Reunited (2)
Applejack and Twilight were the most curious out of the girls, so they were the ones that asked most of the questions. The questions started off similar to the ones that Fluttershy had asked when she first learned of the Transformers, such as where did they come from, who were they and how could they transformer from giant robots into vehicles. Fluttershy paid some attention at first, but as the questions got repetitive she turned her attention to her friends.
Sunset and Rainbow were barely listening to what was going on and mostly just sat in place while staring off into the distance. Fluttershy couldn’t begin to imagine what they had gone through and knew that the emotional scars would be far worse than the physical ones.
‘But the physical scars will still be bad as well,’ Shy thought to herself as she looked at the marks on the girl’s bodies, shuddering at the thought of what Soundwave must have put them through. Then she glanced down at her hands, hands which then began to flow with the power of her magic. ‘But if I can heal giant, alien robots with my magic, then who’s to say that I can’t do the same for my friends?’
Fluttershy then knelt down next to Rainbow Dash and placed her hands upon her friends back, channeling the power of her magic into her friend. Rainbow began to glow with a yellow light and, almost immediately, her wounds began to fade away under the power of Fluttershy’s magic.
“What are you doing?” Rainbow asked Fluttershy in a voice devoid of emotion.
“Healing you with my magic,” Fluttershy muttered in reply, not wishing to interrupt Optimus.
“Since when can you do that?”
“Since the Autobot’s needed me to. Though once I found out I could heal with my magic, I’ve been practicing it in secret at home,” Fluttershy added. Within a few minutes all of the burn marks and scars that had covered Rainbow Dash were nothing more than memories. Fluttershy did a quick glance over to make sure that she hadn’t missed any before she turned her attention to Sunset.
Sunset said nothing as Fluttershy healed her injuries, allowing Fluttershy to listen in once more to Optimus’s conversation with the girls.
“Indeed Twilight, we are a fusion of machinery and living material.”
“But you don’t have organs or anything like that? The metal isn’t just your outer shell that protects your organic parts?” Twilight questioned back.
“We do have…parts of us that are less machine than our bodies, but aside from our spark, which is similar to your human heart, we do not have organ like a human does,” Optimus clarified for her.
“Then what about your ability to transform? Because from what I’ve gathered you can change into any vehicle, but right now your body looks like that of a semi-truck,” Twilight asked. “Does that mean that you can only shape shift into other large earth vehicles or could you be a helicopter if you wished?”
“Certain Transformers have the ability to switch back and forth between air and ground vehicles, but most of the time we find a vehicle we like a stick with it. I could become a helicopter, but I would be a very clumsy and heavy one. I prefer to stay on the ground,” Optimus said.
Fluttershy pulled herself out of the conversation to glance down at Sunset, whose wounds had all healed up. Sunset flashed Fluttershy a grateful smile over her shoulder, but a moment later her emotionless face took hold once more. Figuring that there was nothing more Shy could do for her friend at the moment, she took on her harmonic form and, after waving to Optimus, flew over to where Ratchet was hard at work repairing the Autobot’s damaged in the fight.
“How’s it going over there?” Ratchet asked Fluttershy without looking up from the bot whose arm he was setting back in place.
“Optimus is giving an explanation of your home world to my friends. Twilight and Applejack seem to be really interested in it. Rarity just looks confused. The others…aren’t listening,” Fluttershy sighed as she landed on his shoulder.
“How are Rainbow Dash and Sunset? They’ve been through a lot for two girls of their age,” Ratchet asked.
“Not well. I healed their physical injuries, but there’s a whole other layer of trauma that even my magic can’t fix,” Fluttershy said bitterly as her fists clenched. “I wish I could do more to help them.”
“Don’t we all? By the way, Optimus will most likely want to see our combined form later today,” Ratchet warned Fluttershy in advance.
“I’m not surprised. But can we even do it again or was it a one-time thing?”
“I guess we’ll find out when we try it again,” Ratchet chuckled, before his face took on a serious look. “But what Optimus says about the battle still concerns me.”
“About Ultricon not being there.”
“Kind of. Maybe he’s a coward and doesn’t like to fight in battle, I wouldn’t know. No, what bothers me is what he said about how easily the Cons let us get our hands on your friends. Optimus is right in saying that the Cons should have fought us to the bitter end to protect them, but instead they retreated not long after Optimus and the others broke into their base.”
“Maybe they got smart and realized that fighting Optimus was a poor life choice.”
