Rule of Madness

Dangers

(A/N: Please, please tell me what you guys are thinking of the story! I feel more encouraged and inspired when people let me know what they think/like/feel.)

Ratchet lay on his berth, optics dim as he attempted to focus through the haze his processors was in, letting out a soft groan to the femme standing nearby, watching him from behind her visor.

HUD filled with reports of infection, over heating and orders for immediate medical attention, but Ratchet ignored them. He knew what he needed, and he was certain that Titanium did as well. Though the Decepticon seeker seemed hesitant to touch him or call for a medic. Why would she not want to call for her tutor? Knockout surely could come for his protege?

Looking up through dim optics, Ratchet coughed again, every little movement making his lower regions feel like they were on fire. "Please." He hated begging, but he needed a medic, and he wasn't ready to offline. "Need a... Medic." Ratchet groaned, Titanium looking down at him with a torn expression on her faceplates.

"I will call for one."

Those words allowed Ratchet to relax, and he mumbled an unintelligible thank you under his vents, optics offlining as he vented heavily and attempted to relax his trembling frame.

Titanium looked down at the red and white mech laid out on the berth in his room, frowning deeply as she attempted to keep the frightened trembling from her wings. She knew that if she didn't call for Knockout, Ratchet could offline from the infection... But she would be the one at risk if she called for her "teacher", not Ratchet.

Venting softly, the femme paced back and forth. She didn't want an Autobot slave, but Megatron had made sure that she had had no choice in the matter, and now her peaceful existence was about to fall through her digits. Everything she had built up on, the Towers, being able to live a life free of the other Decepticons and society, would be damaged if not lost, with a single call.

Glancing again at the heavily venting mech, Titanium scrubbed a servo across her faceplates. She wasn't a fighter, at least, not much of one, and she wasn't a medic, though she knew rust infection when she saw it. She should've pushed aside her fear and just checked the Autobot over when she first learned of his abuse at another Decepticon's servos... Something she was particularly acquainted with.

Titanium shuddered as unwanted images assaulted her processor, immediately locking away the unsavoury memories of rape and beatings at the servos of several different Decepticons. Knockout, Dreadwing, Soundwave, even her father.... Shockwave, who had nearly blinded her with one of his experiments. That led the femme to touch her visor with her digits, tracing along it and venting softly.

As the seeker saw it, she either called Knockout and faced whatever would come with his 'visit', or let Ratchet suffer and offline... From what she thought, it was her fault he was hurt in the first place. She had sent him out with the full knowledge of what another Decepticon would do to someone weaker and lesser than they themselves were.

The young seeker looked at the Autobot medic again. She remembered all the times she had watched him, watched as he explored the Towers, read through every datapad she had had, how he had seemed to want to avoid her as much as she had wanted to avoid him... Titanium smiled faintly when she remembered how Ratchet had noticed her making repairs during the nightcycle, and he had respected her enough to not push her for answers as to why...

Finally, Titanium lifted a trembling servo to her comm, activating it. "Knockout.... I need you at the Towers, my..." Titanium hesitated and glanced at Ratchet. "Autobot needs immediate care." She finished, cutting off the comm before the red Decepticon could even answer.