The Energon Games (Transformers)

Epilogue

The air was heavy with anticipation and Ratchet stood before the council with cuffs. He glanced around the circular room with his optics as he scanned for familiar faces. Mechs and femmes spoke in hushed tones. Shocked at what the medic had done to another life-form. He could hear them saying they didn't expect this from him. Some compared him to the madman, Shockwave.

He looked at his peds and clenched his servos tightly. Didn't they understand that what he did was to help, not destroy? His shoulder plates slumped a little. Perhaps he was mad and what he did was extremely wrong. The council stood and everyone went silent. Ratchet looked up at them with tired optics as a mech with a data pad looked at him with a judgmental expression.

"Ratchet, medic of the Autobots and formerly under Optimus Primes supervision, you stand before the council guilty of heinous crimes against our Cybertronian laws, and against weak lifeforms from another world." The leader addressed as he narrowed his optics. "Your crimes of experimentation and mutation are equal to the same crimes Shockwave preformed. So it is fitting that you receive the same punishment." He said seriously. The crowd erupted in murmuring and some yelling. He could hear his friends and family asking for mercy while others agreed with the council. Ratchet remained silent as he listened and debated on speaking up.

"Silence!" The leader said and motioned to their witness. Strongarm hesitated and stepped forward. "You claim you saw the doctor preforming these horrendous acts? You also said he did all of this alone?" He asked. She stared at the medic then looked to Bumblebee briefly as she hesitated.

"Affirmative. He acted alone and both Team Prime and Team Bumblebee attempted to stop his actions. I went to get help and he returned the humans to their world after he mutated them." She said seriously. As she spoke others started yelling again and protested against her words. Optimus looked to his friend, unsure how to help him. The leader of the council banged his hammer as he demanded silence and threatened to throw them all out. After a moment he looked at the doctor.

"Read him the penalty for crimes such as these. The same as Shockwave." He said seriously and looked to the bot with a data pad.

"Empurata." He said and there was anger once more from the crowd. "It is an old tradition on pre-war Cybertron. A tradition of removing the damned's helm and servos of criminals and installing new faceless, finger-less replacements so everyone knows to shun them." He read off the data pad. "As we know!" he shouted over the crowd to continue. "It was mostly performed on those constructed cold, almost certainly out of racism, although even those who were forged could find themselves subjected to it if they made powerful enough enemies. But this is not the intent. I read this to help you be aware of the mistakes from the past." he said pointedly as he glanced to the crowd, knowing someone would say something to cause a problem. 

"The purpose has always been to help others be aware of the seriousness of this violation, and other unacceptable violations of our laws." the leader said as he scanned the crowd and narrowed his optics. Ratchet stared at him and shuddered a little as he thought about what happened to Shockwave and Whirl. "Your sentence will be carried out on the evening of the following day of this moment. Do you have anything to say for yourself?" he asked and the crowd went silent. Ratchet stood taller as he looked at them straight in the optics.

"I accept my punishment, but I feel in my spark that I did the right thing." he said seriously. "Earth is home to small beings that are like insects compared to us... their world is young and innocent and the inhabitants are fragile. With that being said, I have seen them fight and do everything they can to defend themselves against our kind. When Megatron went to their world he brought our war to them. He destroyed their way of life and threatened to destroy their small world!" He shouted angrily. The crowd was silent and murmured to each other.

"Optimus Prime and my team went to help them. We couldn't let the warlord destroy their home like he had ours. Despite our efforts, the Decepticon leader still managed to harm their world!" He said and paused for a moment as tears filled his optics. "There is still a town there, called Jasper Nevada, that remembers the day a lightning strike created a tower. Mind you they still don't know it was us, but their soldiers do." He said seriously.

"There..." he choked a little on his emotions and swallowed them to keep going. "There... are three children... earth children who remember everything. They were no older than some of your own sparklings when Megatron attacked!" He cried and looked to the audience. "Their delicate...  their innocent minds... are still infected with nightmares and horrors from the time our kind walked on their world." He said as he remembered helping the children deal with a few episodes of PTSD, as Agent Fowler called it. A femme from the council stood as the other members muttered to each other.

"What is your point, doctor?" She asked coldly as she watched him with judgmental optics. His team watched him quietly and Optimus wished he could say something.

"My point, as you put it." Ratchet grumbled in annoyance. "Is for you to see why I did what I did. I don't give a damn if you understand." He muttered bitterly. "I wasn't about to let our kind destroy their lives again. I was there to help prevent that... but then I was called back since their was no activity for a while." He explained. "Why should they have to suffer such horrors again?" He asked quietly. They were silent as they watched him then quietly talked with each other. The audience also whispered with each other as they gave their opinion on the matter. The leader stood and banged his hammer to get their attention once more.

"After some careful consideration, we feel your actions were... validated. However!" He cried as the crowd started to speak up again. "You must still be punished for breaking our laws. Therefore you will be exiled and will not be allowed to ever set foot on Cybertron again." He said seriously and banged his hammer to finalize it. The crowd was angry again while others felt it was just.

"There is always a divide." Optimus muttered as he watched the crowd. They went to say goodbye to their friend knowing they wouldn't see him again. The following day he was given a ship and a few supplies. Ratchet looked to his team and bid them farewell. Knowing he may never see them again in this life.

"Where will you go?" Optimus asked as he watched the medic go to the ship to get on. The sparkling insisted on going with her Sire.

"A place far away I think." The medic said as he sighed shakily. "A place I can rest after a long war." He muttered and glanced to the Prime, a small and barely noticeable smile on his lip plates. "Will you come visit?" The medic asked his friend.

"When I find out where you've settled... then yes." Optimus promised as he watched him. He stepped back and the guards told them to leave as Ratchet prepared for take off. The medic sighed shakily and sat in the driver's seat.

"Are you ready little one?" The doctor asked as he looked to Chiyu who sat by his side. She looked up at him and smiled brightly.

"Yes sire." She whispered and strapped herself in as they lifted off. He nodded slowly and looked back to Cybertron for one final time before he looked ahead to the stars.

"On to Earth.... our home away from home." He smiled a little and they flew off towards their destination.