Part 10! A Heart to Spark
Summary: You loose datapad privileges and Drift feels immensely guilty.
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You quickly delete the file.
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Interrupting the story, Drift raises his servo, “Erm, excuse me, but can I go now? Sorry, it’s just that Rodimus is threatening to revoke the reintegration act and have me arrested unless I meet him at the oil reservoir. I mean it’s alright he’s joking…At least I think he’s joking.”
As Drift stands he turns to Ratchet who nods before he can even say anything. With whatever confirmation he was looking for, Drift continues to walk to the door before giving you a look that you can’t quite discern.
“I didn’t even know we had an oil reservoir.”
You have a feeling that it’s important that you finish reading the datapad while you can. You scroll through a couple more files and stop at Logs #72. It’s a short document.
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Cycle 350
Subject seven wakes, too soon to draw data.
Cycle 352
As stated in logs for the subjects of the artifact, subject seven shows much activity within processor scans, but outwardly they show very little motivation. The current conclusion is that there was too much connection to each part of the host’s processor. Not separated enough from memories to reach our goal. Additional consideration on why the subject had only taken parts the frame provided.
Cycle 354
Subject seven continues to accept a miniscule amount of energon. Its optics show defiance and a level of smarts that match the internal scans. Retched little thing. Will need more data to discern the reasons for differences in frame compared to the one given.
Cycle 356
I will be moving all future information concerning subject seven to this personal log. Havoc has begun to doubt me as revelations about subject seven’s frame choice come to light.
Cycle 360
Analysis on subjects 1-6 was difficult, yet thankfully subject seven has preserved them nicely. Confirmation that the frame type changed from what was provided due to age of the species and parts of the processor not being properly separated. The organics here are numerous yet live miniscule lives compared to Cybertronians, it hardly mattered which one we grabbed as any of them would have resulted as a sparkling. The only way to combat this would be to make the subject forget its life in its entirety before transfer. Will update later on how to do that.
Cycle 362
Scans on subject seven’s spark chamber show that although it has been some time, decomposition-
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The room erupts in red blaring alarms and it rips you from your readings. As everyone starts to get up from the table in response to the alert you turn off the datapad and bring it to your chassis.
Once Ratchet stands he makes his way to you and begins to tug on Aquaheap’s datapad. “Battle stations everyone! Skids- can you take Rung back to the medbay?”
“Sure, I just wanna try something first.”
Turning back to you, Ratchet waves a hand to Chromedome to have him come over. “Drift said that this datapad might be the one the two of you were looking for. Apparently the sparkling found it in Rung’s office with Rodimus.”
Chromedome takes a moment to look at the datapad still in your servos, before turning for the doors. “It very well could be. Do me a favour and hold onto it for now, it has a password so no one should be able to get into it, but keep an optic on it just to be sure.”
Ratchet looks confused, “How could it have a password, the sparkling was drawing on it?”
Chromedome practically spins on his heels to you and there’s a familiar overwhelming uneasiness growing. You’ve been caught. And you haven’t even deleted that much information! As Chromedome begins to tug on the datapad you wail and hold it closer to you. Does it make you look more suspicious? Maybe. But it’s all you can think to do currently.
Hopefully they don’t know the password.
There’s slight movement coming from where Rung and Skids are as you see Rung’s servo twitch while Skids lights up. “Let’s keep Rung and the Bitlet together, he seems to be reacting to them.”
Chromedome finally yanks Aquaheaps datapad from your grip and by the time you swivel your helm to glare at him he places another datapad in your grip. One of his own? “Please don’t mess up anything on this datapad too much, okay Bitty?”
It’s strange how much emotion can come across someone with a visor and face mask. It’s also strange how soft metal can look all of a sudden.
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Closing the doors to the common room, Drift walks over to where Chromedome is sitting. “Sorry it took so long to meet up again.”
“Don’t be, things kinda went to slag after you interrogated Havoc. It happens.”
Venting as he sits down, the cracked datapad Chromedome holds doesn’t escape his view. “...Well. He didn’t tell me anything about Overlord. I think he genuinely didn’t know. He really truly thought that I was there to interrogate him about the sparkling. Still didn’t get much from him. Would only talk about his own involvement, nothing about the Bitlet other than what we already know.”
“He didn’t know much. The datapad that the sparkling found in Rung’s office was the one we were looking for. It confirms his role in this.”
“Yes, although I came into a second problem after unlocking it.”
Handing the datapad over to Drift, Chromedome watches as he inputs the password. “There were two separate times where massive amounts of data got deleted. The latter, more recent one was easy to retrieve. Despite all the security to get into it, they didn’t do a very good job of erasing any of the files. They essentially just put them into the trash but didn’t take the trash out.”
“...I’m still working those ones out.”
“What about the ones you could get? What do they say?”
Drift opens the datapad and the slight blue that illuminates his face wavers as he reads through the retrieved documents.
