Chapter Text
What would push you to leave everything behind? To take that step into the great unknown?
What would you make you break all your connections?
A need for more, a family feud, a wanderlust?
For me it was a cocktail. I was depressed, an imbalance of chemical concoctions in my brain. I'd had a fight with my mom. Contrasting personalities, a lack of attention, of effort, from either side. Finally, an opportunity. A doorway had appeared right in front of me, tempting me in, welcoming me into the folds of a new reality. A chance to make something new.
So I took it. I left behind siblings that never reached out, a mom that never tried, and a dad without time to make it work. Abandoned a few good coworkers and long distance friendships.
Is it forever? Maybe it is, and I can say I might regret it if that is the case. There were good people in my life, those that made an effort, who shined through the darkness.
I didn't appreciate all of them until I made the jump. Until I walked through eternity to feel sun harsh against my face and dirt crunching under my feet. I'd walked out into a harsh new world full of new life and I wasn't ready but excitement still filled my veins. It burned through them like fire and-
Oh, something actually burned. My body screamed at me as I struggled to breath. Behind me the doorway still swirled, pulling and pushing at the lines between reality. My lungs couldn't get any air, my blood boiled under my skin, my muscles spasmed as they tried to move. My nightmares came to life, my mouth open but no sound coming out as I tried to scream in pain or frustration or fear.
Around me the world blurred, red and orange and yellow and blue. I felt something smack into my side but it seemed miniscule to the rest of the sensations I was bombarded with.
I realized as the world slowly turned to twilight that I was passing out, my brain not receiving enough oxygen to keep me awake. I felt like I was dying and realized I was, suffocating in the desert.
It seemed like I blinked, and the sky was blue again. I could breath, though my throat hurt to do so. I was scared to speak, to find that I still could make no sound, so I remained silent. I stared up at the sky, the sun lancing my eyes, burning my retina. A large shape blocked it and leaned over me, and I found myself blinking the sunspots out of my eyes to find the truth, because what I saw was a lie. A machine, made in the image of a man, with glowing blue eyes that whirled in to focus on me. Mostly grey metal, with peeks of copper and patches of lime green and red paint.
"Back with us? Humans, so fragile. What made you think you could walk through a ground bridge unharmed?" the voice was slightly metallic, a buzz underneath that reminded me of audio playback. The mech shined a light in my eyes, back and forth, and then I watched a giant finger descend towards me to rest on my chest. "Honestly, hum-."
A new world. New connections. I was somewhere familiar, my mind told me I should know this place. Another part told me I was unsafe, that there could be danger, that there was danger, battles, war here. “You aren’t human.”
I ignored this and breathed, finding the courage to search for my voice. Suddenly I recognized this place, this mech.
"Ratchet." I croaked. But still, sound. A voice. I was not silenced.
The slight background sound dimmed, the whirr and buzz of the bot moving around disappearing as he stilled. All that was left was the hum of his spark, the thrum of power in his systems. Even the whoosh from his vents had stopped. "Hmm, how do you know my designation?" He asked sharply.
"Not a- groundbridge." I whimpered.
My skin tingled, itched, then burned and I cried out, a sharp bark that sounded foreign on my ears. Then my skin split apart as combat routines I didn't have activated and were just as suddenly shut off as a jack was roughly shoved into a now exposed port on my chest.
"Primus, you're so young-" the rest came out in garbled clicking, turning into whistles and trills, his EM field circling mine, calming me involuntarily. Safety, it promised. Rest.
Another shadow approached, this one smaller, but noisier somehow. Dark skin, chocolate eyes. Military clothes, holding a gun. I barely withheld a whine as Ratchet nudged at my system routines, trying to send me into recharge. A human I shouldn't know but did. My body doing things it should but didn't.
Ratchet's optics had dimmed and the soldier looked between me and the big bot, staring slightly at the metal port in my shoulder where Ratchet was still connected. I attempted to lift my head to look around, but even as the thought crossed my mind Ratchet's finger held it down. "Don't move."
Right, sure thing doc. I studied the human, a patch on his jacket verifying the name in my head was right. Epps, Robert Epps. I thought he might be Air Force.
Ratchet nudged a few running code systems through the port, tried to close programs, and his medical override met my firewalls.
"Stubborn little-go to sleep, little one. Your systems need a break." Ratchet grumbled, trying to do another override. This time I did whine, refusing. No, not yet, I needed to know where, what, who why why why-
His code stopped pressing against my security.
