[ THE "DRIFT GOT HECKED UP BY TARN" CATCH-ALL POST ]

[auramatic]

Who: Drift, Rodimus, Ratchet, Megatron and whoever else wants to chime in
What: the inevitable fallout of the fucked up shit Tarn just did to Drift
Where: Red Alert's clinic
When: starting a few days after Tarn beat the shit out of Drift
Warnings: a lot of sad. a lot of gay

jk i'm lazy, thread starters below

Comments

[rodders]

There's an uncharacteristic silence as Rodimus fights to keep his hands where they are and not curl them into fists as rage slams into him. Tarn.

"He's not going to get the chance to do this again, Ratchet." Rodimus isn't going to let him. And as much as he feels helpless and useless in the face of someone, he's not going to let him touch any other member of his crew. Thinking outside of the box, making hopeless situations work for him is his strength. Something will come up and nothing will happen to his crew from that point on.

[asafepairofhands]

"Nobody has the time to worry about that right now," Ratchet snaps, optics flicking up to Rodimus for a moment, anger flaring there. "I have better things to do, and I need you to focus. Hold this."

He grabs Rodimus' hands and fits them against Drift's breastplate, making Rodimus help lever it up to bare Drift's spark chamber. His hands come down, slow and careful as he checks critical systems, smoothing wires and ensuring there's no serious trauma, his face bathed in soft blue light as he leans in.

[rodders]

At least Drift's spark still burns, and while Rodimus' face is set in a frown he does as he's told. But he doesn't need Ratchet yelling at him, not for this. Focusing on that gives him a chance to work that lump in his throat down, shove the the panic and the fear for Drift's life into a part of him that will deal with it.

"Look at him," he says, his voice cracking somewhere partway through the sentence. It's a pointless thing to say when Ratchet's got his face close to Drift's spark chamber (and Rodimus sees that part of the casing is missing - he knew it would be but it's different to see it). "And it's not just Drift, it's you and Trailbreaker and--"

Too many. One is too many, but this is enough. This is too much.

[asafepairofhands]

"Rodimus," Ratchet says, his voice almost a snarl. He remembers First Aid bringing Trailcutter in, even less recognizable than Drift, the wet, mangled mess of the thing that used to tip into his medibay at three am, still drunk and laughing and leaking from some superficial wound he'd insist on telling Ratchet how he got, despite Ratchet's protestations that he didn't care as long as Trailcutter was careful next time--Ratchet's hands slam down onto the slab and leave wet palm prints they tremble slightly before he presses them flat and cycles his vents roughly.

"Focus or get the hell out," he says, his voice ragged as he leans on his arms, taking the opportunity to ease some of the weight off his crutches, staring blindly at the flickering light of Drift's spark for a second before he reaches in again. "I can't right now. I need to work. I can't."

[rodders]

Flinching back, Rodimus drops his gaze from Ratchet back to Drift's chest. His hands curl into the metal he's holding and it's only when he comes back to himself does he relax his grip - catching himself before he puts more dents into it.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." But that just means the feelings he wasn't thinking about crawl back, settling deep around his spark. His frown turns more and more hopeless the longer he has to stand in silence. Drift has to be okay, he has to he has to he has to. "What did he do?"

Tarn that is, because while Rodimus know Tarn destroyed Drift, he just wants to know how bad. It's something to talk about, right? And get his mind off of-- of everything else.

[asafepairofhands]

"Lot of blunt force trauma. Nothing too deliberate or surgical. He just wanted to do as much damage as possible." Ratchet's fingertips brush the ragged edge of the piece cut from Drift's spark casing, almost absently, before he draws back and helps Rodimus ease the plate down, locking it back into place. "It's going to require a lot of materials to fix, but it's not undoable."

[rodders]

"Guess he succeeded," he says, but his eyes are drawn to the carved symbol on Drift's chest and his tanks churn uncomfortably. He just wanted to as much damage as possible. Rodimus doesn't want to think about it, doesn't even want to look at it. Anyway, if Ratchet's not going to mention it neither will Rodimus. For now at least.

"What do you need?" Because Rodimus will get it, no questions asked.

[asafepairofhands]

"Replacement playing, mostly. Paint, eventually. Some of this isn't going to salvageable." Ratchet runs slow, careful fingers down Drift's side, over a horribly rent section of delicate, interlocking plates, as though he could smooth them back into place by will and touch alone.

"I'll need to rig a direct fuel hookup, too--he's not going to be able to swallow properly through that mess, but I have what I need for that."

[rodders]

That's easy to say, and a lot harder to come by. "So we give him some of mine, and then what?" Rodimus would probably offer to try and peel some off of Tarn if it'd help. Rubbing the back of his helm with an energon covered hand, he doesn't pay attention to the fact he's getting it all over.

