TRANSFORMERS: Between

Chapter 5

NEST base, Diego Garcia
2 Months, 3 days after Egypt
2009

Matsuri groaned as she laid in bed, pain wracking through her body. She curled under the covers, shuddering as another bout of pain jolted her. It felt like her whole body was on fire and she hated it so much. All she wanted to do is to just turn the pain of or go back to sleep to get away from it, but she knew she couldn't. She whimpered as a sharp stab of pain filtered through her body and right after, she heard a knock at the door.

"Matsuri?" She heard Will on the other side of the door call. "You just missed breakfast...you okay?"

"Yeah." She croaked. "I...I think the first changes are starting..."

She heard Will curse and then walk away from the door, no doubt to go and get one of the bots. She continued to lay in her bed, trying to control her breathing, but it was hard with the spasms of pain. She gripped her sheets with her organic hand, so I wouldn't rip them.

She heard footsteps heading to her room and the door opening. She felt the covers tugging away from her and she opened her eyes. She could see a human standing above her- military style hair cut, black muscle shirt, probably military style pants and boots, one long scar on the side of his face and piercing blue eyes.

"I'll never get use to you guys using human holoforms." She muttered. "I like the ones of your bot forms better."

She heard Ironhide's voice chuckling out of the man's mouth, clearly amused. Then, she saw his face becoming serious again and she knew that she was going straight to the medbay.

"Come on, up you get." Ironhide tugged Matsuri onto her back before scooping her up in his arms. The young woman couldn't help but let out a groan of slight pain as she was moved.

"I gotcha, sweatspark." Ironhide stated quietly as he began to make his way out of the room and down the hall. Matsuri just buried her face into his neck, breathing in shakily, letting out a whimper here and there.

What seemed like a moment later, she felt herself being laid down in a human sized bed and Ratchet, in human holoform, was hooking her up to Primus knows what. Once he was done, Ratchet went out of her sight and she figured that he was checking the monitors.

"W-what's changing?" She asked before she shuddered in pain.

"It's your skeletal structure." Ratchet stated. "The traces of metal are growing, slowly encasing your bones."

"Lovely." She groaned, wincing.

"We're aren't sure how long this will take." Ratchet sighed. "I want someone to be with you at all times during this process."

"Yeah." Matsuri agreed easily. She couldn't find it in herself to protest- especially since she didn't want to be alone during this whole thing.

"Ironhide, could you go and tell the others?"

"Sure, Ratch."

There was a fizzling sound, signifying that Ironhide had turned off his holoform, and she and Ratchet were the only ones in the medbay.

"Carrier..." Matsuri mumbled and a second later, she felt fingers running through her hair, careful of her ears.

"I'm right here, Matsuri. I'm not going anywhere until it's Ironhide's shift." She heard him murmur gently. She took a shuddering breath and nodded.

***

The whole thing lasted two days.

Two, painfilled days, although she didn't spend them alone. Ratchet's shift ended until twelve and ironhide took over. When it reached four, Optimus, much to Matsuri's surprise, took over for Ironhide. The cycle repeated the rest of the night and the next day.

Now, on the third day, the pain ebbed away to a dull ache, which she was thankful for. Ratchet had helped her back to her room, so she could shower and put on clean clothes before he took her to the mess hall, gently setting her down at an empty table. Will was suddenly there, putting a bowl of soup in front of her.

"We don't know if you can eat any solid foods so soon." He told her. "So, I made Sarah's special Chicken Soup."

"Thanks." She smiled at him before starting to eat it with Ratchet's holoform, thankfully of his natural form, sitting beside her, watching.