Partners (2)
The ground bridge deposited the two very close to where Soundwave had told them to meet the Con. The area was a small quarry far from the base, with nothing around besides gravel and rocks. The moment that the bridge closed behind them, Ratchet noticed that his long-range communications went dead, telling him that he and Fluttershy were on their own.
Fluttershy and Ratchet had both made a quick, and very poor, excuse for why they needed to leave the base during the middle of a battle and not tell the others where they were going. Fluttershy was certain that neither the bots nor Pinkie had believed their lie and would very soon be teleporting to their location as well.
“They won’t be able to,” Ratchet informed Fluttershy once she had voiced her concerns to the bot. “I set the computer to wipe our destination from its memory banks as soon as the ground bridge closed behind us. If they had a genius and a few days they might be able to recover the location, but they have neither at the moment. We are on our own.”
Fluttershy swallowed down the fear that had risen up at Ratchet’s words as the ambulance began to drive towards the meeting point. The sun was just starting to set on the horizon, casting a brilliant amber glow over the land. But along with that glow came plenty of shadows, shadows that Fluttershy would look at in fear of a Con being hidden inside of one.
“Why capture Twilight, though? They haven’t gone after any of our family or other friends to get to us. So why go after Twilight? And why now? Why isn’t Soundwave at the Con base defending it?” Fluttershy asked Ratchet.
“Who knows how that twisted Cons mind works. Maybe he only recently caught her and wants to trade right away. Maybe him and Ultracon know that Prime will free the others and they don’t want to lose all of their magical girls. Whatever the reason, he has her and we have to free her. That’s all we can worry about.”
Eventually the pair reached the meeting place without incident, their nerves starting to get the better of the both of them. The meeting place was near the top of the quarry, which looked pretty deep, at a location where Ratchet noticed lacked anything that could be used as cover. And at the other end of the quarry, waiting for them, was Soundwave and over ten Deceptacons, all of who had their weapons out.
“Stay close to me,” Ratchet whispered to Fluttershy before he transformed into his robot form, placing Fluttershy on his shoulder before he approached the Cons. As Ratchet approached the Cons they pointed their weapons towards him, but Soundwave held up a hand and they lowered them. “Well here we are, Soundwave. First and foremost, show us that Twilight is still alive and maybe I’ll consider letting this deal continue.”
Soundwave lifted a small cage with energon bars before the Autobot, revealing a girl with purple hair crouched into a ball inside. She had bruises and burn marks on her body and from the way she was shaking Fluttershy was certain that she was sobbing. Upon being lifted up the girl lifted her head, only for her eyes to widen when she spotted Fluttershy sitting on a Transformers shoulder. She shot to her feet and tried to yell something to Fluttershy, but the cage blocked out her voice.
“Satisfied?” Soundwave asked in a robotic and hollow voice.
“A Con actually keeping a prisoner alive. What is this world coming to?” Ratchet dryly retorted before he held out a hand to Soundwave. “Alright, hand her over and they I will hand over Fluttershy to you.”
“Why should I trust that you would uphold your end of the bargain? Give me the girl first and then I shall deliver Twilight to you.”
“Do I look like I was created yesterday? I know better than to trust the word of a bot that is on a team called Deceptacons,” Ratchet spat out, before glancing at the other Cons. “As for if you can trust me I am outnumbered, outgunned and it seems that you have cut off my ability to access the ground bridge. So right now, I am at your mercy.”
“Correct. You are,” Soundwave reminded Ratchet as the Con walked forward, extending the cage to Ratchet. Ratchet noticed as the Con did this that all of the other Cons weapons were pointed right at Ratchet, who slowly reached out towards the cage. To his surprise, Soundwave allowed him to grab the cage and take it from him, which Ratchet did so and lowered Twilight to his side. “Now, give us Fluttershy.”