“Cons and smart rarely go in the same sentence, unless we’re talking about Soundwave or Ultricon,” Ratchet said with a smirk. “No, regular Cons are the type that follow orders and throw their bodies at us until we break. They wouldn’t abandon the base or the girls unless they were ordered to do so.”
“So Ultricon ordered his Deceptacons, who were guarding my friends, to retreat and allowed us to recover them? Why?” Fluttershy asked.
“Well if I knew the answer to that I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you, would I? I’d be with Optimus and wed be discussing how to counter whatever it is that the Cons have planned,” Ratchet replied sarcastically and Fluttershy rolled her eyes at him with a smile. “But since you’re here, why don’t you check up on Curbcheck. He could use the company. Mostly because when he gets bored he annoys me.”
As he said this a wrench sailed by Ratchet’s head, getting the doctor to let out a string of curses at his bed ridden patient. Fluttershy giggle to herself before she spread her wings once more and flew over to the table where Curbcheck was resting. A quick glance over him showed that his outer body had been completely repaired, but the light in his eyes was weak and he seemed to struggle to move. She floated down onto his chest and he smiled down at her.
“Well look who it is, the guardian angel of the Autobots,” Curbcheck said mockingly, but the smile on his face was genuine and Fluttershy could tell that he was happy to see her.
“Is that what they’re calling me when I’m not around?” Fluttershy asked as she sat down and crossed her legs.
“Only those of us that have had the privilege of being saved by you. Not to mention when you summon those wings of your along with that bright light, you pretty much look the part,” Curbcheck said with a laugh before he began to cough. “Sorry, still recovering from what Soundwave did to me. I’ll pay him back for this one day.”
“You’re still not healed?” Fluttershy asked in concern. “But I thought that Ratchet said my magic had healed you?”
“Hey, I would be in the scrapheap right now if you hadn’t done what you did. You saved my life and healed my up to the point that I can actually move around and talk. According to Ratchet, that’s a miracle considering the damage done to me,” Curbcheck laughed. “So what if I might never get the chance to fight again or have trouble walking. You saved my life. That’s all I need to know. Though if you are able to fix me completely, I wouldn’t be against it.”
Fluttershy smiled as Curbcheck let out another laugh, but inside she was wondering herself if she might be able to heal him further. Her skills with her magic had only grown with each passing day and now she could not only form her magical blades, but extend or shorten them at will. Not to mention that her healing magic was far stronger than it had been when he had first tried it, so perhaps it wasn’t beyond her to completely heal Curbcheck.
“I’ll check in with Ratchet and see what he wants me to do,” Fluttershy said after a moment of thinking it over. “At the moment I don’t know if my magic will be able to heal you any further than it has, but with some more practice I’m certain that I have you back in fighting shape in no time.”
“Your concern is appreciated. But take as long as you like. I kinda like the doc having to listen to every one of my little demands, since I’m his patient and all,” Curbcheck said before glancing over at Ratchet. “Hey doc, how about an armor polishing? Since I’m wounded and everything?”
“Get scrapped.”
“See? Looks how he cares for his patients?”
Both Fluttershy and Curbcheck laughed at the joke before Curbcheck closed his optics and began to rest once more. Not wishing to disturb him Fluttershy rose to her feet and spread her wings, planning on flying back over to her friends. But then she remembered another patient, one that she hadn’t had the chance to speak to yet. So she adjusted her course and flew over to the holding cells, where the two Deceptacon prisoners were being held.
She landed in front of the cell of the Con who had been shot through the chest by an Autobot sniper, finding him sitting up in his cell with his arms on his knees. The hole where the round had torn through his armor was still visible, but aside from that he didn’t seem damaged that badly. As Fluttershy approached the energy shielding he slightly lifted his head and she knew he was looking at her.
“Hi. How are you feeling?” she asked the Con, who gave no reply. “Well, considering that you’re moving around and haven’t died on us, I guess Ratchet fixed you up?”
Once more the Con gave no reply. Fluttershy had no idea what the Con was thinking, since his eyes were covered by a red visor and he had a metallic face plate covering his mouth, but for a moment she thought that his gaze seemed…questioning.
“Well I’m glad to see that you’re feeling alright. Just wanted to check up on you.” Fluttershy spread her wings and took off towards her friends once more, leaving the Con to watch her go.
‘Freaking bleeding spark. She’ll regret being so kind when we break out of here,” the Con that Pinkie had “interrogated” muttered to the other prisoner. But, just as he had done for Shy, the Con said nothing in reply.