When All Lights Go Out I (TFP)

Chapter 19

Azura cried softly as she mourned the loss of Cliffjumper. It seemed like it was too good to be true. His life signal coming back online was nothing more than a false hope. Azura knew that she would forever carry the guilt now of never being able to apologize to Cliffjumper in person. She could only go to his grave to do it. It wasn't the best feeling and she didn't know how she was going to process it. She knew that the autobots would have done what they could. They explosion that followed them through the ground bridge clearly showed something went down. And Azura has already seen how they fight. She wondered if she would have to learn to fight like that at some point too.

She was distracted when Miko ran over to the railing, all excited with a big smile on her face. "What was that explosion?" She asked, pointing at the tunnel while Azura stared at the girl in disbelief. She had the audacity to think this was fun, and clearly wasn't taking it seriously. "Was there a fight? Can I come with next time?"

Ratchet himself was in shock at the girl's audacity, but he was holding his tongue. However, Arcee did not seem like she could. She growled angrily, glaring at the girl for her disrespect to the autobots. "Look..."

The femme did not have a chance to say much as Jack walked over, seemingly shocked himself at Miko's words. "Hey, hey, Miko..." The girl looked at the boy when she was addressed by him as he placed his hand on her shoulder. "Let's go see what the bots hide in their sock drawers."

He pulled the girl along as Miko's expression turned to unimpressed. "Seriously?"

Azura really wanted to say something, but she held her tongue. Ratchet was still rubbing her back gently as he looked at Arcee, who seemed to be the most shaken out of them all. She was actually still visibly trembling. Azura couldn't help but worry that Arcee had seen something horrific regarding Cliff, and she was glad she was not there to see it. But she also wished she was...at least she would have closure, even if it was bitter.

"Arcee, what did you see?" Optimus asked the femme gently as she placed her hands on her arms.

Arcee shivered with a slight grimace of horror. "Not Cliff. At least, not anymore." Azura frowned a little as she listened and wiped the tears from her cheeks as she listened to the femme. "He was mutated. Butchered..." The pain in her voice was clear as she remembered what had happened and Azura was trying to picture what Arcee had seen. "Like...something from those con experiments during the war." Arcee suddenly seemed to get lightheaded and fell to the side, bracing herself on some boxes near her.

Bumblebee stepped forward in concern as Ratchet suddenly hands Azura to Optimus. Azura had been surprised, but she did not complain as Ratchet had to tend to Arcee. "Are you feeling okay, Arcee?" The scout asked worryingly.

Arcee raised her hand to them as she stared at the ground. "I'm fine...just dizzy." She placed her hand back on the box to keep herself braced.

That was definitely a concern. Azura did not see any visible injuries, but that did not mean anything. She barely heard the kids say something to each other as Arcee pulled herself onto the box as Ratchet stepped forward to scan her body for anything unusual. At first, there was nothing until the scanner scanned her left hand resting on her knee. Ratchet scanned back over it just to be sure until he focused on the point.

He turned off the scanner, staring at the wrist and Azura was just able to see some kind of purple substance on Arcee's hand. And for some reason, she felt herself shiver as though she knew what it was. "What is this?" Ratchet asked in concern as he gazed at the liquid substance, narrowing his optics as he studied it.

"Don't know." Arcee shook her head and placed her hand on her head as she was still feeling dizzy. "Cliff was covered in it. Leaking it."

Ratchet said nothing as he grabbed out a large scalpel and took hold of her wrist to quickly scrape off the substance. Azura was surprised he was able to get most of it in one scoop. "Go take a decontamination bath now."