His optics land on Drift's face, or what's left of it, and he feels as desperate as he did when he was carrying his body with no idea if he could even be saved. Letting out a shuddering vent, Rodimus almost curls in on himself. It'll be fine, he thinks, it has to be fine. Ratchet's the best.

[asafepairofhands]

"I'm not stripping your plating, Rodimus," Ratchet says, a little irritably, but there's a strange ache in his voice, buried deep. "Don't be dramatic. It's not that dire and I'll--I'll figure something out."

He bends to his work again and moves in silence for a while, his mouth set and his optics focused even as the rest of him slumps slowly and steadily into his crutches, aching everywhere and unwilling to stop.

[rodders]

"If you need to, though," Rodimus says, before falling silent again and watching Ratchet work - doing his best to follow the nonverbal instructions Ratchet gives him. And when that doesn't happen, he picks up Drift's hand - giving it a squeeze before letting it fall to the side.

It's a while later before he says, so quiet that maybe Ratchet will miss it: "I know you will." Figure something out. Save Drift. He mentioned it, earlier, but now he feels like he needs to say it again.

[asafepairofhands]

Ratchet's hands slow, just for a second, feeling almost nauseated under the awful weight of that simple trust, pressing hard down on the tops of his fuel tanks. His optics shutter briefly and he draws in a ragged vent of air, his expression refusing to shift before he moves at speed again, his lips pressed thin together.

"Yeah," he says shortly, and he doesn't say anything else for a long time.

[aminerproblem]

The awkward silence is eventually broken by a full tank of energon being hoisted up next to Drift's operating table. A fuel hose is coiled neatly by its side, and next to it is the full array of instruments from the storage room.

Megatron had been at a distance as the orange Autobot brought in another patient - badly injured. At having seen Ratchet's hands flit over the mangled frame, the list of supplies needed for major surgery darted through his memory and he made his way to the back room.

At the surgical table, he begins to screw on a hypodermic attachment to the end of the hose to get a line going in to this Autobot. But there's a sudden, long pause as he gets a closer look and sees an attempt at a Decepticon badge scrawled over the bot's chassis. He finds his hands frozen for a moment, drawing in a slow breath at the gory results of Tarn's idea of punishment, some of his breath escaping through the still untreated exposed jaw structure of his face.

But it was just a moment, and he quickly finds himself able to finish sealing the connection and beginning the flow of energon through the transparent tubing.

"Is his arm line still okay?

[rodders]

Rodimus doesn't spare a glance for the other medic at first, just assuming Ratchet's managed to pull in Flatline or someone else who'd ended up on this Cybertron. Not that he expects Ratchet to lighten his load - that's just not who Ratchet is. There's a betting pool on the Lost Light that Ratchet will die before he actually gives up the title of Chief Medical Officer to First Aid.

But there's no disguising that voice. Rodimus knows that voice. Sure, it's a lot less tired than the last time he heard it, but it's still Megatron. And when he looks up there's nothing but a half melted face looking back at him and that's the last goddamn thing Rodimus wants to see. Panic flashes over his face before it hardens into something unforgiving.

"What are you doing here? What are you doing?" He's tired and covered in energon that isn't his, but that's not going to stop him from not letting this happen. Whatever this is. "Get away from him."

The fact that he could be trying to help completely escapes him, because Megatron doesn't know how to heal anyone. He's just good at destroying and murdering and things that already happened to Drift.

[asafepairofhands]

Ratchet doesn't mistake that voice either, and he doesn't look up.

"Good, you're here. I need your hands--he needs to be turned over so I can start on his back. Rodimus, you're relieved, go get some rest. I know you're about to pass out." He finishes up what he's doing and draws back--he's slick with energon to the elbow, some spattered on his face, and he looks only very briefly, flickeringly tired before he straightens in his crutches again--then almost drops them when he catches sight of Megatron's face, his optics paling.

"What the hell happened to you? You were gone for--" Ratchet cuts himself off, swearing, then looks back at Drift. Megatron has already finished prepping an IV--he can obviously still work. He looks almost pained as his optics flick back up to that half-ruined face.

"I genuinely don't have time to fix that right now," he says, an odd kind of strain in his voice. "Help me get him turned over and you can hook that up."

[aminerproblem]

Megatron does look at Rodimus as he grows more and more upset, waiting for Ratchet to talk him down in case the orange Autobot tries to do something stupid (he seemed like the type.). When he's dismissed by Ratchet, Megatron's attention is drawn back to the medic and to the IV in his own hand, setting the needle back on the frame so he can focus on the task at hand.

"I know," is all he says regarding his own injury. He's well aware of triage and what that entails, and he wasn't the one dying on a surgical bed or missing a whole limb.

He looks down at Drift and prepares for the turn, positioning himself to get a stable hold on the bot's shoulders and hips.