“After you answer one quick question. Were you planning on killing me when I gave Fluttershy to you or were you planning on doing it after I had Twilight so that you kill the both of us at the same time?” Ratchet asked Soundwave, who have no answer. “Alright, second question. Why would you believe that an Autobot would ever give up his ally?”
The moment those words left his mouth a blinding flash of magical light erupted from Fluttershy, with enough brightness to blind the nearby Deceptacons. As Soundwave staggered back Ratchet transformed his left hand into a pistol and fired a blast of energon right into the chest of Soundwave. Soundwave went spiraling backwards from the shot, but as he went down the other Cons started to recover their sight.
“Hang on tight!” Ratchet roared at Fluttershy as he turned and prepared to transform into vehicle mode, but as he spun around he found five more Cons waiting for him. Ratchet snarled as he realized he was completely surrounded. With nowhere to run to, he dashed towards a human building that converted the material in the quarry into items, diving behind it for cover as the Cons began to unload with their weaponry upon him.
Ratchet gently picked Fluttershy off of his shoulder and placed her and Twilight’s cage on the ground behind the building, before he leaned out from behind the cover to fire a few shots in retaliation. When he was forced to take cover again he smashed his fist into the side of the energon cage, freeing Twilight from her prison.
“Twilight!” Fluttershy exclaimed with relief as she rushed over to her friend and pulled her into a hug. Twilight let out a small cry of pain as Fluttershy’s hug grabbed some of her burn marks and Fluttershy quickly released her. “Are you okay? I mean, I know that you don’t look okay and that you’re probably freaking out, but…”
“I’m sorry,” was all that Twilight managed to get out before she started sobbing to herself. “After you told me that you didn’t trust me, I went after the strange energy readings that I had begun to pick up. I followed you around in hopes of finding out what was going on, but I ended up captured by those purple robots. If I had just listened to you and stayed away, we wouldn’t be trapped right now.”
“It’s okay. We’re going to get out of here. Right Ratchet?” Fluttershy asked her partner. But the grim look on Ratchet’s face told Fluttershy that things were more complicated than she had wished to believe.
“They’ve got us boxed in and boxed in good,” Ratchet replied before he pressed a finger to his audio receptor, only to snarl when nothing happened. “And somehow the Cons have managed to jam both my communications and my connection to the ground bridge. At this moment we don’t have a guaranteed way out.”
“Then what are we going to do?” Twilight asked in a whisper.
Ratchet looked from the bruised and beaten girl to the girl with the pink hair, who was looking up at him with belief and determination in her eyes. And as Ratchet gazed down at his partner, he remembered all the good she had done and how much she mattered to others, including him. That was what cemented his decision.
“I will draw their fire,” Ratchet said with a note of finality in his voice. “And while I’m doing that Fluttershy, I want you to transform into your magical mode and fly Twilight out of here. Fly until you are out of range of the Deceptacon jammers and then call the base for a pickup. They should be able to ground bridge you out of here before the Cons catch up to you.”
“What…NO! I’m not going to let you sacrifice yourself to save me!” Fluttershy screamed at Ratchet as more laser fire rained down from overhead. “I told you, I’m not going to let anyone else give their lives to save mine again! Especially not you! I won’t lose anyone else…I can’t…”
Fluttershy fell to her knees sobbing as she said this, gaining Ratchet’s full attention. He knelt down and gently placed a finger to the side of her head, getting her to look up at him.
“Fluttershy…while I have only known you for a short time, I consider myself lucky to have known you. You are kind, you are strong and you try to help everyone, even those that I believe do not deserve it. Your kindness and love is what this world needs in its healers…not the old fashioned and bitter one like myself. It needs someone like you, who can bring out the best in anyone…even a jaded old bot like myself. You need to survive. I don’t.”
“But…you’ll die,” she whispered with a sob.
“Hopefully through my death you will be able to live. And if I can give my life to save yours…then it has been a life worth living,” Ratchet said in a final tone as he rose to his full height, smiling down at Fluttershy. “Goodbye…partner.”
