I am Broken (TFP) *Rewrite*

Chapter 23

Dahlia groaned as she was pacing again in the sand as she was waiting for Optimus and Bumblebee to finish burying Skyquake. She has ended up calming down a lot over the past half hour, and she was back to looking completely human. Despite her ruined clothes, and the amount of blood that she had left all over the area, and the blood that was still bleeding from the tip of her fingers, even after she had sheathed her claws, Dahlia was eager to get back to the base. But Optimus has decided to wait until the humans go home. And while Dahlia was unhappy about that, she actually agreed. Especially as she still wanted to kill something. She hasn't been able to, but even with her eyes back to the warm, brown pupils that they all were used to, Dahlia was still worked up. She has been crying, though she has refused any sort of comfort that the two bots tried to offer. She just wanted the time to calm down, and as the bots buried Skyquake, it seemed to give a bit of time for them to pass.

Dahlia was upset and angry over the fact that Soundwave chasing her was possibly an actual experiment he had conducted on her. And she had no idea, but Optimus seemed to realize it. And as he hasn't disputed the fact that it was one, it really got to her. It made Dahlia really regret coming with the autobots as she had wanted to just enjoy the sun and watch the bots deal with Skyquake. But it did not happen that way at all, and now Dahlia was frustrated over the fact that her fingers won't stop bleeding. She has even noticed, after her muscles shrunk in her arms, that blood was slowly seeping from the pores and her elbows, and she could taste her own blood in her mouth. All of this has never happened before. She wanted to blame Soundwave, but that would be too easy.

She had also begun to feel strange again, and it was troubling her. She didn't know if it would be temporary or not. But considering it seemed to be ongoing, Dahlia was getting very scared, and it was compounding onto her already stressed mind. She was scared that she might have to accept medical treatment from Ratchet. And while she trusted the autobots, there was still a part of her that feared that they would turn on her. After all, they had the capability of running tests on her.

Dahlia looked at the autobots as Optimus and Bumblebee were covering Skyquake's body with boulders and she sighed deeply, walking away to give herself some more distance between herself and the autobots, as she felt it was necessary. She also just felt the need to find somewhere to just hide as she did not like what she was feeling at all. Having not been used to feel sick, just wanting to hide felt like the right thing to do in her mind. And it would give her time to try and calm herself down.

This has never happened before. We don't get sick. We only got sick when we were in that horrid place.

I know. But...everything else gets sick, so I guess it was going to happen eventually.

But this doesn't feel like a cold, flu or...well...we don't know any other illnesses...and we only regurgitate if something tastes funny.

True. But I am more worried about the bleeding. Maybe we feel weak because the bleeding won't stop.

That has never happened since we escaped the lab. We experienced almost nonstop bleeding in the lab when they had us strapped down and they had injected something, and then there was all that beeping...

Oh yeah. I think I remember that. I'm pretty sure that was a mistake and caused something, because I think we both blacked out when that happened. Because I remember waking up in that...cage after...

Hmm...could this be related? That only happened a year before we escaped.

How should I know? Only someone who knows science and medical stuff would be able to answer that.

Ugh...does this mean...we might have to let Ratchet...

I think so. But I doubt we should be worried, Beast.