Achelois

24: Gaster and Sans

Achelois opened her eyes to a familiar seen of blackness. It was the void. She looked around, and saw the same skeleton from before.

"HeLlO", the skeleton says with a smile. She smiled in response.

"Hello", she murmured quietly. "Why am I here, and not the afterlife?"

"I Do nOt KnOW" the skeleton says. "ThOuGh iT hAs bEEn a LoNg TImE siNcE I SaW yOu LaSt."

Achelois chuckled. "Definitely. However, my only question is... can I know your name now?"

The skeleton laughed, the laugh still terrifying. However, this time she was expecting it, and so it wasn't as scary as the first time she heard it. He nodded. "YoU mAy InDeED. My NaMe iS Dr. W.D. GaStEr BuT yOu MaY CaLl ME GaStEr."

"Gaster", Achelois tried out. "I like it. It suits you." Gaster smiled, before looking down and sighing.

"I mUst TelL yOu SomEtHiNg Of ThE VoId. YoU aRe AblE to loOk InTo thE ReAl WorLd And SEe alL ThOsE yOu leFt BeHiNd."

Achelois breath caught in her throat. She stared at him in shock, and couldn't help but wonder how she could do that.

"AlL YoU haVe To Do iS ThiNk of A lOved OnE aNd tHey WilL ApPear. ThAt is ThE bEst Way I cAn DesCriBe It."

Achelois nodded, closed her eyes and thought of Ratchet. She thought of how she left him, and how she hoped Smokescreen passed along her message. She opened her eyes when she heard a familiar sound of the ground bridge. She watched as the entire team came in dejectedly. Arcee, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Smokescreen, all end familiar pods, and each one opened it to let the human inside it out. All except for Smokescreen who held the pod close, and stared at the red splatters on the inside. Ratchet saw the red and stumbled back a few steps.

"Achelois?" he whispered. She winced at the pain in his voice. "What happened?"

Arcee was the one to speak, though she sounded tired, and sad. "Achelois... sacrificed herself... to save our planet..."

"It was all in vain!" Smokescreen snapped, setting the pod down gently and staring at it. "We weren't even able to save Cybertron, due to the fact that we weren't able to get the keys back from Megatron!"

"And Optimus destroyed the Omega Lock", Bulkhead added.

Achelois felt dread sink into the darkest pit of her being. She... died in vain? 

"What?" Ratchet asked, shock sinking into him as he realized that Achelois was dead, and that they were unable to go back to Cybertron. "You did-"

Optimus cut him off. "What was necessary. There was no time for another prolonged battle, not with Earth in imminent danger."

"So you destroyed the only device capable of restoring our home?" Ratchet sounded like he was about to cry. "Not to mention, the human I fell in love with is dead? Optimus... we needed that... and... I need her..."

Achelois felt tears fall from her eyes to her face and then to her feet, and maybe past that. She cried as she realized what had happened. Ratchet had lost all his hope because they were unable to restore their homeworld... and he lost her... 

"Ratchet", she cried, tears still spilling from her eyes. "I'm here... I'm right next to you...  please... Ratchet... I love you... please don't let my death be in vain..."

"You weren't there, Doc", Smokescreen said, pointing at Ratchet. "And it's not your place to second guess a battle field decision."

"It most certainly is!" Ratchet yelled. "There had to be another way!" He stared at the pod containing Achelois' assumed to be dead body.