Plastic ( Highlighted FanFiction )
Story by Alexis-Carlo
« You know, doc, I figured out the secret » - said the Autobot, coughing up Energon. There was a time when Ratchet knew all his patients’ names. Now, looking at this burnt crisp in front of him, he couldn’t even tell what he was supposed to turn into. Joints and metal fused, circuits sparking - « The secret behind the war »
« And what’s that, soldier ? » - replied Ratchet, in a weary voice
« I’ve done the calculations. Cybertron’s population, even in the glory days, never passed above 10 million. 6 million years and we still haven’t wiped each yet ? It’s practically impossible » - he spat up fluid, burn metal crisping like paper - « Something’s been guiding us. Beyond Primus, beyond Unicron, beyond gods. Has been since Megatron walked into Iacon. Wanna know how I found out ? »
Ratchet stared. He had heard talks like this from soldiers close to death before but this disquieted - « Go on, soldier »
« I was part of a raiding party on Shockwave’s Tower. Prowl didn’t tell us much other than that he was preparing a weapon. Me and my troops walked in and off went something. They told us later there was no sign of radiation or thermal detonation – this was something beyond that. Perceptor said it used transwarp energy to break in worlds above ours. I called it the Truth Bomb. My troops all died in an hour, they couldn’t handle what they saw » - suddenly the burnt automaton pulled the Autobot medic closer - « I was sent to the edge of the universe. Plastic. Slaggin’ plastic. And I saw outside. Our war, our pain ? The constant expansion and killing of everything that gets in our way ? All constructed to sell play items to the little bastard protoforms of some stupid race. Our war is nothing more than a backstory behind pieces of plastic. And all the neutrals, the rank-and-file ? We’re nothing. Just concepts in stupid, pointless fiction » - the soldier started to laugh. Electrodes attached to him signaled to a screen that his electro-pulse was fading. « You know, I lost people when Uraya exploded. My friends, neighbors, people who I had known for years. I wondered for a long time…” how could this happen ? “. Now I know » - his innermost Energon started to leak - « Slaggin’ plastic...»
A flatline sounded out. Acid rain poured down on the makeshift hospital. Sounds roared in the distance. Ratchet stared at the Sparkless body in front of him, greying as living metal died
Somewhere, in a world above, fingers typed at a keyboard as Ratchet left the body, moving on to his next patient