Burned (Transformers Prime)

Chapter Twenty-Nine | Resolution

"You can tell me when it's over,
If the high was worth the pain,"

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Ratchet watched as Dana slowly limped around the cell they were in, feeling his spark ache a bit as she struggled to keep going, her legs giving her pain.

"You should rest." He said, finally breaking the silence. "Pushing yourself may only strain and hurt you more than it would help."

"I've found that moving makes them feel better." She muttered in reply, feeling fire shoot up her left leg in particular, kneecap burning. "I don't understand why it hurts."

"You haven't used them in a while." Ratchet reasoned. "They may have atrophied."

His charge finally sighed in defeat as she began breaking out in a cold sweat and feeling nauseated from the pain. She limped over to her guardian, who sat down and gently picked her up in his bound servos.

"So much for getting out of here," she mumbled.

"We tried, and we managed to contact the others. That's what counts." Ratchet frowned a little, letting her lean on his digits to support herself in an upright position. "What you did with Megatron, it was incredibly foolish. You could have gotten hurt."

"I'm not in the mood, Ratchet," came the reply, her hand on her stomach as she combated the nauseated feeling, wishing for an Advil or Excedrin. "I'm not feeling well, my legs feel like they're on fire, and my left kneecap feels like it's going to break."

Ratchet furrowed his optic ridges. "Not feeling well?"

"It's just the pain." Dana grunted as she shifted her legs into a more comfortable position. "Sometimes, especially during certain times in my menstrual cycle, the pain is just so deep and intense that it's nauseating. Kind of like carsickness, I guess. My brain doesn't know what to do, so it decides making me throw up is the answer."

"And your kneecap?" Ratchet could recall hearing about that from Nurse Darby, but he couldn't remember why Dana's meniscus was having issues. He was more concerned with other pressing news at the time.

"I don't know," She bent her knee and held it in her hands, looking at it. "I feel like a well-placed fall would snap it in half, though."

"Your meniscus," he recalled, "Nurse Darby said it was damaged to the point of total replacement. A metal replacement."

"And I've been walking on it?" Dana replied incredulously. "How has it not just given out on me?"

"Don't tempt fate." Ratchet ordered. "Stay off of that from now on unless absolutely necessary. The last thing that needs to happen is the destruction of an important joint in the midst of an emergency."

"Yes, doctor." She rolled her eyes a little with a smile. The blue streak in her hair was beginning to fade, becoming a white-grey color. It looked a little odd amongst her otherwise brightly coloured features, a whitewash out of place.

There was some silence between the two of them, not sure what else to say, or plan. The guards outside their door had left after making sure the door was sealed completely, leaving the prisoners no way to escape except with outside help. The soft glow in the room provided the most light, yet Ratchet's optics still shined brightly and illuminated around his face.

"Why would you finish the synthetic energon formula to come see me?" Dana asked.

Ratchet ex-vented softly, realizing he had not told her the entire story. However, he still felt that he could not bring himself to tell her. What would she think if she realized a little piece of him was tapped into her nervous system?