When All Lights Go Out II (TFP)

Chapter 24

Sitting on the berth as he held his sparkling in his arm, Optimus rubbed the bridge between his optics as he was feeling quite weary. It had been a couple days since Azura had been reborn, and Azura's fear of recharging has seemed to ramp up. She has refused to recharge, and the autobots have understood that Azura now knew that her spark had stopped pulsing upon her birth, which was feeding her fear of falling into recharge. She didn't want to think she wouldn't wake up or fall into a deep, dreary dream. And all of this has made it extremely difficult for Azura to fall into recharge. Optimus has successful rocked her to recharge a few times, but she would often be in recharge for only thirty minutes to an hour, and while her system was getting stronger, Ratchet has been on both Optimus and Azura about the sparkling getting recharge.

Azura was currently feeding from Optimus as her demand for energon was also very great, which was not surprising due to how weak Azura's system currently was. And that also resulted in Optimus ingesting a large amount of energon too, and it was a little more than when he was carrying Azura. He did not mind, but it was a lot of energy to keep up with the sparkling's appetite. But Optimus was definitely more concerned about his daughter's health. He worried she would hurt herself by not getting enough rest, even with the medication Azura was given each day, and a spark monitor attached to her to keep watch of how her spark was going. So far, it was a slow process, but Optimus had confidence that Azura would be fine. And he agreed with Megatron to a point. Azura probably will be stronger than the two of them eventually when she is fully grown, even if that was many thousand years away.

Aside from Azura's fear from recharging, changing her diapers was still the least favorite thing that the autobots had to deal with. Ratchet had designed them in such a way though that it would make cleaning up easier, but that didn't stop the mess from being less pleasant. And Ratchet was the first one to find that out as Optimus was in recharge when Azura needed a first change, so the poor medic had to endure that mess. Azura herself was surprised by the lack of control she had on her waste system, as she was used to using a toilet. She hoped that she wouldn't need a diaper for a long time, though Ratchet has said it might take longer for her to regain control of.

While Azura had a bit of a road to recover, Optimus himself recovered very quickly from the injuries he sustained from Mech and the birth. He has regained his strength, and he is able to transform and drive whenever he chooses. Though Optimus has yet to leave the base as staying by Azura's side has been his only priority. For the moment, there has not been any activity regarding Mech or the decepticons. Optimus knew Megatron would likely want Azura to recover too, so he was not surprised by that. But not knowing where Mech would certainly become more worrisome as time goes by.

Ratchet walked into the med bay, smiling sympathetically at the tired Mech who has been struggling to get recharge due to Azura's resistance to it. "Still up, Optimus? I see Azura is hungry again, but I suspect she has been awake for a lot longer."

"I wish I could ease her mind enough that she can relax and recharge, Ratchet. I fear it will only make her recovery a lot shorter than she would like." Optimus intakes heavily as he looked at Azura who looked back at him and glanced at Ratchet curiously. "I wish you could help."

"Optimus, the medication I am giving her will react negatively if I add any recharge aid into the mix. Not every medication can work together in a sparkling, I am afraid." Ratchet understood that Azura needed to recharge, and knew that Azura will eventually recharge more than an hour, she just needed time. "And unfortunately, this is normal with every sparkling, Optimus. Her mental regression is clearer now than before. Despite the fact she has grown a lot more, and I think she has now reached the size she should have been at this age. But she is still an infant, and not being able to recharge throughout the weeks and months will come around until she reaches the early youngling stage."