When We Seared The Sky

Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Fall to Pieces

Ironhide jerked from stasis, his optics flicking on and burning through the gloom of his chamber as he raised his plasma cannon automatically, aiming it randomly around the room with a deep, threatening growl. Something had woken him and he did not like it – he could sense that something was wrong. He rounded on the sleeping form on the other side of the room.

“Ratchet!” he whispered loudly.

The yellow medic made an odd Cybertronian sound as he was dragged out of recharge, looking around the room. “What, Ironhide?” he grumbled, glaring at the other mech. “Primus, why did Prime make me share quarters with you? I would have done better in the slaggin’ medbay by myself.”

Realising that it had not been Ratchet that had awakened him, Ironhide looked suspiciously about the room, switching on his night vision and signature detectors. Inside the building he could see Sam, Mikaela and Rad’s heat signatures and the signals flashing for Optimus, Bumblebee, Ratchet and himself, but there appeared to be no one else there. And that, he realised, was somewhat worrying. “Ratch’, did Alexis come back with Skyfire and the girl?” he asked in a low voice.

Ratchet hauled himself into a sitting position with a low groan, rubbing the bridge of his nose with one hand. “No,” he mumbled tiredly, and Ironhide was surprised to see how low his energy reserves were. “When she did not return I assumed that she had been unable to find Skyfire and Jade, so Optimus postponed the meeting to tomorrow.”

“So where is she now?” he demanded.

“I can sense that she is nearby – she should be very close to the base,” Ratchet sighed. “Why?”

Ironhide shook his head and stood up, arming himself. “I have a feeling that something is amiss,” he muttered, moving towards the medic and hauling him upright by the shoulder with little difficulty despite the medic’s drowsy protests. “As soon as I see that she’s safe, you can go back to your cycle. What on Cybertron happened to your energy levels?”

Stumbling lethargically after the armaments connoisseur, Ratchet glared at him, although his optics flickered slightly with tiredness. “Your energy reserves would be low if you were up at all hours repairing people,” he pointed out, his irritability still showing through despite his exhaustion. “I’m fine.”

Snorting, Ironhide quietly opened the door to their quarters. “Liar.”

He stepped from the room and into the corridor, looking around doubtfully despite what his sensors told him. Bumblebee’s signal was throbbing from the room on the left… Optimus’s from the right… Sam’s heat signature was next to Bumblebee, as was Mikaela’s… Rad’s was in the room adjacent to Optimus’s… nobody else. No Cybertronians, humans or anything in between.

There was a tiny crunch and he swung his cannons round to point them at Ratchet’s chest. The medic staggered backwards and angrily shoved the mouth of the weapon away from his torso. “What on Cybertron are you doing, you pit-spawned idiot?” he hissed. “Never point that thing at me again or your next diagnostic will end in the removal of it!”

“What was that noise?” Ironhide insisted on asking, although he did deactivate the cannon’s energy. “You must’ve stepped on something.”

“I did not step on anything –” Ratchet said haughtily, before he glanced down at his feet and raised one of them. A tiny piece of paper had been crushed under the weight of his body, and he sighed heavily. “Alright, perhaps I did, but it is insignificant litter,” he muttered grouchily.