Void-verse. Where Scourge is. Looking for a hand.

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Ratchet looks around as he appears in the new reality, feeling the mech that he's searching for, but not seeing him yet. The free spark's usually cheerful face shows deep concern today. He knows this is a long shot gamble, but he can't shake the hunch that Scourge might be able to help him.

He tilts his head and listens. Where is Scourge?

Comments

[corruptedhope.livejournal.com]

Ratchet's happened to have appeared on the other side of a thick, slightly dented door leading out to a currently-empty loading dock. On the other side, Socurge is carefully loading crates onto a hoversled and engaging in his crate-loading meditations.

You clear the mind, you focus on the moving, you don't let anything else creep in. Just calm. Just nothing.

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Ratchet slips through the door and watches for a moment, then lets just a little static touch the other mech's circuits. He also makes himself visible to Scourge, though not to any local security cameras.

Old habit. He doesn't like people getting shot because something shot at him and they were behind him.

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Ratchet shakes his head, sighing through intakes that no longer really work. "She's not an Autobot. She was a Decepticon."

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"If she isn't our Decepticon, she's not our business."

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"I need you to help me find her," Ratchet explains once more, patient as the grave. "And I'm here to find you."

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"Why me?" Scourge asked desperately. A tracker's no good at tracking a ghost, and there's a thousand other universes where he could have found someone more useful. Why is Ratchet harassing him?

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Meanwhile, Ratchet pauses halfway to the hover sled, his face going blank with shock as he stumbles slightly and sets the crate he was carrying onto the floor before he can drop it as he fades.

-And you let me ask him what I did? Primus, as a medic I understand about patient confidentiality, but I could have triggered something!- he says to his boss, feeling sick.

[corruptedhope.livejournal.com]

Scourge turns in mid-lift, watching him carefully for a reaction. It doesn't matter what's happened with Ratchet before, there's still the possibility that he is manipulating him.

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Ratchet shakes his head. "She'd find a way to be a threat. No one messes with her charges." Then he looks toward the door as he stoops to pick the crate up again, thinking that those footsteps sound familiar.

[corruptedhope.livejournal.com]

Cyclonus enters, his head held high with the dignity that befits a leader of the Decepticons. But his calm, cruel facade is momentarily shattered as he flicks a glance towards Scourge--are you all right, yes, good, he's all right, stay there and let me handle this.

"You are Ratchet?" he asks, folding his arms across his chest. "What do you want with my wingmate?"

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Ratchet nods and vanishes, then returns with a slightly larger and fancier PINpoint. This one sports several buttons, and he points to three of them as he offers it to Scourge. "Home. Auspex's. And the Nexus."

[corruptedhope.livejournal.com]

Scourge's hands move as if to reach for it before he forces them back to his sides again. Cyclonus takes the device gingerly, deciding that he can at least trust it not to be some sort of bomb. His thumb comes up and rests on the 'Nexus' button.

"Now?"

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"Don't scare her away," says Ratchet softly, trying to pinpoint the source of the feeling and wincing as he starts to feel confusion, pain, and sadness that aren't his own.

He looks at Scourge, "Can you see anything?"

[corruptedhope.livejournal.com]

"Not see, it's...it's something else. Something I feel. Something's here but I can't see it." Scourge is starting to curl his arms inward and he's trying not to show how scared he is. He's shared emotions before, albeit either with Primus or by force, and the pain strikes him as hard as his own would.

Cyclonus reluctantly lowers his gun, but doesn't put it away. "If it harms Scourge..."

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The other free spark turns around quickly. "She can. It will probably help her... ground her and ease her pain."

There's a start that Scourge can feel, Starscream has noticed Ratchet now and is afraid and wary. She can't die! She's not allowed! She won't go with him to answer the song!

And then she realizes what Scourge is asking, and the tracker is suddenly no longer alone in his own shell.

-Safe,- she thinks wearily, her pain and fear fading somewhat, though the static in his circuits continues as she curls in on herself and trembles. -Thank you....-

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"No problem," Scourge murmurs, patting his own shoulder comfortingly. "Won't let him take you."

Cyclonus feels as if he should be doing some sort of leader thing right now, but by some miracle Scourge actually seems to have it under control.

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Ratchet solidifies, causing Cyclonus' knuckles to hit him with a dull 'clank'. "Stop that, I can hear your slagging thoughts when you do it."

-I... don't know.- She looks at the purpled opticked image, and he'll be able to see her remembering times when the optics are blue and the voice is female. Megatron doesn't shout at those times.

And then the trace of another memory rises: anguish and fear and pain to her very spark core....

Starscream shouts and flails free of Scourge's shell, bumping into Cyclonus in the process as she radiates her terror and her sense of utter helplessness before whatever had attacked her in the memory.

"Slag!" Ratchet stumbles to a knee as she brushes against him, and then reaches for Primus, asking for the power to comfort her and strengthen her.

[corruptedhope.livejournal.com]

"Good. I'm quite eager to give them to you," Cyclonus snarls, right before Starscream bursts out again.

Scourge makes a grab for her, falling and hitting the ground before he can get a proper grip. But his hand falls through her and he can give her at least one memory--trembling against Cyclonus' chest, letting himself be held without being touched, finding solace from the storm of his own mind.

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"No. I have to program in the coordinates to this one." Ratchet's voice holds relief. It looks like this is going to turn out well after all.

-She offered to help me, I think....- Starscream searches for the rest of the memory and draws a blank.

[corruptedhope.livejournal.com]

Cyclonus hands it over and waits impatiently, still feeling angry about the invading presence. His body, none other's!

"She helps me too. Helped me through some of the hardest parts of my...existence. You can see her, once you're better."

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"Huh? I did?" She shakes her head and scowls, letting go of Skywarp's neck. "I must be drunker than I thought."

"About what?" says an emotionless mechanical voice that seems to echo from several points in the hallway.

[corruptedhope.livejournal.com]

Cyclonus' gaze and gun snap around almost simultaneously. He's not taking any chances here.

"About Starscream."

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The news about Megatron would make him frown if he were that expressive. Instead of dwelling on the problem that he can't fix now, however, he turns his attention to the one that he hopes that he can.

One hand goes toward Scourge, ready to touch him on the shoulder. "May I?"

[corruptedhope.livejournal.com]

Cyclonus is about to comment before Scourge nods tersely and tilts his body to offer his shoulder.

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Soundwave holds out his hand and calls once more, softly, -Starscream, come to me.-

She hesitates, but then goes. This time he manages to stay on his feet.

[corruptedhope.livejournal.com]

Scourge smiles ever so slightly, and Cyclonus can't help but be happy for him. Starscream he could care less about, of course, but Scourge just seems so...proud of himself.