[rodders]

"But that's Megatron," he protests as he has no choice but to step backwards. And stumbles as he does so, just proving Ratchet's point about him being exhausted. But that's not the point, the point is that that is Megatron. And Ratchet doesn't care. How can he not care?

Rodimus rubs a hand across his face, leaving a trail of energon as he attempts to focus in on the problem. Or just Drift. Mostly Drift. "Why is he here?"

Please answer him, Ratchet, he's so confused right now.

[asafepairofhands]

"Will you look at him for ten seconds, Rodimus? He's not our Megatron, he's from before the war."

His hands come down on Drift's back, working on the lesser injuries there, his mouth set into a thin line.

"He offered to help and we need it, so I let him. And, personally, I'm not interested in punishing him for things he hasn't done yet. Now go lay down before you pass out on your feet."

[aminerproblem]

There's a dark irritation that enters his expression as he's talked about like he isn't there. Were Megatron currently not occupied with connecting Drift to the line of energon, he'd probably have something to say himself.

But for now, he just ignores Rodimus' comments as he carefully slips his now energon-stained hands out from under Drift and wipes them clean. It's then that he inserts the attachment into the energon line port in the forearm, what with his wrists being clearly shattered from trauma. He positions it to avoid tangling when they flip him back over again.

[rodders]

"No, he just has half of his face blown off!" Rodimus will continue to talk about him like he's not there for as long as he's going to be a shit about this. Which is for as long as Drift isn't in a stable condition. "He's still a Megatron, Ratchet."

Rodimus remembers coming face to face with him before, with a Megatron that looked mostly like this. He remembers what he told him, and more importantly, he remembers the order to execute Bumblebee. If that Megatron can give that order, then who's to say this Megatron won't be perfectly capable of doing the same thing.

But he at least stumbles further away, being petulant out of stress and worry more than a deep desire to put up a strong fight. And sort of collapses into a heap close enough to be grabbed if something were to happen with Drift but far enough that he - amazingly enough - won't trip anyone up.

[asafepairofhands]

"I noticed both of those things, Rodimus, thank you for your consistently incisive ability to state the blindingly obvious," Ratchet says, his voice caustic. He shifts as Megatron moves past him, reaching out to put an energon-wet hand briefly on Megatron's forearm and squeeze his thanks, the motion almost absent. "Just get some recharge, I'll let you know when Drift is up."

He leans in a little closer, his optics dimming before they flick up at Megatron, very briefly.

"What do you think of Tarn's handiwork, then?" he says, his voice quiet and deceptively mild. "Though I've patched the worst of the leaks by now. He one big smear when Rodimus brought him in, you can see it on Rodimus' plating."

[aminerproblem]

Megatron didn't have much time to reflect on Ratchet's rare and tiny gesture of approval, because the question immediately sends a bolt of rage through his body. It's firmly contained in his expression, but clear enough in the way he clenches his hands into fists and carefully steps away from Drift that exuded an almost palpable disgust.

An acidic gaze stays fixed on the damage as he reflects on the crudely scrawled Decepticon emblem on Drift's chest - his symbol - used for this revolting display of force. Not only that, but left for Ratchet to clean up.

It takes a moment or two to regain control of his voice - though some of the revulsion still bled through,"Why did Tarn target him?"

[asafepairofhands]

Ratchet's optics stay focused on his work, his face set and still.

"Ah," Ratchet says softly, his hands very gentle against Drift's plating as he smooths out as many dents as he can, watching the back of Drift's helm impassively. "That would be because Drift used to be a Decepticon."

[aminerproblem]

There's a long pause there, as he notices Ratchet tending to Drift in a way that seemed subtly beyond professional courtesy.

He'd be lying if he said he absolutely didn't expect this is what Tarn did in the past, but part of him wanted to believe he'd be able to adapt. Change for the better. That, and seeing the damage there, right before his eyes...

"I understand why he'd defect," he remarks bitterly, as the monstrous nature of what his creation would become rears in its ugly head,"This is no better than what the Senate inflicted on its people."

[asafepairofhands]

"This isn't Tarn's worst," Ratchet says. "This doesn't even come close. I've had Decepticon POWs beg me to let them die rather than operate on them and let them risk being put on Tarn's list of traitors as punishment for being captured. He wanted to keep Drift alive to send a message, or Drift would be dead.

"Regardless," he continues, his voice tightening. "Cruelty like this isn't why he defected. He was called Deadlock back then, and he did more than his fair share of unrepentant senseless brutal murder. If you want to know why he's an Autobot now, you'll have to ask him." Ratchet snaps a piece of straightened plating back into place with more force than is strictly necessary.

"After I'm finished completely rebuilding his ruined vocalizer, anyway. I doubt he'll be able to speak when he first wakes up, if he even wants to."