Shadowfire

Chapter 56

When Sam woke it was to the sound of his daughter crying, and his wife struggling to hold back her own tears as she consoled the girl. He cracked his eyes open.
"I-" he erupted into coughs, full body shudders that made him ache, flecks of liquid getting caught on his lips. He wiped them away before anyone noticed.
"Don't try to talk Sam. It's alright, but-" she paused, looking around anxiously "we're on Cybertron"
"What!?" He gasped, pain wracking his body once more. He groaned, fighting the darkness eddying in his vision. He lost, and the last thing he was aware of was his daughter's hand in his as his wife yelled for a medic.

___________________________

There was no steady beeping of a heart rate monitor– as a childhood of watching action movies and, when they'd gotten too real, a lifetime in alien war zones, had prepared him to expect; and that fact more than any other convinced him this was no human hospital. Holy- Kayla had been right, they were on Cybertron, the near mythical planet that had defined so much of his life. What the f-

Mikaela squeezed his hand, and slowly Sam opened his eyes, surroundings swimming into focus around him.

"Good, you're awake" a booming, mechanical voice that he didn't recognise said from above him, Sam's eyes finding the unfamiliar mech, Knockout and Tessa by his side, Deception medic holding the human aloft on his palm. Suddenly Sam realised what this had to mean, Shad remembered. "I am- sorry" the mech said, words bitter and twisted in his vocaliser, the lack of sincerity souring the air upon utterance. "The attack on you was unsanctioned, even if it looked like a perfectly valid threat to my- the Prime, I should have been sure before I engaged". Sam had spent enough of his life around soldiers, he specifically recalled the tenure of Director Mearing, to recognise when someone was under orders to apologise. This mech, the one who had nearly killed him, and his family it seemed, was under orders to apologise. Sam didn't want to think about what it meant. How much did Shad remember? Was she herself, or some bastardised version of the brainwashed drone she had been? The mech bowed stiffly, and left the room. In an instant Sam was trying to force himself upright, gasping and biting down on a scream.

"Do they know?" he wheezed, lungs burning and abdomen in an agony indescribable, damaged tissue feeling like solid metal, uncompromising underneath his bruised skin. "Do Lennox and the others know it worked?". Surely it had, and surely they must, Tess and Knockout were here, someone had to bring them here, Shad had to remember right? It was Mikaela who spoke, Tess keeping her face carefully angled away as Knockout dumped her on the other side of Sam's bed, the woman busying herself studying his medical diagnostics.
"We don't know. We haven't seen her since we arrived, you were- in a pretty bad way, they didn't have a medic that could treat you, next thing I know the Knights are shepherding in Knockout and Tessa. Sam, I thought you told me it didn't work!"
"We thought it didn't! The download went as planned, but she just got up and tore her way out of there, didn't even hesitate. Right, Tess?" The girl didn't respond, but Knockout did.
"We thought something must've happened because her optics were on the fritz– but that could've just been a side affect of how much voltage she was exposed to, then the space bridge opens, the human government goes haywire, and a squad of armed mechs finds me and escorts me back home. I don't know more than any of you. We haven't seen the big P since we arrived, I don't know whether it's the Prime or Shadowfire in control of that frame". The knot in Sam's throat grew tight, the possibilities taunting him. Surely she had to remember something right? He was being cared for, Tess and Knockout had been retrieved to heal him, surely that counted for something?

___________________________

The femme wasn't thinking. There was nothing in her helm, her processors empty, system software absent. She knew– no, no she couldn't think of that, of them.