"Alright, alright, calm down. Epps, can you get the transport ready, he's going to need energon once we get to base, have Jolt prep the medbay for him, tell him minibot, that's smallest I'll have prepared-" the rest of his communication with the human turned into static and I winced, Ratchet gesturing down at me and sending another stream of code through the patch. This one was accepted unlike the others, a sort of basic but common muscle relaxer so my systems would stop trying to spur me into motion. Too many subroutines trying to run at once. Ratchet removed the jack and moved out of my field of view.
“Wouldn’t it be her? They look like a girl, at least.” Epps stated, looking down at me.
“Did you just-fine, she will need Energon. Get transport ready. She’ll ride in my altmode.”
Another shadow was revealed bulkier than Ratchet but roughly the same height. Black paint gleamed under the sun. I could see the distortion from the heat rising off his plating. A large cannon was in humming with energy as he looked around us, primed for a threat. He turned as if sensing my study of him and clicked at me, our EM fields brushing, and I whistled back, happy there was a Guardian nearby. Some of my subroutines shut themselves down.
A large servo scooped me up, slowly enough I didn't startle. The plating under my hand was warm and flexible, delicate and dexterous, so probably the medic. He held me close to his chasis, close enough I could feel the frequency pulse of his spark, wavering as he walked towards the large black mech. Ironhide.
"Pretender?" Ironhide asked, looking over my frame.
"Sparkling, or Youngling at that. I'll need more time to get a more accurate reading, but they're younger than Bee when we found him. If I had to guess, I'd say only a vorn or two."
"They were actin' like a human goin' through a groundbridge." Ironhide advised.
Ratchet hummed and passed me over. "When the transports ready you can put them in my cab. For now I'm going to review their system files and see if I can't figure out where they are from."
Ironhide grunted in agreement, and then he focused down at me. More whistles and clicks came from him, amusement flitting though his field, and I felt my plating puff up in agitation at being spoken over.
Things were silent, just Ironhide's soothing sounds and the distant chaos of the men the two bots had brought with. I could occasionally see Epps talking to others or into some radio device.
Ratchet made a surprised ah and Ironhide turned to face him.
"The little one was right. It was not a ground bridge but a space bridge. Whatever planet they were on had a thin atmosphere with no moisture and a below freezing temperature. Her systems were not prepared for Earth. The moisture and dust clogged her vents and sent her systems into overheating. I'm not sure where she scanned a human for her organic cognition system though…"
The code Ratchet had used to calm me was beginning to be shunted off by my processor. I was calmer now, able to think. The soothing presence of the big bots was helping my protocols too. "Transmission."
Ironhide hummed and stared at me. I continued. "Transmission from Earth. I copied the imagery."
I figured this was as good a story as any. I wasn't exactly sure what I looked like, but I assumed I looked like me, just with something new underneath. Everything felt pretty intuitive, so I focused on the image of the man now standing next to Epps- short, skinny, messy brown hair and army fatigues. A shudder ran down my body and I heard a click from one of the bots. I shifted back to myself easily.
“Stop transforming until we are back at base little one. Your systems are still taxed and I want to update your software. Do you have a designation?”
I trilled in agreement. "I don't know how to properly translate it to human-English." A burst of noises comes from me. CLicK, whIR, triILLL, lowertRIll, Beep.
Ratchet nodded. "Not an English word for translation. The Danish have something sort of similar, hygge? Could also loosely be associated as kith."
I shook my head. That was an awful name.
Ironhide chuckled. "It's alright. We'll find one for you. I'm sure the humans will help."
As if summoned Epps returned, two other men with him. "Transport will be touching down at Nellis soon. We should get moving. How's the little lady?"
I whirred at Ironhide, but he refused to put me down. He did lower me, so I sat up, leaning back against Ironhide's larger fingers. "I am well, thank you. I was informed you might help me come up with a proper English designation."
Epps looked over at Ratchet for an explanation. "Her name doesn't translate well from Cybertronian, so we are looking for a substitute. We assumed your men would enjoy helping."
Epps got a big shit eating grin on his face and snickered. "You might just regret that. You'll probably get e list as long as you are, and half of them will suck."
I nodded. "That's fine. Designations are important no matter the language. They take time."
Epps nodded. "Alright, long as you're prepared. My mama always said a name is like part of your soul. We'll find you the right one tho', don't you worry. Let's get moving." He turned to the two men "Get these teams moving out, go go go."
The men jogged back over to the vehicles they had assumedly arrived in, Epps watching until he nodded. Ratchet transformed and Ironhide placed me in the back of his cab, where a cot waited. He set me on it and I beeped at him in thanks, laying down. The steady roar of engines soon filled the air, and inside his alt mode I could once again feel Ratchet's spark humming. I drifted into recharge before we started moving.