“From what I can tell, I’m pretty sure the sparkling is subject seven and the artifact of creation we were looking for is a segment, or a broken part of Solus Prime’s Creation Lathe.”
As he continues scrolling, the slight blue hue changes to something red, before changing back to blue when he scrolls further down.“...So they were human once?”
“Seems that way. I believe this nutjob scientist wanted a new way to make soldiers from scrap once he found that artifact. Unfortunately, it wasn’t in great condition so to help it along he gave it a base to work off of.”
“And they- do they remember this? The bitlet? Why are they a bitlet if they wanted soldiers?”
“That one was still being worked out. Nutjob didn’t know either. But his guess was that the artifact was reading physical ages compared to cybertronian lives.”
“So they are– they were still a sparkling before they got… transferred?”
“I think age greatly differs between our species. I’m not sure.. However I still think that they must’ve been young for the artifact to recognize them as a sparkling… Right?”
“Do they know what even happened to them? I mean- they must’ve woken up one day after practically being tortured only to find themselves in the body of a completely different species? Tha- that planet is secluded! They must’ve been horrified. Might still be horrified! I-”
“I know. It’s a lot and it’s horrible.”
There’s silence in the room as Drift continues to flip through documents and scroll, his face falling anytime red flashes by for a moment. He scrolls from those quite quickly. Chromedome raps his digits against the table before quietly speaking, “..you’re close with … Ratchet.. yes?
“Can you get them to check out the sparkling’s spark chamber? I think they might’ve put something in there. Read Logs #72 and the last entry in the Earth found artifact over again if you haven't already, they’re concerning.”
Drift puts the datapad down and drags his servo across his faceplates. “How do I even start that conversation?”
“I don’t know. Read through the datapad yourself to get some inspiration on what you can say.”
“Do I tell Ratchet about the datapad? How many do we tell about this?”
“For now… I say we talk to Rodimus and Ultra Magnus but keep it quiet. Maybe Ratchet? He should know in case anything goes wrong. I don’t know how much of the situation the sparkling has actually apprehended, and it would feel… cruel to just… tell everyone.”
Drift opens his subspace to put the datapad in before rising from the table. “We went looking for the leak about Overlord and found makeshift empurata amalgamation scrap instead.”
“... I don’t know, there might still be something here. The sparkling drew many pictures of Overlord despite no mentions of Overlord in any of the recovered files. I’m pretty sure they even drew Tailgate before they even met him.”
“You think they know something?”
“Well. I mean. Is it that crazy? They got their consciousness transferred into another species, and despite that all I read in their behaviour is that they were picky with their energon? They didn’t fight back at all?”
Drift squints at Chromedome, about to argue when Chromedome interrupts him, “Also! When we first met them, they came out pretty quickly! I don’t know about you but even if I was just a sparkling, if more of the species that tortured me and turned me into one of their own came around, I wouldn’t have let myself be cradled in their arms!”
“What are you saying? That they’re damaged?”
“I’m saying that the information still got to the bitlet somehow! Maybe that artifact gave them a little… something? In hindsight, they’re far too comfortable around us and have been giving us… helpful information!”
“Drawings. And are you saying the artifact gave them the ability to read the future?”
“... Maybe not that. But like. Maybe some good intuition? Or something?”
“I think you’re making large leaps from little information.”
“..yeah you’re probably right.”
As Drift turns back around towards the door Chromedome interrupts one last time, “But still how did they know abou-”
Drift doesn’t allow him to finish, “I’m picking up the sparkling now.”
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It’s been a couple days since Aquaheap’s datapad was stolen from you. You’re unsure what to make of the situation since they’ve likely broken into it by now. There’s some anxiety around the situation but you deleted a fair amount of information that included you. That should be enough to throw them off the trail. Right? It’s also been a couple days since the fight at Temptoria and even though there was much chaos, everything went according to the comics without a hitch. Which should be a good thing, since otherwise someone probably would have died.
However you can’t stop the feeling of dread hearing the rumors and stories about what occurred that day since it truly means nothing has changed yet.
Will the doors get put in?
Did they find out what you are? Do you know?
You haven’t gained any credibility as being smart and you can’t even talk, so no one has listened to you at all yet.
Nothing you have done has helped you.
Nothing has changed and you’re getting closer and closer to the day cycle where Overlord escapes and kills R-
“You doin’ okay bitty?” First Aid tilts your helm from where you sit on his lap to look up at him. “Is the movie too much?”
Right. Movie night. Technically, on the cycle and the one after that it was Drift and the Medics turn to take care of you. With both parties terribly busy, it was decided that when the rotation started again the two of them would get half a cycle each before it went back to Rodimus. Since everything had calmed down a touch, Swerve opted for a movie night, which many mechs came to.
You think you saw Fort Max hovering at the door for a moment, but it was hard to tell. You’ve seen Fort Max a handful of times since the incident, and it’s almost hard to remember him as the lunatic who held three hostages at a gunpoint. He looks so pitiful. Tailgate had tried to drag Cyclonus in when he passed by. Which was a fruitless endeavour, as Cyclonus ran almost immediately.
