Burned (Transformers Prime)

Chapter Three | Stolen

"Like a thief in the night
I'm coming for your heart"
»«

Dana was immersed in reading her tablet when an insessant tapping noise began to drive her nuts. Looking up, she gave Jack a little glare when she noticed that he was the source of the tapping, hitting some small device against the railing of the catwalk.

"Do you mind?" She inquired. "I'm trying to read."

"Sorry." The boy apologized before he stood a little straighter and stopping his tapping. "I was just lost in thought."

Ratchet glanced over at the talking humans, his optics immediately zooming in on what Jack had in his hand, his mouth opening a little. "Where did you get that?" He asked, almost demanded.

Jack shrugged. "Optimus gave it to me. Though I don't see why I would knee the key to the Groundbridge power supply." He offered the key to Ratchet.

The Autobot refused the offering, shaking his helm. "Jack, there is no key to the Groundbridge power supply."

Dana looked at it quizzically. The key itself looked too small to be anything of Cybertronian origin; what was it?

Ratchet answered the very same question, which had been asked by Jack. "That is one of Cybertron's most important relics: the key to Vector Sigma."

Vector what? Dana began typing away in her tablet, though now she was just as confused as Jack as to why Optimus would entrust such a relic to a human, especially one that wasn't even an adult quite yet. Wouldn't Ratchet be a better candidate?

"Why would Optimus entrust this to me?" Jack asked with a puzzled look on his face.

Ratchet looked away, the disturbing realization sinking in. "Because he doesn't plan on coming back."

Dana paused in her typing, looking up at her guardian. His face was down-turned in an expression of sudden loss, and the weight of the situation suddenly settled on her shoulders. Optimus Prime had not told them that by surrendering the matrix, a negative outcome was the most likely to occur. Death was what she suspected, but did not allow herself to voice.

"Hey, hey." She said softly, setting the tablet aside and walking to the edge of the catwalk. Leaning out a bit more than what was safe, she gently touched the white side piece of Ratchet's helm, getting his attention. "I doubt Optimus wouldn't have said anything if he didn't think there was a chance he could come back. He's hoping to return, just like you are."

Ratchet looked at her, a war-torn field medic gazing through his optics. "But he left the key to Vector Sigma behind."

"Maybe for a back-up plan, or for Jack to safeguard until he gets back." She countered. "Don't lose hope, Ratchet. It's going to be okay."

"Don't say that." He snapped, turning his helm away from her to look back at the monitors, her fingertips leaving his cool metal. "It might not be okay; you shouldn't go around making stupid promises like that."

"And you should learn to look at the positive side of things." She countered, crossing her arms with a frown. "Optimus might come back. Everything might be okay. You can't have hope if you're always looking at the worst possible scenario."

Ratchet gave her a fake laugh. "I'm being realistic. And realistically, Optimus isn't coming back."

The human girl looked at her guardian sadly, not sure how to counter him. The medic went back to gazing at his monitors, his point made, now looking at them with a slight glare. It was times like this where Dana wished she was bigger, or Cybertronian. Perhaps then Ratchet would take her words into better account. But the size and species difference made him more inclined to just listen without really listening, taking her words at face value and thinking nothing more of them.