may force that arrogant Magnus to surrender." Megatron said.

"Idiots, both of you." Starscream groveled as he stormed over to the controls for the Hydra Cannon. "You could wipe them all out with this thing!"

"Starscream, no!" I cried out to the seeker. But it would be far too late. Starscream activated the cannon and fired its nine barrels down onto Cybertron in a brilliant ball of plasma. "NOOOOOOOOO!"

-end flashback-

"Kid?" Ratchet said quietly when he saw my frame shaking. "Hey, you okay?"

"I could have stopped him." I said almost silently. "I... I could have stopped him... I was too slow."

"Stopped who?" Ratchet asked.

"That idiot Starscream." I managed to spit out. "He was the one who activated the Hydra Cannon against my and Megatron's orders. That slimey, arrogant piece of slag!"

I slammed my fist into a nearby wall and left quite a large impact mark in the cement. I felt my spark thunder as the all too familiar animalistic rage crept up my throat pipes. I vented heavily as I tried desperately to calm myself down.

"I... forgive me." I said as I forced myself to regain composure. "I... I'll fix that."

"It's not that big of a deal." Ratchet said. "You needed a way to let it out, and that's one way to do it."

"Yeah... yeah, I guess so."