Hound rolls up beside First Aid and speaks very hushed as to not disturb the movie, “If the movie’s too much I can bring ‘em to Drift for you.”
Handing you over to Hound, First Aid returns the hushed tones, “If you’re okay with it, but I don’t know if it’s the movie. It might also be growing pains. Their field just felt off for a moment.”
Hound holds you close and gently tosses you a couple inches in the air, “Now that you say it, I do think they’ve gotten a tad heavier.”
First Aid nods, “They have! Only by a small amount but it’s still a really good sign. Remember when they got sick?”
“Well, they were running a little hot for a couple of cycles but now they’re at normal temperatures!”
Huh. You hadn’t even noticed that. In fact, when was the last time you noticed the cold?
“We think that getting sick actually gave a big boost for their systems to start growing.”
“Awe, so we’re not going to have an itty bitty for much longer?”
“They might even start talking soon.”
At the last comment, Hound whips his helm to First Aid who just laughs at him. “But they’re so small!”
“They won’t be small for very long Hound!”
Hound begins to look you over with a pout over his features, but you hardly see this as a bad thing. Being bigger and being able to talk? Sounds like a win-win. Only consideration would be to ensure that you act less your age and more with your frame.
Light floods into the room as the doors open which causes a couple mechs to groan at the intrusion. Drift walks in and quietly apologises while looking around for you. First Aid waves him down at the same time that Hound gets up. The two of them meet in the middle and you’re handed over to Drift who instantly starts to lightly tap your shoulder.
“Uhm.. It’s tucked by the door I think. Right.. Uhm. Oh! Right there see?” Hound points to the floor beside the door which has your bassinet and the stroller attachment folded up neatly underneath it. You have no idea how that eyesore managed to elude Drift. It’s dark but it’s still neon!
Drift made quick work at reassembling the stroller and the two of you had left the movie room almost immediately after. A walk with Drift is normally quiet, with the occasional quip or hum in your direction. Honestly, from what you can tell he simply enjoys holding you close. However today he seems to be swinging from especially chatty to complete silence.
How odd. And slightly awkward.
Drift’s habsuite is a tad plain, but that’s not unexpected. He unhooks the bassinet and places you on the floor while he rummages for something on his desk. It’s unusual behaviour, but there’s nothing much you can do except wait and see where this goes. After another moment Drift stills, slumps, and opens his subspace to reveal a datapad.
A datapad with a crack across the screen.
An overwhelming emotion that you can numbly associate with dread practically drowns you as Drift sits down across from you. He rubs the corner of the datapad and moves his jaw a few times, but ultimately stays quiet. You should’ve never gone for the datapad. You should’ve just let it sit in its original hiding spot and hope for another opportunity. You should have deleted everything while you had the chance instead of wasting your time reading worthless diary entries from a mad scientist.
Slowly Drift begins to talk, “You, on some level, know what this is. Don’t you?” You can’t even bring yourself to look at him. Everyone is going to know now. What's going to happen to you?
You can hear him inch a small bit closer to you across the floor. “Not too long before we found you, someone else did. And they did terrible things to you. Didn’t they?” How many others know? Does Rodimus know? Do they know how old you are? Would they consider you grown up? Will they take you out of this body too?
It takes another moment of silence for Drift to inch a bit closer again. “I’m so sorry that this ever happened to you. I don’t know if you remember being.. Human, or what you went through, or if you can even understand what I’m saying, but please know I’m so sorry.” He wouldn’t lead you into a false sense of security, right? After all, he doesn't sound angry. If anything he sounds… Shakey? There's a better word.
He takes a deep vent in and you can lightly hear metal dragging on metal. “If … if you want we could try to find some things that could remind you of home? Maybe...soft things?” He sounds sad.
You take a chance and finally rise from your bassinet to see Drift sitting crisscrossed on the ground with his helm in his servos, “...Soft animals? I.. I think you would like those. From what I’ve seen they’re quite cute.”
The shuffling in your bassinet alerts Drift to look up at you, only to quickly look up the ceiling after making eye contact. “Uhm. I- well. I probably can’t get you any treats that remind you of home. But.. But if you like sweet things I know a couple desserts you could try.” For a moment he lets a dry quick chuckle out, “Would have to get an okay from the medics first though”
You lean forward in your Bassinet to hop out of it and the noise of you falling alerts Drift to rush to grab you. Once he does, you practically fall limp in his hold.
As you’re kept close to his chassis, Drift silently rocks back and forth while occasionally tapping your shoulder. In patterns of two, you note. The room is otherwise quiet, except for your hiccups.
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Boo! Hope you enjoy the much delayed truth being unveiled! There is more to come! Just a heads up, I will be starting to prep for exams and thus won't be writing and uploading as much. So expect some empty weeks in the upcoming month.
Anyways, thanks for reading! I always love hearing your guys' thoughts so if don't be afraid to voice 'em if you got 'em!