Ratchet then turned and burst out from behind cover, both of his arms now as machine guns. He fired wildly and roaring all the while, taking just enough care to aim in a Cons general direction so to terrify them with his volley of bullets. As he did this every Con focused on him, unleashing all of their energon weaponry onto him. His armored form allowed him to soak up some of the bullets, but eventually the fire penetrated his armor.
As Ratchet drew the Cons attention, Fluttershy transformed into her harmonic state. Tears of rainbows streaked down her face as she grabbed hold of Twilight’s arms, preparing to fly here away from the battlefield and from her friend. She was just about to take off when the sound of a sniper round going off tore through the sky…and tore through the gut of Ratchet. With eyes filled with horror Fluttershy watched as Ratchet slowly fell to his knees, then collapsed onto his back.
The cons began to circle around Ratchet, snarling down at him as he weakly tried to lift his arms to defend himself. Then Soundwave approached Ratchet, an energon burn on his chest, and he glared down at the bot. Then he lifted his rifle and aimed it between Ratchet’s eyes. Time slowed to a crawl as Fluttershy looked back to Twilight, who shook her head, knowing full well what Fluttershy was about to do.
“Run,” Fluttershy said. In the next moment, she was rocketing through the air towards Ratchet, who had closed his optics and was awaiting his demise. Faster than any Element had flown before Fluttershy soared towards Ratchet, landing on his chest and placing herself between Soundwave and him. Soundwave paused for just a moment, but that moment was enough for Fluttershy to send out another burst of blinding light, one that stunned the Cons once more.
“What…are you…doing?” Ratchet weakly stammered out to Fluttershy, who had gotten on her knees and was beginning to use her magic to heal Ratchet’s wound. “I…told you…to run!”
“I’m doing what I always do. I’m sticking by your side,” Fluttershy grimly responded as her magical powers began to repair the damage done to Ratchet. But her magic was working too slowly and a few moments later the Cons had recovered from the blinding attack. Fluttershy was aware that they were now all standing over her and that Soundwave was deciding how best to deal with her.
“Fluttershy…please…run…” Ratchet whispered weakly as Soundwave began to reach down for her.
“I won’t leave your side. I’m your partner, right?” Fluttershy asked Ratchet with a smile. For a moment Ratchet stared at her, then a small smile crossed his face.
“Yes…you are you stubborn girl.”
‘Unity link confirmed. Initiating combination.’
Before Fluttershy could wonder where that voice had come from Ratchet’s chest plate open up and sucked Fluttershy inside. She had just a moment to comprehend what had happened before the inside of Ratchet’s spark began to shift around her. Metal moved, tubs wound up and even Ratchet’s spark moved to a place out of her way. She then realized that a spot had been opened to her, a spot that would perfectly fit her body. Without waiting another moment, she laid down on the spot, inserting her arms and legs into small chambers that were perfectly her size.
The moment she was in position the machinery tightened around her, with the metal and tubes forming a suit of armor around her. And lastly Ratchet’s spark came to a rest upon her chest, energized by Fluttershy’s very magic. Her magic fused with the energon in Ratchet’s system and began to flood through his body, filling him with her harmonic magic
But while this was going on inside of Ratchet’s chest, there were also changes taking place on the outside as well. His four car doors had shifted to his back and formed wings similar to that of a butterfly. His weapons and armor all began to glow with a golden light. His rifle was now a triple barrel minigun and his scalpel was now a sword of blazing magical energy.
And when his face plate slammed shut over his face and his optics were filled with the power of Fluttershy’s magic, which was now pumping through his energon, he realized he was seeing the word at a slowed down rate, as all of the Cons were lifting their weapons towards him at a snail’s pace. And as he gazed down at himself in awe, both he and Fluttershy heard the voice once more.
‘Combination complete. Autobot Ratchet Harmonic Mode…online.’